City of Delusions (The Dying World Book 2)

by John Triptych

  Nylius ran his hands along Elevis’s throbbing forehead. The young Striga had fallen unconscious and lay slumped beside the pillar. He picked her up in his arms and turned around. At least a dozen sporemen just stood by the door, staring blankly into space with their dead eyes. The only one who didn’t get up was the headless man. Nylius let out a deep breath. These glassy eyed creatures were next to useless when it came to up close fighting. They would only have the edge if they found the guns, unless… it was something else. Perhaps Elevis just wasn’t strong enough. He needed a more powerful Striga to control the men, one who was used to the strain.

  Vytor walked over to him. “I am sorry, Lord Executor, but Grimgrin has escaped. I believed we might have either wounded him or killed his accomplice, for there was blood just beyond the wall of the compound. We followed the vitae trail, but it ended over an open sewer.”

  Nylius stood by as the bearers placed Elevis on a leather stretcher. “Bring him to my quarters, he will need some rest. Do not strip him of his clothes. I shall attend to him personally.”

  Vytor was suspicious of the young Magi’s injuries, since there wasn’t any. There had been rumors about Elevis and the Lord Executor’s relationship among the entire Order, but he refused to indulge in gossip, unlike the others. “I believe we shall find Grimgrin, and soon. In his wounded state, he cannot have gone far. We are continuing to bring as many men to the area where he had fallen to, perhaps we may find him yet.”

  Another Magus entered the reliquary and walked over to the two of them. “My Lord Executor, we found Grimgrin’s accomplice. It was a woman and she had died by an arrow through her throat. Her body was floating in the sewer near where the blood trail had ended. The Watchers are converging on the area, and we have told them not to disturb us, but they are most insistent in pestering us with questions as to what had happened.”

  “Tell them that Grimgrin had gone into our compound and assassinated the Grand Magus before escaping,” Nylius said. “Let them know he is wounded, and we would like to request their help in looking for him. Get as many searchers as you can out there and tell them that we shall double the reward for his capture.”

  “At once, Lord Executor,” the Magus said before leaving.

  Nylius glanced over at Belgos, who still lay on the floor while being attended to by a few others. He had used his Vis to pull Belgos from the windowsill. There was no way he would have allowed the old healer to be taken as a hostage. “What of him?”

  “Healer Belgos hit his head hard on the floor,” Vytor said. “We cannot seem to wake him. Blood seeps from his nose.”

  Nylius frowned. This whole battle had not yielded satisfactory results. “Summon the best healers from the guild. Pay them whatever they wish. But Belgos must be awakened and restored to his senses.”

  Vytor made a slight bow. “And the Grand Magus? What do we do with his body?”

  “As we always do with our dead- cremate him and send his ashes to the crypt beneath the main temple,” Nylius said while turning around and walking out of the hall. “Summon the Magi elders at once, for they are to nominate and vote for me as Grand Magus. The ascension ritual is to be held before the sun rises, to be followed immediately by the funeral ceremony in the morrow, so we may not disrupt the Great Games for more than a day. Send out invitations to the noble houses as well, they all must be aware as to who the new leader of this Order is.”

  Chapter 13

  The funeral rite for Grand Magus Jetan was held in the main temple. Since it was a private ceremony and only by invitation, the general public was not in attendance. The only news that filtered amongst the populace was from an announcement by the criers shortly before the resumption of the Great Games that day. Quite a number of people in the audience had noticed that the entire section of the great houses in the amphitheater were missing, and many assumed the nobility were all busy attending the requiem being held in the Temple of Vis. They were partly right.

