This had nothing to do with anything Viktor or I had done and everything to do with being a Thorne.
It took several more minutes for the paralysis to pass. When I could raise my head, I saw Nanny and Ilsa restrained as I was. They were on the opposite side of the chamber from me and Viktor’s heart. Little Viktor was between the heart and Ilsa, and he’d been trussed up too. That made me extra angry.
Together, we formed five corners of a large pentagram. The painted circles around us were connected by straight white lines that intersected in the center of the pentagram. It was a magical arrangement, but I had no clue as to its purpose.
“What does Erick want from us?” I wriggled my wrists, hoping to loosen the fastenings.
“Other than our love?” Nanny asked.
I had a thought that made me cringe. “You and Erick didn’t...?”
Nanny cackled again. I wondered if she was enjoying this. A theatrical Solhan sacrifice might be just the way she dreamed of ending her days. When her hilarity subsided, she said, “No. Only you and Ilsa tumbled into his bed. But we were all fools for him. He used a glamour to convince the child he was Mr. Adder come to take him for ice cream. At least that’s what I’ve gathered between sobs.”
“Mr. Adder? You remember Duane’s current street name but forget my real name half the time?”
“Some people are more memorable than others. Like Erick.”
“He was charming,” I said, defending my earlier stupidity.
“He was ruthless,” Ilsa said, admiringly. She must have been shown a different side than I was. “But, I can’t believe he betrayed me.”
Ilsa had stolen another one of my boyfriends. It had always been her favorite summer pastime. She’d swoop in and take any boy I showed the slightest interest in. She must not have known about my old crush on Duane, because he was the only one she stayed away from.
Wait. I’d spent the last five days alone with Erick and only last night did we become intimate. That meant I’d stolen her man for once. One side of my mouth came up in a self-satisfied smirk.
I’d been regretting my weakness of late, wondering what good trying to be good had ever done me. Naively falling for Erick was my crowning ignominy, but Ilsa had the same weakness. She’d fallen for him too. She wasn’t any stronger than me. Of course, being in the same boat as my sister—a sinking one—didn’t make me feel superior either.
“What part did you have to play in all this, Ilsa?” I knew she was guilty, and I wanted her to admit it.
“Don’t try your detective tone with me, Sugar. You’re no elf. We’re sisters. I know you better than you know yourself.”
“I don’t know you very well, because Harald the slaver fingered you.”
“Like I said, you should stop playing detective. You’re not very good at it.”
“I learned the Elf King or someone high up in his court was sending instructions through Jhenna and organizing a roundup of refugees and street people by Solhan Circle slavers. I learned those people were sent to the border of Solheim.”
“Old news,” Ilsa said dismissively. “I’ve known about that for ages.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“If only you’d stayed home, Sugar, you wouldn’t be so hopelessly in the dark. Jhenna came to see Uncle, but I stepped in and offered to take some responsibility for the family businesses.”
“What do they plan to do with the refugees they stole?”
“I don’t know and don’t care. Simply winning the gratitude of the Elf King will go a long way to getting citizenship for humans.”
“Except for the humans you shipped to Solheim.”
“For the humans that matter, like Thornes. Real Thornes I mean. You and Viktor both disowned your heritage.”
“Viktor not so much,” I said, remembering the shrine to the Devourer I’d found and the abomination he’d created with Emily’s soul. I quickly changed the topic. “But you didn’t know Erick was freeing slaves, did you? You were surprised to find Kali in my house.”
“Viktor’s house,” Nanny interjected.
“Erick? He’d never...Of course. I see. His ruse reeled in our poor, naive brother and you. Believe me, he was first and foremost a mage dedicated to Solhan dominance of the Outskirts and Highcrowne itself one day. ‘We will need a new Solheim,’ he said.”
“That’s the crap he fed you?” I was truly dismayed by Ilsa’s gullibility. “Who could have possibly believed such nonsense?”
“And freeing slaves out of the goodness of his Solhan heart was more believable?”
