Available Darkness Box Set | Books 1-3

by Platt, Sean

  Baltazar invited them to sit at a small wooden table with four chairs around it.

  Raina sat last, putting her chair in position to see the door behind Malachi, in case this was some sort of trap.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Baltazar, but one never knew what sort of people were running the show in Under Harbor, or what leverage they might have to turn Baltazar against former allies. Jonah was the ostensible leader, but there were several organizations and factions at play — the merchants, the Magick Guild, the Shadow Guild, the Arcane Philosophers, and a half-dozen more.

  The Shadow Guild ran the black market, was composed mostly of thieves with connections to crooks and swindlers in The Southern Realm’s many other kingdoms, but the guild’s true real power was the assassins operating within. And Baltazar was their unofficial leader.

  Malachi asked, “So, what do you know about Crow’s Nest?”

  “I heard it was Valkoer that did it. There was allegedly someone from the Shadow Guild, or at least a Valkoer with a Shadow Guild ring on his finger, aye?”

  “Yes,” Malachi said.

  “Who was it?”

  “We didn’t recognize him. Are any of your men missing?”

  “Not a one. First thing I did was ask around, check in with the Valkoer living here. Nobody is unaccounted for, nor does anyone know anything.”

  Malachi shifted in his seat, crossed one leg over another. “So this wasn’t a sanctioned Shadow Guild mission?”

  “Gods no. Why would we ever attack Crow’s Nest? It’s a tiny farming community, one that supplies food to our towns here.”

  “I don’t know, maybe one of your associates wanted to take over the farms, control supply and demand?”

  Baltazar’s brow furrowed. “If you think I’d allow that, then you don’t know me well, Prophet Malachi. There is a code, even among assassins. At least here there is.”

  “Of course,” Malachi said, “no offense intended. But you can see why I must ask.”

  “Of course.”

  “So, does anyone know anything? I mean, surely someone has to be talking? You don’t have a massacre like this without any rumors!”

  “There are always rumors,” Baltazar said, “but if you want facts, I’d suggest looking south.”

  “South? Do you mean the Forgotten Kingdom?”

  “I do.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Who would stand most to eliminate Under Harbor?”

  “The King?” Malachi asked.

  “He’s been looking for ways to shut us down for years. The more people he loses to us, the more knowledge we have of his inner workings. He fears the inevitable.”

  “What’s that?”

  “An uprising within his city.”

  “And what would you know about any such uprisings?” Malachi asked with a mischievous grin.

  “You can talk to the Arcane Philosophers. I refuse to get involved in that mess.”

  Baltazar went on to tell them a bit about how exiles from The Forgotten Kingdom were actively trying to make the King look bad, but it seemed like mostly minor things to Raina. They’d never kill an entire town of people to destabilize Zol’s kingdom. It wasn’t even a matter of ethics, Baltazar explained, but merely logic. The ends didn’t justify the means in this particular case. This wasn’t the way they wanted Zol to go down.

  “It’s got to be someone else,” Baltazar said.

  Raina asked, “So you think King Zol would sanction an attack on Crow’s Nest just to have us, or The North, step in and retaliate against Under Harbor?”

  Baltazar looked at Raina as if she were daft. “Does it seem that far-fetched? This is a man who, before the Treaty, routinely hung enemies of the Kingdom in the town center. Destroying a tiny hamlet would cause no lost sleep.”

  Raina saw the logic, though she didn’t acknowledge it. Nobody beneath the Prophet could ever undermine his position, especially in front of others outside The Church. She looked at him, waiting for a response.

  “That makes sense, Brother Baltazar. Thank you for your wisdom.”

  Raina noticed that Jonah, who had been tense and on the edge of his seat the entire time, finally seemed to relax. This led her to wonder how much control Baltazar, as soft-spoken as he was in person, exerted over Jonah. Was Jonah afraid of the man, or of the Shadow Guild? Or was he just relieved that the likelihood of a political shitstorm in Under Harbor and the Town of Jonah seemed to significantly recede now that Baltazar had turned their focus on King Zol?

