Jez reached for his power. The ward bent and the mage’s eyes widened, but Ziary swung his flaming sword at the man. The ward vanished entirely, and Jez cut off the two binders from their power. Ziary’s sword stopped an inch from the man’s face. He went pale, and abruptly, he fainted. Ziary offered Jez a hand, and Jez took it. There was a rush of wind that lifted them off the ground, and they flew down the hall, turning several corners faster than Jez could keep track. Before long, they stopped in the middle of a hall Jez didn’t recognize.
“What do we do now?” Ziary asked.
“The guards will be looking for us,” Jez said. “We can’t stay in the keep.”
“All the ways in and out will be guarded. Even if we did get out of the keep, we’d never get out of the grounds.”
Jez glanced from a nearby window to Osmund. “We don’t really have to go through the grounds. The wall is only so high, after all.”
“What do you mean?”
Jez smiled. “How are your wings?”
Jez cried out, half in fear, half in sheer excitement as Ziary jumped toward the window. Strong hands gripped him, and for a moment, the ground rushed up toward them. They’d been on the third floor, and it only took a couple of heartbeats for them to reach the ground. They were mere inches away when Ziary’s wings caught the wind. Jez laughed as an air current carried them higher than the height of the keep itself.
The grounds stretched out before them. The main building was made of pale gray stone that would seem to be gold in the light of the rising sun. It was bigger even than Jez’s manor in Randak. A series of smaller buildings were scattered about the grounds-storage areas and stables. The walls surrounding the grounds were thick enough that three men could walk atop them side by side. Towers rose at regular intervals giving a good view of city beyond and providing an ideal place from which to launch arrows or other missiles. Rumar Keep had been built for war. People milled about, but no one looked up. Three men on armored horses rode out of a building that Jez assumed was a stable. They thundered toward the entrance to the grounds shouting for the drawbridge to be lowered.
“They’re looking for us,” Jez cried out.
“I can’t keep this up,” Ziary said. “My wing is still hurt.”
“Can you get us over the wall?”
“We’re about to find out.”
Ziary spread his wings in a glide, but he leaned heavily to the right. Jez struggled to look up. Ziary’s right wing was still crooked from his injury, and he was having trouble keeping aloft. A gust of wind caught them, and their course straightened as they lost altitude. They were heading east, directly into the rising sun. The wall rushed toward them and one of the guards patrolling it pointed. Jez cried out as they flew over the wall. They were too low. His foot slammed into the stone sending a jolt of pain up his leg. The impact threw off Ziary’s balance, and they tumbled in the air. The world spun, and Jez could barely make out the building they were heading toward. There was a scream, though Jez couldn’t tell if it had come from him or from Ziary. The scion tried to flap his good wing, but it did no good. Ziary slammed into the building, and they bounced off onto the ground. Jez groaned, and Ziary’s form melted away to reveal Osmund. The larger boy rose, seemingly uninjured, and though it hurt Jez to move, he forced himself to stand up.
“We need to get out of here. They saw us at the end.”
Osmund nodded and helped Jez walk as they headed into the streets of the city.
CHAPTER 37
Jez had spent most of his life in the city of Randak. As the main port of the barony of Korand, it had been a busy city, filled with people from all over the world. He thought he’d be prepared for any city, but Rumar was something else entirely.
People crowded the streets so tight it was difficult to move. More than once, he was jostled aside, though a few apologized to him when they saw he was injured. They kept an eye out for guards, but they never saw any. Osmund took him down streets seemingly at random before stopping in front of a large building with two candles painted on a sign in front. He pushed open the door and stepped inside.
Like the city, the inn was crowded. Every table was completely full, and a man played a lute in one corner while another man juggled colored balls. A fat man, presumably the innkeeper waddled over to them and looked Jez up and down. He raised an eyebrow. Jez blushed and pulled his sick robe tight around him.
