The gates remained closed, guarded by four scythe-wielding liches. I might look like one of them, but I’d never pass an in-depth interrogation. I’d need to find another way to get the amulet into their hands.
I began a casual stroll alongside the gates until they merged with the fence circling the castle. Maybe there was a back gate somewhere around the other side, one I hadn’t seen yet. Fewer liches drifted around this area, and I picked up speed, counting on the spindly trees to hide me from sight. Liches could go wherever they liked, so there was no reason for anyone to accost me, in theory, but the army was mostly concentrated around the front of the castle gates.
A lich flitted out from behind a tree, heading straight for me. Quick as a flash, I darted out of sight, holding my breath and hoping the lich had mistaken me for a phantom.
The lich drifted past my hiding place, towards a very human figure heading the other way.
Hang on. I know him.
Even with his hood pulled up, I recognised Brant’s earth mage friend. Vaughn walked furtively towards the lich, his head down and his cloak arranged to conceal his features. What was he doing here? I hadn’t told him my plan. He shouldn’t be on the Death King’s territory.
Damn. He’s working against us.
I held my body still, ears pricked. The lich leaned closer to Vaughn and said, “You know where the spirit mage is.”
“I told you, I don’t,” he said. “She’s too close to Brant. Has too many allies, too.”
My throat went dry. The scumbag. Brant might not know he was working against me, but he wasn’t here. How had the earth mage got past the lich army without being caught? Something didn’t add up. But it couldn’t be more obvious that someone inside the Death King’s ranks was working against their leader.
Vaughn glanced my way, and I squashed my fear, remembering I looked nothing like myself. The Death King needed to know one of his people was a traitor. He needed to know about Vaughn, too, come to that, and while I’d normally hesitate at taking on both of them at once, I had weapons and the element of surprise on my hands.
Roll for initiative…
I made my steps confident as I whipped out from behind the tree, dropping my voice. “What exactly are you two doing?”
Vaughn’s expression said oh, shit, but he jerked his head at the lich. “Deal with that, or else our deal is off.”
The lich advanced on me, his shadowy hands reaching out. “You aren’t one of ours.”
“Surprise, dickhead.” I flung a paralysing cantrip at him. The lich might be indestructible, but he was more solid than he looked. As his body froze into position, Vaughn raised his hands, and the earth split down the middle, quaking beneath my feet until my teeth rattled in my skull. With difficulty, I eased out another cantrip and flicked the switch.
A cantrip bloomed in my hands, creating a beacon of light which speared the overcast sky. Let’s see the Death King overlook that.
“Get her out of here!” the lich hissed.
The ground shook beneath my feet, then a series of cracks split through the swampy earth. The earth mage laughed, grasping my shoulders from behind as the torrent of earth swallowed us up and drew the pair of us into its embrace.
Oh, Elements. Of course that’s how he’d got so close to the castle—by using his earth mage power to tunnel underground. If I let go of him, I’d be crushed to death beneath the collapsing soil, so I clung to him for balance as he steered me through a dark tunnel. After several tense minutes of silence, we emerged from a wall into a room so utterly pitch-black that I couldn’t even see Vaughn beside me. Not until his grip tightened on my arm, dragging me across the earthen floor, and his fingers scraped against my neck. “I’ll take that amulet.”
I tackled him blindly, snatching at empty air. A heavy blow struck me in the chest, knocking the wind from my lungs. My back hit the ground, and the sound of a door slamming reverberated through my ears.
The lights brightened, revealing a darkened cell with a low ceiling. Vaughn stood on the other side of the barred door, a grim smile on his mouth. “I didn’t expect to get the amulet from you without any trouble, but you delivered it into my hands. I’m grateful.”
“I’ll give you trouble,” I spat. “Where the hell is Brant?”
“At home where he belongs,” he said. “He’s amazingly naive when it comes to his allies. Then again, I can say the same about you.”
Raw anger exploded in my chest. “I always thought you were a scumbag. What’s in it for you, then? Aren’t you concerned the Death King will rip out your soul?”
“It’s his own soul he needs to worry about, as well you know,” he said.
“I don’t think so.” I reached for a cantrip. “You left me armed. Are you that confident I’ll stay put?”
“Considering these cells are made to contain even an earth mage?” he said. “Yes, I am.”
My cantrip fizzled out on contact with the jail door. Damn him. “If you’d wanted me to stay out of the way, then you could have just sent me home, not set me up to take the fall for your crimes.”
“To be frank, you’re too dangerous to leave to your own devices,” he said. “I don’t think you have an inkling of how valuable you are… though you can thank the Order for that.”
“What the hell do you mean?” I leaned against the bars, hungry for answers, but he simply turned his back on me and walked out of the room. Leaving me in the darkness.
I’m in trouble now. The enemy, the soul thief… he knew about Dirk Alban. He knew I’d lost my memories. For all I knew, he’d been a part of my history, too. And yet it was Vaughn whose name I cursed as I felt around the edges of the cage for a way out. None came. The tunnel in the wall had sealed itself, and besides, only an earth mage could travel out that way. I was stuck.
