Nocturne

by Natalya Capello

  “The closest town is not prepared to deal with a necromancer,” Ilia said. “The constable is used to a few thieves at most.”

  Lorelei nodded and looked at Arryn. “As students of the Aimsir, we at least have a practical knowledge of magic.”

  “But this isn’t our responsibility.” Dae pointed to Lorelei. “I mean, she’s not even very good at her magic. Who knows when it will backfire?”

  Lorelei’s shoulders slumped as she shot a hurt look at Ilia. “You told her?”

  “She didn’t have to,” Dae said. “Word spreads around the Aimsir. When I heard she was taking you, I wasn’t gonna let her go with just you.”

  Arryn bristled. “She seemed to do well against the skeletons.”

  “Those were short bursts,” Lorelei said in a soft voice, not looking at anyone. “It’s the prolonged spells I have problems with. They end up getting away from me. But I think there is something here that will help me.”

  “What is that?” Ilia asked.

  Lorelei let out a sigh. She was going to have to come clean. “The bard’s guitar. You claimed it had magical power. Maybe it can help me control my abilities.”

  Dae threw her head back and laughed. “You’re pinning your hopes on a legend? It’s probably rotted to pieces by now if it even survived the citadel sinking.”

  “That is pretty irresponsible,” Ilia said. “You probably should have devoted your time to studying.”

  Lorelei shoulders stiffened. “Studying doesn’t work. Trust me. I’ve tried.” She turned to Arryn and gave him a pleading look. After all, he knew of her nightmares, the visions that haunted her. “Please. I need something.”

  “Lorelei,” he said. “This is dangerous. The people down here are probably criminals.”

  “Then think of the recognition you’ll get if you capture them before even being a part of the military.” She turned to Ilia. “And you still want to prove this for your project. Think of the story it will make if you defeated necromancers…or whatever they are.”

  They both paused. Arryn got a far off look on his face while Ilia’s brow furrowed. Arryn’s lips lifted in a slight smile and he crossed his arms, bringing one hand to rub his chin. With a nod he crossed the room and rested his hand on her uninjured shoulder.

  “All right. I’ll continue on for now,” he said.

  “You make a fair point,” Ilia said. “It would make a more interesting story.”

  Dae shook her head with her eyes wide. “You have got to be joking.”

  Ilia glanced around the room. “We did pretty well here. Only a few injuries that I can heal. Besides, you and I have been in worse.”

  Dae threw her hands up and flew to the door. “Fine.”

  “Before we go on, can you look at my shoulder?” Lorelei asked.

  Throughout the argument, the cold had seeped into her bones, causing a deep ache.

  She would need all her strength for when they traveled further into the depths where darkness and death lurked.

  5

  Ilia sang a gentle song while resting her hands on Lorelei’s wounded shoulder. The biting cold receded and was replaced with a tickling warmth. Ilia stepped back from Lorelei and touched the cut on her own arm while continuing to sing. Lorelei rotated her healed shoulder and massaged it. She really needed to get control of her powers so she could advance and learn healing songs.

  Ilia’s cut sealed. She surveyed Arryn and Dae and raised her hands as if asking if they needed aid. Arryn shook his head and moved to stand by the right door with his sword still drawn. He leaned in close as if listening for anything beyond it.

  “I’m fine,” Dae said in a low voice. “Nothing even came near me.”

  Ilia let the last chords of the song die out.

  Lorelei turned in Arryn’s direction. “Do you hear anything?”

  “Silence,” he said. “Could be a good thing or a bad.”

  “There’s one way to find out.” Lorelei strode to the door, slipped around Arryn, and turned the handle.

  The door swung outward into a narrow hallway with chipped stone walls. The far end of the southern section hall had collapsed from the ceiling, leaving a pile of rubble. The northern hall held a lone door still intact.

  Lorelei glanced back at the others. “Looks like there’s only one way through here. Should we try it?”

  “Let me,” Arryn said.

  Lorelei stepped back to allow him into the hall. He trod to the door. It shook as he pulled on the handle, but didn’t open.

  “It’s locked,” he said.

