Chapter 20 #2
I turned and fled, taking the side door that led to the rocky edge and where the tunnel began. Leaving him like that rankled me. I didn’t like the feeling, almost as though I’d … disappointed him somehow.
No. I didn’t like that at all.
I focused on the tunnel. That was the end goal. Get there, get my things in, meet Shava, and?—
“Hey! You there!”
Son of a fucking cunt. I hadn’t checked where the Fireguard rotation was. Or had Vession sent them after me? I’d kill him if he did. I’d?—
“STOP!”
No chance. I crammed my body into the fissure, pulling the satchels and bags behind me. The Fireguard was quick, and caught my shoulder before I could slip into the darkness.
Fuck. Now he knew about the tunnel.
My things clattered to the ground. He whipped me around to face him, and I stared into a young face not much older than mine. Eyes widened in recognition. He knew me, but I didn’t know him. That meant he was probably a mud boy who’d grown up in the dormitory with me, nearly minted as a Fireguard.
This could go one of two ways.
“T-the queen has offered a reward for you,” he stammered, one shaking hand going to his belt.
My eyes narrowed. “Call your fellows. You can’t take me alone.”
His lips pursed like that, shoulders tightening with indignation. “Is that so? You don’t think I can’t whip your ass, you fucking book rat?”
What was it with everyone calling me a rat?
I slunk backwards back towards the hole in the wall, slumping my posture and trying to look fearful.
“Want to see a secret tunnel? Surely that information is worth something,” I offered, backing into it slowly.
His head tilted and his sword fell down to his side, belying his interest.
“A secret passageway?” he parroted.
“Yes, in here. Look. It goes all the way to the mud quarter. There are many like it.” It didn’t matter what I told him now. He’d sealed his fate when he let his hubris get the best of him. It didn’t matter how much I told him.
Dead men couldn’t tell anyone else.
“It’s dark,” he said, cautious, but still following behind me into the tunnel.
Perfect.
“I have a torch just in here,” I replied.
He stepped all the way into the tunnel, both of us swallowed up by the darkness. I stood in front of my bags and withdrew my dagger, nicking myself on my forearm. The glow of my bloodmagick illuminated his fearful yet intrigued face.
“What’s this then?” he asked, a bit of wonder in his voice.
A small flicker of uncertainty hit me, the dagger wavering in my hand as he stared at the golden lines weaving their way through my skin, completely transfixed.
He wouldn’t see my attack coming. He wouldn’t resist. Why would he?
I was just another boy he grew up with, not a threat. He wasn’t a Noble. He wasn’t the queen.
Could I kill him to save the knowledge of this tunnel?
I struck before I could second guess myself .
He didn’t fight back despite his training as a Fireguard. How could he? I was a bookish freak; I wasn’t a threat to him. My knife went into his neck as easily as though it were warm butter, his blood flowing down onto my hands just as hotly.
His expression was never afraid; it only shifted from awe at the bloodmagick dancing over my skin to slight confusion as his life’s blood spurted out between my fingers.
The Fireguard sagged to the ground and died. It was easy … all too easy. My blood magick flared brighter even though I was oddly calm. It pushed at me beneath my veins. It egged me on.
My left leg flared painfully as a reminder of past mistakes, and I nearly crumpled. Stubbornly, I shifted my weight to my other leg.
What? What is it? I asked the magick swirling around me.
We need more … it begged.
More. More.
Something lingered about the Fireguard’s body; something old and yet tangible. It made my blood sing in tandem.
Reach out. Take it. Use it.
There was only so far I’d gone with blood magick, doing rituals on myself and using only my blood. I’d read everything that was available in the library, and none of them delved beyond magick that used the blood of others. However, I could make inferences.
Magick, and especially bloodmagick, was based on intent and emotion. Bloodmagick performed on me was calm and controlled. The power involved reflected that. What if a high amount of emotion was involved … such as agony?
What if someone else was involved, experiencing intense bouts of emotion ?
This man was a problem. He could bring down Shava and I.
I wouldn’t have it.
