by Mark Albany
But this was something different. There seemed to be two options in my mind. Either she was only acting this way because I was the one who owned the ring and she saw me as some kind of master over her, or she was trying to gain an advantage that would leave me in a coffin like the woman behind me.
I gently pushed her arm to the side and moved out from between her and the pedestal, shaking my head.
“I think we need to move,” I said, my voice sounding hoarse and throaty. “There have to be people still patrolling or watching this place. It’s not smart to stay here if we don’t have to.”
It was hard to tell in the meagre light, but there was a crestfallen appearance to her face as she nodded, reaching into the coffin and quickly pulling a pouch from the dead woman’s waist.
“Then we should go,” Aliana said, forcing a smile.
8
It was nice to be with someone who had at least a middling sense of direction. The last time I was here, I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to make it out. The place was a damned maze that had apparently been built long ago and added onto for centuries, as it went on and on. And yet, Aliana seemed to know her way through these abandoned tunnels, making for a much smoother go of it.
She took the lead, winding us through the narrow corridors and hallways. I didn’t want to ask her why we weren’t teleporting away. If the thought just hadn’t occurred to her, maybe my bringing it up would put it in her mind again and I’d have to deal with even more of the pain that was still making my head pound like a drum.
All that said, I couldn’t help heaving a sigh of relief as we stepped out of the tunnels, leaving the musky, damp air behind, with a fuller, fresher, if slightly warmer replacement filling our lungs.
“Not keen on tunnels, are you?” Aliana asked with a chuckle.
“Not really,” I admitted. “Though that might be because I was almost carried away for torture and death the last time I was here. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
Aliana smirked, but her smile quickly disappeared. I could tell why only a few seconds later, as the sound of heavy boots tromping over dried leaves and fallen branches could be heard, approaching us from all sides.
“How could they know we’re here?” I wondered aloud, already knowing the answer. Wards had been set to keep away intruders, and when Aliana teleported us in, it must have triggered some sort of warning to the men set to guard the place. When we exited the tunnels, they knew where we were and approached with caution.
“Hey now, I know you,” I heard a familiar voice say as its owner stepped out of the shadows. Kruger’s face was a hard one to forget even in the most pleasant of circumstances. As it stood between us, the looming moonlight filtering through the trees and stone archway made it difficult not to remember the last time we’d seen each other.
I turned to see Aliana wasn’t beside me anymore. I gritted my teeth in protest. If there was ever a time to transport me against my will, this was it, and now was when she decided to part ways? I remembered what she said about not killing her previous owner and wondered if this was her way of not preventing my death.
It made sense. I’d want out from under my figurative heel as well.
“We’ve got you this time, you thieving little twerp,” Kruger said as five more men slipped out from the underbrush, all looking rather hostile, like they were about to redecorate the abandoned ruins with my insides.
Kruger looked like he was going to get the first try as he started moving forward. My mind was working at an impossible pace, making it seem like the heavy, lead-weighted cudgel he was carrying moved slowly toward my skull. There were too many of them to evade. I’d only gotten away the last time by the element of surprise and more than a little luck, which wasn’t going to be playing in my favor now. They could all see me and were otherwise unimpeded in reaching me. I could avoid Kruger and maybe one or two more, but the rest would swarm me before I could make it to the woods and that would be the end of it.
I realized that as I overanalyzed the situation, Kruger’s cudgel hadn’t stopped moving and was approaching my head with alarming speed. Even as I thought about that, I froze. My brains being spread across the stones around me was a very compelling image in my mind’s eye, and yet it failed to move me to action. It was all going to end badly anyway. Why should I prolong the suffering? At least this way, I wouldn’t be tortured into revealing that Vis was the mastermind behind all this.
I forced myself to keep my eyes open as I watched the top-heavy cudgel sailing toward my unprotected head. My eyes opened wider when the weapon suddenly stopped in midair. Kruger looked almost as stupefied as I was, as we turned in unison to see what had stopped him. There was a hand gripping it. A woman’s hand.
Well, not really a woman, a small, annoying part of my mind corrected as I saw Aliana standing there. Her face was filled with a fury that I thought looked very foreign on her as she twisted the cudgel back around, taking the power of it away from Kruger, who had very little to say as she hammered it into his gut then tilted it up, crunching the top-heavy weapon into his face. The force of the blow knocked him clean off his feet, leaving him facing the sky and groaning softly in pain, his mouth and nose both broken and leaking blood.
The surprise faded from the other five, who quickly hefted their weapons. None had a sword, since their jobs never called for it, but clubs and maces were produced as they collectively roared in defiance of the winged, horned woman in front of them.
As the world slowly came back into full motion, there was a part of me that really wanted to admire what I was watching. I had spent hundreds of hours being taught how to fight, how to evade, and how to win, but it all seemed so pointless, watching her go through the motions of combat. She looked like she was dancing, even as she stole a weapon from the man in front of her and turned it on him, hitting him with it again and again until he stumbled back, spitting blood and teeth.
