Lost Magic (The Swift Codex Book 3) (27 page)

“Yes.”

“Can you say anything else?”

“Will you be able to hear us?”

This made the warden scowl. “That is our matter. Not yours. Mind what you tell him. That is all you have to be worried over. Now are you going to cross the line or do I have to nudge you?”

I ducked my head so I wouldn't glare, and took one step into the outermost circle. Two lines away, a man with dark shoulder-length hair sat cross-legged. I glanced behind me. It was distorted like water falling down glass. The warden waved and was gone. Back in the center, sapphire-blue eyes met mine.

The Blackwing dropped his gaze and said, “Milady Feraline Swift of Kragdomen Colony and Merlyn's Market, please know that my name is Valerin Wolds of the Selestiani Settlement and I am working with Julius Septimus to return his daughter to him.”

Following those words, I didn't know quite what to say. The wards made a faint humming around us. Much as I didn't want to follow the warden's advice, I was doing it by staying quiet. Another thought occurred to me. I didn't know if they could hear what we were talking about. Despite that they'd taken some metal things from me, I still had a trick up my sleeve. Quickly, I formed an illusion which essentially turned my finger into a glowing marker and I made the ward my father had taught me ages ago. It'd keep outside interferences outside and our talk private.

I recognized him now. I'd had tea with him in Merlyn's Market. He'd held my hand and led me through the crowds. He was a Blackwing, which meant a few things.

“Were you hiding me from your chief in the market?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn't you take me then?”

“You didn't have Josephina with you.”

“Were you at Mason Security?”

“No. I was meeting with Julius Septimus instead. The arrangement was difficult to manage until the chief was gone for an hour.”

The wide room suddenly felt small and intimate, the hard floor unforgiving. The warden's words returned to me, words about how I would have to remain here for now—and how if anything went wrong, I would have to wait. A dozen terrible scenarios ran through my mind if I were to make a mistake in trusting Valerin without good cause. He shifted his weight, drawing my attention.

Valerin said, “If I may ask your ladyship a question?”

“You can ask, but if I'll answer will depend on what it is.”

“If our enemies break down that flimsy ward separating you from them, will you break out us out of the dungeons?”

I laughed at the absurdity of the question. “Will I break 'us' out of the dungeons? Why would I do that?”

Valerin spoke again, still kneeling, while I finished up my spell. “I missed your fire drake deliberately.”

My heart lurched as I remembered the gun drawn on Mordon, the way my imagination made his injury gruesome because I hadn't been able to see him. That the shot had intentionally not clobbered him square in the jaw hadn't occurred to me. “Why?”

“Because if injured him, I'd injure you. And any odds of returning Josephina to Julius.”

Sweat trickled down my back. It wasn't just nerves. These wards radiated heat, creating a sauna-like environment in addition to the waterfall distortion. I stared at Valerin, wondering what his game was. “Why didn't Julius Septimus just ask for her?”

“The Blackwings wanted her, as well.”

“You're Blackwing.”

“I'm getting out before I meet with Chief's incendiary bullets. The fee for your ladyship and the kid would do it.”

Getting out, how? Was there a contract he would have to buy himself out of? Did he have debts to pay first? The Hunters weren't paid for their services, it was an honor duty. What was it like for the Blackwings? Uncle Don hadn't said, maybe he didn't know. I crossed my arms. “I'm a little confused here, Valerin. You say you work for the Blackwings, yet you're working instead for Julius Septimus?”

Valerin frowned. “I want to reunite Julius Septimus with the infant. The Blackwings will not let me go until I pay a fee, which Julius Septimus will give me the money for in exchange for the infant. In the meantime, I can keep close watch on both the Blackwings and on their progress with obtaining the infant.”

This was starting to make sense? Maybe?

It seemed that he was lying about something. Not that I could fault him too heavily. Were I in his position, I'd be wary about telling an interrogator the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Bearing this in mind, I said, “I think I'll wait until Julius Septimus comes.”

“I could take you to meet him.”

“No.” What I meant was absolutely not but I didn't want to give the impression that I was afraid. I paced, processing what he'd told me so far. “If Septimus didn't hire all of the Blackbirds, who was footing the bill of the attack squad?”

“Someone important. Powerful. We don't get to know who it is. Chief does the negotiations. When Julius Septimus failed negotiations with the Chief, he came to me directly, and I agreed.”

“Pretending I go along with this. What good is it to have you, one man, against all your Blackwings? Or do you bring my fire drake into it?”

Valerin gave a low chuckle at the thought. “No. The Blackwings and I know all about him, and you in particular. A strong opponent from a single background is easily defeated, but a wild card?” Still kneeling, Valerin put his hands on his thighs and met my gaze. “I learned all about you. About your association with the Hunters. About your demon exploits. You bogey busting. Your desperate desire for magic. Your favorite trinkets. Your talent with tricks.”

He never blinked, never took his eyes off mine, and I refused to break the contact first. Even so, he sounded admiring as he spoke. With my ward in place, the suffocating atmosphere of outside was diminished, and I felt the tickle of scales trying to emerge from my skin. I recognized the dilation of his eyes, the vibrancy of his hair and irises now. I should have known with his name.

“You're a drake.”

