Chapter 2 Missing #2
Lisette’s silver eyes sparkled and she rose up onto the balls of her feet in excitement. Clearly, such a gem was a worthy prize and she intended to win it herself.
“I’ve sent your instructions to all of the Vampires, Caemorn, who are not here,” Balthazar said. “They all know their tasks.”
“Good,” Caemorn nodded. “You are released, Lisette.”
Immediately, Lisette was turning to the three Wyvern Vampires along with Demos and Siban to help her Bloodline. Tarn and Farun were sniffing the air and looking for the Ecthrois. Ryder could feel their great desire to hunt these worthy predators.
“Do you not need us any longer, Caemorn?” Sana asked.
Caemorn shook his head. “No, we are going to enter the Kaly Palace another way that does not require teleportation. We need all the Wyvern out here.”
“Understood.” Sana nodded and went back to speaking with Lisette.
“You want to use the secret passage entrance?” Ryder guessed.
His stomach clenched even as adrenaline urged him towards the secret passage he had not lived long enough last time to use. The Zradum were all dead as Demos and Siban had said. Their bodies lay strewn everywhere.
They really are pus-filled monsters.
“I don’t know exactly where it is,” Ryder admitted as he started to pick his way through the Zradum. “I didn’t make it that far.”
“I know where it is and how to access it,” Caemorn assured him.
“You remember it?” Ryder asked.
Caemorn gave a curt nod.
“Do you remember… no, I suppose you wouldn’t since you didn’t absorb… it doesn’t matter,” Ryder said abruptly.
“I absorbed only a slice of Roan Tithe, which is why I thought I had gotten all of them,” Caemorn responded. “I did not consider that a Slice would slice themselves. The sheer foolishness of it made it seem impossible. But I was wrong.”
“Roan does not have your intellect, Caemorn. He might have your ego, but not the smarts to back it up,” Balthazar said loyally.
Balthazar and Elgar were following after the two of them.
“He has a slyness that surprises me,” Caemorn admitted. “He knew I would not look carefully at his memories to ascertain what he had done, that I would shy away from them even though…”
Here Caemorn stopped as if what he would say next was so heavy that he could not push the words out.
“Even though?” Ryder found himself pressing.
Caemorn tensed slightly, but he did answer, “Seeyr showed Eyros and Kaly a moment of Balthazar and my current lives when she was trying to convince them that we could be better.”
“She did?” Balthazar sounded a little worried, but Ryder realized it was not for himself, but for Caemorn.
“It was the night of Julian’s first lesson with his Kaly gift,” Caemorn answered. “Kaly could not believe that I was them. Nor that you were Eyros, Balthazar, because we were clearly…”
“Master is loved,” Elgar said softly.
“Yes, exactly.” Caemorn adjusted his coat even though it needed no adjusting.
Balthazar blinked. “You know love isn’t a one-way street here?” The Eyros Vampire was being very precise rather than voluble. “I love… love you, too. That’s why this… well, it works, doesn’t it? The two of us. It’s rather great.”
Tension that had been in Caemorn seemed to bleed away at that moment. “Yes, it is… rather great.”
“But if Seeyr could see so clearly so far then…” Balthazar stopped. “She really can make things happen, can’t she?”
“I believe so. As I’ve said, she creates futures, but the cost is high for all involved,” Caemorn said. “You wish to know if I remember the moment I took your soul, don’t you, Ryder?”
“I… I remember it so that’s likely enough,” Ryder said. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Well, I do not remember it. That moment is not in my head at all. That should have alerted me that something was wrong,” Caemorn said.
“No one knew how Weryn was taken off the board,” Balthazar said. “It wasn’t even clear that you had killed him.”
“I was the one to kill most of the other Immortals. Not you, Caemorn,” Ryder told him. “I earned myself plenty of other enemies than Kaly.”
Farn and Tarun surged ahead of them at that moment.
The two werewolves were the first to enter Daemon’s old tomb.
Ryder’s heart twisted as he walked through the threshold.
Caemorn didn’t seemingly react. Balthazar grimaced as they entered and Elgar looked down at the skull as if to avoid looking at anything else.
He again thought, We haven’t come here to celebrate Daemon’s return. Everyone has behaved as if this place doesn’t exist.
Caemorn immediately kneeled down by the head of the white stone altar.
“Don’t tell me that the damned passage was underneath Daemon–ah, it was!” Balthazar shook his head. “Of course, it was.”
