“You’re right, I shouldn’t blame a dead king for his mistakes. Perhaps I should take into account the fact that you goblins still have not crowned a new leader!” the dragon snarled, smoke leaking out from between his dagger-like teeth.
“Silence, both of you!” the therion ambassador hissed, bristling as he bared his fangs. “If you want to blame anyone, let it be that greenhorn that stands there.” The panther-like therion jabbed one clawed finger at Noah, who sat up straight, looking deeply insulted. Many of the people in the hall made noises of anger at the therosian ambassador, but Penny heard some mumble in agreement.
“He spends all day fooling around in town with commoners!” He jerked his head in Penny’s direction and for the hundredth time that day Penny wished she could disappear forever. Flynn smirked as he looked at Penny for her reaction, but she forced her face to remain impassive. The therion went on, “All day he is shirking his responsibility, and when we need him most he―”
“That’s enough!” Noah yelled, standing. “I am the rightful king of this Nation, and you will show me respect while you stay within my borders. Take your seats, gentlefolk.”
The therion gave a sneering smile, exposing his teeth all the way up to his gums as he bowed in mock apology before taking his seat. The goblin and Farful cleared their throats and settled back down.
“Do we have a pre-emptive plan of action?” Noah forged ahead, still fuming. At these words the ambassador from the Nation of Faeries stood up, his silver-blue hair fanning out behind his glittering wings.
“I was just about to suggest before you arrived, Your Majesty, that we begin to solidify our allegiances with the Six Nations, in the event that war becomes unavoidable,” he said carefully, fiddling with the folding fan that he held in his long-fingered hand. “I am certain the Emperor and Empress will be very eager to discuss these matters with you, and of course if you could be troubled to journey to Umbrie-Alantier, then by all means you would be permitted inside the city walls for the time being.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “War? Why do you mention war? Whom would we be opposing?”
“The Angelic Lord Nestor,” a loud, unfamiliar voice echoed from the opening of the chamber. A wave of whispers and gasps erupted throughout the hall as all faces turned toward the arched entrance. In the doorway stood a figure with a wild mane of long, fiery red hair that hung to her ankles. A metallic blinder covered the woman’s eyes and around her loosely robed body floated four or five souls. Even Penny could feel the ferocious wave of magical energy that emanated from this woman.
“Cardinal Rhea!” one of the lords cried.
The Cardinal stepped into the center of the room, followed by a group of grave-looking women who wore the robes of High Priestesses.
Noah leapt off his throne once more. “What is the mean of this outrageous claim, Cardinal? What do you mean by coming here at thi―”
“I demand silence!” Rhea’s voice grew so loud that Penny’s ears stung as the sound reverberated around the room. Feeling her heart hammering in her chest, Penny hugged herself around the shoulders as she watched Noah stumble backward and a few of the lords of the assembly lose their footing.
In a split second, Damari was in front of Noah, his flintlock out and aimed directly at the Cardinal’s heart.
“Stand down, Madam Cardinal,” he warned, without so much as a glimmer of fear in his black eyes. Rhea took no note of him, and turned to face the other members of the council.
“Hear me, miserable creatures, for I come bearing truths and warnings!” Rhea spread her arms wide as she spoke, and the souls began to whiz around her hair and legs. The ends of her robes fluttered and the tips of her untamed hair bobbed and floated as if teased by invisible strings.
“Stand down or I will be forced to apprehend you!” Damari repeated, his voice a little more forceful this time. Noah took a few steps backward, his eyes still glued to the Cardinal.
Rhea turned on her heel, whipped a silver flute out of her sleeve, and blew one sharp note. Suddenly, Damari’s gun was knocked out of his hand as if he had been struck by something heavy, and he was thrown off his feet and back into a wall more than twenty feet away.
“Damari!” Noah cried, his face pale and his hands quivering as he ran to the side of the fallen captain. The Cardinal advanced to the plinth that Noah’s throne sat upon and turned again to face the hall of frightened Lords. Her subordinates spread out around her. The dragon Farful quivered behind the very goblin he’d been insulting minutes before. The power that the Cardinal radiated was explosive.
