Reckoning, p.12
Reckoning, page 12
The dagger never reached me. The tip of my finger, extended into a sharp claw, tore across her throat.
With a spray of blood and an unintelligible gurgle, she fell to her knees.
Behind her, I watched as Regis leapt on a spear-wielding Striker, catching the shaft of the spear between his jaws and snapping it in two before dragging the man down. Spinning disks of white light kept flashing past Regis’s shadow wolf form from behind the corner of a nearby building, where a couple of the mercenaries were retreating.
Movement brought my attention back to the dagger-wielding ascender, who—while clasping her torn throat with one hand—managed to muster the strength to drive one of her daggers into my leg.
I winced, more out of annoyance than out of pain, as I wrenched the dagger free.
The camouflaging ascender froze, unable to do anything but stare as the wound she had desperately inflicted began visibly healing in front of her, before succumbing to her fatal wound.
Finally, the enemy began to break as a couple of the men attempted to flee. Regis had already killed one of them, and was going after the second when one of the white disks caught him in the shoulder.
Anger flared from my companion as he ignored it in favor of killing the runaway first.
By the time I finished off a few of our remaining attackers, Regis had his attention back on the caster that had injured him with the glowing white disks. He was hiding behind a grizzled woman in armor of overlapping steel plates.
As the two stumbled back into an alleyway away from the shadowy wolf stalking them, the woman conjured a box of shimmering mana around her and the caster. A second and third box manifested around the first, and she took a deep breath, her hard eyes bearing down on Regis as the relieved caster behind her began summoning more searing white disks.
With each step my companion took toward the two remaining mercenaries, the brighter and more sinister his claws glowed until destruction flickered silently, melting effortlessly through each of the three conjured barriers. I could tell that my companion was relishing in his final two prey.
Leaving Regis to wrap up, I walked over to where Darrin and Alaric were both watching me with wide eyes beneath the golden aura restraining them.
The force cage artifact gleamed from the ground where it had been dropped, projecting ethereal golden chains that snaked around my companions. Without preamble, I stepped down hard on the unfolded pyramid, and it—along with the ground—crunched under my boot.
As the golden light faded, both men stumbled forward.
Massaging his knees, Alaric’s gaze swept across the bloodied battlefield before taking in my form.
Clearing his throat uncomfortably, he shot a glance at Darrin before looking up at me. “You…uh…hurt?”
“It would’ve been faster if you two had joined,” I said with a shrug.
“You seemed to have things…under control, ” Darrin muttered, his emerald green eyes still soaking in the sight around us.
A figure stirred on the ground to the left of where we stood.
Alaric and Darrin looked to me but I shook my head. I let her recover as she peeled herself off the ground with a haggard groan. The once-orange armor was dyed in crimson, but most of the blood wasn’t hers. Aside from a raw scrape across her face, and what was likely to be a vicious headache, she wasn’t badly wounded.
I walked toward her and waited silently until she was finally able to take in the sight surrounding her.
“No…” she whispered, eyes red and lined with tears.
The ascender turned her trembling body toward where I stood.
“Please…just let me live,” she croaked.
“I didn’t leave you alive just to show you this mess,” I answered, even-toned. “I have a job for you.”
She nodded fiercely. “A-anything you want.”
“Tell the man who hired you that this”—I swept my gaze through the portal platform now littered with corpses—“was my last act of mercy.”
The mercenary’s jaw clenched, but she nodded once more in understanding.
“If he chooses to disregard whatever semblance of sanity he has left and comes after me again, I’ll make sure that Ada is the only Granbehl left to mourn for her blood,” I said, giving her a mirthless smile. “After all…I know where they live.”
With one last nod, she scrambled away, barely able to make it through the portal.
I made my way to Darrin and Alaric, who had watched my interaction with the woman in grim-faced silence.
“Do you disagree with how I handled this?” I asked.
