The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (77 page)

Marcus opened his mouth to ask her what she thought she was doing, but before one word slipped out, he thought better of it and just thanked his lucky stars neither of them had been hurt.

After Hayley had the other man’s hands secured behind his back, she reached around and took hold of the knife Marcus was holding to his throat. “You can let the knife go. I’ve got it.” When Marcus released it, she used the knife to prod him over near Sanju and settled him on the ground in front of Lance. After handing the knife to Lance, she went to Shel, who was sitting in the snow rocking back and forth, cradling Evan in her arms and crying as if her heart were broken.

Hayley knelt down beside her and asked if she was hurt.

Shel shook her head. “Not me, but I think Gorge is dead. They hit him so hard,” she said as she dissolved into tears again.

Hayley put her arm around the distraught woman. “Maybe he’s just unconscious. I’ll check on him in a minute, but let me make sure Evan’s not hurt first, all right?” Shel slowly handed Evan to Hayley.

While Hayley was checking Evan, Marcus sensed an arrow closing in fast on his back. Without turning, he used an outstretched hand to grab the arrow and hold it motionless in the air. At the same time, he used his seeing eye to search for any other arrows. He grabbed two more in mid-flight, one headed for Thom and the other for Lance. With the immediate threat eliminated, he scanned the woods and found the archers behind a shed fifty feet away. Using another outstretched hand, Marcus scooped them up, bows and all, lifted them over the shed, and plopped them down between the other two captives.

By the time Marcie got them tied up, the other three men who lived in the settlement had converged on the field fully armed and, along with Thom and Lance, encircled the slavers.

Marcus looked at Sanju. “Is that all?”

Sanju nodded. “That’s all of us that came on the raid.”

Marcus frowned. “Do you mean there are more somewhere else?”

Sanju shrugged. “I don’t know. None of us do. We only know about our part. What happens after we capture them has nothing to do with us. We don’t know who else is involved, or how many.”

“Capture us?” Lance frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Capture who?” Thom asked at the same time.

“All of you,” Sanju answered.

“But why?” Thom asked.

“To sell!” Sanju said.

“You mean as slaves?” one of the other men from the settlement asked, trying to make sense of it all.

Sanju sneered at him. “What did you think was going on here?”

“I can’t believe this,” Thom said quietly. “Slavers? Here?”

Marcus continued scanning, searching for anyone who might be hiding, watching. While he was looking, Marcie stepped over beside him and whispered, “I can’t believe what you just did. That was amazing. I had no idea you were that good.”

Marcus glanced at his sister with a hint of a grin. “I told you. I’m better than I was six months ago.”

While Marcie was nodding in agreement, a faint shift in light caught Marcus’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man suddenly appear. Using his seeing eye, he zoomed in for a closer look. At the same instant the key in the man’s hand registered with Marcus, the man realized his slavers had been captured by a sorcerer. Before Marcus had time to think, he reached out with an outstretched hand and grabbed the man right as the man turned the key to get out of there.

With another faint flash of light, they were both gone.

~ ~ ~ ~

Several years back, when Marcus was quite a bit younger, he’d ridden a stallion bareback with nothing to hold onto but the horse’s mane. He’d managed to hang on for about thirty seconds before being tossed fifteen feet through the air. That experience paled in comparison to his trip through the energy field tethered to the person holding the key by a thin strand of magical energy.

His first clue he was out of the energy field was when he slammed into a rock wall. He fell to the cold clammy floor and bounced a couple of times before landing in a shallow pool of murky water. He was on the brink of losing consciousness when his survival instincts kicked in. If he wanted to live, he had to get the key and get out of there.

Through the fog of semi-consciousness, Marcus held onto the guy with the key. He was trying to open his eyes when he heard voices in the distance, some laughing, some angry, all of them loud. He shook his head and forced his vision to clear.

He was in a big, dark cavern with only one door, and the man with the key was doing his best to get through that door. Marcus groaned with the effort, but he formed a second hand and snatched the key out of the man’s grasp. The second the key was actually in Marcus’s hand, he released the man, pictured Kevin’s office, and left for home.

