The Dragon Rogues, page 27
Jonathan’s breath caught. He looked over his shoulder, back down the hallway. If only Matthew and the rest of the crew were still there. He turned back to the door, then tried another marker. He searched the various voids on the door until he found the one that worked. When it was sucked into the door again, he started to tremble.
Why would that work?
The benefactor. His benefactor knew about the magic that was needed to get into the vault.
Jonathan sorted through the markers, picking one after another, holding each up to the door until all five were sealed into it. Then he stood back.
The light of the door began to shift and shimmer, energy swirling along its surface. A line connected one marker to another, eventually forming an intersecting star of crisscrossing power. That power continued to build and flow, and then a low rumble emanated from the door.
The door slid back and folded in, revealing a massive chamber on the other side. Light reflected into it.
The vault.
Jonathan stood at the door as he stared and debated what he needed to do. What he really wanted was to go back for the others, but he was here, and he didn’t know how much longer he would have. First, he had to get what he had come for—to find the item that the benefactor wanted. Only then could he go after anything else.
Jonathan stepped into the vault, and though it was mostly dark, a lantern set in the middle gave off enough of a glow to illuminate everything inside. He peered around, everything within him quivering.
It seemed impossible that he was here. As he looked around the vault, he saw dozens upon dozens of trunks much like the ones he’d seen taken out of the city. All of that would be gold, enough that they would never have to worry again. But he couldn’t carry that much. There were other things here, though. That was what he had to take advantage of. At least until he figured out how to take what he needed and get back safely to the rest of his team.
He swept his gaze around the vault for the crystal. That was what he had come for. A glowing orb on one wall looked like a full moon. He smiled at it and then turned away, focusing instead on finding the crystal.
There was no sign of it.
He walked around slowly and came across a triangular shape that looked familiar. This one was made of metal, with a circle around it. As he approached, it was slightly warm to the touch. Jonathan held his hand out, and he could feel something radiating from it, but then that disappeared.
When he had been inside Vileforn’s warehouse, the crystal had been obvious. It had glowed with a green light, and the shape was unmistakable.
There.
He grabbed the crystal and stuffed it into his pocket. It was the second time he’d handled the crystal, only this time he felt a strange, tingling warmth that worked through him as if the object responded to his touch.
There were other things here for him too. Not the gold, though. When he lifted one of the trunks, he felt how impossibly heavy it was.
What he needed was an enchantment that would help him lift it, but without having Matthew and his particular connection to the enchantments, or even Heziah and his ability to modify the weight of items, Jonathan wasn’t going to be able to do much. Instead, he needed something of value that he could carry. He wasn’t going to leave empty-handed. He might have the crystal, but he was determined to take something else as well.
Jewels of different colors rested in a bowl. They would be valuable—not as much as all the gold in the trunks, but still worthwhile. He stuffed his pockets full of jewels of deep blues and reds and pinks and greens. All of them were different shapes, with some circular or square or oblong. They would each be worth a fortune, and Vileforn kept them here in his vault. For what reason?
Maybe there were other items Jonathan could carry out. He kept going back to one of the trunks of gold, but it would be too heavy. He wasn’t sure that he would have been able to carry them even if he had his full team.
Jonathan opened different trunks to see if he could find anything else to take. One of them held more jewels, which he crammed into his pockets. Another was filled with diamonds, and he took those as well. His pockets were laden with wealth beyond his imagination, but he still turned toward those trunks of gold.
He shook his head. The longer he lingered here, the more likely someone would catch him. The guards might wake up. Somebody might come by on patrol. The sorcerers might realize that magic had been used. He had to hurry.
When he reached the vault door, he glanced at the markers he’d been given. There was a triangular shape on one of them, and it reminded him that he had seen something similar in the vault. Could the benefactor have been asking him to gather other items? When he’d first seen the symbol on each marker, Jonathan had thought these were merely ways to signal to him, but he had never considered that they would be telling him what he needed to take.
Jonathan frowned and raced back to the triangular metal object. As he lifted it and stuck it in his pocket, he tried to ignore its warmth and strange, unpleasant slickness. He looked over the other markers, thinking of the full moon. Here he had thought it had been a signal for a time of when he needed to do the job, but what if that wasn’t it at all? What if it was merely a matter of telling him what he needed to gather? The full moon sphere. Jonathan put that in his pocket as well.
He hurried back to the markers. He had three, so what were the other two?
The bowl had held the jewels he had taken. Jonathan ran back inside the vault and grabbed the bowl, and he looked around for the figurine. What if it was a statue? If it was too large, he wouldn’t be able to take it with him.
He scanned the inside of the vault, then felt a sense of pressure—magic. It continued to build and come toward him, sweeping along the length of the vault, building with a strange sort of vibrant intensity.
A sorcerer.
Jonathan had to leave quickly. He’d already filled his pockets with as much as he could safely take with him, and he’d been here too long.
But he needed to find this other item.
