Sorcerer Rising (A Virgil McDane Novel) (51 page)

The left side of her face was burned, melted like dried wax.

The Widow Queen stroked my chin, her eyes filled with lust and hunger. “Hello, Virgil,” she said, and God help me, my body responded to her voice. “I never dreamed that I might have a chance to see you again. To hold you, to…
taste
…you.”

An islander ran into the room, spear and magic ready. She frowned. “A moment, my treat.”

She moved past me, toward the creature. She waved a graceful hand, perfectly sculpted red nails glinting in the light, and gossamer web manifested around the islander, dragging him to the ground. She pounced on him, her jaw unhinging, and with a scream of ecstasy, bit into his skull and ripped out a chunk.

She stood, smoothing back her hair, the fine muscles of her body rippling as she played with her mane.

“Now,” she said, licking the blood from her lips. “Where were we?”

She walked back to me, and I swear, if her hips had been any looser her legs would have fallen off. She looked into my eyes and I felt all sensation leave my body.

This was the end, and it was good.

She pressed her lips against mine. They tasted of strawberries and blood
and pleasure swept through me.

There was a crack of silence and small, purple ball tore through her stomach, throwing her back from me. She screamed as she fell back, dispelling the enchantment of sex that reeked in the air. I stood around like an idiot for a moment, staring at my numb left hand, at Oath Maker’s smoking barrel.

Then it hit me.

Thanks, Al!
I thought.

Just remember that the next time you talk about my getting distracted by someone’s ass.

The Widow Queen was holding her stomach, her eyes staring dagger into me. I raised my wand, the tip burning brightly.

And she smiled. “Go ahead,” she whispered. “See what you can do.”

I took a breath. I’d thrown around more magic in the past ten minutes than I had in the past four years. That kind of pace would kill me if I wasn’t careful. My body ached all over, my head was swimming, and I was bleeding from more places than I could count. I was pretty sure my hand was broken and there was no telling what Ectan’s treatment had done to my mind.

But she was bleeding in front of me. I could take her. End her. Finally. After all this time.

I sighed and lowered the wand. There was always a trap with the Widow, always a seduction. She was one of the most powerful things to ever come from the Aether. A single shot didn’t make her any helpless than it would have a dragon or a god.

I turned and ran from the temple as quick as I could. All I know is that the scent of sea foam had all but disappeared, replaced by the scent of blood.

CHAPTER THIRTY

I did three things
when I got back to Mare.

I’ll get to those in a moment.

We waited outside the cloud, making sure both the cloud and the Arcus faded. After that we made sure nothing was left on the island and prepared to leave. It was an uneventful trip back, most of it spent resting and caring for the injured.

Dorne was…different. Whatever the Kira Nui had done to him, it had scarred him. Bad. It wasn’t quite a
Brand, but his body, and his magic, would never be the same. His right arm no longer worked and he could hardly walk.

We worked together what we were going to tell people. There would be attention, not all of it good. He wasn’t concerned about himself, mainly because he was going to avoid it. He advised me to do much the same.

I did show him what was left of Arne. He shook his head at the device and said he wouldn’t tell anyone. Neither of us had much hope for the woman who had essentially died to make it work. Neither one of us knew how it worked and it was cracked from end to end where Oath Maker had struck. If the spirit truly was bound to the object, she was stuck for now.

Then he threatened to sic every Guild
house in the world on me if I ever had the thing marketed.                           

The first thing I did on returning to Mare was pay a visit to my employer. To be honest, I hadn’t expected to survive that confrontation, so the other two came as a surprise and were spur of the moment.

I stood outside the building, in an alleyway. I had watched, had paid Priscilla a visit as well, so I knew that both Aberland and Deaton took this route. They often left late, often together. Deaton lived in the building next to Aberland’s and they often shared a car.

I stepped out of the alleyway as the lead car drove by. I pointed my wand at that car and threw out a wave of force, flipping it over on its back. I then cast a wave of energy, instantly fusing the metal of the car doors for anyone who hadn’t been knocked unconscious.

I stood in the middle of the road as Cyrus’s car pulled up. The driver jumped out, gun trained on me. I snapped the wand and he flew ten feet away, landing with a thud.

Then Cyrus stepped out of the car. The person I wanted. The person who had sent us to our death.

I pointed my wand at him. “Ever heard of a Kira Nui?” I asked. I tried to make it sound calm, but my voice was rough, raspy.

He was who they had been looking for. Why else would he have sent us? Why else with a machine of his own design, made and programmed specifically to steal his home world. Maybe they got too bold, maybe he feared for his life, maybe he just thought he could do better. But he had sent his agent to get what he wanted, knew exactly what we were getting into, all for his own greed.

“Mr. McDane,” he said, surprise in his tone. “My men had not reported that you had returned. I fear that the expedition was not a success?”

“You damn well know it wasn’t,” I said, the tip of the wand glowing red. “You knew exactly what you were sending us to.”

Deaton popped his head up out of the car. “Oh!” he exclaimed, going for something in his coat pocket. I wasn’t as gentle as with the guard. The bolt I sent at him not only threw him thirty feet, it blew off the car door and a put a foot wide divot in the pavement.

“I want answers!” I screamed, waving the wand back at Aberland. “You escaped, you figured out how to survive outside of the Aether. Then what?” I asked, my vision blurring. “You wanted it back? You wanted the power?”

“Mr. McDane,” he said. “I am quite sure I do not know what you are talking about.”

I was watching Aberland’s eyes as I screamed at him, and I suddenly realized that he was telling the truth. By and far there was no fear, and absolutely no sympathy, but there was genuine confusion.