  Lorelei turned to the middle door in the room as he returned. She tried to push it inward but it wouldn’t budge more than an inch. Something was blocking it on the other side.

  “Guess that just leaves the left door,” Dae said.

  Ilia moved to the door and pulled it open. Lorelei stepped up behind her for a better look. Stale air floated in from a wide hall, and Lorelei’s throat tightened. The walls had survived better though there were still bits of broken stone that lined the halls as well as a layer of dust so thick it resembled snow. Three sets of footprints had disturbed the dust on the floor. A door hung ajar at the end of the hall.

  Lorelei glanced at Arryn and waved to the hall. “I suppose you want to go first?”

  “If it keeps you out of more trouble,” he said.

  “I’m not sure how much it would help.” Lorelei’s lips lifted in a smirk. “Trouble finds me.”

  “More like you find it,” he said.

  “I’m starting to agree with him,” Ilia said.

  Lorelei touched her hand to her chest with a fake affronted look. “I have done nothing. Those skeletons would have attacked anyone.”

  “You’re down here,” Dae said.

  “Aren’t we all?”

  Dae stopped a moment and shrugged with a slight smile. “Well, we might be as reckless as you for staying.”

  With a soft chuckle, Arryn stepped into the hall. “She has that effect on people.”

  He hustled down the hallway and stood to the side of the door with his back flat on the wall. He slid the door open. A soft melody floated on the air from beyond it.

  Lorelei took a step into the hall, trying to place the song. She swore she’d heard it somewhere before a long time ago.

  “Do you know what that is?” she asked Ilia.

  Ilia stared down the hall with her brow furrowed. “It seems familiar…”

  Arryn waved them to him. Lorelei crossed the hall to him, followed by Ilia and Dae flying in the rear.

  “It looks clear,” he whispered. “Wherever these people are, they must be a good distance ahead of us.”

  “Good.” Lorelei stepped inside, studying the room with narrowed eyes and her head tilted. Where was the source of the music?

  She stood in a large gallery. Like the hallway, a thick layer of dust covered every surface, so much it obscured the framed painting on the wall. Also like the hallway, footprints trailed through the dust to another door.

  Alcoves with statues of females in long gowns were in the walls, two along the north side and one along the south side. Deep cracks ran through the two on the north. The music drifted from the statue on the right and it gave off a soft blue glow.

  Lorelei approached the statue as the others entered the room. When she reached within a few feet of it, the music changed, becoming louder and taking on a more somber tone. Lorelei clamped her hands over her ears as the melody bounced around in her head.

  She was falling again. Darkness surrounds her except for the two figures that fall with her. They glow with a white light, so bright she can’t make out their features. She reaches out to them. They are supposed to stay together always, even in this. But as she falls, they drift further away from her. The ground rushes up to meet her.

  Lorelei screamed.

  Arms wrapped around her, clamping her in a gentle vise. Lorelei struggled, another cry spilling from her lips. The ground was growing larger. Heat surrounded her.
>
  Arryn’s voice invaded over the sound of the music. “Someone, end that music.”

  The heat intensified.

  Ilia’s song broke through the melody that rattled through Lorelei’s mind. The two played against each other, but Ilia’s lullaby won out. The ground and the sensation of falling disappeared and for a moment, she floated in darkness. The heat began to fade. Lights formed, and the room around her came into focus.

  Arryn stood with his arms wrapped around her. The smell of burnt flesh radiated from him and wisps of smoke drifted from his scorched clothing.

  Lorelei gasped and stepped away from him. The walls on the gallery bore scorch marks as did the statue, now silent with its light dulled.

  Ilia stood inside a translucent green bubble in the center of the room with Dae, who held her hands in the shape of a cupped sphere. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Lorelei.

  “Whoa,” Dae said. “I see why you want control so badly.”

  Lorelei’s lip trembled as her chest tightened. “I did this?”

  Arryn took her shoulders and pulled her in embrace. “It doesn’t matter. It will be all right.”

  Lorelei rested her head on his chest and wondered if it really would.

