The guardsmen blinked twice, and a vacuous smile appeared on his face. “Well... I suppose it will be all right this once.”
“This all looks very complicated. You must be very clever to make all this work. Would you explain things to me?”
The guardsmen puffed up at the praise. “This shaft here goes…”
Julia was genuinely interested as she looked around at the gears and chains. She listened closely to the guardsman’s explanation of their workings. How a culture without technology could make such things was beyond her. Maybe magic had been used in some way, but if it was she didn’t know how. She had always been good at what she did in the past, but now was a different matter. Not understanding how to use her magic properly was intensely frustrating to her. If she knew more, she could have waved a hand and have all the guardsmen disappear. Instead, she would have to hurt people again… or would she?
Suddenly Julia had an idea.
“See? Then I pull this one, the stone rises up again, and the gate closes all by itself. Clever eh?”
Julia nodded and put her hand on the lever she now knew unlocked the right-hand counterweight.
“Don’t!” The guardsman yelled and grabbed her hand.
That was what Julia was waiting for. As soon as he touched her, she grasped her magic and infused him with exhaustion. He collapsed as if someone had hit him on the head. Someone had in a way. It was a misuse of her healing, but it was infinitely better than killing the man… biting her lip and hoping he wasn’t permanently harmed, Julia used her magic to check. To her relief she found a healthy man who would sleep for a day at least. Quickly moving to the lever she unlocked the gate, but she didn’t open it. If she had tried the noise would surely have alerted the other guardsmen. Keverin and his men would just have to use muscle power and shove it open.
Julia took one more look around and then climbed the stairs up to the battlements. Before opening the door, she listened for footsteps, but she heard nothing. With a firm grasp on her magic, she stepped into the darkness and found the sentries spaced along the wall with her mage-sight. To her they looked like pillars of blazing energy. Reverting to normal sight for a moment she could barely make out the first one. The others were lost in the darkness. There were no lamps or torches to give her away, such things would aid an enemy by ruining night vision. In this case, the lack of light helped her immeasurably.
Muttering under her breath, she steeled herself to step into the darkness. She knew how silly it was to be frightened of the dark when there was a lot worse to be frightened of right nearby, but she still had to force herself to step out onto the battlement. Trying to appear casual in case someone could see her after all, Julia stepped up to the first guard. He had just enough time to look up at her touch, before slumping against the merlon. She pushed him into a position resembling a man looking into the night, and then left to find the next man.
* * *
Keverin watched the fortress from where he lay upon the ground. Mathius was nearby waiting for Julia to contact him, but so far there hadn’t been a whisper from her. He had snuck out to his current position hoping that when he arrived Julia would open the gate for him, but she hadn’t. The wait was becoming unbearable. What if Athlone had hurt her? If the traitor harmed one hair of her head, he would gut the bastard himself!
“My lord, Julia says to come now,” Mathius whispered.
“The gate is shut, Mathius. I can see it.”
“She dare not open it for fear of the noise it will make. She has unlocked one of them and has taken care of the sentries.”
“Right.”
Turning to his sergeants, Keverin signalled silently then ran in a crouch toward the gate. He wished he knew which one was unlocked, but it would take only a moment to try both. With a heave, he felt the right-hand gate move slightly. His men arrived in twos and threes and helped him shove it open. Once through, he turned and gave his orders in a hushed voice.
“First ten take men the tower on the right and hold it. Next ten, same on the left. Once we’re all inside lock the gates.”
Keverin spun as a figure dashed toward him, but before he could even think of drawing his sword, he knew who it had to be. A moment later the shadow resolved into Julia.
“I have twelve men asleep on the south wall,” Julia said as she ran to him.
“Well done my lady,” Keverin said and quickly sent some men to collect the prisoners.
Jihan had described the fortress well, and it was not long before they had men in all the strategic locations. The barracks were the thorniest problem. There were a dozen huge barracks full of guardsmen. He sent Mathius with the rest of his men to ward and guard the entrance to each one.
