by Adam Witcher
“I didn’t leave my house for two days after you left with that book,” Edwin said. “I just obsessed over the pages I copied. Even when the commotion started outside, I couldn’t pull myself away. Couldn’t bother to do anything else. I knocked some chairs over at some point and just left them. But after a couple days I ran out of food. Like an idiot, I just strolled outside and headed for the store. That’s when those bastards took me. Honestly, I’m lucky to be alive. But hey, you have the book still right? Please tell me you still have it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I still have it. It’s in this bag.” Isaac patted the sack around his shoulders.
He hadn’t thought much about the Arcaneum recently, but it was clear from the relief on Edwin’s face that it was the only thing on the elf’s mind.
“Good,” Edwin said. “So you’re going to bust me out of here, right?”
“Maybe,” Isaac said. “But keep your voice down.”
He looked at the guards, but the men were still paying them no mind.
“I don’t suppose you’ve seen any of my father’s cronies around here, have you?” Aerin asked.
“Right, right,” Edwin said. “You’re looking for someone besides me. Uh, to be honest I don’t really pay attention to politicians. But I remember somebody with an uppity attitude from when I first got here, a real Whogaarden type. Seemed to think he was too important for prison. A few trips to the torture chamber fixed him out right.”
“That could be anyone,” said Aerin.
“But here’s the thing, I remember him saying something like ‘Mayor Hector will hear about this.’ Then one of the guards knocked a couple of his teeth out.”
“Where is he?” Rhotha asked. “I’m looking to break a few more.”
“Somewhere on that row,” Edwin said, pointing toward the cells along the back wall. “I can’t remember. Just look for the guy with the busted jaw. Although that might not narrow it down.”
“Got it,” said Isaac. “We’ll be right back.”
Indeed, it didn’t narrow it down. Almost every inmate had some kind of injury, from broken arms to black eyes. Isaac wondered if these were the wealthier elves, the ones who had a harder time adjusting to their new social strata. The poor elves like Edwin knew when it was time to shut up.
“What about him?” Aerin suddenly stopped.
She pointed at a man whose lower jaw was swollen up so badly it looked like a purple chin strap. Various cuts and bruises lined his face and neck. Even so, the face did look familiar. He tried to picture the man huddled over him, face partially obscured by robes. It was no use. He’d been too panicked to pay attention.
Then he spotted the man’s wrist. A small tattoo lay hidden in the shadow of his tattered sleeve. A scorpion. Isaac’s mind flashed to the ritual chamber. He’d seen that tattoo.
“You there,” Isaac said.
The man looked up wearily, barely seeming to register their presence.
“What do you want?” his voice was so quiet he was hardly audible.
“Do I look familiar?” asked Isaac.
“Leave…” The man had to take a deep breath to continue. “Me alone.”
“C’mon, buddy.” Isaac crouched until he was at eye level. “Look at my face. Recognize it? Or should I lie on a table and beg for my life?”
The man gasped when he finally looked, then his voice wheezed into a cough.
“You… you’re alive.”
“Looks like your buddy Scorpius didn’t need my soul after all.”
“What do you want from me?” The man leaned forward, suddenly much more animated. “Why can’t you just leave me to die here?”
“If you’re looking for death,” Isaac said. “I might have good news for you. Where’s the talisman?”
“You’ll have to kill me,” the man said. He fell forward and crawled to the bars.
“I don’t have to,” Isaac said. “Maybe if you give me Scorpius’s talisman, I’ll bust you out of here.”
“You don’t understand, you have to kill me.”
“I mean, I’m not opposed,” Isaac said. “But I’d rather you tell me where it is first.”
“What do you think the talisman even is?”
“I don’t know, a necklace or a book or something,” Isaac said. “You tell me.”
“You fool!” The elf leaned his head back and forced an unconvincing laugh. “You think Scorpius would entrust pieces of his soul to a mere object? We are the talismans.”
Isaac looked to the ladies.