  Ilia tended to Arryn’s burns, glancing occasionally at Lorelei with a contemplative expression. Dae just continued to stare. Heat suffused Lorelei’s face, and the air in the room became even more difficult to breathe. She needed to get out.

  She strode to the door leading farther in the citadel and yanked it open, barely glancing inside before she entered. She stopped short a few feet into the room and turned in a circle with her eyes wide. The room was much larger than the others they had been through. A vaulted ceiling arched well over her head, the ribs barely visible in the low light of her lantern. Violet marble tiles covered the floor and walls with large fissures running through almost all of them. Scones lined the walls, but all were burned out except for one which held a sickly green magelight. In the center of the room rested three white marble sarcophagi.

  Lorelei moved closer and stared down at the farthest left one. An image of a sleeping sidhe male with his hands crossed over his chest was embossed on it. The lid had been shifted to the side and darkness was within.

  “Lorelei,” Arryn called from the door. He stepped into the room. “Don’t run off like that.”

  “Sorry.” She turned from the sarcophagus, ducking her head and not meeting his gaze “I needed a moment without the stares.”

  He crossed the room and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Your episode was worse this time.”

  “Something with the music triggered it,” she said in a soft voice.

  Ilia and Dae stepped in the room. Ilia held her hands in her pockets. She glanced at Dae who nodded.

  “Right.” Ilia cleared her throat. “Before we travel any deeper, we would like you to explain what just happened.”

  Lorelei bit her lip and sighed. “It’s something I’ve had to deal with since I was a child. I have these nightmares…and when I’m awake…I have visions. It wasn’t much of a big deal until I started developing a magical aptitude. Then…the episodes became a problem. It was why my parents sent me to the Aimsir.”

  “Well, that and most likely the prestige of having two daughters who were magi,” Arryn said.

  “If that will even happen,” Lorelei muttered. “The apprentice training helped some of the episodes as I was able to use small bits of meditation and concentration. However, as you know, I struggle with anything more advanced. I can’t keep the concentration up for more than a few moments.”

  “You have visions while casting?” Ilia asked.

  “Anything that takes a lot of concentration.” Lorelei stared at the wall as tears pricked her eyes. “Today was the first in a long time I lost control without trying to cast.”

  “And your professors know of this?” Dae asked. “Why aren’t they doing anything?”

  Lorelei shrugged. “The techniques that they have tried don’t seem to work. They believe it’s reincarnation sickness. Clever Camden is ready to have me committed, I think.”

  “I said before we left that I think you should talk to someone,” Arryn said. “Maybe going to a place like an Elemental Order Church and staying for a while could help with this.”

  Lorelei cut a look towards him. His words stabbed right through her. How could he, of all people suggest that? He was supposed to stand behind her in this.

  She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to respond, but it was cut by the sound of scraping stone.

  “Look out!” Dae shouted.

  A cold, clawed hand tangled in Lorelei’s hair from behind and yanked her backward. Adrenaline gushed through her. She heaved as she twisted, trying to pull herself free. Arryn cursed and unsheathed his sword. He thrust it at the creature holding her. It let out a guttural growl and its grip on her lessened.

  Now was her chance!

  Lorelei surged forward. Prickles of pain shot through her scalp from locks of her being ripped away as she jerked free. She spun around, drawing her sword.

  She halted, stunned. Her chest heaved as she panted.

  The lid of the sarcophagus hung on the lower half in an angle. The creature stood with one leg inside and one on the outside. Its skin was a pale ivory and was stretched across its bones to where its cheekbones and joints poked out. It had black eyes with red pupils which stared at her with a hunger. Its canines hung down in long fangs from its open mouth. What was left of leather armor draped about its body in tatters.

  Lorelei had no idea what this thing was, but she wasn’t about to be its meal.

  She lunged forward and raised her sword to strike. Her blow sunk into the creature’s stomach, cutting the flesh, but no blood spilled.

  It let out a howl that bounced off the walls. Seconds later, it was echoed by muffled howls from the two remaining sarcophagi. A chill raced up Lorelei’s spine.