As he turned, he caught his foot on something on the ground. He looked down, worried it would be the statue he needed to take, but it was just part of a shelf. A statue about the size of his hand stood on that shelf, and it resembled the final marker symbol. He grabbed it, then quickly straightened when he realized he was no longer alone in the vault.
A cloaked figure turned toward him.
Jonathan’s heart hammered. Was it Jayna? If it was, he didn’t know what he could do or say to convince her to let him go. Perhaps nothing.
But it was a different sorcerer.
He thought about the names Heziah had said when he’d recognized their work on the enchantments in the hallway, but Jonathan couldn’t remember them well enough. He was too distracted by this new presence.
“A thief? I would never have expected that anyone could even get in here. You must have purchased some significant enchantments. A shame you won’t get the opportunity to tell me where you acquired them.”
Magic began to build, and Jonathan darted to the side just in time. Had he not, the explosion would have thrown him off his feet. As it was, the power still made his ears ring, and his head throbbed from the force. He circled around, trying to get away from the sorcerer, reaching for one of the enchantments he had brought. Maybe he could use it against them. Matthew would have certainly tried something like that.
The man continued to turn toward him. “What have you decided to steal? Did you think you could steal Vileforn’s coin and prevent him from usurping the king?”
Jonathan tipped his head and frowned. Was that what Vileforn had been doing? This was about usurping the king? Strange, if that was the case.
“It will take more than you to remove the gold.” He grinned. “And to think the gold used to usurp the king was stolen from the very man himself.”
Vileforn was nothing more than a thief, but Jonathan shouldn’t be surprised by that. The wealth he had accumulated over the years would’ve been impossible to acquire any other way. He was simply the kind of thief who had managed to hide it from everyone else. The kind of man who had afforded a vault to hide his wealth from the king’s reach.
Had Jayna known?
If she had, she wouldn’t have worked for Vileforn. She hated thieves.
“Do you really think he can get away with it?” Jonathan said. “The king will know.”
The sorcerer leaned toward him, and light bloomed in the room. It reflected off some of the artifacts, creating a blazing white light that glowed around everything. He sneered. “I know you. You’re the one they call the Dragon.” He let out a laugh. “The Dragon. As if any man could claim that title.”
Jonathan ignored him and glanced toward the door. The sorcerer had positioned himself so that Jonathan couldn’t escape. He’d have to cross the vault, go through the sorcerer, then down the hallway.
It wasn’t going to be easy, and he would have to do it before others arrived, including his sister. At least this one didn’t realize Jayna was his sister.
Why would she have gone into the Society and revealed her family, though? She probably needed to conceal the information so that no one would know she was related to him. And she’d probably even gone by a different name.
He couldn’t worry about that now. He had to focus on getting past this sorcerer. Matthew had given him a fistful of enchantments that hadn’t been used, and he knew Matthew had a predilection for explosive types. He reached past the jewels in his pocket and grabbed several enchantments. At one point he had studied the meanings of the various etchings that were carved onto the surface of enchantments. As he pulled them out of his pocket, the sorcerer watched him.
He flicked one of the enchantments across the room. The sorcerer looked down, as if bored. The enchantment crackled, and an explosion came with a burst of light. Jonathan was blinded for a moment, but he tried to ignore it as he raced toward the door.
Magic built again, the tension causing Jonathan’s arms to burn, and he feared staying here too long. He spun as the sorcerer turned toward him, holding his hands out and twisting them in a pattern. Power flowed from him.
Jonathan had to make a choice. Go to the door, or—
He sprinted toward the sorcerer and slammed into him, the suddenness of the attack startling the man. The sorcerer stumbled and tripped over his feet, falling on his backside. The burst of magic he had started to summon exploded into the ceiling.
He wasn’t fast enough.
Magic began to build again, though this time it came down the hall and toward him. He still had more of Matthew’s enchantments, but he was going to have to use them judiciously. He reached for a few more, wanting to be as prepared as possible with a handful of enchantments.
He glanced behind him. The sorcerer who had attacked him in the vault had not yet gotten up. An idea formed in his head.
He flicked another enchantment into the vault. When it exploded in another burst of bright light, Jonathan raced into the vault and found the man sprawled on the ground.
He grabbed him, jerked him up, and thrust a knife into his back as a threat. “You’re going to help me out of here.” The man started to fight, but Jonathan shoved the knife deeper into his back. “Careful. You wouldn’t want this to go too deep. I don’t have much control over it, or the same sorcery you do. Besides, if you don’t help, I’m going to tell everyone that you were the reason I made it here, when I’m inevitably captured. How else could I have broken into a vault protected with such enchantments?”
Jonathan forced him forward. The sorcerer stumbled, but Jonathan kept a tight fist wrapped around his jacket and the knife pressed against his back. When they stepped into the hallway, another shadowy figure bloomed with power that radiated toward them.
Leaning toward the sorcerer, Jonathan dropped his voice to a whisper. “Block whatever he’s doing.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I think I understand just fine.”
