Valandra: The Dragon Blade Cycle (Book 2)

by Tristan Vick

  “Oh, yes,” she says, trying to find the right tone that will reassure Lisette and everyone else that I’ll be perfectly fine. “I’ll make sure that no harm comes to her.”

  “Wait, a minute,” Leif says, scratching his head. “Didn’t you say we were going to meet someone here?”

  Zarine smiles. “Indeed,” she says. “I did say that.” Standing up, she turns to the chair beside her and says, “Allow me to introduce to you the Grand Magus of Koroth, Bartlem Blacksage.”

  “Blacksage?” Leif says to himself.

  Suddenly a cloaked figure stands beside Zarine. I swear it wasn’t standing there a minute before. But it seems vague and nebulous. It’s almost as if I knew he was there the whole time, but he only now has made himself known.

  Grand Magus Blacksage pulls back the cowl of his tunic and reveals an elderly man with white hair tied back in a ponytail and a white sagely beard. There are still tufts are dark hair in the tip of his beard, which gives him a quite distinguished look.

  “You?!” Leif shouts. Without warning, Leif Ericson leaps onto the table, pulls a dagger out of his boot and flies across the table. Platters of food are upturned and plates rattle as Leif lunges at Blacksage.

  Blacksage merely holds up two fingers, and a purple pentagram encased in a circle with runes rotating around it counter-clockwise appears. Leif suddenly catches mid-air and hovers mere inches away from striking Blacksage with a lethal blow from his dagger.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” I demand to know.

  “This son of a bitch killed my wife!” Leif growls.

  “Your wife?” Lisette gasps.

  Without taking his eyes off Leif, Blacksage confesses, “An unfortunate incident, I admit. But if you allow me to explain what really happened, I think you’ll all realize we’re all on the same side here.”

  Leif strains, struggling against Blacksage’s magic. The veins in his neck bulge with adrenaline-fueled hate, but to no effect. Which only seems to aggravate him even more.

  “That’s enough,” I say. I look directly as Blacksage when I say it.

  “As you wish,” he says. Raising his hand, he waves his fingers in the air and Leif levitates all the way back to his seat. After a bit of hovering, he settles gently down into his chair as though he’d never left.

  “You were saying?” I say, keeping my eyes on Blacksage. I barely trust Zarine. But at least she’s familiar to me. This Blacksage character, on the other hand, makes my skin prickle with goosebumps and my hair on the back of my neck stand up. Mainly because I can’t read him. It’s as though he’s shrouded in some kind of magic spell. But since magic doesn’t work on me, I know I shouldn’t be affected. That’s when it dawns on me.

  “I’ll kill you for what you did to Hanna,” Leif growls from his seat.

  “No, you can’t,” I inform him.

  “What do you mean I can’t?” Leif snaps. “Tell you what, Arianna, how about you stay out of my personal business and I’ll stay out of yours.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I say, correcting Leif’s misconception. “You can’t kill him because he’s already dead.”

  “Very good, my dear.” Magus Blacksage looks at me fondly, as though he’s impressed by my ability to see right through him.

  “He’s only mostly dead,” Zarine informs us.

  “Mostly dead?” Lisette repeats. “Is that even a thing?”

  “Think of it like this,” Blacksage says, stroking his beard in a sagely fashion. “I have one foot in the grave and one foot right here, in the world of the living.”

  “The Grand Magus is the protector of the seals,” Zarine tells us. “He must reside in the Nether Realm and can only visit the living.”

  “I’m afraid I can never truly be free. Not until I am killed or else…”

  “Or else what?” I ask.

  “Or someone destroys all the seals.”

  Alegra touches my arm and I look at her. She nods her chin at Leif. I notice tears streaming down Leif’s face.

  “Is it true?” I ask. “Did you kill Mr. Ericson’s wife?”

  “I’m afraid his wife, Hanna Ericson, died under my watch. But it wasn’t me who killed her.”

  “No,” Leif shouts. He stands up and knocks his chair back. Pointing a finger at Blacksage, he growls, “It was you! I saw you standing above her. Holding the bloody dagger.”

