by Alicia Wolfe
Maybe if I could get Von talking, I could forestall his order to have us killed. Or would the wraiths do it? They were still out there, I knew—circling, circling. Hunting us. Could they sense the Black Scepter? I bet they could. Did Von need to physically hold it in order to command them, or could he do that simply by possessing it? I guessed I would find out soon enough.
“So,” I said, in an effort to delay. “Crazy day, right? Battle, wraiths, all that.”
Von merely grunted. None of the others said anything. Davril gave me another odd look. I tried to send him a conspiratorial expression, something along the lines of We’re-surrounded-by-enemies, but I wasn’t sure if he got it or not. He probably thinks I’ve gone nuts.
“Yep,” I said lightly—lamely. “Pretty crazy. Why, I bet you guys haven’s seen so much action since the day you and Prince Jereth rose up against the Queen.” I laughed. “Whoa boy, what was that all about? I mean, an uprising, really? Against Queen Calista? She’s awesome!”
“That’s none of your affair,” said Lady Reva Strongwall.
“Now isn’t the time,” Davril told me.
“Get them talking,” I whispered to him, careful to keep my voice so low that even I could barely hear it. Then, heeding my own advice, I said, “Sorry if that offends you, Reva. Er, Your Ladyship. I know Prince Jereth was only doing what he thought right—trying to gain control of the kingdom so that he could lead you all back into the Fae Lands and rescue everyone still there. But I don’t get it. I mean, how did he hope to fight the Shadow once he was there? Did he have a plan? Because if he did, I would love to hear it. Yep, I could listen to that allll night.”
“Will you be quiet,” Meril snapped. Then, playing his part, he added: “Wraiths could hear you.”
“But I just really want to know,” I said. “How did you all hope to fight Lord Vorkoth once you got over there?”
“No one can defeat the Shadow,” Von Strongwall said ominously. Too ominously. I feared that it was so on the nose he was about to spring his trap. I had to try harder.
“And how could you even get there?” I pushed. “I mean, didn’t Queen Calista close all the gateways, the portals, between here and there?”
“Perhaps,” said Lady Strongwall. “Perhaps not.”
“Prince Jereth keeps many secrets,” said Meril.
Now that was interesting.
“What do you mean?” asked Davril. Finally, a subject had grabbed his attention.
While they spoke, I increased my pace, moving past Meril and coming to the side of Lady Reva. She frowned at me but didn’t seem to care. She seemed pretty distracted in any case.
“It doesn’t matter what Prince Jereth knows or knew,” Von Strongwall said over his shoulder. One of his hands reached behind him, scrabbling at his backpack, and I knew he itched to bring out the Scepter. Not that he needed it. I was pretty sure that’s what the knights were for, to kill me and Davril. No wraiths necessary. But he obviously longed for the power the Scepter gave him.
“Why not?” said Davril.
“Because his plan failed,” Von Strongwall said. “His coup failed.”
“At least then,” said Meril. “It has come again.” With a grin in his voice, he added, “Thanks to our efforts.”
There it was, I thought—a naked admission, if one had the ears to hear it, and a hint at their motivation. They had converted to the worship of Lord Vorkoth, and Nevos had instructed them to destroy the summit with blood and fear, to turn Queen Calista’s allies against themselves. And they had been willing to sacrifice one of their own in order to cast off all suspicion. It had worked, too. Not even I had suspected them, and I was sure Davril hadn’t, either.
“What about Therin?” I said suddenly. “Is it true he was captured during the wars in the Fae Lands? That he was held by the Shadow?”
“Again, that’s no concern of yours,” Lady Strongwall said. She said this from behind me, though, because I had already moved up the line. I was almost to Lord Strongwall himself now. Two of the knights glanced at me sideways as I went, and I knew Davril must be wondering why I was getting so far ahead of him, but no one tried to stop me. They wouldn’t, I knew, until Von Strongwall decided to reveal himself. And that was due to come at any second, I could feel it.
