“What happened to them?” Boyd asked quickly. He had a peculiar accent, almost Betheanian but somehow softer, with strange tonal jumps.
Rufus looked lethargically around the room. It appeared to be a physician’s chamber, the walls mounted with shelves of bottles and hanging herbs. In the corners, behind drawn back curtains, were several cots for patients. All of them seemed empty and Rufus and Joshua were directed to a set.
“I found them in the snow.” Fae laid Joshua down tenderly and then helped Rufus do the same. The feel of the mattress against his back was pure bliss and he sank into it with relief. Fae touched his face worriedly.
“Joshua,” Rufus forced out. “His lungs are sickly. He had a high fever, was coughing.”
“Alright,” Boyd said. He leaned over the boy. Joshua’s face, which had been pale, was now flushed. “The breathing is a little laboured but the heart rate is normal. I can treat him.”
Boyd moved over and took Fae’s place at Rufus’s side. Fae settled beside Joshua, stroking his hair soothingly. Joshua moved into her touch with a quiet murmur and she smiled. A feeling of relief washed over Rufus. Fae could take care of his brother if Rufus didn’t live the night out. A part of him was certain he wouldn’t.
“He’s burning,” Boyd said worriedly, touching Rufus’s face.
“Normal,” Rufus slurred. “That’s my…my body. Normally.”
“It’s true,” Fae confirmed. “He’s an odd one.”
Boyd froze and then looked accusingly up to Fae. “You know them,” he said.
Fae’s mouth drew into a line and Boyd inhaled sharply.
“You didn’t just find them in the snow, did you?” He straightened, his back rigid. “You know them!”
“I do,” she admitted.
“Oh Danu give me strength!” Boyd raged. “This is him, isn’t it? This is Rufus Merle!”
Fae gave an exhausted sigh and rubbed her eyes.
“It is!” Boyd squawked with anger, turning on Rufus like he was the one at fault. The physician opened and closed his mouth, gabbling in silence, before directing himself at Fae again. “He’s a Magi, Fae!”
“A Magi?” a soft voice interrupted the tirade and Fae sat bolt upright.
“Kael?” she gasped.
A young girl stuck her head out from where she was hiding behind one of the curtains. Her curious green eyes met with Rufus’s and she tilted her head.
“What are you doing here?” Fae demanded, dragging the girl out of her hiding place.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Kael whined.
“It’s my fault,” Boyd said. “I told her to come and see me if she couldn’t sleep. Keep her out of mischief.”
Rufus looked the girl up and down. She seemed to be Joshua’s age, though there was a youthfulness about her that suggested something younger. Fae pulled Kael to her side.
“Why were you hiding?” she asked, a little more gently.
“Korrick,” Kael replied and Fae growled.
“He’s forbidden Kael from wandering around at night,” Boyd said.
“Of course he has. The gods forbid he’d ever treated his own siblings as more than trainees,” Fae fumed. Kael leant over and peered curiously into Rufus’s face.
“You’re a Magi.”
“Yes,” Rufus replied hoarsely.
“Are you here to skin us?”
“No, Kael. He’s a friend.” Fae rested her hand on the top of Kael’s head.
“Well, the rest of your family might not see it that way,” Boyd reminded Fae tightly. “Does your father even know he’s here?”
Fae didn’t reply and Boyd winced.
“Damn it, Fae!”
“There was nowhere safe in Bethean. They needed medical attention. What was I supposed to do?”
“Well, I don’t know—” Boyd threw his hands in the air, “maybe not bring a Magi to a household that will collectively want to kill him?” he gabbled. “And now you’ve made me an accomplice! What am I supposed to do when they charge me with harbouring an enemy of the Neve? I’m only human, they’ll eat me alive!”
“No one is going to eat you.”
“Impale me then! Over and over! I don’t want to be impaled, Fae. I’m mortal and I won’t enjoy it!”
“Would you calm down?” Fae shushed him, her arm still wound around the little girl below her. Kael leant toward Rufus and pocked him in the face. Rufus flinched.
“He’s hot. Is he broken?” Kael asked.
“Not as much as we’ll be when Korrick discovers he’s here,” Boyd muttered, chewing his thumb. Fae slapped him across the arm. Boyd yelped in pain.