Valerin tipped his head. “I am, milady. Your own heritage is not so transparent. What is known is that you are from the Swift potion-makers of the Verdant Wildwoods, intermixed with humans, and that your father is Magnus of the Wildwoods. Magnus and his siblings are renown Hunters, I have always held them in great admiration. When I learned of your connection with them, I presumed that you would share in many of their qualities.” He twisted a black ringlet around his finger. “Your brother Leazar is known to be a non-shifter. There are rumors that your case is otherwise, but there is no evidence to suggest you have a second form. And your fire drake's hesitancy to formalize a union supports the theory that you are like your brother. Nevertheless, we did not wish to risk it. We thought we would disable you. No one expected the full range of a wind elemental, however.”

A shudder trembled through the floor and I thought I could hear the distant outcry of yelling. Barnes' words came back to me and I bit my lip, wondering if he was right.

“They're coming to clean up their mess. They can't risk that I'd tell. Which I have, in order to gain your favor and a measure of your trust. If I have your ear, I have a chance at finding Josephina. Chief is coming for me no matter if I speak or not. And if he can get you at the same time as me. … ” Valerin let his voice trail off, and I didn't have to be told that I'd be an excellent bargaining chip. A faint banging sounded. I didn't know what was causing it, but I didn't like that it was happening. This far into the dungeons, it could only mean a prison riot.

“You intentionally put me into harm's way.”

“That I did, milady. I will not deny it. But with you, I stand a chance at survival. Do not pretend that you would have done otherwise if you were in my position.”

That was exactly the thing which made me so angry. It was the sort of thing I would have done, and I was a fool for not guessing—well, not guessing something like this would happen. I hadn't known enough to have guessed the particulars, but how often did a Blackwing survive in the dungeons? Hadn't Barnes warned me?

“Tell me your rank, element, position, and shifting status.”

He would have been well within his rights to deny an answer. Such a thing could only be demanded within the same organizational unit, and he owed me no fealty though he called me Lady.

“I am son of the third seat in the Elder's Council at the Selestiani Settlement, water elemental, a Watcher, and a capable shifter within the aerial combat unit.”

If he was telling tales, he was telling good ones. He likely was a water elemental, no reason to lie about that. And while Elders would not go out into the world, every drake family had a Watcher to keep tabs on the ever-changing world outside. Being the son of an Elder would be ideal, it was a career path to eventual attainment of the seat on the Council meetings. Of the shifting, it could have been a brag, but I doubted it. Watcher was an important role. If he'd said he wasn't qualified I would have wanted to know why he was outside of his settlement.

The room gave a terrible lurch and I nearly lost concentration on the ward. Then I saw that there were shapes behind the outermost ward, impossible to tell if I was out of time with the prisoner due to the warden or due to other prisoners. Either way, I had to make up my mind quickly about this Valerin Wolds. Because I could hope that was the warden outside, but I didn't think that it was, particularly not as more hazy shapes filed in through the door.

“What is a Watcher of the Selestiani Settlement,” I'd never heard of the place before but that meant nothing, “doing running with the Blackwings?”

This was the crux of the matter, and if I believed the answer would determine if I saved his hide as well as my own. The people on the outside were placed strategically around the ward, I knew from the arrangement that they were going to take it down. Though I'd be in trouble for casting magic within the dungeons should it turn out to be the wardens after all, I was very glad that I had my own ward up. That one wouldn't come down so easily.

“I was press-ganged, milady. It is their favorite recruitment method.”

“I take it the incendiary bullets are why you don't jump ship.”

“Precisely so. Will you join me in the center, milady? It won't be long now.”

The outermost ward failed with a shrieking alarm which got louder as the curtain of water shredded into tiny bits. Before it fell completely, I saw five brown-clad men. Wardens. That would have been fine. Except they had the guards' staffs in their hands, and behind them were orange-suited prisoners in anything but a peaceful assembly. The last ripple of water faded and one man raised his staff, lunging for me. The staff struck my ward. His spell recoiled, sending bolts of electricity everywhere and shaking the room.

“Enter the next ward!” Valerin yelled. Years of listening to Father triggered instant compliance to the command, and soon I was enveloped in the middlemost circle. This one did not disguise those outside, and I examined the traitors who had been bought or intimidated into this riot.

“Quickly,” Valerin said. Inside his circle there was no more than six feet of wriggle room. It'd be a tight fit and I'd be at his mercy.

“If I set foot in there, you are to transfer all the energy you can to me for me to use and I'll leave you behind if you so much as touch my elbow without my say-so. Do you agree?”

He winced. I'd be suspicious if he agreed too easily. Valerin watched as the wardens attacked the ward I'd made with malicious glee. It wouldn't hold long without a steady feed of energy.

“If those are your terms, I must agree, but I don't care for them,” Valerin said. “I hope you know what you are doing.”

A triple shock of electric bolts sizzled. The ward began to harden, becoming brittle. Without waiting, I crossed the final line between me and Valerin. He remained kneeling when I stood before him, his pose one of perfect subservience. It didn't make me trust him, but it was better than him breaking his word right off the bat. The sound of shattering glass snapped around us, my ward on its last leg. The two prison wards wouldn't keep the others, not when they knew how they were constructed and how to take them down.

I reached to draw on the concrete floor with my finger. A pencil hovered in my sights. Valerin must have smuggled it in somehow, that or gotten it from someone else.

“Finish these equations for me.” I was writing out the second when he gave me the answer for the first. We had all the problems solved within a couple minutes. The middle circle was well on its way to being dismissed. The prisoners crawled over one another in their eagerness.