by K.N. Lee
“Halt. Who are you?” a captain asked.
Brenden stopped. Uriah and the others nearly crashed into him from behind. He stared at the guard, then opened his senses. Instead of closing his eyes, they remained open, but they turned from their normal hue to black. He concentrated on all the firelights all around him. There were hundreds all around the castle, as well as inside of it. He summoned the largest black tsunami he’d ever seen or imagined. A smile came across his face as he commanded the tsunami to slam into all the firelights.
He refocused his eyes. They returned to their normal hue. All the torches no longer burned bright white and red. Brenden reversed the spell of all the firelight torches in the city. He felt exhaustion weight on him, but he pushed forward. The torches weren’t extinguished. They were reversed. Instead of omitting a light of fire, they omitted darkness. Even a regular torch could not be seen in the distance. The spell reversal overwhelmed all light.
Brenden stepped forward, slamming his fist into the captain’s jaw. He pounded his fist into the man three more times, knocking him to the ground. Brenden hated harming someone for doing his job, but he knew it was better than if Uriah reached the poor captain. Even though darkness surrounded them, Brenden could see easily and he moved on.
He noticed Uriah and the others behind him didn’t have as easy of a time keeping up with him. But he didn’t give them much thought. They were supposed to take precautions to see. They knew it would be dark. Perhaps they didn’t know he would reverse the light into darkness, but what did they expect? Uriah told him to read the book of reversal, not the book of stopping the magic, but reversing it. The opposite of light was darkness, not off.
Brenden had no idea how to simply turn the lanterns off. When he had the extra time, he planned on reading more books on sorcery.
He reached the door. His senses stretched out again, and he noticed the door had a red glow now. Brenden let his right hand glow a red as he touched the door. No alarms blared. He would be able to turn his entire body red and step completely through the door, but that didn’t solve the entrance for the others. Brenden didn’t know how he could get the others through. He wondered if he could wrap a blanket of red magic around himself and the others to bring them through with him.
“What now?” Uriah asked from behind him.
“The door is protected with magic. As far as I can tell, if you try to enter, it will paralyze you and trigger an alarm to the sorcerers.”
“Lovely. Can you reverse it?”
Brenden shook his head. “Every time I reverse it, it changes. There is a never ending color cycle, and then it just recycles through the colors again.”
“Damn.”
“The only way to get through it is to become the color.”
“What?” Uriah asked.
Brenden shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. I can do it … but—”
“We can’t,” Uriah finished.
Brenden nodded. “Let me try to wrap you in red magic.”
Brenden focused on the three men behind him. He tried to wrap them in magic, but nothing he tried worked. The magic wouldn’t work on them, or he wasn’t powerful enough or knowledgeable enough to do it. He took a step back and concentrated on himself. He encased himself in red magic, then held out his hand to Uriah.
Uriah tilted his head.
“Grab my hand.”
Uriah complied. His body wrapped itself in a red aura at Brenden’s touch. He shivered as he looked at himself, then Brenden.
“What in the bloody lock pick is this?”
“Grab Rycroft’s hand.”
He did, and Rycroft glowed a faint red as well. Rycroft grabbed Tedlyha’s hand, then all of them adapted to the red aura. Brenden may not be able to give them red auras from a distance, but when they were all touching, he could pass his aura to them. He felt the strain as he stretched his aura, and he knew he couldn’t hold it for too much longer.
“Now,” he said.
“What?” Uriah asked.
“Hold tight, and don’t let go no matter what. Follow me.”
Uriah looked at him skeptically.
Brenden raised his eyebrows, then ran toward the door. The others hesitated at first, worried about the outcome of running headfirst into a door, but he pulled them on. Together, all four of them ran straight through the door. Once inside, Brenden reached his senses out again, and when finding nothing, he let go of Uriah’s hand.
“That was really weird,” Rycroft said.
“Tell me about it. Holding hands with a guy. Especially one as ugly as you, Rycroft,” Uriah said.
Rycroft shrugged. “Sometimes it isn’t about looks, mate.”
“All right. We need to get to the vault while the chaos is still fresh. Follow me,” Uriah said, ignoring Rycroft’s last statement.
Brenden turned around, facing the door they’d just come through.
“Brenden?” Uriah asked. “Come on.”
Brenden glanced over his shoulder. He shook his head. “I’ll catch up.”
“Where are you going?” Uriah asked.
“To find Keira.”
“Brenden!” Uriah rushed for him.
Brenden turned back around, let the red aura blanket him, then stepped through the door and back outside of the castle.
41
Keira ran down the dark streets toward the castle. She’d lost track of time. She’d been enjoying herself. Keira worried she might let pleasure get in the way of the mission, and she had, again. This time though, it hadn’t all been for pleasure.
She’d gained valuable information. Information she wouldn’t have gained with torture. Information she wouldn’t have gained had she just swiped the captain’s keys and disappeared into the night. But now she was late.
