Renegades Of Wolfenvald, Book Two of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  Opposing sides in any contest must be equal. The terrible power on the side of hope shall be matched by even more terrible purpose of the side of doom: The Usurper and his minions. Twists and turns in the destinies of these combatants shall see two treasons. One combatant from each side shall defect to battle against the allies they once held dear.

  As you must fear the Marked One, you must also be wary of The Nightsmith. Limitless hordes of once tideless warriors shall be hers to command forever. As immortal as the Nightsmith will be, so shall her lust for victory against her foes. Be wary of The White Pirate and Flower Man, for they are powerful indeed.

  Thus it shall stand and the Wraith folk shall be only partial players until the choices are made. When One has come and the Usurper banished shall the hour of need be. Vengeance and terror will be close at hand and the voice of reason will be sorely tested. Ally yourselves with the Golden Protector lest The Marked One seek and destroy ye alle. Only if this comes to pass and The One deems thy service worthy, shall wraiths of all clans be united in the worship of their new god who shall rid them forever of their need for the lifeblood of others.

  ‘Usurper?’ Melanie asked, half to herself. She turned to Sarah. ‘Didn’t Cassandra mention someone called The Usurper?’

  ‘I believe we can assume The Usurper is Mautallius,’ Princess Charity told her. ‘He has taken control of Conundrum, after all. The Nightsmith has us worried. We don’t know who or what she is. As for the other of Silver — the first one the scroll mentions, we believe that is Master McConnell. It’s The Marked One we’re most concerned about.’

  Sarah cocked her head to one side. ‘The Marked One?’

  ‘That’s what I’ve been labelled by this prophesy,’ Angela answered quietly. Her eyes were troubled. ‘The Serpentine called me the same thing.’

  ‘Marked?’ Sarah asked again. ‘Marked for what?’

  ‘Never mind Sarah. It’s nothing we need to discuss right now.’

  ‘Are you saying that Aunt Angela could kill the Medici?’ Melanie demanded then.

  ‘Yes,’ the scroll answered coldly. ‘And all the Wraith folk.’ It gave a peremptory snort. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I’m not finished.’

  Nathan made a disparaging sound. ‘Now that’s not a very nice tone,’ he admonished the scroll. The scroll ignored him.

  Angela drew in a sharp breath. ‘I haven’t fired a shot at a single succubus in three thousand years!’ she protested. ‘Why would I start now?’

  The scroll wriggled on the table and unfurled itself even further.

  When The Marked One faces the worst of her fears shall Vengeance be hers. Limit her consumption to he who wronged her and all will be well. The Golden Protector must stand firm.

  Oliver looked at the scroll. ‘Okay,’ he said carefully, glaring at the scroll. ‘I’ve figured out who the White Pirate is. That’s me.’

  ‘And James is The Flower Man,’ Melanie added.

  Oliver nodded. ‘And Your Highnesses are right. McConnell’s one of the Silver Ones. I don’t know who the other one is though. Until now, I’d never heard of anything or anyone called the Nightsmith.’ He made a disgusted sound. Trying to work this all out is impossible…. It’s a lot of rubbish.’ He swore in Old Norse. Sarah was surprised at just how irritated he was.

  Princess Heather smiled sadly. ‘No prophecy is without its vagaries,’ she said calmly, bringing them back to the point. She nodded at the scroll. ‘As my sister mentioned, we are fairly sure the Usurper is Mautallius.’ She looked around the table. ‘As for who crosses the floor, we have no idea. We think it’s not you though, Mistress Harding.’ Then she shrugged and turned to Sarah. ‘Like Master Cromwell here, we have no knowledge as to who or what the Nightsmith is. There does seem to be some sort of balance to this prophecy, however,’ she admitted. ‘There is the First and Last and then later there seems to be the coming of two new gods. One will be golden and the other of silver.’

  Angela flushed. She sat up straight and stared seriously at Princess Heather. ‘That’s it?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘It is,’ Heather replied sadly. ‘Actually, we’re a little disappointed. We had hoped your good selves or Master Cromwell here would be able to shed some more light on the identity of these strange new beings. What we are sure of is that one day soon, you, Mistress Harding, will be faced with a terrible choice. Our numbers are small and our powers weak, but we will offer you our allegiance, for as long as you require it, in exchange for your leniency should this terrible thing come to pass.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Sarah said. ‘Why would Angela want to hurt you?’

