by Terah Edun
Rising into the darkness and falling into the stars.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
~*~*~*
Liked the book? Keep reading Mages By Assembly: Algardis #3! Review the individual copy of Mages By Fortune here.
Mages By Assembly Summary
In this third book in the Algardis series, Mae has been captured, tortured,and left hanging for debt. When she escapes, with the help of a former foe, she has to question whether vengeance is worth it when her entire family's lives hang in the balance.
Going further than she ever has before, Mae must accept that in order to gain retribution she must be willing to be as unflinching as the people who took over her home. Trying to outwit a band of mages and mercenaries isn't easy,but if anyone is up to the task its Maeryn Darnes.
But time isn't on her side and all the magical abilities in the world won't save her when those very same enemies send creatures from the darkness chasing after her with one goal in mind--recapture the girl with the tattoo powers unlocked within her chest.
Back against the wall and knowing no aid is coming, Maeryn Darnes is on a quest to save herself and all she holds dear but the world she thought she knew is no longer as black-and-white as it once seemed.
1
Mae had long ago lost her sense of time.
She hung upside down by her ankles from a ceiling with thick chains attached to metal stakes driven at three angles into the wall. She had become very familiar with the anchors to her chain. After she had tried for an hour unsuccessfully to yank herself free from their holds, she had even named them.
The first chain that kept her anchored to the left wall was called Headache.
The second chain that was fixed to the right wall was Miserable.
The third and final chain, which went straight up to the center of the ceiling, was her favorite. Accordingly its name was Pain.
Pain was a favorite because Mae didn’t haven’t to crane her head to see it. Just look up and there it was, attached to the high arch on the second-story of a room she only sort of recognized. She knew that she was supposed to know where she was, but she had become more and more unfocused as time went on.
Still, sensing the importance of the act, Mae looked up at Pain and tried to concentrate on the design of the ceiling she was seeing. She thought she should recognize it, for some reason, but her mind had long ago turned to mush. Her head was swimming from the blood constantly rushing to her brain, her feet felt cold like she’d dipped them in a bath of ice…she supposed one more effect of blood rushing away from her limbs, and her entire body felt distant.
Like she was inhabiting her physical form but wasn’t really there. Just drifting. It was kind of fun until she couldn’t concentrate on important things, like where she was. Mae felt lucky she knew her own name. Even that was getting more difficult by the second.
Patches of her memories were gone. Blank when she tried to recall the circumstances that had brought her here. Hanging upside down by her ankles and wondering what she’d done.
The only thing she was occasionally sure of was that whatever had brought her to these circumstances, it wasn’t normal. She wasn’t being punished for talking back to an elder or lightly thieving a grimoire from a hidden library.
No, no this is something far worse, Mae thought as her mind drifted in a swirl of ever-present confusion.
She wanted to remember, but she couldn’t. The only thing that she could guess at was that it had been something horrific she’d done to deserve this. Even her family wouldn’t be this cruel.
My family, Mae thought in a bleary state.
Just thinking of them brought a pain that Mae curled away from inside. It lanced through her heart like a dagger and she was overwhelmed by emotions so strong it was hard to comprehend.
Pain.
Shame.
Fury.
For a brief moment she remembered why she was here. What she had done. Like a rose blooming in her mind, a petal slowly unfurled. It held a memory. Then many memories. But they didn’t last long. In fact, as soon as she let out a scream of recognition, they were gone. All the emotions. Everything that told her who she was and how she had ended up here—suspended upside down from a ceiling she didn’t quite recognize.
The only thing left was relief. Mae’s body still felt the strain from when she’d arched up, still shackled to the ceiling, her body so tightly strung, it would have been fit for a bow.
Little by little her body relaxed. Her legs unlocked from the stiff pantomime they hung in, her back straightened, and her jaw slackened. The fact that the only thing left after all that was relief was both perplexing and worrying.
She couldn’t remember why a moment before her whole body had been tense and her mind on fire with pain. She knew enough to be grateful because it had felt like she was about to explode from the inside out.
Working her sore jaw, another after effect from the tension that had roiled through her, Mae tried to figure out what was going on. Why she was hung upside down? Who she could see to free her? The room was empty of everyone else. She was alone with her rattling chains and the occasional crackle of a fire far below in lit brazier pots.
She could only see it when she angled her head back in order to look down. That hurt more than just letting her head hang, so she didn’t do it often. The room was half-split between darkness and light, and in the dim and lonely room the fires were her one cheery escape.
Fearing the worst and not knowing what else she could do, Mae started screaming.
Crying out for help brought no one to her aid and only hammered in the realization that she was on her own. As further time passed, Mae licked her dry, cracking lips and realized that if she didn’t try something to free herself soon, she’d only waste away hung upside down by her chains.
Twisting around she tried to see anything that would help her but nothing was forthcoming. Her movements also jarred something into her back.
