Clash (The Arinthian Line Book 4) (67 page)

“I know you do.”

He and Bridget took turns keeping the boy under the Confusion spell. At last, Leera returned carrying a small potato sack stuffed with supper.

“What did Malaika and Charissa have to say?” Bridget asked.

“They’re so useless.”

“You argued, didn’t you?”

“Let’s just say we’re not going to be best friends anytime soon, but then we all knew that anyway. I mean, one spent all the coin daddy sent on a mountain of stupid clothes she can’t
possibly
take back without an army of warlocks helping, and the other one is a complete airhead.” Leera made a circular motion around her head. “I swear you can hear things echo around in there when she walks.”

“To be fair, I’d have said something too, Bridge,” Augum said. He turned to Leera. “They’re going to leave all those clothes behind, right?”

“They’re still deluded into thinking they can bring the entire pile.”

Augum shrugged. “Fine, let’s burn their stuff then.”

Bridget gave him a look.

“I was jesting.” Sort of.

Leera waved dismissively. “I told them they can take their stupid horses and we’ll take the arcane route.” She bit her lip. “Except I guess that’s when the argument really got heated.” She added in an undertone, “There was some food thrown … and stuff …”

Bridget ballooned. “
What?
”

“Nothing to worry about, uh, I just won’t be allowed back into the Supper Hall again, but that won’t matter because we can catch some street food tomorrow—”

“
Leera Jones
—”

“I was merely
escorted
out of there by an attendant, it wasn’t like, you know, the Legion was called in or anything. But look—” She flashed a cheery smile while raising the sack of food. “I brought supper!”

Bridget placed her head into her hands. Augum gave Leera a
You’ve done it now
look.

Leera lowered the sack. “It’s really no big deal, Bridge.” She paused, awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulder. “Uh … I’m sorry.”

Bridget’s shoulders shook.

Leera gave Augum a horrified look he interpreted as
Is she crying?
He nodded somberly in response. Leera plopped down beside Bridget and wrapped an arm around her. She placed her head on Bridget’s shoulder. Augum did the same from the other side, and the trio just sat there a little while … until the boy beside them gave a drooling moan.

Augum casually reached over. “Flustrato,” he said, and the boy resumed his stupor, which by then had devolved to staring at the exotic tree canopy with glazed eyes.

Bridget raised her head. “I’m … I’m sorry, it’s all the stress. Everything’s falling apart, and it just feels like we’re juggling too much. I feel like I’m coming undone at the seams or something. We’ve still got so much to do—find one more coin, get past those gargoyles without getting killed, find a Group Teleport scroll, make a detailed escape plan, then Augum’s got to
beat
Robin—”

“Which he will, handily,” Leera said with a firm nod.

“—then he has to somehow snatch the divining rod from Earring Head—”

Leera snorted a laugh at that one.

“—amongst the most powerful warlocks in the kingdom, and
then
somehow escape without being caught.”

Leera crinkled her nose. “Ehh, you put it like that and it
does
sound … completely crazy, yeah, but that’s why we’re going to plan it really well, right?”

Bridget nodded her head, wiping her eyes.

“You just needed a good cry,” Augum said in a soft voice. “You’re frazzled. It’s all right. This isn’t easy for any of us. I’m amazed we made it this far, if you think about it. I mean, we’ve kind of gone through a lot.”

“You win the understatement of the year award with that one,” Leera muttered with a gentle smile. “Oh, I guess I should also mention that they found the wraith and walkers we killed in that closed-off part of the library.”

Augum and Bridget stared at her.

“When … when were you going to tell us that little, you know, kind of important piece of news?” Augum asked.

Leera shrugged. “When the opportunity presented itself. And now seemed like a good time.”

Bridget was ballooning again. “Not earlier, when we were talking about—”

“Now don’t get upset again, Bridge—”

“Hear ye, hear ye!” an attendant’s amplified voice called out. “The ninth bell tolls! The library is closed. All warlocks are to vacate library premises or see themselves to their rooms. Hear ye, hear ye—”

Bridget threw up her hands. “Great, just great. There’s no chance of getting back now without being caught.”

“So are they doing anything different with the guards?” Augum asked.

