by Brian Farrey
Gobek, looking ashamed, nudged the plate at Aubrin. “Is to be eating, Bright Eyes,” he said, before leaving.
Once she thought she was alone, Aubrin exhaled. She crawled over to the cage’s lock and started to fiddle with it.
“He’s right, Jinxface,” I said, emerging from hiding. “You really should eat something.”
Aubrin yelped. Then her face lit up as I approached. “Jaxter!”
We reached through the bars and hugged, but when she pulled back, her face had gone from happy to horrified.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“You thought we’d just let you stay here?” I asked. I took the vintage lockpicks from my wristband and slipped them into the lock on the cage door. I could feel the tumblers inside the lock move away from my picks. The lock snickered.
Zoc. It was a Moxnar.
“I hate sentient locks,” I muttered. At least it was only a Class 2. They had the ability to twist their innards around, making it hard for lockpicks to stay in place. A Class 4 could actually call out to warn its owner. Undaunted, I thrust my picks down the lock’s barrel and wrestled for control of the Moxnar’s tumblers.
Aubrin shook her head and gripped the bars. “Jaxter, you have to leave right now.”
“Hey, calm down, Jinxface,” I said. “I’ve got Maloch and Callie with me and we’ve got a plan.”
“You have to go!” She was full-on sobbing. “Don’t you understand? By coming here, it means you’re going to die!”
13
The Greater Gain
“Even a last-minute plan is still a plan.”
—Rimordius Grimjinx, chief builder of Umbramore Tower
Well, there it was. Out in the open. Laid bare for all to see. With that, the mysterious warning “your life depends on it” had transformed into “you’re going to die.”
As far as rescues go, this one could have been going much, much better.
Aubrin’s lip trembled. “I’ve seen it, Jaxter. I’ve had a vision where you die.”
I did my best to stay calm. If I panicked, it would only upset her. I needed to be a big brother. I needed to ignore the fact that she had foreseen my death. And, in ways I didn’t want to admit, I needed my mommy.
“Look, Jinxface—”
“Coming here to rescue me is one of the things that leads to your death and— Oh, never mind. You couldn’t understand.”
“Hey,” I said, “I’m not totally useless. I get it. Maloch explained the whole thing with the marbles. One event leads to another and eventually, you get to the purple marble.” In this case, the purple marble was me dying.
Aubrin nodded. “And this? Here and now? This is the yellow marble. The red and orange marbles already happened. If you don’t leave me here, you’ll keep going until you die. We have to stop the chain of events.”
“Well, what are the other events? Maybe we can stop one of them.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. My visions weren’t complete. I was trying to find out from the other seers if they’d seen anything about you, but I got locked up in here before—” She suddenly reached out and grabbed my tunic. “Please tell me you took my journal to Eaj.”
“I don’t know who or what Eaj is.”
“What do you mean?” she demanded, slapping my arm. “You’re supposed to know.” Another slap. “You’re supposed to take the journal and— Jaxter, this is bad. This is very bad.”
“What are you talking about?”
She rolled her eyes. “The visions I’ve had . . . So much relies on you taking that message to Eaj. But—but I assumed you knew what Eaj was.”
“Sorry to say, I don’t. Look, we’ll get you out of here and— Ow!” I yanked my finger back and the Moxnar snickered. I think it nipped me. I held up the picks, ready to dive back in, when Aubrin’s hand appeared, holding a small key.
“This will be easier,” she said, slipping the key into the lock and turning it smartly. The door clicked open and she was free.
“Where did you—?”
She grinned. “Picked Xerrus’s pocket when he leaned in. Come on, we’ve got a revolution to stop.”
I held her arm. “Wait, you know about that?”
She clicked her tongue. “I’m an augur, Jaxter. I’ve known for a while what the Palatinate was planning. But I couldn’t say anything.”
“Why not?”
“Seers don’t see the future so much as we see possible futures. That’s why Gobek teaches us the marble lesson. What the Palatinate is doing has opened up several possible futures, none of them very good. If I’d tried to warn anyone about the Palatinate, it could have started a whole new chain of events. And something worse could have happened.”
