A Crucible of Souls (Book One of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) (Volume 1) Paperback

by Mitchell Hogan

  “We can’t stop all of them without giving away our positions,” said Caitlyn.

  “They’ll be given away anyway, if the alarms are tripped.”

  “We don’t know there is more than one.”

  “It makes sense that…”

  Caitlyn made a short chopping motion with one hand. “Enough. There isn’t time. One of the other groups will trip an alarm soon. We have to move quickly.”

  She’s acting rashly, thought Aidan. He didn’t know why she had changed so much, but he didn’t like who she had become. “My lady, please, if we can…”

  “No. We move now.” She drew her sword and waved it above her head. “Forward, men!” she shouted. “For good! And for the emperor!” She rushed ahead, leaving Chalayan, Aidan and cel Rau behind. Men surged around them, following Caitlyn towards the center of the town.

  Chalayan gave Aidan a grim smile. “Once more, my friends. Let’s hope she pulls this one off as well.”

  “One day her luck will run out,” said cel Rau.

  Aidan clapped both on the back. “Let’s hope it isn’t tonight.”

  They sprinted down the street in Caitlyn’s wake.

  Flashes of light flickered across the town. The sun peeked over the hills to the east.

  Aidan dragged the unconscious form of Chalayan through the doorway of a deserted house and collapsed on the floor. Two of the sorcerer’s amulets had melted into the skin around his neck, but the shield he generated to cover them had sufficed. He had lost consciousness soon after.

  Aidan drew a waterskin from his belt and gulped a few mouthfuls. Dirt covered his face along with his clothes. Spots of blood dotted him from head to toe. The blood of his own men as they had been blown into small pieces with sorcery.

  He coughed then dragged himself to the open doorway. The street was empty. In the distance, screams sounded. Aidan couldn’t tell if they came from his own men or the inhabitants being killed, or raped.

  Over half their men were down, from what he had been able to determine, with a grand total of three sorcerers on the other side killed.

  Twenty men dead. One sorcerer left. A high price.

  He needed to rest.

  Aidan arranged Chalayan as comfortably as he could.

  “I’ll have to leave you here for a while,” he said to his unconscious friend. The sorcerer didn’t stir. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised.

  They had met the same sorceries that destroyed the bandits, but Chalayan’s own had saved many of them. Mundane resistance consisted of mainly untrained men and women with a few professional mercenaries. Easily dispatched by Caitlyn’s experienced men, the mercenaries surrendered once a few sorcerers and most of their comrades were killed or subdued.

  He lifted the crossbow he’d taken from a dead man. Ranged weapons usually proved effective against sorcerers, as long as they weren’t given a chance to shield themselves, but against these ones they hadn’t done much. Somehow they had shields up all the time. Still, it was better than trying to get close enough to swing his sword. All of the men who had tried that were dead. Leaving Chalayan there for the time being, he crouched low and exited the building, moving forward in a scuttle.

  Aidan approached the barn as quickly as he could, which wasn’t fast, wincing with every step on his bruised leg. A short time ago, Caitlyn and cel Rau had fought their way to the large barn in the center of the town. What resistance they encountered had seemed intent on falling back to that position and protecting it.

  He limped up to Caitlyn, who knelt on the ground, sword resting on her thighs. Anshul cel Rau stood before her, both swords stained red. Caitlyn and the swordsman were covered in dirt and spots of blood like he was, though only on one side, as if they’d been shielded from the blast. Bodies lay around them, some blackened and steaming, and others in pools of blood dripping from open wounds. A few gave distraught moans. One moved a hand.

  “We have to kill him, he’s the only one left,” he heard Caitlyn say as he approached. “With Chalayan unconscious, someone needs to make a bold move, take him down before he realizes what’s happening.”

  Cel Rau nodded grimly, knuckles white as he gripped the hilts of his swords.

  “What’s the situation?” asked Aidan.

  Caitlyn rubbed her eyes and wiped her hands on her arms. She only succeeded in smearing the blood and dirt on her sleeves.