“Enough,” Nanny said. I could suddenly picture the woman who had once dragged Ulric around by his ear and raised generations of ruthless Thornes. “Erick is a liar. All that matters is getting out of here alive.”
“Whatever Erick has planned, we have to stop him,” I said.
“Oh, we hadn’t thought of that.” Ilsa snorted, one of the unladylike behaviors she only shared with me. This ordeal was really bringing us together as a family.
I ignored her. “Nanny, what do you know about this ritual? What are these symbols for?” If I understood what was going on, I’d have a better chance of figuring my way out of it.
“It’s beyond my ken,” Nanny said. “Erick is one of the Nine. Only Ulric would know what he’s doing.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Erick being ‘one of the Nine’?”
Ilsa snorted again. “Is this your plan? Will you try talking him to death? Or is it only us you wish to kill with boredom?”
I truly disliked my sister. “Well, Nanny?”
“The Nine ruled Solheim. Few knew their identities, which is why I failed to recognize Erick. When I figured it out, it was too late. The Nine were the most powerful, the most learned. And they summoned Our Lord.”
I swallowed. “The Dead God? I knew Solhans brought him, but I never knew who. Erick was responsible?”
“He wasn’t the only one.”
She hadn’t said it, but Ulric had to be one of the Nine. I’d always known my uncle was no shoe peddler. Everyone in the neighborhood deferred to him—and feared him.
“So, Erick has a score to settle with Uncle?” I guessed.
“Ask Viktor what he thinks.” Nanny nodded toward the heart, and another cackle wracked her body. I worried for her sanity.
“Viktor’s gone, but we’re still here. Well, hopefully not ‘here’ for much longer.” I bent forward and dug my teeth into the thick rope that fastened me to the ground. I’d chew my way out if I had to.
A handful of bogles dropped their camouflage and ran at me, the patter of tiny feet echoing in the chamber. “Stops that!” One jumped on my head and put his hands over my eyes.
“Get off.” I shook my head but couldn’t dislodge him, even as I kept gnawing at the rope.
Small, leathery fingers pinched my nose shut. More tiny fingers, smelling of rotten vegetables, pulled my lips back. I spit out the foul taste and bent forward again. My teeth hit leathery skin. One had thrown itself across the bindings, blocking my escape with its body.
“Ouch!” the bogle screamed. “Stop biting, or me bites you!”
Nanny laughed.
“We tried that too,” Ilsa said. “Keep at it and those filthy creatures will gag you. They won’t remove it again until you’re starving and agreeable.” She seemed to speak from experience.
“I can’t picture you ever being agreeable,” I said. More awful tasting hands were shoved into my mouth, so I surrendered. “I give up.”
The bogles dropped to the ground. The one I’d accidentally bit rubbed at his side and gave me a reproachful look. “I not food. I thought you was nice.”
I couldn’t tell one creature from another, but I’d only ever spoken to one bogle before. “Are you the one from the wagon?”
“I carried message like you asked...sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” He pressed his ears to the side of his head. I couldn’t be sure,
but he looked guilty.
“I thought we had a bargain,” I said. That made him even more nervous. “You haven’t asked for payment. Did Karolyne give you food?” I knew he’d gone to Erick and not to the cafe as I’d asked.
He trembled so violently I thought he’d rattle apart. “You know! I break bargain. Food lady screamed and kicked me then had grall toss me across street.”
“It’s not your fault.” I didn’t know why I felt sorry for the creature who was helping to keep me captive, but I did. All he wanted was food. I didn’t believe he realized what he was doing.
He struck his small fists against the ground again. “Yeck! You too nice. I lied. Grall threw me different day, when I was spying. I didn’t go to your friend at all. I tell Master, and he said he go save you. He forbade me to tell anyone else about you. We have old bargain, but...”
“But what?” I pressed.
He was silent.
“What is your bargain with Erick?”
