The Emperor's Mask (Magebreakers Book 2)

by Ben S. Dobson

  An ogre.

  Kadka had never seen one, but she’d heard the stories. One in three ogren children were born so monstrous and savage that they had to be kept in a remote sanctuary somewhere on the island. People said that they were as ugly as their parents were beautiful, and now she knew that was true—although statuesque ogren beauty had never been much to Kadka’s taste anyway. More importantly, ogres were supposed to be far stronger than even their pure-born kindred, which was saying something. This one certainly looked it.

  And he was between her and the way out.

  She transferred the brass mask to her left hand and drew her knife, although she had a feeling it wouldn’t bother this creature much more than the needle in her arm bothered her.

  For a moment he just looked at her, blinking those dull, lopsided eyes. And then he growled, his lip pulling back to reveal an incomplete set of crooked teeth.

  The ogre lowered his head and charged.

  Chapter Fourteen

  _____

  BROKEN TOYS FLEW aside as the ogre trampled towards her—and not slowly, despite his size.

  Kadka leapt to the side, but a broken toy ship caught her leg before she could fully clear the ogre’s path. A massive arm clipped her in the side, threw her and the ship hard against the wall. The mimic vial struck first, jarring the needle, and a sharp pain tore through her shoulder.

  The ogre was already turning for her again, and the strength of even that glancing blow told her he was an opponent she couldn’t fight. Another one. She clutched the brass mask tight in her hand. Her priority had to be getting out alive so she could show it to Carver and Indree, and she had a clear path to the stairs now. She shoved the toy ship aside and ran.

  She wasn’t fast enough. The ogre outpaced her on huge legs, wrapped meaty hands around her waist from behind. He lifted her from her feet like she weighed nothing at all. Kadka twisted to face the ogre; he roared full in her face, throwing spittle and hot breath against her cheeks. Those massive arms raised her high overhead, as if he meant to dash her against the floor.

  She slashed backhanded at his wrist, drew blood. The ogre squealed in shocked dismay, released her with that hand, and brought the wound to his mouth to suck at it. The other hand around her waist loosened, and she squirmed free, dropping several feet to the floor.

  The stairs were only an arm’s length away, and Kadka scrabbled towards them, started climbing. Another roar, and thumping footsteps. He was following.

  She was nearly at the doors when a massive weight struck her from behind, knocked the breath from her. An iron grip wrapped tight around her body. The force carried her up the last few steps, slammed her against the doors with concussive force. They flew open. Kadka could see stars above, swimming in her blurred vision. The mask flew from her hand to land in the grass. Her feet didn’t join it there. She was trapped, held aloft by a giant arm.

  The ogre had tackled them both through the doors, but his attention wasn’t on her now. Instead, he swivelled his head from side to side, and made a strangled noise of confusion deep in his throat.

  He wasn’t used to the world outside his cellar. Something had to have been keeping him in. The wards. He probably couldn’t leave unless he was with one of his keepers. Jailers? Kadka wasn’t sure.

  But whatever they were, Noana Uuthar was one of them. Kadka looked to the vial jabbed into her shoulder as understanding dawned. A red stain was growing on her shirt where the needle had torn flesh, but just then the pain didn’t matter.

  What mattered was that she had let this thing free.

  “What in the Astra?” A woman’s voice, one of the guards Kadka had heard earlier. A dwarven woman. She approached with her human partner, and there were more closing in on all sides, weapons drawn. “Don’t move!”

  The ogre moved. He looked left, then right, saw guards surrounding him. With one hand, he lifted Kadka like she was a toy.

  And then he threw her.

  She flew through the air, crashed against the dwarven woman and her partner, and all three of them fell to the ground in a heap. Kadka heard the ogre moving again, grabbed the woman under her, and rolled to the side just as a huge foot stomped down the grass where they’d been. Craning her neck, Kadka watched the ogre go; he crashed around the corner of the house and out of sight. Toward the front gate.

  Toward the street. There were people out there. Guards, Mageblades, maybe others.

  Carver.

  And it was her fault this thing was loose.

  Kadka pushed herself up, snatched the mask from where it had fallen, and staggered after the ogre, her head still spinning from the impact.