  “I was trying to save her,” Blacksage says.

  “Enough!” Leif says, throwing up his arms. “I know what I saw.”

  Leif turns and kicks his chair away. The wooden chair tumbles out of his way and he storms out of the room.

  Lisette looks at me, then at everyone else, and then gets up. “I’m sorry, but I…I think I’d better go check on him.”

  Blacksage merely bows. Zarine smiles and with a flick of her wrist says, “I’ll have some of the servants bring you some food later.”

  “Thanks,” Lisette says, getting up out of her chair and then pushing it back in. Before leaving, she shoots me one last glance. Then she rushes out of the room to go console Leif.

  When I turn back around, I have my game face on. Looking to Grand Magus Blacksage, I’m about to demand that he tell me everything, when he raises a hand to delay me.

  “Maybe it’s best if I start from the beginning,” he begins, predicting what I was going to say.

  It’s only a moment after he starts talking that there is a flicker, and Blacksage becomes translucent, fading away as he speaks. To my astonishment, he vanishes mid-sentence.

  “What just happened?” I ask, turning to Zarine for answers.

  “Magus Blacksage can only maintain his presence in the corporeal world for a limited time. It’s a strain on his energies and he must renew himself before he can manifest his avatar again.

  “How long until then?” I ask.

  “About eight to ten hours,” Zarine says. “Until that time, I shall see you back to your rooms so that you can enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  19

  Zarine accompanies Alegra and me back to our suite. Before entering the room, she nods me to step aside and have a word with her. I touch Alegra’s shoulder. “You go on ahead,” I say. “I need to have a word with Zarine.”

  Alegra nods with understanding, then opens the door and retires to our chambers. Once she’s safely inside, I turn to Zarine. She looks up and down the hall and then takes my elbow in her hand and pulls me aside, away from prying ears.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  When she begins talking, I note that she continues to hold my elbow in an affectionate manner. “I’m worried about your friend Leif.”

  I glance over my shoulder toward his chambers. “I know what you mean.”

  “It’s more than that,” she informs me. “Blacksage was hiding something.”

  Aghast, I search Zarine’s dark eyes for a hint of meaning. “Hiding something? Like what?”

  “This evening, when the magus manifested in the room, I felt another presence accompanying him. Something dark. Something evil.”

  “But I didn’t see anyone else.”

  “That’s just it,” Zarine says, glancing up and down the corridor nervously, “there wasn’t anyone. Which means it was probably a vengeful spirit.”

  “Which explains why I couldn’t see them.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But why would he bring an angry spirit into the world of the living. What’s he up to?”

  “That’s the part that bothers me,” Zarine says. “I have had a sneaking suspicion for quite some time that the Grand Magus has been compromised. I’ve been ordered to investigate Blacksage and suss out whether he is in in league with Darkthorne. If so, and he did bring over a vengeful wraith, then this might be the first clue as to his unholy allegiance with the witch. I can’t prove it just now. It’s just a gut feeling. But if there is an evil stalking us from the shadows, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least warn you. And maybe, sleep with one eye open tonight, if you catch my meaning
.”

  “You think he intends to do one of us harm?”

  Zarine shoots me a solemn gaze. “I think he already has. I think the vengeful wraith has already possessed one of you. I’m just not certain whom.”

  “Aren’t you risking a lot by telling me all of this? What if I’m the one who has been compromised and I’m the wraith?”

  Suddenly, Zarine and I are standing so close that our hips brush against one another. She places both hands on my arms and looks deep into my eyes, searching for any sign that I’m not who I say I am. “I’m not sensing anything from you.”

  “And you’d know?”

  Zarine closes her eyes and leans in. As she probes our immediate surroundings with her mind, I can’t help but fixate on her dark painted lips. The memory of our kiss back in Bellera comes rushing back to mind.

  “If you were the wraith,” she informs me, her eyes still closed, “then you wouldn’t be thinking about the kiss we shared.”

  “You…read my mind?!” I gasp.

