by K. A. Linde
“And what would you do if it were Ahlvie in Fenix’s place?” Cyrene asked Avoca. She looked to Vera. “If it were Henrik in those mountains with your sister?”
“Cyrene, you cannot mean to do this,” Avoca said with a wince.
“I mean to think about it longer than a moment and not let my oldest friend believe that I will so eagerly allow the man she loves and my spy to die.”
Cyrene lay back against the small cot with Dean’s arms wrapped tight around her.
“You should try to sleep,” he breathed against the shell of her ear.
“I can’t sleep. I’m still thinking about Fenix.”
“Well, that’s awkward,” he joked.
She managed a half-smile. “I can’t leave him in those mountains with her.”
“Cyrene, we talked about this,” he said around a yawn. He was exhausted from hours and hours on the battlefield. “It’s a trap. It’s very clearly a trap. For all we know, Malysa has sliced into Fenix’s mind, stolen everything that Rhea knew about him, and forced him to send the note. She’s drawing you in. This is what she wants.”
“Then maybe it’s time to face her.”
Dean tightened his grip on her. “Not on her terms, love.”
She leaned back and closed her eyes. “What am I going to tell Rhea?”
“Sleep on it.” He brushed a kiss to her lips and promptly fell asleep.
Cyrene couldn’t fall asleep. And it was an hour later when she heard a whispered, “Cyrene,” that she was glad she hadn’t.
She slid out of Dean’s grasp, kissed his forehead, and then pulled her clothes back on before stepping out into summer heat. Rhea stood before her in a midnight cloak.
“You have to go,” Rhea said.
“Rhea—”
“No, don’t do that. If it were Dean, you’d already be gone. You’d do it for any of your friends.”
“I didn’t do it for Ahlvie,” she said softly. “I wanted to, but it was too big of a risk.”
“But he was not in danger! She chose him, Cyrene. You must see that this is different.”
Cyrene knew that she was right. “I can’t—”
“If you don’t go, then I will. I will leave right now and walk to the Haeven Mountains to get him myself.”
Cyrene closed her eyes. “Rhea…”
“It’s a jump there, collect him, and a jump back,” Rhea pleaded. “I have never asked you for anything. Not a single thing. Never! But I am asking you for this. Bring him back to me, Cyrene. Please, please, bring him back.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
And Cyrene saw all those moments they’d had together over the years. All the times that Cyrene had protected Rhea. How Rhea had always put Cyrene first. How they had always been together through it all.
And she knew this was stupid.
But she withdrew a coin from her pouch.
The gold coin that Malysa had given her in her dream and summoned her with. The one she had sworn she would never use.
“Tell Dean that I love him.”
49
The Coin
Cyrene appeared in a pitch-black room deep within the Haeven Mountains. She could feel the press of the weight from everything above her, and she shivered. This place had a…certain feeling to it. Not just heavy, but solid. A thickness. As if the black had a texture or certain viscosity to it. Like she could wade through it.
Before she did anything, she concentrated and let her senses take over. If she had learned anything from Birdie’s death, it was that she could grasp much from using her other senses.
She felt the magnitude of the mountain all around her. Malysa was here. She couldn’t tell where, but she could sense her magic here somewhere. There was also another dark, sinister force. And fainter…magic everywhere. The tinges of blood magic permeated the entire mountain. Did everyone here have it?
She shuddered at the thought.
One thing was certain. The chamber she was in was empty.
With a gulp, she lit the tiniest of Doma Fires and observed where the coin had brought her. It was a round room no more than ten by ten. It was completely bare. And yet, she recognized it.
It was the chamber that Malysa had drawn her into in her dreams. The one she had summoned Cyrene to with the coin. If she had gone when Malysa asked her, she would have been trapped within, as Malysa had been. Thank the Creator she hadn’t done that.
Now, she just had to figure out where exactly Fenix was.
Because that was the mission.
Get in. Get Fenix. Get out.
No detours and no distractions. This was a rescue mission. Not reconnaissance. If there were some other creature in this mountain, she’d figure it out when the time came. Not when she was here alone.
Step one: she had to find Fenix.
She stepped up to the chamber door. And with a whispered prayer, she pushed it open. Thankfully, it didn’t make noise. She peered down the darkened corridor. As far as she could tell, it was empty.
She had just moved into the corridor when she felt a trail of magic approaching. Cyrene ducked back into the chamber.
“Don’t know why we even have to patrol these hallways,” the first man grumbled.
“Shh,” the second hissed. “You know what she did to the last person who dissented. Fed him to those…things.”
“I know. I know. Just seems pointless. The fighting is going on in Byern. When are we going to move out?”
“When she’s ready,” she snapped. “Now, stop it.”
Cyrene counted to three after they passed her door and then stepped back out on silent feet. She swept their feet out from under them, causing one to stumble and the other to fall to a knee.
