Promise of Wrath (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 6) (13 page)

CHAPTER
14

September 1195. City of Acre.

Y
ou bastard!” Mordred screamed at me as I entered his cell. His face was drenched in blood, although that didn’t seem to be bothering him. “They took her! They took Isabel. And what did you do, you fucking asshole? You did nothing.
Nothing!
” He spat at the floor by my feet.

“Why did they take her, Mordred?” I asked.

“Fuck you, Nathaniel. Fuck. You.”

“Mordred, let’s get something straight. You’re still chained to a wall; you still have a sorcerer’s band on. And you’re still in a room underground, surrounded by guards. You have no escape, no way of hurting me or anyone else, and this woman you wanted me to help has been snatched away by some awful people.” I sighed. This game we’d played for so long was exhausting. “Let’s stop with the constant chest-puffing and get on with it. We both have something the other needs. I need answers; you need Isabel found safe and sound. How about we actually work together here?”

Mordred stared at me for several seconds, the veins in his neck bulging as anger permeated every part of him. Then it was gone and he relaxed, picking up his chair and taking a seat. “Siris has her. Siris the goddess of beer has Isabel.”

“I know who she is, Mordred. I want to know
why
she took Isabel.”

“To get to me.” His voice was soft, and there was real feeling there: something I was unused to.

“Who is she? Really?”

“She’s the daughter of an old friend: a human friend. Her father died when she was a child, and I knew her mother well. I only found out about her mother’s death a few years ago, so I came here to keep an eye on Isabel. I promised her mother I would always keep an eye on her. I told her that Isabel would be safe.”

“You loved her mother.”

“That’s none of your concern. All you need to know is that her mother was a wonderful person, and someone better than most I’ve met over my life. She died from some disease I barely knew about until it was too late. I stayed in the city to make sure that Isabel was taken care of, that no one tried to take advantage of the young woman. A promise, it appears, you’ve broken for me. Congratulations, Nathaniel.”

“I don’t understand why kidnapping Isabel puts pressure on you. I don’t understand why
anyone
would go to such efforts to grab one human woman, even one you care about. This doesn’t make sense to me. Are they trying to get you to stop helping us? Are they trying to punish you
for
helping us? Help me out here, Mordred.”

“I came here to kill Siris. My reasons for that act are my own, and I won’t share them with you. I infiltrated her organization under the assumption that I was going to help them break the negotiations between Avalon and the Mesopotamians, something in reality I care little for. But she knew: she knew I was there to kill her, and she knows why I want her dead. The latter I was unaware of until it was too late.”

“That’s why they didn’t share their plan with you?”

“Yes. Taking Isabel has nothing to do with their plan. It’s to do with hurting me, and that’s all it is. The second I decided to go after Siris was a mistake. I didn’t realize she knew my true intentions. When the time was right, she told me about her plan to take Isabel, and gave me the option of trying to kill her, or save Isabel. I ran to Isabel’s side, and found several members of Nanshe’s security force waiting for me. They’d been tipped off.”

“By Siris?”

“I assume so.”

“So, do you know anything more about Siris and her group’s plan?”

“She’s in charge—at least she was in charge of those I met. There was Asag and a vampire, who I found quite unpleasant. He liked to kill young men and women; he liked to turn them. I wanted to tear his tongue out. If he’s hurt Isabel, I’ll do a lot worse.”

“Anyone else in the little group?” I really didn’t want to get Mordred off track.

“Lots of people, but they were the upper echelon. I wasn’t permitted to talk to any of them. One of them was named Nergal. People spoke to him like he was important.”

The shock on Nanshe’s face was easy to read. “You’re sure? Nergal? That’s what he called himself?”

Mordred nodded. “He wasn’t around much. He was always leaving to work with other groups. This anti-Avalon movement is made up of more than one group in Acre; it has spread out across the world. At least that was the impression I got. I don’t think Avalon is all that popular.”

“Where did you meet?” Nanshe asked, her tone hard for the first time.

“Siris’s house. I assume you know where it is?”

I looked over at Nanshe, awaiting confirmation.

