“Millhook, I have told you time and time again that you will knock before entering any room in the Citadel.” The woman spoke with the same calm, imperious tone she’d used with Marcus. She did not need to raise her voice to communicate her displeasure.
“Just be glad I’m doing your bidding, Calista.”
“You do my bidding because I compensate you well. I assume this is the girl?” Calista’s gaze moved from Millhook to me, and I felt unworthy beneath her gray gaze. Her eyes were only a few shades lighter than the straight steel gray hair that fell below her shoulders. Only the faintest hint of crow’s feet appeared in the corner of her eyes. Her pale skin had more youthfulness than her hair suggested. The steely strength in her posture and voice echoed her coloring and left me intimidated.
I didn’t know what to say, and I feared that if I opened my mouth, more would tumble out than was wise. I needed time alone with Alex, to tell him who she was, to get his advice. I stood on a tightrope, and one wrong move either way could send me tumbling to the ground. So I did nothing. It seemed the only wise option.
“Aye, and he’s the shifter. Doesn’t leave her side. Something hinky going on there, if you ask me.”
“That’s enough, Millhook. Here’s your fee.” She reached out her hand to levitate a leather pouch on a table against the wall. A gold bracelet with little blue stones wrapped around her wrist several times as it crawled up her forearm, likely her talisman. She directed the pouch to Millhook, and judging by the jingling when it landed in his palm, it was full of coins.
Why was it that no fantasy worlds ever operated on paper currency? The impracticalities of carrying around pouches of coins abounded. Seeing this exchange in person made me reconsider Serafina’s forty-three thousand gold in-game. It was always available when she needed it. How did she carry it all? And while wearing what amounted to a bikini and robe?
“Will it insult you if I count it?” Millhook asked as he peered into the pouch.
Calista fixed a baleful stare at him. Millhook twisted his hand, and the leather pouch disappeared, the same as the coin had back in the hotel room.
“Nice doing business with you. Next time, you might try giving me an assignment that takes place during waking hours,” Millhook grumbled.
So that was why the halls had been deserted. It hadn’t occurred to me that there would be a time difference between Elustria and Earth, but it made sense. In fact, there was no reason to believe that Elustria operated on a twenty-four-hour day.
When Millhook turned to leave, Alex spoke beside me. “Wait, we need Millhook to stay.”
“Oh really?” Calista arched one finely shaped eyebrow, and that was enough to have me thinking better of speaking out of turn. “You’re quite bold for a shifter this deep in the Citadel. I’d hardly say that you’re in a position to be making demands.”
“Exactly. We’re not on equal footing here. I’m not sure why you summoned us here, but given everything we’ve been through, I want assurances of our safety. Millhook has pledged on his magic that we are safe with him, so we ask that he remains with us as our liaison to the Council. If the Magesterial Council does not wish us harm, then you’ll have no problem accommodating this request.”
“Wait a minute,” Millhook said. “I already did my job. I’ll not stick around here just to sit the two of you. I have my own life, my own things to do.”
“Millhook, be quiet. Assuming we agree, you will of course be properly compensated for your time.” Calista focused back on Alex. “Interesting that you would make this request, shifter, when you don’t even know why you are here.”
“My name’s Alex. My only interest is protecting Kat. Keeping Millhook with us is the best way I can think of to do that.”
“Very well. The Council has no problem granting this request. Indeed, we do not mean anyone harm. I think you’ll find that there’s been a series of misunderstandings that have led us to this point. I and the entire Council want you to feel welcome here. However, we only expected Kat to come, so if you wish to all remain together, you’ll have to share a room.”
“That’s not a problem,” Alex assured her.
“Now hang on.” Millhook stepped between us and Calista. “I didn’t agree to stay in one room with these two.”
“Will you calm down, you creature? We will compensate you fifty percent more than your regular daily fee. That should be more than enough to ensure your comfort tonight. Now, let me show you to your quarters.”
