Maybe it didn’t matter. I knew him well enough. I knew his cruelty, his coldness, and his pride. I knew he had enslaved me so profoundly that I had spent years seeking for an escape and found nothing.
“Surely Tarlia is equal to Morvilind in power,” said Valjakar.
“Truly,” said Rimethur, “but the Great King does not wish for a conflict between the two mightiest Elven wizards. Were Tarlia and Morvilind to battle, they would destroy each other, and the voidtouched would seize control of Earth. The Archons would then enslave this world, and the voidspawn would have the victory. For the voidspawn have always had their eye upon this world, even if their influence was limited.” His glowing eyes fell upon Valjakar. “You see, then, why we must wait here? Too much is at stake. If I am slain here, the Great King will have no choice but to renew his war upon the High Queen, and the voidspawn shall have the victory.” He let out a rumbling growl. “Though my blade thirsts for blood as much as yours, young one.”
“Your words are true, my lord Jarl,” said Valjakar. “It must be a grave challenge to wage war across worlds. All I wish is a foe before my blade.”
“Aye,” sighed Rimethur, “and age does not dull the lust for battle, at least not among the frost giants. Well, we shall do our duty. Now it seems our duty is to wait. So wait we shall.”
He leaned against the wall and sat down with a clang, the floor vibrating a little beneath my shoes. Valjakar and the other frost giant guards spread out, keeping watch on the rotunda doors and the other stairs leading into the legislative and office wings of the Capitol. My heart sped up a little bit. The flat disc of the Ringbyrne Amulet rested against Rimethur’s chest, and when he sat, that put it right at my eye level. The chain holding it to his neck did not look that sturdy.
I could grab it, run, and open a rift way to escape. All of the bodyguards were watching the doors. None of them were looking at me. If the Occlusion spell held, if I walked up to the Jarl without doing anything aggressive, they wouldn’t notice me until I seized the amulet. Rimethur was sitting, and even a frost giant would take a moment to get to his feet.
The opportunity had come my way. I dared not turn it away. This was my best chance to get the amulet. I took a few deep breaths, concentrating on the Occlusion spell, and then started forward. None of the frost giants saw me as I passed their ring. A few of them frowned, perhaps noticing something that seemed slightly amiss, but the Occlusion spell kept them from realizing my presence. I was thirty yards away from Rimethur. Then twenty. A couple more steps, and I would…
Then it all went to hell.
The Ringbyrne Amulet flashed, blue light pulsing in the gem in the center of the silvery disc. The amulet let out a chiming sound, and Rimethur frowned down at it. At the same time, the bracelet vibrated against my wrist and let out an identical chiming sound. I froze in mid-step. The frost giants had stood in a ring to guard their Jarl, and that also meant they now encircled me.
I was trapped.
It seemed the Knight had set me up to fail after all.
“A voidtouched!” roared Valjakar, raising his huge mist-wreathed sword. “Kill the human! Kill it!”
I cursed and gathered power for a spell, focusing upon the bracelet. My only chance was to cast a rift way and escape to Grayhold before the frost giants killed me. Yet as the guards charged, as Rimethur rose to his feet like a gray-armored storm cloud, I realized that I couldn’t work the spell in time.
For the second time that day, the certainty of my death closed over me.
Oh, God. Russell. I was so sorry…
“Hold!” thundered Rimethur. His voice boomed through the rotunda like a thunderbolt. The frost giants might have thirsted for blood, but they obeyed their Jarl. They came to a stop, though they did not lower their weapons.
I grinned and cast my spell. Rimethur might have wanted to take me alive, but it would do him no good. The hesitation had given me the time I needed to finish the spell, and I focused the magic upon the bracelet, expecting the rift way to snap open in front of me.
Instead, the spell fell apart. The ice beneath my feet flashed with blue light, and my rift way spell unraveled. I should have realized the truth. The magical ice prevented anyone from opening a rift way within its influence. That way Rimethur and his guards need not worry about enemy wizards opening rift ways within the rotunda.
It would have been more useful if I had realized that about two minutes ago.
