“He did it!” I said, leveling my finger at Lucian.
I knew that Rady wanted me to wait until we had video proving the prince’s collusion with Alton, but if I didn’t seize this moment it would slip through my fingers forever.
“I presume you have evidence to back this claim?” the minister of foreign affairs asked.
“I—I—” I took a deep breath, then looked Lucian straight in the eyes. He simply smiled back at me as I stammered like an idiot. “He hasn’t denied it!” I declared.
“I don’t need to deny it,” Lucian said. “I have incontrovertible proof that I didn’t do it, so there is no cause for concern. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, I do agree with my dear brother’s assessment. The king was, in fact, poisoned, but it was he who poisoned my father, not I.”
Whispers and mumbles filled the room at this turn of events. My heart pounded in my chest, but I stood my ground. What proof could he possibly have on me?
“If you would please turn your attention to the center of the room.”
A hologram appeared in the center of our table.
“This video was captured shortly before the king took ill,” Lucian said.
At his signal, the hologram played without audio. It showed me entering the room with a scowl on my face, racing toward the king’s table, only to be intercepted by the king’s guard. The footage skipped, cutting out where I actually had a civil conversation with Xavier.
The next thing that appeared was a view inside the kitchens. Izaiah was shown pulling out a vial from his pocket and pouring it into the drink.
I started to back away from the table. Lucian was clearly going to pin this on me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I needed to escape. Maybe if I could get to Rady, he might have enough evidence to at least start a formal investigation and hold off any punishment on my part. I glanced in Izaiah’s direction, but he was gone, having already made it halfway to the exit.
The video continued, showing me taking the drink straight to the king, him picking it up from the tray I was holding, sipping it, then spitting it out all over the table. The video froze in that moment before Claire appeared and before all pandemonium broke out.
Lucian’s evidence was manipulated and twisted to frame me. Even without the editing, it looked bad, but he made it worse than I possibly could have imagined it. This was not put together in the last ten seconds; it had to have been in the works since the incident at dinner.
If the Engineers were the only ones who had access to the cameras, who was behind this? Rady? Had he lied to me? I didn’t think so. Michael then. The way he looked at me and called me an Oathbreaker. It had to have been him.
Did Rady know Michael was a turncoat? Worse yet, Michael was in charge of Claire. I had to get out of here and find her.
I spun to leave.
“Seize them!” Lucian shouted, pointing at me and Izaiah.
Bella and Hayden came toward us. This was it: the moment Lucian’s plans fell apart around him. He didn’t know his friends were now my friends.
I turned to smile triumphantly at Lucian, but his smile was bigger.
Hayden grabbed me and placed a gun to my head.
What?
I tried to resist, but his grip was stronger.
“What gives, Hayden?” Bella whispered.
“I told you,” he whispered. “Lucian owns me.”
From the way Hayden’s arm wrapped around me, I could see his affinity mark on the top of his hand in full display. It was red, unlike any other mark I’d seen before—the others had all been white, just with different symbols.
Bella must have noticed it too, because she said, “A blood oath?”
“You’re so naïve,” Lucian said, strolling toward us. “Did you really think you could kill my father and get away with it? Did you think you could swoop in after all these years and claim the throne for yourself?”
“What’s a blood oath?” I whispered, ignoring Lucian.
Bella kept her eyes toward the prince as she replied, “Breaking the Oath means a social death. You’re outcast and cut off from the kingdom. But breaking a blood oath—it means actual death.”
“Well, now the jig is up, the cat’s out of the bag," Lucian said, "and any other number of lame idioms you can come up with,”
“I don’t have a choice,” Hayden murmured to Bella and me.
Lucian pulled his own gun from within the folds of his dinner suit and aimed it at my chest. “There is no need for a trial. The evidence has been presented, and you have been found guilty of treason, which is punishable by death. Goodbye, Aren.”
Nineteen
As Lucian pulled the trigger, his arm was knocked upward, and the blast of magic slammed into the ceiling. Leon winked into view an instant later holding Lucian’s arm up into the air.
Not wasting another moment, I slammed my elbow into Hayden’s chest, and he released me.
Lucian shoved Leon out of the way and pointed at me once more, pulling the trigger. I raised my arm as if I could stop it with my bare hands. The gun kicked, and a blast of magic slammed into my arm.
I waited for the searing pain, but nothing happened.
Lucian’s eyes widened, and he fired again.
I wish I had one of those Shield magika stones right about now.
A blue shield appeared as soon as I thought it. I stood there gaping as Lucian fired off three more shots, causing the shield to wink out.
At that moment, Bella pulled her own weapon and shot out the lights, plunging the room into darkness
Izaiah opened the door, and a small sliver of light spilled into the council chambers. I immediately ducked down and raced for freedom. As I exited the room, Bella came out after me.
“Go!” she shouted. “I’ll hold them off. Get to Claire and meet me at the hangar. We have to leave right now.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. After having traveled through the palace a few times now, I was starting to know my way around, and I headed straight for the infirmary. Izaiah followed.
