Bermuda Triangle Blues: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (Scions of Magic Book 4)

by TR Cameron

  The Empress leaned forward and her subordinate matched the movement and waited for her to speak again. “If we play the game properly, we can pit her against the Malniets and have her and her friends take care of that problem for us.”

  Usha leaned back again, impressed by the strategy. “That’s certainly bold, Empress. How do you plan to convince her they are her enemies?”

  Shenni took another sip of her drink and relaxed into her chair. “They have already done so by virtue of attacking the city. It will be a simple matter to weave the lies that suggest it was all about trying to draw her out so they could kill her and end the Leblanc line. The nine are always at one another’s throats.”

  She chuckled. “Which is exactly as you like it.”

  The Empress laughed. “Exactly. This is why I value you so. You understand the broad strategies as well as the specific tactics. So, how would you recommend I respond to this letter?”

  The woman considered the question carefully. Being too eager to name themselves her ally might make Caliste suspicious but on the other hand, they needed to establish that connection sooner rather than later before she could get more information. “I believe you should summon her to the palace and meet her in the throne room with the rest of the houses present. Give her what she asks for and let her think that’s all.”

  The Empress nodded. “And then?”

  “Have your seneschal draw her into a side room for a private meeting. Share your concerns over the threat to her and explain that the actions in New Orleans were directed at her family. Stop short of offering anything else, except to say you don’t support one house acting against another outside the accepted rituals and understand that she will doubtless feel the need to respond but must do so within the laws.”

  “Which requires her to return to me in order to challenge them. I agree. What role would you play?”

  Usha chuckled. “None at all, Empress. The child has seen me and counts me among her enemies. To connect us at this time would work against our purpose. No, that can come later. Maybe at a pivotal moment, we can offer her assistance in New Orleans.”

  Shenni sipped again. “And what should I say when she asks why she has been targeted by your gang?”

  “Blame it on her parents—something they began but did not finish. Perhaps claim you would stop the attacks if only it wouldn’t go against Atlantean custom to do so.”

  “You have considered all the angles.” She paused for almost a minute, her eyes on the ceiling. During that time, her subordinate also looked at the mural painted there. It commemorated the coronation of the first Emperor in New Atlantis centuries before.

  She finally spoke. “I see no flaws. We will proceed as you’ve suggested.” The Empress smiled and rose and Usha recognized it as a dismissal. She bowed and backed out of the room to find the seneschal awaiting her. “It looks like I’m staying for a few days.”

  The other woman nodded. “Indeed. We have your suite prepared. Is there anything you require?”

  Wearily, she rolled her neck and arched her spine. “The weapons master and some opponents to train against. I think it’s time to remove the rust from some of my old skills. It seems as if they might be required in the days to come.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It turned out that New Atlantis did have restaurants, and the coin purse her parents had left would be more than sufficient for the amount of time they planned to spend there twice over. She and Tanyith both selected simple fare of meat and vegetables and had snagged a few to-go orders to cover the next meal and to feed Fyre if his fishing went poorly.

  They’d noticed other Draksa on their own in the city’s streets, still not flying but clearly unaccompanied. Fyre decided he would take advantage of that freedom to explore and perhaps to swim out into the ocean and hunt. Cali had misgivings about the idea but also didn’t think she had any right to try to stop him.

  Besides, I have more than enough to keep me busy. She’d asked Jenkins where the secrets were hidden but apparently, it wasn’t a specific enough question and he hadn’t been able to provide any answers. That meant she had to go through the rooms in the house one by one to search for any clues her parents might have left behind to illuminate their lives there or reveal what caused them to leave. She didn’t have high hopes, given the lack of instructions discovered in the bunker but at the moment, there was little else to do while they waited for Tanyith’s contacts to approach him.

  She’d finished the bedrooms earlier and had moved on to the chambers that looked like dens, sitting rooms, or living rooms. Having only lived in apartments for as long as she could remember, the idea of having this many unnecessary spaces boggled her mind. She walked into one that was clearly a reading room or a library based on the paired wingback chairs set in front of a tall window and the bookshelves all around. The wooden shelves were a slightly darker shade than the planks on the floor. A beautiful rug covered the middle of the chamber, its base color a rich brown but with lighter designs throughout. She imagined her parents seated in the comfortable chairs reading and smiled at the image.

  A little nostalgic, she ran a hand along the bookshelves as she moved from one to the next and examined the spines. Some were in English but many had symbols similar to those on the exterior of the house and on the sword fragment.

  So it’s the noble families’ language. It makes sense. She’d begun learning it with Jenkins’ help but it wouldn’t be an easy thing to master. When she got back, she planned to ask Emalia if she knew of a way she could acquire the knowledge more quickly. Cali had almost completed her circuit of the space when she finally realized that what looked like design etchings at various points in the room weren’t that at all.

  Leaning forward, she peered closely at the one closest and realized that it looked familiar. She wracked her brain and tried to remember where she’d seen it. Her parents’ bunker came to mind, followed quickly by the solution. The coded books. She yelled, “Jenkins.”

