He tossed back the rest of his drink and pushed away from the table. I followed him across the room to the odd group. Of course, to them I probably looked just as odd.
“Greetings,” Xavyr said as we approached the table. Heads turned and shoulders stiffened. They didn’t exactly look like a friendly bunch. “I’m looking for Yarrian the neuromance. Do any of you know where he might be found?”
“What’s a toorish need with him?” asked one of the reptile women. At least, she looked somewhat female to me.
Xavyr stiffened momentarily then relaxed, his hands clasped loosely in front of his torso. “I don’t want to kill him, if that’s what you’re implying. My client has a friend who’s been driven mad. We need someone to fix him.”
The bat-like creature pointed at me. “You’re the client?”
“Yes. My friend really needs help.”
The creature looked me in the eyes for a long moment and then said, “You can find him down in the Obsidian Sector, where the witches live. On Broom Street.”
I chuckled and everyone stared at me, faces serious.
“Sorry, back on Earth witches ride on broomsticks…so, Broom Street…” I dropped off, as no one seemed to find the irony amusing.
“Why would a witch ride a broom?” muttered one of the creatures. “Stupidist thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Thank you for the information,” Xavyr said with a small bow. He gestured to one of the waiters and pointed at the table. “Next round on my tab.”
This at least earned a smile or two. We turned around and went back to our own table, where Xavyr paid the tab. I followed him as we exited the pub and headed out into the city. My eyes darted around, and everywhere I looked I thought I saw Casseroux or Titus.
“What was that word they called you?” I asked.
“It’s an unpleasant Xaylian word for hired warriors like myself, many of which are assassins. Some people think that we are dishonorable.”
“It seems to me you have a very strict code of ethics,” I said, puzzled.
“The Syon do, but there are others who are not bound by any form of honor.”
One of the strange centipede-like transports was coming toward us, and we got on.
“The witch that the Sorenson Sisters told me to find is also in the Obsidian Sector,” I said after I got settled in my seat.
Xavyr nodded. “I noticed that as well. Perhaps we can solve two problems in one stop, before we leave Ellsmer.”
With everything else going on, it seemed we deserved a bit of luck. We rode the rest of the way in silence, keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings. I noticed a law enforcement vehicle here or there, but the manhunt from yesterday had definitely quieted down. I wondered if Casseroux and Titus were still even here. They might have assumed we’d left Ellsmer; after all, that would have been the smartest thing to do. Too bad we had to do things the hard way.
A quarter hour later, Xavyr stepped off the transport and we made our way on foot to the edge of the city. It was opposite the side of the city we’d entered with the grand gates. Here, the forest thickened and the buildings grew sparse. It seemed we were heading nowhere, and I was about to ask Xavyr what we were doing when suddenly the Obsidian Sector came into view right at our feet. Literally.
The ground fell away into a long and narrow depression, not quite deep enough to be called a valley perhaps, but deep enough so that the buildings and trees within were flush with the earth above and thus effectively camouflaged unless you knew where to find it. It was like a hidden pocket. Within it, small cottages and trees that looked like apple or cherry trees were crowded within the seam in the earth. I could easily see why it was called the Obsidian Sector: everything within it was dark in color. The trees, both trunks and leaves, were gray or black, the houses were painted in shades of purple and brown and smoke, even the air seemed permeated with shadow and felt a few degrees cooler. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to give off a welcoming vibe, but I found that I liked it.
We walked down the steeply sloping earth into the hollow. Beings, both humanoid and not, moved about the main street. It wasn’t paved, but was merely carpeted in dead leaves. We came to a sort of outdoor café where several small tables made of tree stumps were strewn about. A bubbling cauldron sat in the center of it all and a woman attended to it, occasionally dipping a huge wooden ladle and pouring the liquid within into cups or bowls for patrons. Oddly, the contents she poured from the cauldron differed; for one person a golden liquid streamed out into their goblet, for another a thick, reddish stew slopped into their bowl. I found myself transfixed, and Xavyr had to nudge me so I quit staring.
He led us to the woman at the cauldron. She eyed us warily as we approached. I noted that she did not have warts or a pointy hat, although she did have long ebony hair and eyes that shifted and swirled in a variety of colors.
“We are looking for Yarrian,” Xavyr said. “Can you tell us where he lives?”
The woman pointed down the hollow toward a small house with a bright red door, about the only splash of color in the whole sector.
“Mirelda. We’re also looking for her,” I said.
“She is not in Ellsmer right now,” the woman said.
Disappointment stabbed at my gut. “Do you know where we can find her?”
The woman nodded. “She goes where the starlings go.”
“The starlings?”
I was met with a look that questioned my intelligence. “Yes. The starlings.”
“Thank you,” Xavyr said. “Can we have two mugs of cider?” He handed the woman several coins.
She handed us each a rustic ceramic mug, then dipped her ladle into the cauldron. I peeked inside, the bubbling substance was black. But the liquid that poured from her ladle to our mugs was a bright red, with little golden seeds in it. Xavyr thanked her again and we continued down the street, holding our steaming mugs. I took a sip of mine, and it tasted like berries and the sun that ripened them and the wind that blew over them. It was delicious.
