Sands of Aggar: Amazons of Aggar Book 3

by Wolfe, Chris Anne

  “I don’t want to separate the triad,” Jacquin announced, using the word Rox had reported the changlings had taken to calling them.

  Adrian shook her head. “We don’t have any choice. I promise, if we could stay together I would, but it’s too dangerous.”

  Jacquin balled her fists at her sides, trying to think of a better argument, but Rox clasped Adrian’s shoulder firmly, her eyes sad and vicious all at once. “Make them pay for what they did to my daughter?”

  Adrian clasped her shoulder as well, the two women finally sisters-in-arms as well as lovers. “I swear it. Find Serena.”

  Rox snarled, the expression pure changling. “If I have to rip apart every slaver with my bare hands.”

  They closed in on the Core and to Adrian’s relief the gates opened, red cloaks rippling in the early-morning air. Ariana had been successful. The boat slid into place and the changlings immediately disembarked, following their shaman into the shadows of the city. Two red-cloaked guards, their silver leaf pins glowing at their throats in the torchlight of the city gates, beckoned Adrian forward.

  Adrian, Rox and Jacquin approached them, Adrian scanning each with her magic to guarantee they held no magical trace to the Twins, and then followed them away from the changlings.

  The revolutionaries led the three women down a winding path around the Core, keeping them to the shadows and far from main roads as they eased up to the palace. Halfway through the city a sentry post along the city wall exploded.

  The city erupted in chaos. More explosions went off, waking every resident and calling streams of guards out of the towers and from the palace as the changlings began their invasion. Screams and the striking of steel on glass filled the air, rising to a deafening pitch as the western gate blew open, letting in another contingent of changling soldiers. The city quickly smelled of nothing but ash and blood.

  “They’ve secured the western gate but are having trouble with the east,” Rox reported, interpreting the network-mind of her people, their thoughts and messages filtering through the pieces of her brain open to their communication. “More guards are backtracking to the palace. They realize it’s an invasion, not an isolated attack.”

  “Then we have to go faster,” one of the exile scouts prompted as they ran for the palace.

  The palace grounds were as chaotic as the city. A pack of changlings had beaten them to the main gates and the grounds were already smeared with blood, the bodies of guards and changlings alike littering the path.

  “This way,” one of the exiles beckoned, leading the women away from the main gates toward a vine-covered hole in the wall, leading toward the kitchens. “Enter through there. We have people among the servants. They’ll get you into the palace proper unseen. From there it’s up to you.”

  Adrian clasped their hands in a tight grip. “Thank you.”

  The exile on her right nodded sharply. “End this madness, Adrian.”

  Adrian steeled herself, her adrenaline already pumping, her focus sharp for battle. “I promise.”

  The men took off back toward the city and Adrian led her bondmates through the hold in the wall and into the kitchens. Servants in red cloaks ushered them instantly through narrow, dark servants’ walkways, the maze-like hallways built to allow the servants to move without disturbing nobility. They exited near the throne room.

  Adrian nodded to Rox, who took Jacquin’s hand and led her toward the slave cellars. Jacquin hesitated, looking back at Adrian, her eyes sad and pleading. Adrian met her gaze briefly, trying to send her as much love and assurance as possible, before drawing her sword taking off in the opposite direction. To her relief, Jacquin didn’t try to follow her.

  Adrian was instantly met by palace guards, their weapons at the ready. Adrian didn’t hesitate. Her sword flew, stabbing one guard in the throat instantly and blocking the blow of another. The two remaining guards froze in shock, their eyes wide in recognition. “Adrian?!”

  The hesitation was long enough for Adrian to behead them both, her bespelled blade slicing through muscle and bone like butter.

  She fought her way through the castle, viciously, silently attacking every threat, silencing most before they could call for help. She didn’t dare try to disguise herself with magic. The Twins would be drawn to a casting mage like moths to a flame. She didn’t want to face them until her hands were already on the artifact.

