Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6

by Elizabeth Kirke

  “I hear you're quite good with one of these,” she said. “Here.”

  She threw it, no, tossed it to Danio. I assumed he caught it because I didn’t hear the sound of a knife clattering to the floor, but I didn’t want to try to turn my head to find out. Then again, sounds were still so muffled I wasn’t sure if I would have heard it fall.

  “Come on then,” Alaria snapped.

  “You're not honestly expecting me to just run on over and go at it, are you?” Danio asked.

  “Obviously.”

  Danio let out a slightly disbelieving laugh. “Don't get me wrong, I would love to stab you a few hundred times, but I think you can understand my hesitation.”

  “As I said,” Alaria said, voice clipped and impatient. “I'm interested in the limitations of non-humans and since there's no water, I want to test you in other ways.”

  “Well, you can’t always get what you want.”

  “I could just kill you now.”

  “Because that won't happen anyway if I come rushing at you with a knife?”

  Alaria heaved a sigh and mumbled something unintelligible. But the cry of pain that followed wasn’t Danio’s.

  “Char!” Danio screamed.

  It made me want to vomit, but I managed to push myself up high enough to see that Charlie had collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. Danio knelt beside him for a moment; then, with the exception of his heaving chest, Charlie was still.

  It was clear that she wouldn't give him a choice in the matter but I still felt sick, and not from what had just happened to me, as Danio cautiously walked toward her. He unexpectedly lunged, but Alaria danced easily away, leaving him to attack again. It seemed as though she was much more interested in just watching him, rather than fighting back herself.

  After a minute his attacks slowed and I worried he was already getting tired, then decided he was probably trying to conserve his energy and wait for the opportunity for a good strike, as opposed to trying to land as many blows as possible, hoping that one would be serious.

  Slowly, slowly, the pain and the ringing in my head began to subside but it was still a struggle just to try to sit up. I managed to raise a wrist to my mouth and sank my fangs in. The pain I was ready for came, but it was dull and distant. I injected adrenaline first, immediately followed by healing accelerant.

  While waiting for them to kick in, I elected to stay uncomfortably on the floor rather than waste the energy trying to sit up. I could sense Tethys, enraged, panicked, frightened; every once in a while he struggled feebly against the rocks, but they had him held almost immobile. If I concentrated I could tell that he felt lightheaded from his inability to take any deep breaths within the tight stone prison; now that I wasn't distracted by my own pain, I was fairly sure a couple of leg and several rib bones were broken.

  Charlie was still sprawled on the floor, alive, but it didn't seem like he was going anywhere in a hurry. I tried once again to sit up but only managed a few more inches before sagging back down, helpless to do anything but lay there and watch.

  All at once, the fight broke apart; Alaria stood there calmly as Danio backed away nervously, visibly breathing hard. It wasn't as if I had expected him to actually be able to defeat or even hurt her at all, but it still sent a rush of renewed despair through me to see how quickly he was fading, while Alaria seemed untouched; it looked like he was even starting to sweat a little.

  “Is that it?” Alaria taunted. “You're done?”

  “Hardly,” Danio growled, launching himself at her again with renewed vigor and desperation.

  Once again, they were completely unevenly matched. I could tell Danio was trying as hard as he could just to land a single blow, but Alaria easily dodged every single one, sadistic smile never wavering.

  I knew Danio couldn’t beat her – our fates were sealed the moment we went up that damn staircase – but I still wasn’t prepared when he suddenly dropped to his hands and knees, panting for breath.

  Desperately, I tried to get to my feet, as if there was anything I could do to help him. But if the adrenaline and healing accelerant were working, it wasn’t enough. I managed one step, then hit the ground.

  Instead of attacking, Alaria stepped back and began to laugh. Danio rose to his feet, legs shaking as if they would give out at any moment.

  “Is that it?” Alaria asked. “Are you giving up?”

