Goblinwraith
Page 5
I swear, Maveryck and his expensive tastes. I was surprised we weren’t eating on golden platters.
As the train left the city, ancient-looking buildings built with crumbling stones stood along the streets, and green countryside sprawled all the way to the horizon.
“I was like you once,” Maveryck said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
I eyed him. “Excuse me?”
“There was a time when I trusted no one.”
Where had this come from? “Who says I don’t trust anyone?”
He smirked. “It’s a little obvious.”
“Fine. Perhaps you’re right and I don’t trust anyone, but I have my reasons. Do you?”
“Yes, actually.” He took a sip from his glass. “In a way, my distrust was learned. My brother and I were always in a constant struggle for power and dominion, so I never learned to think of him as a friend. We sought to find one another’s weaknesses, to best each other. Brutality and subterfuge were how we survived.” He glanced at his hands. “But things changed. I met someone. She loved me honestly, and she had no hidden agendas, but what confused me most was her ability to put my needs above hers, even if it meant getting nothing in return.”
I didn’t reply, though my mind was buzzing with questions. He had someone already? If that was so, why had he kissed me? Perhaps he was more of a scoundrel than I thought.
“Where is she now?” I finally asked.
“She’s dead,” he answered. “Has been for a very long time, although to me it only feels like yesterday.”
“How did she die?”
“Lung sickness,” he answered. “We’d been married for a month when she contracted it. She died a week later. It was a stupid, senseless death, one that haunts me even now.”
Sorrow shone in his eyes. “You have to understand, I’m not quite like you. To me, memories don’t fade over time. If I allow them to surface, I can see them with such clarity it feels like only moments have passed instead of years, so I’ve taught myself to hide those memories. If I don’t, I would never be able to function.”
“Why don’t your memories fade?”
He shrugged. “As I said, I’m not quite like you.”
Typical Maveryck, never answering any of my questions. Did I expect anything else? I ate a few bites of bread and fruit, mostly because I wasn’t sure when we would have our next meal, and I had every intention of keeping up my strength so that I could slay the wraith, reclaim the staff, and be done with this quest.
Maveryck fell silent as the train passed through the countryside. He stared out the window, his gaze distant, as if he’d been swept away by his memories. What was it like to be able to replay memories in perfect clarity at a moment’s notice? And what would cause a person to have such an ability? I’d always known there was something different about him. It made me wonder what else he hadn’t told me about himself. And about his past.
As we traveled through the French countryside, past rows of vineyards, thatched-roofed houses, and small villages where churches with tall steeples stood out among the other buildings, I was reminded of everything I missed in Faythander. There were no fairies, no dragons in the sky, and no maywelters dancing over ponds. Although I couldn’t deny that this world was lovely, its beauty reminded me of what I didn’t have.
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the seat, thinking of how nice it would feel to be back in the keep, sitting in the leather chair by the fire after a long hunt. I would be free of Maveryck and his bewitching ways.
But did I really want to be free of him?
Opening my eyes, I found him still staring out the window, his gray eyes intent as he focused far away. What was he thinking about? It was uncanny how much he knew about this world. I’d nearly gone insane navigating through the train station while he’d had no trouble at all, like he’d done it a million times before.
As dusk approached, the train stopped at the Montpellier station. Maveryck and I made our way down to the train’s bottom level, filed in line, and then walked out the narrow doors.
The station at Montpellier was much smaller than the terminal in Paris, and soon we found the exit and walked outside into the calm evening.
The air tasted of salt, and I knew we were near the ocean.
Maveryck sighed as he glanced toward the setting sun. Its rays streaked across the sky, bands of red and pink against the jagged peaks of tall, ancient-looking buildings. The café and church’s stonework turned deep golden under the setting sun. Church bells chimed in the distance, a sound both melodic and haunting.
“I was hoping to make it before sunset,” he said. “Finding a boat and then locating the island won’t be easy to do in the dark.”
“Should we wait until morning?”
“No, there isn’t time.”
He searched behind us, seeming calm, but then again, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen him anxious. He was like a statue sometimes, so cool and collected that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Let’s get off the street,” he said, and then he led me down a narrow alley. Soon, we entered a walkway spanning the distance between the tall brick buildings, blocking out the last rays of sunlight.
With the loss of light came a chill in the air. Maveryck glanced behind us several more times as we made our way through the alley and then toward a harbor where boats docked. I also glanced back, but I couldn’t decide what he was looking at. As far as I could tell, there was no one following us.
Our footsteps rang out against the cobblestones as we descended a steep hill toward the harbor. Sailboats and small skiffs bobbed up and down as they floated in their moorings. Only a few fishermen milled about, most of them tying down their boats or lugging buckets full of fish out of their cargo holds.
Maveryck stopped by one of the fisherman and started a conversation.
Up until that point, I wasn’t sure how Maveryck acquired items. I’d thought of him as a skilled thief and nothing more, but as he stood there talking to the fisherman, I finally realized his true skill.
