Eternal Gambit

by St Clare, Kelly

  The bearded man froze. So did she.

  “Are you sure of that?” the man demanded, ignoring her completely to address Caspian.

  “We figured it out. Why do you think the tainted were chasing us?”

  . . . Not strictly true. Ebba was proud of him.

  The man studied her friend intently. “I knew Cannon was up to no good.”

  She winced as a series of ripe expletives left his lips.

  Caspian said, “You just need to make sure the tainted pirates don’t get out before you. Or all will be lost.”

  Ebba remained mute, letting the prince run the show. He was playing with more fire than they’d already played with—and that hadn’t turned out too well. If he wasn’t careful, he’d start a riot.

  “I thank you for the information.” The bearded man bowed to Caspian. “Where are you going now?”

  “To the passage platform,” Caspian answered. “Our friends are back across the stream, and we must reunite with them.”

  The man nodded. “I will take you there.”

  Ebba waited until he’d turned to lead the way before whispering, “What are ye doin’?”

  Caspian hushed in her ear. “We can’t stop the tainted marching out of this passage. But the damned can. They equal the number of pirates.”

  “But they’ll become tainted.”

  “The taint is already here,” he said, looking back the way they’d come. “And that’s my fault. It’s only a matter of time until everyone on this side catches it.”

  Ebba stared at him, realizing what he’d already put together. King Montcroix was now tainted. But Caspian was right—on both counts.

  Ebba exhaled. “All right. Let’s get back to the others and see if Jagger had any luck.”

  They trailed after the huge bearded man, easing between the curious and filthy occupants of hell. The cloying crowd of damned obscured the distance. Orienting herself was impossible. On the pirate side, she could have run along the stream from north to south in just a few minutes. On the damned side, with the sheer masses in a smaller space, the journey to the cliffs felt four times that.

  A high-pitched whistle cracked the air, and Ebba halted.

  “Pistol fire,” she said, glancing around.

  There was a second high-pitched crack, and the damned around them huddled to the ground. Ebba jerked Caspian down. She tucked in her crimson skirt as tightly as possible.

  “Where’d the pistol fire from?” she asked.

  “The passage platform,” Caspian replied flatly.

  Shifting, Ebba lifted her head.

  A buzzing filled her ears.

  At the top of the cliffs where they were headed stood Mutinous Cannon. At his side was Pockmark, who held Jagger at pistol point. Her fathers stood in a row along the platform, blocked from escape by hordes of tainted who milled on the steps down to the other side of the stream.

  “I be lookin’ for two people,” Cannon called lazily over the pregnant silence. “One o’ them, a man, has naught but one arm. The other, a small woman with black dreadlocks and green eyes.”

  The orange-bearded man, crouching ahead, turned back to look at them.

  “If they are harmed and if they are not returned to me, none o’ us will leave this place,” Cannon continued.

  Ebba couldn’t glean anything from his tone, but with a sizeable number of his tainted victims in the boiling stream and the simple fact he’d had to physically address the damned, she guessed Cannon was furious.

  She swallowed as the surrounding damned set their eyes upon her and Caspian.

  “No one says a word,” the bearded man ordered. “Cannon doesn’t mean to let us out of here. He’s lying.”

  The damned around her seemed torn. She didn’t blame them; she was torn—just not over the same thing. Up there was nearly everyone she cared about in the whole world. But what would Cannon do if they joined her fathers and Jagger?

  Caspian whispered, “Jagger’s bleeding.”

  Ebba squinted at the pirate and gasped. Bleeding was an understatement. His entire face was covered with blood, the red staining his flaxen hair. “What if his wounds get inf’cted with taint?” He was immune, but tainted wounds acted much faster than just absorbing the taint. His recovery could take much longer if his injuries were infected.

  Ebba checked the row of her fathers. None of them appeared worse for the wear. Yet. Continuing down the line, she focused on the string of tainted pirates on the cliff steps. They covered the fifty-foot steep stairway entirely, spreading across the base of the cavern on the other side of the water. Clearly, only a small fraction of Cannon’s force had been swept up in the earlier stampede.