  She opens her eyes and smiles at me. “I’m sorry. I needed to be certain.”

  Now that I know I’m me, the real me, I turn to head back to my chambers. Before I can pull away from Zarine, however, she grabs my arm and holds me firm, like an anchor. “Just be careful.”

  I look back at her and smile. “I didn’t know you cared, Zee.”

  “Oh, I care. More than you know.”

  For a moment, it seems like she’s confessing something. But what exactly, I’m not sure. After all, she’s betrothed to Sabine. And until recently Zarine and I have always gone at it like cats and dogs. So, it’s a little disorienting to have her be so affectionate toward me.

  “You be careful too,” I say. “If you’re too nice to me I might think it’s you who is compromised.”

  Zarine smiles at me and I turn and head back to my room. I can feel her eyes on me the whole way, watching me, and I find myself enjoying it. I don’t know why, but it feels good. Better yet, it’s a huge relief to finally know that Zarine is on my side.

  Until tonight, all her actions were shrouded in mystery. I never knew if she was helping me or working against me. But it seems, all things considered, she might actually be trying to protect me. And as sweet as that is, she ought to know me well enough by now to know that I don’t need protecting. Still, it’s the thought that counts.

  I bolt the room door behind me, and turn toward Alegra, who stands near the fire looking at me with an expression void of any hint of emotion.

  “Did you hear?”

  “Everything.”

  “So, who do you think it is?” I ask her.

  “I don’t know. It could be any of us. But my fears are that it is Lisette.”

  “Why Lisette?” I ask, my curiosity piqued at how she arrived at that conclusion.

  “You heard what Leif said at dinner. Magus Blacksage killed his woman. It would make sense he sent the wraith to finish the job.”

  “And you think Lisette has been made into an assassin to finish this ongoing feud between Blacksage and Leif?”

  Alegra wraps her arm around her torso and clasps onto her other arm with her other hand and swivels nervously. “You asked my opinion on who I thought it might be. That makes the most sense.”

  I’m about to mention who I think it is when a shriek cuts thought the hallway.

  Alegra and I lock onto one another. Our eyes as big as saucers. “That was Lisette,” I say.

  “It came from Leif’s room,” Alegra adds.

  Without hesitation, we rush out into the hall and make our way to the door. I push on the handle, but the door has been secured.

  “Stand back,” I tell Alegra, brushing her aside. Taking a few steps back, I concentrate, then mutter to myself, “Here goes nothing.”

  I rush forward and ram the door. With a gush of wind my body flies into the wooden doors. And with an equal force I rebound off and fall straight on my ass.

  “Oomph!” I gasp, landing hard.

  Alegra helps me back up. With her hand clasped around my forearm, she pulls me up and then says, “Together.”

  This time, with Alegra’s help, we give ourselves as much distance between ourselves and the door we can. “Ready?” I ask.

  “Ready,” Alegra says.

  With in-sync timing, we push off and charge the door. At full speed, we slam shoulder-first into the door together. There is a loud crack and then the sound of splintering wood.

  Luckily, with our combined weight, it is enough to break though. Pushing through to the other side, we stumble and both crash down into the middle of the floor.

  Unfortunately, breaking in the door was enough to dislocate my right shoulder. Alegra fares better, only having the wind knocked out of her, and rolls over onto her back trying to gasp for air that can’t come soon enough. Finally, her diaphragm relaxes and she gets the air she needs. She coughs a few times as her lungs readjust to her breathing pattern.

  I attempt to sit up, but my arm is shattered. I scream from the intense pain and then fall back down onto my busted arm. It feels like a thousand red-hot needles piercing my flesh as I crash down onto the floor. I can’t help but scram again.

  Alegra rushes to my side and helps me sit up. “You’re hurt,” she says, shooting me a worried look.

  “I think I dislocated my arm,” I inform her, my right arm hanging limp at my side.

  Lisette screams out, and we both look up to see her cowering in the corner of the suite, behind the bed, opposite us. Meanwhile, Leif is holding a dagger. He stands between Lisette and the black misshapen shadow that falls across the wall.

