Twilight of Kerberos - [Shadowmage 01-03] - The Shadowmage Trilogy (Shadowmage; Night's Haunting; Legacy's Price) (56 page)

Lucius took a breath before speaking.

“Adrianna, what have you done?” he asked. “All those people...”

“Idiot! If you had accepted our alliance, if you had joined me, this war would be over already! The power of the Empire would be in ruins, and this city would be free again. And where were you instead? Playing bandit in the hills!”

For a second, Lucius was speechless. “And what did you think you were going to achieve? Do you know how many innocent people you have killed?”

She gave him a scornful look. “Together, we could have blasted the Citadel into ruins, then marched on the Cathedral. Vos would have had nowhere to run! We could have blasted every one of them clear out of the city!”

“And how many others would have died? My God, Adrianna, there are dead children in the markets! How does that advance your cause?”

“If it means the Empire withdraws, a few dead, more or less, certainly does not hinder it,” she said flatly.

“We don’t have to be like this, Adrianna,” Lucius said evenly; if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that Adrianna would not look kindly on any display of weakness. “That banditry in the hills you talk about probably did more damage to the Empire in the long run than your own attack. You don’t have to become like Vos in order to beat it.”

“You fool,” she said, as if talking to a particularly slow child. “Becoming like Vos has no relevance whatsoever. What matters is who wins! Who is left standing after this war is done – and it will be done very soon, Lucius, mark my words.”

“There is another way.”

“No,” she said. “Not any more. They have started to strike at us. We
must
hit back, and harder. Show them that we are invincible, that whatever hurt they bring upon us will be revisited upon them a hundredfold.”

He tried another tack. “Even if I had been there, two mages cannot defeat the entire Citadel, let alone every soldier Vos has stationed in the city.”

Something flashed in Adrianna’s eyes, and she looked down at the ground for a few seconds, as if trying to rein in her anger. When she spoke, it was with deliberate slowness, as though each word was difficult for her.

“After all these years, you still do not realise what a Shadowmage is capable of. Forbeck knew, but he kept it chained, muzzled. You do the same thing, but through sheer ignorance. I can show you what power a Shadowmage unleashed has, Lucius. Two of us, working together in concert, would have been unstoppable! I can take over your teaching, shape you into one of the most potent mages this miserable world has ever seen.”

“Adrianna...” Lucius began, slowly coming to an unnerving conclusion. “Have you taken over the Shadowmages’ guild?”

She waved his question away as if irrelevant. “Two of us could achieve so much, Lucius. The guild as a whole could become all-powerful in this city.” She smiled dangerously. “Even almighty.”

He stared at her.

“Still, there is time for you to make amends, Lucius,” Adrianna said. “I have a task you can aid me with. Follow me.”

She spun around to head down one of the other passages, but stopped when Lucius called out to her, keeping her back to him.

“I cannot help you in this,” he said.

“You will.”

“Adrianna, I don’t want to become your enemy.”

Looking over her shoulder, Adrianna gave him a dark look.

“No,” she said. “You don’t.”

Lucius watched her disappear down the tunnel. For the moment, at least, he knew he was safe. If Adrianna needed him, she would not kill him unless he forced her hand. Wiping his brow of sweat, he started after her, apprehensive of what favour she would require of him in order to keep the peace between them.

The passage dropped again, a little steeper than before, and opened out into another chamber. Before him was an unfurled bedroll, together with a small store of bread, dried meat, and wine. Adrianna had evidently spent some time in this lair already. As he entered the chamber, his eyes were drawn to one side, and he gasped.

Arms forced either side of her head by manacles of glowing silver energy, Elaine was held fast, Adrianna’s prisoner. A similar band of energy blazed across her face, effectively gagging her. When she saw him, Elaine’s eyes narrowed with loathing, and he groaned under his breath, dreading whatever Adrianna had been telling her.

“Oh, Adrianna, what have you done?” he said quietly, as much to himself as the two women.

“Your thieving whore has been my guest here,” Adrianna said. She stood next to Elaine, arms folded again over her chest.

“As you can imagine, we have had all sorts of things to talk about.”

“So what do you want?” he asked, refusing to be baited. He would deal with the fallout with Elaine at a later time, when both of their lives were not in danger.

Adrianna smiled, malice creeping across her face. “There is a ship outside the harbour, waiting for a break in the storms so it can safely negotiate the monoliths and enter Turnitia. I will calm the storms, so it can sail into the harbour–”

“You can do that?” Lucius asked in amazement, interrupting her. The energy that had to be harnessed in order to attempt such a thing was almost beyond his comprehension.

She gave him a contemptuous look before continuing. “The ship is full of Vos soldiers. A lot of them. They are here to lock down the city, and wipe out the last of the Shadowmages.”

“You want to destroy the ship.”

“Of course.”

“So why not just smash them against the harbour defences? It would be a lot easier.”

“Because, fool,” Adrianna said, spitting at his stupidity, “I want the people of the city to
see
it happen. To understand what is going to happen to anyone who supports the Empire.”

His shoulders sagging as he realised he would not be able to reason with Adrianna, Lucius sighed helplessly. While the thieves had certainly killed their fair share of soldiers, the cold-blooded drowning of hundreds of men was not something he could easily stomach. He looked at her bleakly.

“Why are you doing this?”

Eyes narrowing as if she were looking at something deeply repulsive, Adrianna spoke quietly at first, her voice slowly rising.

“Unlike you, I was here when the Empire first came to this city. They promised everything in the world, but brought with them terror and death. You fled. You didn’t see them attack the Shadowmages the first time around, wiping us out one by one.”

“Adrianna–” he started, but she cut him off.