  She focused on the tainted closest to her father, stilling.

  “Look,” she breathed. “The ones at the top o’ the steps have the cases.”

  Jagger had gone in for the six parts, but now it appeared as though they’d been brought out. “Why would he bring them out into the open?”

  Caspian answered immediately. “He means to leave. Or he didn’t have enough tainted left to guard them while he came here.”

  Cannon spoke again, and Ebba listened, rubbing her temples.

  “No?” he called out. “Ye have nothin’ for me? Perhaps ye wish to break our accord? Perhaps ye mean to stay here for etern’ty.”

  A shudder of dissent rippled through the damned.

  “They’re here!”

  Ebba whirled, scowling at the child behind her. “Ye soddin’ brat.”

  The child bared her teeth.

  “There they are.” Cannon snapped from above. “Get them.”

  Ebba turned to Caspian. Their trip here hadn’t been a waste. Perhaps the man with the orange beard would spread the news. That might buy Ebba and the others some time to get out of this mess.

  “Wait,” Caspian said, eyes focused on something past the bearded man. She followed his gaze to the passage cliffs.

  “Sink me, it’s Forge,” she gasped.

  Caspian’s father scaled the cliff face of the semi-circle platform. He climbed up the very eastern part of the jutting cliff, so the curve of the platform concealed him from the pirate side of the stream.

  The crowd of damned could surely see him as clearly as she and Caspian, but they didn’t utter a single word. They were hedging their bets. For now.

  “Come on, we’ll distract Cannon,” she said. There was nothing for it. They wanted to be up there, and Cannon wouldn’t rest until they were up there. Their interests were briefly aligned. Though Ebba could guess that today’s events wouldn’t go unpunished.

  The cowering damned parted for her and Caspian as they strode to the base of the cliff. Ebba glanced at the prince’s stump. “Ye go up ahead of me. I’ll give ye a boost when needed.”

  “No, that won’t be enough,” he said. “Cannon!”

  Pockmark appeared over the edge.

  “Unless your grandfather means for me to fall and die, he can toss the dynami down here. I can’t climb with one arm,” Caspian shouted.

  “Ye think he’s goin’ to chuck a part down?” Ebba said.

  He shrugged his shoulder. “Depends how much he wants us alive. The taint is on this side. If Cannon has kept the damned safe from taint because they have good in them, he’s going to lose their light in short duration. If we’re down here, too, we’ll also be tainted. The scales will tip against Cannon. The entrance could close.”

  Ebba exhaled shakily. “He has to be goin’ for the entrance now.”

  Pockmark reappeared with a black case. He tipped the open case forward, and a tarnished silver tube she hadn’t seen in weeks tumbled out, spinning end-over-end toward them. Caspian took two steps to the right and caught the part in his outstretched hand.

  “No funny bus’ness,” Pockmark yelled down.

  Caspian tucked the part in his belt and turned to her. “I don’t know what my father is planning, but he’s going to help.”

  Ebba nodded. “We have the dynami, and only so man
y tainted pirates can fit up on the passage platform. Most o’ Cannon’s crew be confined to the cliff steps or the other side o’ the stream. The higher ground will be easier to defend, and the crevice to the entrance, easier still. If we can get the upper hand on the platform, we could get to the entrance with the parts.”

  “You’re right,” Caspian said, voice tight. “This isn’t the plan we’d hoped for, but we’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.” Determination settled heavy on his face. “Yes, we’ve got to take the opportunity. But . . . he’ll expect it.”

  Assuredly. Ebba placed both hands on the cliff. “He will. Let’s go.”

  Regardless of the dynami in Caspian’s belt, she remained slightly below him on the way up, ready to grab for him if he should fall. But no strain was detectable in his arm or legs during the fifty-foot climb. He shoved his hand into the black-and-crimson stone as if it were flour, punching his feet into the cliff face as he worked his way upward. Sweat beaded on her brow before long as she heaved herself up the stone cliff, focusing on the deep crimson hue as she reached for each jagged hold.

  Ebba peered up at the lip of the platform, her chest tightening as the distance between her and her crew shrank. Nearly there.

