The Crown of Stones: Magic-Scars

by C. L. Schneider

  The eldring were still engrossed with their squabble. Staying low, I moved toward the tunnel the Empress had indicated and slipped into the passage. Out of reach of the fire, there was scant light to go by. Feeling the steep, downward slope of the ground, I put my hands on the wet, mossy walls; looking for some leverage. What I found were streaks of barite and dolomite—a rare, transparent form I hadn’t seen in years. They reacted to my touch, but I didn’t channel them. I kept the veins awake and interested, and their auras lit my way as I descended.

  After several hazardous, mud slick bends, the ground flattened out. A little further, and a weak glow sprouted up in the distance. Twice, I came to a fork and I didn’t hesitate. I avoided the dark and kept after the light, and after a few minutes I saw flame shadows dancing on the walls up ahead. A few more, and I’d found another chamber.

  I crept to the entrance and peered inside. The room was about half the size of the one upstairs. The ceiling was lower. A brilliant, iridescent moss covered a good portion of the walls and floor. Off to the right, blazed the fire I’d been chasing. Near it was the body of an eldring youth. The size of a ten or eleven year old boy, the beast was covered in wolf pelts, lying on its back on a straw pallet. It wasn’t moving. I wasn’t even sure it was breathing.

  Continuing into the middle of the chamber, I stopped at the edge of a crevice that cut diagonal through the room. Water filled the gap, rushing in through a hole in one wall and running back out another. I jumped the swiftly moving flow and approached the out-of-place metal cage on the other side. Slumped over in a pile of hay on the floor was a man with curly, black hair.

  I leaned against the cage. “There you are. I can’t leave you alone for a second.”

  Krillos jerked awake. “Troy? You son of a bitch.” Brushing hay off his face, he gathered himself up. “Get me the hell out of here.”

  I gave him a quick once over. The tusks were broken off the sheath on his stump. He had some rips in his clothes, some cuts and bruises on his face. The cuts were too thin for claw marks. Meaning, his disheveled state was due more to my spell than the eldring. But I wasn’t going to apologize for throwing him across the forest. He should have listened and gone when I told him. “Where’s Liel?”

  “Haven’t seen him. And to be honest, I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

  “If he’s still in the forest, we know where he is, so it’s good. What happened?”

  “Those damn beasts happened. They swarmed in. Slaughtered the bear. Took you. I tried to fight them off, but you can see how that ended. The bastards are strong.”

  “Bitches,” I corrected him.

  “What?”

  “They’re all female. Mothers to be exact. So, technically, you were beaten up by a bunch of women.” Turning away from his stunned face, I examined the lock on his cage. “I wonder where this came from. I wonder where they came from.”

  “I’ll be sure to ask before they eat us,” he grumbled.

  “They’re not going to eat us. Although they might have eaten you if those tusks hadn’t broken off. I doubt they’d take kindly to you wearing their parts.”

  Krillos clenched his jaw. “Their dirty muzzles are about to be buried in our guts. Why are you so glib?”

  I didn’t answer. I had doubts Krillos would appreciate my theory on the eldring’s intellect. “I need something to break the lock.” I moved way to explore the room. “Seen any rocks or tools in here?”

  “I haven’t seen shit but these bars.”

  I went back to the stream and bent down. Reaching into the water, I stifled a shiver. “I think these caves connect to part of the old mines that ran out of Darkhorne. If I’m right,” I said, fishing around for a rock, “we have a way into the keep.”

  “Okay,” he said, slightly less grouchy. “I guess that’s handy. What’s the catch?”

  “Hornblende. If this place is full of it, we’ll have to go the rest of the way without magic. No more night vision. No boost of strength before we enter the keep. We’ll also be traveling underground instead of up top so we’ll miss our meet with your man on the inside. Probably, we already have. Which means; we need a new plan, because mine just went to shit.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, my friend, your death sentence of a plan became a steaming pile a long time ago.”

  I threw him a glare as I stood up. “There’s nothing here.” Shaking off the water, I jumped back across the stream. “I’ll have to check the tunnels.”