  ‘We are not sure, but for some reason, of this we are certain, Mistress Harding will develop a deadly hatred for wraiths. If that happens,’ she looked sadly at Angela, ‘it could be the end of us all.’ She looked pointedly at Sarah. ‘We also believe that one day, the only thing that will stop her killing us all will be you. After that, there is an unknown that we will have to face to be judged.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘Even if we succeed in not being wiped out by The Marked One, we will still risk eternity of hunger and pain.’

  Heather then sipped from her glass of blood. She turned to Oliver and raised the glass slightly.

  ‘This is exquisite,’ she complimented him. ‘What species is it?’

  ‘Pyrenees Mountain Goat,’ he replied. ‘I keep a herd of them especially for this sort of occasion.’

  ‘I wasn’t aware that you entertained succubi often, Lord Cromwell,’ Charity purred. Her dark eyes stared at him quite directly.

  ‘That doesn’t answer the question,’ Melanie said flatly. ‘So far all you’ve given us is another load of prophetical gibberish — as if we didn’t have enough of that ourselves,’ she shot an angry glance at Cromwell then turned back to the succubus. ‘I thought you had something more to tell us about the Babylonian Heresies. You got that bit. Is there any more? Do you know who copied it?’

  Heather shrugged and spread her hands out in a gesture of helplessness. ‘It is the only answer we can give you, Mistress Hazelwood. We found the scroll in some scattered belongings among the remains of what looked like an archaeologist or explorer.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s our most concrete lead so far. For some reason, some time in the future, Mistress Harding here may be filled with a lust for vengeance against all creatures that are deemed wraiths or demons. Unfortunately, that includes us.’

  ‘You keep calling her “Mistress”… You’re not part of The Sorcerers’ Guild then?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Oh we are,’ the Princess replied affably. ‘But only when it suits us. At times, we have been considered such ourselves, so the status of renegade is not formally recognised by The Medici sub-clan. We view everyone as an ally, an enemy or a neutral entity. It makes things much simpler. I believe the lycanthrope covens and many vampires feel differently, but then they have more reason to dislike Mistress Harding. As she said, she’s given us no reason to hate or fear her. As for The Guild, well, we feel that it is best we avoid Guild activities during the current administration.’

  ‘You’re so kind,’ Angela murmured.

  Sarah concentrated quite hard. She sent her thoughts out to each of the three succubi and discovered quite a surprise. Though they could and frequently did feed upon human males to survive, their natures were far from evil.

  Melanie wasn’t about to be put off. ‘Where did you find it? What explorer?’

  The three succubi sisters looked at one another briefly. Then Heather turned to Melanie. ‘We went to Solomon’s mine, just as I’m sure Master McConnell did more recently. They told us the tome had indeed been there once, but it was carried away several hundred years ago. Apparently there was some sort of incident during which several hundred goblins were killed. According to the mine’s archivists, there were two or three separate groups of them, at least one of which was a troop of snake worshippers. It is that group in particular that our sources led us to believe to be the ones who finally got hold of
the Babylonian Heresies.’

  ‘That sounds familiar,’ Oliver muttered. ‘What did they do with it?’

  ‘There’s a temple where they used to hold all sorts of obscene rites with snakes,’ Heather explained. Her lips curled with distaste. ‘Reptile blood is so cold,’ she lamented. She sighed then continued. ‘As best that we can figure, a few hundred years after it was taken from Solomon’s mine, the tome wound up there. It was fine for a while and then there was a conflict between the cultist goblins and another goblin clan. The fact that goblins were involved led us to believe that there may have been some Guild involvement. We think it unlikely that any armed force from Jilde would bother going to such expense and risk for a simple tome.’

  ‘Goblins?’ Sarah and Mel said at the same time. They looked at each other briefly then turned back to the succubus Princess.

  ‘They all but wiped each other out. We’re not sure which side won. The temple’s been deserted since then. Of course, all this is speculation. We have no actual proof of what really happened.’

