Blood of Stone: A Shattered Magic Novel (Stone Blood Book 1)

by Jayne Faith

She showed me where a panel slid away at the back of her closet.

  “Keep going right and you’ll end up in a hallway next to double doors. Take those and you’ll be outside in front of the palace. You know the way from there.”

  Her stance was defeated, her voice low and hoarse. I didn’t know what the nature of her relationship with Van Zant had been, but it seemed to have hit her hard.

  I drew Mort and she stepped back, her eyes popping wide.

  “I need to dissolve the shadowsteel spell,” I said hurriedly. “Just hold still.”

  I whispered the words to reverse the spell, and violet vapor leaked from Bryna’s mouth. It moved in a little stream to the tip of my blade, where it washed over the metal and then disappeared.

  “Go, before they get in,” she said.

  I nodded, re-sheathed Mort, and squeezed into the compartment in her closet. I swiftly followed her directions. I was just about to get out of the secret passage when someone suddenly came up behind me.

  An iron grip wrapped around my upper arm.

  I let go of the box and twisted, reaching for Mort at the same time, but the space was too tight to draw my broadsword.

  “Keep quiet,” said a voice in my ear.

  “Jasper? Were you following me?”

  “I forced Bryna to tell me where you were.”

  My hand clenched into a fist. That little cheat. How had she slithered out of her promise? Jasper must have had held something over her.

  “Petra, we can’t let things escalate between the Stone Order and the Duergar,” he said urgently. “There’s a bigger threat to both of us. All of us.”

  For a moment my mission to get Van Zant’s damned ashes back to the Guild faded to the background.

  “What?” I asked, confused.

  “Those servitors we killed weren’t just assassins. They’re getting into every kingdom, and that’s the point.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t know how, but when they breach a realm, they pick up some kind of magic that allows them to get back in. Someone out there wants access to the stronghold in every kingdom. And with each attack, the servitors are getting more powerful.”

  I peered up at his glinting golden eyes in the semi-dark. “How do you know this?”

  “Ravens, but that’s not important. My point is, I need your help. We can’t get distracted by conflicts that aren’t going to matter in the end.”

  I shook my head. Ravens? Like messenger birds? This was wasting way too much time. “I’m the wrong person to talk to. You should get in touch with Maxen. This stuff is his department.”

  “No,” he said vehemently. “It can’t be the officials. They’ll make things worse.”

  “But why me?”

  “You’re the daughter of Oliver Maguire, Stone Order champion and one of Marisol’s closest advisors,” he said. “That means you’re close enough to the decision makers, but without being a life-long diplomat. And you have no patience for bureaucracy. You can keep focused on what’s important. That’s exactly what’s needed here.”

  Surprisingly insightful, and it was nice that someone in Faerie saw my loathing of red tape as a positive trait. But I wasn’t interested in getting mixed up in whatever Jasper’s fight was.

  “Look, I appreciate your concern, but I need to get the hell out of here,” I said. “I don’t even live on this side of the hedge. You need someone more plugged into Faerie.”

  He let out an exasperated breath. His hand was still on my arm, and he yanked me close. I let him do it, a little fascinated by this different side of him.

  “You’re going to be involved whether you want to be or not,” he said. His face was so close to mine, his strange eyes nearly filled my field of vision. “And if things go badly, you’re going to wish the Stone Order had ended up under Duergar rule. Believe me, the alternative will be much worse.”

  “Why should I believe you?” I demanded.

  His nostrils flared as we locked glares. “The Tuatha Dé Danann have returned. The Dullahan are with them.”

  A sharp laugh escaped my lips. “The Tuatha don’t exist anymore, except in a few bloodlines diluted almost down to nothing. And you’re seriously trying to tell me the Dullahan are coming? The Bone Warriors are a myth.”

  “Wrong on both counts,” he said harshly.

  Suddenly there was a clamoring outside the secret passage’s exit.

  “Shit,” I hissed. I’d loitered too long.