“But if you don’t warn anyone, they will take over.”
“Not necessarily,” she said, an odd smirk on her lips. “There might be another way. . . .”
I shook my head. “My job is to get you to Vesta so we can hop on a ship out of here.”
Aubrin suddenly looked very serious. “Jaxter, to take over the Provinces, the Palatinate will wipe out their enemies. That means the royal family. Which includes . . .”
My heart fell.
The Dowager.
By the time Aubrin and I emerged from behind the Black Door, the gaolglobes had stopped howling. I wasn’t sure if that meant Callie and Maloch had been caught or if Gobek had declared it all a false alarm.
We made straight for the servant barracks and found Maloch and Callie waiting. Aubrin threw herself at the pair, hugging them tightly. Callie explained how she used her spellsphere to camouflage Maloch and herself so they blended in with the forest. Eventually, Gobek called off the gaolglobes and the servants dispersed. I quickly filled Callie and Maloch in on what Aubrin and I had discussed.
“So how do we figure out what ‘Eaj’ is?” Callie asked.
I shrugged. “Aubrin thinks we may not need to . . . if we can stop the Palatinate.”
“Oh, right,” Maloch said. “Stop a legion of highly trained mages with an army of unbeatable monsters. Nothing to it.”
Aubrin led us through the corridors. “It’s all going to happen in Vesta at the Jubilee,” she said. “The High Laird is going to present the Palatinate with the relics. That one event changes everything.”
“Right,” I said. “So, we stop the High Laird from handing over the relics.”
“How?” Callie asked.
“I’m still working on that part,” I said. “I thought about asking him nicely.”
We came to an intersection and Aubrin headed right.
“Hang on, Jinxface. That’s the way out.” I pointed to the left.
“We’re going to the seer dormitory,” she said, not even pausing. The rest of us ran to catch up with her. “The Palatinate needs two things to succeed: the relics and the seers. We get both of those, we win.”
“Why both?” Callie asked. “Can’t we just steal the relics?”
Aubrin shook her head. “Both are potential weapons to the Palatinate. They see the seers as the greater gain. Only the seers can tell their enemies what the Palatinate is planning.”
Maloch snapped his fingers. “That’s why they keep all the seers here in the first place: to prevent anyone from hearing the prophecies that involve their plans.”
“We need to get the seers as far away as possible,” Aubrin said.
I didn’t like what she was suggesting. “You mean . . . take them with us? Aubrin, we don’t have a lot of time to get to Vesta. That many people will slow us down.”
Maloch stopped suddenly, forcing us all to halt. “No, it won’t,” he said. “You get Aubrin to Vesta. I’ll take the seers to the Dagger.”
Once he’d signed the Shadowhand Covenant, Maloch had gained access to the Dagger, the Shadowhands’ secret bunker. I stopped in midstride. “Maloch—”
He raised a hand. “I told you I won’t leave the Provinces without my da. The Palatinate doesn’t know where the Dagger is. I can kee
p the seers safe there for a long time, if needed.”
“It’s perfect,” Aubrin said, beaming at Maloch.
As we got to the dormitory door, I wondered aloud, “How are we going to explain to the seers what we’re—?”
But we didn’t need to explain anything. Entering the dormitory, we found all seven seers awake, alert, and standing with bags packed.
That’s when it occurred to me: breaking into a magically enchanted facility filled with people who could see the future probably wouldn’t go down in the Grimjinx family album as one of our more brilliant plans. The seers smiled, as if they’d been waiting for us.
Which, of course, they had.
Single file, with seers in tow, our caravan crept through the halls toward the exit of the Creche. With Maloch leading the way, Callie and I brought up the rear.
“Jaxter, something’s wrong,” she said. “Even if they can get the relics from the High Laird, how will the Palatinate control an army of monsters? Using magic makes a mage weak.”
She was right. It was strange. But I was willing to bet the Palatinate had a solution to this obvious problem.
