Revenant Winds (The Tainted Cabal Book 1)

by Mitchell Hogan

  He looked over to Priska, wondering if she might help. Gannon’s hand now grasped her dark hair again, and he jerked her head up to expose her neck, resting the razor edge of his blade against it.

  “You have to let her help Sokhelle,” Aldric said.

  Gannon didn’t move. His eyes were focused on Soki, but he removed his sword from Priska’s throat. She sobbed with relief, wiped her nose on her sleeve, and added her own cants and repositories to Soki’s, as Aldric had done.

  “She knows what it is,” Gannon said suddenly. “Your fearless sorcerer, Sokhelle.”

  Above their heads, the diamonds whirled and churned, almost too bright to look at. They chased away shadows and cast a rippling radiance around them like sunlight on the ocean. An immense droning filled the air, so intense it set Aldric’s jawbone vibrating.

  “What is it?” asked Priska, then gasped as Gannon twisted her hair again.

  “I may have lied when I said it was sorcery. It is of sorcery,” he said, and gestured to the metal cube, which he’d placed on the ground. “In here, Sokhelle, if you please—or the sorcery will go free. What would happen then? Tell them.”

  Soki paused her chanting, anguish on her face. She spoke as if the words were torn from her. “Every sorcerer will die. And without their protection, so will most of humanity. Our civilization would be destroyed. I … I cannot condone that. I will not be the cause.”

  Power rose from her like a current, coursing outward and enveloping the shimmering mass. She gasped, and her eyes narrowed in studied concentration. “It’s strong. I cannot … but I must.”

  “You are witnessing something no one before you has lived to talk about,” Gannon told Aldric. “The sorcerers of old named it Revenants. The Cabal terms them the Raveners, because … well … that’s what they are. Ravenous. They find sorcerers and destroy them. Along with everything around them.”

  “They?” asked Aldric. “I don’t understand.” But he recalled one of the dreams the relic had sent him. Sian telling Marthaze of a sorcery the Evokers constructed that would prevent Nysrog from ever rising again. She’d called it ‘the Revenants’ and said it would save the world.

  “After Nysrog was defeated, the sorcerers and priests decided that a certain level of sorcery was inimical to civilization. It turned into a danger. If its adherents became too skilled, too potent, they would tread places best left alone. The evilest and most power-hungry would look toward demons and their power.”

  Fragments of Aldric’s dreams came together. “They wanted to prevent another Nysrog.”

  “Yes. So they created the Revenants and entombed them in ruins like this one, behind arcane veils that can only be breached by complex sorceries and divine powers. Sorcerers, they surmised, lusted after more power, delving heedlessly into the unknown. They couldn’t help themselves.”

  It slowly dawned on Aldric just what was happening. If every sorcerer died, as Soki had warned, there would be no one to keep people safe from the creatures of the wilderness. Chaos and death would be inevitable. Diseases would desolate the cities, and creatures of the wilderness would be free to rampage and destroy. An entire civilization decimated, all to prevent the return of Nysrog.

  “The cataclysms,” he said. “The Revenants were responsible?”

  How many people had been murdered? Cities destroyed, and civilization plunged into darkness time and time again? And all because some ancient sorcerers had decided that the only way to keep humanity away from power that could destroy them was to deny them any knowledge of such power. It was abhorrent. It was … evil.

  He squeezed his hands into fists. What could he do? He’d had a hand in unleashing this monstrosity.

  “The Revenants prevent sorcery from progressing and spreading,” Gannon said. “That is their only task. Right now, they’ve only just awoken, so are vulnerable in certain ways. Only now can they be neutralized, and their power will be mine to use.” He cleared his throat loudly. “Sokhelle, hurry, please.”

  “Be quiet,” snapped Soki between cants of intricate sorcery.

  Inside her arcane net, the Revenants grew brighter. Bulges appeared, as if testing the constraints holding them. Soki grimaced, rivulets of sweat pouring down her face. Aldric felt his repositories drain as she tapped into his power. Priska gasped; she must have felt the same. All too quickly, Aldric’s reserves were drained. Soki was on her own now.

