Cursed Bones: Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Five (20 page)

He sat bolt upright staring off into the distance, fear and helplessness threatening to overwhelm him.

“What is it, My Love?” Chloe asked.

“It’s Isabel. I have to get back to her. I think Phane has the other witch.”

He lay down and focused on his breathing, calming himself in spite of the turmoil roiling within his soul. The firmament came to him slower than he would have liked but he found his way there nonetheless. Then in a blink he was floating over his wife.

She lay doubled over, gasping for breath and writhing in pain.

A moment later he was at the fortress island, materializing next to Magda and Cassandra, surrounded by the entire Reishi Coven, save his wife. They were assembled in the scrying well atop the plateau.

“Isabel just collapsed,” he said. “Cast your spell.”

“We’re nearly ready,” Magda said. “You must withdraw before we can begin.”

He vanished into the firmament, helplessness nearly overwhelming him. He couldn’t lose her. After all of the threats she’d faced, to die like this was unthinkable. Worse, he doubted Phane was even trying to kill her …

A moment later he was back on Karth, disembodied and unseen, in a large austere chamber with Phane and a woman that was so sublimely beautiful that he nearly lost his focus and returned to his body … until he looked at her colors, dark and evil, filled with hate and malice, twisted and unnatural.

She was strapped to a torture table in the center of a magic circle and Phane was smiling as he sliced a deep gash along the outside of her arm. She screamed, rage mixed with agony reverberating off the bare stone walls.

Alexander appeared just outside the circle.

“Stop! You’re killing Isabel!”

Phane looked up, droplets of blood splattered across his face, and smiled with such boyish delight that Alexander almost imagined that he could like this man … but only for a moment.

“Ah, Dear Cousin, it’s so good of you to visit me. I see that your command of magic is advancing quickly. Quite a feat in fact, projecting over such distances. I have it on good authority that you’re still recuperating under the care and protection of the dragons. I must admit, I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Drop the small talk, Phane,” Alexander said. “You’re hurting Isabel.”

Phane motioned toward the witch strapped to the table with his bloody knife and cocked his head.

“This isn’t Isabel,” he said. “Surely you can see that.”

“No, but she’s bound to this one by a doppelganger spell,” Alexander said.

“Of course she is,” Phane said. “I saw through her ruse the moment I laid eyes on her. Don’t get me wrong, the Sin’Rath witches are dangerous, but they rarely think things through. Something to do with their lineage, I suspect.”

“If you kill her, Isabel will die,” Alexander said.

“Of course she will, you simpleton, that’s how a doppelganger spell works,” Phane said.

“I thought you had plans for Isabel,” Alexander said.

“Oh, I do,” Phane said. “Of course, I suppose I could just kill her now. Perhaps such a loss would crush you enough to make you give up. But then, it might just make you even more intractable. Decisions, decisions. I must say, seeing you like this, so distraught and helpless, is quite appealing to me. On balance, perhaps revealing more of my plans for your wife will cause you even greater distress.

“Yes, I think so. You see, Dear Cousin, pain leads one to feel anger and anger is one pathway to the darkness. Up until now, Isabel has resisted Azugorath’s influence, but this,” he plunged his knife through the outer shoulder of the Sin’Rath witch, eliciting a blood-curdling scream, “is bound to weaken Isabel’s resolve and drive her toward the kind of action that will tarnish her soul forever and leave her nowhere to turn … save to me.”

“My sisters will feed on you, Phane,” Clotus said through clenched teeth, “one way or another, we will take your link and finally free our mother. Then the
Seven Isles
will be ours for the taking.”

“Hush, Witch,” Phane said, twisting the knife in her shoulder. “Do you really think me such a fool? Do you really believe I would come here without taking precautions to protect myself against your charms? Here I stand, seeing you for the thing you are, not the impossibly beautiful woman you would have me see, immune to your magic.

“I will slaughter your entire coven and rid the world of your taint once and for all, and then kill the remaining rabble from the House of Karth in the bargain. Even better, you will deliver Isabel into my hands and give me the power to exact my vengeance against my dear cousin here. And the most delicious part of it all is that you have delivered the means to accomplish all of this simply by coming here.”

Clotus looked alarmed, even through the pain of Phane’s torture.

“Once again, you and your sisters have failed to fully think through the potential consequences of your actions, preferring to believe that your plans will unfold flawlessly. Even young Alexander here isn’t so foolish.”

“What are you talking about, Phane?” Alexander said.

He looked up, smiling warmly. “A doppelganger spell creates a link between two people, a link that I can use to locate Isabel, and a number of my enemies with her. So you see, the Sin’Rath have unwittingly played right into my hands. Soon, I will send a force of adequate strength, one uniquely suited to this very purpose, to eliminate the offspring of the Succubus Queen Sin’Rath, end the line of Karth, and collect my future bride.

“With Isabel at my side, you will fall and those you protect will have no choice but to kneel before me or be crushed. Come spring, my Lancers will break your father’s defensive line and swarm into northern Ruatha leaving nothing but blood and fire in their wake. This war will soon be over and I will assume my rightful place as the Sovereign of the
Seven Isles
.”

“You keep telling yourself that, Phane,” Alexander said as he faded back into the firmament, reappearing next to Isabel. She was curled into a ball, struggling to breathe.

“Don’t give in to it, Isabel,” he said. “Phane is just trying to make you angry so Azugorath can exert greater influence over you. You have to fight it.”

She nodded tightly.

“I wish I could stay with you.”

“Go,” she managed through clenched teeth.

