Brave Men Die: Part 2 (6 page)

‘I’m not, I just needed to know where you were going to be.’

‘Here I thought you just wanted the pleasure of my company.’

‘I have it more than enough.’

Carina walked over to him and kissed him gently on his unshaven cheek, then whispered into his ear, ‘Be careful hunting your shadow monster,’ before leaving him alone.

Rigel sorted through his equipment, grabbed his canteen, and shook it to see how much was left in it. Satisfied, his palm brushed against the hilt of his primary weapon as he strode toward the camp exit.

In the distance he could see the diggers, a team of mercenaries, and Carina moving off toward the ruins and whatever destiny she wanted to steal for herself.

He was about a dozen steps away from the barricade when Finn fell into step beside him. He was lightly armoured, but heavily armed. His uncle’s short sword was strapped to his waist, two daggers protruded from his left boot, and a quiver of arrows hung from his shoulder to accompany the bow he was clutching in his left hand.

‘You actually thought I’d let you go out there alone, even with all those powers you’ve got now?’ Finn said with a grin.

‘Nope, of course not. Why do you think I was walking so slow? Old man like you, I figure he can’t walk as fast as he used to, takes him a little longer in the morning to get ready.’

‘You cheeky little bastard.’ Finn tapped Rigel’s shoulder and pushed him away. ‘What, no bow? We are still hunting this thing right?’

The only reason Rigel was letting his uncle accompany him was the fact that he knew they wouldn’t find the creature they were looking for. At least not during the daylight. It was a creature of shadow. Of the night. He doubted the arrows would even damage it.

‘You know I can’t use one of those,’ Rigel said, indicating the bow.

Finn knew he was lying but didn’t call him on it. Even before the acolyte training and the procedure, he was a crack shot who was probably the best in his family.

They moved into the tree line, stooping underneath the low-lying branches. Rigel had located the area where he could see the beast from the opening in the barricade last night and thought to start there.

They found the claw marks at the base of a tree. It had clawed the dirt around it, criss-crossing the small trail. Its claws were huge and sharp, shredding the solid dirt. With nothing else to note, they moved on.

The two men spent hours in the woods in silence, using small hand signals to communicate, and then only when they dared take their eyes off the trail. It wasn’t until the trail mysteriously stopped, after it had looped back and forth around the camp and ruins all night that the older of the two let out a grunt of frustration.

Finn went searching for where it started again but Rigel knew better. In a couple of hours the trail would fade into oblivion and tonight’s tracks would freshly scar the earth. Rigel stood against a nearby tree, and never let his uncle out of his sight for long, although he was confident they were in no immediate danger.

By wandering around in the woods, the creature would have their scent, and hopefully when he stepped out from the barricade tonight around midnight, it would know him and approach to meet the challenger. Finn would be safely tucked away in bed and the beast would be solely focused on him.

Rigel sipped at his water before offering it to the older man when he returned from his forage looking sweaty and annoyed.

‘Had an idea we wouldn’t find it?’ Finn mused.

Rigel shrugged. ‘It was better than sitting around the ruins while Carina wandered through them and that chamber.’

Finn studied him intently, taking in his casual response as he sipped at the water. ‘But how will you select your payment?’

‘I’ll go in when it’s all done, take a look and take whatever strikes my fancy.’

‘But you won’t have any idea what any of it is worth.’

‘Doesn’t matter. Carina will yell at me no matter what I select.’

‘You picked an odd one there, boy.’ Finn was shaking his head in disbelief, looking at Rigel as if he could answer.

‘There really wasn’t any actually picking involved. It just … happened.’

Carina stood back as they reopened the chamber, her foot tapping against the ground as she stared at her nails. The mercenaries had dispersed throughout the ruins, apparently performing their morning routine, searching for intruders that might be lurking.

They were a professional lot, Carina would give them that. Finn had them trained well. As soon as they were in sight of the ancient structure they had armed themselves and fanned out, each entering at a different location, and she imagined they would change those each day.

