The Fire Mages (43 page)

The world was filled with pain. Blinding, unremitting pain drilled into my skull. I lay on my side on an unyielding surface, one arm tucked awkwardly under me, the other resting on cold marble. Beyond the torment I heard noises: a clinking, then a slow scraping sound like something heavy being dragged, then more clinking.

I tried to move my arm to a more comfortable position, but fierce bolts of pain shot through my head. I moaned.

Footsteps echoing. “Well, well! Are you awake, little drusse?”

Drei. I tried to open my eyes but it hurt too much. I moaned again. Somewhere through the pain I was aware of a terrible wrongness, something out of alignment, but I couldn’t focus on what it was. Too much pain. Gods, it was excruciating! I gave up trying to move, and lay waiting for my magic to heal me.

I waited but nothing happened. I couldn’t bear it a heartbeat longer, yet somehow I endured. Was I going to die? It would be a blessing.

Gradually, a worse fear grew in me. Something missing. That stirred me more than my own fears.

I opened my eyes and he was kneeling beside me. I couldn’t see his face, only his trousers, still clad in servants’ brown. “What have you done?” I croaked, my throat dust-dry. “You’ve killed my baby!”

He laughed.
Laughed.
I couldn’t believe it. “Silly girl. Of course I haven’t. I’ve just taken your magic away so you can’t feel her any more. She’s still there, though, my daughter. If she
is
my daughter.”

Ah. So we were at that point, were we? I tried to speak, but only a gurgle came out, and I closed my eyes again. The footsteps receded across the floor, and there was more clinking and dragging. I felt sick, so I lay unmoving, waiting to feel better, or to die, I didn’t care which.

How odd it was to have no magic inside me. This is what it’s like for normal people, I thought. I kept reaching for it, for something not there, like the gap after a milk tooth falls out that constantly draws the tongue.

Not trying to move helped, or perhaps I just got used to the relentless pain, because after a while I was able to open my eyes again, and it didn’t hurt so much. I was on the floor of the library, and judging by the distance from the book stacks, I must be close to the great stone sphere. My spirits rose just a fraction. There was magic everywhere here, in the walls, in the sphere, under the floor, in the air itself. All I had to do was breathe. One breath in, one breath out. Deeper, try to get more magic in. Deep breath in, deep breath out. It didn’t hurt to breathe, which was a good sign. Just a broken skull, then.

More dragging noises, this time something very heavy, scraping in stages across the floor. Scrape, pause, scrape, pause. I turned my head slightly – another spear of pain, but now I could see Drei, heaving a solid wooden table.

Was it my imagination, or was the pain a tiny bit easier now? I shifted the free arm a little. My shoulder bag was still there, and inside was my stone vessel, in fact all the vessels we’d used to drain Drei’s magic. If only I could get to them. If only I could sit up. Deep breath in, deep breath out. The pain was definitely easier now. There was so much magic around me that I couldn’t help but absorb it. I still couldn’t feel my baby, since all the magic was being used to heal me, but it was a start.

Drei stopped dragging the table, now he was back to dragging the other thing. Another shift of the head – another blast of agonising pain. But I could see what he was pulling – a body. A stab of fear; it was Cal, surely, I knew those clothes, that untidy hair, a patch matted with blood now. My heart twisted. But no, he couldn’t be dead, because why would Drei pull a dead body around? He dropped Cal beside the table, then disappeared again and returned, clinking, with a length of chain. Turning a little further, I saw a stick lying abandoned beyond the table, smeared with blood. What had happened to the mages? Had he killed them all? Near the stick, Cal’s knife, and something else, something on a fine chain. Cal’s vessel. Did Drei find the jade belt, too?

I watched, helpless, as Drei wrapped Cal in chains and began to tie him to the table leg. He tried to prop Cal up so that he could wrap the chain round his chest, but he was out cold and kept flopping over. In the end, cursing, Drei left him lying and chained him as best he could.