  “There is one other matter I wish to discuss,” Malachi said.

  Jonah’s tension returned. Baltazar stayed calm.

  Malachi continued, “Have you seen Brother Caleb?”

  “I have.”

  Malachi uncrossed his legs. “You have?”

  “Yes, he was seen entering a soma den in the dark district earlier, as reported by one of my spies. I know nothing beyond that, save for the fact that he has yet to leave.”

  “Can you take us there?”

  Baltazar looked at Jonah for a moment, as if seeking permission.

  If Jonah nodded or gave any affirmation, Raina missed it.

  Baltazar then said, “I think it’s best for our relationship that we not be seen together in public, at least not in the dark district, lest people figure out that I’m giving you information.”

  “Fair point.” Malachi nodded then looked at Jonah. “Will you take us?”

  Jonah nodded. “Sure.”

  As they were about to leave Baltazar’s storage room, he said, “Hold on a moment. You shouldn’t go unarmed.”

  He went to a bench where several blades were laid in a row, then brought them two, silver and onyx. “This’ll take care of Valkoer and werewolves. Just try not to kill any of my clan.”

  “Thank you,” Raina said, wondering what they were walking into.

  Forty-One

  Abigail

  They’d been following the cat’s scent for nearly thirty minutes, down several levels and hallways, when Abigail finally found the courage to ask what had been on her mind since the In-Between.

  “Why are you still with Judith?”

  Talani didn’t look at her, just kept walking ahead of Abigail.

  For a moment Abigail wasn’t sure if she’d heard, but then she wondered if Talani was ignoring, or mad at, her.

  Abigail kept following her for another minute, working the courage to ask again, or maybe reframe her question into something less direct.

  But she didn’t need to.

  “I don’t know how much you saw, but she’s not the monster she used to be.”

  “I saw her with some bad man. They came and took you and your sister away. Then they sold you to some terrible people. That is what happened, right? Because if it is, I’m not sure how anyone could ever make up for that.”

  “She was under Hugo’s control. He was an evil man who had been her mother’s pimp, for lack of a better word. She grew up in a brothel in Skelltown, a place long since burned to the ground by The Hand. Judith’s mother died when she was twelve, and left her with nowhere to go.”

  “Why didn’t she just leave?”

  “You don’t leave a man like Hugo. He had minions everywhere. She had no resources and would’ve spent a lifetime looking over her shoulder. She took the only option she saw. Agreed to be with him. He turned Judith, made her a Valkoer, used her to find other young, vulnerable girls.”

  “She didn’t have to do that. We all have choices.”

  Talani kept looking straight ahead. “That’s easy to say when it isn’t you. Anyway, Judith did this for several years, and felt a little more dead inside with every girl turned. Then she found my sister and me.”

  Talani grew quiet as they entered a more populated hallway, waiting until they were alone again before continuing.

  “She found us, sold us to this woman named Esmerelda, who works for King Zol, providing slaves of all types to his kingdom’s Elite. I don’t know what ha
ppened to Raina. I was only allowed to leave my room to eat and bathe, always in small groups and under constant guard.”

  “Were you … sex slaves?”

  “Yes, but sometimes worse.”

  “Worse?”

  “Some of the men had very particular tastes, seeking ever younger, even more innocent children. Not for sex but rather the theft of their memories. Sometimes they’d do it in the way you know, and leave the child more or less dead. But there was also another way — turning a child into a Valkoer to keep them alive, in perpetual bondage, there for the plucking of memories. And then, of course, there were the ones who double dipped, stealing both our bodies and minds.”

  Abigail’s stomach churned at the thought. As awful as Randy had been, he could never truly get inside her mind. Abigail’s thoughts were hers. She had a place to hide during the worst of it — reliving good times with her family, thinking of the books that Stacy had sneaked into the closet for her, and even the odd friendship they’d developed over time.