  The Twins’ tower, where they practiced their magic and stored their spells, stood at the most northeastern corner of the castle, the enchantments protecting it so thoroughly it was often invisible to anyone who had never visited it. Adrian, however, was intimately aware not only of its spells, but the path to reach it.

  The guards became fewer the deeper she got into the castle, their focus on securing the doors and palace grounds. The hallway leading to the tower door was completely empty. Adrian called out a word of power, drawing a rune in the air with her finger as she ran at a seemingly empty wall and the door to the tower appeared, already unlocked. The door handle was warm in her hand, almost inviting. It recognized her. The newer spells wouldn’t be as inviting.

  The stairway to the Twins’ magical study was long and winding, curling tight as a spring along the walls of the narrow spire. Adrian pushed every shred of her Blue Sight aside, pushing away even thoughts of her bondmates and the Grey Exiles in her deadly focus, calling on her most powerful protection spells. She glowed blue and gold as the Twins’ spells attacked her shields, burning and firing at her, attempting to push her off the stairwell and crush her against the wall. Adrian countered every spell she recognized, but most were new, crafted from the minds of the maniacal Twins in the years Adrian had been away.

  The stairs leading to the tower door crumbled beneath her feet and she leapt, grasping desperately for the hearth, pulling herself back to her feet. Sweat poured down her skin, her breathing coming in sharp gasps as her shields sapped her energy. Soon they would begin drawing on her life force to remain intact. All her illusions disappeared, including the one over her eyes. If she was to have any hope at winning a battle with the Twins, she would need to find a way to conserve energy.

  She pushed open the main door and stumbled into the Twins’ study. The large, circular room was filled with tables stacked with notebooks, ancient tomes, runes and talismans. Racks holding ingredients for potions cast a chaotic, foul scent into the air. Out of the corners of her eyes Adrian could see magical contamination everywhere, built up from constant exposure to the Twins’ powers and experiments.

  She spotted the artifact Rox had described, the puzzle box sitting on a tall stone dais near the center of the room. She could sense the magical wards around it, the Twins not even trusting the wards around their tower to protect it. Adrian stood before it, studying the spells, her magic carefully picking at the threads of the spells, trying to unbind them without alerting the Twins. As she worked, her mind roamed back to what Rox had said about its purpose.

  She muttered angrily under her breath, “You want to kill the Blue Sights? That’s your grand plan? That’s what’s more important than conquest?”

  Adrian scowled as she caught sight of the far wall. Runes as tall as she was were etched into it. She recognized the design, structured long ago. It was the root of the Twins’ illusion that made them appear identical.

  A burst of primal rage broke in her stomach, her emotional barriers so carefully constructed to contain a lifetime of shame and anger demolished in a flood of rebellion and she threw a powerful, shining blue fireball at the symbols. It exploded against the Twins’ protection spell, burning in a wall of flame as the magic battled but the strength of Adrian’s emotions won through, her spell cracking the bricks beneath the symbols, erasing sections as the top layer of stone turned to dust, destroying the spell.

  In an instant the Twins appeared, burning with rage as their illusion melted. Foxsen’s eyes moved closer together as he grew taller, Laik’s nose became more hooked and his shoulders more broad. Their cloaks fell b
ack revealing silver hair like starlight.

  “Adrian!” Laik shrieked, his voice deeper, yet his tone unchanged since he used to scream her name with rage as a child. She could see every accusation in his eyes, every burning hatred he’d stoked over the years. Adrian was the reason they were fraternal, the reason they weren’t perfect like every midwife and prophet had predicted of the princes of the Core, the future rulers of the Core’s empire.

  Adrian was tainted. The woman. The Blue Sight. The third sibling who never should have been. The missing Triplet.

  Adrian grabbed the artifact, the magic in her hands hot and searing like acid ripping mercilessly through the Twins’ protection spells, leaving stripes of burns across her palms. She held the artifact before her brothers, her hands shaking. “Is this for me? You couldn’t kill me naturally without losing some of your own skills, so you formed armies and delayed the plans of conquest laid out before we were born to find a way to get rid of me?! I was already banished!”

