Stolen Chaos: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Cardkeeper Chronicles Book 1)

by A. C. Nicholls

  Although it only looked small from outside, the interior of the Vault went far deeper. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it was some kind of optical illusion. This was, after all, one of the standing pillars to the Sacred Temple of R’hen – a place where even Cardkeepers are forbidden. A place where magic is said to have begun, several thousand years ago.

  Weaving between the dark, cobblestone walls, I followed the candlelight through to the card room. Tired and weary, all I wanted to do was head home and shower. But first I had to deposit the cards somewhere safe.

  I walked to the back of the empty room, my footsteps echoing through the emptiness. Reaching out to touch the brick wall, the magic barrier broke open and a brick shifted back on itself, granting me access to the card storage. First, I slid the telekinesis card into the empty hole and watched it being taken by the Vault itself. A series of multi-colored lights danced around as if to scan it, before it slipped inside and left me with nothing more than the empty hole.

  “You know, there’s nothing stopping you from using Krav’s card as your own source of magic,” Link said, scaling my sleeve and coming to rest in my breast pocket. He must have liked the plush and cushioned environment. “Why not try it on for size?”

  I grunted a very small and very fake laugh. “From the ignorance of your question, I can tell that you’ve never used a magicard before. The power begins to wear on you, and it hurts like a mother even when it’s a good card.”

  There laid problem number one with being a Cardkeeper; each card is infused with the soul of a powerful mage. Using their card allowed you to temporarily borrow their power. But the cost? Their personalities also began to transfer over. Before long, you started to think like them, and shortly after that, you began to behave like them. That was all well and good when it was a kind-spirited mage, but when it was someone like Krav? Better to keep that brand of evil locked up tight.

  Problem number two was even worse. The best magic – the spells that were really useful – were all designed by evil bastards with a hunger for nothing but anarchy. So when I was faced with having to track a renegade mage and had to arm myself, I usually ended up with something as useful as porridge-heating powers.

  “Say no more,” Link said, sliding the Krav card from my hand and putting it in place in the wall. “Let’s put this bugger away and hope he’s afraid of the dark.”

  Before the barrier had finished accepting the second card, I turned on my heel and made for the exit. I was dying to scrub myself clean. The bruises would heal faster than a human’s and I would look at least approachable by morning, as long as I slept okay.

  But what I saw next took sleep off the table.

  “Keira Poe.” A hood covered the face of the cloaked man in the doorway, but his yellow sash indicated he was just a messenger. “Dalton and the Elders request your appearance in the Grand Hall.”

  My heart dropped to the vicinity of my toes. The Grand Hall was off-limits unless something serious had happened. Last time I’d been summoned, I had been given news of Manhattan’s own Vault, and how the Keeper of that pillar had been murdered. This time, I expected something just as bad.

  Little did I know, it would be far, far worse.

  Chapter 3

  I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I entered the Grand Hall. Not a welcoming party, that was for damn sure. A Cardkeeper tended to be acknowledged but not particularly liked. Not by the Elders at least. But I’d never expected to be sandwiched in the middle of a hooded-man bitching contest.

  “Once madness like this hits the earth, how much longer do you think it will take for the Vaults themselves to be threatened?” I heard one of them demand. They must have been Elders from a different region’s Vault. I’d heard about them before, but never met them.

  “That is a problem we must deal with when it comes.” Although they all wore the same robes with identical black sashes, I recognized Dalton by his firm but calm voice. I’d never heard him talk in any other way, which sometimes made it hard to decipher his emotions.

  “You’re a damn fool, and we’re all doomed!” The angry Elder and six of the robed men lowered their heads and stormed off into the darkness without looking back.

  While their feet scuffed across the floor, I shifted my gaze to the incredible architecture of the hall. Larger than anyone could imagine, candlelight reflected off the marble surfaces. Pillars the size of small buildings stood at the back, leading into a dark area where no Keeper had ever dared to venture. The place into which the men had just disappeared.

  “Touchy,” Link joked, still perched on my shoulder.

  “Inappropriate,” I whispered.

  A heavy iron door groaned and then slammed shut in the distance. We were no longer alone. Swallowing the awkward lump in my throat, I stalked toward the burning ember pit in the center of the hall, where the three remaining men stood watching.

  “Lady Keira,” Dalton said. Shorter men stood on each side of him. These three always spoke as one, using only Dalton as their voice. A soothing voice that evoked trust in the listener. “Thank you for coming.”

  “What happened? Why were the other Elders here?”

  Dalton turned his back to the fire, and his companions turned with him. They moved in perfect syncopation, only a second behind their leader. “A terrible thing. Hmm.”

  I shook the nerves from my hands, my eyes returning to the darkness. A part of me expected to see something huge and horrible leap out at us, snapping jaws and swiping claws. After all, there must have been some urgent reason I had been summoned, and as far as I could tell, Chicago was in no immediate danger.

  Link tugged at my hood, staying quiet but waving a hand to suggest that I investigate.

  “Allow me to be of service to you,” I said humbly, showing respect where it was due.