  Instead of answering, he just stood there, breathing heavily. He didn’t even raise his knife. I frowned at him in concern, something was wrong. Sure, we had been through a hell of a lot tonight but I couldn’t remember ever seeing him physically too tired to fight. One of his injuries from earlier in the night must have been more severe than he was letting on; damn his stubborn streak. It wouldn’t have made a difference at all, but if I could have at least offered some healing accelerant I would have felt like I had done something.

  “Are you just tired?” Alaria pressed. “Or is something else bothering you?”

  “F-fuck you,” Danio spat. He took a deep breath, straightened a little, and eased himself into position to attack again.

  The new angle gave me a better look at his face, making it easy for me to see he wasn’t tired, he was hurting; even from a distance I could tell from the way his jaw was clenched and by the grays slowly replacing the blues in his roiling eyes. Despite looking ready to lunge, he was still breathing hard and dripping with sweat.

  Wait. Water elementals didn’t sweat, not like this. As the thought occurred to me, I noticed something else; either my eyes were still affected from being trapped in Alaria’s bedroom or there was just a little bit of steam rising from Danio’s skin.

  “Come on then,” teased Alaria. “If you can.”

  Danio took a step toward her, then dropped heavily to his knees, gasping. He wasn’t just winded, he was having trouble breathing. I realized in horror that it wasn’t my eyes, there really was steam coming off of him. And there was more of it now.

  “What the hell did you do to him?!” Charlie demanded suddenly.

  I turned to see he was half-sitting, half-standing, struggling to get up, eyes flaring wildly.

  “You can’t tell?” Alaria asked. “Does burning out your magical energy impact your heat vision too?”

  “What did you do?” Charlie snarled. A tennis ball sized flame burst into life in one hand, but before he could even try to get up again it had flickered and gone out.

  “What’s happening?” My voice sounded raw and hoarse. I wasn’t even sure Charlie could hear or understand me.

  “His temperature is going up,” Charlie said, looking horrified, “and there’s nothing here that could be causing it… except her,” he snarled, turning his burning gaze at Alaria.

  “I was wondering when someone would notice,” Alaria said with an almost conversational tone. “It’s amazing how much of a variation in temperature water elementals can experience without paying any attention.” She turned away from us and took a few steps toward Danio. “I’ve only ever used this trick on humans before, it’s quite interesting…”

  “Get away from him!” I added a hiss for good measure, but she didn’t so much as glance at me.

  “I’m not going to touch him,” Alaria laughed. “It was done before I even gave him the knife; I’ve just been waiting to see how long it would take him to feel it.” She turned to Danio. “I assume you are starting to feel it? Humans are usually crying and begging for mercy by now.”

  Danio just glared at her. He tried to stand again, but sagged right back down, barely holding himself up on shaking arms.

  I struggled to get up, but only succeeded in making my head spin and my vision blur for a moment. My legs shook and gave out before I was anywhere close to upright. As I sank back down, I felt a jolt of pain and a sudden pressure inside one ear; I raised a trembling hand to it and found a trickle of fresh blood.

  Tethys whimpered and despair washed over him. I glanced over and saw Charlie desperately trying to stand; I realized he
wasn’t very far away from the broken wood from the door, but was in no shape to get to it and I couldn’t reach it like this.

  None of us could do anything.

  Suddenly, Danio fell onto his side and curled into a ball, arms wrapped around himself. Then he started screaming.

  My ears had started to heal and I wished they hadn’t; the air echoed with the sounds of Danio’s screams of pain and Alaria’s cruel, shriek of a laugh. Charlie redoubled his efforts and managed to take a couple of steps before collapsing with a choked sob. Tethys added a howl to the din and I punched the ground, feeling so fucking helpless I wanted to vomit; the stone didn’t so much as crack.

  Danio’s screams quickly began to weaken and after a few short, agonizing minutes, he was quiet and just lay there breathing raggedly.

  “I hope you’re learning your lesson about interfering with my plans,” Alaria said, as she walked toward him.

  I hissed furiously, helplessly.

