Surviving Prophesy: The Immortals

by Frances Howitt

  ‘I feel I should fly you out of here,’ Fabien admitted. ‘You are small enough to carry.’

  ‘Much as I’d love for you to do that, I know there’s a barrier on the window. I’m surprised it’s allowing you to come and go, but then you have a very different signature to a wizard and it’s only me they seem to be blocking.’

  ‘You truly cannot get out?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I thought I could at least take you up to the rooftop where you can call your mate. Is that not possible either?’

  ‘No, or certainly not through that window.’

  ‘I will leave you to rest then,’ Fabien said, dipped into an elegant bow and then jumped out of the window and was gone for the night.

  ***

  Megan woke to find a warm presence curled against her back. As she registered the room and remembered where she was she knew it was not her husband either. She shifted carefully out from under Lemoyne’s arm and discovered his eyes were open.

  ‘Sorry,’ she whispered.

  ‘For what? I haven’t had a woman in my bed to cuddle in a very long time. Thank you. Your husband is a lucky man.’

  Megan sat up and climbed out of the bed hastily. Whilst she knew they had both instinctively sought simple tactile comfort and reassurance from the other, this man was a stranger. She glanced round sensing another presence and winced to find Fabien sitting in the armchair, his eyes bright. Damn.

  ‘Excuse me gentlemen,’ she said and went into the adjoining tiny room to relieve herself and then splash water on her face to wake herself up. She had slept in her underclothes and now remained behind the screen to dress and straighten herself out before she felt ready to face these men.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Lemoyne asked as she reappeared.

  ‘Yes thank you. Your bed is surprisingly comfortable. You are looking a lot better,’ she added, scanning him where he lay.

  ‘Better than I expected to be. What did you do my lady? I’m a bit stronger and I’d hazard a guess that you have paid for that in some way.’

  ‘She gave you her blood,’ Fabian volunteered when she didn’t say anything.

  ‘What? A lady wizard gave me blood? Please, don’t do that again. You do not regenerate as quickly as an immortal and you are pregnant; you need your strength.’

  ‘Lemoyne you were dying. I had to do something to aid you and it worked. I’m a healer, I know how to be careful and I made sure I ate and slept. I’m fine and you’re now stable. It was worth it.’

  ‘What did you do with this?’ he asked pushing back his sleeve carefully and eyeing the draining apparatus. ‘I thought you had removed it, because it doesn’t now hurt, well not much anyway.’

  ‘I wanted to remove it, but you still need more blood in your system and that foul thing does enable me to provide it. I know there’s a risk he might try to take from you again, but even if I removed that, it wouldn’t stop him, he’d just make fresh holes in you.’

  ‘What you say is true. I’m just glad it no longer gives me such pain.’ He watched as she moved over to the cabinet and soon served him a plate of food from the cooler. Fabien ate with them when she offered; although his choices were limited to the dry cured leg of lamb they’d been given. His claws and sharp beak made short work of even that tough meat however, proving that he was naturally equipped with formidable weapons.

  ‘You are married to the Immortal Zacharias?’ Lemoyne asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Megan responded, slightly absently, as she stoked up the fire in the belly of the stove and then put a kettle on the hotplate above.

  ‘May I ask a personal question?’

  ‘What is it you wish to know?’ she asked sitting down on the edge of his bed. Lemoyne’s face was white and pinched; he was not a well man and his voice wavered.

  ‘Forgive me for being indelicate, but are you certain you carry his child?’

  ‘You’ve heard of the seemingly widespread blight of Immortal infertility, I assume?’ she asked and he merely nodded clearly relieved she already knew about it. ‘What do you know?’

  ‘It’s widespread?’ he queried and she nodded, her lips thin. ‘I know Darcourt used me to create the problem.’

  ‘Why would he do such a malicious thing? Nearly every immortal I’ve met had been infected.’

  ‘Had been?’

  ‘I’m a healer,’ she reminded and watched him sag in relief. He’d obviously been carrying around a heavy burden of guilt believing himself partially responsible for the misery and increasing scarcity of his race. ‘How did he do it? No-one remembers being touched or going through any medical treatments by a wizard and believe me, I’ve asked.’

