Mageborn: An absolutely gripping fantasy novel (The Hollow King Book 1)

by Jessica Thorne

  ‘There is magic in all things,’ he murmured, as if talking to someone else, sharing something intimate and clandestine. ‘Bright and dark, a balance. It is a pool at the heart of the world, a deep and dark place, endless and filled with both wonders and terrors.’

  It sounded like he was reciting a lesson. His fingers moved, threading with hers. She’d seen this pool. She’d been in it. With him.

  ‘Some people spend their whole lives without seeing it, some catch brief glimpses, moments of synchronicity or good and ill fortune. Some are aware of it and find it hopelessly out of their reach. They long for it and no matter how greedily they stretch out their minds and hearts for it, they cannot touch it.’

  ‘Like Aurelie and her court. They’ve found a way.’

  ‘They have,’ he agreed, and this time his hand touched her hair, but carefully, reverently, as if it was a jewel beyond price or a holy relic. ‘And then there are mageborn… Like us. We sense that pool as part of ourselves, we dip our fingers into it as easily as breathing. For some that is all. That is all they want.’

  ‘What have you done?’ she whispered, leaning into him. She kissed his lips again.

  ‘I can’t let you die, Grace. I need you too.’

  She smiled, a brief and wobbly smile, unsure and suddenly afraid. He didn’t know what he was saying. He couldn’t. ‘Come back to me, Bastien.’

  He blinked, confused for a moment, and she was reaching him, she knew that. She had to be reaching him. But the darkness didn’t fade. The otherness was still there.

  ‘For others the pool calls so strongly. It entices us. We slide into its cool embrace. We sink down into the endless depths, where the light is just a distant shimmer overhead. And the currents there are strongest. There is so much more darkness beneath than there is light.’

  He shuddered again, closed his eyes as if forcing away a migraine. She had to keep him talking, make him aware of who he really was once more, draw him back. Another part of her screamed that there wasn’t time for this. That they had to run.

  ‘What happens if you go too deep, Bastien?’ she asked.

  ‘Those who go still deeper risk losing themselves in the darkness, sinking into the heart of magic, the primal urge of creation, and deeper still. Your memories, your personality can fade into it and be lost forever. I think… I think I was almost…’ He blinked, and his eyes were his own again. But not the callous and cold gaze she had first seen, nor the blazing passion that they reflected on her last night, but these eyes, dark brown and beautiful, confused and afraid. Lost. His eyes.

  ‘It’s all right, Bastien. I’m here. You’re here.’

  ‘I… I… am.’ He heaved in a breath. ‘But I was almost swept away in the depths. I saw…’ But his voice trailed off in confusion.

  ‘What did you see?’

  He pulled her closer, his arms encircling her, his body once stiff and cold, melting against her warmth.

  ‘If I knew… if I could remember… I don’t know if I’d say even then. To name something like that is to draw its attention. Grace… I’m sorry…’

  ‘Don’t be.’

  ‘I used my magic on you. You… you said not to do that…’

  She tried to draw him to his feet, to lead him out of the rubble and make their way out to where Ellyn and Daniel stood by the end of a laneway, furtively watching the square beyond.

  Bastien spoke into the silence. ‘You haven’t answered.’

  ‘You haven’t asked a question.’

  ‘Forgive me.’

  ‘Sure,’ she said lightly. But Bastien stilled against her and then released her. ‘Bastien?’

  ‘Kane,’ he said. ‘It’s Asher.’

  ‘I know. We saw him.’

  He shook his head. ‘No, he’s coming. He’s full of power, of stolen magic.’ She studied his face, and saw him again, Bastien. But a Bastien who was afraid, and confused, who didn’t know what to do. ‘I have to…’

  And his eyes filled with light again.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she snapped.

  His face turned to her and the man was gone once more, fading into the monster, full of magic and lost to her. ‘I can deal with him.’

  ‘Prince Bastien!’ The voice rang out. Kane’s voice. Amplified somehow, dripping with Charm, the most trustworthy voice possible. The words had been chosen with deliberate cruelty. ‘We know you’re there. Please, be reasonable.’