  “Forget the rock.” He shook the bars of his cage. “Magic this damn door open and let’s go. Even if there is hornblende down here, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  Already at the exit, I stopped and turned around. Petulance and other unpleasant things made my voice sharp. “I’m not casting unless absolutely necessary. Is that clear?”

  Krillos lifted his one good hand in surrender and stepped back from the cage door. “It’s your mission. Your call. Just hurry the hell up. You leave me in here too long and the next thing you know, I’ll be married to one of them.”

  My anger dissolved at his bad joke. “I don’t think Kit would appreciate that.”

  “Well it wouldn’t exactly be the wedding night of my dreams.”

  I shook my head. “Sit tight. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I turned to go, and three eldring vaulted in from the tunnel. The smallest scampered straight to the unconscious beast on the floor. She huddled over the eldring child, as if protecting it. The other two, including the one I named the Empress, rose up on their hind legs and approached me.

  Seeing no choice, I stood my ground.

  The Empress broke away from her companion and moved in closer. I tasted the blood on her breath as she roared her displeasure in my face. It was the first hint of a real threat I’d experienced since being deposited in their den.

  I glanced over at Krillos. “Stay calm.”

  “No problem. It’s not me they’re mad at.”

  His stating of the obvious gave me an idea. Lowering my head in deference, I smoothed out my voice. “Forgive my impulsive behavior. I didn’t mean to anger you.”

  Krillos laughed at me. “Come on, Troy, really?”

  I ignored him and went on. “I was worried for my friend. You can understand that, can’t you?” I had no clue if I was getting through. But she wasn’t mauling me. So I got brave. I raised my eyes and looked into hers. Fiery, orange and expressive, her stare was ripe with awareness. “I can see the way you care for your pack. You look after them. Provide for them. They’re your responsibility. You keep the weaker ones safe.” I gestured back at Krillos. “I keep him safe.”

  “Hey!” he shouted.

  “He’s mine to look after,” I told her. “I needed to know if he was all right. You would have done the same; risk your own life for one of your pack. That’s all I did.”

  Her steady gaze drifting over me, the Empress cocked her head to the side. She leaned in disturbingly close and sniffed at my hair. My breath sped up as her slender, bony talons batted at the strands. They raked gently over the magic-scars on my face, tracing them off my jaw and down the side of my neck. The tips of her claws were sharp as knives. I was afraid even to flinch.

  Abruptly, the talons wrapped around my arm. She bellowed from deep in her throat and the sound of her rang in my ears. There was still no malice in her stare. Instead, I saw bewilderment. Like she knew something was wrong. Like she knew the lines didn’t belong on my skin. That somehow, I was different.

  How could she? Even with some understanding of what I was, to be aware of such a distinction, to see it as a disparity; clearly, there was so much more to the creatures than we imagined.

  Still having a firm hold on me, the Empress yanked me over to the pallet where the male offspring was lying. She shoved me to the ground. Whatever she said then, whatever order I was given, sounded nothing like “heal him.” But there was no mistaking her intention. I understood perfectly now. My supposed ability to save the eldring child’s life w
as the only reason Krillos and I were still alive.

  TWENTY EIGHT

  “This is crazy,” Krillos hissed. “Insane. You can’t do this.”

  Kneeling down beside the unconscious beast, my back was to him. “If you don’t like my idea for getting us out of this mess, Captain, why don’t you stop barking at me from safely inside that cage and give me a new one?”

  “How about instead, you come over here and let me smash your head into these bars until you come to your senses? They’re animals, Troy. How can you even think they understand you? That they have an inkling of what you can do? Magic doesn’t mean shit to them.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “So what, they all gather around the fire at night and tell stories about Ian Troy, the big, bad magic user? Maybe, you’re what scares their bad little puppies into behaving. Eat your bowl of guts, sweetie, or Troy will sneak into your cave and—”

  I flung him a glare over my shoulder. “Even if that were true, even if they are capable of conversing with each other about me, I’ve killed every eldring I’ve ever met. Last I checked, you can’t tell a story if you’re dead.”