“Don’t try to stop me!” I yelled at him.
“Stop you? I’m going to help you,” he responded. “Or do you think you can carry Claire all on your own?”
“Wha—why would you—?”
“Weren't you watching the same thing I was?” he asked as we ran. “Lucian hung me out to dry just like he did you. And you’ve got to believe me when I say we never meant for any of this to happen. Lucian just wanted to attack Balgyra. The king wasn’t supposed to die.”
“Later,” I said.
I pushed the whole thing aside for the moment and ran as fast as I could.
Reaching the infirmary, I ripped open the door. What lay inside nearly stopped me in my tracks. Rady lay on the ground, his organs spilled from his gut with a large pool of blood on the floor. At that exact moment, Michael held his dagger above his head as he prepared to plunge it down into Claire.
Time stood still as I saw the dagger cut a path downward.
I threw myself at Michael and tackled him to the floor, sending the blade flying through the air.
Michael was an Engineer, though, not a Guardian, so this was going to be an easy fight. But when he punched me in the face and kneed me in the groin, simultaneously, I was completely and utterly shocked.
Pushing me off of him, Michael turned and lunged for the dagger, but I flipped over and grabbed his leg, sending him crashing to the ground.
A second later, I heard a loud bang and a hole the size of my fist appeared in Michael’s back. When his body stopped moving, I released him. Izaiah stood there with his gun pointed at Michael.
“He sure fought well for a lab tech,” I said through labored breaths.
Izaiah darted over and removed Michael’s right glove. The affinity mark that lay beneath, though, was not the hammer of an Engineer, but the dagger of an Infiltrator.
“Chet,” Izaiah said. “A spy.”
“The question is for who?” I asked. “Lucian or Balgyr
a?”
“Does it matter?”
No, it really didn’t.
“Help me get Claire up onto my shoulders,” I told him.
We ripped off all the cables that had been placed on Claire, and the machine they were attached to let out a flat, high pitched squeal. Alarms also started going off throughout the palace.
“Great, just great. Let’s pick it up,” I said.
I grabbed Claire’s arms and draped them over my shoulders while Izaiah picked up her legs and helped me situate her body so that she was secure. As soon as I was sure I had her, we set off.
I was glad Izaiah was with me, because I didn’t know where the hangar was, and fortunately, he did. Once we arrived there, it was pretty obvious which door led to it. Two metal doors, surrounded by two large windows that showed various AGIS air cruisers beyond, lay at the end of the hallway we had just stepped in.
As we drew near, six men in civie uniforms filed out from another hall and stopped in front of the hangar doors. They all turned as one and leveled their weapons at us.
Izaiah’s shield appeared, and he threw himself in front of Claire and me, protecting us from the barrage of magic blasts that raced down the hallway.
Claire groaned.
I set her down to examine her in case a stray blast had hit her. As I did, her eyes popped open.
“Aren?” she asked groggily. “Wh—Where am I?”
“Not now,” I said as a blast raced past us.
“I could really use a Lightning stone,” I mumbled.
Power began to build up in my chest, and I flung my arm out to the side in a panic as a bolt of lightning slammed into the wall.
What is going on? First, the shield and now, the lightning. I don’t have any stones!
If it worked twice, perhaps it would again. I held my palm out toward the civies.
Izaiah had already taken down three of them, but his shield was starting to weaken. It couldn’t take much more damage.
Lightning.
Another blast shot from my palm and bounced off one of the civies.
I need more power, I thought.
At my request, I felt the magic build up and launch a bigger blast at the same civie. This time it hit him and launched him back into the wall.
It didn’t make a lot of sense, but magic was obeying me, so I left Claire behind Izaiah and emerged to help him fight. I tapped the neural device and took a look at my stats as I did so. The only one I cared about was my MP.
65/110 MP
9,800/11,000 EXP
Shield.
My shield appeared, and I glanced at the MP again.
50/110 MP
9,860/11,000 EXP
Interesting. The spell was responding like a Class 2 magika stone.
While I stood there figuring all this out, Izaiah took down another civie as the last one took aim at me and fired. I raised my left arm out of pure reflex and deflected the blast. Then I turned and held out my palm once more, summoning a larger lightning bolt.
The magic responded, and thirty MP disappeared from my reserves at the moment the magic lanced toward the final civie, taking him out as it had the previous man.
Izaiah turned to look at me. “What in the—”
“No time,” I said and shrugged. Looking down at Claire, I asked, “Can you walk?”
“I—I think so,” she said.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flurry of red dots coming at us from behind. “Go, go, go! Now! Run!” I shouted.
Yanking Claire to her feet, I looped her left arm over my shoulder and helped her run as fast as we could. The doors to the hangar slid open at our approach just as more civies and others from the royal guard appeared behind us.
A flurry of blasts flew over our heads or crashed into the ground beside us. Izaiah fell back, letting his shield catch the blasts that would have hit us.
The doors slid shut as we moved away from them, giving us time to put distance between us and our pursuers.