The Fireguard’s blood mingled with the cut on my forearm, and I moved without thinking. Crouching over his body, I slammed the knife deep into his chest. He jerked and shuddered, a fractured moan splitting his lips.
Whoops, not so dead.
The sharp tang of whatever thing that coated my veins spiked deliciously. I dug the blade in, hearing it scrape against his rib cage. I went horizontal. Then vertical. Unseeing anything but my prize, I pushed back the gore and viscera and stared down at his weakly beating heart.
“D-don’t.”
Blood spurted from his lips, his fingers weakly grasping at himself.
Too little. Too late.
I reached down and touched it.
Thick, hot magick rushed through me, potent as poison and as titillating as Clover’s breasts. It was slimy, and warm, and so, so full of purpose and magick and life?—
“He went this way, didn’t he? He’s due back.”
The spell broke, and before I could blink, the magick was gone, sucked out of existence and into the void like it’d never been there to begin with. I drew back, and the Fireguard’s body hit the dirt hard, eyes unseeing and cold.
Dead.
The realization of the sticky situation I’d just put myself in hit me full force.
“Fuck,” I whispered in to the darkness as footsteps approached. “Shit.”
I closed my eyes, willing myself to calm down. No one knew the tunnel was here. They’d see nothing. Then I could just … leave the body here, then figure out a way to dispose of it later. Yes, that’s what I would do.
No one had to know. No one would know.
“Where have you been ? I waited for hours … I was just about to head back without you!”
Shava was mildly hysterical, her dark hair in a fuzzy halo around her head from the head of her torch, which was almost burned down to a stub.
Her eyes scanned the satchels and bags draped over me, then paused at seeing blood on my hands.
I’d wiped it off the best I could, but it still stained my skin in obvious places, as well as gotten under my nails.
“There was trouble,” I offered smoothly.
The truth was always the best lie.
“Tell me about it later. We have to go!”
She picked two of the bags off my back without a word and hurried down the corridor.
A few hours later, we emerged out into the mud quarter, dirty and sweating.
We had to keep going, and get into the next tunnel to get out of the city.
The little girl’s (Mari?) unconscious form was gone from the tunnel.
Hopefully, that meant she’d woken up and gone on her way, telling no one what she’d seen.
All they’d have to do is offer a crust of bread, and she’d spill all she knew , I thought, remembering her rail-thin frame. It was frustrating relying on a child’s silence, but we had no choice.
The sun was rising over the mud quarter, but unlike the Seat, no one was stirring. Then again … why would they? There was no market to hustle by, no stalls to bustle through. Just hunger and poverty .
“Come on,” Shava urged me, as we crossed through the open area with its food cart and water well.
One lone Fireguard stepped out from behind the cart, stepping up to halt us in our tracks. My bags dropped to the ground and my knife was out in one fluid motion. Only Shava’s hand on my wrist stopped me from immediately activating my blood magicks and running him through.
Finish what you tried to start with the other one, my inner voice urged. You felt the magick coursing through your veins. Don’t waste this chance. Don’t ? —
“ I had hoped it wasn’t you I saw earlier, but now I see it was true,” L said. “What are you doing here?”
I reared back as L’s face peered down at me from underneath his polished gold and red helmet.
Wrong place, wrong time. So sad for him , cajoled my inner voice.
What? No! This was L. He was a fri—Well, he was a helpful connection to have. I wasn’t going to kill him !
He isn’t even in the palace anymore. Idiot obviously got reassigned to the mud quarter for something stupid. Kill him.
“Z? Zephyr? Why do you look like that?” Shava’s voice was tinged with worry, her eyes darting into every shadowy corner as though more Fireguards would pop up any moment. My anger must have been palpable.
“The queen found out about our … association,” L said. “She banished me here when I couldn’t tell her where you went. Did she banish you, too, finally?” L asked.
My fingers let go of my knife handle, and it slid back into its sheath. Shakily, I picked up my bags.
You almost killed L after he took the fall for you.
Shava’s face was white as we left L behind. He didn’t call for help or try to follow us. I should feel doubly awful for nearly killing him, but I didn’t.
Why didn’t I?
“Come on. In.”
We made it to the tunnel, and headed back toward the desert.