“I made it in case I had to remove Daemon from this place in a hurry to keep him safe,” Caemorn explained.
“Safe?” Ryder asked.
Even in his death-like sleep, who would dare try and harm Daemon in the Ever Dark? But he already knew the answer to that.
Legion. Roan. So many others would try if they could. They would have been unsuccessful, but still.
Caemorn inserted a large soul gem into a section of the decoration on the altar. There was a click and then a grinding sound as the altar slid forward and revealed a staircase leading down into the earth. It wasn’t dark though. There were soul gems glowing below.
“Does the fact that it’s not dark and scary indicate this has been used a lot?” Balthazar asked.
“No, a soul gem’s light never fades so long as the soul is inside and not drained,” Caemorn answered. “These are ones I placed here before Daemon went to sleep.”
“Ah, yes, that’s why the Kaly Palace is so bright and cheery,” Balthazar teased.
“The light is ghostly, I admit,” Caemorn agreed.
“Tarn and Farun, you cover our backs. I will go in first with Ryder. Balthazar and Elgar, you should be in the middle,” Caemorn instructed.
“Ah, safe in the center! I’m all for that. I will be cowering behind you, Ryder,” Balthazar said.
Ryder snorted. “You took out Roan Tithe when you were barely turned, Balthazar. We should all be hiding behind you.”
“Master is strong and brave,” Elgar said.
“With such an exuberant cheering section, I actually just might show off some of my moves,” Balthazar grinned.
“Balthazar, you will go after Roan the moment you see him. I know this. No matter that you claim to be a coward. You are not,” Caemorn said. “But you must not do this.”
“Caemorn, I–”
“You will because your rage at him will overwhelm you. All he took from you. All he did to you and others. You will want to rip his mind apart,” Caemorn’s voice was certain and brooked no argument. “But you must not. He will anticipate this. He will have something terrible planned for you.”
Balthazar’s lips flattened. “I thought his work with the students would trip me up but it was simple. Easy.”
“Yes, your powers are much stronger now, especially as you accept yourself, but Roan won’t go where you’re strong. He’ll go where you’re weak,” Caemorn said. “Artemis was taken by surprise, because he never thought we would work together. Roan will not make that mistake.”
“Master is not the only one who will attack Roan Tithe,” Elgar said with a chilliness that Ryder wouldn’t have believed the soft-spoken man capable of.
Balthazar lightly pressed a hand on Elgar’s shoulder. “You don’t have to avenge me, Elgar. Especially if Caemorn thinks it isn’t safe.”
“Master was hurt. I was deceived. Those things must be redressed,” Elgar said.
“You are not wrong, Elgar. But Caemorn is right as to how we play this. Roan will lean into our weaknesses. Legion practically led me by the nose to Roan. I went out without even a fight,” Ryder said.
“After all the battles I’ve been in, all the ambushes, all of it, and I just walked into Roan’s trap.
Underestimating him is just the wrong thing to do. ”
“Weryn is wise, too,” Elgar said softly. “But they must still pay. We must make them pay.”
“We will,” Ryder said.
They started down the stairs. Like the ones he had with Legion.
Pale stone. Perfectly cut. Not even a sheet of paper could fit between them.
The ceiling arched several feet above their heads.
The sconces held soul gems every five feet or so, which meant there were no shadows.
Just the unwavering blue-white lights of the soul.
“Are there any traps, Caemorn?” Balthazar asked.
“There are many, but I will defuse them. If you would, search for alien minds, Balthazar,” Caemorn said, and even as he said this, Ryder saw a ball of light lift from the floor and enter the soul gem.
“But remember not to connect with them. They might have structures,” Ryder said, thinking immediately of Grayson. “Grayson, he–”
“Is fine. We would have said otherwise. But he caused a tidal wave to knock out two Kalys and a Marrowstalker so we sent him to rest,” Balthazar explained. “Fiona and Christian are with him.”
“A tidal wave?” Relief flooded him. He had been so glad that Grayson wasn’t anywhere near the Zradum that he hadn’t immediately worried. “How could he create a tidal wave?”
“By moving a whole lot of water. If anyone doubted the depth and breadth of an Ashyr’s power, they would be wrong to,” Balthazar said.
“Indeed,” Ryder said.
They fell into silence as all of them concentrated on the path ahead. But Ryder heard nothing. Yet he smelled… he smelled Legion and Roan. They had definitely come this way. Balthazar picked up the thought and shared it with the group. He then linked them all so they could hear one another.
