Cloak Games: Last Judge

by Jonathan Moeller

  And then we would be free.

  Lord Morvilind still had that vial of my heart’s blood, and he could coerce and bully me, but many of his threats would lose their teeth. He could still kill me, but what the hell. I had already died nearly fifty-eight thousand times. What was one more death after all that? He couldn’t force me to work with the Rebels.

  Had it been any month but June, I might have risked it.

  But Russell received his yearly cure spell from Morvilind at the end of July, and five and a half weeks was not a hell of a lot of time to find and steal a dragon pearl. I could do it, given enough time to prepare. But five and a half weeks?

  No. I couldn’t risk it.

  “I don’t think we have any choice,” I said. “If we leave you here, he’ll capture you and the Marneys. And I can’t think of anywhere you’ll be safer than with us.”

  Russell hesitated, glanced at Murdo, and then back at me.

  “No,” he said. “I…guess not. But I can’t just disappear.”

  “It’s summer,” I said. “You won’t be missing school, at least.”

  Russell snorted. “There’s a tragedy. But the Marneys. What are we going to tell them?”

  “We’ll leave them a note,” I said. “Tell them that…that…I don’t know, we’ll think of something.”

  “Tell them that you found Nadia and she needs your help,” said Murdo, “and that you’ll both come back as soon as you can.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, we should do that.” I rubbed my neck. I was getting a tension headache. “It was bad enough that I disappeared without a trace. But if you do it, too…”

  “Well,” said Russell, “I suppose as the younger brother, I am supposed to learn from the mistakes of my elder sibling.”

  I blinked, and then laughed despite myself. “This is serious. Don’t make jokes.”

  “Okay,” said Russell with a florid salute, and I laughed again. “But if we do disappear, the Marneys might come looking for us the way I came looking for you. We can’t risk that.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We’ll stop by their house so you can pick up what you need, and then we’ll leave.”

  “Where are we meeting Connor?” said Murdo.

  “Noon on the 20th in Reno,” I said. “Place called the Desert Road Café downtown.”

  “Reno?” Murdo grunted. “That will be tight. It’s nearly a thirty-hour drive to Reno from Milwaukee. We’ll have to drive the rest of today and all of tomorrow.”

  “I want to get there early, though,” I said. “Have a look around and check out the exits. If Nicholas springs a trap on us, I’ll make sure that he regrets it.”

  “Is he meeting us there?” said Murdo.

  “No,” I said. “He’s sending someone to pick us up.”

  “Why would he do that?” said Russell.

  “Because he doesn’t trust me,” I said. “With good reason. And he knows he can only push me so far until I push back.”

  “Guess Vastarion found that out the hard way,” said Russell.

  “Guess so,” I said. The thought unsettled me a little. Vastarion had been an Elf, and I had killed him. I mean, I had killed Elves before – that Archon in the Ducal Mall’s bookstore all those years ago, and Baron Castomyr. Yet that Archon had been arrogant and stupid, and I had shot Baron Castomyr with a bullet forged from Shadowlands ore. With Vastarion, I had gone up against him in a duel of magic…and I had won.

  I had beaten an Elf in a straightforward magical battle.

  Arvalaeon had broken me. I had gone to hell and died again and again…but I had come back a lot stronger.

  Strong enough, it seemed, to defeat a skilled and powerful Elven necromancer.

  I put aside the thought. No matter how powerful I had become, I still had a flock of dangers circling around Russell and me and Murdo like a cloud of vultures waiting to fall on an exhausted animal.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said.

  Russell frowned. “For what? I sort of inserted myself into this. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, Lorenz would have captured me.”

  “For dragging you into this,” I said. “It’s my fault.”

  “No, it’s not,” said Russell. “It’s this Connor guy’s fault.”

  “Russell’s right,” said Murdo. “And Connor just screwed up.”

  “How?” I said, frowning. “He’s got us over a barrel, and he knows it.”

