Rise of Legends (The Kin of Kings Book 2) (43 page)

Zoke, Vithos, and the rest of his party all looked alarmed at seeing Basen’s frightened face.

“What’s wrong?” Alabell asked.

“He’s a damn scary Elf.”

Zoke and Cleve nodded in agreement. Basen took a deep breath and his fear completely disappeared. He smiled and told them, “Fatholl will convince Rickik to come with us as well as supply the Krepps with armor.”

“What, how?” Annah asked. “He was completely set in his decision not to assist us.”

“I changed his mind when I showed him that I can make a portal.”

Alabell threw her arms around him. “I had a feeling you could sense one.” She leaned back to show him a smile.

“In there?” Cleve pointed.

“Yes.”

“I thought it only worked where bastial energy has been clustered together,” Cleve said. “No mages would cast in there.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Basen said, not wanting to lie in front of Vithos and Annah, the two psychics. “In exchange for Fatholl’s help, I’m to come back here in a week. I don’t know what he’ll have me do, though. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s worth a few hundred armored Krepps on our side. But Cleve, he gave me a warning about Rickik I don’t think we should ignore. That Krepp is going to be very difficult to manage.”

“Yes,” Zoke agreed. “Very difficult, but what is a portal? I’ve never heard this word.”

“Wait a moment, Zoke,” Annah said as she came close to Basen and squinted. “There’s something he’s not telling us.”

Unable to lie, Basen could think of only one thing to say. “And it has to stay between Fatholl and me.”

They grumbled their disapproval.

“Trust me,” Basen said, “it doesn’t matter to us anyway.”

This gave them all pause. The door swung open. Fatholl came through moving at a lively pace, forcing them to clear a path. As he walked past them, he narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at Basen.

“Remember our deal.”

Basen nodded as a stream of fear fell down his spine.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

After listing the different places he could make a portal to, Basen had begun wondering if he should transport their small army directly into the kitchen in Tenred’s castle. He’d trained there during the night when he’d lived in the castle, and it would put them right where they needed to be. It seemed far less risky than transporting them into the Fjallejon Mountains, where Abith’s army nearly had killed them. And going straight to Tenred would be much quicker than transporting them to the forest in Kilmar and then walking for a week.

He mentioned this to his party as they got settled on the floor in Vithos’ bedroom. He’d given them blankets that softened the wood enough for Basen to fall asleep easily if he let himself.

“Or we could ask Fatholl for horses instead of armor,” Cleve suggested. “Then we could ride to Tenred from Kilmar. It shouldn’t take longer than three days if the horses are strong.”

“They are not strong enough,” Vithos said. “Big male Krepps are too heavy to ride most horses, and with armor much more heavy. Even smaller Krepps cannot ride horses, because horses don’t like their stink.”

“All of them smell like that?” Basen asked. “I thought Rickik and Zoke just needed a bath.”

“No, they all stink,” Vithos said.

“It’s their natural musk,” Annah said. “It helps them identify a good mate.”

“I’d rather not think about them mating,” Basen said and let his gaze be drawn toward something refreshing.

Alabell lay close to him. Her eyes were magnetic, always drawing his focus whenever they faced each other. “Can you now tell us what you couldn’t say before?” she asked.

“I suppose I can now that Zoke isn’t around anymore. Fatholl has been using psyche frequently on the visitors he receives, mostly Krepps, I assume. I figured this out because I could make a portal at the entrance where I assumed most of the Krepps would stand whenever they’d meet with him, and it was unlikely a mage would practice there.”

“The Krepps wouldn’t like to hear that he’s breaking his promise,” Annah said.

“So you threatened him.” Cleve’s voice was tired, reminding Basen how weary he was himself.

“I suppose I did,” Basen said with a yawn.

“And then you promised you would return to him?” Cleve suddenly sounded incredulous.

“I didn’t see much of a choice.”

Vithos was surprisingly silent. Basen sat up for a glimpse at the Elf in his bed. He seemed to sense Basen staring and turned to face him.

“Did you know?” Basen asked.

“Of course. I use psyche on Krepps often, too. Tell no Krepps, or peace is gone.”

“I understand.”

So the situation at the village was much more delicate than it appeared. Basen couldn’t help but wonder if it figured into what Fatholl had planned. “Before he told me to come back in a week, he had me tell him all the places I could reach with portals. Vithos, do you know what he wants?”

“No, but I think I return with you in a week because I’m worried. Fatholl doesn’t like Krepps.”

“He made that quite clear,” Basen remarked. “But then why would he have armor made for them? They must’ve started forging it long before we got here to have enough for hundreds of Krepps.”

“A gift to get rid of them.” Vithos turned to face away from them and yawned audibly. “He hate Rickik and Rickik’s Krepps the most. Many Elves do. Fatholl wants them gone. We must be careful with them.”

“Then I’d rather not travel with them for a week,” Basen said. “I think we should go straight into Tenred’s castle. Cleve, what do you say?”

“It would save us time, but imagine how the people in the castle would react to hundreds of Krepps rushing through a portal.”

“I can, and the stinky lizards certainly won’t be greeted warmly.”

“Can you even hold the portal open long enough?” Cleve asked.

“I don’t know. If I can’t get everyone through the first portal, I’ll need to wait for the akorell stone to charge again, which, as we all sadly know, can take days.”

