The League of Illusion: Destiny (9 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Darin dumped the red-headed woman he’d picked up in the woods at the elf’s feet. “Does this belong to you?”

The elf smiled and glanced at Avaira, who’d stepped up beside him. “Who is this you bring us, cousin?”

“This is Darin Hawthorne, the next leader of the League of Illusion.” She touched his arm. “Darin, this is my cousin Acari.”

Darin offered his hand to the elf. He normally didn’t like elves, but these few seemed more in tune to his future plans for the world. Destruction and chaos. His father had always pounded into him—mentally and physically—that it was all about power and control, but Darin was starting to see a different world in his mind. One where he’d be free to rule as he saw fit and not as a puppet of an old man.

Acari shook his hand, then gestured to the other two elves. “These are my companions, Lovo and Malor.”

Darin acknowledged the others, then he looked down and prodded the woman on the ground with his boot. “And who’s this lovely creature?”

Acari crouched and pulled the woman to her feet. She hung off him like a straw-filled doll. “This is Drea Blairwood and she’s going to help us find the morrigan.”

The woman squinted at him and pointed her finger in his direction. “You have snakes in your head, did you know?” She spat on the ground. “I hate snakes.”

Acari and his companions laughed at that. But Darin didn’t find it amusing at all. It was obvious the woman had been drugged but he still wanted to make her pay for her insolence. Maybe Acari would give her to him afterward.

“Why are you here, cousin?” Acari asked Avaira, giving Darin a sidelong look. It was a look of distaste, which Darin didn’t appreciate.

“To aid the cause. To help bring about the destruction of London.”

Acari eyed Darin. “And this is what you want as well? Sorcerers are usually all about control. Theirs.”

Darin sniffed. “I am all about me. If you stay out of my way when it comes to the League, I’ll stay out of yours when it comes to whatever it is you’re planning. I’m just looking for an opportunity to destroy the Davenports.”

“Our mission is of far greater importance than your opportunity to murder.”

Darin bristled at that. This elf spoke to him as if he were some common tuppenny-ha’penny hired assassin out for a few pounds or pretty trinkets. His goals were much loftier.

“We want to restore order back to our world. Natural order.”

“By bringing chaos and destruction? Seems a bit barbaric to me.”

“Without that first initial chaos, our world wouldn’t even exist. We wouldn’t exist. Without chaos we can never have order and balance.”

“What about progress?” Darin asked, getting tired of Acari’s pompousness. “A people must move forward to be enlightened. Surely you understand that.”

Acari’s eyebrow lifted. “Yes, but what does progress have to do with machines and electricity and the destruction of the natural world around us? True enlightenment comes from within not without. But I wouldn’t expect a power-hungry sorcerer to understand that.”

Darin knew arguing with a zealot was futile. If he learned anything from his father it was that politics had nothing to do with personal feelings and opinions. It was about what path to take to ultimately get what a man wanted.

Acari and his followers might be ignorant misguided fools, but they had what he needed. A way to destroy his rivals. He’d just have to find a way to work it to his advantage.

“I would think many of your people do not share your ideals. Your uncle Amathon, for example.”

Acari’s eyes hardened. He’d obviously hit a nerve mentioning the councilman.

“My uncle is misguided. Brainwashed by the humans and sorcerers he socializes with.”

“That may be but he has an army ready and willing to fight.”

“And we will have the morrigan.” Acari ran his fingers through the woman’s tangle of red curls, like stroking a pet.

“True, but what if I could guarantee you that his army will be no threat?”

Avaira brightened at that. It was obvious the woman, despite her words, didn’t want to see her father harmed or killed.

“Why spill elven blood when you don’t need to?” he continued.

Acari studied him for a long moment. “How can
you
achieve this?”

Darin heard the disbelief and derision in his voice but he ignored it and said, “Amathon owes my family his position on the council and his wealth. As you said, he will do anything to keep these things.”

Acari smiled although there was no warmth in it whatsoever. “I suspect you will have that opportunity to kill the Davenports as you wish.” He stroked a hand over the woman’s fiery head. “Won’t he, my dear?”

She glared at Darin. “Sebastian will come for me, and when he does, you will all pay.”

There was something in her voice that sent shivers down Darin’s back. It sounded like an omen, or things to come. And he wasn’t completely certain he was ready to face that.

Chapter Eighteen

Where was Duncan? Drea knew she’d get in trouble if she didn’t keep watch on her little brother. Her mother told her that he was her responsibility while they were visiting Uncle Richard in the mountains. She definitely didn’t want a scolding.