  ‘It’s in a jungle temple!’ Nathan exclaimed. ‘That could be disastrous! Humidity is awful for tomes. We have to get it out!’

  Charity smiled at the bookwyrm. ‘It is safe from the climate,’ she assured him. ‘Before it was abandoned, one of the goblin bands had their spellweavers cover the place with enchantments so strong nothing could get through.’ She nodded at Melanie. ‘That’s where we found the explorer’s remains. We managed to get into the outer part of the temple, same as that ill-fated tomb-raider before us. But we could get no further. We barely escaped with our lives.’

  ‘How do you know the tome’s safe?’ Sarah asked her.

  ‘There’s an enchantment on the inner sanctum of the temple that’s stronger than anything we’ve ever seen before,’ Princess Charity told her. ‘It slows down time to a crawl.’

  ‘That’s impossible,’ Angela stated flatly. ‘Nobody’s ever been able to do that.’

  ‘If I may, Mistress Angela,’ Nathan interjected. ‘I’m sorry, but two sorcerers have been documented as being able to perform such an enchantment. One of them is Master Cromwell here—’

  Cromwell nodded humbly. ‘Simply a variation of the petrifico spell. More trouble than it’s worth, really,’ he said as if it were no big deal. ‘Won’t work on the living for a start, so it’s only really useful if you want to store a dead body. Since I got my freezer, I haven’t bothered with it.’

  Sarah shuddered.

  Nathan continued. ‘The other is the legendary Smith of Ages, the goblin Master Smith.’

  ‘He’s dead,’ Angela declared. ‘Nobody’s seen him for aeons.’

  ‘Doesn’t mean he’d dead,’ Melanie argued. ‘Could be a recluse! They mentioned goblins. Maybe he’s involved.’

  Before the table could erupt in fresh squabbling, Princess Elizabetha coughed delicately. ‘Nonetheless, the enchantment is there. We cast a stone into the pit in the middle of the temple where we suspect the tome to be. As far as I know, it’s still a few metres from the floor.’ She nodded at Sarah. ‘We heard about your ability to break enchantments, Mistress Coppernick. If you could get past Mautallius’ spells when Siouxanne herself couldn’t, then you can surely get past anything a goblin could come up with. Now that you’ve had some training from Master Cromwell here…’ she left it hanging.

  Mel calmed down a little and glanced over at Sarah. ‘If the only thing protecting it is a spell in a temple—’

  Sarah grinned at her and turned to the Princesses. ‘So you actually saw inside this temple?’

  ‘I did,’ Heather admitted. ‘But that was a few hundred years ago. Why?’ The succubus was quite curious.

  Sarah turned to Melanie. ‘I’m going to need some water,’ she growled.

  Melanie nodded in understanding. Her eyes lit up maliciously as she realised what Sarah was about to do. She reached over the table and took hold of a large crystal decanter filled with chilled water. Then she quite deliberately poured the entire contents of the decanter onto the table. The water, of course, spilled everywhere.

  Oliver pushed back from his chair with a startled exclamation. ‘What the hell are you doing, Troy?’ Outraged, he began to swear again.

  Sarah ignored the cursing necromancer. ‘Hold still, Your Highness,’ she warned Heather. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’

  Heather’s eyes went wide in surprise.

  ‘I hope,’ Sarah added. She stood up on the chair and put her paws on the table. She locked eyes with the succubus. As she had done once before with a troll in the desert of Ethiopia, Sarah held the succubus in thrall. This time, it was much harder. Before, she had just reacted, with the full power of Wolfenvald behind her. Now she was actually concentrating on focusing that power in a very specific manner. Two bolts of golden light shot from her eyes into those of the fanged princess.

  Heather stiffened and drew in a long shuddering breath.

  ‘Holy mother of—’ Oliver began to swear. The rest of his sentence was drowned out by another gasp from Princess Heather Medici.

  Sarah discovered the mind of the succubus was vastly different from anything she had experienced before. The constant thirst for blood and the hunger for life essence only found in the living souls of her victims were both ever at the forefront of her mind. Sarah pushed past that and into Heather’s memories.

