Sytravious: The Lost Warlock Of Moruz (The Oathbreaker Book 1) (29 page)

              “After everything Fheng has done to you, you still love him?”  He could not hide his contempt. 

              Nyxseous shook her head, and managed a small smile.  “No; your true father, Nysight.”  Her eyes glazed over, and her last tears dropped down her cheeks.

              Raiven sat behind the royal stables and hugged her knees to her chest.  She was getting anxious since it had been just over an hour, yet Sytravious was not there to meet her.  Then to make matters worse, there was a massive distress signal going on in the city.  She overheard the elite guard was going to be dispatched to the mid and lower districts.  If Raiven had understood correctly, then the city was under attack by Moruz legionnaires.  She needed to escape in the commotion, before anyone discovered she was missing from her chambers.

She had taken some measures to hide the fact that she was gone by leaving a lump of clothes under her blankets in an attempt to appear as if she was still sleeping.  She also left her nightgown hanging on her bedpost, in hopes that anyone who checked on her would be hesitant to remove her covers.  However, with the city on high alert, it was only a matter of time before they tried to wake her to be moved to a secure area.  Raiven glanced around the corner of the stable, searching left and right for her love, but he was still nowhere to be seen.  Where was he?

              She jumped back and held her breath when she heard the sounds of boots rushing past the stables.  Raiven could tell it was the guardian patrol yelling out to someone at the gate.  The shouts were inaudible, but it sounded like an order to halt.  She wondered who would dare try to enter the temple so late with the city under attack.  Then at that moment, the sounds stopped and were replaced with silence.

              Raiven strained to listen for the guardians, but it appeared as if they had left.  Panic rose in her throat and her heart pounded faster.  Daring one more peek, she poked her head around the corner ever so carefully, and stared down the path leading to the gate.  There he was, walking towards her, but Sytravious looked much different from when she had last seen him.  He was covered in dirt or blood.  She could not tell. 

She gasped and rushed out to meet him.  Sytravious glanced up and waited for her to reach him, before falling into her arms and embracing her.  Raiven could feel his heart racing.  She held him out at an arm’s length and realized it
was
blood all over his clothes, but before she could cry out, Sytravious placed his hand over her mouth and directed her back behind the stables.  Raiven was terrified, but followed his lead.  When she eyed him once more, she realized he did not have his bag packed, and her stomach felt as if it dropped.

              She whispered, unable to hide the distress in her voice.  “My love, what is wrong?  Where is your bag?  Why are you covered in blood?  What happened to you?”

He ignored her barrage of questions and said, “Are you prepared to leave?  Our window of opportunity is small.  It will not be long until they arrive here.”

She was confused, but nodded her head and held up her bag full of her belongings.  Sytravious seemed relieved to see she was indeed ready, and returned to scanning the area around the temple and the gate.

“You have not answered me.  What is happening out there?  Were you involved in the attack?  Why have the other guardians not joined the fight?”  Raiven blurted out, without giving him a chance to reply.

Sytravious held his finger to his lips, instructing her to remain quiet.  Tears filled his sad eyes, as he struggled to get the words out, and when she saw his reaction, she knew it had to be bad, and her loving instinct made her throw her arms around him.  He accepted her comfort and clung to her robes tightly.

“They killed my mother,” he muttered, keeping his face buried in her chest.

Raiven’s eyes widened in horror.  “Who killed her?  How could this happen?  I am so sorry, Sytravious.  Vesalys will be with her now.”  Tears streamed from her own eyes.

“Assassins from the First Legion of Moruz.  They are in the city, and they killed her, so I killed them.”

“What?  Sytravious, I do not understand.  Should we get Jezra?”  She tried to stand up and leave, but he held her back and shook his head.

“Jezra cannot help us now.  Nobody here can.  Raiven, we have to get out of here.  Once we do that, I promise I will explain everything.  We have to go now though, because if we stay here after tonight, we will never be allowed to be together.  Trust me.”

Raiven could see the worry in his face as she tried to put together what he was saying.  This was becoming the craziest night of her life thus far, and as scared as she was, looking into his eyes only further grounded her resolve to stay with him.  Without another moment of hesitation, she smiled and kissed him.

“Tell me what to do,” she replied.

Sytravious breathed out a sigh of relief.  “Thank you so much.  You will never know how much this means to me.  We have little time to waste, but I need a change of clothes.  I cannot travel like this…covered in my mother’s blood.”  His voice cracked and was full of emotion.

She squeezed his hand and sighed.  “The remaining guardians are on a double patrol.  There is no doubt that they will see and stop you.  No one besides Jezra or Vienken will question my movements within the temple, and they must be sleeping.  I will go to your room.”

He looked as if he was struggling with the idea.  “Fine, but be careful.  My room is the last one on the right of the dormitory hall.  There is a sack of gold at the bottom of my bed, hidden under my cloak.  Please grab both on your way out.  I will wait here.”

Raiven turned and ran toward the temple.  She managed to sneak inside without being seen or heard.  She slipped into the dormitory hall, stopping every so often to make sure no one was around.  With several hours before dawn, she hoped they could get away in time.  Raiven approached the last door on the left, ready to open it before pausing. 
Wait, or was it the right?

She hesitated, unsure of her next move.  How could she have forgotten so soon?  Her mind was filled with different thoughts at once, and could not recall all of Sytravious’ instructions.  Thinking as hard as she could, she decided to go with her instinct and crept into the room on the left.