If they are still ahead of us, I’m sensing no thoughts, Balthazar sent. They could be shading them from me–
Use your Kaly powers, Caemorn suggested. You may not be a Speaker to the Dead but I believe you may be able to read their minds.
You mean the souls in the soul gems? Oh, that’s rather a good idea. They would be spectators that literally could not look away for anyone that passed by, Balthazar said and then went silent for a moment. Ah, it worked! I know where they went! There was a lot of minds to sort, but–
Master is being voluble again, Elgar said.
Balthazar made a sound like a cat. Inner chamber up ahead.
Ryder saw that there was a staircase that wound upwards to their right, but the passage continued forward to a door that reminded Ryder of a church, rather like the one that he and Demos had met Grayson at.
The desire to be near the young man washed over him even as he was glad that Grayson was someplace safe.
They went in there and they haven’t come out, Balthazar said.. There are no soul gems in there, Caemorn. Why?
Caemorn frowned. It was unfinished. There was nothing
I’m certain you made sure that every inch of this place was checked, Balthazar agreed.
And yet, I missed something, Caemorn sounded angry with himself.
What’s our plan? Ryder asked.
He was shifting up and down on the balls of his feet, getting ready for whatever he had to do, wondering what form he should take. But then he noted that the two werewolves were not reacting as if they were about to go into a fight. They appeared bored.
Caemorn said, We should–
They’re gone, Ryder burst out.
What? But they haven’t left this room and the souls assure me there’s no other way out, Balthazar said.
You sense no one in there, right? Ryder asked. Well, neither do I. And the werewolves are completely bored. If they thought there was danger to you here, Caemorn, they wouldn’t be acting like that.
You are right, Caemorn said after studying the werewolves.
There are no Whispers. No stray thoughts, Elgar said.
I missed something, Balthazar frowned. He put a finger to his temple, which showed he was concentrating very hard. I merely asked the spirits if someone had passed, but not how many someones. Three went into this room.
Ryder drew in a deep breath, but whoever this third person was, their scent was faint. It was almost as if they were only half here.
I know how they got out. They had a Wyvern with them. A powerful one, Ryder said, guessing what it had to be. He shook himself. Caemorn, what was this space used for?
I… Caemorn’s expression went blank. I do not recall making it.
Another memory from Roan that didn’t make it in? Ryder asked.
Evidently, Caemorn answered.
You didn’t want to remember him, Balthazar said kindly. It’s understandable, Caemorn.
I put us all in danger because of it so that is not understandable to me, Caemorn remarked.
Balthazar wasn’t put out by Caemorn’s rigidity. Believe it or not, I understand what you mean. Not looking back is stopping things from fully moving forward.
We have to open this room, Ryder said. Even if they aren’t there though, there might be some traps left.
“There are none,” Caemorn spoke out loud. “It took time for them to release the Ecthrois and then to return here. They had no time. Even with a Wyvern.”
“Right, so we open the door then?” Balthazar suggested.
But none of them moved to do it. Not for long moments. Then all of them, except for the werewolves, moved as one towards the door.
“The hallway is not large enough for all of us at once,” Caemorn remarked.
“Yes, but we don’t want you to be injured going first,” Balthazar said.
“This is my palace. None of us will be hurt here. I will not allow it,” Caemorn said the last softly, but firmly.
“Let’s be ready for anything. Just in case,” Ryder said.
They all nodded, even the werewolves who were mimicking them as far as Ryder could tell.
Caemorn opened the doors. There was a flash of light. Ryder opened his mouth to speak and then…
Balthazar had one arm around Ryder’s shoulders. Caemorn was looking back at them from an empty room where there was a section of stone missing from the center of the floor. Elgar was staring at Ryder with worry. The werewolves cocked their heads.
“Ryder? Ryder, are you all right?” Balthazar asked, trying to not sound as panicked as he felt. Ryder’s mind had gone white just as a flash of light had enfolded them.
Caemorn was scouring the interior of the room, looking for what had caused the light.
“Master, I do not hear Ryder’s thoughts,” Elgar said, his voice rising slightly, “I hear–”
“Who is this Ryder?” Ryder asked as he shrugged off Balthazar's arm. “And who are all of you?”
It wasn’t Ryder who was asking.
It was Weryn.
Ryder was gone.