  One particularly large bulge pressed outward, stretching the sorcerous net to bursting. Soki cried out and clasped her hands to her forehead. She staggered, and Aldric lunged to support her weight. He held her trembling body against his and marveled at her capacity as she continued uttering cants despite the strain she was under. In his arms, her slender form felt delicate and fragile.

  Soki gave him a wan smile before continuing to chant sorceries. Under assault from the Revenants, her arcane mesh expanded further still as they probed for weaknesses. Soki’s voice rose, and cants poured from her mouth as she attempted to strengthen her creation, but as soon as one area was reinforced, another came under assault. She couldn’t keep this up, Aldric knew. She would make a mistake; or her dawn-tide and dusk-tide reservoirs would drain completely. Even Aldric’s paltry sorcerous sense could feel the Revenants’ capacity, as tireless as the tides, as complex as life itself.

  Soki stumbled over a cant, and a bright sparkle wormed through a fissure. Immediately, she shoved Aldric away from her. The sparkle swooped straight for Soki, catching her in the middle of an unfinished warding cant. Her spine arched, and her skin lit up with an internal radiance. She cried out in agony and fell to the ground.

  Aldric scrambled to her, reaching for his god’s divine power.

  Soki clawed at his arms, fingers digging into his flesh. “Aldric, I’ve failed. I’m sorry. It has me.”

  She screamed, a primal sound torn from her throat, ripped from her very soul. Hair-thin slashes opened on her skin, and blood trickled out, infused with minute sparkles. The Revenants were destroying her from the inside.

  Aldric opened himself to his god and threw himself into saving Soki. She was their only chance. Only Soki had the talent to confine the Revenants and possibly to stop Gannon. But what really drove him was the possibility of losing her. He couldn’t bear the thought. Why should he live and Soki die? It wasn’t right.

  Menselas’s might suffused him, and he directed it at Soki. Her skin had a feverish burn, and every exposed part was streaked with cuts and blood. Weaving the god’s power as best he could, he closed her cuts and healed her skin. Then he sent questing surges through her veins, hunting the Revenants. But they were too small. Too many. He cornered groups, only to feel them slip away. He lacked the necessary knowledge. Another side effect of neglecting his healing.

  His Church had held him back, and now the world would feel the consequences of their actions. Beginning with the woman he loved.

  Aldric screamed in frustration, then threw himself entirely into the struggle, drawing more of Menselas’s power than he ever had before. He changed tactics and sent sheets of it pulsing through Soki. So intent was he on saving her, he didn’t notice any change until her fingers twisted his ear. He opened his eyes and stared into hers.

  “Thank you,” she said weakly. “But I fear I’m a lost cause.”

  “Don’t say that. You—”

  Her finger on his lips stopped him. “Now’s not the time for false hope. You need to keep me alive while I combat the Revenants. They’re inside me, Aldric—I can feel them burning, tearing me apart. There’s no hope. But if you can give me more time, I think I can contain those still in my net.”

  “I’m not going to lose you,” he said.

  Her hand caressed his cheek. “I’m sorry. I wish it could have been different. Now hush, there’s no time.” Her face twisted in agony, and she sucked in gasping breaths. “You owe me,” she croaked through her pain.

  Soki tilted her face up toward the Revenants and resumed chanting cants. Weak at first, her voice grew in
strength. Far above, caught in the arcane mesh she had created, the Revenants roiled and churned.

  Aldric blinked away tears and bent to his own task. There had to be a chance of saving her. His god’s power was immense. He drew in as much as he could and set to healing her.

  “This is all very touching,” he heard Gannon say. “But if you don’t finish the job, I’ll kill you both. Then your civilization and everyone you love will also die. It’s not my favored option, but I’ll settle for it.”

  “Then at least,” Soki whispered, “the Tainted Cabal would have to remain in hiding and will be unable to summon Nysrog for fear of the Revenants. Of course.”

  A soundless shockwave erupted from the Revenants and washed over them all, pushing them off balance. Soki’s mesh flared to blinding brilliance. The ruin resonated with a tangible, swelling charge that prickled Aldric’s skin. Soki coughed, interrupting her cants for an instant. Blood dribbled from her lips. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and resumed her sorcery. Her effort felt like a spider’s web holding back a gale.