A bolt of blue energy slammed into my shoulder and the left side of my body went numb. The wand dropped from my fingers and I fell to the ground, landing on my side.

Ambrose Deaton, his human form melting away to reveal that of the Kira Nui, was walking toward me, his eyes filled with rage. He held a rod in one hand, made from coral and some type of crab. A large pincher protruded from the stone, glowing brightly. He turned and zapped Aberland, throwing him to the ground, before returning his attention to me.

“They were children,” he hissed. “Primitives. They sent me out into the world like we were gods, but I saw what you were capable of. I saw your magic, your technology. I left and never looked back. I went to Ander, built my own partition. For the first time my mind was my own and I could survive.”

“Then why?” I asked. “Why go back? Why send us into that place?”

“Because they didn’t deserve it!” he shouted, jabbing at me with the rod. “They had a dragon’s horde worth of magic, a thousand worlds worth of knowledge and they used it to get bigger fish! To have the best hut! It was mine because I was the best to use it!”

“So you stole a woman’s soul!” I said. “Murdered a woman to power a machine so that you could destroy a whole world. Sent a hundred people to die, so you could what? Get a corner office?”

He looked over his shoulder, a smug smile on his face. “It’ll be my company now. With the power of that partition, it will be my nation. Where’s Arne? I want what’s mine! If you survived than so did he!”

I laughed. “Your toaster is rusting in a Nidian swamp right now, you son of a bitch! Your whole world fell apart as spiders devoured it.”

“W-What?” he asked, but I just laughed.

He knelt down and wrapped his fingers around my head. Again, a searing pain,
one I was becoming much too familiar with, wracked my mind.

This time it was capped with the distinct pleasure of watching the horror play across the bastard’s face. I hadn’t let him see it all, just me destroying his toy. And his world.

“That’s right,” I said. “Fuck you, fuck your robot, and fuck your world.”

“NO!”
he roared, the rod surging with power. “I will destroy you! I will flay your mind for a thousand years! I will-?”

He was cut off suddenly, his voice clicking as he struggled to draw in breath. He levitated off the ground, his back bending until there was a
loud snap. He gasped in pain, choking in pain as his heels touched the back of his head.

Aberland walked around his car, his hand extended, a deep scarlet light emanating from his palm. “I think not, Ambrose.” Deaton choked out a shocked response, but Aberland paid him little heed, closing his fingers and causing the fish man to bend over greater. “I am afraid that your services will no longer be required.” Then he waved his hand, and Ambrose Deaton turned to dust, blown away in the midnight air.

Aberland turned to me, tilting his head to the side. “If I help you off the ground, I expect this story to go no farther. Otherwise, you will simply disappear.”

I nodded.

He placed his hand against my shoulder and the numbness vanished. I could hear cars coming our way, most likely Aberland’s men. He helped me up, then motioned to his car.

“Allow me to give you a ride, Mr. McDane.”

I sat across from him, a glass of whisky in my hand.

While his driver took me to my destination, I told him about the trip. I didn’t want to, didn’t want to talk about it and certainly not to this man, whatever he was, but I told him just about everything. He took it all in, watching me with deep, dark eyes, the
thing within stirring as it listened.

“Fascinating,” he said. “I never would have thought.”

“What did you think?” I asked. “You knew about Deaton. You knew something.”

“Yes, I did,” he replied. “I knew that Ambrose was up to something, and much more than he claimed, as soon as he came to me about the Arcus.”

“He came to you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “He said it would be a good opportunity for the company. I had known since I hired him that he was more than he seemed, but I am a patient man. I knew that if I waited long enough he would reveal himself and I would know his true merit.”

“So you sent off a whole expedition, knowing that we were in danger?” I asked, my voice growing heated.

“Yes,” he said again. “And you knew it as well. You all did. Neither of us knew the extent, and you may not have known the details, but you knew the risk involved.”

“Why? Why not just call him on his farce?”

“I wanted to know what he was after,” he said. “And I wanted what he was using. Arne was an amazing device. I wanted that technology. Imagine, the ability to take fro
m the Aether without the Guild, without a mage at all!”

My blood ran cold. “You have more?”

“Alas, no,” he said. “Ambrose did not work from any plans. And he sent the prototype away.” He narrowed his eyes. “You did tell Ambrose the truth?”

“Like I said, he’s rusting in some swamp somewhere. He was programmed to kill anyone who got in his way. I had no choice.”

Aberland smiled. “Oh well,” he said wistfully. “Either way, it was a fruitful endeavor. We both learned things.” He reached into his jacket pocket. I flinched, but he simply pulled out his check book. He wrote out a check, tore it cleanly from the book, and handed it to me.

“I don’t want your money.”

“Yes,” he replied. “You do. You did not expect it, you thought I was whatever he was, so you did not expect to get anything. But now you want it.”             

I shook my head. “What are you?” I asked.

He smiled. “Something…else. Something from another time. We all have our secrets, Mr. McDane. It doesn’t matter. Take your pay, you earned it.”

I took the check. Think what you will.

The car stopped and he let me out. “I have need of men like you, Mr. McDane. And if I am correct, you came back even more capable than when you left.”

I shook my head. “No offense, but I think I am safer outside of your employment.”

“Very well,” he said. “What will you do now?”

“Maybe start my own business,” I said. “Now that I have the resources to compete.” In more ways than one.

He smiled that same hungry smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Mr. McDane.” Then he shut the door and they drove off.             

Secondly, I stopped to see my uncle.

I walked into his office, past his Wizards, past his secretary, past anyone and everyone who had kept me out before.