  Grace felt her skin shiver as it reached them and then the magic began its work. She saw Ellyn and Daniel relax their guard, their faces softening. She felt it too. This was wrong. What they were doing was wrong. Why were they even running? It had to be a mistake.

  ‘You need to come out now, your highness. The Queen Regent will understand. She just wants you back safe and sound. She has the most wonderful news.’

  Grace found herself smiling. Wonderful news? What was it? She needed to know. She looked at the others and saw the same delight on their faces.

  ‘Captain Marchant, if you’re there, please… we just want our prince back safely. That’s all any of us want. The prince needs to be here for his little nephew or niece.’

  The queen was pregnant? But that was wonderful news. A miracle. Grace turned to Bastien to say as much and the shock made her take a step back. His eyes had turned from black to golden and bright again, lacking iris or white. Like looking into the sun itself. Incandescent and terrible.

  ‘It’s a trick,’ he said, his voice a low rumble. ‘A lie. It has to be.’

  She almost believed him but Kane sounded so convincing. And the moment she looked away she was sure of it, sure that Kane spoke the truth and Bastien lied.

  If the queen was pregnant the child had to be his. It was like a punch to the guts. Of course he would lie.

  ‘Come back, your highness. Your people need you. The mageborn need you. Who else will speak for them?’

  ‘Grace…’ Bastien’s hand closed on her shoulder and the fire in her boiled up. ‘Grace, hear the truth. She wants me under her control or dead.’

  Around her neck, Zavi’s sigil flared into life and Grace sucked in a breath. Bastien was right. Kane had to be lying. The queen didn’t want Bastien back, not really. Not with his memories intact anyway.

  ‘I… I’m okay,’ she whispered, hardly able to make her voice louder. Bastien nodded and pressed his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, then Ellyn, working the same magic, draining Kane’s spell from them.

  ‘We have to get away from here,’ Ellyn said, shaking herself as if coming out of a bad dream. ‘Away from him.’

  ‘And we have to get the mageborn out of the city. Starting with him.’ Daniel nodded at Bastien. ‘Or they’ll use him to command all the others. If they have him, the other mageborn won’t stand a chance. Please, Grace…’

  Grace knew it was true. Convincing Bastien to run before the others were free… that could be the trick. And still Asher Kane went on speaking, his voice melodious, his words… convincing… but not quite the lies they had been. A new tactic. A much more dangerous one.

  ‘What about Celeste, Bastien? What should I tell her?’

  For a moment Grace thought it would still be okay. But then Bastien tore himself free of them. He made it three or four steps before she caught up with him and hauled him back to relative safety.

  ‘They won’t hurt her. She’s in the Temple. They need her.’

  ‘Only because they don’t have me.’

  ‘And Danny’s right. If they have you, the mageborn will end up like no more than cattle. Or dead. You can’t let that happen.’

  She watched the knowledge of it play out on his face. The abject misery that came on him when the truth of it settled in. Then something else. Resignation. Determination.

  ‘But we could rescue her. We could get her out. They’re using her. Feeding on her. And I think… I think, she’s helping them with these tethers, these syphons. She must be. They’ve deceived her, or forced her to help. We have to rescue her.’

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nbsp; He made a good point. But there wasn’t the time. A rescue operation like that would take planning, and far more people than the four of them. No, they needed to get him out of Rathlynn. Then, maybe, then she could work something out.

  ‘Later. We’ll talk. We’ll make a plan. I’ll go back for her if you want me to. But right now, Bastien, we have got to go.’

  ‘Promise,’ he whispered harshly. But she had learned long ago not to make any promises.

  They were hard to keep.

  ‘Later.’ That was all she could say. ‘Now shut up and move out.’

  He didn’t move. Perhaps he couldn’t. Not with that much magic in him, that much power. He was fighting her, fighting Kane, fighting his own nature. Everything pulled him in different directions. And they were running out of time as Kane’s people surrounded the area and started to move in. Basic tactics. Keep them talking. If that didn’t work, use the time to get into position. He might have the power of a Charm now, but Asher Kane had the mind of a general.

  Which left only one thing. If they were going to get out of this, Grace needed to take control, to make Bastien do as she said. She didn’t want to. Every instinct told her it was wrong.