“We obey Master, help him, and he gives us food. But, he never said we can’t make new bargains. I made bargain with you, but he told me to break bargain. I thinks Master should not have told me that. It was wrong. I’m confused. Which bargain do I obey?”
Yes! A bogle with a moral dilemma. I didn’t think they had much in the way of morals, helping Erick do his dirty work, keeping women and children imprisoned for a dark ritual, but they had a personal code. Personal codes often made you do things you didn’t think were wise. I knew that only too well, but in this case, I could use it to my advantage.
“You’re the one who told me a bargain was serious.”
“I know, I know.” He wrung his hands.
“But I can see how it would be difficult to disobey your Master. He told you not to go to Karolyne, so you can’t do that now, to finish honoring our deal.” I didn’t want to wait around for a rescue anyway.
“I can’t?”
“No. I don’t want to get you in trouble, but you gave your word to me also. How about we modify our bargain?”
“Change it?”
“Yes. Instead of sending a message, how about you untie me?”
He blinked. “Master said...”
“What did he order you to do, exactly?”
“He says we is not to let you break free.”
“Perfect. He didn’t say you couldn’t untie me. I wouldn’t have broken free then.” I lifted my wrists as far as they would go, indicating he should cut the rope. In the periphery of my vision, I noted Nanny and Ilsa’s rapt attention. They were wise enough to keep quiet and not interrupt the negotiations.
The bogle’s shriveled red eyes bulged out of their sockets, and he trembled. “I don’t know...”
“This is the new bargain,” I said. “Otherwise, what happens if you break your word?”
Some of the other bogles watched the exchange, heads swinging back and forth between me and the one with teeth marks on his belly. One of them answered, “He be cursed. He never find food, never find warm place to hide, never make another bargain.”
Didn’t sound much different from the existence bogles already endured, but the speaker shuddered. Were there worse things than living on garbage and sleeping in slave cages? “Even the Void will turn him out,” the creature added.
Bitten Belly put his face in his hands. “Me no break bargain. Me no break...”
The outer door clanged against stone. Erick was back. The bogles scattered into the shadows.
“Kek!” Ilsa cursed. “You should have talked faster, Eva. Now we’re lost.”
“I didn’t see you doing anything,” I shot back.
“Well, I don’t associate with filth like you do. How was I supposed to know they could be reasoned with?”
Nanny shushed us. “He’s coming.”
Erick removed his cloak and dropped it. Bogles scurried to catch it, and it took three of them to hold it off the ground. There didn’t seem to be anyplace for them to put it, so they stood there waiting like a horizontal, living coat rack.
He smiled, flashing his blue eyes at each of us, though the smile vanished when he looked at me. He couldn’t hold my gaze for long. He quickly turned to Nanny. “What have you ladies been discussing, Madam Olinov? I feel my ears burning.”
“It’s your cols I’d like to see burning,” Ilsa said.
Erick winced and made a protective gesture. “You have a nasty imagination, my love.”
“I never loved you.” She spat. It almost reached him. Who knew a lady of Ilsa’s caliber had mastered such a skill?
Erick held up the raw emerald. It didn’t glow now, but that’s how he’d known my feelings. Ilsa scowled.
“Why is it so important?” I asked. “Why the games? Why not simply murder us as you did Viktor?”
“I did not want to kill Viktor, but he fought....”
Erick stiffened as a high-pitched sound tore through the silence and echoed off the walls of the cavern. This was followed by the disembodied voice of my uncle: “Message received. Let us end this, Asheen Erick.”
When the sound had faded, Erick said, “Ulric has answered my challenge.” He sounded surprised. He gestured to one of the bogles holding his cloak. It was Bitten Belly. “The blood. Now.”
The bogle hesitated to drop his end of the cloak, but he did and scampered into the shadows. He returned with a wineskin. Erick wasn’t going to drink blood, was he? I cringed as he un-stoppered the container and held it to his mouth, but he didn’t drink. He whispered a few words instead. He went to the center of the pentagram and poured a red circle just large enough to hold one more person.
