He met her gaze, his expression pleading. One look in her eyes told him which she’d choose. She was a mother fighting to save her child, and nothing would stop her. Yet, in his heart, he knew which choice he had to make.
“I…” He could not summon the words.
“I know,” she said in a whisper. She took his hands and laced her strong fingers through his. “You will do what you must, no matter what it costs you.” Emotion glimmered bright in her eyes. “It is the reason I fell in love with you all those years ago.”
“I’m…sorry,” he managed to choke out. “I promised I would keep him safe.”
“And you will do what you must.” Sorrow echoed in her voice, but no recrimination.
An idea struck him, and he acted before he could reconsider. “Here,” he said, picking up Soulhunger and thrusting it out to her, sheath and all. “Take Thanal Eth’ Athaur.”
Her eyes widened a fraction, though she didn’t take the weapon. “You would give up—”
“I would give up everything for the sake of the ones I love.” Fire burned in his gut, but he knew he was making the right choice. “I cannot let the boy suffer, but I will not let our child die.”
“You understand the choice you are making?” Her gaze searched his. “You face an army of Elivasti with nothing but steel. Without Soulhunger, you are reliant upon your body’s natural healing abilities.”
“Which, I’d like to point out, I’ve gotten quite adept at using.” He tried to infuse his voice with humor, but it just sounded bleak.
“You face weapons powerful enough to kill even you.” Concern for his wellbeing filled her eyes. “I would not see you die any more than I would our daughter.”
“Our child needs her mother.” The Hunter wrapped an arm around her strong, bare shoulders and pulled her close to him. “This is a sacrifice I can make for her sake. And for yours.”
She nestled closer and laid her head on his chest. “Don’t you dare die on me, Drayvin. I just got you back.”
“You won’t get rid of me that easily, Wife.” The word sounded strange, but somehow…right.
Silence stretched on for long moments as they lay in bed together, reunited after thousands of years spent apart.
“It’s not just her I’m searching for, you know.” Taiana spoke in a hesitant voice. “If we can find more Bucelarii, we’ll have more reinforcements to fight the Elivasti. With Soulhunger, we can search the Keeps in hours rather than months. It’s why I was brought back now. To stop the Elivasti and their masters from using the power of the Serenii.”
“Brought back?” The way she said it sounded strange. He glanced down at her with a frown. “What do you mean by that?”
She hesitated. “My Chamber was…opened for me.”
“By whom?” the Hunter asked.
“The one I want you to meet,” Taiana said quietly.
The Hunter’s mind raced. Who could she be talking about? Another Bucelarii, perhaps? No, she would have mentioned another of their kind if that had been the case? An Abiarazi? The way she’d spoken of the Sage, it was clear there were no demons living in Enarium, and none could have come through the bubble. If the Sage and the Warmaster controlled the Elivasti living here, who else could it be? One of the humans she’d mentioned? Something wasn’t adding up.
“What aren’t you telling me?” He disengaged from her and sat up.
Her face hardened. “I told you, he needs to explain everything to you for yourself.”
“So take me there now,” the Hunter said.
“I can’t.” Taiana shook her head. “Kalil will return with word from Garnos at any moment, and it’s more important that you find your boy.”
“When, then?” The Hunter narrowed his eyes. “When will you introduce me to this mysterious man?” Something akin to jealousy swept through him. Who could she be concealing from him?
“As soon as I can, I swear.” She reached for his hand. “You promised you’d trust me, remember?”
The Hunter nodded, but a nagging suspicion took root in the back of his mind. There was something she wasn’t saying, something she was afraid to tell him, perhaps? That worried him a great deal.
Once again, he was struck by how silent the voices in his head had fallen. He’d half-expected to hear his inner demon shrieking at him not to trust her, to kill her before she betrayed him again. Yet, nothing. Silence.