  Seeing her friend struggle to heave himself over the top lip, Ebba scrambled past him up the cliff and swung her body onto the ledge. Ignoring everyone, she hastened to help Caspian, gripping his belt and pulling him onto the shelf, too.

  She rolled to her feet and looked over her fathers.

  They were okay. She sagged in relief. Pale-faced, but her initial scan from below had proved right. None appeared harmed. She nodded at them, letting her eyes linger on Stubby for several seconds. His gaze sharpened, and he turned to murmur to Barrels.

  They’d be ready.

  Ebba looked at Jagger next, and the stone all but disappeared from under her. What had they done to him? Whether forced to his knees or there because he couldn’t stand, she didn’t know. Jagger had been cut. His face, at least four times, but also on his arms and legs and across his torso. Her heart sank.

  He lifted his head and stared at her, black shadows beneath his eyes. Was he tainted? She couldn’t tell from where she stood. He looked out of it. Judging by the red staining his tunic and slops, he’d lost a lot of blood.

  “Ye’ve made quite the mess of things,” Cannon said, lips curling though his eyes glittered dangerously. Was it just her, or was he looking a smidge more tainted tonight?

  Caspian crowded her to the left, and Ebba took the hint, stepping farther around so Mutinous Cannon would turn away from where she assumed Montcroix waited to attack. She’d lost sight of the king on the way up.

  “Your tainted nearly killed us,” Caspian said.

  “Don’t test my patience!” Cannon boomed, black creeping into his eyes. “Do ye take me for a fool?”

  Ebba’s throat tightened.

  “Do you?” he shouted at Caspian.

  “No,” the prince answered. “Many things, but not a fool. Or perhaps you are a fool, but your masters are not. Any victory you have will never be yours, after all.”

  Ebba winced, itching to warn her friend.

  But then she saw a twitching of the shadows behind the seething captain. That had to be Montcroix.

  “This victory shall be mine, boy,” Cannon spat. “When I am free at last, all will know it. All will know I never lost a battle.”

  He was really hung up on fake-losing that fight. “But no one will,” she found herself saying. “Everyone be tainted. Ye feel it, and ye see it in yer pirates. They ain’t there. They don’t know the di’ference between losin’ and winnin’. They only know darkness.”

  “Silence,” Cannon said, teeth clenching as he stepped in her direction.

  The shadows behind him twitched again, a little closer.

  Cannon lowered his head until he was level with hers. Ebba struggled not to fidget, keeping her breaths steady.

  He smirked. “This is how things are goin’ to be happenin’ from now on.”

  Twenty-Four

  Mutinous Cannon straightened and sauntered down the row of her fathers strung out along the open edge of the passage platform. Ebba’s small sigh of relief to no longer be the focus of his attention took on a wheezing quality as she contemplated how easily the evil captain could push her parents to their deaths. She cast another look to the shadows where King Montcroix lurked. Cannon had moved away from the king’s hiding place. Montcroix wouldn’t attack just yet.

  “I’ll be leavin’ this place tonight,” Cannon announced. “The pillars won’t let me out without their army at my back and the root o’ magic in my grasp. If I wait for more tainted to enter the locker, I could be in here for months to come. But I’ve figured it out at long last.”

  Caspian threw a veiled look at her.

  He’d been right.

  Continuing, Cannon said to her fathers, “I’m about to heal every one o’ ye.”

  So far, Jagger hadn’t uttered a word. He did now. “Ye can’t,” he slurred. “It’ll kill her.”

  “Nay, just . . . hurt her a bit.” Cannon smirked.

  “She was unconscious for three days from ye just healin’ Stubby,” Jagger said through clenched teeth, wavering on the spot.

  Ebba crossed to him and reached out.

  “Nay, Viva,” he said softly. “Don’t be touchin’ me now.”

  His eyes weren’t black. He wasn’t contagious. But he’d been worried about transferring taint through blood and spit before. Touching him would worry Jagger even more. But that was all she wanted to do. All she’d wanted to do for weeks. “Are ye sure ye won’t fall on yer face, matey?” she said tremulously.