Jonathan pushed him forward, but the man turned and spun with a flurry of power, then jammed his hands toward him. Jonathan braced himself and jumped to the side. He had miscalculated. He hadn’t expected the sorcerer to fight. Most of them were cowards.
He had avoided the blast, but now he had two sorcerers to deal with. His only hope was to use the remaining enchantments Matthew had given him.
He tossed one toward them. One of the sorcerers glanced down at the enchantment. As the object started to emit its magic, the sorcerer traced a pattern above it, and then the enchantment sizzled. The power that was within it crackled and disappeared.
Jonathan hurled another enchantment in their direction. He had to keep distracting them, even though he didn’t know if it would work. At this point, hope was all he had left.
For all his planning and his forethought, he had not anticipated this. He gritted his teeth and threw the remaining enchantments. He needed them to explode, and he counted on Matthew having found the kind of enchantments he typically enjoyed using.
Before the objects could burst, though, the sorcerers casually disarmed him.
Jonathan scrambled to his feet and backed away. The sorcerers watched him, moving toward him carefully, slowly. They didn’t know how many more enchantments he might have. For all they knew, he had another fistful of them. If he could keep up that belief, it might be enough for him to escape, or at least delay them.
Even delaying them would lead to his capture.
Could he get them into the vault and close them inside? How could he draw them in?
He hurried back and reached the door to the vault. As he grabbed it, he felt one of the markers he had placed in the door. They had always seemed suspiciously like enchantments. He didn’t know if they were, or if there was any power to them that could be used, but why not try?
His fingers scraped against one of them as he pulled it free. Glancing down, he saw that it was the marker for the crystal. The second marker he’d been given by his benefactor.
The two sorcerers continued to approach.
How could he trigger this marker? With other enchantments, a person could squeeze them and get them to fire, but Jonathan didn’t know if this one was like that.
What about the crystal? He had taken it because he had thought that was what his benefactor wanted from him. They had left this marker with the symbol of the crystal, but what if he tried to use that very object on it?
As the sorcerers converged, Jonathan grabbed the crystal from his pocket and placed it against the marker, which began to glow. He flicked the marker toward them, and it went rolling toward the two sorcerers. Jonathan had no idea what would happen when it landed, but if nothing else it would be a distraction.
One of the sorcerers held his hand down, and a circle of white light drifted out from it. “Do you really think another enchantment might—”
The enchantment exploded before the sorcerer could finish. Power burst, tossing the sorcerers back and slamming them both into the walls.
For a moment, Jonathan was too startled to process what had just happened. He forced himself into action, grabbing the other markers from the door, prying them free. He didn’t know if the door would start to close now that the markers were gone, but it stayed open. The fallen sorcerers didn’t move. As he ran past them, he kicked the nearest sorcerer, who grunted and moaned.
Once he reached the hall that led out, he hesitated.
An idea came to him.
He didn’t have much time, but if it worked…
He stuffed the markers into his pocket, including the one he just used, and dragged the sorcerers down the hallway. Despite his exhaustion and how heavy the men were, he needed to do this. He pulled the sorcerers into the vault and positioned them inside. He brought one of them over to the trunks and stuffed gold into the man’s pockets, a smile on Jonathan’s face as he did. He and his crew weren’t going to be able to have the gold for themselves, but he hoped he could keep them safe by making it look as if somebody else had gone after the treasure.
Jonathan stepped out of the vault, but when he tried to close it, he couldn’t.
The markers.
Hurriedly, Jonathan grabbed them from his pocket, shoved them back into the door, and watched as the pattern began to form. But nothing changed. He could practically feel power humming within the door, but he didn’t know how to close it. Maybe the markers were only meant to open the vault.
He tugged on the door, but soon began to feel something different. A tension built around him and raced along his skin, leaving him tingling with the familiar sensation.
Another sorcerer.
This person was different, though—even more powerful than usual. He had only felt something quite like that one other time, when Heziah had exploded power while trying to break into the vault.
Jonathan backed up, glancing at the inside of the vault. Could he use this vault to protect himself? Or could he distract the sorcerer who was coming? He had no idea if something like that would even work, but he had to try something.
Power continued to build. Jonathan stood ready to grab one of the other markers from the door when the figure appeared.
And he understood why it felt like Heziah.
Because it was.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Jonathan stared. Could Heziah have come back to help him?
But that didn’t fit. If the crew had returned, Heziah wouldn’t be alone.
Which meant that he had come on his own—to break into the vault.
He strode toward Jonathan, a confidence in him that Jonathan had not seen before. There was an unfamiliar expression on his face, a determination in his stride that hadn’t been there. He was similar to the man Jonathan had recruited, but this was not the same person.
“Heziah? Where are the others?”
“I’ve taken care of them.” His gaze flickered toward the open vault. “You sent us away.”
“I didn’t realize how to open it until I came back.”
As Heziah continued to stride toward him, Jonathan reached into his pocket. He grabbed the markers, ready to use them if necessary. Jonathan hesitated at the feeling that something was off. “What are you doing?”