“Where is Jihan?”
“He said his father would set a punishment. He didn’t know for sure what it would be, but he thought Athlone might set the guardsmen on him.”
“On his own son?” Keverin said hardly able to believe it. “Where—no, it has to be the armoury.”
Keverin ran into the citadel with Julia by his side. He didn’t try to dissuade her from coming along. He knew she wouldn’t heed him. The first person they saw was a shocked servant who tried to run, but Keverin pounced on him before he could get far.
“Show us to the armoury,” Keverin growled.
The shocked man rolled his eyes up and back at Keverin. “The... the armoury?”
“Wait!” Julia said. “Where are Athlone and Jihan?”
“I couldn’t say lady,” the servant said evasively.
Keverin shook the man until his teeth rattled. “You tell her what she asked or I’ll kill you right now.”
“I’ll tell you... I’ll tell you! They’re in the sparring room.”
“Show us.”
Keverin followed the man and hurried him along with threats of chopping pieces off him until the man stopped outside an iron bound door.
“Here. They’re inside.”
“Open it and introduce Lady Julia.”
“But—”
Keverin drew his sword.
“All right,” the servant said sullenly. He opened the door and stepped inside. “M’lord, the Lady Julia and—”
* * *
Jihan watched the door open with a sinking heart, but the man who entered wasn’t wearing black. He was wearing the usual livery of a servant. Abarsis scowled at this, but then his face went blank as Julia’s face did when she used her magic. Jihan tensed expecting a fireball or some such to appear, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the sorcerer smiled. The smile made Jihan feel worse than the expectation of a fireball. He didn’t know what Abarsis had done, but whatever it was couldn’t be good.
The servant stepped inside nervously. “M’Lord, the Lady Julia and—”
“Me,” Keverin said walking in as the servant bolted out the door. Julia stepped beside Keverin keeping her eyes firmly on Abarsis.
“Julia!” Jihan shouted. “There are two more black robes somewhere loose!”
“I’ll worry about them later.”
“Oh really?” Abarsis drawled nodding to his two companions as they entered through the other door. “How about now?”
Jihan tensed. Abarsis must have contacted them with his magic. Julia and Keverin backed toward him keeping the sorcerers to their front. He did the same as he edged closer to them.
“What are you waiting for? Kill them!” Athlone shouted.
“Don’t ever presume to give me orders, Athlone,” Abarsis snarled. “Mine come directly from Mortain. Yours mean less than nothing to me.” He looked back toward Julia with a smirking grin. “Mortain would like a new girl to warm his bed.”
Vrooosh!
Everything happened at once. A fireball shot across the room aimed at Julia, but a ward snapped up to intercept it. Keverin, taken completely by surprise by the appearance of the ward, was unable to abort his instinctive move to shield Julia. Jihan looked on in horror as the fireball struck Keverin in the belly.
“AEi
ii!” Keverin screamed in agony as the fire burnt through his armour.
“Nooo!” Julia screamed with her fists pressed to her mouth in horror at what had happened.
Julia’s eyes were locked upon the crumpled form of Keverin where he lay outside the protection of her ward. Abarsis threw another fireball but Julia was oblivious to the danger. Jihan flinched expecting a fiery death as it struck the crackling ward, but all he felt was pleasant warmth. Nothing more.
“For the God’s sake Julia, do something!”
“I killed him,” Julia sobbed brokenly. “Me, I did it. Why? Why didn’t I warn him about the ward? I should have stopped him!”
Athlone was openly smirking, but Abarsis looked shocked; he had expected his last fireball to succeed. The sorcerers exchanged worried glances, but Julia was sobbing uncontrollably and didn’t see. Jihan ducked as more fireballs struck the weakening ward. A hot wind rushed over him as the fire clawed at Julia’s insubstantial wall. The ward flickered as the third one struck, but still it held.
“It wasn’t you Julia! Look at those smirking bastards—they did it!”
