“Why would you do this?” Gabriel roared at Nolen, taking a hand off his father to face the Prince. “What did my father do to you?”
“Oh, nothing to me,” Nolen smirked.
“Then what did you do to him?” Gabriel sneered. He knew his father would never reveal his secrets unless under great duress.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cordis said and gripped his arm. “You’re here to free us.” Gabriel slowly turned to his father, his lips parted as his face said no. Cordis’s face fell. “Then why are you here?”
Nolen grabbed the back of Gabriel’s collar and jerked it down. “He is my prisoner.” Holding the light aloft, he revealed the glinting band of copper. Cordis’s eyes looked at it in confusion. His eyes shifted to Gabriel’s hand still clamped around his shoulder and pushed the coat sleeve back to see a matching band. His face became a thundercloud.
He lunged at Nolen through the bars, raking jagged nails through the air. “You put my boy in a Castrofax! I’ll wring your scrawny neck, you son of a whore!” The prisoners let out a shout of dismay and disbelief, and Cordis reached for Nolen as the Prince took a step back. There were tears in his eyes as he looked again at the neckpiece.
“Mage,” Nolen stated. Gabriel had gotten used to Nolen never calling him by his first name, and he responded with a glance. “If you submit to the will of Queen Cathlyn, I will let your father go.”
“You mean to your will,” Gabriel snapped.
Nolen continued. “You will also no longer balk nor speak unless asked a question, and you will not meet my eyes. You will do as I say without question.”
“Not the Arconians,” Gabriel replied. “Everything else but not them.”
Cordis clenched his son’s arm. “Do not allow him an inch over you. I will be safe here.”
“Not without food and water,” Nolen snickered.
Gabriel looked around the room at the two other men. “Free them as well, and I’ll go quietly.”
“They are not part of the bargain, and you will go quietly regardless.”
Gabriel closed his eyes and searched for leverage. There was one piece of knowledge he had that would trump all else. It would give him all the advantage he needed, but Robyn’s life was not worth these men. His only choices were submit, or let his father die. He met Nolen’s gaze.
“You let my father stay with me, let him come to no harm and with no threat of imprisonment.”
“You raise your hand or voice against me, and be assured he will be threatened.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth.
“Stars above, do you want me to throw in a croft of land and a bouquet of roses?” Nolen snapped.
“No, but I want these men to be given proper treatment befitting their status,” Gabriel snapped back. “Baths, new clothes, food, drink, books, and lanterns.”
“Fine!” Nolen growled. “You are in no place to be making bargains.”
Gabriel steeled his back. He could live with submission, but bedding the Arconians was different. He would find a way around them.
“Then I agree.” Gabriel replied.
“No, boy,” Cordis hissed, but the deal was made.
Nolen unlocked the grate, and Gabriel jerked it open, pulling his father out. The man had wasted beneath his clothes and smelled like he had not bathed in quite a while. But the oily smell of his hair was still his father’s. Twice his age, Cordis had been a young father and a fine joker to match. His absence left Gabriel lonely.
“You cannot, Gabriel,” Cordis argued, gripping his son’s arms. “No Class Ten is slave to any man.”
“Be reassured he did not come easily,” Nolen sneered and made his way to the door.
“How?” Cordis whispered.
“He sent his Air Guard after me,” Gabriel explained.
“And the Guard?”
Nolen turned and marked both men with a glare. “Four thousand two hundred marched, five hundred twenty returned.” With the Guard destroyed, Nolen was left unprotected.
Gabriel had seen the look on the faces of men he slaughtered when he closed his eyes. Each man was a mother’s son, young and assured death would not come for them when they were so strong and capable. No man knew when death would call their name, but Gabriel knew with a single wrist-flick he could decide quickly for most. Some soldiers in the soft of night begged the stars for greatness and longevity, but if death was meant for them, they asked for a swift one. Gabriel left many hundred still on the battlefield wounded, blubbering for relief or an end. He had no right to decide when a man stopped living. To cut off the spirit from the body was unforgivable, irreversible, and so shocking it left him reeling and cold.