  “The last sorcerer is on the run, retreating south along the road. Our men on that side…” She shook her head. “We couldn’t have known there were more than the two we were following.”

  “If we’d waited longer—”

  “We didn’t have time!” screamed Caitlyn. “More could have come, and we would be in a worse position.” Her breath came in harsh gasps.

  Aidan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and clenched his teeth. Caitlyn wasn’t acting rationally, and he was sure she wouldn’t have made the same decision months ago. She looked lost, as if her increasing obsession with evil had finally unhinged her.

  “We should have waited,” Aidan repeated.

  “We struck while we had the advantage of surprise, and that’s the last I will hear of it.”

  She turned to cel Rau, who blinked. “Go. You know what to do. Kill the sorcerer. He should be weakened by now.”

  “Should be?” Aidan protested. “I think we should consolidate here, look to our wounded and regroup.”

  Caitlyn stood, ignoring him. “Go, cel Rau. Evil cannot be allowed to escape.”

  The swordsman nodded once reluctantly then loped off down the nearest street, heading south to where smoke filled the sky.

  “What about the wounded here? We should see to them.”

  “No. They failed. Leave them. We don’t have time. We need to see what’s in the barn, what they value so highly.” She beckoned Aidan to follow and limped towards the barn door. Blood dripped behind her from a gash in her thigh.

  Aidan paused to look around at the dead and wounded littering the ground. With a shake of his head, he limped after Lady Caitlyn.

  Two massive doors faced them. Caitlyn struggled with pulling one of the doors, but with his help they managed to open the gap wide enough.

  As he followed Caitlyn inside, Aidan sniffed at the strange smell. Spices overlaid with a herbal tartness, combined with a festering rotting scent and piss and excrement. And porridge. He swore he could smell porridge. He blinked, eyes adjusting to the lack of light.

  Lined up along the room were heavy wooden cots, four rows of twenty. On most of the cots lay women, hands and ankles tied with strips of leather, skin raw and bleeding where the straps met flesh. All of the women were pregnant, some close to term. In one corner of the gruesome room stood a large cooking fire, on which sat a huge steaming iron pot.

  Closest to them lay a pale-skinned woman, black hair hung limply over the side of her cot, her belly swollen with child. Her eyes opened, and she looked at them.

  “Please…” she whispered. “Water…”

  “Aidan, get some water,” commanded Caitlyn. “We need to hear what she has to say.”

  At the sound of her voice, heads turned to stare at them. Some of the women began crying. A few begged for release; some made no sound.

  Aidan grabbed his half-full waterskin and knelt beside the woman.

  “Shhh. There, there, it’s all right. You’re safe now.” He splashed water into her mouth. “We need to cut her bindings.”

  “We’ll do no such thing until we confirm she isn’t working with them.”

  Aidan was shaking his head before she’d finished. Where had her mercy gone? Was this a symptom of what ailed her? “See what condition they are in? How could they be helping?”

  Caitlyn glared at him. “Be it on your head.”

  With four quick cuts of his knife, he freed the woman from the leather straps. The muscles in her arms and legs were withered and slack. Her body trembled, and she shook her head. “Please… they will… come… back…” She reached over and grabbed Aidan
’s hand with surprising strength. “You must kill us all.”

  “Good idea,” said Caitlyn.

  Aidan clenched his teeth. “No, don’t worry. We’re here now. You can rest easy.”

  “You don’t… understand.” The woman’s eyes closed. “We’ve been… here years.”

  “Shh. You’re safe now. We’ll help you all. The sorc—”

  “No! They’ll come back. You cannot stay.”

  Aidan smoothed her hair. Strands came out in his hand. “What happened here? What happened to you?”

  The woman let out a low keening moan. “Years we have been here. Tied up…” She swallowed. “The sorcerers, they… make us have babies. I… don’t want to live like this.” Tears rolled down her face. “Please.”

  Aidan cleared his throat. “Do you know why they do this?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “They only say… they need them.” She sank down to the cot, exhausted, still clutching his hand.