I had to act fast. I’d kept them talking long enough to get in position. Now for a distraction.
“Well,” I said lightly, “I guess that’s true enough. It’s certainly no affair of mine.”
“The matters of the Great Worm are beyond your ken,” Von Strongwall said.
“Great Worm,” I repeated. That too was very interesting. I’d never heard of the Shadow referred to in that way. It must be some ceremonial title, like in the KKK.
“It’s still no business of yours,” said Reva. “Now would you please be quiet!”
“That’s true,” I said. “I just think it’s very fascinating, that’s all. I mean—oh shit what’s that!” I said this loudly and pointed off in the distance between trees.
The knights and the Strongwalls stopped and wheeled toward where my stabbing finger indicated, and I moved swiftly, deftly, using every ounce of my cat burglar expertise. A zip and a pull, and Strongwall’s pack was open.
I reached in grabbed the Black Scepter, then sprang back.
“Bitch!” said Von Strongwall, instantly feeling the shift—not in weight, I was sure—I was too good for that—but in magic.
I danced back, waggling the Scepter before me, taunting him. “Miss something?”
“Jade, what are you—” Davril started, then realized what I was holding. “The Scepter!” His eyes hardened. “Von, what is the meaning of this?”
Von Strongwall’s dark eyes blazed. “It’s true, Davril, Jade. Therin was taken in the wars. And the Shadow’s agents approached us, told us that to save him we would have to convert. We would have to worship the darkness.”
“And you did,” I said.
As I spoke, the knights were arraying to either side, drawing their swords. Davril stole to my side. Together we faced them all.
“Not at first,” Lady Strongwall said. “At first we refused. But then they sent us Therin’s blood, a pint at a time. They were torturing him. Only then did we surrender our wills, our souls. We converted to the worship of the One.”
“And knew glory,” added Meril.
“Indeed,” said Von. “We knew the august greatness of His Scaly Majesty and of the greater powers that he is the herald of. You cannot comprehend the might, the splendor, the puissance, of the Unholy Powers.”
Lady Strongwall laughed, but it was bitter. “A sad thing, when we finally got Therin back. We had converted, but during his time as a prisoner he had not. We kept our conversion from him for a long time, until long after we came to this world. To save him we had allied ourselves with those he still considered his enemies. When he found out, he informed Neva of our treachery. They were going to tell the others.”
“Lord Nevos assigned us this task,” said Von Strongwall. Pain showed on his face. “But it was no easy thing to slay my son, even though he would have brought ruin to us all, not least of all Nevos and our Master. Still, it was a terrible thing. We converted for love of Therin, but to stay converted we had to kill him. And little Neva, too.”
Meril drew his sword. “And now we will have two more to kill.” There was no pain in his face. The younger prince was obviously starting to like bloodshed.
To his knights, Von said, “Kill them! Retrieve the Scepter!”
The knights rushed at us. Unarmed and defenseless, Davril and I had no choice. We turned once more and ran, as fast as our legs could carry us. We sprinted over roots and through bushes, ducking trees as we went. The armored knights came at us, fast and hard. The night was dark, but not dark enough to encumber us much, only slow us a little.
“Let’s bring in one,” Davril told me.
I saw what he intended. We moved off to the side and went slower, drawing in the knight that had been on t
hat flank. When he came in, Davril and I spun. Davril grabbed his sword while I tripped him, and Davril hacked off his head. When another knight came at us, Davril parried his thrust, then stuck him through the throat. His sword dropped. I scooped it up in the hand not holding the Scepter.
The other three knights ran at us, the Strongwalls right behind them. Davril and I fled, breathing heavily.
“Good thinking!” I said.
“You too,” he said, indicating the Scepter. “Maybe without that Von can’t summon any more of those things.”
“Let’s hope!” Then a new thought occurred to me. “Does that mean I can?”
“Don’t use it, Jade! You don’t know what it could do.”
The trees thinned ahead, and momentarily we blundered to the edge of a drop-off. Below rushed a gurgling river, or maybe a large stream.