Gabriel looked at the two men in the cells. “I will come for you,” he muttered. As he stepped out, he nearly walked into his father who stopped, breathing deeply with his palms up. The Elements flowed through him. This far into the rock, there was no living Earth energy to be felt, but Water energy dripped all around.
Nolen started the party moving, and the Lenis men kept pace to stay within the circle of light. Cordis began to tire after a few paces and Gabriel put an arm under him to keep him moving. Nolen realized they were lagging.
“I will send you an Arconian tonight,” the Prince stated and quickened his pace, leaving them in the hall with only the glow of his torch to guide them.
“How did this happen?” Gabriel whispered when Nolen was well away.
Cordis breathed hard so they slowed. “I was ambushed on the Two Forks Road just outside Sabin,” he answered after a moment. “They brought me here.” He said nothing else on the matter, but there had to be more. Nolen would not capture a man without cause. “Is…is she safe?”
“She is.”
“Miranda still sits,” Cordis sighed.
They walked in silence and finally reached light, listening to the bawdy voices of prisoners. Gabriel paused to take off his coat and put it on his father. It would not hide the look of a prisoner, but it would make the proud man feel better. They left the dungeons, and Cordis smiled, breathing in cleaner air and stretching his legs. “Where are your rooms?” Earth energy tickled their senses and brought new light to Cordis’ eyes.
“With the Queen.”
“What part does she play in this?”
“She plays on her own side,” Gabriel replied. “The side that doesn’t know what she’s doing.” A passing servant stopped and gave Gabriel a proper bow before scurrying on. It was not long before another two did the same, calling him ‘Star Mage’ and ‘Star Breaker’.
“What’s all this about?” Cordis asked, his voice growing a little stronger.
Gabriel shrugged. By now every servant knew who he was and heard likely exaggerated stories of his deeds.
“How much further?” Cordis asked after a while.
“Not much. Forgotten how large Kilkiny is?”
“So it appears.”
The fire in Gabriel’s hearth had not yet been lit, but the water in the taps was hot, and Gabriel was quick to draw a warm bath for Cordis. He searched through all the salts and soaps, setting half a dozen out on the edge of the bath. He saw Cordis pull the energy of the water into a pattern to heat it, and he looked away with a sad smile.
“It has been too long,” Cordis said stripping and sliding into the water. He selected a salt and gently scrubbed at his skin. His body was pale and bony, so unlike the strong man Gabriel used to know.
“You said something about Slade,” Cordis muttered before Gabriel could slip out. In Ages past, a man’s surname was part of his title, but as Mages weakened, it was easier to simply say the first name and a Class. Gabriel would never need his surname, for there would be no other Class Ten Gabriel in his time. In Ryker’s day, all men used their surnames and his was still part of his identity.
Gabriel leaned against the wall. “He awoke. We suspect Nolen, and I wager Ryker had something to do with this,” he said and shook a wristlet. Cordis’s face pinched at the sight of it.
“Which is
it?”
“Overturn.”
“So you still feel your Elements,” Cordis nodded, and Gabriel shrugged.
“A fraction of what they were. Don’t worry yourself.”
“Boy, you better not pass this off as nothing. This is inexcusable. As soon as I get my strength back, I swear I will strangle that Princeling—you can watch.”
Gabriel smirked and looked at the marble floor, still steeped in denial. “Why were you coming to Anatoly City? Was it really business like you said?”
“Of course,” Cordis replied and ducked under the oily water. He laid a pattern and ran it through his hair. “This got long,” he said and held the broken strands out. “Longer than yours. I like the length you grew it to.”
“A lady made me,” he replied
Cordis continued to scrub. “How long have you been here?”
“A few weeks?” A knock sounded on the door, and when Gabriel called for admittance, a stoop-shouldered old man came in with a bag and announced himself as the barber. Once Cordis washed the suds from his head, the man shaved the scraggly beard and trimming the hair back up to the short style it used to hold.
