All Spell Breaks Loose

Chapter 5

I hated tunnels. Always had, always would. At least I would if we got out of this one alive.

We were getting into Regor the same way Nath and his Resistance buddies had gotten out. We’d go under the city walls. Unfortunately, under meant underground.

I’d noticed that since the Saghred had latched onto me like a love-starved leech, I’d spent entirely too much time underground. Smuggling tunnels, sewage tunnels, dungeons, catacombs, and even your run-of-the-mill spooky basement, which had turned out to be demon infested. Thanks to the Saghred, I’d taken the scenic tour of them all. Though also thanks to the Saghred, I’d managed to survive all of the above. Maybe spending so much time underground because of the Saghred was some kind of twisted preparation for what was shaping up to be the mother of all subterranean excursions.

I swore to myself that if I got out of this alive, anywhere the sun didn’t shine, I didn’t go. No exceptions.

The only sky we’d seen was in the short dash from the cave with Carnades’s mirror to the cave we were now in. It had been a beautiful sunny day. Though the goblins around me had seen the bright blue sky as neither beautiful nor comforting—at least not comfortable. Goblins liked the dark. A lot. I guess somebody had to.

Caves were basically hollowed-out rock. In my opinion, a tunnel of hollowed-out dirt was just a grave waiting to collapse. It wasn’t a matter of if it would happen; it was when. The second time a troop of mounted horsemen thundered by overhead and clots of dirt fell from what passed for a ceiling, I thought that moment had arrived. While being squashed under tons of dirt would take care of all of our problems; it wasn’t the solution I was still hoping for.

Us alive. Sarad Nukpana dead. The Saghred reduced to dust, like the dirt presently covering my hair.

“Are we there yet?” Talon asked.

I muffled a snort.

“When we’re there, we’ll stop walking,” Nath told him.

If someone had given Nath and Talon a more-than-passing glance, they would have thought the two goblins were brothers. I estimated that Nath was about ten years older than Talon, which made me seriously question the wisdom of putting Nath in charge of a retrieval mission. Maybe that was why Jash Masloc was his shadow. The goblin mage gave the impression of steady calm, and that Tam respected him said even more. I knew for a fact it didn’t take much to send Talon flying off the handle. I hoped Nath had more of a grip on his impulses than his nephew did.

I had to hand it to everyone—for a crowd of people, they moved almost without a sound. Other than his one question, even Talon was keeping his mouth shut. The kid was probably scared to death. He’d never been to Regor, and he certainly had never been surrounded by this many pure-blooded goblins. And if traveling with heavily armed goblin Resistance fighters bothered Piaras, you’d never know it.

The Guardian cadet uniforms and armor were helping both of them. There weren’t any goblin Guardians, so perhaps the Resistance thought Talon must have been especially kick-ass in the magic and military departments to be recruited. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two of the female Resistance fighters giving Talon the once-over. I knew that look. Heck, I’d given that look. These ladies weren’t evaluating Talon’s military prowess. Good thing the kid didn’t notice those glances, or we’d never get him to shut up.

“Where are Mother and Father?” Tam asked his brother. “Are they safe?”

Nath hesitated, then he and Jash Masloc exchanged a tense glance.

“Where are they?” Tam’s voice promised pain to whoever had made his parents not safe.

“Mother’s fine,” Nath told him. “If being in charge of the Resistance means that you’re fine. For every one of our people the Khrynsani take, Mother and her agents kill two—or more if they can get them.”

“Impressive,” Imala murmured.

“If we had another couple of months, Mother could probably empty the Khrynsani temple.”

I spoke. “Tam, a woman who’s in charge of the Resistance and picks off Khrynsani doesn’t exactly sound like a stay-at-home mom.”

“Before she met our father, Mother was one of the finest mortekal in Rheskilia.”

“Mortekal?”

“Loosely translated as ‘noble taker of life’ or ‘righteous executioner.’”

“A mortekal doesn’t kill for money,” Imala explained. “They kill because it needs to be done. Though a mortekal will accept payment for expenses and any extenuating circumstances surrounding the target.”

“There was a serial killer in the northern provinces that neither the local law enforcement nor the garrison there could stop,” Nath said. “The people took up a collection and hired Mother. She had the bastard’s head on a pike in a week.”

“I’ll bet you two never had a problem with bullies growing up.”

“None,” Tam said. He reached out and grabbed Nath by the shoulder. “You haven’t answered my question. Where’s Father?”

Nath’s voice stayed steady. “There was an ambush. Our latest intelligence has him imprisoned in the temple dungeons.”

“Sarad Nukpana is mine.” Tam’s words were low and calm and chilling as hell.

“You’re welcome to him, but it was Sandrina Ghalfari who did the taking.”

That name sounded familiar.

“Sarad’s mother,” Imala told me.