  Laik growled, always ready to fight. “You’re a disgrace. A blight. You had to be removed.”

  Adrian turned to Foxsen, her tall, slender, magically brilliant brother who had been so much gentler than Laik, sometimes even a friend. “You went along with this?”

  Foxsen’s voice was less sure but just as firm. “You weren’t supposed to exist in the first place, Adrian.”

  Adrian’s face twisted and crumpled, his words bringing out a hurt she had buried long ago. She had expected conquest. She’d expected slavery and pain. She expected banishment and cruelty. Somehow, however, she had never expected her brothers to so vehemently want her dead.

  Adrian set the box aside and drew her sword with a snarl. “Then kill me yourselves. Don’t delegate my murder to a magic box.”

  Laik didn’t have to be invited twice. He lunged, drawing his sword but leading with his fist, the blow catching her in the face. The feeling was familiar, bringing back dozens of memories of taking beatings from her brother as a child. Instead of staying down, she lashed out, battling with swords, fists and magic, nearly a perfect match for Laik.

  Foxsen stood to the side, a tome of spells clenched in his hands as he formed runes in the air, creating his own spells with the pieces of ancient text. Adrian spun away from Laik and threw a fireball, aiming not for Foxsen, but his book. The spell rebounded off the book and Adrian dodged as it zipped past her hip and exploded into the shelf of potions, the glass bottles shattering, herbs and spices going up in smoke creating a thick, sour haze in the room.

  “Look me in the eye when you try to kill me, Foxsen!” Adrian screamed.

  Foxen shouted a magical word, clearing the smoke from the room just as Laik struck, a bolt of crimson lightning shooting from his hands. Adrian raised her sword to defend herself, the spell protecting the blade turning red hot and deflecting the spell, sending the bolt flying across the room into Foxsen.

  Foxsen screamed, the sound gurgling in his throat as he fell to the ground, a black, scorched hole through his book and chest.

  “Foxsen!” Adrian and Laik both screamed, rushing to their brother on instinct, but Foxsen was already dead, his face frozen in a look of shock, the smell of scorched flesh assaulting Adrian’s nostrils.

  Adrian felt her heart sink, the only member of her family she’d hoped would grow to love her lying dead on the floor. Laik, however, was nearly doubled over, both at the loss of his brother and the sudden loss of magic the two had shared.

  Adrian watched him in shock. Foxsen was her brother, too. Their magic was permanently entwined. She should have felt a loss of power as well, but she felt as strong as ever. She glanced down at her wrists and spotted her lifestones. She grinned. She was no longer woven with her brothers. She was part of a new triad now and their power, combined with her Blue Sight, would keep her strong even after her brothers were gone.

  Laik turned to her, enraged beyond reason, his eyes glowing red. He charged, his sword raised, but Adrian was ready for him. With her heart a chaos of anger, defiance and pain she struck, her sword cutting through his magical wards and spearing him through the heart. He grasped at her sword for a brief moment in shocked surprise, his eyes finding his sister as he fell, dying draped over Foxsen’s burned corpse.

  Adrian let out a broken cry as she felt her last brother die, the feeling like a piece of her heart was falling from her chest. She dropped to her knees and leaned over them, weeping into the bodies for a long moment, allowing herself to mourn for her family, for what could have been if they hadn’t been raised in prophecy and war. For her brothers who shared her birth.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I’m sorry it had to be this way.”

  Outside the palace shook as another bomb went off closer to the palace. The motion brought reality into the front of her mind and she slowly stood. There would be time to grieve properly later. For now, she had to return to her bondmates.

  With their spells shattered with their deaths, Adrian had no trouble grabbing the artifact and racing down the stairs back into the palace. Her Blue Sight felt like a throbbing hum, a buzz spreading beneath her skin. Her magic was slowly changing, the toxic effects of her brothers’ powers draining away. She didn’t dare try to throw a fireball or bolt of lightning. Her destructive powers were leaving, a part of her dead along with her family, boosting her natural abilities to heal and sense.