It was beautiful and horrifying at the same time. I wondered at how easy it was to consolidate the two. There was a part of me that wanted to help. Even with the wings and the horns there was something about her that brought my mind to protecting her, keeping her from harm.
Then again, I realized that I never needed to worry. She could take care of herself, and she could do it a hell of a lot better than I could. As it turned out, she was the one protecting me from harm.
I could handle myself, of course. I hadn’t spent years being taught how to evade and fight back for nothing, after all. That said, six battle-hardened mercenaries with clubs were beyond anything I could do.
Not beyond anything she could do, apparently, as the last man dropped to the ground with a crunch of broken bones. There was a flicker as steel caught and reflected the light of the moon and stars as Aliana produced a knife. It looked intricate and beautifully crafted, so it clearly wasn’t something she’d picked up off the downed men in front of her.
I opened my mouth to ask her to stop, but hesitation struck me like a blow to the stomach. Did I want her to stop? What had they done to deserve having their lives spared?
I blinked as her blade quickly rose and fell, opening a long and very lethal wound on the man’s neck. He coughed, choked and dropped back to the ground, clutching futilely at the wound, but quickly lost focus on the task as he bled out in seconds.
A few of the men rose from the beautiful beating that had just been laid on them. I couldn’t tell if it was to continue the fight or run away. It didn’t really matter, since Aliana was on them, a flurry of wings and knives. Blood dribbled from heavy wounds as the three remaining men dropped to their knees, grunting and screaming in pain.
I didn’t realize how dry my eyes were from staring with mouth-gaping awe at what I’d just seen, trying to understand it. Her blade was dripping red gore, but there was only a splatter of it on her cheek, which she quickly cleaned with an annoyed huff.
“Are you all right?” she asked, beaming with pride as she offered me her hand. I wondered why for a moment
before seeing that I’d dropped down onto the flagstones in shock.
“Are you?” I whispered incredulously, blinking a few times and snapping my jaw shut. “What did you just do?”
“I saved your life?” she answered, sounding confused. “You see this as a good thing, yes? Because I could have just let him crack your skull open with that primitive weapon of his.”
“Well, yes, all fine and good,” I said, trying not to stammer, suddenly feeling a very reasonable terror regarding the woman in front of me. I took her hand and she pulled me to my feet in a smooth motion.
“You sound less than satisfied, though,” she said softly, tilting her head in inquiry. “What’s the matter?”
“You just killed them,” I whispered. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“I told you I fought in a war, Grant,” she said, still eyeing me curiously. “You know I was no shieldmaiden or nurse. What did you think I did?”
She had a point, but I still had a lot of unprocessed emotion to deal with.
“Why did you kill them?” I asked.
“Because they were trying to kill you,” Aliana replied, starting to sound more annoyed than confused now.
“Well, yes,” I huffed. “But you could have left them disarmed, unable to keep us from escaping. Now you have just added murder to the crimes the Official will be laying at my feet. I’m a dead man. So fucking dead.”
“You should know there were deaths when I got you out of here the first time,” Aliana said softly. “Or did you think I would allow those… Lancers, did you call them? Did you think I would have allowed them to take word back to your Official about my part in all this?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but again, she made a good point. I could only imagine the kind of destruction that would be raining down if the Official, and the Emperor in turn, found that there was a djinn living among them.
Aliana rolled her eyes and dropped to the ground, wiping her blade clean on Kruger’s sleeve.
“I’m not some evil demon in need of death or destruction, Grant,” she said quietly, not looking me in the eye as she spoke. “I’ll just do anything to keep you alive. Anything to protect you, now that you hold my ring. Besides…” she added with a small smirk, “I’d rather you not die before we have a chance to be intimate.”
“You think now is the best time to proposition me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Right now?”
She shrugged. “It’s part of my nature. And something you might want to get used to if we spend more time together.”
Any other time, any other place, and I would have been open to getting used to Aliana making advances toward me. That said, I had just watched her massacre a gauntlet of mercenaries requiring very few weapons and no armor. She didn’t even need clothes, I realized. Not much of them, at least.
Once she was finished cleaning her blade, she looked up at me with an odd, indecipherable expression before searching through Kruger’s clothes, pulling out a small pouch that jingled like it had coins in it. She tossed it to me, not even looking up to see if I’d caught it before moving on to the others. More coins and small trinkets presented themselves, but nothing of true value until Aliana squeaked excitedly. It was a sound I’d never heard from her before, and likely never would again.
It was enough to draw my attention, though. As I moved closer, I could see her polishing what looked like a small glass globe, about the size of an apple. As trinkets went it was actually one of the nicer ones, and judging by Aliana’s excitement, she seemed to think it wasn’t just some bauble.
She held it up for me to see. “It’s a looking orb. Well, it could be, if I can get it to work again. Lost in the hands of some brute, it might have inherited some of his dullard attitudes and become useless… come on… there we go!” She grinned broadly as the glass inside the orb started to swirl, giving the impression that it was full of tiny stars.
