Soul Render (Soul Stones Book 1)

by T. L. Branson

  Will darted back up the hill and through the gate, as it slammed shut behind him. For better or worse, he was committed now.

  He needed to find a new host, but he was still unsure as how to proceed. The lord regent’s chambers sat on the sixth floor overlooking the lake, of that he was fairly certain. He thought about stealing the body of a servant, but it didn’t sit well with him. He could justify killing a guard; they volunteered to serve the king. But a servant?

  Will couldn’t do it. He would find another way.

  He waited for an hour before a lone guard walked away from the castle into the night. The guard’s soul glowed a fuchsia color and his mind was clearly on other things for he paid little attention to his surroundings.

  Even had he been alert, the guard wouldn’t have seen Will, who slammed into him. The man put up a valiant effort, but Will won out and the man was no more. There was only Will, in a new body.

  He turned around and walked back up the door of the palace. He pulled it open and walked inside. One of the guards on duty at the front door cast a sidelong glance and said, “Didn’t you just leave?”

  “Forgot something,” Will mumbled and hoped the guard left it at that.

  The man snorted, but made no attempt to stop Will as he ascended a marble staircase in the grand entry hall.

  The palace was a maze, finding his way up to the sixth floor proved to be difficult. Whenever he passed someone, he just straightened his posture and looked as if he knew what he was doing. Evindal taught him that he could get away with a great many things by just projecting confidence.

  As he entered a hall on the sixth floor he saw two guards posted on either side of a closed door.

  This must be the place.

  He walked to the door and—

  “…want a full account of our food stores in the morning,” drifted a deep, authoritative voice behind him. Will turned. A big man in lavish robes, flanked by several guards, spoke to a small, mousy looking man hurrying to keep up. “And call back our men from the southern border. Our relationship with the desert tribes may be tenuous, but we’ve no intelligence to suggest they’ll attack. We need every man on hand for the king’s visit.”

  The king’s visit?

  “Yes, Lord Regent,” the little man said with a nasally voice.

  Will stood up straight and put his back to the wall. One of the guards glanced his way, but the entourage moved past him before coming to stop outside the closed door.

  The lord regent looked to a parchment in his hands then back up at the mousy man. “We’ve got four weeks, but I want it done in two. You hear me, Merrick?”

  “Yes, Lord Regent.”

  “Well, what are you doing standing about? Get to it,” he said with the flick of his wrist, dismissing the little man.

  Merrick was in such a rush to get away from the lord regent that he ran right into Will. The man straightened himself and grumbled something Will couldn’t hear before he stomped off.

  The door of the lord regent’s room slammed shut and his escorts walked away, leaving the two guards at the door alone.

  Will walked away and moved about the palace as if he were conducting a standard patrol. He descended a set of stairs and moved down a hallway on the fifth floor. The hall was empty. He tried the handle of a door, but it was locked. He tried three more before one opened and he stepped into a dark room.

  He shifted his vision in the soul spectrum to see some sort of storage closet. Several mops and buckets leaned against the wall. Various towels and rugs were strung about the room to dry. Will figured this was as good a place as any to lie low, the servants probably having turned in for the night. He sat down in a corner.

  Evindal had told Will to keep it quiet. The best time to look for the ring would be after the lord regent had fallen asleep, but that would not be for quite some time. There was naught to do but wait.

  Will took stock of the weapons at his disposal. A sword was strapped to his waist and a knife in his boot. Running through possible scenarios in his head, he plotted on the best or worst case scenarios. He settled on a plan of action and, an hour later, he rose from his spot.

  He opened the door a crack and peered through while listening for anyone outside. Confident he was alone, Will pushed the door open and moved into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

  After he ascended the set of stairs back up to the sixth floor, he wound his way back to the lord regent’s room and approached one of the guards.

  “Oi, didn’t you go home?” said the man.

