Blood of Innocents (Book Two of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) (30 page)

Caldan swallowed his misgivings about lying to the Protectors, assuaging his guilt with thoughts of Miranda. “I couldn’t say anything in front of the woman, Elpidia. When we were fleeing Anasoma, we were chased by Indryallan sorcerers. They… did something to Miranda, the woman in the wagon. I guess sorcery similar to what they used on Simmon. She wasn’t herself and attacked us. We managed to restrain her until she came to her senses, but when she did, she was left in this state. It’s as if the coercive sorcery addled her mind. I told Elpidia you might be able to help.”

Annelie narrowed her eyes. “We’ll have words about why you didn’t tell us this earlier. But for now, time is of the essence. We need to examine her and see what we can do.”

“Can you heal her?” asked Caldan.

“Maybe. I won’t know until I delve into what’s been done to her.” Annelie beckoned some Protectors over. “You two, take the woman from the wagon and find a room for her. Stay with her; don’t leave her alone. I’ll be there soon.” She pointed at Caldan. “You take this woman, Elpidia, inside. I’ll deal with you later.”

“Please,” begged Caldan. “I feel what happened to Miranda is partly my responsibility. Can you tell me what happens? I need to know if she’ll be all right.”

Annelie’s expression softened, but only slightly. She nodded. “Stay with Elpidia. I’ll send news when I can.”

And with that, Annelie bustled off, issuing orders and organizing the Protectors.

Caldan watched as Miranda was lifted from the wagon by two Protectors and carried off. He wanted to follow, but knew he’d be warned away. The forbidden sorcery Annelie needed to perform would be done in secret, away from prying eyes.

Caldan took Elpidia to his room, and they waited for word of Miranda. He didn’t know how long it would take, and even after such a short time, the wait seemed interminable.

Elpidia sat on his bed, writing in a notebook. Occasionally, she would pause and stare at the wall, eyes unfocused, deep in reflection.

Caldan paced around the room, but apart from one or two annoying glances, Elpidia seemed inclined to leave him to his own thoughts. He knew she didn’t approve of him lying to the Protectors.

“I couldn’t tell her more,” he blurted, when the silence became too much. “If she found out you know about coercive sorcery, there’s no telling what her reaction would be.”

Elpidia stopped writing and regarded him evenly. “I see that. I don’t want them to do anything to harm us, you know that, but you’re too fearful of what could happen. You need to think about what the right thing to do is.”

“Helping Miranda is the right thing to do,” Caldan said firmly.

“Yes, but lying to the very people who might be able to help is stupid.”

Caldan bristled at her tone. Elpidia didn’t know the full extent of what coercive and destructive sorcery were capable of. And a secret of that magnitude didn’t stay hidden for centuries without deaths to cover it up. A certain ruthlessness was called for, and he had no doubt the Protectors took their charge seriously. Good people would go against their morals and beliefs if they thought it was for the greater good. What was it he’d read in The Letters of Kalistinna? For good people to do evil things, that takes a righteous cause.

He had no doubt the Protectors considered their cause to be righteous, just as he’d thought it was when Simmon had first explained it to him.

Before he could fashion a response, Elpidia busied herself with her notebook, pointedly ignoring him.

He dragged a chair over to the window and sat, staring outside, hoping Annelie could help Miranda, and trying not to think of what he’d have to do if she failed.

•

There was a knock at the door, and before Caldan was halfway to his feet, it opened.

An older journeyman stuck her head in. “Master Annelie wants to see you both. Now. Follow me.”

Without staying for a reply, the woman pushed the door all the way open and stood there, waiting for them, arms folded across her chest.

Caldan glanced at Elpidia, who was calmly packing away her notebook and writing implements.

It had been hours since Annelie had taken Miranda away. His chest clenched tight, and he felt ill, but underneath there was a glimmer of hope that the Protectors had been successful in healing Miranda. If they hadn’t… he didn’t have many options left.

They followed the journeyman through the building until she led them into a kitchen. Master Annelie was sitting on a bench with an arm around Miranda’s shoulders, a ceramic cup in her other hand. Miranda’s head was turned away from the cup. Caldan’s stomach sank at the sight. Miranda looked much the same as before, as if Annelie’s sorcery had fallen short.

Annelie looked up as they entered. Her face was haggard and drawn, like she hadn’t slept for days. Her face was pale, and the hand holding the cup trembled slightly.