  She could feel Rox and Jacquin near. Her heart pounded at the knowledge that they were still alive. She raced for the courtyard near the slave yards, finding her lovers near the palace gardens.

  Jacquin limped, her sword and covered in other people’s blood. Rox was a beast, her sword missing, her skin and clothes stained with carnage, but her eyes weren’t wild, her body still. A young girl of no more than five tenmoons with long, blond curls huddled beside her, a sword in her hands, her eyes more steady and brave than any child her age should possess. Adrian knew instantly she was Serena.

  “You found her!” Adrian called, rushing to support Jacquin. “Let me help you.”

  She led Jacquin against a garden shrub. Jacquin clung to Adrian’s shoulders. “Rox massacred them, Adrian. Every slave trader in the square. Most with her bare hands.”

  Adrian wasn’t surprised. “She’s a changling.”

  “Her daughter fought with us.”

  Adrian glanced back at Serena, wrapped tightly in her mother’s arms, both women a mess of blood and grime. Somehow, despite the carnage, Adrian had never felt safer.

  Adrian sank to her knees and held Jacquin’s ankle, a flood of healing magic easing into her wounds. Jacquin let out a sharp cry of relief as her injuries disappeared. She looked down at Adrian in awe. “You’ve changed.”

  “The Twins are dead,” Adrian confirmed, holding out the artifact. Jacquin pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her, her love a flood of relief after the deaths of Adrian’s brothers.

  Rox tipped her head to the side, listening for the changlings’ reports. “Something’s changed. The changlings are taking the Core. Soldiers are beginning to surrender.”

  Adrian nodded, a burst of relief in her chest. “Their obedience spells have fallen. A handful of their higher officials will be waking up.”

  “We need to get out of here. The battle will be ours, but we have to get this artifact out before someone else rises to claim it,” Jacquin declared.

  “I’m getting Serena out of here,” Rox agreed.

  Adrian nodded sharply. The battle was done. The Core had fallen. “To the river.”

  Adrian descended down the narrow stone walkways slowly, her eyes just barely adjusted to the darkness of the path. Jacquin moved ahead of her with more grace, Rox behind her, her night-eyes reflecting the light of the only torch far ahead. Behind Rox, clenching her mother’s hand, was Serena. The girl had refused to be left behind and Rox had been unwilling to part with her.

  Adrian looked on the child with pride. Serena had proven to be strong and brave in the days since the overthrow of the Core. Her mother�
�s instruction to be a brave girl, a warrior girl, had sunk home, her willfulness keeping her alive. Her captor, a man named Calder, had been stabbed to death before Rox had even arrived.

  The towering caves of the changlings loomed like the gaping jaws of the mountains themselves over the small band of travelers. The changling shaman led them deep into the lifestone mines after the bleeding core that would complete the Laik and Foxsen’s artifact.

  Adrian looked at each cave in awe. Tiny homes pocketed the walls like a stone beehive, a complex city dug into the lifestone caves themselves. At one time there must have been thousands of changlings living here, and Rox had hinted that there were other communities spread throughout the mountain range as well.

  The lifestones in her wrists buzzed lightly, recognizing the deep veins of more lifestone threaded through the caverns. Her senses were heightened, her Blue Sight reading memory and emotion embedded in every stone. It was no wonder the changlings had evolved so quickly here. It would be impossible to live here for long without being somehow changed.

  The shaman turned and beckoned to the Triad. “We’re almost there,” Rox translated. They reached the end of the walkway and the shaman paused, handing her torch to Rox. “She says she can’t take us any further. The core has poisoned her too much already. If she goes any further while it’s still active, she’ll die.”

  Jacquin clasped the changling’s hands. “Thank you. We’ll take care of it from here.”

  The changling bowed low, her eyes never leaving Adrian, Rox, and Jacquin. Rox blushed slightly. “She called us her saviors.”

  Jacquin smiled gently and Adrian recognized the stillness in her, the peace in her eyes. She’d had a vision, probably about this journey. “We’re all doing our part to make a better world.”