The Geomancer (6 page)

The Dauphin sneered. “With the children, no doubt. He spends more time in the nursery than I ever did.”

“He is still your father.”

“So you say. He's soft and weak. His failure to our people makes me sick. Cesare always said father was worthless, just like Gareth, and he could cost our people the war. But once I destroy the Equatorians, I will be the face of the Paris clan. I will take our power around the world to put the humans back in their place. I am Cesare's heir, not Lothaire's.”

Caterina fought to control herself. “You do realize that your hero, Cesare, lost everything. His clan is dead.” She pointed at Hallow. “Except for a few refugees who were lucky enough to be outside Britain when the fire came, and who now come looking to rule another clan with an army of homeless mercenaries to displace our own packs.” Caterina looked at the vampires who floated over the helpless humans outside. She knew these were all gathered from the clans of southern France and the Balkans that had been smashed by the Equatorian armies. They owed allegiance to Lady Hallow alone. “But no matter what refuse Hallow brings us, the Equatorians have the Death Bringer. What do we have against that?”

Honore's visage went red with anger. “We have
me
, mother. I am the war chief now. Father's old relics from the Great Killing have been set aside and I am in charge. Lady Hallow is my right arm, and she has brought the Witchfinder.”

The Witchfinder himself paid no attention to the bickering vampires as he knelt to place a crystal on the floor. He stared through his brass sextant before nodding to himself in satisfaction.

Honore reached inside his shirt and pulled out a blue crystal on a chain. “He can stop the Death Bringer. We have sent forces back into Britain wearing these.”

Caterina stared at the object. “Is that true? We have set foot in Britain?”

Lady Hallow pressed Honore's hand down, slipping the talisman back into his shirt. “We certainly saw them reach the island, where none of our people have gone since that night the Death Bringer killed everyone.”

“Even so,” the queen retorted, “is your human going to make those stones for every living vampire?”

“No, I'm not,” came the voice of the bearded man as he finally turned to the trio of vampires. He came forward, stepping carefully through the complex pattern of crystals he had arranged on the floor. “Those talismans are merely tests of my theory on how the empress exploits the power of the Earth, what we scientists call geomancy. I had made one of those baubles for Prince Cesare because he was afraid of the empress, rightfully so it appears.” The Witchfinder chuckled. “In any case, those talismans are minor applications of my grand theory. What you will see here today is another application. This will win the war for you. In terms of the empress, I'm not too concerned about her. She can be dispatched with a bullet or a knife. Cesare almost succeeded in that. In any case, once I win the war for you, I will move on to more interesting theoretical work.”

Hallow cleared her throat and glared with menace. “Your theories won't help you if we don't defeat the humans first, Goronwy.”

“Yes, ma'am.” The Witchfinder nodded with unexpected deference to the pale female. Then he held a green crystal between his thumb and forefinger. “If you will look out the windows, you will see the first step on that road.”

Caterina felt Honore and Hallow join her. They watched the scattered crowd of humans standing restlessly or squatting with fatigue. The cold sun sinking below the distant tree line illuminated the scene with a sad light.

The Witchfinder found a spot on the floor and set the green crystal into the larger pattern. He made one final check with his brass instrument before letting it fall to his side on its leather strap. He gently moved the crystal a quarter inch clockwise.

Outside in the winter shadows, hundreds of humans screamed. They flailed and tried to run, but few made it more than a couple of steps. They dropped to the ground, screeching, wide-eyed, fingers grasping at nothing. One after another, they fell writhing, then went still. In a few seconds, hundreds of humans were dead.

Caterina stared in disbelief. It didn't seem real, but she knew it was. She had sensed the terror in the herd and she smelled the death wafting through the shattered windows before her. Next to her, Honore had lost the pretense of a hardened warrior. He grasped the edge of the window in shock. His face was a mask of incredulity.

Lady Hallow laughed.

Caterina watched the last of the spasms play out below her. She had certainly seen death before, and on a large scale, but never without violence and bloodshed. This was stunning in both its suddenness and in its mystery. The Witchfinder had merely set a crystal on the floor and hundreds of humans died. He hadn't laid a hand on them. There were no weapons. She backed away from the window, disturbed by the unnatural field of death below her.

