Soulblade (46 page)

“No, that would take some time.” Manipulating the air, Sardelle moved another rock off the top and floated it into her pile. Her head was starting to hurt from the effort of using so much power. Angulus was at the far rear of the rockfall. It almost seemed like he was in the wall. “Soulblades had to last long enough to be transferred to new handlers. It was often weeks or months before someone acceptable was chosen.”

Sardelle smiled, thinking of the ceremony where she had received Jaxi. She had been so proud to earn a soulblade at such a young age. The feeling of pride had faltered slightly with Jaxi’s first sarcastic comment, it being quite the opposite of what Sardelle had expected from a wise and venerable soul embedded in a sword.

I wasn’t that tickled with the match at first, either, as you’ll recall. You had ink on your fingers and smelled of parchment. I was sure I’d spend your entire life being used as a paperweight on a library table and that you’d never take me out to smite things.

That would have been a tragedy.
Sardelle glanced at Eversong’s body.

Yes.

“Should I try to destroy it?” Therrik looked like he wanted to prod the soulblade again, or perhaps lift Kasandral overhead and cleave it in half. “It’s Cofah, right?”

“Don’t,” Ridge said. “He was willing to accept death over continuing to help her any further. That’s what he said when he gave me my memories back.”

Therrik curled a skeptical lip.

Sardelle wasn’t skeptical, but she was surprised, even though she had known something unusual had happened when Ridge’s memories suddenly returned. “Why would he have chosen you over his handler?”

“He had a sense of honor. She didn’t.” Ridge shrugged.

Also, he likes your soul snozzle
, Jaxi added.
Rather more, I gather, than he liked Eversong. If Ridge wants a soulblade, Wreltad would probably accept him as a handler.

Sardelle gaped. Had that ever even been done? A soublade linking to someone without dragon blood?

I don’t know, but I think it could work. A soul is a soul.

Ridge had been pushing rocks aside, but he paused to look over at them, a puzzled expression on his face. Had Jaxi shared her words with him too?

Yes
, Jaxi said.

Ridge’s gaze shifted toward the dusty sword on the ground. “Doesn’t Tylie need a soulblade?”

“Uh.” Sardelle
had
wanted to get her one to help with her teaching, but a Cofah soulblade? It was what Phelistoth had wanted, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She had hoped to find an Iskandian one for Tylie, one that would tie her to this continent rather than tempting her away. Even if Wreltad agreed to stay here and join with Tylie, if he had come from the same era as Eversong, he might have as much strength and raw power as she had possessed. Sardelle shuddered at the idea of such a weapon in a teenager’s hands.

I would have to meet her first
, a subdued male voice spoke into her head.

Startled, Sardelle dropped the rock she had been moving. It landed with a noisy clunk in the middle of the chamber, and Therrik and Ridge looked at her.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was thinking about the answer to Ridge’s question.”

“Well, don’t think when one of those boulders is over my head,” Therrik grumbled.

A distant, muffled shout reached her ears. Sardelle jumped. Angulus.

She returned her attention to moving the rocks.

“Wreltad?” Ridge asked, looking to the blade again. “Could you help with these rocks?”

Whatever his answer was, he gave it only to Ridge, who nodded and stepped back from the pile. He waved for Sardelle and Therrik to do the same, and they retreated to the hallway.

With a great grinding of rock and shifting of dust, half of the rubble pile lifted up and moved across the chamber. Sardelle stared in awe. She wouldn’t have been surprised if a dragon could do that, but a soulblade that had once been human?

A disdainful sniff sounded in Sardelle’s mind.

Envious, Jaxi?

No.
I could move a mountain of rubble too.

Oh?

Just not all at once.

The rocks settled on the far side of the chamber. As the second half of the pile rose, Sardelle realized Wreltad could have done this at any point when Therrik and Ridge had been hacking at Eversong through the stones. He could also have protected her when they first fell. Maybe Ridge was right and he truly had abandoned his handler.

After the rocks had been moved, Sardelle squinted into the settling dust. At first, she did not see anyone on the ground or against the wall, as her senses had promised her there would be. Then a man sneezed.