“I hope you know what on earth she meant by starlings,” I said after several greedy gulps of the warm cider.
“No idea,” Xavyr said. “But it was clear that was all we were getting from her. We can find out from someone else.”
I tried not to be too upset. I should have known better than to think that we’d really fix Kellan’s mind and my horrible entwinement with the Artifex in one visit.
“Did you ever think that maybe you need something like the Artifex to defeat Casseroux?” Xavyr asked.
I looked over at him. “No. And I think that’s a dangerous way of thinking. I can’t wield something like the Artifex. It’s not made to do good.”
He cocked his head. “Are you so sure?”
“Yes. Because the Timekeeper made it.”
We’d reached the house that the witch had pointed out, and Xavyr knocked on the door. No sounds came from within, and after thirty seconds he tried again with the same result. “Guess we’re not having the best luck today.”
I groaned. “We don’t have time for this. We need to get Kellan fixed so we can figure out what we’re going to do about the disaster that is everything else.”
“You stay here in case he comes back,” Xavyr said. “I’ll go ask around and see if anyone else knows where he is.”
I nodded and took a seat on a small wooden bench in the garden by the front door. The garden was all mushrooms and strange vines that wiggled as if in an invisible breeze. I tilted my head back and looked up into the cathedral of huge trees outside the hollow. Such a richness of color in contrast with the shadowy hues down here. A bird flitted from branch to branch high above, and I envied its simple existence. My own life just got more and more tangled.
A few minutes later, Xavyr came back. “The neighbors all say he’s around here somewhere, he must have just run out on an errand. We’ll have to wait and hope he comes back.”
So we did. For one hour that bled into two, and then multiplied to four.
As the sun began to sink low in the sky, Xavyr stood. “Come on.”
“But he could be back anytime. We’ve already waited this long.”
“Obsidian Hollow is not a place we should be when night falls,” he said, and the seriousness of his tone ended my argument.
We headed back to the inn, the air tasting of disappointment and defeat. We were not any closer to getting Kellan’s mind back, and all the while the noose was undoubtedly tightening around us as Casseroux conducted his realm-wide search.
When we finally reached the inn a half hour later, we made our way down the underground halls with heavy feet and hearts. We reached our room, and as my hand moved in for the door knob, I saw that the door was slightly ajar. Xavyr’s face stormed over and he shoved the door all the way open. I ran in past him, my heart hammering in my chest.
Sabin was lying unconscious on the floor, blood dripping from her temple.
Kellan was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kellan had escaped. Which meant he was running around the city thinking he was the Timekeeper with Casseroux looking for us.
And Sabin was…
“She’s not dead,” Xavyr said without emotion, his fingers on her jugular. “She’ll have a nasty bruise, though.” He picked her up and laid her out on one of the beds.
Rorie wasn’t there either. Had he already come back from the locksmith and found what we found? We dashed back out into the hall and jogged down the long stretch back to the reception desk. The blue girl looked up in surprise as we ran up.
“Did you see a man pass by, with black hair and gray eyes?”
She nodded and shrugged. “He acted as if he might have had a bit much to drink.”
“I wish that were the problem,” I said with a groan, and we took the stairs to the surface two at a time.
I reached out with the Call, trying to locate Kellan, but I still couldn’t get a location on him. It occurred to me then why I had stopped being able to sense him down in the Timekeeper’s realm. His mind was so far gone, there wasn’t a Kellan to find. I ground my teeth together in frustration, wondering which way in the busy city he would have gone. Or, not which way Kellan would have gone, but which way the Timekeeper would have gone.
“The town center. If I were the Timekeeper, that’s where I’d go. The center of attention.”
Xavyr nodded. “The Plaza of Obleth. It’s where they were flashing our pictures.”
We took off, darting in and out of the crowd. It was dark now, the city aglow with lights. A quarter hour later we finally reached the plaza. Sweat drenched my tunic. I wished I had Brynwyn in a time like this, running was not my thing.
The plaza was paved in round stones of a soft, sea foam green, with statues of fanciful creatures encircling the perimeter. The holographic billboards still flashed images, which was startling in contrast with the night sky. In the very center of the plaza rose a small platform with a simple obsidian obelisk. It was there that Kellan stood, waiting for us.
Because it was clear from the look on his face that he was waiting, and also judging by the fact that he hadn’t yet drawn a crowd. No one was paying any attention to the lone figure at the base of the obelisk. We slowed to a walk as we approached him. His eyes locked on mine and a terrible grin stretched over his face. It made acid turn in my stomach to see the face I loved used that way.
“Kellan,” I breathed when we got to the base of the platform.
“Kellan’s not here.” And the voice that came out of Kellan’s mouth didn’t sound like Kellan anymore, even remotely. “I am the Timekeeper.”
“Yes, we know you think that you’re the Timekeeper,” Xavyr said, walking slowly forward as one might approach a wild animal.
“Ah-ah, stay where you are, assassin. I know what you’re trying to do with your clever hands.” Kellan’s body tensed as if to dart and we froze. “I wonder what other things those clever hands have been doing?” His eyes roved over me meaningfully.
