Blackflame (Cradle Book 3)

by Will Wight

  When he saw Lindon’s concern, he winked. “People here are all so concerned with high rankings. I’ve always felt that you get more done when you’re not in the spotlight, don’t you think?”

  Yerin rolled her shoulder in its socket. “It’s too late to save face. You were hauling like a plow-horse.”

  Eithan laughed. “I was, wasn’t I? Well, maybe I have provoked too strong of an opponent this time.” He didn’t sound too concerned about the possibility. Reaching into his pocket, he flipped Yerin something that looked like a wooden coin. “Yerin, have one of the servants direct you to the refinery. Show them that token, and ask them for a Purple Feather Elixir.”

  She brightened immediately. “This will smooth my path to Highgold?”

  “Your path to Highgold is very smooth, if only you would listen to me, but this will help you advance your madra base without tapping into your Remnant. Cycle as much as you can over the next three or four days, until the pill wears off.”

  Yerin gripped the token in her fist and ran off without another word.

  “What about me?” Lindon asked hopefully. He had received a dozen Four Corners Rotation Pills over the course of the journey, though their effects had begun to fade during the last week or two. But if Eithan had something more powerful in reserve, Lindon wanted a taste of it.

  Eithan rubbed his hands together in apparent anticipation. “You and I, Lindon, are headed for my personal favorite room in the entire city: the Arelius family library.”

  ***

  Jai Long hopped down from the back of his bat, sliding down its bristly gray-white fur to the ground. His boots crunched on sand.

  All around him, the Sandvipers landed their own mounts. Gokren rode a bat just like his, which had been generously donated by the Jai clan, but the others traveled on Thousand-Mile Clouds of various colors, or flying constructs, or various treasures. Most of their equipment had followed them in a levitating cauldron big enough to stew five men, but it was lagging a day behind.

  He ignored the rest of the group, heading straight to a white Thousand-Mile Cloud with a tent erected on it.

  Inside, Jai Chen was struggling to sit upright. “Are we…stopping…already?” she asked, her voice soft but threaded with effort.

  Jai Long grabbed her by the shoulder, helping her sit up. He wanted to unravel the red bandages around his head and speak to his sister face-to-face, but he needed Sandviper loyalty enough that he didn’t want to scare them off.

  “We’re here,” he said, and she lit up. He scooped her out of the tent, pretending not to hear her protests that her hair wasn’t straight.

  She had suffered the indignities of travel without protest, and now he carried her to look out over the desert. Into the sun, which rose behind a black mountain. At the city of dragon’s bone.

  This was her first glance of Serpent’s Grave in almost ten years, and she covered her mouth and teared up at the sight. Their parents lived in the city somewhere, as did their brothers and sisters.

  She smiled at him, wide and open and tinged with grief. Jai Long knew she was glad to be home, despite everything, even if the sight of her birthplace pierced her like a sword.

  Behind his mask of bandages, he smiled too.

  For very different reasons.

  Chapter 9

  Lindon had spent much of the past five years working in the Wei clan archives. He was confident he knew what a library was supposed to look like.

  But this room, located behind and beneath the bone tower that housed Cassias' family, was just a twenty-foot by twenty-foot square box. It had only one door, and all the walls were pale, yellowed bone. On the ceiling, a few scripted circles glowed with runelight, illuminating every corner.

  A small altar of bone rose from the center of the room like an arm, with a claw cupping a ball the size of Lindon's fist. The ball was made of copper plates, and he thought he saw whirring flashes of color between the plates.

  All in all, it was nothing like a library.

  Eithan waited with hands on hips, clearly anticipating Lindon's reaction.

  “Are the books...in the walls?” Lindon finally asked.

  The Underlord clicked his tongue. “What are books but a mechanism to store knowledge? If we have something much more efficient available,” –Eithan picked up the copper ball— “then why would we need books?”

