The Vengekeep Prophecies (27 page)

Thrashing helplessly, I prayed Talian would use his spellsphere to fight off the creatures. But both he and Callie were being restrained as I was. I looked to the sky, believing the spiderbats would save us. They remained far above, flying in circles beyond the reach of our captors.

The jackalmen were massive, towering over even Talian, the tallest of all three of us. The creatures growled and grunted, staring down at us with their dark yellow eyes. My heart raced; I was certain we'd come all this way and now we were dinner. But instead, the jackalmen bent over and slung us over their shoulders. From out of nowhere, three more jackalmen joined the procession.

The jackalmen gave a howl and, as one, the pack took us closer to the center of the canyon. Callie looked over at Talian. “Can't you do something?”

Talian grunted, the shoulder of the jackalman below him digging into his stomach. “I could. Let's just see where we're headed.”

“Not to question your superior mage mind,” I said, wincing as the jackalman carrying me squeezed harder, “but I
don't
want to see where we're headed.”

“Remember what the spiderbat queen said?” Talian asked. “She said ‘beasts were sent by the mage.' These aren't just wild animals. They work for someone. If they wanted to kill us, we'd be dead.”

I studied the medallions around the necks of the three jackalmen who brought up the rear. Every so often, a sparkle of light raced across the decorative etchings. Because they were made of gold, I assumed they were magical. And only mages were permitted by law to possess gold. It seemed Talian was right. A mage was responsible for this.

I looked to Talian, who grimaced. “Brace yourselves,” he whispered to us. “We're about to pass through the illusion barrier. It's … unpleasant.”

Just then, the air around us roiled and the landscape shimmered. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach, so I squeezed my eyes shut until the feeling passed. When I opened them again, I found we were still in the canyon, but there, in the center where only a small mesa had once been, was a gigantic crystalline spire. Twisting up out of the ground, it looked like a jagged streak of black lightning. My stomach fell when I realized that this ominous structure was our destination.

The jackalmen took us through a set of double doors near the base of the spire. Torches with green-blue fire lit the circular room just inside. Once the doors were shut, the jackalmen threw us to the floor and surrounded us. They growled softly, a clear message that any attempt at escape would end badly.

“What is this place?” Callie asked, looking around.

“I think,” Talian said, eyeing the room, “this might be an Onyx Fortress.”

Callie gasped for both of us. I stared past the jackalmen at a rickety wooden staircase leading up to a doorway in the wall: the only other way out of this room that I could see. “I thought they'd all been destroyed after the Great Uprisings,” I said.

Talian nodded. “Supposedly. But every now and then, some relic from those dark days shows up. Onyx is used by mages to store magical energy. This fortress must be packed with it. It would take an incredible amount of power to keep up the illusion that hides this. Otherwise the Palatinate would have found it years ago and put it out of commission.”

“But who's behind all this?” Callie asked.

Right on cue, we got our answer. The wooden stairs creaked as a tall, lean man descended to the chamber where we lay on the floor. Green-blue light shone off his bald head. A thin strip of black hair dropped from the bottom of his lip, following the cleft of his chin. The burgundy and black mage robes hanging limply from his body had seen much better days, patches covering holes of various sizes. A medallion, slightly larger than the ones worn by the jackalmen, hung from his neck on a sparkling gold chain.

As he approached, the circle of jackalmen around us bowed low, and they each emitted a high, soft whimper.

“Lord Xerrus, we have the intruders,” one of the jackalmen said. Its voice was harsh and slurred, a cross between a bark and a child learning to speak.

When the jackalman addressed the mage, I caught a flash of recognition in Talian's eyes, which he quickly hid by looking down. The jackalmen parted as Xerrus stepped forward and loomed over the three of us.

“There are stories,” Xerrus rasped, his voice like the sound of two rocks grinding together, “of the dangers that inhabit Splitscar Gorge. Every child knows them from an early age. It's a shame you didn't pay them more heed.”

He addressed this veiled threat to Callie and me, then turned to Talian, raising his eyebrow. “You. I can feel magic pulsing through your veins. You're a mage.”

Talian swallowed, then looked up at Xerrus and met his gaze. “Yes, Lord Xerrus. I've come to Splitscar Gorge looking for you.”

With Xerrus's back to her, Callie shot Talian a questioning glance, but he ignored her, his eyes never leaving the tall mage.

Xerrus took in a sharp, short breath that rattled in his lungs. “And you have found me. Although, I doubt you will find that discovery to be fortunate.” Xerrus held his palm up and whispered something. A ball of green fire appeared just above his hand, twisting and churning. “Who are you?”

Callie moved to protest, but I held on to her shoulder firmly, hoping that Talian had a plan.

“My name is Talian Strom,” he said, lowering his head respectfully. “And I've come to serve you.”

Ice spread through my chest. Talian had been acting strangely since we left the aircaves, and it was just a little too convenient that he knew our captor and was now offering to work for him. I began to suspect that maybe Callie and I had been fooled … again.

On hearing Talian's name, Xerrus laughed and clenched his fist, extinguishing the fireball. “Talian Strom!” he cried so loudly that the jackalmen cowered and whimpered. “I've heard of you, Talian Strom. You're wanted by the Palatinate. You went rogue. Why would you do such a dangerous thing?”

Talian took a deep breath. “I might ask you the same, Lord Xerrus.”

As he said this, Talian dared a quick look at me and Callie and I understood. He was trying to tell us that Xerrus was a rogue mage, himself hiding from the wrath of the Palatinate. Although, I should have been able to piece that together myself. Only a rogue mage would dare hide out in an old Onyx Fortress.

Xerrus motioned his hand upward, signaling Talian to rise. As Talian stood, Xerrus moved to the nearest jackalman and gave it a scratch behind the ear. “There is some knowledge,” he croaked, “that one can only attain alone, without the interference of rules and laws.” The mage spun around and pointed at Callie and me. “And what of these two?”