Chapter 64

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Marcus tried to stay on his feet when he got to Kevin’s office, but after knocking over two chairs and breaking the leg off a third, he gave up and crumpled to the floor.

The crash of Marcus’s arrival brought Brandon running. By the time he made it to Kevin’s office, Marcus was lying on his back with his eyes shut, struggling to breathe. His tunic and leggings were torn, soaking wet, and splattered with blood. His bare feet were red and splotchy, and blood was running down his face from a gash along his hairline. Brandon knelt beside him and shook his shoulder. “Marcus? Marcus!”

“Myron,” Marcus muttered. “Get Myron.” Then he drifted back into a semi-conscious state.

Brandon ran to the stairs where Rupert stood guard. “Go get Myron. And get Chris, too. Marcus is in Myron’s office and he’s in bad shape.” Brandon turned, said, “We need a sister,” and ran off to find someone to send to the chapel.

Rupert ran upstairs, knocked on Kevin’s door, opened it, and called out to him.

Kevin jerked awake, sat up in bed, and rubbed his face. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Rupert answered. “All I know is Marcus is in your office and he’s injured.”

“He’s hurt?” Kevin asked as he climbed out of bed and grabbed the first tunic he could find.

“That’s what Brandon said. I haven’t seen him myself,” Rupert explained. “Brandon’s going to send for a sister. Shall I wake Chris?”

“Please,” Kevin said, pulling his boots on. “I’ll be in my office.”

While Rupert woke Chris, Kevin ran down the stairs to his office. Marcus was right where Brandon had left him. Kevin knelt down beside his friend. Marcus looked like he’d been beaten up, but no one should have been able to do this to him, not even another sorcerer. If he’d been in a duel, he’d either be okay or a pile of ashes. He would not look like he’d gone three rounds with a berserk dwarf. Kevin gently shook his shoulder. “Marcus?”

Marcus slowly opened his eyes. When he saw Kevin, he opened his hand.

As soon as Kevin saw the key, his hand flew to the chain under his tunic. Both of his keys were right where they were supposed to be. “Where did you get that?”

“From the slavers,” Marcus wheezed as he handed the key to Kevin. He shook his head, tried to clear his throat, and gasped, “Water?”

Kevin stood up and turned to go find some water, but Chris was standing behind him with a glass of water in his hand. “Rupert said he’d been hurt. Water was all I could come up with right away,” Chris said as he handed Kevin the glass, “but I asked Rupert to send someone for coffee. We should have some soon.”

Kevin knelt back down and lifted Marcus’s shoulders off the floor while he drank half the glass. “That’s enough for now.” Kevin moved the glass away. “You can have some more in a minute.”

Marcus nodded and leaned forward, dropping his head over his legs. “Let me catch my breath and I’ll tell you about the last hour.”

Kevin rocked back on his heels and shot a relieved look at Chris. “See if you can find him some dry clothes and maybe some boots.”

While Chris was gone, Brandon arrived with a carafe of coffee and a tray full of mugs. “I wasn’t sure how many people would end up in here before the night’s over.” He set the tray down on Kevin’s desk. “There’s more coffee if you need it. Just let me know. I’ll be right outside the door. And I sent Josef to the chapel to get Sister Theresa. She should be here soon.”

“Thanks,” Kevin said as he stood up. “Would you send someone to ask Gen. Crandal and Darrell to meet us in here as soon as they can? And if you see any other guards out there, ask them to see if they can scrounge up some food, maybe some cheese, bread, something for four or five people.”

After Brandon left, Kevin poured himself a cup of coffee and asked Marcus if he’d like some. Marcus nodded and started to get up, but Kevin stopped him. “No. Stay put for a few minutes.” He poured Marcus half a cup and handed it to him.

Marcus took the cup in both hands and sipped the coffee.

“You said something about slavers.”

Marcus nodded.

“Was anyone hurt?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t see any injuries, but things were happening pretty fast. I didn’t see everyone who lives there, so I don’t know. They might have been hurt or they might have been staying out of the way.”

“Is anyone in danger from the slavers? Right now?”

Marcus shook his head. “At least I don’t think so. They weren’t when I grabbed the guy with the key. We had the slavers captured, at least all I could find.”

