Chapter 30
MERI
M eri took in the scene in front of her and jerked at the enchanted bindings on her wrists, knowing she couldn’t break them. They also took away her ability to drop into her speed, not that she could try that without dying.
All she could do was watch as Odart killed everyone.
Valentina crouched over the unconscious body of the beast-master princess, her face pale with fear as she watched Jacques’s stolen fireballs in Odart’s hands. Sinan had moved to put his body in front of the two women, holding his sword with a grim but determined expression.
It was Meri’s fault—she had taken away Sinan’s powers with the Amor Vitriol after hiding her secret from him. Maybe if she had been honest from the start the three of them could have worked together to stop Odart and his goons.
“Now you’re murdering women.” Jacques succeeded in putting fiery disdain into every word he flung at his father, even though the fire mage wasn’t in much of a better situation than Meri was, and Odart paused to glare at his son.
Odart’s ability to mirror the magic of others siphoned off their power, and his theft of his son’s fire magic had weakened Jacques and made him easier to keep captive. Odart had also clamped water-enhanced shackles around his son’s wrists that left Jacques with no fire to fight back with.
The incensor still had his temper, though.
“My own father, a traitor, a liar, and a thief—and now you want to use my Saints-given Gift to kill an unconscious girl and a medica devoted to the healing arts. I renounce you and everything you stand for, and I’ll never help you put Gallmau on the throne as your puppet. ”
Their plan to distract Odart and the guards while Sinan freed Valentina and Rixende had failed to take into account that the loyalty curse gave Odart a link to the prince that allowed him to locate both Gallmau and Meri.
The mirror mage couldn’t harm the son of Syagrius Grimoard, but he could threaten to kill Meri in front of him, and that had been enough to force Gallmau to surrender.
He had been left tied up and under guard, and Meri was grateful he wasn’t here to watch this.
Odart kept the balls of flames above his hands spinning but made no move to throw them in Sinan’s direction. Instead, he turned his attention to the other traitorous witch in the room.
“Use the fire to get these creatures of hers away from me.” The older Qingian man, who must be Zhang Jue, Odart’s partner in treason, sounded more irritable than nervous about the three Azhdarchids who had him pinned against a far wall.
Odart gave a grunt of assent and sent the fireballs spinning in the air toward the bird-like creatures.
The flames hovered in the air, more like clouds than projectiles.
The largest Azhdarchid shrieked, fanning out her wings to protect her offspring, and the animals scuttled away to the back of the cave.
The Qingian mage inclined his head a fraction—a movement so slight Meri all but missed it—and lightning lashed out from him toward Sinan. The Sorcier du Roi held up his bound hands, and crackling sparks dissolved the silk tie into ash.
Sinan fell to the ground, incapacitated but alive—she could hear him groaning. Valentina cried out and tried to scramble to his side to help him, but Zhang Jue came over to yank her up by the arm.
“Take her.” The Sorcier du Roi gestured to one of the Shields—Captain Caron, that bastard—who stepped forward and grabbed Valentina roughly around the waist.
“Unhand her, you piece of filth.” The words came out as a low growl from Jacques, and his lurch toward the guard was stopped only by another Shield jerking him back. Meri was beginning to like the incensor. He couldn’t control his temper worth a damn, but he had courage.
“Perhaps if my only son wasn’t a traitor to his kind, Dottoressa de Almania would be safely back at Court, no doubt criticizing the same benandanti who protect her and her guild.
” Odart held a particular grudge against anyone in the Noviodunam who expressed sympathy for necromancers, it seemed.
“If I could have trusted you, Jacques, none of this would have happened. You would have ended Rixende’s life and the threat she poses to the world itself in Lutecia.
Quietly. Instead, I needed this charade to bring you here to do your duty—and then you dragged foreigners into it.
Abarsam was a good man—for an infidel—and I had to kill him and his son. ”
You’ll pay for that, I promise . The grief of seeing Abarsam’s mutilated body on the ground welled up again, so strong she felt she would choke on it, but she kept her mouth shut and her attention focused.
Zhang Jue clucked his tongue and came forward.
“Surely, Jacques, you can see your father has a point? The curse of necromancy can strike the noblest of families. Numerous times, I’ve had the sad duty of ending the lives of promising Noviodunam students when the darkness inside of them was revealed by the harsh but necessary methods of the benandanti.
