She settled in my arms, perhaps not an intimate embrace, but one that at the least remembered how intimate it used to be between us.
“Not mad?”
“Not mad.”
“Trust me still?”
I got a chaste kiss that lasted only a touch. “For luck,” she said with teasing lips, just like the last time we committed this insanity together.
[CLICK]
Val giggled like an excited little kid the whole time I geo-surfed us over to the crossover point. Bet she likes roller-coasters . . . Amusement park was never something I thought about taking her to on a date. I’m not a wait-in-line kind of guy, especially a wait-in-line-with-children kind of guy, but I had a feeling Val would enjoy it.
Had her behind me on a slightly wider dirtboard than normal, her arms wrapped around my chest. I called out the turns before I took them so we could lean together one way or the other. Maybe I threw in a few more turns than I needed, maybe I zigged and zagged through more mushrooms and boulders than I usually would have too. I like making her laugh after all, and the joyous giggle next to my ear made me smile for one of the few times in these last six months.
When we finally stepped off the dirtboard, she pushed a hand against her chest to feel a heart I had no doubt was flying. “Much more fun than the last time we walked everywhere!”
“Helps that there’s no dragons or bear cavalry around.”
“No Poug either,” Val pointed out, studying the hills surrounding us. “Or did you mention him just so I wouldn’t Fireball of Doom you?”
No Poug, but no one else around either, that was good. I searched about to find the marker I’d put up for the crossover. “He was here yesterday. Knowing him, he’s busy with some farm-girl’s hay-filled snatch.”
“Not everyone is you and he seemed quite religious to me.”
“Far as I can tell, it’s always that sort to ravish the farm-girl when daddy ain’t looking.”
Struggling with walking on the lichen and grass covered ground, Val grimaced as she reached down to rip off her dress shoes. “If we do this again, remind me to change first instead of letting you get the better of my impulses.”
I found one of the smaller mushrooms and took a seat on it. “There’s always tomorrow.”
She considered me again, like she had in her apartment. “This isn’t about you and the Guild, is it? I thought we’d be looking for artifact designs, but no . . . this is about what’s been weighing on you since we came to this place the first time.”
“Suppose that did start it,” I admitted, “but it’s more than that . . . and yeah, whole lot more than the Guild. It’s weird with you not knowing everything that’s going on, Val . . . you were always the one I told everything to.”
A blond eyebrow rose. “Everything?”
“Except for maybe a couple things,” I skirted around just saying three little words. “Point is: lot’s happened you’ve missed out on.”
“Tell me then,” she said as she sat beside me. Like we were in a mall or something, not another dimension, the mushroom trees swaying in the wind and the lichen tickling her bare toes.
“I’m not blaming you or nothing,” I started awkwardly.
Again with the arched eyebrow. “Better not be or we’ll be back to fireballs really quick.”
“Only place you can’t do that,” I reminded her.
“So that’s your game, taking me to a place where you can do whatever you want with me,” she teased.
I ignored the glint in her eyes. Star having itself a nice twinkle at my expense. Look how adorable King Henry is when he’s nervous around me. Only woman he gets nervous or adorable around too. “If things had gone different between me and Ceinwyn and she had asked me to go away to some remote island for training or something . . . I probably would’ve split us up. Once you left, once you were halfway around the world . . . just felt right to not involve you in this until I got here. If I got here . . .”
“So many preambles,” she teased me even more.
“I’m trying to prove I’m not an asshole here!” I growled.
“I know . . . it’s very cute.”
“You’re not helping with all that smirking,” I growled some more.
She put a comforting hand on my knee. “We broke up, neither of us are at fault for it and nothing could have stopped it from happening once events played out the way they did with Ceinwyn, but neither of us were there for the other afterwards. You got very drunk and did many, many, many colossally stupid things in Las Vegas, then you embarked on your grand plan that has landed us back in the Geo Realm. I worked myself to the bone and have thirty international Ultras lined up to attend the Asylum in the next three years. Now we’re here . . . again. Back at it. Flirting. Doing stupidly insane things. Resisting temptations. That enough help for you?” she asked.
