Chasing Bloodlines (Book 4) (14 page)

Chapter 16

Mikelle sidestepped from Jaden to Anarma Palace with a dozen Mages first thing the next morning. The Council found an older Gaelsin Mage who was reported to be the strongest in Earth and teamed him with several Jaden Earth Mages who were more knowledgeable in patterns.

Mikelle hardly slept that night, as did those who knew Gabriel was missing. Aisling remained in Anatoly City. She told Robyn that Gabriel was unable to visit due to the influx of new duties. Cordis accompanied them to Tintagaelsing along with Markus, Lewis and Adelaide. The rest remained in the castle to help the new Gaelsins acclimate.

“By my lady!” a guard at the Anarma gate shouted. “Where do t’ey keep comin’ from?”

Markus strode up, fourth in command after Lael and Galloway. “We are here to see your King. Our Head Mage was last seen here, and we have reason to believe he is being kept inside.”

“T’ tall one in white? Aye, mate, he’s still wit’in.”

“We need him to come out.” Markus said slowly. The guard regarded Markus with a disdainful face but returned to a guard house beside the gate and vanishing within. They waited a good long while before he emerged.

“T’ King is entertainin’ your Head Mage.”

“No, he is not,” Markus replied levelly.

The man smirked. “Well you will have to take my word for it.”

Markus turned to the Earth Gaelsin. “Make it quick, Kegan.”

The older man looped three green patterns around the ball of his foot and slammed it into the ground. A moment later the gates hinged back, and the stones ripped in a straight line down the courtyard. Markus started walking, a bubble-shield of Air around him, and marched through the buckled gates. Guards shouted and rushed at him with weapons drawn, but they simply bounced off the shield.

“Go get your King!” Markus shouted. He tied off the shield pattern as guards beat themselves against it, walking as far as the fissure would allow.

“Air Mage in a dome!” Mikelle heard a guard shout as they rushed into the guard station. Soldiers emerged moments later with long steel poles. They raced to Markus and shoved the poles underneath the lowest part of the dome and threw all their weight into the other end. The dome moved as they levered it up, and several more poles stuck deeper.

Markus knew what they were doing moments after the dome lifted, and he looked for an escape, but soldiers blocked the route he took in and, most importantly, access to the Elements.

Lewis ran forward with a shield of Spirit raised and snapped light-shards at the men with Shaun close on his heels flinging Air patterns. He moved gracefully as his loose clothing billowed around him, throwing men off their feet and flinging some several yards away.

Markus stepped onto incanted stone and ran back towards the gate, knowing his dome pattern would hold unless he cut it. Guards stepped between him and the gate, pushing back on the dome and halting his motion.

Shaun bolted forward. “Kegan! Column right here!” Shaun yelled and pointed before him. The Gaelsin stamped the ground, and a pillar of earth shot up from beneath Shaun, launching him ten feet into the air. Balanced precariously, his pattern rotated around him. He threw gray strings at the guards blocking Markus with simple flicking wrists. Jerking back on them, Shaun yanked the men off their feet. He made a sweeping motion with an arm and flung three men yards away against the palace wall.

Markus saw a break and dropped his shield to move faster, bolting for the gate as Shaun and Lewis cut a path for him. Mikelle had never seen an Air Mage fight like Shaun, and she stood with her mouth agape watching him. He flicked advancing guards and thrown weapons back as if it was the easiest thing. He covered Lewis’s retreat and turned towards the gate, stepping off the column. Extending his arms and buckling his legs up, he floated down half as fast as falling and hit the ground running. All three men made it through the gate before the guards could reach them.

“Well done,” Markus whispered to Shaun and Lewis. “Had me nervous there for a moment.” He turned back to the gates. “We wish to speak with your King.”

“T’ King does not consort wit’ Mages!” a guard yelled, but a voice shouted from the main blue doors.

A short man with long blond hair in a pale green robe walked from the doors flanked by a dozen soldiers. He clasped his hands behind his back as he walked through the rubble, looking at the guards with a pinched expression as they struggled to bow.