  “Oh, that’s not good,” Dae said from behind her.

  Not good indeed. The lid of the middle sarcophagus flew up into the air several feet before hitting the side wall and sliding half to the ground. Clawed hands gripped the rim and a creature similar to the first sat up, only this one was a female. She glanced around and licked her lips, her fangs poking out as she grinned.

  Gunfire rang out from behind Lorelei. The female jerked back as she was hit. She growled and, in a burst of motion, leapt out and rushed toward Ilia and Dae. The scraping of stone sounded from the third sarcophagus.

  The creature in front of Lorelei darted towards her and raised its claws. Arryn stepped in front of her and brought his sword up with the wide of the blade facing the creature. Its claws raked against the metal with an ear-piercing screech. It hopped back with a hiss and glared at Arryn.

  Lorelei spun to the side and snuck up behind the creature. She brought her sword up, slashing the creature diagonally from its hip to its shoulder. It jerked her direction with a shriek.

  The third creature, a male, rose from its sarcophagus as Dae started chanting. It scanned the room with narrowed eyes. Its gaze stopped on Dae and Ilia, who was fighting the female. With a snarl, it rushed towards Dae.

  Dae tried to fly up out of its reach as she continued to cast her spell, her fingers moving quickly. The creature leapt up and snatched her out of the air. Dae cried out as its hands closed around her. The creature landed, brought its arms above its head, and slammed Dae into the ground. A crack echoed through the room.

  Ilia turned towards Dae. The female creature took the opportunity and raked its claws across her chest. Four deep gashes appeared in her leather vest and blue blood gushed out.

  Ilia pressed her hand over her wounds and looked between the two creatures. Lorelei gulped, her heart pounding in her chest.

  “Can you handle this one?” she asked Arryn, who was swinging his sword at their opponent.

  Arryn’s sword breezed just inches from the creature as it leaped to the side to avoid getting cut in hal
f. It snarled at him.

  “It shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

  As Arryn moved in between Lorelei and the creature, raising his sword to parry its swipe, Lorelei sprinted towards the one on Ilia. She ran her sword through the creatures back. Her blade pierced through the front. It let out a gurgling cry as it awkwardly tried to pull away from the sword.

  Lorelei glanced at Ilia. “Any idea what these things are…or even how to handle them?”

  Ilia nodded. “I have an idea. Can you cover me?”

  Lorelei’s gaze darted from the creature on her sword and the one who still pounded Dae into the ground. Was Dae even still alive?

  Lorelei slammed her boot into the rear of the creature and pulled her sword out at the same time, sending the creature stumbling past Ilia and into a nearby wall. It bounced off the wall and fell to the ground.

  “Give me your pistol and get behind me.” Lorelei held her hand out.

  The cool metal touched her palm. Ilia rushed behind her and began to sing. Lorelei flipped the pistol around and aimed it at the creature with Dae. The boom rang through the room. The ball shot through the air hit the creature in its cheek, tearing through its face. It turned her direction with its face half-destroyed and let out a gargling growl. It rose, dropping Dae’s limp form to the ground, and charged Lorelei.

  As Ilia sang behind her, Lorelei released the pistol, still smoking for the shot, and raised her sword. She turned to the side and swung her hand in an upward, backhanded slash. The weapon cut a deep gash between its neck and shoulder. The creature turned her direction with a snarl and swiped at her. The female pulled itself from the ground and shook her head. She hissed at Lorelei and sprinted towards her.

  Arryn shouted from behind her, but she couldn’t turn. She had to stay focused on the two on her. She silently prayed to the Empress that Ilia’s song would work how she wanted it to.

  The female leapt at her. She tried to dodge back. It caught her in the legs, taking her down. Lorelei’s back slammed against the marble floor, knocking the air from her lungs in a swift rush. A ringing echoed in her ears and for a second, she froze. The female scrambled up her body and pressed her hands against Lorelei’s shoulders to hold her down. She opened her mouth, revealing the sharp fangs, reared her head back, and struck at Lorelei’s throat. Lorelei screamed as a burning sensation raced through her. This thing was drinking her blood.