The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3)

by Mackenzie Morgan

  Marcie burst out laughing. “You don’t know Marissa. No one makes her do anything, not her parents, not Thom, and certainly not Marcus. If she wants to go sledding, she’ll go sledding. All we can do is be ready.”

  Hayley sank into one of the kitchen chairs and looked miserable.

  Caleb stepped out of his wet boots, walked over to her, and put his arm around her. “It’ll be all right. Shel says she’s coming. She can help. She knows all about babies. She had one last year.”

  As Hayley hugged him, Marcie grinned and said, “I’ll be there too, and I know a little about babies, too.”

  Caleb broke away from Hayley and looked at his mother, eyes big as saucers. “You do? How?”

  Marcus roared with laughter as Marcie rolled her eyes. “Where do you think you came from? Or your sister?”

  Caleb frowned in concentration for a moment, and then his eyes grew round. “Euuu. From in there?” He pointed at his mother’s stomach.

  Marcie nodded. “And who do you think helped Shel deliver Evan last year?”

  “You did?”

  Marcie nodded again.

  Caleb turned back to Hayley and patted her shoulder. “See? It’s going to be fine.”

  Marcie swallowed a laugh as she gathered up the wet towels and handed them to Caleb. “Hang these on the drying rack and go wash up. It’s almost time for dinner.”

  Then she looked at Marcus. “Put those wet boots on the hearth.”

  As Marcus picked up the boots, Marcie turned to Hayley. “Would you call Rayne? When she gets here, tell her to set the table. Dinner will be in half an hour.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  By bedtime, Marcie’s house was full. Thom and Marissa had come for supper and stayed until nearly midnight. When Thom said something about heading home, Marcie told him not to even think about taking Marissa out in that cold, that Hayley could sleep in Rayne’s room and they could have Caleb’s room.

  Since Caleb had already fallen asleep on the couch, the only person left without a bed was Marcus. Marcie handed him several quilts and blankets, a couple of pillows, pointed towards the living room, and told him to make himself comfortable.

  Marcus considered moving Caleb to the floor and taking the couch, but he figured the guilt would keep him from sleeping, so he settled down on the floor for the night. He’d been asleep for two hours when Caleb grabbed his shoulder and shook him, begging him to wake up. Tears were running down the boy’s cheeks.

  “What’s wrong? What is it?” Marcus gathered Caleb in his arms. “Did you have a bad dream?”

  Caleb shook his head. “Do something!” Caleb was crying so hard he could barely get the words out. “Those men, they’re going to throw Evan in the fire. Stop them!”

  “What men? Where?” Marcus got up and looked out the window. All he could see between Marcie’s and Shel’s houses were a couple of trees and a shed. “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming? I don’t see anyone out there.”

  “It wasn’t a dream. I know it wasn’t!” Caleb struggled to speak between sobs. “Look again! The man I heard is going to light a big fire and the other man is going to get Evan. They’re going to kill him if you don’t do something!”

  Marcus looked outside again. This time he used his seeing eye to get a closer look around Shel’s house. While he was scanning the area, the moon slipped out from behind a cloud and Marcus saw a shadow move next to Shel’s back door. Then he spotted a man out front, near the center of the little settlement, kneeling beside a huge bundle of firewood. As Marcus watched, the man lit the fire, and a split second later, a woman’s scream shattered the night.

  Marcus didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Caleb’s shoulders and leaned down to look him in the eye. “Get your father and Thom. Tell them to grab their weapons and go out the back door. You stay with your mother. Tell Hayley I may need her in a few minutes, but I want the rest of you to stay in this house.” He shook the boy’s shoulders. “Do you understand me, Caleb? I want you, your mother, Marissa, and Rayne to stay upstairs, no matter what happens. Do not come down.”

  Caleb nodded as Shel’s screams sent shivers up his spine. “Hurry,” he yelled as he ran up the stairs.

  Marcus opened the front door and ran down the steps. As his feet hit the ice and snow, he realized he’d forgotten his boots. They were sitting on the hearth, nice and warm, while his feet were stinging from the cold. With a few choice words about his own stupidity, Marcus ran towards the fire.