“Wretches of this world, you have lost sight of your purpose,” Rhea’s voice shivered. “You have begun to labor under the delusion that these lands, the resources and magic that grow here, belong to you. You have grown heedless, forgotten the very reason that you are allowed to live. You have cruelly scorned your Father, and squandered the many gifts he has bestowed upon you. You look upon this shortage of magic as a tragedy―we who follow Nestor look upon it as retribution,” Rhea spat. “I have come here to remind you of your true insignificance. The shells of the dead you see floating in the lake were those who refused to comply with the Angelic Lord’s will. Let their corpses stand as a warning to you. This same fate will be brought down upon you should you decide to stand and fight against the great Lord.”
Rhea stepped down from the plinth and made her way into the center of the room.
“The end to your pretenses of control draws near. You think you have won simply because Lord Nestor was driven away from the filthy pit of Hulver? He will return, and when he does it will be your corpses that will float in the sea. Your reign has officially ended. Submit and be spared. Oppose us and you will be destroyed. This is your only warning.” Rhea slid across the floor, the priestesses billowing around her.
Penny shivered as the Cardinal drew closer. Can she see through that metal blinder? Does she know I’m here?
The Cardinal stopped just outside the archway and turned her head ever so slightly in Penny’s direction. For a moment Penny feared she would pass out from fright. Phrases from her brief conversation with Armonie fluttered like terrified birds within the cage of her mind.
The Cardinal exited, and Penny allowed herself to breathe with the rest of the council. As Noah pulled Damari to his feet at the other end of the chamber, Penny sensed that she was close to fainting and kneaded the ends of her coat. Through a haze she heard Noah yelling, “Get her out of here, Flynn.”
Penny laid her head against the side of the carriage, ignoring the jostling and bumping from the wheels hitting cobbled stone. Her limbs felt dead as she struggled to organize the wild influx of thoughts.
With glazed eyes, Penny watched the brief flashes of light outside as the carriage traveled by gas lamps, passing repeatedly from glare to gloom. Iverton seemed such a different place in the night; the buildings that shone like pearls while the sun hung in the sky now appeared to be looming giants. Penny hardly noticed as the Royal District melted away into the wide plazas and silhouetted towers of the Business District.
Penny shuddered at the memory of the carnage and corpses. Trying to get her queasiness under control, Penny suddenly realized the carriage had slowed to a premature halt and stiffened.
We’re not moving. Why did we stop? Penny stuck her head out the window and saw that they were just inside the gates of the gardened neighborhood where Annette’s house sat. The streets were deserted and the windows of the houses were dark.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Penny shouted to the driver, but no response came. The only sounds that Penny could hear were the whines of the anteloos attached to the carriage. She swallowed, her throat dry and prickly. The driver was gone.
Penny held to the latch on the carriage door, listening to the discord of her breath and heart as their rhythms clashed. After stewing in the brief limbo of the moment, Penny felt her fingers undo the latch and the door swung open. She couldn’t hide forever.
She ventured out onto t
he footplate and hopped to the ground, bracing for the worst as she took a few cautious steps toward the two anteloos. The tall beasts shivered and stamped their paws in agitation as she approached. Penny put a reassuring hand on the nearest creature’s shoulder. The driver was indeed missing, and that queasiness became acute as dread raged through her.
“Hello?” Penny shouted a bit louder in hopes that the driver was still somewhere in the vicinity, but her voice only bounced off the high-walled manors and died. She backed away from the carriage, preparing to run, but when she turned surprise hit her like a punch to the gut.
A painted face stood before her, staring her down with a ghastly smile and wide eyes. When Penny tried to suck in air to scream, she felt like something was blocking her windpipe. The masked face was framed by two curtains of neat black hair hanging to its chin, with a straight line of bangs across the forehead.
“Don’t move,” a muffled voice said from behind the red-and-white porcelain. It was youthful, but recognizably male. “It’ll make this easy for both of us. You’ve got no idea how hard it is to pin you down, Penelope Fairfax.”
