Vesik Series Boxset Book 3

by Eric Asher

  Beyond that, the skirmish in the ring had picked up in earnest. Three Fae squared off, and it appeared to me they were all on their own side. None of the fairies in the circle were armed with the narrow Fae blades I was so used to seeing. We were just close enough I could hear the words of the fairy in the circle with his back to us.

  “Nudd be with you,” he said.

  His two adversaries stiffened and raised their fists, as if they were about to engage in fisticuffs that would’ve looked more at home in a silent movie. But it wasn’t their fists that struck out. The Fae on the right made a half turn, and when the fairy closest to us moved to block, the attacking Fae changed direction so fast my head spun. Instead of a forward kick, a blindingly fast roundhouse caught the defender on the shoulder. The fact that he managed to get his shoulder in the way to block spoke greatly of his speed. He grunted as the third Fae closed on him. The defender whispered an incantation, too quiet for me to make out, but his laugh was clear. He grabbed the wing of the first attacker and dragged the fairy into the path of the wave of force from the second. Even though I didn’t hear the incantation, I was fairly certain it was a pulsatto. It hammered into the fairy’s chest, and he collapsed to the floor, only to rise in a rage and attack the third fairy.

  “Too easy,” the defending Fae said. And something tickled my memories. It was a voice I knew. A voice I’d heard before.

  Before I could say anything, a thunderous roar echoed from the back of the cavern. A small tower of blue sparks fired into the air, drawing my attention completely away from the fight.

  “Shit,” I said. “Jasper. Nothing to worry about indeed.”

  “That’s not Jasper,” Vicky said. Another barking roar sounded, and a second tower of blue flame went up beside the first. A gray neck rose, towering over the distant edge of the training grounds. “That’s Jasper.”

  “Then what …” But I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence before another massive gray neck stood tall above the crowd, and a dragon equal to Jasper’s size made its way toward him. I took a step in their direction before Vicky cursed and grabbed my backpack. She had it unzipped and was rooting through it before I understood what was happening. I heard the bag of jerky crunch in her hand a moment before she sprinted off toward the dragons.

  “Another dragon?” Zola turned to Morrigan. “Who is that?”

  I knew the answer. And so did Aideen.

  “You let him in here?” Aideen said. “We can’t trust him.”

  “Trust who?” Zola asked, but the tone of her voice told me she already knew.

  I stared at the back of the fairy in the ring. Watched the lithe, graceful form that I’d faced before on the battlefield and I called out his name, “Drake!”

  He turned his attention to me for a split second and flashed me a smile. But his opponents, now fighting more as a team than individually, didn’t miss their chance. Drake’s face was smashed up against the dome of power a moment later. His wry smile turned into a grimace of pain. He tried to escape, but unarmed against skilled opponents, he was done.

  “I yield,” Drake said.

  The barrier around the fairies fell, and Drake’s opponents released him. He turned the fairies and nodded. “Your training is going well. I’m happy to see the improvements.”

  “One day it won’t be my bare hands, betrayer,” the larger of the two Fae said.

  “I did not murder your brother for joy,” Drake said. “It was on the battlefield, a long time ago. Some things are best forgotten.”

  I raised my voice. “You should come talk to the military with me. I’m sure they’ll buy that line.”

  Drake flashed his teeth, somewhere between a grin and a sneer. “Vesik. Care to join me in the ring? Loser has to do whatever the winner says for a day?”

  “I’m a bit more concerned about what your dragon might do,” I said.

  “You ruined my dragon, Vesik,” Drake said. “I owe you for that.”

  He cocked his head toward the back of the cavern. I frowned at him, and then followed the motion to the dragons. Vicky was sitting on Drake’s dragon’s head while the dragon stuck out his tongue so Vicky could pile Frank’s face-melting jerky onto it.

  “I …” But I couldn’t find the words.