  As he ran, he saw Shel struggling for all she was worth against the huge bear of a man who was restraining her. He heard her scream and cry out, “No, not my baby! Don’t you hurt my baby!” while in the background, a very unhappy baby wailed.

  Marcus slowed to a stop and crouched down to see what was happening. Flames had engulfed the stack of wood and were dancing around, leaping waist high, but the man who’d lit it was no longer there. A moment later, Marcus spotted him, heading back towards the fire with a squirming baby in his arms.

  As he and the baby neared the flames, the man yelled back over his shoulder. “If you don’t want to see your son burn, get your neighbors out here with their hands over their heads. One weapon, one person with their hands down, one person hanging back, and into the flames he goes. Now move. You’ve got a lot of people to wake up.”

  Shel screamed again and struggled even harder.

  A harsh voice said, “I’m going to let you go now, little lady, but keep in mind there’s no way you can get to your baby before Sanju can toss him in that fire. If you want to hold your baby again, do what you’re told. Get everyone out here and lined up in front of the fire.”

  “What do you want from me?” Shel whimpered, terrified.

  “I told you,” the man snarled. “You and all of your neighbors, out here, lined up in front of the fire. Now go!” The man shoved her towards Marcie’s house.

  Before Shel could take more than one step, Marcus used an outstretched hand to pluck Evan out of Sanju’s hands and lift him out of harm’s way. He used a second hand to pick Sanju up and dangle him over the fire.

  The man who had been restraining Shel grabbed her by the hair, jerked her back in front of him, tilted her head back, and held a knife to her throat. “Let him down, sorcerer, or the little lady here loses her head.”

  “You want me to let him down?” Marcus bounced Sanju up and down over the flames while the man screamed for help. Marcus formed a third outstretched hand, snatched the knife out of the man’s hand, and turned it so the tip was pointed at the man’s throat. “Unless you want me to ram this blade through your throat, let her go.” The man released Shel and raised his hands in surrender.

  Shel didn’t even look back as she ran towards her son. Marcus lowered Evan until the baby was in his mother’s arms. Shel sank to the ground, cradling her son close and sobbing.

  Meanwhile, Lance and Thom had made it downstairs and out the back door, where they had split up. Thom moved around one side of the house while Lance skirted the other. Both men had swords on their belts, quivers on their backs, and bows in their hands.

  Lance called out to Marcus, “Need any help?”

  “If you’ll take care of these two, I’ll see if I can find the others,” Marcus answered.

  “What others?” Thom called out.

  “The rest of the gang.” Marcus jiggled Sanju over the flames. “You still awake up there?”

  Sanju growled something unintelligible.

  “Answer my questions and I’ll let you down. If you want to play games, you can stay up there until you’re well done,” Marcus said loudly enough to be heard throughout the settlement. “Now, how many are hiding in the woods?”

  “Don’t tell him a thing,” the man who had been holding Shel yelled out.

  Marcus jiggled Sanju again. “How many more?”

  “Two more, four of us in all.”

  Marcus moved Sanju away from the fire and dumped him in the snow.

  Thom put the tip of his sword to the man’s back. “Sit.
And put your hands on your head.”

  As Sanju did as he was told, Marcie darted out from the shadow of a big bush near her porch and ran towards Thom and Sanju, a long rope dangling from her hand.

  “What are you doing out here?” Marcus hissed at his sister. “I told Caleb to tell you to stay upstairs.”

  “Yeah, well,” Marcie said as she wrapped the rope around Sanju’s hands, “when did that ever work? Besides, someone had to bring the rope.”

  Marcus shook his head. “When you’re done there, how about getting the other guy?”

  “I’ve got him,” a voice from near Shel’s house called out, and a moment later, Hayley emerged from the shadows, a second rope dangling from her hands.

  Marcus opened his mouth to ask her what she thought she was doing, but before one word slipped out, he thought better of it and just thanked his lucky stars neither of them had been hurt.