He rolled onto his back and stared up at the glass ceiling. Sunset bathed the sky in brilliant hues of reds, purples, and gold, and he was struck by the startling clarity of his view even through the glass. Voramian artisans produced glassware that turned objects blurry, distorted their shape, details, and color. The Serenii glass was perfectly transparent, with not a single distortion or alteration. Indeed, he could almost forget it was there until he reached out to touch it.
He stood and padded naked over to stand by the room’s western wall. The city of Enarium stretched out around him, like a three-layered crown of white bedecked with sapphires. Twenty-four shining gemstone Keeps, one at each point on the compass.
Below and off to the north, he caught a glimpse of blue-armored figures trotting through the stone streets of the Medial Tier.
“They can’t see us, can they?” he asked Taiana without looking back.
“No,” she said, and he couldn’t help noticing the tightness in her voice. “The glass is transparent from this side, but a mirror on the other.”
“Marvelous.” The Serenii temples in Kara-ket had had the same glass-like exterior.
He turned to look back at her, when something in the far distance caught his eye. He strode toward the opposite wall and looked out across the city.
Far to the east, beyond the Eastern Keep on the Prime Echelon, stood a building that could only be Hellsgate. Squat and blocky, six stories tall, it was made from a stone so dark grey it was nearly black. The threads of red stone running through the construction lent it a sinister air. It had no soaring spires or lofty towers, just a single, unbroken fort built to withstand an army. Whoever had built it—it lacked the grace and elegance of a Serenii structure—had cared more about fortification than architectural artistry and refinement.
Memories washed over the Hunter.
His gaze drifted out the window, past the beautiful spires and towers of Enarium, toward the burning pit in the distance. A shudder ran down his spine at the memory of what had happened that night in Khar'nath. They had both come within a heartbeat of death and only the Beggar's intercession had saved them.
From his vantage point, he couldn't see the simple stone markers dotting the mountains around Khar'nath, but he knew they were there. Four hundred and sixty-seven of them, at last count. Four hundred and sixty-seven brothers and sisters slain by the Cambionari and laid to eternal rest within sight of the portal to hell.
The memory sent icy feet dancing down his spine. Hellsgate stood in the way, but there was no mistaking it: the view of Enarium was identical to the one he remembered.
He whirled to Taiana. “Is this our…” The word caught in his throat. “Was this our…home?”
Taiana nodded, and a sad little smile touched her lips. “I hoped you would remember.” She stood and came to stand beside him, and her hand slipped into his. “We lived in this room for two years. Two happy years, even though we were being hunted. This is where Jaia was conceived.”
He glanced at the woman beside him. Once, she’d been short enough that she could rest her head on his shoulder. Now, she stood a hand’s breadth taller than him. For the first time, he noticed the breadth of her shoulders and back, the sleek lines of her legs and hips. Her time in the Chambers of Sustenance had changed her outwardly. What internal changes was he unable to see?
He had opened his mouth to ask—the words had yet to come to him, but he knew how he felt around her—when a knock sounded at the door.
“Enter,” Taiana said before he could react.
Kalil’s patchy-bearded face appeared as the door swung open
. “Taiana, it’s—” His eyes went wide at the sight of their naked bodies, and a hint of color appeared at his cheeks. “Er, forgive me, Captain, but Garnos has sent word that he will see you.”
“When?” Taiana asked. She showed no sign of embarrassment at being fully nude.
“O-One hour,” Kalil blurted out.
“Thank you.” Taiana nodded. “We will be ready.”
“Of course.” The smaller Bucelarii couldn’t close the door quickly enough.
The Hunter turned to Taiana and found a change had come over her. The vulnerable woman that stared at him with love in her eyes had disappeared. In her place stood the hard-edged captain that had commanded a company of Bucelarii in the War of Gods, and now fought to stop the Elivasti and their Abiarazi masters from using the power of Enarium for their own ends.
A lump rose in his throat as she turned and quickly pulled on her clothing. Would he ever see his wife again? Not the woman driven by guilt and remorse, but the happy, smiling woman delighted at the love she shared with her husband and eventually her child. Even if they won the war for Enarium and the world, what would remain of her if she couldn’t save Jaia in time?