“That thing has a mother?” I blurted.

“Now she has joint command with Sarad,” Jash said. “His injuries prohibit him from assuming all of his duties. Plus, the scope of their plan is too large to be handled by one person alone. It seems Sarad trusts Sandrina enough to share power with her.”

“Such a nice son,” I muttered. “Until she turns her back.”

“Or until he turns his,” Tam said. “Sarad is merely insane. Sandrina is evil.”

“She’d give the demon queen a run for her money?”

Tam nodded once. “Sandrina Ghalfari poisoned and murdered my wife. She did the same to her husband to secure his title and fortune. Now she has taken my father. Her life is mine.”

The tunnel began a gradual upward slope and the ground beneath our feet went from packed dirt to solid rock. I was relieved to see the walls and ceiling do the same thing.

When Jash Masloc stopped, we all did.

My hand crept toward my sword hilt as I peered into the dark beyond the torches’ light. Nothing but a lot of dark, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything inside.

“We’re coming up on the base of the city walls,” Jash said. “Sarad Nukpana has sensors anchored to the top every fifty feet.”

“To sense what?” Talon asked.

“Magic,” Jash said. “And yes, they can sense all the way down here, so push your magic down as far as it will go.”

I hoped Talon knew how to tamp. Surely, Tam had taught him how, but had the kid been listening when he did? We were about to find out the hard way.

Back when the tunnel walls were still dirt, Jash had told us the plan. If we passed under the walls and into the city without incident of the ambush kind, we’d be splitting up. It was the best plan I’d heard all day.

In my opinion, sneaking was an activity best done solo. If others had to tag along, there shouldn’t be more than a handful sharing the shadows with you. Any more than that and you’d be tempting fate, luck, and any anything else you’d care to name. That we’d made it this far undetected was a towering testament to goblin stealth and elven desperation. Once we were inside the city, we’d be moving even faster than we had been. That was something else I was all for. Movement kept sitting ducks from becoming dead ducks.

Jash signaled us to stay put and walked forward on nearly silent footfalls. The flame of his torch illuminated a ragged opening only the height and width of an average man.

The city wall of Regor. Home of Sarad Nukpana, the Khrynsani, and the Saghred—all of whom wanted me dead and gone, and the more painful they could make my death, the better. To make the experience even more enjoyable, it appeared that we’d have to go through the opening in that wall single file. Alone.

Great.

Hopefully no one’s magic would hiccup when they passed through. I felt more than a few nervous glances on me. I had news for them; my magic wasn’t what they needed to worry about. Sarad Nukpana had been close enough to me on numerous occasions to have set those sensors to me, not just to my magic. If that was the case, we were all screwed. It wasn’t like I could tamp down myself.

“I’ll go through first,” Jash told us. “Nath, you follow. That’ll test the sensors against mage and mundane.”

Imala spoke. “If you weren’t detected when you went through the first time—”

“The first time, Sarad knew Raine Benares wasn’t with us,” Jash reminded her. “Thanks to the spy orb that Khrynsani captain was wearing, Sarad may now know differently. If he knows she’s here, he’s had ample time to have the sensors recalibrated.”

To me. Or to anyone who had the bad luck to be with me.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“We’re not,” Nath chimed in. “We live for flipping off Death.”

“If those sensors could be set for me, then I should be the last one through.” I kept my voice down for the obvious reasons, but spoke loud enough that the goblins heard me. They’d probably volunteered for this duty, but it never hurt to make nice with the locals. Nothing said nice like giving your new allies a head start on running for their lives if I set off those sensors.

A few of the Resistance fighters graciously inclined their heads in my general direction; a couple more gave me what might have passed for smiles under better circumstances.

All of us had our magic locked down tight. Well, all of us except for me. My magic was probably on vacation on a sunny beach somewhere, toying with the idea of never coming home.

“I’ll wait as well,” Mychael said.

Piaras stepped forward. “Me, too.”

I shot him a look that summed up what I thought of that idea.

Piaras wasn’t backing down. “I’m a Guardian cadet and our sworn duty is to guard and protect the Saghred and prevent it from being wielded by those who would use that power to destroy.”

It sounded like he was quoting out of the Guardian handbook or something. Heck, if there was one, he’d probably already memorized the thing.

A mischievous grin flitted across his mouth. “Just doing my sworn duty.”

“You’ve been talking to Vegard too much.”

“My conversations with Sir Vegard have been highly educational.”

“I’ll bet.”

Talon slid up beside Mychael, speaking in a whisper out of only one side of his mouth. Impressive. “Is guarding Raine a required Guardian cadet activity?”

Mychael fought a smile. “No, Cadet Nathrach. It’s not.”

Talon’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Oh, good.” He glanced at me. “Don’t take it the wrong way, but you’re dangerous to be around.”