  Thinking of Stacy, Abigail realized that Randy’s girlfriend was probably a lot like Judith — a prisoner of a monster she couldn’t escape, an accomplice in his evil, but a victim just the same.

  As they turned down another empty passage, Abigail asked, “Is that what happened to you?”

  Talani stopped and turned to Abigail, tears in her eyes. “For five long years I was locked in a room, serving men, sometimes women, several per day, giving a bit of myself each and every time until there was almost nothing left. I felt desperate to die.”

  “I’m sorry,” Abigail said.

  “Then one day all the kids were brought out for a ‘special’ client. It was the first time they’d ever done anything like that. And I was reminded of the time we were all put on the auction block, and for a moment I was excited, thinking I’d see Raina, even if only for a few minutes while they paraded us before this important client. But she wasn’t in the group. And I sat there looking at all these other kids, some of them my sister’s age, others even younger than me, all of us ghosts.

  “There were about twenty of us, waiting, most of us probably scared. Special clients were allowed to get away with even more than the usual ones. Then he arrived, and I felt like someone stabbed me in the gut. It was Hugo, and Judith.

  “I felt this panic as he looked us over, praying he wouldn’t recognize me, wouldn’t pick me. I don’t know why, because, as I said, at this point I was already being abused several times a day, so it was really just another drop in an endless bucket of misery. But, for some reason, I was terrified that I would be chosen.

  Talani paused, wiping tears from her eyes.

  “You don’t have to finish,” Abigail said, even though she wanted to know more, and how this tied into her falling in with Judith.

  Talani continued, staring at the floor. “He brought me back to my room, and the whole time I kept hoping he wouldn’t recognize me, that he had sold me to Esmerelda. It wasn’t about me, but I didn’t want him to remember who I was, that he had murdered my father. I didn’t want to give him those memories of me seeing my father die, of the horrible hate I felt for him, how I had wished him dead every day for five long years. Nor did I want him taking my memories of my father, of my mother, of my sister. They were mine, and enough horrible people had already taken them, lived them vicariously. I couldn’t stand the thought of him having them.

  “So we went back to my room, the three of us, and the whole time I’m plotting my way out. And here’s the part where I should mention the poison.”

  “Poison?” Abigail asked.

  “Sometimes the people who came in to see me didn’t want my memories or my flesh. Sometimes they just wanted to talk. They were usually sad people who hated what they’d become. Some were turned into Valkoer against their will. Others were born into it, but saw it as a curse. At any rate, about four months prior, a sad young man came to me. At first I didn’t remember him — all the faces, except the very worst, sorta blend into one over time — but then he reminded me that he’d seen me three months earlier. His father had paid for him to use Esmerelda’s service to get laid, but when he saw me, saw how young I was, he couldn’t go through with it. Nor did he want to take my memories. Instead, we talked. I don’t remember about what, but apparently I made some sort of impression on him. He said he couldn’t get me out of his mind, and how wrong it was for me to be there.

  “He handed me a small bottle and said it was ‘a way out.’ A poison that would instantly kill me, and end my nightmare.

  “At the time, I thanked him politely, but wasn’t sure if I was really ready to die. A part of me was still holding out hope of seeing Raina again. I didn’t want to leave her in this world, or in this terrible place, all alone.

  “So, as Hugo and Judith came into my room, Hugo went into the adjoining bathroom to get himself ready. Judith stayed with me, sitting in a chair. I guess she was going to watch whatever Hugo planned to do. She was looking at me weird, and I wasn’t sure if she recognized me or not. Meanwhile, I was inching my way toward the pillow where I’d hid the vial of poison. Hugo came out, naked, and eyed me with a twisted smile.

