[The Elustria Chronicles 03.0] Magic Betrayed

by Caethes Faron

  “I didn’t expect it to be you,” Gareth said.

  “After recent developments, I couldn’t trust this to anyone else. Too many people have let me down as of late.”

  “I’m honored.”

  “Your honor doesn’t do many good. You said you had intelligence that needed to be passed in person. This better be worth the risk of me being here.”

  Who was this high-level operative?

  “Oh, it is. I have for you a complete list of CCS personnel.” Gareth produced a tightly wound scroll and passed it to the cloaked figure.

  Pieces came crashing into place. I'd been so foolish not to see the signs. It’d been Kellan who had suggested we get the list that day. I had thought nothing of it. I let my desire for the information cloud my judgment. I knew there was a golem in our midst, and never once had I thought it might be Kellan. He took the scroll first and looked over every single name before he handed it to me. Through him, Gareth got the list he now handed over to the Directorate.

  Poor Kellan. He was a superb agent, one of the best. The book said that to be susceptible to golem magic, a person had to have a weakness to exploit. I couldn’t imagine what Kellan’s weakness was. He was one of the CCS’s most capable agents. All he ever wanted to do was help me, and now my negligence would get him and every other mage I knew killed.

  Ah, his weakness. Me, or rather, his feelings for me.

  The cloaked figure looked over the paper as Kellan had. “This was worth the risk. With this we can take them all out. Without the CCS, we’ll have no barrier standing between us and the sorcerers. Admirable work.”

  “Thank you, Director.”

  This was the Director? We’d never identified him. We didn’t know his name, yet he had the name of every CCS agent and their current assignment.

  “There’ve been some changes to our plans. Mistakes have been made, mistakes that may need to be rectified with blood. You'll be acting on this intelligence sooner than you think. How’s the girl? Have you gathered any intelligence about what she knows?”

  “No, she doesn’t speak about it, and I searched her room repeatedly. There’s no sign of any notes Meglana might have left.”

  “You’re to keep trying for the information. If you need to get closer to her, do it. Something is not working, and we can’t figure out what it is. We can’t advance to the next phase of our plan until we have that intelligence, and our timetable has been stepped up. I don’t care if you have to get her drunk and give her truth serum, do it.”

  “It’s not that easy. Besides, she wouldn’t fall for something like that. She’s smart, and taking such heavy-handed measures would only expose me.”

  “You’ve already delivered the list of personnel, so other than Meglana’s notes, there’s no worthwhile intelligence you can provide. I can’t have an operative who is dead weight. Do you take my meaning?”

  “Yes, Director. Do you want her to live?”

  “Only until we get the intelligence we need from her. Then, do what you must.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Do not question me, Gareth. Now tell me what they’re saying about the dead sorcerer who was found.”

  “They’re running scared. The—”

  A sound to the left drew all of our attention. A little fae girl, only about a foot and a half tall, skipped toward us. “Hey, what are you doing? Why can’t I see your face?”

  “Director, get out of here. I’ll take care of this.” Gareth advanced on the imp, withdrawing his wand from its holster. The Director left at an enchanted speed. If I moved now, I’d expose myself. If I didn’t, Gareth would kill that fae child.

  I had to take action, but I might be able to do it without exposing myself.

  Remaining hidden behind the tree, I sent a burst of energy toward his wand hand, hoping to disarm him. Gareth’s grip on his wand only tightened as he whirled in my direction. I conjured a cyclone, lifting him into the air and tossing him to and fro. Without thinking, I yelled to the fae, “Run!”

  Too late I realized I had not cloaked my voice.

  “Kat Thomas, I’ve underestimated you.” A bolt of lightning struck the tree that shielded me and electricity ran through my body. Unable to maintain magic through the pain, my cloak and the cyclone vanished. Gareth fell to the ground relatively unharmed and stood with his wand pointed directly at me.

  “You’re not going to kill me, not before your master gets what he wants from me.” That he couldn’t kill me was to my advantage. My mind raced through the options. If I killed him, I’d have to convince the Council I was right about him being the mole. I didn’t have any hard proof to give them, only my word.