“T’at is King Rayner,” Shaun whispered.

He stopped several yards from the gate. “You have my attention.”

“Head Mage Gabriel went into your palace and never came out. We desire him to be returned to us,” Markus replied stepping forward to take a commanding stance.

“Ah, yes. Sadly, your Head Mage will not be returned until my Mages are brought back to me. As soon as my slums are full, you may have your leader back.”

“He admits he has Gabriel,” Lewis whispered.

“What would he do with him?” Mikelle asked.

“A man as powerful as Gabriel would be harvested.” King Rayner chimed in.

Markus looked back alarmed. “I beg your pardon?”

“His energy taken,” Shaun clarified.

Markus turned back to the King. “We will not trade with people’s lives; however, we will agree to other terms.”

“I want a cask of wine, a sack of grain or corn, or a barrel of oil for every Mage taken.”

“I will not renege on the Head Mage’s wishes. Your people will not be traded for. However, I will happily agree to not tear your palace apart for the return of our Head Mage. You should know we have thousands of Mages in our land who will happily come to the Head Mage’s aid as he has done for them.”

The King waved a petulant hand. “Idle t’reats do not a deal make. I do not succumb to bullies. My Mages for your Head Mage, or not’ing.” He turned and left with his ensemble.

“Do we attack?” Shaun whispered.

“Not yet,” Markus replied. “Let us return to the castle to discuss more.”

With a despondent air, they sidestepped to the front gates of Jaden and rounded up the remaining Council in the anteroom where Markus explained what happened.

“We cannot leave him there.” Dagan stated solidly.

“Yes,” Adelaide nodded, “but we cannot break him out without tearing the palace down.”

“Would he do any differently for us?”

“We do not have the strength to tear a palace down!” Galloway exclaimed.

“We do if we take the Gaelsins.” Markus interjected.

Penny threw her hands up. “They were just liberated from that place. We cannot take them back.” They talked over themselves as tension grew.

“How hard would it be for him to break out?” Adelaide cut in and eyes looked to Shaun.

He sighed and looked down. “T’ere are stones in t’ palace t’at aren’t incanted, but none in t’ lower levels where he is. He would have to break out of his cell and…” he paused and suddenly looked up. “I knew a girl once, back when I got t’is,” he pointed to his eyes. “She still works in t’ palace. If I can get word to her, she might be able to help.”

“It’s either that or tear down a massive building,” Mikelle stated, “which I’m not even sure can be done since it’s made of incanted stone and might resist our Elements.”

Galloway sighed. “Try to slip in first, but if we need to attack, then it must be an option we are ready to act on.”

“T’ese Gaelsins are terribly uneducated in patterns,” Shaun cut in. “T’ey will need to learn a few before t’ey are battle ready.”

Several people nodded. “Gabriel was drafting a better school. I will see if I can find his notes,” Mikelle said.

“Until then, see to your duties,” Galloway said and dismissed them.

“Shaun,” Mikelle called before he could walk away. “How is it that you say Gaelsins are uneducated when you seem to know so many patterns?”

“Oh,” he smiled, “I am not a city Mage. Tintagaelsing City is known for suppressin’ t’ Mage populous, but I did not grow up t’ere.”

She led him into Gabriel’s quarters. “Where then?”

“In t’ countryside far sout’. T’ village had a wee school for young Mages, and what my parents couldn’t teach me, I learned in school.”

“I…was always under the impression you were unschooled.”

He laughed and pushed the study door open. “No, lass, I know readin’, arit’metic and writin’, even a little of art and history. I may talk funny, but I’m not stupid.”

Mikelle went to Gabriel’s shelves and flipped through the books. “How did you end up in the city?”

