Wicked War of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 9)

by John Corwin

  I continued. "You, however, seem to have an affinity for both, or perhaps a way to feed from both spectrums."

  "I'm waiting on the point, Mr. Slade."

  I'd been thinking a lot about how to phrase my next question so Fjoeruss wouldn't know my plans. "Can you teach me how to feed from both the light and dark?"

  Fjoeruss crossed a leg and regarded me for a moment. "Which hand do you write with?"

  My forehead scrunched. "My left. Why?"

  "Could you teach yourself to write with your right hand?"

  "Sure." I flexed my right hand. "It might take some time."

  Fjoeruss waited a moment, as if hoping I'd get his point.

  Amazingly, I caught his meaning right away. "You're saying it could be taught, but it takes time." My heart thudded into my stomach's basement.

  "Precisely." He motioned to Lornicus. "Fetch one of the prisms."

  "At once, sir." The golem opened one of the glass cases, removed a crystal pyramid, and brought it to Fjoeruss. I noticed it had the Cyrinthian symbol for light on one side, and the symbol for dark on the other. It appeared to have symbols on all sides, but I couldn't make them out.

  "The other option is to use one of these." Fjoeruss touched the pyramid to the palm of his hand. It seemed to stick there like a magnet. He rotated it so the light symbol faced me. "If I were to feed on Murk, this prism would reverse the spectrum and draw Brilliance instead. He twisted it so the dark symbol faced me. "This would do the reverse."

  My heart took the elevator from my stomach and rose with hope, but I kept my neutral expression. "How many of these do you have?"

  "Hundreds." He tilted his head ever so slightly. "At one time the Brightlings used them in a misguided effort to change the affinity of Darklings. Brightlings can naturally withstand enormous amounts of light essence, but Darklings will go quite mad if they are force-fed a singular diet of Brilliance."

  I knew my next question would give away my intent, but I had no way around it. "Are they for sale?"

  He shrugged. "To me, they are useless trinkets. I have never required their assistance as I have a natural affinity for balance."

  "Is that a yes?"

  Fjoeruss plucked the prism from his palm and held it between a thumb and forefinger. "So, you wish to have Darklings feed on Brilliance." He wrapped his hand around the crystal. "I must admit I cannot understand why you want to drive them mad. I assume you have run into the problem most Darklings face when feeding from humans."

  I didn't answer. Then again, I probably didn't need to. Elyssa met my eyes, but kept her facial expression in check.

  His gray eyes lost focus for a moment. "Ah. Perhaps if they balance their feeding between both spectrums, they will not be so sickened." His gaze settled on me. "You seek to counter Daelissa's revived Brightlings with more powerful Darklings."

  "Balance," I said, trying not to betray the disappointment in my voice that he'd figured out my plan. Then again, he'd had plenty of clues to work with and he wasn't an idiot. "If the Darklings can match her revived Brightlings, then we can at least achieve a stalemate."

  A knowing smile faintly curved his lips. "Perhaps." He flicked the prism at me.

  I caught it and felt surprise flash across my face.

  "That one is free, Mr. Slade." He leaned back in the divan, causing the leather to creak, and crossed his arms. "For you to earn the rest, you must give me truly remarkable information."

  Here goes nothing. "The Grand Nexus is working. Daelissa is in Seraphina."

  Fjoeruss's face went absolutely blank—not surprised blank, but completely unanimated. I turned to look at Lornicus and saw a look of utter shock on his face. Elyssa gripped my arm and squeezed it.

  "Seraphina?" Lornicus said in a strained voice.

  Fjoeruss apparently recovered from his surprise. "Are you certain?"

  I turned to see a very concerned look creasing his forehead. "Aerianas confirmed it."

  "Aerianas is alive?" Lornicus said. His hands gripped the back of my divan.

  I squinted at the golem and turned back to Fjoeruss. "I find it hard to believe you didn't know that." Holding the prism between my thumb and forefinger, I held it up. "I think I've earned more of these."

  "Your plans are clear to me now," he said. "With Daelissa in Seraphina, there is nothing to prevent you from attacking the Grand Nexus and taking it offline." He rose to his feet. "Daelissa would be trapped in Seraphina, and you would have free reign here in Eden."