The Hunter’s heart felt like it would break into a thousand pieces. He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but what could he say? He was no longer the man she’d known all those years ago. He’d been Drayvin then. The Hunter of Voramis could not be her husband; he didn’t know how.
The Hunter of Voramis was a killer.
So be it. I will be what I have been all along. Be it an army of Elivasti, the Sage, or the gods themselves, I will kill anyone who threatens the safety of those I love.
Chapter Ten
Kalil waited for them on the third floor. He blushed slightly as he saw Taiana and the Hunter descending, but managed to speak without sounding too embarrassed. “Garnos says he’ll be waiting for you at the usual spot the second hour after dark.”
A frown twisted Taiana’s face. “That’s all the way across Enarium.”
Kalil shrugged. “You know how the purple-eyes are. He can’t stray too far from Hellsgate without arousing suspicion.”
“True.” Taiana nodded. “Very well. Drayvin and I will go to meet him. As for you, get some rest. We’ll be back at the Keeps as soon as I return.”
“Got it, Captain,” Kalil said, then turned down one of the many hallways that led away from the balconies overlooking the grand chamber below.
“Let’s go,” she told the Hunter. “We’ve got to hoof it to be there in time.”
The Hunter fell into step beside her as she descended the stairs. “What was Kalil saying about the Elivasti having to stay close to Hellsgate?” If he was going to break Hailen out of Hellsgate, he’d need as much information on it as he could gather. That included fortifications, vulnerabilities, and details on the men guarding it.
“Enarium is a large city,” Taiana explained, “too large for the Elivasti to control.”
“How many of them are there?” the Hunter asked.
“We’ve never gotten a full count, but at least three or four hundred warriors. Plus their families.”
The Hunter’s gut tightened. The fortress he’d seen from the upstairs window was enormous, but a few hundred men could hold it easily. Add to that wives and children, and there had to be at least a thousand Elivasti in Hellsgate.
“The Elivasti concentrate their forces on Hellsgate,” Taiana continued, “but they send out patrols to cover the rest of the city. The patrols are mainly tasked with hunting us, though there is always a company near the gate into Enarium.” She shot a glance at him. “Just in case someone manages to find their way through the Stone Guardians.”
“I’m guessing there aren’t a whole lot of visitors, then.” The Hunter gave her a wry grin. The Stone Guardians had killed nearly thirty Warrior Priests and Cambionari, and they’d come within a hair’s breadth of doing him in as well. The power consumed by Soulhunger had kept the iron’s poison from killing him, but it had been a close thing.
They reached the bottom floor, then climbed down the ladder into the tunnels.
Taiana pulled out the glowing globe and set off through the passage that led to the way out. “I’ve seen only Elivasti come in the five years since I was awakened. The only humans that arrive are hauled through the gates as captives.”
The Hunter’s brow furrowed. “Why?” It didn’t make sense to him. “Why would the Elivasti bring humans here?” The Elivasti he’d met on Kara-ket seemed content to remain alienated from the world below them. They had avoided humans as much as possible, and never sought out any for prisoners.
“The Elivasti follow their master.” Taiana shot him a sidelong glance. “You have met the Warmaster that commands them, as well as the Sage that now holds their loyalty. Why would they have their purple-eyes collect humans?”
The Hunter could think of a number of reasons. The Warmaster had held humans captive in his cells and used them to teach his Masters of Agony the ways of torture. The Sage no doubt employed countless human spies across Einan, and he wouldn’t hesitate to capture them if they served his purposes. But what that purpose was evaded him at the moment.
His mind worked at the problem as he followed Taiana through the tunnels, out of the storm cellar, and into the now-darkened streets of Enarium.
The stars twinkled high overhead and a cool breeze ruffled the Hunter’s hair, yet the air held none of the chill he’d expect at night this high in the mountains. It reminded him of Kara-ket, the Serenii temples atop Shana Laal. The Serenii architects that designed it had used vents to draw warm air from the heart of the mountains to create a bubble of unnatural warmth around the city.