She crossed the gallery toward the Witchfinder. As she grew near, she felt a painful slap of heat and drew back with a hiss.

The human remained calm. “Oh, I'm sorry. I'd advise that you don't get too close, Your Majesty. I carry many traditional talismans on me which serve to repel your kind.” He reached into one coat pocket and pulled out a yellow crystal, and from inside his waistcoat he withdrew a small gold cross. When the queen pulled back farther, the Witchfinder slipped the talismans back into his pockets. “Nothing personal. One can't be too careful. There may be some vampires who may not realize I am the clan's science advisor.”

“Science advisor?” Caterina realized she was likely the only vampire present without a protective talisman. She gathered herself, eyeing the disturbing human before returning to the window. “What happened to those humans out there?”

Goronwy leaned against the far wall with his hands clasped before him. He didn't move toward the window to view the carnage. He seemed satisfied with the screams as proof of concept. “The power of the rifts. I used the Earth to kill them. It's the very same principle that killed the British clan, but frankly much more complicated to accomplish. You vampires are susceptible to such energy. It's actually very easy to kill you by overloading the rifts. What the empress did was impressive only in its scale.” He smiled with pride. “Humans are hard to kill with geomancy, but I have grasped the principle. They are vulnerable to having their energies drawn out of them and into the Earth. Next I will test a long-distance event. I have prepared a site in the north that I will attempt to trigger from here in Paris.”

Lady Hallow looked back eagerly over her shoulder. “So you could kill everyone in Alexandria just like that?”

Goronwy rolled his eyes. “That's a little simplistic, I'm afraid. In practice, it's always more complicated than you might like. I would have to arrange the target pattern, those crystals you see on the ground, around the rifts of Alexandria. And then if I could create a complementary pattern, such as you see here on the floor, I could trigger the effect. But as it stands now, it would be quite difficult.”

Hallow grew cold. “So as a weapon, your value is limited?”

“Honestly, Lady Hallow, yes. At the moment. However, I'm confident I can simplify and amplify the process you just witnessed. I merely wanted to be sure that the principle works before I go to the trouble involved in overcoming the field limitations. For instance, I could eliminate the need for the target pattern as long as I can replicate the complementary—”

“I don't want to hear your nonsensical blather any more than Cesare did.” Hallow narrowed her eyes. “What does it mean for me?”

Goronwy sighed, marshaling his patience. “In day-to-day terminology, Lady Hallow, it means you will have the power to kill whomever you wish, whenever you wish. I assume that is the sum of your scientific curiosity.”

Now Lady Hallow purred with pleasure. She eyed Honore with what passed for lascivious desire in a cold-blooded creature. The two of them were lost in their moment, no longer caring that the queen was even present. “I don't need to have scientific curiosity, Goronwy. That's why I have you. Do whatever you need to do to make it happen. The resources of the clan are at your disposal.”

Caterina instinctively wanted to upbraid Hallow for her bold distribution of the clan's largesse. She looked to her son to say something since he was the clan war chief, and Hallow only his personal advisor. He didn't react. It angered Caterina to see the pathetic falseness of Hallow's blunt sexuality aimed at her son. It was so lifeless and fabricated that Caterina couldn't believe Honore didn't shove the pale female away out of self-respect. However, judging by the hungry look on Honore's face, he had no notion he was being used. Hallow had him on a leash.

On some level, the queen respected the cunning of her rival who had come to Paris as an exile from dead Britain. In less than a year, she had scanned the likely candidates who could serve her, selected the Dauphin as her tool, fanned the lad's disdain for his father, worked her way into a place of power, and made herself invaluable to the clan's survival. It was no surprise Cesare had trusted her as his chief political advisor.

Caterina knew better than to fight here in the moment of Hallow's triumph. In addition to her son, Hallow had the Witchfinder, who not only seemed to hold the key to saving the clan from the human armies, but also had powers over life and death, perhaps including Caterina's. The queen had no choice but to stand by quietly and keep her mouth shut.