Deceit.
He could become whomever he needed to be in order to get what he wanted. My heart sank as I grasped the truth, and it dawned on me that it was very possible I had never seen Maveryck as he truly was. He could have been toying with me from the beginning.
In a matter of minutes, Maveryck stood untying the boat from the dock, the fisherman long gone, with only a promise from Maveryck to return the boat whenever he could.
“You used magic on him?” I asked while he continued to untie the boat.
“Magic? No. I told you my magic is limited. Professional reclamation does not require magic, but it does take skill and a good deal of acting.” He tossed me a coiled rope. “Put that on the deck, will you?”
I took the rope, laid it on the deck, and then turned back to him. “Tell me, how long have you been acting? Since you met me?”
“What?” He laughed. “Of course not.” He held out his hand. “Time to board. Are you ready to go home?”
I paused before taking his hand. Did I really need him? Wasn’t there any possible way to get home without him? My heart was getting too involved, and I feared I no longer exercised clear judgment when I was around him.
But once I got home, none of this would matter anyway. I would remember nothing, like it had never happened. That final thought gave me hope as I took his hand and stepped into the skiff.
I took a seat on one of the white-cushioned benches as Maveryck cranked the engine and then steered us away from the harbor. Again, I was clueless at his ability to control a motorized boat.
“How do you know how to drive this?” I asked him.
“It’s not so different from a Faythander vessel. Elven engines function with many of the same principles as the engines here, albeit their fuel is different—but that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.”
“Yet you seem uncannily comfortable in this world. Why?”
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“You’re right,” he agreed. “I’ve spent some time on Earth.”
“You must have been here for years to know as much as you do.”
He only smiled, and then he glanced behind us. His constant watchfulness was starting to annoy me.
“Do you see something?” I asked.
“No… I don’t see anything. It’s just—something else. Something feels wrong.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is the wraith following us?”
He shook his head as if to clear his mind. “I wish I knew.”
I tapped my fingers on the knife concealed under my jacket, feeling uncomfortable that we hadn’t seen the wraith since we began our journey. If he was following us, he was doing a good job of it. Hopefully he’d died from his injuries and we would never have to confront him again, but I doubted it. The most likely explanation was that he’d used magic to conceal his whereabouts. He could be right behind us and we’d never know until he slaughtered us both and stole the crystal.
The rushing wind and sea spray made the air uncomfortably cool, and I rubbed my arms together for warmth. Our boat’s lantern cast a beam of light over the dark water, and in the distance, I spotted rolling hills in front of a backdrop of stars. The roaring engine echoed through the harbor until we finally made it away from the small port, leaving the shelter of the cliffs, and continued out to the open ocean.
After a short time, Maveryck slowed the boat as he studied a map he’d pulled from his pack. Small waves lapped against the boat’s hull as we waited. Soon, Maveryck rolled the paper and continued forward.
Hours passed with nothing but the biting cold as our constant companion. The wind picked up with a shrill howl when we finally spotted the island. The jagged landmass seemed to cut through the sky.
Maveryck circled the island several times before finding a place to dock the boat.
“You’re sure this is the right place?” I asked as we stepped off the boat and onto the sand.
“Yes. There aren’t any other islands out here except this one.”
I stared across the beach—at the swaying palm trees, the rocky cliffs, and at the moon reflecting over the ocean. “How will we find the portal?”
“Naturally occurring portals usually form in water or in caves. The map shows the entrance to a cave in this horseshoe-shaped cove. Let’s hope we find it.” He glanced around the beach, his newly acquired nervous gesture that bothered me to no end, and then he switched on an Earth lantern and walked toward the cliffs. Except for our footsteps shifting in the sand, there was no sound—no night birds or boat engines, no lights at all except for our own.
Eventually, we walked into a grassy field. Up ahead, the dark shapes of cliffs loomed. Sharp grass cut my legs as we walked, making me wish I’d worn my leather pants. This was why Maveryck had no sense. When going on a quest, never let your companion wear a flimsy dress.
We reached the bottom of the cliff face. The crumbling rock and large boulders spread across the ground, as if half the mountain had recently collapsed. I picked my way over the stones, my feet crunching stray pebbles, until Maveryck stopped and shone his light at an opening.
It was too dark to see inside the cave, but even from this distance, I felt a chill emanating from it.
“Is this it?” I asked.
“Let’s hope so.” We climbed a small hill, and then we entered the cave. The mountain soon blocked out the moonlight, leaving us in darkness except for the lantern.
“Do the Earthlanders know about this cave?” I asked.
“It’s possible, but even if they did, most Earthlanders avoid places where Faythander magic bleeds through. Faythander and Earth magic don’t cooperate well, and in an area like this, where the two are connected, the combination usually makes for a pretty unstable place. I’d bet there have been plenty of tremors and rockslides in this area.”
Up ahead, a faint blue light glowed. We followed the source of the light until we entered a domed chamber with a large pool of glowing water at its center.