“Is that possible?” he asked Aerin.
“In theory.” She shrugged. “Assuming someone was willing to become a talisman, I suppose they could.”
“Fine,” Isaac said. “I’ll kill you. But first, do you know why Scorpius abandoned you?”
“We… we were to sacrifice you. For the merging. But he forsook us.”
“What happened to the others?”
“They fled. Far away. They believe they can win back his favor, but I think it’s useless. He does not need us. All we can do is wait for the end times. For the merging.”
“My gods, he’s dramatic,” Rhotha said. “Isaac, can’t you just get this over with?”
“Almost.” Isaac turned back to the man. “How’d you get captured?”
“We fled through the city, but my leg, it’s wounded from a horse-riding accident ten years ago. I couldn’t keep up. They left me behind, and the humans found me.”
“Some friends,” Isaac said.
“Maybe they knew it was useless,” Aerin said. “That the humans would just kill you, a small mercy from your pals.”
“Those bastards showed no mercy,” the man said, gritting his teeth. “They were terrified to die. A bunch of damn cowards.”
“Want revenge?” Isaac asked. “I can help with that. Where’d they go?”
“When we escaped the church,” the man rasped, “Hector told us of an abandoned city on the coastline, almost due west of here. Sardonia, I think he said. There’s a temple there, one that was never officially devoted to a god after it was built. We don’t know why. They believe that they can convert it to a temple for Scorpius and win his favor when he achieves godhood. But it’s too late. It will never work. Scorpius doesn’t need us.”
“Hey!”
A voice from behind them made Isaac jump. One of the guards. Footsteps moved toward where they sat.
“You little bitch,” the guard said. “You think you can fool us?”
Isaac turned to see Aerin covering her ears, but it was too late. The guards had already seen it.
“Shit,” Aerin said. “I must have used up my magic.”
“Don’t worry,” Rhotha said. “I can handle these drunk idiots. Isaac, take as long as you need.”
She pulled a phantasm gem from her bag and summoned a battleaxe. The men lurched back at that, eyed her phantom weapon with horror.
“Come here,” Isaac said to the man. “I’ll kill you.”
The man’s eyes went moist. He waddled to the bars. On either side of the cell, other inmates stood up and watched the scene with weary curiosity. A few of them whooped and jeered. This was likely the most exciting thing they’d seen in a week.
“You can kill me,” he said. “But the piece of Scorpius’s soul will still be there.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Isaac said.
He grabbed Saldana’s dagger from his hilt and plunged it into the man’s chest. His hand buzzed with the absorbed power—more than any other kill so far. For a moment, bright blue light completely engulfed his line of sight. An electric pulse shot through him, Scorpius’s energy. He felt good. Powerful. Ready for action.
When the alarm sounded, he almost welcomed it.
17
Isaac turned, ready to fight, but the three guards were already dead. One was headless, his body squirming in a pile of blood. The other two had killed each other. A gem still glowed in Aerin’s hand. One of her victims had a sword buried in his neck, the other an axe
to his gut. Smashed intestines spilled out of a gash between pieces of his armor.
A steady, high-pitched whirring blasted from some unknown corner of the room. Prisoners from all over jeered and shouted, suddenly brought to life by the excitement. They shook the bars of their cells and begged to be set free. Rhotha gripped her phantom axe, ready for more action. Aerin craned her neck and scanned the prisoners, clearly lost in consideration.
“Let’s go!” Isaac said.
Rushing to the corpses, Isaac snatched a dangling keyring from one of the dead men’s belt loops and ripped it through the fabric. Edwin gripped the bars of his cell while Isaac approached him.
“They’re all the same,” he told Isaac, who frantically flipped through the keys.
“Seriously?”
The elf nodded.
Isaac stuck a random key into the lock. Relief surged through him as it clicked open and his friend tumbled out of the cell. Around them, other elves screamed at him for mercy, but there was no time for that.
