Wielder: Apprentice: Book 1 of Lady Shey's Story (The Wielder Cycle) (14 page)

Sheyna looked at the amulet around her neck. “I think I do.”

“Before you consider what you have in mind, I have something else to tell you. Morgoran and Toborne have been toying with essence of life and have found a way to store essence in jade. The statuette you possess of the elf maiden may contain a clue, but when I had Kyrie try to borrow it, we failed to sense anything from it. We also suspect that Toborne has something nefarious to do with the whole scheme, but Morgoran refuses to see any wrong doing on Toborne’s part, which puts Ianthill and I in a particularly sensitive spot.”

“Assuming that everything you are telling me is true, then why kill me? I would think whoever has the Silver Drake would want me around if I am the key to bringing back my mother.”

“That’s just it, you are the key to bringing back your mother. The Silver Drake had more gifts bestowed on her besides the gift of life. Remove the free will of Sylvalora and one can use the Silver Drake in ways you can’t imagine. If you gave her back her life and free will, she would probably not be so cooperative. Whoever stole the Silver Drake would most likely not welcome you.”

“What am I supposed to do, then, and why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

Enowene feigned a weak smile. “My dear girl, you are so young and innocent. It would take a lifetime to learn what you need to know to fend off the perils you face on your own. Now that I have told you, I am not sure how the knowledge will help you. The most we hoped for was to allow you to apprentice to Toborne so that we could get close enough to the truth to react if he is involved.”

Maybe it was the shock of what she was being told or maybe she was numb from disbelief, but Sheyna felt her indifference gave her an edge. She had learned to control her emotions when she was stuck out on the streets. She had seen more than one trivial fight end up with someone killed. “I hear what you are saying, mistress, but I am far from helpless. If it was your plan to use me to accomplish some goal, I will accommodate you, but don’t count me as some poor apprentice. I can still defend myself in other ways that didn’t take me a lifetime to learn.”

Enowene gave her a long, telling gaze. “There is a man named Veric in the common room to see you. I came up here to let you know he is an old friend.”

“Is that why you came up?”

“Aye, what are you implying?”

Sheyna met Enowene’s gaze as she passed her to open the door. “No implication,” she said.

As she made her way to the common room, Sheyna tried to process the information Enowene gave her. Lies on top of lies—the woman was clearly a mistress of spies, lying to the point of not knowing how to tell the truth, or even how the truth works. Keeping information from someone doesn’t automatically make them safe. In fact, sometimes it puts them in more danger.

The common room was a great, open room with two enormous windows turned out to the grassy courtyard. Heavy curtains, pulled back to let in the light, hung over them. The appointments of the room were of oversized chairs with plush padding, divans arranged in a square, and various end tables with oil lamps. As soon as Sheyna entered the room, a man dressed in a cloth tunic and woolen trousers rose from one of the divans. He was an older gentleman with white hair and goatee. His eyes were deep blue, much like her own, and were pleasing and kind. He had been puffing on a long stemmed pipe, which left a smell of vanilla and cherry tabac in the air.

“Veric?” she inquired.

“Aye, little miss. I am he.” He put the stem of his pipe back in his mouth and greeted her with a strange handshake she had never seen before. Both hands clasped over one of hers. “Please sit down.” He led her to the divan opposite the one he was occupying.

“What can I do for you?”

He puffed out a billow of smoke and took the pipe from his lips. “I see you wear the blood amulet.”

Sheyna clutched the amulet almost defensively. She had forgotten that she had not tucked it away. “Aye, what do you know of it?”

“Forgive me, mistress, I do not mean to offend. And please forgive my attire. I’m not accustomed to . . . that is to say . . . I’m rarely out of my armor.”

“Oh, you are a knight?”

“Aye, in a manner of speaking. I am a dragon knight.” Sheyna’s expression was blank. “I serve in the station of a great dragon.”

“Of course,” Sheyna said.

“Let me be blunt.”

“I wish you would.” Sheyna was feeling a little uncomfortable.

“I was summoned here as soon as the box of Sylvalora was opened by you. I am bound to it.”

“How did you manage to get here so fast?” Sheyna blurted out.

“I traveled here by Lora Daine, a dragon stone.” Sheyna’s expression was again blank. “Never mind that. The point is I am bound to the box to come to it when opened. Sylvalora enchanted it to summon me. I am to help you find her with that amulet you carry.”

“I see. I don’t think it will be necessary. I have everything well in hand, sir knight. Thank you for your interest.”

“Broodlord.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Dragon knights are not referred to as sir or knight. We are called broodlords.”

“Master Veric, you seem friendly and genuine, but I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment, and I have no intention of trying to find Sylvalora from the Isle of Doom. I doubt very much she is anywhere near here.”

Desperation replaced the kindness in his eyes. “Allow me to elaborate. I am not only a dragon knight, I am a specific dragon knight to Sylvalora. She is my wife.”

Sheyna’s back stiffened. “Your wife! That means . . .”

“That means it’s a long story. A story I hope to tell you in short order, but for now, I just need to find Sylvalora.”

Anger welled up inside Sheyna as realizations flooded her mind. No wonder Enowene chose to tell her about Sylvalora before she came down to meet with Veric. Her face must have turned three shades of red. “Enowene told me they didn’t know who my father was, that Mother never told them.”

“I can see you are upset. I know you are overwhelmed, and I certainly didn’t want to add to your troubles, but you were not supposed to have been brought up this way or exposed to all of this so late in your life. By all plans and accounts, you were to be here on Rugania as a toddler.”

“Someone failed on that account!” she spat. “How dare you show up now. Where could you have possibly been all this time? Where were you when I was out on the streets?” She waved her hand back and forth in the air. “Do you smell that? Something smells like it died in here.”

