The man let out an ear-shattering scream and died.
Lungs burning and huffing for breath, Melegal collapsed on the floor.
I’m a dead man.
He spat blood. Shaking, he tried to get to his feet.
I’m gonna have to hop my arse out of here.
He grabbed the man’s sword, used it as a crutch, and forced himself up. His swollen eyes watered. Peering through the gloom, he saw that the warehouse door was open a crack. Zurth was gone, but three fallen bodies remained. One twitched on the floor. Melegal had limped halfway there when a strong voice cut him off.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Melegal dove.
Clatch-zip!
A bolt tore through his neck. He saw spots. Blood was all over his hands. A rush of queasiness made the room spin. Someone seized him. Everything went black.
Chapter 31
Fogle’s face was buried in Kam’s chest when Erin screamed.
“What?” Kam said, pulling her blouse up and jumping off of his lap. “Who are you? Get away from my baby!”
Fogle blinked. Gathered his senses. Lust turned to alarm in the blink of an eye. Something was wrong.
A man stood over Erin’s bassinette, staring inside. A black-robed apparition.
Fogle’s blood turned to ice. He knew the man. He and Ruut went way back. They had started the same year in mage school, with little separation in skill between them until later. There had come a point when no one could keep up with Fogle anymore, not even the instructors. Ruut, to his credit, had handled it better than most. He was a planner. And now it seemed his plans had turned out well. He was the top envoy for one of the City of Three’s most powerful Royals, Kam’s father.
“A lovely child,” Ruut said. His voice was peculiar with an edge of deadliness. “This must be Erin. Striking features of the mother.”
“Step away from my baby!” Kam’s hand sparked to mystic life. “Now!”
The ghostly man stepped away with a look of amusement on his face.
“You are aware that you can’t harm me,” the envoy said, swiping back the wisp of dark hair on his balding head. “I don’t pick the time or place for my intrusion. Your father does.” He glanced around Kam and locked eyes with Fogle. “It’s been a while, my fellow disciple. It seems you’ll grapple with anything these days.”
Fogle rose from the sofa. “Mind yourself, Ruut. As long as I can see you, I can make you feel me.” Fogle was very aware of Jaen’s orb in a pocket of his green robe. Inwardly, he grinned. Outwardly, he kept a neutral face.
“Pah,” Ruut the envoy said with a snort. “Not on your finest of days. At least you still have some arrogance. I find the humble annoying. Speaking of humble.” Ruut made his way around the apartment, staring at each and every little thing. “Is this where you reside now? This closet space?”
A dash of green light shot from Kam’s fingers and passed through Ruut. The curtains caught fire.
“Now that’s amusing,” the envoy said. “Stupid often is amusing. Even more so,” he said staring at her missing hand, “you did that with one set of fingers.”
Kam’s face turned red. She glared at Fogle.
Erin cried at the top of her lungs.
Kam turned away, picked up Erin, rested the little girl on her shoulder, and began to hum.
Fogle extinguished the burning curtains with a wave of his hand. Coughing, he opened a window, letting the smoke out of the room.
Kam sneered at Ruut. “Get on with it. What does my father want?”
“It seems he’s missing a daughter.”
“Oh really,” Kam said, “and which one might that be? He has so many, it’s no surprise he lost one.”
“I can see why this one isn’t suited for the towers,” Ruut said to Fogle, “but in your case, I don’t understand. Do you really play such silly games? Or have you found a zeal for ample women?”
“Mind your tongue,” Fogle warned.
“Hah. I think you are the one who should be minding yours, considering where it’s been.” Ruut chuckled. “The things that go on down here! It’s quite the adventure.”
“You snot-nosed little suck-up—” Fogle said.
“Oh, please, don’t try to be valiant, Fogle. It’s beneath you.” Ruut shook his head. “Look at you. There wasn’t a wizard more renowned than you. Now you are a scarred and scraggly mess. I lost all respect for you with a glance.”