“We’re going to take you to a neuromance,” I said. “Get you back to normal. If there’s any part of you that’s still sane, Kellan, hear me. We’re trying to get help.”
Kellan’s face smiled down at me. “I don’t think you understand what’s going on here. It’s not that dear Kellan has gone mad. It’s that I, the Timekeeper, have taken over his body.”
Everything stopped. My heart. My lungs. Even the air seemed to fall deathly still.
The creature continued. “You see, down in my realm, I let you believe what you wanted to believe, so you’d take Kellan and effectively release me from my prison. My body may still be trapped in my realm, but bodies are irrelevant. Bodies are mere vessels. Minds are the true thing, yes?”
I was so, so dumb. Of course the Timekeeper hadn’t just let us parade right out of his realm without consequence. It was more than just releasing me into the world, with the Artifex and its potential chaos. It was the Timekeeper himself, living inside Kellan. Now he had everything he wanted.
“So, what’s your move, then?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady and failing a bit.
“Quite simple: you’re going to destroy Xayl.”
Xavyr took a step closer to me, to protect me or to prevent me from doing something I wasn’t sure.
“Why would I do that?” I knew I didn’t want to know the answer, but I couldn’t stop from asking the question.
“Because I know how to activate the Artifex within your body.”
Time slowed and came to a stop. I could see stars sparkling overhead, the silhouette of the tree tops against the night sky. Thousands of citizens were going about their business outside the square, oblivious to the three of us standing here discussing their fate. How many people lived in the other cities of Xayl? How many lives now lay in my hands?
“Why Xayl?” I croaked through my tears, mostly just to stall him. This couldn’t be happening. If I could only stretch this time, some way out of this would become clear. How had we played into his hands so easily?
“You’ve heard the story of how I was imprisoned, haven’t you? It was the Hunter’s Council, along with a lot of the magic folk that live on this planet. They came together and trapped me, and there I have been for over a thousand years with nothing to do but plan my escape. My revenge. And I can accomplish both at once, by destroying the foundation of magic that entraps me, and annihilating the people that did it.”
“But hundreds of thousands more live here that had nothing to do with that,” Xavyr said.
“I could say something logical here, about how I need to destroy the competition, or make sure that new mages and witches don’t try to imprison me again. But really, it’s far more simplistic than that. I’m afraid I just don’t care.” The Timekeeper sighed through Kellan’s lips. “You see, when you have something like the Artifex, you can just create new people, new realms. Shiny new toys to play with.”
“I won’t let you do this,” I growled.
The Timekeeper laughed, and it tinkled in the air and was somehow rich and velvety all at once. “I knew you would say that. So, here are your options. You can kill yourself. Or you can kill Kellan.”
I stared at him, horror spiking through my chest. Of course. The Timekeeper loved sick and twisted mental games. Make the choice between my own life or that of the man I loved. Classic.
“I’ll let you think on that a moment,” the Timekeeper said. “But while you contemplate it, let’s begin.”
He raised a hand, Kellan’s hand, and pointed his long, pale fingers at me. Something turned inside of me, like a key in a lock. A surge of power pulsed up through my ribs, along the tendons in my neck, and down my jawbone. I began to glow, a faint white light coming through my skin from the inside.
Xavyr’s staff sung through the air with a metallic hum, and he made for the Timekeeper.
“No!” I screamed, and a bolt of energy shot from my hands, barely missing him. The Timekeeper cackled in glee.
“I have to, Evr! It’s Kellan or the
whole planet!”
I pulled one of the daggers out of my boot and raised the blade to my throat. “Timekeeper, your Artifex is about to be gone forever. Stop now.”
The Timekeeper narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you’ll really do it.”
My hand pressed in, and I gasped as a ribbon of blood flowed down my neck.
The Timekeeper snarled and twisted his hand, causing a breathtaking flux of power to burst out of me. My head rocked back, the dagger falling from my hand. I heard it clatter to the tiles below, and the sound of sirens announced the arrival of law enforcement. Xavyr lunged for Kellan’s body, but something bowled into him from the side: Sabin.
Heat and power flared up inside of me and the world began to fade away. It was then that I heard a deep voice boom out over the plaza.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The strange voice reverberated around the plaza. Kellan’s body dropped to the ground and the power of the Artifex flooded out of me. I fell like a puppet with its strings cut and my head hit the ground hard.
Footsteps approached. Someone knelt over me and a moment later a very cold hand touched my cheek. My vision snapped back into focus and I recoiled from the icy touch.
“Hold still.”
The creature kneeling over me had skin made of black marble. Silver horns protruded from his head, tall and thin, like an antelope. His eyes were yellow and had slit pupils, reminding me of a cat. He held a long white staff in one hand.
“Your friend will be alright,” the stone creature said. “I snapped the bridge between his mind and the being who had taken it over.”
I groaned. “Yarrian?”
The neuromance nodded. “I felt the presence of someone using very powerful neuromancy, and I followed it to the source. But now it seems we have another problem.”
Huntress Lost Page 14