  A cold pit in his stomach, Aldric continued his attempt to heal her. The damage the Revenants had done was extensive: already, her less vital organs had shut down, and she had internal bleeding in several areas. He wove Menselas’s power as best he could, patching in some places, repairing the worst areas. But for every wound healed, another appeared. The damage was immense, and he knew his skill wouldn’t suffice.

  “Steady,” he told her. “I’ve got you. It’s going to be all right.”

  She returned a slight nod, her eyes wide with fear. Aldric’s heart lurched in response. He sensed her distress. Soki was in intense pain, being torn apart from the inside, and still she fought to contain the Revenants.

  Power whipped against power. Dawn-tide and dusk-tide sorcery clashed. Time lost all meaning. All that mattered was Soki. Her cants became a distant backdrop as he sought to keep her alive. Energies coursed from her—binding and imprisoning cants to reinforce the vast and intricate matrix she had created. Lights flashed and danced around them.

  Her shouts reached a crescendo, and her power crackled and blazed. A tendril emerged from the arcane net she had created, pulled toward Gannon’s cube. Its tip touched the metal, then wavered.

  Soki’s voice was a rasping mess now, but still she continued her chanting. The tendril latched onto the cube.

  “Yes,” said Gannon, reverence in his voice.

  Glittering lights pulsed down the strand, gathering in speed and frequency, more and more power pouring from Soki’s sorcerous net into Gannon’s metal cube—another prison.

  “Only a little more,” Gannon said.

  Soki stopped chanting and laughed, her lips and chin scarlet with blood. “You want it all? Sorry, not this fragment.”

  “No!” shouted Gannon.

  With a thunderous crack, Soki’s net fractured. Scintillating diamonds in the shape of perfect spheres poured through the breach, swirling into a swarm before shooting upward and hammering into the rock of the roof. Their radiance scattered, fading to nothing, the spheres becoming as dark as pitch.

  Gannon spat curses in a guttural tongue.

  They can’t escape, Aldric thought. Then swore vehemently as the entire mass seemed to leach into the ceiling, draining away like water through a cracked bath. In moments they were gone.

  Soki had allowed a fragment to escape, and now the Tainted Cabal wouldn’t be able to summon Nysrog. Gannon’s plan was in tatters. But was releasing the Revenants a better outcome? Aldric wasn’t so sure.

  He threw himself into healing Soki with renewed vigor, drawing strength from reserves he didn’t know he had. Weaving frantically, he mended veins and drained pools of blood back into them, repaired slashed organs and skin, all the while chasing the Revenants inside Soki. They were foreign bodies, so he could exert some control over them, but not enough. He managed to corral some, though had to continually concentrate on them or they’d break free.

  Soki gave a cry of triumph, and Aldric looked up to see the last of the Revenants disappear into Gannon’s cube. A final surge from Soki, and the cube flashed a brilliant blue.

  Soki laughed weakly, then went limp in Aldric’s arms. She had sealed the cube with her last remaining strength. Only a powerful sorcerer could break it open again, and Gannon wasn’t much of a sorcerer.

  Gannon’s face was a mask of pure fury, but also pale. The strain from the sorcery he’d worked on the cube was showing. He was weak. Was it time for Aldric to strike?

  Before he could move, Gannon snarled and sliced open Priska’s throat. Crimson gushed out like a wave.

  “Save her,” Soki whispered. “I did all I could. Now it’s up to you. Don’t forget the Chain.”

  Her eyes closed, and she drew in a halting breath. She exhaled once; then her chest was still. Aldric lowered her head gently to the ground.

  Taking a deep breath, he lunged and slid across the pavers, hand reaching for his khopesh. His ribs protested and he grimaced. Aldric’s fingers grasped his weapon, clamping around its hilt. He rose to his feet, the blade in his hand. Star-metal—anathema to demons.

  Gannon snatched up the cube and ran into the darkness behind the coffer.

  Aldric let him go and turned his attention to Priska. He stumbled to her side, knees buckling from exhaustion. Tears coursed down his cheeks, hot and salty. He pressed a hand to her throat. Her wide eyes stared at him, imploring. Crimson bubbled from her lips. Her hands grabbed his shirt, clenching tight.