  At once Sarah understood more than ever. She knew of the incredible sensual pleasure the succubus experienced when feeding. She knew the shame she felt after she had made her first kill and Sarah also knew that that shame would never leave. The memories flashed past. The life of a succubus was consumed with carnal exploits and Sarah suddenly found herself confronted by experiences and emotions she knew she would ordinarily be way too young for. She also saw hundreds of years of fear and struggle and an almost constant grief over the loss of loved ones to the struggle the wraiths fought against various sorcerers and vigilantes. Finally, she found what she was searching for — Heather’s memories of the temple.

  Sarah released Heather from her powerful hold. The succubus collapsed onto the table, gasping and shaking. Her sisters gathered round her to hold her up but she waved them aside.

  ‘I am unharmed,’ she gasped and looked up at Sarah. Her face was awestruck. ‘Such power you possess!’

  ‘Didn’t that hurt?’ Oliver was curious but Heather’s sisters gestured for him to leave her alone.

  The Golden Mane was glowing with the power of Wolfenvald. She gazed at the puddle of water on the table. She did not need to say a single word. Her will alone was enough. An image appeared. It was hazy at first, then it crystallised into a solid, clear shape. The temple appeared as seen from the outside. It appeared to have been constructed to resemble a massive coiled snake. The temple door was a gaping mouth, complete with long curved fangs.

  ‘Where is that?’ Oliver demanded.

  ‘It’s deep in the jungle near where the Congo River meets the Equator,’ Heather panted.

  Then Sarah’s image blurred and refocused inside a dimly lit stone hall. Carved images of snakes were on every surface. At the end of it was a small stone plinth, carved into the shape of a cobra raised to strike with mouth wide open. At the base of the plinth there appeared to be some scattered skeletal remains.

  ‘The remains we told you about,’ Elizabetha told Melanie quietly.

  The image blurred and moved past the plinth and into the temple proper. There was a large shallow pit with four more plinths identical to the one back in the corridor. In the mouth of each snake statue was a small ancient-looking tome. In the middle of the pit, seemingly hanging suspended in the air, was a small rock about the size of an apple.

  ‘The stone we cast,’ Elizabetha murmured. ‘This image is of an old memory. It may be closer to the floor now.’

  Nathan peered at the image eagerly. ‘Oh I see,’ he murmured. ‘It looks like they’re disguised. I would guess one is the real deal and the other three are decoys. They look quite safe
in there.’

  Sarah relaxed her will and the image disappeared. Then she nodded at the table.

  ‘Purgarito!’ she ordered in Magaeic and the table was once more clean and tidy. Unfortunately, so were all the plates. Everyone’s dinners had disappeared. Even the succubi’s glasses of blood were sparkling clean and quite empty.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ Sarah murmured, wagging her tail apologetically.

  José reappeared and blinked at the table in frustration for a moment before his stiff manner returned. He began dishing out fresh servings for everyone.

  Sarah looked over at the very shaken Heather. ‘I’m sorry, Your Highness,’ she apologised with genuine concern. Now that she had seen so deeply into the succubus’ mind, she felt slightly ashamed at having been so harsh in her effort to get the information she needed. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

  Heather straightened up. ‘Oh, you didn’t hurt me, Mistress Coppernick,’ the pale succubus answered, shaking her head ruefully. ‘You surprised me, that is all.’ Then she looked at Sarah seriously. ‘I’m sorry if everything you saw was too much for one so young.’

  Sarah grinned wolfishly. ‘I’m only a kid when I’m human,’ she told the succubus. Despite the cold chill that went through her, she nuzzled the succubus Princess affectionately. ‘No harm done,’ she said casually.

  Then Sarah turned to Melanie. ‘Are you ready?’ she asked as she stepped clear of the table.

  Melanie went to stand beside her friend. ‘Let’s go,’ she said determinedly.

  ‘Now wait a minute!’ Oliver said suddenly as he realised what the two girls were planning.

  ‘Sarah!’ Angela also exclaimed. ‘No! It’s too dangerous!’

  It was too late. Melanie and Sarah vanished through a portal. Oliver swore and glared at the succubi.

  ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ he accused.

  The three beautiful succubi princesses looked at one another, startled.

  Heather turned weakly to Oliver. ‘We better leave,’ she said quietly.