  “Think about it,” said Murdo. “He had a golden opportunity with Lorenz’s email, and he blew it. He doesn’t even realize his mistake.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “Lorenz’s email shows up, and Connor reads it,” said Murdo. “What should Connor have done?”

  I thought about it, and then I blinked in surprise.

  “Nicholas…shouldn’t have done anything at all,” I said, starting to understand.

  “Why not?” said Russell. “It’s a big deal that he knows who you really are.”

  “It is, but Nicholas used the information wrong,” I said. “He should have kept his mouth shut. The smart thing to do would have been to say nothing and send someone quietly to Milwaukee to check it out. Then when he called me to Reno, one of his people could have kidnapped you without much fuss.”

  “But he didn’t,” said Russell. “He called you instead.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Nicholas called me to gloat and throw it in my face. And that was a big mistake. It put me on my guard. If he had kept his mouth shut, he could have called me to Reno, waited until I finished the third theft, and then when I got ready to kill him, he could have shown me a video of you in handcuffs or something. But he didn’t. He…”

  I blinked, and I felt myself smiling.

  “But he didn’t,” I said. “He screwed up. He really screwed up.”

  “You sound surprised,” said Murdo.

  “Nicholas doesn’t usually make mistakes like that,” I said.

  “He did with you,” said Murdo. “He hates you, but he thinks he can control you and even recruit you to his side, based on your,” he glanced at Russell, “past history.”

  I was grateful that Murdo didn’t mention that I had slept with Nicholas. Though Russell was going to have to find out sooner or later. Knowing Nicholas, he would probably mention it in front of Russell.

  “Guess Lorenz and Corbisher were right, then,” I said.

  Murdo frowned. “About what?”

  “Nicholas’s judgment isn’t reliable about me,” I said. “He’s overestimating his ability to deal with me. Guess Lorenz died to prove his point.”

  Russell snorted. “Yeah, he’s a martyr.”

  “Connor made a mistake,” said Murdo. “We shouldn’t repeat it.”

  “No,” I said. In his arrogance, Nicholas might have made a tactical error…but he had the brains and the strength to back up that arrogance. “No, we shouldn’t.”

  I looked at Russell and felt a wave of terrible misgiving. I had spent my life trying to protect him, but I couldn’t protect him from everything. As Murdo had pointed out yesterday, I couldn’t keep watch over Russell for twenty-four hours a day. The best way to protect him was to teach him to protect himself.

  But, still. Teaching Russell to protect himself was one thing. Taking him to meet someone like Nicholas Connor was something else. Especially since Nicholas would liquidate me the minute he no longer needed my help…and he would kill Russell soon after.

  But if I left Russell in Milwaukee, or if I tried to hide him somewhere, then Nicholas would find him and kidnap him.

  The problem was as simple as that.

  “We should get moving,” said Murdo into my grim musing.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, we should. Let’s go.”

  Russell and I headed for my van, and Murdo went to his battered blue SUV.

  Chapter 2: Family Road Trip

  A half hour later we reached the Marneys’ house in Milwaukee proper. I put the van in their narrow driveway, while Murdo parked by the curb.


  I shut off the engine and stared at the house.

  “Nadia?” said Russell.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Just…remembering.”

  Because I had a lot of memories of this house.

  The Marneys had a nice little three-bedroom house with a small yard and a one-car garage. The flagpole over the front door was empty but had the Marneys been at home, it would have flown the American flag and the colors of the High Queen. The grass in the small yard was neatly trimmed. I wondered who had been mowing it since James and Lucy were in Florida, and then I realized that Russell had been doing it.

  I hadn’t exactly grown up here, but Russell had, so I had spent a lot of time here. I had some good memories of this house. Some bad ones, too – I had freaked out after the Eternity Crucible and hurt Russell badly enough that he had needed stitches. And the Archons and their orcish mercenaries had almost killed us here, but Lord Morvilind killed them all first. I still remembered the Archons falling from the sky, screaming in terror. One of the Archons had ripped apart the front wall of the house with a spell, and I had helped James (and a few contractors) rebuild it.