“The outcome? No, not in the least,” Darrin answered before he looked off in the distance. “The method, well…”
“The outcome would’ve been better if you could’ve broken us out of the force cage without breaking it,” Alaric grumbled, holding the broken scraps of the artifact tenderly. “Do you have any idea how much this was worth?”
“If you sold it, it would just end up back in someone like Granbehl’s hands,” I replied, deadpan.
“Well, sure,” he sputtered, “but I’d be significantly more wealthy in the meantime!”
I snorted, and Darrin gave me a helpless shrug.
Regis chose that moment to reappear out of the alley. He loped up beside me, his maw red with blood, and I couldn’t help but notice the way Darrin eyed him uncomfortably.
Shaking himself, Regis sent a fine spray of warm red drops into the air, splattering Alaric, Darrin, and myself with little specks of blood. Darrin flinched back, covering his face with an arm, while Alaric stared off into the distance, unamused and face dotted red.
‘I feel so much better,’ he thought, his tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. ‘Gonna take a nap now.’
Darrin and Alaric watched, awestruck, as Regis faded away, drifting back into my body.
“Your magic and…summons…” Darrin paused, as if searching for the right words. He opened his mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. In the end, he only shook his head helplessly.
“I’m more curious how you broke out of the force cage, myself,” Alaric admitted as he tried to force one of the triangular panels closed. “That should be impossible.”
“Do you really want to know?” I asked, meeting Alaric’s eye.
He looked down at the hard-packed dirt for a second before kicking away a loose stone. “Nope, I don’t suppose I do.”
Over his shoulder, Darrin said, “Well I certainly would like to know, and I hope one day you’ll trust me enough to let me in on your secret, Grey.”
‘Which ones?’ Regis snorted in amusement.
When I didn’t immediately reply, Darrin’s face twitched with a tentative smile, and he turned away, leading our party out of the Relictombs.
335
HAUNTING PEACE
“Wow,” I said, genuinely surprised by the sight in front of me.
Darrin’s home in rural Sehz-Clar was twice the size of the Helstea’s manor in Xyrus, and it was surrounded by rolling green and golden fields that stretched as far as I could see. A little town was tucked in between two hills a few miles away, and a handful of other, similar estates dotted the surrounding countryside.
The main structure was two stories, but flared out into low wings that opened to either side. The entire mansion was made of light red brick highlighted with white stone columns. The house was surrounded by a well-manicured yard of green grass and dense, flowering shrubs, and a path led away to the east, where I could see some kind of walled off area higher up on the hill.
The rural serenity of the estate had calmed everyone’s nerves, still on edge from the assault in the Relictombs. Looking at the painting-like scene around us, I actually began to look forward to at least a small rest devoid of any torture or attempts on my life.
“The benefit of living rural,” Darrin said, beaming. “Property costs a quarter of what you’d pay in the more densely populated dominions, and these hills have poor soil, so you don’t have to fight the farmers for land rights, either.”
“I’m a little surprised you don’t live in the Relictombs, though,” I said as I ran a finger along the edge of a bright purple flower. “Considering what you do.”
Darrin began leading us across the wide lawn, which we had appeared in the middle of, toward the bright white double doors of his home. “I couldn’t afford a property there, so the best I’d be able to do is rent a two-room suite in one of the nicer inns, and that would still cost a small fortune.” He paused, taking in the rolling hills and bright, wide sky. “No, I think I’d rather live here, and pay the teleportation fees.”
I followed his gaze, taking in the sight again. “I guess I can’t blame you. It’s quite the view.”
Darrin put a hand on Alaric’s shoulder. “Never would have managed it all without my mentor here. You’re in good hands, Grey, even if he does feign a rough exterior.”
Alaric huffed, his already ruddy cheeks darkening, and his gaze landing everywhere except on Darrin. “And a fat lot of good it did me, considering you only ended up owning a single estate in the middle of nowhere…”
Grinning, Darrin knocked softly on the door.
