by Todd Herzman
Lilah, not sure her crystal had any power left to protect them, pushed Serena out of the way, jumping back herself. The fire missed them, fleeing through the doorway and down the hall.
Kellan bloomed flames over both his palms, great fireballs that bathed the room in a fierce orange light. His eyes still glowed red, blood mist seeping from Kianna to Kellan, thrall to blood mage, enhancing his strength. His gaze stayed locked on Serena.
As his focus lay elsewhere, Lilah dropped to one knee and snatched her dagger from the ground. She grabbed it by the blade, held it back, then threw it fast and true at the place between his eyes. The release was good. The dagger zipped straight at the blood mage’s head—
Only the blood mage’s head wasn’t there anymore. He’d dodged to the side swifter than Lilah had ever seen Jercolf move—swifter than she’d seen her father move. Lilah looked at Kianna. He still gains strength from the thrall. She must be close to death.
Lilah would have to bring her there. It was the only way to weaken the blood mage.
Lilah got to her feet. As she did, she saw Kellan’s attention shift to her, saw him raise his arms, the fire he wielded flaring. Lilah took a step toward Kianna’s unconscious form. She didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to kill the girl, but there was no other way. The blood mage must be stopped. She lunged forward, her hands an inch from gripping the blonde girl’s neck—
A great thud rocked the room. Lilah’s head snapped around. Kellan had been shoved into the wall of the Red Rose so hard the thick wood splintered and broke. Both Serena’s arms were raised, her whole body trembling.
‘You will never hurt anyone ever again.’ Serena’s hands seemed to grasp something invisible—then twisted. Kellan’s head spun to face the wall, his neck snapping loudly. Serena’s hands dropped, and Kellan dropped with them—only this time, Lilah knew he wouldn’t get up again.
Serena faltered, stumbling backward. Lilah closed the gap and grabbed her, steadying her before she could fall. ‘I feel weak.’
Lilah put a hand to Serena’s forehead. ‘You’re okay. You just used too much energy.’ A fire crackled somewhere behind them.
‘I didn’t know I had magic. I don’t—I don’t want to be evil.’
Lilah hesitated—what she wanted to say went against everything her father had taught her, everything the Temple had taught her. It went against her own ingrained beliefs—but she knew it to be true, because she’d never known a soul better than she knew Serena.
‘You’re not evil, my love.’ Lilah looked to Kellan, dead on the floor. ‘It’s people like him who are evil.’
The crackling became louder. Lilah looked down the hall, where Kellan’s fireball had flown after she’d pushed Serena out of the way. The Red Rose was on fire. The flames were spreading toward them.
‘We need to get out of here,’ Lilah said.
Serena seemed to regain her balance. She looked around, saw the dead mage, the fire, and finally the girl on the ground. ‘Did I kill her?’
Lilah let go of Serena and knelt by Kianna. She put a finger on the girl’s neck. ‘She still lives.’ The blood mage was dead, with him, his bloodlock broken. Lilah picked up Kianna. She made for the doorway, but Serena stopped her.
‘The staircase is on fire. We can’t go that way!’ Serena looked around frantically.
Lilah turned, Kianna weighing heavy in her arms. The girl was fairly light, but Lilah was beaten and exhausted. ‘The window.’ She stepped toward the shutters, hefted Kianna higher, and kicked them open.
Fire flared behind her, the heat smashing into her back.
The alley below was still clear. Jercolf and Seeker Ailena hadn’t yet made it to the Red Rose, and no one in the surrounding buildings must have spotted the smoke yet. Serena poked her head out, looking down at the two-storey drop.
Serena’s eyes widened. ‘How do we get her down?’
‘Do you have any rope?’
Serena shook her head. ‘Not a bit.’
The fire was fast approaching, the heat causing sweat to form and drip into Lilah’s eyes. The smoke slipped into her lungs as it had earlier in the day. She fought off coughing as best she could. Lilah looked about the place, unsure how they would all get out of this alive. Then her gaze finally settled on Serena, and a heretical idea entered her mind.
‘You,’ Lilah said. ‘We get her out with you.’
‘What? How—’ Serena’s expression shifted, became stony as she realised what Lilah meant. ‘I’ll try.’