“Duncan!” she shouted. “Duncan, where are you?”

“Does she have to be so loud?”

Drea glanced at the tall man with the fancy jacket. She didn’t like him one bit. He was always complaining, whining like a little boy. She didn’t know why he had to come with them to find Duncan. She certainly hadn’t invited him.

She tapped the shoulder of the pointy-eared man she was riding with. “Why is he coming with us? I don’t like him very much.”

“Never mind him and concentrate on finding your brother.” He pointed to a rocky path that wound its way up around one of the big mountains. “Did he go this way?”

She glanced around at the plain they’d been riding across. Uncle Richard’s cabin was just past the copse of evergreens to the left. She remembered the strong smell of those trees. She looked back at the trail leading into the rock crags, where Duncan’s cap had fallen off when he’d run from her.

“Yes, he went that way. We should stop to get his hat. Father will not be happy one bit if he loses it.”

“We’ll stop for it on the way back, after we find Duncan.”

She smiled. That made better sense. The pointy-eared man was very smart. He also had nice hair. She played her hand through it. It was so soft.

“Can I plait your hair? It’s pretty.”

The fancy man laughed, then said, “She sounds like an imbecile. What did you do to her?”

She scowled at him. “What’s wrong with
you
, stupid?”

“She’s in a drugged state where she’s the young girl who saw the morrigan. She’s taking us to that place.”

Drea had no idea what the pointy-eared man had said but she was just happy that it made the fancy man shut up. She turned and glared at him again. “My friend Sebastian is going to punch you in the face.”

“Is that right? And just where is this Sebastian? I don’t see him.” He gestured around. “You’re all alone, girl.”

“Oh don’t worry, he’s coming and when he does you’ll be sorry.” She squeezed her hand around the medallion she wore around her neck.

Drea didn’t know how long they rode, but it was definitely long enough that her rear-end was sore. She also didn’t feel very well. Her stomach churned and her body was sweaty. Her dress stuck to her skin.

“Stop,” she said.

“Where?”

“Here. Here. There’s a cave.”

The pointy-eared man stopped the horse. The others stopped as well. They were still on the rocky path between mountain faces.

“There is no cave.” He gestured around.

“I don’t feel well.” She leaned over on the right side and retched. It felt as though her insides were coming out.

When she sat back up, everything started to spin. She was falling. She reached for the pointy-eared man’s shirt too late. She landed on the ground with an audible thunk. The impact expelled the air from her lungs. She could barely breathe.

The pointy-eared man dismounted and crouched next to her. “Where is this cave?”

Tears sprang to her eyes. Pain rippled up and down her body. Her belly cramped again and she had to pull her knees up to stop from retching. She pointed to the rock. “Touch it. It’s there.”

He stood and studied the rock wall. He placed his hands against it and smoothed them around. Eventually a smile lifted his lips, then there was a clicking noise. The rock wall moved up, like the drawbridge of a very tall castle. Beyond the wall was the cave.

The cave where she saw the monster crush her little brother with its large metal foot. The tears came even harder. She could barely breathe as a sob erupted from her throat.

“Duncan!” she cried.

The pain was so intense in her chest, she struggled to get air.

The pointy-eared man looked down at her. “Thank you, Drea. You did well.”

She wanted to scream at him, tell him he could go to hell, but everything was beginning to fade from her mind. The man, the horses, the mountain. Even her.

She tried to cling to something to stop from falling into oblivion. She reached out for someone, for anything to aid her. Her hand landed on a boot. She blinked up at the fancy man. He sneered down at her and shook off her hand.

“Night, sweetheart.”

Then she tumbled backward into the darkness and was lost.

* * *

When she came to again, she was inside the cave. It was cold and dry inside the mountain. She was lying on her side on the hard ground, discarded in the corner like waste. There was a horrendous taste in her mouth from the herbs and mushrooms she’d ingested. She was surprised the elves hadn’t poisoned her for good. According to their methods so far, she didn’t think her life meant much to them. So, why hadn’t they killed her?

She pushed up with her arms, which shook with the strain. All her muscles ached. As did her head. The pain was so intense, it nearly made her retch again. She remembered doing that earlier while still on the horse. After wiping her mouth, she sat up against the rock.

It wasn’t dark inside like she’d expected. A faint yellow glow filled the cave. She looked around and saw it came from several lanterns set inside grooves in the rock walls. There were also what appeared to be rooms in the cave. She was currently in what she could only describe as the mudroom. In a house, it would be where people deposited their dirty shoes and outerwear.