With Edwin in tow, he charged toward the exit and didn’t look back until he reached the doorway. Rhotha was just behind him, but Aerin lingered at the table, still topped with half-drunk beer. She eyed a switch just below it, one Isaac hadn’t seen before.
“Shit,” said Isaac.
She flipped it, and every cell in the room opened simultaneously. The room erupted into chaos. Elves pumped their fists, forgetting their suffering as they took advantage of the disarray. They surged through the room in a thick swarm toward the exit like it was the first of spring and they were animals cooped up from a long winter. Aerin barely managed to dash ahead of them and meet Isaac and Rhotha at the door.
“Really?” asked Isaac.
“What?” she grinned, “It’ll be easier to get lost in a crowd.”
He shrugged, and they took off, following the elves down the staircase. Frightened, drunk guards met them at the landing, but the elves plowed right through them and ignored their armor and weapons. The lobby was in a state of pandemonium too. The switch had apparently opened the doors that led outside too, so the inmates in the midst of recreational time joined the throngs that wrestled to get outside. Isaac, Aerin, and Rhotha, smashed between prisoners, were easily able to blend right in and go out the door.
The guards outside were either already trampled or they’d given up. Isaac wondered for a moment where they might have gone before he finally spotted them. The guy from the front desk and one of the guards were huddled against a line of fence, ignoring the chaos around them. The front desk guy straddled the guard. They were lost in a passionate kiss.
Good for them, Isaac thought.
Once they’d cleared the pathway through the courtyard, they realized just how loud the alarm truly was. There had to be an enchantment on it that spread the sound throughout Avalour.
Normally, city guards would likely surge toward the prison during such an emergency, but the few human guards patrolling the main street just stared at the crowd, dumbstruck. A few drew swords or daggers, but none looked eager to use them. There were just too many inmates.
Isaac grabbed the others and pulled them into a passing alleyway, the first available place to escape the river of newly freed elves.
“Let’s wait here a minute,” Isaac said. “Then we’re heading north.”
“North?” Edwin asked. “What’s north?”
“Our horses,” he replied. “We’re getting the hell out of here. But you’re going to need a hat, buddy. Those ears won’t get you far.”
Once the elves had fanned out in different directions, they headed back out into the street. A few doors down from where they stood was a clothing shop, so they approached it nonchalantly and went inside.
A tiny man behind the counter held a bow and arrow in hand, bow string pulled, arrow at the ready. His hands were shaking. Beads of sweat dripped down his face and into a bushy moustache. The closing door slightly muffled the shrieking alarm.
“Now I don’t want any trouble,” the man said. “You all just back on out of here and things don’t need to get ugly.”
“Relax,” Isaac said. “We’re just here to shop.”
“Like hell you are! You’re one of those escaped convicts, you can’t fool me.”
Isaac sighed. “Aerin?”
“With pleasure,” she purred.
She approached the counter, hand glowing purple behind her.
“Now just relax there, big boy. We don’t mean you any harm. We’ve got plenty of gold. My friend here just needs a hat, okay? Then we’ll be on our way.”
The man lowered his bow.
“Well, why didn’t you just say so?”
His demeanor shifted entirely. Glancing down at the bow he still held, he furrowed his brow, then tossed it away. He grinned beneath his moustache, exposing bright white teeth.
“May I escort you to my hat rack, sir?”
Edwin chose a bucket of a hat that dipped all the way down his cheeks. His ears disappeared entirely into it. Isaac paid, and they stepped back out into the street while the shopkeeper waved goodbye, a druglike stupor in his gaze.
“Is he gonna be okay?” Edwin asked.
“I don’t know,” Aerin said. “Never stuck around long enough to find out. Let’s go with yes.”
“Wait a minute,” Edwin said. “You’re an illusion mage. Why couldn’t you just make my ears look human like yours?”
“And have you constantly drain my magic?” she scoffed. “You can hide yourself the old-fashioned way. I’ll help you if we run into trouble.”
