Anthem of Ashes: Book 9 in the Spellsinger Series Page 31

  “What's up?” I asked as Sara led them up to the high table.

  I had decided to join the populace for once so we were eating in the main hall. The Witch Leaders came up the steps and joined us at the table.

  “Don't you want to find Osamu?” Vivian asked.

  “Oh,” I whispered with a look at Darc. “I totally forgot.”

  “I think we can rule out Osamu's involvement with the Phoenix disappearances, but I'd still like to be certain that he isn't betraying us in another way,” Odin said with a pointed look at Darc.

  “Are you up for it?” I asked Vivian. “Darc is safe here, we can wait.”

  “I'm fine, Elaria,” Vivian said gently. “But finish your breakfast. We have time.”

  The witches sat down and picked at the fresh fruit set out beside the platters of meat and eggs, as the rest of us finished our meal. Then I called William to the table and let him know that Darc and I would be traveling again. Our steward's disappointment was obvious.

  “Hopefully, this will be the last trip we take for awhile,” I offered.

  “I hope that too, Your Majesty.” William bowed. “Your kingdom needs you in residence.”

  “In other words; he's lazy.” Sara winked at me. “Don't worry about us, Your Majesty. We are just fine here.”

  “Thanks, Sara.” I hugged her before I joined the group gathering behind the high table. “Everyone ready?”

  “May I borrow a traveling stone?” Vivian asked. “Moving all of us would otherwise take a significant amount of magic.”

  Darc pulled two traveling stones out of a pocket, each on a silver chain, and handed one each to Vivian and Glinda. “You shouldn't have to borrow stones. I had these made for you.”

  “Thank you,” Glinda said in delighted surprise.

  “Will Osamu get one as well, once we prove his innocence?” Vivian asked.

  “That's up to Elaria.” Darc glanced at me.

  “I don't know him as well as I do you three,” I explained before I gave my decision. “Odd, since he's the leader of my father's element. I think that makes me trust him even less. So, no; he won't be getting a stone that can take him straight into Tír na nÓg. Not until I'm sure of him.”

  “Fair enough,” Vivian admitted. Then she smiled at Darc. “Thank you for this; it's an honor to possess a Shining One travel stone.”

  “My pleasure,” Darc murmured.

  “Where are we headed?” Slate asked.

  Vivian held her new traveling stone in one hand and extended the other to me. Her fragile beauty battled her suddenly fierce expression. “Osamu is in France.”

  “Oh, wonderful; I love French people!” Declan declared.

  “You love French women,” I teased him.

  “Women are people, my love.” Declan grinned.

  I shook my head as I took his hand. We formed a chain with Vivian in the lead, and the water witch used Shining One magic for the very first time, pulling us through the Veil and into France.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  “Osamu?” Vivian strode through the corridors of the country chalet. Arched windows lined one wall, framing views of rolling hills covered in lavender, spotted with fluffy trees, and quilted with vineyards, but she didn't spare the serene beauty a single glance. “Osamu, it's Vivian, where are you?”

  “Not here,” Cerberus growled. “The guy gave you the slip.”

  “He did not give me the slip!” Vivian snapped over her shoulder, her watery blue eyes flashing with magic before she set her stare ahead of her again.

  “Osamu!” Odin bellowed loud enough to shake the windows.

  No response.

  “If he's here, he would have heard that,” Banning pointed out the obvious.

  Vivian grew more and more agitated as she flit through the warm rooms like a specter; pale and distraught, her wispy dress only adding to the illusion. A few of the bedrooms looked as if they'd been slept in recently but that was the only signs of occupancy we found until we ventured below ground.

  Darc and Gage stayed upstairs to watch our backs in case anyone showed up. The rest of us followed Vivian down a narrow flight of stairs, creaking with age, and into an equally narrow corridor. The passage led to an imposing wooden door, hinged with iron and warded with magic.

  “Osamu!” Vivian shouted through the wood. “Are you in there?”

  She didn't try to open the door; didn't even touch the handle.

  Odin looked back at Glinda pointedly. She stepped forward to join him, and they both set their hands on Vivian's shoulders.

  “Break the ward, Vivian,” Odin ordered. “We'll assist you.”

  Vivian sighed deeply and then lifted her hands and held them palms-out before her. The humidity level rocketed up, moisture beading on my skin, and then that moisture lifted from my body and shot toward Vivian. Water collected in the space before her hands, glowing like a star and churning like a whirlpool. The light sparked with blasts of canary and clay; Odin's and Glinda's magic bolstering Vivian's. The combined power of the Witch Leaders spread over the wood and began to smoke. A flare of orange heat gave a whimpering protest and then fizzled out.

  “You couldn't have done that to track him?” I asked Odin.