The dig team had just stopped walking and now waited fifty metres from the ruins. Not a word of communication passed between them and the mercenaries, but they stopped as if waiting for permission. Carina had walked through them, ignoring their pleas to wait with them — who did they think they were to tell a mage what to do? She was Seventh Circle and these people were nothing.

The chamber had been untouched since the first day that they had cracked open the centuries old seal. The creature that prowled around the ruins that night had deterred them from returning, and if it hadn’t, the whispers among the labourers about how the boys were slaughtered certainly had an affect.

Carina followed the head archaeologist to the uncharted chamber, ignoring everything else including the older, more senile archaeologist who was ranting about a glyph he'd located on a wall. Fuck the wall. She then had to wait even longer until the labourers arrived with the tools needed to reopen the door. Carina wanted to blow the door off its hinges, but she knew better of it. Rigel was always telling her she needed to control her impatience.

Why she let Rigel talk her into coming down to Firadon in the first place, she had no idea. Curse him and his charming smile. Everything happened so slowly outside of the Academy, and she couldn’t expect any of these fools to be as fast as Rigel. Her foot tapped faster as three men rammed giant crowbars into a vertical crack in the wall and pried open the door.

As the dust settled Carina peered into the underground chamber. She took the stairs confidently, her heels barely touching the dirt covered stone. Stepping into the dark she snapped her fingers and an orb of magical light appeared over her shoulder. The orb illuminated a long stretch of hall, and hinted at an expansive chamber at the far end.

Without hesitating she hurried forward, poise in each step. The archaeologists slowly followed down the hall, lanterns held above their shoulders. Carina didn’t care. They’d been in here before, only the once, but they could have taken the very best, the rarest, most coveted belongings of the magi that lived centuries ago.

Ara had her dimensional research, Carina had her elements, but there was so much that had been lost during the breaking when Rayn had been brought down. The histories spoke of spells and incants that no one in the Academy knew how to cast. Ones like Ice Carnage and Soul Inferno that Carina wanted desperately to master.

If there was anything in this room that would help her understand those forgotten magics, she didn’t care that Finn had only offered one artefact in lieu of payment. She could coerce Rigel to take whatever she wanted as his. But if there was more, she would need to take it without them noticing … or by force.

Carina stopped at the end of the hall, sensing the residue of ancient magic dispersed on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. Someone had wanted to protect whatever was in this chamber, and when the diggers entered weeks ago they had triggered it. Carina was surprised that the spell had kept its integrity over the centuries. Odd that Finn hadn’t mentioned it. There was no sign of any explosion around the chamber’s entryway suggesting whoever had set it didn’t want to destroy what was inside, so the incant had another purpose than a typical incendiary trap. The residue was too faint now for her to recognise but she had a feeling that she probably wouldn’t anyway.

Entering the room, she stepped through the residue, her body tingling with the remnants of the incant, and her eyes widened as she scanned the contents. Two long tables ran the length of the chamber on either side, littered with miscellaneous items that were covered in dust. At a quick glance it appeared that only the items closest to the hall had been disturbed on that first day.

Closing her eyes she cast silently, then reopened them to see the room awash with the glow of magic. There was residue over nearly everything in the room, but that could just mean they were handled by a mage that had cast before placing them there. But there was nothing active. She blinked, and the sight was gone, and she walked carefully into the room without fear of another spell trap.

Without an inventory of what was in the room she couldn’t possibly know what to claim. Or what to tell Rigel to take. And with all the dust, taking anything now would leave an obvious indicator that something was missing.

‘You need to clear all this dust,’ Carina ordered.

The middle-aged archaeologist, the one who appeared to be in charge of the dig, coughed into his hand and stepped forward. ‘This is our site, you can’t order us around here.’

‘I was brought in to help with all the magical items in here.’

The other diggers were busy behind him hanging the lanterns from the wall and moving further into the chamber. Carina noticed them all doing their best not to meet her eyes and look extremely busy.

‘Not by us you weren’t. The mercenary captain sent for you to aid his team, not help us in here.’