“I’ve noticed that. I don’t want to be around me, either.”

Tam clapped a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re going through with me.”

“With?”

“To make sure that magic of yours doesn’t spring an ill-timed leak.”

Jash and Nath squeezed through the crack in the city wall without incident. The other goblins followed, including Prince Chigaru and Imala.

Chigaru didn’t have any magic. Odd how the family who had ruled the goblins for the past two thousand years didn’t have a spark of magic to their names. A few could sling a respectable spell in a pinch, but for the most part, they were all nulls. Which said a hell of a lot about their other skills—like terrifying their subjects. There had been coup attempts down through the centuries, but if one Mal’Salin went down, there was always another waiting in the wings.

If our lives suddenly decided to turn ideal, Sathrik and Sarad Nukpana both would choke on a chicken bone, preferably at the same time, emptying the big chair and the space behind it for Chigaru and Tam.

Carnades was next to go through the opening.

The elf mage had slithered his way to one step away from being archmagus. Carnades was patient, waiting for the chance to make his move, be it in politics or getting his chains around my neck. He went through without a peep. Those magic-sapping manacles were downright handy.

Tam and Talon went through together, with both of Tam’s hands on Talon’s shoulders. If the kid didn’t like it, he kept his opinion to himself. He knew what was waiting inside those walls. Staying on Mid and reporting to Vegard during a goblin invasion probably looked like sweet duty right about now. Mychael kept a hand on Piaras’s shoulder. He knew Piaras’s abilities, and that the kid could squelch his own magic, but now wasn’t the time to take chances. We’d be taking plenty of those later.

It was my turn.

I could swear I felt the air pressure drop as everyone took a deep breath and held it. Mychael and Tam remained on the other side of the opening, the torchlight showing me their expressionless faces. They knew as well as I did that Sarad Nukpana could have had something other than magic being picked up by those sensors. Magic was the only thing they could help me cover up, so taking the next couple of steps without setting off alarms throughout the city was all up to me.

I tried to empty my mind, which shouldn’t have been that much of a challenge, and went with the breath-holding thing, too. As I stepped through, my heart decided to skip a couple of beats. That part wasn’t my idea, but I wasn’t opposed to the sensors picking up a dead person if they noticed anything at all.

Nothing.

At least nothing I could hear. Everyone else was looking up and around like they expected Khrynsani to drop through the ceiling or jump through the walls. Neither happened, and my heart started beating double time again. I told myself it was just making up for stopping for a second there, not that I was scared out of my wits.

Jash motioned for us to follow him. There were three directions open to us. Two appeared to go to the right and left of the opening, running against the city walls. We’d followed Jash into the one that went straight—and apparently deeper into the city. The rest of the Resistance fighters split into two groups and disappeared down the two tunnels running along the city walls.

Nath drew close to Tam and Mychael. I was close enough to hear him. “The others will make their way to our other hideouts.”

Tam exchanged a look with Mychael. “And we’re going where?” he asked.

Nath gave his brother a genuine, warm smile. “Home.”

I could see why a race that wasn’t that fond of sunlight would have tunnels running under their city. Though if they got us from here to wherever and whatever Nath referred to as home, I had no problem with them. The problem I did have, had everything to do with the tunnels’ condition. The floor was completely smooth with no loose paving stones or chipped walls to trip on. The tunnel looked well maintained and well… used. A lot. And it stood to reason that they were maintained by city workers, which was part of the government, all of which was King Sathrik Mal’Salin. To my overactive and paranoid imagination, every new curve and turn in the tunnel was a Khrynsani ambush waiting to happen.

Piaras was staying every bit as close to me as Vegard always had. I didn’t want Vegard to be here, but at the same time I missed my big Guardian bodyguard. My shadow was definitely feeling lonely without Vegard’s solid and reassuring presence to keep it company. I didn’t want to think about what he was going through right now. From my bodyguard to acting paladin on Justinius’s proclamation, and then, on top of that, dealing with a probable dress rehearsal for a goblin invasion. Was Vegard’s biggest problem invading goblins or pigheaded Conclave mages questioning his authority? Had the goblin soldiers stopped streaming through mirrors and mini-Gates once we’d dived through Carnades’s mirror? Or had they seen an opportunity and taken it?

Along with any students and mages they could get their hands on.

Mychael’s knights were good; they were the best, but outnumbered was outnumbered, and with attacks coming from all over the city—

“They’re going to be fine,” Piaras said quietly.

I gave him a sidelong glance. “So now you can read minds, too?”

“No, I’m just worrying about the same things.”

“Is Katelyn evacuating with the other students?”

Piaras nodded once. “I put her on Phaelan’s ship myself. She didn’t want to go, and neither did a lot of the other girls.”