  Elyssa and I stood and backed away ever so slightly. I kept sight on Lornicus from the corner of my eye.

  "You make it sound as though I'll take over the world myself."

  He shook his head. "Not precisely, but close enough. You would, no doubt, purge the Overworld Conclave of the current leaders and replace them with people of your own. Rules would be rewritten. A great deal would change."

  "Daelissa controls the Conclave now, in case you hadn't noticed." I looked between him and Lornicus. The golem simply watched and said nothing. "Wouldn't it be better if I took that from her?"

  "The new variables you've introduced have changed the game." Fjoeruss paced toward the window. "I need time to calculate the outcome."

  "You promised me those prisms," I said. "Are you reneging on our deal?"

  He flicked his gaze toward me. "I may have promised you the prisms, Mr. Slade, but I did not say when I would deliver." He nodded toward the door. "Leave, and I will have them delivered."

  "You've got to be kidding me," Elyssa said.

  "I need them now." I put some steel in my voice.

  Fjoeruss settled the full weight of his gray gaze upon me. At one time, he might have scared me poopless. I'd seen too much and done too much to be as scared as I should have been. This Seraphim was smarter than Daelissa and wily as a coyote. I had never seen him fight with his magic and no idea what he was capable of.

  I have no choice. I stepped toward him and held out my hand as if he'd just hand me more prisms. "Honor the deal, Fjoeruss."

  "For your own safety, Mr. Slade, I suggest you leave." Fjoeruss looked at Lornicus. "Show them out."

  "I'm not moving until I get those prisms." I hoped Elyssa was signaling our rescue squad. As if in answer, an alarm beeped from somewhere in the room and a holographic display appeared above a desk, showing my mother and a group of Templars storming through the portal in the lobby.

  Lornicus touched his fingers to his wristwatch. "Poorly conceived, Mr. Slade. Do you think this building is unguarded? Tell your rescue party to retreat." A group of gray men formed a blockade in front of my mother.

  I looked back at Fjoeruss, but his face once again looked blank. I began to wonder if he might be insane and was simply covering it up. "Nobody's going anywhere until I get those prisms." My chest constricted, and I hoped Mom and the others could fight off the horde of golems. The four elevators in the penthouse chimed. The doors on each one slid open and disgorged a gaggle of gray men.

  Steel rang as Elyssa freed her sai swords from their sheaths. I did a quick headcount and figured there were at least twenty super-strong golems coming for us.

  "Don't make me do this," I told Fjoeruss. "Things are about to get really messy if you do."

  He shook his head. "No, Mr. Slade. You are the one making me do this."

  I smiled grimly and shrugged. "Your loss." With that, I drew in power, aimed both hands at the oncoming golems, and channeled a blast of Murk. The ultraviolet force blasted the golems back, smashing them against the short mahogany walls. Others crashed through the windows, flying out into the night sky to fall hundreds of stories to the asphalt below. Glass cases shattered and the wooden walls cracked and broke. Wind howled into the penthouse from the broken windows.

  I spun toward Fjoeruss who, once again, had a blank look on his face. I bound him in chains of Murk and held him off the floor. Elyssa flipped backwards. Twisted Lornicus's arm behind his back and slid the blade of her sword under his chin.

  "Don't move, gol
em," she said in a fierce whisper.

  Fjoeruss simply stared at me from his prison of glowing Murk. Something was very wrong with this picture. I'd expected some magical response from the Seraphim, but he'd done absolutely nothing. I noticed the blank look on his face once again, and something registered in my mind. His face wasn't merely blank, it was unanimated. Whatever I had captured wasn't the real Fjoeruss.

  The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I spun toward Lornicus just as a haze of gray energy engulfed Elyssa and froze her in place.

  "There never was a Lornicus," I said. The murk holding Fjoeruss squeezed tight and tore him in half. As expected, there was no blood. He'd been a golem.

  Lornicus clapped his hands. "Very astute, Mr. Slade." He shrugged. "I have found it useful to hide my true identity in case anyone wished to move against me."