  “Stop!” an ogren guard commanded, moving to pursue. “Who are you?”

  Kadka just kept going, faster with every step as her head cleared. “Not first problem, now,” she said, and pointed in the direction the ogre had gone. “He is.”

  As if to prove her point, a startled cry came from the other side of the manor, and then a loud, angry roar.

  The guards were following her now, either to stop her or pursue the ogre. It didn’t matter which, really.

  Kadka led them toward the sound.

  _____

  Tane struggled against the Mageblade’s grip, putting on a show. Anything to keep attention on him instead of what Kadka was doing. The dwarven man holding his arm just squeezed tighter. “You need to calm down, sir.”

  “Calm down? I’m being manhandled by—”

  A loud crash interrupted him, and then shouting from deep in the estate. Tane snapped his head toward the sound. Kadka, what did you do?

  The second Mageblade, a blue-scaled kobold, motioned to his partner. “Could be the Mask. We need to get in there now.”

  The dwarf nodded and released Tane’s arm. “Sir, we need you to get to a safe distance.” He and his partner approached the gates. Tane followed two steps behind.

  Something was moving around the side of the house. A massive shadow emerged into the glow of the magelights along the manor’s front steps. Something as tall as an ogren but broader at the shoulder, with a hunched head, a huge gut, and massive arms. Several guards approached the shape, and a pair of Mageblades already on the grounds left their posts at the door to get closer.

  Several cries, an angry roar, a sweep of a giant arm, and guards went flying. The thing never stopped moving; it seemed to be headed for the gates, and closing fast.

  And then Tane understood what Noana Uuthar had been hiding. An ogre. They were meant to be sent to the sanctuary at the south end of the island at birth, where they could live safely without putting anyone in danger.

  Apparently the Uuthars had taken exception to that policy.

  The ogre showed no sign of slowing as it neared the gate, just lowered its head and dropped a shoulder.

  It’s going to go right through. “Get out of the way!” Tane shouted, and leapt to one side. The gate guards heeded his warning, scrambling to either side. The Mageblades didn’t.

  They began to chant in the lingua, a coordinated duet of arcane words, and both raised their hands at the same moment. A sheet of silver-blue shielding rose across the gap in the wall where the gate sat.

  The ogre collided with the gate, and it was iron that buckled, not flesh. Metal squealed and broke, and the doors crashed open. The Mageblade’s shield fared better; with a great silver flash, it arrested the ogre’s momentum.

  But the two Mageblades flinched back, as if struck by a physical blow. They set their feet as the ogre took three steps back and hurled himself at the shield again.

  It didn’t hold. Another silver flash and the sheet of energy evaporated. The ogre swept the Mageblades aside with one arm as it crashed through, hurling both men to the cobblestones several yards away.

  And then it was free, loping away down the street.

  Free, and strong enough to break a shield cast by two trained combat mages.

  Spellfire, that thing could tear the city to pieces. We’re going to need more than a few
Mageblades.

  Tane dug in his left pocket and came out with the sending locket Indree had given him. He squeezed it tight in his hand.

  And instant later, a familiar pressure grew in his ears, and he heard Indree’s voice. “Tane, what’s wrong? Did you find something?”

  “You could say that. There’s an ogre loose in the Gryphon’s Roost.”

  “What? How is that even possible?”

  “Carver! Is no time to stand around! Come!” Kadka yelled as she came sprinting through the broken gates. She jabbed a finger after the ogre; another Mageblade patrol was moving to stop it now. Tane didn’t like their chances.

  “Kadka, there’s nothing we can—”

  She tossed him something that glinted in the silver-blue magelight of the street lamps. He caught it. A brass mask, bearing the Mage Emperor’s sigil.

  “Found this in cellar with him,” she said.

  That, Tane couldn’t let pass. “Let’s go.”

  Kadka started after the ogre once more, and Tane chased behind, tucking the mask into his belt.

  “Tane!” Indree’s voice again. “What in the Astra is happening?”