“I love you,” he said as he vanished.

He opened his eyes and sat up gasping from the pain, immediately feeling for blood dripping from his nose and ears. Finding none, he eased back into his bed and closed his eyes, willing the throbbing in his head to subside.

Chapter 17

Later that evening, Alexander went in search of Ixabrax and found him hiding in a cave accessible only through a deep fissure in the glacier north of
Whitehall
. The dragon was coiled up, sleeping fitfully. He was injured, deep gashes oozing blood along his side.

“Ixabrax,” Alexander said, after his projection appeared.

The dragon opened one catlike eye and stared at Alexander.

“You have made a fatal mistake, Human,” Ixabrax said. “I’m hungry and in no mood to hunt.”

Faster than a blink, he snapped at Alexander, his fangs passing through the illusion and falling on empty air.

“What wizardry is this?” the dragon said, looking about warily.

“I’m Alexander Reishi. My sister freed you from your bondage and now she’s in need of your help.”

“And here you stand before me without standing before me,” Ixabrax said. “While I am in her debt, I’m in no condition to help her.”

“How were you injured?”

“I tried to free my sire,” Ixabrax said. “I bit down on his collar with all my strength and yet it held. He did this to me, though he could have done far worse. Even as we fought, I knew he was resisting the power of his collar with all his might.”

“If I can help you heal, will you help me free Abigail?”

Ixabrax’s eyes narrowed. “How would you heal me?”

“In truth, I’m not sure yet,” Alexander said.

Ixabrax chuckled, a deep rumbling coming from his belly.

“Another honest human,” the dragon said, “you and your sister are indeed cut from the same cloth. If you help me heal, then I will help you free your sister but only if you give me your word that you will then help me free my family. Her sword can cut the collars that bind them. I know of nothing else that can.”

“Bargain struck,” Alexander said. “Look for my people within the week.”

“How will I know them?”

“They’ll call you by name,” Alexander said, fading into the firmament.

His head hurt when he returned to his body, but less so. As he’d hoped, practice and experience were beginning to expand his ability to project an illusion over such vast distances.

By dark, his headache had subsided entirely. Not long after, a dragon in the form of a woman appeared at his door.

“I’m Tasia. Lady Bragador asked me to watch for your couriers. They have arrived.”

Two Sky Knights entered, looking a little pale.

“Lord Reishi, we’ve come as quickly as our wyverns could carry us,” the lead man said.

Alexander got up, leaning heavily on his cane, and hobbled to the strongbox. He removed a book, tied securely with a stout leather thong, and set it on the table before relocking the box.

“Take this book to Conner Ithilian in
Fellenden
City
,” Alexander said. “Do not open it for any reason.”

As the man grasped the book, Alexander didn’t let go, but instead fixed the man with his blind eyes.

“Give me your oath that you will not permit this book to be opened,” he said.

“I swear on my life, Lord Reishi.”

“That’s good, because if you open this book you will surely die,” Alexander said. “Make haste and deliver it into Prince Conner’s hands and no other’s.”

“It will be done, Lord Reishi.”

Tasia escorted the knights back to their wyverns, then transformed into her true form, a magnificent iridescent silver dragon nearly as large as Bragador, and flew with them until they passed over the
Spires
on their way north to Fellenden. Alexander watched with his clairvoyance until they were clear of the dragons’ domain.

“Just one more piece to put into place,” Alexander said. “I think I’ll wait until tomorrow before I go to Blackstone. That conversation’s liable to take some time and I’m not looking forward to the aftermath.”

“So use your dream-whisper to set things in motion,” Jack said. “Blackstone should still have some Rangers sleeping in shifts to receive your messages.”

Alexander snorted, shaking his head. “I’d gotten so caught up in this new ability that I’d forgotten Blackstone is the one place where I can reliably send word without projecting an illusion. I’ll be back soon.”

He went to the message board first, disembodied awareness floating unnoticed in Kelvin’s workshop as his people toiled on a variety of projects. There were a number of messages for him:

1.
     
Blackstone’s magic has failed. The heartstone is shattered.

2.
     
Lucky has become a mage.

3.
     
Wren has vanished, but we’re certain that she didn’t leave by crossing the bridge.

4.
     
We’re moving the Wizard’s Guild to Glen Morillian.

5.
     
Duane reports that the assassins assigned to kill Elred Rake have failed. Their heads were delivered to his sentries in a basket.

He floated there reading the messages over again, trying to make sense of all that had transpired. The news of the heartstone was grave and worrisome, yet expected.

Lucky’s ascension to mage was a triumph that had the potential to turn the tide of the entire war. His security had quite suddenly become of paramount importance.

He was happy to see that Kelvin had decided to relocate his guild to the relative safety of Glen Morillian and sad to hear that four more good people had died by his order in the attempt to kill Elred Rake.

Wren’s disappearance puzzled him. She was a beautiful and vibrant young woman, precious beyond measure for the simple fact that she was alive, but in the grand scheme of things, she was nothing more than a serving girl who’d befriended his wife and sister. Her disappearance troubled him, more for the inexplicability of it than anything else.

He faded into the firmament and thought of the waifish young woman. A moment later, his awareness coalesced over a small ship sailing south along the west coast of Ruatha near the
Great
Forest
. He pushed into the ship, disembodied awareness floating among the crew. The men were pirates, but there were three among them that were more—two wizards and a wraithkin. Alexander avoided them and went into the hold of the ship.

He found Wren chained to a bulkhead. She was wrapped in a single thin blanket, shivering and crying softly.