“Greetings, young master,” the man said. “I run a clean establishment. We can’t have the sick here.”
“I’m not sick.” Jez pointed at a scrape along his arm that he’d gotten when Ziary crashed. “I was hurt.”
“Is that so? Well, I don’t want you in my common room.”
“Do you have a room available?” Osmund asked.
The innkeeper cleared his throat, and his eyes wandered up to Osmund’s face. He took a step back but sputtered for a second before nodding. “Yes sir. There’s one left, but we cater to wealthy merchants and the like.” He eyed Jez. “I don’t think you could afford it.”
Osmund scowled, and produced two heavy gold coins and pressed them into the innkeeper’s palm. The man looked at the coins, and his demeanor instantly brightened. He led Jez and Osmund to a door in the back of the room, ignoring the looks the other patrons gave them. They went up a flight of stairs and to the end of a hall. The room he led them to was nearly as big as Jez’s quarters in the keep, though it wasn’t so opulently decorated. A wide bed dominated the room, and a tall window overlooked the city. The only other pieces of furniture were a pair of chairs and a small table carved to look like it had bird’s legs. Jez sank into one of the chairs and let out a breath. The innkeeper bowed and handed Osmund a key. He turned to go, but Osmund grabbed his arm and handed him another coin.
“We weren’t here,” he said.
The innkeeper looked from Osmund to Jez. Suddenly, he looked less sure of himself, but nodded. He snatched his hand away and scurried back the way they had come.
“That won’t work, you know.” Jez said. “I’m in a sick robe, and you’re a giant. Everybody saw us. It won’t be long before Haziel hears about it.”
“I know,” Osmund said. “What do you want to do? The city gates are probably being watched by now, but I’m sure we could get out of the city if we had to. Lantian is only a few days away. We could find a speaking stone there, and contact the Academy. The chancellor could send help, or maybe the queen.”
Jez thought about it for a second. By all accounts, Queen Istar was one of the most brilliant military minds alive, and he would give much to have her aid, but he shook his head. “I don’t think there’s time for that. If Maries is as bad as Villia says, he could have his entire army summoned by the time we got back. If that happens, I don’t think even the queen would be able to stop him.”
“I was afraid you’d say that. How do we find him, and how do we stop him when we do?”
Jez’s mouth went dry, and he realized he was reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. “I think I’ll have to transform. I might even have to go all the way.”
Osmund pursed his lips, but he didn’t disagree. They were desperate, and a demon of the fourth order was so powerful, it was almost beyond imagining. Without transforming into Luntayary and fully embracing the pharim’s power, Jez could think of no way to stand against Maries. The only problem was Luntayary’s power couldn’t be fully contained by human flesh. If he drew that power too deeply, the radiant energy would consume his body from the inside out.
CHAPTER 38
They stayed in the inn for a few hours. Osmund went out to get clothes and bandages for Jez’s wounds while Jez kept a watch through the window. He placed a ward on the hall that would warn him anytime someone approached, but he took it down the fourth time one of the inn’s patrons set it off. He never saw guards in the street, and as impossible as it seemed, he began to hope they had called off the search. Once Osmund returned, and Jez had dressed and bandaged his wounds, they went back out into the city.
/> Avoiding the guards turned out to be fairly simple. They never saw any, which was conspicuous in and of itself. The people just went about their day to day lives, oblivious to the events of the keep. Jez looked for any sign of demons, but the only smells were the normal scents of a city. People sweated under the sun. The scent of coal hung heavy near a blacksmith. Bakers displayed wares at their stands, and the smell made Jez’s mouth water. It was only when he neared the gate that he finally caught the scent of sulfur. It was the only place he’d seen guards. A man and a woman stood in front of the gate, refusing to let anyone out. They reeked of sulfur, and as Jez neared, they turned toward him. Their movements mirrored each other so precisely, Jez doubted it was natural. He ducked his head and tried to fade back into the crowd.