The kingdom of Soissons cannot be ruled by a necromancer—even if we could keep Mademoiselle la Reine believing her foul shape is a curse laid upon her by our enemies in Karakoncolos. ”
“The honorable Zhang Jue.” Jacques spat the mage’s title out like a foul-tasting liquid in his mouth. “You, sir, are even more of a scoundrel and a traitor than my father.”
“Even the strongest tree has branches that need to be trimmed.” Zhang Jue caught Meri’s eye and came up closer to her.
“Rot will spread if weak men allow it to. A strong woman such as yourself knows this. The princess was the one who attacked you and King Syagrius’s son with her foul beast magic.
Your job is to hunt down and kill necromancers.
One lies helpless before you now. Assist us with this, and we will free and reward you. ”
Zhang Jue gestured toward the princess, lying on the floor like an overtired child taking a nap by the fire.
Meri wanted to slice open the Sorcier du Roi’s neck as much as she wanted to plunge her blades into Odart’s heart. She bit back any quick response, though. She wasn’t Jacques and knew when to hold her tongue. “I’m not doing any work with no chance of payment.”
“Enough of this.” Odart pointed to the Shield holding Valentina. “Cut her throat.”
Jacques roared in fury at that, and Meri strained against her bonds, again accomplishing nothing.
“Sinan must die first.” Zhang Jue raised a hand as Captain Caron brought a sword up to Valentina’s neck.
“As much as I would prefer to harvest the most valuable body parts from the Prince of Shadows while he lives, I don’t want any death that could give him power.
How he came in without his cursed powers is still a mystery to me. ”
“Can you at least kill the Bone Lord who held you captive and murdered your men?” Odart shoved his finger into his son’s chest.
“Swear to Saint Thaschus.” Jacques’s voice dropped to a whisper, and although his words were directed at Odart his eyes were locked on Sinan.
The necromancer had recovered enough to raise his head to meet the incensor’s gaze and to give his enemy a small nod.
“Swear to our patron saint, Father, that you’ll spare Valentina’s life if I do this. ”
“I shouldn’t have to promise anything for you to do your duty.” Odart’s face was red with fury, but Zhang Jue held up his hand again and smiled.
Odart’s face darkened, but he muttered the oath to the saint of witches. Meri would have bet her blades the mirror mage wouldn’t let religion get in the way of his plans for murder, but Jacques had done what he could to protect his former fiancée.
“Release Magus Jacques, please.” Zhang Jue gave Meri a cold smile as Jacques rubbed his freed wrists and walked over to Sinan.
The fire mage showed none of the enthusiasm Meri might have expected.
“Our brave incensor has set his price for what we ask of him, and we will pay it. Perhaps a different contract with the Tomb Fighter would interest her.”
Meri rearranged her features into a calculating smile. “I can’t do anything with my hands tied. Or without my blades.”
“We’ll see about that.” Zhang Jue’s tone grew cold. “After the Prince of Shadows is dead.”
A cold weight of despair settled over her, and Meri fought to keep her emotions from being revealed on her face.
She couldn’t stop Jacques from killing Sinan.
That was a simple fact but a crushing one.
The young necromancer she had wanted to murder a few days before now meant so much to her—and she couldn’t save him.
Jacques lifted Sinan off the floor by the back of his shirt.
He said something in the necromancer’s ear, and Sinan rose to his feet, staggering along with the incensor toward the opening of the cave. He was going to his death willingly, perhaps even eagerly, now there was no chance of escape.
The Shields backed away as the two men approached, clearly uneasy to be too close to the infamous Prince of Shadows. Jacques shoved Sinan against the side of the cave opening, and the necromancer stood propped against the rock.
The incensor backed away, gesturing for the Shields to move further back from him.
Jacques raised both of his hands into the air.
Sinan’s head came up, and Meri prayed he would look at her one last time.
She wanted to drink in the beauty of his dark eyes and share a final farewell.
Maybe all of the religions were wrong, those of her people and Gallmau’s, and Sinan’s mother Naghwe was right.
Sinan would go to Paradise—or Heaven or whatever his people believed in—and one day she would see him there, along with Sanura.
Sinan turned his head toward Valentina instead, and he said a few short words to her.
They sounded like a prayer.