“What the—”
Cyrene effortlessly pulled away their voices so that the rest of whatever he was going to say was gone. The woman steadied herself and came toward Cyrene. But even her feeble blood magic was nothing compared to Cyrene’s well. She needed it to be over quick though. She used the smallest energy blast she could manage. It might be a bastardization of her spirit magic, but it did the trick. The female guard fell to the ground, knocked unconscious.
The second guard just held his hands up. “Please, don’t kill us.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” Cyrene said.
“She’ll…she’ll punish us if she finds out.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
And she was. She knew that Malysa was merciless.
“Do you know a man named Fenix? Tall, broad-shouldered, dark hair.”
“Malysa’s goon?”
“Yes,” she said cautiously. “Where would I find him?”
“Will you let us go if I tell you?”
“Yes,” she promised.
The man relaxed. “Three levels up in the east wing. He might not be in his room now, but he records her correspondence there.”
“Thank you,” Cyrene said with a sigh and then promptly knocked him out.
He was going to wake to up with a killer headache. Both of them were. She dragged them to the chamber and then stared down at their crumpled bodies. She knew what she had to do. And hated that it had come to this.
Closing her eyes, she delved into the man’s mind first. It was guileless. She felt slimy as she located their conversation and erased it from his mind. She shuddered as she withdrew and did the same to the female guard. She couldn’t let it get back to Malysa that she was here. Even if it made her feel horrible for doing it.
Cyrene measured herself against the woman and decided they were close enough in size. Cyrene stripped the guard’s black uniform off of her body and changed into it. It was definitely meant for someone taller and a little more filled out in the chest area, but it would be serviceable for what she needed.
She put an inverted shield around the pair and hoped that they got out before anyone noticed them missing. She didn’t want them to die for the misfortune of guarding these abandoned hallways.
But she wasn’t going to wait around
either.
She straightened her spine and exited the chamber. She angled back the way the guards had come, uncertain if it would look conspicuous that she was alone instead of in a pair. Not that she had a choice.
The corridor she was in dead-ended fifteen minutes later into a large, open room. Guards milled around, chatting and otherwise goofing off. It wasn’t what she’d expected. It was so…human.
“You new?” a man asked, sidling up to her.
She nearly jumped and kept her head low, tugging on her hat, as she glanced at the other guard. “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”
“A lot of the new ones who come in from Byern seem surprised that we’re not torturing people daily. It’s pretty much the same work we were doing there, just less daylight. You’ll get used to it. My friends call me Ace.”
He held his hand out, and she shook.
“Haenah.”
“How long is your rotation?”
She swallowed. “Supposed to be three months, but I didn’t think any of us would be here that long.”
He snorted. “Let’s hope not. I want to finish and get out of this hellhole.”
Cyrene was trying to figure out how to extricate herself from this conversation and head up three floors to wait for Fenix when a captain of the guard appeared out of a set of stairs.
“All right, ladies,” the woman barked. “Let’s form up. Full contingent needed upstairs. Now!”
Ace groaned. “Not another one!”
“I didn’t hear you,” the captain growled.
Everyone stopped complaining and began to form into two lines. Cyrene panicked. She couldn’t avoid following them upstairs. It would be too obvious if she just didn’t go with them. But, if they started to investigate too closely, she wouldn’t pass muster.
Ace tipped her head to the back of the line. “Come on, Haenah. I’ll show you the ropes. You really don’t want to see this.”
No, she really didn’t.
She wondered if she would be able to duck out, unnoticed, along the way. Maybe if she used Ace as a distraction. She was putting together a dozen contingency plans as she followed him to the back of the line. The soldiers began to march, and she quickly picked up the steps. She’d learned enough dances in her life to be able to figure out a basic march. Though Ace had given her a strange look when she began.
Creator, this was going to be bad.
They marched straight up the stairs. One floor. Two. And then stopped on the third. Her heart thumped in her chest. They were on the right floor. If she could just get to the east wing.
But, of course, the guards began to march off toward the west wing of the cavernous compound. She glanced back once in frustration before continuing onward with the guards. She would just get through this and then have all the time she needed to find Fenix. Still be back before her army marched out again in the morning.
Then she entered the next room and froze. Ace gripped her arm and hurried her forward, or she might have stood there all night with her mouth agape. The center of the room was hollowed out for twenty or thirty feet in a large pit the size of an amphitheater. The floor was covered in bones. Human bones.
Her stomach turned at the sight. What the hell had Malysa been doing up here all this time?
“It’s not going to get better from here, kid,” Ace said. “Wipe that look off your face.”
Cyrene did as she had been told. She let her face go blank and formed up into the third row next to Ace. She guessed there were about two hundred soldiers within the mountain. All of them staring down at the pit. The anxiety permeated the room, covering it like a thick blanket.
Commands were issued, and everyone came to attention.
Then, like a cloud of darkness, Malysa appeared.
She strode in through a side door with Merrick and, to Cyrene’s shock, Fenix at either of her sides. She swallowed hard and tried to blend in as best she could. Even if Malysa could detect her magic, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Cyrene could feel it on everyone here. The blood magic. And she hoped hers would be masked enough by it all.
“Welcome,” Malysa said with a cruel smile. “I know that many of you have complained to your superior about my little…demonstrations.”
