by Jill Cooper
“I’ll get them out,” Markus said. “There are tunnels that go far and wide. The ravengers won’t be able to track all of them. Stay with Sebastian and do as he says. He knows where your path lies; he’ll see you there.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Markus had moved away, shepherding people down a narrow hallway. “I’ll find you! Get going now. There’s no time to lose.” He moved fast, and I was left alone with Sebastian, who gazed after his father, pain and worry on his face.
“He’ll be all right,” he sighed, “he’s stubborn as a mule, and as tough as one.” His words were said to comfort me, but I think he needed to hear them for himself. “Do you trust me, Tarnish Rose?”
I wasn’t sure that I did; he’d let George die for me, but I knew that the mission was everything to him, so I nodded. When he offered me his hand, I took it and we ran from the dining hall. We passed through the double-wide doors and headed onto the scaffolding leading down.
Above us, the ravengers in red robes called out, their hands extended. They were close. So close.
Keeping our heads down, we raced down the stairs. The ravengers swooped down to catch us and we ducked. A scream went out through the group as we hurried, low to the ground. Sebastian led us into another cavern type room. A heavy wooden gate was fixed to the rock wall and together we closed it, locking it shut.
“That was close,” I said and stared around, noticing for the first time we were surrounded by little beds—this was where the children slept.
Sebastian’s jaw clenched, and his eyes shone with determination as he took my hand. “We keep moving. If we can find a way to the hidden caverns, we can make our way to the barrier. Once we’re on the other side, they’ll lose us. The ravengers aren’t welcome across the mountain pass we’ll be taking.”
I wanted to ask more about what we were doing as Sebastian tugged on my arm and led me through. We went through a series of caves and grottos leading to more scaffolding. I stepped on the platform, but my weight caused the scaffolding to sway and I gasped, grabbing tightly onto the metal railing beside me.
“Careful. These old ones aren’t used anymore, but it’s the only way to the caverns from this direction.”
I swallowed hard and stepped forward gingerly toward a ladder. Sebastian went first and as I fell forward onto the next scaffolding, he caught me by the waist.
“Thanks,” I said with a rush of fear
“Still trust me?” Sebastian asked with a smile, but his eyes were fraught with nerves.
I avoided his question. “How much further?”
“Not much.” Sebastian pointed off in the distance and while far off, I could do nothing but follow his lead.
We ran down the metal ladder, picking up speed as the entire structure felt like it might come down on us. Holding hands, we jumped down to the rocky terrain and I saw what looked like a hole in the rocks, leading down to a dark abyss.
“There?” I asked, terror filling me. Please, let it not be in there.
Sebastian nodded. “It’s the only way. I’ll lead you down…”
His words were interrupted by a terrible scream. I glanced back as I saw a flutter of red coming down from far above. It moved fast, the speed suggesting a free fall and whatever it was, it hunted me.
Sebastian drew his sword. “Tarnish Rose, there’s something we’ve neglected to tell you. We didn’t want to scare you. We thought—”
His words were cut off as something fell on us. Metal boots collided with my back and sent me sprawling. My nose bounced off of the rock and I groaned. Sebastian was thrown clear and lost his sword. His body ricocheted off of the rocks, and tumbled right over the edge of the cliff.
Oh no! Not Sebastian, too!
I scurried away but was seized from behind and lifted off my feet. Surprised at the sight of a woman holding me, my mouth gaped open. A red cloak covered her black metal armor, similar to her boots. Her black curls streaked red with vengeance and her eyes shone brightly with unnatural magic.
“Why?” I croaked. Of all the questions that I could have asked, I didn’t know why that was the one I’d chosen.
“You call to us, Abby Taylor. All of us.”
She knew my name. My real name. I opened my mouth to speak as she dropped me again onto the ground. My back crunched against the rock and I winced, calling out on impact. “Those books,” she said, as she stepped over my body, peering down at me, “won’t save you now.”
She held up her staff. An intricate pattern of runes carved up through the center. Blue magic dust shot out through the designs, subtle but brilliant. Out the top of her staff, the magic flowed blue like fire.
Pivoting the staff, she turned it and touched it to my forehead. Pain seared against my skin. The louder I screamed, the more I hurt. Visions flashed in my mind.
A sky. A mountain. An old fortress I had never seen before. The woman who had me, now I knew her name was Temptress—or at least that’s what she was now called.
And something else I didn’t except to see. A great tower and inside of it, a man under lock and key; George, lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, his eyes vacant, sad, a trail of blood leaving his temple.
George. This woman had George? He wasn’t dead!
I struggled to sit up and the woman known as Temptress backed off, holding her staff offensively. “He will be my King unless you do what I say. Do you wish to save him? Or do you wish to watch his soul wither and die?”
“Tell me what to do? What do you want!”
“Give me your books.”
My books? I couldn’t give this evil, vile woman my books.
“Do you understand?”
I nodded. Beyond her shoulder, I saw Sebastian standing up on the rocks, his sword back in his hand. He was okay. He was here, and he could help me—only if I kept this woman’s attention on me.