“Calista, why don’t you let me take care of that? It’s late, and I’m headed in that direction anyway.” The red-eyed man stepped toward us, and it took all my self-control to not take a step backward. I must have appeared weak by staying silent during the entire exchange, but I’d rather appear weak than make a misstep that could cost us.
“Thank you, Thaddeus.” Calista nodded to him and then fixed her gaze back on me. “Kat, you’re most welcome here. Please enjoy our hospitality. We will send for you in the afternoon to give you time to rest. Hopefully all of our misunderstandings will be cleared up tomorrow. Until then, I bid you good night.” She nodded in a way that was both gracious and clearly a dismissal.
Thaddeus swept past us into the hallway, and we followed. The man’s eyes put me ill at ease. Demons and monsters had red eyes. I didn’t want to be prejudiced, but I didn’t think it was too off-base for me to be uneasy. I tried to keep an open mind. After all, Alex had yellow eyes, and he turned out to be a good enough guy.
I realized I should have been trying to remember the directions to our room, but I was too distracted trying to see as much as I could. We passed a couple teleportation rings in little alcoves off the hallway. Statues with plaques memorializing the subject appeared in some of the wider halls. I didn’t think I’d ever learn my way around the labyrinthian building.
When we reached a door opposite a trippy abstract painting, Thaddeus stopped. When he turned to us, the sight of his eyes confirmed that it would take a long time for me to get used to them.
“Here are your chambers. Millhook will show you how to order food and tend to your needs. Good night, and let me echo Calista’s welcome. The Council wishes for you to be comfortable here.” He opened the door wide for us, and I couldn’t help noticing that even though the Council wanted us to be comfortable, when Thaddeus closed the door, the handle glowed red for a moment as it locked. It was to be expected, but it didn’t put me any more at ease.
“Thanks a lot for dragging me into this.” Millhook crossed his arms over his chest as he glared at us. “I knew I shouldn’t have made that promise to you. That’s just like a shifter, being all shifty. My mama always told me not to trust your kind. Never trust something that can’t make up its mind as to what it is, she’d say.”
This could prove to be a long night. If we were committed to Millhook staying, we needed him to be an ally. “Thanks for staying. I’m sorry it’s such an inconvenience. At least you’re getting paid.”
Millhook appeared to soften beneath my thanks. “Oh, it’s all right I guess. Easy money, that’s what it is. What does the Council want with you anyway?”
I was surprised he didn’t know. In my most nonchalant voice I said, “Oh, I killed the assassin the Council sent to kill me.”
Millhook’s eyes widened, and he stepped backward as he gulped. “Oh, is that all? Calista conveniently left that out. I suppose it’s too late now to ask for hazard pay.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I shrugged. “Don’t worry, I only kill people who try to kill me first.”
“Well, I guess we’ll just be bosom buddies then.”
Chapter 3
By the time Millhook’s communication orb showed Calista’s face summoning us to the judgment room, I was antsy to get going. Nerves had fluttered around inside my stomach all day long, and while I was scared, I needed to be done with it. Fretting and worrying would accomplish nothing. All I could do was trust that I was in the right. I had done nothing more or less than defend myself against a
known killer. If the Magesterial Council wasn’t willing to accept that, then nothing else mattered. As a political science major, I knew how to work within the bounds of a justice system, but if the system itself was corrupt, it wouldn’t matter what I did.
“All right, you two, let’s go,” Millhook said when he finished speaking with Calista. “And try to keep up. The sooner this is over, the sooner I can get back home.” Millhook opened the door, and I wondered if it would open for him any time or if the Council had remotely unlocked it.
There was a pronounced difference between the Citadel the previous night and today. People bustled about going here and there. Teleportation rings tucked away in alcoves served a constant stream of mages coming and going.
“Make way, make way, coming through,” Millhook said as he pushed people to the side to make room for us on our trek to the judgment room. Everyone we passed stared at me, my clothes marking me as an outsider.
