All Spell Breaks Loose

Chapter 7

“I am glad you are home.”

“Are you?”

“I am.” Her half smile came tinged with sadness. “Though if I were not, could you blame me?”

Tam didn’t hesitate. “No.”

No one said anything for one long and very awkward minute. At least. Anything I could have said wouldn’t even have put a knick in the tension in that air, so I kept my mouth shut. And yes, it is possible.

I didn’t need any kind of link with Tam or to be a mind reader to hear the words between the words. Tam had hinted over the years at the damage done to his family when he embraced black magic, and again when he’d been forced to flee Regor after his wife’s murder.

Wordlessly, Tam gave the bottle of port back to Barrett and walked slowly toward his mother, stopping just out of arm’s reach. Wise man.

“I have shamed my family, my family name, and the ancestors who gave it to me,” Tam said. “I do not expect nor deserve forgiveness for my choices and actions. I have come home to offer my service, my devotion, and my life if need be. I only ask that you would do me the honor of accepting it.”

Lady Deidre Nathrach took one step toward her son and, for a few silent moments, did nothing. Then she gently put her hands on either side of Tam’s face, drew his forehead down to her lips, and kissed him softly. With a trembling sigh, she touched her forehead to his.

Tam’s breath shuddered.

I sniffed. A couple of others sniffed from the shadows.

Tam’s arms remained by his side, and he bowed his head farther.

Deidre Nathrach’s hands dropped from Tam’s head to his shoulders, wrapping her arms around her son in a fierce embrace. With a soft cry, Tam returned the embrace, lifting his mother’s feet off of the floor.

“Candle smoke,” Nath said, noticing my sniff. “There’s no accounting for cheap wax.”

I dabbed at my eyes. “So that’s what it is.”

Deidre released Tam, but their heads remained close, whispers between a mother and son that no one else needed to hear.

When they parted, Tam introduced Mychael, Piaras, and me. No doubt, Lady Nathrach knew Imala and Prince Chigaru.

Once again, he stopped when he got to Talon.

Talon was standing in the shadows, as close to the door we’d come in as possible. Tam glanced at him and winked. The kid didn’t move. If he hadn’t still been standing upright with his eyes open, I’d have said he’d quit breathing. Tam seemed confident of his mother’s reaction to a half-breed grandson. Talon was only going to believe it when he heard and saw it.

“Remember when I was eighteen and went to Brenir for the summer?” Tam asked his mother.

“How could I forget?” Deidre said. “A few of your more memorable antics nearly caused an inter-kingdom incident.”

“That’s not all,” Tam said.

Terrified or not, Talon’s sense of drama wouldn’t let him pass up an entrance line like that. “He got an unexpected souvenir.”

Talon’s bravado ended there. Oh, he still stood straight and tall, his trademark devil-may-care expression on his face, but the truth was that Talon did care. Nath had accepted him readily enough, but Lady Deidre Nathrach was a woman whose opinion and regard Tam clearly cherished. Tam had accepted Talon, risking his reputation, high social standing, and even his life to protect him.

Talon was terrified of losing all of it.

Terrified that if Deidre Nathrach rejected him, Tam might be forced to do the same. I knew it was ridiculous, but what was running through Talon’s mind right now had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with keeping his knees from knocking together.

Tam’s mother didn’t move. “Come closer,” she told Talon.

Talon did. Reluctantly. He’d been standing in the shadows. Between him and his new grandmother was light, not a lot of it, but enough. Deidre noted Talon’s light skin and his aquamarine eyes. He inclined his head to her and clearly thought about leaving it there. But he took a breath, raised his head, and unflinchingly met his grandmother’s sharp eyes.

She spoke to Tam, but her eyes stayed on Talon. “Is he impulsive, stubborn, arrogant, and believes himself irresistible to women and impervious to death?”

Whoa, that sounded familiar. I bit my bottom lip to stop a grin.

Tam suddenly looked like a schoolboy who’d been caught doing all of the above. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And how much trouble does he either create for himself or attract on a daily basis?”

“All of it.”