Part of the chain, she thought, but with that pain came a brief and momentary glimpse into her past. What had brought her here. What kept her here.
Nervously, Mae twisted again to feel the quick jab of the sharp piece of metal in her back and more memories loosened.
She wanted to remember. Even with the pain.
She wanted to be free. Even if it meant falling.
She wanted to be whole again and that desperation drove her to fight through the blood rushing to her head and the associated disorientation.
For a moment there was clarity, visually and mentally, and the parts swimming in her gaze came together to form a coherent whole. Gray blocks marked with soot stains merged into a pattern she recognized. Laid stonework. Round buttresses became arches along the four corners of the slightly domed ceiling. In the center was a chandelier of mage lights that was now holding up more than the sconces of a dozen candle sticks.
It held Maeryn Darnes herself.
She recognized all the parts and the whole they made as the magical haze seemed to be doing more to cloud her mind than the dehydration and blood loss was.
“The sickroom...that’s where I am,” Mae mumbled in a daze to herself.
At least that’s where she thought she was.
It is where she had been when this horrifying ritual had begun.
In what had once been Mae’s dream of salvation had rapidly turned her greatest nightmare.
And it all started here. Here where my siblings were confined in sickness. Here where I hang for my crimes, Mae thought in dazed blur as she tried to keep her eyes open.
She twisted again, this time lightly, just to get the sharp rush of pain in her lower back and the urgency to stay alert grew greater. The pain’s clarity didn’t last long, but it was enough to combat what was clouding her mind like a faint cloud covering every inch of her thoughts. Mae knew that it wasn’t a lack of sleep that was preventing her from keeping her focus, visual or mentally, however. It was magic.
She could see it when she blinked her eyes open and concentrated.
That was one thing she hadn’t lost in this grim imprisonment.
So, she thought to counteract it. She couldn’t move much more than her wriggling but she didn’t need to physically manipulate her body to open herself up. Mae let her magic go.
The first thing that was affected was her mental acuity, then her eyesight and her ability to see auras.
Mae was grateful to see that at least some things were still the same, even though the first time she’d been actually shown an aura was by the woman who her mind wanted to forget as much as it struggled to remember everything else. She wasn’t precisely sure why it was so easy to shift into looking at those auras now, but she had the feeling it had to do with the fact that her seal had been broken open.
Mae’s vision was a bit fuzzy still, especially close in, but she would have been able to see the glowing script crawling up and down her chest even if she was blind. It was that bright.
Combined with the blood that had drizzled down her sides from some wounds she didn’t remember receiving, Mae might have thought her body was a living canvas for some insane court-based painter far from the capital of the kingdom of Nardes.
But she wasn’t a piece of art.
She was grateful at least that, with the cloud lifted from her mind, she could process that and more, now that her magic made it possible for her to react to the present, and not just the delirium that had fogged over her thoughts. Mae realized that her whole body hurt from the deep scratches at her hips, to the soreness of her chest that seemed to thrum with glint of the glowing scripts, to the feet shackled and enduring the weight of her body held upside down.
It was the pain that let her know this was all reality and not some dream.
It was the bitterness in her mouth that reminded her of how she had gotten here in the first place. Donna Marie’s betrayal. Hers and others. Mae’s hazy memory was coming together like puzzle pieces long ago separated and what she remembered, she didn’t like.
Every second she lingered in her mind, growing panic set in.
The kind of fear that was inescapable and overwhelming.
She sensed an ominous presence tied to just to the memories she held of Donna Marie presence, but now existing over the entire greater holding. A presence that meant evil had already been done and it made her pulse race. Mae didn’t care what was happening to her. She shivered in the dark, however, thinking about what had become of her family members.
The only thing she could do was hang around and hope. Hope that they had gotten away, somehow, someway.
“Enough of old worries,” Mae said to herself as she shifted her gaze around and grimaced with the liquid that drifted into her eyes, temporarily blinding her.
It wasn’t tears though. It was blood.
Hers.
Wincing, Mae tried to wipe away the sensation of her dried blood that had slowly dripped down her face from her chin over her lips, over her nose, and over her eyes. Her hands were free so she could periodically let them fall and smear away what she could towards her hairline and on her clothes.
She didn’t do that often because she had learned that by keeping her hands looped on her belt, she could shift some of the dead weight of her hanging arms onto the core of her body.
It felt better, if only for a moment.
There were so many other things wrong that temporary relief didn’t absolve all the other issues, like the fact that just to be able to breathe and keep her eyes clear she’d been forced to keep her eyelids and mouth closed. Now that the wound had been sealed enough that it wasn’t leaking a steady stream, she could open them again. That was no problem when it came to her mouth.
But her eyes? Well, the blood had dried over her lids until it was a thick crust she couldn’t dislodge.
It hurt.
It itched.
It was driving her crazy.
Not to mention the fact she was seeing things. Things that had nothing to do with her current position hanging upside down and everything to do with the casting Donna Marie had done to unlock Mae’s gift.
