Scorched Treachery (Imdalind #3)

by Rebecca Ethington

  Thom tiptoed through rubble as he led our way to the only remaining turret in the area. The tall pillar of stone still housed the large cathedral bell. The tower worked best as a guardhouse, which is what Thom had been using it as. The muscles in my face tensed as we climbed, the silence dragging on and on, leaving me to worry about what Thom had found.

  I could desperately grasp at the hope of seeing Ovailia burst through the trees that surrounded the Abbey, Ryland’s body in her arms, but I knew better. Thom would have given me more information if it was good news.

  The large wooden door at the top of the spiral staircase opened of its own accord, and I felt Thom move beyond it, up into the large opening. Moonlight filtered through the rounded stone opening, casting confusing shadows on the walls around us. The ancient bell hung from wound rope the size of my arm, dust sprinkling down around it as the rope creaked and moved in the breeze. I followed Thom’s energy pattern and the dust footprints that lined the floor until he came to a stop, our backs to the bell as we looked out on the forest.

  “Are you there?” Thom whispered, his reluctance to be heard flushing through me like ice.

  “Yes.”

  “What do you see?” I fought the urge to command Thom to simply tell me, reminding myself it was not his way, just as commanding people to do my bidding should not be mine .

  I scanned the trees in front of us at his request, the dark shapes of the trees barely visible amongst the black mass of nature. I looked above them in hopes of finding what he was talking about before returning to the trees, a bright light having caught my attention.

  The yellow-gold flickers of a fire were nestled between the trees, casting a shadow through the dark stumps and making long bright fingers amongst the strips of black. Several bodies cut off the light as they moved around it, making the intimidating shadows flicker and move.

  I watched the light for a moment, trying to make sense of it in a non-territorial way before another light flickered through the trees. One after another they appeared, disappeared, and re-appeared as bodies and objects moved in front of them, cutting off the light that reached my eyes.

  My heart thumped heavily in my chest as I watched the lights flicker, the magical pulses going on and off. The magical current I had felt before washed over me again, the strength of it tingling up my spine. My muscles tensed as I focused on it, my eyes narrowed at the lights before me. The magical flow wasn’t one I recognized. The concentrated nature of the icy flow made it clear it was from more than a dozen of the same species, Trpaslíks.

  I couldn’t help the wicked smile that spread across my face, the pulse of my magic as it alerted me to its wish for battle. I knew it had been foolish to give Ovailia our real location after her eyes had shaded over and her lies had given her away. But I had no choice; I wanted Ryland. Now, that want had turned into a need.

  Unfortunately, that need was going to trigger the beginning of the war. I had foolishly hoped we would have at least a decade, but Edmund was obviously a very impatient man.

  “How many camps?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice low.

  “Eight,” Thom began, his frustration seeping into his deadpan voice. “They weren’t there when we first arrived, so they must have come sometime in the last few days.”

  I sighed heavily. We hadn’t been keeping as heavy a guard as we should have been. Our first two nights here we had taken turns at watch while the others ate and slept but last night we hadn’t posted one at all.

  I watched the lights for a moment more before turning to leave, using my magic to pull Thom behind me. I moved quickly, my steps much louder than they should have been but I was keen to put some distance between the assembling army and us. I separated the pulses that flowed through the air around me, my magic registering exactly what forces lay beyond us. Two dozen Trpaslíks camped outside the wall of the Abbey, waiting for the chance to strike.

  They knew we were here, and no amount of tiptoeing could keep them from pounding down our door when the order was given to attack.

  I could feel Thom behind me as I moved, his energy spiking as the anger that I felt brushed onto him and fed his deep rooted anxiety.

  The second we moved past the open stretch of rubble, I released my shield, bringing my body back into sight.

  “It was Ovailia wasn’t it?” I didn’t turn at Thom’s voice, the hardness of it expected. I could feel the same anger rippling through my body, just under the skin.