  “Come with me.” Jasper pulled me away from the door, racing back the way I’d come. He had to turn his shoulders at an angle to move through the narrow space.

  Seconds later, I heard the guards breaching the secret passage behind us.

  Jasper let go of me and sped up, leading me through a dizzying maze of turns. We ended up at a ladder that rose into a narrow pipe-like vertical tunnel.

  “Go ahead of me,” he commanded.

  The space where we stood was so close, we practically had to embrace in order for me to get past him. For a couple of seconds, our bodies pressed tightly against each other. I had to hold the box with Van Zant’s ashes over my head, and Jasper’s hand briefly touched the side of my waist as we maneuvered around to change places. If not for the light armor covering his chest, I probably would have felt his heartbeat.

  I puffed out a breath, clearing my mind of such thoughts, and focused on climbing up the ladder as quickly as possible with the box under my arm. I could hear our pursuers in the passages below. A glance down showed Jasper coming up after me. The ladder seemed to go on for half a mile.

  When I reached the top, I pulled a lever and the circular lid on the pipe popped open on a hinge. Squinting against the daylight, I climbed out. I was standing on one of the many tiered roofs of the Duergar palace. This one was one of the highest.

  Jasper slammed the lid down on our escape hatch and then stood on it. I drew my sword.

  “Okay, now what?” I asked him.

  He held up a finger and with his other hand reached behind his chest armor, and then produced a small cylindrical item with a flourish. He put one end to his lips and blew into it. There was no sound, but a charge seemed to pass through the air, as if the whistle had sent out a wave of electricity.

  “Watch.” He pointed to the sky.

  I shaded my eyes, scanning, and at first saw nothing out of the ordinary. But then in the far distance a black speck appeared over the tops of the trees forming the realm’s great forest. It was heading straight for us and rapidly growing as it neared.

  I spun around to face Jasper. “You’re a Grand Raven Master?”

  He gave me the slightest of nods. I couldn’t help staring at him for a second, open-mouthed. Then I turned to watch in awe as the giant raven approached. It had a wingspan easily thirty feet across. I’d seen one in person only once at a fair when I was a child.

  “This will give you away,” I said, my eyes glued to the creature. I tipped my head back as it flapped overhead, its beak pointed down as its dark round eyes searched for a place to land. “They’ll know you gave me an escape.”

  “They don’t know it’s my raven,” Jasper said.

  I swiveled around just in time to see him leap from the hatch he’d been standing on and disappear over the side of the roof. I didn’t have time to run to the edge to see where he’d landed or whether he was okay. Guards were bursting through the now-freed passage.

  The raven cawed at me, clearly urging me to hurry. With Mort in one hand and the box in the other, I ran at the huge feathered creature. I sheathed my broadsword and then sprang up to the raven’s back, using my now-free hand to pull myself into position between its wings.

  It hopped twice and then jumped off the roof and took flight. I hung on for dear life, squeezing my thighs like a bareback rider and clutching the feathers in my fist. The box was clamped under my other arm so hard I squashed the cardboard a bit. When the raven banked, I nearly tumbled off, and my heart jumped into my throat.

 
I chanced a look behind me and caught sight of the guards on the rooftop, and more still pouring out of the secret passage. Farther down on a lower roof, I glimpsed Jasper flattening himself against a wall, staying out of sight of the guards above. He gave me a little salute, but I couldn’t let go to return the gesture.

  The air whipped across my face and glossy black feathers brushed my skin as Jasper’s raven carried me away from the Duergar palace.

  Chapter 23

  I GRINNED INTO the wind like a maniac for a few minutes, adrenaline still coursing through me from the narrow escape and the sensation of flight. The raven’s powerful muscles flexed under my legs, settling into a rhythm as it traced a straight line away from the palace. After a half mile or so, it struck me that I had no idea what it planned to do with me.

  “The nearest doorway would be super,” I said, just in case the raven might understand.

  Its sleek head twitched to the side at the sound of my voice, but it didn’t change course.