  “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? Am I supposed to be impressed that you listened in on our conversation?”

  They’d have to believe me. I had to kill him. I shot a barrage of ice arrows at him. While he countered some of them, several hit their mark. He yelled in pain, the sound turning my stomach. Killing may have come easier to me now than it once did, but at least I didn’t take pleasure in it.

  With a gush of wind, I flew backward and crashed into a tree, knocking the wind out of me. But my body didn’t fall to the forest floor, instead, my arms were wrenched painfully behind my back and bound with a magical binding.

  "There’s no reason for you to make this hard on yourself,” Gareth said in a sickly sweet tone.

  He must not have realized I didn’t need my hands to perform magic. I was half sorcerer, dammit. Magic ran through my veins. More power sat in the talisman on my chest than he could ever hope to obtain in a lifetime. I called down a storm of acid. The same acid that burned my skin during the trials, the trials that Gareth had rigged. Gareth screamed, and in his rage he sent one last spell my way. I felt the right side of my body from my shoulder to my ankle rip open. Pain overwhelmed me, consumed my senses.

  I fell to the ground, and the only screams remaining were mine. I looked where Gareth had stood, but instead of his lifeless body, there was nothing. I lay torn and bleeding out on the forest floor, and Gareth had gotten away.

  Twenty-Nine

  Gareth was on his way to the Citadel. He’d show the Council what I had done to him, the wounds from my attack. And what if Lilibet had escaped? I wished I hadn’t had to leave her in section five like that, but I didn’t have a choice. She would confirm that I was not who I seemed. There was no escaping that I had lied to them all. Good intentions or not, those lies came at a price. If I had fooled them into thinking I was a full-blooded mage, then it wasn’t that much of a stretch to realize I’d fooled them into thinking I wasn’t a Directorate operative.

  And that was just the damage caused by the truth. Who knew what lies Gareth would tell? It was only a matter of time. Would I die here alone before the Council could get to me? In a weird way that seemed more satisfying. The thought of dying behind the Citadel walls, the subject of suspicion and mistrust, sickened me.

  If I died, there would be no more witness to the truth. Gareth would continue his work as a Councilor, the head of security, and a Directorate operative. If anything, he’d be heralded as a hero.

  Meanwhile, the head of the Directorate had a list of all CCS personnel. Kellan’s name was on that list. Priya’s. Darian, who was out in the field even as I lay here helpless and bleeding. His mission had been hamstrung by my silence. If I had been forthright with what I’d known, it might’ve altered the mission. It might’ve kept him safer. Darian might be a jerk, but that was no reason to wish him dead.

  And none of it mattered anyway. If Darian came back safely from his current mission, he’d only be facing death at the order of the Director.

  No, I couldn’t let that happen. But what could I do? Time wasn’t on my side, and I had already wasted precious minutes of it wallowing in self-pity.

  The fae child who had stood back and watched the fight crept curiously toward me.

  “Please, can you help me?” I nodded to her.

  The fae came closer a
nd scrunched up her face at the nasty sight of my wound. “I can’t fix that.”

  Millhook. He would know what to do. Wherever Millhook was, Alex was almost certainly with him. Alex could heal me. He’d done it before. I couldn’t summon Millhook on my own. I didn’t have the strength to get to a tree. “I need you to summon someone. His name is Millhook. Can you do that?”

  The fae nodded and hopped off to the nearest tree. I hoped he would bring Alex with him though there was no reason for him to. The time it would take for him to get here, assess the situation, go back for Alex, and make a portal to bring them both here might be too much.

  I struggled to keep my eyes open to make sure the fae did as she said she would. I don’t know if I failed or if I just blinked at the wrong moment, but when I opened my eyes, Millhook and Alex stood before me.

  “Alex. You came.” Relief poured through me. It’d been so long since I’d seen him.

  “Of course.” Without another word, he shifted into his panther form and began licking my wound.

