by John Corwin
Shushiel waggled her mandibles side-to-side. "Only those of us who inherited that specific gene. Most cannot. Why?"
"I hoped we could get more spies." I touched her foreleg. "We need all the help we can get."
"Then I will go." Shushiel rubbed each of us with a leg. "I will contact you with my pendant when I need to return."
I held out a hand. "Wait, is it safe with all those frogres out there?"
"They will never even know I am there." She stepped through the portal and shimmered into a nearly invisible blur with her active camouflage. I waved goodbye and closed the portal.
Asha touched my arm. "If Victus is assembling an army of frogres, no one is safe."
"I hardly even know what being safe feels like anymore." It felt as if it was us against the entire Overworld.
Chapter 2
We walked back toward the portal Kanaan had used to travel into town. I peeked through and recognized the back of the hair salon across the street from the cantina and cafeteria.
"Don't go through, Conrad." Ambria tugged my arm. "Kanaan knows what he's doing."
"I sure hope so." Max leaned against an inactive omniarch, face tight with worry. "These wandslingers look as dangerous as Garkin and his battle mages."
"I don't know, I think Kanaan could beat these two," Ambria said. "They might be fast, but Kanaan is faster."
"Kanaan isn't looking for a fight," Asha said. "What we need more than anything is time."
"And hope Percival can restore the memories of Ivy Slade and the others?" I backed away from the gateway, a bad feeling brewing in my stomach. "Victus isn't just sitting around. If he's gathering a frogre army, what else is he doing?"
"Not making infernus, that's for sure." Max managed a weak smile. "We destroyed the foundry so he can't clone more government officials. Now, if only Ivy and the other Seraphim could use magic, we could blow his stupid army to bits."
Victus had kidnapped dozens of ordinary Arcanes and created demon clones of them—infernus—that he used to take over the government from the inside. He'd also imprisoned half a dozen very powerful individuals: Galfandor, three unidentified Seraphim, Ivy Slade, and someone we'd all thought long dead—Nightliss.
Galfandor had only recently been added to Victus's collection and was recovering nicely from a torn soul. Ivy Slade, Nightliss, and the other Seraphim had been under preservation spells for years and lost most of their memories and the ability to channel magic. Percival was hard at work finding potions to combat the amnesia, but hadn't had much luck. For now, they were staying with Stan, halfway around the world in Italy.
My cousin, Ansel, had been one of the first victims, his soul damaged so badly he’d become comatose. Kanaan had taken him and others with extensive soul damage to a temple in Nepal where the healers focused on soul magic. If anyone could heal Ansel, Kanaan assured me they could.
I stared through the gateway at the back of the hair salon, tempted to go through and spy on the bounty hunters, but it was a bad idea. Kanaan was the expert here. I turned back to the other gateway leading to Bella's house and stepped through. The world curved like a fishbowl and snapped back into place.
I walked to the arctablet and sat down to watch the camera feeds. The bounty hunters still waited in the cafeteria, sipping iced tea and looking out the windows. They seemed very sure of themselves, which made me wonder if they possessed information about our whereabouts. I wondered what would happen at noon if the citizens didn't produce us.
Ambria brewed a pot of tea and poured me a cup. She sat down next to me. "Would you like to take a walk through El Dorado today?"
"A walk?" My forehead pinched. "There are bounty hunters in town and you want to go for a walk?"
"It might take our mind off things, plus it's miles away from here." She stirred her tea with a spoon. "It would also be nice to enjoy a day off instead of training with Kanaan or running for our lives."
"Well, yeah, I guess." We'd trained non-stop with Kanaan since coming here. My muscles didn't get nearly as sore as before, and my casting while under pressure was noticeably faster. "But what if something happens while we're out?" I shook my head. "I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself."
Max dropped into a chair holding a wide, framed picture. In it, a group of people posed in the cavern of the El Dorado waystation. "Look what I found!" He pointed to a petite woman hugging a tall man in a leather duster. "That's Bella, and the person next to her is the infamous Harry Shelton!"
Ambria's eyes widened. "Is that Justin and Elyssa?"
