Skybuilders (Sorcery and Science Book 4) (24 page)

The hallways were slick with puddles, dozens of footprints that had merged together to form a long slushy wetland. The melted snow had further coalesced with thick pools of blood, which reflected eerily in the dim orange torchlight. Bullet shells were scattered across the floor, as though a cloud had opened up above the hallway and rained them down—and then rained down corpses on top of them. There were over twenty bodies strewn across the length of the hall, soaking in the blood-water mixture. Ariella walked past them and noted that a black throwing knife protruded from most. The distinctive blue uniforms marked them as Selpes. But what were Selpe soldiers doing charging in guns blazing into an Elition temple—especially a temple so remote?

She spotted a pair of indigo eyes peeking out from around the corner and stepped forward. “I am Ariella Steele, aide to King River.”

A priest in wrinkled robes came out of hiding, his wary eyes considering her winged suit. “You too?”

“Too?”

“There was a pair of Elitions here earlier today. One claimed King River had sent them. A woman with pink hair and sapphire eyes.”

Isis. “Where did she go? What happened here?” Ariella asked.

“Jason Chanz happened. He and the Selpes decided to use our temple as the grounds for a shooting match.”

Hmm. It appeared they'd found each other again after all. And then the Selpes had found them.

“Where did they go?”

“Most of the Selpes you can see here.” The priest swept his arm to indicate the hall of corpses. “Jason Chanz and his companion went through the portal to Laelia.”

Ariella sighed in relief. “Then they are safe.”

The priest shook his head slowly, his thin lips pressed together.

“Not?”

“I heard the Selpes talking. Your friends are walking into a trap.”

Ariella took off down the hall toward the portal. She could hear the shuffling of feet as Marin and Leonidas scurried to keep up, but still she didn't slow her pace. The Selpes were in Laelia, the seat of Elition power. Suddenly, the danger to Isis was not the only thing weighing heavily on her mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

~
The Elition Spy ~

526AX August 23, Laelia

“WHERE ARE WE going?” Leonidas asked Ariella as they left the Gateway.

She didn’t look back. She just kept power-walking across the lawn, her boots kicking up bursts of pink-white flower petals. They floated lightly on the air, as if immune to the effects of gravity, then settled back down to the ground.

“To pay a spy a visit.”

Marin prodded Leonidas in the back with her finger, whispering, “A friend for you.”

A cold chill slid down his back. “Not a Selpe spy, I hope.”

“No, an Elition one.”

“I didn’t know Elitions had spies,” Leonidas said, breaking into a jog to keep up with Ariella.

“Sure we do. Just not as many as the Selpes or Avans.”

As she cut through a rose garden, Leonidas was brought back to his last encounter with that thorny flower. He and Ariella had climbed the wall of the Selpe imperial palace to sneak into the ballroom. He’d never really liked Orion all that much, but his heart sank at the thought of never stepping foot inside the Empire again. At least not if he didn’t want to end up dead—or worse yet, as the Diamond Edges’ latest ‘example’ of what happened to traitors of the Empire.

“You need to get Marin home,” he told Ariella.

“When we’re done here, I’ll get someone to bring her wherever she wants to go,” she promised.

“Leo, what about you?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“You’re coming with me. If you run off on your own, you'll just get yourself into trouble.”

“I’m a wanted man, Marin. Trouble will find me. No matter where I go. It will find me.” Much as he wanted to go with Marin, he couldn’t put her in danger. He forced a smile. “And if I go to Orion, trouble will find me faster.”

“I’m not going to Orion. I’m going back home. To Beechwheat.”

That Leonidas hadn’t expected. Beechwheat, the tiny town where they’d grown up, was in a remote and very rural corner of Swarden territory. People who made it out didn’t tend to go back. He’d not been home in years, and he suspected Marin hadn’t either.

“I’m jobless and homeless at the moment. I moved out of my apartment and quit my job at Orion Explosives to go work with the Helleans in Oasis. My old boss would probably hire me again, but to be honest, I don’t feel much like going back to designing bombs for the military.” She shuddered. “I’ve seen too much.”

“What will you do?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll figure something out.”

