Outlaw magic, p.8
Outlaw Magic, page 8
Huh? Her children?
“What children?” he asked.
The Shikasta shook its deer head. There is only one option. An exchange.
Alec didn’t like the sound of that. The figure had been steadily moving closer while it spoke to Alec inside of his head, and now it was so close that he could feel the heat rolling off the monster’s body. Her human side smelled like cinnamon, and the deer head atop her shoulders smelled like musk and blood. The combination made his head swim.
“What kind of exchange?” he asked, his fingers straying toward the Diamondspear.
Just then, the Bloodcloak gave a jerk on his shoulders.
Was the Shikasta smiling? Your cloak, it rumbled, a piece of flesh falling from one of its antlers. Give it to me, and I will call my children away from the path. I will guide you myself to your destination, unseen in the shadows. You will be safe and secure—and all those you love will be, as well.
The Bloodcloak’s reaction could only be described as panicked. The fabric tightened and loosened around his shoulders like a gripping fist, pulsing with power. Its murmurs sounded against his ears like the waves of a distant ocean, no single word clear enough to make out.
But Alec knew one thing for certain. The Bloodcloak did not want Alec to hand it over to the Shikasta.
It is such a small thing, in exchange for your life, the Shikasta purred. Its nostrils flared, twin trails of smoke escaping into the air of the cabin. When Alec hesitated, it added in a more somber tone: I will also mate with you.
If Alec had been freaked out before, this declaration made him take a full step backward. “What are you talking about!?” he growled, no longer caring that the creature could hear his thoughts. “You’re insane!”
He heard the creature chuckling in his head. You do not wish to possess this body? It asked, running a human hand down its curves. You had eyes in your head enough for it when I first entered, son of Diamondspear.
Alec grit his teeth. There was one way to shut this down quickly—and if the thing could read his thoughts, he’d probably not be able to hide it in any case.
“I’m not really a Diamondspear,” he shot back, his fingers nearly touching the silver rod in his robes now. “I’m a fraud, creature! Not worthy for you to mate with!”
The monster cocked its head to the side, as if it had just heard distant thunder. Curious, it said in his skull after a moment’s pause. Were you a Diamondspear, I would not lower myself to mate with you. What you are is much more precious than that.
Alec’s heart skipped a beat. “What am I?” he asked, his pulse racing like a hummingbird’s. Did this creature know the truth about him? His lineage, his parents? Something as old and powerful as it just might. “What do you know about me, creature!? Who are my parents? Why can I do the things I do—feats mankind hasn’t been able to perform in centuries!?”
I will tell you, the Shikasta said with a faint hint of laughter. Once you give me the cloak.
Alec stared down at the Bloodcloak. The fabric vibrated so rapidly now that it appeared to be in an earthquake of its own making. Fear tingled through the garment, as if it feared its master would now hand it over to this ancient creature.
Could he really give it to this monster? The Bloodcloak was his most precious possession, to be sure, but the answers he’d sought his entire life for felt as if they were worth any price. His hand strayed to his shoulder, fiddling with the catch there that kept the cloak cinched against his back. Was he really going to do this?
He almost did. Then his eyes traveled back for a fleeting moment, glancing back at the cots near the rear of the cabin.
All his friends sat bolt upright in bed, staring at him with sightless eyes.
Alec’s hand left the Bloodcloak, while the other whipped the silver baton from the hidden pocket in his robe. A metallic shing filled the cabin as the spear extended to its full length, the sound like the return of sanity in an insane world. Alec stared the monster down, his jaw hardening.
“I’ll not give anything to you,” he said, backing away from the deer-headed woman. “Get out of here, now! Or I’ll be forced to cut you down!”
Those deer eyes looked almost sad as the Shikasta stared down at Alec. So you have chosen, it said, in a tone as final as the grave. Very well, Diamondspear. We shall meet again, when you have contributed to my Breaking in the way that only you can.
