A Dark Inheritance

by Todd Herzman

  ‘Taya!’ Ruben shouted. He extinguished the flames and ran after her. Why doesn’t she understand?

  Ruben found Taya banging on the castle door and pulling on the handle. His anger faded as he watched her struggle. ‘I never meant to frighten you.’

  She banged on the door a few more times until she stopped and leant heavily against it. She put her back to the door and slid down until she sat on the ground. Her breath was laboured, her eyes wet. She glared up at Ruben. She looked tired. Small. Smaller than she had been. She’d always been slim, but now… just as Ruben had, she’d lost too much weight on that ship.

  ‘I’m not like them, Taya.’ He raised his hands, the flames gone. She flinched. He stepped back and dropped his hands. ‘I—I would never hurt you. You must know that.’

  A tear slid down Taya’s cheek, her eyes still glaring sharply at him. ‘I’m not sure I know you at all anymore. You’ve been living in this castle while I…’ Her voice cracked. She took a deep breath. ‘Fire from your hands, Ruben. Fire. How could you think I wouldn’t be afraid? After what I’ve been through?’

  Passion was back in her voice now. She’d always been strong, Taya. She’d never been afraid of speaking her mind—he loved that about her.

  ‘I should have warned you.’

  ‘Yes. You should have.’

  Ruben knelt, then sat on the ground a few feet from Taya. She brought her knees up and hugged them tight. Her gaze never left his.

  ‘Have you always been able to do that? Have you been hiding it from me, all this time?’

  Ruben shook his head. ‘No. It—it just happened, when we were on the ship, when I was alone in my cell, after Malarin…’ He turned his head away from her gaze. ‘It’s why Renial pulled me out of the line when Malarin brought us to him. He sensed the power in me.’

  ‘What does he want from you, Ruben? You’re not his thrall. You’re just, what, his house guest? It doesn’t make any sense.’

  He glanced at her. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She wouldn’t understand—he didn’t understand. ‘I don’t know what he wants from me. All I know is… we’re safe here, at least for now. He let me bring you here.’

  She shook her head. ‘No. We’re not safe. He’s a demon. He sucks people’s blood, takes their power, takes their lives, their personalities, away. He may not have done it to us, but we’re still his slaves. We’re still under his power. What’s stopping him from bloodlocking us?’

  ‘Me. I won’t let that happen to you, Taya.’ He sighed, gritted his teeth. ‘That’s why I showed you what I can do. I need you to know I can protect you.’ He forced himself to meet her unwavering gaze. ‘I love you, Taya. You trust me, don’t you?’

  ‘I did, once.’

  Ruben’s heart fell. He stared at the ground, suddenly wanting to burn it. To burn the grass, the flowers and trees—the whole garden. The entire castle. He was about to get up when he felt her hand touch his. Her touch doused his anger, just as it always had. ‘But, you said—’

  ‘I still love you. Maybe I can learn to trust you again.’

  They embraced, then. He kissed her, and she kissed back. Their emotions exploded, and he felt the passion in her lips. It felt like it would last forever, but she stopped. Her face still wet from the tears.

  ‘I need you to promise me something,’ she said. They still sat on the ground, their arms around each other. ‘Promise me we’ll escape this place. Castle or not, this place is a prison. I don’t want to grow old in a prison. I—I want to go home. I don’t even know if my parents survived the attack. And your brother, your sister… aren’t you worried about them?’

  Ruben saw an image of Ella in his mind, sitting in a ship’s cabin. She’d been searching for him. But he’d tried to escape already. What good had it done him? Maybe if he gained Renial’s trust, they wouldn’t have to escape.

  ‘Ruben? Please. I need you to promise me.’

  ‘I promise. One day, we’ll leave this place.’

  ‘Not one day, Ruben. Soon.’

  He held her tightly. ‘Soon. I—I promise.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered into his ear. She moved back and gazed into his eyes. He wiped a tear from her cheek.

  He would have to tell her about the meteorite. Renial became what he became because he wanted to protect people—he gained that power for others, not himself. Just as Ruben would become powerful. Looking at Taya, he knew he would have to. He knew he would do anything to protect her.

