Raging Sea and Trembling Earth: Disciples of the Horned One Volume Two (Soul Force Saga Book 2)

by James Wisher

  An hour later Mikhail had everything except the black gem packed safely in two leather trunks. Connor allowed himself a moment of nostalgia before they set out. He’d built this place with his own power. It was the first thing he’d claimed that wasn’t created by his forebears in the Horned One’s cult. Oh well. Nothing lasted forever.

  Connor set the black gem on his chair and sent a pulse of hellfire into it, priming the destructive energy inside. The first person to enter that didn’t possess corrupted soul force would receive a nasty surprise.

  “Let’s go.” Connor gestured and a black globe appeared around the luggage. They left the cave and once outside he conjured a pair of shadowy horses. The two of them mounted up and flew into the air heading east.

  “Where are we going, Master?”

  “The haunted lands. I believe an ally there might help us.” After he’s done mocking me. “I had hoped not to have to rely on the creature, but with Eleck’s failure we have little choice.”

  They galloped through the night sky, crossing over the mountains and into the haunted lands just before sunrise. There was no need to muck about at the pyramids this time. Connor knew exactly where they needed to go and how to get there.

  They reached the palace just before midday. Without the paladin’s barrier Connor had no trouble flying through the hole Focalor had smashed in the ceiling and landing right in the middle of the library. He let their mounts vanish and pulled the bronze amulet out of his tunic.

  “Guard the entrance. I don’t want anything following me to the vault.”

  Mikhail drew his sword. “Nothing will get past me, Master.”

  Connor set the amulet into the oval depression and the stairs formed. The walk down gave him plenty of time to think of the best way to approach the spirit in the mirror. He feared a bit of groveling might be necessary. He’d left Mikhail up above as much so he wouldn’t witness Connor negotiating with the spirit as to prevent anything from sneaking along behind him. Dealing with the spirit would be embarrassing enough without an audience.

  After the long trudge down the stairs he reached the open chamber where he’d fought the guardian. Today the hellfire construct remained still. It probably recognized Connor as possessing the same corrupt soul force as that which sustained it. Whatever the reason he was glad not to have to fight the monster again.

  It took only a moment to find the rune of opening and unseal the vault. It looked exactly like he remembered. Today Connor ignored the treasures hidden behind the rune-etched glass and focused his attention on the black mirror hanging on the back wall. His distorted reflection stared back at him.

  “Are you just going to ignore me?” Connor asked.

  His reflection wavered and shifted into a vaguely defined humanoid shape. “The court jester has returned. Come to help yourself to another of the master’s toys?”

  “No. I’ve been considering your generous offer to show me where the wise king planned to activate the crystal. Upon further consideration I’ve decided your location might be best after all.”

  The spirit’s glowing eyes narrowed. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

  Before he could reply the spirit laughed, a grating sound like nails on slate. “Your efforts to secure a different location fell apart. So you’ve come crawling back, pretending you reconsidered, when you’ve really failed. Am I wrong?”

  Connor clenched his jaw and bowed his head. “Your perceptions are keen, as expected of a servant of King Alexious. Indeed my initial efforts to secure a staging area didn’t work out. Are you still interested in getting out of this vault and going on a trip?”

  “My first thought is to tell you to go to hell, but I badly want out of this vault. I haven’t seen anything but these three walls for hundreds of years. I will show you the way, warlock.”

  Chapter 50

  “Eli?” Damien was surprised to find his former roommate among the group summoned by the archmage to go after Connor Blackman. He stood beside Master Shen at the edge of the gathering in the royal castle courtyard.

  Eli waved. “Damien. I figured you’d be here. I passed my final test and Master Shen took me on as his apprentice.”

  They shook hands. “Congratulations. I told you you’d nail it the second time. Is this your first mission?”

  Eli nodded. “Yeah. Not exactly an easy way to start. Though I heard your first official mission was a solo bodyguard job that ended up with a huge battle in the badlands. At least I have plenty of help.”

  That was an understatement. In addition to Eli and Master Shen, eighteen sorcerers, including the archmage and one of the high sorcerers, were going out on this mission. They had enough power gathered to take on an army. Damien just hoped it was enough to defeat Connor. At least he’d managed to bury Mikhail, so they wouldn’t have to face both of them at the same time.

  His master levitated five feet above the crowd. When she had everyone’s attention the archmage said, “You know why we’re here. Through the efforts of my apprentice and his sister we have finally acquired Connor Blackman’s general location. When we reach the mountains we’ll divide into groups of two. If anyone finds anything report at once. Do not try and engage Connor on your own. Our combined force should be enough to completely overwhelm him. Clear?”

  Heads bobbed in acknowledgement. Damien really hoped they took her orders seriously. If Connor really was stronger than Mikhail there was no way any of them could handle the warlock on their own.

  The assembled sorcerers sprang into the air, some on conjured mounts and others flying along under their own power like Damien. He flew over beside his master. “I assume we’ll be searching together.”

  “No, I’m going to stay in a central position with Zahara to coordinate. You’ll be searching with Imogen.”