  Distressed, Aidan pried the woman’s fingers off as gently as he could. “Rest,” he said.

  Aidan bent to retrieve his crossbow and walked over to the cooking fire to remove himself from the sight of the woman, watching Caitlyn stare at her before coming to join him. In the pot on the fire bubbled porridge.

  “I’ve seen this before,” he said grimly.

  “Seen what?”

  He gestured towards the women on the cots. “This… wasting. An old man in my village couldn’t walk or move much. Too old, I guess. He lived on gruel and whatever the women brought him. Months went by and eventually he wasted away to skin and bones. He didn’t use his muscles, so they deteriorated.”

  Caitlyn’s mouth drew into a thin line, and she hugged her chest. “That’s what she meant,” she said flatly. “Never to leave their cots, to walk around. To lie there eating this shit and have babies.”

  “By the ancestors, I could kill someone.” He wiped at his watering eyes. “We need to free them all, get some wagons to take them away from here, someplace safe.”

  “And where is safe? These men, whatever they are, have to be stopped.” She drew in a deep breath, then another.

  With a sudden movement, the woman turned her head to face them, her thin neck muscles bringing a grimace to her face. “Run!” she croaked. “Get away from here. They’ll be coming.”

  Three thunderous claps reached their ears, each closer than the one before. Outside, shouting erupted and men screamed.

  Aidan ran towards the open door. “Let’s go!” he roared.

  Chaos had broken out. Plumes of smoke billowed from the south, where the men had been in pursuit of the last sorcerer. Now, they rushed back towards them with fearful looks on their faces, clutching wounds of blackened skin. They staggered towards Caitlyn and Aidan.

  “M’lady,” one said. His face had a large burn down one side, and he squinted in agony. “More sorcerers. The men are trying to hold them, but I fear they won’t last long.”

  Aidan exchanged a look with Caitlyn. The pregnant woman had been right.

  “Right, here’s the plan. Aidan, you gather up all the men you can, help the wounded that can walk and meet back here as soon as you can.” He nodded. “You three, we passed a house over there stocked with supplies. Come with me and we will grab what we can. I have an idea the sorcerers won’t like. Go now, quickly.”

  Aidan loped off as fast as he could, while the men followed Caitlyn. He wasn’t sure what she had planned, but he hoped it was good. Their situation looked dire.

  He kept to the side of the streets and peeked around each corner before he turned them or crossed intersections. He hurried to the smoke plumes as quickly as he could. Whenever he passed one of the men, wounded and retreating, he gave them instructions to head for the barn and help Caitlyn.

  Thunder rang out, hurting his ears. A fresh cloud of smoke rose ahead of him. The roar of crackling flames sounded in the distance.

  He ducked down at the corner of a house. Charred black bodies were everywhere. He swallowed, breathing harshly. None of them moved.

  A makeshift barricade had been erected using a cart and crates. Now the cart lay in burning pieces, planks of wood from the crates scattered around. Through the smoke and fire walked three figures, all surrounded by a shimmering haze. One he recognized as the last sorcerer they’d been pursuing. The other two were new, a man and a woman. She said something and laughed; the others joined in.

  Aidan ducked back behind the corner, his hands clenched down on the crossbow. Three sorcerers, when they thought only one was left. Straining, he managed to draw back the string and cock the mechanism. He loaded a bolt. Maybe he could take one out before… no, they were shielded. He cursed under his breath.

  Making his decision, he turned and limped back towards the barn. With any luck, the sorcerers would be wary and take their time searching the streets for any signs of ambush. It might be a while before they made it to the barn. There was a good chance the women could still be rescued.

  His leg gave a spasm of pain, like a knife jabbing into the muscle. Gritting his teeth, he kept going, leaving the sorcerers behind.

  Chaos ruled at the barn. Two wagons stood near him, while men ran in all directions, loading one wagon with supplies and the other with some of the pregnant women. All were wounded in some way or another, all with makeshift bandages over legs, arms, chests, faces. One man’s face was covered in blisters, his left eye white like a boiled egg.