  “Of course it was.” I kept my back to him, allowing my magic and my internal sight to keep him in my mind. I could see him standing, his hands flexing as his brow furrowed.

  Thom stood still, the small movement of his hands the only sign of his anger. He kept it restrained, controlled and hidden, the way he had done since he had escaped our father, since Sain had shown him what his temper could cause.

  “So what do we do?”

  I turned to face him, my taller than average frame towering over him. He looked up to me, his eyes, so much like a child’s, wide and pleading.

  “There is not much we can do. We stay here. We wait for Joclyn to wake and hope that Ovailia brings her mate to her.”

  “Ovailia? You want to wait for her?” I nodded once, before turning away from him, my steps taking me back the way we had come.

  I could feel Thom follow me, his steps quick as his shorter legs tried to keep up with my longer strides.

  “Why, Ilyan?” he said as he came up beside me, his legs still working double time. The muscles in my neck tensed at his question. I really didn’t need to explain myself to him, but his question was understandable given their history.

  “Because she will have Ryland,” I said, keeping my voice strong and distant. “Ryland is the key to waking Joclyn. Once Joclyn wakes we will be able to face the Trpaslíks that surround us.”

  I smiled at my words, the visions from the first sight flying into me. Saying it aloud somehow sealed her fate, making her the one that would defeat my father and assuring that she would become the beautiful warrior I had seen in my sight.

  “Why can’t we just attack them now?” Thom asked. I couldn’t help but laugh, the hearty sound of my voice sounding odd against the tension that still rippled off both of us. I stopped again to face him, the door to my suite only a few steps away. I could already feel my heart pull me toward the door, my magic stretching to ensure her safety.

  “You would attack twenty or more Trpaslíks with only you, me, and a Drak?” I raised my eyebrow at him, the dare for him to answer evident.

  While I may be able to defeat more than half that amount on a wet day, I knew Thom had always struggled with his ability. Being the son of an un-bonded mortal had always made him weaker than the rest of us. Dramin would prove little help at all. Draks had no defensive magic. There was no other way to put it. It was the reason my father had been able to exterminate them so easily.

  Thom shook his head and looked away from me, his answer evident in his eyes. I ignored the bristle I felt at his lack of respect, but kept it at bay, reminding myself that my role as a ruler had died with my people. Not like I had taken it seriously in the first place.

  “We will watch them. We need to set a more consistent guard – which between the three of us may prove impossible, but we must do what we can.” I set orders as I always had, Thom’s back straightening in preparation to obey. “If we can make an adequate map of where their camps are, it will help us to attack without incident when the time comes.”

  Thom nodded once in understanding, the nervous energy that was flowing off him receding with my words.

  “Thom, get some sleep. I will watch from here, dnes večer, strengthen our shield, and develop a clearer plan.”

  Thom said nothing. He only nodded in respect as he turned from me, the thick strands of his hair swinging as he walked down the hall toward his room. I watched him put the tiny buds back into his ears before he turned the corner, leaving me alone in the dark corridor.

  I couldn’t ign
ore the thrum of my heart any longer. The pull moved against my skin like the crawling of a hundred emotions washing over the surface. My shield released from around Joclyn as I entered the room, bringing her back into view.

  A few more days and she would wake.

  If Edmund had already sent Trpaslíks after us, then Ovailia couldn’t be more than a day behind. Soon, I would wake her.

  If Edmund had sent Ovailia at all.

  I wiped the thought from my mind. The stress that such a small idea gave me was overwhelming. I straightened my back and walked away from her, towards the window.

  I could still feel the need to be near her, but for now, I needed to prove that I was stronger than my desire. I had to remind myself that she would not be mine for many years to come. The breeze that came in through the high arches of the windows swirled around me, the mingled magic of the men who stood around us in preparation for attack evident to me now. The power was weak, but it was there. I could feel their anticipation, the nerves, and excitement.