“There are probably men armed with bows on the walls,” Osmund said. “They don’t want us to fly over them again.”
“They’re warded against illusions too,” a woman said.
Jez turned to her, but before he could say anything, her wrinkled face smoothed and her silver hair became jet black. Her clothes flickered to violet for a second but returned to brown homespun after a moment.
“Villia,” Jez said, remembering at the last minute to keep his voice down. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to get out of the city,” she said. “Do you have any ideas?”
“We weren’t really planning on doing that,” Jez said. “What happened to you? Why did you run?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been cast out of the keep, the king is your enemy, and there is a demon general of the abyss loose somewhere in the city. I was nearly killed fighting a battle I had no business fighting. Of course I’m going to run. What I’m wondering is why you’re not running.”
“There’s a demon general loose somewhere in the city,” Jez said in a level voice.
Villia let out a breath. She waved for them to follow and led them away from the crowded streets and into an alley.
“You’re just a mortal,” she said. “No one could expect you to stand up to Maries.”
“No one expected me to stand up to Marrowit either,” Jez pointed out. “We could use your help.”
Villia laughed. “Help? You need more help than anything I can give. Call Sariel if you want. See what help he can give.”
Jez scowled, but his expressions softened. “Can I do that?”
She shook her head. “Not even you can summon a pharim high lord.”
“What about another Shadowguard?” Osmund asked.
Jez turned to him. “What?”
“Another Shadowguard. You guarded Marrowit. Shouldn’t there be some other Shadowguard to watch over Maries?”
Jez looked at Villia and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Is there?”
Villia looked at him for several seconds. Then, her face twisted in anger. “By the seven, why didn’t we think of that before? A demon as powerful as Maries would have to have a Shadowguard set to watch over him. They should’ve showed up the moment anyone tried to free him. I don’t know why they didn’t.”
“Shadowguard can be bound,” Jez pointed out. “Did Lina’s book say anything about doing that?”
Villia shook her head. “It was all about demons, not pharim. Perhaps whoever that book belonged to had other resources.”
“What you mean whoever the book belonged to? It was Lina’s.”
Villia shook her head. “No, it wasn’t.”
Jez stared at her. “Of course it was. We found it in her room. The summoning circle was burned into her floor.”
“I know that,” Villia said, “but it wasn’t her.”
“Who else would it be?”
“I’m not sure, but I found her wandering the streets in a half daze. She’s terrified of the demons and of the guards. She’s doing everything she can to leave the city.”
“She probably has you fooled too.” Jez practically spat the words out. “She’s managed that with just about everyone.”
Villia snorted. “Deceiving someone like you is easy. You have no talent for lies and misdirection. It’s not such a simple matter to fool a Veilspeaker.”
“But you’re not a Veilspeaker.”
“I’m close enough. Believe me, she wasn’t lying. In any case, once I got the chance, I examined her more closely. She has great ability in shadow magic and a fair amount in secrets, but she doesn’t have the ability to summon anything more than a minor imp. Even that would be a stretch.”
“But if it wasn’t her, then who?”
“I have no idea,” Villia said. “Would you like to talk to her?”
“You know where she is?”
“Of course. I’ve been protecting her ever since I left the keep.”
CHAPTER 39
Villia led them down another dark alley, though this one made the first one seem like a paradise. The emptiness felt odd after the overcrowded city streets. A man slept in a corner on a pile of rags. He stirred as they approached but didn’t get up. The place reeked of cheap ale and unwashed flesh, and Jez resisted the urge to hold his nose. Villia reached for a wall, and her hand passed right through it. A short gasp escaped Jez’s throat. Villia pulled, and a door appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She glanced at them and stepped through the wall. Jez and Osmund exchanged glances.
“I’ll go first,” Osmund said.
He stepped forward and gingerly put his hand on the spot Villia had walked through. His finger sank in, and he nodded. He moved forward, ducking slightly, and disappeared. Immediately, he cried out, and Jez reached for his power. The crystal sword flickered into existence, but it only lasted a second before disappearing.
