The Blood Sigil (The Sigilord Chronicles Book 2) (45 page)

Urus glanced behind him to see the first of the skeletal warriors climb up over the balcony railing. He knew that the rest were not far behind. With Cailix bleeding to death in the middle of the floor, they would both be dead in seconds if the undead reached them.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then pressed his palm to the sigil in the floor, making sure to submerge his hand in Cailix's blood. He felt the heat of his power run through him and the familiar pain of it exiting through his fingertips.

The sigil burst into a blue light, consuming the blood in a brilliant cerulean flame. Urus concentrated on the effect he wanted, as he had done so many times since discovering his powers. Connected to the sigil as he was, he was instantly aware of the presence of every single dead creature nearby.
 

The reach of his mind expanded, and he became aware of each of the undead warriors on Findanar, and every dead thing within miles. The sheer amount of of the dead overwhelmed him and threatened to shut his mind down.

Without really knowing how he knew what to do, at one with the blood sigil, Urus commanded the dead to rest. He willed the power of the sigil to withdraw from every walking dead it had risen. He forced the area of the sigil's influence to shrink inward upon itself.

He opened his eyes to see the room filled with corpses. One skeleton lay sprawled on the ground, its sword tip mere inches from Cailix's unconscious body. None of the dead moved.

Using what little energy he had left, Urus hurried on wobbly knees to Cailix. He shed his shirt and belt, wrapping the shirt around Cailix's leg wound and cinching it tight with the belt.

"Cailix," he murmured, nudging her. He felt for a pulse.

She's still alive
, he thought, relieved.
But barely
,
and not for long
.

He slid his arms under hers to pick her up as another tremor slammed the tower.
 

I am coming, Urus
, Murin's thoughts intruded into his mind.
Do not die.

With a heaving shudder, the tower broke free of its base and began to fall.

I'll try not to
, Urus thought.

He bent to his one good knee, pulled Cailix up over his shoulders and stood back up. All around him the tower crumbled. The floor cracked and shook, columns splintered, and the tower itself leaned ever closer to the ground.

No amount of training as a Kestian warrior could have prepared him for standing at the top of a falling tower. In total panic, he searched for something, anything, that might save him. There was still no sign of Murin.

Too many wyverns,
Murin's thoughts answered Urus's unasked question.
Slowing me down.
 

The tower tilted enough so that Urus could barely stand. An idea came to him that was so insane it might just work. With Cailix still slumped over his shoulders he ran uphill across the floor of the toppling tower and jumped out onto a balcony. From the balcony he could no longer see any of Findanar's buildings, the tower's angle was so steep.

He leapt up and out onto the side wall of the tower, now almost completely horizontal and falling faster. Urus bent his knees and braced for impact, leaping up and away from the spire a moment before it crashed to the ground—now just a small island where the tower once stood.

He landed awkwardly, further unbalanced by Cailix's added weight. He slipped forward and rolled, lifting Cailix onto his stomach as his back slammed into the ground and skidded across the slick, wet street, shielding her from the impact.

The pain was agonizing, but miraculously he broke no bones. As he gently lifted Cailix off his body and tried to get back to his feet, Urus saw the reason for the softened impact. Several feet of cold water covered all the streets of Findanar, and it was rising rapidly. The higher ground where the fallen spire lay was already sinking.

I see you,
came Murin's thought.
Stand up, I am coming.

Urus was too exhausted and in too much pain to care about the frigid bite of the flood water. He managed to get to his knees as the waves of dizziness washed over him. It took everything he had not to pass out and drop like a stone into the water. He had used far too much of his power and gone too long without rest.

It would be so easy to just close his eyes and sleep. No people calling him
my lord
, no one expecting him to lead, no more pain and struggles. Just pure, blissful emptiness. His vision blurred and his heavy eyelids threatened to close.

As his head drooped, Urus noticed the flood waters had risen up almost to Cailix's nose and mouth.
She'll drown!
Howling with the effort, he forced back the urge to sleep, lifted Cailix up off the ground, and heaved her back up onto his shoulders. She felt much heavier than she had just a few moments before.

Almost there
, Murin's mind called to his. Urus looked up to see the enormous form of a dragon dip down out of the clouds, its wings spread wide as it glided over the sinking island of the dead, its legs hanging low, claws at the ready.

Urus wondered if Murin's dragon claws would skewer him during the rescue attempt.

With the water now over his knees, Urus could no longer feel his feet. He worried that if he tried to move at all, he would fall flat on his face and drown. His hope soared as high as the approaching dragon. Just a few hundred meters more and they would be saved.
 

The impact came out of nowhere, the force of it knocking into Urus's side and sending him sliding underwater, flailing and kicking. He swallowed gulp after gulp of ice cold saltwater as he fought for air. He had no idea what had hit him.

Save Cailix
, he called to Murin.
Get her out first!

Coughing and choking, Urus pushed himself above the surface, dry heaving against the saltwater in his stomach. Another blow slammed into his chest, and this time bones did break. He flew off his feet.

Urus struggled to get up, panic filling him. He searched for Cailix but couldn't find her.

She's underwater!
he thought as the shadow of the dragon passed overhead.

He splashed around, thrusting his hands into the water, desperate to find her. It felt like an eternity before his hands finally felt her hair, floating like seaweed. He yanked on the hair and heaved her head up out of the water.

Save Cailix!
Urus called to Murin, even as his unseen attacker returned.

