Solyrian Conspiracy - C M Raymond & L E Barbant Read online

  Although that fact could change. Something about his accommodations told Vitali the black masks didn’t bring him here for tea and biscuits.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  Vitali’s cat-like eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. It didn’t take him long to find the large man rocking back and forth on the floor.

  “Thaed,” he whispered. No response. “Thaed,” he said again.

  “I did what I was told,” he wailed, but not to Vitali. Thaed was talking to himself. “I did what they said. I gave them the outsider. They have to let me go. They have to. I did what they said.”

  “Who, Thaed?” Vitali asked. “Who told you to give me up? Where are we? What do they want?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  Thaed wasn’t going to give him any answers, but they weren’t alone in this dungeon.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” a voice called from across the room. Vitali turned and found the old Mylek woman in chains. Vitali smiled despite their situation.

  “Nijah. That’s twice I didn’t see you.”

  “We might not get a chance at a third time,” she remarked with a pained laugh. “They’re rounding everyone up. Everyone who knows the truth about Aurel.”

  “What truth?” Vitali asked, his voice raised. “Who would go to this length just to hide a mistress?”

  The old woman opened her mouth, but before she could answer, bootsteps invaded their cell. Vitali could hear them clearly through the thick door.

  They entered.

  “Well, well, well. Making friends in the dark, are we?”

  It was the man who’d led the attack on Vitali. The Lynqi recognized the broken-nosed voice. Two other figures were with him.

  “What can I say?” Vitali sneered. “I’m an amiable person. Why don’t you take these chains off, and I’ll show you just how amiable I can be?”

  The man laughed. “Glad to see my boys didn’t knock all the fight out of you. That will make what comes next all the more fun. But you’ll have to be patient. We have prior arrangements.”

  He nodded at Thaed, and the two figures flanked him. They unshackled him from the wall and tried to make him stand, but his legs gave out.

  “No. Please, no. I did what you asked.”

  “What you did,” the man shouted, “is tell this outsider about the king. Now we’re going to find out who else you told.”

  “I’m sorry,” Thaed cried out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  The man in black laughed. “Not yet, you aren’t. But you will be.”

  He left, and his lackeys dragged Thaed behind him. Vitali heard his screams echoing down the hall.

  “Like I said.” Nijah sighed. “Tying up loose ends.”

  “But Thaed wasn’t lying,” Vitali said. “He doesn’t know anything. Not really.”

  “He’s too stupid to know much,” she said. “But he knows enough to cause problems. He knows enough to point you toward the truth.”

  “The house,” Vitali said. “The room.”

  “What did you see?” she asked.

  Vitali told her in detail what he had found. The blood, the scarred walls, the hidden room. She listened intently, then fell silent for a long time. Finally, Nijah spoke.

  “There were rumors not quite twenty years ago, before Aurel was king. But I never believed them.”

  “Rumors of what?”

  “A secret love. A woman Aurel was forbidden to be with.”

  “I don’t understand,” Vitali said. “He was the heir to the throne. I thought royalty could do whatever they wanted.”

  “No one in this town is free to do what they want,” she told him. “And that goes for the future king. He was forbidden from being with his love because she was like us. A Mylek. The Myrna and the Mylek don’t mix, especially not when the royal bloodline is concerned. But like I said, that affair was just a rumor. Aurel married a Myrna woman, became king, and that was that.”

  “Apparently not,” Vitali replied. “He loved that other woman enough to visit her nightly. To lavish gifts upon her.”

  “I told you,” she said. “Aurel was a good king. A good man. He would never betray his wedding vows. Never.”

  “Then who was he visiting every night?”

  Nijah fell silent again. What she said next, she said in a whisper.

  “The hidden room. You’re sure of what you saw?”

  “Yes,” Vitali answered. “It was beat to hell.”

  “Our kind, the Mylek; our powers don’t appear until we grow to adulthood. It’s a difficult transition. Those markings you described are not uncommon in the bedrooms of Mylek children. Power flows into their bodies, and they need to find an outlet.”

