Legend of the Sorcerer (34 page)

“Yet, he is here,” she raged. “He came to me!”

“He came to find his grandfather. We found him, we buried him. We were preparing to go back home. Dilys just wanted to take some of Alfred’s things with her. Then we were off to the airport.”

“Liar!” The screech echoed off the chamber walls, eliciting moans from above her head.

She’d gone too far. Margaron came closer. Her expression was murderous. Jordy tried hard not to cower.

“He will come for you, this I know. I’ve watched you both. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You have bewitched him.” She moved closer still, a sudden smile curving her lips. “But this will not last. Once he is with me,
you will be forgotten. He will realize that I am the one, the only one, with whom he can create the ultimate Keeper of the Pearl. The child will be mine. Then the power of the Pearl will be mine, too.” An unholy light flickered in the depths of her black eyes. It made Jordy’s flesh crawl.

Margaron reached out a long, elegant finger and touched first her cheek, then her chin.

“You play at being strong, my little canary. But you cannot mask the terror in your eyes.” She looked down and the evil smile turned into a frown so ugly it marred even her perfect features. “Do you carry his bastard within you?”

Jordy stepped back then, but stopped short of protectively covering her stomach.

“He will not be the Keeper. If you planned to trap him that way, you will not. No mere mortal can produce the child I could.” She ran her hand along the metal bar and a gate door that Jordy could have sworn was not there moments ago, swung open. “Come here.”

“I am not pregnant.”

“I will be the judge of that.” She motioned to a table several feet away. There were heavy leather straps at the foot and the head of the bed. “Lie down.”

Jordy began to shake in earnest then and no amount of will would stop it. Dear merciful God, what in the hell did she think she was going to do? “No, thanks.”

Margaron looked amused.

Bluffing time was over. Jordy did the only thing left to do. She ran.

Cai drove to the ruins, questioning Dilys the entire way. It had proven useless as she refused to tell him anything more. He stopped the car and got out, carrying the small trunk with him. Nothing had changed. It still felt
empty. He hadn’t known what he expected, but he felt a stab of disappointment and fear. Had he done something wrong?

“This way.” Dilys picked her way up the rocky slope toward the remains.

“There is no one here.”

“Do not trust only what your eyes can see. Your grandfather tried to explain that to you.”

Cai swore under his breath, but moved up the slope after her. She stopped in front of the entrance.

Then Cai recalled the shimmering air, the strange feeling he’d had once before. “The symbols. What do they mean?”

“I cannot follow you in,” was all she said.

“Why not?” In truth, he didn’t want to put her in jeopardy, but she seemed to be the only one who knew what in the hell was going on. “I need you to guide me. I don’t know what to do.”

“Your heart will guide you. Remember, trust what is, act on it. Do not waste time seeking explanations where there are none.” Dilys stepped closer and laid her hand on his chest. It was the first time he could ever recall her touching him. It stopped him from saying anything further. “You will succeed, but only if you have faith in yourself. And you must have faith in her as well. She is not weak.”

“Margaron?”

“Jordalyn. You are a team. You are the future. You are not here to simply rescue her, or the others, although you must succeed in that endeavor as well. You are here to secure the future for us all.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “I have faith in you, Malacai. As does your grandfather. If you need him, he will be there for you. All you have to do is listen.”

Cai could only nod. He was terrified. Terrified of failing Dilys, Alfred, the two women who were innocent victims in all this, and most of all he was of terrified of failing Jordy.

“Do not forget the words.”

“I won’t.”

“Do not expose the Dark Pearl until the time is right. Wield it wisely. Never let it leave your possession. You will prevail.”

“What do I do now?” Cai asked.

Dilys stepped back and motioned to the entrance. “Cross the portal.”

Cai looked to it, then back to her. A blank look had come over her face and she slowly began reciting words.

Cai wasn’t sure if he was supposed to wait for her to finish. She continued and he turned uncertainly toward the portal.

He stepped closer, placed his foot on the threshold. The air began to shimmer around him. He looked back at Dilys, who was still chanting. Her image was wavering and it was hard to see her. He faced forward and stepped fully inside. Everything went black.

Cai stood perfectly still. He was fully conscious, fully aware, but it was dark, completely dark. He looked behind him and he could still see Dilys standing just beyond the doorway. Oddly, the light from outside didn’t filter in at all.

In. He was inside. The doorway was a real one, with walls on either side and a roof overhead. He reached out and felt the door itself. He looked to Dilys again, but if she could see him, she gave no indication. He swung the door shut. Instantly there was a glow of light. Yellow haloes similar to the ones in Alfred’s stone house. He turned back to the room and noticed the sconces lining the walls. The room he was in was big and empty, more than a foyer, but
seemingly unused. A hallway stretched before him, also lined with small dots of light.

He had no idea what sort of optical illusion could create the appearance of ruins where there was obviously still a building standing, but he did not question it. That was his mantra now. Don’t question what is, just act.

Jordy was in here. There was no time to waste. He strode toward the hallway with the trunk tucked tightly under his arm. Should he practice opening it again, at least once, to make sure he could?

He continued down the hallway, keeping an eye open for any sign of Jordy. He noticed that there were no doorways off the hall and it ended abruptly at a wide door. He listened closely, then opened it. He entered a stairwell, with a short flight up and a longer one heading down. He could hear nothing. It was dark, but the glow from the hall showed a lantern on a hook. He used a wall sconce to light it, then held it up to see better.