  Lindon peered at the ball. It was a construct of some kind, obviously, but beyond that he couldn't guess. Maybe it would project words onto the wall—some of his mother's White Fox constructs could do as much, crafting images from illusions.

  “This is the single most valuable object the entire Arelius family owns,” he said, spinning it on the tip of one finger. “Most of us aren’t aware of that, but it's true. We primarily use the powers of our bloodline to find areas that need cleaning or maintenance, but as an...unintentional side effect...we also tend to collect other information.”

  He tossed the ball from hand to hand. “All of that information pertinent to the sacred arts—including secrets about the Paths of our rivals—is stored in here. Some of it also gets copied into dream tablets, scrolls, books, and so forth, but everything goes here.”

  That was intriguing. If they could study the sacred arts of their enemies, they could walk into any battle with the upper hand. If Jai Long's sacred arts were in there...

  “How do we get it out?” Lindon asked.

  “Well, first, you have to be a blood member of the Arelius family.” Eithan continued tossing the ball in his left hand and touched the right against his chest. “Fortunately for you, I am. The original Patriarch left this treasure for his descendants, and they have learned from it and added to it one generation at a time.”

  “That's incredible. Truly, it's a treasure that I'm honored even to lay my eyes on. But how do we get it—”

  Eithan didn't do anything Lindon could see, but the copper plates slowly pushed out from the center of the ball. A light flashed red.

  And suddenly a featureless, crimson man stood in the center of the room.

  It looked like a Remnant left behind by one of the wooden training dummies: a head without a face, body slender and unremarkable, limbs lifeless and smooth. It was solid red, without details or distinguishing marks.

  “Your Path of Twin Stars interests me,” Eithan said, spinning the expanded ball in one hand. He muttered something to the orb, and it flashed again.

  The red man came to life, crouching on the balls of its feet and raising both hands. It pivoted, driving one hand forward and low, and a pulse of barely-visible madra extended from the blow. An Empty Palm.

  Lindon stared at the scarlet mannequin hard enough to burn a hole through it. Never mind looking at his enemy's abilities—if he could study his own techniques like this, watching them from the outside in...how much could he learn? He could perfect his every movement.

  “There are possibilities for the Path of Twin Stars in the future,” Eithan said. “Pure madra is rare enough that it has many advantages, which you've already realized...but it also has quite a few disadvantages.”

  Another flash, and this time a green man appeared, its hands wreathed in flame. The first figure, the red one, stepped forward to deliver an Empty Palm to its opponent's core...

  ...and the green figure grabbed it by the face with burning hands. The scarlet head winked out, leaving the red man with bare shoulders.

  “As a Path, it has remarkable utility, but it leaves you practically defenseless,” Eithan went on. The copper ball flashed red, and the red man stood—whole and alone—in the center of the room once again. “It also happens to be slow to advance, since you can't take in aura while cycling. You must rely on purifying your own madra and increasing it with external factors. Elixirs and such.”

  Eithan leaned against the wall, smiling, the ball tucked under one arm. “So...I know you're aware of these problems, and you've thought of some possible solutions. What are your thoughts?”

  Lindon had assumed Eith
an was heading somewhere, and he was still fascinated by the possibilities of the red man and the copper ball. The question left him flat-footed.

  “I know I need to develop more techniques, so...if you have some pure madra techniques in there...”

  “That's a good line of thinking, and we should come back to that in the future. But we have roughly ten to eleven months before you have to fight Jai Long.” Eithan shrugged. “Let's call it ten, to leave some margin for error. Ten months, and you will fight someone so much stronger than you that he may as well be a living dragon, as far as you're concerned. What do you do about that?”

  “I need a second Path,” Lindon said immediately. “It was one of my first ideas for my second core: you leave one pure, and fill the other with another aspect of madra. But I'm not sure if I can—”

  “It's not perfect,” Eithan interrupted. “Everyone thinks of learning a second Path at some point, though usually they want to learn another set of techniques compatible with the madra they've already cultivated. You know why that rarely works, don't you?”