Katelyn was Katelyn Valerian, Piaras’s girlfriend—and Justinius Valerian’s granddaughter. I’d met some of Katelyn’s friends. Those girls could sling spells faster and fight better than half of the Guardians’ cadets. Ever since their inception when the Isle of Mid was founded over a millennia ago, the Guardians had been an all-boys club. Since coming to the Conclave college, Katelyn had been a thorn in her granddaddy’s side about changing the rules to let girls compete for places in the Guardians’ cadet corps. If I made it back to Mid in one piece, I’d be having a chat with Justinius on those girls’ behalf. They deserved the chance.

Piaras was smiling. “And I told Phaelan if he didn’t keep his hands off Katelyn, I’d fix it so he’d turn into a sea slug at every high tide.”

“You don’t know how to do that.”

“Phaelan doesn’t know that.”

“He bought it?”

Piaras flashed a grin. “Hook, line, and sinker.”

Priceless. I’d loved to have seen Phaelan’s face.

If my cousin so much as looked at the girl wrong, he’d better hope Piaras got to him first. Justinius actually could turn him into a sea slug.

“He’s too quiet,” Piaras murmured.

I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know he wasn’t talking about Phaelan.

Carnades hadn’t uttered a word since we’d left the cave. Surrounded as he’d been the entire time by armed goblins who knew how to use what they carried, even Carnades must have realized the smartest thing he could do was to keep his mouth shut. I didn’t know if being manacled and surrounded by armed goblins was his worst nightmare, but it had to rank up near the top, though you’d never know it to look at him.

Carnades saw me looking at him. His eyes glittered, then reverted back to studied neutrality. If the elf mage was shaking in his designer boots, he’d decided he was the only one who was going to know about it.

Piaras was right. A quiet enemy was a bad enemy. Quiet tended to mean plotting, and eventually one way or another, plots bore fruit. I knew that Carnades Silvanus was hoping to harvest an entire orchard.

A piece of dark peeled away from the shadows just ahead.

I sucked in a breath and held it like it was my last. Considering what blocked the passageway ahead, it just might be.

A Magh’Sceadu.

It was tall, almost hobgoblin in shape—if hobgoblins were made of black ink. They were blink-of-an-eye fast, with bodies warm and pulsing, like living quicksand. Any part of you that a Magh’Sceadu pulled inside its body stayed there. I’d seen one of them just flow right over a Khrynsani black mage trying to contain it. One glide, one gulp, one gone mage. Magic attracted them and magic fed them, and mages were meals. The more magic you threw at them to defend yourself, the tastier a morsel you became. Khrynsani black mages created Magh’Sceadu to absorb and store magic. They then harvested the power for other purposes.

Like fueling the creation of a giant Gate.

Or feeding a certain starving rock.

Piaras and I had once faced six Magh’Sceadu in an abandoned section of Mermeia appropriately named The Ruins. The only reason we’d survived had been the Saghred. It’d used me as a conduit to force-feed all six more power than they could hold.

I didn’t have the Saghred now.

“That’s new,” Nath commented, without moving anything, including his lips.

“And that’s why there aren’t any guards down here,” Mychael murmured.

I swallowed hard. “Maybe it ate them.”

“Why is it just standing there?” Piaras asked.

Talon’s eyes bulged in disbelief. “Why are we?”

Tam slowly maneuvered toward the front. “It’s not attacking, so it’s probably full.”

My stomach did a slow roll. “Full?”

“Though if we ran, it would chase us down.” Imala said. “Do you have sentries in these tunnels?” she asked Jash.

“Not in this section.”

“It’s standing there as a beacon to other Magh’Sceadu,” Tam said. “I can feel it.”

“Ringing the dinner bell?” I asked.

“Jash, is there a way around that thing?” Mychael asked. “A quick way?”

As if by some silent signal, the Magh’Sceadu turned and flowed quickly down a side tunnel.

As a second one rose up right behind Talon.

The only thing between Talon and that Magh’Sceadu was about ten feet of space.

And me.

Talon just stood there, frozen in terror and disbelief. The sound that tore its way out of his throat tried to be a shriek, but the kid choked on it.

It moved. I didn’t have time to.

The Magh’Sceadu passed me by, ignored me completely.

I didn’t have magic. Talon did.

And now everyone knew that I didn’t.

Including Carnades.

Piaras’s dark eyes met mine for a split second. He’d seen me not use magic in the mirror room or in the cave against the Khrynsani, and that the sensors in the city walls set for the Saghred hadn’t detected a thing when I’d passed through.

There’d been nothing to detect.

Piaras knew.

Disbelief and terror flashed across his face and hardened into determination. I couldn’t save Talon, so Piaras would. He wouldn’t fare any better than Talon. He knew that, but he was going to try anyway.

I wanted to scream in frustration, but I couldn’t even get the thing’s attention. To the Magh’Sceadu, I might as well not even exist.

It shot straight at Talon.