Lilah glanced over her shoulder at the approaching flames. ‘You need to climb down first.’
Serena hesitated only a moment, the expression she wore familiar—she wanted to argue, but she didn’t. Instead, she acted. She looked once more at the two-storey drop, took a deep, shuddering breath, then climbed down.
Lilah watched her love climb out the window and down into the alley. The room grew hotter, the girl in her arms heavier, until Serena’s feet finally hit the cobblestones. ‘Are you ready?’ Lilah called down.
Serena stared up. The fire had not yet reached this room, and so the flames did nothing to illuminate Serena’s face, which was caught in shadow. All Lilah could make out was a nod before Serena raised her arms high, palms facing up at Lilah and the girl.
Lilah held the girl as far out of the window as she could, her muscles protesting, wishing to be free of their burden. A moment passed, then the weight was lifted. Kianna raised first into the air, then drifted slowly down to the alley floor.
Then the girl dropped like a stone. Lilah’s heart leapt into her throat. She almost launched herself out the window, but there was nothing she could do but watch as Kianna fell.
Serena grunted a yell, like someone forcing a heavy weight, and Kianna froze in the air an inch from the stone ground, then fell the last little way with a light thud.
Lilah gripped the windowsill tight. ‘Serena?’ She couldn’t make out her face in the dark.
‘I—I’m okay.’
Lilah started to climb out. Clinging to the windowsill, she took one last look at the dead blood mage. A part of her wished he was alive while he burned. It would have been a different sort of justice, for him to die by his own flames.
‘Lilah!’ Serena shouted, her voice strained.
Lilah snapped back to reality. The wall grew hot as she hurried down, clasping handholds as she found them, almost slipping and losing her grip along the way, until solid ground met her boots. A weight hit her back, arms wrapped around her waist.
‘I love you,’ Serena whispered in her ear.
Lilah turned until she was face to face with Serena. ‘I love you, too.’
‘What will we do?’
Lilah touched Serena’s cheek and looked into her eyes. She kissed her as the fire raged and the Red Rose burned to the ground. She didn’t know what they would do—she didn’t have any answers. When their lips parted, Lilah held Serena tight. ‘No one knows. No one ever has to know.’
‘Lilah?’ a deep voice called from down the alley. Jercolf stood beside Seeker Ailena.
Chapter 10
Seeker Ailena walked toward them, Jercolf a step behind on her side. She was a head shorter than Jercolf, and her shoulder-length hair had long turned grey. She rested her hand on the pommel of her Starblade, her gaze questing from Lilah, Serena, and Kianna lying on the ground, to the burning Red Rose. Though she may have passed her prime, her strides were strong, and she looked no less formidable than Lilah imagined she had in her youth.
Jercolf knelt by Kianna, he held a hand by her mouth. ‘She’s alive.’
‘What happened here, recruit?’ Seeker Ailena asked Lilah.
Lilah let go of Serena and stood straighter. ‘Kellan, the blood mage, murdered everyone inside—’ She nodded at Kianna. ‘He sent her in first. She was his thrall.’ Lilah gripped Serena’s hand. ‘Serena was the only one—other than the girl—I found left alive, the only one I managed to save after I defeated th
e blood mage. We got Kianna—the girl—out together.’ Nothing she’d said yet had been a lie.
Seeker Ailena glanced at the Red Rose. ‘The watch will be here soon, to help quell the flames.’ She locked eyes with Lilah. ‘What of the other mage? Jercolf tells me that’s why Kellan came here.’ Ailena looked at Serena.
‘I—’ Lilah began.
‘It was Simeon,’ Serena said. ‘The bartender. He—he tried to protect me. He raised his hands and threw the blood mage back. That’s—that’s why I survived.’
Seeker Ailena narrowed her eyes at Serena. ‘Simeon?’ She looked to Lilah. ‘Is that what you saw?’
‘Simeon was dead by the time I got there. He was—’ She remembered him, lying on the ground, a club in his hand and blood pooling around him. ‘Badly burned,’ she lied. ‘The blood mage mustn’t have been able to enthral him.’