“No. It was me, but you’re right. They don’t deserve to profit from my stupidity.”
Julia glared hatefully at the sorcerers. She raised her clenched fists, her tears were a grim counter-point to the look on her face. Jihan shuddered to think what she was going to do. The sorcerers attacked again, but the ward flared bright and strong. It intercepted the attack and hardly dimmed. He covered his ears as the ward screeched and howled in protest, but it was obvious even to him that the attack wasn't strong enough to overcome it.
Julia screamed as something appeared before her. It was fire… Jihan thought it was fire, but it was unlike any he had ever seen before. Where it touched the floor, a puddle of molten stone bubbled. It grew, and the roaring it made grew with it. The fiery demon churned and fell in upon itself only to be renewed bigger and stronger with each cycle it completed. Julia was screaming and shaking. Jihan thought she might die from the violence of both. Suddenly Julia punched her fists toward the panicked sorcerers.
“Dieeeee!” Julia screeched.
The fiery demon roared toward the sorcerers leaving a trail of molten stone in its wake. Abarsis managed to throw a fireball, but it was absorbed into the roaring mass. Before the sorcerers could run, Julia’s wrath arrived. Blue lightning streaked across the floor and ceiling as the fire went straight through the sorcerer’s wards without slowing.
“AEiii—” the screams cut off as if they had never been. The three men had ceased to exist. Where they had stood, nothing but a round bubbling pit of molten stone remained.
Jihan sighed in relief, but then the thing Julia had made burned straight through the wall and door and into the corridor beyond.
“Stop Julia! You’ll kill us all!”
“I’m sorry Kev. I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry... sorry... sorry,” Julia mumbled to herself.
Something crashed to the ground outside as the thing went through another wall somewhere.
Jihan thought fast. “Julia... it’s Kev. You can stop now, I’m all right,” he said thickly.
“Kev? I thought you were dead!”
The roaring stopped abruptly.
Julia looked around in bewilderment until she saw Keverin. “Nooo! I heard you, you’re alive!”
Two of Keverin’s men ran in and skidded to a halt when they saw Julia drop to her knees beside their lord. She was crying as if her heart were broken.
“Take that out of here. Lock him up somewhere.” Jihan ordered gesturing toward his father.
Athlone was cowering in the corner with his mouth agape staring at the molten pit in horror. It seemed to be solidifying now, and the trail to it was as well. The guardsmen drew their weapons and took him out of the room.
Jihan knelt opposite Julia and turned Keverin over. Keverin’s armour was burned through over his stomach and blood was welling in the wound. Jihan watched the distraught woman rocking back and forth. He opened his mouth to say that he was sorry.
Blood welling!
“Julia, wake up woman! Can’t you see he’s alive? Use your magic for the God’s sake!”
* * *
Julia was in hell. How many of her friends would die before she learned to strike first? Her hesitation had killed dozens at Athione, and now it had cost her Keverin. She needed to be hard as the stone of Athione. No, she needed to be harder even than that. Feelings would destroy her in the end.
“Julia wake up woman! Can’t you see he’s alive? Use your magic for the God’s sake!” Jihan yelled.
“No, he’s dead. I killed him just like all the others.”
“For the God’s sake! Look, does a corpse bleed?”
Julia looked to where Jihan pointed. Instantly she was in her healing place studying Keverin. He was so close to death that she might not save him. His aura was hardly moving, and his centre was solid black. She forced herself not to panic or even think on whom she worked. She drew on her magic until she was on the edge of pain to strengthen him, but even as she poured her power into him, his form tattered and he slipped away from her.
No! Don’t do this to me!
Julia tried to gather him up, but it was like the others. The more she tried, the worse it got. He was fading before her eyes. In desperation she built a glowing net, a kind of ward around him. It sprang into being fully formed encircling him. She watched in hope as Keverin’s already tattered aura touched the glowing net and recoiled. Another strand and another did the same. It was working. Glowing golden, the ward repelled Keverin’s aura and prevented him from leaving her.