  Maybe that was why the one window to the left of the door looked slightly crooked. I had never managed to get it installed properly, so the Marneys had taped it over with plastic during the last winter.

  But cold wouldn’t be a problem in Reno in June.

  Murdo got out of his SUV, and I shook off the memories.

  “Let’s get moving,” I said. “Grab anything you need, and then we’ll head out.”

  Russell opened his door and then hesitated. “Do you need anything from inside?”

  I shook my head. “No, I’ve got everything I need in here.” I glanced at the back of my van. Dear God, it was a mess. Between hauling passengers, the explosives we had used to blast Lorenz’s orcish mercenaries and anthrophages, and various high-speed maneuvers, my stuff was in disarray. “You go pack. Don’t skimp, we’ve got plenty of room back here.”

  Russell nodded and headed into the house. I walked around the back of my van, opened the doors, and started organizing. After a moment, Murdo walked over and started to help, and I accepted his aid with a nod of thanks.

  “You grew up here?” he said, his voice quiet as he passed me a box of protein bars.

  “Not exactly,” I said. “Russell grew up here. I wish I had grown up here. I just…I just visited a lot, that’s all. The Marneys raised him.” I shook my head. “I suppose Lord Morvilind and the retainers he hired to teach me illegal skills were the ones who raised me. Explains a lot about me, doesn’t it?”

  “No. It doesn’t,” said Murdo. “Russell explains a lot more about you.”

  I frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “If someone like Kaethran Morvilind raised you,” said Murdo, passing me another box, “you should have turned out like Lorenz.”

  “God forbid,” I said.

  “Or maybe someone like Enzo Morelli,” said Murdo. “Competent, collected, cold, efficient…but utterly selfish. I think I understand you better now, Nadia. Why you do what you do. You’ve been doing it all to save Russell.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I nodded.

  “I spent a lot of time here, though,” I said. I looked at the front walk. “My boyfriend…”

  I swallowed. Murdo waited.

  “My ex-boyfriend, I mean,” I said. “We first went out after the Archon attack on Milwaukee. After the battle, he stopped by to check on me.” And to pay me my share of the money from Sergei Rogomil’s death, which had come in handy. “Before he left, I gave him my phone number, told him to give me a call sometime. And he did. God, it sounds so sappy, but…”

  “Sometimes things really are that way,” said Murdo.

  I closed a plastic drawer and secured it to the wall with a bungee cord. “Okay. Fair’s fair. I told you something about my ex-boyfriend. You tell me something about the woman you love.”

  “She’s brave,” said Murdo, his voice quiet. “One of the bravest people I’ve ever known.”

  I snorted. “That must be nice. I’m scared of everything all the time.”

  He smiled a little. “That’s not bravery. The only people who aren’t scared of anything are insane or stupid. No, bravery is being frightened but going ahead anyway. She’s good at that.”

  “Well,” I said. “I look forward to meeting your girlfriend after we kick Nicholas’s ass and rescue her.”

  Murdo inclined his head.

  “Of course, she’ll probably be pissed at me, since I’ve been traveling around the country with her boyfriend for the last four months.”

  Murdo snorted. “Somehow, I think she’ll cope.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I mean, it’s not like we ever…”

  I started to say it wasn’t like we had slept together or even kissed, but at the last possible moment my brain screamed a warning, and I shut up. God, but that was embarrassing. I liked Murdo, I was attracted to him…but he was doing all this to save someone Nicholas threatened. And thinking about Riordan always made me feel sad and guilty because I really missed him.

  “Not like we did what?” said Murdo.

  He said it with a straight face, but I could tell he was teasing me, damn him.

  “It’s not like we’ve committed any felonies,” I said.

  Murdo blinked. “In the time we’ve known each other, we’ve committed multiple felonies. Jointly, individually, premeditated. I would need a pencil and a piece of paper to work out just how many.”

  “Yeah, but we never got caught, so it doesn’t count.”