Leera opened the bag and doled out some bread. “Don’t know, but there were way more guards in the halls as I walked here.” She glanced at the sleeping boy nearby. “That memory wiper obstacle is close to the doors. We should wait and hide until we see how many walkers we’re going to have to deal with. Anyway, I’m starved. Let’s eat.”

Bridget stared at the chunk of bread. “After we deal with him, we might as well use our cloaked access to get into the labyrinth directly.”

“Either that or we take the waterfall route again,” Augum said.

Leera dug through the sack once more. “No thanks.” She withdrew linen-wrapped chunks of beef, pieces of cheese, some carrots, and doled them out. They ate in silence, watching the arcane braziers steadily dim. The vast cavern would soon go dark.

A Talk with the Enemy

The necrophyte stirred and Augum raised his arm to cast Confusion again, but then dropped it. “No point, is there?”

“Not if his mind’s going to get wiped, no,” Bridget said, taking a swig from a waterskin.

“I’m amazed the attendant doesn’t come around to check if there are any lingering trainees,” Leera said with a mouthful of food. “They just dump undead guards in here and leave.”

“I read that Library policies have changed significantly since the Legion took over,” Bridget replied.

They ate in watchful silence until the boy, Jonathan, opened his eyes. He watched them for a while before weakly asking, “How old are you?”

“Augum’s fifteen,” Bridget replied. “And Leera and I will be fifteen very soon. Why do you ask? And how old are you?”

“Thirteen.” He paused. “For your crimes, you’ll be the youngest to see the public gallows in years.”

“So we’re going to hang,” Augum said. “For what crimes?” What was the Legion telling necrophytes nowadays?

“You won’t hang because you’re the Lord of the Legion’s son.” Jonathan eyed the girls. “Them. They’ll hang.”

Leera put down the chunk of cheese she had been nibbling on. “What are
our
crimes?”

“Theft. Helping to brainwash the Lord of the Legion’s son. Murder … and worse stuff.”

Leera resumed her nibbling. “Really now?”

“You stole the scion and the Agonex.” Jonathan’s eyes briefly flicked to Augum. “The crone has put a spell on him. You murdered all those people in Sparrow’s Perch and Tornvale—”

Leera froze. “How
dare
you—”

“My father murdered everyone in Sparrow’s Perch,” Augum said. “
Including
Bridget and Leera’s families. We saw it with our own eyes.” The memory of dangling feet flitted through his mind before he pushed it away.

“You
think
you saw it. It’s a spell the crone cast to make you believe that. False memories.”

Leera looked like she was about to say something vile but instead took a breath.

Augum gave the boy a pitying look. “Clever, but in my heart, I know that’s not true.” He leaned forward. “My father has managed to convince a lot of people of a lot of things that are not true. And he
did
murder and burn down those villages. It was no illusion, that I guarantee you.”

“The Lord of the Legion is a just and fair man. He does not kill innocents. He’s not a murderer.”

“You don’t know him,” Leera said in exasperated tones. “And it’s you that’s brainwashed. The entire kingdom is.”

The boy lay there a moment before replying. “What’s more likely, that an entire kingdom is brainwashed … or just you three?”

“The bigger the lie the more people believe it,” Bridget said quietly. “My father told me that.”

The boy shook his head sadly at them. “A shame. You will be dead and I will live forever.”

Leera snorted. “What, through Ley?” She pointed her cheese at him. “You can’t take eternal life back with you. Besides, Leyan lives are ridiculously boring. Picture standing in a windy desert for, like, a hundred years, staring at nothing. The most exciting thing you see is sunrise. That’s the only way to live for a long time, by reaching some dull nirvana or something.”

“We watched someone return from Ley,” Augum said. He recalled holding his great-grandfather in his arms, feeling the breath leave his body. “He aged before our eyes, dying within days. You really can’t take that lifespan back with you.”

Jonathan kept shaking his head. “False memories. Lies. You know not what you speak. And why should eternity only belong to a few?”

“This is pointless,” Leera said, extending her hand in readiness to cast another spell.

The boy closed his eyes. “Do what you must, but my family is starving in Blackhaven because of you.”

Leera curled her hand into a fist. “Ugh, seriously?”

“The Lord of the Legion cannot elevate his followers until he completes the Great Quest. When you return the last scion and the Agonex, he will open a portal to Ley. Only then will he be able to reward those most loyal to him.”