A moment later, it flew open and a young girl, no older than seven or eight, threw herself into his arms. “Uncle Darrin!” she yelled, squeezing her arms around his neck and grinning over his shoulder.
When she realized Alaric and I were there, her eyes, green as emeralds, went wide, and she squealed and wriggled free of Darrin’s hug so she could hide behind him and peek out at us.
Giving the girl what I hoped was a friendly smile, I waved. She immediately ducked behind Darrin, who laughed.
“Pen, these are my friends, Alaric and Grey,” Darrin said, gently maneuvering her back out into the open and ruffling her dark blonde hair. “It’s okay, they’re friendly. Well, Grey is.”
Alaric’s face twisted into a menacing snarl and he growled low in his chest. “But I’m the mean one, and I bake little children into yummy pies!”
The girl giggled and looked up at Darrin. “Your friends are funny!”
“They think they are, anyway,” Darrin replied, rolling his eyes at Alaric. He scooped the girl up and carried her across the threshold, waving for us to follow.
“Any word about your mom while I was gone?” he asked her as they led us into the entry hall, where two curved stairs led up to the upper floor.
She shook her head and pouted. “No.”
Darrin pulled her into another hug and patted her back consolingly. “That’s okay, I’m sure she’ll be back soon.” He set her down on the granite-tiled floor. “Why don’t you go tell the others we have guests?”
Nodding seriously, the little girl vanished through a door to our right, which must have led into one of the other wings of the house.
“Yours?” I asked, watching her bounce away.
“Oh, no,” Darrin said, running his hand through his hair. “Her mother is one of my teammates from back in the day. She’s still active. Pen stays with me sometimes when her mom’s on an ascent.”
My eyes followed Pen out of the entrance hall, catching on a figure leaning against the wall in the corner. It was a young woman with bright orange hair that faded to sunny blonde where it ended just past her shoulders. She was wearing a white blouse with silver buttons and tight leather pants, and a long, slender sword hung from her belt.
But it was her hazel eyes that stood out, or rather, it was the way they traveled slowly across me, from the toes of my boots all the way up to my pale blond hair, before spinning in a dismissive eye roll.
Before I could do more than meet her gaze, the young woman swept from the room, and my attention was again redirected.
“Mister Darrin!” a happy voice said from a room behind the stairs. A plump woman with mousy-brown hair appeared from it, wiping her hands with a towel. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear the door.”
Darrin gave her a warm smile, though the direction of his gaze lingered on the passage where the young woman had disappeared. “No problem, Sorrel. We have guests for the evening.”
The woman curtsied, her tightly curled auburn hair bobbing around her round face. “A pleasure! Are the three of you hungry at all, Mister Darrin?”
Alaric’s stomach rumbled audibly in response, which he patted appreciatively. “Never mind that, where are you hiding the good stuff?” Without waiting for a reply, the old man strode purposefully away.
Shaking his head at his friend, Darrin said, “Why don’t you show Grey to the bathing room first?” Turning to me, he added, “I assume it’s been a while since you had a warm bath?”
Darrin’s housekeeper eagerly led me deeper into the mansion until I found myself standing in what, at first glance, appeared to be a cave. The walls of the bathing room were craggy stone, and the bath itself was sunk into the smooth rock of the “cave” floor. After Sorrel left me, I took some time to examine the room.
Aside from the bath, there was a mirror inset into the wall, a series of racks and hooks where clothes could be hung up, and a person-sized niche that I didn’t immediately understand, until I found a small copper button next to it.
The button clicked when I pressed it, and a wave of heat rolled out. I stuck my hand in; the air was dry and warm.
Clicking the button again turned the effect off.
‘Ooh, fancy,’ Regis said admiringly.
Turning my attention to the bath, I found a row of buttons along the edge. During my life as King Grey, I’d grown to enjoy warm baths in water heavy with salt. It had been a luxury that I hadn’t enjoyed since being reborn in Dicathen. So when I saw the button labeled “Salt Bath,” I knew I had to try that one first.