  “Unless you’re unconscious…” She said kneeling down next to him. “I would prefer you awake to enjoy this.” I hissed again as she grabbed him by the chin and roughly jerked him around to face her. “Ah, still with us. Good.”

  My breath hitched as I realized Danio still had the knife. He slowly raised it up, trembling. Just as the tiniest hope began to build, his arm fell back heavily to the floor. He was too weak to even try.

  But Alaria noticed. “Trying to stab me in the back?” she sneered. “Again?!”

  She snatched the knife from his hand without any resistance; I cried out as she plunged it down into his shoulder. Danio arched up with a gasp of pain.

  “Oh, how interesting,” Alaria said as she pulled the blade out.

  For a moment I wasn’t sure what she meant, then I saw and I didn’t think it was interesting, I thought it was sickening; the blood wasn’t just running from the wound in Danio’s shoulder, it was literally bubbling out, along with a column of rising steam.

  Alaria stood and abruptly hurled the knife in my direction. She laughed as I jumped in surprise, unable to dodge. It was clear she hadn’t intended to hit me, but my weakness amused her.

  “Enough,” she announced. “I’m disappointed, I would have thought a water elemental could withstand temperatures much closer to boiling.”

  With a wave of her hand, she sent Danio tumbling across the floor. He landed between me and Charlie and we both desperately tried to crawl the few short feet to him. I half expected Alaria to stop us, and it was a struggle, but we somehow were able to get to him.

  “He’s so hot,” Charlie cried.

  I barely had the strength to do it, but I managed to slide a hand under Danio’s head and lift it slightly. Dimly, I could tell he was actually burning my hand.

  “Danio?” I said, praying for an answer.

  “Dan?” whispered Charlie.

  His eyes, pale gray and motionless, cracked open and he sucked in a couple of ragged breaths. “I-I can’t… breathe,” Danio choked. He coughed out several puffs of steam, before closing his eyes and slumping heavily against Charlie, chest heaving.

  I bit back a furious hiss and instead asked softly. “Is his temperature still going up?”

  Charlie narrowed his eyes and they flickered a couple of times, almost as if he was too drained to even use thermal vision. “No,” he said, but his expression told me it wasn’t good news. “But it’s not going down fast enough either…”

  A sigh of despair escaped me, so I did the only thing I could do, I grabbed Danio’s wrist and bit; he didn’t even twitch. I was sure Alaria would stop me, so I injected as much as I could, as fast as I could.

  Instead, she stood back and watched us, looking slightly amused.

  “You are determined,” Alaria said. “If you were still a wizard, I would invite you to become a disciple.”

  “I would decline,” I snarled at her.

  She laughed.

  Then the door opened and three people hurried in.

  “Mistress Alaria,” the one in front said, as they all bowed.

  Crushing despair filled me. Three more blood casters.

  I didn’t consider them backup – Alaria was doing just fine on her own – but they were something far worse.

  Alaria had seemed like she was getting bored of toying with us and I had a feeling that she was ready to end it

  But now she had an audience.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jen

  I followed Kayla back through the halls, farther and farther from where I thought Alaria was. We ran into a blood wizard; I was fairly sure his name was Brendon. He joined us and Kayla led us swiftly up another flight of stairs.

  By the time we reached the main level, I noticed that everything was eerily quiet. Had the fighting stopped?

  I soon had my answer: there were bodies everywhere. I felt sick to my stomach as we walked through the corridors and common areas, the fight had turned into a massacre. Everywhere I turned there was another body. There were non-humans of every type, some looking untouched, others with veins swollen and black with blood magic. Blood casters were scattered around too; most of them mauled or burned, but some with nothing but two small punctures on their throats.

  Occasionally, we found someone still alive. Kayla killed the non-humans with a flick of her wand and ignored the blood casters outright, as if they weren’t worth her time if they couldn’t beat a non-human.

  As we walked I looked for my friends, trying to see if I could recognize anything about each body we passed, praying I wouldn’t. I didn’t want to get my hopes up that they were alive, but I couldn’t imagine how they could have escaped or where they would have gone.

