Imp Forsaken (Imp Book 5) (11 page)

“My Lord, I could give up my horse and she could ride across his back. Llualia has a strong mount that can carry two of us as I lead the demon on mine. We can use the collar on her, now that we know how to put it on and remove it.”

I felt Taullian’s approval. Actually felt it. The glow of his elven magic radiated from him and the others leaned toward him in a strange sort of bonding I’d never seen before. It made me realize how little I really knew about the elves, how secretive they had been about their powers and society while seeming to reveal all.

“By the Goddess, I think that will work. Thank you, Spriggh for your offer, and thank you Llualia for allowing your mount to carry double during this long journey. I truly appreciate your dedication and loyalty.”

It seemed to be an over-the-top speech, as if he were laying it on too thick, but I didn’t get that feeling at all from Taullian or his elves. They accepted his praise like a corporate team, ready to get out the flip charts, ven diagrams, and call in for a lunch delivery.

The six-day trip from jail cell to jail cell was uneventful and uncomfortable. Riding from sunup to sundown draped over the back of a horse with my head and arms dangling down one side and my legs the other wasn’t dignified. And it fucking hurt. Bound and wearing the collar, I had a limited a range of motion and was unable to fix any bruises or pulled muscles. I couldn’t stretch my limbs or relieve the pressure against my abdomen for hours at a time. By day two I was thinking this qualified as one of the most horrendous forms of torture ever. I made a mental note to remember it.

My new captors had the courtesy to let me off the horse when they made camp, dumping me in a centralized area to better keep an eye on me. I had food and water, and at least the collar allowed me to see what was going on, unlike the elven nets. The view from the back of the horse had not been very enlightening, but once the elves, and few humans with them, settled in for the evening, I observed. The first night, everyone carefully watched their words, glancing frequently over to me, but by day three, they’d begun to ignore me. I held as still as I could, quiet and unthreatening in my chains and tried to glean as much information as possible.

It wasn’t much. The elves were scared. Worried what Feille would do to their kingdom even with the treaty. They grumbled that Taullian hadn’t made a stand against Wythyn’s aggression like a proper high lord should, but they still followed him, still kept some hope in their hearts that he’d pull through for them. The humans were mostly silent, casting defeated looks at each other. I knew what their fate would probably be. Feille would claim them all as spoils of war, as some sort of tribute, taking them from their current owners and gifting them to his key supporters. Nyalla had detailed Wythyn’s uncaring attitude toward humans, and I’d seen it firsthand. Even those with magical ability were treated as animals. Tolerated… until they stepped out of line, then “justice” was swift and brutal.

Kirby and another mage were the highest ranking of the humans, and I watched them move among the elves, sharing casual conversation before moving off to sit by themselves. They weren’t the same level as the other humans and not welcomed fully by the elves. It had to have been a lonely existence.

All talk was on the fate of the kingdom, of their families, of what their futures might hold. There was no mention of Feille’s scheme to move against the demons, or his larger plans to eventually take the Northern elven kingdoms. For a megalomaniac like Feille to keep such grand schemes secret, there had to have been a weakness. Something wasn’t ready, or wasn’t working quite right. Otherwise he would have shouted it from the rooftops. It gave me hope that perhaps I had a bit of time beyond that which killing his sorcerer had bought me.

I couldn’t see the city in the distance as we approached, couldn’t see anything beyond the forest under my horse turn to grassy field, then to a well-worn dirt path. There were shouts of greeting. We halted as the gates were opened. Then I had a lovely view of the cobblestones under my horse as we made our way through the city streets toward Taullian’s palace. They untied me and hauled me, still shackled and collared, off my horse. Netting me, which was a completely unnecessary precaution, they proceeded to drag me along a rough, hard floor to yet another dungeon. The gate clanged behind me, and I wondered if they intended to keep me in the collar and the net.

I felt hands on my neck and instinctively lashed out, hitting the restraining edges of the net.

“Hold still,” an elven voice told me, sounding unusually sympathetic. “We’re removing the collar so we can study the magic behind it.”

Of course they’d want to figure out something so intriguing. I felt relief as the collar clicked from my neck, assuming they’d leave me netted in the dungeon until Taullian came back to do whatever he wanted to do with me.