Now it was Fogle’s turn to laugh. He remembered being so pompous. Arrogant. Inconsiderate. He remembered thinking he was better than everyone else and poking fun at those living on the ground, outside the towers. How everything seemed so small from up in that perch—until the day he was humbled. He shook his head. He was alive now. Magi like Ruut never lived at all.
“Spit it out, Ruut,” Kam said, taking a seat on the rocking chair.
“Spit it out?” Ruut rolled his eyes. “Such savage terminology. It leaves me intrigued. Perhaps you can tell me more about these wild ventures sometime, Fogle.”
“The only way to learn it is to live it,” Fogle replied.
“Oh. Well, I suppose I do need to spell things out, then. It seems Jaen is missing, and her last known whereabouts were here.” Ruut looked at Kam. “Did you see her?”
Kam didn’t reply.
Fogle didn’t either.
“Downstairs, I spoke with your comrades. They had little to say on the matter, either. Silence is such a dangerous thing. So,” Ruut sighed, “I ordered them to stay put and notified them of the upcoming inquisition.”
“Inquisition!” Kam said. “You jest!”
“No, I’m quite serious.” Ruut rubbed an amulet on his chest.
The hair on Fogle’s neck prickled. “This is a matter for the City Watch, not an inquisition.”
“Kam’s father disagrees,” Ruut said. “And the City Watch is busy these days, dealing with other things.”
“Call them underlings,” Fogle said.
“There are many matters at play that I am sure you are unaware of.”
Fogle’s hands formed white-knuckled fists. The arrogance of the Royals in the towers infuriated him. Their buildings could be toppling from the sky and they would still deny it before they acted.
“But,” Ruut continued, “I’m not here to discuss other matters. I’m here to find out what happened to Jaen. And if you don’t tell me, there will be an inquisition.”
Fogle’s eyes searched for Kam’s, but she wasn’t looking at him. He followed her stare out the window.
Troops were coming, a dozen soldiers on horses with an accompaniment of foot soldiers. There were magi, too, wearing purple robes streaked in blue.
“Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place,” Fogle said. “It wouldn’t be the first time the Order was wrong. I seem to remember a few cases where many innocent people died.”
“Let’s not be coy, Fogle. Though it’s good to know that you still have some banter within you.” Ruut passed through the sofa and stood in the middle of the coffee table. “I’d advise you not to say anything that could be put on the record.”
“Oh, I’m on trial, am I?”
“You will be soon enough. And not just you, as I mentioned before, but all of you.”
“You can’t just make an accusation off of an assumption—”
“Fogle, stop,” Kam said. She got up out of her rocker, still staring out the window. Her eyes widened.
Fogle looked. The Magi Roost was surrounded.
Kam sighed. Tears streamed down her face. “It’s me you want.”
“Pardon?” Ruut said, drifting closer.
Kam turned to face him and opened her mouth to speak.
“Don’t,” Fogle said. His words had no effect.
She said, “I know where Jaen is.”
Ruut lifted a brown eyebrow. “And that would be where?”
“Where she belongs. In the ground. Dead.”
Ruut’s bright eyes shone big as moons. “And you killed her?”
“Yes.”
Chapter 32
Venir ground his teeth. Kam came down the steps with Erin in her arms. Fogle was by her side, and the shade of a man glided behind them. At the bottom of the steps, Joline waited.
Kam handed her the baby and spoke soft words. “You’ll be safe. Take care of her until I return.”
“But,” Joline sobbed. She mopped her eyes with a rag. “You can’t—”
Kam and Fogle walked by, side by side, chins down.
The envoy for the Order had a satisfied look on his face. He said to the rest of the room, “I’ll be back, so don’t leave town until this is over.”
“Kam,” Venir said, blocking the exit. “What is the meaning of this? What is going on?”
She didn’t look up at him. Instead, she tried to go around him.