“Ah,” said Rimethur. “You attempted to open a gateway to the shadow realm? Do not bother. The warding ice will prevent the creation of any such gates.”
“I kind of figured that,” I said…or I tried to say.
The bracelet shivered against my wrist again, and I said the words in the frost giant language. It was the damnedest strange feeling. I knew what I meant to say, and somehow the magic of the bracelet made my lips and tongue form the proper words in the frost giant language.
Just what the hell had the Knight given me?
“It is a human female,” growled Valjakar. He cast a spell, and I turned towards him, but it was only the spell to sense the presence of magical forces. “It bears a protective amulet. Jarl, I suggest we take the amulet, strip the creature naked, and watch it freeze to death. The humans are soft-skinned and weak-blooded, and are unable to withstand the cold.”
“No,” said Rimethur, his voice thoughtful.
“The creature has come to assassinate you, my lord!” said Valjakar. “If you do not wish to shed blood within the High Queen’s domain, that is right and honorable, but if the human female freezes to death not a single drop of blood will be spilled.”
“Observe,” said Rimethur. “The human is but lightly dressed. The cold should have incapacitated her.”
“She bears a warding amulet,” said Valjakar.
“Aye,” said Rimethur. “But what manner of warding amulet, that is the question, is it not? Well, human. You seem to wish to speak with us.” A hint of amusement entered the alien voice. “Perhaps you should indulge me and show us your amulet.”
It didn’t seem that I had much choice in the matter. I lifted my left arm and pushed back my various sleeves, revealing the twisted silver bracelet and its flaring blue gems. Come to think of it, both the metal and the gems looked similar to the Ringbyrne Amulet upon Rimethur’s chest. In fact, both looked as if they had been made by the frost giants.
The Knight had given me a frost giant relic?
“That is the metalwork of the frost giants, my lord Jarl,” said Valjakar, scowling at me. “The human female is a thief. It has stolen the bracelet from us.”
“No,” said Rimethur, his glowing eyes narrowed. “No, she has not. At least not from me. For I know the origin of that bracelet.”
“You do?” I said.
“It is called a sengejarme,” said Rimethur. “It is given as a gift to those who have done the frost giants a great service. Specifically, that sengejarme was given to the lord of the Shadowlands known to your people as the Knight of Grayhold.”
Valjakar growled. “Then the female has stolen the sengejarme from the Knight.”
“No,” I said. “No, I didn’t. He gave it to me.”
“Did he, now?” said Rimethur. “A most interesting tale.”
“Lies,” said Valjakar.
“Considering what the Knight of Grayhold customarily does to those who attempt to rob his stronghold,” said Rimethur, “it is most unlikely this wizard girl could have done so.”
I stared at him, my mind trying to absorb these new details. If the sengejarme was a badge of honor, a token of esteem, why had the Knight given it to me? It had protected me from the frost magic, yes, and given me the ability to speak the frost giants’ language. But with the Knight’s magical power, he could have accomplished all that with a few spells. So why give me a token of the frost giants’ esteem?
Something else occurred to me.
Rimethur seemed entirely unsurprised. The sensible thing to do would have been to kill
me on the spot. Yet he hadn’t.
A stranger thought came to me, but it made a peculiar amount of sense.
Had the Knight and Rimethur planned this between them?
“You’re…friends with the Knight, then?” I said at last.
“Friends?” said Rimethur. “Certainly not. We are not fond of each other. Rather, let us say that we share a common enemy. That is often a more reliable bond than friendship.”
“Your enemy?” I said. “Who is your enemy? The High Queen?”
Rimethur chuckled. “I am here to make alliance with the High Queen at the command of my sovereign.”
“The Rebels, then?” I said.
“The voidtouched humans you call the Rebels are the tool of my enemies,” said Rimethur. “Perhaps they were not, once, but that has changed over the last century.”
“The Archons, then,” I said. “You’re allying with the High Queen against the Archons.”
“Closer, but still not quite upon the target,” said Rimethur. “The rebel Elves who call themselves the Archons, for all their posturing, are also a tool of my enemy. Think, wizard girl. All the pieces are in front of you.”