“It’s over by the west entrance. It’s a moderately sized building, on a slight hill. It has views of the ocean away from the port.”

“It’s lovely,” Mordred said with a laugh. “You must be really angry with Siris right now. Plotting and planning right under your nose.”

“She has your friend,” I said, regaining Mordred’s glare. “I don’t think mocking anyone else is going to do her a lot of good.”

“Let me out of here, and we’ll find her together. Like old times. You remember, yes? Those murdered farmers we found back when we were young: you remember us hunting down their killers? That Merlin didn’t want us to go, he was worried I’d get hurt, or that we’d be walking into a bigger problem than we could handle. But me, you, Galahad, and Morgan, we found those murderous bastards and made them pay. We were like brothers, you and I.”

“Yes, Cain and Abel. You tried to murder me, Mordred. You’ve wanted me dead for a long time. Whatever friendship we had died long ago.” I raised my hand before he could say more. “Don’t bother threatening me; it’s not going to do any good. Just let me do my job.”

I turned to Nanshe. “We need to talk. Now.”

Nanshe and I left the room and walked upstairs, where, once outside, I took a deep breath. We walked away from the soldiers stationed outside of Mordred’s prison, past the guard at the front of the city and across the wooden bridge, stopping in the shade of a large boulder close to where Asag and I had fought.

“Avalon has not stationed troops here because we wanted to show that there was a mutual trust. Acre was meant to be under Mesopotamian control, and we didn’t want to screw around with that. Part of the agreement in the joining of yourselves and Avalon was that we would station SOA agents here to protect the city, but they’re going to be several weeks away. And until then we’re alone in this. If I contact Merlin or Elaine and tell either of them what happened here, they’ll send enough Blade of Avalon soldiers that it will appear as if we’re taking the city by force.

“I would rather that not happen. I would rather we were able to deal with this ourselves. But our entire thought process was that Isabel was important to Siris because of her plan; that has just been destroyed as a theory. Isabel is important because Siris wants to hurt Mordred. No idea why, although I’m not sure it’s important. Siris, however,
is
important. And judging from your expression, so is Nergal. An explanation would be excellent. As would an honest appraisal of whether or not I need to turn this city into an Avalon military exercise.”

“I don’t want anything to jeopardize the union between our powers,” Nanshe said. “There have been enough foreign powers trying to take control of this city and I don’t wish to add to it. Isabel was a ruse, a ruse that Mordred helped along because of his fear for her well-being. Siris, however, is not a ruse. She’s incredibly powerful, and apparently has a grudge against the rest of the pantheon.”

“And Nergal?”

“Nergal is terrifying. He’s also Irkalla’s husband—or was until he tried to kill her for disobeying him. As you might have guessed, Irkalla didn’t take well to being ordered about.”

“Who is he?”

“He’s a half fire elemental, half siphon. A few thousand years ago we managed to fight off an invading force, a group who wanted to take control of the area, and remove our names from the history books. Nergal siphons life force; he uses it to make himself physically stronger. The power makes those affected appear as if they’ve caught some kind of plague, spreading fear throughout the rest of the population. It works best on humans. As I’m sure you know, fear quickly leads to violence.

“During the war, he walked into a civilian city that was under enemy control and infected hundreds, draining their life force to the point of death, making him even more powerful in the process. He watched as the fear took that city by force, and then he made them an offer. Kill the infected and the rest will be spared. Except he kept infecting more, making it look like a disease, until the streets ran slick with blood. Nergal is the single most terrifying person I’ve ever met. He enjoys warfare. It’s what he’s good at. You can’t defeat him. Not even Gilgamesh can do that.”

That was surprising news. “He beat Gilgamesh?”

“Gilgamesh’s last encounter with Nergal left him almost completely broken. Nergal had beaten him half to death, broken both his legs, his arms, ribs, nose, jaw, and damaged several internal organs. Gilgamesh healed, but I don’t think he was ever the same. That was thirty-six years ago. No one has heard from Nergal since.”

“Well, Mordred and Siris have. But, Mordred said Nergal has left to do something else. I assume that’s some good news.”

Nanshe waited several seconds before nodding. “I hope so.”