“Then the four of us will go first,” Cleve said, “followed by Rickik and as many Krepps as can make it. Annah and Vithos will be ready to calm anyone we encounter with psyche, though it might not be enough. If hundreds of Krepps were to suddenly appear within the Academy, I believe there would be a battle. Let’s hope it’s not the same in Tenred’s castle. We’re there to recruit allies, not make more enemies.”

No one spoke after that, and Basen slowly drifted to sleep.

*****

It had been a week since Sanya and her mother left Raywhite Forest. She’d decided to take Lori to the only place she could get to that wasn’t controlled by anyone who wanted to kill her: Gendock. Sanya didn’t know too much about the history of this small town on the western coast, just that it had the only docks in Ovira, for there weren’t many boats. Most who knew how to sail used their boats for fishing, not expeditions or transportation.

The town seemed quiet, and the people wanted no part of the war. On the way there, however, Sanya and Lori had been spotted by two of Tauwin’s patrolling men. Sanya killed them by paining them with psyche and then stabbing them in the heart. Even a week later, her mother still seemed to be horrified by Sanya’s actions.

Lori had tried to hide her disgust from Sanya at first, but she’d sensed it and eventually confronted her mother. The conversation that followed made Sanya want to cry and scream in anger every time she remembered it.

“What has Spiro turned you into?” Lori had asked.

“I’m still your daughter.” Sanya had to swallow to keep a sob from bubbling up. “Everything I’ve done is so we could be together.”

“I didn’t want that. I was at peace.” Her eyes drifted away from Sanya as if it was difficult to look at her. “I felt closer to you then than I do now.”

Sanya had walked ahead of her mother so Lori wouldn’t see her tears. She assumed Lori must’ve heard about Alex and Nick, likely from Effie, who wanted to hurt her. She’d always figured her mother would be the one person who’d understand what she had to do, but now she was discovering that even Lori found her to be despicable.

“Promise me you won’t kill anyone else,” Lori had said after a long silence.

Her mother’s words had brought on anger. “Tauwin’s men would’ve killed us if I hadn’t killed them!”

“I’ve seen how powerful you are. We could’ve escaped without taking their lives.”

“They might’ve seen which direction we went and reported it to Tauwin.” Sanya hated remembering this conversation. It had been a struggle not to scream. She hadn’t recalled Lori being naive like this, but it made sense. Lori hadn’t had a clue what to do about Spiro’s experiments on her daughters. Could it be she wasn’t as smart as Sanya had thought she was?

To even think this about her own mother made her feel sick. Lori had been perfect in Sanya’s memory—beautiful, caring, and loving. She was the opposite of Spiro. Were those memories flawed, or had putting Lori in Bliss’s body changed her?

When they arrived at Gendock, Sanya convinced an innkeeper that she and Lori were cousins of his. He let them take baths, fed them, and even let them stay the night. But by the next day, Sanya could sense that they’d taken too much from him and he was starting to become annoyed that they hadn’t offered any money. They left and quickly found work on a fishing boat after Sanya convinced the captain that she was good luck and would work the first day for free to prove it. Using psyche, it was easy to lure fish toward them, so the captain happily agreed to begin teaching her and Lori the ways of the ship.

But the pay wasn’t much, and Lori became more and more distant as the days dragged on. At least she no longer suffered headaches or confusion, though every conversation between her and Sanya was almost too grim to bear.

“Tell me something we used to do together,” Lori asked Sanya one night. They’d rented a cheap room at an inn that was just big enough for the two beds they lay on. It was a good thing they had no possessions, for there was hardly room to put them.

“You used to read to me every night. Remember?”

“I don’t.”

“What do you remember, then?”

“Not much. What I can recall doesn’t seem to be my memories. Like hurting people with psyche or using it on Tauwin in order for him to bed me.” She scoffed. “And secrets that my father told me—this woman’s father, I mean. I even remember planning with her father about how I’d steal Tauwin’s heart.” Lori sighed deeply. “I don’t even know who I am now.”

When Sanya had first put Lori in Bliss’ body, she could feel love between them no matter how confused or in pain Lori was. But now there was no love left.

Sanya had cried more in the last week than she had in the last year. This life wasn’t the one she’d planned. She was supposed to rule Kyrro, with her mother in her father’s body, offering guidance and love that Sanya had so desperately craved since she was a child. Now it seemed that she had a better chance that a rich and handsome prince would come to Ovira and whisk her away to Greenedge, where she had no enemies. She’d become one of the many simple-minded maidens she’d met in Tenred’s castle.

There was
one
realistic hope she could hold onto. The Takary supporting Tauwin from Greenedge should be coming to Kyrro sometime in the near future. He’d want to claim his stake in the territory, though he’d be unpleasantly surprised to find that Kyrro wasn’t taken in a day as promised and a war had begun instead. Sanya didn’t know what would happen between him and Tauwin, but getting involved was the only way of taking back the life she’d carved out for herself before Basen and Bliss had mucked it up.

And eventually the time came.

When she was out on the fishing boat, and the sky was so clear she could see ocean for hundreds of miles, she caught a glimpse of something far out on the water. Excitement bubbled up as she ran to grab the spyglass out of the captain’s hand. He made a comment, but she couldn’t hear him in that moment. She took a look.

A fleet of ships was sailing toward Kyrro, all of them enormous and beautifully designed. These were not fishermen.

She looked for a sign as to who came toward them. Then she found it—a maritime flag large and white, with wings as blue as the ocean.

Ulric Takary was coming. Everything was about to change.

END OF BOOK TWO

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