  Dalton and the Elders were said to be the first ever mages. If true, their births would date back thousands of years and their power would be… unimaginable. My mind drifted back to when I had first been appointed a Keeper, brazen enough to ask why they didn’t guard the magicards. They never did give me an answer, but Jasper had suggested it was because of their frailty. Understandable, I guess, if your bones were older than Jesus.

  Dalton and the Elders began to walk, heading toward a door at the left of the grand pillars, hidden by their subtlety.

  “Come,” he said.

  What choice did I have but to follow? I knew where we were going. As I was led through a series of doors and through a long and winding hallway, my mind raced with the implications. The most dangerous of magicards were kept in the Dark Room. Even a Cardkeeper wasn’t allowed inside without the company of an Elder. I hadn’t been in there in fifteen years.

  We stopped inside the room. Link slid down my body and onto the floor before stretching out his arms with a yawn. It wasn’t like him to be walking around by our feet – he hated the idea of being stomped into faery juice – but if he didn’t feel safe in the Dark Room then he simply never would.

  “Tell me,” Dalton began as the two Elders spread out, standing on either side of the door behind me. “Does something within these walls feel amiss?”

  I was in no mood for games, but I had to play. I scanned the place with my eyes – a small room with three sconce-lit walls and multi-colored magical barriers to guard the cards. It took me a moment, but when I saw Link pointing at the barriers one after the other, it finally clicked.

  “There are only five cards,” I said under my breath, feeling a sudden chill run through me. “One’s missing.”

  Dalton nodded, his face still hidden beneath the hood of his dark, silky robe.

  “Please tell me it’s being transported to another Vault for safekeeping.” My presence already revealed the answer. But a girl can dream, right? Stark silence met my question and I sighed. “Dare I ask which card?”

  “We suspect that it was stolen within the past few days,” Dalton said, avoiding my question. He wasn’t the type to keep things from me
, so I’d have to be patient. “I don’t know how the thief slipped past us, but we think it was an invisibility spell of some kind.”

  I wasn’t buying it. We Keepers could sense magic a mile off, even if it were just a faint scent. Sniffing out evil was how I would track down dangerous mages and bring them in for trial. “Did you confront Jasper? Surely they must have used the portal to gain access?”

  Dalton nodded, his hood bobbing in a methodical rhythm. “Yes. Yes, we first suspected him of treason. When we bestowed a truth spell upon him and asked the right questions, it became clear to us that he wasn’t involved.”

  “So then, who?”

  “A former Cardkeeper.”

  I shook my head. As much as I wanted to agree, indulge in the luxury of solid theory, this whole thing seemed too messed up to make any sense. It fed on my anxiety, filling me with dread. “All of the previous Cardkeepers are dead.”

  “Or so we thought.” Dalton placed his hands together, covering them with the baggy sleeve of his robe. Lowering his head even further, he walked carefully around Link and stood by the wall – the one with the missing barrier. “There is a chance that we were misinformed. If one still lives, he or she would be able to access the Vault without our knowledge.”

  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that a Keeper’s death had simply been misdiagnosed. Without that final confirmation, I would never have been sought to take my predecessor’s place.

  “With a magicard like this on the streets, the world could be in grave danger. If the wielder so chooses, the portal could be crossed and Chicago’s Vault would be the first to fall. Whichever pillars followed thereafter, the Sacred Temple of R’hen would be threatened.”

  I wasn’t sure about my own gulp, but I could hear Link’s from across the room.

  “Lady Keira.” Dalton stepped closer, and then reached out to take my hand in his. It was cold to the touch. “Could you take it upon yourself to retrieve this magicard, and bring it back to its rightful place?”

  Wincing, I drew my hand away and folded my arms. “Which card was stolen?”

  Dalton sighed and turned his back on me, heading for the door. When he stopped between the two Elders, he craned his neck over his shoulder, and whispered one short, terror-inducing word.

  “Chaos.”

  My knees nearly buckled at the strained syllable. Horror stories surrounded the Chaos card, each one scarier than the last. Legend alluded to the card belonging to Merlin himself, before it drove him insane and led him to slaughter. Merlin’s heart had fallen to the power of Chaos, and his magic was no longer his to control. Some said that it was a form of possession – a ghostly entity that consumed your soul and took over your body. No one revealed the sordid truth to mortals out of respect for all the good things that Merlin had done.

  After all of this, it was no wonder the card had been locked away in the Dark Room.

  Link latched onto the lace of my boot. He sat there, tugging at the leg of my pants to grab my attention. I tried to ignore it at first, but he annoyed me into acknowledging him.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “You should do it.”

  My mouth hung open in shock. Link had always been quite the coward, and morally angelic thoughts didn’t occur to him. “I thought you were afraid of all things magic and danger?”

  Link rolled his eyes. “I’m not afraid. I’m just… cautious. Look…” He held the material of my robe real tight, pulling it taught as he climbed up into my hand. “Let’s look at the facts; this evil doohickey has been nicked from your magic safe, right?”

  I glanced over at Dalton, who stood in silence. “Right…”

  “So if you don’t get it back, we’re all going to die. I don’t know about you, but I quite like being alive. I mean, your choices are quite limited anyway. You can either find the card, or sit back and enjoy a couple of films until the world implodes.”