“Damn!” I said.
Davril hitched his chin to the right. “There’s a bridge. Go!”
We both ran along the cliff edge toward the bridge. Behind us the knights and the Strongwalls swore at us. Dimly I became aware of darker shapes stirring among the foliage, and coldness radiated out from them.
“Wraiths!” I said.
But they didn’t attack. The Scepter, I thought. I hold the Scepter now. Maybe I could get them to attack the Strongwalls. Davril might not like it, but he wasn’t the one holding the damned thing.
We reached the bridge and started along it, but the knights hadn’t directly followed. Having seen where we were bound, they had gone toward the bridge, and they were right behind us. One slashed at my heel as I set my first foot on the bridge, and I leaped forward with a cry. Turning, I hacked at the knight. Davril sprang forward and stabbed him under his breastplate. The man screamed and pitched over the railing to the river below.
The last two knights, taking advantage of Davril’s distraction, jumped forward, meaning to skewer him. There was no room for two abreast on the bridge, but that was enough. I stuck my stolen sword out desperately, blocking their blades. One knight grunted and hit me in the head with his armored elbow.
Reeling, I staggered back.
“At them!” thundered Lord Strongwall, immediately behind the knights. He held in one hand his huge broadsword and in the other a dagger. As he spoke, he flung the dagger, straight toward Davril’s head. Davril ducked, barely, but it cost him a moment in which he could have seized some advantage over the knights. Instead they were able to lunge at him again, their blades flashing by moonlight. He swerved aside, hacking at one, but the man’s enchanted armor caused the blade to burst into shards, some of which cut Davril’s unprotected arms.
Lord Von Strongwall swung his huge sword over the heads of his men, right at Davril’s neck. Bleeding from his arms, and without a weapon, Davril jerked back, right into me. We both pitched over backward, my back striking the wooden planks of the bridge. I lost hold of my sword and it plummeted to the river.
The knights advanced, and so did Von Strongwall. Meril and Lady Reva were immediately behind.
Shit. We were done for.
I clutched the Scepter to my chest.
The knights advanced, raising their blades for the final blows.
“Goodbye, Jade,” Davril said. “I wish things could have been otherwise for us.”
“Not so fast.”
I held the Scepter over my head and poured my will into it, feeling the connection there to the dark things it governed. Things that were very nearby, just waiting to pounce.
“Get them!” I said.
Without needing any more prompting, the wraiths poured out of the shadows of the trees and swarmed the Strongwalls and the knights. The five of them cried out in terror and fear, and then ghostly talons slashed them to pieces. Darkness seeped out from the Scepter into me, and I shuddered and screamed.
Davril scooped me up in his arms and ran across the bridge to the other side, only then turning to see the Strongwalls and their corrupted retainers finish twitching on board and grass. The wraiths howled in glee above them.
“No more,” Davril said.
He laid me down on the grass, took the Scepter from my nerveless hand, and broke it across his knee. Power washed out from it. The wraiths screamed and dissolved into nothingness, the wind blowing them away like smoke, disbursing them to all four corners of the earth.
“Davril,” I gasped. My whole body shook. My hand fumbled out, weakly and trembling.
He clasped it. Squeezed it firmly. His skin was hot.
“Oh Jade, what have you done?”
“Saved us, you idiot.”
“You shouldn’t have. The Black Scepter is a tainted thing, and none can use it without feeling the blackness.”
“Yeah, you’re … welcome.”
A shuddering fit seized me, and I could say no more.
“Hang in there, Jade. I’ll take you to Liara. She will heal you.”
I shook my head. Struggling to speak, I managed to utter, “No. Let’s go … to Jereth. Take the … birdbath … to him. End this …”
“But you could die!”
Staring up into his face, I could tell that he really cared. My heart rejoiced, and a sadness came over me. Here at the end I knew that he loved me, but I would never experience that love.
“Kiss me,” I said.