  I drew in power and prepared to defend myself. "You once told me you have spies everywhere who look real and can act real within limited specifications. I guess this golem was one of those."

  "Indeed." Orbs of gray energy coalesced in his hands. "You have grown in power."

  I formed spheres of Murk and Brilliance in my hands and held my arms out to my sides. "I'm not the weak kid you once kidnapped."

  "So it would appear."

  "What have you done to Elyssa?"

  He glanced at her still form. "She is merely held in place. Do not force me to do the same to you."

  "Then give me the prisms."

  Lornicus—Fjoeruss pressed his lips together. "I need more time, Mr. Slade." He stared at me for a long moment. "There's another reason I can't have you closing off the Grand Nexus just yet."

  I couldn't think of any good reasons to keep it open unless he wanted Daelissa to win. "Tell me."

  "Perhaps we could talk under less tense circumstances." He straightened and the gray energy in his hands evaporated.

  I nodded toward Elyssa. "Release her."

  He backhanded the air, and the translucent gray cloud around her vanished.

  Elyssa stumbled backwards and sucked in a breath. She recovered and tensed. "You son of a—"

  "No need for profanities, Miss Borathen." Fjoeruss smiled as Lornicus had.

  I released the energy in my hands, but continued to fill my aether well just in case he tried something sneaky. A gust of wind from the broken windows picked up a stack of papers and scattered them around the room. "Call off the attack on my Mom and the others."

  "Already done," he said.

  I glanced at the holographic security display and saw dozens of still gray-suited bodies lying on the floor around Mom and the others. The rest of the golems had backed away and the two groups stood facing each other.

  "Are you going to spill your guts?" I said. "I don't have all day."

  His expression turned serious. "As the battle for the Grand Nexus began, someone very important to me begged me to abandon Daelissa."

  "Did you listen to them?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "I had not embraced balance. She believed we existed for a reason and it was not to enslave those weaker than us."

  She? Did Mr. Gray have a girlfriend?

  "Sounds like a wise woman," Elyssa said.

  "Indeed." His gaze seemed to latch onto something in the past. "I was the last line of defense for the Grand Nexus, but since we were crushing the opposition, it appeared there would be no need for my services. A portal opened and she stepped out of it."

  "Who is this mysterious 'she'?" I asked.

  "Melea." His voice sounded dull, as if speaking the name took all the emotion from him. "At first I thought she'd changed her mind and decided to fight in the battle. Instead, she disabled me. Although I could not move, I could still see and hear everything." His eyes seemed to focus back onto the present. "She told me neither side should win. That the only way to achieve balance was to remove both sides and she had figured out how to do it."

  "Remove both sides?" Elyssa said. Understanding blossomed in her eyes. "That would mean—"

  Fjoeruss nodded. "Even as I worked to break the spell immobilizing me, she pushed me through the portal she'd used to reach me. I watched as she held her hand to the Cyrinthian Rune. It rose from its socket on the Grand Nexus. She gripped it and channeled a weave I hadn't seen before. It began to sever the connection between the rune and the nexus. Before she could complete her task, the gateway to Seraphina opened and a group of Flarks overpowered her."

  "She fought them as they dragged her through the gateway to Seraphina." Fjoeruss's lip curled with anger. "Dark energy crackled around the rune. Melea shouted that she forgave me." His eyes saddened. "The portal she'd pushed me through closed and that was the last I saw of her."

  "She caused the Desecration," I said. "Lornicus—you—once told me nobody knew who'd done it."

  "I saw no advantage in revealing it," he said.

  "Melea went to Seraphina," I said. "That's why you don't want to close the gateway. You want to find her."

  "Precisely."

  "What if we let you go through before we disable the nexus?" I asked. "It might be tricky, but it's worth a shot."

  "Hold on a minute," Elyssa said. "Who was this woman to you?"

  Fjoeruss, his gray eyes troubled, didn't answer at first. Finally, he said, "My sister."

  Chapter 15

  Fjoeruss had dropped a bomb. Unfortunately, reuniting him with his sister might be impossible. Provided we could even fight our way to the Grand Nexus, opening a portal to Seraphina would take time we didn't have. What if Daelissa were waiting on the other side with a Seraphim army?