“
Cleofan
.”

I guess not. The net dissolved from me. I slowly stood, stretching cramped, stiff muscles. The dungeon seemed much the same as the one in Wythyn. Stone walls. No windows. Big metal bars that glowed with magic.

I turned and saw Kirby outside the closed gate, two guards by his side.

“Would you please leave me to have a private word with the Iblis?” he asked the guards. I barely controlled my surprise. Asking to be alone with me? That was really going to raise suspicions. But instead, the two guards exchanged looks then glanced at me.

“We appreciate your kindness to our kin, Tlia-Myea,” one told me. “May the Goddess continue to grand you her favor.”

I didn’t know much about “continue”. I think whatever deity had once smiled upon me was long gone at this point. Still, I watched them leave, no doubt positioning themselves just outside the dungeon door, ready to race in at the slightest sound of trouble.

“I delivered your note and marble to your family,” I told Kirby, fingering the skin where the silver collar had been around my neck. “They were relieved that you were still alive, although they were very upset about what had happened.”

“I know.” The mage grinned. “The marble—it was a gate relay. We’ve been working on them for the last decade, trying to find a way to establish permanent, movable, interdimensional access points that are unnoticeable until activated. I’ve been able to go home to visit and be back before anyone realizes I’m gone.”

Holy shit! That was huge. Gates were always either open, like the elf traps, or doorways that were visible and usable to anyone with the skill to activate them. A stealthy gate, activated briefly only to melt into its surroundings, was an amazing feat of magic. The implications hit me. Forget the demon powered magics of Feille, this was the real ultimate weapon. To be able to appear right before your enemy, kill him and vanish before anyone ever knew—that was far more valuable than the brute force that Wythyn held. Did Taullian realize he had such a thing at his disposal? Perhaps there was more to this elf lord and his quick acquiescence than I thought. I could tell Kirby wanted to talk about his family reunion but all I could think about was the storm on the horizon.

“Does Taullian know about this? How many of the elven kingdoms have something similar?”

Kirby tilted his head, his expression quizzical. “Yes, of course he knows, although he has no idea I’ve been using it. No other kingdom has it that I’m aware of, and the entire project is of the highest secrecy. If I weren’t a level twelve mage, I wouldn’t know of it.”

I walked toward the cell bars, feeling a sizzle like a static shock as I drew near. “Really bad shit is about to hit the fan, Kirby,” I told him, keeping a respectable distance from the bars. “This thing with Feille is bigger than anyone knows.”

He nodded. “No one believes he’ll keep his end of the treaty. He’ll stabilize Li, Tonlielle, and Allwin, then tear through Cyelle like a hurricane. Everyone knows what life will be like if he takes control of the kingdom, and it will be ten times worse with him as ruler of all six of the southern kingdoms.”

“Bigger,” I told him, ignoring the sizzle of the bars to lean closer. “He has something that will give him control over demons. Once he gets his elven power base, he’s going for all of Hel. Including the northern elven kingdoms.”

Kirby stepped back in shock. “No. He can’t. There’s no way he can possibly overcome the ancient demons. Maybe Lows and imps. Possibly mid-level plague-bringers, but not the ancients. Once they see what he’s up to, they’ll band together and crush him.”

I didn’t have time to get into the absolute lack of cooperation among the demons in Hel with him. “Trust me. You guys need to make a stand. You need to use this stealthy gate thing to get an army on his doorstep and take Wythyn down as they sleep. The northern kingdoms won’t do anything to support you until it’s too late; they won’t bother. It’s all up to Cyelle.”

“We don’t….” Kirby hesitated. “I don’t know what his lordship intends. He’s not an aggressive ruler. He spends most of his energy on infrastructure, research, and cultural preservation. I respect that, I really do, but he’s not the kind of lord for subterfuge or overt attack.”

I rubbed my hands over my face. Fuck. The sole hope of the southern elves, the northern elves, and the demons lay in the hands of a social feel-good politician. No doubt he thought the treaty was a reasonable compromise, preserving the peace of his kingdom at the cost of only his pride. He’d still be thinking that when Feille lopped off his head and executed half his people.