“Show me Norel,” she whispered. I could see runes rising from her arms as she ran her fingers over the glass. The stars began spinning at a faster speed and continued accelerating until they were all blurred together. As they did, a shape started to form. It was just a face at first. As the stars started spinning faster, colors and a background started to form. The face was of a woman with features similar to Aliana’s, talking with someone else. A noble, by the look of his robes. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the confused look on Aliana’s face, I could tell that she could.
“That’s the guard building,” I said as I continued watching.
“How do you know?” Aliana asked, not looking up from the orb.
“Suffice it to say that I’ve been inside it before,” I said softly, not wanting to get into the details of what I’d done for Vis when I’d found my way inside the guardhouse. “She’s talking with Lord Kallaghen, one of the Emperor’s advisors.”
“I don’t believe her,” Aliana said. “She’s acting as a noble and seems to be mixed up in the politics of this realm. Damn her.”
“Oh, shit.” I dropped down next to Aliana on the ground, not caring overmuch that there was blood starting to seep into my clothes. “What you’re telling me is that your sister is a noblewoman, and one of pretty high standing from the looks of things. And to find her, we’ll have to either get into the guard building or track her down at home, all while evading Master Vis, Pollock, and the Official. Have I missed anything?”
Aliana turned to me, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head. “As I saw it, your master is something of a lesser noble, a new addition to the gentry, but he seems like he might be able to help us track my sister down. We can use his connections to help find her. In addition, we can take advantage of that and keep an eye on what Pollock and the Official are conspiring.”
I nodded. “After all this, we’re just heading back to the manor and hoping Vis hasn’t noticed that I left?”
“Well, as I understand it, he’s either still on his knees outside the building or otherwise occupied,” Aliana said with a smile. “I think he has more important things on his mind than to keep track of one of his familiars.”
“Good point,” I conceded. “Though… what happens if the guards find out we’re responsible for what happened here?”
Aliana smiled, shaking her head. “If you know me by now, you should know that there is no way for a human to discover a djinn’s fresh kill.”
“I’m finding that there are more things to discover about you by the hour,” I said with a chuckle. “I don’t feel like walking all the way back to the manor.”
“Say no more,” Aliana grinned, standing up and tucking her knife and the orb into her clothes, though I wasn’t sure where, as there didn’t seem to be any space for that kind of storage. Either way, I had little time to investigate as she gripped both my hands. In the blink of an eye, I found myself being dragged through what felt like a minuscule hole. It was difficult to explain, but there was a twisting, twirling sensation that knocked the breath out of me. I couldn’t inhale for the duration and found myself coughing and choking once we came out of it.
There were no lights, but the comfortable and familiar surroundings quickly told me that we were back in my room. I opened my mouth to say something foul but realized that Aliana was nowhere to be seen. She’d arrived in the room. I knew that much, having heard her walking around the room, but now she had slipped into the ring, I supposed? I wasn’t entirely sure how she managed it.
After a few seconds of listening, I realized there was someone bounding up the steps to my room. She had clearly heard it and slipped away, out of sight. I would have to ask her if it was because djinn just had better hearing, or some other magical reason.
It didn’t matter for the moment, however. I quickly found myself drawn to my feet as the door burst open. Even in the dim light, I could see Master Vis standing there. He’d just come from brighter surroundings so it took him a moment to find me in the darkness, but once he did, he grabbed me by the collar.
“You need to
come with me, now.” He sounded anxious and upset, displaying the same flustered qualities that had made me wonder what was bothering him before, in much greater scale.
I nodded, quickly following in his footsteps as he released my shirt collar. He hadn’t noticed the red that had soaked into my grey robes, or if he had, he made no mention of it as we started heading toward the mansion at full speed.
9
I felt stupid for following Vis so blindly and without asking any questions. I doubted that they would be answered anyway but as he led me to the manor’s cellars, I realized that had to be one of the dumbest things I had done all day. Considering how my day had gone, that bar was set rather high.
Once I’d stepped inside, he had locked the door behind me and left without another word, leaving me with no light and a veritable horde of questions but not a single answer in sight. With Vis and the only source of light gone, I found myself alone in what could only be described as a small dungeon to stew over what could be going on. Had he noticed my absence? Was he punishing me for it? No, that wasn’t likely. He liked to make his examples very visible and obvious to all those who might want to make similar mistakes. I ground my teeth, trying to come up with some sort of answer, but nothing concrete displayed itself. I thought of calling Aliana up. The ring was still in my pocket. Vis hadn’t even bothered to take away my pack, I realized.
No, best not, I mused. I didn’t know how long I was going to be down here, or who might be watching. I could afford to wait and see what was going to happen. If things started to go badly, I could summon her to make mincemeat of everyone around here as well.
I dropped onto the small cot that had been provided in the room, rubbing my temples and pushing the effects of the portal out of my mind as much as I could. My head was pounding, and it seemed to only get worse every time we used it. Aliana had no idea what caused the damn headaches and was therefore of little help.
