William entered the room.
“Oh, thank heavens,” Lucie whispered but shut her mouth so quickly her teeth clicked together.
“No need to hide it, Lucie. I heard you. You’re glad I’m alive.” William smiled broadly. “And I’m never gonna let you live that down.” He stepped deeper into the building, taking in his surroundings. His voice changed as he looked at Erin. “I’m very glad you’re okay, my lady.”
“Oh, cut the shit,” Lucie said. “My lady this and my lady that. Everyone here can tell ya got the hots for her.”
William flushed and quickly turned away from Erin.
“I’m glad you’re okay too, Right Hand,” Erin responded.
William acted like he didn’t hear her and stared at Lucie with fresh anger. “What the hell happened here? I left to go kick ass, and when I wake up, everything’s burnt to the ground.”
“Thought both you dead, aye.” Worth walked into the building. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was stumbling much worse than usual. “Said, betcha, both dead.”
“Where is everyone?” Riley asked. “Where are the rest of our troops?”
“You should sit down, Riley.” Verith stepped toward her from the side of the room.
“Hell, no! Tell me what the fuck happened!”
The room fell silent beneath Riley’s rage.
Nearly a minute that silence stretched, then Lucie spoke.
“Fire. It came from Rendal’s ship. I saw it with my mind, and so did Worth—”
“Aye,” Worth agreed. “Saw it, Worth did.”
“It flowed from the ship, barreling right out,” Lucie continued. “It didn’t stop either, like fire should. It kept flowing, catching everything in its wake.”
Again, the silence.
“A lot of people died, Riley. A lot of pirates. A lot of our people. A lot of Worth’s people.”
Worth threw his chalice against the wall. The metal dented, and purple wine splashed across the stone wall. “Aye. He killed Worth people. He killed lots of Worth people.”
Riley knew what that meant to him, because unlike the citizens of New Perth, Worth didn’t have a lot of people. His tent city had numbered perhaps eighty, and each time they ventured out with Riley, more died.
Worth collapsed and leaned against the wall. He put his hands on his face and sobbed silently into them.
Verith kept talking, doing his best to ignore the mourning man. “Lucie and Worth kept us safe. Their combined power formed a shield around the building, although the fire pushed closer and closer, as you can tell from looking at the outside. It never got in, though.”
Erin spoke next. “A lot of pirates died. Those who didn’t took to the sea early this morning. If you walk to the south end of the island, you can see their ships. Eric’s with them. They have better medicine.”
“What are they doing?”
“They’re having a parley and deciding what to do,” Erin answered.
“With who?”
“First, with us,” Erin said. “Secondly, about Rendal.”
“With us?” William spoke up. “I’ll tell them what they can do with us: come here and let me cut them down one by one. What the hell are they talkin’ about?”
“We’re not pirates, and we’re on the sea. Our ships are still intact. By ocean law, they can kill us and take our property if we’re not strong enough to defend it.”
Riley pulled away from both of them. She walked to a chair sitting at one of the tables and sat down.
“Everyone, just hold on.” Riley closed her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what they’re doing. They’re not going to attack us.”
“And how can ya be so sure, skinny?”
She looked up, grinning. “All that brawn, and not many brains. For one, they took Eric to help him heal. I don’t see that as an act of aggression, do you?”
William’s eyes narrowed, but he remained quiet.
“Exactly. They’re not going to kill us. And even if they tried, it’s not a guaranteed thing—unless you’re scared to face the pirates, chubby?”
“More like they’re scared to face me,” William retorted.
“Good.” Riley turned her head to her feet and closed her eyes again. “Do you remember what happened last night, William? We need to focus on Rendal right now. I know the loss of people is painful for everyone, myself included, but if we want to avenge them, we have to stop the mage. Do you remember what happened?”
“Not a lot,” William admitted. “I remember trying to attack him, and then I couldn’t breathe. That’s the end of it until I woke up on the docks.”
