Shadow Magic, page 25
“King’s Port, sir, we’ve got her at safe house three.”
“Well done. I’ll tell Kent. I’m sure your team will receive a bonus.”
The other wizard started to thank him but Raven broke the connection. They had the princess. Now he had to decide whether or not to honor his deal with Daktari.
Raven got up and started pacing around the small lab. He could just neglect to contact the sorcerer. Daktari would never know the princess had been found. If the great sorcerer asked, he’d just deny it.
Raven snorted, disgusted with himself. Like there was any way he could keep a secret from a sorcerer of Daktari’s power.
He settled down before the crystal ball and steeled himself for the unpleasant task. His fingers touched the cool surface of the crystal and he summoned Daktari’s face to his mind. Almost as quick as thought he felt the weight of the sorcerer’s will settle upon him.
“Speak,” Daktari commanded.
“The princess has been found. Kent’s men have her in the city of King’s Port.”
“Where in the city?”
Raven concentrated, picturing the safe house in his mind. “There should be only half a dozen guards.”
“There could be half a hundred for all the difference it would make.”
“Of course. About your promise not to harm me if she was found…”
Daktari’s image in the crystal frowned and Raven thought he was a dead man but then the sorcerer chuckled. “You have five minutes to get as far from Kent’s warehouse as you can.”
Daktari broke the connection.
Five minutes, perhaps he could yet redeem himself.
Wasting no time Raven tapped his crystal ball which shrank to the size of a marble. He slipped it into his pocket and grabbed his spell book. Those were the only two items in his lab that couldn’t be readily replaced.
The stone soldier that guarded his door was still there. Its eyes glowed with a bloody light.
Not good.
Raven sprinted through the warehouse and over to Kent’s office.
“You can’t go in there.’ Kent’s assistant stepped in front of him.
He spoke a word of power that put her on her rear end.
“Sorry, my dear, but I’m in a bit of a rush,” Raven said as he stepped over her and through the office door.
Inside the office Kent was speaking to his brother, the sultan, and a third man Raven didn’t know. “Sorry to bother you gentlemen but in four minutes something very unpleasant is going to happen.”
“Explain,” Kent said.
“I’ve betrayed you, I’m afraid. Daktari knew you didn’t plan to honor your agreement. The night after he spoke to you he came to me. I was given the choice of spying on you or dying in a very slow, painful manner. I didn’t find my decision very difficult. All he wanted was for me to alert him when he found your niece. I have just done so.”
“You son of a bitch!” the sultan roared. “You’ve just sold my daughter’s life.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Your Majesty, but as the saying goes, better her than me. Now I suggest we get out of here before Daktari’s revenge arrives.”
“Why should we trust a spy?” the third man asked.
“I don’t care if you trust me or not. If you’re so anxious to pass over to the next world, I suggest you stay right here. I’ve already wasted half my head start, so I’ll bid you all good day. Kent, you may consider this my resignation.” Raven turned and ran out the door without a backward glance.
Chapter 46
Daktari smiled. At last the girl had been found.
In a few minutes one of his golems would blow Kent’s warehouse apart and the rest smash through the city before exploding in turn. A fitting punishment for the disloyal swine. He’d never had much faith in humanity, but lately, the betrayals were coming at a record pace.
Now to King’s Port to collect his prize and finally conclude his bargain with Balthis.
“Bane.”
“Yes, Master?”
“Fetch the world map.”
Bane flapped into the lab with a rolled-up map in his arms. The large parchment was almost more than the homunculus could handle. Daktari snatched it from him and spread it across the stone table. He started scanning the coasts looking for the port. He’d never been to King’s Port, so it wouldn’t be possible to teleport there directly. Instead he’d have to find the nearest place he had visited and fly the rest of the way.
“Found it, Master.” Bane pointed to the city marked King’s Port.
Directly across the Sea of Torments, so she wasn’t that far away after all. A hundred miles north was the city of Queen’s Port. He’d visited there a few times. It wouldn’t take long to fly south and pick up the girl.
Bane alighted on his shoulder and Daktari snapped his fingers.
They appeared three hundred yards above the ground. Daktari fell a few feet before activating his flying spell. Bane circled around his floating master.
“Better hang on to me, Bane,” Daktari said.
When he felt Bane’s claws get a good grip on his robe, Daktari willed them forward. Without his shield he had no doubt the acceleration would have broken his neck. As it was, he felt barely a whisper of wind as he streaked through the morning sky. At this speed if anyone saw them they would register as nothing but a dark blur.
It took less than a minute to reach King’s Port. Daktari slowed above the city and wove an invisibility spell around himself and Bane. He called up the image of the building he sought along with its location to the front of his mind.
Soon enough he spotted the building and settled on the ground beside it. Three men dressed in uniforms stood across the street, but of course they paid no attention to the invisible sorcerer.
Daktari pushed the doors open and found two dead bodies lying on the floor. He pushed his will out, seeking any signs of life and finding none. Daktari drifted up the steps, finding several more bodies. He checked the entire second floor and found even more bodies, none of them belonging to Princess Shara.