Max moved his finger to the right to a muscular teen with thick hair, his arm around a beautiful fair-skinned woman. "Yep." He shook his head. "Don't recognize the others though."
"Wow." It was so strange seeing these heroes of Eden posing casually for pictures. "Wasn't that around the time they cleaned all the shadow monsters out of El Dorado?"
"Yep." Max shivered. "This is so cool. We have to make sure these pictures are preserved for history."
I looked back at the arctablet to see what, if anything, was happening blocks away from us. Talbot checked a pocket watch and tucked it back into his duster. Three hours left until noon. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. To pass the time, we looked through the photo album Max found and kept a careful eye on the monitor.
My eyelids grew heavy with boredom and I leaned back in the chair to rest a moment.
Two stars blaze in the void, but I feel no heat on my face. They drift toward me, beams of white and blue light arcing between them like electricity. A ghostly wail grows louder, and a terrible sense of unease spreads through my body. I try to move, but I'm transfixed. In seconds, the boiling surface of the stars will touch me and burn me to ash.
I jerked and shouted in alarm.
Ambria and Max jumped up. A stack of picture albums spilled from their laps and onto the floor.
"What in the world is wrong with you?" Max knelt to pick up an album. "You scared me half to death."
"I-I must've fallen asleep." I blinked and saw the afterimage of twin stars in the split-second of darkness.
"Another bad dream?" Ambria said.
I sighed. Nodded. "At least this one wasn't about Harris dying." I still couldn't shake the image of Victus burning a hole through the boy's chest. Just the thought of it clenched my chest with fury and regret. His death was only one of many that haunted me. Images of Cora dying from cancer, visions of Delectra mortally wounded in my arms, mass graves and ravaged corpses dogged my thoughts constantly. Sometimes it was all I could do to shut out the noise.
"It's not your fault." Ambria sat back down next to me and patted my arm. "Harris thought he could beat Victus. He was wrong."
Kanaan stepped from behind us, silent as a ghost.
Max and I shouted in alarm. Only Ambria retained her composure. "Where have you been?" she asked.
"Watching and waiting." The magitsu master leaned against the wall. "Talbot and his sister are not alone. A large force of mercenaries just portaled in at the edge of town."
My insides went cold. "They must know we're here."
"I am not certain of that." Kanaan studied the scene on the arctablet. "Altash told me no others had been to the El Dorado waystation, and the tunnels leading from the surface are blocked. This means no one else saw the portal we use to go back and forth."
"They certainly couldn't have seen us in town," Ambria said. "We never leave the house except to train, and even then, we usually stay in the waystation."
"Agreed." Kanaan checked the time. "It is possible they plan to comb the town with the mercenaries."
Asha grimaced. "I hope things don't get violent."
"It was plenty violent when they shot the sheriff," Ambria reminded her.
On the tablet screen, the door to the cafeteria opened and a tall man with a staff entered. It took me a moment to recognize Leopold, the leader of the city council. "We want you out of town immediately," he told the siblings. "You may think you're above the law, but you can't beat all of
us."
Delilah snorted. "You folk don't have what it takes to beat us, even if you wanted to." She swigged the rest of her iced tea and stood, pushing the edge of her duster back behind her wand holster. "And I know you don't want to fight us. You want to hand over the kid and his accomplices and let us be on our merry way."
"Whoever those people are, they aren't here." Leopold's hand tightened on his staff. "Now, kindly leave before I give the order to storm this place and arrest you."
My stomach twisted. "Does Leopold know about the mercs outside town?"
Kanaan shook his head. "Unlikely."
"He's going to get his people killed if he starts anything!" Ambria said.
Kanaan's eyes twitched, as if he'd just seen something bad. "Pack your things, now."
"Why, what did you—" I didn't finish my question, because a blade flashed. Leopold screamed and looked down at his hand, impaled on the table by a dagger.
Delilah laughed. She tore the staff from the Arcane's hand and threw it to her brother. Talbot caught it in one hand and set it on a table while sipping his tea. Delilah gripped the screaming Leopold by the collar of his robes and looked back. "Time yet?"
Talbot checked his pocket watch. Held up a finger. "Three, two, one." He lowered his finger. "It is now."
