Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (21 page)

No way,
Memory thought.
No way was Eloryn going to leave me here after all we’ve been through.

But she had. Alward was here now and she just left her and Roen behind. Sure she said she’d be back, but Memory didn’t own the luxury of trust. She had to find out who she was, know that she wasn’t some sort of devil. She had to find her family and get back home.

“I’m going after them. Are you coming?” she asked Roen.

Roen dropped his head in an unenthusiastic shake. “Don’t want to ruin it for her.”

“You’re not worried they’ll up and go without us?”

Roen huffed out a laugh.

“Fine. Sulk. I’m going to see what’s happening.” Memory marched out the room and Roen tried to call her back. By the time she reached the front door, he was walking with her.

“We better not be seen,” he said.

“Good thing you’re coming with me then.”

Memory peeked out, seeing Eloryn and Lucan just within sight, nearing the square. They ducked out the door and behind the crumbling wall of the next house along.

Roen took the lead, dashing down the street behind low walls and unkempt shrubs, avoiding the growing puddles.

They were still far from the square when Roen stopped mid run, skidding on the wet ground before he reached cover. He stood in open sight, staring down into the square.

A shrill cry broke through the patter of rain and Memory followed his gaze.

“Mem, hide,” Roen grunted and broke into a direct run.

Memory hesitated, wiping rain from her face. She watched Thayl walk out from behind a building, followed by a group of armed men. Her brain whirred. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as it looked. Maybe she could make it not as bad, if she just got a chance to talk to Thayl.

She ran after Roen.

Lucan tugged Eloryn back to her feet. Roen raced for her, leaving Memory behind.

A group of men uniformed in leather military jackets blocked his way. Their leader with his mane of hair and scarred face lunged. Roen twisted past him, sliding low along the ground, and continued to bolt toward Eloryn and Lucan.

Thayl lifted his arm and flicked his rune-covered hand. Light flashed, and Roen was flung the length of the town square. He hit the stone wall of a building with the sound of gravel crunching under boots. He lay still where he fell.

Memory and Eloryn both screamed for him. Memory wobbled to a stop at the edge of the town square, shocked out of movement.

“If your boy’s alive, he will stay that way as long as you both stay calm,” Thayl said, looking to her and then Eloryn. He nodded to the wizard hunters moving toward Memory and they broke away, circling wide around her instead, blocking off her escape.

Eloryn whimpered, “Where’s Alward?”

“
Alward,
” Thayl said, a strange softness in his voice. “Alward was put to death for the crime of murdering Queen Loredanna.”

“No. It was you who killed her. He can’t be dead. You lie!” Eloryn sobbed out her words.

“I do not. I’m sorry for your loss, and your confusion. The help of Lucan here meant I no longer needed him or his knowledge to locate the rest of the council, and was able finally to see vengeance paid for his crime. He did kill your mother. If you don’t believe me, ask her.” Thayl pointed straight armed at Memory.

Memory stuttered as Eloryn looked at her with more pain than she could bear to see. “Thayl, he… he showed me things in a dream, showed me his memories of Alward killing Loredanna. I don’t know what’s true, but that’s what I saw.”

“It is true. Alward only ever took you in, kept you to himself because of the guilt he felt over what he had done. If he hadn’t interfered Loredanna would still be alive. I would never have hurt her,” Thayl bellowed.

Eloryn hung limp like a puppet in Lucan’s unkind grasp.

“Where are the rest of the Wizards’ Council?” Lucan asked.

Thayl smiled rigidly. “Already taken. You’ve nothing to fear of reprisals from them for your fine betrayal. After all this time, it was almost a shame there was not more of a fight. They were entirely unguarded and unaware, so wrapped up in their meeting. They are already under guarded escort on their way for formal execution, thanks to you.”

Memory’s throat grew tight. She didn’t like the old wizards, but she just wanted to be away from them, not to have them executed. In her mind she remembered them as being so frail and grey.

Lucan looked about, an unsure smile on his face. “You said I would be rewarded, that you wouldn’t hunt me any more if I did this.”

“I did, and I honor my word. I will not hunt you any longer. Let the child go,” Thayl said.

Lucan released Eloryn, and shockingly she did not fall. She stared blankly, all life leached from her, the rain soaking her through. She hardly blinked when Thayl put his hand on Lucan’s shoulder, and Lucan dropped dead beside her.

Memory cried out loudly enough for the both of them. Her feet felt glued into the mud around her, her body tingling but unresponsive.

“Not one member of the Council can be allowed to live,” Thayl said. He stared at the body on the ground, lips curling between a smile and a snarl.

Thayl pointed to Eloryn, and a man behind him moved forward with ropes to bind her. Eloryn’s eyes snapped wide and she turned to Memory. “Mem, run, RUN!”

Eloryn struggled against the man, but was small in his hands, easy to hold.

Memory’s eyes flickered between Eloryn, Lucan’s body, and Roen, fallen loosely against the side of a wall, his shoulder pushed out at a horrifying angle. From this distance, she couldn’t tell what blood on him might be new. Her own body was as still as his.