The only thing Mae remembered was that whatever had happened to her…she had brought onto herself.
The thought made her squirm inside. She couldn’t precisely remember how. Her memory was clearer, but it wasn’t completely back. Whatever it was that had merited this punishment from the foreign woman and her cohort…Mae had to guess it had been something crucial. Maybe she had stumbled upon something she shouldn’t have, ran into someone she shouldn’t have. But, the past was the past and now she was paying for it.
Mouth wrenching in displeasure, Mae realized that if she was going to get out of this she’d have to do so quickly, before she sank back into unconsciousness aided by her dizziness and blood loss.
Twisting herself back and forth made her feet hurt, but it allowed her to pull herself by her torso enough times that she saw the chains around her feet were double-wrapped. The chains were secure enough to keep her hanging up here, but perhaps not for long.
Mae made a plan. She twisted some more and desperately reached out with her hands to get purchase. She made it just barely; gripping her upper thighs with desperation until she could physically climb up her legs with straining hands and reach between her feet for the chains that imprisoned her.
It was the most exhausting thing Mae had ever done, but she made it, tears freely falling from the corners of her eyes as she panted in exertion and struggled to hold her body weight up by her arms and not let go.
Her eyes desperately searched the metal links she could see clearly now that she was raised up to the level of her feet. She was looking for some kind of linchpin or lock that she could loosen to free herself.
Her eyes snagged on an incongruity just as her arms began to shake from the strain.
Found it! She thought triumphantly.
2
There it was.
Knowing she couldn’t stay in this position for long, she lunged for the bit of metal that meant her freedom, grabbed it and yanked.
Joy went through Mae’s mind as she realized she had won, but just as quickly was followed by panic as she felt her back falling backward as she realized her hands were no longer anchored as well. Suddenly, she was scrambling frantically as she realized she hadn’t exactly thought the next part through. Desperate not to plummet to the ground unchecked, Mae clutched at anything metal she could reach.
She felt something cold and slick which might stop her fall, but she’d only managed to grab onto the now loose chains that had bound her feet. That wouldn’t help.
Yet I’m not falling, Mae thought in amazement.
Panting heavily Mae peeked up, almost too afraid to look, and realized that her left hand had grabbed the loose chains but her right was snagged onto the hook that had been holding them all up.
“Thank the gods,” she whispered in fervent prayer as she smiled up at the first good thing that happened that day.
She even felt some relief sweep through her.
That is until a shearing sound whispered from above.
It was the most ominous sound she had ever heard and for a moment her heart stopped.
But the noise didn’t. The screech of metal scraping against more metal grew louder as Mae frantically searched around until her eyes alit on the object making the noise that was sending her heart into palpitations.
It didn’t take long to spot the culprit.
The chandelier was right above her and she realized, to her quick dismay, that all of her jostling had disturbed its place in the ceiling. Mae tried not to move. She didn’t even make a sound. She was so still that she could hear the blood rushing through her veins as she wondered if she could undo what she’d just done.
But there was nothing else to grab onto.
Her feet were free and she was hanging from the ceiling just by a hook.
Her body swayed softly back-and-forth through the air as her hands grew s
lick from sweat and Mae wondered what her next move should be.
Mae couldn’t exactly reach the floor from here. It was too far up. There was at least a twenty-foot drop from the second story and she feared she’d do more than break her legs in her weakened state. She wasn’t even sure the last time she’d eaten! Her head would probably crack open like a sour egg on the stone floor as she was too weak to protect her skull after struggling with the chain so mightily.
For a brief moment, Mae had the thought that it would almost be a relief to think she’d be dead not long after.
At least that was what her subconscious was telling her.
But she knew that wasn’t true. She had to keep fighting. For her siblings. For her parents who had been taken away into another room sometime ago. To honor their sacrifice was the least she could do, the only thing she could do in a situation like this.
Honor not just my father and stepmother, but all my living family, Mae thought with a strangled sob.
It was one word and all its repercussions that stopped her cold.
Living.
How many of them had survived the onslaught of the Cross Guard?
Who would be among them?
Her littlest cousin? Her sister? The uncle she hated? Not Gareth’s father, the other one. At the moment Mae couldn’t imagine life without any of them. But at the same time, she knew that the mercenaries hadn’t let them all run off free, or that they hadn’t sustained casualties fighting back.
Any more casualties that is, she thought with a shiver as her mind flashed back to her parents being thrown across the room like dolls.
Even Richard had been defenseless against mage soldiers. It hadn’t gone well, but she shouldn’t have expected it to either. Her relatives weren’t trained warriors, not the broad majority of them anyway. Even the men and boys who had magic to counteract their physical skills could only do so with limited success. And Mae hadn’t forgotten that there were at least two mage soldiers among the mercenaries who had snuck into their greater holding like thieves.