Gabriel felt his father’s dehydration and filled a cup of cold water from the tap. Cordis filtered it before drinking. Having been without his Elements for nearly two years, he used every pattern he could. Gabriel wondered how he would be after two years without his Elements. Perhaps he would waste away himself, grow wan and pale, graying early. With the Elements in his father’s hands, the man instantly looked younger.
“Where is your valet?” Cordis asked.
“I can dress myself.”
“Well you look right smart now.”
“Aisling dressed me today,” he muttered and picked at the black vest.
Cordis continued to grow younger as the barber worked away the scraggly locks. When finished, he looked closer to fifty rather than sixty. Cordis washed his hair and face once more, scrubbing the dead skin away with fervor until he was pink. Gabriel searched for clothes as the barber helped his father from the tub. He selected simple gray trousers and a cream shirt, with a short dark blue wool mantle with a fox fur collar to keep him warm. The clothes hung loosely on Cordis, but after awhile the man would eventually fill them out.
“Those men with you in the prison…” Gabriel began, and Cordis nodded.
“Mages Malain and Oren. I must send a pigeon to their families and the Head Mage. Malain arrived a while after me, and Oren not long ago. There was a woman, Careese, who was there before, but she hung herself when the she gave birth. She claimed Nolen was the father by no fault of her own, and they took the babe away. Mage Malain is a Creator, did you know?”
“I thought I recognized that name. Yes, I was supposed to train with him, but when you vanished, so did we.”
“Oh, yes.” He faded off and looked out the window. “Is Lady Aisling still advisor?”
“She is.”
Cordis nodded and bit his bottom lip. “I should like to see her—tell her of this injustice.”
Gabriel led the way to her room, watching his father’s glancing looks at the Castrofax. Aisling opened her door relieved to see Gabriel, but her eyes fell to the man by his side, and her mouth fell agape. Suddenly she flung her arms around Cordis’s neck, throwing his weak frame back a few steps. Gabriel raised his brows, knowing they had been friends, but this was a bit extreme.
“I…I thought you dead for sure,” her voice choked. “You are so thin. Where have you been?” she put hands on his face and shoulders to feel the bones beneath.
“Prince Nolen had me locked in the incanted room in the dungeons,” Cordis replied, his face tightening as he said it.
“How did you get out?”
“My boy,” Cordis beamed. “Does Urima still stand?”
Aisling nodded but looked up at Gabriel. “What deal did you make with him?”
“A few things, here and there,” Gabriel replied.
Cordis cut in. “We have much to discuss. Gabriel tells me the world is falling apart.”
“Beginning with the stars,” Aisling sighed.
“Someone has to tell me what that means.”
Aisling nodded with a little smile. “I will have dinner sent up for us. You look half starved. We will discuss everything over a drink.”
A drink was much needed, to quiet Aisling’s nerves, to calm Cordis’ excitement, and to distract Gabriel from the deals he made. ‘I’ve read impotence can be brought on by too much alcohol.’ He drowned his goblet and refilled it. Aisling unraveled the details of the past two years and of recent events concerning Ryker, the lost Council Members, and Prince Nolen. Cordis listened carefully, nodding now and again while stuffing his face. There were details Gabriel had not been privy to. Council Members had been found as specters with unnatural powers. Aisling confessed she received two reports of specters; one who pulled moisture from every person, and a woman who walked in the center of a dust cyclone with enough strength to lift a man. Ryker was working his old skills.
“I’ve never thought to ask, but at what point did you receive your title of Lady?” Gabriel asked in a lull. “Both your parents are still alive.”
Aisling dabbed at her lips. “Yes, the title passes when the mother dies—or if the child of a Lord and Lady is given family-owned property. My grandparents gave me land nearly thirty years ago as far away from my parents as they could manage.” She chuckled and sipped her wine. “We do not abide easily together.”
“Which property?” Gabriel asked.
“A manor in the south,” she replied. “You would not know of it.”
“Lady Mage is quite a mouthful,” Cordis snickered.