  Rion stood in rapt attention as four Magi elders in black robes walked slowly along the main path of the temple hall, carrying a small bronze urn that held the ashes of the late Grand Magus Jetan. The entire room was filled along the sides with the noble families and all their retainers in attendance. The boy was standing beside his mother Cirine, as well as her two husbands and his Uncle Acro. A few house slaves were allowed inside to act as chaperones for the noble children and the older invalids. Rion had insisted that Kardra would accompany him, and Cirine relented with nary a word. Standing across the other side from them were their rivals, House Aranida, along with their own contingent of retainers. All in all, there were perhaps two dozen noble families present, all of them representing the true symbol of power for the entire city.

  The four elders finally made it to the flight of marble steps that elevated the main altar. The procession had been slow and careful, with each bearer taking one small step at a time. The pungent smoke from the incense burners had cast a thin fog across the diagonal rays of colored light that filtered in from the stained glass windows. Standing at the foot of the altar was the newly elected Grand Magus. Nylius had made sure that the vote was secured within hours of Jetan’s death, leaving no chance for any noble house to contest it with their own candidate. Even though he had eliminated all of his rivals long before the event even took place, Nylius was in no mood to take chances.

  When the elders finally placed the urn at the foot of the gigantic statue of Vis, they quickly withdrew and divided themselves before mingling in with the rows of Magi who were standing alongside the altar. Nylius wore a simple grey robe with blue stripes, indicating that he was now the elected leader of the Magi Order, and he wanted to let the entire noble caste know who was in charge. Two ranks above and behind him stood Elevis and Vytor, who had been elevated to become his chief lieutenants.

  Nylius took a step forward and held his arms out. Even though his voice wasn’t loud, the acoustics of the temple reverberated it along the length of the hall, so that it would be heard by everyone. “And now Grand Magus Jetan’s remains will be held on display by the foot of the god Vis, as it has been ordained by our traditions for the next ten cycles, before it is permanently interred in the crypts beneath this temple. As all of you know, Jetan was a Magus of no equal, and he had served the Order as Grand Magus for a far longer time than any of his predecessors. It is true that he turned our organization inwards, to no longer concern ourselves with what was happening outside the walls of our compound.”

  Rion glanced around the audience, and he noticed Matriarch Tanys of House Aranida looking at him intently. The boy mentally braced himself against a mind probe, but he was somewhat surprised that it didn’t occur. When he tried to clear his mind of any suspicious thoughts, Rion sensed that there seemed to have been thought blocks placed around his surface memories by someone else. Turning sideways to look at his mother, he soon realized that each of the house matriarchs had placed mental defenses amongst their respective entourages, in order to keep any secrets strictly between them.

  “Since I have been elected as the new Grand Magus, there shall be changes,” Nylius said, noting the growing surprise within the audience. “In order for the Magi to survive, for the city to prosper and for order to be maintained, the Magi will open their doors to the public once more. It was once tradition for the Magi to serve as the keepers of law along with the City Watch, and that relationship has unfortunately stopped over the many cycles. But henceforth, I can tell you all with finality that a new openness shall be implemented once the festivities of the Great Games are over. From now on, the Magi can and will be counted upon to reign in the forces of chaos and terror sweeping the city. You all may have been hearing rumors since last eventide as to how Grand Magus Jetan had died, but truth be told, it was by the hand of Grimgrin, the notorious bandit.”

  A few gasps were uttered by the crowd. A number of nobles looked at each other with worry. Lord Falx was standing near the contingent of House Aranida, and he slowly looked at the new G
rand Magus with slivered eyes.

  “Even though one of our own has fallen to this cutthroat, we stand ready to assist the City Watch against those who would seek to disrupt our way of life,” Nylius said. “Only by working together can we continue to maintain this fragile civilization in this final city, our beloved Lethe. The freemen outnumber the nobles, and the slaves outnumber the freemen- therefore we must be extra vigilant, for I have heard rumors that a second slave revolt is in the making, and that Grimgrin is behind it. While I fully support the effort of the Watchers in bringing this dangerous brigand to heel, I feel that it is best served if the Magi Order were to conduct our own investigation in order to help bring Grimgrin to justice sooner rather than later.”

