by Ben Hale
“I want what’s rightfully mine,” Skorn had said.
But what did Skorn want to find? Had he already gotten it? Was he even alive? Jack blew out his breath in disgust and quickened his pace. Two days after entering the Evermist he reached the Thieves Guild and paused on the edge of the lake.
The dark castle rose from an island in the still water, its walls covered in moss and vines. Mist clung to its walls and crept about its towers, obscuring much of the fortress. Once a mighty stronghold, the citadel had been forgotten by the other races and appropriated by the thieves.
The citadel exuded menace yet felt like home, the emotion contrasting with the surge of guilt. He’d entered the guild not to become thief but to find his mother’s killers. She’d taught him the evil of being a thief, so he’d never expected to enjoy the occupation.
His earliest memories of his mother had included a strict adherence to a life of honor. At the age of eight he’d stolen a dwarven knife from a merchant cart. When his mother had found it she’d dragged him across mountain and plains before they found the merchant near Torridin. The taciturn dwarf had rapped his knuckles hard enough to make them bleed.
“It’s just a knife,” Jack said sullenly as he soaked his hands in an icy stream.
“A knife or a crumb of bread, it matters not.” She took his hands and set to binding his wounds. “What you don’t pay in coin you pay with honor.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” he said.
She nudged his chin, forcing him to look at her. The sadness he saw there finally made him listen.
“All men are born with a measure of integrity,” she murmured. “Some choices nourish it while others will waste it. A thief pays for each theft with a fragment of his soul until nothing remains, and their heart is as black as their desires. Will you be a man of honor? Or a thief?”
He thought of his father, who seemed to drink more with each passing year. “Does father have honor?”
“No,” she said, her lips twitching with regret. “You must look to those who give when they have little, and only take when it will heal.”
Jack still didn’t grasp her meaning but he nodded anyway, and was rewarded with his mother’s smile.
“I won’t steal again,” he said.
The memory faded and Jack stared at the Thieves Guild. Promising himself he was only here for answers, he managed to suppress the guilt. Then he reached behind a tree and caught the lever that raised the bridge. The submerged span rose above the surface of the water and Jack advanced across the bridge, avoiding the pair of alligators that had been caught on its surface.
He reached the door and caught the handle, but paused. What if Skorn had retaken the guild? What if Jack hadn’t heard news because his friends had not been alive to send it? He quelled that thought and stepped inside. Then he made his way to the Guildmaster’s office, the highest room in the fortress.
He passed Iron Hall, and a glance revealed a number of familiar thieves. He grinned at the surprise on their faces and his doubts faded away. Several fell into his wake, whispering to each other about his return.
“She will be pleased he has returned.”
“But will he take her place?”
“Why would we want him to?”
Someone cuffed the speaker on the back of his head. “Do you not know who he is? That’s Jack Myst, the liberator of thieves, the cheater of death.”
Jack grinned but did not slow. A few minutes later he reached the doors leading to the Guildmaster’s office. His smile widened as he thought of seeing Thera again, the barbarian turned thief. The thieves had called her Beauty, and with good reason.
Beauty’s skill with body magic made her a formidable thief. Her desire to punish the Guildmaster for killing her sister had made her a formidable ally. When he’d left she’d been the obvious choice for the next Guildmaster. He swung the door open and stepped inside, coming to a halt.
Instead of Beauty it was Lorelia standing behind the desk. Tall and statuesque, she was the most beautiful elf he’d ever seen. Her golden hair flowed down her back like silk, and her bright blue eyes shined with excitement.
“Jack Myst,” she drawled, a smile spreading on her features. “I thought you’d never come back.” She glided forward and put her arms around him, drawing him close. She stopped short of kissing him, her expression teasing. “I missed you, Jack.”
Lorelia had always been a vixen until the Guildmaster’s memory magic had broken. Then he’d caught a glimpse of what she’d kept hidden. She’d been somber and timid, afraid even. Jack studied her but saw no hint of that identity. Then he recalled her final words to him when he’d left.
One who wears a mask recognizes another.
Jack feigned ignorance and slid his arms around her back. “Does this weary traveler get a kiss of welcome?”
She giggled and slipped away, returning to her desk. “What brings you back to the guild? I have a juicy assignment if you’re inclined to rejoin our ranks.”
“I have my own assignment,” Jack said.
“Are you certain?” she said, her eyes twinkling. “It involves stealing a young bride before she’s added to a harem.”
“Tempting,” he said, “but not this time. I came back to find Beauty.”
Her grin turned into a very attractive pout. “You wound me, but I should not be surprised. You two were as thick as thieves before killing Orn.” She grinned at her words.
“I actually thought she would be in that chair,” he said, gesturing to the Guildmaster’s darkwood desk.
“She is talented,” Lorelia said, “but we both know she doesn’t want to be a thief forever. Besides, she is still just a class three.”
Jack peaked an eyebrow at that. To gain ranks within the guild one had to face the Machine, a multi-level wall built to kill climbers at every stage. Skorn and Kuraltus had been the only class four thieves among the guild, and none had ever survived to level five. The last Jack had heard, Lorelia had been a class three.