  “But the king wasn’t murdered by a Mylek. There were no wounds, and no offense, but the body magic your people perform is far from clean. He was killed by physical magic, I know it…”

  He left his thought hanging as his mind considered his words.

  He knew why the coverup was so important.

  “He had a child with the Mylek woman.”

  “Yes,” Nijah whispered. “You see now. All kings have dalliances; that’s to be expected. Lauded, even. But a scandal like this would be powerful enough to tear down a royal lineage. And what do you think that lineage would do to defend itself? To protect its secrets?”

  Before Vitali could respond, the door opened again. The man in the mask returned with his goons and went straight for Vitali.

  “It’s time we learned what you know, catman,” the man said. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Hannah concentrated on the people below. No one screamed at the sight of the giant dragon walking their criminal through the crowd, so her spell was working. She could hear Parker’s and Karl’s shouts from where she stood. Their half-assed acting would have made her laugh if she didn’t have bigger fish to fry.

  She paused a beat to glance at Kirill on the stage. Arms waving in a fury, the prince was clearly directing his men from a distance. It wasn’t toward Parker’s and Karl’s ruckus, though, but toward the prisoner. Toward Aliz. She thought it strange for an instant.

  Sacrificing a drop of her deep well of intention, Hannah turned her mind toward Kirill’s. If there were any moment for her to slip in, this was it.

  The city is my responsibility now.

  The city is my responsibility now.

  The city is my responsibility now.

  Kirill’s voice echoed on and on in her mind. And as it did, she felt a scratching at the base of her skull, just beneath her ear, as if a small creature were trying to escape.

  Something about the way he stared at Aliz felt wrong, and it took Hannah a moment to key in on it. He wasn’t focused on the prisoner, he was focused on Sal. He grimaced.

  Does he know? Hannah wondered. Why would my spell work on everyone but him?

  “The hell?” she mused, but her consideration of the oddity was short-lived.

  The ground beneath her began to shake.

  To make one person believe Sal was an ox carrying a lamb to the slaughter would be like a simple card trick for a con artist in the Boulevard, but to make an entire city believe was a different story. It took extreme concentration, concentration that threatened to slip as Hannah tried to hold onto the shaking building.

  Hannah’s head shot up, and her glowing red eyes scanned the rooftops below her while still keeping the crowd entranced.

  Blue Scarves, dozens of them, stood on rooftops overlooking the city square. Each of them had enlarged hands, enhanced by their power of body manipulation. They banged on the walls of the buildings they had climbed, sending vibrations through the crowd and fear into the hearts of the common folk, who could only guess what these oppressed people had in store.

  “Son of a bitch,” Hannah whispered. “Aliz had her breakout planned.”

  Keeping a portion of her energy focused on her ruse, Hannah took two steps and leapt from the turr
et on which she had positioned herself. Eyes burning brighter red, she called on her magic, and a wind swept up and around her, allowing her body to drift down into the crowd to exactly where she wanted to land.

  "This shit is getting real,” she shouted to her friends over the rising shouts and cries of the crowd. Men roared, and children wailed. Hell was breaking loose.

  “Plan B, then?” Karl asked.

  Hannah nodded.

  “I didn’t think we had a plan B,” Aysa spat.

  “We didn’t,” Hannah answered.

  “The Blue Scarf!” a voice rang out over the din. “She’s fucking gone!”

  Hannah looked over and saw the truth. Aliz was no longer on Sal’s back. For a second, the crowd was silent.

  “Did our plan work?” Aysa asked.

  “No,” said Parker. “But someone’s did. Our prisoner has flown the coop.”

  “Scheisse, lass. This ain’t good.”

  “I hate to say it, Karl, but I think you’re right,” Hannah said in a hushed voice.

  Kirill was screaming bloody murder, sending the city guards to push through the crowd. But given how tightly they were packed in, there was nowhere to go, and the crowd started pushing back.