  Drake turned and watched the dragons and the young teenager. “I doubt I’ll ever get him to eat humans again. Dried out cow, on the other hand …”

  I blinked at the fairy. The right hand of the Mad King, a Demon Sword, who somehow retained his powers through the loss of his monarch—powers to rival Foster’s own, powers that he’d used to burn down Park’s base in Saint Charles. I glared at him.

  For a moment, I wondered just how much the circle dampened powers, and if I could fire a spell through it with enough force to strike him down. I’d been willing to give him leeway after the minimal help he offered, but the fact he was now in contact with Vicky put my tolerance on the back burner.

  A small smile lifted the edges of Drake’s mouth, giving his sharp cheeks and chin a deadly appearance. “I didn’t realize we would have guests so soon.” He glanced at the Morrigan.

  “This was easier than trying to explain it to either one of you.” The Morrigan brushed at her sleeve, and a crease formed on her brow. Just a small expression of irritation I’d seen on Zola’s face more times than I could count. “I don’t care what differences you had in the past. We will have peace in this place.”

  “The skirmish by the river?” Drake asked. “Hardly what I would call a difference.”

  I choked back a growl. “People died.”

  He scoffed. “I doubt it was anyone important. The commoners and their military.” He frowned, like he didn’t like the taste of the words. Much like I didn’t like the fact the military was occupying civilian streets.

  “Vicky doesn’t need to be involved in your schemes,” I said, unable to think past what the fairy’s manipulations might be.

  “My schemes?” Drake spread his arms wide. “It surely was not me who brought her to these grounds, who gave her the burden of a reaper, who gave life to that which should not live.” His words grew quieter as he spoke, until the last sentence had been little more than a whisper.

  “Enough, boy,” Zola said. “What’s done is done. He only spins yarns to rile you up.”

  “Is it true?” Aideen said, standing up on Zola’s shoulder. “You’re a mercenary now? A sword for hire? One who would work for the Unseelie Court as quickly as they would defend their own brethren?”

  Drake crossed his arms. “Typical. I saved your friend’s life,” he said, nodding in my direction. “The fool would’ve walked right into Nudd’s trap. I could have let him die on the battlefield. I didn’t.”

  “And why didn’t you?” Aideen asked. “So you may beg a favor of him one day? Win a favor of mine? Or that of the rightful Demon Sword?”

  Drake let out a hollow laugh. “You don’t have the whole story.”

  “Then tell it to us,” Aideen said.

  Drake glanced at the dragons before returning his attention to me. “I mean her no harm. And I know of the bond you share. To kill you would be to kill her, and I won’t do that.”

  I eyed the fairy.

  “Come, necromancer. Spar with me here, while my powers are muted, and so are yours.”

  “Not without reason,” Aideen said, stopping me in my tracks. I’d scarcely realized I was already stepping toward the circle. “If Damian is victorious, you tell what you know of Nudd’s spies.”

  I clenched my fists.

  Drake smirked. “I accept your offer. I don’t want either of us to die here, so why don’t we say first takedown wins. Put me on the floor, and I’ll tell you what you ask. But if I put you on the floor, then you leave me alone about my time spent with your apprentice.”

  “My apprentice?” I spluttered.

  “Yes. I do not care to consider the grief my dragon would give me if she did not see her new best friend.” Drake looked back to the massive forms o
f the gray beasts. They were now flinging a giggling Vicky back and forth, catching her gently on each other’s noses like a rag doll. “It is … trying.”

  I tried to imagine then what the time Drake had spent with Vicky had actually been like. If she’d been bonding with his dragon, his reaper who had been his compatriot since the age of the Wandering War, just how much had that gotten under the fairy’s skin? A slow smile spread across my face. “Agreed.”

  “Sweep the leg,” Aideen said.

  I hesitated, glanced back at her, and found the fairy grinning broadly.

  “Oh, and don’t lose. Apparently, Morrigan doesn’t know whatever Drake’s about to tell us. She’s been trying to get it out of him for the past week.”

  The Morrigan shrugged.

