Raging Sea and Trembling Earth: Disciples of the Horned One Volume Two (Soul Force Saga Book 2) (11 page)

I
mogen watched
as Chun’s head fell to the ground and splattered. The cold fury that constantly burned inside her flared into a full-fledged inferno. Chun had been a good man, loyal comrade, and adequate sorcerer. That last was probably what got him killed. She’d often wondered, when they first met, why the archmage chose him for her Crimson Legion.

He hadn’t been especially skilled or powerful. As they worked and spent time together Imogen had come to understand. He was loyal and dedicated. Give him any task, vital or minor, and he’d do it and do it well. The more people she met, the more Imogen realized that was a rare talent.

And now he was dead. Murdered by one of Connor Blackman’s agents. Before Imogen could lash out at the traitorous sorcerer Lon flew after her. The two of them raced through the sky exchanging blasts. Imogen frowned. She wanted to kill the woman herself. Well, she had other options.

Alden was locked in a sorcerers’ duel with the man on the roof leaving the girl on the demon horse for her. The pale, she hesitated to say woman as Imogen wasn’t certain her opponent still qualified, stared at her, head cocked at a forty-five degree angle, an insane smile stretching her face to its limit. The girl had no power of her own, but her scythe fairly crackled with corrupt energy. Had the weapon driven her insane? It could happen if an ordinary person laid their hands on a demonic weapon.

The scythe slashed through the air, sending a ten-foot-wide blade of hellfire racing toward Imogen. The Crimson Legionnaire conjured a golden ax to hack a chunk out of it. Hellfire blazed past her on either side. Its inherent wrongness twisted her insides.

Yes, handling such power could definitely drive a person insane. She had to put the woman down before she hurt anyone else.

Imogen conjured golden armor and strengthened her ax. She raced to close the distance between her and her opponent. She was barely able to dodge out of the way when the girl countercharged, her flaming scythe sweeping toward Imogen’s neck.

Imogen spun, her ax hacking at the girl’s back. The demon horse brought its rider around far faster than a normal horse could manage on the ground. Ax met scythe, the two grinding against each other, black and gold sparks flying.

The demonic weapon immediately began to degrade Imogen’s ax, forcing her to spend more power to maintain it. The girl cackled and hellfire flared, disintegrating the ax and almost taking Imogen’s hand with it. The horse spat a stream of flame that drove her back. The golden armor held, but Imogen had to spend even more power to renew it.

At this rate Imogen was going to use up all her soul force just staying alive. Perhaps she’d underestimated the scythe’s strength. She didn’t have a lot of experience dealing with demonic weapons. Her specialty was in questioning and extracting information, the same as Alden. They’d been assigned this mission assuming they’d have someone to interrogate. She doubted the grinning lunatic facing her knew anything useful or that Imogen would be able to extract it if she did.

Imogen glanced toward Alden and found him backpedaling from a furious series of blasts from his opponent. The man’s back was to Imogen and she got an idea. It wasn’t exactly a fair way to fight, but it might work.

A
lden barely managed
to raise a shield before streams of hellfire slammed into it. Alden’s adversary stared up at him. The man’s face twisted into a grimace of pain and rage as he channeled his rings’ power. Alden’s golden counterattack was slapped away with contemptuous ease.

He grimaced and dodged another stream of hellfire. The rings were killing the man a little with each attack. Unfortunately, he wasn’t dying fast enough to help Alden.

Six golden blades spun out, streaking toward the dying man from multiple angles.

His opponent roared and a pulse of hellfire burned them all to nothing. Alden blasted him again, finally getting through his defenses. Skin bubbled and sloughed off the man’s chest.

The ring wielder roared at the sky. He seemed incapable of rational speech. A black skull formed between his hands before streaking toward Alden. He threw desperate power into his shield an instant before the skull hit and exploded. Alden’s skin blistered and burned. His stomach churned, but his shield held. When the flames faded Alden saw he had been blown back ten feet.

His snarling opponent drew more power for another attack. Before he could release it Imogen flew up from behind him and buried her ax in his skull. On the roof the dead man looked at peace, his pain-twisted features now smooth and calm. Alden sighed his relief.

Imogen flew past him. “Switch!”

Switch?

Imogen’s opponent galloped through the sky towards Alden.

His relief gone, Alden conjured blades and sent them flying at the girl and her horse. She bashed half of them out of the sky, but the rest struck the horse in the belly and legs. The girl screamed like he’d hit her.

They must be linked somehow. What affected one affected the other. That was good to know.

She swiped her scythe through the air and a wave of hellfire shot toward Alden. It seemed weaker than her earlier attacks. He flew under the flames and sent more blades spinning toward her. They struck a dark fire shield and shattered.

That explained it. The girl had reserved some of her power for defense. Alden wasn’t certain whether he should be grateful or not. At least he didn’t have to face her full strength with each blast.