  Grace grabbed Zavi’s sigil, and pulled hard. The leather thong snapped and she lunged for Bastien. She couldn’t think about what she was doing, what she was doing to him… It was wrong, but it was necessary. The sigil flared to brightness, stronger than any she had ever handled. Whatever Zavi had done to this thing, its power was beyond any other she’d ever used. The fire in her flared with it, the Flint powering the sigil. She pushed Bastien back against the wall, pinning him there with her body, and let it unfurl.

  ‘No!’ he managed, just that single word, as it seized him, bound him. His eyes widened, his own eyes once more as she snatched control away from him, but the deep soft brown was bewildered and angry. ‘Grace, please… don’t do this. You don’t understand…’

  Oh she did. That was the problem. She knew she was betraying him, yet another person taking his freedom and his choices from him, and she was going to do it anyway. Regardless of his feelings or hers. Because she had to. She wrapped her hand around the warrant and felt it warm beneath her touch. Bastien shuddered, staring at her, his eyes wide in horror, the pupils blown out to great dark holes.

  ‘Do as I say,’ she told him, the magic of the warrant commanding him, the magic of the sigil controlling him. ‘And no more magic. We aren’t facing Kane now. We run. We’re heading into Eastferry and we’ll hide. Then we’ll find a way out of the city, without you using magic at all, understand? Celeste will have to wait. Danny, lead the way.’

  For a moment she thought Daniel or Ellyn might argue, or tell her that what she was doing was wrong. Because it was. Everything about it was wrong. She loathed herself for it. But something could be awful, and still be necessary. The hard decisions required that understanding.

  But his face… divinities, the betrayal on his face.

  Ellyn and Daniel just nodded and fell into step. Bastien lurched into a forced march beside her, his mouth a thin hard line. And she hated herself for doing this to him.

  The streets of the city were in chaos. People ran in panic, mageborn and quotidian alike. Those who could escape were fleeing, but the word was that the gates were already closed. The ports were still open, but not for long.

  When they finally made it to Kurt’s bar, the taproom was full of the City Watch.

  Grace took one look, swore and pulled her sword.

  Suddenly there were weapons everywhere, men and women on their feet, everyone shouting.

  ‘Stand down!’ Kurt yelled from the bar. He brandished the club he kept there like it was a blessed relic. ‘This is my place and my rules. Anyone breaks my truce and you’ll regret it. All of you.’

  A brief moment of doubt passed over the crowd. ‘We’re here to parlay,’ said the guard nearest the door. A lieutenant, Grace saw. Not much older than she was. But still about the oldest there.

  ‘Where are your superiors?’ she asked, praying Bastien was still behind her and out of sight.

  ‘They’re dead, Duchess,’ Kurt said. ‘Much like yours. The Royal Guard are all the law we have in Rathlynn now. And the army answers to them.’

  The young lieutenant lowered his sword carefully, showed his hands and then sheathed the blade. A peace gesture. Slowly the others followed suit, as did Grace, after a moment or two.

  ‘They came to the watch house. They… they were mageborn. But they weren’t. I don’t know. No collars so we didn’t realise. But they just started killing everyone in their way. We only just got away.’

  The law does not bend, and cannot break. She’d learned that in the Academy. The Watch held the same maxim. It was everything. And now… now the law wasn’t just broken. It was shattered.

  ‘No law in Eastferry though, Kurt?’ she said, hoping it might lighten the mood.

  ‘None but me,’ he said. ‘What have you been doing with my little brother? Misha sent you a message, Danny. It’s behind the bar.’ He shook his head as Daniel made a beeline for it. ‘Look like you’ve all been in the wars.’

  Who hadn’t? Looking around the room, Grace could see nothing but wounds, haggard faces and tension.

  Daniel unfolded a ragged bit of paper and turned away. He didn’t look happy about it, whatever it was. Maybe his harper had already left town.

  And that was the room Bastien walked into. There was a shocked silence and the guards stared. He wasn’t meant to be here. Not him. They all recognised him instantly. The rush to bow or raise arms again left everyone in a tangle of confusion.

  ‘Enough,’ Grace snapped. ‘Kurt, Danny, we need to get the hell out of Rathlynn and I need your help. Now.’