  “There's only so much time in the day,” Lindon said. “And only so many resources you can dedicate to advancement. Instead of ending up twice as powerful, you end up half as skilled in two areas.”

  “That's all true,” Eithan said. “But?”

  “But...it's difficult to find someone to train you in two different Paths?”

  “That's also true, but it’s not what I was getting at. You've explained why learning two Paths is difficult...but it isn't impossible. It can be done.”

  Lindon searched Eithan's face, looking for signs that this was a joke, or a trick, or a setup of some kind. “How?”

  “Oh, it's just as you said.” He waved the copper ball lazily. “You need to work twice as hard, or spend twice as much time, or have access to twice as many resources, or preferably all three. But I think learning another Path is exactly what you need to do.”

  The ball flashed, and the green man showed back up, its fists once again surrounded by flame. But this time, the red man took a defensive pose, hands up and protecting its body.

  “The Path of Twin Stars has plenty of room to grow,” Eithan said, and as the green man drove its fiery fists forward, the red man caught both burning hands in its own.

  The fire went out.

  The red man followed with a kick to the lower abdomen, the air rippled with colorless madra, and the green man staggered.

  That had looked like an Empty Palm executed through a kick. Lindon had tried that on the dummy targets, but his control over his own madra wasn't anywhere close to good enough to execute something like that.

  And how could pure madra cancel techniques?

  “Would you show that again?” Lindon asked, but both figures vanished. The red man returned to the center of the room a moment later, blank and still.

  “You can't take your Path forward until you learn the basics of the sacred arts,” Eithan said. “Learn how other Paths work first, and carry those lessons over to the Path of Twin Stars.”

  Lindon moved his gaze from the motionless red man to Eithan. The Underlord seemed to be saying that he could start from step one with a brand new Path and fight Jai Long…in ten months.

  Which even Lindon thought was absurd.

  “Forgiveness. That sounds too good to be true.”

  Eithan's smile gleamed. “It's not impossible.”

  Lindon took a deep breath, his mind whirling with possibilities. “I’ll need to spend all my time cycling. Will I have time to learn the techniques properly? Ah, before that, what Path should I learn?”

  “That's up to you.”

  He should have expected Eithan to keep stringing him along, but he didn't even know how to respond. How many Paths were out there? Which could he learn?

  His first thought was the Path of the White Fox, but he didn't know if even the Arelius family would have information on Sacred Valley. Or if illusions could defeat Jai Long at all.

  “I have many plans,” Eithan said, “and many ideas. But I've long believed that it's better for someone to choose their own direction and then accept guidance than to be pushed where I want them to go. Now, I'm willing to show you any sort of Path you like...but I wait for your direction. The world of sacred arts lies open to you. What Path would you like to see?”

  “Jai Long's,” Lindon said immediately.

  Eithan nodded. “Good choice.”

  The copper plates around the ball spun, and suddenly white light was running in loops through the center of the red man's belly and chest. Lindon could see it as though the figure's flesh had become transparent, and he recognized the patterns: madra channels. It was using an Enforcer technique.

  A moment later, straight lines formed on red skin, sliding from the core out to the limbs.

  “You're fighting Jai Long,” Eithan said. “He was trained in the Path of the Stellar Spear, the signature Path of his clan.”

  The red man extended one hand, and a red spear fell into its hand. A thrust drove the spear forward, then swept it to the side, fighting an invisible opponent. Spinning the spear, the man moved faster and faster, occasionally blasting a river of white light that splashed harmlessly against the bone wall. As he fought, needles of that same white madra formed over his shoulder, shooting off as soon as they were completed.

  An Enforcer technique for speed, a Striker technique to attack, and a Forger technique to defend and cover its movements.

  “However, he deviated by bonding a Remnant with subtly different aspects. Now...” The pattern on the scarlet skin changed from straight lines to twisting, serpentine lines. The figure spun its spear just like before, but the spearhead left a trail of white light that hung in the air and came to life.