He stared down at me. Then, firmly: “No.”
“No?”
“I will not give up on you, Jade. Jereth will have his people with him, and there are powerful sorcerers among them, like Mia Sunheart. Someone there will be able to heal you, and we can end this madness at the same time.”
He hefted me up in his arms again, cradling me against his deep chest, and bounded again through the woods. My mind spun and I wasn’t aware of much for a while. Dimly I saw that we were going toward the large bungalow where Jereth was dwelling. The night was black and cold, or maybe that coldness was coming from inside me. Finally we emerged into the clearing around a blazing bungalow, and more knights surrounded us. They separated us, bound our hands, and these did take the birdbath way. Obviously Jereth ran a tighter ship than Von Strongwall had.
“Take us to the Prince,” Davril said.
“So we will,” said Lady Gaia Coolwater. I realized it had been her knights that had captured us. “Come.”
She showed us into the bungalow, where Jereth was lording over his troops. Some were boarding over the windows, others were laying spells on the walls and doors, magically fortifying them in case of a siege. He had seen what not having fire-resistant walls could get you, after all. I saw Mia Sunheart and her surviving consort, and all the others.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Jereth asked Lady Coolwater, when we were dragged before him. I was too weak to stand and her knights laid me on the ground at his feet.
“Ask him,” Gaia Coolwater said, indicating Davril.
Jereth raised an eyebrow. “Are you Davril the king now, or Davril the detective?”
“The detective,” Davril said. “And we have solved the case.” His chin hitched toward the birdbath being held by one of the knights. “That scrying pool will exonerate Taron Deepnight of Therin’s murder, and we have discovered the identities of the true villains behind all this. The Strongwalls were using the Black Scepter to wield wraiths of the Shadow.”
“The Black Scepter!” said Mia Sunheart. “That’s bad business.” Her gaze went to me lying on the floor. “Is that what’s wrong with your little human? I can feel the darkness in her.”
“Have you the healing to mend her?” Davril asked, a sharpness to his tone.
Mia frowned at me. After a moment, she said, “Let us hope so.”
Without any further words, she knelt over me and placed a hand on my forehead, then another on my chest. Warmth filled me, pushing back the coldness. Where before my sight had been veiled by a film of gray and everything had seemed far away, now the veil dissolved and Mia seemed very close, and all the world had snapped back into reality. Or I had.
At last, exhausted, Mi
a slumped back, running a hand through her tangled red hair. “There,” she breathed. “It’s done.”
Davril knelt beside me. “Jade, how do you feel?”
I swallowed. I reached up toward him. To my surprise, he reached back, clasping my hand firmly. Relief shone in his eyes, but also something else. A fire replaced the coldness in my chest. Was there really hope for us, after all this?
“Let us have a look into this scrying pool of yours,” said Jereth.
Davril ordered it filled with water, and so it was. Jereth laid his hands on the water, bringing up the memories it wanted to give—evidently Ainu had only programmed it, if that’s the right word, to show the correct date, so that a user couldn’t spy on events at that location going back years—and beheld what the pool had to show him.
“Well?” Davril demanded. His hands had been freed, and he was helping me sit up, but his words were directed at the prince. “Do you acknowledge that Taron Deepnight is innocent and your reckless attacks on the Queen spurious?”
Jereth stared for a long moment at the water of the pool, then took a long breath. His head lowered, and his breathing slowed.
“Well?” I managed.
Now we would come to it, I thought. We would find out whether Jereth was truly honorable or if he really was the scumbag that I thought him to be.
Everyone in the room was staring at him. Lady Mia Sunheart had risen and stood beside her consort, and Lady Coolwater had withdrawn to be with her people. Her knights no longer kept us prisoner. Jereth was the focal point of the room.
“Very well,” he said.
He drew his sword and approached us.
“I knew it!” I said.
Then he turned the sword around and passed it handle-first to Davril.
“As Lord Stormguard, high ally of the Queen, do you accept my surrender?” Jereth said.