Delilah yanked the knife from Leopold's hand and laughed as he screamed louder.
"I said, pack now." Kanaan's voice was urgent.
"I never unpacked," Ambria said.
"Same," I said, unable to tear my eyes from the screen.
Delilah slammed Leopold down on a long table. The cafeteria owner cried out and vanished through a door in the back. Talbot drew a dagger and held it under Leopold's throat. "You will tell us if the boy and his companions are in town, or I will make you tell me."
A trickle of blood ran down Leopold's neck where the dagger nicked it. Blood poured from the wound in his hand. Eyes watering with pain, he hissed, "This is illegal. If you do anything to me, a hundred people will rush inside and kill you."
"Naw, you see, we brought backup." Talbot grinned. "Got a squad of battle mages already enroute."
Leopold's face turned a shade of green. "The boy isn't here. How many times do we have to tell you?"
"Just so happens, I have a pretty good idea he is." Talbot cleaned the blood off his knife and slid it into a sheath on his back. With his other hand, he slid a small piece of parchment out of his pocket. He unfolded it to show a crimson stain in the middle of a drawn compass. Part of the stain formed an arrow pointing southeast. "We followed a blood tracking spell. The blood was old, so it wasn't as precise as we'd have liked, but it led us down here. We know he's close."
Delilah paced around Leopold, hand on her wand holster. "We know the boy wouldn't go to La Casona in Bogota. Too many eyes." She shook her head. "It doesn't take much sense to figure he went to El Dorado."
Leopold wrapped a robe around his wounded hand. "Why are you terrorizing my town? El Dorado is an hour away."
"Because a growing boy's gotta eat." Talbot waved an arm toward the window. "Your little town here is the perfect place to hole up. It's a small town filled with the same Arcanes who helped Justin Slade back when he was a fugitive."
"If your fugitive went to El Dorado, he could use an omniarch to go anywhere he wants for food." Leopold somehow managed to keep his wits despite the blood soaking his robes where he'd wrapped it around his hand. "There's absolutely no reason to come here."
Talbot shrugged. "That's a real reasonable argument, sir, but the spell terminated when we walked into town. That means he's close, or was." He jabbed a finger in the other man's chest. "That means you'd better tell me where he is, or you'll lose an ear or two."
I shivered and turned from the unfolding scene. "Is that my blood?"
"Yes." Kanaan grabbed the arctablet off the table. "Get your things and meet me at the portal. I suspect Leopold is about to break."
"But how did they get my blood?" I thought back to the battle at Cumberbatch's house. I didn't remember bleeding.
"I suspect they only recently acquired the blood," Kanaan said. "Blood tracking is slow, but it does not require a month. The blood must be alive for the spell to work."
"I'd like to know where they got his blood," Ambria said.
"The mystery can wait," Kanaan said. "Get your things and go."
We didn't need any prodding. I grabbed a backpack stuffed with my meager belongings, stopped to grab as much non-perishable food from the pantry as I could, and raced to the portal. Something rammed on the front door. Wood splintered and the house shook.
Ambria and the others waited on the other side of the portal, waving me on.
Talbot's voice rang out. "Conrad Edison! I know you're here, boy. Come on out."
I leapt through the portal, stumbled, and nearly fell. When I turned around, I saw Talbot and Delilah racing toward the portal, wands drawn. The gateway winked off, leaving us alone in the arch control room.
"That was close!" Max said. "How in the world did they find us so fast?"
"Bella's house is not far from the cafeteria." Kanaan regarded the omniarch for a moment.
"Don't we need to get out of here?" Max said. "They know we're in El Dorado."
Asha looked up and down the rows of arches as if expecting an attack at any moment. "They can't physically walk down here, but if they have access to an omniarch, they could be here in a heartbeat."
"Not if they don't have a picture to go by," Ambria said. "Unless they have a clear image, we're safe."
"Are you kidding me?" Max said. "Bella's house is full of pictures of this place!"
"We have to go to Granddad Stan's." A spell glowed at the tip of Asha's wand. "It's the only place they won't find us."