The city around her was in chaos. She’d been in the middle of her interrogation when the lights when off. But as she considered it, that wasn’t right—the lights weren’t off. She could feel them still on, still burning. Yet, they were burning darkness instead of light. She knew Brenden had done it. He’d found a way to reverse the light into darkness. She was proud of him. And she was also worried about him.
Now that he’d used full fledged magic, Keira worried that the Thieves Guild would try to make Brenden their puppet. For years, Keira had been trying to convince Brenden that the Thieves Guild wasn’t their life, and they should leave it together to start their own life. For years, he brushed aside her remarks. It’d only been recently that he’d listened to her. But was it too late? Were they in too deep with the Thieves Guild now?
She could see in the dark. Actually, Keira couldn’t be sure if it was sight, or her senses. Everything around her was black. But she knew where to step, where to run, and when someone else frantically ran the other way. She knew to dodge those people.
When she arrived at the castle door, she stopped. She didn’t know what to do, but it didn’t feel right. An explosion vibrated the city all around her, and Keira fell to the ground. Someone stumbled and fell on her. Keira unsheathed her dagger and held it to the person’s throat.
“Keira?” a voice croaked.
“Brenden? Is that you?” she asked.
The head nodded. Keira removed the dagger from her brother’s throat, and embraced him in a hug.
“Where have you been?” he asked as he hugged her back.
The city was dangerous and Keira was glad to see her brother again. Dozens of scenarios ran through her mind of every possibility of failure.
“Busy.” She dangled the keys in front of him.
“It was supposed to be a quick job. Seduce, grab the keys, and run. You weren’t supposed to stay with the captain all night. We talked about this, Keira … I know you have an addition for affection, but—”
She pressed her index finger against his lips. “You’re right. I have a problem. A weakness. It usually works for my benefit, as it did tonight, but you’re right. I shouldn’t have taken as long.”
“Benefit?”
“I have much better methods from prying the truth from someone than torture. Well … a little bit of torture is involved, but I have this ability to get the truth from someone and know it is the truth. It’s hard to explain.”
Brenden shook his head. “No, I understand. I believe we each have several abilities we excel at. Abilities we both thought were innate, but now we know are magical. I’m good at finding escape routes, ways inside of impossible places, and keeping unseen. You have ways to gather intelligence, find where things are hidden, and sense emotions a person’s emotions and desires from their facial expressions.”
She nodded. He was right. They each had their talents. Everyone assumed they were just talents, but now they knew better. She wondered if Uriah and Mirabelle had always known their talents were actually magical abilities. Anger consumed her as she thought about the two of them. How much harm had those two caused her family? She planned to confront them both, but she wanted to confront the two of them. Mirabelle was just as guilty as Uriah.
“So, what did you find out?”
Keira grinned. “That we’re walking into a trap. Well, we’re supposed to be, but they’re not expecting us for another week. Several of the sorcerers haven’t arrived yet.”
Brenden’s jaw wrinkled. “That’s good to know.”
“What was that explosion?”
Brenden tensed. He got to his feet and looked around. Concern etched his expression as his eyes searched their surroundings. “Where did it come from?”
“The city.”
“Where? Was it from inside the castle?” His hands squeezed her shoulders.
Keira shook her head. “No. It was from deep inside the city. Did Rycroft set explosives in the city as well?”
Brenden shrugged. “Probably. I don’t know. They don’t tell me much. It seems they lied to us about the explosives they gave to Seraphina.”
Keira’s eyes creased together. “What did they lie about?”
“They’re set to go off if we don’t reach her soon.”
“What? Why?”
“They don’t want witnesses if we should fail.”
Keira’s eyes bulged. Anger swelled inside of her. She knew Uriah was a cruel person, but even he surprised her with some of his methods.
“That’s barbaric.” She gulped. “That explosion? You thought it might have been her.”
Brenden nodded.
“Come on, let’s go save her.”
Brenden held out his hand. She took it and he helped her to his feet. His hands turned green, and the color traveled onto her as well.
“What are you doing?”
“This door has a magical barrier. The only way through it is to encase yourself with the same color of magic as it. And it changes every few minutes. When I went inside, it was red … but now it’s green.”
“When you have the time,” Keira said. “You’re going to have to teach me the things you’ve learned.”
He grinned. “I will.”
She squeezed his hand.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Together, they ran through the door.
Once inside, they looked around. It was damp, dark, and silent. The torches radiated darkness, and Keira watched them with fascination. She didn’t imagine Brenden would completely reverse them like that, to not only eliminate the light, but make darkness to block all other light. It was brilliant. And she desperately wanted to know how he did it.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know. They’re probably heading for the vault. We better catch up.”
Brenden didn’t release her hand, but squeezed it tight as he led her deeper into the castle.
42
The crate stopped moving. Seraphina opened her eyes. She didn’t enjoy being toted around in a crate for over an hour. The air was becoming thin, and she was thankful that wood was at least breathable. There hadn’t been much conversation going on outside of the crate, and so she had to make sure to stay as silent as she could.
The dragon demolitions strapped all around her body were annoying, and a bit nerve-racking. She thought the amount of explosives strapped to her was a bit excessive.