  Kurt stared at Bastien. No bow from him. Not for anyone.

  ‘All right. We can do something. Not right away. You’ll have to hide out here until we’re ready. You’ll have to trust me, Duchess.’ Easier said than done, but what choice did she have? She nodded, just once, and he grinned without humour before turning his attention back to the Lord of Thorns. ‘Come in then, your highness. You wouldn’t want to draw any undue attention, would you?’

  If Bastien cared, he didn’t show it. The sigil still glowed around his neck and every time she saw it, her stomach sank. She’d betrayed him. When he needed her most, when he’d saved her life, she’d collared him and commanded him with magic.

  She needed to explain. She needed… no, it wasn’t about what she needed right now. She had to think. She had to plan.

  Prying eyes were their worst enemy. They might be safe in Eastferry, but with a pack of guards and a lot of people hungry and in need of money, not to mention the whole city in uproar… she wasn’t so sure. Kurt’s reputation might defend them a little. That was what she was counting on.

  Getting away from Kane and his stolen magic had left them all drained. What they’d seen had left them reeling. Grace was half dead on her feet, the adrenaline wearing off.

  ‘Bastien,’ she said and he stopped beside her. She reached out to him to remove the sigil but he flinched back abruptly, just for a moment before he stopped himself. He lifted his chin, looking over her head, and she stared up at him. He looked every inch a king, or a martyr perhaps. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I had to.’

  ‘You had to,’ he repeated. She wasn’t sure if he was agreeing with her or not. It didn’t really sound like it.

  The sigil came off easily and he sighed with relief, unable to keep it in. For a moment she thought he might shout or leave. He just looked down at the thing in her hand as if it was a scorpion. He’d never trust her again. Not so long as she had it. The feeling that she’d broken something between them was a barb deep in her heart. And there was nothing she could do about it now.

  ‘Danny,’ she said. ‘Mind this for me, will you?’

  ‘You sure?’ He didn’t look eager. His face was so pale, his mouth a grim line. ‘That’s… that’s a strong one.’

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sp; ‘Zavi’s best.’ And possibly his last. She didn’t want to say that. She didn’t want to be reminded. No one knew what had happened to Zavi. There had been no trace of him at the Academy. Like so many others. ‘Just… just take it.’

  Daniel slid it into a pocket and turned to follow Kurt.

  Kurt didn’t lead them to one of the shabby rooms upstairs this time, but rather, once they reached the stairs and were out of sight, he led them to a panel in the wall which opened when he touched it in just the right place. From there, they went down into darkness.

  In the cellars, there were more stairs, equally hidden.

  ‘You have your own Rats’ Path,’ Bastien muttered and Kurt grinned back at him.

  ‘The Larks’ Path. Everyone needs a way out, don’t they?’

  Everyone. Especially criminals and royalty.

  As they made their way down the two flights of creaking stairs, underneath the inn, a rabbit warren of tunnels spread out. The passage was narrow and dimly lit, a dirt floor underneath them swallowing sounds. It was bare and basic, all earth-colours and undecorated. Paint flaked from the mismatched doors and any repairs were haphazard. There were small rooms, and behind those doors sounds of life. But the doors were tightly closed and any still open were slammed shut before they got near.

  ‘Friendly place,’ Ellyn murmured.

  ‘They’re scared,’ was all Daniel said in reply.

  ‘Aren’t we all?’ Ahead of them Kurt stopped by an open door. ‘What about the Watch upstairs?’ she asked him.

  ‘Don’t think there is a Watch any more, gorgeous. Don’t worry. I’ll keep them up there and take care of them.’

  ‘Take care or take care?’ The emphasis was different and they all knew what Ellyn meant.

  Kurt just grinned down at her. It wasn’t an especially nice grin.

  ‘Whatever do you take me for, Ellyn? They’re desperate people in need of safe harbour. That’s what Eastferry is, after all.’

  ‘Parry’s Watch now, is it?’ Grace asked.

  He just shrugged. ‘They’ll have to quit wearing uniforms and standing to attention but yeah, why not? Eastferry’s mine. The people here, quots and mageborn, they live together peaceably enough. It’s better for business this way.’