I took the messenger bag off of my shoulder and placed it on my lap. The woman extended her hand to me. “That’s it. Hand it over here and your deepest desires will come true.”
Sebastian approached her from behind, his sword raised high. He only needed a few more seconds so I leaned forward to give her my satchel. At the last possible moment, I removed the dagger from my boot and plunged it into her arm.
She reared up and screamed, her arms thrown back. I took the opportunity to scurry away, heading toward the hole in the rocks. “Sebastian!”
His voice came strong and powerful. “Go! I’ll be right after you.” Sebastian’s knees were bent and his sword slashed out, clashing with the woman’s staff.
I felt so helpless. How could I fight someone like her? How could I do anything if all I could do was read? I had power when I read books, but I didn’t know how to control it. I wasn’t ready for this.
I flung my body down the hole. It was so dark inside, but I could feel the winds on my face. There was a river flowing through the canal I fell into. Plunging deep into icy water was a shock to my system. I quickly returned to the surface and coughed. I couldn’t swim, but I gripped the side of a row boat and pulled myself on board.
Struggling for air, I rubbed my arms, huddling for heat. Another body plunged into the water beside me. “I’m here!” I called out, shivering, listening to the splashes. Then the boat rocked when Sebastian climbed in. I gasped and gripped the side as the water sloshed around.
“Easy, it’ll be okay.” Sebastian leaned over and untied the rope anchoring the boat, then using the face of the rock, pushed us away so we’d head downstream.
“What happened to that woman?”
“I hurt her, but not fatally. She’ll survive.” He picked up a long oar and slowly the boat propelled forward. As we rounded the corner, Sebastian tapped the wall with the blunt end of his oar and everything lit up around us as lanterns on the walls came to life, brightly lit like miniature suns encased in glass.
I had never seen anything like it. “What is this place?”
“Part of the old world,” Sebastian said quietly, “befo
re the hunters came and took over our world. It will take us to the Unforgiving Lands.”
How had the hunters ever happened to enter our world. I had to wonder. “Won’t they find us?”
“They might know where we’ve gone but they won’t follow where we’re headed. They’re scared of her.”
“Her? Her who?”
“She roams the land we’re headed to. Sh keeps the ravengers out. She doesn’t have a name that I know of, we simply call her what she is. Dragon.”
“A dragon?” My heart skipped a beat as I said it. “An honest to goodness wing-flapping fire-breathing dragon?”
“Don’t you believe in such things?” Sebastian said with a coy smile. “Here I thought the great curator, the reader and protector of books, believed in all things.”
“I think I rather wish I didn’t.” I bit my lip. “Will she hurt us?”
Sebastian gave a laugh. “Only if she catches us.”
Quietly, I reflected on his words. “That woman has George. I saw it when the staff touched me.” I studied Sebastian’s face and saw he wasn’t surprised. “Did you know they’d take him? The ravengers work for her, don’t they?”
“I didn’t know, but I was hopeful. I know what you’re thinking, but without the library we can’t charge her tower. We would be imprisoned, or killed. Only after our quest can we go after George.”
“And you would have told me? You would’ve offered to help me go after George?”
“Of course, I would have.”
He said it, but I didn’t trust his words. Something about his tone was wrong. “You said there was something you didn’t tell me before. Maybe now would be a good time to get it all in the open.”
Sebastian’s jaw was tight. “We call her Temptress. Centuries ago, she was supposed to stop the blight on the world known as the Dark Lord Creighton. She lost and was….changed, imprisoned here, forever forced to roam, never able to find the way back to the Civilized Lands.”
I sucked on my lip. She’d had my task and had failed? I thought on what it was she had become and felt myself sinking toward despair. How could I do what she couldn’t?
“She turns men and their hearts away from our cause and toward hers. That is why she is called Temptress. No one knows her real name. Not anymore.”
“But you know who she is?”
“I know what she was.” Sebastian’s eyes dropped to meet mine and in them I saw fear and sadness. “She was a curator.”
Just like me... “And if I fail?”
Sebastian nodded. “You’ll end up just like her.”
Chapter Thirty-two
Minister of City Affairs
The minister sat at his desk, his shiny head dripping with sweat. He held his cane firmly in one hand while the other shone a blue light directly onto the crumpled-up form of Margret on his office rug.
She quivered and curled into a fetal position and her mouth parted, dry saliva stuck to her lip. Her eyes stared at nothing as the minister used his cane to brace himself, bending over and shining the light onto her head. They had been at this for over an hour with a reprieve here or there.
Now, Margret’s skin rose with goosebumps and her face contorted as a meek whine escaped her. The minister studied the blue haze that beamed into her brain, looking for memories and ideas that showed she was a rebel or showed she knew the location of the rebel base.
But there was nothing. Discouraged and growing thin on patience, the minister sighed and paced away, using his cane to travel the length of his office faster than he normally did.
There had to be something he was missing. There had to be something in there somewhere. If Margret was friends with Abby Taylor, they had to be in collusion with each other. George had spoken out against the ministers and their way of life, he was connected since childhood to Abby, as was Margret.
Abby was the starting point where it had all started, but if Margret didn’t know where Abby was, that left the minister with little choice about what to do next. He had his orders.