A golden lance of power struck the shield from above. Lon came flying down out of the sun. A second and third blast got deflected. Alden sent more blades. The first four splintered, but the last pierced the girl’s chest with enough force that the tip emerged from her back.

She didn’t make a sound or appear bothered by a three-inch-wide wound in her chest. The scythe went up and a ring of hellfire blasted out in every direction. Alden and Lon went flying out of control.

Imogen braced Alden a second later, stopping his tumble before he flew too far.

“She’s already dead,” Imogen said. “The scythe is just using the body like a puppet.”

“We need to cut her strings.”

Imogen nodded. “You read my mind. You want to do the sword or the shield?”

“I’ll do the shield. You were always better at cutting than me.”

The black flames burned out. Lon had been blown fifty feet away, but he looked unharmed. A few wisps of smoke rose from Lon’s clothes and hair. Mostly unharmed, anyway.

“Ready?” Imogen had conjured a golden ax that fairly thrummed with soul force.

Alden nodded and said a silent prayer that he had enough soul force left to sever the connection between the scythe and its bearer.

Imogen dove like a falcon, her body a blur as she powered down at the girl. The scythe went up. A second too late.

The golden ax crashed through the girl’s hellfire barrier and sliced her hand off at the wrist. The weapon clattered to the roof below.

The girl raised such a howl that Alden almost forgot to shield the scythe. He conjured a golden hemisphere around the weapon.

The horse bucked and the girl continued to howl. For someone that didn’t breathe she certainly could raise a racket. Cracks formed as the scythe fought to reestablish the link with its puppet.

Alden clenched his teeth and sent more energy into the shield. It wasn’t going to be enough. In a second or two the shield would collapse and the fight resume. He simply didn’t have enough strength to hold it.

W
hen Lon
finally regained his senses from the hellfire blast he found Alden struggling to maintain a shield around the scythe. Imogen clutched her abdomen and limped through the sky like a deflating hot air balloon. He hesitated a moment then reinforced Alden’s shield. He could help Imogen afterwards. If the shield broke none of them were in any shape to keep fighting.

The girl’s howling was enough to drive a man mad and with her mount’s thrashing it was a wonder she stayed on its back. Gradually the horse slowed. Its chest sunk in, exposing ribs. As a disgusted Lon watched, both horse and rider rotted away, ending as nothing more than a puddle of liquefied meat and hair.

When the ooze stopped bubbling Lon let his shield fade. Alden did the same, settling on the roof and bending over, gasping for air or gagging Lon couldn’t tell. He flew over to Imogen and helped her down to the roof.

“Let me see.”

She grimaced and moved her arm aside. “I wasn’t quite fast enough.”

Her dress was slashed open and the flesh underneath gashed wide enough to expose her insides. Lon winced. Messy, but he could heal her, at least enough to make it safe to transport her to Sasha over at the navy fort. He wasn’t going to lose her like he did that poor devil back at the village.

Lon had just finished sealing all the rents in her intestines when Alden managed to hobble over. “How is she?”

“She’ll live.” Lon kept his focus on healing. “An inch deeper and we might be having a different conversation. How are you?”

“Battered, burned, and almost out of power, but I’ll recover.”

Half an hour later Lon had Imogen as healed as he could under the circumstances. She’d need one of the dedicated healers to take a look at her, but he’d reduced the danger of her dying to a minimal level. “Can you fly on your own?”

Imogen winced and nodded. “I can make it to the fort. Thanks for the patching up.”

Lon smiled. “My pleasure.” He turned to Alden. “I can manage the artifacts if you can get the bodies.”

The three of them flew north, the remains of their opponents surrounded by soul force bubbles. When they landed in the courtyard Sasha and the sorcerer assigned to the navy base were there to greet them. Seeing their sad state Sasha immediately assumed control of the bubbles protecting the remains. The duty sorcerer helped Alden and Imogen make their ginger way into the fort leaving Sasha and Lon alone in the yard.

“You three look like hell,” Sasha said. “Where’s Chun?”

Lon shook his head. “Didn’t make it. There were some civilian casualties as well. And one of the enemy escaped, again. One of these days I’m going to corner that lunatic and make her pay for what she’s done. Well, at least now we know who the leak is.”

“We think we know. Thomas will question her to be certain.” She nodded toward the bubbles. “What’s the deal with these?”

Lon explained the artifacts and their bearers. “They didn’t have much skill. In fact we’re pretty sure the girl was already dead when we fought her. I’d like to know where they found such powerful weapons.”

“I think we both know the answer to that,” Sasha said. “Connor Blackman.”

“I meant I wonder where they came from originally. That scythe especially took a master of binding to create. I doubt Connor or anyone else living in the kingdom has the skill to create something like that.”