Drei disappeared from my view again, but before long he was back, thumping something down behind me.

“Now, my dear, let’s see if we can get you up.”

Hands under my armpits hoisted me up, triggering another burst of pain so bad that I cried out. Then I was on my feet, Drei supporting me from behind.

“Just a couple of steps back. That’s the way. There. Now sit. Oops.”

My legs, too weak to hold me, gave way, and I slipped off the chair he was trying to manoeuvre me into, and toppled to the floor. He half caught me, saving my head from another crack, and dragged me onto the chair.

“What... you doing?” I croaked, grabbing his hands as he moved away from me. Magic flooded into me at his touch, bringing me merciful ease. He seemed not to notice, for he made no comment and didn’t pull away from me.

“Repaying my debt to you and your lover, Kyra.” His voice was icy. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Did you think I wouldn’t care? You were mistaken.”

“Don’t understand.”

“No one makes me look foolish. No one. I’m
somebody
now, I’ve made myself somebody, one of the most important people in the whole realm. Everyone has to respect me now. Everyone
does
respect me. Except you and your mage.” His eyes narrowed. “That child inside you... is it mine?”

If only I could lie to him! I licked my dry lips, but prevarication would only anger him.

“Don’t know.”

He snatched his hands away from mine, his face twisted, and I realised that he hadn’t known for sure that Cal and I were lovers, not until that moment.

“Going to... kill me?” I whispered.

“Oh yes. Both of you. Quite slowly, probably. When your mage lover wakes up, I’m going to cut that bastard child out of your belly, and he’s going to watch. Then I’ll kill him, while you watch. That should repay you both appropriately, don’t you think?” He gave a bark of laughter. “But he sleeps soundly. While we wait, you can tell me what he did to work the ball there.”

I couldn’t think of a reason not to tell him. It gave him access to the books, but where was the harm in that? And it gave me a little more time to think of some way out of this mess. So I explained as best I could, my speech still halting and uncertain. His eyes gleamed with pleasure.

In that moment I couldn’t help regretting what he’d become. He was so handsome, so charming when he chose to be, even without the magical enhancements. He could have been an asset to the Drashon, and built the contented family life with Yannassia that he’d never had himself. But resentment had eaten away at him and turned him into a monster.

He moved away eagerly to the stone ball. I had both hands free now that I was upright and it was the work of a moment to unfasten my shoulder bag and reach inside for one of the vessels. Such relief to recover my magic! It gushed into me, soothing away my pain and mending my hurt head in a surprisingly short time. My body was very efficient at healing itself. And there was my daughter, perfectly well and unharmed.

It seemed a long time before Drei came back, but I knew how shaken Cal had been by the stone ball. By then, I had taken all the power from the first vessel and started on a second, but the flow of magic was slower. I was almost back to full power. Now would come the hard part, pretending that I was still injured and free of magic.

Drei was grinning when he returned. “That book is most interesting,” he chortled. “It will be very useful when I establish my empire here.” Empire! Was there no end to his ambition? But I drooped my head and said nothing.

“Right, it’s time lover boy woke up.” He lifted Cal’s head up by the hair, but although he groaned a little, he didn’t wake up. He was battered about the face, bruised and cut, but the injury to his head seemed small from where I sat. Drei strode off and came back a little while later with a jug in each hand, tossing the contents in Cal’s face. One was wine, the other water, leaving him with a strangely streaked appearance, and the wine mingled with blood in his blond hair. This time he spluttered and opened his eyes, wine dripping.

“Wha’s happenin’,” he muttered. Drei slapped him, and Cal screeched, but it had the intended effect, for he lifted his head up. When he saw me, he growled low in his throat and tried to get up, but the chains held him firmly.

Drei laughed. “You stupid boy. Do you recognise this?” He held up Cal’s knife, but Cal watched him in silence. “Don’t you ignore me!” Drei yelled. “Do you recognise it?”