While Erick worked, I tried to catch the bogle’s attention: I wiggled my fingers and raised my eyebrows until he noticed. I pointed my chin at the bindings, reminding him that there was still a bargain being discussed.
Bitten Belly shook his head and trembled, waiting at Erick’s elbow for the next command. Coward.
When Erick finished, he tossed the skin at the bogle—who quickly vanished with it—then backed away from the circle he’d made. Erick’s retreat brought him closer to me. “It was not a game, Eva. It was necessary.”
“And you’re sorry.” I recalled his body pressed against mine, the soft words in my ear, before he let the drop of potion fall upon my lips. I should stop falling in love, I mean lust, so easily. One of these days it was going to kill me—or today. “You should never have hurt my family.”
He looked ready to say something else, but the high-pitched sound returned. Erick snapped his attention back to the red circle. A column of bloody light filled the center of it. It wasn’t bright; I could look directly at it, but it was disturbing.
A fever swept over me. Droplets of perspiration covered my skin, and I felt weak, like something was being drained from my veins. The bloody light came from me. Somehow, I was feeding it. When the light vanished, I gasped, feeling some of the strain diminish.
The circle was no longer empty. Uncle Ulric stood inside it.
Wow. Teleportation. I’d never seen that before. It would be handy for avoiding Highcrowne’s notorious hills. Too bad it required blood sacrifice and evil soul magic, but that explained why it wasn’t a common mode of transport.
My uncle slowly looked from Erick to me, to the others, tied and bowed down, and then to the white lines and arcane symbols painted across the floor. A grim expression set across his features, as though he were readying to do truly terrible things. “Asheen Erick, I command you to set them free.”
Erick shook his head. “No more commands, Ulric. I have the advantage here.”
“Then, you will learn it is unwise to tangle with Thornes,” Ulric rumbled, his voice like thunder.
25│ YOU TANGLED WITH THE WRONG THORNE
~
BEFORE ULRIC’S WORDS FINISHED ECHOING, he raised his hands and pressed against the air around him, making it shimmer and ripple like a heatwave in summer. The line of bright red blood on the floor that encircled him began to boil.
In
response, Erick placed one foot on the white line connected to my circle, and I felt a tug on my heart. My pulse increased. The charcoal symbols on my chest writhed like serpents. I panted for breath, sure my chest would crack open from the strain, but Erick stepped away and put a foot on the line extending to Viktor’s disembodied heart next. It beat faster. Erick continued around the chamber, playing on Nanny’s and Ilsa’s lines. Even Little Viktor was not spared; he cried and begged with baby words. Erick was draining us all to fuel his spell.
Nanny’s face turned red and sweat poured from her. This would kill her first. I looked at Viktor’s heart and wondered if even death would free us. Erick had chained us together, entwined our hearts and souls into a macabre construction. But what was its purpose?
Uncle pulled back from the edge of his invisible cage, and the shimmering air dissipated. “Let me go,” he repeated.
“The Nine scattered across the world, but I found three other Asheens. Their power is now mine, and yours will be too,” Erick said.
“Is that all this is?” Ulric asked, a derisive note in his voice. “A power-hungry boy looking for comfort in the dark?”
“No, and I do not seek comfort. I do not hide behind walls of Avian magic like you, or lose myself in the pleasures of Kells like the others. I plan to finish what was started.”
“We failed,” Ulric told him.
“You failed,” Erick said. “We were on the brink and you shied away. The god did not completely pass over.”
“I wish I’d stopped it sooner. We thought we could make the Dead God our servant? We were powerful but unwise, Erick. I came to my senses in time to save my soul.”
“You shouldn’t have bothered, for I have come for it. Freely give yourself to us, and your loved ones will be saved. But you won’t, will you? You will force me to consume them to compel the power from you, because you love no one.”
“I’m not forcing you to do anything,” Ulric said. “Go now, and leave us be. I will forgive what you’ve done.”
Tangle of Thornes Page 24