  Her face blurred as fresh tears clouded Aldric’s vision. Grasping his god’s divine power, he sent it into Priska with all his might. Her wound was relatively simple compared to the damage wrought to Soki. He mended the jugular and tendons and fused her skin, then removed his hand, sticky with blood. Priska was safe. For now.

  Aldric blinked away his tiredness and stood to confront Gannon. His khopesh felt ten times heavier than usual. He reached for whatever dregs of sorcerous power he had remaining. There wasn’t enough for an attack, not that he’d succeed, but he could use it for defense. He didn’t hold out much hope, but he had to try. He couldn’t let so many die without an attempt at vengeance.

  The immense chamber around Aldric shrank, then disappeared as power blazed through him. He tried to withdraw from it, but his mind refused to budge, as if it were nailed in place. He opened his mouth to scream—couldn’t. Something had set him in stone. The power scoured through his body like acid. It was an alarm bell, awakening his survival instinct. And it had a familiar flavor … It was tinged with Menselas.

  His god was burning him with holy fire.

  Aldric almost let go then, almost surrendered to the purifying heat of the divine. He’d failed, and this was his punishment.

  Just as suddenly, the burning stopped. Aldric moaned with blessed relief as his nerves and flesh soaked up the chill of the ruin. Long moments passed before he gathered himself to wonder what was happening. Something cold and hard and rough pressed against the side of his face. The floor.

  A faint chanting came from somewhere, guttural and halting. Gannon.

  Aldric moved a finger and immediately regretted it. His muscles and bones felt like they’d been pierced by a hundred needles. He sucked in a deep breath, forced the pain to the back of his mind, placed a palm against the floor, and before he could finish the thought and stop himself, he shoved himself onto his back. He screamed as the pain was multiplied a thousand times. Tears flowed from his eyes. Then he remembered Soki, and more tears followed. Aldric was alone and afraid.

  But Gannon had to be stopped.

  Menselas knew this, so why had his god prevented him?

  A dark need to act woke in Aldric. A craving for retribution and blood. Gannon must be killed.

  He turned the thought over in his mind. It was the first time he’d ever considered killing a human being for his own vengeance. It disturbed him, but if anyone deserved to die, surely it was Gannon. What was one life weighed against the deaths of
hundreds of thousands?

  There was danger in such thinking, he knew. Dread overcame him. He wasn’t afraid of dying in the attempt, but feared for the sanctity of his soul.

  But he was different, wasn’t he? He understood the peril. And some deaths were required. Some deaths were … holy.

  Gannon’s chanting continued, and Aldric became aware of an unraveling sensation as reality twisted and warped. An unholy stench assailed his nostrils, and he gagged. He blinked away tears and saw Gannon standing in front of the coffer, a fog rising around him. Lines of sorcery scored through the mist, their passing blazing shadowy lines that rapidly dissipated. Demon sorcery, or some kind of innate ability, Aldric thought.

  Kurio lay at Gannon’s feet, as did Bryn. The swordsman’s throat had been ripped out.

  But that’s not how he died …

  Then Aldric saw the hunk of flesh in Gannon’s hand, the blood around his mouth. He watched in frozen horror as Gannon brought Bryn’s flesh to his lips and savaged off a chunk, swallowing almost immediately.

  Aldric felt an immense surge of a dark, arcane energy. The fog surrounding Gannon swirled and churned more densely, and there was a howling sound, like a keening wind in the high mountains. The fog roiled away from Gannon to form a coursing circle beside him that grew darker, blotting out the coffer. There was a brief flash of brilliant light, so intense Aldric closed his eyes, and the roaring sound stopped, as if cut off by a door closing.

  When Aldric opened his eyes, the circle had transformed into a picture of a city from an elevated position. He recognized it immediately: Caronath. No, not a picture. The leaves on the trees moved in a silent breeze. Gannon had created a gate.

  Tiny dots of black floated above the city, swirling and swooping, like a flock of swallows. They twisted and churned, darting this way and that, forming clumps of dense darkness that split and reformed and split again and again. Aldric squinted, not believing his eyes. It was the Revenants that had escaped; they had already covered the distance from here to Caronath. As the realization formed a pit of ice in his stomach, he saw the spheres form into a mass and dive like a hawk for prey.