“Don’t worry about that now,” I said. “If we hide the seers, we’ve won half the battle.”
“It’s the other half I’m worried about,” she said. “The half that involves an army of monsters. How can we win against something like that?”
A voice rasped in the dark. “You can’t.”
We spun around to find Xerrus standing right behind us.
“You’ll never win,” the mage continued. “The seers will return to their dormitory immediately”—he leaned forward, squinting at Callie and me—“while I deal with the pair who thwarted me at Splitscar Gorge.”
14
Escape from the Creche
“The greater your destiny, the greater the price.”
—Ancient par-Goblin proverb
Oh, zoc. He remembered us.
“You’re not still holding a grudge about that, are you?” I asked as Callie and I backed away. “It all worked out for you in the end, right? Look at you! The Overlord. Very impressive. That sounds like a promotion.”
“Don’t make him mad,” Callie said quietly.
“Allodar Grimjinx said, ‘Anger breeds mistakes.’”
“Sometimes I wish your ancestors would just shut up!”
Xerrus pulled out his spellsphere. His gaze fell on Callie. “I smell magic on you. Yes, I heard you became your cousin’s apprentice. If I recall, I was going to combine him with a gexa. Seems fitting I should try that with you instead.”
The spellsphere danced between his fingers as though he had trouble holding it. I remembered that Xerrus was old-fashioned. He’d been using a spellbook when we first met. Chances are he hadn’t gotten the hang of a spellsphere. So how easy would it be . . . ?
“Don’t worry, Cal,” I said. “We’ve seen his work combining animals. He’s not very good.” Frustrated, Xerrus’s fist closed around the spellsphere. I shrugged at Callie. “See what I mean? Mistake.”
With the spellsphere hidden and therefore unusable, I pulled a handful of smoke pellets from my pouches and threw them to the floor. A cloud of dense white smoke instantly filled the corridor.
“Run!” I yelled.
Callie and I took off, herding the seers along with us. Behind us, Xerrus fired bolts of energy, dispelling the smoke. We rounded a corner and emerged from the haze. Maloch took the lead as we bounded down the hall.
We raced through the Creche, aiming for the exit. The walls turned to sheer cloth, which meant we were near the door.
“Get behind me!”
Ahead, I heard Maloch cry out near the Creche exit. Sheer yellow curtains draped from the ceiling, covering the walls and framing the door that led outside. Maloch stood, one arm protecting the seers behind him, the other wielding a candlestick like a sword. Between him and the exit was the biggest sanguibeast I’d ever seen. Covered in poisonous barbs, the serpentine creature snarled, baring rows upon rows of pointed teeth.
Sanguibeasts were the deadliest creatures known throughout the Provinces. There was no way the candlestick in Maloch’s hand could stop one. I reached for my pouches, but Aubrin pushed her way through and walked right up to the salivating creature.
“Jinxface!”
Aubrin raised her hand to keep me away. Calmly, she approached the sanguibeast.
“Gobek,” Aubrin said softly. The creature immediately stopped snarling.
“That’s Gobek?” Maloch asked.
Aubrin stroked the sanguibeast’s scaly cheek. “Gobek, you know what the Palatinate is doing is wrong. They’ve caused you so much pain. You don’t owe them your loyalty. Please, Gobek. Let us go.”
The sanguibeast quivered. It almost looked . . . ashamed. Suddenly, it started folding in on itself. The barbs and teeth vanished as the creature shrank and became Gobek again. He looked up sadly at Aubrin.
“Is trouble coming,” Gobek said. He looked past Aubrin, directly at me.
Aubrin followed his gaze. “I know.”
Gobek bowed his head and stood aside. As he did, a bolt of green lightning seared the air and struck the caretaker, who flew across the room.
Xerrus entered behind us. “I told you to stop them!” he screamed at Gobek. The strange creature whimpered, barely able to move.
I ran to help him but Gobek raised an arm. “Is to be leaving,” he said faintly.
“Never!” Xerrus cried, raising his spellsphere in the air.