“Please,” Margret lifted her head and shook with strain. “I know nothing else. Please let me go.”
“Go?” the minister barked with a laugh. “There will be no release. No end to your suffering until I find Ms. Taylor. If you don’t know where to find her, you are useless to us. As a thief and a street rat, you are a stain upon your family.”
The minister bent over Margret once more and hit her brain with a blue wave of power stronger than she could handle. Her back arched as he slowly chipped away at her brain. The minister didn’t watch her pain to see how close she was to becoming brain dead. No, he watched it for pleasure.
Stop what you’re doing. Step away from the girl.
A death hunter in his office? Since when?
The minister leaped back, twisting on his ankle and nearly sprained it. He righted himself and stared over at his window as the Dark Lord Creighton entered. Two death hunters stayed at the window.
“Sire!” The minister got down on one knee in front of him, the one who only referred to himself as king. He had been first, and the minister had received the curse of his touch long ago.
Dark Lord Creighton stopped at the minister only long enough to show off his red eyes, then continued his way over toward Margret. She cried out and rolled her face into the rug as he glided above her, his cloaked head bent down as he studied her. Her body quaked as the lord did his best to see what was in her mind.
Her mind is confused. The rebels are on the run. Their location was discovered when someone read from a book. I suspect it is Abby Taylor.
A book? An actual book? Well Abby was even more dangerous than the minister had feared. He bent his head down low as the death hunter continued to address him.
It’s time to end the façade set up by her family. Take the death hunters with you.
“At once, my Lord,” the minister bowed deep, his knees quivering with fear.
As for this one, the dark lord lifted his deadly palm toward her brain and Margret bared her teeth, shrieking out in terror. I have other plans for her. She will be of use to me until her rotted corpse drops to my feet.
Margret’s scream raged on and the minister closed his eyes, keeping his head bent. This was his least favorite part of the job. The only part that could make him remember who he had once been, and remember the suffering he had once gone through—just as she did now.
There was no greater pain than becoming an agent of evil and what humanity the minister had, silently wept for Margret, as she slowly began to lose hers.
****
“Our daughter will be back any day now, Minister.” Sandra Taylor’s smile showed signs of cracking along the side as the minister held the door open for the death hunters. Three swarmed inside.
Sandra backed up as they entered, and Robert put an arm around her chest from behind to calm her, her rapid heartbeat was something that the minister could hear. One of the death hunters circled while the rest continued the scan of their stores belongings.
“Now, wait a second…” Robert stuttered. “We’re good, law abiding people. Our daughter will one day be a merchant. She’s allowed to—”
His words were cut off as the death hunter lifted his hand and pointed at Sandra.
I know you.
She shuddered and swept her eyes away but the minister slammed his cane down onto the tile floor. “This conversation will be continued down at my office. No harm will come to you…if we find you’re not hiding anything.”
He knew very well that they were. It was written in Sandra’s eyes and in the way Robert perspired. The death hunters escorted them outside where something else waited for them. Another death hunter. But this one sat on a gray-and-white horse with red eyes. She sat tall and her once-blonde hair was now grey and lifeless as it stuck out from beneath her cloak. A golden medallion swung from her neck.
Robert swallowed hard as her horse turned and they got a good view of her face. “Margret,” he whispered, and his lip quivered. �
�Goodness, no. What have you done to her? She was just a girl. Just a baby, minister!”
The minister inspected Margret’s gray skin and her protruding dark eyes that were circled with a blue haze, just like his own. “We made her even greater than a death hunter. Something that straddles the line between death and life. She is the first, Mr. Taylor. The first death assassin that can walk among the living and the dead of the hunters. She will one day grow a legion, but first, a simple task.” The minister smiled at the parents and noted with glee how pale Sandra had grown. “First, she’s going to find your daughter and put an end to her treachery.”
Robert’s eyes filled with tears. “Stay away from our daughter.”
The minister swatted the horse on its hind legs and it raced out of the city, with Margret lying low to grab the reigns, her cloak billowing behind her.
“They’ll know each other without words. Just as we know you,” the minister snarled at Sandra and she stood straighter, “librarian.”
Her eyes widened, and she gasped as Robert pulled her arm closer to him in a protective embrace, but he couldn’t hide her from the Minister’s eyes. He saw her clearly now, even if everything she did was meant to protect her secret.
Sandra gasped. “Well, I never even heard that word before. If you think your words scare me, you’ll find yourself in for a surprise, Minister.”
“My words should scare you. They scare everyone, your husband especially.” And it was true. Robert shook beside her and his eyes darted around so the minister couldn’t meet them.
The minister snapped his fingers and a death hunter gathered close. “Escort them down to my office. Leave us,” the minister took in the sight of their quaint shop and wondered what secrets its walls hid. “I’m not done here. But soon, I will be.”
He laughed. “We all will be.”
Epilogue
The Temptress
A whirlwind portal returned the Temptress to the edge of her domain in the free lands. On a black stallion with liquid red eyes, she charged across the barren wastelands toward what could only be described as her fortress tower; but it was cold and detached. The temptress had no attachment to it other than to protect what was hers.