Penny found her strength and took off at a sprint.
“What part of ‘don’t move’ did you not understand?” the voice called out as the masked boy pursued her.
Penny didn’t answer as she skidded around a corner with the thudding footsteps of the boy in the mask only paces behind her. Her assailant gave a mighty yell, and without warning a blast of orangey light flared into Penny’s peripheral vision. Her head snapped back in time for her to see two jets of fire erupt from each of the boy’s dark sleeves and wind toward her like two flaming snakes. Penny tripped and tumbled as the lines of fire surrounded her, creating a blazing ring around the patch of road where she stood.
“Gotcha!” the boy shouted in glee, slowing to a walk as he approached the circle of flames. Penny scrambled close to one of the walls of fire, feeling its searing heat on her face. In horror she watched the masked boy saunter through the inferno and join her inside the ring.
“Get away from me!” Penny screamed, backing up as the boy advanced on her. He produced a small sack of greenish powder from one of his long black sleeves, something that Penny immediately recognized as sleep sand. “Please, stop! Just tell me what you want with me! Did Rhea send you?”
The boy faltered for a moment.
“Rhea? The Cardinal?” He paused as if thinking, then made a small noise of understanding. “Oh, I get it. No, don’t worry, I’m taking you somewhere much nicer than the Cathedral, so just come along quietly and this will be―”
Penny seized her chance as the boy dug his hand into the shimmering powder, slapping his hands so the sand fell to the floor in a cloud of sparkling dust. The boy growled, and Penny made a frantic grab for his throat, the only bit of exposed skin she could see. He attempted to bat her hand away with his own, but Penny caught it midair and forced the flash of brilliant light up from the depths of her mind.
Huge, horrible eyes.
Teeth. Tearing through arms, ripping at flesh, spilling blood over the blistering sands. Thorns on plants, the orange sun so bright in the blinding white sky. Heat, overpowering and merciless…can’t breathe…can’t find water…
The pain, the burning. Deep within the core, fastened to the bones, searing, burning…
Burning. Penny’s hand was burning.
Penny’s scream ripped her away from the flashing visions of her own hand encircled in a ball of flames as the boy gripped it tightly with his own. He cried out in anguish as his other hand tore at his head of sleek black hair. Penny ripped her hand away from the flames and staggered away, clutching her raw hand as tears streamed from her eyes. The boy dropped to his knees as the wall of flames that trapped them sank.
Penny took her chance. In one bound she jumped over the dying flames and sped down the road, gritting her teeth as the pain washed over her in cruel waves. She rushed across the street toward Annette’s house, hearing the masked boy behind her stumble. She reached the white manor and heard a faint sound that caused her heart to soar.
It was Argent’s voice. “Penny? Are you out here?”
Oh, thank God. They must be looking for me since I left so suddenly. I’m saved.
Penny attempted to shout back, but couldn’t gasp the words out, and the thundering footsteps behind her seemed to be getting closer. Another huge ball of flame exploded near Penny’s heels, missing her shoes by mere inches. Two figures ambled around the lawn, one with silver hair and the other with a long ponytail.
“Penny, dear!” Gavin called with concern. Penny drew her last ounce of strength and forced her legs to give one final burst of speed. She charged onto the lawn, headed straight for Argent.
“Maybe she just―OOF!” Argent grunted as Penny threw herself at him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You could’ve―”
“Who’s that?” shrieked Gavin as he caught sight of the masked youth barreling straight toward them. The boy skidded to a halt, lifted his white hands above his head and flexed his fingers. In the air above his twisting hands a raging torrent of fire lit up the night.
With a shout of fury, the boy lobbed the fireball at them. Argent threw both Penny and Gavin to the ground, and the flame swished over them and exploded onto one of the rosebushes outside of the mansion. In seconds the pristine plant was reduced to a pile of ashes.
Penny winced as she untangled herself from the others. Argent shot to his feet, plunging his hands into his deep pockets.