  The prim and proper voice replied instantly. “Yes, Miss Caliste?”

  “What are these markings?”

  “They are names.”

  She sighed. “What language are they in?”

  “The family language of the House of Leblanc.”

  Excitement surged through her. “We have a language?”

  Jenkins chuckled. “Yes, Miss Caliste. Each of the nine does.”

  “What does it say?”

  “Atreo.”

  Cali brushed her hand over the symbols and a sense that she was on the right track flooded through her. She moved to the next. “And this one?”

  “Elisinia.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Your mother, although she went by Elle in her adult years.”

  She raced to another. “And this?”

  “Thomas, your father.”

  Many more plaques were distributed around the room, but she didn’t want to go through them one by one. “Which is mine?” A ball of light appeared in the center of the room and glided to a nameplate across from her. She stared at it and attempted to discern how the letters matched up. “This makes no sense. There aren’t even the right number of symbols.”

  “The language is phonetic,” he replied. “I can help you to learn it when time permits.”

  She peered at the plate and examined it from every angle, but no further secrets revealed themselves. She extended her magic to it and sensed a flutter of a response but nothing else happened. Okay, that can’t be a coincidence. She allowed her power to flow out into the room and felt a total of five resonances. She pushed energy into them, and a soft click emanated from under the rug. “No way. Jenkins, what’s down there?”

  The disembodied voice held a note of uncertainty. “I don’t know, Miss Caliste, and really, I should.”

  Three voices suddenly clamored for attention in her mind. One sounded like Tanyith and urged her not to explore alone. The second was Fyre, who advised her to wait until he returned. The third, though
, was her own voice from long ago, an excited child discovering a new adventure. There was no question which she would listen to. “Well, then, let’s find out together.”

  She used a force-assisted pull to get the rug out of the way. A slight seam was visible and created a square in the floor. She frowned, let her power flow toward it, and willed the slab to rise. It failed to comply and her frown deepened. “Okay, then, how about down, instead?” She pushed with her magic and that section suddenly fell, then continued to do so a section at a time. She peered into the hole and discovered a narrow square staircase descending into darkness. “Hey, Jenkins, throw a light down there.”

  I really need to learn that spell.

  One appeared, followed by another to illuminate the area as she descended. It seemed to be a vertical tunnel but she was reasonably sure she could see an opening far below. She climbed carefully, ready to use her force magic to break her fall if the old wood should collapse beneath her. The stairs held without so much as a creak and eventually, she found the end of the path. A black door stood before her, exactly like the one at the back of the house. She activated her pendant and the rectangle glowed briefly and opened.

  The room on the other side was almost as large as the Tavern’s common area. Lights warmed to reveal her surroundings in more detail. Bookshelves and cabinets stretched along the long wall to the right, and the one to the left held tables, desks, and other workspaces. A narrow table ran down the middle, empty except for ornate lamps at intervals. Those details were all secondary to the sight of the far wall, which instantly captured her attention when she saw it. An enormous version of her pendant protruded, the compass markings and ring in shining gold, the points illuminated by sapphires, and the hands of silver with the etchings she now recognized as the Leblanc house language. The device looked real as if at any moment, the direction might change.

  Arrayed before it were five stands holding beautiful suits of armor with weapons at their sides. She muttered, “Why five?”

  Jenkins’s voice made her jump. “Because Leblanc is the fifth house, Miss Caliste.”

  She frowned. “It’s ranked fifth, is that what you mean? Like, fifth most important?” As soon as she said the words out loud, she realized that didn’t make sense and he confirmed it.

  “No, the fifth house to be named when the nine were created.”

  That made more sense. “Okay, sure.” She moved to the right side of the long table and examined the bookshelves. No English spines were visible, and the books all seemed much older than those above. About halfway down, she noticed runes that resembled ones she’d already seen. She peered closely at the book, which was at her eye level. “Jenkins, is this my name?”

  “Yes, Miss Caliste.”

  She sighed. “You know, feel free to share any secrets you happen to notice, okay?”

  His voice wasn’t quite smug but it headed in that direction. “I’m sorry, ma’am, that is outside my abilities. I am restricted from revealing secrets that you do not discover yourself.”

  “That sounds like something my parents would do.” She placed her hand on the book and sent her magic to search. It glowed and she realized it wasn’t a book at all but a button. She pushed it inward and the bookshelf to her left clicked and swung slightly ajar. She murmured, “This is nuts,” and pulled it open.

  Three objects of note broke the uniformity of the closet-sized room. The first was a large wingback chair like the ones in the chamber above that faced away from the entrance. Next was a cabinet to its left that appeared to be filled with a collection of ebony rods. The last was a basin that rested on the floor in front of the chair, made of gold and etched with the family’s language. She stepped inside and sat, then examined each of the items. The rods were in receptacles that fit them perfectly, and a rune was embossed at the end of each. “What do these say?”

