Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  He deflected those with rapid-fire shields, including an occasional shield to stop the water drills that Selene tried to hit him with while he was distracted. But in the end, he knew it would be useless. He could only stop her attacks for so long. Eventually he would miss, or something he didn’t see would strike him from a blind spot.

  He had to fight back.

  Running toward her, he deflected attacks left and right, then somehow managed to find a pause long enough to construct a spell. His force lance struck her dead center, shattering her armor and flinging her backward. Now! Before she could recover, he cast his oldest spell, the source-link. If he could drain her turyn, he could end the fight without bloodshed.

  It failed to connect, and Will stared at her in horror. He tried again, and still had no luck.

  His last gambit had failed. It had never occurred to him that her will was strong enough to resist him. He’d always assumed that Arrogan’s training made him superior. He turned to run, but the floor opened up beneath him. He’d gotten too close. Selene’s earth elemental had absolute control of the stone in close proximity to her. “She will kill you,” the goddamn cat had warned. It couldn’t have been any clearer, thought Will. And I thought he was being mysterious.

  The stone closed around him, trapping him in the floor from the waist down. His hands were free, though. He raised them and formed a force-lance. Selene’s armor still hadn’t reformed. If he released the spell it would blow a hole completely through her chest.

  Selene stepped forward, a long, sharp spike of stone in her right hand, pointed at his chest, and their eyes met.

  It was a timeless moment. Will knew he couldn’t defend himself unless he released the force lance, but as he stared at her, he couldn’t do it. Selene drove forward, intent on driving the stone weapon through his heart, but she froze at the last moment.

  And then she began to scream.

  It was a heart wrenching sound, one that Will wished never to hear again, as if all the despair in Selene’s soul was pouring from her tortured throat. Her eyes were locked on him the entire time, and blood began to drip from them, from her nose, and even from her ears. Selene’s body shook violently as she struggled against the magic twisting her soul, and her scream went on and on.

  She was dying, for her soul was beginning to tear itself apart.

  “Release her!” yelled Will. “It’s killing her! You have to release her!”

  Count Spry had had enough. Running forward, he cried out, “Just kill him already!” There was a long dagger in the man’s hand, though he shouldn’t have had a weapon given the rules of the church.

  Will struggled for a moment. He couldn’t create a shield and he couldn’t use the force lance with Selene in front of him. It took him a precious second to decide what to do, and as he dismissed the force-lance, Vincent Spry’s dagger slammed into his chest.

  Being stabbed was surprisingly painless, relatively speaking. Will tried to say something, but blood emerged instead of air, turning his curse into a gurgle. Then the count pulled his blade free and drove it home again, this time lower, piercing Will’s diaphragm. That was when the pain truly began. Will released his final spell, the one he had held in reserve, but nothing happened.

  He watched as the count pulled his blade back to strike a third time, but then Vincent Spry’s head vanished. It took him a moment to realize that one of Selene’s water blades had decapitated the man. Will’s eyes found hers. She was still screaming, still dying. And in the background, he could hear nothing but King Lognion’s laughter.

  Will choked, bringing up more blood, and then he felt his heart stutter, slowing in chest. His vision grew dark. He wanted to speak. To tell her it would be all right. If I die, the enchantment won’t kill you. Then his heart finally thudded to a halt.

  William Cartwright’s muscles relaxed, and his head fell forward, and then at last, he was dead. The last sound that reached his ears was silence, as Selene’s screaming finally ceased.

  ***

  Selene Maligant, only daughter of King Lognion, closed her mouth and let her raw vocal cords rest. She had been trapped in a living nightmare, one in which her father was somehow driving her to kill Will. She blinked, for her vision was blurry and her eyes hurt. Wiping her nose, she found blood on the sleeve of the priceless dress she wore. Her head was filled with pain, and it was difficult to think.

  Then she saw the blurry shapes of two bodies on the floor in front of her. The nightmare had been real. “No! No, no, no, no! William! Say something. Please say something!” She fell to her knees, and her dress began to rapidly absorb the pooling blood on the floor.

  “I warned you,” said a voice from behind, her father. “Hopefully you’ve learned a lesson from this.” Then a dark chuckle emerged from his throat. “It’s going to be difficult to find you a husband after this. It appears that your suitors have an unacceptably high mortality rate.”

  Selene ignored him. Calling on her elemental, she released Will’s body from the ground and laid him carefully on the now smooth stone floor. Heedless of the blood, she put her head against his chest, but she heard only silence. “Will, you can’t be dead,” she told him desperately.

  Then she remembered what he had handed her. The vial was still in her hand. Hope sprang up in her chest. It was a miracle she hadn’t broken it during the fight. Unstopping the vial, she lifted Will’s head and poured most of the regeneration potion down his throat. She saved the last few drops and poured those into the stab wounds in his chest. “Wake up, Will. You’re going to be all right,” she said softly, tears mixing with blood and making messy tracks down her cheeks.

  Lognion nudged Will’s body with his toe. “He’s dead, Selene. Nothing will bring him back, though I must admit it was clever of him to give you a regeneration potion. You shouldn’t have wasted it.”