“What?” Alec forced out a laugh. After all that, the creature was really just going to walk out of the cabin and leave? “You’ve already warned me about this magic,” he growled. “I’ll find some other way to make it to the Old Grove. Whatever tricks you’ve tried to pull on my friends, they don’t work on me, creature!”
You misunderstand, the thing said, turning around and walking to the door. You think you will remember this exchange. This offer I made you. You are mistaken.
“What?” Alec asked. But the change in the room had already begun.
The staring, sightless figures of Alec’s friends dropped like stones back into bed, as smoothly as puppets with their strings cut. Flargan, Dingle, and Rex collapsed around the fire, going limp as whatever hideous power the Shikasta used so casually fled the building.
Alec had just enough time to watch the deer-headed woman stride from the cabin before the lights went out in his head.
Chapter 7
The smell of cooking food woke Alec the next morning. He stretched and yawned, flexing his toes beneath the covers as he rolled over and embraced Eleira. The elf girl looked freshly rested, though her hair looked more than a little out of place.
“Good morning,” Eleira whispered, her eyes opening in the early morning light. “How did you sleep?”
“Ah, I had terrible dreams,” Alec said, barely repressing a shudder. “Fortunately, I don’t remember them at all.”
Eleira made a face. “Then how do you know they were so terrible?”
For just a moment, Alec grasped at something beyond his reach. He remembered flickering flames, his skull feeling as if it were on fire. Then the dream faded.
“Easy,” he said, giving Eleira a kiss on the neck. “You weren’t in them.”
The elf girl accepted the compliment with her characteristic grace. Less graceful was Maimonides’s wake up routine, which apparently involved more snuffling and grunting than an entire pack of the Northmund Estate’s dogs.
“It’s the strangest thing,” Trystara told Alec as they ate breakfast. “I passed out last night.”
Alec cocked an eyebrow. The dwarves’ food was simple, but hearty—Alec felt as if he could eat such fare every day, especially compared to the foodstuffs favored by the Archon Temple and the Royal Academy.
“Isn’t that what most people are supposed to do at night, Trys?” he said.
“I know,” the demoness said with a chuckle. “But I was so intent on watching over you and Eleira last night. I don’t know why I wasn’t able to control myself…”
Alec shrugged it off. “Nothing happened,” he told his familiar, soothing her worries. “Obviously Flargan, Dingle, and Rex were more than able to keep watch.”
The trio of dwarves had awoken before the rest of the group and looked ready to move at any time. They had to wait for Alec and his other friends to bathe and dress, and for Maimonides to move through his morning exercises.
“Keeps me limber,” the gnome said as he pushed through a ridiculous set of lunges that reminded Alec of a grasshopper on fire. “You’ll find that when you’re my age, any advantage you can find, you hang onto as closely as you can!”
“I pray that I’m as spry as you when I reach your honorable age, Master Maimonides,” Eleira said with kindness.
They left the relative safety of the way station behind and headed down the trail, moving deeper into the woods as the sun rose in the sky. The path felt surprisingly easy to navigate, with none of the odd twists or turns that had so bedeviled Alison Raleigh as they’d made their way into the island for the first time.
As they walked, the conversation gradually turned to things left unfinished the previous night.
“You said my parents abandoned the Redoubt,” Alison said, increasing her speed to match that of the dwarves near the front of the pack. “Why has everything been moved underground?”
“Two reasons, Princess,” Flargan said, apparently having already forgotten his pledge the previous night to not refer to Alison with any titles of royalty. “One from above, and one from below. As soon as the decree came out from the Royal Sky Watch regarding the Inscribers as terrorists, the decision was made to activate the defense system over the Haunted Isle.”
“That makes a certain sort of sense,” Alison admitted. “And the second? This reason from below, as you’ve said?”
The trio of dwarves shared a look. “That’s a bit more complicated,” Flargan said, shrugging his shoulders. “The short version is that we’re under attack from that direction as well. You’ll... come to understand it better once you reach the underground.”