  We soared over forest and low rolling hills until the palace was miles behind. Then the beating of the raven’s wings began to slow. The right one tipped gracefully downward, and the bird began to spiral toward the ground. It alighted in the middle of what appeared to be a circle of large and crumbling stones, but once I slid off the bird and truly looked around, I realized it was an ancient ruin. Runes carved into some of the stones were visible only by the moss that grew into the indentations.

  There was an arch to my right. That was my way out.

  I looked up at the great bird. It shook, its night-dark feathers shivering with the movement. With a tilt of its head, it peered at me with one great eye.

  “Thank you for ferrying me to safety,” I said gravely.

  I wasn’t sure if the words would bind me in promise to the creature, but if they did, I was okay with it. But there was no shiver of magic in the air. Regardless, the raven—and its golden-eyed master—had done me a great service.

  I jogged over to the doorway, and as I stood tracing the sigils in the air, the raven took flight and soared over me.

  I stepped into the void of the netherwhere and then emerged at a doorway just outside the stone fortress. I’d never been so grateful to be back in New Garg territory. Vincenzo was still parked there. I secured the box in the bin strapped behind the scooter’s seat, and when I started up the engine, it felt like it had been weeks since I’d last been on my scooter.

  Cursing the doorway configuration that wouldn’t allow me to jump straight back home to Boise, I had to ride through the cold San Francisco drizzle to the doorway at Crossen Hall. The doorways within Faerie all connected to each other, but on the Earthly side of the hedge, the networks weren’t so complete and interconnected. The restrictions sometimes made me feel as if it’d be faster to catch commercial flights. Not that I could afford air travel.

  The miserable, cold ride passed in a blur. It was going to be a sprint to get Van Zant—or what was left of him—turned in for the bounty, and I had to push my speed and weave through traffic. By the time I made it back to Boise, I was stiff and travel-fatigued. The day was hot there, and when I pulled into the Guild parking lot, my hair was mostly dry and my clothes were no longer dripping.

  I shoved Van Zant’s box under my arm, pushed through the Guild’s double-doors, and stalked through the corridors. People took one look at my face and scooted out of my way when they saw me coming.

  When I reached Gus’s office, I found the door cracked open. Not bothering to knock, I pushed inside, went up to his desk, and plopped the box on the open file folders he was shuffling around. His bloodshot eyes widened at the box and then shifted up to me.

  I pulled out my phone to check the time. “Fourteen minutes to spare.”

  He pulled his chin back, making his double chin into a triple chin, and slanted a glance at the box I carried. “He’s dead, I take it.”

  I looked down at the box. “Yup.”

  “You kill him?”

  “Nope.”

  Gus sighed noisily through his nose. “Either way, the payout is only—”

  “Ten percent,” I cut in. “I know, I know.”

  I pushed my stiff hair off my forehead while he rummaged around on his desk for a tablet. He handed it to me so I could fill out the job info and sign for the completion of the assignment.

  “When will the payment go into my account?” I asked as I worked my way through the forms.

  “We’ll have to verify this is him.” Gus tapped his pen on the top of the box. “Guild rules. Can’t be filing false catches.”

  I silently cursed. “And how long will that take?”

  “Couple of weeks, if the lab mages aren’t backed up.”

  I let my head fall back. The lab was always backed up.

  Once I exited the Guild headquarters, my phone vibrated in its pouch on my scabbard.

  I pulled it out, quickly flipped through my new assignment, and then let out a groan. It wasn’t a live catch—it was for the recovery of an object. Some piece of jewelry, but it didn’t really matter. Object recoveries were nearly always in a lower payout category than apprehensions of people. The payout wouldn’t even cover my half of the utilities for a month. But what really stung was that it was such a low-importance job. I wanted to be hunting vamps, not tracking down Grandma’s charmed locket that had most likely been swiped and pawned by hard-up Uncle Loser.

  I blew out a long breath through pursed lips. I was being punished for needing an extension and then failing to bring in a live mark.