  “Working a double tonight,” Will said, thinking on his feet. “Captain needs to see you. I’ll stand watch till you get back.”

  “Yeah, all right,” he said and left.

  Will didn’t have much time. As soon as the guard found out the captain wasn’t looking for him, he’d be back with the captain in tow.

  A minute after the guard left Will looked to the other man, who was shifting his feet. “Looks like you could use the chamber pot,” he said.

  The man looked quizzically at Will.

  “Go on, nothing’s going to happen in the five minutes you’re gone.”

  The man hesitated but then left.

  As soon as he was out of sight, Will placed his hand on the door handle and gently disengaged the latch. He pushed open the door a finger’s breadth at a time, praying the hinges were well oiled.

  Entering the room, he closed the door behind him. Switching to the soul spectrum, he glanced around the chamber. The lord regent lay on the four-poster bed, a steady rise and fall to his chest. The balcony door was propped open. The cool breeze drifted in, the curtains lightly flapping in the wind.

  Will set about searching for the ring at once. He checked on top of the bedside table and pulled open its drawer. It contained a magnifying glass and some old documents, but nothing more. Next, he looked through the bureau and pulled out each drawer one at a time. He shoved aside shirts, socks, and other linens. He checked for hidden compartments, but the ring wasn’t there either.

  He turned around just as the lord regent swung a fire iron at his head. It connected and Will fell to the ground between him and the door.

  “Guards!” the lord regent yelled, holding the fire iron on Will like a sword. “Guards!”

  No one came. A shout rose up from far in the distance.

  “I’ll have you executed for this,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re doing or what you want, but I will have your head.”

  Will pulled the knife from his boot, stood, and dropped into a fighting stance, ready to counter the fire iron should the lord regent take a stab at him.

  “But I won’t stop there,” he continued. “Oh, no. I’ll make sure your family is disgraced. They’ll never make an honest day’s wages while I live.”

  He waved the fire iron and backed away toward the balcony. The light of the moon glinted off the signet ring on his finger.

  So he hadn’t taken it off.

  “When you’re dead, I’m going to take your ex-wife and have my way with her. Then I’ll turn her over to the others and they’ll ravish her. And your daughter,” he said, almost as an afterthought. “I’ll—”

  Anger welled within Will and he ran at the lord regent, dodging a lazy swing and knocking the fire iron away. Will grabbed the lord regent’s hand that bore the ring and tried to wrench it from him. The man held on and continued to cry out. The shouts in the hallways drew closer.

  Will picked up the knife and cut the lord regent’s finger from his hand. Both men fell backward, the ring and the finger falling to the floor. The lord regent let out a howl of pain.

  Eight guards filed into the room, their weapons drawn on the intruder. They stood in shock as they beheld the face of their friend.

  “Kill him! Kill him now!” the lord regent ordered.

  The closest man lunged forward, sword pulling back to take a swing.

  In the fear, in the anger, in the adrenaline of the moment, Will pulled energy deep from within
him and let it explode outward. He watched with a mixture of horror and relief as the souls of each man vaporized under a wave of energy. Their bodies all dropped to the floor like ragdolls in perfect unison.

  Will lay on the ground, too weak to move. The blast had used almost all of his power. The lord regent, like the others, lay motionless, his soul gone. He searched for the ring and found it by the open balcony door. He began to crawl toward it, one inch at a time.

  Another set of footsteps approached.

  “What happened here?” said the nasally voice of Merrick. He surveyed the room, worry on his face. Then he beheld the dead lord regent and a smile rose from his lips. A squawk from the balcony drew Will’s attention to Akos, who alighted on the rail outside.

  The bird swooped in, aiming for the ring. Seeing the hawk’s target, Merrick shouted, “No! Filthy bird!” Merrick jumped over the bodies and ran for the ring.

  Will reached with his hand, but couldn’t make it in time. He shed his body and stretched out his spectral hand and grabbed hold of Akos just as he clutched the ring in his talon.