“Sire?” Therrik walked toward an old stone fireplace in the corner, the hearth half hidden by smashed crates.

Another sneeze answered him. A boot appeared from the dim recesses of the hearth, kicking away some of the broken crates. Therrik and Ridge rushed forward and shoved away the rest of the debris.

King Angulus, wearing his dark robes of office and even his crown, crawled out from the old firebox. Dust coated his clothing and his hair, and the crown had fresh dents in it. In addition to his formal regalia, he clenched a pistol in one hand and wore a bandolier with explosives in it.

“Did you do this, Sire?” Ridge waved at the rubble.

“Yes. Don’t tell Kaika that I trapped myself along with our invader.” Angulus scowled at Therrik and Ridge. “That’s an order.”

Therrik’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. For the first time that day, he looked less enlightened than Ridge. Apparently, gossip of that relationship hadn’t made it to Magroth.

“Did I defeat her by chance?” Angulus pointed at Eversong’s body, but then frowned, looked for the head, and found it against the wall. “Never mind. Unless the rocks knocked her head off, I see I did not. My ego must remain small, I fear. Who decapitated her?”

Therrik lifted his chin, his eyes gleaming with the hope of some praise from his monarch.

“She was buried in the rubble when we got here, Sire,” Sardelle explained, “but still had power left to use on us. It was a close battle. Therrik was the one who killed her.”

She watched Therrik warily, certain he didn’t want praise from
her.
How would he react? Therrik’s gaze flickered toward her, but not for long. He remained intent on his king.

“I see.” Angulus shuffled forward, sloughing stone dust from his clothing, and patted Therrik on the shoulder. “Good work, Colonel.”

Therrik nodded curtly, as if the job had been simple and the praise didn’t mean nearly as much as it did. “Thank you, Sire.”

Angulus glowered at the body. “That
witch
killed several of my guards and one of my pages.” His tone switched from anger to anguish as he added, “The girl was twelve. She was just trying to get out of the way.”

Standing this close to him, Sardelle felt that anguish wrapping around Angulus, caught a glimpse of his surface thoughts, of a fireball annihilating the guards, of the girl caught in the crossfire. She gulped and drew in her senses, locking them behind a barrier. Hearing about the incident was painful enough. Seeing it through his horrified eyes made her want to curl up in a ball and weep. Later, maybe she would. Hopefully not alone this time. She looked to Ridge.

He was studying Wreltad, the blade still lying on the dusty floor. She could not tell if the soulblade was speaking with him or not. Maybe seeing Eversong kill the young page had been the moment that had pushed Wreltad over the edge.

Angulus sighed and removed his crown. He looked like he wanted to stick it in a pocket or maybe toss it somewhere, but he merely held it. “I was in a meeting with the council members when news came of the arrival of an unannounced non-military flier.” His focus shifted toward Ridge.

Unlike Therrik, Ridge had no reason to hold his head high, and he dropped his gaze. Sardelle stepped closer to him, brushing his arm in silent support. It hadn’t been his fault.

“I had a hunch it was trouble, but stayed with the others, as my bodyguards requested, until the fires started. I suspected magic must be involved, though I hadn’t yet realized that it was our nemesis from the flying fortress. There were numerous guards in the meeting room with us.” Angulus waved toward the other side of the castle, and Sardelle realized he did not yet know his councilmen were dead.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to be the one to give him more devastating news.

“The witch spoke into my mind and said that dragons were coming and that the end was inevitable for me,” Angulus went on, looking at Sardelle rather than Ridge and Therrik.

Grimly, she realized she probably
was
going to have to be the one to tell him. Ridge remained quiet, his eyes downcast, and she could feel his chagrin even with her senses locked down. She shared the emotion. Even if she hadn’t helped Eversong in any way, she had been too late to stop this destruction.

