[The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born 04.0] Magic Hunted

by Caethes Faron

  I let him get a few spoonfuls of the soup down before I questioned him. I didn’t want to rush him, but Marguerite was still on the loose, and she wasn’t slowing down. “Mikael, what happened here? Where is everyone?”

  He slowly put his spoon down and looked at us. “I don’t know where they are. I didn’t follow them. I couldn’t.”

  “How long have you been tied up?”

  “I don’t know. I lost track of time.”

  “What do you know? What happened?” If he couldn’t answer my questions, I needed him to tell us whatever he could.

  “When Sadie came back from talking with you, I didn’t know what to believe. All we knew was that this had all gotten out of hand. After Analise died, we reevaluated a lot of things. And then this whole situation with Marguerite and you and the Directorate and finding out the truth about our parents—it was all so crazy. I’m still not sure what I believe about the way my parents died, but I know they wouldn’t have wanted this. All they ever wanted was for us to be happy, but after they died, our entire lives changed. Analise was determined to avenge them. Sadie and I weren’t like that, we did have the same anger that Analise had, but we did believe in advancing mages. We both had a love for magic. It was everything to us, everything that made us happy. So we went along with Analise. Look at us now. My sister’s dead, and I can’t ever do magic again.” His voice broke on the last word.

  “That’s not true, is it? You can always use your other hand to wield if you want.”

  “No. My spark of magic is so dim that I can’t feel it anymore. The kind of curse she did, it’s outlawed for a reason. After everything I’ve seen, I don’t know that I could ever do magic again. Everything is different for me now.”

  “And what about Marguerite?” Alex asked.

  Mikael didn’t seem to understand. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t be able to focus either if I were him. Instead of telling us where she went, he started at the beginning.

  “The Armory has always been an asset of the Directorate. Casper operated fairly independently because he was so high ranked, but we were still officially Directorate. Casper owed the Directorate a lot. They got him his start. I don’t know all the details, but he would’ve never gotten as far as he did on his own. Marguerite, as the Director, came here and told us all that we were to start working directly for her. She wanted to find you, Kat, and she wanted our help with the clues. Sadie and I had already figured out some of it on our own. We found the cave in Scotland. We figured out what the Directorate was working on at the Cushing Sea. Meglana and Casper were as close as two mages in their situation ever get to someone. That gave us a bit of an advantage. There wasn’t much to work with, but Casper kept very detailed notes about his interactions with Meglana. When Marguerite found out that Sadie had been to Scotland and retrieved that clue, she demanded that we work with her.”

  “Did you help make the golem that was used to infiltrate the CCS?” I asked.

  “Yes. At the time, I had no idea the depth of Marguerite’s madness.”

  “I figured it was you. You’re one of the few people I know who would have that kind of knowledge.”

  “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m not proud of what happened since then.”

  “So when did you start to be leery of Marguerite?”

  “I suppose it started after she came here demanding the clue from Sadie. The first fractures appeared then. It became clear that Marguerite wanted this for herself. Now keep in mind, at this point we didn’t fully know what Meglana had hidden. At first, we thought the Director wanted the power to protect ourselves against the sorcerers, level the playing field a little bit, but it soon became clear that Marguerite wanted it all for herself. She wanted us to put all of our resources into solving the clue, but she was wary of us knowing too much. Obviously, that’s not a very workable environment.”

  “Do you know what it is she intends?”

  Mikael nodded. “After she got the potion from Sadie, things changed. It became clear that she was no longer operating as the Director but as a crazed mage. Eventually, people weren’t putting up with it anymore. She lost the loyalty and trust of the Directorate. You have to understand, the Directorate is not like the CCS. It’s not as unified. There are different factions, and they all have their own goals and desires, but they’re held together by the need to help and protect each other. The rest of the mages here at the Armory, the ones who had been loyal to Casper, they left. They refused to follow Marguerite. A new Director has emerged, and he’s rebuilding the Directorate. There’s been something of a vacuum between Casper’s death and now Marguerite’s madness. Sadie and I are pretty much all who remained and certainly not because we supported Marguerite. There was a little bit of fighting over whether or not the others should join up with the new Director or form their own faction. That’s why the Armory is in such a mess right now. They ransacked everything, took anything they could get their hands on, took every last bit of magic out of here.”

  I hated to bring this up, but I needed a timeline. “Was this before or after Marguerite killed Sadie?”

  Tears welled in his eyes. “Before. She didn’t stay much longer after that. With all the magic gone from here, she didn’t want to leave my magical bindings in place. So after she replaced them with rope knowing that I wasn’t capable of breaking free anymore. She didn’t want the magic to be detectable from the outside. The only thing that was left was my wand and Sadie’s, but she knew those wouldn’t be any use to anyone.”

  “Do you know where she went? What her plans were?”

  “Yes. She’s headed to Elustria. We figured out what the potion did, that it makes the drinker persuasive. We hadn’t gotten around to testing it or anything. We figured it was a way to get a sorcerer to cooperate, so she’s using it to kidnap a sorcerer now. That’s not what you need to be worried about, though.”

  “Really? That sounds pretty damn worrying to me,” Deacon said.