“But you said I’d lost a fight. That made it sound like you had watched.” Riley looked at him.
“Just givin’ ya shit.” William grinned.
“You mean to tell me, when you awoke from nearly being killed by a dark mage, the first thing you thought about was fucking with me?”
“Aye.” William chuckled. “What can I say? I’m an asshole.”
Riley rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous. Some of what happened is coming back to me. The important parts, and that’s what Rendal told me. He said he’s going to take everything away from me slowly until I join him.”
“Then why didn’t he kill me?” William asked.
“He knows I don’t care about you.” Riley grinned. She wasn’t going to tell William what Rendal had said. Not right now, at least.
“He knows you’d be lost without me, skinny,” William shot back.
Riley kept going. “He told me he’s going to Sidnie to destroy it.”
“That’s impossible,” Verith spoke up. “I’ve been to Sidnie. Has anyone else?”
Everyone stared at the general, shaking their heads no.
“I went as a young man. Even then, it dwarfed New Perth, and I’m not speaking ill of my own kingdom. I love New Perth, but Sidnie is something unto itself. He can’t take it. I don’t care what magic he possesses.”
“That was what he told me,” Riley answered. “He’s going there.”
“You sure that mage didn’t knock your head a bit too hard?” William asked.
“No harder than I’m about to knock yours. That was what he said,” Riley answered.
“He can do it.” Lucie spoke now. “If he says he can, then he can. I felt him last night; I have a close connection to him, even after all these years.”
Riley glanced at William, knowing he would want to make some kind of crude comment. He was grinning but caught her look. He winked and kept his mouth shut.
“He’s stronger than any of us can imagine. That fire last night…it shouldn’t have been possible, yet it wiped out the entire island. Everyone but us, and I think he left us here for a reason.”
Riley closed her eyes, remembering what Rendal had said.
I’ll take everything from you until there is literally nothing left.
And that he was going to do it slowly.
These people here with her—they mattered to Riley, so he’d left them for later.
Riley looked at Verith. “We have to assume he’s telling the truth. We have to assume he’s going there, and he’ll do what he said…and he still has Mason.”
“Did you see Mason?” Verith asked.
Riley shook her head. “We never got close enough.”
“‘Cause you didn’t let me kick his ass like I wanted.” William had a sly look on his face. “If you’d have stepped aside, we’d all be safe and at New Perth by now.”
“If I’d stepped aside, we’d probably all be wearing green or red necklaces.” She turned to Verith. “We have to get to Sidnie.”
“It’ll be easier with ships. We’re nearly halfway around the continent as is, and we won’t have to deal with the Badlands,” Verith responded. “We’ll need to determine how many men short we are to run the ships—”
“None,” Erin interrupted. “Not with our ship.”
“Well, then I suppose we can leave as soon as you want, Riley,” Verith finished.
“No.”
Everyone in the room looked at Worth.
“What?” William said.
“No. We no go Sidnie,” Worth answered.
“Why not?” William asked.
“She no ready. I told you before. She no ready.” Worth looked at Riley. “You need train. You need time. Need focus.”
Riley felt exasperated, unable to explain to this man that they didn’t have time.
“He has the person I serve, Worth. He’s going to kill other people right now because of my decision not to join him. There isn’t time to do what you’re asking of me. There just isn’t. We have to go forward.”
“So dumb.” Worth wasn’t smiling. His lips were purple, but his face was like an ancient gargoyle’s. “Dumb! You lose. Every time. He win. Every time. Because you no slow down. You chase all over world. Here, there, wherever he point. You like pet. You need listen to Worth.”
He stood up surprisingly easily for someone of his weight and level of drunkenness. He looked at William.
“Listen. She no go. You go. You all go. You see what mage do, and you try stop him. Sneaky-like. Not full frontal assault. Riley. Her and Worth, we go train.”
