His Cure For Magic (Book 2)

by M. R. Forbes

  A woman in stained rags dashed up behind him, finding the dagger in his belt and using it to stab him in the back. Instead of attacking Silas, he fell towards him. Silas grabbed the soldier's sword, and then pushed him from the ledge.

  "Fine work," he said, handing her the sword.

  "The exit is back that way," she replied, pointing past him.

  Silas looked back the way he had come. A ten foot gap had been created when he'd knocked the platform over. "There has to be another way."

  She shook her head.

  Silas scanned the cavern. Had he just accidentally trapped them here? He went to the edge of the gap and looked down. There was another set of planks there, twenty feet below. He'd been lucky enough to survive the first jump, and he was fit. The prisoners were strong from mining, but he couldn't picture them making the drop.

  He heard shouting coming from above, and then the sound of steel against steel. He looked up in time to watch the archer who had been attacking him go tumbling over the edge. It was followed by the head of a prisoner looking down on them.

  "Hold there, Hero," he said. "Your army is here."

  ###

  "I'm glad you're safe," Silas said, wrapping Eryn in his arms. He kept it short and simple, lest any of the questionable rumors spread.

  "I was worried about you," she replied. She put her hands to a tear in his shirt and the deep cut in his arm, caused by the rough landing on the platform. He hadn't felt the damage at the time, but now it was beginning to throb.

  Saretta approached them. Silas had been pleased to learn she was the one who had stabbed the soldier in the back. A strong-jawed woman with the wiry muscle of the undernourished but hard-working miners, with wavy brown hair and sparkling green eyes. "All of the men we sent out are back. These are the rest of the survivors."

  Silas looked over her shoulder to the forty or so prisoners being led towards them. "How many does that make?" Silas asked.

  "Four hundred and seventy-eight," she replied, unable to hide the sadness in her voice. They had lost more than half.

  The rest had already been moved to the entrance of the mines, armed with anything they could take from the soldiers. It had taken some time for 'the Hero's Army', as they called themselves, to overcome the remaining guards and lower a rope to rescue Silas and the others. By his calculation, they had three hours remaining to get out and away before any reinforcements could arrive.

  "May Amman bless you, Silas," Loshe said. He had half a dozen prisoners trailing behind him, haggard, worn, and scared. "I'll take the rest up to the entrance."

  Silas nodded. He hadn't asked them to follow him, but every man and woman who had gotten within reach had bowed before him, kissed his hands, or bent their knee. As the six prisoners passed, each of them thanked him and Eryn both.

  "Thank you, Loshe," Silas said. "We'll be right behind you."

  He bowed his head and kept moving.

  "Why did you want me to stay behind?" Saretta asked.

  "We didn't just come here to rescue the people in this mine," Silas said. "I wish I could say differently, but we had a greater purpose."

  Her eyes crossed over both of them. "I suspected as much. I'm no fool, Silas. You have nothing to gain by stirring up his armies over a thousand prisoners, especially when there are much bigger mines you could have targeted."

  Silas smiled. "I find it hard to believe you were a librarian," he said.

  "I've read many things in my life. While books on war strategy have been banned and burned, the principals of becoming a successful merchant are not so different. The most important rule of which is to pick your battles and win the war, not the skirmish. It's easy for a merchant to discount their wares to make them more popular, but if it leaves them no capital to expand-"

  "We came for you," Silas said. "You are the prize."

  She stopped talking and looked thoughtful. "Davin sent you, didn't he?"

  "Yes."

  "You want to go to the Dark?"

  "Yes."

  "And the journal?"

  "Yes, again."

  She paused, silent, and then her laughter echoed in the cave.

  "What's so funny?" Eryn asked.

  "The thought crossed my mind that if I had been killed, you would be in serious trouble."

  It was Silas' turn to laugh. "The thought just crossed my mind, my dear, that you are not an easy woman to kill."

  "You don't know the half of it," she said. "Lead the way, Silas."

  They started walking through the tunnel back to the surface together.

  "Have you read the journal?" Eryn asked while they walked.

  "The one I found? I've only been able to decipher bits and pieces. I worked very hard to spare the books that were found from the fires, and Davin helped me smuggle some of the more important titles away, but Overlord Prezi has always kept a close eye on our work. It is difficult to learn an alphabet without a volume of materials to cross-reference."

  Yet somehow, Aren had done it. He was always a bright boy. His mother's son.

  "What can you tell us about it?" Silas asked.

  "Not much. Even though I have worked out some of the alphabet, many of the words have little meaning to me. As near as I can tell, it belonged to some kind of healer."

  They walked in silence. The sounds of the prisoners organizing grew louder as they neared the surface.

  "What of the Dark?" Silas said. "How did you find it?"

  "A map. An ancient map. It was found after a heavy rainfall washed away some sediment not far from here. Only, it wasn't called the Dark. It was labeled in the ancient alphabet. I translated it to 'Genesia'. Davin told me to stay away from there, but I had to see if it still existed."

  "What did you find?"