“They need to be destroyed and the bodies purified.”

“I know, but I haven’t the strength to do it myself and I’m afraid of what might happen if we break them in the city.”

“Lidia went to the capital yesterday to consult with the king. She’s supposed to return tomorrow. When she gets here the three of us can deal with these artifacts. Until then we’ll have to take turns guarding them. I want a barrier around both the bodies and the weapons at all times.”

“Good call. Can you take the first watch? I still need to talk to the Blackman family.”

Sasha frowned. “That female sorcerer is still on the loose. Are you certain you want to go through with the meeting?”

“Yes. It shouldn’t take long and if they know something and we don’t make the effort…”

“Understood. If you’re not back in two hours I’ll send my subordinate to check on you.”

“Thanks.”

Lon conjured a griffin, climbed aboard, and flew towards Lord’s district. The Blackman clan lived three mansions down from the Santens. It took less than a minute for him to make the flight.

The Blackman’s mansion wasn’t as sprawling as the Santen’s, but it was still bigger than the navy fort. Manicured grounds with white stone paths surrounded the white-painted main house. Lon brought the griffin down beside a bubbling fountain. Four guards in mail covered with black tabards surrounded him the moment his griffin touched the ground. Their spears trembled and they eyed the griffin with nervous glances.

Lon hopped to the ground and let his mount vanish. “I’m Lon Shen, I believe your mistress is expecting me.”

The youngest of the guards ran off toward the main house leaving Lon surrounded by the other three. He smiled and tried to look nonthreatening. “You can put those spears down. I don’t mean anyone here any harm and if I did those wouldn’t help you.”

The guards pointed their weapons away from him, but the tension remained. They leaned on the spears and the four of them stood in awkward silence until five minutes later when the fourth guard returned.

“You can go on up, sir. Apologies for the delay.”

Lon waved his hand and the men jumped back three feet. He sighed. “It’s fine. Thank you for the welcome. Good afternoon.”

Lon left the much-relieved guards to return to their posts and walked up to the main house. Three steps passed between white pillars. A boy in black servant’s garb stood at a set of polished double doors. He pushed them open at Lon’s approach. He nodded as he passed the young man who pulled the doors shut behind him. Inside the doors waited a white marble foyer. An elegant woman in a black dress wearing a string of pearls as big as Lon’s knuckles sat in a simple cherrywood chair.

“Mrs. Blackman?”

“Master Shen.” She gestured toward the empty chair opposite her. “Please sit.”

Lon took her up on her offer. It seemed she didn’t plan to let him any deeper into her home than necessary. “I appreciate you speaking to me.”

“I wasn’t aware I had a choice. Ask your questions and be gone.”

“Yes, ma’am. Tell me about Connor.”

Her thin face twisted into a scowl. “That again. My son disappeared years ago. What possible interest could you have in him after all this time?”

“Connor has reappeared.” Mrs. Blackman’s sharply drawn breath appeared genuine. She was either a superb actress or she really didn’t know about her son. “Apparently with a hatred for the kingdom. He’s already done a great deal of damage and we hope to find him before he does any more. Anything you can tell me would help.”

She leaned toward him, green eyes as hard as emeralds. “Connor was a good boy, Master Shen. He didn’t torture small animals or beat up the other children. Whatever happened to him happened after you people took him to The Tower. After he completed his training and returned home he wasn’t the same person.”

“How do you mean?”

“He was cool, distant, like he didn’t want anything to do with us anymore. In fact he only visited three times before he vanished. I was very close to my son and it hurt more than you can understand, watching him slipping away.”

“I’m sorry.” That sounded lame to Lon so he could imagine how it sounded to her. “Did he ever mention anything he was working on? Anywhere he planned to explore?”

“No. In fact he hardly spoke to us at all. I’m not entirely certain why he came home those last few times.”

“Perhaps he was trying to convince himself not to go through with whatever he has planned.”

“Perhaps. I like to think he wanted to visit me again before he left.”

“Did he mention anyone, a friend or teacher he was especially close to?” Lon had a sick feeling and sent a silent prayer to the archangels that he was wrong. If Lenore was more than a spy Thomas could be walking into a trap.

She cocked her head slightly as she considered. “Now that you mention it Connor did mention someone in his letters. It’s funny, I thought perhaps he had a crush. Her name was Lenore and she was two years ahead of him. Is something wrong?”

She must have noticed his expression. “No, you’ve just connected a couple dots for me. You’ve been a great help, Mrs. Blackman, thank you.”

Lon rushed out of the Blackman estate and hurtled into the air the instant he cleared the doors. He had to get back to the fort and warn them. Lenore was more than just a spy. She was most likely the one responsible for turning Connor into a monster. Thomas needed to be warned. If he went to her at less than full strength it could be a massacre.