Seeker Ailena nodded. ‘I’m sure your account is accurate.’ Her gaze turned to Kianna. ‘Now the girl’s no longer bloodlocked, she’ll be able corroborate what happened once she’s well enough.’ Ailena put a hand on Lilah’s shoulder. ‘The loss of the Red Rose is… greatly saddening, but you’ve done our order, and your emperor, proud. What happened this day will weigh greatly on your Choosing.’
‘I… I let Kianna—the thrall—walk free. The blood mage used her to attack this tavern.’ Lilah shook her head. ‘I don’t deserve anyone’s pride.’
Seeker Ailena frowned, she gripped Lilah’s shoulder tighter. ‘Jercolf told me of what you did. It was a hard decision, a merciful one, and you used your heart to make it.’ She looked down at the girl. ‘The blood mage would have killed these people without the girl, I’m sure of that. Do not let these people’s deaths weigh on you. Rather, let the fact the girl yet lives bring you up.’ She held eye contact with Lilah. ‘Hard decisions are a part of a seeker’s life, and you’ve shown you’re capable of making them.’
Lilah bowed her head. ‘Thank you, Seeker Ailena.’ She looked down at Kianna. The girl yet lives. Lilah was proud of that... but it was Serena who had truly saved her in the end. And, though Lilah was glad the girl lived, it brought another complication. When she wakes, she’ll tell of Serena’s powers, they’ll know she was the other mage. ‘Your words honour me.’ She looked to the fire. ‘I… I feel there is little for me to do here, may I walk Serena somewhere safe before heading to the West Gate? My father is still out there, and so is the girl’s family. I wish to see to their safety.’
Seeker Ailena tilted her head, seeming to consider for a moment, then she nodded.
Jercolf stood from where he’d been kneeling by Kianna, then clasped forearms with Lilah. ‘I look forward to your tale of defeating the blood mage.’ A wisp of a smile came to his lips.
Lilah clasped his forearm back. ‘Perhaps over a mug of ale,’ she said over the roaring flames of the Red Rose, knowing she’d never be able to speak the truth of the tale.
The flames flared. A loud crack sounded from the tavern. All their heads turned to it. Lilah squinted through the smoke. The loss of everyone inside, and of the tavern itself, hadn’t hit her yet—she had other, more pressing worries, on her mind.
Lilah nodded to Jercolf before taking Serena’s hand and leading her out of the alley. They walked, hand in hand, leaving the flames behind. On their way, they passed watchmen carrying buckets filled to the brim with water from the nearest well, rushing to the tavern.
Lilah’s mind turned and turned, trying to figure out what to do, what to say. When they had made it a few blocks away, she took Serena down a quiet alley.
Lilah looked deep into Serena’s eyes, holding both her hands in her own. ‘We must get out of the city before Kianna wakes up and tells of your magic. She’ll have seen what you can do, they’ll know we were lying—’
‘No.’ Serena shook her head. A tear fell down her cheek, but her voice stayed strong. ‘I must go alone.’ She squeezed Lilah’s hands. ‘Your future is as a seeker, not a fugitive, I won’t have your life ruined because of what I’ve done, because of what I am. That girl never saw you there, she was unconscious when you turned up. They’ll only think it was me who was lying, not you.’
‘I don’t care about being a seeker. I don’t—’ Tears choked Lilah’s voice. ‘I don’t care that you have magic. You are my love, Serena, you are my future.’
‘You’re my love too, Lilah.’ Serena put a hand on her cheek. ‘You have been since we met.’ Her head dropped, and she would no longer look Lilah in the eye. ‘But we’re no longer meant to be.’ She took a step back. ‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice finally broke. ‘But they must think you’re innocent.’
‘Serena, please. Listen to me—’
Serena held Lilah’s necklace in her hand, the one which protected against magic—she must have taken it when they’d embraced. ‘I’m sorry.’ She raised her arms. Lilah’s feet came off the ground and she flew back, pinned against the wall.
‘I love you, Lilah.’ Serena’s arms shook, her body wracked by sobs. She walked backward out of the alley. ‘Don’t look for me.’ She disappeared. Into the shadows. Into the night.