Rufus closed his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he choked out. “I don’t want to be trouble. If that’s what I’ll cause, then maybe it’s better I go.” He sat up. “Just promise me you’ll take care of Joshua. I’ll—”
He wasn’t given a chance to finish. A sudden, crushing pain shot through his chest and he doubled over, like he’d been struck with a mace. The pain was so unbearable for a moment he could barely draw breath against the excruciating pressure. A set of hands dragged him forward and Rufus might have retched, but he wasn’t sure. Finally the feeling passed and he was laid down again, his heart-racing. He wheezed, shaking uncontrollably. Boyd grabbed his free hand and examined it, a pensive look on his face.
“What is it?” Fae asked.
“His fingernails are blue.”
“I thought it was from the cold.”
“He’s not cold now.” Boyd touched a couple of fingers to Rufus’s forehead. “Naturally high temperature or not, this is too high to be normal. Feel for yourself, it’s like a furnace.”
“But he’s not sweating,” Fae said.
Boyd’s mouth pinched. “No. He isn’t. You’re not going anywhere,” he informed Rufus, before addressing Fae. “Try to speak to your father before Korrick catches wind of this—or worse, Commander Mac Gearailt. I’ll do what I can for them now.”
“Thank you, Boyd.”
“If he’s your friend, then he’s mine.” Boyd moved out of Rufus’s line of sight. Rufus heaved a sigh of relief and felt someone squeeze his fingers. He looked down and realised that his hand was tightly clenched around Fae’s. He must have grabbed hold of her when he started coughing.
“Korrick will find him if I’m here.” Kael slipped from Fae’s arms. “I’ll go, before he comes looking.”
“Thank you, Kael. I won’t forget this,” Fae said.
Kael leant in toward Rufus and gave him a smile like sunshine. “If you’re Rufus Merle, then you saved my sister’s life. I’ll save you now. Lie silent or they’ll find you.” She skipped from the room, stopping only to peer at the sleeping Joshua for a moment before leaving. Boyd said something to Fae but Rufus didn’t have the energy to make out the words. He gave into his exhaustion, safe at last.
It was Boyd’s startled cry that woke Rufus, a moment’s warning before he was ripped out of his bed. Rufus didn’t fight against the band of warriors as they pulled him upright, barely giving him time to find his feet before they dragged him out of the room.
It was still dark but the glow of the moon through the hall windows made Rufus’s head throb, his innards rolling unhelpfully. He could barely breathe from where he was hanging between two of the Cat Sidhe. They were all so close, so unprotected—Rufus could set them alight where they stood, burn them all with a heat so sudden they wouldn’t have time to draw their swords. The idea swam in his mind. If they truly turned on him, it might be his only chance to escape.
They brought him outside to a glamorous courtyard and he rolled his head back to see Athea’s star searing in the sky, hot and fierce like a sun. He gasped, choking as the blistering sensation filled his lungs. He could feel Morrigan’s touch throbbing on his skin, her hands driving into his muscles as she slipped into his blood. She poured through him, reaching his heart and it felt like his chest would burst open. He heaved and tossed his head, wailing like a man possessed.
“This man is ex
tremely unwell!” Boyd’s voice broke through the delirium. “He needs rest!”
“Step aside physician, the Magi is to be burned alive.”
Rufus laughed manically and was dropped onto all fours at somebody's feet.
“Lord Korrick, Commander Mac Gearailt’s informant was correct—we found this Magi hiding in the physician’s quarters.”
Rufus’s laugher turned into a harsh cough and he slumped back, looking up at the man named Korrick. He was a lordly looking warrior, with tanned skinned, a firm, unforgiving face, and familiar green eyes that held none of Fae’s softness. One of her brothers then, Rufus guessed.
“Magi,” Korrick said, his voice a deep rumble, “you have slaughtered our kind for centuries. Tonight, I will skin you.”
“Rufus,” a voice whispered within him, as Morrigan continued to slither beneath his skin. She was close, somehow. He could sense her. “Breathe, mo chuisle.”
He did so, drawing in deep, wet breaths as his intoxicated blood flowed into his brain.
“I’m not your enemy.”
“No?” Korrick raised a golden eyebrow. “How did you come to be here? They say my sister Fae bore you upon her back. Did you enslave her mind?”