Beyond that was a larger room, where she could see the elves. Acari was talking to someone, looking way up toward the lofty ceiling. Drea moved over a little and that was when she spotted something she’d hoped never to see again. The morrigan.

The reality of her brother’s death came back to her in a devastating rush. She sucked in a breath as it hit her. For as long as she could remember, she’d repressed this memory. Now it came tumbling back to her in a mixture of blood and gore and her little brother’s screams of horror. As well as her own.

She collapsed against the rock wall at the image of Duncan, so little and fragile. He’d run happily into the cave, thinking he’d discovered a pirate’s treasure. He’d always been obsessed with pirates, even announcing at one dinner that he wanted to be one. No one had known where he’d gotten the obsession from, as the village was miles from the ocean and as far as anyone knew he’d never seen one.

So she’d thought it funny when he’d gone running inside, yelling, “Treasure, Drea. Treasure.”

Except he hadn’t found treasure. Instead he’d found a nightmare.

She remembered the glowing red eyes in the dark, and the clicks and whirrs of arms and legs moving as the morrigan grew to its full height. Duncan had skidded to a stop, realizing too late the danger in front of him. The morrigan had lifted one huge metal leg, then brought it down hard on him.

She’d called to him, but it was too late.

She’d always blamed herself for his death. She suspected her parents had too. Well, her mother certainly. On her deathbed, she’d finally forgiven Drea. It was one of the reasons her father clung to her so hard. Fear. That he’d lose her too. But she’d lost him.

Drea closed her eyes against the onslaught of pain that racked her mind and her heart. She sucked in another breath trying to rein it in. It would do her no good if she fell apart now. She could grieve again later, when she was safely back in the village with Sebastian at her side. She knew he would help the pain go away.

Wiping at her eyes, she turned back to the scene in the other chamber.

Made of both metal and flesh, the morrigan sat on its haunches and seemed to be listening to Acari. But it appeared as if only one of its three heads was paying attention. The one without a helmet. The only thing on it that resembled anything close to human. Its face was distorted, mutated in a way, and its eyes...its eyes were like twin pools of fire, burning into a person’s soul.

Drea shuffled a little closer to the other room so she could hear what Acari was saying to it. She heard his words, but couldn’t understand what language he was speaking. Maybe the elves had their own way of communicating. Whatever he was saying though, the morrigan seemed to understand it.

Then he was talking to the female elf. “Your arrival was most welcome, Avaira, but I don’t approve of this sorcerer you brought.”

“He’s on our side. He welcomes the chaos that the morrigan will bring to England.”

“The League is about order and control. Your father is nothing but a pawn being led around by sorcerers and Druids. He’s Clive Hawthorne’s puppet. Why is this Hawthorne any different?”

“He is the enemy of our enemies. He will kill the Davenports for us.”

Acari stroked Avaira’s head and down her hair. “Once he has done this, my cousin, then it is up to you to kill him. We cannot afford any loose ends in this.”

She bent her head to him. “As you wish, it will be done.”

“Good.”

Drea startled a little at the ruthless exchange. When she moved, her foot dislodged a few rocks, which rolled into the main cavern. The morrigan’s three heads turned toward her. As did Acari.

“Ah, she’s awake. Excellent. It’s time for us to begin.” He nodded to the other two elves.

Drea didn’t like the sound of that. She scrambled to her feet and ran, hoping she was going in the right direction, toward the cave opening. A faint light drew nearer. Maybe she would make it out before they caught up to her. But just when she could see the faint cave opening, a figure stepped out of the shadows and nearly knocked her over.

The fancy man grabbed her arm. “Going somewhere, darling?”

“Why are you doing this? What are you doing with these—these creatures?”

He leaned into her ear. “Because I’m going to kill your friend Sebastian.”

She pulled back to see his face. “They plan on killing you. I heard them plotting against you.”

She wasn’t sure if he believed her, but she saw something in his eyes when the other two elves showed up from behind.

He handed her over. “Here’s your little escapee. What exactly are you going to do with her?”

The elves dragged her back to the main cavern, the fancy man followed along. Acari smiled when he saw her. “Running will do you no good, my dear. You have been chosen.”

“For what?” she demanded.

“For the greatest honor a human could have. The morrigan needs a blood sacrifice.” Acari stroked a finger down her cheek. “And your blood I imagine will be perfect.”