“Get up!” he snarled to Gavin as he pulled out two cross-shaped apparatuses from his pockets. “Get Hector and Simon. Now!”
Argent whipped his hands out in a flicking motion and two puppets whizzed from his pockets and took flight, attached to the controls by silver strings that shone in the firelight. Gavin scrambled to his feet and made for the front door of the house, wherein cries of consternation could already be heard. Penny followed after Gavin, but the boy in the mask read her course and blocked her path with blazing palms faster than she could blink.
“I told you not to run! You should’ve just listened!” the voice from behind the mask bellowed as he made a wild grab for her wrist.
From the side came Hyde the puppet with his long, wicked claws extended and searching for a target. The boy tripped over his own boots as he swerved to avoid the razor knives, but in doing so failed to see the red-cloaked Kasper looming behind him with his scythe. Argent’s face split into a victorious, twisted grin as his hand twitched to command Kasper to swing for the boy’s shoulder.
The scythe found its mark, and the boy’s black cloak soon shone with blood. He gave an animalistic shout and his entire body burst into flame, his hair shooting upward with the force of the heat. The boy grabbed Kasper as the puppet attempted to fly away. The puppet’s wooden body began crackling away in the heat; the face turned black as it started to implode. Argent’s face fell, and he gave the control a mighty tug, retracting the damaged puppet from the boy’s grip.
The boy turned on Argent, diving toward the puppeteer as he siphoned the flames from around his body off into jet streams of fire that singed the ends of Argent’s shining hair. The puppeteer took a moment to shove Hyde and the charred remains of Kasper back into his pockets. Penny gasped as the boy tossed another fireball that caught Argent on the shoulder with a horrid sizzling noise.
“I order you to desist!”
Hector and Simon burst from the manor and into the street. Simon’s wand was raised and brilliant sparks shot from it, and beside him a golden disc formed of Runes spun between Hector’s outstretched palms.
His momentary shock dispersing, the youth charged forward and tossed several flaming spheres at Hector and Simon. Hector enlarged the golden disc, and it absorbed the fire. In the doorway behind them, Penny could see Annette struggling to run outside, but Gavin intervened.
Simon flicked his wand and summoned a length of rope that attempted to bind the masked boy. The rope incinerated in a burst of flam
e after touching the boy’s body. Simon looked toward Hector in confusion.
“He’s cheating! He hasn’t got a wand or a sword or any sort of―” Simon started.
“Pay attention, Simon!” Hector shouted, pushing Simon out of the way as a fireball shot past his ear. Simon turned back to the boy with a shaken expression, clutching his top hat. The boy hurtled toward them, and Hector gritted his teeth as more runes showered from his hands like shooting stars.
Simon’s face darkened with determination and he cut in front of Hector, then charged forward to meet the boy, his wand raised high. The boy anticipated him, shot a little jet of flame that knocked Simon’s wand from his hand, and kicked him neatly to the ground.
“Don’t come any closer!” the youth shouted, restraining Simon and forcing him to his knees. “If anyone moves, I’ll roast him alive!”
Simon’s eyes went wide. The boy took a second to catch his breath.
“Just give me Penelope Fairfax and I won’t hurt you. Just let me have her, and I’ll go.” Though his voice was strong and unwavering, there was a note of panic apparent in his tone. When no one responded, he shook Simon violently by the shoulders and bellowed, “You give her to me or your friend will be a pile of ashes, and I swear he’ll feel every last second of it!”
Simon struggled, and the boy laid a hand to Simon’s face. An audible sizzle was heard, and Simon screamed. Penny was jolted from her shock into action.
“Stop, stop!” she cried, dashing past Hector faster than he could catch her. “Okay, just let him go.”
The boy studied her as Annette’s shouts could be heard from within the cavernous hall of the foyer. He was still for a moment longer, and then his grip relaxed. Simon scrambled away, gasping for air. Penny kept her eyes focused on the masked boy.
“Come on!” the boy’s quavering voice commanded as he grabbed her wrist, and pulled her farther away from the yawning doors of the manor and the yellow light that spilled from them.
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 5