Julia quickly built another net around the blackness that infested Keverin’s aura. Slowly, carefully, she forced it to contract. The net squeezed down on the blackness destroying it at the same time as corralling it. Keverin stopped trying to escape as the black light diminished, but Julia didn’t remove the ward. She wasn’t taking any more chances with Kev’s life.
* * *
Jihan paced waiting impatiently for Julia to come back. He had received worrying reports from Keverin’s men that Malcor’s guardsmen were all awake and raging about what they would do when they got out. In one of the barracks they had already tried to escape, but Mathius’ ward, though weak by a sorcerer’s standards, had held them at bay. What Jihan would do if they realised that setting a fire would get them out, he didn’t know. One thing was certain, unless he could make them understand his father’s betrayal, he would never be able to rule here.
Athlone had taken a lot of bandits and outright raiders into his guard over the years. They were kinless, men without ties or family. They were what Jihan meant by Athlone’s cronies, but most of the guardsmen had families to protect—many in Malcor Town or in villages beholden to Malcor. Jihan was sure that he could rely on the locals to at least listen to him. He would turn the others out of his fortress as soon as he had control. A man with no ties couldn’t be relied upon, especially in time of war.
Jihan knew that he would have to challenge Athlone, but that didn’t worry him unduly. He had been heading toward this day all his life. The man was a traitor, but that wasn’t why he would kill him. He would kill Athlone for murdering his mother’s spirit. Jihan spun on his heel when he heard a quiet whisper. The ward was gone. Julia said something to Keverin then leaned forward and quickly kissed him. Keverin looked shocked but he didn’t pull away.
So, that’s how it is, Jihan thought. No wonder Julia had lost her head when she thought Keverin dead. Jihan didn’t want to interrupt them, but time was critical. He coughed to gain the lover’s attention.
“I’m sorry to interrupt Julia, Keverin, but I have a fortress to take control of and the guardsmen are getting anxious.”
Julia blushed and hastily stood brushing her dress clean of nonexistent dust. Keverin was slower to rise, but the wound had healed. Jihan could see the scarred flesh through the hole in his friend’s armour.
“Lord Jihan, what are your orders?” Kever
in said seriously.
Jihan stood taller. He was to be Lord Malcor. “I don’t give orders to my friends, but I do request that you and your lady accompany me to the barracks.”
“Of course we will come.”
Julia didn’t answer but she nodded her agreement. She was smiling now as if all was right with the world.
Jihan led their party toward the courtyard and the first of the barracks. He chose the one closest for convenience sake, but he was glad he did when he saw Ahnao riding in with the last of the guardsmen and horses.
“My Lady, welcome to my home,” Jihan bowed and helped her down. Ahnao looked lovely in her blue silk dress, but then to his eyes she was gorgeous in anything she wore.
Ahnao hesitated for the barest moment. “Thank you my lord. I am glad to see you have taken no hurt from your father,” she said slowly.
Jihan gaped. Ahnao sounded like a noble woman born and bred! Now he knew what she and Julia had been discussing on the journey. Silly woman. She didn’t have to put on airs for him to love her, but now was not the time to tell her. They would have a long talk later. For now, he bowed formally and gave her his arm.
Ahnao beamed a smile and walked with him into the citadel.
The thrumming of Mathius’ ward pulled Jihan’s attention from Ahnao and focused his mind on what he had to do. He went over in his mind what he would say, and what he would offer those willing to stay and fight with him. It seemed obvious that those with families would be honourable men. The cronies would be thrown out without question, but the others could be won if he said and did the right things.
“Family...”
“Family?” Ahnao said.
“I must remind them of their families. A man with such responsibilities will surely understand my father’s betrayal.”
Jihan found his guardsmen sitting on their bunks talking amongst themselves. He watched them through the ward and tried to marshal his thoughts and arguments. Ahnao stood with Mathius who swore to protect her come what may.
“You’ll be fine,” Julia said stepping up beside him.
Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 Page 35