  “For the Mylek and Solyr!” another faceless voice shouted, and then another, and another.

  “I say, hang all the Mylek scum,” someone shouted back.

  The crowd worked itself into a fever pitch, and Hannah could feel the tension pull as tight as an archer’s bow. Then the first punch was thrown.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit.” Parker grabbed her bicep. “Plan C?”

  “We had a plan C?” Aysa inquired.

  “We do now,” Hannah replied. “You guys make sure everything is secure here,” Hannah instructed her team. “People are freaked, and there's no telling what kind of shit is going to go down. Keep the innocents safe."

  “Which ones are the innocents?” Parker asked.

  Hannah shrugged. “Hell if I know. Go with your gut. It’s been tested many times.”

  She turned away from her friends and walked toward Sal.

  "What are you going to do?" Parker asked.

  “I wanted to keep Aliz safe until we learned the truth, not set her free. One wrong move now, and this city will explode.”

  Hannah nodded toward the scaffolding, where Kirill was still directing his men. One member of the platform party was clearly missing, and she hadn’t seen him since the riot had been quelled.

  "I'd bet anything that Irmand is going after Aliz. Can you imagine how the city will react if he brings her back with a new sword-shaped hole in her chest? I’ve got to get to her first.” Hannah stepped up to Sal, who was still walking in clumsy circles like some drunken livestock. "Nice job, boy, but I need my dragon back. Help me find Aliz, and there's some kaffe in it for you on the other end.”

  Hannah jumped onto his back, then Sal ran in a circle as if he were chasing his tail, took three steps, and leapt into the air. Wings beating, he shot heavenward, and before Hannah knew it, they were soaring high above the buildings. Sal, being no stranger to reconnaissance, started to circle the city. First, he turned in tight revolutions that focused on the center of Solyr, only to expand out farther.

  Hannah stared down the city streets, which were still alive with unrest from the commotion caused by the Blue Scarves. She trusted that her team could take care of things here. What she didn't see on the ground was any evidence of Aliz or the other Blue Scarves. The girl had a lead on them of at least five, maybe ten minutes. She easily could've gotten underground in the city during that time, but Hannah had a feeling the Blue Scarves would not meet within the city walls. It was risky. She and her team didn't gather in Arcadia, where their exposure would be unnecessary.

  She gave Sal the command, and he banked out over the city walls and began a circle that swept the landscape. Much like when Hannah and her crew had entered the city, the outlying territory was quiet. Still. The threat of pirates and other marauders held people's hearts. There was safety within the city gates. Even for the Mylek, even if their comfort was only relative to being out in the violence beyond the walls.

  Sal continued his loop until suddenly bearing hard to his left.

  "What is it?” Hannah asked, her eyes scanning the horizon. It took a beat before she realized what her dragon had perceived far faster than her human senses could. Whether it was his keen eyesight or the dragon’s heightened sense of smell, Hannah would never know. It didn’t matter. He saw it.

  Sal was leading her toward a tiny spire of smoke coming up out of a small outcropping of rocks a hundred yards off. She slammed her open palm against the side of his scaly body. “That's my boy,” she yelled.

  Sal jerked his head up and down, pleased at his ability to solve his friend’s problem, and maybe even more happy to know he would be having his drug of choice later that evening.

  Hannah laughed. "It's not a done deal yet, pea brain."

  As Sal approached the rocks, a tiny path came into view. It wound through the trees and could have been easily confused for a deer trail or the path of a wild boar. Sal hit the ground running, then put on the brakes. Hannah was already on foot by the time he skidded to a stop. With her dragon right behind her, Hannah walked the rocky path to where they saw the smoke rising. Within minutes, the path terminated at the dark, ominous mouth of a small cave.

  "Sorry, boy. Looks like the journey ends here for you.”

  Sal gazed at the narrow entrance, then got down on all fours, scrunching his body like a child pretending to be a pup. He wagged his head up and down, clearly desperate to go with her.