“She’s not here.”
How could that be? He’d only taken minutes to get here after Raven contacted him. He shook his head at the irrelevant thought. The how didn’t matter.
Daktari spun in a slow circle, fists clenched. “SHE’S NOT HERE!”
With the full weight of his frustration and magic behind them, the words manifested as a physical force lashing out in every direction, blasting the second floor of the building to smithereens.
He levitated out the top of the ruined building. The guards were staring up at him and the destruction he’d caused.
One of them cleared his throat and said, “You there, you’re under arrest. Come down here this instant.”
Daktari narrowed his eyes. The unmitigated gall of the presumptuous insect astonished him. It appeared guards were getting stupider by the day.
He didn’t seem to be alone in his assessment. The two other guards stared at their companion like he’d grown a second head.
As Daktari descended he conjured an aura of dark fire to surround his body. The fool guard was standing with his arms crossed and left foot tapping the ground as if impatient for Daktari to land.
His companions were looking about for a place to hide.
One suddenly seemed to get a bright idea and slammed the blunt side of his halberd into the back of the stupid one’s head.
The guard collapsed, unmoving, to the dirt.
The guard that struck him waved at Daktari and said, “Just kidding.”
Daktari smiled and started to laugh. He laughed so hard his whole body shook. When he finally got control of himself he wiped the tears from his eyes and banished the dark fire.
Laughter had cooled his rage and cleared his mind. Clearly Raven had delayed his report long enough for the princess to be relocated or, judging from the number of bodies inside, captured by another group.
She could be anywhere in the city or even on a ship out of it if the delay had been great enough. With Silvermane’s ring still protecting her, he had no choice but to wait for another chance.
Daktari was getting extremely sick of waiting.
Chapter 47
Vilos watched as the wizard turned and fled the office. His anger almost overwhelmed him. He wanted to chase the man down and strangle him barehanded. Vilos forced his fists to unclench. He knew few people would place a stranger’s life above their own.
“We’d best get moving.”
“You’re not going to take the word of a spy, are you, Majesty?” Abin asked.
“It looks that way,” Vilos said.
Kent was staring dumbfounded behind his desk.
“Kent, better order your people out of the warehouse.”
Kent stared at him not comprehending.
Vilos reached across the desk and cuffed him upside the head. “Snap out of it! You need to order the warehouse cleared.”
Kent nodded. “Right.”
The three men left the office. Once they were outside Kent yelled, “Everybody clear out, now.”
The men were used to obeying Kent’s orders even if they didn’t understand them. The ten men shifting merchandise around dropped what they were doing and went for the doors.
Abin tapped Vilos on the shoulder. “Take a look.”
The wizard pointed at one of the stone soldiers. Its eyes glowed with a bright red light.
“Move!” Vilos yelled. He pushed Abin toward the door and grabbed Kent’s arm. “Come on!”
He pushed Abin out the door ahead of him and dragged his brother along behind. The workers were in the street already.
Vilos waved at them. “Keep going.”
They came to a stop about fifty yards from the warehouse. “How many stone soldiers were in the warehouse?” Vilos asked.
“Twelve.” Kent seemed recovered from Raven’s betrayal.
Kent had barely answered when a tremendous explosion turned the warehouse into kindling. One of the workers went down with a seven-inch dagger of wood in his shoulder. No one else appeared injured.
“That could have been worse,” Abin said.
The dust started to settle revealing what remained of the warehouse. The walls had been reduced to a few jagged boards. The foundation had scores of cracks running through it and the pilings were just barely hanging on. The only things still in one piece were the other eleven golems.
All of them turned their glowing eyes toward Vilos and the others.
“It’s worse,” Vilos said.
The stone soldiers started toward Vilos.
One by one they broke off, each heading in a different direction. If they exploded like the one in the warehouse, there was no telling how much damage they could do.
“We have to warn as many people as we can,” Vilos said.
“It’s impossible,” Kent said. “A quarter million people live here. We’ll never warn them all in time.”
“Maybe not, but we’re going to try just the same.” He pointed to the workers. “You men, fan out. The three of us will try and draw them away. Hopefully they’d rather get us than a bunch of innocent people.”
The workers scattered, yelling at the top of their lungs for everyone to clear out. Hopefully some would listen.
“Over here!” Vilos waved, trying to get their attention. “Come on.”
The wizard sighed as if resigning himself to his lord’s lunacy, pointed at one of the golems, and spoke a word of power.
A bolt of fire leapt from his finger and splashed against a golem with no visible effect save to get it to turn in their direction.
“Good, blast as many as you can. The more that follow us the better,” Vilos said.
“Right,” Abin said with a marked lack of enthusiasm. He spread his fingers like a fan and worked another spell. This time ten bolts of fire shot from his outstretched fingers to hit all of the remaining golems. All but two turned toward them and began to advance. The last two continued into the city.