Leonidas didn’t doubt it. Figuring things out was Marin’s specialty.
 

“For now, I just need to rest.” She looped her arm in his. “And so do you.”

He liked the feel of her close to him. If she'd been any other woman, he would have sweet-talked her until she swooned—or thrown a drink in his face. But he couldn’t do that with Marin. She was too important. Besides, she still hadn’t said anything about the kiss he’d given her. He’d expected some reaction. Any reaction.

Instead, she acted as though it had never happened. Maybe it had meant nothing to her. Or maybe he was just an idiot. No, not maybe. He
was
an idiot. Why couldn’t he just tell her how he felt? What’s the worst that could happen? An icy jab colder than the Elition Tundra shot through his heart.

“Rest? Naw, I rested plenty in that prison cell at Precipice,” he joked. Because making stupid jokes was the best way to ignore the things that really mattered.

“The Elitions can’t hide you forever, Leo. Ariella is our friend, but if King River finds out that you’re inside Elitia, the terms of the alliance would compel him to turn you in. As for other options… The Avans would take you, drain you of all useful intelligence, then kill you. The Helleans would sell you out—plus, they’re probably not too pleased that we nearly crashed one of their cities. The Revs are gone. The Varenese are crazy.” She tallied off every name on her hand, then tapped one of those fingers against his chest. “You have no choice but to come with me. There are few places in the Empire as remote as Beechwheat.”

Well, maybe the
Fen district in northern Aspenstone. But the weather was better in
Beechwheat.

“If they find you, we can always go somewhere else.”

It was a funny sort of logic, especially coming from Marin.

“Please.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t want to be alone.”

That did it. Leonidas didn’t even need to think. “Ok.” He wrapped his arm around her. “But if there’s the slightest hint of danger, we leave. Immediately.”

She bobbed her head up and down, a smile creeping up her lips. “I’ll even let you keep them busy shooting at you while I get away.”

Haha.
“Thanks.”

Marin grinned, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She was still sad about Silas. Well, so was he. The big brute could be a sick bastard, but Leonidas had come to realize that everything he did actually had a reason. Even years after his love’s death, he still pined for her. He was honoring her memory by protecting first the man she'd married, then her two sons. He’d thrown himself through a portal for them, even knowing he might never come home again. That was love. Leonidas looked at Marin. He had to respect that.

“So, tell us about this Elition spy. What do we want with him?” he asked Ariella.

At first, she didn’t answer. She passed the last of the fluffy floating blossoms and entered the woods. Only then did she stop and look at him. “I’m hoping he has some information about the Crescent Order’s contract on Hayden and Ian Selpe. He is Elitia’s spy inside that group. His name is Enigma, and he’s a Chameleon-Cipher. That’s basically everything you need to know.”

“Chameleon-Cipher?” Marin asked, her eyebrows peaking with curiosity.

“Most Elitions have a single gift. A few of us have two. Then there are Triads. But they're just crazy,” a man said with a gruff laugh as he appeared out of nowhere. Literally. A second ago there had been nothing but trees, then he was just there, standing in front of them. Leonidas could see why the Elitions had made him a spy.

“Destiny, how wonderful to see you again!” Enigma landed a big kiss on Ariella’s cheek. “I see Prince Halo’s penchant for hanging around humans has finally rubbed off on you.”

Ariella blushed but didn’t let that get in her way. “Enigma, I need information. It’s important.”

“Yes, I heard. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have any details about the Crescent Order’s job on the Selpe boys. They’ve kept very tight-lipped about the whole thing, sharing details only with the assassins directly assigned to the squad going after them. The secrecy usually means that the client asked for extra discretion, even from members of the assassins’ own order. Or that the assassins know there’s a traitor in their midst. Trust me, had it been the latter, I wouldn’t be sitting here having this pleasant conversation with you. But surely you know all of this. I already told the Phantom tiger everything I knew when he came to me with these very same questions last week.”

Phantom tiger. It was an apt description of Silas.

“How about Lady Cassandra?” Ariella pressed on. “Have you heard anything about her?”

“She’s an interesting character. So, you probably know she escaped. But what you may not know is how.”

When he paused for effect, Ariella motioned for him to continue.