  More gasps and shouts of alarm emanated from the audience of nobles. Falx bit his lip. It was clear that Nylius was up to something, and his own investigations as to the whereabouts of Grimgrin had yet to yield any results. No one from the merchant’s quarter was talking, and all of his spies in the slave pits couldn’t come up with anything.

  “To that end, The Magi Order will be forming a new army to help bolster our ranks,” Nylius said. “Since we have considerable wealth in our coffers that has yet to be made use of, we are now in the process of hiring all available mercenary groups. These mercenaries will henceforth be under our command and each contingent will be led by a Magus, in order to see to it that all the men who serve under us shall abide by our oaths to maintain peace and order within the city. We shall work hand in hand with the Watchers, there will be no competition between us.”

  Falx grimaced while keeping the rest of his emotions in check. So the secret was out, the Magi were now publicly admitting to using mercenaries, in order to increase their numbers to rival that of the Watchers. It was clear that Nylius was trying to shift the balance of power to his favor. A few of the matriarchs from the noble families that were allied with him began to glance nervously in his direction.

  “Before any of you decide to protest this measure and proclaim that the Magi Order is not allowed to accept men who do not have the gift of mindforce into their ranks, let me just say that this will be a temporary act,” Nylius said. “We are not here to act as competitors against the City Watch, only to assist in their efforts, until this whole affair with Grimgrin can come to a conclusion. Once the threat has passed, we will discharge all the mercenaries we have hired so that the other inhabitants could make use of their services once more. We do this out of necessity, for we are the only group who can afford to hire the mercenaries, since the City Watch has very little coinage to speak of. Once the crisis has passed, then things may return to normal.”

  A minor house nobleman attempted to speak up, but just a simple glance from Matriarch Tanys of House Aranida instantly made him stop, and he put down his hand and stayed silent. Rion sensed that the head of Aranida must be keeping her allies in line, for it seemed that they were up to something as well.

  “I shall speak more of this after the Great Games,” Nylius said before bowing slightly. “I thank you all for joining this ceremony. A fair day to everyone.”

  Almost immediately, the entire Magi contingent began to chant. “All hail the Grand Magus. It is through his way that the world survives. It is through his eyes that the Magi seek, it is through his mouth that we speak. It is through him that we serve for the good of mankind. Amen.”

  A number of nobles began to leave, while the ones that remained started to cluster together, according to their factions. Falx turned and walked towards the exit, but not before giving a curt nod in the direction of House Aranida. There was a palpable feeling that conflict would be inevitable, and there would be a lot more killing once the Great Games were over. Everyone began to take sides, because anyone who stood by would surely be annihilated on their own.

  Iaianta, the matriarch of House Yidaar was a hairless, wrinkled crone, and she stood beside Cirine and her two husbands. Her voice was mostly in a hissing whisper, even though the other factions were out of earshot. “Cirine, my family’s reputation has been tarnished because we abided by your instructions. We have been shut out of the games and if we do not have more gold in our coffers then we shall be ruined!”

  Cirine looked smug in her orange robe. “You were never told to use poisons. That was your own doing.”

  “But you told us that we could do whatever we wanted, there would be no inquiry,” Iaianta said. “That accursed Red Gorgon has already killed my best fighters, so we had to use drastic measures.”

  “Had you chosen a more subtle poison you would not be begging for coin right now,” Cirine said. “Everyone cheats in the Great Games, we all know that- but you made it so blatantly obvious that it is simply indefensible. We already paid you a tremendous amount of coin to get your vehicle to work in that last match, and now you want us to pay for your folly too?”

  There was a flash of anger in Iaianta’s face. “If my house goes bankrupt, we may be forced to tell the truth to House Oranto, and you know who sponsors them.”

  “Everyone knows who the sponsors are, that is obvious,” Cirine said. “The Great Games are nothing, and everything about these matches will soon be forgotten once the real games begin.”