  “Hugo went over to Judith and kissed her, maybe getting himself worked up, or maybe getting her worked up, I don’t know. I took the opportunity to grab the poison. My hands were shaking. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to leave Raina behind, but at the same time, I couldn’t take another day — I couldn’t take what Hugo was surely going to do to me. I unscrewed the cap and was about to down the bottle when Judith screamed, ‘She’s drinking something!’

  “Hugo turned, saw the vial, and smacked it out of my hand. It flew into the wall and shattered, its dark liquid splashing the wall and my bed. Then he turned and asked me what it was.

  “I told him. He smacked me, harder than any of the others had ever hit me. He said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna die today, all right, but not before I’m done with ya.’

  “He began tearing at my dress, ripping it off. Then he threw me on the bed and began to choke me.

  “He was probing my mind, trying to find my most secret memories.

  “I could feel him inside my head, like fire spreading through my brain. I knew it would consume me. And after it had, he’d take my body. But then she stood up.”

  “Judith?”

  “Yes, I saw her from the corner of my eye, and then the black blade as she buried it in his head.

  “For a moment I didn’t think it did anything. His eyes went wide, but he wasn’t dead. He stood, turned around, and looked like he was going to kill her.

  “But then he dropped to the ground, black lines running through his skin, his body convulsing.

  “Judith looked at me, told me to take her hand, that we were getting out of there.”

  Abigail stared at Talani, unable to find a single word to express the heartbreak, or the understanding now dawning on her.

  “She saved you.”

  “Yes. And after that, we fled to Earth. This was before the portals had all been closed by The North. Judith promised to make it all up to me. To make things right. She replaced Esmerelda’s parasite with her own, becoming my Master. It was a long time before I finally trusted her. I tried to escape, but she always found me. In time, I understood that Judith wasn’t all that different from me. She was weak, being controlled by a monster. Later she told me that when she saw me at Esmerelda’s, in that room with all the other girls, she recognized me in an instant. She’d regretted recruiting every girl she had, but for some reason, I stuck out more than any other. And when she saw me again, she knew it was her chance for redemption.”

  “But you never found your sister?”

  “No. The portals had closed, and we couldn’t return, until now.”

  “Do you think your sister is still alive?”

  “I don’t know. It was so long ago. If they didn’t turn her, she’d probably be dead of old age by now. Unless she was among the blessed who could live for ages, but I doubt it. And
if they did turn her, I’m afraid what she’d be like after all this time. Perhaps it’s better to think she died long ago.”

  Abigail reached out and hugged Talani. “I’m sorry.”

  After an awkward moment where Abigail wasn’t sure if she should break the hug or not, Talani blurted, “There it is!”

  Abigail pulled away just in time to see the kitten turning a corner at the end of the hall.

  “Come on!” Talani said, running after the cat.

  Abigail followed right on her heels.

  They chased the cat through several more halls then up a few flights of stairs before watching it slip through a narrow passageway.

  Talani slipped and fell on her butt as Abigail continued forward through the narrow hall.

  Halfway through, she heard a voice that stopped her.

  Abigail stopped, paralyzed in the narrow crevice, staring straight ahead at the last person in the world she expected to see — a naked, bloody man. But he didn’t capture Abigail’s attention so much as the man behind him.

  Jacob!

  Forty-Two

  John

  Gerald led John to the city above Under Harbor, to the tavern where Jonah could most often be found.

  They were met inside by an short old woman who looked worried. “Gerald!”

  “What is it?”

  She eyeballed John suspiciously.

  “It’s okay,” Gerald said. “He’s with me. What is it?”

  “Jonah went into Under Harbor with Prophet Malachi and Sister Raina. Jonah looked nervous.”

  “How long ago did they leave?”

  “Just a few minutes.”

  “And do you know where they went?”

  “I overheard them say something about the soma den, and about what happened at Crow’s Nest.”

  “Well, that can’t be good.”

  John cut in. “What’s wrong?”

  “Everything,” Gerald said, turning on his heel and heading toward the stairway back underground.