by Mara Amberly
He left the brig, along with his men and sealed the door. The room was cast in complete darkness, other than small slivers of light, which filtered down through the gaps between the boards of the deck above.
The ship creaked as it shifted in the water. Cerus could hear waves sloshing against the hull, and coughing in the darkness.
He wondered how long the other prisoners had been chained in the brig, and how long he would be. Cerus was hopeful he’d be found innocent, but he didn’t know what would happen. He hadn’t a clue how to prove it, unless he could reach the King. At least King Merrion was aware of their private conversation, and he was safe if the junior guard had told him the truth. Cerus saw no reason he would’ve been lied to about it. In fact, if the man was being prudent, he should’ve told Cerus the King was dead.
***
Hours seemed to pass before the ship left the dock. Cerus knew it must be later in the day but it didn’t seem it could yet be evening and light still filtered through the boards above. He knew he hadn’t slept because he was well-awake and the gravity of his situation occupied his mind. It wasn’t the great and glorious death he’d once envisioned for himself, but nor was he willing to accept this might be the end for him – especially when he was still breathing and had options, as limited as they might be.
Every time his mind started to drift, the distant rattling of chains, a cough or a sneeze focused his mind once more on the dilemma he found himself in.
“You’re guilty aren’t you?” A woman spoke from the darkness, who had hadn’t noticed before.
She sounded familiar to Cerus, but he couldn’t quite place her voice. Someone whose path he’d crossed at the palace, more than likely.
“I most certainly am not,” he insisted, taking no small degree of insult.
Her laughter cut like a knife. “Oh, that’s what they all say.”
It took him a moment, but he thought he knew who she was.
“Laurelyn, isn’t it?” he asked, his tone turning slightly smug.
She was the one who’d visited him at the palace and claimed to be an advisor to the King.
There was a grumble, then a murmur of “maybe”.
He considered possibilities – whether she was truly a prisoner here or if she’d been sent to separate the innocent from the guilty.
“So how did you end up here?” he asked her, as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. He had the option of holding his hands up – and those manacles were heavy – or setting them on the floor in front of him.
“It’s a long story,” she admitted, “that begins and ends with an idiot Captain.”
He wondered offhand if it was the same Captain who’d ordered him arrested. The man was obviously cautious. As much as it frustrated and worried Cerus being arrested, he couldn’t fault the Guard Captain for his duty.
“I think we’ve met. So tell me Laurelyn, you’re guilty aren’t you? You’re one of those no-good Nemoran spies.” He grinned as he probed her with the question.
“Actually, I am.”
There was a note of humour in her voice, but he couldn’t see her smile. There was a vague shape not far away that he thought was her, and her voice carried from that direction.
It occurred to him a moment later that he didn’t hear her chains. It seemed she probably wasn’t wearing any.
“I knew you were trouble from the beginning, but I wasn’t expecting that,” he told her.
She laughed again, and then he heard the tell-tale rattle of chains. They might be hers, but he wasn’t sure. Either she was lying or she truly deserved her place in the brig.
Chapter 19
Cassia and Ariane stayed in the shadows as best they could, as they made their way along the quiet roads, past buildings that had fallen into disrepair.
“Do you think they’re just gone or most of the people are dead?” Ariane asked, her voice low.
“Dead,” Cassia stated with a desolate sigh. She gestured with her head toward the far side of the road, and then darted across it. It brought her closer to the high wall.
Ariane followed moments later, and joined her in the shadows beside a short building, which had its door and shutters closed.
A wind swept through the street, which chilled Cassia to the bone. She wrapped her arms around herself, drawing her robe tighter against her and blocking out some of the wind. Together, they crept toward the corner of the building. There was just one more road to cross and they’d reach the wall. She was near the corner, Ariane not far behind her, when she spotted movement down the road. At first it was hard to see because the night was dark and the strangers wore black.
She turned around – moving back toward Ariane, and they took cover beside the building, so they wouldn’t be seen when the approaching people passed.
“Do we let them go or attack them?” Ariane was nervous but ready to attack, if needed.
They realised the strangers were probably guards patrolling outside the wall. That meant they were cultists, more than likely.
“We should do what we’re supposed to and lie low,” Cassia answered, a stern tone to her voice.
The cultists prickled Cassia’s thirst for vengeance, but these were almost certainly not the same cultists who’d attacked the Sisters in Kalle, even though they probably belonged to the same organisation. She realised the sternness wasn’t because she disapproved of Ariane’s question; it was because she wanted to kill them. In a way she was warning herself and not her Sister.
As the dark-clad figures walked by, the women made out more details about them. All three were men and seemingly muscular beneath their robes. It was hard to see much detail in the dark, but Cassia noticed they were wearing swords.
Many of the Nemorans they’d encountered in the past were sorcerers, so they had no reason to believe these were any different.