  “No; we need to be present to confront a ward in this manner,” Odin shot over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on Vivian as she opened the door. “And it's moot; we didn't have to track him.”

  “Don't speak too soon,” I warned him. “We don't know if he's—”

  “He's not here,” Glinda took delight in cutting me off. Payback, no doubt, for all the times I'd done it to her.

  We had moved into the room as we spoke—an enormous space of stone and earth with a fireplace at its back—and Glinda was right; Osamu wasn't there. Odin strode over to the heavy worktable in front of the cold hearth. Beakers, vials, burners, bowls; tools of the witch trade littered its surface.

  Odin held a bowl to his nose and sniffed. Then declared grimly, “He was here. He was crafting quite recently and this”—he lifted the bowl—“contained basilisk venom.”

  “So, he's completed his spell,” Slate concluded. “And it isn't meant to be used on Phoenixes.”

  “I don't believe it,” Vivian whispered. “There must be another explanation.”

  “I'm with Vivian; Osamu could still be innocent,” Glinda added.

  “Either way, there's nothing more to find here,” I muttered in frustration. “Let's get Gage and Darc and go home.”

  We tromped upstairs and then headed outside to find my men. Some of us went toward the front while the rest veered toward the courtyard behind the chalet. Gage was out back. Well, out back and up. He dropped off the roof as my group approached, coming down into a crouch that immediately sprung him straight into standing. I shook my head at him to answer his unspoken question. Gage gave me a resigned look and slipped his hand into mine as we went to the front yard to meet up with the others.

  “What is it?” I asked as soon as I spotted the other half of our team.

  They looked upset; scurrying about and scanning the area.

  “Darc isn't here,” Torin reported grimly.

  “What?” I frowned; not able to accept it immediately. “He has to be here; he wouldn't just leave. Darc?!” I shouted as I rushed around to the other side of the chalet. “Darcraxis!”

  “He's not here, little bird,” Torin repeated gently as he set his hand on my shoulder. “I think he may have—”

  “No,” I cut him off as I shook my head adamantly. “No one could have taken him without a fight.”

  “And I would have heard a fight,” Gage added as he came around the corner. “I heard nothing.”

  “RS, Kyanite, where is he?” I asked the Rooster Spell.

  RS connected us and Ky was bound to him, they'd be able to speak to Darc and find out where he was.

  I got nothing! RS hissed. It's as if he's behind a black wall.

  I'm blocked from him as well.

  “Fuck!” I screa
med. “Darcraxis!”

  My cellphone rang. I yanked it out of my pocket and answered anxiously.

  “Darc?”

  Silence. Then, “No. This is Lucifer. Is something amiss, my vicious?”

  “Darc is missing,” I whispered. “I think someone's taken him.”

  “I'm very sorry.” A pause. “I'll see what I can do to help locate him.”

  “Yeah. Okay,” I said hurriedly. “Thanks, Luci. I gotta go.”

  “Of course, my vicious one.”

  I hung up and found my men staring at me; glaring at me, actually.

  “Not now,” I growled. “Kyanite, give me something to work with.”

  We will find him, my love. Do not despair.

  A creeping, drag of sound vibrated through the earth beneath my feet and up my legs, lifting my magic with it. A slapping beat hit the air, and everyone backed away from me warily. The first words that left my mouth were low but powerful; part lament and part acceptance. A cry of war whispered into the wind; strong enough to shake the world and tear down the sky.

  And then the chorus of “Into the Darkness” by The Phantoms came. A direct hit. A simple repetition that was exactly what I needed to find my Darc and the magic that had been taken from him. I'd dive straight into the shadows to find him and destroy whoever had taken him away from me. It was merely the start of what I'd do to get him back. I would rip apart the Realms if I had to; anything to find Darcraxis.

  The magic burst out of my body and shot forward, my consciousness going with it. Find him! Across water and over mountains; landscape sped by. Find the Darkness! I fixed on a spot of billowing black just ahead; reaching for it with mind and heart and will. I'm coming, baby, just hold on. The song grew in power, plowing through a haze of magic. I thought I was going to make it but just as I neared him, I dropped like a stone; sliding down a sheet of zinging power that burned blue. I hissed and drew back, but not before I'd taken a good look around.

  “Where is he?” Torin demanded as soon as I opened my eyes.

  “Wherever he is, it's warded,” I announced. “And it's powerful stuff; I couldn't break through it.”

  Everyone muttered angrily.

  “But I know where the ward is,” I added with a pointed look at the three witch leaders.

  They nodded and joined hands.

  Odin offered me his free hand. “Take us to it, Elaria. We'll bring it down for you.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  We appeared on the edge of a forest; old and thick with magic. Power hung in the trees and dripped from the leaves; the ward I'd hit. It was so strong that it was visual; a wavering haze rippling with blue light. Burning. Sizzling.