‘But you agreed to the payment. I want to know what’s in here.’

‘And you will get paid when the job is done. Now leave the chamber and let us do what we do.’

She cursed to herself but kept a look of serenity on her face. Carina was furious that he was right. She needed to wait for them to catalogue what was in here, but gods damn it she wanted to get her hands on anything that could reveal the secrets from centuries ago.

‘I want to see an inventory list as soon as you have it finished,’ she ordered as she brushed past him, extinguishing the orb of light above her shoulder and walking down the darkened corridor.

Rigel pulled open the flaps of the tent, ducked, and entered. Carina noted the gleam of sweat on his forehead that he casually wiped off. It ruffled the front of his short hair, pushing it in all directions. His easy grin brought out his dimples under the short whiskers that had grown while in the countryside.

He casually smiled when he saw her on the bunk and winked. ‘How was your day sweetheart?’

‘Don’t call me sweetheart,’ Carina replied coolly.

She hated how he knew which buttons to push. She pulled her hair back behind her ear and looked away.

‘But you hate it when I call you pumpkin.’

Carina rolled her eyes and shook her head.

‘Was the chamber everything you were expecting?’ Rigel asked, ignoring her pained expression.

‘I scanned the room. There are plenty of magical objects in there so it was worth coming to this shithole.’

‘Know what you want to take yet?’

Carina wondered why he was so inquisitive today. Rigel wasn’t known for his social skills, and she kind of liked that quiet, reserved attitude he had.

‘No, the diggers will give me a list once they have figured out what’s down there. Then I’ll know what the two most valuable artefacts down there are, and that’s what we’ll take.’

Rigel didn’t bat an eyelid at her suggestion, just moved further inside. Carina was curious why he wasn’t attempting to defy her about this. It was something he would have enjoyed, telling her he would take what he liked no matter how much she insisted.

Rigel was definitely acting strange.

‘Is there anything I should know about your day? Like what you were doing in the woods?’

‘A casual stroll. Keeping myself fit. You know, things us warrior types like to keep on top of.’

He was lying, but he wasn’t giving anything away.

‘That would only be the case if you were actually a warrior.’

‘There is that.’

‘Did you find anything out there?’ Carina pressed.

‘That I should seriously reconsider my decision to be your acolyte?’

He said it with a grin and she knew he wouldn’t ever take his decision back. Carina would never be fazed by his little jeers about that at least.

Rigel enjoyed the perks; the strength, the speed. She knew it. All the acolytes did, it was a feeling of exuberance. His outward portrayal of hatred was even more of a ruse, a performance for all the onlookers. Carina knew exactly how he felt, not that she ever planned to tell him that. When they'd bonded, his soul was open to her when the magic transferred to him and his feelings had overwhelmed her to an almost shocking extent.

He was loyal beyond anything she had ever dreamed possible. Rigel would die for her and she wondered if the situation was reversed whether she would do the same for him. She honestly didn’t want to find out. She had her doubts.

‘So the thing that killed some of the help?’

‘Nothing I can’t handle.’

‘So you don’t need my help?’

‘I’ll be fine. I’ll take care of it when it comes out to play tonight.’

Carina smiled and stood up to look him eye to eye, although he still tilted his head to make it possible. She tugged at his belt. ‘That means you’re mine until then.’ And then she kissed him.

Sunset was hours ago and Rigel was finally strapping his sword belt back on. He spent moments staring at Carina’s sleeping form. Gods she was beautiful, and every moment he was with her it was harder for him to leave. She grunted and rolled, bringing the sheet up to cover her exposed breasts.

He couldn’t say she was elegant, but she was his, and every little quirk …

Rigel was hoping that he would get this over with before she even knew he was gone. He hoped even more that he’d just come back to her. The thing out there was fast, brutally strong, and it tore those men apart. Even though he could track it, Rigel knew it could slaughter him if he wasn’t careful.

He just didn’t want to disappoint her. Dying would totally give her the shits.