  Even if it meant breaking a promise.

  He would have to tell her about all of that, but he didn’t have to tell her today.

  Taya kissed him. Deeply. He held her, felt how small she’d become, how insubstantial she was in his arms. She’d always been strong for him. She’d been there when his mother had died, and later, when his father passed. Now, he would be strong for her. Taya lay back on the grass, wet from the winter dew, and pulled Ruben down with her. She didn’t seem to feel the cold. Ruben didn’t feel it either—all he felt was her.

  Chapter 50

  Ella

  Ella stared at the fire in one hand, the sparks in the other, and hoped it would be enough. Behind her, Reena rallied what was left of her crew.

  ‘Grab a weapon,’ Reena said. ‘Anything you can find. Ella’—Ella spun around and met Reena’s eye—‘Can you use your fire to melt these bars?’ She nodded at the nearest cell.

  ‘We can rip ‘em off and use ‘em as clubs.’ Jacob tapped one of the bars with his own club, clattering the metal.

  Ella glanced back through the doorway. ‘They’re close.’

  ‘Then do it fast,’ Reena said.

  Ella jumped into action. She cut off the sparks in her left hand and replaced them with flames. She grabbed the top of a bar and slid her other hand to the bottom of it, melting both sides. Once the metal was vulnerable enough to snap, she moved onto the next. Jacob used his salvaged club to break off the bars, handing them out to the crew in turn, telling them to mind the heated parts, until all nine of them were armed.

  ‘Okay.’ Reena paced in the narrow space, sword gripped tightly. ‘We all know what’s facing us out there. A blood mage—a powerful one. He may have taken us down once, but we won’t let that happen again.’ She patted Ella on the shoulder. ‘We’ve got something we didn’t have before, something he wants. A witch.’

  Jacob cheered. It sounded weak and forced, but it cajoled the others into joining the chorus.

  ‘We’re going to take this ship!’ Reena shouted. ‘We’re going to avenge every member of the Serpentine, and we’re going to roast this blood lord on a spit!’

  The whole crew cheered, raising their makeshift weapons. Ella reached out with her senses and felt the power of the blood lord again. She hoped the resolve of these men and women would be enough.

  Jacob and Reena huddled close to Ella by the door.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Jacob asked.

  Reena glanced through the doorway. ‘They’re just up those stairs?’

  ‘Every one of them,’ Ella said.

  Reena faced Jacob. ‘The blood lord wants to take her alive.’ She tipped her head at Ella. ‘That means we have an advantage.’

  Ella blinked at her. ‘You’re going to send me through first, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ said Reena.

  ‘Those thralls… if he’s protected them from magic like back on the island, I’ll have to break down their shields before I can even hurt them.’

  ‘But you can hurt them, right?’ Jacob put a hand on her shoulder. ‘If you’ve been doing what you did back on the Serpentine on purpose.’ He smirked. ‘They’re not gonna stand a chance.’

  The words felt a little empty, considering Jacob didn’t even know what she was capable of. Still, that smirk of his buoyed her confidence.

  A step creaked on the stairwell. Jacob’s smirk disappeared. He gripped his club with both hands. Reena stepped through the door.

&n
bsp; Ella stopped her. ‘Me first, remember?’ A hush fell as they strained to hear if more steps were coming. Ella placed her boots carefully. Why she was trying to be quiet she didn’t know—the blood lord knew they were down here. It must have been instinct. Prey versus predator. She hoped she was the latter.

  She took a deep breath and brought back the fire and sparks. Reena’s steps sounded gently behind her, Jacob’s less gracefully.

  ‘My kingdom for a crossbow,’ Jacob whispered.

  The stairs creaked again.

  ‘I was going to keep them all alive, you know,’ a bored voice said from out of sight up the stairs. ‘They would have been thralls, of course, but at least they would have lived. Now’—the blood lord sighed heavily—‘your friends will all die.’

  Ella looked behind her. The men and women, who moments ago had held their metal bars high and shouted a bloodthirsty cheer, looked pale and afraid.