  "I found that the stories parents tell their children about the Dark aren't that far from the truth. It is lost in a layer of fog that makes the skin tingle as soon as it makes contact against it. You begin to hear things and see things that aren't there. It's a strange feeling, a terrifying feeling. I made it a hundred feet down the slope before I could stand it no longer and fled."

  "Not before you found the journal," Eryn said.

  "Not before I found the corpse," Saretta replied. "I don't know how long it had been resting there, but laying next to it was a thick leather sack, and in the sack was the book."

  "There was nothing else in the sack?"

  "A tooth. At least, I think it was a tooth. Whatever it belonged to, I hope never to cross paths with it. I left it with the sack. I only took the journal. I think the corpse was another fool like me, who made it further down into the Dark than I did."

  They reached the mouth of the tunnel, exiting into the entrance of the mine. The prisoners were all there, huddled in groups and talking to one another. They had only taken a few steps when a hush fell over them all.

  "Here's to the Heroes of Elling," Loshe cried. Shouts of joy echoed around them.

  Silas raised his hand, quieting them. "I haven't saved you," he said. "I've merely opened the door for you. Now you must work to save yourselves. Stay clear of his soldiers, spread out and vanish into the countryside. Find a small village to settle in."

  "What about our families?" a voice asked. "I want to go home."

  "You can't go home," Silas said. "If you do, you and everyone you love will be put to death. Your old life ended the moment you set foot in this horrible place. I'm afraid that leaving it doesn't change that."

  A silence fell over the prisoners. Some of them were sobbing.

  "What about the rebellion?" Loshe asked. "I want to fight."

  "Aye, I want to fight too," someone else said.

  "If I can't go home, I want to fight."

  The sentiment travelled around the mine, until it shook with their pleas to join the rebellion.

  Silas looked at Eryn.

  "Go to Portnis," she said. "But not all together. You must spread apart, or you will draw attention and his armies will find you and ride you down. The reb
ellion is growing in Portnis. Find a safe place and ask after it."

  The din of the prisoners grew as they spoke to one another of their plans. They could accept the loss of their families if they could serve them in another way.

  "Loshe," Silas said, motioning the man over. "Do you know these lands well?"

  "Yes, my Lord. My father was a merchant. He was poor, but he worked hard. I travelled all over Varrow and Portnis with him, and even to Edgewater a couple of times. I know many of the villages and towns along the way."

  "I want you to organize these people. No more than six to a group. Try to find someone who knows the land to lead them. You have to get them out of here as fast as you can, because his soldiers will be on their way. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, my Lord. I'm honored to have your trust. You can count on me."

  Silas smiled. "I know I can."

  Loshe bowed and walked into the crowd of prisoners, raising his voice above their murmurs and getting their attention. General Talon Rast knew a leader when he saw one.

  "The three of us need to return to Varrow," he said. "Davin will be eager to hear from you, and Eryn and I will both need a day or two to recover before we'll be ready to visit this Genesia."

  "I don't need to rest," Eryn said.

  Silas knew she was lying. Her eyes were bloodshot, and he had seen her reach out to steady herself against the walls of the tunnel more than once. He'd also seen her clutch at her hip, but her armor was unscathed.

  "I'm an old man, my dear," he replied. He lifted his wounded shoulder. "I'll need Urla to stitch this, and a couple of days to make sure it doesn't get infected. I expect that we'll be able to make some progress on the journal in that time so it won't be for nothing."

  "As you say, my friend."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Eryn

  "We can rest for a minute, if you need," Silas said, putting his arm on Eryn's shoulder.

  "No, I'm fine."

  Eryn took a deep breath. Her thigh was on fire, burning from the outside in and threatening to drop her with every step. She was exhausted and dizzy, and something in her told her that to use her Curse again would be a huge mistake.

  They had left the mine an hour ago, riding horses to the edge of the Washfall woods and then abandoning them to travel on foot. Silas was sure his soldiers would be on their way, and that they would need to hide and skirt past them - something that would be impossible to do on horseback.

  She could tell he didn't believe her, but he nodded. They were making a desperate pace through the woods: run, stop, listen, run again. As long as they could hear the buzzing of insects and the calls of birds, they knew they were fine.

  They came to a stop behind a large, moss-covered boulder.

  There was no sound.

  "Wait here," Silas whispered to her and Saretta. He moved slowly, skulking around the side of the rock and turning his head in every direction. The only light they had was the dim light from the sky. It was just barely enough to move in.

  "He must be in a great deal of pain," Saretta whispered, pressing her shoulder against Eryn's.

  She had thought the same thing. The wound on his arm was deep enough that it was continuing to bleed, even after they had wrapped a bandage around it.

  Silas returned to them. "A single lantern, thirty feet away, held by someone on foot. It can't be soldiers."

  They would have been on horseback, and they would have been picking their way through the forest as quickly as they could.

  "We should go see," Eryn said.

  Silas nodded and led them away.

  Who would be out here?

  She could see the light now, an oil burning flame rocking side to side with the motion of its carrier. Whoever they were, they weren't moving very steadily, or very quietly.

