by Mark Albany
Djinn Unleashed
The Elven-Trinity Book 1
Mark Albany
Mark Albany
Copyrighted Material.
DJINN UNLEASHED Copyright (c) 2018 by Mark Albany. Book design and layout copyright (c) 2018 by Mark Albany. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are product’s of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from Mark Albany.
Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Foreword
I hope you enjoy this book. It is strictly for adults, but if you are 18+ and enjoy the read, come join me and two other authors in our Facebook group, HAREM NATION.
We look forward to discussing our books with you!
1
A shudder ran down my spine. I knew my imagination made everything so much worse than reality actually was, but in my mind, there wasn’t much that could be worse than having spiders running up and down my back. It was probably dust bunnies, I told myself, dropping from the ceiling. I knew for a fact that nobody had been all the way up here with a duster since last winter.
I froze, feeling something tickling its way down my back, under my shirt. Dust bunnies didn’t crawl across skin like that. I felt the need to shout and slap until there was nothing but mush where that damn spider was. Thoughts of the different species flashed through my mind. White ghost spiders could kill a man with a bite. A couple of red spiders could leave me with a nasty infection and fever for weeks.
Odd how all that seemed to fade when I realized what would happen to me if I was caught up here. Death or fever were nothing compared to what would happen if Master Vis found me sneaking around in the rafters of the manor.
All of it was enough to make me wonder just what the fuck I was doing up here in the first place. What did I stand to gain, even if I wasn’t caught?
I was looking for something to help me in my training, but if I was discovered, it would all have been for nothing.
I lowered myself from the rafters, careful to slow my descent so as not to be heard. My soft shoes made barely a whisper over the flagstones. I quickly pushed my hand down over the area where there was still something tickling my back, breathing a sigh of relief when I realized it was just a trickle of sweat.
I stepped lightly, keeping my center of gravity low to the ground as I moved closer to the door. I could hear voices inside. I should have been more afraid than I was, but at this point, I was more afraid of what would happen if I didn’t do this.
Evening rituals were rare. Well, not so much rare as difficult to find. There was a good deal of taboo that still surrounded magic, thanks to the history of abuse, but that very history was what made it so very popular with the few who could withstand the public scorn if they practiced it.
I gritted my teeth, freezing in place when I heard the sound of heavy boots outside. Master Vis’ manor, where I resided, wasn’t that far away from the guardhouse that provided security not only for the capital, Ozryn, but for the rest of the empire as well. Discovery here would end poorly for me.
I need to be more cautious, I thought, crouching as I moved closer. My soft, calfskin shoes made little noise over the stones. My breathing was the loudest noise to be heard until I got closer to the open arch, which led to Master Vis’ chambers. I pressed against the marble walls, making myself as invisible as possible before peeking around the corner.
Master Vis was there, dressed in black and red silk. Odd, all things considered. He hated flowing robes. He always said they made him look fat. Considering that the man always looked painfully thin, I had no idea what he was even talking about, but there were certain vanities that could not be judged from man to man.
My eyes immediately flickered over to the two women with him. Both had the look of ladies of note, judging from the way that their long, red locks were styled, elegantly brushed and held up by silver and gold wire. That and the paint on their faces were all I had to go on, as they were otherwise naked. Full, heavy breasts, toned stomachs and supple legs were all I could see as they moved around Master Vis. I couldn’t hear what they were saying as they whispered in his ear, but the intonation was clear, as well as the man’s reaction.
He grinned, the small, fine wrinkles around his mouth disappearing as he leaned in and kissed one woman’s neck gently. She giggled, mock-slapping his face as the other woman grinned, moving over to the bed in the center of the room. The first woman joined her as Vis moved over to them. I couldn’t imagine that this was how rituals were conducted. There had been images in my mind of pasty old men in long robes chanting ominously. I couldn’t have imagined something further from the truth.
Vis stood over the women, who lay prone on their backs. His hands moved over them, a foot or so above their naked bodies as he started chanting something in a deep, almost unnatural voice. I’d heard him speak that way before. He was a spellcaster, whose power lay in the spoken word. The man had more than a few books devoted to the craft. I’d always been interested, but as a familiar, it had never been my place to learn more than the rudimentary details. I was a focusing point for Vis’ magic.
While I was far from the best familiar, I wasn’t the only one in Master Vis’ employ either. Which begged the question of why the man was choosing not to conduct this ritual with any of his available familiars. I suspected that the answer lay with the women over whom he was performing the incantation. They were nobles, who would have demanded as few witnesses as possible.