“You said you wouldn’t hurt her. You said you would tell me who I am,” she whispered.

Thayl chuckled without humor. Approaching her, he dropped his voice to a tone meant only for her. “You still don’t know? Interesting you could spend so long with her and not realize you are sisters, but maybe not so surprising. I’m sorry I left you this way, barely human,” he said. He really did look sorry.

Eloryn… my sister?
Memory’s chest hammered like a mallet on a mattress.

He stopped an arm’s reach from her and began pulling the fingers of his glove, loosening it, slipping it off his scarred hand. “I don’t know how you’ve found your way back here from Hell, but it is fortunate. The ritual to steal your power was interrupted, leaving you like this, this shell. But I can end your suffering. I can finish taking the rest of your soul.”

Memory jolted into movement. Her whole body screamed for flight and she spun to run away. The leader of the wizard hunters stood right behind her. He grabbed her by the throat, turning her face back to Thayl, pinning her against his body in an unyielding grip.

Thayl lifted his bare hand, twisted with carved runes. It began to glow.

He had done it, stolen all her life, her memories, her
soul
. Left her like this. She tore breaths through her crushed throat, her eyes wild. The fire inside her lit, burning her inside and out. A blazing pulse burst from her chest, ached down her limbs and tingled in the tips of her fingers and toes. She wouldn’t let him take whatever she had left. She would use whatever magic she had to stop him. She screamed, expending all the air from her lungs, bellowing the force out with everything she had.

Silence followed. Dust and leaves lifted from the ground, floating upwards. Rain hung suspended in the air.

The world pounded and lit around her like a golden supernova.

All Memory could tell was that she was no longer held, and hoped the same for Eloryn. She screamed for her to run. Acrid smoke filled the air, and she choked on it. She lay on her stomach in the mud, falling again when she tried to get up, her body quivering. She could hear movement around her, men coughing and calling out in shock and pain. The slow rain barely swayed the blinding cloud around them.

Thayl bellowed from nearby, “Catch the girls. Don’t let them get away!”

Memory heard fumbling behind her, and a shrill note whistled. Unable to lift herself up, she crawled along the ground. A hand grabbed her ankle with vicious strength, dragging her back, then pulling her up to her feet by a fistful of her hair.

Massive wings beat above them, clearing away the smoke cloud. Men were sprawled throughout the square, dazed and muddy. Memory saw Eloryn on her feet, no one else around her, heading toward Memory instead of running the other way.

A pale shimmer of shadow in the dusk passed over Eloryn, and she froze. In a rush of movement she disappeared under a mountain of black scales and leathery skin. A sickly wet scraping sound could be heard through the square, and the dragon rose from its crumpled position, beating its wings and lifting from the ground. Inside a crushing claw it held Eloryn, talons slid deep into her flesh.

When its feet left the ground, it sprang its claw open and she dropped onto the dirt like a bloody, broken, porcelain doll. The dragon casually lifted back into the sky to circle above.

Eloryn lay still on the ground. Blood pooled around her, mixing with the mud.

“No!”

Memory’s mouth hadn’t moved, as much as she’d felt the cry tear through her chest.

It had been Thayl who screamed. “Loredanna, no!”

Thayl turned fiercely on the hunter with the scarred face who still held Memory. “You! What did you do?”

Oh God, Eloryn.
Memory’s eyes watered, her face pulled taut by the fist in her hair. She felt too weak to move, the rain freezing her skin. Thayl’s fury terrified her. She twisted limply, trying to see Eloryn over the hunter’s shoulder. He squeezed her tighter, and wincing at him, she noticed a thin silver chain running around his neck, and the glint of white bone.

The scarred hunter yelled back at Thayl, hurting her ears. “Only what you told me to!”

“I should never have allowed you to keep that beast. I said to catch them, not kill her!”

Wrenching her body around, Memory spat in the hunter’s face, clawing vainly against him with her black nails. He turned to her in shock.

“Stupid bitch, this is your fault.” He let her go and brought his hand down over the base of her neck. The blow chattered her teeth, and threw sparks of light into her eyes. She squeezed her hand closed.
Just a bit of a distraction and a flick of the wrist.

The man grabbed her by the hair again, pulling her back up. She looked him in the eye with a smile soaked in tears. Holding up her hand, she revealed the delicate finger sized flute.

“No!” the scarred man bellowed as though she’d ripped out his heart.

Every man in the square turned to stare at her, uncommon fear in their eyes. In the distance, she saw Roen stirring.

Time slowed.

The scarred hunter snatched for the flute.

Thayl blasted a bolt of violent magic at her.

She clenched her hand with a force that drew blood with her fingernails. The old, rigid bone within it broke into pieces.

The dragon roared.

And Memory waited to die.

Somehow, she felt nothing. The force of Thayl’s magic flew at her, went straight through and killed the scarred wizard hunter behind her instantly. He fell forward, on top of Memory, pushing her down into the mud. His hand was still tangled in her hair. She cried out, pinned on her back beneath the dead hunter, staring up into the falling rain.