* * *
Streets all over the city were in chaos, so much so that the group wasn’t even given a second glance. Fires ripped through buildings. Former prisoners attacked current guards or tried to take back their homes from squatters and looters. The alarm didn’t stop ringing, even when there couldn’t possibly be a soul in Avalour who didn’t know there was an emergency. But with so many elves running about, the four blended into the human crowd easily.
One guard stopped to question them when they were near the borders of Homoken and Dabow, but he got distracted by two prisoners assaulting a human man’s bakery and beating him with clothespins. Later, another guard looked intrigued as they passed along a stretch of canal, but a beefy elf snuck up behind him, picked him up by his legs, and threw him into the water. In his heavy steel armor, he floundered and struggled to stay above the surface. The elf laughed and spit after him.
They eventually reached the stables without further incident, and, while the city burned and screamed behind them, they retrieved Moonlight and Sunfire from inside and saddled them up.
Isaac peeked into the office to see several of the humans from before, still smoking and relaxing. They waved him inside.
“Hey,” one girl said. “Settle a bet. Do you hear some kind of weird, high-pitched ringing? Tarlok says it’s just my imagination.”
Isaac paused and pretended to listen closely, trying not to laugh. The alarm was still clearly audible.
“Nope,” he said. “Must be your imagination. Anyway, thanks for hanging on to the horses, I’ll be on my way now.”
“Peaceful travels, my friend,” the woman said.
When he went back outside, Aerin sat atop Moonlight’s saddle and patted his spot in front of her. Behind her, Edwin and Rhotha rode Sunfire. The horses looked completely unbothered by the chaos.
“Let’s get the hell out here, shall we?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Due west, then?” he said. “Once we reach the coastline, we’ll figure it out from there. Should take about the better part of tomorrow. We’ll camp outside the city.”
With everyone in agreement, they set off.
Once Avalour had almost disappeared into the distance behind them, the sun threatening to do the same ahead, they started looking for a place to camp for the night. The western landscape was flat and barren, but they eventually reached a copse of trees that at least blocked them from view of passi
ng bandits or raiders. They made camp, built a fire, and tied up the horses. Isaac cooked a pot of beans over an open fire while the others relaxed around it.
“So do I get a look at those phantasm gems?” Edwin said.
“Don’t know if that’s a good idea man,” Isaac said. “You got obsessed with the Occultus in like five minutes.”
“I’m just a passionate scholar is all.” Edwin grinned.
“Speaking of,” Aerin said. “What did you study from the Occultus?”
Though it was hard to make out in the firelight, Edwin’s cheeks went red.
“About that,” he said. “It’s hard to remember. I remember reading the book, studying it intensely, but I can’t seem to remember anything specific. It’s strange.”
“Interesting,” Aerin said. “Isaac, let me see your copy.”
Isaac reached into his satchel, bypassing the pile of phantasm gems to reach the book. He pulled it out and handed it to her. The elf examined it carefully.
“I wonder if there’s an enchantment on this,” she said. “Anything copied gets lost to memory. Should be possible.”
“Actually,” Isaac said. “That makes sense. The only bits of the book I can remember are the ones I read later.”
“I can check,” Rhotha said, sitting up. “I’ve got a mobile enchanter. I’ll test it.”
Rhotha pulled something from her bag, a folded wooden device that she unfolded to reveal a table much like the one Isaac and Aerin found hidden in her father’s study. This one was a much lighter shade of brown. She placed a few tiny candles atop it, then sprinkled some dust on them from a pouch. Aerin handed her the book, and she placed it on the enchanter. She whispered an incantation.
The book glowed green.
“Yep,” Rhotha said. “It’s enchanted alright. Couldn’t tell you what the enchantment is, though.”
The campfire dwindled to embers, and the four prepared to drift off to sleep. Just as Isaac felt his eyelids drooping, a tearing sound ripped through the night and made him jolt awake. The sky was covered by clouds, so the night was pitch dark. Before him, above the ashes of the campfire, a barely visible blob of grey took shape.