  ‘Darcourt has always been jealous of immortals; not only for our extended lifespan, but that we spend the majority of our life in perfect health. He has done many things over his reign to attack immortals and most of them have been done in secret. The infertility attack was a secret one that took place nearly a hundred years ago.’

  ‘That long?’ Megan blinked in shock. No wonder the village was a quiet place, completely empty of youngsters and that the people were so upset and eager for the cure.

  ‘Once Darcourt’s own health started to deteriorate, about ten years ago, despite having used my blood for decades, he threw one hell of a tantrum. His body was not only rapidly aging but beginning to weaken and shut down. He disappeared into his lab and wasn’t seen for months, as he presumably worked on a cure. I had little choice when he decided to use me for his experiments. He took so much of my blood, and I have no idea what he truly did with it. After he failed, repeatedly, he created many crazy and vicious things in his anger and frustration. Most, fortunately didn’t work. I think primarily because the spells would have required far more power than he wished, or had, to spare. He became jealous of using his own power if it wasn’t strictly necessary. He used Stevens increasingly to run things and whilst he’s no kind soul, his decisions were usually fairer than his father’s would have been. Life here at the castle has improved for most as a result, alas not for me.’

  Megan handed him a mug of tea and sipped her own while she silently waited for him to refresh himself sufficiently to go on. Fabien sat in the single armchair avidly listening. His wings were tucked tightly to his back but he didn’t seem to be uncomfortable leaning on them.

  ‘I must admit to being surprised at how well I’ve been treated so far, considering they kidnapped me,’ she remarked.

  ‘Wizards and especially wizard healers, are due respect. The castle staff works for a wizard lord and have that deference instilled in them. Stevens would have told them who they were going to abduct. Obviously a wizard requires different handling from a non-magically gifted person.’

  ‘I suppose that makes sense,’ she responded with a small shrug.

  ‘You have healed your husband of Darcourt’s infertility spell?’ Lemoyne asked.

  ‘Yes, and about a dozen other couples,’ she told him. ‘How did he infect them?’

  ‘Good. As to the how, well it was scarily simple. On the night of the summer solstice every town and village gets together in celebration. He sent men off with wagons to donate a keg of special ale to each tavern in the country with instructions that this was his gift to honour his people for that celebration. The intention was that everyone would take a glass of that ale in thanks. Of course, it was laced with whatever it was that infected people. If that wasn’t enough, the men were tasked with contaminating the village well water too, to ensure no-one was missed.’

  ‘Ah, that would explain why no-one knew they’d been in contact with a wizard,’ she responded thoughtfully, shaking her head in disgust.

  ‘What kind of infection?’ Fabian asked her when they fell silent. Lemoyne was drifting in and out of sleep.

  ‘I found a parasite in each person,’ she told him. ‘I don’t know what the creature was originally, but it had been altered to seek out those with immortal magic. It was designed to cause infertility in those people and was abl
e somehow to extend its life by using its host’s magic. I’m not sure how he managed to target immortals only, because I imagine animus and wizards would have consumed the same ale and been affected otherwise too.’

  ‘Is he infected?’ Fabian dared ask whilst Lemoyne had wilted against his pillows once more with his eyes closed.

  ‘No, fortunately,’ she responded. His body had enough to repair at the moment without having to deal with something else.

  ‘That’s a hollow mercy considering he’s wrecked the rest of me,’ Lemoyne murmured, proving he wasn’t actually asleep.

  ‘You aren’t wrecked. You could recover just fine,’ she said stoutly. A snort of disbelief came from the bed, and then he turned over and slept.

  ‘Where is your friend?’ Megan asked, remembering there had been two Harpies. ‘Sorry, I don’t know his name.’

  ‘Sabin is keeping watch over our mother,’ he said simply.

  ‘He’s your brother? Ah, that explains much. How long have you both been here?’

  ‘My family have kept a presence here since the disturbances nearly two years ago heralded change was in the wind. Our family is large and we have been taking turns keeping this vigil.’

  ‘What disturbances?’