He laid his hands on her shoulders and stopped her.
“Let go,” she said, firmly but softly.
“She goes to suffer the inquisition,” Fogle said, “It’s for all our good. She’ll clear it up—”
“Be silent, you scrawny toad,” Venir said. “Kam has a tongue of her own.” He wanted to shake her. “Talk to me!”
She looked up into his eyes and said, “Just get out of my way and let me do this.”
The venom in her voice made him angry. He didn’t understand what he’d done that was so horrible. He couldn’t fight off the feeling that he might not ever see her again.
“Kam,” he said, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“It feels good leaving you for a change and not the other way around.” She brushed by him. “And don’t feel a need to stick around. I’m certain I’ll be gone awhile.”
Two soldiers pulled the double doors open and another stepped up with shackles. Armored in chain hauberks, the soldier locked up her wrists and shoved her forward.
Venir exploded into movement.
Kam’s ear-shattering voice stopped him in his tracks. “BE STILL, YOU FOOL!”
Rattled and dismayed, Venir let his arms fall limp at his sides.
Seconds later, Kam, Ruut, and the entourage of soldiers were gone. Joline sobbed, and Erin started to cry. Venir picked up a table and slung it across the room. After that, everyone fell silent until Fogle spoke again.
“She has a plan, Venir.”
“And she shared it with you, not me?”
“I was there.”
“A funny thing, you being there, Fogle,” Venir said, coming forward. He glared down into Fogle’s eyes.
Fogle was tall but still shorter by several inches. He didn’t back down. There was no fear in him.
“Care to explain?” Venir said.
“We’re men. I don’t need to explain anything.”
Venir closed his fist.
“You might be fast, Venir, but you aren’t faster than my thoughts.” He paused. “I’m not the enemy. They are. Why don’t we talk about what is going on, what we’ll do next? How we can help her through this madness?”
Venir stepped closer. He could feel a force around Fogle. A shield of some sort, keeping him at bay. The wizard’s words were suggestive as well. Almost soothing. Venir felt his temper begin to cool.
“Let’s sit,” Fogle suggested. “And eat. And I’m even willing to confess my side of things.”
Venir looked away and started to turn. “I’ll grab some chairs.”
“I’ll snatch a bottle from the—”
Venir struck.
Whop!
His fist collided with Fogle’s chest, knocking the man off his feet and into the newly reconstructed bar.
The wizard clutched his chest, sucking for air.
“Don’t toy with me, Fogle. I won’t hold back next time.” He sat his big frame down at a table with two chairs near the fireplace. “And I don’t want wine. I want ale.”
Fogle dragged himself over to Venir’s table, chest sore and hot with anger. Even with a protective spell up, he had felt every bit of that jarring punch. “You didn’t have to do that,” he wheezed. “I was being reasonable.”
“Were you being reasonable when you moved in on Kam?”
Fogle sat down across from him, looked into his eyes, and said with sincerity, “She moved in on me.”
“I see.” Venir sat broad and stone faced.
Fogle couldn’t read him. “She riles the blood with a single look. I’d be lying …”
Venir held his palm out. “Don’t say anything else I don’t want to hear you say. Let’s talk about this inquisition, shall we?”
Nearby, Brak and Jubilee sat long faced and quiet.
Jasper brought a pitcher of ale and placed it on the table and took a seat.
Fogle eyed her.
“I’ve heard things,” she said. “I’d just never had them confirmed before. Have you witnessed an Inquisition?”
Fogle’s heart became heavy. He had. And he had enjoyed it. “I watched an older man be picked apart by a jury of peers. His mind melded to theirs. His grey matter twisted like entrails. All because he had a disagreement with a higher member in the Order. Accusations followed. It went on for weeks. One interrogation after the other with little rest. The man was never the same after that, but he wasn’t found guilty, either. He departed, body intact, mind desecrated. I can’t remember the man’s name, but he didn’t confess. He just shivered, mumbled, and walked away.”