“Okay, we leave Nergal to one side until we need to deal with him, which hopefully isn’t any time soon. That leaves Siris as the most immediate problem. Her home needs to be searched, and—no offence—but I don’t want someone who once considered her a friend to do it. I assume that counts you out.”

Nanshe nodded. “Siris has been angry at us for a long time, but I never assumed she’d go against us like this.”

“Why is she angry with you?”

“She was given the title goddess of beer as a joke. I can’t even remember who said it first. I just remember it sticking, and her hating it. People worshipped her for their ability to get drunk. A few thousand years of that, and I think she resented those of us who were given more important roles in the pantheon.”

“Not to sound cruel, but your pantheon hasn’t been worshipped in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Why still hold a grudge? Why do something about it now?”

“Only she can answer that. When you go to Siris’s house take Irkalla with you. They didn’t get along. If anyone would be happy to find something that ties Siris to all of this, it’s Irkalla.”

“Why didn’t they get along?”

“Petty arguments built up over time. Things that were never resolved, and so grew. Also, Siris killed one of Irkalla’s attendants for being disrespectful. It happened a long time ago, but Irkalla has never given up trying to punish Siris for that injustice.”

“I’d like a half-dozen Teutonic Knights with me too. Can that be arranged?”

Nanshe nodded. “Anything else?”

“Mordred will try to escape. I’d really rather he didn’t manage it.”

“He’s not going anywhere.”

“You don’t know Mordred. He’ll break out eventually; he always does. And then he’ll kill people, innocent or otherwise, to get to his goal. If there’s one thing you can say about Mordred, it’s that when he’s focused on something, he doesn’t change his mind.”

“That sounds like you admire him a little bit.”

“I hate him, Nanshe. I hate who he’s become, I hate that I lost a brother, I hate that I’m never getting him back. And above all, I hate that I have to be the one to kill him. He’s my burden to destroy.”

She turned to look at me. She appeared concerned, although I couldn’t tell if it was for me or the situation. “Why?”

“Because I was the one who confronted him just before he almost killed Arthur. He’d been murdering people, Avalon members, for years. I hunted him down, begged him to stop, tried to figure out what was going on. We fought, and I had a chance to kill him. I didn’t take it. I couldn’t accept that my friend of so long was gone. And when it came right down to it, I just couldn’t take his life.”

“It’s hard to kill those we love, Nathaniel.”

A slight smile creased my lips, although it wasn’t one of joy. “That might be true, but Mordred is no longer worthy of mercy. His continued existence is a blight on this and all other realms. I’ll take his life, and then I’ll hopefully see the friend I grew up with. I hope his death will break whatever happened to him. He’s left me with no other options.”

Nanshe placed her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry for you. For that burden.”

I shook my head. “Like I said, it’s
my
burden. And he knows it. But I won’t go against your wishes, and I won’t kill him while he’s under your care. I want your joining with Avalon to be peaceful, the transition easy. I don’t want it to be marred by blood and death. That’s why we need to find Siris, and anyone else involved, and stop them. Because the attack tonight was only the beginning.”

I paused. “The attack,” I said, mostly to myself.

“What about it?”

“Well, it was done precisely to get to Isabel, who we’ve established was only taken to get to Mordred. The whole attack was a ruse. It was to see how well prepared we were. I found it strange that they put so few people against the whole city. If they’d wanted to overrun us, they went about it a strange way. They lost maybe thirty vampires last night, and how many soldiers did we lose?”

“About a hundred and fifty from all divisions, last I heard.”

“So we lost a lot more, despite having a greater advantage in numbers. If they’d sent a few hundred vampires they’d have destroyed us. Which means they don’t have that many. Or they didn’t want to commit.”

“It was a test. A chance to abduct Isabel and see how strong we really were. Nothing more. Siris wasn’t privy to any sort of details regarding the strength of the defenders of the city. She thought she’d do two things at once, and maybe thin our numbers a little.”

I nodded. “Which means, more
will
be coming. We need to be prepared. Siris’s plan hasn’t truly started yet, but I can’t imagine her wanting to wait around while we prepare for whatever it is.”