“Voidtouched,” I said. “You said the Rebels had been voidtouched.” Corvus had said the Dark Ones came from the Void beyond the Shadowlands. “That means…that means they were touched by something from the Void.”
Valjakar snorted. “Brilliant.”
“Voidspawn,” I said. “You were talking about the voidspawn. That must be what you call the Dark Ones?”
Rimethur nodded. “Some among your race call the voidspawn the Dark Ones. An appropriate title.”
“The Dark Ones, then,” I said, understanding coming as I recalled the dark magic Rogomil had threatened to use. “You and the Knight are both enemies of the Dark Ones.”
“Yes,” said Rimethur. “Tell me, wizard girl. Did you know that there were once other Knights? That in ancient epochs, thirteen Knights held demesnes in the umbra of Earth?”
“No,” I said.
“Ah,” said Rimethur. “Did the Knight of Grayhold tell you the purpose of his office?”
“He, um, didn’t mention it,” I said, wondering what sort of game I had stumbled upon. If Rimethur and the Knight were allies of a sort, the Knight had gone to considerable trouble to send me to Rimethur with the sengejarme. But why?
Weirdly, the thought comforted me. If this was a game, it was a dangerous one…but I was used to dangerous games. My whole life, really, had been a deadly game, with my life and Russell’s life as the stakes.
All I had to do was figure out what kind of game the Knight and Rimethur were playing.
“Though I do wonder,” said Rimethur, “why the Knight sent you to me with his sengejarme. You are not voidtouched. You are not one of the Rebels, and you possess spells a human should not.”
“I think,” I said, “I might have become an enemy of the Dark Ones as well.”
“How?” said Rimethur.
“I am a thief,” I said. A rumble of displeasure went up from the guards. I suspected the harsh frost giants did not approve of honorless thieves, but it would make it easier for Rimethur to believe my story. “Last month I robbed the mansion of a wealthy human businessman. It turned out he was the high priest of a cult devoted to the Dark Ones, and had a secret temple hidden within his mansion. I wound up helping to kill him, and the anthrophages have been chasing me ever since.”
Rimethur’s glowing eyes narrowed. “The hounds of the Dark Ones. The merchant must have been possessed by a voidspawn when you slew him.”
“Yup,” I said. Clearly the Jarl had dealt with the Dark Ones before. “So the anthrophages tried to kill me in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, and just today in the Shadowlands. When the Rebels attacked the Capitol, I fled to the Shadowlands and the anthrophages found me. The Knight drove off the anthrophages, and…and…”
I blinked, several ideas clicking together in my head.
“Go on,” murmured Rimethur. “You’re very close.”
“Oh,” I said. “You set this up, didn’t you? You and the Knight, working together. You planned this to screw over the Rebels.”
Valjakar spat. I realized the frost giant term for “screw over” was probably not a word one used in polite company.
“A salty metaphor,” said Rimethur, “but more or less accurate. The Knight’s divinations foretold that the voidtouched you call the Rebels would make an attempt upon my life here. It was a logical plan, since that would force the Great King to call for vengeance upon your High Queen. Yet here was an opportunity to bring pain to our enemies.”
“And, of course, to improve your bargaining position with the High Queen,” I said. “Having Rebels almost assassinate you upon her soil is something of an embarrassment.”
Rimethur shrugged. “I am a warrior. Such diplomatic games are beyond me, alas.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they are,” I said. “Hey, would it help to know that I also brought pain to the Rebels?”
“And just how did you do that?” said Rimethur.
“I’m a thief, remember?” I said. “I stole the Rebel commander’s phone and left it by the door. It’s currently uploading the contents of its storage to the Inquisition’s inbox.”
Rimethur gestured to one of his guards, and the frost giant produced a device that looked like a tablet computer the size of dinner platter, its screen flashing with alien glyphs. I had never considered that the frost giants might have electronic devices of their own. They couldn’t use them in the Shadowlands, of course, but if properly packed and reassembled here, they would work fine.
“She speaks truth, my lord Jarl,” said the frost giant, squinting at his huge tablet. “There is an ongoing radio transmission from the lower level.”