Guess it was. At least her side of it. “Thirty?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Portable anima detectors are really doing wonders in the Third World countries,” she said.
Thirty international kids in three years. We only had seven in ’09. “They’ll have to build bigger dorms.”
Her smirk widened. “Impressed?”
“Always.” Okay, so that was her side of it. But mine . . . Val knew tons still. Knew about the Geo Realm. Knew about me facing the Curator. Knew about everything that happened in Suck City with the Divines. But the Ouroboros . . . where did I start? Nothing new really, just added on top and . . .
“Pocket and Jesus are gay!” I blurted out.
Val’s smirk turned into a grin. “Both of them told me you found out about that. Jesus seemed far more happy about it than Pocket.”
“I’ve known . . . walked in on them at the Asylum, just kept it to myself . . . like most things.”
“Just not now?”
“Got a thing about being honest with people no matter the problems it creates. Part of what came out of that week in Vegas. It’s their secret technically . . . but with you, better if you know everything before we get into the Vault.”
“I’ve always accepted who you are, King Henry. I even approve on occasion.”
“So . . . me doing the bangy-bangy with Isabel to save Welf’s life is water under the bridge?”
The star did more than twinkle; the star had itself some solar flares. “Perhaps not your best moment. That or getting drunk for a week and dialing my best friend every night.”
“I thought you didn’t know about that?”
“Miranda and I had a conversation about it a few hours ago . . . there was a significant amount of laughter to be had.”
“I was just looking for sympathy, nothing else . . . and I haven’t gotten drunk since. Don’t think I could ever get drunk enough to hit on Miranda.”
She started shaking trying to hold in laughter. “Although . . . she taped one of the conversations and forwarded it to me. There’s this one part where you start going on about the Home Alone movies for about five minutes and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.”
“Glad someone finds it entertaining,” I grumbled.
“So Jesus and Pocket,” she gave me an out.
“Yup . . . no idea which one fucks the other’s ass . . . but totally gay lovers.”
She finally started laughing.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Continue.”
“Told them and T-Bone about everything, everything you already know from before. One thing you don’t too . . . none of it is new I guess, just amplified. Realized I couldn’t wait, couldn’t sit around for someone to tell me, be it Ceinwyn or Plutarch or even Meteyos. Had to steal it. You’re right . . . not about artifact designs. About stealing the truth, or at least what they know of the truth. What can a mancer really do? What happened with the Divines and all these other Realms? What the fuck is a Maximus exactly? Fitting that you’re here . . . since I think you’re one just like me.”
“Queen of Fire?” she asked.
“Your
fairy title, every Ultra has one—maybe more than one—and it can mean different things, but when they start mentioning kings and queens . . . Vicky helped me work some of it out. Her mother is the necromancer Maximus, so she knows all the rumors. Ceinwyn for aeromancers, the Lady for hydromancers, and Isabel for corpusmancers. Samson was the sciomancer version, but he died and . . . I think it moves on to another mancer when you die. You know what happened with Eva?”
Val nodded. “London’s not the moon, although they are keeping it very hush hush. Ceinwyn told me about it on one of the occasions she dropped in. The Curator experimented on Eva; they put werewolf anima into her with an artifact. The Lady barely saved her and the anima is still inside of her.”
“Should be the most interesting part, only Eva had herself some dreams while the healing took place, right when Samson died. She remembers some all powerful fairy claiming Eva’s now the Queen of Darkness. And the Lighteater . . . fucking showoff sciomancers get all the cool names.”
Val took it all in. “So there’s only one per discipline?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Wouldn’t you like to find out?”
She glanced at the marker for the crossover point. “This is more than just fun or the Crazy as you like to call it . . . this is rebellion, King Henry.”
“They might not find out,” I hedged.
She gave me a look.
“They’ll probably find out,” I admitted. “But I checked and having the knowledge ain’t illegal, just sharing the knowledge.”
“Or stealing it!”