Talian nodded at us. “They're under my thrall and do my bidding. I brought them as a gift. They'll serve you as willingly as I.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Callie ready to speak up, but I stopped her by saying, “I live to serve Master Talian.” I allowed my eyes to glaze over as I said this. A bit cheesy, really. But I hoped it was convincing.

Callie caught on and her face went blank. “Command us, Master Talian.”

“This is Lord Xerrus,” Talian said, looking us squarely in the eye, “a very
powerful
mage. You are to
watch him
and
listen to him
very carefully. Do as you're told. Do you understand?”

Very clever, Talian was. Telling us to keep our eyes and ears open and making it sound as though he was telling us to do as Xerrus told us. Callie and I nodded.

Xerrus smiled, his eyes lighting up as he folded his hands together. “Excellent!” He turned to the jackalmen. “Escort our guests to my sanctum. I'll be along shortly.”

Talian bowed, then Callie and I followed his lead. The six jackalmen—three at the front, three at the back—led us up the creaky staircase, down a short hall, then to a massive stone staircase that wound up along the interior of the spire. As we started trudging up the long parade of stairs, I saw Talian's hand slip into the pocket where he kept his spellsphere.

Callie? Jaxter? Can you hear me?
Talian's voice rang in my head.

Yes,
Callie and I said at the same time.

We don't have a lot of time. Listen, Xerrus is a very dangerous man. The Palatinate has been trying to find him for two years. It's amazing he's been able to evade them for so long. The Palatinate Sentinels exist solely to track down rogue mages and they're usually much more efficient.

Callie glanced around and thought,
Is it the Fortress? Is that why they can't find him?

Talian nodded.
Probably. There's a reason these were destroyed after the Uprisings. They're brimming with power.

I always heard they were full of dark magic,
Callie said.

There's no such thing as dark magic,
Talian replied.
Magic is energy. It's the use to which it's put that is good or bad. Just our luck: Xerrus is as bad as they come.

I casually took a swig of water from my flagon, eyeing the jackalmen as they huffed and slobbered with every step.
What are these things, Talian? These creatures. I've never seen anything like them.

Me either,
Talian said.
That's what worries me. If half the rumors I've heard about Xerrus are true, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible. But for now, we just play along and hope we get the chance to escape soon. Stay close and remember that you're under a thrall. As long as he thinks we're all willing servants, we should be safe.

Just when I thought my legs would collapse from all the climbing, we came to a doorway. Once through, we found a massive circular chamber. Near the entry, we passed a large stone podium atop which sat a thick, open book with jaundiced pages. I caught a glimpse of the writing: magical sigils. It was Xerrus's spellbook. I looked to see if Talian had seen it, but his attention was elsewhere.

The jackalmen herded us toward the center of the room. Light poured in from the north, where a large portion of the wall was a giant window. Near the window sat an antiquated desk and chair from which you could see a spectacular view of the gorge. I guessed we were at the very top of the spire. To the left sat a series of tables holding a collection of glass jars and tubes and small cauldrons over fires.

The overpowering smell of animal fur and sulfur made me cringe. I followed Talian's gaze to the right, where I saw a collection of cages. A different animal occupied each cage, but I didn't recognize a single one of them. They all seemed to be odd combinations of familiar animals.

In the cage closest to me, there was something sporting the feathers and head of a hemmon and the burly, furry body of a panna. Next to that, a miserable-looking creature with the bulbous shape of a junfrog and the spike-covered face of a sardigan croaked mournfully. Each of the beasts was lethargic; some looked to be in pain. Talian nudged me to look at the largest cage to the far left: the queen's spiderbats had been crammed in so tightly they couldn't move. My hands went cold. I had to turn away.

And that's when I saw the skeletons.

Everyone had heard of the balanx: gigantic creatures who'd roamed the Five Provinces before there even were Five Provinces. Many people guessed they'd died out thousands of years before recorded history. Their skeletons, unearthed every so often, served as the only evidence that they even existed. Scholars believed they were reptilian in nature, walking upright with colossal wings on their back. Fully assembled, a complete skeleton stood as tall as the clock tower back in Vengekeep. In the exact center of Xerrus's sanctum, a dozen fully assembled skeletons stood motionless. And when I squinted, I could see a small bit of gold embedded in their foreheads. It looked similar to the medallions worn by the jackalmen.

I stared at the balanx skeletons. I'd only ever seen them in books. Standing near them, I couldn't shake the feeling there was something else familiar about them. I didn't have a chance to put my finger on it because Xerrus joined us a moment later.

“Welcome to my bestiary. What do you think?” he asked, sweeping into the room.

Callie and I wiped the looks of amazement from our faces as Talian gazed around with respectful awe. “It's quite amazing, my lord,” Talian said, his eyes landing on the cages. “Very peculiar specimens. Am I to believe you've been researching ways to use magic to combine two different animals into one?”

Xerrus raised an eyebrow, seemingly impressed. “You're very clever, Master Strom. I've not only been researching … I've been succeeding. And I've made some extraordinary discoveries.”

Xerrus moved to the table full of jars and stood next to a small cauldron, the liquid inside bubbling from a fire below. Xerrus pointed to the junfrog-sardigan mix. “Take that, for example. The result of combining a junfrog and sardigan never lives more than a few days after the transformation. It spends its entire life vomiting up a most interesting substance.” He indicated the thick liquid in the cauldron next to him. Taking a two-handled quaich from the table, he dipped the cup down into the boiling juice. But instead of pulling out a sample of the liquid, the quaich had dissolved, leaving a single, scorched metal handle. “A most powerful acid. It's no wonder the new hybrid creature doesn't survive.”