  They tracked closer, until they were only ten feet away. That's when Silas broke into a run, charging towards the light. Eryn and Saretta were taken off-guard, and they lagged behind.

  He had a knife to the wanderer's throat by the time they arrived. He pulled it away a moment later.

  "Ames? What are you doing here?" Saretta rushed to the man's side.

  His shirt was a mess of blood and grime. His nose was broken, and a heavy flap of skin hung from the side of his face.

  "Saretta? They found you." His words were barely understandable through the wounds.

  "What happened?" Silas asked.

  Ames dropped to the dirt, all of the energy fleeing his body in an instant. Eryn couldn't even imagine how he had made it this far.

  "Lance," he said. "He betrayed me." He could have been crying, but it seemed impossible through the damage. "He killed Andreaus. We fought. I stabbed him in the chest, and he did this to me. He thought I was dead."

  "Why would he do that?" Eryn asked.

  "I don't know." He hung his head, his voice quieting. "I don't know." He sat like that for a few seconds, and then raised his head again. "I came to warn you."

  Silas looked around again. Eryn didn't need to be able to read his mind to know he was doing the calculations, figuring out how long it would have taken Lance to get back to Varrow and tell the soldiers, and how long it would have taken the soldiers to get to them.

  "They could be here any minute," he said. "Put out that lantern."

  Saretta reached down and grabbed the light from Ames' hands and snuffed it out. They sat in dark silence, their ears straining.

  Eryn swallowed, feeling the lump in her throat ride down her neck and bubble back up. The pain in her thigh was forgotten in the sudden fear.

  There was no sound in the woods around them. They waited to hear the return of the buzzing and chirping.

  Silence.

  Eryn felt it then. A soft tingle in the back of her neck, like an alarm bell ringing. Someone was using magic.

  "They're coming," she said. "A Mediator."

  "They must have seen the light," Saretta said.

  "We need to go, now!" Silas extended his hand to Ames to help him to his feet.

  "If Lance betrayed Ames, he betrayed Davin," Saretta said. "He will have fled Varrow. I know where he would go. This way."

  She pointed south.

  Eryn saw the light - a small blue ball darting through the trees and coming their way.

  "Come on," she said.

  "I'm staying," Ames said. "They found me. Just me. Go. Run."

  "Ames," Saretta said.

  "Go. Silas and Eryn need to survive, and so do you." He pulled his knife from his belt.

  The light was getting closer, illuminating the woods while the Mediator sat back at a distance and waited for them to be revealed.

  They didn't question, they just ran, flailing through brush and past trees as fast as they could move. Eryn looked back over her shoulder and watched as the light found Ames and circled his head. Whoever the Mediator was, he was skilled to have such fine control. She could only move the light in a straight line, and not very far.

  They kept moving, with Silas in the lead. He brought them back to the boulder where they had stopped the last time, and circled them around to the far side before coming to a stop.

  "We need to put some distance between one another. Saretta, where do we need to go?"

  "You'll never find it in the dark," she said. "There is a small cave to the south of here, about half a mile from a stream. He'll have it covered over in brush so you won't be able to see it, but there is an owl that rests in the tree next to it. It is a fake. Look for the owl."

  They heard a scream. Ames. Eryn felt the tears rush to her eyes unbidden.

  "Eryn, stay here. Hide in the crook beneath the stone. Only you can fit there. You understand where to go?" He looked pained to ask her to hide, but if he thought it was best she would trust him.

  "I know where to go. Do not worry, Silas. I'm a survivor."

  He smiled at that. "I know you are."

  Another scream made them all shiver.

  "He'll tell them we were there," Saretta said. "They
'll make him."

  "I know," Silas said. "Saretta, go south a bit, then find a tree to climb."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Lead them away."

  "What? Silas, they'll kill you," Eryn said. "Don't ask me to hide and then sacrifice yourself."

  Silas turned and looked at her, his eyes narrow. "I am the Champion of Ares-Nor. There are no soldiers in his army that can kill me without my permission, Cursed or no."

  Ares-Nor?

  She had never heard him call himself that. She had never heard his voice take such a sharp tone with her before. There had been times when he had shown the wisdom and experience of the General he used to be. Now he was the General once more.

  A third scream. She could tell by the sound of it that they had killed him. Silas' eyes were on fire, and she didn't consider questioning him again. She dropped onto her stomach and pushed herself under the stone.

  Saretta didn't question him either. She broke into a fresh run, away from the boulder. Eryn could hear horses now.

  "I love you," Silas said into the darkness. Then she could hear his feet moving away from her.

  "I love you, too," she whispered, but he was already gone.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Wilem

  Wilem closed his eyes when Kelkin finally put the large man they had come upon out of his misery, wishing he could cover his ears without drawing notice.

  The older Mediator had set his lungs on fire; a smoldering heat that caused immense pain without killing, to draw out the information he held.

  "Where are they?" Clau had asked. He was calm and forceful, a mountain of strength astride a heavy breathing stallion.

  The man had tried to hold his tongue. He had fought to stay loyal to the Liar and his Whore. He had even somehow managed to keep himself together while his lungs burned.