  “I was summoned with the word help,” Millhook said. “When Alex saw it, there was no keeping him away.”

  I looked to the fae child. “Thank you.”

  She nodded and skipped away as if this were an ordinary occurrence.

  “What happened? Who did this to you?” Millhook asked.

  “Gareth. He’s the mole.”

  “Well I’ll be. Never would’ve guessed him. Of course, when you’re that good looking and charming, there’s gotta be something not right about you. The world don’t work like that. So what happened? I don’t see his body anywhere.” Millhook looked around one more time to be sure.

  “No, he went back to the Citadel. We’ve got to get out of here. They’ll be coming.”

  Millhook shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s safe to move you. Need to make sure you’re healed enough first.”

  “He’s already got a head start on us. I need to go.” I pushed up on my elbows and groaned in pain. Alex growled, pushing me back down with his nose and getting back to work.

  “You best stay put until he says otherwise. When it comes to matters of healing, Furball here is in charge.”

  “But they’re coming. I know it.” Any second I expected to see Gareth, Calista, and Thaddeus leading the Citadel guards, ready to kill me. But it wouldn’t be that easy, would it? As Calista had often said, the goal wasn’t to kill but to capture. They’d take me back, and thanks to the work Alex had already done, I might live for a while. They’d question me. They wouldn’t believe my answers. I could take truth serum. There wasn’t anything to lose now.

  What was I thinking? Gareth, the new hero, the head of security, would find a way to kill me. Or maybe not. Hadn’t the Director told him to get more information from me? Perhaps he’d try his own interrogation. It wouldn’t work. I’d sooner die than give up any of my mother’s secrets to him. I wouldn’t betray the CCS or the Council even if they thought I’d already betrayed them. Would he get frustrated and kill me then? At this point, it might be preferable. If they wouldn’t believe me, maybe my best bet would be to goad him into losing his temper.

  “Don’t worry, Kat, you’re not alone anymore.” Millhook sat next to me and stroked my hair. “I’m not gonna let anything happen. Just lie there, and if they come, I’ll port us out. You won’t have to do a thing.”

  My strength returned in increments. My thoughts cleared, and I didn’t feel as cold. I looked down. Apparently more of my blood was staying in my body than leaving it now, but it stained Alex’s muzzle, clung to his whiskers like raindrops. His eyes stayed focused on the wound he healed, never sparing a look for my face.

  My intense study of Alex meant I saw the second his ears twitched, the first time he sniffed the air instead of me. They were coming. He turned to Millhook and nodded. The imp didn’t hesitate. One second I was on the ground in the Flamewood Forest and the next I was on a bed in what appeared to be a little one-room cabin.

  “Don’t mind the mess,” Millhook said as he snapped and some dirty dishes disappeared. “But this oughta do us.”

  Thirty

  “Is this your house, Millhook?” I looked around the little hut. I only fit on the bed with my knees up to my chest. Alex’s bulk filled much of the space. There was a little kitchen with a table and chairs, a closet, bathroom, and a cozy fireplace.

  “Naturally. Whose house would it be? Would I just port you into some random person’s house?” Millhook looked at me as if he expected an answer, and then his eyes lightened as if the answer had come to him. “Actually, that does sound kind of like me.”

  Alex shifted into his human form, never taking his eyes off of me. “How are you feeling? You lost a lot of blood.”

  “I’m much better. Thanks to you, I think I’ll live.”

  “Don’t joke like that.” Between the serious line of his mouth and the cloud of concern around his eyes, he appeared much older than the last time we’d seen each other.

  “It’s not a joke.” I wondered how many more times Alex would save my life.

  “Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Millhook asked as he perched on the edge of the bed next to me.

  “Well, after you told me that the code might be connected to the elves, I did some research in the restricted section of the library. I decoded it, and it was instructions to meet tonight. Lilibet walked in on me, and I didn’t have any choice if I wanted to find out who the mole was. So I bound her and ported there.”

  “You bound her? Oh dear. That is not going to go over well, especially with Thaddeus,” Millhook said.