  Too weak for Will to take control, Akos flew the two of them from the room, shouts and curses from Merrick drifting out into the night air behind them.

  26

  “Idiot!” Evindal said. “I said to keep your head down.” He stomped around the small living room under the worship hall, throwing his hands in the air.

  “You also said to ‘do whatever it takes,’ ” Will countered. “Well, I got you your ring.”

  “‘You got me my ring,’” he said, in a mocking tone. “You killed the lord regent, too!”

  “Isn’t that good, though?” Will asked, throwing his arms out in frustration. “It means I’m getting stronger if I can take out the lord regent.”

  “The lord regent was a poor excuse for a man and as weak as they come,” Evindal spat. “The people only put up with him because the king demanded it.”

  Evindal slowed his pacing as Allynna joined them.

  “As luck would have it,” Allynna said. “Tikani is glad to be rid of the man. They will not send word to Shadowhold.”

  “What do you mean?” Will asked.

  “Protocol would dictate that they inform the crown of the loss of the lord regent.” Allynna paused then said, “However, there has been an uprising in your wake.”

  Evindal cursed then snorted. “At least we still have some time.”

  Will raised his eyebrows.

  “If the king were notified, he would march for Tikani at once,” he explained.

  “I don’t think that will make much difference,” Will said. “He’s already planning on visiting.”

  “What?” Evindal said, alarmed.

  Will shrugged. “I overhead the lord regent planning for the king’s arrival. They said something about him coming in four weeks.”

  Evindal cursed with some Elvish word Will did not recognize.

  “Then there is no time,” Allynna said. “We must execute the plan at once.”

  “The boy is not ready, milady,” Evindal said.

  “We have little choice,” she said. “If the king learns of our involvement in Tikani…”

  “How would he?” Evindal asked. “We cannot leave these cursed grounds.”

  “Do not underestimate Alexander Drygo,” Allynna warned.

  Evindal turned to Will and said, “It is imperative that you recover your anchor before attempting to attack the king. He is not like the lord regent. He will destroy you if he discovers you.”

  “He didn’t kill me before,” Will said.

  “He wants your power. He will not risk destroying it. But once he finds a way to get what he wants, he will have no such qualms this time,” Evindal said.

  Allynna walked over and placed a parchment on the table containing a map of Shadowhold and its palace.

  “Where did you get this?” Will asked.

  “I made it myself,” Allynna said, a smug look on her face as she tapped a finger next to her eyes. “Now, do you remember the plan?”

  Will nodded.

  “Once you’re there, you should enlist the help of the Revenant,” Evindal said. “You will find that your goals and theirs are not so very different.”

  “How do I find them?” Will asked. “They’re like ghosts.”

  “Their leader, the Raven, is close to the king,” Evindal said. “Keep your eyes open and you’ll find them.”

  “Who is he? The Raven, I mean. Might be easier to find if I knew who I was looking for,” Will said.

  Evindal cast a stern glance at him.

  “I know, I know,” Will said. “You respect people’s privacy. Don’t reveal their secrets and all that.”

  “Go now, your friends are in position,” Allynna said. “In three days time they will be here.” She pointed at the docks. “You must be there at noon. It is when he will be most vulnerable. If you miss this opportunity, I do not know when it will come again.”

  On the morning of the third day, Will walked into Shadowhold. Three months had passed since he last stood in its streets.

  He had about an hour to get to the docks before noon. He wound his way through the streets heading west.

  As he exited an alley, he saw one of Alexei’s men backhand a woman, knocking her to the ground. Will, still in Victor’s body, ducked back into the alley.

  Keeping out of sight, he peeked his head around the corner. The woman wore filthy rags and had bruises on her arms and legs. The man yanked her to her feet and shoved her forward.

  She turned her head and her face came into view. She had a black eye and a small trickle of blood ran down the side of her head. Will recognized her immediately, even through the bruises. It was Sebastian’s wife. The woman he’d freed when he stole Victor’s body. She had not left the city. Alexei’s men must have found her and forced her into slavery.