  ‘They’re not the ones who will die today,’ Ella said, suddenly wishing her voice were deeper—more confident. She walked to the base of the stairs. ‘You are.’

  A deep, unsettling chuckle flowed down from the top of the steps. ‘You don’t sound so sure of yourself.’ A stair creaked, the blood lord’s foot falling heavy on the next step. ‘I do admire your willingness to fight for them. Perhaps that’s why the God King sent for you.’

  Ella peered up the steps and saw the top of his boot. Her breath shook. She wished Aralia were by her side. She moved her right foot back, her left foot forward, standing in the fighting stance Reena had taught her. She’d probably correct her form in other circumstances. Not quite like shooting a bow, Ella thought, aiming with her right hand forward at the man’s foot.

  She launched a lightning bolt at the blood lord’s ankles. The bolt hit a barrier, and the man barrelled down the stairs at a run, catching her unawares.

  It wasn’t the blood lord. Had she called out with her senses she would have known. One of the man’s thralls, with the blood lord’s shoes on his feet, practically fell down the steps with an axe in his hand. Ella stepped her left foot back fast from the landing, now leading with her right. She pulled on her reserve, focusing her power, remembering it had taken several strikes to get through their shield. She launched an unrelenting stream of fire, one more powerful than she’d ever managed before.

  The flames smashed into the man’s protective shield, but Ella didn’t let up. She sidestepped as he reached the landing, dodging a downward axe-swing and keeping the stream of flames flowing at him. The fire burst through his shield and caught the thrall alight. Whatever hold the blood lord had on him disappeared in an instant as he screamed.

  Ella let out a breath. She’d taken him down in two shots. Eight left, she thought. We might actually win this.

  A lengthy sigh came from the top of the steps. ‘I see I am going to have to deal with you myself.’ The stairs creaked, and this time Ella was sure it was him walking down them. ‘You know what they say, never send a man to do a lord’s work.’

  He walked down the steps as if he were in no hurry. Ella turned to face the stairs again. She readied herself to send another lightning bolt and quick burst of fire. The second she caught sight of his foot she fired the lightning—no effect. She stepped back, right hand forward, and launched the flames, concentrating her power as she had before.

  The blood lord’s barrier held. He did not run down the stairs as his thrall had. When he came into view he wore a closed-mouth smile that reminded her of a snake. He raised a hand. Ella flinched back, expecting pain, expecting him to crush her bones with his mind—nothing happened. At least, nothing seemed to. He walked down the remaining steps, bridging the gap. She retreated, sending bolt and flame one after another without damaging his shield at all.

  He raised another hand, and the ship moved, it shook violently as if it were in the middle of a storm. She heard rushing water and imagined a giant wave smashing into the ship, but the sound came from up the stairs.

  The blood lord’s foot hit the landing. A stream of water shot down the steps from behind him, it swirled around the blood lord, through the air, then smashed into Ella’s face before she understood what she saw. The water knocked Ella off her feet. An errant spark shot into the wall of the ship, splintering the wood. She tried to get back up, but the water pummelled into her. She couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe. The water curled around her like a snake as she writhed on the deck. It covered her body faster and faster until it enveloped her completely.

  She forced her eyes open. She could see the blood lord, standing over her with his arms raised, hands shaking as he strained. He raised his palms, and she rose with them. The bubble of water levitated off the ground with her flailing inside of it.

  He’s not going to kill me. He’s not going to kill me, Ella thought, over and over. She needed to breathe. She raised her hands and thought about summoning lightning but didn’t want to electrocute herself. She tried to summon a burst of flame instead, but the flames wouldn’t come—of course they wouldn’t come.

  She was running out of time. She would black out soon, just as she had when she’d jumped off the Serpentine into the water, just as she had when she’d tried to touch Aralia’s mind.

  Aralia had blacked out too, Ella thought. She’d felt conscious when I’d sensed her, but now she wouldn’t wake…

  Ella, her eyes heavy, her lungs burning, reached out with her magical senses. It took everything she had and more, but she felt the blood lord standing in front of her. She felt his power, still overwhelming despite all the thralls she’d killed. She felt the strings of power connecting him to those who still lived—he drew on their power even now. She reached out, trying to contact the blood lord’s mind as she had Aralia’s. Except where she’d just prodded Aralia’s mind, now she drew every ounce of remaining strength to bear down on the blood lord like a hammer.