“Your family is starving because he’s been robbing the kingdom to fund his wars,” Bridget said. “He’s taken the fieldworkers for his armies. He’s wiped out
entire villages
!”

The boy’s head never stopped shaking. “You are so lost and brainwashed, I almost feel sorry for you.”

“The only eternal life you’ll be allowed is as an undead minion,” Augum said. “Serving ‘His Lordship’.” He said the last words in a mocking tone. “It’s
necromancy.
Think about it.”

“Necromancy is nothing more than mastery over death. His Lordship has taught us that only when you conquer your fear of death do you open your heart to the possibility of eternal life.”

Augum’s muscles tightened. “At the sacrifice of everybody else!”

“Sacrifices have to be made in great pursuits.” Jonathan, this small necrophyte boy they had heard casually kidding around in the Supper Hall, turned his flat gaze upon Augum. “You three and the crone
will
be captured or killed. It’s only a matter of time.”

Bridget’s hand shot out. “Flustrato—” and the boy went dumb again. “Sorry, couldn’t take it anymore.”

Augum rubbed his face, suddenly feeling tired. “Well that was depressing.”

“I saw all three of them in the library,” the boy mumbled. “Oh, eternity? I would be most grateful, Your Esteemed Lordship …”

Bridget watched as he rolled around in the grass, mumbling to himself. “Father told me that an idea could be completely made up of absurd nonsense, but as long as it’s popular and repeated often enough, people will believe it.”

“They’re called
fanatics
, aren’t they?” Leera threw away the stub of her carrot in aggravation. “I’d just call them loons seeing as no amount of proof will change their minds.”

The trio sat in contemplative silence for a bit before gathering themselves in readiness for the memory wipe quest. Bridget cast Confusion one more time on the boy before Augum and Leera lugged him up, placing his arms around their necks. They dragged him to the top of the hill where they stopped to survey the ever-dimming cavern.

“You wanted to know about the guard situation?” Leera said, nodding at the distant entrance. “Well, there it is.”

Before the great double doors were the dim outlines of two wraiths and five walkers. The obstacle course was nearby and it was going to take some sneaky prowling to get there without being noticed.

“Guess they didn’t appreciate having one of their wraiths and a bunch of walkers taken out,” Augum noted. He nodded at the giant rickety-looking house with exterior perches. “If we get to the back of that house, we can skip across to the stone maze.”

“And behind the maze is the obstacle field,” Bridget said. “I’ll lead.” Ducking, she slipped behind an exotic multi-colored bush. She peeked out and beckoned them over. She repeated this pattern from bush to tree, tree to ruined pillar, pillar to a cobble bridge, and then to the back of the old house.

“Flustrato,” Augum said after laying the boy down. Jonathan gave a grunt, eyes wandering.

“I think there’s some kind of cumulative effect happening to him,” Bridget whispered.

“Huh?” Leera said.

Augum had noticed it too. “Spell is more effective with each casting.”

“Oh.” Leera frowned. “Right, look at how his tongue is lolling about.”

Yet another one of the many peculiarities of arcanery Augum did not understand.

They hauled the boy up. Bridget peeked around the corner and soon zipped across to the maze. She looked again, holding her palm up to stop them. Suddenly she waved furiously and Augum and Leera ran with Jonathan flopping between them. One of the boy’s legs suddenly caught between Augum’s. They stumbled and fell the last few strides, rolling into Bridget. Augum’s hand clamped across the boy’s mouth just as a distant squeal echoed, followed by furious clacking.

Bridget dared a peek and paled. She glanced around, gesturing behind them and whispered, “The maze! Go, go, go!”

They scrambled into the dim entrance, choosing to go right. The maze had tall crude masonry covered with moss and lichen. The torches had gone out, forcing them to light their palms. As they chose random passages, they could hear the frantic sprinting of the walkers.

“They’re inside,” Bridget whispered. “Let’s try this way.” She led them into a wide but straight corridor, at the end of which was a section of charred tiles. Each of the tiles had a letter and was just large enough for a single person to step on. On the other side was an old plank door with the symbol of a broken cup.

“Take him, I know this one,” Leera said, leaving Augum to hold up Jonathan on his own. “It’s the name of the Repair spell,” and she stepped on the letter
R
, only to receive a nasty shock that made her recoil.