  Guilt stabbed him. He felt responsible for this woman’s plight, and he couldn’t leave her to suffer. He had some time, so he followed the two through the streets. They made a few turns that consequently took them closer to the harbor.

  The cawing of seagulls, crash of the ocean waves, and the ringing of bells echoed in the distance. They turned left onto the main road bordering the harbor.

  Will watched as the man led the woman into a building on the far side of the harbor. A sign hung outside that said The Golden Rose. He’d been here before.

  He’d been in Alexei’s tavern? No wonder they followed him so easily.

  Approaching the door, Will looked from side to side to be sure that no more of Alexei’s men were around then entered the building.

  It looked no different than it had months before. Tables were strewn about the room, and a bar stood to the right of the door. The place was empty, save for a few voices in the distance.

  He crept through the room and up a wooden staircase to the level above. The hallway at the top led beyond the tavern into an adjacent building.

  The voices were coming from behind the door.

  Will cracked the door slightly. Smoke hung thick in the air. Several of Alexei’s men lounged around the room. A few scantily clad women stood in a corner talking to each other. Two more sat on benches on either side of a burly man Will recognized as Alexei. The women had their arms draped on him.

  The man holding Sebastian’s wife was arguing with Alexei.

  “Boy ran away again,” the man said in his Eastern accent. “Store losing business. I’m starting to think it would have been better off leaving Sebastian alive.”

  Alexei cursed. “You do not get paid to think, Ivan.” He turned to Sebastian’s wife. “Where is boy?”

  She spat on Alexei. He stood, the two women pulling off of him with a start, and he slapped her across the face.

  “You ungrateful wench,” he said. “I protect you, I give you food, I give you bed, and this is how you treat me?”

  “Sebastian was twice the man you are,” she said under her breath.

  “Sebastian was half the
man I am,” he said, a rumble of laughter escaping him as he rested his hands on his girth.

  “What should I do with her?” asked Ivan.

  “This venture is more trouble than it’s worth,” Alexei said, waving his hand. “Cut off finger and hang it outside store.”

  Sebastian’s wife cursed at him.

  “If boy does not return, cut off another. When you run out of fingers, cut off toe,” he snorted to himself. “Boy will show. He would not leave his mother.”

  “And when I have boy?” Ivan asked.

  “Kill her,” Alexei said, “and bring boy to me.”

  Indignation rose within Will. He didn’t free them to watch them die. Standing, he almost burst into the room, but the toll of a bell outside told him he needed to leave. The royal entourage would be arriving at the docks any minute and Will could not miss this opportunity.

  The door opened and Will slipped behind it. Ivan led Sebastian’s wife through the door and started down the hall. The door swung closed. Will pulled a knife, grabbed the man’s shoulders with his free arm, and shoved it into the side of Ivan’s neck.

  “Run!” Will shouted to the woman.

  She took off and didn’t look back.

  Ivan let out a grunt of pain and reached up to pry Will’s arm from his body. Will would not let go. Ivan shoved Will back into the door with a resounding thud. The air was knocked out of him.

  Someone yelled from the other side of the door. Ivan slammed Will into the door again, and it splintered as the jam broke.

  Will twisted the knife and yanked it from Ivan’s neck as more shouts rose up from the inside. Ivan fell to the ground, blood covering his hands as he tried to stem the flow. Will stepped over the body.

  The door burst open a few feet before slamming into Ivan’s prone form. Will turned back and saw Alexei staring at him through the opening.

  “Victor?” he said. His eyes moved to Ivan, dying on the floor, then back up at Will. “Kill him!” he shouted to the other men in the room.

  Shaw heard shouting. This was not unusual. His landlord was less than tactful and half as gracious. But this sounded like a scuffle. Shaw thought he heard someone say, “Victor.”