  Their minds connected. Pain slammed into her. She felt herself falling.

  The world slipped into darkness.

  Chapter 51

  Marius

  Marius stumbled back from the woman who looked exactly like his mother. ‘No, my—my mother is dead. W—who are you?’

  The woman stepped toward him then stopped short. ‘I am so sorry.’ She dipped her head. ‘I never wanted to leave.’

  ‘I saw you die.’ The memory returned to Marius. Her in the bed, her withered body, her hand reaching out. ‘I heard you take your last breath.’ He raised his hands. ‘This is a sorceress’s trick.’ He thrust his palms at her, his hands shaking. ‘Show me your true form, sorceress.’

  She stepped forward. ‘It’s me.’

  Marius flinched back from her but didn’t use his powers. He couldn’t. ‘Please. Please, stop.’ His hands fell, his eyes watered.

  ‘My poor boy. I never meant for you to find out like this.’ She edged closer and reached her hand out but fell short of touching him as he recoiled from her. ‘I had to leave. To protect you. To protect your father—to protect Ruben and Ella.’

  Marius stared at her through the tears. She looked down at him, her face so sad. Could it really be her?

  ‘Protect them? Father died.’

  His mother—the sorceress—froze. Her eyes widened. ‘How?’

  Marius shook his head. ‘One day, he just… he’d gotten weaker, and…’ Marius blinked away tears. ‘Why am I telling you this?’

  ‘I’m your mother, Marius. I promise you it’s me.’

  ‘You’re lying! If—if you’re telling the truth, if it’s really you, why did you leave? Why did I see you die only to see you alive now?’

  The sorceress raised a hand, tapped her forehead. ‘I implanted the memories.’

  Marius shuddered. ‘You… you made me believe you were dead? You made me watch you die? Why would you do that to me? To your family?’

  ‘To protect you.’

  ‘Protect me?’ Marius paced, ran his hands through his hair. ‘Do you know why I’m here?
Why I’m not back home?’

  The sorceress moved her gaze to the left of the room. She had a faraway look, as if she could peer straight through the mountain. ‘I sensed your power… I felt what happened, down there. A monk died.’ She glanced at Marius. ‘Peiter?’

  Marius nodded.

  ‘You cared for him, didn’t you? I’m sorry.’

  ‘He helped me.’

  ‘What happened, Marius. Why are you here? Where are your brother and sister?’ She motioned to the lounge.

  Marius hesitated. Emotions swirled within him. He wanted to run, he wanted to embrace her, shout at her—all of that and more. He stared into her eyes, those green eyes. ‘It’s really you, isn’t it?’

  She bowed her head. ‘It’s really me.’

  He peered at the seat she offered, then back at her. His heart beat fast, his breathing sharp and shallow, and his hands shook, as they always did when he was afraid. Whatever else he wanted, he needed answers. Marius crossed the room and took the seat. The sorceress sat on the opposite side of the lounge, though he knew she wanted to sit closer.

  ‘I don’t know where Ruben and Ella are,’ he said. I can take you to your brother. The thrall’s words sounded in his mind. Marius struggled to look at her as he spoke. He told her about the night the raiders attacked, about hiding in the forest and coming back to so many dead, so many taken. About how Ruben was gone, and how Ella had gone after him. His voice wavered as he spoke, catching in his throat. He grasped his hands together in his lap, holding them so tight they hurt.

  And then he told her what the thrall had whispered in his ear. Finally, when he was done, he looked up at the sorceress. Her eyes were wet with tears. Her hands were clenched in fists.

  ‘He found you.’ She stood, breathing sharp. Her fists shook. She opened her palms and energy coalesced around them. She closed them again and took a deep breath. The sorceress looked at Marius with such sorrow, such anger, that he knew she couldn’t be acting—this couldn’t be an illusion.

  This was his mother. This was her.