As Vis continued his incantations, I could see bright marks starting to show on the women’s skin. They started out as bright spots, but slowly started taking the form of runes. I narrowed my eyes, unable to make out what the runes were supposed to represent. Then again, my training in that area had been lacking at best.
I saw an aura starting to build around Vis. What little I did know was that the more power he took into himself, the faster he needed to expend it, lest it start to build up an excess. There were conflicting stories about what happened if the amount of power reached a critical point, since most mages used familiars to transfer the power to if things got too hot.
In this case, quite literally, I realized as the silk robes Vis was wearing started to smoke. The man gritted his teeth as he tried to quickly finish the incantation before his clothing caught on fire.
He didn’t have enough time. A sleeve burst into flame. Vis jumped back, shouting a curse as he pulled away. The marks on the women’s bodies immediately started to retreat and disappear as the women sat up from their prone positions, looking more disappointed than concerned as Vis rushed out of the room, trying to douse the flames.
He was running in my direction. I had barely a moment to pull away from the arch before he rushed through it, more preoccupied with the burning sleeve than with paying attention to his surroundings.
He stepped into the darkened room I was hiding in, pulling the ruined sleeve off with a
growl as he cradled his burned arm. I could see that the flame hadn’t done as much damage as I had feared. I suspected that his ego took the brunt of the damage.
“Should have brought a fucking familiar.” Vis stared, then whispered a few words of power to cool his arm off.
This was my chance. Distracted as he was, I could make an escape and move away into the shadows.
“Grantham?” I heard him say as I turned away. The sound of his voice was the last thing I wanted to hear, especially saying my name. There was no escaping, no running away.
And from the sound of it, he wasn’t too pleased to see me.
“I…” I gasped, trying to work up a response, “I thought you might have needed a… needed a familiar for your ritual?”
“What?” Vis hissed, moving in closer to me. He gripped my shoulder, spinning me around.
“You… you needed a familiar?” I repeated. I had no illusions that my claim would help me escape punishment for snooping, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Were you spying on me?” he asked, putting a hand on my forehead. I closed my eyes, trying to fight back a panicked sob. Vis had ways of getting to the truth of a matter without torture. Well, physical torture anyways. I remembered the day he had demonstrated that to the rest of the familiars, using me as example.
It had felt like a thousand needles digging into my skull. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “I would never spy on you!” I cried softly. “I swear.”
He pushed me to my knees, leaving his hand on my temple. I wasn’t sure if he had already started the spell or not, but he quickly pulled his hand away, chuckling.
“No, I don’t believe you would,” Vis said, shaking his head. “Even so, you should not have been here. Come with me, and we shall decide on a punishment for your actions.”
I looked around the dark cellar, which was lit with only a couple of candles. The dank room had walls made of rough rock.
“I was not spying on you, Master Vis,” I whispered again, once he finished putting a listening ward on the door and turned back to me.
“I believe you,” Vis said softly, inspecting his burnt arm.
“Then, what…?” I couldn’t shake the feeling of terror that was starting to soak through me.
“I will not punish you, boy,” Vis said, smiling and patting my cheek gently. I was a good foot taller than he was, and yet I still felt like he towered over me the same way he had when I was a child.
“Why?” I asked, not believing my good luck and unable to keep from voicing the first thought that came to mind.
“Because I have a job for you,” Vis said softly. “It will be risky, but I believe you can handle it. While your skills in my craft are lacking, I know you have what it takes to see this task to completion. It will be different from what you have been taught your whole life, but I believe that to be a boon rather than a curse in this instance. Get it done, and we’ll both reap the benefits.”
I nodded. While in the immediate future, this was better than spending the night having Vis practice his spells on me, I couldn’t imagine that whatever this task was would be easy. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice, though.
I ground my teeth and nodded. Vis had many ambitions, most of which he wasn’t very likely to achieve considering his low rank even among the nobility, but if there was one thing I knew, there wasn’t much that Vis wouldn’t do to advance those positions.
The only problem was, it seemed like now I would be the one doing those things instead.
2
I’d been asked to steal for Vis before. The man had little in the way of scruples and seemed more than happy to encourage his low morals in those under his command. I had average looks and a build that made me more or less invisible anywhere but the Slums, and that, added to my lack of natural ability, made me the best choice for doing Vis’ dirty work.
No, that wasn’t fair, I thought as I made my way toward the palace. When my parents died, Vis had been the one to take me in, teach and feed me, and put a roof over my head. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have ended up in the Slums, which as things were at the moment, were by far the worse option. I could do a little stealing and tolerate a little abuse if it meant staying away from the areas of the city cordoned off for the poorest of the poor.