Gabriel was weary of the stories by the end of the wine. His current predicament did nothing to lighten his dark stupor. It angered him even more that he could do nothing while Ryker killed and reanimated spirits most likely with Void. Gabriel read books that hinted to the existence of the sister side of Spirit, but Void had been outlawed an Age ago after the Mage Wars. Books detailing it had been burned, and knowledge of it scratched from paintings and tapestries. The Element Void was all but myth now.
He drained his wine and stood. “I will retire early tonight,” Gabriel said, feeling the wine in his head. “Should I find rooms for you?” he asked Cordis.
Cordis shot an inquisitive look to Aisling.
“No, I will see to them,” she replied. “Good night.”
Gabriel gave them both a nod and slipped out, keeping a hand on any solid surface he could find. His father was surprisingly unchanged in attitude though he had every right to be bitter.
Gabriel slipped into his rooms to find the hearth and sconces already lit. He unbuttoned his coat and walked through the bedchamber, but suddenly the faint kinetic energy of a body brushed his senses. He spun to the bed to see a woman draped over the pillows, an open book lying before her. She closed the book as their eyes met.
She wore a short lilac nightgown that clung to her torso in a sinful way. Long brown hair, unnaturally curled, fell to her waist. She brushed it over a shoulder as she rounded the bed. She was lovely, tall for a woman with a winsome, lithe body and full bosom. Her nose was straight and cheekbones high in the Arconian fashion, and she had narrow hazel eyes under manicured brows. She raised one and smirked as Gabriel backed into the armoire.
“It took you long enough,” she said in a faint Arconian accent. “I am Class Five Water Mage Mikelle Anlon. Remember that name; you’ll be sure to summon me after tonight.” Her accent revealed she was well educated, and her straight posture said she was confident—two dangerous things.
Gabriel put his hands up as she stepped too close. “No.” He remembered his oath to Nolen, but there had to be a way around it. “I cannot.”
She closed the gap between them and took hold of his coat. He tried to back away further, cringing like an idiot. He had never been good with women, having wooed so few and spent two years secluded with the only girl who understood him.
Because he felt so much Spirit energy, he did not like to touch people and did not like to be touched. Robyn respected that.
“You certainly can, a man of your stature.” She unbuttoned his coat and put two fingers against his chest. He held his breath. “I can show you things you never dreamed of, delight you in ways you’ve never thought possible.” She drew the fingers down his chest and poked him in the ribs.
Gabriel’s brain stopped working for a moment, and he opened his mouth nothing came out. She smirked and continued to draw her fingers down. “I’m impotent,” he finally sputtered out.
She chuckled. “Lie better.” Her fingers brushed the edge of his trousers.
“I—I only like plump women. Skinny women are too breakable.”
She laughed and continued her downward spiral.
He grabbed her hand. “I’ve never bedded a woman, and I’m not about to start with you,” he said, his voice gaining strength. “I’m saved for my lady love.”
Slowly, surprisingly, she gave him a sly smile and took a step back. “I was hoping you would say as much—though the alternative would not have been dreadful.” He released her hand, and she glided to the two plush chairs before the hearth and sat down. “Join me,” she commanded.
He regarded her carefully and took the long way around to stay furthest away from her. She adjusted the bosom of her dress but did nothing to hide the full flesh. He averted his gaze after getting a pleasant eyeful and swallowed. ‘Dead puppies, dead puppies….’
“I was quite pleased to be chosen by Nolen as the first. Did you know how terrified you looked on the dais? I was certain you were pure by your stiff reactions.” She crossed her legs and folded her hands. “I’m here to help you.”
“Explain.”
“I shall,” she smirked. “I was sent to see what was happening in Anatoly.”
‘A likely story.’ He narrowed his own eyes. “You’re a spy.”
She laughed heartily. “Tell anyone, and I’ll kill you.” Her face was joyful; her tone was serious. “Nolen brought tremendous stories, saying he captured and broke you. I was sent to see if such stories were true.”
The Castrofax (Book 1) Page 23