  The danger had followed us to our door once again, but I knew what the Trpaslíks who guarded us did not. The time was coming, closer and closer. I could feel the tick in my blood, beating like a clock, signaling its arrival.

  The hairs on my arms prickled as my energy rippled over my skin, my alert power prickling, desperate to be used. I always kept so much of my magic restrained, for safety reasons. It was only in battle that I could freely feel my magic flow through me, that I could be free. My energy rippled now; the maniacal energy setting me on fire in eager anticipation.

  The final battle was knocking on our door. The sight had shown me that.

  We just needed sleeping beauty to wake.

  “He will tear us apart. Pokud si přejete, aby viděl konec, dej mi své srdce.” I spoke the words of Joclyn’s sight silently, the words sounding like a deep prayer of mass when whispered in Czech.

  Give me your heart.

  Hadn’t I done that already? Hadn’t I promised her every beat that it possessed when I first held her in my arms eight hundred years ago?

  Yes, but I had also taken it away.

  I had taken away her claim on me when I made the decision not to break the bond between her and her mate. My brother. Could I break that bond now, after all I had sacrificed, after all I had promised her? No, it was not in me to be so cruel.

  My back was still toward her as my heart beat for her. I felt love and confusion swell inside of me. I didn’t need to look at her to feel my conviction continue to cement itself within me. I could see her beauty, her strength, her power. I could see her weakness and the hold it had on her vanishing slowly every day. I could hear her laugh and see the way she wrinkled her nose. I could see the flash of her silver eyes when she was upset.

  She was amazing.

  I would do anything to protect her, to help her, to let her become what she wanted and needed to be. I would give her my heart, if that were required. She had it until it beat its last.

  The tops of the trees reached toward the moon, the shadows dark and deep. I loved this view, the natural beauty of the world that modern man had destroyed. There were so few places on earth where you could find that peace anymore. Places that I had walked through, loved, worshiped, and explored through my hundreds of years had all been overrun with what others were calling progress. I could feel the energy of the earth radiate from the ground, the natural force strong here, whereas in the cities of the world, the natural power was covered and poisoned until it no longer existed.

  The thought came to me before I could stop it, the desire to hold Joclyn as we looked out at this beautiful view, as we felt the magic of the earth together, because I knew she could. So many of our kind never could, but she would. I wanted to see her face when she did.

  I wanted to show her the beauty in the world, not just the sadness. I wanted to give her my heart openly, and I wanted her to take it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  For hundreds of years, this Abbey had housed the brethren that came to worship their own silent god. They farmed, they prayed, and they worshiped until the year the troops drove them away, leaving my beautiful home abandoned. It had been ransacked, the stained glass windows were destroyed, the gorgeous pews burned, and the stone walls carved with crude declarations of love. What had been my home, my personal place of sanctuary, was now only a discarded, forgotten place.

  I could see one of the carvings now, a roughly drawn heart and an unintelligible figure carved amongst it. It was bright against the stone in the evening light, the last of the day’s sun bouncing off the angles of the ruins like glittering jewels. I stared at it as I sat on the rubble strewn floor, my legs crossed in front of me in a style more common amongst the Chinese worshipers.

  I had intended to restore this portion of the building, giving life to the ancient arches and restoring the glass back to what it had once been. Now, it seemed to be too late. What could be rebuilt would only be ruined and destroyed within a matter of days.

  I breathed in the smell of earth that lingered heavily in the air, the density of it filling my lungs before dispersing throughout my body, the heavy earth magic lingering with my own.

  My feet had brought me here after the nerve endings in the base of Joclyn’s neck had been severed from her spine. I had felt them snap, one by one, my magic working tirelessly to repair them as her heart began to go into cardiac arrest. If I hadn’t been singing to her at the time, I would have missed it. She would have died in my arms as I slept.

  My heart longed to stay next to her, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t look into her face and not blame myself for being unable to release her from her prison.

  Ten days.