  Damien winced. Imogen hated him. He was surprised the archmage had allowed her to come on the hunt. “I’m not sure we’re a good pair and who’s Zahara?”

  “I keep forgetting. Zahara’s the high sorcerer of the east and we’ll be working in her area. Imogen just lost her partner and since I didn’t want to bring any other members of the legion I figured you’d be the most familiar with her. I didn’t want to include her on this mission, but I doubt if I ordered her to stay she’d obey me. At least this way she’ll have someone to keep an eye on her.”

  Damien was familiar with her. She yelled at him every time they got within sight of each other. He still had no idea why and now he’d gotten stuck with babysitting duty, great. “Wait, what happened to Alden?”

  “He was killed in an attempt to recover the urn. She took it pretty hard so go easy on her.”

  Go easy on her. Right.

  “I’ll do my best, Master.”

  It took four hours for the gathered sorcerers to fly to the mountains. Eleck said the cave was near the eastern edge of the range and more north than south. That still left hundreds of square miles of territory to cover. Nine groups of sorcerers should make quick work of it. It wasn’t like they had to check every square inch. If they just got close any member of the group would sense Connor.

  When the archmage brought them to a halt Damien flew over beside Imogen and smiled. As usual that only earned him a scowl in return. Orders were given and they flew out to search their assigned quadrant.

  After ten minutes of glacial silence Damien said, “What did I ever do to you anyway?”

  Imogen glanced at him, her blue eyes sparkling in the bright sun. “True. I don’t like you because you remind me of my own weakness. Try not to take it personally.”

  Damien stared at the back of her head, his mouth partway open. When he’d recovered from the surprise he said, “What kind of stupid reason is that? Are you saying we’d get along better if I was a weakling?”

  Imogen stopped and turned to face him straight on. He would have sworn the ice maiden had a tear in the corner of her eye. “That’s just what he said to me the day before he was killed. Alden said it was foolish to hate you for such an absurd
reason. As was usually the case he was right. Knowing it and doing something about it are two different things.”

  “Alden said that?” Damien shook his head. “I always thought he was too nice a guy to be a questioner. I don’t think I’ve had a chance to tell you how sorry I am that he died.”

  “Damn it! Stop being nice to me! I’ve never treated you with anything but contempt. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

  Damien bit his lip, flew over, and put a hand on Imogen’s shoulder. Every muscle in her body was tense. “It’s hard to lose someone you care about. Whatever I may think about you in general, everyone deserves a bit of kindness under these circumstances. When this is over, if you need someone to talk to, well, I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”

  Imogen wiped her eyes and they flew on. When she looked his way again he imagined a hint of a smile. “You make it very hard for a person to hate you.”

  Damien grinned. “If you need pointers look up Duke Iceborn’s son. He seems to have hating me down to an art.”

  Imogen laughed then clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Careful, your face might break if you keep smiling like that.”

  She opened her mouth to retort, but Damien held up a hand. “Do you feel that?” He sensed a hint of corruption to the east and a little south.

  Imogen nodded. “It doesn’t seem strong enough to be a warlock.”

  “Let’s have a closer look.”

  She nodded and they followed the hint of corruption for another two minutes before a cave appeared below them. It matched the description Eleck gave perfectly.

  “This has to be it,” Damien said. “I’ll send the archmage a message.”

  Imogen’s face was twisted in a grimace. He’d never seen such a look of hate. “It’s his fault Alden is dead. One of Connor’s flunkies cut his throat while he was unconscious. He’s going to pay for what he’s done.”

  “Yes, but we have to wait for the others.”

  Imogen’s shield flared, blinding him for a moment. When his vision cleared Imogen was almost to the cave.

  “Damn it!” Damien frantically conjured a message for his master. She’d have no trouble following it back to this spot. That done he plunged after Imogen. He’d just started to like the woman, he couldn’t let her kill herself now.

  Damien caught up just as she landed in a little flat spot outside the cave. “What are you doing? The two of us aren’t enough to take on a warlock.”

  She held up a finger to her lips, like Connor hadn’t already sensed their presence. “Come with me or wait here, I don’t care, but I mean to get my revenge.”

  Imogen advanced into the cave. Stupid woman. Did she have a death wish? Damien followed a step behind. This was absurd. His only hope was that he could protect her long enough for them to escape or for help to arrive. Damien conjured a weak light when they moved beyond the entrance. The floor of the tunnel was worn smooth by the passage of many feet. It looked like Connor had a lot of company.

  They continued deeper, but the corrupt power neither moved nor fluctuated. Damien frowned. Either Connor somehow didn’t know they were there or he was disguising his true power somehow. A little ways ahead the tunnel opened into a larger cavern.

  Imogen drew power from her core and lunged through the opening. Damien joined her in an empty room filled with shelves. At the far end was a black chair with a gem on it. The gem pulsed.

  Damien grabbed Imogen and pulled her tight to his body. This was going to be close.

  He drew all but a fraction of his power and wrapped them in a cocoon of soul force.

  The gem exploded and darkness filled the cave.