  Kayla led us silently to a door, several levels higher than I wanted to be, and slashed open her palm. She pressed it to the door and then opened it. I swallowed nervously as I followed her up a twisting stone staircase. It reminded me of the labyrinth and I bit back a gasp, maybe she was escaping with us! What if she was taking us to Alaria?!

  She pushed open a door at the top and the three of us stared for a moment. The small room was trashed. There were broken shelves, a smashed door that led to a smaller looking room, and chunks of rock and debris everywhere. Standing in the middle, calm and collected, was Alaria.

  “Mistress Alaria,” said Kayla, bowing.

  Brendon started to bow too, so I quickly did the same. As I did, I spotted a few more bodies. No, they were alive. I straightened, forcing my gaze back to Alaria. There were four of them; one was a wolf and I was pretty sure one was a fire elemental… but I couldn’t risk a second look, not now.

  “Kayla,” Alaria said, “and Abigail and Brendon. I am pleased you have survived.”

  “We are the last, my lady,” Kayla said. “Everyone else… is dead.”

  If Alaria was annoyed, she didn’t show it. “What of the non-humans?”

  “Dead as well,” Kayla said.

  Alaria nodded, equally unconcerned.

  Kayla turned her attention to the other people and cleared her throat, obviously curious but unwilling to ask a question.

  “These are the MES spies who are responsible for today’s events,” said Alaria.

  My heart jumped into my throat and I turned to look; if Alaria had directed our attention to them, it wouldn’t seem suspicious if I took a moment to study them.

  I regretted it immediately as I got a good look. My stomach twisted and I wanted to retch. Or scream. Most of all, I wanted to rush to them and help.

  TS was almost completely covered by stones, so warped and bent it looked like they had been liquefied before covering him. He was slumped onto the rocks, letting them support him; tail and ears drooped and limp. His eyes moved in our direction, but nothing else did.

  Charlie’s skin was covered in a network of black veins, so swollen with blood magic they looked ready to burst. He was paler than I had ever seen him and his eyes were dim and weakly flickering. He was holding Dani against his chest and I almost cried out when I saw him; I realized I
could actually hear him gasping and gagging, like he was struggling to breathe. There was steam rising from his skin and I could swear I could see blisters. It reminded me of what happened to Sarah. With a knot of dread twisting my stomach, I decided it was probably exactly the same as what Alaria had done to her.

  But when I saw Thomas I wanted to cry and run to his side. I couldn’t tell what had happened, but he was coated in blood. It was clear he had been bleeding from the ears and nose and probably his mouth; I would have suspected blood magic, but I couldn’t see any darkening of his veins. There were blood-streaked tracks running from the corners of his eyes down his cheeks, like even his eyes had been bleeding.

  He looked up at us, at me, and for a moment I thought maybe, somehow, he knew. Please, please recognize me, Thomas, I screamed inside my head, but instead of recognition a look of hopelessness and utter despair crossed his face. He glanced at the others and then tried to stand, like against all odds he still wanted to try and defend them. He gasped in pain, fell back, and a fresh trickle of blood started to run from his nose.

  I sucked in a sharp breath and bit back a sob. They were all alive, for now… but what if I was too late? I knew they would all need help, quickly.

  “Do you wish us to kill them for you, Mistress?” Kayla asked.

  I clenched my wand and held my breath.

  “No,” Alaria said, “They have still not suffered enough for their interference.”

  “We await your command,” said Kayla.

  Alaria considered it for a moment. Her eyes roved over the three of us, narrowed in thought. “This place is no longer of use to me, now that MES is aware of it; these four spies will not be the last. It is time to destroy all evidence and move on.”

  “But, Mistress,” Brendon began.

  Quick as lightning, Alaria uttered the sacrifice spell, slashed open her hand and then stabbed her wand into his chest. Even Kayla gasped and stepped back.

  Brendon’s eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the wound in his chest. Before he could say another word, Alaria finished the spell and slit his throat. She began to chant again and a black circle began to spread across the floor around his body.