  She had been trapped in her prison for ten days. We had escaped the cave in Italy only for her to remain trapped in her solitary prison. For her, it had been more than a month, more than a month of what I could only assume would be consistent torture.

  My hands lay on my knees in meditation. My thoughts were on the desires of my heart, while my power focused on the natural magic that surrounded me. It was the only religion I knew, the only deity I had found in this world – the magic in the earth.

  I had to hope it was enough. I breathed it into me, pulling the heavy ancient power through me only to transfer it to Joclyn, to move it through the Štít and into her.

  When I first came to this place, almost a thousand years ago, my heart was heavy, broken, and guilty. I had taken a life, and part of me felt power in that. A wicked ribbon of black that I could feel attempting to infect my soul. If my father had gotten his way, it would have. But I had seen that maniacal light in his eyes then, the joy at what I was able to accomplish, and the look scared me. If I had any wisdom at the time, I would have seen what he was capable of then, and I would have stopped him, but I was only a child.

  A child who ran away from home, ran from what I was supposed to become, to build a monastery and find inner peace. Sadly, I was still not sure I had ever found it.

  “Ilyan?” I kept my eyes closed at Thom’s voice, his magic adding its own ebb and flow to the air around me. I breathed it in, adding it to my own.

  The crunching of Thom’s feet against the destroyed bits of the chapel came closer, his magic heavy with insecurity and yet steady, always steady. He sat down next to me, and while I still did not move, I opened my eyes, hoping the small gesture could be taken in greeting.

  “Dramin told me what happened.” I could only nod, not sure I wanted to talk about it, not sure what to say. “He’s on guard now, but...I wanted to see if you needed anything první.”

  I kept my vision forward, although my magic flared to Joclyn, covering her through the Štít as I reconfirmed her safety. She still slept, her body continuing to heal as she lay.

  I couldn’t be mad at Dramin for leaving her, although part of me wanted to be. If we didn’t keep someone on guard at all times, we would soon be overrun. Trpaslík camps had been popping up every night, each one bringing our enemy closer to us,
each one giving us less time before they would attack.

  “Ilyan? Můj pane?”

  I sighed and looked at him out of the corner of my eye, one quick glance before returning to stare at the graffiti on the wall. He obviously wasn’t going to leave me alone. He was worried, but I couldn’t help but feel his worry was misplaced. I could handle my own issues.

  “I’m fine, Thom. Jen jsem...” I stopped. I never opened myself up to anyone. It exposed too many weaknesses, too many weapons that could be used against me. I had heard the mortals use the phrase ‘skeletons in the closet’ for hundreds of years, and that is sometimes how I felt – as if I had skeletons in my closet. Except it wasn’t one or two hung up on a coat rack, it was an armada. If I could ever control them, I could take over the whole world.

  I had surprised myself when I began to open up to Joclyn, when I began to tell her of my past. The only people who knew such things about me were those who had been present my whole life: Dramin, Ovailia, Sain, and Talon. Even they did not know the whole picture, but Joclyn, I wanted Joclyn to know everything. I wanted Joclyn to understand me, to trust me, so that when the time came for her to rely on me and trust in my judgment, she would do so without question. I didn’t want to have to command her magically as I sometimes did all the others. I had done so once, after she had first lost Ryland, and I still regretted it.

  Thom continued to look at me expectantly. I could feel his eyes burning into me. I stayed still, my vision forward, my breathing even. As much as I trusted Thom, as much as I loved my brother, I didn’t want to let him inside my head.

  “You’ll find a way to get her out.” I couldn’t help but smile at Thom’s words, at his easy confidence. After all, he had been so set on simply destroying her not long before.

  “You believe that, do you?” I could almost feel him twitch beside me at my words. I had overheard him talking to Dramin last night, his fears about the inaccuracy of sight spoken aloud. It may have been wrong to eavesdrop, it may have been wrong to bring up what I had heard, but my regal blood demanded one thing, while my logic another. The distinction was never clear to me anymore.