The amber pendant resting on my chest glowed, and I wrapped my hand around it, accepting its reminder that I did belong. An outfit had been provided for me, but I couldn’t face the Council in clothes that weren’t mine. They were my last line of defense, the last piece of myself, and even if they stood out, they gave me a certain degree of confidence.
We turned down a corridor, and at the end of it were two large brass doors inlaid with rubies. The materials would all come from Elustria, so they probably had different names here, but the effect was impressive no matter what you called them. The doors towered above us, and I felt small in comparison. The contents of the breakfast I’d eaten turned in my stomach. I swallowed down the acidic puke that threatened to spill from my mouth. Throwing up all over the carpet would not endear me to my hosts.
I could see it now: “Well, Kat, we are willing to overlook that you killed someone in self-defense, but then you left quite a nasty stain on our carpet, not to mention the smell. We have no choice but to lock you up.”
Wow, my mind really went to crazy places when I was stressed.
“Open up. I brought them like you asked me to. Don’t keep us waiting,” Millhook said, and I was grateful for his forcefulness. It put a little smile on my face. He seemed entirely untouched by the grandeur around us.
The doors slowly opened, and I got my first glimpse of the cavernous judgment room: a great circle with a dome ceiling that I had to crane my neck to see the top of. Dozens of tall, narrow windows lined the walls, letting in enough light to fill the entire space. Without all the natural light, the room would appear more foreboding. With the light, it seemed almost serene except for the eight mages staring back at me from a row of thrones.
On the far side of the chamber stood nine thrones, four on each side of a larger one on which sat a giant orb that floated above the seat. Four men sat on the left, and four women sat on the right. Thaddeus occupied the seat closest to the largest throne and Calista mirrored his position on the other side, and she looked even more intimidating than before.
The clothing in Elustria all looked custom-made and high-end. I had left the land of mass production and jeans. Calista wore a white, double-breasted short coat with ruffles at the bottom and the ends of the sleeves. Her finely tailored, tight-fitting pants looked as if they were made from brown suede. Completing the picture were brown leather, kick-ass boots, as in a woman didn’t wear boots like that unless she was confident she could kick your ass.
The rest of the Councilors sat with the same dignified authority as Calista, making this by far the most intimidating meeting of my entire life. The scholarship committee back at Stapleton University had nothing on these people. And through it all, that unsettling orb pulsed.
Millhook stopped in the center of the room, and Alex and I stood a few feet behind him.
“Don’t let them intimidate you,” Millhook whispered. “They eat their food one bite at a time just like the rest of us.” That must be the Elustrian version of “put their pants on one leg at a time.”
I appreciated Millhook’s support. The imp had endeared himself to me, if for no other reason than he was familiar and had a habit of making me smile. Despite wanting to, I didn’t allow a smile to form this time.
“Kat Thomas,” Calista began, “we have summoned you here to account for the death of Marcus Blithlow during his mission to bring us the talisman you are now wearing.”
Eight pairs of eyes stared at me, a tiny speck in this grand room. Only two options appeared before me: break down and cry or get so angry that crying wasn’t an option.
“So you admit it then, that you sent Marcus to kill me? I saw you speaking to him in the safe house before I killed him.” Anger won. I’d told Alex earlier that I recognized Calista. We had decided that the truth would be the best defense, but I didn’t think he had expected me to deliver the truth so forcefully.
“I would never send someone to kill a young girl.” Calista’s voice held both anger and offense. “Marcus was tasked with retrieving the talisman and bringing your mother back here to face justice. From what I understand, Meglana was unwilling to concede, which, unfortunately, resulted in her death.”
“I may not have been raised a mage, but even I know that you don’t take someone’s talisman. My mother had every right to fight back.”
The faces staring at me shifted and looked at each other. Something I said made them uncomfortable.