  Weak amusement curved his lips, and fresh blood oozed from a vicious cut on his cheekbone.

  “Ah, Jagger,” Cannon said, circling behind him. “Yer future doesn’t lie with Ebba-Viva. Haven’t ye gleaned that much?”

  Black edged the captain’s eyes, and before she could shout out, Cannon rested both hands on Jagger’s shoulders. One of his tainted hands directly over a bleeding wound.

  Foggy horror gripped her, and her eyes lifted of their own accord to Jagger’s.

  There was no way the taint wouldn’t enter that wound. Like a snapping mast, Ebba unfroze and shot to her feet. “Get yer hand off him!” Fists balled, she leaped at Cannon, but the air whooshed from her breathers as an arm clamped around her waist.

  “Let me go, Caspian,” she said in a warning tone. “I’ll hurt ye.”

  “No, you won’t,” he said matter-of-factly. And then in her ear, “He knew the risk. You know he can beat the taint back.”

  Was that meant to make her feel better? Each time Jagger came back from the taint, he was a little less. Jagger still had to live with himself after. And he could only beat it back when removed from the source.

  Caspian let her shake off his grip.

  Ebba glared at Cannon, shaking from head to toe. She was going to kill him. Actually, at this point anyone could kill him and she’d be happy.

  Cannon didn’t shift his hands as he spoke. “Ye’ll have seen how difficult tainted are to control. Prone to violence. A single comment can make them go berserk and forget their orders. It be the caveat to my masters’ control. Even they can’t control the spread o’ their taint.” He peered down at Jagger. “That be why they collect people like me and like Jagger here.”

  A high ringing took up residence in Ebba’s ears. Why was he looking at Jagger in that way? Like he knew something none of them did.

  “The pillars have plans for ye,” Cannon sang in Jagger’s ear. He released the pirate, shoving him to the ground.

  Ebba dropped by Jagger’s side again as Cannon’s booming laughter echoed through the Locker.

  Jagger groaned and rolled onto his back, locking gazes with her. She stretched out a hand, but he didn’t return the gesture. He wouldn’t risk it.

  “What do ye mean?” Stubby demanded.

  Cannon was still smiling. �
��To the pillars, Jagger is a prize only second to the weapon. With his resistance to magic, he alone will have the power to retain some o’ his reason over the years. And then his child after that, and the child o’ his child. Only his bloodline can resist the taint. So they will always be alone, the sole partly aware human in a realm o’ tainted souls.”

  The heavy horror of the picture he painted robbed Ebba of speech. She didn’t move her eyes from Jagger’s. An ache filled her chest at the dullness of his gaze. He’d already been alone for years. Jagger had given enough to keep the realm safe by now. This time, someone else had to pay the price. She needed time with him; she needed him. Her breath came fast. Mind seizing, all Ebba could do was look to her fathers for answers.

  They appeared as lost as she was. But Barrels stepped forward. “You said that Jagger is a prize only second to the root of magic. You know that Jagger is the immune. So you must know that he is only one of the three watchers needed to assemble the root. I’m assuming that your masters don’t want all six individual parts but the weapon itself. Only the three watchers combined can put the parts together.”

  That stopped Cannon in his tracks.

  He turned to look at her and lifted his gaze over her shoulder to where Caspian stood. From the corner of her eye, she saw Peg-leg slap Barrels upside the head.

  “True enough, my old quartermaster. True enough,” Cannon said quietly. “To taint them might make them useless. Yet healin’ the rest o’ ye might risk her life.”

  “Yes,” Caspian blurted. “So you need to heal them individually and wait for her to heal.”

  “Nay,” the captain replied, tilting his head. “I just need the three watchers to assemble the weapon afore I heal them. Then it don’t matter if the wench be dead.”

  Sink her.

  Locks slapped Barrels upside the head.

  With a pained groan, Jagger rolled onto his stomach and got onto all fours. “Nay, I’ll come with ye,” he said. “Ye know where Viva and Caspian be if ye need them. Easy enough to sail back later.”