Deidre looked at Talon, her lips curling slowly into a crooked smile. “If that is the case, you are most definitely your father’s son.” She turned to Tam and smiled until her fangs showed. “Payback is indeed hell, isn’t it?” she all but purred.

Tam sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“I’m quite certain that I will be finding out.”

Tam gave his son “the look.” “You won’t find out because there will be nothing to see since Talon will be on uncharacteristically perfect behavior. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” Talon replied without hesitation.

The kid’s eyes had a twinkle that didn’t bode well for any promises, stated or implied. Tam had merely asked Talon if he’d understood him. The kid understood just fine; it didn’t mean he was going to do it.

It wasn’t like Tam to not cover all contingencies. Seeing his mom again after a couple of years must have rattled his cage. Though anything Talon promised not to do was going to get done anyway if the situation presented itself. Tam should have simply saved his breath.

Besides, Talon keeping his nose clean would signal the end of the world as we knew it.

Unless Sarad Nukpana and the Saghred beat him to it.

Imala and Tam were greeted with smiles and handshakes. Prince Chigaru was welcomed with respectful bows.

I felt about as wanted as something that came in the house on the bottom of someone’s boots.

It wasn’t disgust exactly, more like they saw me as something useful, but something that no one wanted to be anywhere near. Kind of like a having a rat problem and being forced to get a really big snake.

“Ain’t it grand to feel wanted,” I muttered.

“Pay them no mind, Raine,” Imala said. “It’s your power that frightens them. You’ve become quite legendary, you know.”

I snorted. “If only they did know.”

“And they can’t,” Imala whispered back while smiling reassuringly to an older gentleman who looked ill at ease in his armor. He had a single long dagger tucked into his belt. Probably the only weapon they trusted him to have. Others looked much the same: all armed, all scared, but all determined to topple their king.

It was a mass suicide waiting to happen.

They were probably hoping that I’d go first.

Deidre Nathrach ushered us into what she and Tam called the dining room. I would have called it a banquet hall, albeit a banquet hall that’d had a rough time of it recently: shredded wallpaper; most of the gilt trim hacked off; and holes either punched, kicked, cut, or chopped into the walls.

However, the dining room had the benefit of being in the back of the house. The windows were boarded up from the outside and the curtains were drawn on the inside. We could light candles, but couldn’t have a fire in the fireplace and risk smoke from the chimney giving us away. The table was intact. I guess it’d been too big for Sarad Nukpana to get it out the door, and he decided not to have it chopped to bits. The thing was big enough to seat at least two dozen people. The Khrynsani had left enough chairs so that we all could sit down. My feet and back had never been so grateful. Our supply packs were necessary, and they weren’t particularly heavy—for the first couple of miles. After that, I’d started wondering how much I actually needed food and weapons.

“Tell me what happened to Father,” Tam asked his mother.

“He had taken a team to intercept a shipment of weapons going from the harbor to the Gate construction site. Your father knew we needed those weapons.” Force of will kept any emotion from her face. “They were ambushed.”

I remembered the old goblin with the one dagger. Perhaps it was all they’d had to give him.

Imala scowled. “Betrayed.”

Deidre nodded once. “The Khrynsani were waiting for them. Four were killed; the other four captured. Cyran was among those captured.”

“Do you have proof that he’s still alive?” Tam asked.

“One of our lookouts witnessed the attack. They saw Cyran loaded into a prison wagon. He’d been wounded, but not fatally.”

Tam shifted uneasily. “I take it he knows where all the cells are based.”

“Yes,” she said tightly.

That one word said a lot. It implied another word. Torture.

“We’ll be in another location before tomorrow night,” she added.

As the leader of the Resistance, Cyran Nathrach would know where their bases of operation were, their plans, the names and cover identities of their agents. Everything. He would definitely know about this house. Tam’s father would probably be more valuable to Sarad Nukpana alive than dead, but with Nukpana, “alive” covered a lot of ground. It didn’t matter how strong you thought you were; everyone had a breaking point. And if anyone could torture you to that point quickly, it’d be Sarad Nukpana. Deidre was Cyran’s wife, but now she had to be a practical leader.

“When was he taken?” Tam asked.