“I was a sailor. I left home when I was seventeen and joined a sailin’ crew as t’eir air-guide. I controlled t’ wind, mind you, and sailed t’ trade route for about six years. I was right close to making captain when we sailed into t’ city’s harbor, and t’ harbormaster saw me sail t’at rig in pretty as you please. He knew I must have been a strong Mage. In t’ city t’ laws do not apply to you unless you set foot off t’ ship, and I knew t’ reputation of Mage treatment, so I didn’t plan to leave. T’ harbormaster accused me of stealin’ before we sailed, and no one was able to vouch for me because t’ey went into t’ the streets for a pint. I set one foot off t’at ship and woke up in a dungeon.”

Mikelle pulled out a book and set it on the desk. “Is that when they blinded you?”

“A few days after. T’ere were five of us, one of each Element. When t’ey blinded each one, t’ey just dropped us in t’ streets. T’ Fire Mage never made it out, t’ Earth Mage stepped in front of a carriage—on purpose—and I never heard what happened to t’ Water Mage.”

“And the Spirit Mage?”

“She’s t’ one still in t’ palace. I want to sidestep t’ere today.”

“Can you get into the palace?”

“I’m sure I can,” he said and gestured to his blond hair.

“But you will be blind.”

“I see wit’ all my senses.”

“And what will I do if you are captured?”

He smiled faintly. “I’ll get your mate out. Don’t worry.”

The guards came for Gabriel early the next morning—or perhaps it was afternoon, he could not tell. Either way they dragged him from his cell. His sleep had been restless, filled with nightmares on a cot to short in a room too small, and he woke in panic. He took it out on the guards who gave it right back. This time there were six.

They dragged him into the harvesting room and forced him onto the table again to be shackled, strapped, and needled. The men in black started him on the eighth setting and took him as high as nine before halting for the day. It was a process that lasted far too long for Gabriel’s comfort.

“In your land do t’ey Class Mages?” the man in charge asked.

Gabriel glared up at him and spat the dowel from his mouth. “I’m a Class Ten,” he said with as much vehemence as he could muster.

“Never had one of t’ose on here I don’t t’ink.”

Guards took him to Afton who quietly released his back. “T’ere was a commotion in t’ courtyard yesterday,” she whispered. “Some of your Mages came lookin’ for you and ripped t’ gate and cobblestones all to pieces.”

Hope bloomed in Gabriel’s chest. “What happened?”

“T’ey tried to make a deal for your release, but t’ King asked for all his Mages to be returned in exchange for you. T’ey wouldn’t agree.”

“Good for them.”

“T’at is terrible,” she breathed. “If t’ey loved you, t’ey would have made t’ trade.”

“No, they love me, so they kept the Gaelsin Mages from harm. It was my desire, and if I must stay here for a time that is a price I will pay for them.”

She fell silent as she finished his back. She tapped his shoulder in request to roll over, so she could adjust his neck.

“How…” She began choosing his words cautiously, “How many Mages did you take from here?”

“A few thousand. I planned to take the rest but got held up here.”

“Breathe, exhale,” she said cracking his neck. Rather than calling for the guard, she went back to his shoulders. “Why?”

He opened his eyes. “Why what?”

“Why take our Mages?”

“I didn’t
take
them. I liberated them.”

“Is Jaden so much better? Are all your lands?”

“Mages are revered, not slaves tortured for their energy. They blinded you, didn’t they? Like they did my friend Shaun.”

Her brows rose at the name. “You know Shaun? I haven’t heard t’at name in years.”

“He helped me get everyone out. He’s been rallying a revolt since he was blinded.”

“Sounds like him,” she smiled faintly. She put her hands on his face, pressing with her fingertips. He slowly relaxed into the table. “If t’ey harvested you t’is early in t’ morning, t’ey might do it again tonight. Rest while you can.”

“Will they kill me?” he asked quietly. “Can they?”

“I…yes, I’ve seen it done. So, rest.” She called for guards, but he was too exhausted to fight.

Maxine put on her lowest-cut dress and painted her lips red. Hiking up the split in the skirt, she selected a delicate pair of slippers. It was nearly midday in the mountains, but it was night where she was headed, so she put on a shawl of white.