  “You realize you just proved my point. They can’t know you. They can’t know you’re capable of healing one of them. And if they do, if they’re truly that clever …” Krillos stepped back from the bars, like he didn’t want to entertain the idea. Instead, he took his argument in another direction. “And the hornblende?”

  I looked down at the stream. “I heard something once, a long time ago, in this remote village on the edge of Langor. An old healer there claimed he grew up near a hornblende cave. He said his family could cast without issue using water as a kind of shield, or buffer, against the negative effects of the stone.”

  “Water as a shield?” I heard the frown in Krillos’ voice. “Is that possible?”

  “He seemed confident. He said the water creates a barrier around the caster the hornblende can’t penetrate.”

  “This comes to you now? You couldn’t have remembered this two minutes ago when I asked you to cast on the lock and get me out of here?”

  “It’s a story, Krillos. A story I heard in an ale house, from a drunk. I didn’t want to risk everything on something that might not be true.”

  “Nah, you’re just going to risk it on a savage creature that, if he was awake, would be tearing out your throat and having it for lunch.” He shouted, “What if you’re wrong?” His hand came around one of the bars and squeezed. “What if the water doesn’t work and you kill it? What if you bring this cave down the way you did Guidon’s castle? Have you thought about what they’ll do to us then?”

  “Of course I’ve thought about it! I’m not an idiot.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  That just about did it. With the cold, the abundance of tension pinching my shoulders, my head pounding and back aching, a wild streak of hunger stabbing at my stomach, I wanted to lose it with him. Mostly, though, I was mad at how goddamn right he was. There was so much I didn’t know. So much I didn’t understand about my own magic. It made me feel helpless. And there were few things I despised more.

  But none of that was his fault. And our raised voices were not sitting well with the eldring. Stirring anxiously, they were making low agitated sounds at each other.

  “I think what you’re missing,” I said, making an effort to speak calmly, “is that if I refuse them, we’re dead. But if I try—even if I fail—perhaps it will mean something.”

  “Sure. It’ll mean they rip you apart first.”

  I gave up. I turned away from him and back to the injured child. Reaching for the blanket of furs covering his body, I looked at the thick-pelted female I thought was the mother. “May I?”

  I took her lack of reaction as a yes and pulled back the fur. The rancid stench I released was not a good sign. Stifling my nausea, and the cough that came with it, I inspected the wounds traversing the length of the male creature’s furry belly. Perfectly distanced and deep, the cuts were unmistakably the work of a skin bear. They weren’t recent, though. And despite one of the eldring having the incredible forethought to stuff the wounds full of leaves to stop the bleeding, it wasn’t enough. Pockets of thick, yellow pus were seeping out from the edges of the leaves. His entire torso was bloated and discolored. It was downright remarkable he was still alive.

  Krillos hollered from his cage. “I’m guessing a battlefield dressing won’t do it?”

  “No.” I put the furs back. Pressing a hand on my now aching forehead, I sat down beside the young male; wishing there was another way. Or that I’d planned better. Practicing some healing spells with Sienn before we left camp would have been the smart thing to do, considering how far we were going into enemy territory.

  I must be the worst Erudite ever.

  “So?” Krillos said. “Can you help him?”

  “I’ve only done one type of healing spell.”

  “As long as it works.”

  “From what I’ve seen, it can mend about anything. But there are consequences.” Hesitating, I glanced at him. “Like what happened when Kit healed you on the ship.”

  “That spell? That’s the spell you want to use?”

  I lowered my gaze. I didn’t need to see the angry comprehension on his face as Krillos worked through the list of potential complications. Pouring her strength in, sharing emotions, memories and sensations; the healing Kit had performed on him had left them close. Years before, when Sienn used the spell on me, I had so much of her in me that I was able to use her knowledge to fight my father for the Crown of Stones. Unarguably, the working was powerful. But becoming that cozy with a ferocious, flesh-eating animal was stupid and scary as hell, and Krillos knew it.

  He also knew my mind was made up.

  “If you’re set on healing the beast, fine,” he said. “But there has to be another way. A rational way.”