“I’d never do anything to hurt Fae.” Rufus shook his head. “Never.”
“You would skin her as surely as you would control her,” Korrick said plainly. “Answer me, Magi.”
“Show him. Put the animal in his place.” Morrigan’s forked tongue flickered against his ear. Rufus shuddered in disgust and desire as her arms bound themselves around his chest, squeezing. Rufus closed his eyes. He could see the universe beyond the darkness. The gods whispered to him.
“Korrick Ó Murchadha,” he recited, trance like, “Lord of the Neve, son of Kathel and Saraid, wielder of the sword Fírinne—I am not your enemy.”
“You know my name?”
“As surely as you know mine,” Rufus slurred.
Korrick was silent. He drew back as another Cat Sidhe approached. This man wasn’t like Korrick or Fae, with darker hair and a more angular features. His eyes were a deep shade of blue and they gazed at Rufus with a harsh contempt.
“Reilly,” Korrick said, as the newcomer seized Rufus by the face with unkind fingers. “He says he is not our enemy. I am inclined to believe him.”
“Then you’re as mad as he is,” Reilly spat. “His kind murdered your eldest sister, Edana, and now this one seeks Fae.” He let go of Rufus in disgust and unsheathed his sword. “Stand and face death, Magi.”
But Rufus couldn’t. The sky had descended onto his shoulders and he was holding the entire horizon on his back. The stars drove like tiny nails into his shoulders and neck as he bore the weight of the cosmos for the rest of the world. He wheezed from the strain, his tongue so thick it suffocated him.
Boyd was shouting in the distance.
“Commander Mac Gearailt, please. I was tasked with caring for this man—he’s not well!”
“This rat is an unwelcome guest,” Rielly growled. “And you, Boyd Dacey, treacherous human! Whom do you serve, to be treating this Magi?”
“I serve my lord and those of his line. And I honour that in protecting this man. Magi or not, he’s a guest in the Neve and to execute him would be a violation of the codes of hospitality!”
“You speak out of turn, physician.”
“Yet he speaks truth,” Korrick said in a rumbling voice. “If the Magi was brought here as a guest by my sister, then he is to be honoured. Only my father or those of his line may revoke that protection. Speak then Magi, claim your innocence.”
“Innocence?” The word slipped from Rufus’s mouth. He could have cried. “I’m not innocent. I’ve killed…” He choked, his hands suddenly wet with blood. In an instant he was over the halfling again, his knife embedded in the soft tissue of his neck. In Harmatia, there was a belief that murderers were punished in death by being reborn as their own victims. Was that to be Rufus’s fate? To die so horrifically? And did he not deserve it, if it was? “I stabbed him over and over,” Rufus gabbled, the blade shaking in his hands. The halfling looked so frightened. “Over and over. Until there was nothing left of his face.” He turned to Korrick. “I don’t even know if it was to protect anyone anymore. Maybe I just finally wanted to kill someone who couldn’t fight back.”
“You are not endearing yourself to me, Magi,” Korrick warned.
“He’s feverish—delirious! He probably has no idea what he’s saying!” Boyd wailed. “You can’t take value from anything he says.”
“Then we cannot believe his innocence either.” Reilly raised his sword.
Rufus snapped his eyes up to the man. “I know you, Rielly Mac Gearailt,” he hissed. “You are a false leader.”
“What?” Rielly grabbed him by the collar. “What did you say to me, rat!”
“I say it thrice and am bound by my word—I am not your enemy, and you are not mine.” Rufus rolled his eyes to Korrick
Rielly threw him down. “He is utterly demented.”
“It would seem so,” Korrick agreed
“What is the meaning of this?” Fae’s enraged voice echoed down at them. Rufus looked up and caught sight of her on a balcony above.
“Did you bring this one to skin and fashion a new coat from, or have you lost your mind?” Rielly drawled and Fae bristled.
“Rielly Mac Gearailt, release them both or, so help me, you will regret it!”
Rufus’s head snapped up at the word ‘both’. He began to search the mass of people who’d gathered around them. Their faces swayed and melted into each other in a whirlwind of colours.
“Joshua?” Rufus cried. “Joshua?”