  I cursed under my breath and stepped into the circle.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Drake backed toward the opposite side of the circle. “You humans haven’t changed in a thousand years. Faerie could’ve ruled you then, and if you’re not careful, Nudd will rule you now.”

  “A thousand years?” I asked, shrugging off my backpack and throwing it outside the circle to Zola. “I think you give humanity too much credit. We’ve been killing each other far longer than that.”

  Zola caught the heavy bag like it weighed nothing. It was one of those rare moments where she revealed the strength beneath what most would think was an ancient and frail body. Though she aged, and time had taken its toll on her skin, I doubted many could match her pound for pound when it came to strength.

  “What of the rules of the circle?” Zola asked.

  Morrigan gestured to the wards on the ground. “There are none. When the circle is engaged, their powers will be limited.”

  “It will be hard to draw on line arts,” Aideen said.

  “Is that all?” Zola asked.

  When no one else spoke, I glanced behind me. Morrigan wore no expression. “It’s supposed to be.”

  One of the Owl Knights stepped closer, a decorative halberd grasped in his left hand. He raised it high and spoke. “Die with honor.” He brought the haft down on a ward inlaid on a dark gray tile. A second before the glassy dome snapped closed over our heads, I realized most of the hall had gone silent. A great many eyes were on us. When the incantation completed, the silence was almost deafening. I could see those around us speaking, but few words penetrated the spell.

  “Finally,” Drake said. “Whisper and they won’t hear what we say in this place. But you must fight as if you mean to kill me.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” I said, shrugging my shoulders and pumping my fists as if it would somehow intimidate the Fae warrior, who had likely seen more battles than I’d seen days above the earth.

  “Nudd has to die,” Drake said, hopping forward in an odd feint before lashing out with his right leg. I barely had time to say Impadda before I remembered spells wouldn’t work right in the circle.

  A shield spluttered on my arm, and perhaps it slowed Drake’s leg a fraction, but it still hurt like a bitch when he caught my upper thigh. I sagged to one side, and Drake danced backward, as if he were taunting me. It was jarring to hear the words coming from his mouth, but see a different expression on his face. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man could lie to himself without batting an eye.

  “No shit,” I said. “But I don’t think that’s your priority.”

  “He’s lost his mind, and he’s going to get everyone killed. Vanity is his weakness. Nudd believes himself too powerful, too intelligent, to be dethroned. So he plays both sides as if they were marionettes.”

  Drake’s eyes lit up, and he danced forward again. Instead of waiting for a response, or an attack, I lunged, reaching back as if I intended to throw a wide hook.

  The fairy followed the motion, but I feinted the attack with my right hand, drawing up short and grabbing the collar of his mail shirt before drawing his chest down to my knee in one vicious strike.

  Surprise widened Drake’s eyes, and I suspected he would’ve been in a bit more pain if he hadn’t been wearing armor. It was about then I realized I was wearing a T-shirt, and he was wearing armor.

  “Shit.”

  “You fight like the old legions,” Drake said. “But you’re sloppy. You take risks you don’t need to.”

  “Not killing you is a risk,” I said.

  Drake landed two quick jabs. Trying to block them was like trying to block a hummingbird. “You could at least try to make this a good fight,” the fairy said.

  “Pulsatto!” I shouted, straining my will to put as much energy into the incantation as I could.

  Drake danced away, but I hadn’t been aiming for his chest. Weakened though the magic might have been, his sprightly steps made his legs vulnerable. When the wave of force hit, it was enough to take one of them out from under him. He went down on one knee, but popped right back up.

  “That was close,” Drake said. “I’m impressed.”

  “What do you want with Vicky?” I asked. “Why did you seek her out?”

  “I didn’t seek her,” Drake said after an awkward pause.

  “You’re lying,” I said.

  “She’s pure, untwisted by years spent in the service of a madman. I was like her once, long ago, and that child deserves the choices I never had.”

  I narrowed my eyes, but I didn’t have a counter to Drake’s words.