“Sorry,” Osmund said. “The ceiling is lower than I expected. I hit my head. It’s safe. You can come in.”
“Don’t do that,” Jez said before following through the illusionary wall.
The room on the other side was barely big enough to be called such. The floor was nothing more than padded dirt, and black spots of mold grew on the walls. Lina sat huddled in one corner. Her dress had once been a fine gown of purple silk, but was now covered in dirt, and the fabric was torn in several places. More than one spot had dried blood crusted on it. The illusion covering her scar was gone. Her face looked plain, and he realized he’d never seen her without her face decorated in powders. She was staring at Osmund, but seemed to lack the strength to be afraid. Her eyes, red from crying, flickered to Jez and then to Villia.
“Have you brought them to kill me?”
“I brought them to help you.”
“Help her,” Osmund’s voice boomed in the small room. “She had me thrown out of the Academy. She put me on trial. She wanted to have me beaten or worse. She deserves whatever she gets.”
“Consider your words carefully.” There was the slightest hint of echo in Villia’s voice, making it sound more ominous. “Do you really think she deserves to be hunted like an animal by demons and men alike?”
Some of the anger drained from Osmund’s face, but he didn’t respond. Villia looked at Jez who shook his head.
“Even if I believed she didn’t summon the demon, we can’t help her leave the city. There’s too much we have to do here.”
“What you want to do here will only get you killed,” Villia said. “At least by helping this girl, you can do some good. Isn’t that what you want?”
“I can’t leave a powerful demon in control of the King of Ashtar.”
“You can’t do anything to stop him,” Villia said. “You don’t even know where he is.”
“He has to be back in the keep,” Jez said. “There are no other demons in the city except for maybe at the gates, and that wasn’t nearly strong enough to be Maries.”
“You want to get back into the keep?” Osmund asked. “That place we almost killed ourselves getting out of?”
“I know, but there’s nowhere else Maries could be. We have to find a way back in.”
“Can you save my father?” Lina asked. Jez looked at her. Her
voice had been strong and had caught him by surprise. She met his gaze with steel in her eyes. “If you can rescue him, I’ll help you.”
Osmund snorted. “What do you think you can do to help us?”
“Why do you think my father and I were hiding in the dungeon? We certainly weren’t going to lock ourselves up. There’s a secret passage in the lower level of the dungeon that leads out.”
“You can get us in?”
She sat up straight and returned his glare. For a second, she exuded the pride and haughtiness that he’d come to expect from all nobles, but then the light in her eyes faded, and she slumped her shoulders. “If you promise to help my father.”
Jez glanced at Osmund. “It’s not that simple. We all thought it was you that was summoning the demons. If it wasn’t, it has to be your father.”
“It was not my father,” Lina said. “It was the king.”
Jez and Osmund exchanged glances. “What?”
“He could’ve gotten into my room. No one would stop him from going anywhere he pleases in the keep.”
“It does make sense, in an odd sort of way,” Villia said. “If he summoned the wrong demon, it might have been able to control him. It would explain why he got so unreasonably angry when Lina got away.”
“But can we be sure it’s not Varin?”
“For all his flaws,” Villia said, “I don’t think Varin would allow this to happen to his daughter.”
Jez considered for a second, trying to find a flaw in the logic. There were a couple, but none that measured up to the single unavoidable truth. He had no choice.
“Fine,” Jez said. “Show me the way inside.”
CHAPTER 40
“A graveyard?” Jez asked as Lina led them through the iron gate near the Creator’s shrine.
They were near the northern edge of town. The graveyard took up an entire city block and was relatively empty. Lina led them between a row of markers and shrugged.
“It doesn’t do much good to have a secret passage if everyone can see you coming in and out of it.”
Veilspeaker (Pharim War Book 2) Page 12