“Dex,” I whispered. “Now would be a really great time to show up.”
He usually found his way to me of his own accord, but I’d travelled through the depths of the earth to get here and I hadn’t the faintest idea what lay aboveground. It wasn’t like he could fly along the same route to find me, unlike the nodes…
Hang on. The nodes. Could I sense them from here? Maybe. If I was a real spirit mage, I ought to be able to find them… and I also shouldn’t need to be near a node to astral project.
I sat down on the cold floor and concentrated hard. At first, cold silence answered, but in the background lay an ever-present humming sound which indicated the magic present in the atmosphere here in the Parallel. Whatever the spirit mages had done to create this realm, they’d brought almost all of Earth’s magic over here with them. Even here, I could sense it.
Tingles ran through my hands, then a burst of light sprang to the corner of my vision. West of here, there was a node. But I didn’t have a clue what to do with that information, considering I couldn’t get there unless I astral projected. Which I’d never done consciously before, much less while in an underground cell.
First time for everything. I remained still, focusing on the humming sensation until I could almost feel it beneath my skin, and imagined I stood in the middle of a node, its current running through my veins like wildfire. With one step, I slid out of my body as though immersing myself in cool water. Now that was more like it.
I floated through the locked door of the cell then upwards, through the shelf of earth above my head and into an unfamiliar street. So the earth mage had brought me out of the swamp altogether and into a hidden base beneath the city’s streets. That ought to mean I could find the way in, but first, I needed backup.
“Where are you, Dex?” I muttered. He’d picked a fine time to disappear. Unless the liches had caught him, but surely I’d have seen a trace of him on the Death King’s territory if they had. They could damage spirits as easily as living beings…
Wait. Dex and I had one thing in common: we could travel anywhere, in and out of the nodes. I floated above the warehouses and spotted a flash of fiery light nearby.
“Dex.” I
floated closer to the transparent fiery shape in the sky. “Hey—Dex.”
He wheeled around in mid-air. “Liv? You’re floating again.”
“Yeah. It’s me. I could really use some help.” I glanced down. “My body’s stuck underground somewhere. Vaughn captured me and locked me in a cell. Tell Brant, won’t you? Tell him to come and find me.”
“What in blazes and tides have you done?” He shook his head at me. “Tell him to come where?”
“There.” I pointed vaguely down. “It’s an underground lair, but there’s got to be a way in from the surface. I’ll find it—"
A chill shot through my limbs, and I lurched upright, back in my body again. The cell bars brushed against my arm as I caught my balance, and darkness blanketed the room. Not natural dark. A lich was outside my cell.
Oh, hell.
My blood froze, my body locking to the spot at the sight of the same lich who’d met with Vaughn earlier. I wouldn’t have been able to see him at all if not for the cold malevolence radiating outwards from his presence.
“You picked the wrong side, mate,” I told the darkness. “I’m guessing you’re the one who stole the Death King’s soul and smuggled it out of the castle?”
My heart drummed against my ribcage. Cold sweat slicked my forehead. Now would be a really good time to show up, Brant. Too bad Dex had to find him first, and then he had to find the way in here. All I could do was stall until then.
“If you assume you’re going to survive this, Olivia, you’re wrong.” The lich’s breath made the chill air even colder.
“So you’re going to taunt me until I die?” I said. “Why are you people so obsessed with me?”
“You really don’t remember a thing.” The lich’s voice whispered over the back of my neck. “You’ll die along with our false King, in the darkness. Alone.”
“Not alone.” Come on, Dex. He couldn’t be too far off, and Brant must know his mate’s favoured haunts.
“I beg to differ.” The lich’s head tilted. “You called someone.”
A few seconds later, shouting came from outside, followed by a burst of flames that lit up the whole room.
Brant. Thank the Elements.
Light flooded the cell, and Dex flew into the room, a bolt of fire aimed at my attacker. Brant, meanwhile, ran straight to the locked door of my cell. Dex zipped around the lich’s face, diverting his attention as Brant worked on the lock.
“Brant, where’s your traitorous rat of a friend?”
“I don’t know.” The door opened and he pulled me out, into his arms. “I’m sorry, Liv.”
Coldness brushed against my spine, and the lich loomed over me, a cold shadow masking the light. Brant swore and released a burst of fire at the lich, and he glided back out of range of the flames. Brant grabbed my hand and pulled me after him out of the room. Using the light of the fire to see by, we ran out into a gloomy corridor.
“He’s not dead,” I told Brant. “Liches can get up after anything, even being set on fire.”
“I’m more concerned with that shithead Vaughn,” he said. “I should have known there was a reason he took such an interest in you. I’m glad your fire spirit friend found me.”
“And there I thought you were avoiding me,” I said to Dex, who pouted.
“I can’t be expected to follow you on all your madcap schemes.”
“But the amulet.” I swore. “He has it. And that lich… he’s working right under the Death King’s nose, and I bet he’s the one who smuggled the amulet out of his castle and gave it to that water mage. I have to warn him.”
“One thing at a time,” said Dex. “And I vote for getting out.”
“Not without the amulet.” Which meant facing off against the bastard of an earth mage who’d betrayed us all. “Where’s he hiding?”