  “I told you, Ree. An ogre. You have to get people here to contain this thing fast, and a lot of them. There aren’t enough Mageblades.” Tane fumbled in his pockets as he ran, badly outpaced by Kadka. He’d bought several charms from Bastian, but he wasn’t sure which of them would be of use now. Certainly not the shield, if two Mageblades couldn’t hold one against the ogre’s strength.

  Indree didn’t waste any more time. “Where?”

  “We’re on Riverview, beside the Aud. Coming up on the intersection with Audlian’s Way.”

  “I can have a squad there in a few minutes. Just tell me if it moves. And stay out of its way.”

  “Will do,” Tane lied.

  Ahead, two Mageblades were trying to bind the ogre with magic. Silver-blue cords wrapped around its wrists. It heaved against them once, and again, and then the Astral bindings broke. With a backwards sweep of its hand, the ogre threw a brass-armored elf against the wall of the adjacent estate. The other Mageblade, a human woman, fired her ancryst pistol, chanting in the lingua as she did. The ball struck true, and the ogre howled in pain, but didn’t stop. It was on her before she could finish her spell, grabbing the hand holding the pistol. The ogre lifted her by one arm and squeezed; the woman screamed as pistol and bone broke.

  Kadka was behind the ogre now, and she leapt onto its back, wrapped both arms around its neck. Surprised, it dropped the Mageblade, who fell clasping her ruined hand. Keeping her grip with one arm, Kadka raised her knife and plunged it into the ogre’s shoulder. It let out a bellow and shook its massive body like a dog just out of the water, whipping Kadka back and forth like a rag doll. Her grip failed, and she flew free, landed hard on the ground.

  The ogre tromped after her.

  Closing the distance at last, Tane stepped in front of Kadka and raised his fist. “Close your eyes!” he shouted, and then he closed his, and crushed the charm clasped in his palm.

  A flash of light burned pink through his eyelids. The ogre roared in shock. Tane opened his eyes to see it stumbling back, turning away. And then it ran, covering distance quickly on massive, muscular legs.

  Kadka climbed to her feet, didn’t even take a moment to steady herself before giving chase again. As she moved by, Tane saw a look of fierce determination in her eyes, very different from the grin she usually wore when she fought.

  Tane pulled another charm from his left pocket, and the charmglobe from the right—a palm-sized brass sphere that could activate a charm on a short delay. Fumbling with the globe’s clasp, he ran after Kadka once more.

  The street was blocked just ahead—a bulky ancryst-powered carriage lumbered to a stop on huge brass wheels as the ogre approached. Through the front window, Tane could see an elegantly dressed man and woman staring wide-eyed at the giant bearing down on them.

  It’s going to kill them. Even if it didn’t mean to, it had to move the carriage to get by, and it wasn’t going to do that gently.

  Tane pushed his charm into place, snapped the charmglobe closed, wound the key just a fraction of a turn. With all his strength, he hurled it overhand, and hoped his aim and his timing were good.

  The globe flew over the ogre’s head, bounced once on the blocky snout of the ancryst carriage, and then burst open. A wave of silver blue energy rippled outward in an expanding circle. The man and woman in the carriage ducked down in their seats as the repulsion charm cracked their window, rocked their vehicle backwards a half-turn of those big wheels. The ogre staggered back several steps, shielding itself with both arms.

  Which gave Kadka time to catch up. She ducked around the ogre, put herself between it and the carriage.

  Tane skidded to a halt just behind. “What now?” he called to her, praying that she had some kind of plan.

  Kadka just raised her knife. “Now we try not to die,” she said.

  The ogre stomped toward her, growling. Tane scooped up a piece of cobblestone that had broken under a heavy foot. None of his other charms were going to be much use, and he had to do something. He drew back his hand to throw.

  He didn’t have to. As the ogre lifted a huge arm to strike, a silver-blue manacle materialized around its wrist, and then another further up, and then more, all the way to the shoulder. The magical bindings wrenched the creature back. More shackles materialized on the ogre’s other arm, and around its ankles and knees. A dozen men and women in blue uniforms and caps spilled around the halted ancryst carriage, chanting in the lingua magica.

  Indree’s squad had found them.

  Thank the Astra. Tane let the rock fall from his hand. They can handle this.