“We got their attention, now what?” Kent asked.
“Now we run like hell,” Vilos said.
The three of them headed toward the city gates just fast enough to allow the golems to keep them in sight. For their part the golems trudged along behind, crushing anything unfortunate enough to get in their way.
As they went down the street toward the north gate people stopped and stared at them.
Vilos waved at them. “Get inside. Stay out of the way.”
As if to punctuate his words the nearest golem exploded sending jagged shards of rock in every direction and blowing away half of the nearest building.
People screamed and those still capable of running did so.
Vilos was staggered as one of the pieces of rock cut his cheek. As they hurried on he reached up and touched his bloody face. The enchanted stone had passed through his crown’s magic without slowing.
He shuddered as he thought what would happen if the next piece hit him square. In the distance one of the other two golems exploded. He silently prayed everyone had the good sense to flee the stone soldiers.
They reached the north gate without any of the remaining golems exploding.
“Open the gate,” Vilos shouted. It took only seconds for the massive wooden doors to swing open but the delay was enough for the stone soldiers to catch up and form a semicircle around them.
They started to glow.
Vilos grabbed his brother and Abin and pushed them through the narrow gap in the doors.
He dove through right behind them just as the golems exploded.
Vilos landed on his stomach beside Abin and Kent. His ears rang from the roar of the blasts.
He rolled onto his back just in time to see the thick stone wall come crumbling down on top of them.
Vilos raised his arms in a futile effort to save himself. After a few seconds, when he hadn’t been crushed to death, he lowered his arms and found himself surrounded by a ring of broken rock.
Kent sat beside him, unharmed.
Abin stood over the two of them, his arms raised. As Vilos watched he lowered his arms and collapsed.
By some miracle, Abin landed between two rocks that would have split his skull just as sure as hell.
Vilos crawled over to him. “Are you alright?”
When Abin didn’t respond Vilos slapped him on the cheek.
Abin’s eyes fluttered open. “You are safe, Majesty?”
“Thanks to you, old friend. How did you manage to stop those stones?”
Abin managed a weak smile. “Magic.”
Vilos laughed. “Heaven save me from wizards with a sense of humor.”
Abin massaged his temples. “I managed to draw enough power from your crown and expand it to surround us. It was a near thing. I just managed to hold the magic together long enough.”
“Lucky for us.” Vilos turned to his brother. “Where are the other golems?”
Kent paled. “I sent them to guard four caravans. If they blew up like these…”
“Do you know where the caravans should be now?” Vilos asked.
“There were almost a hundred of my people in those caravans. All dead.”
Vilos gave Kent a shake. “Snap out of it. Should any of them have reached a town yet?”
Kent shook his head. “They left only two days ago.”
“That’s something anyway. I’m sorry, Kent, but it’s better if they blow in the open desert away from any large populations.”
Vilos clambered to his feet and offered Abin a hand up. The wizard still looked wobbly but managed to stay upright. “You going to be alright?”
Abin nodded. “I shouldn’t use my magic for a while though.”
“How about you?” Vilos asked as Kent got to his feet.
“I’ll be fine,” Kent said. “We should go see how many were hurt.”
They picked their way through the rubble of the city wall. For fifty feet in each direction the wall was little more than shattered stone. It would take weeks, maybe months, to rebuild.
Inside the city where the golems had stood was a crater thirty feet in diameter and ten feet deep. A guard house that had overseen the gate was just gone. Vilos didn’t hear anyone yelling. He didn’t take that as a good sign as it probably meant everyone in the area was dead.
In the distance toward the northeast gate an alarm horn sounded. A few seconds later it sounded again. Two soundings meant something serious.
“I’d better go see what’s happening. You two keep looking for survivors.” Vilos walked quickly toward the gate to see what new trouble had arrived to bedevil him.
Chapter 48
Robert and Blade walked up the slate path to Argus’s house, though house was probably too pedestrian a description for it, mansion was more accurate. It had a two-story central building with single-story wings to either side. The entryway was framed by six pillars, three on each side of the heavy oak doors. The fence that surrounded the property had been unlocked.
The same disagreeable doorman from the warehouse opened the gate for them. Tonight he wore a proper black servant’s uniform and a bland servant’s smile to match. He didn’t speak, instead directing them toward the main house.
As they approached the doors Robert noticed the iron door knockers were shaped like mermaids.
They stopped in front of the doors.
“I look ridiculous,” Blade said.
Robert turned to face her. She had on a plain, knee-length black dress and boots that stopped just below the hem. The only jewelry she wore was a silver necklace they’d found in the wagon. She’d wanted to wear her sword but Robert had dissuaded her. They had compromised on a dagger in each boot. That seemed to alleviate some of her discomfort.
“You look beautiful,” Robert said. She did too. He’d never seen a woman as lovely.
She looked away, embarrassed Robert thought. “Tell me, Bobby, if you had a say, is this how you’d want me to dress all the time?”
Robert took her chin lightly in his hand and turned her face back toward him. “There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”