  Silently fuming, I went back out into the sunshine and revved up Vincenzo. One of the reasons I’d moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Idaho was for the lower cost of living. The area was also a hotbed of supernatural beings and activity, and one of the Guild’s largest offices was located in Boise. I figured between those things I was giving myself the best chance possible at surviving independently outside the stone fortress.

  But it seemed it was all going to shit. Lochlyn and I had maybe a couple of weeks at best, if we could manage to dodge our landlord for that long. Oliver would probably help if he could, but I already knew he didn’t have money. Human currency wasn’t much use in Faerie, and those who lived permanently on the other side of the hedge typically didn’t accumulate monetary wealth. Each kingdom, or order in the case of New Gargs, had its own industries, but the money didn’t trickle down much in the semi-feudal system of Faerie. It didn’t really matter—I was too damn stubborn to ask for help, anyway.

  I was halfway home when my phone vibrated against my chest. I pulled it out at a stoplight and saw Maxen’s name on the caller ID. It was a voice message from a call I must have missed while en route.

  “Petra, we need you back at the fortress right away. The Duergar are making more trouble. We’ve got a new situation on our hands, and it involves you. I’m going to keep calling until I get you.”

  That was it. I swore under my breath. Would it have killed him to give a little more detail?

  My phone rang as I was staring down at it in irritation. Maxen again.

  “Where are you?” he demanded, uncharacteristically terse.

  “In Boise, just wrapping up my assignment. Marisol gave me until this afternoon to get back,” I said. “What’s the emergency?”

  “Periclase has really decided to kick up some shit.” Maxen rarely swore.

  “What variety of shit?”

  “It’s better if we don’t discuss it over the phone,” he said.

  He must have been paranoid about Unseelie spies bugging our conversation.

  “Can I at least stop by home for a change of clothes?” I asked.

  “We’ll get anything you need here,” he said. The phone sounded like it jostled a little on his end, I could hear someone trying to speak to him in the background. “I need to go.”

  “Wait, did Emmaline make it back okay?” I asked.

  “She’s here. Come back now, and find me when you arrive.”

  The call w
ent dead.

  I steered around, changing course and heading back to the doorway in the parking garage that would return me to the San Francisco Bay Area. I was really starting to feel like a long- distance commuter.

  On the way, I tried Lochlyn.

  “Are you at home?” I asked when she picked up.

  “Yeah. There were like four nasty notes on our door,” she said.

  “Then you’re not going to like what I have to tell you.” I explained what happened with Van Zant and how the payout wasn’t just crap, but also delayed.

  She groaned. “I’ll see what I can scrape together, but I’m basically tapped out unless I find another job, like, tonight.”

  “I know,” I said. “And you already loaned me money, so this isn’t on you. We’ll figure it out.”

  We hung up, and I tucked my phone back in its pouch.

  By the time I pulled up to the stone fortress, it was mid-afternoon and some of the marine layer had burned off. It’d been a dry ride from Treasure Island, thank Oberon for small favors.

  I parked Vincenzo and trudged into the Stone Order’s headquarters.

  In the lobby, pages were scurrying around. I recognized a few of the diplomats who’d gone with Maxen to the Duergar palace. They all looked harried and tense. The entire atmosphere of the place made me want to turn around and leave.

  Emmaline rushed up to me. “You’re here, thank the Old Ones. I’ll take you to Maxen.”

  “Hey, Emmaline,” I said mildly, trying to counteract the stress that seemed to hang in the air. “How’d you escape the Duergar?”

  She slid me a sideways glance of her lavender eyes, and her lips twitched in a near-grin. “I have a pretty good memory for the passages in the palace. I used a couple of them the guards didn’t know about and then ran out to the doorway in the forest where our diplomatic party came in before. Sorry I disappeared like that. I figured it would be easier that way, seeing as how I didn’t have a weapon.”

  I nodded my approval. “That was the right decision. I knew you’d manage. We need to get you armed next time we have that kind of adventure, though.”

  She looked very pleased at that suggestion, but her expression quickly faded to one of serious focus.