“Not down here,” Brant said. “There’s nothing in here but your cell.”
“Ah, hell.” The corridor came to an end in a narrow staircase that led up to the surface. The earth mage had gone, taking the amulet along with him.
15
Brant and I followed the staircase up to the surface and emerged into an alley among the warehouses. We looked around the area, but there were no signs left behind of our traitorous backstabbing friend or the amulet he’d stolen.
“He ran off,” said Brant. “Didn’t want to face me after what he did, no doubt.”
“Hey, I’m the one he screwed over.” I walked ahead of him, my fury spiking. “You need to pick your friends better. I guess he thought the soul thief made a better offer.”
Brant shot me a concerned look, his mouth pinching. “I didn’t know. It’s lucky I did know where his underground hideouts in the city are.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “He’s the one who told you he knew someone who could get my memories back. You told him my history.”
He looked stricken. “Of course I didn’t.”
“Why’d you trust him?” I was lashing out at the nearest target and I knew it, but my rage crested like a tidal wave, sweeping up everything in his path. “Were you so desperate to save your own soul that you willingly allied with someone as bad as that dickhead soul thief?”
“No, of course not,” he insisted. “We’ve known one another for years. His soul is on the line, too, and he probably figured that handing over the amulet to the enemy was the only way to save his own skin.”
My rage broke like the wave breaking onto the shore. “That’s why you’re so intent on me learning to use spirit magic again, aren’t you? You’re hoping that when it comes down to it, I’ll save your soul.”
He opened his mouth to argue, then stiffened, pointing mutely ahead. I rotated on my heel to see a large number of shadowy forms spreading throughout the streets. Don’t tell me the liches are out to play. Of all the times not to have the amulet on me. Not that it would do any good if I did. The Death King’s soldiers had seeped into the streets, some on horseback, some on foot, all on the lookout for the thief. They wouldn’t spare anyone who got in their way, and they wouldn’t stop to listen.
“We have to find a node,” I breathed.
Running away was hardly ideal, but neither was being captured by an army of liches. Even if they brought me straight to the Death King, he’d never listen to me before ripping out my soul.
Backing down the alley, I made my way towards the nearest node. As I reached it, a lich crossed my path, and my breath stuck in my throat when the creature’s sightless face looked right at me.
“You,” said the lich, gliding across the ground. “You look familiar.”
“Wrong person,” I said. “I’m here on Order business. Just heading to the node.”
I turned away, my heart thudding, and walked towards the node. As I did so, someone called out, “Olivia?”
I wheeled around, spotting Judith French and a female friend of hers I didn’t know. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” said Judith. “Mr Cobb wants to see you.”
“He does?”
He’s the traitor. It has to be a trap. On the other hand, how else was I supposed to get past the liches and through the node without the Death King’s army hauling me back to their master? If I went back to the Order, I might at least be able to plead my case before I was sentenced to death.
Brant put a hand on my arm. “Don’t go with them.”
“I doubt I have a choice,” I said in an undertone. “It’s them or the liches.”
If I went with the Order’s underlings, I’d at least have some measure of protection against them. Brant wasn’t a suspect, so they wouldn’t have reason to harm him.
Backing away from the lich, I made my way over to the node. Relief warred with guilt inside me. I couldn’t do a thing for the amulet now, but that didn’t change the fact that I’d let it fall into the hands of the enemy when I’d been intending to return it to its owner. Even if said owner was proving to be a major thorn in my side.
The two Orde
r employees fell into step on either side of me, and we passed through the node, landing just down the street from the Order’s headquarters. The thunder of heavy traffic filled the background as the ordinary people carried on with their lives, oblivious to the magical battleground beneath their feet. At times like this, I understood why the Elements had sought to establish their own magical community a literal world apart from the rest of humanity. I shuddered to think of what someone like the Death King would do if given power over ordinary people without an ounce of magic of their own to defend themselves with.
We entered the Order’s main office without being challenged. Judith stopped walking, nodding towards the back row of offices. “Mr Cobb’s waiting to talk to you.”
All right. Now all I had to do was bluff my way through a confrontation with a suspected traitor without winding up arrested. No big deal. I’d accuse him of treachery if I didn’t know it’d land me in deeper shit, but if he wanted to talk to me alone, maybe he’d give away something that might give me an edge over him.
I halted outside his office door, spotting a shadow against the wall which indicated he wasn’t alone in the room. Someone else stood there, blocking the view of his desk, and it was too late to back off. The door swung inwards as the second person held it open for me to walk into the office.
The Death King.
I almost didn’t recognise him at first. His hood was down, his mask off, and a human face looked at me, an oddly handsome one with angular cheekbones and rumpled dark hair. Had to be an illusion spell. Everyone knew the King of Death had no real face, and that he’d given up his body along with his mortality. He put on a show when he met with the Order, evidently. Or borrowed someone else’s face—and hands, too. He was still holding the door open as I gaped at him, unable to believe my rotten luck. I hadn’t reckoned on him being here, in the same room as the person I suspected of being the Order’s insider.
Thief of Souls Page 15