Then again, I was breaking into a noble’s house this time. Nobles had connections to mages much more powerful than Master Vis, and if the man himself was any indication, getting caught would result in a fate much worse than anything I would find in the manor I called home.
“Just… don’t get caught,” Vis had said as he laid out his plans. We’d looked them over by candlelight in that dark, dank cellar.
He had put together a surprising amount of intelligence on the house he wanted me to break into. I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. Vis was no moron, and certainly knew how to do his research. Even so, I wasn’t sure if these plans and details had come from him. It all seemed rushed since less than an hour after being caught, I was ushered off the manor’s premises with the hope that I had memorized everything I needed to know before heading out.
Vis had seemed flustered. I’d never seen him like that. Even among other nobles, he had always seemed witty, calm, and in control. Whether it was because of his failed ritual before or something else entirely, something had my master on edge, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I brought my mind back to the present. I had always made a point of memorizing the movements of the guards in the area. Mostly just to pass the time, but also a useful mental exercise, as I had grown used to Vis using me for this kind of work. Knowing when the men in red and gold uniforms were making their rounds was probably why I had survived this long.
Small things always added up to big figures, I remembered reading somewhere. Had it been in the ‘Tale of the Sisters Three’? It was possible. Too much time had passed since I had been allowed free rein of the manor’s library. Ever since I had tried to sneak into the section that contained the books on words of power, I wasn’t allowed in there without a chaperone.
I took a deep breath, pausing behind a pillar as I counted down the seconds until the guards’ next pass. These weren’t the kind that patrolled the lesser areas of the city. Even the houses of the nobles were protected by the Emperor’s Lancers, men of high training and discipline. They wouldn’t dawdle or distract themselves with conversation. It made sneaking around them difficult, but it also meant that they made their rounds at the same time each and every night, without fail.
Right on time, two men moved around the corner of the house. Their armor gleamed like it was cleaned and polished every day, and they marched in time with each other, never a step off beat as they came across the road. I sidled around the column in front of Lord Drake Pollock’s manse, keeping to the shadows as they passed, listening as their heavy boots crashed onto the cobbles, moving further and further away.
I pulled a smooth pebble from my pocket once they were far enough away from the entrance that I didn’t have to worry about them seeing me as I vaulted over the low wall that encircled Pollock’s house. I liked keeping the small rocks I found at the edge of Kaesor’s Lake, the smooth, pretty ones. I liked the look and feel of them, especially the way they felt warm even if left outside on a chilly night.
More importantly, though, I liked them for their weight, and how easy they were to aim and throw. It was odd how often that ended up being useful.
I hefted the pebble in my hand, staying low to avoid being seen by the guards who were patrolling the grounds. These would be mercenaries, former soldiers in need of coin and lacking in the discipline of the Lancers, but still formidable for an eighteen-year-old familiar. I needed them distracted and very far away as I made my entrance.
I peeked over the wall. One of the hanging lanterns was close enough for me to hit with my stone, but not so close it would draw their attention to my hiding spot. I drew my hand back and flicked it forward, using my fingers to spin the flat peb
ble as it arced through the air.
There was a moment of satisfaction as I saw it strike the lantern hard enough to break the ceramic, spilling the oil over the grass on the ground, as well as the still-lit wick.
The fire that resulted hadn’t been what I had in mind, but it caused shouting and general pandemonium as the oil-soaked grass caught fire.
Nobody was looking as I smoothly vaulted the low wall, taking care to hide myself in the bushes and crawling over the ground to reach the house itself. Thanks to the fire starting to spread, I had no trouble finding a door left open to slip into the building. My clothes were standard for servants of this area, the bland, grey robes that made sure the people remained invisible to those they served.
I picked up a bucket that was left behind by one of the others and jogged quickly into the manse, following the routes I’d memorized from Vis’ papers, which guided me through the maze that was Pollock’s house. It was massive, much more luxurious than Vis’ manor, and more difficult to navigate, especially as I was masquerading as a servant who was supposed to be helping fight the fire outside.
Sure, starting a fire hadn’t been my intention, but it didn’t look like it was causing too much damage. It was more of a nuisance to the servants and guards than anything else. I tossed the bucket I had been carrying as a disguise aside as I found the entrance to the basement.
Vis hadn’t specified what this parchment I was supposed to steal even did. It was an artifact of magical importance, but more than just something to be looked at and admired. It was an item of power, that much was sure. I was certain that Vis would make sure to keep me out of the loop once the item was retrieved.
