The Blood Sigil (The Sigilord Chronicles Book 2) (8 page)

"Really?" Colin asked. "Would you like it?"

"Yes," Cailix said simply. She had no idea what the protocol was for accepting gifts from suitors, but the stone's color and shape drew her in. She knew nothing of its maker, but the pendant seemed to have been hewn with a reverence for blood. She stared at it, fascinated.

Colin pulled far more coins from his pocket than a poor farmer should be spending on a girl and gladly paid for the necklace. He draped it over her neck and let the stone come to rest on her chest. It was so cold she gasped.

"I love it," she said, rolling it back and forth between her fingers. A tingling sensation sprang from her fingertips as they caressed the stone.

"Hoy, Cailix!" came a shout from down one of the alleys between tents.

She looked up, struggling to take her eyes off the stone, but didn't see anyone.

"Cailix!" came the shout again.

"There," Colin pointed. "It's Martin and Telem."

Martin Bish, Amos's son, was basically a tree trunk with legs. He stood a hand taller than the tallest man on the island, and nobody thought he was done growing. If he wasn't off spending time with his beloved Alice, he was with a group of troublemaker boys making whatever mischief he could imagine. It was a good thing he wasn't very imaginative, or the entire island would have burned to ash long ago. Like a remora always stuck to the belly of a shark, Telem Fisk would never be found more than a few steps away from Martin.

"What do you want, Martin?" Colin asked, narrowing his eyes. Under the best of circumstances, those two were the worst of enemies.

"Nothing from you, runt," Martin replied with a sneer. He turned to Cailix. "Did you find that sailor?"

"What sailor?"

"The one who's been looking for you. He stopped by a dozen different tents, asking for a girl named Cailix with blood red hair."

"He actually said my hair was blood red?" Cailix asked.

Martin nodded. "Ayup. Said he hadn't seen you in a while and wanted to catch up. Says he knows your father."

Cailix swallowed. She clenched her fists and controlled her breathing.

"Though I always thought of your hair as more of a red wine color," Martin added, appraising Cailix's hair.

"No, it's more of a black cherry color," added Fisk.

It can't be
, she thought.
There's no way it can be
.
 

"What's wrong?" asked Colin. "You know this sailor guy?"

I have to be sure
.

"Colin, you need to get as far away from here as possible," she told him. "Get back to your house, take your family, and tell the Jepps they have to go with you."

"What? That's crazy. There's still another hour before market closes."

"Colin!" Cailix grabbed him by the shoulders. "You trust me, don't you?"

"With my life," he said.
 

That sentiment hit her in the chest, sucking the breath from her lungs. This boy had real feelings for her, and she wouldn't know a real feeling if it hit her in the face. It was times like this that made her wonder whether having true feelings would be a blessing or a curse.

"Then you need to do as I say. Go back to the tents, get everybody in the wagons, and get the hell out of here as fast as you can. Don't even stop to load up supplies. You have to get out of here now!"

"But—"
 

Colin tried to talk, but Cailix squeezed his arms so tightly that red blotches formed on his skin where she held him.

"Get out of here, and keep my family safe!"

My
family
, she thought. The words sounded alien coming from her, as if someone else had said them. She didn't know what a family was, what it felt like, and certainly had never been part of one until recently. The twins, Drayna and Bayard, had treated her like a long-lost sister and showered her with affection. Miss Orla and her husband Woss were the most kind and caring people she had ever met. They were as close to parents as she had ever gotten.

"I will," Colin said. "I don't know what's going on, but I'll keep them safe." With surprising speed, he dashed off down one of the market alleys and was gone.

Martin and Telem gave each other confused looks, then shrugged and ran after Colin.

Fighting to keep her breathing normal and suppress the panic threatening to control her, Cailix ran through the market streets, taking to the alleys between the backs of the tents rather than the still heavily populated main avenues.

If she was right, he would be easy to find. He was too conceited to even bother with a disguise.