“Nothing on stealing it.”
“This won’t be about laws if it gets out, this will be about connections and whatever truth they want to make of it.”
“Probably,” I admitted some more.
She sat there, thinking, staring at me. Fourth time that day. Or night. Was easy for me to go through with it. I’d broken all the ties, but for Val, as much as she was a girl who jumped into the fire, she was closer to Ceinwyn and the Lady than I ever was, more now than even six months ago. But . . . she’s smart, she’s inquisitive, and there’s a blinding core to Valentine Ward that seeks out the right outcome, not the lawful outcome.
“There’s something very wrong,” she eventually whispered. “You’re not the only one who feels it. I kept coming across mentions of something called the Anima Quota in classified documents. It was never explained and when I asked Ceinwyn about it, all I got was one of her smiles. They’re scared of something, King Henry. Maybe the Divines or . . . maybe the people who live in this place. They’re scared. They make jokes about the Vampire Embassies or Were Nations spreading, or they curse the Curator as the fault of it all . . . but something is coming, something they’re trying to fight off a year at a time.”
“Anima Quota,” I mused aloud.
“Something else for us to steal information on,” Val joked to try to lighten to mood.
“Us?”
“Us,” she repeated firmly. “If you’re done telling secrets, we can get to it. Unless someone else is gay . . . or ‘Luke, I’m your father’ revelations.”
I opened my mouth before shutting it a few seconds later.
“King Henry?”
“You hear that Vicky moved in with T-Bone?” I tried to hedge away from what I needed to do. Just like Ceinwyn and the Lady and all the rest, trying to buy a few more seconds of peace before Val started yelling at me. Val don’t yell often, but this one . . . she would yell. But no Fireballs of Doom.
She had none of it. “Yes, Tyson and I email each other at least once a month. You know that, so what is it you’re deflecting from?”
“I built a golem, you hear that one?” I tried again.
“For your fairy, Mini.”
“He’s a gnome actually.”
“King Henry . . .”
“There’s a Snake Were Cult called the Eternal Order that wants to kill me.”
“King Henry . . .”
“JoJo is pregnant with a boy. I’m gonna be an uncle!”
Silence.
Val reached out to put a hand on my cheek. “How bad must it be for you to keep it from me?”
“Been keeping it from you for a year . . . since Seattle.”
Eyes-without-irises grew wide. “You know who he is?”
“Couldn’t believe it at first . . . couldn’t accept it,” I tried to explain. “I barely survived fighting him. We never really talked about it, so much other stuff we wanted to talk about and share with each other. Seemed shitty to deal with trauma when we just got back together. Isabel, this place, all the lies, almost dying . . . it was the end of the beginning and that was enough to occupy us. Needed time, time to figure it all out. Shared the rest with you and being with you helped so much, Val, but this . . . what a dangerous thing to know, what a dangerous fucker to offend, and . . . Ceinwyn lied about so much else, what if she was lying about this too?
“Took me awhile to figure out she hadn’t, not about this. This was just . . . fucked up. But how could I tell her and if I told you, I’d have to tell her . . . probably have to tell her in a few days as is. It’s going to hurt her so much. It’s going to crush her. As angry as I’ve been with her . . . I don’t want to be the cause of that much pain. Better to tell her someone she loves is dead than that he’s alive.”
“He’s not a foreigner or a Wilder then?” Val asked in confusion.
I could see those zealot eyes somewhere inside of my head. Cut, cut, cut. Utter my name, little dog. So simple, so easy. Make your love bleed. Break your mentor with the truth she’s kept away from you. Make my love feel the fear I’ve anticipated for almost twenty years. Do it, little dog.
“He’s Obadiah Paine,” I finally told Val. Felt so relieved. More than I thought I would. So close to having all the secrets out. Only Ceinwyn left.
Val frowned, trying the place it all, just like I had when I heard it the first time. “I’ve heard that name before,” she muttered as her eyes flicked from left to right searching her memory.