  Mikael seemed to notice him for the first time. “Who are you? I don’t know you.”

  “He’s a friend,” I said as I took Mikael’s hand. “He’s helping. But why did you say that’s not what we should be worried about?”

  “She knows where your friend’s family is. She hired mercenaries to capture them. She’s planning on using them to blackmail you.”

  I leaned back, digesting all of this. “That means she still doesn’t know how to do what she wants. Otherwise she wouldn’t need me. There’s hope in that.”

  Mikael cocked his head at me. “You’re an odd one, Kat Thomas, if you can see hope in a time like this. I always knew you were different from the first time I met you. I’m sorry it all turned out that way.”

  “So am I. None of us could’ve known then.” I gestured with my head to Alex and Deacon for us to be on our way. “I hate to leave you like this, Mikael, but I don’t think you’re in any shape to come with us.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m done. I don’t know that I’ll ever leave this place.”

  “I wish we could stay and help you.”

  “But you can’t. We both know that. Besides, I kind of just want to be alone. This is the first time I’ve ever been alone in my entire life.”

  My heart broke to see him like this. No one should ever have the kind of despair that Mikael did. Marguerite’s destruction knew no bounds, and this was just the start of it. As we walked away, I took one last look at Mikael and vowed that I would not let her get away with this. I turned to the door, and a communication orb floated in front of my face.

  Twenty-Eight

  Marguerite’s face appeared in the orb. My fists clenched at the sight of her. I wanted to lash out at the orb, but it wouldn’t do anything. When she grinned, I wanted to punch her face.

  “Oh, just the niece I was looking for. I see you found your way to the Armory. So sorry you were too late to see me. We have so much to catch up on. But no matter. I may not have you to talk to, but I do have this sweet girl Nicole. We
have a lot to chat about. After all, she’s known you for years longer than I have.”

  My heart clenched. My worst fear since bringing Nicole into all this was that she’d end up in exactly this position. “Leave her out of this, Marguerite. She can’t help you. She doesn’t know anything about my mother’s magic.”

  “True, but she knows a lot about you, and, more importantly, you care for her.”

  I hated that my friendship with Nicole endangered her. I wouldn’t ever forgive myself if something happened to her. “You have to know that if you hurt her, you’ll never get anything from me. I will make it my life’s mission to end you.”

  “Good thing I don’t just have Nicole. I have your little imp friend here too, not to mention Nicole’s mother and brother. I think I’ll start with the brother. My guess is you’ll give me what I want when Nicole begs you to. But if she has to suffer the loss of her brother first in order for you to see sense, then so be it. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

  If Marguerite killed Danny, it would break Nicole. That was the kind of damage that could never be undone. After this was all over, I could have Millhook wipe her memory so she would never know all that had happened with Marguerite, but I couldn’t take the memories of her brother. Even if it were possible, I wouldn’t want to. If he died, that would be a pain she’d live with forever—I knew from experience. The hole that was created by that kind of loss never fills in, you just learn to grow around it. It changes you, and there’s no changing back.

  I didn’t want to play into Marguerite’s hands. The silence stretched out between us. She waited for me to provide the verbal proof that her threat had hit home. I didn’t want to give her that power over me, but it was futile. We both knew I would do whatever it took to protect Nicole and her family. “There’s nothing I can do for you, Marguerite. I don’t have the clue. I can’t give it to you.”

  “Oh, that’s no problem, dear. I don’t need the clue, as long as you piece it all together and give me the secret.”

  “I don’t have the secret.”

  “That’s a shame. I hope for Nicole’s sake that you figure it out. As soon as you do, come join us. We have quite the little party here between your little imp helper, Nicole’s family, and this sorcerer I’ve brought here. All you have to do is show me how to take his magic, and I’ll release your friends.”

  “And why would I trust you?” Even if I did what she asked, I didn’t hold much hope that she’d let us all go about our lives unharmed.

  “You have my word.”

  “Much good that’ll do me.”

  “Now, have I ever really lied to you? Maybe I have. Well, I vow on Elustria’s magic that if you show me how to take this sorcerer’s magic, I’ll release Millhook, Nicole, and Nicole’s brother and mother.”

  She didn’t say anything about my safety, but it didn’t matter. This was good enough. It was something we could at least work with. “Fine. You have my word that I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  “We’ll see if that’s enough. I’ll be waiting for you here at the ice cave. Don’t take too long, dear. If you’re not here in an hour, little Danny is going to help me practice some curses I haven’t perfected yet.” The orb went blank.

  “How are you going to give her what she wants?” Alex asked.

  “I have no idea.” The only thing I had to work off of was the memory. I knew the spell that Meglana had used on my father, but I had no idea what made it work. And even if I did know, how could I give that knowledge to Marguerite?

  “We need to go back to the cave and put up a fight,” Deacon said. “I can gather some of my friends. There are sorcerers who can help us.”

  The thought of involving sorcerers made my blood run cold. We couldn’t bring them into this. If we did, it could spiral out of control quickly. “We don’t have time to involve anyone else. An hour isn’t much time to plan. That time’s better spent figuring out a way for us to get through this. Besides, I can’t create a portal to Elustria. Do you know anyone here who can?”