Rimethur let out a rumbling chuckle. “Ah, it is an ill fate when a man’s secrets fall into the hands of his foes, is it not? Few are more deserving of such a fate than the voidtouched Rebels. Though I am curious of one thing, wizard girl. How did you come to be involved in such affairs?”
“Bad luck,” I said. “I came here to steal something, and was in the square when the Rebels attacked.” Though I wondered about that. Was Morvilind playing some sort of game, too? That seemed unlikely. He didn’t care much about politics. He just wanted me to steal things. I knew so little about him, though, that I couldn’t say.
“Very well,” said Rimethur. “You have done the frost giants a service in discomforting the voidtouched. Therefore you may ask a boon of me.”
“A boon?” I said.
“A reward, if it is in my power to grant it,” said Rimethur.
“Then I ask for the Ringbyrne Amulet as my boon,” I said at once.
Silence answered my request, the gazes of the frost giants heavy upon me. Rimethur said nothing. I wondered if I had just committed some sort of faux paus, or offered him a deadly insult.
“Interesting,” said Rimethur at last. “You know what it is?”
“That thing on your chest, yes,” I said. “The amulet.”
“Do you know what it does?” said Rimethur.
I shrugged. “No idea. Some sort of warding magic, I would guess.”
“You came here to steal the amulet,” said Rimethur.
Valjakar snarled and took a step forward, but the Jarl raised an armored hand and the younger frost giant subsided.
“Um,” I said. “Yeah. I didn’t really want to, though…and nothing went according to plan.”
Rimethur snorted. “If you do not want to steal the amulet and you do not know what it does, then why are you trying to steal it?”
“Because,” I said, trying to think of a suitable answer. I could only imagine Morvilind’s reaction if a Jarl of the frost giants found out about our connection. Actually, I didn’t need to imagine his reaction. He would use the vial of heart’s blood to kill me, and Russell would die of frostfever in about a year or so. “Because I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Because I was compelled to do so. Hell
.” I shook my head. “I would rather be at home.”
“And if you were to tell me who had compelled you,” said Rimethur, “I assume your life would be forfeit?”
“Yep,” I said.
Rimethur considered this for a moment.
“I urge you to kill it, my lord Jarl,” said Valjakar. “The human female has admitted it is a thief and a liar. Kill it before it works some additional treachery.”
“No,” said Rimethur. “She has done us a service, Valjakar. Therefore she shall have the chance to earn her boon.” He reached up and drew the amulet from over his head. “If she is strong enough to survive what is to come.”
Rimethur threw the amulet at me, and I caught it, staggering a bit. The silvery disc was about the size of my hand, and the metal felt cold beneath my fingers. The blue gem in the center flashed and pulsed with pale light.
“You may take the amulet,” said Rimethur, “if you prove you are worthy of it.”
“How will I do that?” I said.
“By taking it to Grayhold and presenting it to the Knight,” said Rimethur.
“Oh,” I said. “Well. That’s easy. I was going to do that anyway.”
Rimethur’s smile was as hard as the ice hanging on the walls. “If you survive.”
“Survive what?” I said.
“The trial,” said Rimethur, “that will prove your worthiness to bear the amulet.” He lifted his hand. “You will begin now.”
Before I could react, he cast a spell at me. Blue fire flared around his fingers, and a column of gray mist sprang up around me. For a moment I felt whirling disorientation, and then pale light shone within the mist.
He had opened a rift way around me.
The rift way pulled me into the Shadowlands.
Chapter 10: Last Run
I landed in a swamp.
I stumbled into a pool of stagnant black water, the liquid shockingly cold against my calves and shins. The sky overhead was an empty black vault, ribbons of blue and green and crimson fire dancing across the darkness. Ahead of me I saw mountains rising against the horizon, but a gloomy swamp surrounded me, wisps of pale green mist rising from the dark waters. Here and there massive trees rose from the swamp, their trunks covered in bark like obsidian, glowing vines hanging from their branches. Little islands dotted the swamp, covered in the strange pale grass that was so common in the Shadowlands.
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