The Fifth Vertex (The Sigilord Chronicles) (7 page)

Kaled raised an inquiring brow toward Aegaz and a few others in the room, his trusted advisors.
 

"There is nothing below Kest but the dungeons and the cistern," he said. "The only structures older than Kest for a thousand miles are the pyramids in the Valley of the Dead."

Murin sighed, his huge chest heaving. "This is no ordinary door. It may not even look like a door at all. It might look like a slab of flat stone or perhaps just a boulder. It would have writing on it in a language no living person today would recognize."

Urus recognized that description; it was the stone Aegaz had described. If there was a chance he could resist going to that vault before, it was gone now. His mind raced with possibilities, conjuring up images of ancient books of magic and dragons and power and puzzles, just waiting for him to solve.

"And why do you seek a simple slab of stone, and why sneak into our dungeons like a brigand instead of asking our aid directly?" asked Kaled.

"I must find it before the Order does," Murin signed.

Again Kebetir stepped forward. "Highness, I must protest. All this talk of doors and ancient ruins is madness. This prisoner is beyond your capabilities. Please, let me take him and use a special potion on him so—"
 

Kaled cut him off with a sweep of his hand. "One more interruption from you, shaman, and I will make sure that you are taught your place."

Kaled returned his focus to Murin. "What order?"

"The Order of the Sanguine Crystal," Murin began, having to spell out much of the phrase because the old tradesign dialect simply lacked the right words. "They are all that remain of a race of people called the Ibumai, but most historical texts simply call them blood mages."

Urus watched Kebetir's eyes grow wide at the mention of blood mages.
 

He said those words last night,
Urus thought. Had the shaman's frustration and interruptions all been intended to keep the prisoner from mentioning them?

"I have never heard of these blood mages," said Kaled.

Urus began signing Kaled's words, as he had been doing throughout the interrogation, his heart beating hard in his chest, his skin slick with sweat. Between his worry over eavesdropping on Kebetir and the insatiable need to get inside that vault and see those journals, he could scarcely breathe.
 

As he signed the words for
blood
and
mage
, his fingertips grew warm and thin blue arcs of light shot from fingernail to fingernail, creating an eerie azure spiderweb.
 

He stopped short. Murin stared at him, a single, white eyebrow raised.

The warmth and the blue light—it was the same blue light that had saved him from jumping off the palace roof, the same light that his uncle said was some kind of family magic.
 

Had anyone else seen it?

Murin addressed the emperor as he signed. "You would not have heard of them. The Ibumai were believed extinct over a thousand years ago. The Order is all that remains of their kind. They are a fanatical people, and their mere existence poses a danger to the entire world."

"What would such supposedly dangerous people want with a door? You do realize how ridiculous this all sounds."

Murin nodded. "It is what it is. I must find the vertex before they come. It must be moved before they can destroy it."

Kaled shook his head and turned to Aegaz. "What do you make of all this nonsense about doors and mages, Commander?"

Urus watched as Aegaz scanned the crowd, his gaze resting on Kebetir. There was definitely something very strange going on with that shaman and Aegaz knew what it was. Urus could barely hold still. He needed to talk to his uncle and go find that vault.

"I've never heard anything like it, sire," Aegaz said, making sure Urus could see his lips as he spoke.
 

"If the Order destroys the vertices, it will be the end of our world and countless others," Murin signed.

"Countless others? What does that mean?" Kaled asked.
 

Before Urus could sign Kaled's words, the door to the chamber burst open and a pair of scouts cloaked in sand-colored fabric raced through the crowd. They skidded to a halt before the emperor, dropping to one knee.

"You had better have good reason for interrupting," said the emperor.

"Majesty, this couldn't wait," said the first scout, panting.

"Report," Aegaz commanded.

The scout turned to Aegaz and gave a slight nod. "Commander, the fires of an approaching host were spotted on the horizon to the east."

"How big a host?" Aegaz asked.

"Three blades, maybe more," replied the scout.
 

That's not so many
, Urus thought.
A group that small won't even get close enough to Kest to see the gates
. The Kestian army was divided into groups called Blades and Fists, a fist being a group of fifty soldiers and twenty Fists to a Blade.

Kaled straightened. "What fool would bring such a small army to attack Kest, especially from the east?"

"Majesty, there's more," said the second scout.

"Out with it," Kaled urged.

"There are three other armies. One approaching by boat on the river, sailing south toward us. The other two approach from the south and west. They come at us on all fronts."

"How many?" Kaled asked.

Murin sagged and shook his head. The scouts exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"How many?" Kaled demanded again.

"From the fires and ships we could see, we guess maybe a hundred blades. There could be more beyond the horizon we couldn't mark."

"That's twice the population of this city," Aegaz muttered.
 

Urus had never seen anything approaching fear on his uncle's face before, but his wide eyes said everything. Kest had never been taken, and it was a city filled to the brim with the most fierce warriors in the world, but it had never before faced an attack from so many enemies on all sides.

Kaled pointed to Aegaz, his mouth set in a grim line, "The defense of Kest is in your hands. Do what you must to get everyone ready, then meet me at the command post as soon as you can."

Aegaz nodded, then spun toward his second in command. "Avery, wake everyone up, sound every bell, open the armories. Within thirty minutes I want every cook and cobbler in Kest wielding our best steel. Understood?"

The lieutenant bowed, thrust a clenched fist to his chest, and darted from the room. A moment later, a cacophony erupted that Urus was glad he couldn't hear. Men and women barked orders, arms waved, and people raced in all directions with clear purpose. He sighed. These were warriors, real warriors, and they all knew what needed to be done to defend the city and defeat their enemies.