  Selene held his head in her hands as she knelt over him. Her face was only inches away as she began to plead, “Will, Will, come on. You’re not dead, you know you aren’t. This is a trick. Wake up, please wake up. You have to show him that it was just a trick. The potion will heal you. You just have to open your eyes.”

  “Regeneration potions only work on the living,” said Lognion dryly.

  “Shut up!” screamed Selene. “It will work, it has to work.” She was crying uncontrollably now, her body rocking to and fro as she held William’s limp form.

  “Get up,” ordered the king. “We should leave. They need to come clean up this mess.”

  “I’m not going anywhere!” Selene hissed, her voice thick and ugly. “He’s not dead.”

  “It was a fun game while it lasted,” said Lognion, “but it’s over now.”

  “I won’t leave him.”

  The king sighed. “I never could deny you anything. Fine, we’ll wait.” Moving off to one side, he located a bench that was still largely intact and righted it so he could sit down.

  Half an hour passed while Selene held her dead lover, talking to him softly and crying intermittently, but Will’s body failed to move. After an hour the body began to noticeably cool as the cold stone floor drew its warmth away.

  King Lognion finally lost his patience and walked away, returning a few minutes later with a group of men. He took his daughter by the arm and dragged her away. Selene didn’t resist, for she had lost the will to fight.

  “What should we do with the bodies, Your Majesty?” asked one of the men.

  “Take the count’s remains and have them sewn back together so we can give him a proper burial,” said the king.

  “And the other one?”

  Lognion looked at Will’s corpse for a moment, his mind calculating. “Burn it.”

  Chapter 63

  Selene sat in the carriage next to her father as they returned to the palace. Inside she felt empty. There was nothing, just black despair. The man who had raised her gave her a smile she knew to be a lie, then he said, “You’ll feel better later.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” said S
elene evenly.

  “I think it’s better this way,” said her father. “You know how I prefer honesty. You were always a willful child and it was exhausting dealing with your stubbornness. Now I no longer have to pretend.”

  “This isn’t a joke. I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” Selene informed him.

  “Perhaps you’d like to go on one of your little charity trips? You always liked those. I’ll even donate this time so you can feed people, or buy them clothes—whatever it is you like to do for them.”

  Something snapped inside her. Selene snatched the dagger from her father’s belt and thrust it at his chest, but her hand stopped while the point was still inches from his heart. Her arm refused to respond. Clenching her jaw in frustration, she tried to push it home, but her body wouldn’t answer her commands.

  Lognion smiled. “That won’t work I’m afraid. You can’t kill me. You’ll have to get creative if you expect to do the job, but I have my doubts that it’s even possible. Your mind probably won’t even let you consider ideas that would potentially succeed.” A frustrated groan escaped her lips, but the blade wouldn’t move any closer to her father’s heart. “Put the knife back in its sheath and behave yourself, Selene.”

  Tears ran down her cheeks as her traitorous hand did as her father bade. “How can this be real?” she asked. “Was my entire childhood a lie? Is this just a game for you?”

  Her father sighed. “It depends on how you define lies and games. I’ve done my best to keep you content, so long as it didn’t interfere with my goals. There’s no reason for me not to continue doing so. So long as you don’t waste your time struggling against reality, your life can be just as it was.”

  “Will is dead! Don’t you understand? I loved him. Nothing will ever be as it was.”

  “He was potential breeding stock at best, don’t be so sentimental. Now that you’ve killed off two suitors at once we may have trouble finding a new stud to produce my next heir.”

  She stared at her father in horror. “You think I would produce a child for you to torture as you have tortured me?”

  Lognion chuckled. “Don’t be dramatic. You’ve had a good life.”

  “Until you decide to turn me into an elemental. Did you think I wouldn’t figure that out? Will warned me, but I didn’t believe him.”

  The king arched one brow. “What of it? You can live a normal life. I have no need to kill you early. Worrying about what will happen after you die is pointless. At least you will still be useful to me.” He paused, then fixed his eyes on her. “But you will produce an heir for me. I have no desire to marry again so soon. There’s no reason your womb can’t be put to good use.”

  “I won’t.”

  “You will, and I’ll even allow you to select your mate. Be grateful I’m not choosy. So long as you find someone that can give you a healthy child, I care not. If you’re stubborn, however, I will make the choice for you. There are plenty of men in the palace, and even a bastard will suffice. Perhaps one of the guards?”

  “Go to hell!”

  Lognion’s face twisted into a sneer. “Anger me, child, and it might be all of the guards.”

  Selene wanted to vomit. She fought down her nausea and asked, “Why do you want a child so badly?”

  “That is for me to worry about. Do not fear. I won’t make you raise it.”

  A new thought came to her, one so terrible she hadn’t dared to consider it before. “My brother didn’t get sick, did he? What did you do to him?”

  “He served his purpose.” Lognion glanced at her, his eyes devoid of any trace of concern. “Rejoice that you were born female. You need only provide me with sons.”

  She stared at him with hate filled eyes. “You mean grandsons.”