Something lifted him up off the ground, spun him over, and slammed him back down underwater. He struggled again to get above the surface. As he rose up and gasped for air, he saw Autar standing over him, his mouth twisted in a rictus of mad rage.

Autar punched straight into Urus's chest, but instead of more broken ribs, Urus's chest filled with searing heat. The scars from the brand of the culled, the symbol of the fifth vertex, burned and steamed against the cold, wet air.

Yellow light smothered the world, and then everything disappeared.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Urus's chest was ablaze with blue fire.

The pain was so intense he could barely believe it was real. He clawed at his chest, scraping at his skin as heat pulsed outward from the glowing blue scar of the brand of the culled.

The world around him came into focus as the pain slowly receded. He knelt upon a dark, almost black stone floor roughly hewn with crude tools, the jagged edges of the stone biting into his knees. The small room was lit with a soft, yellow glow that had no identifiable source.

Sigil light
, he thought, looking up to confirm his guess.

Autar Kelus stood before him with hands folded across his chest and a wide smirk on his face. Everything about the way he held himself reeked of ego and victory.
 

Urus sighed and rocked back on his heels. "Why do you people keep doing this? Just get it over with already."

"Get what over with?" Autar asked.

"Kill me," Urus replied. "I am so sick of this game."

"You are talking nonsense, boy," Autar said. "Now get up. We have much to discuss."

"The Kestians wouldn't kill me," Urus said, forcing himself to stand when all he really wanted to do was find a dark corner to crawl into. "Draegon wanted to use me. The arbiters wanted to use me to activate their artifacts, so they wouldn't kill me. The radixes wanted me as their leader. And now you. I suppose you've left me alive because you need me for something."

"I must admit to some small amount of selfishness in my motivation for not killing you," Autar said. "Though know this: the moment you cease being useful to me, I will kill you."

Urus studied the small room where he faced his enemy, a sigilord who should have been his ally and mentor. The poorly carved cave had only one small tunnel leading out.
 

"Then you're going to have to kill me because I'm not helping you with anything," Urus said. He clasped his hands behind his back and steadied himself for the death blow he was sure would come once he finished speaking. His fingers touched the side of the returning rod Cailix had given him, the object of Autar's desire. "You're a murderer and the opposite of everything I thought the sigilords stood for. Whatever you have planned, you're going to have to do it without me."

Autar shook his head. "So much wasted potential. You have no idea of the things you can do, no concept of your true power."

"Get it over with, Autar, I'm done with you. I'm done being used, by you, by the arbiters, by Murin, by everyone. If I can't live without a leash, I choose death."

"You may change your mind after I show you where we are," Autar said, gesturing to the tunnel.

Urus raised an eyebrow.
What game is he playing? What is he up to?

"If you are so bent on dying, then I will gladly grant your wish after you see what I need to show you," Autar said. "Follow me."

"What's to stop me from just using a sigil to escape?" Urus asked.

Autar turned back to Urus and laughed. "Follow me. Then you will realize just how foolish that plan sounds."

The sigilord entered the tunnel and disappeared into the shadows. Urus stood a moment, wondering what he should do, and then followed him into the darkness.
 

Urus didn't trust the man and would have killed him in an instant if he thought he could do it. But he didn't need to try to etch a sigil to know that his powers were drained. The fight for Niragan had taken everything out of him, and then some, and the travel to wherever they were had emptied what little remained of his energy. The scar on his chest still ached from when Autar had activated it.

I didn't even know it could do that
, he thought.

Now there was a puzzle in need of solving, and Urus could not resist puzzles. What was Autar planning that needed Urus's help? Where were they?

Yellow light bloomed around Autar as they climbed through a circuitous route of interconnecting tunnels. Urus stumbled a few times, his knee giving way. As they walked he took note of the extremely dry cold and the odd smell in the air, a stink like that of a freshly fired cannon, but stale somehow.

When they surfaced and emerged from the tunnel, Urus looked up into the stars. It was the most clear night he had ever seen. He didn't recognize the view of the stars, so had no idea how far they had traveled. He stared for a moment, mouth agape, before he regained his composure.

Giant stone archways surrounded the clearing, made from the same almost-black material from which the cave below had been carved. Barren, dark rock and loose dust extended to the horizon in all directions. Shivering against the cold, he looked to Autar, who was also admiring the view of the night stars.

"This is what you wanted to show me?" Urus asked.

"Not quite." Autar pointed into the sky above and behind Urus. "There."

Urus turned to follow the sigilord's gesture. A brilliant orb of bright blues, browns, and greens dominated the dark sky in that spot.
 

"It's just the moo—" Urus stopped short.
The moon isn't green and blue!

Autar stepped in front of him so Urus could read his lips. "Is it? Is that the moon?"

"No, it can't be. It's too big, and green and blue. Where are we?"

Autar shook his head again. "All that power with no mind to direct it. Think hard. Look at the stars, their positions, the sky."

Urus craned his neck to study the stars and the planet that was too colorful and too big to be the moon. He kicked at the gray rock and dust beneath his feet. The realization hit him hard, though he had trouble believing it.

"We're on the moon? How can we even breathe?"

Autar jabbed a finger into Urus's chest, the pressure stinging the sigil scar. "We are on the moon thanks to you. As for the breathing, this place was a military base for the sigilords. It's littered with sigils and wards. But you, you are a vertex. Do you have any idea what that means?"

"I thought I did."

"You are a point, a pivot point around which multiple universes swirl and to which they are tethered. You are a cerulean sigilord. For you, a trip to the moon is the same as a trip outside to a privy."