C
HAPTER 7

Adele could feel the Earth again in its full glory. Her geomancy had returned in force as soon as her airship, HMS
Edinburgh
, cruised out over the Channel. The barrier over Britain that had muffled her as if her head was wrapped in thick wool, fell away in a marvelous rush. Warm tendrils reached for her, slipped into her. This was what she remembered from her wonderful days learning geomancy when Mamoru was still her trusted teacher and the world was a source of constant wonder. The comforting colors and pleasing sounds called to her, eager to pull her deeper.

She surrendered to the call and walked the rifts, those avenues of power that some initiates called ley lines or dragon spines. She saw the veins of the world stretching out, pulsing with life, intersecting, intertwining, and tunneling off to do their unfathomable duties. They roared around Adele, bombarding her with the scents and crystalline music of the world. She tasted the chalky shores of Europe and slipped beyond to the rich loam of the Rhine Valley. With a thought, she shot even farther to the delicious dry salt and lemony aftertaste of her own home of ­Alexandria.

Adele reveled in the fact that this was a sensation most people could only experience when overwhelmed by the colors of a sunset or the sounds of the ocean or the smells of a fir forest. This was geomancy on a level that Adele was born to dominate and trained to understand. There may have been others around the world who could do the same, she had no idea exactly how many, but likely there were none who could do it as naturally as she did. Her mother had possessed similar skills, but Adele long surpassed her. She needed no preparation, no tools, no crystals, no meditation, no site of power. That was why she had been chosen and trained by her mentor to be the greatest of geomancers and his ultimate weapon in the war against vampires.

Adele streaked back toward the Channel. She pushed north, intent on testing Britain, to see what had become of it. The energy swirled on the outskirts of the island, sinking and twisting in odd directions, seeking paths to travel. The rifts of Britain looked gnarled and agonized. The lines of power had frozen into dark cracks, gaping wide down to the cold depths. Those rifts had been ravaged by geomancy. Her geomancy. That devastation was the reason why she couldn't access the glory of the Earth inside Britain, and Adele nearly wept at it. She wondered if Britain would ever be the same. There was no telling what the ramifications would be for many years to come. Had Mamoru known? Had he cared? Adele felt uneasy and confused. She realized that the energy swirled around her with ever greater insistence. It had been so long since she had ventured so deep. Adele didn't trust herself, constantly feeling that she could easily be dragged into the miraculous and lost.

It was more of a struggle than she expected to detach herself from the seductive comfort of the rifts. Mamoru had always warned that the heart of the rifts, the Belly of the Dragon as he called it, was a dangerous place. It was vast with landmarks that were deceptive. She had to be careful not to be fooled into thinking its warmth and comfort meant it cared whether she lived or died. It was possible to lose yourself in your own sense of power.

With a terrific shudder, Adele reeled herself back to the cold flinty Channel. Greyfriar's gaze was on her, studying her, and she forced a smile instinctively to signal him that all was well. She adjusted her khukri and a pistol on her belt as if she had merely been daydreaming, but the sheen of perspiration on her face betrayed the truth of the struggle she had just experienced.

Breathing out a slow shaking breath, she was relieved to see Greyfriar apparently unaffected. In the past, any use of her geomancy would have inflicted pain on him. She had obviously altered him the night of the event. Still, Adele had no confidence in how safe he would be if she unleashed her power in a massive storm.

Greyfriar settled in to watch the two boatmen who directed the small pilot cutter toward distant Europe.
Edinburgh
had carried them all more than halfway to the Flemish coast, then lowered the boat into the dark sea. Adele and Greyfriar had climbed in with these two trusted sailors and set off. Above them, the airship drifted silently into the night and vanished.

They all remained quiet as the boat labored for hours through the winter swells. The wind was frigid. A thin coating of ice formed on the quivering lines. Greyfriar settled close to Adele, placing his cloak around her. She relished the warmth he offered but his gaze occasionally shifted uneasily to the dark waters around them. He was never comfortable on or over water; his kind had a natural apprehension of it.