The floor buckled as stone pillars sprang up, sending us all flying. The mage shouted in the magical tongue, and giant hands made of earth and rock reached up from the floor and closed around the seers one by one. I dropped Tree Bag and ran to Aubrin as a set of stony fingers sprouted up around her. Before I could help, one of the silky drapes flew across the room and wrapped itself around me.
I fell to the floor, struggling as the sheer cocoon constricted tighter and tighter. I tried to call out for help but my bonds were so tight I couldn’t breathe. Squirming, I found Callie and Maloch fighting off other curtains, their faces clenched in pain.
Xerrus stepped forward, spellsphere pulsing in his hand. “I need only the seers alive.”
My vision started to blur and my limbs went numb. I was convinced the last thing I was ever going to see was Xerrus’s sneering face.
Ffft! Something pierced the air above me. Through a haze, I saw Xerrus step back once, then twice. Then he collapsed. As he did, the spellsphere fell from his hand and went dark. The living draperies loosened their grip and I shook myself free. Struggling to my feet, I wiped my eyes and found Xerrus lying on his back, a spear sticking out of his shoulder.
“I told you I could track you anywhere.”
Luda, her mammoth Satyran frame filling the exit, glared at me.
“And it only took you two weeks!” I said, still gasping for breath. “This calls for a hug!”
The sneer on her face suggested that such a hug might end with bits of Jaxter being flung everywhere. So I settled for giving her a thank-you wave from across the room.
I went to help Gobek but Aubrin held me back. “Gobek can’t come with us,” she said. “Not yet.”
I was starting to hate her cryptic little warnings. I wished she would just say what she had seen. But I knew she couldn’t. It could make everything worse.
The stone fingers that held the seers crumbled to dust. As Maloch gathered the seers, Callie grabbed Xerrus’s spellsphere. “If he can’t warn the Palatinate, we’ll have a better chance of stopping them.”
“Stop the Palatinate?” Luda stepped into the room. “What is going on here?”
I ignored Luda, threw Tree Bag’s strap around my neck, and led everyone from the Creche into the woods beyond.
“Stick together and try to keep up,” Maloch instructed the seers. A young girl, as small and wide-eyed as Aubrin, went right up and hugged him. Maloch rolled his eyes. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?”
; I shook his hand. “Good luck. If all goes well, we’ll send word to the Dagger.”
Maloch nodded but he didn’t look convinced that all would go well. He hugged Aubrin good-bye and, with one last look at us, he led the seers east.
Luda’s hand closed around my forearm. “When we return to Vengekeep—”
“You can do anything you want to me,” I assured her. “But we’re going to Vesta first.”
“Yes, to stop the Palatinate. From doing what?”
I took Aubrin by the hand, got my bearings, and pointed the four of us north.
“We’ve got a long walk,” I said to Luda. “More than enough time to tell you everything you need to know . . .”
15
Jubilee
“Better a lie be told by one before all, than by all before one.”
—The Lymmaris Creed
A week later, when we arrived in Vesta, the Jubilee was already in full swing. The entire population of the capital city had turned out into the streets, eating their fill of scorchcake and roast hemmon. Strings of purple and black pennants wove a web high overhead, connecting every rooftop. Mobs of people choked every pathway, making travel across the city difficult at best.
Except when the Sentinels approached. Then people suddenly found space to move.
Even though we had his spellsphere, Xerrus had somehow warned the Palatinate. Sentinels were everywhere, peering through their blank-faced masks for any sign that the Creche escapees had arrived in Vesta. Luda ripped the awning from outside an alchemist’s shop and tore us each a square of the fabric. We wrapped ourselves in the makeshift shawls and, eyes down, scurried through the crowd.
We found Ma and Da’s third-floor room at the Bellraven Inn. When Ma opened the door, she squealed with delight. Aubrin jumped into her arms while Da pulled me into a hug. But the joyful reunion was very short. Ma’s smile quickly soured. “Luda?” she asked, spotting the Satyran next to Callie. “And where’s Maloch?”