  “No, I suppose you’re right. How should we go about this?” Deacon asked.

  “She won’t stop,” Mikael said from where he sat at the table. “You’re either going to have to kill her or give her what she wants.”

  I knew Mikael was right, but I didn’t know what to do about it. “If we go there to fight, she’ll kill her hostages.”

  “Maybe not,” Deacon said. “You made it clear that you won’t give her what she wants if she kills them.”

  “It’s too risky. She has too many hostages. I can’t let her hurt them.” I also didn’t trust myself. If it came down to it, I might tell Marguerite everything in order to spare my friend. Was I the kind of person who would endanger the entire world in order to save her friends, or was I the kind of person who would stand by and let her friends die in order to save the world? I didn’t want to find out.

  “What do you want to do?” Alex asked. I knew whatever I decided, he would support me.

  Mikael was right. Marguerite wouldn’t stop. And if we went there fighting with the intent to kill her, there was no way to avoid collateral damage. The only option was to give her what she wanted and hope like hell that we could stop her afterward. “We’re going to meet her, and I’m going to tell her everything I know. I’ll show her how to take a sorcerer’s magic.”

  Deacon shook his head. “No, I can’t allow that. If this is your aim, I cannot support or allow it.”

  “It’s the only way. She vowed that she would release the hostages once I gave her the knowledge. We’ll hold her to that. Once she’s handed over Nicole and the others, she’ll be so consumed with taking the sorcerer’s magic that we’ll have an opportunity to strike. With any luck, we’ll be able to stop her before she’s finished.”

  “And what if it doesn’t work out that way?” Deacon asked. “What if she refuses to hand them over until after she’s taken the sorcerer’s magic? It might fall within the terms of the vow for her to verify that what you told her is true. Then we’ll have a mage with a sorcerer’s power to contend with. And if we attack her before she hands over the hostages, there’s a good chance they’ll die.”

  I had to appease Deacon. We couldn’t do this without him. “Our first priority is defeating Marguerite.”

  “You really expect me to believe that you would do something that would endanger your friends?”

  “If you don’t trust me to do it, then you do it. You can melt all the ice and drown us or cause an avalanche and bury us alive inside that cave.”

  “Fine. If it comes to it, I will.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Alex said.

  The sound of Mikael’s chair sliding back from the table interrupted us. It didn’t look like he had eaten much, but there was a little more strength in his walk as he came toward us. “You’re going to need all the help you can get.”

  My heart swelled at Mikael’s intention. He’d lost everything, and yet he still wanted to contribute. I was glad that this bit of kindness remained in him. “I appreciate the gesture, but you can’t, Mikael. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Oh, I know I can’t go with you. I wouldn’t be any use in this situation. Even before all of this I was never much of a fighter. No, I meant help of a different kind.” From his sleeve he pulled two wands. “Here, take these. They’ll be more use to you than they are to me. The second one is Sadie’s.”

  “Are you sure?” Wands were sacred. They were part of a mage in a way that didn’t compare to anything in human terms. A mage would no sooner take someone else’s wand than a human would take another’s wedding ring.

  “Yes. The only thing left for me to want is Marguerite’s demise. Sadie wanted the same. Take them, and use them well.” Mikael handed me the wands then walked out of the room. I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.

  Having two wands would allow me to cast multiple spells at a time. That kind of advantage could make all the difference.

  “We still h
aven’t settled on a firm plan,” Deacon said. “I don’t like the idea of showing up and hoping for the best.”

  “Like I said, I’ll tell Marguerite what she wants to know, then we’ll attack while she attempts to take the sorcerer’s magic, regardless of the situation with the hostages. With two wands and the three of us, we should be able to do it. Alex can heal me if needed as I attack. Agreed?”

  Alex nodded. “Agreed.”

  Deacon held eye contact with me. Then, apparently seeing what he was looking for, he agreed. “Let’s go.”

  “Give me a minute to prepare.” For this plan to work, I had to know exactly what I was going to tell Marguerite, which meant I had to figure out how to make the spell work myself. If I told her the spell and it didn’t work, she’d go into a rage. Meglana had tried it several times before she succeeded. In fact, I believed she tried it on my father more than the two times I had seen in the memory.

  There was something different about the last time Meglana tried it. The memory revealed the spell she used, but if that was all it was meant to convey, then it wouldn’t have shown both attempts. There was a crucial difference between the two attempts that Meglana expected her heir to notice.

  I went over the memory in my mind, playing it back, searching for the change. The most obvious difference between the first and second time she did the spell was that she had lifted the curse that suppressed my father’s magic. But if that was the intended message of the memory, why show her performing the spell when my father was cursed? The assumption would be that the spell would work, so there would be no reason for anyone to try cursing the sorcerer first. All it did was confuse matters.

  The difference had to be my father’s point of view, the insight it gave. Otherwise, Meglana could have simply written down the secret or found some other way to communicate it. To someone like her, the thought of the self-sacrifice my father exhibited was incomprehensible. She wouldn’t know how to put it into words. The one thing that the memory conveyed in a way that nothing else could was my father’s state of mind and his emotions.