“Is this the portal?” I asked.
Maveryck knelt over the pool and held his hand above the water. “There’s magic in the water, but it feels distant.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think the portal is somewhere else. There might be a river underground, but I can’t be sure unless I dive under there and look.”
I paced along the edge of the shore. White sand covered the ground, and the water was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom, except the pool was so deep, it was hard to make out exactly where the bottom was from this angle. I found a ledge near the water’s edge and climbed on top. As I stood over the water, I saw something odd at the bottom of the pool. It glinted gold and had a round shape, about the size of a shield, but I couldn’t decipher anything else about it.
“What’s that?” I pointed toward the object.
Maveryck climbed up the ledge and stood beside me. “No idea. But it’s impossible to tell from here.” He turned to me. “Are you a good swimmer?”
“You want me to go in there?”
“One of us has to.”
“Why does it have to be me?”
“Because one of us will have to stand watch.”
I crossed my arms. He always came up with the worst plans. “In that case, I should be the one to stand watch. You’re useless in combat. Plus, if something magical is at the pool’s bottom, I’ll have no idea how to handle it.”
“So you’re suggesting I should go into the pool?”
Wasn’t he an intellectual? “Yes, I am.”
He studied the pool with apprehension. “Very well,” he said finally, and then he leapt off the ledge and walked toward the water’s edge. He removed his shoes and coat, and then unbuttoned his shirt. I dutifully kept watch over him, just as he’d asked. His chiseled chest and muscular arms certainly didn’t lend credence to my theory that he wasn’t a warrior. Although he lacked the bulk of most fighters I knew in Danegeld, his lean and toned muscles meant he must have physical skills of some sort, and I wasn’t sure if dancing around with a flimsy dueling sword counted.
He stood by the water’s edge wearing only his pants. The light from the water reflected off his bare skin, and I reminded myself to breathe. He’d clearly bewitched me. I’d have to demand he remove the spell. Some other time. Later. Of course not now.
He waded into the water, first to his knees and then to his thighs.
“Is it cold?” I called.
“No. Magic must be warming it. I’m going to dive to the bottom to see what’s down there. Make sure nothing tries to kill me.”
He took a deep breath and then submerged underwater. The rippling water distorted the shape of his body, but I still watched as he swam deeper.
A scraping sound came from behind me. I had my knife out before giving it a second thought, holding it in a firm grip. Its handle conformed to my hands like I’d used it a hundred times before.
I backed toward the cave’s only exit. The pool’s light didn’t reach the pathway, so making anything out in the darkness was impossible. The only chance I had of discovering an intruder was to watch for movement, but even then, they’d have to be fairly close for me to find them.
As I studied the dark opening, the ground rumbled beneath my feet. A small tremor shook the pebbles on the cavern’s floor. The rumbling stopped a few seconds later.
Behind me, water splashed. I rounded to find Maveryck swimming to shore, breathing heavily.
“What’s down there?” I asked.
“A spellcasted disc of some sort. It’s keeping the portal from functioning. I tried to remove it, but it’s too heavy for me to lift. You’ll have to come help me.”
I glanced back toward the path. If I went into the water, we would be completely vulnerable to an attack. But if I didn’t, we’d have no way of restoring the portal and no way of getting home.
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“Fine,” I grumbled, and then I walked to the water’s edge and removed my shoes. The knife holster around my waist would have to come off as well, so I unbuckled it and laid it aside, leaving my knife on the shore. Brushing my fingers over the dagger’s hilt, I still wasn’t sure if I had the nerve to use it, but if we were attacked, I’d have no other choice. I backed away from the knife and turned toward the water.
After removing everything decently possible, I stepped into the pool. The water was warmer than I expected—almost uncomfortably so. There must have been a great deal of magic interacting with the liquid.
“It’s easier to swim without your clothing,” Maveryck said.
“Ha! And give you the opportunity to seduce me once again. No thank you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m only trying to be helpful.”
“You’ve been helpful enough already,” I said, eying his bare torso and well-defined shoulders. Water dripped from his dark hair and ran in rivulets down his chest. The bluish glow of the water only served to make his eyes a more shocking shade of lavender. I wanted to know what his lips tasted like again.
He drew closer toward me and then outstretched his hand. “Are you coming?” he asked. I looked down at his hand. Maveryck made me feel things I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Excitement tingled through my body at the expectation of his touch even though I knew what getting close to him would do to me. Yet I couldn’t seem to control my movements as I reached out and placed my hand atop his.
He pulled me toward him, and the lingering scent of his cologne wafted toward me. My heart pounded and my skin tingled with pure excitement. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Magic or not, he seemed to hold a power over me that I didn’t know how to fight.
“Heidel,” he said my name softly, “I think I’m falling in love with you.”
“What?” I pulled back, surprised. “What did you say?”
He came closer, so close I could feel the warmth of his breath as it brushed over my bare neck and shoulders. He lightly trailed his finger down my arm, making a tremor run through my body.