"Get the prisoner into the dungeon; we will pick this up later. We will show these enemies why no one has ever been foolish enough to lay siege to my city," Kaled said, then swept from the room.

Two guards grabbed Murin and dragged him across the floor, much the same way they had dragged Urus into the room.

Aegaz dodged the oncoming crowd to stand in front of Urus.

"Urus, you need to talk to the prisoner again," he signed. "If he knows what that stone slab is in the vault then he might know about our magic."

"Kebetir knew about the blood mages," Urus blurted, only partially aware of what his uncle had said.

"What?"

"I was reading Kebetir's lips last night, and—"
 

Aegaz cut him off. "I've warned you about eavesdropping before."

"This is important," Urus pleaded. "Kebetir was talking to someone about blood mages, last night, before anyone interrogated the prisoner."

Aegaz scanned the room, checking to see if anyone was watching their conversation, even though no one else in the room knew tradesign.
 

"I've been suspicious of that man for a long time, and he has resented our control of this city for years. He wants a shaman on the throne, not a warrior."

Aegaz watched the door. Urus followed his gaze. Murin had pulled away from the guards and was yelling to the departing emperor.

"This is the work of the Order! They bring the armies to your city. You must not let them destroy the vertex!" he shouted. It took a moment before Urus realized why he had been able to read the gray man's lips. Murin had shouted in perfectly lip-readable Kestian.

As the guards regained control of their prisoner, Aegaz told Urus, "Find out what he knows about the stone. If Kebetir is in league with these blood mages, and they're after the stone, then we have to stop them no matter what."

Urus nodded.

"I'm counting on you," Aegaz signed.
 

That's what scared him most. More than the blood mages, more than Kebetir, Urus feared disappointing his uncle.

6

"Where are we going?" Cailix asked, trudging through the fresh coating of snow on the road, hugging her heavy wool cloak tight to keep warm. She couldn't help but stare at Anderis's sandaled feet, which despite walking for several hours in snow hadn't succumbed to frostbite. He seemed immune to the cold.

"What does it matter so long as we continue to move away from that blight of a city?" Anderis replied with a wave back at the barren, white landscape dotted with dwarf willows and tundra pine that separated the travelers from Naredis. Anderis's companion had gone ahead hours ago, though Cailix didn't know why. It bothered her that she didn't know where the man was or why he had gone.

"I just like to know where we're going," Cailix said. She looked back the way they came, up at the distant peak of Mount Kebel, its steady plume of foul-smelling smoke ever rising into the clouds. "I want to know what's coming next."

"I'll bet you do," said Anderis with a smile, puffs of steamy breath escaping from his nose. "Keep up, I have important business to attend."

With the sun unable to penetrate the thick clouds and fog at the top of the world, telling direction by the rising or setting sun was impossible. Cailix knew they were headed south by their slow, winding descent out of the mountain range. Jagged, rising peaks and impassable glaciers blocked all other directions.

They plodded on through the cold and harsh wind for another several hours until at last Anderis stopped short, holding up a closed fist. Several times she tried to make conversation, asking him questions about his power and, more specifically, why his bones seemed to snap like dry kindling at one moment and then be strong as steel the next. Anderis answered none of her questions.

"Don't move," he whispered after a long, silent period of slogging down the road.

"Why not?" Cailix replied, not bothering to whisper.
 

Teacher or jailor, no matter what he is I won't let him control me. Not completely,
she thought.

Anderis flashed her a big smile. It seemed forced and artificial, like all of his emotions.

"Because it is time for your first lesson," he said, still grinning.

They stood in the center of a shallow depression in the snow, the faint tracks of wagon wheels the only hint that the road even existed. The permafrost spread out in all directions, interrupted only by short, fat evergreens and tiny shrubs.

"I know you felt the call of the blood," he began. "Back in the monastery I saw it take hold of you. I saw the hunger for it in your eyes. You are as much a blood mage as I am, girl."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cailix blurted, though she knew the man was right. She had felt it. The smell of freshly spilled blood had called to her like water to a dying man in a desert.
 

Anderis lunged, punching her in the face. He swung hard, the blow lifting her up out of the snow and throwing her back. She landed in a heap on a prickly bush. Thankfully her skin was so numb from the cold that she didn't notice the pain from the thorns.

"I am the teacher now, girl. That is the first and only lie which I will allow you. Lie to me again and I will
 
flense you right here and leave your innards to feed the white wolves."

"I," she stammered. "I'm sorry. You're right. I wanted the blood. It was all I wanted. Nothing else mattered."

Anderis took a step back and clapped lightly. "Now we are making progress," he said.

She touched her eye and winced. It would be swollen and any number of hideous colors tomorrow. A tiny bit of blood dripped from her nose. It ran down over her top lip and touched the front of her teeth. The blood smelled like hot iron—like
power
. She licked the blood from her teeth, secretly hoping more would come.

She looked up and saw Anderis staring at her, a smug smile on his face.
Did he see me licking the blood?
she wondered.

"Look around, tell me what you see," her new teacher said, resting his hands on his hips.

She did as she was told and took in the desolate scenery. "Nothing," she said.

"That borders on another lie," he wagged a finger at her. "Look around and tell me what you see that is important to you."

She sighed, kicked at the snow and took another long, hard look at the dead world around her. She was about to repeat her previous answer when she did notice things, important things. These were the kinds of things she noticed everywhere she went.