  And then the ogre moved.

  Roaring in anger, straining every muscle in its body, it moved. Against all that Astral power, it took one step, and then another. With slow inevitability, it advanced on the bluecaps. A silver-blue shackle around its bicep shattered, and it picked up speed. Almost as one, the bluecaps drew a dozen ancryst pistols and readied to fire.

  “No! Don’t hurt him!”

  Tane swiveled to see Noana Uuthar running up the street, a look of sheer terror on her face.

  “He doesn’t know what he’s doing!” she shouted. “Please, you have to let me handle this!” She darted past Tane to put herself in the bluecaps’ line of fire, towering over even the tallest by half their height again—there were no ogren among them.

  “Step aside, Senator Uuthar,” ordered a dwarven man standing at the front of the bluecap line. None of them lowered their pistols.

  The senator didn’t answer, just turned her back on them to face the ogre. “Be still, Odeth. Mother is here.” Her eyes fell to the bleeding wounds left in the ogre’s shoulder by blade and pistol. “Oh, my dear child, what have they done to you?”

  The ogre slowed at the sight of her, recognition lighting its dull eyes. She laid a gentle hand against its cheek. His cheek, Tane supposed, although he hadn’t thought of the creature in those terms until that moment.

  And then Noana Uuthar started to sing. It was soft and lovely, a lullaby by the melody, except the words were in the lingua magica. The ogre’s lopsided eyes slowly closed. His great ugly head dropped to his chest, and his huge shoulders slumped. He fell to his knees, and then collapsed to the ground in a heap, snoring loudly.

  “You see?” Senator Uuthar said, turning to the dwarven bluecap who’d spoken before. “You don’t have to hurt him.”

  The dwarf motioned the others forward—apparently he was in charge. “Secure it,” he said, and the bluecaps started to do just that, moving to surround the ogre and renewing their shackling spells. “Senator, I’m going to need an explanation.”

  “Please,” Uuthar begged, tears glinting in her eyes. Even kneeling, she was taller than the bluecaps surrounding her, but in that moment, she looked very small. “Don’t take him. You have to understand, we tried for so long for a child. When Odeth
came, I… I couldn’t bear to give him up to the sanctuary. You can’t take him from me.”

  “I’m sorry, Your Honor, but it’s the law,” the dwarf said, not unsympathetically. “We have to take it—him—in. People have been hurt.”

  “It wasn’t his fault,” Uuthar said, but there wasn’t much fight in her voice. She knew what had to happen. “He doesn’t understand. He was just afraid.”

  “That doesn’t explain this,” said Tane, and drew the brass mask from his belt.

  The dwarven bluecap went pale under his beard. “Is that…”

  “This is what the Emperor’s Mask wears,” said Tane, and pointed at the ogre. “And it was in his room.”

  Senator Uuthar looked at the mask, blinked, and then met Tane’s eyes with fear in hers. “I’ve never seen that before in my life.”

  “Well, you’ll have to convince Inspector Lovial of that,” the dwarf said. “You’re coming with us.”

  “You don’t understand,” the senator said urgently. “I didn’t put it there, and Odeth couldn’t have. Which means it must have been him.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  _____

  “SHE’S CLAIMING THAT she was framed by the actual Mask,” said Indree. “It’s not a very strong case. Our diviners confirm that she’s hiding something, but she won’t say more.”

  Tane and Kadka sat in the holding chamber at Stooketon Yard, a small room with benches along the walls where prisoners were kept awaiting processing and questioning. They’d just come out of initial questioning themselves, though there would likely be more after Noana Uuthar’s interview was complete.

  “So you think it’s her?” Tane wasn’t so sure. He’d seen the look in the senator’s eyes when he’d shown her the mask, and it had been deeper than just fear that she’d been caught. He wanted to believe the case was done, but he had to know for certain.

  Indree raised an eyebrow. “Do you care what I think? I told you not to do anything, and instead you let loose an ogre and chased it across the city.”

  “Was my fault,” said Kadka, with an unmistakable note of self-reproach. “Only meant to look. Should have stopped him from escape. Stupid.”