  “It wouldn’t implode,” Dalton chimed in. “The skies would turn a terrible hue, and Mother Nature would wreak havoc on the land. The pillars of R’hen would–”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Link rested against my chest with an outstretched arm. “Terrible hue and Mother Nature. In short, the world will end unless you do this. And hey, if it doesn’t work out, you can always say that you tried.”

  I hated to admit it, but he had a point. After all, there was a reason I had become a Cardkeeper, and it wasn’t my tendency to surrender. Steeling myself, I looked to Dalton and the Elders, nodding my acceptance of the mission.

  “You have our gratitude,” Dalton said. “You can begin at Jackson Park.”

  “Why? What’s at Jackson Park?”

  “Such power was seen there last night. If you hurry, there is a chance you will find a clue before the elements sweep it away.” Without another word, Dalton turned and fled the room, his Elders following in perfect pace behind him.

  Of all the things that could have happened today, did it have to be a goddamn stolen magicard? After my earlier beating, I would have sooner made out with a vampire than chased down such a destructive power.

  I took a deep breath and looked at Link. “Come on, then.”

  “Come on?” he said, his forehead creasing up with a frown. “Where?”

  “I’m going to switch out my magicard and then we’re going to take a look at this park.”

  Link shook his head violently. “Oh, no, no, no. I meant that you could go and retrieve the card. In no way did that suggest that I wanted to be a part of it. Put me down, Keira, and I’ll make sure your apartment is nice and warm for when you return.”

  “No way,” I said, scowling. “You helped get me into this mess, so you can damn well help get me out of it. Besides, it’s your world to protect, too.”

  Chapter 4

  Fire had seemed like an appropriate kind of magic, considering my mood. Even after I had taken the magicard and cleaned myself up at home, I still felt ready to scorch off someone’s eyebrows. I mean, could my day have gotten any worse?

  Night had fallen by the time we arrived at Jackson Park. The pale moon illuminated a path through the maze of trees, but there was still something eerie about the place. It was as though everybody had cleared out, sensing the danger. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as bright as those people. Then again, I was far stronger.

  “How long do we have to be here?” Link asked, walking beside me. If a human saw him trotting along in his ragged clothes, they would probably freak out. And who could blame them? Faeries weren’t exactly common in the South Shore area.

  “As long as it takes.”

  Link exhaled a long-suffering sigh, a frustrating trait at the best of times. “And what are we looking for, exactly?”

  “I’ll know when I see it.”

  I really had no idea what we would find. It could be a mage, a demon, or any other creature. The ones your parents always said were only make-believe. On the other hand, it might just be a big, fat false alarm. That was the problem with this job: nothing was certain, and everything was dangerous.

  I readied myself as we walked further into the woods. The safe, Woodlawn Street was far behind us now, and we were slipping straight into a blanket of darkness. There was no sign of anything extraordinary, though I couldn’t help but notice the lingering scent of magic.

  Smells like… sulfur.

  “This way,” I told link, following my nose into a group of trees. My foot landed on hardened soil – something I hadn’t expected after padding on a carpet of fake grass for so long. It caused a slight stumble.

  “I can’t see a bloody thing,” Link complained from somewhere at my side.

  Neither could I. I hated to have to do it, but I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to bring a flashlight. I ground my teeth, closed my eyes and focused to become one with the magicard in my pocket, a process that I only had to go through once. It was a Cardkeeper’s way of getting on her knees and surrendering to the soul of the mage.

  Something inside me wea
kened – a dependable part of me no longer existed. I supposed it was the price to pay for using this particular card. I’d known all about the mage within; he’d been a hero during the First World War, out fighting for his country when a total stranger had stabbed his wife. The tragedy has darkened his heart and he’d fallen susceptible to revenge. The streets of Chicago became unsafe for over fifty years until someone foiled his reign of randomly selected murders. How do I know all this? Well, let’s just say that it was me who stopped him.

  Filling my mouth with an acidic taste, the power of the card finally accepted me. I felt a warmth flow through my veins. My right arm began to glow from inside, trailing from my shoulder and exiting through my palm. An open flame ignited in my hand, and I spread my fingers to accommodate it, letting it light up our surroundings.

  “All right,” said Link, nodding his head. “Not your most boring trick.”

  I smiled and continued searching the woods. A plain of scorched soil crunched beneath our feet, as if a fire had spread through here. The naked trees and their fallen leaves were charcoaled, slowly being swept away by the wind.

  “Something awful happened here,” I said. “I can feel it.”

  Link scurried up my leg and nested on my shoulder. “If you insist on scaring me half to death, do me the kindness of letting me sit upon the magic mountain first, hey? I don’t want to get stomped on because of your stupid mission.”

  “Stupid?” I crooked an eyebrow. “You encouraged this.”

  “And now I’m unencouraging it.” He rolled his eyes back into his head, as if to think of something. “Is… that a word? Unencouraging… It is. It is a word.”

  I was certain that it wasn’t, but I continued into the trees regardless, my palm held out to light the area before us. Using this magic for something so trivial probably wasn’t my smartest move, but what can I say? I had to look around before it was too late.