“Two nights ago.”

Damn.

Tam’s expression darkened. “Nath said he’s in the temple dungeons—and that Sandrina Ghalfari was with those who ambushed him.”

“She was. Word we have received said that it was she who knew where our people were going to be that night. Sandrina was always a bright girl. A narcissistic, conniving, overdressed and underbred murderess, but bright.”

If those weren’t catfighting words, I didn’t know what were.

“Sarad and Sandrina have been locking away anyone capable of opposing him,” Deidre continued, “either directly or by their influence. Our most powerful mages and best military minds are locked in those temple dungeons.” Growing anger made her voice sharper. “We had a team trained and ready to destroy that Gate Sarad’s building outside the city. They were captured the same night as Cyran. Every last one of them are in those dungeons.”

“Do you have someone on the inside?” Imala asked.

Deidre shook her head. “Not among the dungeon guards.”

“I have two agents who—”

“Dalit and Airan?”

“Yes.”

“They’re already working with us,” Deidre said. “Airan has told me which of our people are in the general dungeon population, but the high-ranking prisoners are being kept apart from the others. That is all he was able to find out.”

“I know where those cells are,” Imala said.

“So do some of our most gifted people, both mage and mundane,” Deidre countered. “They can’t get anywhere near them.”

Tam’s smile was chilling. “They didn’t spend five years at the queen’s side and live to tell about it.”

“What does that have to do with—”

“Hiding and hearing, Mother. I know several passageways around the palace and the temple. Many a night I stood between the walls listening to my enemies—both court and Khrynsani—plot my death. I’m alive, most of them are not.”

“I also know of several ways into the temple,” Imala said.

“How many guards are around the Saghred?” Mychael asked.

“I can answer that one, Paladin,” Jash Masloc said. “Fifty guards around the clock since it arrived. However, those are just the ones in the temple and within sight of the altar. Unfortunately for anyone’s long-term health and survival, those fifty Khrynsani weren’t taking their eyes off of the Saghred. Though I believe the Khrynsani refer to it as worship.”

Those boys definitely weren’t going to like what we wanted to do to their newest deity. Stabbing and shattering weren’t going to go over well at all. I didn’t harbor any illusions that yelling, “Hey, look! Something shiny!” would get them all to look the other way while we got destructive on their precious.

Mychael told her the plan—Kesyn Badru, the Reapers, the rock, and us. When he finished, the room was silent again, this time with shock and a healthy heaping of disbelief.

Deidre glanced at Tam, a trace of amusement in her eyes. “I must say, my darling boy, that you and your friends are taking our family’s reputation of adventurousness to the point of insanity.”

“Someone has to take the big chances.”

Deidre closed her eyes and let out a resigned sigh. Then she opened her eyes and regarded Mychael. “Paladin Eiliesor—”

“Mychael, please.”

Deidre smiled slightly. “Mychael. Isn’t there any way to avoid unleashing Armageddon? Sarad seems to have already taken care of that. Wouldn’t your plan be unnecessarily redundant?”

“If there was any other way, we would do it,” he assured her.

“And Tamnais, you believe that Kesyn Badru, the teacher you publically turned your back on and whose career you unwittingly ruined, will help you summon these Reapers.”

“He always hated Sarad, and the feeling was more than mutual,” Tam said. “A chance to ruin Sarad’s dream of world domination? Kesyn would never forgive me if I didn’t let him have a piece of that.”

Jash spoke. “Mistress Benares, I take it that you will be using your unique skill set to clear a way to the altar once we’re in the temple?”

Tam raised a brow. “We?”

“Of course, ‘we.’ I’d never forgive you, either, if you didn’t let me have a piece of Sarad Nukpana.” Jash looked at me, waiting for his answer.

I looked back at Jash.

Silence.

“Is there something I should know?” While Jash’s question was directed at those of us who’d come from Mid, his eyes were on me.