“For years now, Lady Cassandra has had an outstanding contract with the Crescent Order that should she ever end up in a Selpe prison cell, they’d spring her free. I’d always wondered why she needed such a contract—well, until she turned out to be an Avan agent. I have to say, I didn’t see that one coming. She always came across as so…so Selpe.”

His tone as he said the word was hardly complimentary. Leonidas would have been insulted, if he hadn’t known Enigma was absolutely right. And that he himself wasn’t a very good Selpe anyway.

“Well, once she was out, she didn’t waste any time. Rumor has it she immediately hired the Crescent Order for another job. I’ve been unable to find out what, though.”

“Maybe to finish what she couldn’t?” Ariella suggested.

Enigma smacked his hand to his forehead. “Of course. Hayden and Ian Selpe. That makes a whole lot more sense now.”

“The question is why,” she said.

“If the Avans saw an opportunity to destabilize the Selpe Empire, they would take it,” Leonidas pointed out.

“Yes, but then why not just have them killed?” Ariella twirled the tip of her ponytail around her index finger. “That would have been much easier. And far less expensive.”

“When they went missing before, it seemed the Avan’s ploy was to capture them, brainwash them, then send them back to rule. An invasion from the inside,” Marin said.

“Except that the Crescent Order was hired to push Hayden and Ian Selpe through a portal that led not to the Avan Empire, but to a different world,” Ariella said.

“According to the dying assassin. He could have been lying.” In fact, Leonidas would have been shocked if everything the man had told them was true.

Ariella tapped her fingers across the hilt of her sword. “No, I don’t think so. I could see it in Silas’s eyes. He knew the portal would take him someplace far away. Someplace that he might not get back from. Crazy as it sounds, I think that portal did take them to another world.”

“Yes, I overheard some Hellean technicians talking about it. They said the portal led to another world,” confirmed Marin.

“If only I knew where. And why,” Ariella said. “But it looks like we have more questions here than answers. This whole mission was a complete failure. We didn’t save Hayden and Ian, and we lost Silas.”

Leonidas looked at Marin. “Not a complete failure.”

“Oh, of course I’m glad you’re safe, Marin.” Ariella smiled at her, but her shoulders were still slouched in defeat. “And I appreciate your help. But you and Leonidas should go home. Before something else happens to endanger you. Now I just need to figure out what in Aurelia’s name I’m going to tell King River.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

~
Gone ~

526AX August 23, Laelia

THE LATE AFTERNOON sun filtered through the everlasting pink blossoms of the cherry trees that encompassed the palace of Laelia, pouring soft warm light into the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the main corridor. Ariella walked alone toward the assembly chamber, having left Marin and Leonidas at the temple. One of the guides would show them back to
Swarden, the Selpe territory where they'd both grown up
.

That was good. Whether from the physical or emotional burnout of the last week—and all those weeks chasing a conspiracy before that—Marin looked ready to fall apart. She'd held it together long enough to get them off the Hellean city, but what she really needed right now was a long break from fighting for her life. And despite his past betrayal, Ariella had a feeling Leonidas was just the person to look after her during this time.

Ariella could have used a break herself. Her last one had been cut pitifully short, interrupted by Silas’s pleas that she help him rescue Hayden and Ian Selpe from a band of assassins. She tried not to dwell on the reality that after surviving fire-spitting dogs and a myriad of maniacal machinery, they'd not only failed to save the Selpe brothers but also lost Silas in the process. Though as Leonidas had said, at least they’d saved Marin.

A break. That’s what she would focus on. She promised herself that once she'd filled King River in on everything that had happened, she would take some time off. Maybe Davin would agree to come along and who knew… Perhaps after a few weeks together on a beach somewhere, things could change between them.

Ariella choked back a despairing laugh. “The expelled Xenens would return first,” she muttered.

Ok, if not Davin, then Isis. She needed a break as much as Ariella did. But then perhaps she’d prefer to spend her time off with Jason. What
were
they doing together at Winter’s Gate? Though it was probably routine for Jason, being shot at by Selpe soldiers was not something Isis would consider a good time. Besides, it hardly seemed like much of a romantic getaway.