Untraceable (Unremarkable #2)

Chapter One

A multi-city trade conference. Levora City.

She was outside when the explosion rocked the city. Others ran from the building, but Heyval ran toward it. Death wasn’t something she feared, and if she could stop it, she would.

Her apprentice’s robes flapped as she ran. The mark of the cursed city was on both of her shoulders, but no one coming toward her recoiled. They were all running to get away.

Heyval entered the council chamber, and the carnage was everywhere. Pieces of dignitaries from across the continent were littering the walls and tables. There was even a hand stuck to the ceiling.

She heard a wheezing moan and scrambled through the corpses to find the survivor. She found him lying under a table and pushed it aside to make sure that she could heal him.

“Sir? Sir, I have to ask you a very important question.”

Gold-green eyes were blind with pain. The man slowly focused, and she saw his soul and magic preparing to depart.

She reached out and caught the energy, keeping it from leaving.

“Sir, do you want to live?”

“What?”

“Do. You. Want. To. Live?” She had time now; he wasn’t dying until she let go.

Healers were coming, but they wouldn’t be there in time.

His gaze took on awareness. “Yes. What will it cost?”

“Nothing. But after I do this, I have to run. You will be fine. You will never be in this situation again.”

He groaned and nodded. “I accept.”

She smiled. “This is gonna hurt.” She jammed his energies back into his body and wrapped them in place with hers. “I am sorry, sir.”

His body arched, and she got his severed arm and leg into position. They attached and began to heal immediately.

His breath was wheezing in his lungs, and then he relaxed.

She waved over the medics and healers, who brought a backboard with them. “He’s alive.”

The healers rushed in, and one stopped. “Did you do anything?”

The woman gestured to the icons on Heyval’s shoulders. “No. Not a thing. He’s got a will to live.”

She stood aside as the man was lifted onto the backboard and strapped down. A troll medic came in and took the man and his support carefully, following two of the healers while the other five were going from body to body, looking for life signs.

Heyval could see the life signs in the room, and they all belonged to searchers. Anyone at this meeting was now dead.

One of the searchers said, “You aren’t assigned to rescue. Get out of here, but register with the peacekeepers.”

Heyval nodded and made her way out of the carnage.

She hoped they would find out who did this.

She was going to register and go through any documentation she needed to fill out, and as soon as she was clear, she was leaving.

By the time they figured out what she had done, she needed to be a few cities away.

Being born as a healer but trained as a necromancer was a rough way to start her career, but it was what Heyval was stuck with. The city of Suura had crafted a lot of mis-trained mages. Parents tried to teach their children their own skills, and more and more of those skills did not match.

She had to wear the marks of her city on her, just so her instructors knew that her reactions might not be right.

Using necromancy on an unwilling subject or a high-ranking one was forbidden.

She didn’t know who her patient had been, but his clothing was fancy, and the dead that she did recognize were all masters or city heads.

She was going to be in a lot of trouble.

Time for her career to head into Plan B.

* * * *

K ing Amori of Arutrus City sat up and flexed the arm he was sure had been blown off.

“Your Majesty, what do you remember about the moments before the explosion?”

“King Nuralit took out a Suuran artifact and said it was supposed to give a light show. He slammed it to the ground, and the entire world exploded.”

The peacekeeper smiled. “I know this is difficult, but what happened next?”

He flexed his hand. “I heard people dying all around me. It seemed like it was taking forever. I heard a voice and someone talking to me. A woman was leaning over me and asking if I wanted to live. She was snippy about it.”

The peacekeeper smiled. “What happened then?”

“She caught my beast and shoved it back into my chest. Then she assembled my arm and leg in the correction positions, and they were attached when the other healers arrived and dismissed her.”

The peacekeeper blinked. “She forced your beast back in?”

“Yes. Oh, she did ask first. She required me to agree that I wanted to live before she made a move.” He smiled. “She looked really young.”

“Can you remember anything else about her?”

“She had marks of Suura on her shoulders. Sewn into the shoulders of her robes.”

The peacekeeper looked to the armed troll waiting in the doorway. The grey peacekeeper wandered away.

Amori cocked his head. “You don’t look pleased. Did she do something wrong?”

“No, Your Majesty. You are healed completely, and there are no indicators of the necromancy that was used.”

