Invocation

by Nicole Warner

  Bile rose, but I forced it down. Horror filled me at seeing Shen dead on his bed, eyes white and a dagger jammed under his chin, the glint of metal through his open mouth. The Dunst brothers were the same. It wasn’t what had killed them. They’d tried to fight back. Footprints revealed the story, etched in blood and spilled across the stone floor from fatal wounds. Their killers had arranged them like this for my benefit alone.

  A single piece of paper lay on my pallet. Red stained the corner, a smudge from a finger left by an assailant. Breath harsh and rasping, I picked it up.

  Collateral damage, Lord Eadred. Next time it will be you.

  I stuffed the bloodied scrap in my pocket and bolted, running down the stairs and out of the university. The dawning light was rising with searching fingers behind the town as I ran through the forecourt, past Apaazia Plaza and onto the path leading to the Broken Sail. I didn’t stop, not even when the breath heaved from me in rasping coughs. Rain splashed on my face, blurring my vision.

  I bashed a fist against the door. Rosa opened it. “Red?” I pushed her aside in my urgency. Elron was pulling on his pants. His hand reached for the musket on the floor beside his tunic when he saw my expression.

  “Thank God you’re alive.” I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes, struggling to get myself together. It was too much. All of it.

  He rushed over and grabbed my elbows, forcing them down. “What’s wrong?” He listened, at first not comprehending. “Shen and the Dunst brothers. Dead?” I nodded, jaw tensing at images now seared into memory.

  Elron finished getting dressed and kissed Rosa goodbye after ordering her to lock the door behind us. Despair compelled our silent race to the university. Once there, I paced in the hall beyond my dormitory. I couldn’t see them like that again.

  He came out, dark skin pale with shock. “Where’s Tergen?”

  “We were out. He stayed there.”

  Elron growled, “How could he? I trusted Tergen to keep an eye on you. Where were you?”

  I shrugged, saying, “At his woman’s place, I think. I can’t remember.” The lie was preferable to a truth I struggled even myself to believe.

  Sceptical, but relieved I was unharmed, he only said, “You were damned lucky, Red.” I showed him the letter. Proof the blame lay with me. He tucked it into the pocket of his weapons belt and went to find help.

  Assailed on every side by evidence of my stupidity, my insides rang hollow with shame. What had I done? They were dead because of me.

  And Anais …

  The thought was lost, the pain in my head returning with shocking ferocity. I crouched against the wall, mouth opening at the daggers of agony but unable to make a sound, and then toppled back. My entire body convulsed, heels rattling against the floor.

  Echoes

  The veil, pulled back and falling to her shoulder, revealed the wreckage of her face. Staring into the mirror, she opened her mouth wide, allowing a spider to crawl out across the ravaged lower expanse of her cheek.

  “My queen, the men have returned,” Nihil said from the doorway. She slipped the covering into place and turned with narrowed eyes. The tall man bowed at her barbed look, a grovelling expression on his face. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. I spoke out of turn.”

  “Tell me.”

  He stood, swallowing convulsively. “They failed you. Lord Eadred wasn’t in his bed when they attacked.”

  She sniffed the air, catching the metallic scent. “Whose blood then did they spill?”

  “They killed the men who shared a dormitory with him and left a message for Lord Eadred.” Nihil bit back a gasp of alarm as she flashed across the room in a blur of oily shadows.

  “In my name? They dared?” Foul breath wafted out, lifting the veil as her light brown eyes filled with rage.

  “A warning only! That they will not fail you next time!”

  She grabbed his neck, hoisting him off his feet with impressive strength. Nihil knew better than to resist. His bare arms, lined with scars both old and new, relaxed at his sides. Bones were less likely to break that way. She threw him against the wall. Winded, he crashed into the bricks and lay in a crumpled heap, watching her warily.

  The woman turned back to her mirror, moving across the room with graceful strides. “I’ve run out of time, Nihil. But perhaps it little matters. The loss of his friends will remind Lord Eadred that he is a danger to all around him. Such knowledge is sure to break him.”

  “He will kill himself?” Nihil suggested from the floor with laudable naivety.

  She laughed and he cringed at the awful sound. When it became too much, he covered his ears, cowering from the cacophony. “No, he is not wise enough for that. What he will do is go into hiding.”

  “Shall we prevent him from doing so?”

  “We won’t, for it yet serves my purpose. That is until I return.” She picked up a brush and ran it through her long, black strands. “Kill the men. Make it painful, Nihil. And loud. Their screams shall provide uplifting music for my ascension.”

  She pulled the veil off when he left and smiled with a mouth rotted to sinew and bone. It was time now for her plan to move into a more insidious phase of corruption.

  Cries of unimaginable agony flowed to her eager ears, the ecstasy taking hold. The hands of destiny gathered her close. She saw reflected in the mirror the return of all she was and the wondrous bloom of youthful beauty.

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  Next in the

  Three Times Blessed Series

  DEVOTION

  The Third Movement