“We traded two of our sorcerers,” Kirby continued. “We only have one left, and three high level mages. Not enough to wage war, even with a gate relay. I believe you, I really do, but I don’t know what I can do to help.”

He was a mage, and a human. There probably wasn’t much he could do. Except….

“Can you get a message to my household? A message to Dar?” I pleaded. “Let him know what I told you. I want them to prepare for Feille’s attack.”

The elves were a lost cause, but I wasn’t going to give up on the rest of Hel. There might be nothing Dar could do either, but at least the demons wouldn’t be surprised. If they believed him. If not, then at least Dar and my household wouldn’t be surprised. Dar was stronger than he let on, and he had the kind of subtle influence centuries of wheeling and dealing had brought.

“I’ll try,” Kirby said doubtfully. “It’s not easy to get a message out right now. Wythyn is watching us carefully. And I’m a human; I don’t have much leeway in travel outside the city, let alone outside the kingdom and into demon lands.”

“Try. Please try. Tell them what I told you about Feille’s plans, and ask them to tell Wyatt to let Gregory know that there’s more to what happened to me than we thought. That there are others in Aaru involved.”

Kirby looked confused. “Tell Dar that the Wythyn elves are going to attack the demons, and Wilson needs to tell somebody there are others involved with the angels?”

Close enough. “Wyatt. And Gregory.”

He nodded, and I had no doubt that the message was going to be garbled beyond recognition by the time it reached Dar. Fuck. I needed to get out of here.

“Why did you come back?” I asked the mage, curious. “You could just disappear one night, go home and never return.” He’d had a way out, a way back to his parents, and he’d returned.

“I belong here. I enjoy my work. I have friends and colleagues. I have a life here, valuable skills and interesting opportunities for advancement. What would I do as a mage back home? I’d wind up delivering pizzas and living in my parents’ basement.”

“But you’d be free. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Yes, but it’s not worth the trade-off. Other humans might choose differently, but I have value here. The elves respect me, even if they are pompous jerks sometimes. I’d miss my magic, the forests, the festivals, my friends. This is my home now. I just want to be able to see my parents every week or so, not give everything up to return there.”

It was the same as Nyalla had said. There was no going home for so many of these humans, even Kirby who had family that loved him. If they’d choose to stay in Hel, then I needed to make sure they could carve out a decent life here. It’s not like anyone else gave two shits for them. Besides, they were mine.
Mine
.

“You know what will happen to you humans if Feille takes over?” I asked softly, remembering the girl the guards had thrown in my dungeon cell. “I’ve seen how the elves there treat the servants, and I don’t think the mages have it much better.”

Kirby whitened, looking like he was on the verge of puking up his lunch. “I know. We won’t have it quite as bad as the servants will, but there will be no more socializing amongst ourselves, or free time. We’ll be on constant lockdown, every movement accounted for, every spell component logged and signed out. His sorcerers are on every hour, every day. They achieve amazing feats of knowledge and magic, but no one can take that kind of pressure for long. Escape winds up looking like a good option, even with the probability of death by a demon bounty hunter.”

“What will you do, Kirby?” I knew what I’d do. I’d fight to the death, just like so many of us did two and a half million years ago in the war with the angels. And if I was given a choice, I’d take eternal exile over a life of subjugation.

The mage’s jaw clenched. “I’ll fight for Taullian. It’s the best option I’ve got. And if we lose and I’m still alive, I’ll leave and spend the rest of my life delivering pizzas.”

I felt a surge of something powerful in my core. I loved humans. The gifts of Aaru, every fuck up that had happened since then—it hadn’t been a mistake. They were the perfect blend of order and chaos. If the angels couldn’t see that, they were a bunch of blind idiots. A crazy idea formed in my mind. If I had my way, the only pizza Kirby would see would be one he was about to eat.

“If you hear anything more about Taullian’s plans or the situation in the elven kingdoms, can you find a way to let me know?”

“Yes, although I may not know of anything until events are already in motion. Communication has been locked down tight, and we’re all in the dark.”

I nodded and watched as he turned to leave.