  ‘This place had been quiet for years, nearly a decade. Then we heard that strange creatures were suddenly being sent out, scouring the country, hunting something. Then a plague of the unnatural beetles were sent out. Thousands of them.’

  ‘Scritchers,’ Lemoyne clarified for her.

  ‘Rumours circulated that they had missed their prey.’

  ‘They were sent after Zacharias and me,’ she told them, ‘the day after Zach and I first met.’

  ‘He must have had someone keeping watch over Zacharias,’ Lemoyne remarked.

  ‘He did. The Mistry said that’s what he’d been doing for about forty years.’

  ‘Oh. Well that makes sense. He wasn’t there all the time though, or his mate would have seriously kicked up a stink. How is Drugal?’

  ‘Dead.’

  ‘Ah. I thought I hadn’t seen him in a while. What happened?’

  ‘He viciously impaled Zach on his claws and abducted him. Two of his friends and I were able to track him. We were just in time to discover Zach had been taken to a very big Scritcher hive. Your friend Drugal held him down until a Scritcher queen came out. She stabbed him with paralysing venom and the swarm carried him into their cave.’

  Fabien’s wings partially unfurled in anger and Lemoyne too expressed his shock, dismay and horror. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Once the Mistry had gone I went into the hive after him. I found another person in that hive, another Immortal. She had been there a while but still lived.’ Megan kept her eyes on Lemoyne. ‘If this is the same person, I believe you are related. Her name is Yolanda.’

  ‘What?’ Lemoyne gasped and lurched back against the wall. ‘Yolanda?’

  ‘I believe her to be your daughter,’ Megan said more gently.

  ‘It can’t be. I thought my little girl died long ago.’

  Megan sent him some images of Yolanda as she’d last seen her, alive and very pregnant. ‘This is Yolanda as of a few days ago.’

  ‘She looks just like her mother,’ Lemoyne murmured in awe. ‘She’s pregnant? Who is her husband?’

  ‘She’s not yet married, although I suspect they will. He is an ancient, perhaps you know him?’ She sent him an image and Lemoyne’s brows rose in surprise.

  ‘Sebastian?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I thought he was already married. I also thought he was no longer around.’

  ‘He said his wife and children were dead; killed long ago. He now lives not far from a whole village of Immortals.’

  ‘Who is the dark haired man with him?’

  ‘My Zacharias. Do you know Schubert or Julius?’ she asked showing him their pictures. ‘Schubert found Yolanda when she was a child and raised her.’

  ‘Yes, yes, this trip down memory lane might be nice for you both, but what happened next? You said you went into a beetle hive? And what’s the story with the Drugal Mistry?’ Fabien asked impatiently.

  ‘I managed to get Zach and Yolanda out. I then had to remove the larvae from their bodies that were eating them alive,’ she told them and watched them both recoil again. ‘That Drugal character had left him there to be tortured. He would know the paralysis does not stop the victim’s pain or awareness.’

  ‘This is appalling,’ Lemoyne exclaimed.

  ‘Having checked there were no other living people trapped in the hive I burnt it out. There were thousands of them in there and I was surrounded. I nearly died. Fortunately, I’d killed most of them before I passed out. Zach had to carry me outside. After that, and because Yolanda also needed care and time to recover, we went to Schubert’s home. It was there that Drugal found us. He again tried to abduct Zach, presumably to bring him here. We were not divided that time however and prevented him getting away. Schubert is a powerful warrior and engaged him in battle, so Drugal could no longer cling onto Zach. I disabled his wings so he couldn’t fly off. However, what he’d also done was call some Scritchers. I don’t know if you’re aware but Scritchers prefer Immortal blood to any other. He expected the Scritchers to do his work. But in the end they were his downfall. I detected them and pulled my friends back just in time. There were about twenty Scritchers and they could smell his wounds. They circled him and with his wings broken he couldn’t escape when they attacked. He fought for a time but inevitably fell. When he asked for it I granted him the relief of a lance of flame to the heart.’ She glanced up noticing another presence. ‘Do come in Sabin.’

  ‘Is it safe?’

  ‘Safe?’

  ‘To approach such a fearsome warrior wizard.’