  “And the two of you have ruined my dragon. The beast won’t touch a piece of human, or broccoli, instead subsisting on chocolate and dried meats. But you’re avoiding the topic at hand, Vesik. You’re walking blind into a fight with Nudd, a Fae who is truly mad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The simplest answer is most often the truth,” Drake said, a half-psychotic laugh on his lips.

  It was a ridiculous statement, practically quoting Occam’s razor, but his words gave me pause. I shook my head.

  “What are you hiding from us?” I asked. “Because whatever you’re hiding, you’re hiding from the Obsidian Inn. You’re hiding from the resistance.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Drake said. “The enemy is already in your head. You’re just too distracted to see it. Nudd isn’t your true enemy. He never was.”

  This time he attacked in earnest, a quick jab to my left kidney before his heel struck my shin. I wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten around me so fast. But before I knew it, I had an elbow in my sternum and was gasping for air.

  Drake’s eyes narrowed, and his lips pulled into a tight line. “Never question my friendship with that girl again.”

  He came forward, and I knew the fight was over. But he was so sure of it that he didn’t see my aura change, didn’t see my power reach through the shell of that circle and grasp the mass of dead beneath us. The circle had done its job. I couldn’t pull a million dead things up from the earth at once and wrap Drake up in them like an enchanted burrito, but it was enough to catch him off guard. He crashed through the flimsy wall, sending a shower of black ash across the circle. His arms raised in front of his face, perhaps to defend from an attack he couldn’t see coming, but I’d already stepped around him before his eyes cleared. My elbow caught the back of his neck, and my knee was already in his inner thigh. All I had to do was reach out with my foot and put his face on the floor. Drake went down with a grunt and a curse.

  “How the hell did you pull that through the shield?” he asked.

  “I don’t think that matters,” I said. “I seem to recall there aren’t any rules.”

  Drake conceded, bowed his head for a moment, and rolled over.

  I extended a hand. The Fae eyed it warily, and then let me pull him up to his feet.

  The shield went down, and the glassy dome that included the circle vanished. Drake grimaced when the Morrigan smiled at him. The shouts in the hall were deafening.

  Drake took a deep breath. “I suppose I owe you a conversation.”

  “Let’s get Vicky before we go.” I tried uselessly flailing my arms, but it
was unlikely she’d see me amid the mass of movement in the cavern. Morrigan was planning on taking us somewhere quiet, where we wouldn’t be overheard, and I didn’t want to leave Vicky behind.

  Zola stuck two fingers into the edges of her mouth and whistled loud enough to shatter glass. A hush fell over the immediate vicinity while everyone turned to look at us. I kept waving my arms like an idiot, and Vicky finally saw me.

  “I’m sure she’d be fine here,” Drake said. “She has two reapers looking after her.”

  Jasper lowered his head and set Vicky on the ground before both of the dragons melted away until we couldn’t see the small furry forms I knew would be following Vicky through the crowd.

  “I’d feel better, knowing she was with us,” I said. “And whatever you have to say, she’ll probably find out anyway.”

  “Come.” Morrigan gestured for us and we followed her to the edge of the cavern. I occasionally glanced back to see Vicky weaving through the fairies until she got to an aisle, and then she sprinted after us, two oversized gray dust bunnies flowing along the floor behind her. While I wouldn’t admit it, Drake was probably right. She was likely safer with the dragons than with any of us.

  Morrigan placed her right hand on the stone wall, and a small mote of light started tracing a complex knot in the stone. Small at first, but as it reached each intersection of the line, it broke into more dots until, in the end, it looked like a dozen people were etching out a pattern with laser pointers.

  Vicky caught up to us as the pattern of the door fully revealed itself.

  “Not good for a quick escape,” Drake said.

  Morrigan looked over her shoulder at him. “That is not what it was designed for.” We followed Morrigan through the doorway, into a well-lit hall carved from the yellowish stone so commonly seen in Faerie.