“She didn’t do it,” Jubilee spoke up. “I did.”
“I know,” Fogle said, “but that doesn’t matter now. They want to make an example out of somebody, not nobody.”
“Excuse me?” Jubilee said.
“Don’t pout,” Fogle said, “unless you misinterpret my meaning.”
Jubilee scrunched her eyebrows.
“Consider yourself fortunate, for the moment,” Fogle added. “They’ll be coming back at some point, I imagine.”
“Do you think they’ll come back for us?” Jasper said.
“Possibly.”
“Great,” Jasper said. “I knew I should have gotten out of this place.”
Venir spun a coin on the table. Jubilee and Jasper bickered with Fogle. Brak shuffled out to the stables, where he could be heard splitting small logs into kindling. Venir had never seen the Magi Roost like this. Cold. Quiet. It was just them. He tried to pluck the coin off the table, and it splashed into his tankard of ale.
“Humph,” he grunted.
A warm fire on his back and a pitcher of ale couldn’t soothe his restlessness. Inside, he burned. The Royals here were just as callous as the Royals in Bone, it seemed. Turning a blind eye to the evil that manifested in the city. Making examples of citizens and not the enemy.
Disgusting.
He sat and drank for another hour, itching for a fight. He wanted to head to the Outland. Tear into the underlings. He wanted to climb the towers and toss the Royals out on their heads. He’d had his fill of the both of them. It seemed the entire world was against him.
Heavy knocks came at the door.
Knock knock knock knock!
“Should I get it?” Jubilee said, popping out of her chair. She rushed to the window. “I see some men, but it’s pretty dark outside. Why’s the lantern sign out, anyway? Brak, isn’t that your job? Oh, never mind.”
The pounding became harder.
“Let us in!”
Knock knock knock knock!
Hand on the hilt of his knife, Venir lumbered over. “I’ll handle it.” He lifted the
bar from the doors and swung one inward.
A roughly cut bunch spilled inside.
“He said to bring him here,” one said. He was a half orc, pit faced and scarred. Bandages covered several wounds.
“I stopped the bleeding, but he’s still unsettled,” another man said. He wore the insignia of a Royal soldier and carried Melegal’s limp form in his arms. “But I don’t know if he has much time left in him. He lost a lot of blood. He’s almost gone.”
Chapter 33
“How do you like the view?” Pall said, puffing on a cigar.
From the lip of a crevice, Lefty gazed over the scorched Outland and swallowed. The heat of the blinding suns was exhilarating. Tears formed in his eyes. He had been in the mist and darkness so long that he’d almost forgotten the feeling of true light.
“It’s as beautiful as I ever saw.”
“Beautiful, this wasteland? Har. Hot, sandy, and no water for miles, leagues maybe. Days longer than nights. You’ve a funny way of interpreting things, halfling.”
“Perhaps,” Lefty said. He lengthened his stride and headed down into the cactus-filled valley. “But at least it’s full of light. Thanks for taking me out of there.” He didn’t glance back at the fog that covered Hohm’s marsh. Scorch had put him there, and he wouldn’t go there again. He wanted to be as far away as he could get from Hohm, the dreary city. And he hoped he never saw another wart again. “Thanks for the water,” he said, waving back and patting the skin that Pall had given him.
“Har! Where are you going? You can’t traverse the Outland alone.” He caught up with Lefty. “Fool of a half person, slow your pace. Reckon with me where yer going.”
Lefty pointed southeast and said, “That way.”
“And what is that way?”
Lefty shrugged. “I’ll find out when I get there.”
“Har!” Pall said, squinting his bushy brows and surveying the landscape. It was nothing but miles of mirages, sand, and thickets of bone-dry trees. “Looks to be as good a place to go as any. May I join you?”
The Darkslayer: Series 2, Box Set #1, Books 1 - 3 (Bish and Bone) Page 43