Caldan rushed over to help. “Here, I’ll do it. For some reason, it’s easier for me.”

He took the drink from Annelie, moved to Miranda’s other side, and brought it to her lips. She managed a few swallows, water trickling from the corners of her mouth, before clamping her lips shut. He wiped the residue with his sleeve.

Miranda was getting worse. If she continued to drink so little water, she would dehydrate. Caldan cursed inwardly and rubbed his eyes. Although Annelie hadn’t said so, it was obvious she’d failed. He really didn’t have any option but to tell her about Bells. He needed the Protectors’ help with catching the sorcerer, and they deserved to know the truth. He’d had enough of lying; his concern for Miranda had made him desperate. It galled him to admit the fact, but there it was.

He glanced toward Annelie, who had risen and was busy spooning stew into a bowl from a pot on an iron stove. There were also two journeymen in the room, standing by the door. A guard of sorts, he surmised. So, Annelie didn’t fully trust him yet, despite his information and the
trinket
he’d carried all the way from Anasoma to deliver into their hands. She wasn’t going to like what he was about to say, then.

“I take it you weren’t successful?” Caldan said.

Annelie cleared her throat as she approached them. Wearily, she shook her head and sat at a table. She spooned in some of the stew and chewed slowly. When she finished the mouthful, she spoke.

“I’m sorry. Whatever was done to her is beyond us. None of my Protectors have the aptitude. There are books, but even the theory is beyond all but the best sorcerers, the kind the emperor keeps by his side. We’ll keep her with us, for observation, and I’ll send word to the capital. Maybe they can help Miranda, if they choose to.”

Caldan had expected a response like this as soon as he knew she’d failed. The Protectors thought he didn’t know much about coercive sorcery, so were keeping him in the dark. But they also wanted to hold onto Miranda. It stood to reason that someone in the Protectors had to know a great deal about coercive sorcery, otherwise they’d be defenseless against rogue sorcerers using it. Perhaps Annelie had some options of her own she would pursue.

Whatever the case, he couldn’t keep Bells a secret any longer. He caught Elpidia’s eye. “Could you please take Miranda back to my room? I’m sure Annelie will arrange for a room of her own soon, but right now, I need a word with Annelie in private.”

Elpidia gave him an approving nod before guiding Miranda out of the kitchen.

Once they’d left, Caldan turned to Annelie. “Get rid of the journeymen. They can’t hear this.”

Annelie chewed some stew a few times before swallowing. She waved at the journeymen. “Leave us,” she commanded.

Once they too were gone, she regarded Caldan with a flinty glare. “Out with it. Now’s the time to be truthful. Your story reeks of half-truths and prevarications.”

“There were no bandits outside Riversedge,” blurted Caldan. “I mean, Elpidia’s research and equipment, and some of my
crafting
s and notes were taken, but not by bandits.”

Annelie rubbed her eyes and sighed. “Slow down. Take a breath, and start from the beginning. Who stole from you?”

Caldan did as she suggested, using the moments to organize his thoughts. He couldn’t tell Annelie all he knew about coercive sorcery, so he had to edge around the subject. “When we were fleeing Anasoma, two Indryallan sorcerers chased us. They did something to Miranda. The same sorcery they used on Simmon. We managed to kill one of the sorcerers and capture the other. A woman called Bells.”

Annelie stood, face red. “You what?” she screeched. “And you’re only just telling me now?”

“I’m sorry. I thought I could get the sorcerer to heal Miranda. She taught me a few things and I was able to sense the damage to Miranda myself, using Bells’
crafting
.”

“By the ancestors’ shadows! What possessed you? You mean she’s escaped, and is running loose somewhere? And you tried to learn coercive sorcery from her?”

“Yes. I wanted to tell you—”

“Quiet!” Annelie hissed. She dumped her bowl of stew on the table. “Come with me, now. We don’t have time for long explanations and your excuses. But let me make one thing clear: I’m holding you personally responsible for anything she does while she’s on the loose.”

Caldan looked at the floor as his face grew hot. The almost invisible scar on his cheek itched abominably, and he scratched it.

“I can almost understand why you did it,” began Annelie. “Your friend—perhaps she was more—was seriously injured. Possibly changed forever. You’d want to heal her, of course you would. But to offer to start learning coercive sorcery from this Bells? What were you thinking?”