William didn’t give a ridiculous retort but actually seemed to be considering the man’s words.
“No.” Riley stood. “I’m not letting anyone go in my stead.”
“Hush, Riley,” William whispered.
“No! You aren’t going to tell me what the fuck I’m going to do!” she shouted.
William turned to her, his face soft—no jokes in him now. “Hey, just hear me out. Listen to what I’m about to say and then tell me what you think, okay?”
Riley’s face was hot, and she wanted to rip down the entire building. Her hands were fisted, but she only nodded.
“Worth is right, at least about some of this. We are chasing him around. We do go wherever he is, even out into the ocean, which isn’t New Perth’s way. We keep doing the same thing over and over, and it ain’t workin’.”
He glanced at Lucie. “You might think I’m dumb, but I ain’t.”
He turned back to Riley. “Rendal is leadin’ us by the nose, skinny, and if you let go of your pride and your sense of duty for a second, you’ll see it. Why do you think he told you he was goin’ to Sidnie? Because he wanted you to chase him there like a dog chases a rabbit.”
Riley’s hands relaxed some.
“Despite my clearly badass powers, I don’t know much about magic.” William winked before continuing, “Worth does, though. He knows magic, and he has lost as much as anyone in this. You know what I ain’t hear him say a moment ago? He ain’t say he was done. That he was takin’ his people back to the desert. He said you and he need to get to work, skinny. He’s in this, but he’s wantin’ to do it the smart way. You’re not. You want Rendal to keep playin’ ya.”
Riley took a deep breath, steadying herself. “What exactly are you saying, William?”
“Sheesh, Lucie. This girl is as dumb as you.” William grinned. “I’m sayin’ you go with Worth. Wherever he wants to take you. You learn, and when I see you again, you use all this magic everyone says you got. The rest of us, we’ll go to Sidnie. We’ll go undercover, and we’ll find out exactly what the prick is up to.”
Riley looked at Lucie. “What do you think?”
She nodded. “Worth is right. You can’t beat Rendal yet, and he’s using you. You need to learn. You need to dedicate yourself to magic, not think only of savin’ Mason.”
“Verith,” Riley asked, “can you get everyone into the city?”
He looked at William. “I don’t know. Big man, can you be inconspicuous?”
“In-con-whatuous?” William responded.
Verith smiled and looked at Riley. “We’ll be all right.”
Finally, Riley went back to Worth. “Where are we going? Back to New Perth?”
Worth laughed, his usual jolly demeanor returning for a moment. “New Perth have no magic. We go Badlands. Underground people.”
“Under what?” William’s eyebrows raised high.
“Underground people. They show her. They teach her. We go there.”
Erin stepped forward. “I want Eric to go with you. I want him to keep learning.”
Riley raised her eyebrows and looked at Worth. “That’s up to you.”
“Eric fine. He good student. Not like you.” Worth, surprisingly, hadn’t dropped his grin.
Riley laughed. She didn’t know what else to do. Her life had changed so much in the past few weeks that she nearly couldn’t recognize it, yet the only choice was to go forward. To meet these challenges with clear eyes and a full heart.
“Okay, Worth. To the underground people we go.” She looked at William. “Two things: don’t you or anyone else here get killed.”
“What’s the second?” William asked.
“If you try to kiss Erin while we’re gone, don’t blush too bad.”
William’s entire faced turned the color of an apple.
Chapter Ten
Brighten Alanon saw the ships before anyone else. He saw them because his eyes were sharper than anyone he’d ever met, and although he was only fifteen, he thought them probably sharper than anyone in all of Sidnie. Truth be told, he thought both his eyes and ears were the sharpest in the whole kingdom.
“What the fuck is that?” he asked Kris.
“What’s what?”
Kris was the same age as Brighten, and they’d known each other for as long as either could remember.
“Them ships out there. Ya don’t see ‘em?”