  After Hayley had the other man’s hands secured behind his back, she reached around and took hold of the knife Marcus was holding to his throat. “You can let the knife go. I’ve got it.” When Marcus released it, she used the knife to prod him over near Sanju and settled him on the ground in front of Lance. After handing the knife to Lance, she went to Shel, who was sitting in the snow rocking back and forth, cradling Evan in her arms and crying as if her heart were broken.

  Hayley knelt down beside her and asked if she was hurt.

  Shel shook her head. “Not me, but I think Gorge is dead. They hit him so hard,” she said as she dissolved into tears again.

  Hayley put her arm around the distraught woman. “Maybe he’s just unconscious. I’ll check on him in a minute, but let me make sure Evan’s not hurt first, all right?” Shel slowly handed Evan to Hayley.

  While Hayley was checking Evan, Marcus sensed an arrow closing in fast on his back. Without turning, he used an outstretched hand to grab the arrow and hold it motionless in the air. At the same time, he used his seeing eye to search for any other arrows. He grabbed two more in mid-flight, one headed for Thom and the other for Lance. With the immediate threat eliminated, he scanned the woods and found the archers behind a shed fifty feet away. Using another outstretched hand, Marcus scooped them up, bows and all, lifted them over the shed, and plopped them down between the other two captives.

  By the time Marcie got them tied up, the other three men who lived in the settlement had converged on the field fully armed and, along with Thom and Lance, encircled the slavers.

  Marcus looked at Sanju. “Is that all?”

  Sanju nodded. “That’s all of us that came on the raid.”

  Marcus frowned. “Do you mean there are more somewhere else?”

  Sanju shrugged. “I don’t know. None of us do. We only know about our part. What happens after we capture them has nothing to do with us. We don’t know who else is involved, or how many.”

  “Capture us?” Lance frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Capture who?” Thom asked at the same time.

  “All of you,” Sanju answered.

  “But why?” Thom asked.

  “To sell!” Sanju said.

  “You mean as slaves?” one of the other men from the settlement asked, trying to make sense of it all.

  Sanju sneered at him. “What did you think was going on here?”

  “I can’t believe this,” Thom said quietly. “Slavers? Here?”

  Marcus continued scanning, searching for anyone who might be hiding, watching. While he was looking, Marcie stepped over beside him and whispered, “I can’t believe what you just did. That was amazing. I had no idea you were that good.”

  Marcus glanced at his sister with a hint of a grin. “I told you. I’m better than I was six months ago.”

  While Marcie was nodding in agreement, a faint shift in light caught Marcus’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man suddenly appear. Using his seeing eye, he zoomed in for a closer look. At the same instant the key in the man’s hand registered with Marcus, the man realized his slavers had been captured by a sorcerer. Before Marcus had time to think, he reached out with an outstretched hand and grabbed the man right as the man turned the key to get out of there.

  With another faint flash of light, they were both gone.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Several years back, when Marcus was quite a bit younger, he’d ridden a stallion bareback with nothing to hold onto but the horse’s mane. He’d managed to hang on for about thirty seconds before being tossed fifteen feet through the air. That experience paled in comparison to his trip through the energy field tethered to the person holding the key by a thin strand of magical energy.

  His first clue he was out of the energy field was when he slammed into a rock wall. He fell to the cold clammy floor and bounced a couple of times before landing in a shallow pool of murky water. He was on the brink of losing consciousness when his survival instincts kicked in. If he wanted to live, he had to get the key and get out of there.

  Through the fog of semi-consciousness, Marcus held onto the guy with the key. He was trying to open his eyes when he heard voices in the distance, some laughing, some angry, all of them loud. He shook his head and forced his vision to clear.

  He was in a big, dark cavern with only one door, and the man with the key was doing his best to get through that door. Marcus groaned with the effort, but he formed a second hand and snatched the key out of the man’s grasp. The second the key was actually in Marcus’s hand, he released the man, pictured Kevin’s office, and left for home.