  Murdo blinked again and then laughed. I smiled at him, absurdly pleased that I had made him laugh. He didn’t do it all that often. “It’s just as well you’re a shadow agent. I don’t think you would have cut it as a lawyer.”

  “Keep talking like that, and I’ll have to sue.”

  A few minutes later I had gotten my van back into order. I climbed out the back, Murdo followed, and I closed the doors.

  “Huh,” I said, glancing at the side of the van. “Wonder how the left door got dented.”

  “I think one of the undead you hit rolled over the roof,” said Murdo.

  “Something else I can blame on Lorenz,” I said, looking at the house.

  “Do you want to go inside?” said Murdo.

  I did, and I didn’t at the same time. Most of my memories of that house were good, but my last memory was waking up, thinking that I was still in the Eternity Crucible, and nearly killing Russell when I blasted my bedroom door off its hinges. I didn’t want to remember that, I should…

  Hell with it.

  I had more frightening things to face than the ghosts inside my head.

  Besides, I had promised to write that note to the Marneys.

  “Yeah, suppose I had better,” I said.

  Murdo nodded, and we crossed to the front door and stepped into the living room.

  It hadn’t changed all that much. There was still the portrait of the High Queen and Duke Tamirlas in the dining room. The couches still pointed at the TV, though I noted that James had gotten a larger one. There was a stack of paperback books on the end table by Russell’s favorite spot on the couch – more of those Malcolm Lock historical novels he kept telling me to read.

  “Nice place,” said Murdo.

  “Yeah,” I said. James had a little office next to the kitchen. I would find some pen and paper there and write a quick note, and…

  A picture caught my eye, and I froze.

  There were framed pictures on the wall, and one of them was new. It showed me, Russell, James, and Lucy standing in a park on a sunny summer day. James was leaning on his cane, but he was smiling, his arm around Lucy’s waist. Russell was grinning at the camera, and I was standing next to him, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt that had been too hot for the sun that day…

  That had been right before Morvilind had sent me to steal that tablet from Paul McCade, right before I met Riordan and learned about
the existence of the Dark Ones. That picture had been from the summer picnic at the Marneys’ church. Russell had nagged me into coming, and I had wound up having fun despite myself.

  God, I looked so…

  So young. Like the sort of smiling young woman who belonged at a pleasant church picnic. I hadn’t exactly been an innocent back then, and I had survived all kind of dangers…but I hadn’t known about the Dark Ones. I had never been to Venomhold. I had never met Arvalaeon, and I had never heard of an Eternity Crucible.

  I suddenly wanted to be the young woman in that picture again, but I hadn’t been her for a long, long time.

  “Good picture,” said Murdo.

  “Yeah,” I whispered.

  Russell thumped down the stairs into the living room, set a suitcase at the foot of the steps, nodded, and jogged back upstairs.

  That jerked me out of my pity session. I might not have been the person I had been a hundred and fifty-eight years ago, but I was still Nadia Moran. I still had my brother to protect.

  And the smiling young woman in that picture had already destroyed Nicholas Connor’s Rebel cell in Los Angeles…and I had a lot more capacity to screw up Nicholas’s plans now.

  “You’re smiling,” said Murdo.

  “Oh,” I said. “Just thinking happy thoughts. Help me write a note, will you? I don’t want to sound like a jerk. Well. More of a jerk than I really am, anyway.”

  As Russell finished packing, I borrowed pen and paper from James’s office, and I wrote a note. I kept it short – I apologized for disappearing, said that I was on a long-term assignment for my employer (they knew who that was) and that Russell had accompanied me. I promised to get properly in touch as soon as possible and apologized again for disappearing.

  “You think that’s right?” I said, showing it to Murdo.

  “It’s always better to do this kind of thing in person,” said Murdo. I thought of how I had broken up with Riordan over the phone. “But it should be good enough for now.”

  “Yeah,” I said, leaving the note on the dining room table. “Suppose I’ll get the chance soon.” Each of my previous two jobs for Nicholas had taken a couple of weeks of intensive work. Probably this would all be over by the end of July.