“Hell no, I don’t see ‘em. Why you think I hang out with you, Brighten? Because your personality is so good? I’m here because you’re the best lookout in the city.”
Brighten punched her in the shoulder, a light thing because he hadn’t taken his eyes off the ships.
Brighten and Kris lived on the streets, and right now they were sitting on top of one of Sidnie’s condemned buildings. Most other people would have been far too frightened to climb up to the roof, but Brighten and Kris knew Sidnie’s underbelly like they knew themselves.
They understood every false step on nearly every roof in the city.
“That’s too many ships,” Brighten whispered.
And it was. Sidnie had a port and ships came and went, but never this many, and never in a line like that.
“How many?” Kris asked without looking up from her game of cards.
“Ten.”
Kris did look up then. “Quit lyin’, boy, or I’mma beat you blue. There ain’t ten ships comin’ this way.”
“You’ll hear sirens soon.” Brighten was hardly paying attention to his friend. He couldn’t pull his eyes from the ships. “This isn’t normal.”
He stood up.
“Whadda we do?” Kris asked, standing up and forgetting about the cards.
“Hell if I know.”
“Boys are idiots,” Kris snapped. “Come on. We need to get away from the port.”
The two left the top of the building, racing down the streets they knew so well.
“Where ya goin’?” another street urchin called to them.
“Run!” Brighten shouted back.
“Have you ever seen Sidnie before?” Rendal asked.
The sun hurt Mason’s eyes. He hadn’t seen it in long days, having been kept below in the cages. He was dirty and exhausted, but he knew he had it better than the other people he’d seen. They were being drained.
“No,” he answered the mage.
“It’s really something, isn’t it?”
Mason had to admit, even if only privately, that the mage was correct.
The city spread out before him, large towers jutting into the sky. Its buildings dwarfed New Perth’s, and Mason found himself amazed that they could construct such things.
Reading his mind, Rendal said, “They used magic—the same magic New Perth refused.”
A siren was blaring.
“They’re gatheri
ng their military.” Rendal stood at Mason’s side, no grin on his face. Mason didn’t know what kind of magic he was using, but the mage’s eyes were red. “They’ve spotted us, and we’re both a large force and unexpected. They’ll be ready for battle by the time we get there.”
“A city that size…” Mason’s voice trailed off, and he gazed at the mage. “You’re going insane. Do you realize that? You’re losing your mind.”
Rendal still didn’t smile. His face was focused. “No, I’m not. You may be right in what you’re thinking, though. A city of that size would be very difficult to overtake, even given my powers and my army, but I won’t be doing it by brute force, my dear Mason.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll show you when I’m finished,” the mage answered. “Harold, please take our guest back down.”
Harold grabbed Mason roughly and pulled him away.
Rendal stood alone on the deck. He was only partially there, though—only his body remained. His mind was in Sidnie, watching the military scramble to ready itself.
Sidnie’s Prefect was coming down from his tower, his aides having alerted him to what was going on in his kingdom.
Rendal had heard of the man—Sidnie’s Prefect. His name was Lawrence Slidell, and he was newly ascended.
Sidnie’s Prefect had to be proficient with magic, and usually was the greatest user in the kingdom. They had actually followed through with Rendal’s plan without knowing it.
Rendal couldn’t gain access to the man’s mind without alerting him to his own power. Rendal had no doubt that he could infiltrate the Prefect, but as he told Mason, this wasn’t a brute-force mission.
Harold returned from jailing Mason.
“Sir, what would you have me do next?”
“I’m commanding the other ships to remain at this distance and go no closer to shore. Only ours is going forward. I want you to let the men on board know that. Also, they’re going to inspect the ship, without a doubt. Under no circumstances is anyone to make it to the cages. You understand?”
“I do, sir. No one will see them,” Harold answered.
Rendal’s eyes returned to their normal color. “Good. We’ll arrive in the next thirty minutes. Prepare the ship, and meet me on deck.”
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