Veric ignored the question about the smell and focused on Sheyna’s first two questions. “Cursed, I was cursed by your mother. She is a willful soul.”

“Cursed? What is that supposed to mean, cursed?”

Veric took a deep breath, and Sheyna relented when she saw a solitary tear roll down his cheek. He recovered. “When your mother was taken, I was working in the gardens near our home. I heard her call out, and I ran to the house. She had already handed you off to a handmaiden by that time. It was important that you be hidden and spirited away. I gave chase, and when I caught up to her abductor, she cursed me. I am only aware of who I am and what is going on for a short time. She knew that I would do anything to get to her, and she feared for my life as well as yours. She cursed us both to forget her. I am learning her fate as you are. It is the very reason you have lost your earliest memories.”

“Wait, I am confused. You are saying she did this to us on purpose? Why?”

“Aye, I am. She wanted to protect her family. She must have thought that whatever was happening to her would be something we were not equipped to fight. I doubt she thought it would take so long to resolve. When you were born, she made me promise to help her plan for your future if something should happen to us. You were never meant to be a child of the streets, and I was supposed to rejoin you when you opened the box.”

“What do we do now?”

“I tell you how to use that amulet, and then I go back to being a farmer in Ishrak. My curse is not yet lifted.”

“You plan to leave me again?” Sheyna was horrified.

“It’s not my choice, my daughter. I am bound to the box. Only your mother can unbind me from whatever trinket contained within. If she is not in possession of the box to do so, I am to return to my simple life. It was her plan to release me to live out the rest of my days. I imagine you are bound to it in some similar manner. If she is not to be found, this is her wish.”

“No, I will not accept that. I have to find that box.”

“Find the box? You do not still have it?”

Sheyna felt tears welling up in her eyes. “No, it was taken from me by Akros.”

Veric’s expression was grave. “I see. Who is this Akros you speak of?”

Sheyna was about to answer when she noticed Marella enter the room. The girl saw Veric and stopped in her tracks. “You are fine, Marella. Were you looking for me?” The blonde girl’s already ashen face managed to still go pale. She stared at Veric, frozen in a moment.

“Marella?” Sheyna was becoming worried. “Is it the smell in here? What is that?”

The girl suddenly became animated and took Shayna’s arm, dragging her toward the door. “I need you to come to the foyer. It’s an emergency,” she said.

Sheyna gave Veric a sympathetic gaze. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” The man nodded.

Marella dragged Sheyna as fast as she could from the common room. Finally, Sheyna jerked her arm away. “What is it? What are you doing?”

“That thing, why were you talking to it? It tried to kill you! We have to find Enowene.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Couldn’t you see it, black-faced, sharp teeth, and folded wings? That was the thing I fooled into thinking you were dead that night at the tower. The smell you were talking about! That smell is the creature!”

Sheyna felt the pit of her stomach drop. She hesitated for a moment before the anger came. “Go find Enowene.” She pushed Marella away and sprinted back toward the common room. “Now!”

“Sheyna, you can’t.”

“Go, Marella!” she said as she began summoning essence.

She didn’t wait to see if Marella had gone. She burst into the common room in time to see the creature crouched over one of the windows opened to the courtyard. It looked back at her for a moment, a hideous, toothy smile upon its blackened lips. It was poised to leap from the window. Sheyna released the essence, and several daggers of light manifested out in front of her, traveling at breakneck speed for their target. Everything slowed around her as the rush of essence surrounded her. Now enveloped in light, she moved behind her attack in a blur. In her mind, it was kill or be killed. The light daggers penetrated the creature, followed by her blinding light. She struck the thing with the full force of her body, and they both tumbled out into the courtyard. Without knowing how she was commanding her power, she instinctively pulled in essence around her and focused it all on the creature’s head. It let loose a blood-curdling scream as its eyes bulged and its face exploded. She
yna f
ell to the ground, still shaking from the adrenaline and essence coursing through her body.

A moment later, Enowene, Marella, Morgoran, and Ianthill came running out of the citadel. Morgoran and Ianthill immediately went to the still-convulsing creature as Enowene and Marella checked on Sheyna.

“What do you make of it, Morgoran?” Ianthill asked.

“It’s reminiscent of a Dramyd, a bastardization of a drakeling. I have never seen one like this before.”

“Some new evil?” Ianthill surmised.

“I doubt it had good intentions.” Morgoran voice dripped with sarcasm. Ianthill’s face turned red, but he said nothing.

Morgoran turned to Sheyna. “You are a mere apprentice.” Sheyna nodded. “It wasn’t a question, my dear,” he said.

“How did it get on Rudania without being prepared?” Enowene asked.

“It was prepared, I would guess,” was Morgoran’s answer. “There is no telling what is on this island now. We have a traitor in our midst. It isn’t safe here any longer.”

“Where is Toborne?” Ianthill inquired.

“Now, don’t go casting stones yet, Ianthill,” Morgoran said.

“Your blindness when it comes to our brother is palpable. It is time you faced facts.”

Morgoran confronted Ianthill. “Oh, and what facts would those be? I see only conjecture and accusations.”

“He has you completely fooled, doesn’t he?” Ianthill confronted back.

Enowene stood beside Sheyna. “Now is not the time nor the place for this, you two. We have to make sure Sheyna is safe.”

Morgoran stormed back toward the citadel. He stopped briefly and examined Sheyna for a moment before continuing on. “Looks to me that she can take care of herself. Apprentice indeed,” he muttered loud enough for everyone to overhear.

Ianthill stood over the creature, and Sheyna felt him draw essence. The body faded and was gone. “There, I hid it before a crowd gathers. We need to get it somewhere we can study it. Can you arrange that, Enowene?”

“Of course,” she answered.

“How did you see through its disguise when we could not?” Ianthill wondered.