  Chapter 64

  Reactions

  Marcus tried to stay on his feet when he got to Kevin’s office, but after knocking over two chairs and breaking the leg off a third, he gave up and crumpled to the floor.

  The crash of Marcus’s arrival brought Brandon running. By the time he made it to Kevin’s office, Marcus was lying on his back with his eyes shut, struggling to breathe. His tunic and leggings were torn, soaking wet, and splattered with blood. His bare feet were red and splotchy, and blood was running down his face from a gash along his hairline. Brandon knelt beside him and shook his shoulder. “Marcus? Marcus!”

  “Myron,” Marcus muttered. “Get Myron.” Then he drifted back into a semi-conscious state.

  Brandon ran to the stairs where Rupert stood guard. “Go get Myron. And get Chris, too. Marcus is in Myron’s office and he’s in bad shape.” Brandon turned, said, “We need a sister,” and ran off to find someone to send to the chapel.

  Rupert ran upstairs, knocked on Kevin’s door, opened it, and called out to him.

  Kevin jerked awake, sat up in bed, and rubbed his face. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” Rupert answered. “All I know is Marcus is in your office and he’s injured.”

  “He’s hurt?” Kevin asked as he climbed out of bed and grabbed the first tunic he could find.

  “That’s what Brandon said. I haven’t seen him myself,” Rupert explained. “Brandon’s going to send for a sister. Shall I wake Chris?”

  “Please,” Kevin said, pulling his boots on. “I’ll be in my office.”

  While Rupert woke Chris, Kevin ran down the stairs to his office. Marcus was right where Brandon had left him. Kevin knelt down beside his friend. Marcus looked like he’d been beaten up, but no one should have been able to do this to him, not even another sorcerer. If he’d been in a duel, he’d either be okay or a pile of ashes. He would not look like he’d gone three rounds with a berserk dwarf. Kevin gently shook his shoulder. “Marcus?”

  Marcus slowly opened his eyes. When he saw Kevin, he opened his hand.

  As soon as Kevin saw the key, his hand flew to the chain under his tunic. Both of his keys were right where they were supposed to be. “Where did you get that?”

  “From the slavers,” Marcus wheezed as he handed the key to Kevin. He shook his head, tried to clear his throat, and gasped, “Water?”

  Kevin stood up and turned to go find some water, but Chris was standing behind him
with a glass of water in his hand. “Rupert said he’d been hurt. Water was all I could come up with right away,” Chris said as he handed Kevin the glass, “but I asked Rupert to send someone for coffee. We should have some soon.”

  Kevin knelt back down and lifted Marcus’s shoulders off the floor while he drank half the glass. “That’s enough for now.” Kevin moved the glass away. “You can have some more in a minute.”

  Marcus nodded and leaned forward, dropping his head over his legs. “Let me catch my breath and I’ll tell you about the last hour.”

  Kevin rocked back on his heels and shot a relieved look at Chris. “See if you can find him some dry clothes and maybe some boots.”

  While Chris was gone, Brandon arrived with a carafe of coffee and a tray full of mugs. “I wasn’t sure how many people would end up in here before the night’s over.” He set the tray down on Kevin’s desk. “There’s more coffee if you need it. Just let me know. I’ll be right outside the door. And I sent Josef to the chapel to get Sister Theresa. She should be here soon.”

  “Thanks,” Kevin said as he stood up. “Would you send someone to ask Gen. Crandal and Darrell to meet us in here as soon as they can? And if you see any other guards out there, ask them to see if they can scrounge up some food, maybe some cheese, bread, something for four or five people.”

  After Brandon left, Kevin poured himself a cup of coffee and asked Marcus if he’d like some. Marcus nodded and started to get up, but Kevin stopped him. “No. Stay put for a few minutes.” He poured Marcus half a cup and handed it to him.

  Marcus took the cup in both hands and sipped the coffee.

  “You said something about slavers.”

  Marcus nodded.

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t see any injuries, but things were happening pretty fast. I didn’t see everyone who lives there, so I don’t know. They might have been hurt or they might have been staying out of the way.”

  “Is anyone in danger from the slavers? Right now?”