  If I were asked to describe it, I could not. My stomach fills with dread and a shiver ripples down my spine as I glance upon its hideous form. The monster has the general form of a man, yet is not a man. It looks like a beast of a sort, with giant clawed hands and lanky arms that hand in front of it like an ape. It seems to have fur, or feathers, but it’s hard to distinguish, for the creature has no solidity. It’s transparent like the shade of a great willow tree, but is solid enough to have a most terrible presence whereby a strange rushing of air passes over your skin as it moves by.

  “Stay back,” Leif shouts. “It’s a wraith.”

  Leif charges the shadow creature. It grabs him, picks him up off the ground, and then tosses him across the room as though he were a child’s plaything. He hits the opposite wall so hard that he falls to the ground along, with chunks of plaster that crumble out of the indentation left by his body.

  Leif tries to push himself up, but between a few fractured ribs and a case of severe vertigo from where he hit his head, he crumples back to the floor, clutching his chest and groaning from the intense pain.

  “Hey, ugly!” I shout up at the shadow creature. For a moment, it turns its attention to me. Its eyes flash yellow with a sickly energy. Puffing up my chest, I thump my fist against my breast, and do my best to provoke it further in the hopes of keeping its attention on me and off Lisette. “Yeah. I’m talking to you!”

  It turns back toward Lisette, ignoring my attempts to distract it, and it lurches toward her. She screams again.

  “I have an idea,” Alegra says. With that, she turns around and dashes out of the room.

  “Wait…” I say, holding up my hand. But then I hear Lisette scream again. I turn my attention back to the shadow monster in time to see it pounce on Lisette. Its clawed fingers latch onto her left leg and it flings her across the room. Lisette’s unbroken streak of good luck holds out, however, when she crashes into a sofa. She topples over it and somersaults to the ground.

  Searching the room, I find a vase full of flowers and pick it up. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” I holler across the room at the creature. I heave the vase into the air and send it hurling toward the monster. But the vase, along with its contents, pass right through the creature as though it were merely shade.

  The black form ignores my futile attempts to draw its attention away from its intended victim, when suddenly
, Alegra reappears in the room gripping tight to the Sword of Runes.

  Screaming, she lunges toward the monstrous shadow stalking Lisette, and plunges the sword into its side.

  Unexpectedly, the creature yowls, as though it has been struck a death blow, and it lurches back. Alegra pulls the sword back as it pulls away and a spray of blood splashes onto the wall.

  “You will not harm this girl,” Alegra says, stepping next to Lisette as she lets the living shadow know that we now have a means to fight it.

  But the monster seems determined more than ever to get to Lisette, and it tears across the room faster than a cyclone, tossing up furniture in its wake. It then slams into Alegra full bore—at great risk to itself.

  Alegra is flung into the air and loses grip of the sword. The blade falls to the floor with a clangor and I scream out Alegra’s name.

  “Alegra!” My training kicks in, and I duck and roll, grabbing ahold of the sword as I go. Rising to my feet, with the Sword of Runes, I leap into the air and bring it crashing down onto the creature’s back.

  The beast lets out a hideous yowl and scurries to the side of the wall. Then it reaches out, grabs Lisette around her waist with its meaty talons, and crawls up the wall, like an ink blot that defies gravity, and evades my attack.

  It takes Lisette with it, who screams out in desperation. “Arianna!”

  I track the shadow as it slithers across the ceiling, and then drops down in front of the open balcony that overlooks the jagged spires of Koroth. It turns to me and its eyes flash again. Then, without provocation, it throws Lisette out the twin doors and over balcony railing. She shrieks as she sails over the edge.

  At this height, the fall is a veritable death sentence. In the split-second it takes me to react, I find I’m already screaming “Nooo!” as I race toward the open balcony.

  The sound of my cry escapes my lungs the entire time it takes me to race across the room to the ledge. The shadow creature scurries away at my approach, but the creature isn’t what I’m after. Without a moment’s hesitation, I leap onto the balcony railing of carved stone, the Sword of Runes in my hand, and dive off.