“The nearest entry point is just up ahead,” Dingle added with a smile. “The dwarven town of Job’s Bet. Once we reach it, we can load up on supplies for the journey beneath the soil.”
Those words—beneath the soil—touched something in the back of Alec’s brain, and he shuddered. “I thought we were venturing through the jungle?” he asked, glancing from his friends beside him to the dwarves just up ahead.
Flargan shook his head. “Not with the Royal Sky Watch doing flybys over the island. The only way to reach the Old Grove is by the underground tunnels, so it just makes sense to travel in that fashion.”
“I don’t know,” Eleira said, sidling up beside Alec. “There are some elves who live nearly their entire lives beneath the ground, but I’m not one of them. The thought gives me hives.”
“You think it disturbs you? Imagine being a creature with wings!” Trystara flexed hers, as if proving a point. “Nowhere to fly, no sky above your head—it’s rough, I tell you. I managed it that one time with the big glass room and that freaky eye, but that’s because those caves were big enough to stretch out in. Lots of tasty spiders, too.” The demoness cast a skeptical eye across the jungle. “Not so many of those here, though.”
They continued walking in silence for some time. Alison Raleigh appeared to be chewing on what she’d heard from Flargan; she clearly didn’t like the dwarf’s explanations but couldn’t very well argue with them.
Alec decided he was curious about the dwarves. Maimonides had referred to them as distant cousins, and he’d rarely gotten an opportunity to meet with or speak with one. Nonhuman students were rare in the Royal Academy—and nonhuman students who weren’t elves were far, far rarer.
“So there’s a whole city of dwarves on this island?” Alec asked, catching up with Dingle.
“All sorts of magical creatures!” the rotund dwarf responded, clapping Alec on the back. “Dwarves, gnomes, even some more exotic things from the Far Reaches. All are welcome on the Haunted Isle, provided they hate the aristocracy with as much venom as the Raleigh clan.”
“But where did they all come from?” Alec asked, his interest piqued. “This island isn’t exactly a well-known spot.”
It was Alison who answered. “My parents have spent most of their lives building a network across the kingdoms,” the blonde said, idly playing with her braid as she walked. “And my grandparents before them. This idea of freeing magic and giving it to the common people—it’s not new. It’s something we here at the Haunted Isle have been trying to achieve for generations. The Inscribers are an old and venerable secret society, whatever the noble houses might say about ‘New Plagiarists’.”
At the sound of that epithet, all three dwarves turned and spit into the brush.
“So you don’t like being called that one bit,” Alec surmised. “Very well. Is it much farther to Job’s Bet, then?”
“Another hour or two,” Flargan said distractedly. The big dwarf had one eye on the sky the entire time they’d walked, as if expecting an airship from the Royal Sky Watch to drop between the trees at any moment. He wondered what the dwarf knew to make him so paranoid.
“I wouldn’t suppose there are any rest stops along the path?” Maimonides asked. Alone among the rest of Alec’s crew, the gnome was having trouble keeping up the pace. His stubby legs were meant for striding the halls of science, not for long hikes in the wilderness. “I could use a break. And a flask of water. In fact, I’m beginning to wish Jolenta and her endless supply of wine were here along with us…”
Flargan smiled. “No worries, gnome,” the dwarf said, with a distinct buck up quality to his tone. “We’ll be stopping for lunch shortly. I have something special to show you.”
The something special turned out to be a narrow path winding upward over a ridge, similar to the split path they’d noticed on their way into the island. Maimonides huffed and puffed his way up along with the rest of the group, though even Alec felt more than a bit winded by the time they made their way to the top. He could see the tops of trees beneath him, and he felt a spike of fear at the idea that the island’s defense systems might activate here and fire upon them.
“Don’t worry,” Rex said breezily, as if the dwarf could read his mind. “Nothing’s going to hurt us up here.” His hand loosely gripped the two-handed sword at his back, as if he planned to meet any test to that supposition with combat.