  Like a pale Remnant, the serpent of Forged madra turned to Lindon and opened its jaws in a silent hiss.

  The red man traced curls of light through the room, like a man painting on a canvas, until it was surrounded by a spiraling nest of snakes.

  “Imbuing Forged madra with temporary life is an advanced technique, far beyond Jai Long. He can only produce this result because he absorbed a Remnant from a Path we’ll call…unnatural.” Lindon reached up for one of the snakes, to see if the lines of color were illusions or actual Forged madra.

  “Treat each snake as though it’s made of razor-sharp wire,” Eithan said, and Lindon snatched his hand back. “In the fight, I mean. Jai Long will use these to cover his approach—” Suddenly the figure lunged for Lindon, who flattened himself against a wall. The shining white serpents covered the entire room; there was nowhere else for him to go.

  “—to block your escape—” Eithan continued, and just as Lindon tried to slide under the light, the red man swept his spear up from the ground and walled him off with white madra.

  “—and to corner you for the kill.” A snake coiled and snapped at the tip of Lindon's nose.

  Though he knew it was a training exercise, Lindon's heart was still hammering. Gingerly, he passed a corner of his sleeve through the light. When it survived unharmed, he tried with a finger.

  He felt nothing; no heat, no resistance. With his other hand, he passed through the red man, and once again it was like waving his hand through only air. It was just like the Path of the White Fox, then. Forgers could make solid illusions, and Strikers could produce foxfire, but in the end it was all only light and dreams.

  He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

  “This isn't even his only technique,” Eithan said conversationally. “Just his most common one. If we get you to Lowgold, perhaps your Empty Palm technique could affect him...but he would never allow you that close. In a thousand fights, you would fail a thousand times.”

  Eithan stopped talking, and all the slithering lights left by Jai Long's techniques vanished. The red man reappeared in its starting position, empty-handed.

  Lindon waited for his heart to return to a healthy rhythm before he rose back up the wall to his feet. “So then.
I need a second Path that covers for my weaknesses and targets Jai Long's.” He hesitated for a moment. “Or...I'm not sure how to ask, but are there any...famous, or especially powerful Paths out there?” The myths and legends of Sacred Valley were filled with tales of unbeatable Paths, so if those really existed, Lindon didn't want to be stuck with a mundane one.

  Eithan raised one eyebrow. “You think you need a special Path? Are ordinary Paths not good enough to meet your esteemed estimation?”

  Lindon ducked his head. “I knew it was childish to ask, excuse me. I only wanted—”

  “No, you were right. Powerful Paths, coming right up.”

  The ball flashed emerald, and the green man reappeared. This time, this one held the spear, and as it twirled the weapon, the spearhead shone like a star. The Path of the Stellar Spear, though Lindon couldn’t tell if it was the original version or Jai Long’s twisted one.

  The red man cupped its hand and gathered a ball of deep purple light. The technique trembled against invisible restraints, as though pushing against the air, and an equally vivid purple sword appeared in his left hand. The weapon crackled and shook, also straining against some unseen bond.

  “Path of the Broken Star,” Eithan announced. “This Path branched off into the Stellar Spear many generations ago, and the original is far more...potent.”

  The green man started off defensive, weaving a net of squirming snakes behind, just as Jai Long could do.

  The red man disappeared, leaving a violet shadow of Broken Star madra behind. When the scarlet figure reappeared, there was a gap sliced in the barrier and a hole driven through the green man's chest.

  “Jai Long might last a little longer than that,” Eithan said, “but not too much so. If you mastered the Path of the Broken Star, you'd make a splash throughout the Empire.”

  The featureless figure still hadn't extinguished its sword, and it buzzed and crackled in the air.

  Lindon was tempted to choose this one instantly, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what else was on offer.

  “Now, disadvantages: it demands exacting madra control, its techniques are notoriously difficult to apply in real-world situations, and there's only one place to train it: a secret city long lost to the Jai clan.”