  Iaianta’s face was flushed. She was about to say something before glancing in Rion’s direction. “Do you want your son and slaves to hear all of this?”

  Cirine gave a dismissive gesture with her hands. “Kardra, take the boy outside and wait for us. We shall be along shortly.”

  Kardra took Rion by the hand before heading towards the arched entryway. “Come on, let us wait by the monuments of Vis.”

  The slave servant led the boy past the temple entrance and out into a little plaza, just at the edge of the compound wall. Rion noticed a shattered arrow shaft beneath the shadow of the divider. The boy bent down and picked it up. The projectile had obviously missed its intended target and impacted on the stone wall, and it looked like it had been let loose very recently.

  Kardra sat down on a nearby stone bench. “What have you got there?”

  “What is left of an arrow,” Rion said as he looked up and saw the remains of a leather rope halfway near the top of the wall. “It looks like there was a battle here last night.”

  “It must have been Grimgrin,” Kardra said wistfully. “He must be so courageous, whoever he is.”

  The boy turned and looked at her. “What makes you say that?”

  “To come here and take on the whole Magi Order,” Kardra said wistfully. “Only someone foolhardy or powerful would have dreamt of doing that.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Rion noticed something in the nearby stone garden. The boy strode over and found a small object wedged in between two boulders. Crouching down, he used his fingers to pick it up and brought it closer to his face. It was part of the leather rope that had been left hanging on the wall. Rion stood up and looked at the pebbles on the ground. Based on the angle of the sun and the way they had been disturbed, it looked like a set of light footprints was leading to a sealed doorway at the back of the temple.

  Rion pointed at the rear entrance. “Where does that go to?”

  Kardra turned and placed a hand on her forehead to spare her eyes from the sun’s rays. “That is the crypt, I believe. But the ashes of the Grand Magus will not be interred there for a number of cycles, at least.”

  Rion began walking towards it. The boy placed the bit of rope beneath his tunic.

  Kardra stood up in surprise. “Efrin, where are you going? Your mother will be out here soon.”

  When he got near the entryway, Rion tried to push at it and was genuinely surprised that the door quickly gave way. Looking down at the lock, he noticed that it had been shattered, but done in a way that it would not have been noticed by just glancing at it. He peered inside, seeing nothing but a darkened tunnel up ahead. There was an unused torch hanging on a wall sconce. The boy took the torch and noticed some pieces of flint on the ground underneath it, most probably left there when another tri
ed to light it. Picking up the flint pieces, Rion began rubbing them together until he got a few sparks, and in less than a minute got the torch lit.

  Kardra started walking towards the entrance. “Efrin, what are you doing?”

  “I shall return,” Rion said after he took the torch and began going down the tunnel. “I just want to do a bit of exploring.”

  By the time Kardra had gotten to the entrance of the crypt, the boy had already rounded a bend in the corridor and now the tunnel ahead of her was dark once more. “Efrin, come back!”

  The air was musty, and it reminded him of the time when Miri and their allies had gone into a dark cavern on their way to Lethe. Passing through several passageways lined with niches that contained the urns of long dead Magi, Rion couldn’t help but be a little scared, though he was far more confident than ever before. Strange glyphs had been carved into the sides of some of the walls, and it would take hours to decipher them.

  A few rets scurried away the moment he came upon them, and the boy soon noticed some crimson drops on the black granite floor. His hunches were right, there was someone down here. Now that he knew what to look for, the boy continued onwards, the splotches of blood leading him deeper into the crypts. The moment he passed by a sealed mausoleum, Rion soon heard the sounds of movement. The acrid smell of blood and leather was in the air.

  “If you come any closer, boy, it shall be the death of you,” a low voice said somewhere in the darkness.

  Rion stood still. “I am not here to hurt you, for I am unarmed.”

  A slight chuckle was heard. “If you are part of the Magi search party, they must really be desperate. Where are the others in your group?”

  “I am alone,” Rion said. “Only I know that you are down here.”