Pressing the button caused warm salt water to seep out of the sides of the rocky bath, and it was full before I finished peeling off the simple clothes I’d worn to the trial.
Sinking into the water, a chill ran down my spine despite the warmth.
When was the last time I enjoyed such a simple comfort? I wondered, letting my head fall back so the salt water covered my ears, drowning out all noise except for my own thoughts.
And Regis’s. ‘Maerin Town wasn’t so bad, but that was like a hundred years ago now, right?’
I let out a laugh before splashing some of the water across my face. After wiping it away, I replied, It does feel like that. Do you want to come out for a bit?
Regis leapt from my body to stand outside the pool. He stretched, pushing his front paws forward and yawning widely. “You know, sometimes I forget how quiet it is when I don’t have your broody thoughts running through my head all the time.”
“I’m not broody,” I replied defensively, glaring up at my companion from under half-closed lids.
Regis snorted as he walked around in a slow circle before lying down. “Okay, princess.”
Kicking outward, I send a wave of warm saltwater cascading over the edge of the bath to soak my companion. He leapt up, sputtering with indignation. “I just got comfy!”
The shadowy flames that flickered around his mane flared, drying him instantly, and he found another spot to settle down. He let out a yawn and stretched his long limbs before asking, “So, what now?”
I let my eyes drift shut. “Right now? Let’s give ourselves a few minutes to relax, then we’ll figure out what Alaric and his friend have up their sleeves.”
I felt the heavy fog of sleep settling over me soon after. Although I didn’t really need to sleep, I relished the idea of drifting off for a while, and I didn’t fight the sensation.
The sound of a crowd chanting came from all around me, like the noise of waves crashing against a cliff face; It was distant and muffled, like I was hearing it from a very long way off.
Slowly opening my eyes, I looked around. I was standing on a square dueling platform, surrounded by stands filled with familiar faces: Claire Bladeheart and the rest of the Disciplinary Committee, the Lances, Jasmine and the Twin Horns, Virion, the kings and queens of Dicathen’s Council, the elders who trained me in the four elements, Lady Vera, Headmaster Wilbeck, Caera, Ellie, with Sylvie’s little white fox form on her lap, my mother…my father.
Someone else was on the dueling platform too: Cecilia. She held out a hand, and a dual-bladed sword shimmered to life in her fist, a beam of hot white light that hummed with deadly energy.
I gave Cecilia a low bow, but she only glowered back at me before lunging across the platform, her weapon leaving a trail of light in the air. I lifted Dawn’s Ballad to block the attack, but the teal blade shattered in my hand, and I felt white hot pain as Cecilia’s weapon bit deep into my shoulder.
For a moment, we were face to face, her turquoise eyes blazing malevolently.
She yanked the blade from my shoulder and spun, driving the other end toward my stomach. I looked for the aetheric pathways to God Step out of the way, but there was nothing.
The blade sunk into my stomach and burst out my back.
Behind Cecilia, someone was running down a long tunnel toward us. Although he seemed miles away, I met Nico’s eyes, blind with hatred, twisted by fear, and felt a thick layer of ice grow over my heart, and the cold detachment I’d learned as King Grey spread from it.
Cecilia jerked her blade free and twirled it around, a gold-green light emanating outward, staining the edges of my vision and shining off the frozen faces in the audience. A beam of pure light lifted her off the dueling platform, her blade pointed at my chest like a lance, then she streaked toward me.
The scene froze. Standing, I clenched my fist, holding in it Dawn’s Ballad, the translucent teal blade, now whole again, refracting the light and sending green-blue beams dancing across the dueling platform. In the distance, Nico was still running toward us, the only thing moving besides me.
And history repeats…
Cecilia was moving again, crashing down on me like a comet. When our blades clashed, a shockwave rippled outward, obliterating the platform, the stands, the arena, and wiping away the audience—all those familiar faces from both my lives—in a cloud of dust.
