Chasing Bloodlines (Book 4) (6 page)

“Hello, your Grace.”

“Mage Lace, I have not seen you for quite a while.”

“No, I returned to my home in Arconia.”

“Gabriel told me,” Robyn said and took a seat, peering around her cloak to decipher how pregnant she looked. “I know, by the way.”

Lace gave her a sheepish look. “Gabriel told you about it then?”

Robyn felt her excitement grow. “Yes.” He had been very closed mouthed about their union, only giving her tidbits of the others, but he never mentioned Lace. “It sounded…well, I don’t know what to say.”

“I know, I am sorry,” Lace sputtered. “I had vowed not to since Gabriel is my friend, but Nolen would not leave, and we had no choice but…” she stopped as Robyn’s eyes grew wide. “Oh stars, he
didn’t
tell you! What have I said?” She put her hands over her mouth.

“Nolen would not
leave
?”

“I have said too much.” Lace stood swiftly.

“Oh, no, you tell me the rest.”

She shook her head. “It is not for me to tell. Goodbye, Your Grace,” she said with a bow and quickly left.

Robyn ran a hand through her hair and stared at the floor.
‘Stars above….’
No wonder Gabriel was reticent to talk about it. She rubbed her eyes. If she ever got her hooks in Nolen, she would see him flayed…slowly.

“Are you alright?”

Robyn jumped up to see Gabriel standing not far off as his Council left. “I—I am fine. Why? Are you well? You look well. Why?”

Gabriel chuckled. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No. No! Of course not.”

“I’m going to shift some people around, so stay out of trouble,” he said with a skeptical gaze. She nodded and smiled, but inside she screamed.

Chapter 6

The night was dark and filled with the scent of burning candles. Mikelle walked through the Lodge halls bent for the Head Mage quarters. She heard murmuring below in the atrium. The Arconian army had come and gone, taking Prince Virgil, that gorgeous creature, with them. They left behind a signed treaty.

Lael gave her a nod as she came in, sat back in his plush chair with a book in one hand and a steaming mug in the other. ‘
I swear he sleeps in that chair, or perhaps he is rooted to it like a tree-human. Maybe the chair is like a Silex that gives him special abilities as long as he touches in…. Your imagination is running again.’

Gabriel sat in his dark study, the twin lamps of his desk and the hearth dimly illuminating the room. He was busy as always; scribbling something down from one book into the next. Something was different about his face when he looked up to greet her. He seemed less tense, calmer perhaps. He had always been so gentle when she first met him, but that softness had been stripped away by Nolen’s hand and duty’s call. Now, he looked happy.

“You summoned me?” She asked.

“I did.” He set his pen down and brought out three long delicate wood boxes from a drawer. “I got you a little something as thanks for your…discretion.”

She perched on the edge of the marble and lifted the latch of one. Inside were a dozen brown round balls no larger than her thumb. Some dusted with gold or silver, some with red or tan powder. Her eyes widened, and she looked at his grinning face that went back to his writing.

“Chocolate?” she gasped.

“Straight from Shalaban.” He paused and looked up. “You know I’m the tallest person to
ever
set foot in the Irukanji Markets? There was no easy way to be discrete there.”

She lifted a round nugget from the box and bit it in half, relishing the bitter and spicy flavor. “Try this.”

“I’ll be honest, they look like cat poop.”

“Try it you numbskull.”

He dropped his pen and grumbled as he selected the smallest he could find. Dusted with silver, he popped it in his mouth, then grimaced. “More for you.”

“You don’t like it?”

“Well, it doesn’t taste like cat poop.”

“Anatolians are so uncultured.” She snapped the lid closed and gave him a fierce look as he bent to spit it out in his waste bin. He reconsidered, chewing slowly and trying to maintain a forced smile.

“Arconians can’t taste.” He returned to his notes.

She leaned in and kissed on his forehead. He tilted his head to offer her his cheek, so she kissed that as well, laughing at his grin. “I could never stay mad at you. What are you scribbling?”

“I’m working on a pattern called a hinge.”

“Sounds revolutionary.”

“Not a
door
hinge, you great—raging—I’m not very good at name calling.”

“What does it do?”

“Opens doors.”

“HA!”

“Between spaces.”

“Between here and…?”

“Kilkiny, Shshonan, Telmon? Anywhere.”

“Kilkiny, like Robyn’s room you dog.” She grinned, enjoying their verbal spar, but something caught her eyes outside. “There’s a fire burning outside,” she whispered. “Several.”