Cal nodded, shifting restlessly. His eyes slid to mine, then lowered again. It tore my heart into pieces to see him so helpless while Drei taunted him, like a cat playing with a mouse.

“You brought it to use on me, didn’t you? But I can find a better use for it – on her. And you can watch, my fine mage, because without your vessel you’re powerless to stop me. Are you ready?”

“No!” Cal cried, finding sudden strength in his voice. “Do whatever you like to me, but leave her alone. She’s never hurt you.”

“She has!” he screamed. “She betrayed me! I gave her everything, I took an ignorant village rat and made her a lady, and what does she do? The ungrateful slut runs straight back to you! No one makes a fool out of me!” He stopped, panting, and after a few heaving breaths he calmed himself. “And I
will
do what I like to you – later. First you can watch me kill this bastard of yours.”

Cal shouted something, but Drei turned towards me, knife in hand, a smile on his face.

I’d already decided what to do. I turned the knife to molten metal in his fingers, and Drei screamed and tried to drop it. At the same moment, flames shot across the room and turned him into a raging inferno, which were instantly extinguished.

A low humming sound. Thunk!

Drei froze, astonishment on his face. Bewildered, he looked down at his chest, where a crossbow bolt protruded by several handspans.

Then he crashed to the floor and lay still.

Stunned, I couldn’t move. I half expected him to get up again, but there was no movement, except for a growing pool of blood silently spreading across the floor.

Cal ran across and bent over Drei’s prone form. That was bewildering, too. How did he get out of the chains? Seeing him free spurred me into action, and I rushed across to where he was feeling for Drei’s pulse.

“Is he dead?”

“Yes, thank the Moon Gods. Are you all right?” I nodded.

He sprang up and held me tight, and I clung to him, tears pouring down my face. I’d been facing unspeakable horror but somehow, miraculously, the world had righted itself and we were safe.

After a while he pulled away a little, stroking my face. “Gods, I was so worried about you, having no magic, not able to heal yourself. But you obviously managed fine.”

“I still had my vessel. But how did you—? And who did that?” I pulled away a little, and pointed to the bolt protruding from Drei’s back.

“I had my jade belt,” he said, grinning. “Drei never knew about that. And the crossbow – that was my backup.” He turned and called, “You can come out now!”

I looked around but couldn’t see anyone. Then a quick movement above us on the stacks and a figure jumped down, landing lightly beside the steps, and walked across to us, a crossbow in each hand. He was vaguely familiar, but it took me a moment to place him.

“Millan? But how—? Where did you even come from? Have you been here all along?”

He smiled. “I’ve been following you ever since you came back to the city. Cal gave me a jade belt and brought me here to protect you, and put a bolt into Drei if things got out of hand.”

“You’ve been
following
me? I never saw you!”

“Of course not! I’m very good at not being seen, remember? Mind you, it’s been difficult sometimes here, with all these underground passages. When
he—”
He prodded Drei with a disdainful foot. “—carried you here, I had to go a different way. There’s nowhere to hide in a straight well-lit tunnel. But luckily he wanted to torment you both before he killed you.” Turning to Cal, he went on, “I’m sorry, I know you didn’t want him killed unless it was a dire situation, but it looked pretty dire to me.”

“Oh, you did the right thing, and it was a terrific shot. This was the best chance, while he wasn’t wearing chain mail.”

“I could have got him through the head,” Millan said easily. “I had another crossbow loaded ready. Mind you, those flames of yours were spectacular. Maybe you could have managed him by yourselves.”

Cal shook his head. “He’s a Fire Mage, it’s his speciality. He got my little bonfire put out in a heartbeat.”

“Can I make fire? I’ve got the belt, I should be able to do everything you can do, shouldn’t I?”

“The belt was only to let you move around the city safely. It takes training to use magical power.”

“It must be so much fun!”

“What is it with men and fire?” I said. “If you two can cut short the self-congratulations, we should find out what Drei did with the other mages.”