After spending so long searching through the streets that many vendors had already started packing up, she finally caught a glimpse of the man she sought.
 

He was talking to one of the blacksmiths who lived on the southern coast, a man who knew where she lived. She recognized the long white hair and that smug sense of superiority that permeated his entire being, from the way he spoke to the way he stood, as if the world itself should bow before him wherever he walked.

It was Anderis, the man who had killed her monk caregivers, kidnapped her from Waldron, convinced the machine-building briene to attack Waldron, and the man she thought she had killed while defending Aldsdowne. He was also the man who had sired her. Somehow that creature had survived, a mistake she intended to correct.

Anderis finished his conversation with the blacksmith, took a step back, then vanished—no smoke, no fanfare, he just blinked out of existence.

I need to find out how he does that,
she thought, still cursing the fact that she hadn't learned all of Anderis's tricks before turning on him.

The blacksmith stood dumbfounded, rubbing his eyes and blinking at the spot where the man had stood just a moment ago.

"What did you tell him?" Cailix demanded, jumping out of the shadows.

"Cailix, funny you should be here, that man was just…He just disappeared. I—I don't know where he went." The smith shook his head, still in shock.

"Master Smith, I need to know what you told him."

"He said he had information about your father he wanted to give you," he started, the realization of what he might have done dawning on him. "I sent him on down to your place. Oh no, I've done a terrible thing, haven't I?"

Cailix didn't have time to placate yet another person with feelings.

"You did nothing wrong, Master. I need a horse."

Still stunned, the blacksmith struggled to keep up with the conversation.

"A horse. I need a horse, now!"

"Take my mare. She's hitched up just over there," said the blacksmith, pointing to a post shared by several vendors. Cailix recognized his mare and ran for it.

"I'm sorry," he called after her. She barely heard the words, so intent was she on getting to the Jepps house before Anderis.

She pressed the mare as hard as she could, streaking down the only road that led to the southwest coastal farms. She wasn't much of a rider, and she fought to stay astride the animal, wincing in pain as she bounced about, failing to synchronize with the horse's rhythm. The moon cast just enough blue light on her path to prevent her from slipping off the road into a ravine.

Had everyone made it home safely, she should have been greeted by the light of a few lanterns in the main house windows. Instead, a raging fire consumed the barn, wicked hisses and pops echoing through the valley. It smelled like burning wood and charred meat.
 

There were still animals in the barn when it went up
, she realized. At least she hoped that smell was from animals. She banished that thought, slid off the horse, and sprinted up to the house.

"Momma!" she shouted, kicking in the front door. The house didn't appear to be on fire, but it was empty. Just to be sure, she lifted the hatch to the cold cellar and shouted again, "Momma! Anyone there?"

There came no reply.

She ran back out front, desperately searching for any sign of the family. She hadn't passed them on the road, so they had to be around somewhere. She tried to get near the barn but the heat was too much and the surrounding grass had already burned to embers. Whatever was left in that barn was surely dead.

"Aerlissa!" shouted a voice from beyond the barn. It wasn't Anderis, but it had a similar tone, a tone filled with ego and contempt. She rounded the barn, giving it a wide birth, and came around to the fallow corn field.

"Ah, there you are," called a man from the edge of the field. He wore the standard white-robed uniform of one of Anderis's henchmen and held Drayna with a knife to her throat. Tears and mucus ran unabated from her eyes and nose, her mouth quivering in sobs. None of these simple farm people were equipped to deal with the Order of the Sanguine Crystal or their ilk.

As she drew closer, warmth drew her gaze down to her chest. There, the dark red stone shone as brightly as a torch.

Is this stone related to blood magic somehow?
Cailix wondered.
No time to find out now
.

"Let her go!" Cailix yelled. Seeing Drayna like that filled her with rage. The girl didn't deserve any of this; she had done nothing to the Order. They were using the family to get to Cailix.
 

I'm done hiding who I am
, she thought.
This ends now!

"No, Cailix, don't do it!" Drayna implored, as if she knew the thought that had just occurred to her.