When they came out from between the trees, Alec gasped. The dwarves had led them to a narrow ridge above the treeline, with a slender stream cutting through it. That rush of water raced to the edge of the rock and soared right over, becoming a waterfall. It cast a spray of water into the air on all sides, with a bright rainbow visible through the cloud of vapor.
“By the Archon,” Eleira said, her tone amazed. “It looks like Paradise itself!”
“This is where we’ll be lunching,” Flargan said, looking almost as moved as Eleira by the sight. “Refill your flasks in the stream—it’s clean—and Dingle and Rex will start passing out rations.”
Maimonides looked like he was about to do some passing out of a different sort. As the group sat along the ridge, staring out at the gorgeous, panoramic landscape, the other two dwarves passed around sacks filled with simple lunches. The food was mostly leftovers from breakfast, but Alec wasn’t one to complain: especially not with an empty, rumbling stomach.
He devoured his meal, attacking it with such vigor that Eleira giggled. “You must really like that,” the elf girl chuckled.
“It’s good,” Alec groaned around the meal. He felt as if he hadn’t eaten in days.
Trystara hung from the side of the cliff, peering like a gargoyle over the jungle. The sight of it tingled something deep in the back of Alec’s brain, but whatever it was felt too distant for him to grasp.
“I wish I could take a quick flight,” the demoness sighed, scratching her cheek with her long black nails as she watched a pair of birds gambol through the air with obvious jealousy. “You don’t think those missiles would fire on me if I just shot right out and back again, would they?”
“Best not to risk it, miss,” Flargan said. The dwarf had filled his cup with water from the nearby stream and was drinking deep. “Even one of those missiles could destroy this entire waterfall.”
Trystara looked like she understood but didn’t like it. “Ugh, fine,” she groaned, settling back on her haunches as she watched the rest of the diners. “This jungle is a total bust, though. There’s not even any juicy spiders for me to eat! It’s not a proper jungle without spiders…”
As the rest of the group ate, Alec began to notice something strange. Near the side of the ridge, just where the treeline met the sheaf of rock fringing the waterfall, there stood a rocky outcropping that almost looked like some species of signage. Like something an explorer would place to mark their progress through an area where they were likely to lose their way.
“Do you see that?” Alec asked, gesturing toward the rock feature. Eleira followed his finger, squinting. “I think that’s a path right there, next to the waterfall.”
Eleira craned her neck to see, squinting at the sight of the strange rock formation. “I think you might be right,” the elf girl said, nudging him gently with a smile. “Should we tell the others?”
He ought to, to be certain—yet something inside of Alec cringed at the thought. Perhaps it was some youthful rebellion yet to be stamped out, but the thought of slipping down a secret path leading behind a waterfall with his beloved had something of the impetuous tinge of youth to it. He simply couldn’t resist slipping away from the rest of the party, checking out the hidden trail with Eleira at his side.
Besides, such a thing was terribly romantic. Had Jolenta and Vodalus been with them, they almost certainly would have approved.
As he took Eleira by the hand and slipped away from the other lunchers, Alec found himself thinking of the pair of dramatic students, along with Rawiri Igneous and Imogen Mossflower. Had the Titan’s Claw made it to Rawiri’s homeland yet? By now it ought to have, assuming they hadn’t run into any unexpected trouble or hidden dangers along the way. He wondered how their reception had gone in Rawiri’s father’s court, and whether their wild stories about Dean Wolfe being an agent of Chaos would be believed. Surely when they reached Alison’s people, they’d hear something about that on the scrying crystal, if one of the kingdom’s monarchs raised a flag in open opposition to the Royal Academy. Wouldn’t he?
Alec decided to shrug off such dangerous notions for now. There was a secret to explore!
He and Eleira were so stealthy that no one noticed as they slipped beneath the lip of the ridge. Either that, or everyone in their party were focused on their meals instead. Not even Trystara seemed to see as Alec and Eleira dropped, finding a set of well-worn stairs carved into the rock. Alec’s heart beat faster with the lure of discovery, and he guided Eleira by the hand along the narrow path.