Izaiah took back the lead and led us to a small air cruiser that was labeled as an AGIS-Arrow. Its size and sleek look told me this ship was meant to fly fast—exactly what we needed right now.
We raced up the cargo ramp and entered a small hold.
“Here, take this, hold them off,” Izaiah said, handing me his gun. Then he peeled off, likely heading for the bridge.
I eased Claire down onto one of the seats, then took up a position in front of the ramp with one knee down and my arm resting on the other knee for support.
The airlocks hissed as the hangar doors opened, and the sounds of gunfire filled the room. When one of the civies appeared at the bottom of the ramp, I shot, catching him square in the chest.
Two more appeared, and again, I fired. These two dodged and scrambled out of the way, then slowly eased their way back, shooting up into the hold.
I laid myself flat against the floor and crept closer to the edge to get a better shot. I took out the first, but the second dropped at the same time.
Had I fired two blasts?
Another guard appeared with his back toward me. I moved to squeeze the trigger when I caught sight of Bella’s red hair.
“Tell Izaiah to go!” she shouted.
“I heard her!” Izaiah shouted. “Hit the ramp!”
“The ramp, the ramp, the ramp. How do I close the ramp?” I muttered to myself in a panic.
“The red button!” he yelled
“What red button?” I called back. Then I saw it on the wall right next to me. “Never mind!”
I sprang to my feet and slammed the button as Bella stepped onto the ship, continuing to fire until the ramp had closed enough that no guards could follow.
“I’m in!” she shouted.
“Everybody hold on!” Izaiah said.
The air cruiser lurched, and I fell to the floor, knocked off balance. Then I slid back until I slammed into the wall as the air cruiser launched itself out of the hangar.
We were safe.
I think.
Twenty
As soon as the Arrow stabilized, I let out a long, slow breath, then slumped to the floor and lay there.
“That was… insane,” Bella said, dropping beside me.
I looked at Claire just as she started to topple over. I tried to sit up, but Bella was faster and caught her, easing her down so she could lie across the seats.
“Hey, what happened to Leon?” I asked.
“Who?” Bella replied.
“I’m right here,” he said, appearing out of thin air again.
Bella about died.
I burst out laughing as she struggled to breath.
“It’s not funny,” she snapped.
“It kind of is,” I said.
“How did you get here?” she asked. “Invisibility is an Infiltrator magika.” Her eyes went wide as realization dawned on her. “You’re an Oathbreaker?”
“I didn’t have much choice,” he said quietly. “But yeah.”
“What’s going on?” Claire asked as she struggled to sit up again. “How am I not dead?”
“You sure looked it when you flew out of that vortex,” Bella said.
“After I did what now?” Claire asked with her eyes wide and mouth agape.
“Hey guys!” Izaiah shouted. “Can we have this conversation on the bridge, please?”
“Good idea, let’s go,” Bella said.
Bella came over to give me a hand when she jumped back in horror. “Gods, what happened to your arms?”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I looked down. My skin had burned off where the magic blasts had hit me, and shiny steel stared back at me.
“Oh, chet,” I said. “Chet, chet, chet, what’s wrong with me?”
As I looked at it a little closer, I could see bits of color poking through the charred flesh. With all the strength I could muster while trying not to retch, I pushed the flappy skin aside. Beneath it lay magika stones.
There were magika stones built into my arm.
Or what was supposed to be my arm.
“By the gods,” I said, peeling away the rest of the loose skin.
From my fingertips to my elbow was nothing but solid steel. Little gears and motors moved silently as I flexed my fingers.
“What happened to you?” Bella asked.
The pieces started to click together. Just before Alton knocked me out, she had told me she wasn’t going to waste me on experiments—things like injecting me with straight up magika—but apparently that had meant replacing my arms with built in gauntlets. I remembered waking up in Alton's facility with a distant memory of my arms being on fire. This must have been why.
“Alton. Balgyra. They did this to me,” I said.
“Why? Why would they do that?” Bella asked.
“They had planned on controlling me with this,” I said pointing to the neural device.
In addition to the power tracker, it appeared the neural device also linked with my arms allowing me to call upon magic with simply a thought instead of having to tap the stones.
My right arm was filled with many different types of stones with a few open slots available to add more stones, but my left arm was completely bare, save for six empty slots—a ring of five slots and a single spot all by itself near my wrist.
Claire must have seen my confusion and proceeded to explain, “They’re for the summoning stones of the five gods, and a single slot for using one of the forbidden magics.”
“Umm, hello?” Izaiah called back.
“All right, all right, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Bella said.
Together, we lifted Claire to her feet and helped her to the bridge. It wasn’t very far, only about ten paces forward and up two steps. In fact, I had been able to see the bridge from the hold.
There were two seats at the very front, one of which Izaiah occupied, and another two seats behind that: one for a navigator and one for communications, by the looks of it.
We sat Claire in one of the back seats, then Bella hopped into the co-pilot’s seat, leaving Leon and me to fight over the last one.
“Go ahead,” I said. “I don’t feel like sitting anyway.”
Sworn Guardian: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (Forbidden Magic Book 1) Page 15