“I figured she would have no trouble finding me,” Angulus said, “even though we’d chosen one of the more secluded and private meeting rooms to discuss the Cofah threat and other problems around the nation. My guards were adamant that they’d be able to stop her, but I knew better. I grabbed a few of them, since they wouldn’t have let me leave the room without an escort. I didn’t know I was taking them to their deaths.” He kicked a rock across the room, frustration making his movements stiff. “We headed to the armory. There were fires everywhere on that side of the castle—I had the distinct impression she was trying to flush me out. I grabbed a few explosives from Kaika’s special stash and ran back down here. I couldn’t imagine that just throwing a bomb at Eversong would work, but I thought that if I was willing to sacrifice some of the castle, I might be able to trap her. She glimpsed me when I was on my way down into the basement and threw an attack at us.” Angulus touched the back of his head, and his fingers came away bloody.

Sardelle stepped forward, realizing he needed her services. Angulus let her come close and rest a hand on his head as he continued to explain. His words sounded half-dazed as they came out. He probably had a concussion.

“My men ran back to face her,” he said, “giving me time to escape. They wanted me to get out of the castle, hide in the city, but how do you hide from someone who can speak into your mind?”

Ridge stirred at the question, but he didn’t say anything.

“I was sure she’d find me, no matter where I went,” Angulus went on. “So I came down here, to this distant corner of the castle, hoping I wouldn’t hurt anyone else with my trap.” He waved toward the rock pile. “I set explosives around this storage room, then crouched and waited, pulling those crates in front of the old hearth. When she came, I detonated everything.” His gaze shifted upward, toward the destroyed ceiling. With the rubble pile moved, they could see up to the level above and the one above that too. “A lot of them. I wanted to drop the entire castle on her. I hoped it would be enough to stop her.” He shrugged, his broad shoulders slumping low. “I appreciate you three coming to finish her off and dig me out. We should look at the carnage elsewhere. I need to see how many of my people survived. And how many did not.”

Sardelle was examining his wound, but she paused to meet Ridge’s grim eyes. Therrik’s earlier triumphant expression had faded.

“Sire,” Ridge said, taking a deep breath. “She found the meeting room. Your council leaders are dead. So are the men who guarded them.”

For a long, stunned moment, Angulus said nothing, only staring at Ridge. Then his fingers curled into fists, and he glared down at Eversong’s body again.

“Why?” he whispered. “What did she want? Did the emperor order this?”

“She wanted to rule Iskandia,” Ridge said. “She needed the existing government gone, so she could put a figurehead on the throne and rule through him.”

“What figurehead? I don’t have any descendants.”

“Uhm.” Ridge stuck his hands in his pockets. “She thought the people might be open to choosing someone who wasn’t royal, but who was somewhat popular with the press.”

Angulus’s eyebrows shot up.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ridge said. “He wouldn’t have done it. There would have been a lot of paperwork.”

“That’s not very damned funny, Zirkander. Not now. Gods.”

“No, Sire. I know.” Ridge looked like he wanted to crawl into that hearth and disappear from sight.

Sardelle wanted to wrap an arm around him, but she had to tend to Angulus’s injuries first—she could still sense the dragons in the sky above the castle and knew they weren’t safe yet.

“She was manipulating him, Sire,” Sardelle said as she worked, staunching the blood and helping the wound scab over. “She and her soulblade were the ones who controlled all those Cofah soldiers in the airships, remember.”

Angulus’s scowl wasn’t fading. Ridge stared bleakly at the floor, his shoulders hunched.

“He didn’t accept the offer,” Sardelle said. “Manipulation or not, he could have.”

Ridge shook his head, denying that he could have under any circumstances.

“So he just brought her here to destroy my people. And my castle.”

“Not of his own will,” Sardelle said firmly. She understood Angulus was frustrated over the loss of his people, people who had helped him rule the nation for decades in some cases, but it wasn’t fair to blame Ridge.

I have some news that might cheer him up
, Jaxi said.

We could use cheerful news.

Phelistoth dropped Kaika and a prisoner off in the courtyard before going off somewhere with Tolemek.

A prisoner?

The Cofah emperor.

“Sire.” Sardelle hesitated to tell him before she had finished sealing the gash in the back of his head, but she didn’t want him to continue glaring at Ridge either. For whatever reason, Angulus seemed to find the idea of King Zirkander more alarming and likely than it should have been, especially with the sorceress dead. “Kaika is somewhere in the castle. Part of the team that went to Dakrovia has returned. She has the emperor with her.”