“You didn’t see it. I did. I watched Master Roe die. Now Forbeck is gone, and I won’t permit the Empire to kill us off again, not after everything we have achieved since.” She took several steps towards Lucius to emphasise her point. “The Vos Empire is evil, Lucius. You know that. They have a twisted bitch in power who sends her lackeys everywhere to act in her cruel name. I will do anything – absolutely anything – to safeguard this city and my guild.”

“Even if that turns you into one of them?”

She snorted. “People are going to die in this war, as they die in any war. But I won’t subjugate the city. I won’t lock people in the Citadel. I won’t bleed them dry with taxes. I could not care less how people want to live their lives. I just want to make sure Shadowmages have a place where they can practise their art without persecution.”

“And that is worth the deaths of innocents?”

“Defeating Vos is worth the deaths of a few innocents, certainly. It is a means to an end, Lucius, nothing more.”

“The end does not justify this means.”

He watched as Adrianna walked back to Elaine. “Well,” she said. “That is not important right now. You
are
going to help me.”

Knowing what was coming, Lucius asked the question anyway. “And if I refuse?”

Adriana looked at him, then crouched down beside Elaine, running her hand through the thief’s hair.

“Then your bitch will die.”

Elaine turned to look at Adrianna, their faces no more than a few inches apart. Lucius shuddered at the thief’s murderous look, realising that, even if he managed to persuade Adrianna to release Elaine, one of them would be dead by the end of the week. He was not wholly sure whose side he would run to, if both asked for his aid.

“You give me no choice,” he said softly.

“No,” she said, smiling at him. “I haven’t.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

W
ALKING SEVERAL PACES
behind Adrianna, his head bowed, Lucius’ mind raced as he tried to find a way out of the horrors he was about to take part in. He would not have liked to take on Adrianna on the best of days, much less when she was prepared for him. How could he match her talent for spellcasting when she held all the cards?

At least Lucius had persuaded her to release Elaine before they embarked on this attack. Adrianna had relented to his demand too quickly for his liking, and he suspected it was all part of a game, a demonstration perhaps that she saw no difficulty in reaching Elaine once more if he reneged on his agreement. For her own part, Elaine had shown no gratitude as Lucius levitated her up the cliff face on his platform of air. Refusing to meet his gaze, she had marched back into the city. He feared what plans
she
was now making, and whether they included him.

Lengthening his stride, Lucius caught up with Adrianna as they approached the cluster of cliffside cranes and lifts that served the docks. He cleared his throat.

“You may be right about working together, Aidy,” he started. “Maybe I have been concentrating too much on the thieves. You and I could target the Vos leadership of the city, maybe take out the Citadel’s commander, and the Preacher Divine too – he would be a very visible loss for the Empire.”

“Now you are starting to think properly, Lucius,” Adrianna said. “That is a good idea, and one we will attend to in due course. However, the leadership will be weakened without their soldiers. Trust me, this way is better.”

He was silent for a moment.

“So why come to me through Elaine?”

Adrianna shrugged. “Over the past few months, you have reverted back to your old ways. You have become... unreliable. She seemed the simplest route to guarantee your obedience.”

“You told her about us, didn’t you?”

Adrianna flashed him an amused look.

“I thought she would be interested. It hardly matters, either way,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “She might have cared for you quite a lot, I think. But she was not right for you. Don’t pretend you were in love with her.”

He looked at Adrianna curiously. “Do you think I love you?”

“I think you fear me. For the moment, that is enough.”

Lucius sighed in desperation. “I can understand your anger towards Vos – I have lost at least as much myself. But you are courting madness with these attacks, Adrianna.”

“Fool!” she spat. “You think me insane? You are not seeing this as I do. There is a wider world, Lucius, one beyond the petty concerns of thieves and their whores. Do you still not understand? There is a chance, a very real chance, for a better future for the Shadowmages. We just have to reach out and take it! We have suffered from leaders who have been too blind to events in the outside world, who have believed that the pure study of magic can fend off the interference of others.”

“Isn’t that what the Shadowmages’ guild is all about?”

She ignored his question. “I will
not
fail. You, you are no different from those doddery old men, the so-called masters. You are no better. You have no gift for leadership – you handed the entire thieves’ guild to that bitch because you did not know what else to do.”

“Then why invest this time in me?”

“Your training as a Shadowmage is far from complete. It is time you saw exactly what we are capable of.”

As they approached the nearest crane, they attracted the attention of the sweating labourers. Two decided that Adrianna would be impressed by cat calls and overly loud comments on her physique, growing lewder when she ignored them.

“I can’t work with this noise,” she said to Lucius. “Get rid of them.”

He looked at the labourers blankly, and then back to her.

“What do you want me to do with them?”

“I really don’t care,” she said distractedly, and Lucius realised she had already begun to prepare her magic. “Blow them off the cliff for all it matters, though I presume you’ll choose to do something less lethal.”

Turning to face them, Lucius tried hard to keep an apologetic look from his face.

“Get out of here,” he said to them, jerking his head in the direction of the city.

“You what?” said one of the cat callers, standing up straight from the wooden strut he had been slouched over, letting Lucius see his full height.

Looking him directly in the eye, Lucius flooded his hand with raw magical energy and hurled it to the ground just in front of the labourers’ feet. With a crashing boom, it exploded, showering them in clumps of earth.

One raised his hands to show he had no argument with Lucius, and ran past him. He was quickly followed by the others, though the cat caller looked surly as he departed.

Adrianna had walked to the very edge of the cliff, where she stood, motionless, the sea wind tugging at her clothing. Eyes half-closed, she seemed serene and calm. Lucius, however, saw something very different.