“Meglana was one of the most wanted mages in Elustria. She was found guilty of numerous crimes against our people and against Elustria. She fled to Earth to escape the Vortex. Based on the evidence presented to us, we believe that the source of Meglana’s madness was the talisman you still wear.”
My hand reflexively closed around it. My talisman wasn’t evil—I’d bet my life on it. It was part of me; I would know if it had any untoward intentions. “There is nothing wrong with my talisman.”
“We won’t know that until we can examine it. And so far, retrieving it has proved something of a problem. A talisman that had nothing to fear wouldn’t react so violently to attempts to remove it.”
“Can you blame it?” I could not believe we were talking about the stone as if it were a living, breathing thing. “In my experience, everyone who’s tried to take this talisman from me has also wanted me dead. To me, it sounds like the stone is doing its job just fine.”
“I think we all need to take a step back,” Thaddeus said. “There have been misunderstandings all the way around. This entire matter is further complicated by the fact that you were not raised as a mage. Your mother hid you away from us and from your family. We don’t know how much you know or how this has all played out for you.” Thaddeus turned his gaze from me to Calista. “Why don’t you explain the entire story?”
Calista nodded and took a moment to gather her words before speaking. “Your mother was a very talented mage. We were even friends at one point. She could have sat on this Council, but political power did not interest her. Her interest lay in magical power. She wouldn’t let anything distract her from her studies. Unfortunately, that focus drove her to madness.
“Meglana began work in dark magic that has not been seen in many generations. She was not simply interested in strengthening her own magic; she was interested in stealing others’. We know that she operated on Earth without Council approval. We don’t know the details of what she was working on, and that’s what we hope to discover by examining the talisman. It is our belief that she was going to Earth to find latent mages to strip them of their spark.”
I wondered if the Council knew that it was my spark she stripped to hide me away for my protection.
“We had summoned her here many times, but she continually evaded us. Sending Marcus to retrieve her was a last resort. We did not order him to kill her nor did we sanction her killing. You have my sincerest apologies for what he did. However, you should know that while Marcus was not the most tasteful of mages, he would not have killed your mother unless necessary. We employed him because he was the best at what he did, and he was the on
ly one who had figured out how to remove the talisman safely from Meglana.
“Unfortunately, she got the talisman to you through this shifter. I swear on my magic that Marcus never intended to kill you. We sent him there simply to retrieve the talisman. We had hoped that you would remain on Earth and go back to your life. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.” The slightest bit of emotion entered Calista’s voice.
Thaddeus took over. “Now we’re left with the fact that Meglana’s daughter killed a mage representing the Council. That puts us in something of a predicament as far as how to judge you. You claim you are innocent, that you knew nothing of your heritage, that you were raised as a human, yet you bested a well-trained mage over a necklace.”
“Over my talisman.” My anger propelled me a step forward. I pointed at Calista. “Are you saying that if someone were to take your bracelet, you’d be fine with it? You’d just hand it over? I killed Marcus because I had to. He was the one who used violence against me. I saw no other option for escape.”
“And all we have is your word on that,” a woman two seats over from Calista said. “If you’re telling the truth, you should consent to questioning under truth potion.”
The idea that Marcus wouldn’t have killed me didn’t sit well on my conscience. Doubt crept in. I had done the best I could given the situation, and I didn’t like the thought that I had killed an innocent man, but he wasn’t innocent. He had assaulted me; he had killed my mother; he had taken the last thing I had of her: my talisman that had become a part of me. What should I have done? Lie down and play the victim? I did enough of that after my parents died. I wouldn’t do it anymore.
I didn’t fear the truth, but it didn’t seem wise to consent to questioning under a truth potion. Maybe it was my pre-law classes from back when I thought I’d be a lawyer, but you didn’t just blab to the justice system, no matter if you were innocent or not. There were other things at play here, other considerations to take into account. If I were in a courtroom back home, what would I do? I wouldn’t let myself be pushed into making a rash decision.
Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2) Page 2