“When did you get your fourth rank?” he asked.
“Shortly after you left,” she replied. “You left us in disarray, and someone had to pick up the pieces. Before it came to bloodshed I suggested we resolve it on the Machine, and I proved myself capable of taking what you cast aside.” Abruptly she smiled, her anger sinking out of view. “But six months is a lifetime for us, so I’ll happily welcome you back into the fold.”
“And Beauty?”
Lorelia waved her hand. “She left the guild and hasn’t returned.”
Jack frowned at that. “Not even to visit? Where’d she go?”
“She returned to the barbarian mountains.”
“She went home?” Jack asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Lorelia said. “But why are you so concerned?”
“Because they will kill her,” Jack replied, and turned toward the door.
Lorelia darted to him, reaching his side as he grasped the door. “Is this about Orn?”
He stopped and turned back. “Why would you ask that?”
“I think he survived.”
His curiosity piqued, he folded his arms. “What do you know?”
“I know what he wants.” She flashed a smug smile. “And why he still wants you.”
Chapter 5: Skorn’s Quest
Jack followed Lorelia through the fortress to the archives. Built into one of the turrets, the library stored the records of past assignments. Upon entering the Thieves Guild he’d used it to access the chamber and search for information regarding his mother. The library was also where he’d learned that Beauty harbored the same resentment toward the guild, and where she’d become his ally.
At a hundred feet tall the tower was hollow from foundation to peak. Books lined the walls of circular balconies, their titles illuminated by light orbs bracketed between the shelves. The scent of paper and dust wafted across the space, tinged with the smoke drifting from a fire in the hearth.
Lorelia strode past the fire an
d ascended to the third level. There she made her way to a strongdoor ensconced between two shelves. Producing a nine-pin key, she pushed it into the door and tapped her Guildmaster’s signet ring above the lock. The echo of the tumblers mingled with the buzz of enchanted traps being deactivated. Then she swung it open and entered.
Jack followed her into the private study room. Large and open, the chamber contained a table and a few chairs, but the paintings on the walls had been removed. In their place sheets of parchment covered every inch and were interspersed with glowing yellow light orbs. Then Jack recognized one of the papers.
“You kept it all?” he asked, surprised and impressed.
It was everything from Skorn’s office, all the papers and parchments that had blanketed his walls when he’d been Guildmaster. He’d kept intricate star charts, drawings, and maps that had gone unseen until Skorn’s demise. Jack had thought they were the works of a madman. Now he knew they were the secrets of an ancient.
“He left behind a great deal,” she said. “I cast a mirror charm to reflect everything onto the orbs, and then used the reflections to move it down here to study.”
She reached towards the orbs and yellow tendrils of magic seeped from her fingers. Reaching out to the orbs she caressed them to life. As they brightened a series of images appeared about the room, detailing the scattered parchment and the star maps on the ceiling. Jack grinned when he realized the pieces of parchment had been placed in the same order they had been before.
“How thorough,” he said.
She smiled at his praise. “It took a couple of months to sort it correctly, but it’s exactly as he left it. Most of it is indecipherable, but a few things have become clear.”
She stepped to two images prominent among the mess. One drawing depicted a red knife with barbs on both sides of the blade. The other resembled the first, but the barbs were larger and twisted in intricate patterns, while the metal itself was blue.
“At first I thought these were weapons,” she said, “but I did some digging, and they’re actually keys.”
“Keys to what?”
“The Vault of the Eternals.”
“The what?”
She laughed. “That was my response. Apparently the Eternals are a group of individuals that call themselves the guardians of Lumineia.”
“How ostentatious of them.”
“My sentiments exactly,” she said wryly. “Nevertheless, it seems Orn wanted to access the vault, and it requires both keys to enter. I cannot say why. I believe the map from Azertorn showed the location of an entrance to the vault.”
Jack moved to her side and examined the keys. “Where did these keys come from?”
“That’s the interesting part,” she said, her blue eyes brimming with curiosity. “Apparently these particular keys once belonged to Lord Draeken.”
“Draeken was one of the Eternals?” Jack asked, surprised at the reference.
He’d learned some history from his mother and knew that Draeken had nearly destroyed Lumineia ten thousand years ago. But if just one Eternal could do such damage, who were the others? And what did Skorn want from them?
“From the little I can gather, Draeken was an Eternal until he was rejected from their group. Apparently he knew they would want the keys so he disguised them as daggers and had them hidden.”
“Where?”
“One lies hidden among the Azure people, while the other was placed among the dark elves.”
“You’ve learned a great deal in just six months.”
She snorted in chagrin. “I admit, I became obsessed with solving the puzzles he left, but the answers were initially slow in coming. Fortunately, I had a breakthrough recently and was motivated to find the rest.”
“So he wants these keys to access the vault,” Jack mused. “But I doubt he’ll do it alone. He’s demonstrated a penchant for avoiding attention. I wager he’ll send others to search for the keys—if he hasn’t already”
“But who can he send?” she asked, sweeping a hand at the fortress. “The thieves no longer follow him.”