Instinct told him if anyone were being held here, they were likely down below. He swallowed hard, and headed down. It was cold and dank, with a moldy smell in the air. He thought of the two women trapped in this place for weeks now and shuddered. And now Jordy was here as well. He moved faster, despite his continued doubts about taking on a madwoman with nothing more than an empty ancient trunk. Whatever it took, he was not leaving here without Jordy and the other two women.

The short hall ended at another door. It was massive and made of beamed wood with heavy hinges bolted across it. This was it. He felt it.

Do what you must to insure the future
.

Alfred. Cai’s hand stilled on the heavy iron handle.

Use the Dark Pearl wisely, but use it you must. There is evil beyond the door. Don’t let it distract you from your ultimate goal
.

It was as if his grandfather were standing just behind
him, talking into his ear. If he turned fast enough, he wondered if he’d see him.

Don’t question it, just act, Cai repeated silently to himself.

He turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

H
e’d walked into a living nightmare. He was in a chamber, much like Alfred’s, and yet nothing like Alfred’s. Alfred wouldn’t have four cages, three suspended from the ceiling, two with tortured victims trapped inside.

And Alfred wouldn’t have tables filled with torturous implements that would have made the Marquis de Sade drool.

But most of all, Alfred would never have Jordy, clothes torn apart, tied to a wooden slab, wrists and ankles strapped helplessly apart.

A woman stood over her with her arm raised. She had long black hair and wore a form-fitting dress of midnight blue velvet that flowed to her ankles. It was the glint of light bouncing off the silver blade she held that finally snapped him out of his crippling horror.

“No!”

The woman’s head snapped up. The intensity in her dark eyes was demonic. But it was the smile that slowly curved her lush lips that gave him his first real jolt of sickening fear.

“I knew you’d come.”

“Margaron.” Cai didn’t know which to focus on, her
 … or the blade. He purposely didn’t focus on Jordy, he couldn’t, or he’d lose what little control he had left.

“Yes, my love. You’re just in time.”

Cai wanted to leap across the room and rip her throat out. The force of the hatred he felt stunned him. He couldn’t let her see that. She was a delusional psychopath. An armed delusional psychopath.
Don’t let the evil distract you
. He had to make each move very carefully.

“Just in time for what?” He forced the words out.

“Why, sterilizing her, of course.”

He gagged on the acid that rose in his throat. It took an act of superhuman proportions for him to calmly say, “Why on earth would you do that?”

“She wants to carry your child. She insists she does not, but I have watched her. She has beguiled you. She wants what you could create inside her. The next Keeper.” She stepped to the head of the table, away from Jordy’s bared abdomen. “She tried to run.” Her smile grew smug. “She has no idea of our power, does she?”

Cai clutched at the trunk to hide his trembling fingers. He was too far away to get to her before she could turn and plunge that knife into—

“She is not carrying my child,” he ground out.

“When I am done, she never will.” Margaron laughed, then. The perfectly pitched, musical sound made his skin crawl. “You know that I am the only one, Malacai. I forgive you this transgression, although I must say your appalling lack in taste somewhat disturbs me.” She dangled the knife over Jordy’s gagged mouth, then traced the tip down her throat and along one half-exposed breast. “How a man with your hungers can feast at such an abysmal offering of flesh and be remotely satisfied …” She lifted an elegant shoulder.

Cai’s attention was riveted to the edge of the blade caressing Jordy’s pale skin. Skin he had run his fingers and
lips over, skin so soft and perfect it made him ache just to think about it. If she so much as pricked that skin, she would suffer the same and worse.

He dragged his attention away, willing his gaze to fix only on Margaron. One look into Jordy’s eyes and he would lose it. If he was going to help her, save her, if he was ever going to hold her in his arms again, taste her, touch her, then he couldn’t let himself think about her, about how much she meant to him.

Like a character he’d create in a novel, he would have to write himself a role to play. Only this time, pulling it off would be a matter of life or death.

He looked up at Margaron, who was studying him intently. He had a good idea of what she’d just seen on his face, so he purposely made himself smile. A grin as wide and wicked as he could create. With Jordy bound up not ten yards away, it was the hardest thing he’d ever done.

But if it was the dark sorcerer Margaron wanted, than that was exactly what he would give her.

He shut Jordy out, put himself in the story, and wrote his dialogue as he spoke it. “She was a distraction. I was bored. She was available.” He shrugged. “You weren’t.”

Fury sparked her eyes and he wondered if he’d calculated wrong. She moved away from the table, toward him, and he had to stifle a sigh of relief.

“You knew where to find me,” she said.

“I don’t take commands well.”

She stopped just in front of him. Her remarkable beauty struck him hard. How could someone so exquisite be so depraved?

“And yet you obeyed. You are here.” She looked at the trunk, lips glistening as she moistened them. “And you’ve brought me the Dark Pearl.”

“I am here because I am ready to claim my rightful place.” He said a silent apology to Jordy and stepped closer
to her. He looked directly into her mad black eyes and said, “I am ready to claim you.”

He saw the spark of desire then, of surprise, and knew he’d chosen the right role.

“If you are truly my mate,” he continued, “then you will do as
I
command, not the other way around.”

She was clearly interested, but she raised a brow. “You are not the Keeper.”

“I carry the seed.”

Her eyes glowed.

“And I carry the Pearl. You are nothing to me and I am everything to you. You want what I have, and you will obey me,” Cai said.

A tiny flicker of indecision marred her perfect countenance. She masked it quickly, but it was a chink in her armor he intended to exploit.

“You underestimate my power,” she stated. “I can destroy you.”

“Ah, but destroy me and it will end all your plans for the future.”

“Open the trunk, I want to see it.”