  “They’re numbers, Miss Caliste.”

  Cali shook her head. “And the thing in front of me here?”

  “The runes contain the words of House Leblanc, ma’am.”

  She sighed. “Honestly, I think you’re doing it on purpose now.”

  Jenkins chuckled. “I assure you I am not but do not deny that if I was allowed to, I might.”

  “And what are those words, my reticent ghostly friend?”

  “Truth, Honor, and Family.”

  She repeated the words and the basin glowed, then filled from the bottom up with clear water except for a strange empty cylinder that stretched upward from the exact center. Nothing visibly prohibited the liquid from filling that space and yet, there it stood. She had little doubt about what came next and retrieved the rod at the top left of the cabinet. With no small amount of nervousness, she slid it into the dry space.

  She gasped as her mother’s face and torso appeared in the air over the basin but younger than Cali remembered her. Elisinia Leblanc had been pretty but not beautiful with dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. In the vision before her, the woman’s hair was bound behind her and she wore a simple top and a pendant that matched hers. She waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Finally, she whispered, “Mother?”

  The image smiled. “Cali. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Tears trickled from the corner of her eyes. “Is it really you?”

  She nodded. “It is me at a moment in time, magically preserved for you. Your father and I knew you might have to continue without us sooner than we would have wished, so we prepared these for you.” A graceful hand appeared as she gestured toward the cabinet, then vanished as she lowered it again. “Each contains knowledge about a different topic. The first two are the most general and will serve as a guide to the others. And, hopefully, for you.”

  Cali had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. She was freed from having to choose by Jenkins, who spoke with a concerned tone in his voice. “Miss Caliste, a representative from the palace has arrived at the front door. You must go and meet him immediately.”

  “Have Tanyith do it.”

  “Master Tanyith has left the house. He mentioned looking for someone.”

  She sighed. Of course, as soon as I find you, I have to leave. “I’ll be back.” Her mother’s image nodded, then faded, and the liquid drained from the basin. She returned the rod to where it belonged and raced to the stairs. The messenger handed her a note on much more impressive stationery than she’d used and departed without waiting for a reply. She broke the green seal on the rear of the envelope and retrieved the paper inside.

  The message read, Caliste Leblanc. Welcome to New Atlantis. You are summoned before the Empress at midnight tonight for a matter of urgent import. Court dress is expected. You are required to come alone. It bore no signature, but the watermark on the letter carried the royal seal.

  “Hey, Ho, to the palace I go.” She shook her head. “Yo, Jenkins. How do I get my hands on clothes appropriate for court?”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  As it turned out, her parents had left their own court dress clothes in the house. Jenkins assured her the wardrobe was not so far out of date as to be embarrassing, so she merely shrugged and chose one of her mother’s outfits. The black boots were stylish, and she would definitely take them home if she didn’t have to swim to get there. The gown was mainly black but had accents in gemstone-red, blue, and green. A cape of blue and turquoise draped almost all the way to the ground behind her and pinned at her shoulder with another representation of the Leblanc House Symbol.

  Cali disliked how the dress ended above her knees but decided not to make an issue of it by wearing leggings or black pants underneath. She’d toe the line as best she could, for the moment anyway. Digging through her mother’s jewelry box revealed a pair of earrings she liked, small gold hoops with red stones dangling from them that set off the runes on her bracelets. She brushed her hair out and checked her appearance in Elisinia’s dressing room mirror.

  It’ll do. But only the boots will come home with me. Well, and maybe the earrings.<
br />
  She had a half-hour to her appointment, which she thought would be more than sufficient. Tanyith had returned while she dressed and apparently, Jenkins had caught him up on the situation because he stood in front of the door with his arms folded. His voice carried the same concern his body showed. “No, you shouldn’t do this. You’re walking directly into the enemy’s clutches.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I mean, yes, but it’s okay. She’s responded to my formal request. She can’t do anything to me tonight, at least that’s what our ghostly friend says.”

  “Miss Caliste is correct, Jenkins interjected. “The Empress cannot act outside the laws.”

  Her friend scowled at the air. “No, the Empress can’t be seen to act outside the laws. There’s considerable room for trouble between the one and the other.” He lowered his gaze to her. “And, of course, you have to come alone with no explanation why.”

  “You’re not wrong.” She sighed. “But I need to do this. For all kinds of reasons, but most importantly because it might get the damn Atlanteans off my back before one of us gets permanently injured, or worse.”

  He cringed involuntarily. “Okay, I see that. But still. Go in expecting trouble, right? And if you have to, let that wench know that Fyre and I will tear the palace down around her ears if something happens to you.”

  The words were amusing but his tone promised they were deadly serious. Fyre bumped into her from behind and she reached down to pat him. To Tanyith she said, “I will. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. I’ll be back to annoy you in no time.” She knelt and gave the Draksa a hug. “You stay out of trouble and watch over him. If he leaves and you can go along, do it. I don’t like the mystery around these people who want to talk to him.”