“All right. As long as they’re not in any immediate danger, we’ll wait for the others to get here before you tell me what happened. But we need to get you checked out and into some dry clothes first.”

Marcus nodded. “Dry clothes would be nice, but I’m not hurt. I just had the wind knocked out of me and got a few scratches. Nothing major. But I want to get back there as soon as I can and check on things.”

“Hayley’s there, right?”

Marcus nodded again.

“She has her pendant. We’ll get there as soon as we can, but in the meantime, don’t worry. They’ll be fine.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin might think everything was fine in Bridgeport, but Hayley wasn’t so sure. She’d just given Evan back to his mother when Marcus vanished. Marcie screamed and burst into tears, thinking her brother had just been killed, but Hayley wasn’t so sure. He was definitely gone though, and that left her with a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Hayley walked slowly towards Marcie, studying the ground as she went. There were no ashes. The snow was clean. When she got there, she put her arm around Marcie. “He’s not dead, Marcie. He’s not dead.”

Marcie struggled to catch her breath and looked at Hayley with questioning eyes.

“Look,” Hayley motioned towards the ground. “No ashes. If it was an energy bolt, there’d be ashes.”

Marcie frowned and fought to control her tears. “Are you sure?”

Hayley nodded. “I’ve seen both Marcus and Myron toss bolts at a lot of things, tree trunks, rocks, things like that, and no matter how hard the bolts hit, there’s always debris. With a person, it would be ashes, and there are no ashes. Besides, when an energy bolt gets tossed, there’s a bright flash, like lightning. I didn’t see one, did you?”

Marcie shook her head.

“Then Marcus wasn’t hit by an energy bolt. He’s not dead.”

“So what happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Hayley said as she looked around, “but it looked like a key to me.”

“But only seated sorcerers have keys.”

“They let other people use them sometimes. I know Myron lets Chris use his. Marcus has used it before, too.”

“But how did it take Marcus?”

“I don’t know,” Hayley said, still looking around, “unless he had hold of whoever had the key when they used it.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing we can do but wait and see what happens. I bet he’ll be back soon, but even if he doesn’t make it back here tonight, Myron’ll be here tomorrow. He’ll figure it out. He’ll find Marcus.”

Tears crept down Marcie’s cheeks, but she’d stopped sobbing.

Hayley swallowed hard to keep from crying herself. She wasn’t nearly as sure Marcus was safe as she sounded. She shook her head. There was nothing she could do to help him right now but there were other people here who did need her help.

Hayley squared her shoulders and held her head up. “I’ve got to check on Shel’s husband. She said he’d been hit pretty hard. Why don’t you make sure your children and Marissa are all right?”

Shel’s living room was a mess. A couple of chairs were turned over and remnants of something that looked like it had once been an end table were scattered over the floor. Gorge, Shel’s husband, was lying under the rubble.

Hayley knelt beside him and watched as his chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. There was a little blood, mostly around his head but also on one arm. Hayley wasn’t certain, but it looked like someone had bashed him over the head with the end table. That would explain the cuts and knot on his head and the gash down his arm. And it would also explain why he was on the floor, unconscious, with bits of the table on top of him.

She removed the splintered wood fragments and used her hand to close the cuts on his head and arm. Then she went to work on the lump on the side of his head.

A few minutes later, Gorge’s eyes fluttered open. He groaned and tried to sit up.

“No, lie still,” Hayley said softly as she felt his muscles tense. “Your wife and son are fine.” She showed him her pendant. “I’m a sister, and I’m trying to ease the pounding in your head. Give me another minute or two and we’ll get you back with your family.” Gorge’s eyes slowly closed and Hayley saw a faint nod. “Good. Now just relax,” Hayley whispered and went back to work on the swollen contusion.

Before she was done with Gorge, Rayne burst through the front door. “Hayley, Mother said to tell you to come to the house as soon as you can. Marissa’s water broke!”

Hayley’s mouth fell open. She shook her head and said, “No, she’s not due for another couple of weeks,” as she kept working on Gorge. “It’s got to be a mistake. Maybe she got excited and wet herself.”

Rayne shrugged. “All I know is Mother said you need to hurry!”