"Surrender or we slaughter your nice new family," the blood mage ordered.

"I think not," Cailix said, the cold calm of battle washing over her. She felt the connection with the blood mage; she could smell and taste and feel the blood coursing through his veins.

She pierced the skin on her thumb with a fingernail, and a drop of blood oozed out. Willing it to grow, she bonded with the blood. It lifted from her thumb and, in response to her thoughts, soared through the air. The blood globule vibrated until it burst into flames, just before shooting through the mage's eye and erupting out the back of his head.
 

The mage dropped to the ground dead before he even had a chance to counterattack, the blood from the head wound spattering onto Drayna's face and fine market dress.

"Are you all right?" Cailix asked, running to her.

"No!" she cried, shoving Cailix away. "I told you not to do that. Momma said that magic changes you, takes you to a dark place. It makes you like them…like him."

Cailix stood up, looking around for the rest of the family. "Momma doesn't know everything, Drayna. Where is she?"

"The others took her. They're up on the high range."

"How many?"

"Two more that I saw," Drayna said, furiously scraping at her skin, trying to get the blood off. "Cailix, you have to save Momma. I don't care if you have to use magic. You save Momma and Poppa and Bayard."

Cailix ran for the range but skirted the edge, staying just below the plateau. If they really wanted her, then they would keep the family alive until she showed up. That much she knew about Anderis and his methods.

Anderis is too powerful
, she thought.
I can't control his blood
.

She needed some supplies from her cave before she confronted her enemy and whoever else was with him.
 

She hurried to the cave, opened the stone entrance, and fumbled her way down the dark tunnel, finding the sconce to light more by accident than anything else.

She stuffed two daggers into her belt and scooped up a cup of the sheep's blood. She hadn't been able to test the potency of the blood after so many days of resting in the bowl, but she was out of time and it was the only plan she had.

She plucked a simple rope necklace from the sconce, a small red glass bottle suspended from a loop in the middle. That day she had decided to save Urus, when she had plunged her hands into his wounds and been covered in his blood, she had kept just a few drops for herself. She didn't know if she would need that kind of power again, but having it made her feel safe. She hoped she would not have to use the blood in the bottle, for everyone's sake. Urus's power had been too potent, too big for her to control.

The glass bottle necklace clinked against the bloodstone pendant, now dark and cold, as she ran up to the range as fast as she could without spilling the sheep's blood. Just before she reached the plateau, she left the bowl of blood sitting on the ground.

What she saw when she took the hill crest was exactly what she expected. Again the bloodstone necklace grew warm and glowed. Anderis and his cohort held Miss Orla, Woss, and Bayard captive, each sitting on the damp grass with their hands tied behind their back. Anderis and his companion stood over them, knives in hand, scanning the moonlit plain for Cailix.

"Aerlissa!" shouted Anderis. She hated that voice, hated everything that came out of his mouth, and hated every drop of blood in his body. She would not hate killing him though.
 

"Let's get this over with, Anderis. You're here for me and now I'm here, so let them go."

"That's far enough. I felt what you did to Merick back there. I know you're not stupid enough to try that on either of us."

Anderis stood behind Bayard and Woss while his henchman held his blade near Miss Orla's face. Cailix would get one shot, and then chaos would be unleashed. If she gave in to her heart's desire and attacked Anderis first, then his man might kill Orla before she could attack again. If she tried to attack both of them, the Jepps might get caught up in the middle and she could end up killing them all.
 

She stroked the little bottle hanging from her neck and knew she couldn't risk using it; it could kill everyone on the southern half of the island.

"Let them go and you can do what you want with me," Cailix said, having no intention of letting them do anything to her.

"There was a time when all I wanted was to kill you," Anderis said. "But now I want much more than that. Now I want you to hurt, to take everything and everyone you love and destroy them."

"You give me too much credit, Anderis. What makes you think I've learned how to care?" Cailix answered, stalling, waiting for the right moment.