  “I know, but I had to. I got there, and Gareth was meeting with the head of the Directorate. Gareth handed over a list of all the CCS personnel, and then they were interrupted and the Director fled. That’s when Gareth and I fought. There was this fae child who appeared, and I had to protect her. Afterward, she summoned you.”

  Millhook hooted with laughter. “That wasn’t a child. She was nearly eighty years old.”

  “I don’t care how old the fae was,” Alex said. “What happened in the fight? Did you seriously wound him?”

  “I almost killed him, but he got the upper hand. He left me alive because he feared for his life if he stayed long enough to finish the job.”

  “That’s my girl.” Millhook patted my hand. “Always leave them looking just as bad.”

  “That’s not helpful, Millhook.” Worry etched fine lines in the corners of Alex’s eyes. “We should take you to Earth. Enough of this playing around in mage politics. This isn’t your fight. You didn’t even know you were a mage until less than a year ago. Come back to Earth with me. Return to your human life. I can stay human with you.”

  “I can’t do that. If I leave now, every mage I’ve met here is going to die. The Director wants them dead, all of them. He won’t rest until no one stands in his way. And then he has every intention of fighting sorcerers. He’ll figure out how to make talismans if he hasn’t already. The Directorate has already killed one sorcerer that we know of for his magic. One by one they’ll pick off innocent sorcerers until the Circle figures it out. Then the sorcerers are going to declare war, not on the Directorate but on all mages. If we can steal their magic, that’s too great a threat for them to allow.”

  Alex clenched his jaw and his lips tightened as if he tried to contain himself. “This doesn’t concern you. You don’t have to die. You can go away from all this. Nicole misses you. You could have a life there on Earth. Finish school, get a job, or don’t, but you’ll be alive.”

  “Alive how?” I took his hand, trying to get him to understand. “I couldn’t live with myself. And how could you want to associate with someone who would turn her back on innocent people?”

  Alex jerked his hand out of mine and took a step back from the bed. “They’re the ones who are turning their backs on you. You wanted to be out in the field, you earned it. They’re the ones who stood in your way. They brought this on themselves. They should’ve trusted
you.”

  “Trust is a two-way street, and I could’ve made the first move, but I didn’t.”

  “You had good reason. Gareth was the mole, the head of security, the man responsible for your safety. If you had trusted them, everything you know would be in the Directorate’s hands.”

  I had never seen Alex this worked up. “And I’m sure they had their reasons too. I don’t like defending their decision to bench me, so please don’t make me.”

  Millhook pointed at Alex. “So that’s one for Earth”—then he pointed at me—“and one for staying here. Am I the tiebreaker vote?”

  “Yes, you should cast a vote too, Millhook.” I nodded to him. He would understand the situation and the implications better than Alex.

  “No, this has nothing to do with Millhook,” Alex said.

  “Excuse me, you’re sitting in my house, and I’m the one who provides transportation for this little party, so it does concern me. All right, my vote is for Earth. Let’s get out of here and start our crime-fighting team.” Millhook hopped off of the bed and rubbed his hands together.

  “I think that’s an excellent idea,” Alex said while he smugly smiled at me.

  “No, Millhook may have a vote, but my vote counts twice…er…three times. My life, I’m making the choices. The Council doesn’t get to decide, you don’t get to decide, and our little Sherlock imp over there doesn’t get to decide either. For me, there isn’t a choice. I have to stay. I have to do what I can.”

  “And what is it you can do?” Alex walked back to the bed, looking down on me with steel in his eyes. “Do you get that Gareth is there right now calling you a traitor? Even before this, you weren’t a field agent. They’ve kept you on the bench this entire time. So what is it you think you’re going to do? You think they’re going to give you a chance to explain? How well has that worked for you in the past?”

  “She may not be able to explain her case, but I can,” Millhook said. “Calista still trusts me. I’ve never done her wrong. They’ve probably returned to the Citadel by now. I’ll find her and explain the situation. She’ll listen to me, and if she doesn’t, I’ll come back here and we can go to Earth.”