  Hannah couldn't help but laugh. "I know, boy. I know you want to. Listen, I'll have a piping hot batch of kaffe for you later tonight, but for right now, I need you to go back. Find Parker. They might just need you there."

  The dragon forced his body to constrict even further. He seemed impossibly small, but not small enough to make it into the hole. Hannah gave him one more pat on the side. "Thanks, buddy, but this just ain't happening.”

  Sal gave her a quick nod, then his forked tongue shot out from between his razor-sharp fangs and smacked her on the cheek. Hannah loved the sign of endearment, even if it almost knocked her over each time

  "All right.” Hannah chuckled. “Get out of here, now. I'll send a message to Parker if I need you."

  Not wanting to argue with the overgrown newt any longer, Hannah stepped toward the cave and crawled in. After a dozen dirty feet on her belly, the passageway opened up. Before she knew it, Hannah was standing.

  That's better, she thought. The corridor was a straight shot in.

  She produced an orb of blue light with a twist of her hand and set it hovering ahead of her in the cavern. The floor was well-worn, and thankfully, for the first couple hundred yards, there was only one path. But just as Hannah was congratulating herself on how easy the whole thing was going, the path split. She cursed and chose to go the right. She only realized she’d chosen wrongly when the corridor came to a sudden dead end.

  "Dammit."

  Realizing she had chosen the wrong path, Hannah turned and hurried back down the cave. As she moved, she did a mental scan of the area around her. While she couldn't pick up on specific thoughts, she could sense one sentient creature underground with her. Whoever it was, they were amped up and ready for action.

  That must be her, Hannah thought.

  She passed the intersection where she had taken the wrong turn and went a few steps down the other path before she felt the tip of a blade against her spine.

  "Don't try anything," the gruff voice said. The baritone was laced with confidence.

  Hannah raised her hands overhead. "You know I could bring down a fury second only to the Matriarch’s right now and tear your body to shreds with a single turn of my hand, don't you, Irmand?"

  The cold steel held steady on her back. "Doesn’t change a thing. I’ve got a job to do.”

  Hannah smiled. "So do I. And you need to
know, I don't stand around with my hands up for long.”

  "I doubt you do. You’re not just powerful, you’re also smart.”

  “And pretty,” she shot back with a grin. “Most people add pretty.”

  He ignored her. “I’m banking on the fact that you’re smart enough to know you and I have come here for the same reason.”

  “I came here to stop you from doing something stupid,” Hannah told him. “Looks like I already failed.”

  He laughed. “I will find that girl, and she will be brought to justice. She’s a threat to my city.”

  “Maybe,” Hannah said. “But she’s not the only one.” Hannah put her hands down at her sides.

  She considered doing precisely what she had threatened and launching a magical assault on the captain of the guard, but there was just something about Irmand. As bumbling as he had been during the fire in the apartments, Hannah could tell he was driven by good intentions. Pathway to hell or not, good intentions could still demonstrate one’s true character. "Lower your blade, Irmand. Let's go find the girl together. And then we will settle things once and for all."

  She felt the end of the blade retract from her back, and she turned to face him. "Now we are getting somewhere.” Waving her hand in front of her in the direction of the hole, she told him, "After you."

  Irmand was either smart or scared, or maybe a bit of both. He stepped in front of her and led the way down the hall. The captain remained quiet, and Hannah couldn't be sure if he was guarded or terrified.

  Finally, he said, "I imagine that when we find her, regardless of her situation, you won’t let me take her in. Will you?"

  Hannah considered the question for a beat. She pictured the girl standing on Kirill’s brand-new execution platform, noose around her neck. Then she thought of Adrien and the years of abuse he had heaped on Hannah and her people.

  "I've been in her shoes," Hannah informed him. "That’s all. If she's the villain you say she is, I will deal out the punishment myself.”

  “You saw what she’s capable of. What her people are capable of. They’re dangerous.”