“Reilly, let them go!” Fae repeated.
“So the boy is with the Magi? Child or not then, he too is our enemy. He will share in this heretic’s fate.”
“NO!” Rufus screamed.
“Don’t you touch a hair on his head!” Fae shouted.
Joshua was thrust forward in the crowd, his eyes heavy with confusion. Reilly took the boy by the wrist and dragged his arm up. The Cat Sidhe drew a knife from his belt, and it was all Rufus needed to see. With a howl, he released the inferno from within him, the flames bursting from his flesh.
“You call me Magi? You forget the meaning of the word! Lay one hand on my brother, and I will boil your flesh from your bones!”
The crowd all reeled back in terror, as the balance of power shifted in Rufus’s favour. It would be easy now to kill them all. He could shield Joshua and extend the flame, let it burst over him, make the entire mountain erupt—oh, it would be so easy. Rufus’s mouth curled into a resentful smile, his heart racing with the exhilaration. And then he caught Joshua’s eye—and he saw him. His brother was so young, so brave in the face of this monstrosity, and yet Rufus could see him shaking, could see the fearful tears gathering in his wide eyes. His mouth moved in a continuous plea.
“No. Please, Rufus. No. Stop. Please, Rufus. Please, stop.”
Behind Joshua stood Jionat, watching Rufus with an expression of disappointment, his brow cast down. He shook his head.
“Jionat?” Rufus choked as his brother raised one hand and marked himself across the forehead, leaving a thick line of blood. He marked himself against Rufus.
“Jionat, please, don’t…!” Rufus shuddered.
“Rufus,” Joshua continued to plead and Rufus’s rage withered. The flames died down and Joshua, using his captors surprise to his advantage, wriggled free and threw himself into Rufus’s arms. Rufus engulfed him in an embrace, sobbing again.
“I’m sorry,” he wept into his brother’s hair, “I’m sorry. I’m a monster. I’m so sorry.”
Through his tears, Rufus saw Reilly draw back his sword, and pushing Joshua down and out of the way, Rufus threw back his head, exposing his neck in willing sacrifice.
The blade didn’t meet its mark. With a clatter, Fae descended down amongst them, putting herself between Reilly and Rufus, her sword drawn. She gav
e a territorial growl and the crowd shifted, watching keenly.
“You saw his power,” Reilly snarled. “He tried to kill us all.”
“To protect his charge, you insolent fool!” Fae retorted. “Do you know who this boy is? This is Joshua of the Delphi—the Prince of Harmatia! And you just threatened him with a knife!”
“I don’t care about human politics,” Reilly scoffed.
“He is of Niamh’s bloodline—a Delphi.” Fae repeated, “If you try to harm him—if you try to harm either of them—I swear there will be blood!”
“You dare threaten me?” Reilly drew himself up tall. “I am your commander!”
“You’re a damned idiot, is what you are!” Fae cried back.
“Enough!” Korrick boomed, and it was like a thunder clap, silencing the pair. “Fae, our father approaches. Let him lay judgement.”
Fae drew back, moving to Rufus’s side, her hand skimming his shoulder in quiet reassurance. Both Harmatians peered fearfully around to see Kathel Ó Murchadha, ruler of the Neve approach.
He was a tall, fair-headed man, with a similar build to Korrick but a face closer to Fae’s, golden and more kindly in its structure. He moved with a slow but powerful gait. Everyone watched him, waiting in silence. Rufus could tell that this was a man equally feared as loved.
“Why do my children bicker so late at night?” Kathel said, his voice clear. He had an accent a little like Boyd’s, though much fainter. “Who is this they fight over? Commander Mac Gearailt, an explanation, if you please.”
“He is a Magi, my lord.” Reilly knelt down in respect.
“A Magi?” Kathel whistled. “In the Neve? That is a serious concern. Korrick, my son, how have you allowed such a dangerous man to be in our home?”
“He says he is not our enemy,” Korrick said tonelessly, and while he bowed his head, he didn’t kneel like Reilly had.
“And do you believe him?”
Korrick flicked his eyes over to Rufus. His voice was much colder than his father’s. “I believe he is a Magi and should be treated accordingly.”
Blood of the Delphi (The Harmatia Cycle Book 2) Page 16