From his bed, Bryce locked his stare on her.  Raiven froze, embarrassed and unsure of what to say.  The two stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity.  However, after a minute, a booming snore came from the guardian’s mouth while his blank eyes looked in her direction.  Raiven waved her hand up and down, and when she did not get any reaction from Bryce, she realized he was sleeping with his eyes open.  Raiven backtracked out the room and breathed a sigh of relief as she let the door close with a soft thud.

If her heart beat any harder, it might pop right out of her chest onto the floor.  She dashed across the hall and into the room on the right this time and closed the door behind her.  Raiven cupped her hands together and whispered a spell.  A small orb of white light floated into the room and illuminated the empty space.  She was pleased to discover that finding his items was an easy task, as he was a very neat and organized person.  She snatched some clothes for him, along with his cloak, and threw them in a cloth bag he had hanging from his bed.  Beneath the clothes in the trunk, Sytravious indeed had a bag of gold coins.  Raiven added them to his items before extinguishing her orbed light.

              Not much time had passed since she left Sytravious to wait for her.  Their plan was going to work out after all!  After she delicately closed his door behind her, she turned around and bumped right into Vienken.  Raiven gasped and held Sytravious’ bag against her chest.  The old dwarf glowered at her.  His small arms were crossed, and his cheeks were crimson.  He seemed so angry, she thought he might it explode. 

“Young lady, you should
not
be down here, much less in a guardian’s room!”

              “I…I…I was only checking on him,” she stammered.  “Nothing happened!  I swear it upon Vesalys’ holy name.”  She was so overwhelmed with anxiety, she had to lean on the wall for support because she felt as if she would faint right there in the hall.

              “You do not sound very convincing, Raiven.”  He narrowed his eyes at her.  “What is really going on?  What is that you have got in your hands?  Give it here right now.”

              She yanked the bag away from him, in a panic about what to do.  His mouth dropped open in astonishment, and he seized the bag from her grip.  Vienken began examining the contents of the sack with a look of distress upon his face.  She groaned and a tear fell down her cheek.

              “Why is this in your possession?  Is our newest guardian going somewhere?”  He raised an eyebrow as he questioned her.

              “No---I mean--- Um, I do not know,” she muttered.

              The dwarf shook his head in disapproval.  “I have covered for you once before.  I see now that was a mistake.  This incident
will
be reported to the high priestess, since you seem incapable of obeying my rules.  Now, I will escort you back to your quarters.  Come on.”

              “She does not want to go anywhere with you,” Sytravious said in a gruff voice.

              Vienken jumped, startled by the unexpected interruption.  “Huh?  Where did you come from?  I should have dealt with you the first time you dared invade the priestess’ privacy.  You clearly have deceived all of us, but I know your
true
intentions in this temple.”  He blocked the path to Raiven from Sytravious as best he could.

              “My intentions have been, and always will be, to do whatever is in Raiven’s best interest.”  Sytravious said.

              Vienken chuckled and reached into the pocket of his robe.  “Her best interests are with the temple, so that she may be protected from the likes of you.”

              Sytravious burst out into sarcastic laughter as he pointed to Raiven.  “You mean the very same temple that will auction her off to the highest bidder.  How blind and foolish can the High Priest really be?  Open your eyes!  Jezra has been trying to bargain Raiven off to any man who can assist with her own ambitions for power over the country.  This temple is a farce!”

              The dwarf pulled out a small silver rod and pointed it at Sytravious, while holding out his other hand to keep Raiven back.  “I have no intention of listening to your twisted lies.  This temple has more virtue and integrity than to waste time being caught up in political nonsense.  You would be wise to leave this place alone, Sytravious.  You do not want to make me use this.”  Vienken jabbed the rod toward him.

              “What are you going to do with that little thing?  Beat me with it?”  Sytravious smirked at the dwarf.

              “Master Vienken, he is telling the truth.  Jezra did make a deal with Sytravious for my hand, but only after he helps her destroy King Lucas and Kenshiro,” Raiven asserted.

              Vienken looked back to Raiven, an internal struggle was written on his face as he contemplated her words.  Without another word, the dwarf summoned his power into the rod and fired a bolt of electricity at the young man, hitting him square in the chest.

              Raiven shrieked as Sytravious slammed into the wall and then collapsed to the floor.  Her instructor appeared nervous.  His hand shook while holding the rod, keeping it aimed at Sytravious.              

              “He gave me no choice.  You must not let your foolish heart overcome your common sense, Raiven.  The man is nothing but trouble!”

              Raiven ran to Sytravious’ and screamed at her instructor, “He is not trouble.  This forsaken temple is trouble!  Now, get away from him.”

              Vienken aimed his rod at her.  She knew he was desperate to try to stop her from making a terrible mistake, but was unsure if he actually had the heart to fire a spell at her.  It was something she would never find out because a massive fist clubbed the back of the dwarf’s head, knocking him unconscious.  Bryce stared down at Vienken with a look of anger and worry on his face.  She had not noticed when the guardian emerged, but was grateful Bryce wasted little time striking Vienken down. 

Frantic, Raiven was already placing a healing charm over Sytravious’ chest, when she noticed an unfamiliar amulet he was wearing around his neck.  He groaned and gently brushed her hands aside, before getting back on his feet.  She was bewildered to see he was unscathed, as that spell was meant to injure most men.