His eyes were drawn to the buildings they passed. The human constructions of stone remained dark, no candles or lanterns burning within their abandoned walls. But the Serenii buildings, the mighty Keeps, emanated a soft blue glow. The same blue as the sapphire lilies and the runes that lit up the Scorchslayers.
The Serenii magick at work again. Yet he could not shake his disgust as he stared at the glowing buildings. There were people providing the power to keep those buildings alight. Perhaps the Serenii had harnessed the light of the sun, but they stored it within Bucelarii vessels. How many of my kind lay imprisoned in these Keeps? How many of them are even now dying as the magick consumes their bodies?
Taiana had said the Bucelarii’s unique healing abilities enabled them to survive the never-ending flow of power, but the sight of the desiccated corpse they’d found left him uneasy. Could centuries spent trapped in the Chambers of Sustenance cause damage even the Bucelarii’s bodies couldn’t repair?
As ever, his eyes went to the tall, lithe woman beside him. She’d spent nearly five thousand years locked in the Chamber, and it had changed her.
A question nagged at the back of his mind. What happens if we free more Bucelarii from the Chambers? What will we be unleashing on the world?
He and Taiana had both served as captains in an army of Bucelarii like him, fighting humans. He had served his father—a general in the Abiarazi army, according to his memories—as had the rest of their kind. They had fought beside the demons that sought to claim Einan for their own. After all, that was what he had been bred to do.
He was more than just the offspring of demons—he was their weapon.
How many humans had died at his hands, in the name of Abiarazi conquest? How many had Taiana killed, or Arudan, or Cerran, or Kalil?
Throughout the centuries, the Bucelarii had been locked away in the Chambers of Sustenance or killed by the Cambionari, until only he remained. Yet he had continued to serve the Abiarazi bloodthirst, the instinct for battle and death that drove his kind. As Nasnaz the Great, conqueror of Al Hani. As the Hunter of Voramis, legendary assassin. How many other lifetimes had he spent killing? How many lives had ended at his hands, stolen to sate Soulhunger’s desires and to feed Kharna, the Destroyer?
He was the Abiarazi’s weapon of death, and Taiana as
well. If they continued to release the Bucelarii, what would become of the world?
Father Reverentus had told him he alone among the Bucelarii had proven to be dominated by his human nature rather than his demonic blood. If that was true, he shuddered to think of the horrors others of his kind had perpetrated. He had no doubt many—perhaps even most—of the Bucelarii deserved to be locked away. Just as humans succumbed to their greed, lusts, and violent natures, so, too, there had to be a vast number of Bucelarii that could easily fit the description of “evil”.
Am I willing to let Soulhunger be used to unleash that on Einan again? Taiana needed reinforcements to help fight the Sage and prevent the demon from using the power of Enarium to free the Destroyer. But after they won the battle, what then? The idea of Bucelarii flooding the world once more didn’t sit well with him.
Yet, if he didn’t let Taiana use Soulhunger, what would happen to his daughter?
My daughter. Jaia. The name still sent a little thrum of happiness through his heart. In the memory he’d seen beneath Shana Laal, he’d wanted to give their daughter that name. More than anything, he wanted to meet his child.
Farida had been like a daughter to him, and in many ways, Hailen was like his son. Yet they were not truly his. Paternal instincts he hadn’t realized he possessed drove him to seek out surrogates, children like them to protect. Almost as if a part of his mind had known he had a child, and sought to replace the daughter he didn’t remember with someone he could care for.
But now he was here. He had reached Enarium, and he had found his wife. Once he freed Hailen and put an end to the Sage, they would find their daughter together. That alone was worth every risk that came with releasing the Bucelarii on the world. He would trade all the gold in the sunken continent of Aegeos for just one hour with his child.
He would bear this burden, as he bore so many others. Soulhunger is mine, so the responsibility falls on my shoulders. If the Bucelarii it releases prove a threat to the world, I will deal with them as I have dealt with the Abiarazi.
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