The women waited for the cultists to pass. Cassia glanced back at Ariane, and then as she peered once-more around the corner, she saw one of them was walking toward the location where they hid.
The women froze, hesitating in case their footsteps made a sound. They knew they shouldn’t have been visible in the darkness, but perhaps they were heard or sensed.
Cassia reached out with her mind and tried to exert her will on a rock she saw on the ground across the road. Earth magick wasn’t her forte at all, but she had some limited ability with it when it would cooperate.
She focused hard, as though her life depended on it, and pushed it toward the wooden side of a building across the road.
She held her breath as she forced it, and with a sudden movement, the rock flew into the side of the building, banging against it. The cultist turned immediately toward it. Cassia ran – quickly followed by Ariane, in the other direction.
They dashed along the adjacent road and quickly crossed it, disappearing into an alley that was even darker than the surrounding night. They heard the men’s shouts, as they searched – now aware of someone’s presence in the town.
Ariane and Cassia hid themselves among the ramshackle buildings in the town, until even they didn’t know where they were relative to everything else.
With a sigh, Ariane whispered, “it seems too dangerous right now to go back.”
Cassia caught her breath. “You’re right. The others should be far enough away that they’re safe, but we should get out of here for now.”
***
Alexa and Knave tried to appear casual as they scouted the town, even as they attempted to remain unseen. Malachi’s wings were near-soundless when he glided, but they created a fluttering sound when he beat his wings to hover in place. The dragon rarely spoke but Alexa heard his voice in her mind. She had trouble sensing within the town, but he obviously didn’t have trouble communicating.
“It comes.”
Alexa turned to the dragon perplexed? “What comes?” she asked him aloud.
“The guardian. He comes.”
“Guardian?” she asked Malachi aloud. “Guardian of who?�
�
“Not who,” the dragon answered her cryptically. “What?”
“Do I need to send the dragon home?” Knave asked with impatience.
“No, not at all,” Alexa told him, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Someone or something is coming.”
Knave and Alexa moved toward the dubious shelter of a nearby building.
He was able to force the door open, and then they slipped inside. It took less effort than expected to show Malachi in.
The building comprised only a single room. It was musty and dark, but it felt safer than the road outside.
Knave closed the door around but didn’t shut it completely. He gazed out through the crack in the door, watching. Alexa moved to the shutters and looked out through the side. It didn’t give her much view of the street, but it gave her some.
A young man ran down the street, with a woman in a dark blue dress beside him. They weren’t sticking to the shadows – they were doing nothing less than trying to get away as quickly as possible.
“Evil,” the dragon murmured aloud. Knave heard it as well.
“What’s that?” he asked, keeping his voice down.
The dragon flew toward the door and scrambled to get out. “Stop them. Nooooo getting away.”
Knave tried to hold the dragon back, but he got scratched in the attempt. He opened the door before the struggling dragon hurt him more or itself, though by that point he didn’t especially care.
Malachi barrelled out into the street and flew beyond their view from the door or window.
“Are you alright?” Alexa asked Knave, who cradled his injured arm.
“No, not really, but I don’t think it’s that bad. I’ll live.”
Once she was sure he was safe, Alexa crept out into the street to see where Malachi had gone.
Outside, Malachi swooped through the air toward the unwary teenager. The dragon latched on to a canvas bag the young man carried and tore it out of his hand.
“No!” he shouted as the dragon took flight, ascending into the darkness high above.
Jonas and Elena Briette were left with no immediate way to pursue him.
They quickly glanced back around them and found Alexa standing there. She was soon joined by Knave, who cradled his injured arm close to his chest.
The young man and woman seemed to consider running, but for the time being, they didn’t.
“It stole from me,” the young man exclaimed, not able to express the true gravity of the situation, given what had been taken.
“What was that?” Elena Briette asked, still uncertain.
“It was a dragon,” Alexa told them, her expression sheepish and apologetic, even though she wasn’t directly responsible.
She tried to call out to Malachi telepathically and to her surprise, she found it much easier to communicate again.
“Come back?” she begged the dragon, sensing what she could of his location and emotional state.
He was happy. Oh so happy.
“Mine now.”
She reasoned that the manse – if that was what he’ d stolen – was far safer with Malachi than it was with the cultists, but she also knew that if he touched it, he’d die. There was also the matter of the Sisters of Destiny wanting it. Somehow Alexa knew there would be hell to pay for this.
Chapter 20
“You have no idea how much I just went through to get that,” Jonas told Alexa, as they walked cautiously through the town. “I could’ve died – in fact, I almost died for that – and a freaking dragon flew off with it.”
Alexa was sympathetic, but if it was what she thought it was, perhaps the safest place it could be right now was with Malachi.
“It was a manse, wasn’t it?” she asked him, folding her arms as another chilly breeze gusted through the town. Knave scouted ahead of them, while Elena Briette walked nearby.
Jonas sighed. “It’s not really a topic I feel comfortable discussing. We just met and I don’t know you. No offense.”