Seraphina had questioned Uriah’s judgment on the amount last night, but he’d gotten in her face about it, telling her that he was the leader, and it was all necessary. She knew she was expendable to the Thieves Guild, but she never really felt that way until last night. Her safety was not the primary concern for Uriah.
That was a large part of the reason she sought out Rycroft the night before. She wanted that connection with someone, that intimacy, just in case it was her last night. Seraphina knew she shouldn’t be having such thoughts, but she couldn’t help it. The entire mission seemed like a long-shot, and there was already little chance of them all surviving. But now, she felt the explosives around her waist. It felt less and less likely every second that she would survive.
After waiting for several minutes to make sure the voices were gone, and she could hear the closure of the vault door, she began trying to get out of the crate. All the jewels and hay they stacked on top of her made it harder to escape, but after several minutes of exerting herself, she was able to open the lid. She struggled for several long minutes to escape. Her muscles ached more than ever before.
She looked around the dark room. Crates and barrels were everywhere. More crates than Seraphina had ever seen before. Hundreds, maybe even thousands. Her eyes bulged as she took it all in. It was a thief’s paradise.
Seraphina grabbed the pouch of dragon powder and tossed half it into the air toward the door. She snorted the other half. The dust expanded into the air, and fell to the ground slowly. She saw green lines all around the room that had previously been invisible. She didn’t know what the green lines did.
Whether they would harm her or send an alarm to the sorcerers, she didn’t know. Taking a deep breath, she scanned the rest of the room. She’d used a spell with the dragon powder to fill the entire room and show her any traps. Seraphina saw them everywhere. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
Taking a deep breath, she leapt into the air. Her body rolled in the air, turning horizontal so she could fit through two green, nearly transparent lines. She landed on another crate. Her hands felt around her body, making sure all the explosives were still in tact. The last thing she needed as the transparent green lines cutting into explosives. She bit her lip, looking at the last three crates on the way to the door.
She needed to get it over with. The faster she reached the door, the faster she could be rid of all the explosives around her. She jumped into the air again. Her hair slipped from her bun, and as she rolled horizontally between two more lines. She felt something at her back. Seraphina tensed, hoping not to flinch as she landed. Her breath came back to her when she landed safe on another crate.
She turned around to look at the ground. Her hair, which had once been tied into a bun, lay on the ground in several pieces. She gulped. It answered her question whether the transparent green lines were an alarm or a weapon for defense.
A horn began to blow. It sounded like it came from inside the room, but it echoed as though it traveled through the rest of the castle. Seraphina’s eyes widened. The lines not only damaged whatever touched it, cauterizing it, but it also set off an alarm.
“Great,” Seraphina muttered.
She jumped in the air between the last two green lights to reach the door. Her feet touched the ground, and she exhaled in relief. She put her feet on the ground, then began carefully walking forward, dodging more of the lines that were crisscrossed on the ground.
When she reached the door, she removed all of her explosives, attaching them to every inch of the door. The first thing she wanted to do was feel safe, and having dozens of explosive material wrapped around her body didn’t make her feel safe.
Once she was sure all the explosives were off of her, she turned around to look at the room. Green lines were everywhere. All over the ground, at a
ll angles in the air. Little room was left for error. Yet, she couldn’t stay near the door with all of the explosives. She needed to get as far away from them as she could. Seraphina had her work cut out for her. She also wondered what was hidden in all of the crates and barrels scattered throughout the armory. After all, she was a thief, and she was quite curious what treasures sorcerers had.
She rubbed her hands together, took a deep breath, then leapt into the air. All the firelights inside the room disappeared, extinguished. Darkness filled the area. Seraphina’s eyes widened while she was in the air. She had no idea where the green lines were anymore; she couldn’t see them. And she didn’t know if they had been extinguished as well, or if they were still there, under the darkness.
She landed.
A cold sweat touched the back of her neck. She didn’t know which way was deeper into the vault, and which way was the door. There was only one thing she knew for sure, she definitely wasn’t far enough away from the door to keep from being killed from the blast.
43
Chaos broke out everywhere.
Brenden stumbled, and almost fell, but Keira reached up to catch him. He smiled at her. Even in the little things, she had his back. Brenden loved his sister. She’d been right all along about everything, and he wished he had put more faith in her, more trust. He hated himself for it, but now he knew who he could trust, and his list was short.
Keira.
They continued along the hall, before Brenden made a hard left. Uriah had been right. Brenden had a good memory. He’d only seen the map a few times, but he had it memorized. They had to sneak around a few corners inside of the castle, then head down to the dungeon. He wondered if the dungeon was similar to the nobles, and if the sorcerers held prisoners down there. What kind of prisoners would sorcerers have? Brenden shook his head, attempting to refocus on his objective.
He led them through three more corners. Left. Right. Left. Then he found the passage sloping down. Even though darkness surrounded them, he could see. It was dark to be sure, but his eyes had acclimated to it. He knew he was heading the right direction, but still—what he saw on the ground, turned his stomach.