  There wasn’t. I stood up and looked into the eyes of the Empress. “Open the cage. Let Krillos go. Take him to the forest so he can find our friend. Show them the way to the keep. Or I swear, we will all stand here and watch this child die.”

  In reply, the Empress exposed her impressive row of teeth.

  The feeling was mutual. “There’s no negotiation. Help my friends, and I’ll do the spell. You have my word.” I took her slow, rasping rumble for agreement. “The key to the cage. I want to see it before I start. And I’ll need a knife.” I made a slicing motion. “Something sharp to break the skin.”

  The Empress did her tongue-click thing a few times and the third female scurried from the room.

  “Get him to the water.” I gestured from the child to the stream. “The water. You need to move him.”

  I didn’t get a verbal response. Nevertheless, the eldring mother picked up her wounded child and cradled his limp form against her chest. Backwards-jointed legs folding, she moved up alongside the stream and crouched. With gentleness, and an almost palpable reluctance, she set him down at the edge.

  I tried to catch her eyes. “I’m not going to hurt him.”

  “Troy, you can’t,” Krillos warned. “You don’t know what this will do to you.”

  “At the minimum, I’ll be unconscious for a while.”

  “And when you wake up?”

  I had absolutely no idea. “Find Liel. Get into the keep.” My voice rose over his grumbled protests. “And get Jarryd the hell out of Darkhorne.”

  “I’m not leaving Langor without you.”

  “I’ll meet you at the docks. We’ll steal a ship, like we planned.”

  “Gods, but I’ve never met a man so full of shit.” Krillos rattled his cage. His rutted face tightened with rage. “When this is all over, I am going to kick your ass.”

  “When this is over, I’m climbing inside a cask of ale and not coming out for a week. I was going to ask you to join me, but…”

  “Ass kicking first,” Krillos said firmly. “Then the ale.”

  Grinning, I slipped off my coat. Dropping i
t on the floor, I took a couple of breaths to steel myself against the shock, and jumped into the stream. The frigid water sunk through my breeches and boots like thousands of tiny teeth. I pulled in the aura of the diamond and the sapphire on my braces, and it warmed me some.

  The other eldring returned. She had one of my throwing knives grasped in her clawed hand. A brass key on a chain dangled from one of her talons. She passed both objects to the Empress who, after a gnashing in my direction, surrendered the knife to me.

  Taking the young eldring’s hand in mine, I turned it over, palm up, and began carving the marks. His hide was not as thick as I expected. The symbols went quickly. Mine took slightly longer. The shivers had me good now and my movements were growing increasingly unsteady.

  I motioned for the child, and the mother passed him into my arms. He moaned weakly as I sunk us down low. I didn’t know how far we should be submerged. Playing it safe, I made sure our hands, the braces on my wrists, and his injuries, were underwater.

  The Empress bounded over to the cage, and I pulled in the last of the stones for the spell. I channeled the obsidian then and a welcome jolt of new vibrations rushed in Obsidian wasn’t necessary for the spell, but the sway and confidence it lent kept me from caring about what I was doing, or what might come after.

  Swimming in the crackling waves, relishing in the brisk, thumping pulses hurling through my veins, I found the eldring’s marked hand and pushed it together with mine. Our blood mingled. The magic converged on the runes. As the power enveloped our hands, I looked up at the abundance of moss and hoped it would be enough to feed my spell. Then I looked at Krillos standing above me.

  Whatever my expression, he didn’t like it. “Troy…” he started.

  “Get him out of here,” I said to the Empress. “All of you…get out!”

  Krillos protested vehemently. The eldring had to push him from the room. I sat, breathing in the power, giving them time to get clear.

  When their sounds faded from the tunnel, I cast. I offered myself to the eldring child. I gave him my mind and my strength. Whatever part of me he needed, I relinquished. In return, when his soul touched mine, I met a level of consciousness that transcended anything a mere animal should be capable of. And it became mine. On its heels was a battering of instincts and senses. A wave of pure, raw aggression fueled by a brutality that was too primal, too ancient, to comprehend.