“It wasn’t much,” protested Caldan. “It was just to see, so I could better understand what was happening.”

“And do you think she didn’t have an ulterior motive in helping you?”

“She was starting to come around. To see that helping me heal Miranda would benefit her, with… whatever was going to happen.” He couldn’t very well tell Annelie he’d been thinking of releasing Bells.

“And yet she escaped. How did she do that? And was she just biding her time until doing so? There are many questions left unanswered, and I don’t think you fully understand the situation. Coercive sorcery is complex and dangerous, apart from being wrong. You can easily lose yourself in the mind of another, if you aren’t careful. And I doubt she was careful with you.”

“I… perhaps.”

Annelie made sense, but he’d done what he thought was right in a traumatic situation. No. Not what was right, but what I wanted to do. He’d put Miranda’s wellbeing above everything else.

“Naive, bordering on reckless,” Annelie said. “If you’d just handed her over with the sword, her escape could have been avoided. Well you’re going to help fix this problem, seeing it’s mostly your creation. And you’ll be watched every step of the way.”

•

Caldan studied the faces of the two journeymen in front of him. Annelie stood at his side, having just introduced the men. Both of them were old enough to be masters, but he could see their talents lay in other areas. While one was lean with a hard face, the other was muscled and grim. Both were armed to the teeth with swords and a few daggers in their belts, along with compound bows and a quiver of arrows at their sides. They wore hard leather boots and matching clothes, and out the top of each boot poked a suspicious-looking metallic ball—the pommel of a hidden knife, if he wasn’t mistaken. Each wore a number of
crafting
s, though no
trinket
s, from what he could sense.

Tough men, both. He was suspicious their task wasn’t just to hunt down Bells. Annelie insisted Caldan accompany the journeymen to show them where he’d last seen the sorcerer.

“Again, thank you for giving me this chance, Master Annelie,” Caldan said. “I’ll give Morkel and Keevy all the help I can.” He laid a hand on the pommel of the sword at his side. It was simple but well made, a far cry from the
trinket
he had carried from Anasoma. “And my thanks for the sword as well.”

Annelie inclined her head and glanced at the two journeymen. “If you hadn’t completed the task Simmon set you, you’d be locked up right now. Having proven yourself trustworthy, you then undid all the goodwill you’d accumulated, and more. One misstep from now on and I’ll personally see to it you are silenced. I trust that’s clear enough for you?”

Caldan swallowed. “Yes, Master Annelie.”

Morkel, the lean journeyman, cleared his throat. “Can’t have you wandering around unarmed. Any Protector worth his salt knows how to use a blade. Make sure you don’t stab yourself with it.”

Keevy snorted, and Annelie flashed him a dark look then turned to Caldan. “Not all Protectors can use a blade; pay no mind to them.”

They think of me as an apprentice,
Caldan thought.
Good. No doubt Annelie’s told them I’m not a journeyman. But she wouldn’t be a master unless she was intelligent. She would have told them to watch me for anything untoward.

“I think it’ll be best if we start back at our campsite. It was off the road, and it hasn’t been long, so nothing should have been disturbed. With any luck, there will be tracks for us to follow.”

“That’s what we’re going to do,” said Morkel. “I’ll be able to track anyone, unless they’re skilled and take pains to hide their trail. If they were smart, they’d head straight for the road, and we’d lose them there.” He shrugged and adjusted his belt. “Let’s hope they’re not smart.”

Keevy snorted again, and Caldan began to think the man never spoke.

“Get it done quickly,” said Annelie. “Find the sorcerer, and if you need help, send for it. And get back here as soon as possible. With the emperor and his soldiers on the way, we have to prepare.” She gave Morkel and Keevy a stern look then turned and left them in the courtyard.

“Right,” said Morkel. “Let’s get us some horses and get moving.”

•

Caldan nodded and squinted, trying to make his expression one of consideration. Morkel’s question was a relevant one, but he couldn’t tell these men the truth. He had no idea how much they knew of coercive sorcery, and it wasn’t a subject to be bandied about.

They were standing at the edge of the campsite where Bells had escaped and Amerdan, presumably, had gone with her. Both Morkel and Keevy had motioned for him not to enter as they traversed a circle around the area. Caldan shifted his weight from foot to foot until they returned, eager to avoid these delays but unsure of what to do.