  “If you don’t take too long. Don’t test my patience,” said her father. “I have a hundred ways to punish you for defying me, some more humiliating than others.”

  Disgusted, she moved even farther away, until she was pressed against the side of the carriage. Selene’s shock and dismay were so great she couldn’t find words to respond.

  Lognion laughed. “It was just a hypothetical. Fear not, I have absolutely no interest in you.”

  Selene had known her father was unusual, but she had spent her life convincing herself that he was merely pragmatic. A man forced to make hard choices for the good of his people. That illusion was shattered. He’s not even human, she realized. Even a demon would have more empathy, more emotion, than this creature.

  If she couldn’t kill him, there was one other option. Leaping forward, she opened the coach door, but before she could throw herself onto the street, his command rang out. “Stop. You are forbidden from killing yourself. Your womb is far more valuable than gaining another elemental. Return to your seat.”

  Her body obeyed, but her mind continued to reason. Why does he need a male child? she thought. She refused to give up. If all she was allowed were her thoughts, then she would use them as well as she could. Or is it male children? What did he do to Alex? She could hardly remember her brother, but she mourned him anew.

  ***

  He was adrift in a sea of lights, or were they stars? Could stars be so bright? He had no idea. A different question came to him. Who am I? There was no answer, either from within or from without.

  A voice echoed around him. “Are you ready, child?”

  He tried to answer, but he had no voice. Ready for what? he thought.

  “A new life, or none at all. The choice is yours.”

  Was I alive before?

  “You’re alive still, if you wish, though great pain awaits you if you return. A new beginning might be better. Your most recent life was ill-fated.”

  He thought about it a moment, though he had nothing but nebulous empty concepts with which to imagine life. Will I be loved?

  “Love is ever present. No life is without it, though the same is true of suffering. They are provided in equal measure. Your last life had too much of both.”

  It must have been interesting.

  “Interesting is rarely a good thing. Trust me.”

  Who are you?

  “A part of you, or perhaps it would be better to say you are part of me. I was a fellow traveler once. Now I guide those who need me.”

  Was your life interesting?

  “Far too interesting.”

  Would you return to it if you could? His only answer was a long silence. I think I’d like to return. I can always try a new life later, can’t I?

  “Very well, you may return, though I will give you one piece of advice. Don’t fear pain, for it gives meaning to life. Do not fear love either, for while it will always lead to more pain, it also makes it bearable. Both are inescapable.”

  ***

  Will felt a strange shifting, as though his body was being shoved about. After a moment he realized something was rubbing him, rubbing one place in particular. A voice came to his ears. “Will, please wake up. Wake up. Please.”

  He opened his eyes and found Tailtiu’s face looking down on him. Her features took on an odd expression. “You’re alive.” Her lips quirked into a sly smile and she looked down. “You’re alive.”

  “Stop that,” ordered Will. “Didn’t I tell you never to touch me without permission?”

  “Orders given by dead men don’t count,” she countered.

  He pushed her away with a frown. “What were you doing?”

  “Since you were dead, I thought I’d test something I once heard about dead men and their members.”

  Disgusted, he motioned for her to move farther away. “That’s sick. What would you have done if it worked?”

  “Exactly what you imagine,” she said with a grin. “After that I thought I might go on a small killing spree to celebrate your demise.”

  She never changes, he thought. Will sat up and examined his surroundings. He was sitting in the back of what appeared to be a farmer’s cart, partially laden with turnips. Looking over the sides, he saw they were on an e
mpty road that bisected two wide fields of barley. “Why were you saying that to me?”

  “I heard Selene saying it over and over. She was quite emphatic, as though it might actually cause you to revive, so I thought perhaps there was some purpose to it.”

  “Where were you?”

  “Watching through one of the cathedral windows. You died in a spectacular fashion. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Then she frowned. “That reminds me, how is it that you’re alive? I’m quite sure you were dead just a short while ago.”

  “Plan C,” he said flatly. “Though I’m a little surprised it worked. I thought the spell had failed.”

  “Spell? It was a dagger that killed you,” she informed him.

  “Necromancy,” he explained. “A spell that was supposed to allow me to die and return to life after a short period of time. I wasn’t sure how it would work.” He inspected his chest, poking fingers through the tears in his doublet and jerkin. “Did you heal me?”

  Tailtiu shook her head. “I tried, but nothing worked. The dead don’t heal. Selene poured a potion down your throat, though.”

  “The regeneration potion,” said Will. “I guess I’m lucky. It must have started working when I came back, otherwise I probably would have died again.”

  “You knew you were going to be stabbed?”

  He shook his head. “No. I gave the potion to Selene in case she got hurt. I had some small thought she might need it for me if things went really wrong, but I actually thought I would escape without getting hurt.” Then he asked, “Where are we?”

  “South of the city. I was going to take your body back and show it to Mother.”

  Will smirked. “How thoughtful of you.”

  “I am always full of thoughts,” Tailtiu remarked. “They were planning to burn your body. I didn’t think Mother would approve.”

  He grimaced. That would have been really unfortunate.