“He was in Ceinwyn’s year. Artificer . . . Plutarch trained him. Always said Paine was a better student than I was. Joined the Guild, rose swiftly, started doing strange experiments and then—”
“Oh my God!” Val shouted, hands flying up to her mouth.
“—Amis Valet, Paine’s best friend, figured out what he was doing, threatened to put a stop to it. Paine killed Valet . . . not only his best friend, but the guy who won the love of a woman Paine coveted. Paine fled from justice, killing a few ESLED agents in the process. Guild found out he was doing experiments to try to use the Mancy as a WMD for population control and hushed it all up.”
Val’s hands left her mouth to grasp mine. “He called Ceinwyn to meet with her and explain, only she wasn’t interested in talking and she killed him. We had a hundred fables about it as students, remember? The night that made Ceinwyn Dale a living legend. But . . . he’s alive? All this time?”
“She dropped a boulder on him, or a mountain side, never have been sure which,” I told it all as I had pieced it together. “Thought he was dead, but didn’t check. Crushed him. His arm and his leg are metal . . . artifacts most likely. Broke him . . . didn’t kill him. He clawed himself back together, knew he couldn’t come back or he’d end up in the Pit sooner or later. But a Guild-trained Artificer gone rogue? Lots willing to buy. Kept experimenting, kept selling artifacts, but anima is hard to come by, so he started finding Anima Mad mancers, built his own asylum. Obadiah Paine became the Curator. Started killing vampires, started kidnapping recruits, started finding like-minded mancers to join him. We are so very fucked, Val.”
I pulled the World-Breaker from my coat pocket. “He knows I have this, he wants it, and he’s coming for it . . . soon. I’m so far behind him. I have to learn enough; have to steal enough to fight him off. Pulled in the guys to help me and here I am, one realm-jump away to some hidden knowledge. Here’s hoping it’s enough.”
Val’s hands squeezed mine, but she didn’t say anythi
ng.
No yelling for sure.
“You ain’t mad I lied about it?”
“No, I’m happy you’ve finally realized that you aren’t alone,” she told me with a smile that made my heart flop around in my chest like a wet dog trying to get dry. “I’m scared . . . more than I was before you told me and I was already pretty worried about what I’ve been finding out, but Obadiah Paine. God help us.”
“Plus the whole Vampire Blood Gods Ruling the World thing,” I added, “the Dragons Imprisoned in Other Worlds with Whole Other Species of Sentient Beings thing, and this Anima Quota you mentioned . . . puts the whole Crazy Cult Leader Wants the World-Breaker thing into perspective I feel. Not even in the top five, is it?”
Val shook her head at me. “Can you go back to keeping your mouth shut about secrets?”
I worked up a smirk. “Can’t go back. You’re on Team Don’t Lick the Vamp Clit now.”
“You have to tell her,” she said seriously.
“I know.”
“But we’ll do it together.”
“That would be nice.”
“We also need a better team name.”
“The Avengers was already taken.”
“And the night is getting old on us, so we should probably stop holding hands and get to breaking every law in mancer society,” she decided. “Unless there’s anything else you want to tell me?”
My mouth moved, but nothing could get past my throat.
Valentine smiled like maybe she could tell what I was thinking, but not saying. “Okay, let’s rob the Guild Vault then . . . in a work dress . . . barefoot . . . because my brain stopped working when you waved the World-Breaker at me. If we both are a Maximus then it’s kind of unfair I don’t have my own, don’t you think?”
Session 67
Root ordered the witnesses to keep everything private and to talk to no one.
In Asylum speak that means, “run and tell absolutely everyone what you know as fast as you possibly can.”
Never underestimate a teenager’s ability to turn grief into their own personal glory. Falcon Smith and Vicky’s friend Makayla walked around like a pair of celebrities for having found Leo. Plus, almost every single student had to walk over to Class ’08 and tell them how sorry they were for their loss, no matter how invisible the same kids were most days. Rumor about it not being a suicide had already spread and the name Welf was being whispered as a possible suspect.
The Pit of No Return (The King Henry Tapes Book 6) Page 20