  ‘Me?’ she queried. ‘I’m a woman; I merely defend those I love.’

  ‘You have the spirit of a Harpy female,’ Fabien remarked in clear approval. ‘You are fiercely defensive of all those you take under your wing.’

  ‘You barely know me.’

  ‘What brings you Sabin?’ Fabien asked instead.

  ‘It may be nothing, but a number of the guardsmen have suddenly started running about in the great hall.’ He paused to glance at the wizard, ‘the hall doors have been propped open.’

  ‘What?’ Lemoyne exclaimed. ‘Darcourt never lets them be left open; he’s too worried someone will escape.’

  ‘Did you see any strangers in the yard?’ Fabien asked quickly.

  ‘I didn’t notice any, but then I wasn’t really looking. You did say you thought her mate would not reach here for at least another day.’

  ‘Someone’s coming,’ Sabin whispered.

  ‘Take care, my lady,’ Fabien whispered before following his brother out the window.

  ‘I have a bad feeling,’ Megan whispered to Lemoyne. ‘Get dressed,’ she added bringing him his trousers, sweater and shoes while he slowly clambered out of bed. He was still very weak, so she aided him. Fortunately, her blood and lots of food and drink had helped.

  ‘You are to come with us,’ a guardsman announced and took her arm. He eyed a white faced Lemoyne lying on top of the bed but dressed. ‘We’ve to bring him too.’

  ‘He hasn’t the strength to stand, let alone walk,’ Megan warned, wishing they’d leave him here where he’d at least be safe from Darcourt’s grasp. The guardsmen seemed to have been expecting to carry him though. One man went behind and wrapped his arms around Lemoyne’s chest under his arms, while another took his feet. She could feel the coiled tension in each of the guardsmen. Unfortunately, with their minds shielded, she didn’t know what the cause was.

  29

  Megan stepped into the great hall and several things became apparent at once. Darcourt sat on his throne and turned to grin at her. At his feet knelt Zacharias, his hands bound behind his back. The trap had been sprung and Darcourt had a fresh immortal in his possession. She met Zach’s beautiful blue eyes and saw the love an
d determination burning in them.

  ‘Make sure Schubert doesn’t do anything stupid,’ he whispered into her mind.

  Megan looked beyond him and found, in amongst a dense concentration of guardsmen, the tall warrior. He was bound, but still he struggled. ‘Peace Schubert,’ she whispered and he went still. ‘Save your strength. Not all here are as loyal as this bastard thinks they are.’ She bit her lip noticing Brendon beside him, equally bound, but already still. ‘The Harpies are allies,’ she whispered to both Schubert and Brendon, trying to avoid looking up at the window that they’d settled into.

  ‘Who is that they are carrying in?’ Zacharias asked her.

  ‘Lemoyne, Yolanda’s father. His blood is what has kept Darcourt going all these years. As you can see, they need a new blood donor. I won’t let this happen to you Zach.’

  ‘We knew this would be a trap,’ Zacharias admitted. ‘There was little choice but to come anyway. At least I get to see you again.’

  ‘Said your goodbyes?’ Darcourt chortled. ‘It’s so good of you to bring me such a fine, strong, immortal. I’m looking forward to tasting his strength.’

  ‘You’re disgusting. You won’t get away with this.’

  ‘Who’s going to stop me? You?’ Darcourt sneered nodding to his hovering son.

  ‘No!’ Megan cried, seeing wizard Stevens walk over to Zach with a needle. She tried to reach them, but she was physically restrained and what’s more, they had shielded themselves from her.

  She glanced over at Schubert and his steady gaze settled her panic. They needed help, right now. She glanced up at the Harpies, but what could they do? They’d be shot before they’d even flown down. Harpies; statues! She was close to a statue and she turned her attention to it, reading the last bit of the spell signature that had been ambiguously eroded on the elf. Biting her lip against looking at what was happening to Zach, she reached for the strongest spell signature she could find and began unravelling it. It was complicated and she was desperate to get it done quickly, but she knew better than to rush. Schubert was here. If Zach was seriously depleted before she succeeded, she knew she could rely on him to help. That knowledge helped steady her emotions.