"But we lose a major advantage." Kanaan hesitated. Nodded. "The rest of you go to Stan's. I will go to another waystation with omniarches so I can bring you through when needed."
"Is that really a good idea?" Ambria said. "We need you, Kanaan."
Come here, boy. The whispered words startled me so much, I nearly jumped. Into the cavern. I looked around at the others, but they were too busy yelling at each other to see my distress. Conrad, come. A gentle force pulled on my senses. While my friends argued about what to do next, I slipped away and headed toward the control room exit.
When I peered into the main cavern, a great form stirred. Purple scales uncoiled and the earth dragon, Lulu, slithered across the floor toward me. Her giant red companion, Altash, opened an eye, but did not stir.
Lulu lowered her lean muzzle to the ground. Even her eye dwarfed me.
"Did you call me?" I asked in a small voice.
Your times comes. We cannot lend our direct aid and break the oath that keeps the nemesis at bay.
"My time for what?" I struggled to understand what this ancient creature meant. "You can't help us against Victus?"
Forge your spirit well, for you face the void of the rift alone.
She opened her massive maw to reveal rows upon rows of sharp teeth. My heart thudded faster. The pulse roaring in my ears. The dark pit glowed azure blue. Heat washed over me, and I wondered if she meant to roast me alive. The light blinded me. My skin felt as if I stood beneath the heat of a thousand suns.
I held up my hands and cried out. "No!"
Just as suddenly, I stood alone, cold and confused. I blinked away the bright spots in my eyes. Lulu was no longer in front of me. I looked to the center of the cavern and my heart dropped. The earth dragons were gone.
"I don't understand." I turned in a circle, but the place was completely empty. The skin on my pale arms glowed pink from the intense heat. Otherwise, there was no sign the dragons had even been here.
Shouting from inside the control room jerked me back to my senses. I raced inside and saw relief sweeping the faces of my friends.
"Where did you go?" Ambria asked when I rejoined them.
"The dragons, they—" I didn't have a chance to complete my sentence.
<
br /> "At last, we meet." Talbot and Delilah stepped out of a portal near the large map spanning the front wall. Talbot held out his arms in greeting. "Perhaps the great Kanaan would like a go at me? Might as well get this over with so I can collect my bounty."
"Go, now." Kanaan gripped Asha's arm. "Keep them safe. I will contact you soon." Before anyone could object, he walked toward the pair of bounty hunters, both of his wands drawn.
"No!" I shouted.
A gateway split open in the omniarch. Max grabbed me and dragged me through before I could chase after Kanaan. Asha and Ambria followed close behind, blocking me from going back in. The gateway snapped shut, leaving us in a field of wheat.
I jerked free of Max's grip. "Why did you leave him? We could have taken them!"
"That wasn't the real Kanaan going to fight, Conrad." Asha gripped my shoulders and made me look her in the eye. "He used his illusion trick to slow them down."
"An illusion trick?" I instantly felt sheepish. "How do you know that?"
"Because he showed me how to do it." Asha performed an elaborate pattern with her wand and tapped herself on the head. She ran away into the wheat field and vanished from sight. An invisible hand touched me and Asha reappeared. "You see?"
"Whoa, that's neat!" Max mimicked the wand pattern, but a tap on his head failed to produce an illusion. "Can you teach me that?"
"It's quite advanced." Asha smiled. "Then again, you're my best students."
Ambria grabbed my arm. "Conrad, where did you run off to a moment ago? I thought we'd left you behind!"
"The big purple dragon, Lulu, she called me."
Max's eyes flared. "What? The dragons never talked to us before."
I showed them my slightly sunburned skin. "I thought she was going to burn me." I told them Lulu's grim words and how she and Altash vanished.
Asha grimaced. "You'll face the void of the rift alone? What's that supposed to mean?"
I shook my head slowly. "I guess it means we're totally on our own."
Ambria's eyes saddened as she looked at the countryside all around us. "Yes, I think we are."
Her words punched me in the gut. Our world had turned upside down in a heartbeat. Victus controlled the Arcane Council. He'd cloned dozens of people with demon golems and even now assembled an army of monsters. It felt as if nowhere was safe from him.