  Caitlyn directed two men carrying a barrel. Three more barrels lay on their sides against the barn walls, their contents spilling onto the ground. It ran thick and viscous and yellow — oil. They dropped the barrel next to the door and headed back to the wagons. Caitlyn disappeared inside the barn.

  Aidan looked over the men. They started hitching the wagons to four skittish horses. A few others with injuries had dragged themselves into the wagons. He limped over to a man by the closest wagon.

  “What’s happening here? What are you doing with the oil?”

  The man hawked and spat on the ground, shaking his head. “No time to save them all. We gotta do something so the sorcerers don’t get them. Might be easier on them this way. Lady’s orders.”

  Aidan turned to the barn in horror. Oil puddled against the walls, along the whole side of the barn.

  “By the ancestors!” he cursed. She sent me away so she could organize this without my interference. She doesn’t trust me anymore.

  Caitlyn appeared through the open doors carrying a flaming torch. She took a few steps towards him then stopped, seeing the look on his face.

  “I’m sorry, Aidan,” she said. “There isn’t any other way. We can’t take them all with us.”

  He took a step toward her. “Don’t do this,” he pleaded. “We can come back, enlist more men and—”

  “No time,” she interrupted. “They won’t stay here. They’ll move somewhere else, and we will never find them again.”

  “Caitlyn… my lady, please, we can’t do this. We need to draw the line somewhere.”

  Caitlyn’s expression turned dark. “We must do what we can to stop evil where we find it.” She backed a step towards the barn.

  Aidan sank to his knees. “Where do we stop?” he shouted. “These women deserve to live. We have to try and rescue them!”

  “Sometimes we have to make hard decisions.”

  “This isn’t a hard decision!”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “Oh Aiden, you are blind. If we leave these women, they’ll continue to give the sorcerers whatever they want, whatever they’re getting from them. We can’t take all of them with us, so we must destroy the ones remaining. Who knows what evil is inside them?” She took another step towards the barn.

  Aidan raised his crossbow, pointing it at her chest. He knew one thing, that she must be stopped. His voice came out as a dry croak. “Please, don’t make me do this.”

  Caitlyn looked at the crossbow and hesitated then gave a low laugh. “You won’t do it. I know you too well. You�
��ll come to realize this is the right thing to do.”

  “It isn’t right,” he said through gritted teeth. “It cannot be right.”

  “Always the weak one.” She backed towards the barn.

  Aidan pressed the crossbow lever.

  The bolt punched through Caitlyn’s mail shirt and slammed into her chest with a thud. A look of surprise appeared on her face. She sank to her knees and the torch dropped to the ground. She looked at Aidan. One hand came up to touch the bolt. Blood seeped between her fingers.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her. “I couldn’t let you do it.” Tears ran down his face. The crossbow slipped from limp fingers.

  Caitlyn fell forward then rolled to one side, hands clutching at the ground.

  Two men rushed past him and slid to a stop over Caitlyn, checking for signs of life. One shook his head. The world moved as if through water, slowly, sounds muted. Aidan felt a vibration through the ground. All heads turned to look in one direction, south.

  Someone ran towards him, taking his arms and dragging him towards the wagons.

  He was thrown onto the bed of a wagon. It jerked, then moved forward, gathering speed.

  Caitlyn lay there, leaking onto the dry dirt, burning torch by her side. The barn stood untouched.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  A mouse scuttled along the wall and disappeared through a crack. Caldan’s lamp, the flame as low as he could manage, stirred shadows across the room. He carried a satchel, which he placed on the workbench, the same one he’d burned a hole into. It seemed fitting as he worked to replace what he’d foolishly lost.

  The hour was late, and all the other apprentices had been asleep for some time. It had been no trouble to sneak through the buildings and into the apprentices’ workshop. Hardly anyone was awake — a master or two, the ones known to keep odd hours. All he had to do was be about his work quickly and quietly, and no one would be the wiser.

  Deciding on what type of crafting was important, and he had spent hours during the day thinking about the issue, to the point where his distracted thoughts had earned him a reprimand in one class and extra work in another.