Cyrene could sense everyone still further.
“Well, I have good news, soldiers. This will be the last one. After this, we will unleash my weapon and take down your would-be oppressors.”
A cheer went up from the soldiers. And Cyrene was careful to mimic this movements. Even as disgust settled in her stomach.
Would-be oppressors. Sure, Malysa. Whatever lie you have to tell.
“Merrick, unleash the Voldere.”
Merrick lowered himself into a smooth bow. The Nokkin almost looked normal, human. He’d fooled so many for so long. No one would guess that he was empty inside. Just a magic-stealing monster underneath it all. A dark swath of nothingness.
Still, he flicked his hands, and gates on either side of the pits grated open.
Then slowly, two creatures appeared.
Cyrene had never seen anything like them. Like these Voldere.
They were at least nine feet tall with leathery skin as black as night. Their eyes were bright red, cut into slits like a dragon. And, to make matters worse, they had bat-like wings tucked tight against their bodies. The Voldere stalked forward with the cunning of something sentient. Clearly not foot soldiers like the Indres or meant for stealth like the Braj. This was something else entirely.
They sent a shiver down her spine.
This was why Fenix had told her to come. These things were the creatures that she needed to kill. She could not let them be unleashed on her army. Not if there were more than just the two slowly circling each other like trained predators. Not newly formed beasts.
“Begin,” Malysa said with a smirk.
And they did.
The Voldere launched across the pit at each other. Talons snapped into place on their hands and feet as they lashed out. The first was a bit smaller but moved with more agility. The second might have the brute force, but it was also clearly intelligent. Not outmatched by its smaller counterpart. It actually feinted right before doing a somersault and bringing the talons on its feet across the smaller Voldere’s back.
The room was silent.
The guards were not cheering on this fight as they might have done in a sparring ring.
This was not for sport.
It was a test.
The final test.
The smaller Voldere screeched an inhuman noise as black blood spewed onto the pit floor. It adjusted its course and whirled on its large opponent.
Vengeance was in its eyes. Not just anger that it had been hurt, but actual vengeance. It was smart enough to know the stakes. And it had to win to move forward.
In some ways, this was no different than her dragon tournament. Kill or be killed. Do or die. And somehow, these creatures had that same mentality. Not just survival or instinct, but also intelligence.
She chewed on her bottom lip as the fight continued. As the smaller came back sharper and angrier and tore the larger beast’s thick skin to ribbons. Until the layers peeled back from the muscular flesh beneath. Until black blood coated the sandy, bone-strewn floor. And even then, it wasn’t enough. It had to use its claws to dig into the meaty part of the Voldere’s neck, and it severed the spinal cord. It didn’t stop until the head was detached from the body.
Then it spread those terrifying wings and beat one, two, three times until it hovered over the pit below and bellowed its triumph. It took the head and threw it up onto the viewing platform right before Malysa’s feet.
All she did was smile.
“Winner.”
Then she casually tipped her head, and the captain of the guard threw one of the soldiers into the pit.
He went down, screaming, “I didn’t do it. I swear. I didn’t do it.”
Then the Voldere was upon him, shredding him so much easier than the fallen foe. Like a fish
with a filet knife. His screams were abruptly cut off as the creature began to feast on the soldier. A clear explanation for why the floor was covered in bones.
“Thank you so much for that,” Malysa said to her soldiers. “Before you go, I want you all to know that we have an honored guest among us tonight.”
Cyrene stiffened. Oh no.
“The Domina Cyrene.”
50
The Voldere
“Cyrene, step forward,” Malysa taunted.
Cyrene took a deep breath. There was nothing she could do. She had been caught. She didn’t know how, but Malysa had known all along. This demonstration was probably just a way to suss her out. And she had walked right into it.
The important thing here was just to get to Fenix and get out. If she could get close enough to him, then she could still salvage this.
“Cyrene, darling, it’s not nice to keep us waiting.”
She breathed out slowly and then pushed through the guards in front of her. A wave of shock rose up through the ranks of the soldiers. She didn’t turn back to see Ace’s face. She could guess what he was thinking. After he’d been kind enough to befriend her.
“There you are,” Malysa said cheerfully.
Cyrene strode past the rows of soldiers to face off with her enemy. “Hello, Malysa.”
“Good to see you. It’s been a while. Not since that old woman in Bienco. She did have a kind heart, didn’t she?”
Cyrene wouldn’t be baited. “She did. Until you murdered her.”
Malysa waved her hand. “Now, I think you have something that belongs to me.”
She tipped her head at Merrick, and he moved forward.
Cyrene narrowed her eyes at him. “If you try to touch my magic, I will end you.”
A smirk crossed his features. “I always did enjoy that mouth of yours.”
“And I enjoyed killing your kind,” she snarled.
“Get this over with Merrick,” Malysa snapped impatiently.
Merrick ran his hands down her uniform. She waited for him to use his Nokkin powers to feed on her magic, but he held back. It must have been Malysa’s presence that stopped him.