Jack’s brow furrowed in thought, and then a thought caused him to frown. “I can think of one group that would serve him, the Cult of Skorn.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why would they obey him?”
“Because he is Skorn.”
She stared at him and then burst into a laugh. “You think our Guildmaster is a god turned devil—who now walks the surface of Lumineia as a thief?”
He folded his arms and glared at her until her amusement faded. “It’s true,” he said.
“You can’t be serious,” she said. “He’s not a devil—”
“But he is an ancient,” he said.
She started to laugh again but then understanding lit her eyes and her smile faded. “That would explain a great deal,” she said slowly.
“We know the ancients were far more intelligent than we are,” he said, “and that they killed each other off in the Dawn of Magic.”
“That was forty thousand years ago,” she pointed out. “And they obviously weren’t immortal if they could be killed.”
“True,” he said. “But perhaps they had magics we don’t understand.”
She turned back to the wall of parchment and pondered that. Then she looked back at him. “If he really has taken over the Cult of Skorn, it means he has a veritable army at his command. I wager he has already sent parties to search for the keys.”
A sly smile crossed Jack’s face as he realized what she was suggesting. “You want to steal them first?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
He laughed at the anticipation in her tone. “What if he already has them?”
She jerked her head. “The cultists are anything but thieves. Even if they know exactly what to look for, they’d be hard pressed to find and steal them in so short a time—especially from the dark elves.”
“So we go for the Azure key first,” he said.
She gestured to the red knife. “They likely thought the same thing, but stealing from the azure is a brutal affair. The islanders are fractured into dozens of tribes, all with their own chief. They’re not too fond of outsiders, either.”
“Then we find the cultists,” Jack said. “They’re certainly there already, so we shadow their search and take the key before they do.”
“A sound plan,” she replied, “but one that would be unwise to carry out alone.”
“I don’t play well with others.”
“So you’ve said,” she said with a grunt of amusement. “But in this case we cannot afford to go it alone.”
“What if Skorn left spies in the guild?” Jack asked.
She looked away, her features tightening. “It’s possible. He was the Guildmaster for over two decades. Some may still be loyal to him.”
“Skorn has a way with manipulation,” Jack said. “Even those we think we can trust might betray us.”
“Then who can we trust?”
“I trust Ursana and Gordon,” he said. “They were instrumental in defeating Skorn, and I doubt their allegiances have changed.”
She nodded in agreement. “I’d like to add Thalidon and his brother.”
“Brother?”
“Roarthin,” she said. “Turns out Skorn kept him locked in a secret cage for twenty years, and used him to force Thalidon to maintain the Machine and our tools.”
Jack’s eyebrows shot up. He’d known about Thalidon’s brother, but the dwarven smith had made no mention of what Skorn had done to him. The manipulation would make both the dwarves hate Skorn.
“They stayed here?” Jack asked.
“They left shortly after you did,” she said. “But I suspect they would return for this assignment. I can send Ursana and Gordon for them.”
“What about Beauty?”
Her lips tightened. “What about her?”
“No one hates the man more than she,” he said. “And her talent would be an enormous asset. I’ll go after her while yo
u gather the others.”
“I’ll come with you,” she replied.
“I can find her on my own.”
“Have you ever been to the barbarian mountains?”
“No.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
Noticing the steel in her eyes, he resigned himself to her companionship. “As you order, Guildmaster.”
She flashed a dazzling smile and slid close to him. “I look forward to our nights together.”
He laughed and slipped out of reach. “I expect you to cook.”
“Because I’m a woman?” she asked, indignant.
“Because you’re an elf,” he replied with a grin.
Her high laughter echoed off the walls of the chamber. “I’ll cook if you share the tale of the castle at Terros.”
He peaked an eyebrow. “Tracking my movements, are we?”
“Always, Jack,” she said, and her smile reminded him of a rayth cat.
“Not much to tell,” he said. “I slipped past the rock trolls and breached their strongroom.”
“And what did you steal?” she asked as she extinguished the magic in the room.
Jack opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it. “Some secrets are meant to stay hidden.”
“Did it help you learn of Skorn?”
“Actually, I learned that bit from my mother,” Jack said, and used the half-truth to hide the truth. “She left a memory orb that detailed who he was.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t find it earlier,” she said. “That would have saved us a great deal of strife.”
“Perhaps,” he replied, and followed her from the room. “But he would still have been formidable.”
She locked the door and turned to him. “Is there any chance he’s dead?”
“We’ll know when we reach the Azure Islands,” he said. “If the cultists are there, we’ll know he sent them.”
Her expression turned serious. “What do we do when we retrieve the keys?”
“Destroy them,” Jack said as if it were obvious. He smiled as he imagined Skorn’s reaction to the keys’ destruction.
“I’m confident Thalidon and Roarthin can handle that,” she said. “I’ll gather my things and appoint an interim Guildmaster. Meet me outside on the docks in an hour.”