“That is good. Why do you look so serious?”

“Necromancy has not been practiced on this campus for two hundred years. Several alarms went off when she healed you.”

“Ah. So, what will the penalty be for her? I will pay it.”

The peacekeeper nodded and got to his feet. “It will not come to that. The penalty is death.”

Amori blinked. “She saved my life.”

“She used necromancy. We have a zero tolerance for that.”

Amori shifted, and his fox tails fanned out behind him. “She saved my life.”

“I understand, Your Majesty, but our laws are absolute. Necromancy is forbidden.”

“But there are no signs of it in me?”

“No. But you have stated that she held your beast’s soul. That isn’t something that can be done without necromancy.”

The troll lumbered back. “Officers went to her dorm. She’s gone.

No trace of her. She used mage fire to remove any traceable residue.

” He sighed. “She has also removed herself from the computers, the backups, and any online record. There are no photos of her either. Suura will not cooperate with her identity, so we can only imagine that she returned there.”

Amori frowned. “I do not think so. Those who leave to seek education are not welcomed back.”

“Well, we don’t want any necromancers here. They can play with the dead elsewhere.” The peacekeeper nodded. “Thank you for your testimony.”

“I will be returning to my city this afternoon. Who may I contact for updates on the search?”

“If we find her, she will be executed on the spot. With your testimony, there is no doubt of what she did.”

Amori growled and pulled his aura around him. “I will discuss this with your ruling body.”

“We are electing a new ruler. Ours was blown up.” He flipped his book closed and inclined his head. “I am sorry there is no one to see you off.”

Amori pressed a few buttons on his phone, swept past the peacekeepers, and out of the embassy.

He got into his vehicle, and his driver nodded in acknowledgment.

They drove out of the city while Amori sent a message to his fixer to put a reward out for the safe and whole delivery of the necromancer who had saved him.

He didn’t have a name to operate with, but his people had a heavy thread of seers.

Someone was going to be able to find her; it was just a matter of time.

She had known that she would be hunted. It had been why she had made sure he was willing.

He would have an artist render the woman he had seen. That would be the basis for the search.

She should not be punished for saving him.

* * * *

T en years later.

Valhay checked the time as she got the last of the bread out of the oven. The heady scent of sourdough was the reason she had chosen to work here. Plus, the workout. Lifting the pans was amazing for her biceps.

Her arms were marked with the burns acquired over the last decade, but she didn’t mind. As long as she didn’t heal herself, no one would know she was a healer, and the questions wouldn’t expose her.

She flipped the bread onto the cooling rack and righted them. Out of habit, she picked one up and thumped the base. “Nice.”

The afternoon bread was a weird tradition that had started when the folks who needed to assemble dinner were upset when there was nothing left after school.

A dozen loaves came out of the oven and were only available to those who could bring in a current receipt from the next business over for soup.

The cooperation had been going steady for the last two years, and for two years, the bread had been baked for three in the afternoon.

“Val, is it ready?” The owner, Bailey, came to the back.

“It is still too hot to handle, but it’s ready.”

“Can I grab one?”

“Who is it going to?”

“Alusabra.”

“Oh, sure. Grab a bag.”

Val slid the aromatic and extremely hot bread into the paper sleeve. “There you go.”

“Thanks. You done for the day?”

“Yeah. Five to three is enough.”

“Mira and her crew are having a beach party on the weekend, and they asked if we wanted to come.”

Val smiled. “Did they want you to cater it?”

“Just whatever is left from Saturday afternoon. There is a food truck on the beach.”

“Sure. As long as the burns don’t freak anyone out.”

“They are a lovely icebreaker, but you have met Mira’s friends before.”

“Ah. The ladies of the Cupcake Orgy . I do recall that vividly.” She took off her apron and checked her watch. “Right. I have to get to the clinic. I need my shots, or I will turn rabid.”

Bailey snorted. “Almost caught up on your inoculations?”

“Yeah. This is the last jab.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t get them as a kid.”

“Family didn’t believe in them, but I am exposed to enough stuff here that they were essential. I missed way too much work last year.”

“True. Right. Off you go.”

Val dusted herself off, changed into street clothes, and got her bicycle. She pedalled through the market area and toward the clinic. It had taken her a long time to find a place that would take in a non-citizen. This was one of those places.