  Chapter 51

  Damien didn’t know if darkness could be angry, but if it could the roiling energy trying to smash its way through his barrier felt angry. A strong sense of hate permeated the miasma. Imogen held tight to him, her eyes squeezed shut. Out of the corner of his eye he caught glimpses of spectral skulls swirling through the darkness. His shield was down to half strength and the darkness showed no sign of dissipating.

  He redirected all his energy to maintaining the barrier which strengthened it considerably. Imogen whimpered and Damien stroked her hair. He’d never seen the normally unshakable woman so out of sorts. It had to be an effect of the darkness trap. It made his knees weak and stomach roil, but his emotions stayed steady. Just as well; if he lost focus they were both dead.

  Gradually the pressure on his barrier weakened. A minute later the melted remains of the stone shelves grew visible in the light of his shield.

  Imogen looked at him. “Is it over?”

  “Getting there. We’d best wait another minute before leaving the barrier. You okay?”

  She looked away. “Fine. I just got a little overwhelmed for a while. You saved my life, again.”

  “You’re not going to yell at me, are you?”

  “No. Thanks for coming after me. It was stupid coming in here on my own. I just felt so angry and I wanted revenge so bad. Or maybe I hoped Connor would kill me and end the pain.”

  “Don’t say that. Once you’re dead there’s no way things can improve. As long as you’re alive there’s always the hope that when you wake up the next day will be better. We’re teammates now. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  Imogen broke down in tears and he held her. She must not have given herself a chance to grieve after Alden’s death, running on rage and hate. It looked like she’d hit her limit. Of all the terrible times for her to have a breakdown, she couldn’t have picked a worse one than this. He almost would have preferred an angry Imogen, at least until they retuned to the castle. After that she could cry on his shoulder as long as she needed to.

  When Imogen calmed down she looked back to him and their gazes locked. Before he knew it she kissed him. Not a quick thank you kiss on the cheek either. The kiss matched her personality, rough and aggressive. She ran her hands over his chest. Given their proximity he was going to have a difficult time hiding his reaction.

  When she came up for breath the darkness had fully cleared. He gave a full-body shiver. Damn, that was a kiss. With Imogen smiling at him in a way that made his knees weak Damien opened a tiny hole in the barrier. He stuck his finger out, and it didn’t disintegrate or even burn.

  “I think we’re good to go.” At least his voice didn’t tremble.

  Imogen licked her lips. “What’s the rush?”

  Oh, boy. He didn’t want to just reject her, that might send her back into a depression. On the other hand, a corruption-infused cave in the middle of nowhere didn’t make the best trysting spot. Not to mention he was technically engaged, even if it was to someone he didn’t love. If he did anything with Imogen it would be a horrible betrayal to Karrie. They needed to escape and the sooner the better.

  And how would he explain this to Karrie? It didn’t seem to argue well for their future that he didn’t feel especially guilty about kissing Imogen. He did worry about upsetting Lizzy even though she’d made it pretty clear that he was free to do whatever he wanted and she wouldn’t hold it against him.

  Damien absorbed the energy remaining in the barrier—it wasn’t much—and put some distance between them. The tunnel leading out had melted closed. If they were going to escape it wouldn’t be that way.

  “What’s wrong?” Imogen closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Don’t you want to finish what we started?”

  She’d completely lost her mind. Must be the stress. He looked around the ruined cave. “This isn’t exactly the place for that sort of thing. The lingering aura of demonic energy kind of kills the mood.”

  She kissed the side of his neck. “I think I could revive the mood most anywhere.”

  Damien didn’t doubt that for a moment. For a woman that had never given a man a second look, at least that he was aware of, she had a talent for teasing. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to get them out of here.

  “What do you say we escape first and when
we return home see if we still want to go down this path?”

  She stuck out her bottom lip and pouted. Imogen. Pouted. If he lived a thousand years Damien wouldn’t have considered that a remote possibility. “Fine. But we will pick up where we left off. I promise.”

  He swallowed. The way she said it made it sound more like a threat than a promise. Whatever, he’d deal with it later. Once they were safe and she had a chance to think it over he hoped she’d come to her senses. Well, most of him hoped she’d come to her senses.

  “How do you want to get out of here?” she asked.

  The pout vanished along with the sultry tone, thank heaven. “I say we just blast our way out. It can’t be more than a hundred yards out of here.”

  She stared at him for a moment then shook her head. “You’re serious.”

  “Sure. My soul force has mostly recovered. I’ll dig and you stabilize the tunnel.”

  “Okay.”

  Damien drew power and sent a twisting blast at the wall. His drill cut through the stone easily enough. When the tunnel was ten feet deep Imogen conjured a reinforcing barrier. Damien didn’t know how long it took, but it went faster than digging into the bandit castle in the badlands.

  They flew out into the clear blue sky and found the rest of the search parties waiting. The archmage flew down, a fierce scowl twisting her face. “What the hell happened? I thought I said no one goes after him alone.”

  Imogen flew in front of him. “It’s my fault. I lost control and went in without thinking. If Damien hadn’t followed the trap inside would have killed me.”

  That brought his master up short. “Trap?”