Just because no one had said anything about the Magh’Sceadu ignoring me and making a beeline for Talon didn’t mean they didn’t know what that implied. My ribs and I had no doubt that Carnades knew. Yes, if any of us used magic we’d essentially be sending up a flare for Sarad Nukpana and his Khrynsani to locate us. But if there was no way out, no way to survive other than using magic, these goblins were counting on me being able to lay waste to whatever or whoever was about to do the same to us, namely fifty worshiping Khrynsani. The only thing I could lay waste to right now was a good dinner. The Resistance needed to know—at least the people in this room should. Mychael and I’d agreed that if we had to admit to anything, we’d say that my magic had become unreliable after my last encounter with the Saghred. That was the understatement of the millennium. While not entirely the truth, it wasn’t a lie. My magic could come back at any time. We didn’t think it was going to, but we didn’t know that for sure.

I glanced at Mychael and received a quick nod in return.

Oh, boy. Here we go.

I took a deep breath and dived in. “While vaporizing Sarad Nukpana and his boys would be the quickest—and undeniably the most satisfying—way to get to the rock, it’s not exactly a realistic part of our plan right now.”

No one said a word. Tam took a big swig of Barrett’s rescued port straight from the bottle.

I wished I had some.

I hit the highlights of what had happened in the elven embassy dungeons, and how the Saghred had consumed an elven mage through me; and while the rock was at it, it’d given my magic a figurative kick in the teeth. However, I was still left with all of the fun of being linked to the thing.

Lady Deidre Nathrach was stunned. I suspected it was an emotion she didn’t have much experience with. “You don’t have any magic?”

I shrugged. “It comes and goes, ma’am.” I decided partial truth would go down better than the full variety. I didn’t think the spark I was occasionally able to muster counted as a resurgence of my magic, but it was better than admitting I was potentially a permanent mundane in a room full of goblins, one of whom—namely Prince Chigaru—didn’t like me all that much to begin with. I’d rather keep the possibility open that if he messed with me, there wouldn’t be anything left of him to mess with anyone else ever again.

Prince Chigaru had been sitting quietly through all this, his fingers steepled in front of his face. “When was the last time you had your magic?” he asked quietly.

I’d had the answer to that one ready to go. “Yesterday on Mid.” I didn’t mention that magic was a miniscule spark on the tip of my finger.

“Your magic vanishing, do you know before it happens?”

“No advance warning, if that’s what you mean.”

“It is.” The prince turned to Imala. “Did you know about this?”

“I did.”

“And you did not tell me.” No direct accusation, just hard eyes. Mal’Salins didn’t like being given bad news.

“It had no bearing on our mission. We had to come here regardless. We’re taking many risks; this is merely one more, and Raine is bearing the brunt of it.”

I had to hand it to Imala—if lying had been a profession, she could have made a fine living doing it.

“Besides,” she continued coolly. “How do you think Raine feels?”

“What Raine feels is not—”

“Highness,” Imala reprimanded.

“It must concern her greatly.” The prince’s verbal turnabout was quick enough to give him whiplash.

Turnabout notwithstanding, Chigaru was still unhappy, which likely was a cover for fear. It was my experience that creatures with fangs tended to react badly to fear, so I wasn’t going to show any of my own.

I offered a nonchalant shrug. “I’m adapting.”

Tam stepped in. “Right now, we need to find Kesyn Badru.”

“Good luck,” Jash said. “No one knows where he is.”

“Is there a chance he was captured?”

Deidre shook her head. “We’d know by now. None of our people in the palace or temple have heard of him being brought in.”

Jash gave a short laugh. “Impressive as hell considering Sarad’s been pulling out all the stops to find him.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“Kesyn Badru was also Sarad’s teacher.”

I blinked at Tam. “He taught both of you?”

Deidre’s lips twitched in a smile. “Some men attract more than their share of bad luck.”

I jerked my head toward Talon. “Worse than this one?”

“Infinitely.”

Jash spoke. “Mistress Benares, excuse my bluntness, but if you don’t have any magic, then why are you here?”

“I really don’t have a good answer to that—at least not a sane one. Me getting myself bonded to the Saghred started this whole mess, so I’m here to do everything I can to end it.” I tried a smile, but it probably came off looking as scared as I felt. “You guys aren’t the only ones who live for flipping off Death.”