  Elyssa dropped another bomb. "Your sister isn't in Seraphina."

  I yanked my gaze her way. "How in the world—" I suddenly realized she was right. When we'd stolen null cubes with imprisoned husks from Kobol Prison, we'd had the help of a man named Jenkins. He'd been using an affinity sphere, which could detect whether the imprisoned husks were Brightlings or Darklings. One cube hadn't responded to the test. He'd called it an anomaly because the sphere had turned neither white nor dark, but gray.

  "Why do you say this?" Fjoeruss regarded us with suspicion.

  "The Flarks must have brought her back through the gateway from Seraphina at the last minute," Elyssa said. "Does your sister have a gray affinity like you?"

  He nodded. "She is the only other like me, at least that I know of."

  I felt a victorious grin stretch my face. "How would you like to make a deal? You join our side, and I'll give you back your sister."

  Fjoeruss's gaze hardened. "If this is a trick, Mr. Slade, you will pay dearly."

  By freezing Elyssa with equilibrium, he'd proven that he fought differently than Daelissa. I'd once frozen a torrent of Brilliance like ice with the force of stasis. While I knew how to channel it, Fjoeruss had centuries of experience more than me. In other words, I didn't take his threat lightly.

  "It's not a trick," I replied in an even tone. "Will you join us or not?"

  His jaw tightened. "If you are telling the truth, it appears I have little choice."

  "You already tried to break one deal with us," Elyssa said. "How do we know you won't do it again?"

  Fjoeruss crossed his arms. "The terms of the deal were not broken."

  "You used a technicality to delay delivery," she said. "In my book, that's as good as breaking it."

  "Let's go downstairs," I said. "I want to speak with my mother and make sure everyone is okay." I didn't wait for a response and headed for the elevator with Elyssa by my side. When I turned to press the button, Fjoeruss sullenly followed us in.

  I hit the button for the lobby. We watched the magnificent nighttime view of the city flash past as the elevator swiftly carried us to the bottom level. When we stepped out of the elevator, Mom rushed forward and hugged me.

  "I was so worried," she said. Her blue eyes went hard as diamonds when she saw Fjoeruss. "I should have known he would betray you."

  Fjoeruss held out his empty hands. "I betrayed no one. Your son s
imply disagreed with a deal we brokered."

  "You and your deals," Mom said. She turned to me. "Be very careful how you craft deals with this devil. Even on Seraphina he was quite wealthy because he knew how to gain the advantage in any contract he made."

  "I can see that now," Elyssa said.

  Mom scowled at him. "Even in mine and Daelissa's circle of friends, we had a nickname for him."

  "Are you truly going to dredge up the past?" Fjoeruss said. His voice sounded more like Lornicus's nerd accent than the commanding baritone he'd used since breaking from his deception.

  Mom waved her hand at the huge building. "The past? You appear to be the very same even in the present." She turned to me. "We called him Trickster, and for very good reason."

  The man had disguised himself as Lornicus by hiding as himself in plain sight. He'd tried to make shady deals with me while my mother was held prisoner by the Black Robe Brotherhood, holding out for an advantage even when he knew she might die. His deceitful deal for the prisms further proved my mother was right to doubt his word.

  "I gotta say, the shoe fits." I tried not to gloat now that I held an advantage over him, but it was hard. The more I thought about how he'd refused to help me with my mother, the less I wanted to let him have his sister back. Then again, his sister sounded like a decent sort, if a bit misguided. "At least the mystery of who pulled the plug on the Chalon is solved."

  "It is?" Mom looked at me with surprise.

  I jabbed a thumb at Fjoeruss. "His sister did it to keep either side from winning."

  "Your sister?" She looked confused for a moment, but seemed to shake it off. "I guess we can see how that turned out."

  "It only delayed the inevitable," Fjoeruss said, his body language and voice back under control. "I can see your memories of those days are still incomplete."

  "I remember enough," Mom replied, though doubt was plainly written on her face.

  "I want the prisms now," I told him. "I'd also like to know how many golems you have. We're going to throw everything we have at the nexus."

  "First, I would like to see proof you have my sister."

  I shook my head. "First, the prisms."