He stood and went to the window. “What in the name of….”

At least five fires burned, but not just in haphazard areas. They burned in a straight line. They extended for miles, some dying out and some raging on, but they all headed straight for Castle Jaden, climbing over the rocky terrain.

He turned and made for the door. Mikelle followed close behind, quickly snatching another chocolate. “Lael, do we have a spyglass?” he asked as he walked through the anteroom. “Follow me with it.”

Lael gave Mikelle an inquisitive look, but her mouth was too full of chocolate to answer. Gabriel made for the balcony and leaned over it to get a better look at the fires. He took off his coat, and Lael arrived with a spyglass. Gabriel quietly gazed through it as Lael muttered his surprise.

Gabriel snapped the spyglass closed and looked at them with pinched lips. “Does Jaden protect against specters?”

“What?” Mikelle breathed.

Lael sputtered for an answer finally replying, “Aelony.” Gabriel handed his coat off and jumped off the balcony. “It makes me nervous when he does that.”

“It saddens me when his shirt doesn’t rip completely off.”

Lael gave her a sidelong glance. “Do you talk like this in front of him?”

“Of course.”

They watched the fires grow closer. Lael elongated the spyglass to get a better look at the specters, and suddenly cursed.

“There are more than Fire specters out there,” he said and handed her the glass. She swept the hillside swiftly, at first seeing nothing, but slowly she noticed odd spirals of wind, strange plant growth, and stacks of ice scattered all over the land. At the heads of these paths were pale people moving smoothly, uncomprehending the landscape and simply walking over boulders and ravines. Some were still far off, but more were dangerously close.

“I don’t know how to fight specters, Lael.”

“Galloway, Adelaide, and Dagan do.”

“Yes, but I
still
don’t.”

Lael smirked and patted her shoulder.

Gabriel arrived suddenly appearing and making Mikelle jump. “With all this talk of specters,” she began, but cut off when she saw Gabriel was not alone. “Aelony, hello.”

“Fair Mikelle, greetings.” The specter bowed.

“You two have met?” Gabriel raised a brow.

“
I told you
the library was haunted.”

“I prefer ‘guarded’.” The specter nodded his misty head.

“Aelony believes these specters are set in solid form by a Void pattern, and they will not be able to cross the wards. We won’t know until they arrive. However, Jaden does not ward against specters everywhere.” Gabriel said and ran a hand through his hair.

“Not everywhere?” Lael’s voice rose in surprise.

“Not the gates.”

“Why not?”

Aelony raised a hand. “I asked them not to, back in the Fourth Age, so I could leave Jaden.”

“Is there a way to ward them now?” Lael asked.

Aelony shook his head. “I do not know the patterns.”

“I need everyone who has battled a specter,” Gabriel ordered. Lael nodded and rushed off. Thankfully the Council all lived in the Lodge, so they were not difficult to gather.

Dagan suddenly rushed up, blond hair undone from its usual braid. “Battle them with opposite Elements,” he breathed, then saw Aelony and pulled green Earth strings from his chest.

“No, no, Aelony is our ally,” Gabriel raised a hand to stop him.

“How did he get past the walls?”

“He lives here,” Mikelle said and put his hands down. “I told everyone the library was haunted. What do you take me for?”

“The gates aren’t warded against specters in corporeal form, but we think these have solidity,” Gabriel cut in. “I’m going to the gates regardless.”

He stepped up on the balcony and jumped, soaring out a moment later spread-eagle.

Aelony made a guttural noise of interest. “Black. What happened to him?”

“Whatever do you mean?” Mikelle asked as they walked through the Lodge.

“Never ye mind. I will meet ye there.” He vanished in a shift.

They met up with Galloway, Lael, and Adelaide in the foyer and made their way to the gates.

“I wager anything that the Shalabane army, Arconian army, and specters were all supposed to arrive the same time.” Lael said.

“Smarts,” Adelaide whispered.

“Then Ryker’s plan failed, and he is going to be angry about it.” Galloway answered.

“And those specters are coming through the gates,” Dagan said.

“I have no doubt.”

“No, the specters are coming through the gates!” Dagan yelled and broke into a run.

The Lodge was a straight line across the courtyard from the gates, and suddenly they exploded in a blast of fire. Mikelle saw Gabriel’s tall silhouette standing with his back to her a moment before the flames engulfed him. People ran screaming while others stood atop the gates hurling patterns down.