Lilah fell from the wall. Serena’s footsteps sounded around the corner, becoming fainter and fainter. Lilah put her head in her hands. Don’t look for me. She paced from one alley wall to the other. She felt the pain of the slash in her arm, the throb of all the little cuts she’d gained from the wagon exploding, the soreness from every muscle in her body.
But none of those hurt as much as her heart. She looked at the end of the alley, where Serena had gone. Could she really let her go? Pretend she didn’t know?
Lilah summoned the last of her strength and ran. She went left, following Serena’s footsteps. She’d hoped to see her just around the corner, waiting for Lilah to follow—to make the decision knowing she didn’t have to—but Serena wasn’t there. Lilah kept running. Checking every shadow. Taking lefts and rights. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore. Then she walked. She walked until her feet hurt more than the slash on her arm. Until her head pounded and her eyelids became anvils. She must have walked every street in the city, but she hadn’t found Serena.
When the sun peeked over the Eastern wall of Hirlcrest, Lilah walked back to the Red Rose. The tavern lay in ruins, ashen and broken. Its three stories reduced to a pile of blackened wood. A small crowd had gathered, those inclined to waking early in the morning. A few acolytes from the Temple had their hands clasped together, their heads down in prayer. Lilah’s gaze fell on the Tahali monk a ways behind the crowd. Perhaps he’d come to see if any needed healing. He wore dull, grey robes, and his head was shaved. He returned Lilah’s gaze, and stepped toward her. Lilah’s hand instinctively went to the pommel of her sword—except she had left her sword in the Red Rose as it burned.
She let her hands relax. Tahali monks may have magic, but they wouldn’t have been allowed in the city if they hadn’t kept to their oaths of pacificism for hundreds of years.
‘Hail, Monk,’ Lilah said, eyes narrowing.
The monk’s right hand came out of his robe’s long sleeve. He held a folded note. ‘You will not find her.’ He handed it to Lilah.
She snatched it up and unfolded it.
My love,
Now that I know what I am, I must find my own way in this world, and I do not think I can find that way in Kharleon.
Your Choosing is coming, and I have no doubt they will make you a seeker. There is evil in this world—men like Warrick, and the blood mage who murdered everyone in the Red Rose, some who were like family to me. Follow your path, seek out this evil, and bring forth your blade’s justice—but please, know that not all magic is evil. Some of it deserves your mercy.
Lilah turned the note around, but it said no more, and there was no signature. She looked up, ready to interrogate the Tahali monk, but he was gone. She looked at the note again, ran a finger over the lines of Serena’s handwriting, over the first two words.
My love.
Th
en she hid it in her pocket and walked to the West Gate.
She rebelled against the thoughts that entered her mind as she walked, against the decision she had to make. But as she approached the West Gate, her body almost dropping from exhaustion, she knew Serena’s words had been right.
Lilah’s future, her path, was as a seeker. That had not changed.
Epilogue
Two weeks after Kellan was defeated and the Red Rose burned to the ground, Lilah and Jercolf stood as the last remaining recruits on the day of the Choosing.
The Deciders were arrayed in a half moon in front of them, none of their expressions hinting at their thoughts. Seeker Haldin and Seeker Ailena sat in the middle. Priestess Lynna and Ranger Ellison on either side.
Those invited to the Choosing made a small crowd behind them. Lilah glanced back at her mother. Her mother had always been supportive of Lilah’s desire to be a seeker, despite how Lilah’s father being one had affected their marriage, and Lilah was glad to see her in the crowd.
Kianna and her family had also been invited, at Lilah’s request. Most members of the caravan had decided to stay in Hirlcrest after their bloodlocks had been broken. It had been judged that Kellan’s money be distributed between his former thralls, and those who remained were staying at an inn in town until they got back on their feet. Lilah had made sure to visit Kianna whenever she could. She couldn’t imagine what the girl must feel, having been forced to murder those people in the Red Rose…
Lilah wished she’d seen another face in that crowd, wished things had turned out differently. In the weeks that had passed, as the truth of Serena being a mage had been revealed, she’d—thankfully—not been found. She must have fled from Kharleon as the note had said, perhaps to as far away as Guhrat, where she could learn to use her Affinity without being hunted.
Lilah looked forward once more, at Seeker Ailena. She was to be the one to announce the outcome of the Choosing.