Alexa shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was frustrated by it. Time was short, and she felt compelled to hurry, but Jonas didn’t yet understand their motivations. She realised she shouldn’t expect him to.
“I think I should at least explain why we’re doing what we are. The Nemorans took control of the manses because they’re trying to annihilate the people of Maeridea. I don’t know how it works, only that they’re charging them and they plan to use them in an attack.”
Jonas was taken aback by her explanation. He didn’t see much point in denying what it was any further. “They charged this one by killing most of the townspeople and feeding their life energy into the manse. They’ve been expending that energy with spells, but it’s still highly charged. I severed the spells and bound the manse after we left the compound. No one else will be using it without the know-how, and very few people have it.”
Alexa nodded, sickened by what the cultists had done. At least she knew now for sure that Jonas had taken the manse. She would’ve liked to see it with her own eyes, but it seemed their mission had been achieved in an unexpected way. The manse wasn’t secured but it was out of enemy hands for the moment. She wasn’t counting Malachi as an enemy.
“That’s horrible that they murdered so many people. They killed many of my fellow Sisters of Destiny as well. I was lucky to escape with my life.
Before he chased you, the dragon called you a ‘guardian’. I’m wondering what that means.”
It mightn’t have meant anything, but Alexa’s instincts told her that it might be important.
Jonas stopped, his expression perplexed. “Among my people, guardians are those who have attained mastery in certain magicks, which relate to objects of power such as these. It was a role passed down from the original creators of the objects, whom my people once served. I never had the opportunity to become one. A guardian, I mean. How could the dragon know unless he somehow sensed it about me? I never thought I’d have the opportunity to become one.”
Alexa was surprised by Jonas’s revelation. It was a role of far greater consequence than she’d anticipated.
“Is there a way I could contact other members of your people? Given the seriousness of the situation facing all of us, we could use all the help we could get.”
Jonas released a deep breath and walked on as they spoke.
“My people live underground in the desert. I could find them again, but they might not listen to me and they wouldn’t welcome strangers. I might be able to relay a message, but they prefer to study and debate, rather than act when they should.”
She stopped mid-step and turned to face him. Her reaction drew Knave’s attention, which in turn peaked Elena Briette’s curiosity.
“I don’t mean to worry you, because it might not be them, but there were bodies of a great many people in tunnels to the west of here. We assumed they’d been slain by the Nemorans, but we’re not sure who else would’ve done such a thing. That’s not where your people are from, is it?”
Jonas felt as though someone had stolen his breath away. “It might be. You saw the bodies?”
Alexa nodded, saddened and sickened at the memories. Some things once seen couldn’t be forgotten.
“We searched but there wasn’t anyone left alive. I’m so sorry, but it might not be them. We plan to return in that direction because it’s on our route home. You’re welcome to join us?”
It wasn’t what Jonas had planned, and he still hoped to go after the manse.
“I’ll think it over,” he promised. He was overwhelmed by feelings of desolation and great loss, but he wasn’t sure if they were warranted. One way or another, he knew he had to find out. He’d always assumed there would be a home to go back to, even though he was no longer welcome there. He’d never expected to be a sole survivor.
“The offer is open,” she assured him, while Knave put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
He hadn’t heard all of the conversation, but he’d heard enough to know that Jonas’s people might
be dead.
“So who are you?” Knave asked Elena Briette, realising now that she probably wasn’t one of Jonas’s people.
“No one; not anymore,” she assured him. “I’m just someone who wants to get away and have a safe, pleasant life free of trouble and cultists.”
“I can vouch for her,” Jonas told him, though he didn’t mention that he’d only met Elena Briette earlier in the night.
“We shouldn’t be too far away now,” Knave said, as the road they were on descended the rise. “The place where we left our things is only five or ten minutes walk from here.”
Knave had just passed the corner of an old tavern, when an arrow struck the wall beside him. It missed him by inches.
“Get down,” he shouted, crouching around the corner as the others rushed past him to get out of the shooter’s sights.
A handsome, dark-haired man in a black robe strode out of a side road, armed with nothing but a fireball that shone with extraordinary brightness over his open palm.
Another man followed behind him, his hand held in a similar fashion, though something darker even than the surrounding night glittered above his hand.
Two more arrows struck the ground near the corner of the building. They had a wildly different firing angle than the last one, which suggested they might’ve come from an adjacent building.
There was a whole lot of danger forming up around that corner, while the road leading away still looked clear. It seemed almost too good to be true that it would be, but it was the best option right now.
“Run!” he urged the others.
Jonas and Elena Briette rushed into an alley between two buildings, while Alexa and Knave crossed the road and pushed through a small garden, in front of what had been someone’s home.
The door sat open, while an open space lay to the far right of the house. Alexa ran for the space, while Knave moved toward the door.
“This way,” she called. “If we get caught in there, we might never get out.”