The flames diminished for a moment, and Mikelle saw the same tall silhouette completely engulfed in fire. She screamed his name and threw out her hands to drop snow from the corners of buildings. But he did not seem in distress. A bolt of white-hot fire exploded from one of his hands and collided with the chest of a girl who had turned half the gate to ice. She screamed a ghastly tune and flung back into the wall, cracking the ice. He held the bolt burning until she melted into the floor.

Gabriel looked behind him, flames licking his feet, his white hair blowing in the heat, and his white eyes stared at nothing she could see.

He strode towards a Fire specter, a net of blue threads exploding from his chest wrapped around it. He did not pause to see how effective it was, turning to an Air specter twirling bits of metal in a cyclone around it. He wrapped a guardian-pattern around the creature and pulled it into the ground. He moved so fast, all three specters dropped in a matter of seconds, but far more entered through the gates.

Lael strode forward and pulled from Gabriel’s fire, turning it on a Water specter. Dagan ripped vines from the earth and engulfed a hovering Air specter, bringing her to the ground. Mikelle turned her attention on a rotund Fire specter chasing after a fleeing Mage, and Adelaide melted the frozen cobblestones. Galloway, one of the few to wield Water and Fire, bounced between various specters.

Mikelle’s specter furiously fought against the blasts of water shot at her, the moisture simply wicking off. It seemed the rest were having an equally difficult time with theirs, and the first Fire specter Gabriel battled was back on his feet staggering forward. However, they had a bigger problem. No one could fight the Spirit specters but Gabriel, and they were slowly convening on him.

“How did your parties do it?” Lael shouted at Dagan through the hiss of flames and evaporating water.

“I do not know! They never detailed their victories!” Dagan yelled back. “We could try containing them. He threw out a hand, and in four sharp movements, brought chunks of stone up to box a Spirit specter. The creature inside bellowed and shot shards of compressed light into the sky, but it seemed to stay trapped.

Through the ripping fire, Mikelle heard the delightful sound of fabric tearing and turned to see Gabriel’s wings out. The flames extended along them without burning, and he flicked a black pattern along them that gave the tips a metallic gleam. He stretched them out and spun a tight circle to hit two specters. Mikelle watched in surprise as both staggered back with wide gashes through their fronts. Gabriel repeated the action with more accuracy, bringing one to her knees. The other he
shot
the razor-tipped feathers at, catching the man in the face and neck. Both sank into the ground with twin screams and were no more.

Exhilarated by the sight, Mikelle intensified her attack and iced the water faster than the specter could burn off. Taking a running jump, she plunged her feet into the specter’s hip, and he splintered apart, giving one last scream as he melted into the cobbles.

“Nicely done!” Lael shouted as he charred the remainder of a Water specter. She mimicked an Arconian chest-salute and raced forward to attack another Fire specter. Around her Dagan slowly squeezed an Earth specter between two pieces of stone, Adelaide stamped both boots atop a Water specter as it smoldered into the ground, and Galloway cornered a Fire specter with ice while he burned it with white-hot bolts. The specters Dagan trapped had corporealized and were on the loose again.

By this time, several more Mages had come to assist, and suddenly Markus rushed past. Two gray patterns wavered in his hands plunged into an Earth specter, ripping it apart with compressed air and force.

Mikelle looked back to see the remaining specters closing in on Gabriel. He was glorious in a wave of fire, wings whipping back and forth as he slashed and gorged. His shirt blessedly hung tattered off his wrists. He tore it off and went right back to a Fire specter; encompassing it in ice and crushing it out of this world. The heat it gave off was enough to keep Mikelle back.

A Spirit specter got close enough to touch Gabriel’s arm, and he immediately doubled over, coughing blood into the stones. They swarmed as soon as they saw him go down, pulling at his wings and shoulders, tearing him to a knee. Dagan gave a shout as his Earth specter rose from crushed stones, and suddenly Adelaide’s latest Water specter plucked itself out of the embers, hurling a blast of ice at her. Even Mikelle’s Fire specter was slowly pulling itself together.

Bright light suddenly shone from where Gabriel had been cornered, and Mikelle shielded her face. He slowly stood amidst the specters, arms tensed at his side, fists clenched, and his head thrown back. His wings vanished as the fire slipped from him. There was blood on his neck from his lips. They parted in a sneer as he clenched his teeth as if in pain. A dozen black lines shot into his chest, and he gasped, his eyes widening. He raised on the balls of his feet, but she could not tell if he was being lifted or pushed.