  “Electrifying,” I whispered as I stared at the wall before me. “Electricity disrupts magic.”

  “Very good; few people know that,” Osamu declared as he stepped forward. “And even fewer know how to bypass it. You won't be able to get through that ward without me.”

  “Osamu!” Vivian rushed over to the slim Japanese man. “We were just at your chalet.”

  “Yes; I see now that I should have involved all of you from the beginning. I wanted to handle this myself but that was hubris.” He scowled and stared up at the ward. “Even with the assistance of my best witches, I can't break through this. We need more than Fire.”

  Several fire witches stepped forward to form a wall behind Osamu.

  “What the hell is going on, Osamu?” Odin growled. “You've been acting very suspiciously and now, Elaria has tracked Darcraxis here. We believe someone has abducted him.”

  I looked over the somber faces. One witch, who I would have expected to be there, was notably absent. It clicked. It had, in fact, been clicking for awhile now; little ticks like a bomb running down. I'd known it as soon as I saw the ward. But her absence was confirmation. The explosion.

  “Eva,” I spat the name as if it tasted foul.

  “Yes, Eva,” Osamu admitted. “I believe that she formed a connection with Darcraxis' magic when she opened the orb for him.”

  “She's the one who stole his magic,” I growled. “She's been stalking us.”

  “I suspect so.” Osamu nodded.

  “And the basilisk venom?” Vivian asked.

  “I crafted a spell to render Eva helpless while I removed the link between her and Darcraxis,” Osamu explained. “I had hoped to do this quietly before she acted. But this ward is proof that she's already taken his power, as I feared she would. She was never capable of forming a ward like this before.”

  “You should have warned us!” Slate snapped. “What the fuck?”

  “Eva is broken,” Osamu said sadly. “She hasn't been whole since her brother was killed. She wants revenge. It has consumed her.”

  “Revenge against Darc?” I asked in shock.

  “No; against T.”

  “The Jinn Goddess?” Gage asked with even more shock.

  “Because she ordered the Yeti to attack us,” I whispered in revelation. “T is ultimately responsible for Evan's death.”

  “Yes,” Osamu confirmed.

  “But T is asleep,” Torin argued. “And frozen. What can Eva possibly do to a sleeping goddess?”

  “With her magic? Nothing. But with a god's magic...” Osamu gave us a grim look.

  “Fuck!” I snarled. “I'm going to kick that electric witch's ass!”

  “She's in pain,” Osamu pleaded. “She's not herself. Please try to remember what it feels like to mourn a loved one, Spellsinger.”

  “I would be more inclined to sympathize with her if she hadn't stolen one of my loved ones to get revenge for one of hers,” I snarled.

  “Please, I've known Eva since she was a child. She's a good person, just broken.”

  “That's why you didn't warn us.” I pointed in his face. “You were more concerned about your witch than my family and me. I'm one of yours too, Osamu.”

  “I know, Elaria, and I'm sorry.” Osamu sighed. “But I was afraid of what you might do to her. I thought I could stop her before she did any damage.”

  “Good job,” I hissed. “Now my fiance is in the hands of a lunatic.”

  “She's not insane,” Osamu insisted. “Just angry.”

  “Mad is mad.” Declan wandered up and shifted his stare to the ward. “It doesn't matter. Argue later; rescue my brother now.”

  “What he said.” I glared at Osamu and then swiveled it to Odin. “Get me in there, Odin.”

  Odin nodded crisply and went to stand before the ward. He held his hands out to Vivian and Glinda. They joined him and then all three of them stared pointedly at Osamu. The Witch Leader of Fire stepped up resolutely and placed his hand in Vivian's.

  All four elements rose to the call of the Witch Leaders. Air blustered behind them, Water gathered above them, Earth vibrated below them, and Fire bloomed to life before them. The ward screeched through the trees; screaming in defiance of the gathering elements. But the elements are magic too; the very purest. They slid together in a smoking, crackling, hissing, sheet and flattened against the ward with an elegance that only the most talented of witches could manage.

  The ward simply winked out of existence.

  I strode past the witches furiously, my men flanking me.

  “Elaria, please!” Osamu raced after me.

  “Say one more word, Osamu, and I shall knock you on your scrawny ass,” Odin snarled as he pushed past him.

  Osamu stumbled back with the other witches and shut the hell up.

  Then the forest went dark—a sudden, unnatural darkness—and I shifted my stare around us; bouncing from shadow to shadow. Eva knew we were there; she must have felt her ward go down. Now she thought she'd attack us with my lover's magic.

  “I don't think so, little girl,” I hissed as I flung my hand forward.

  Light flared ahead of our group, driving back the Darkness like a whip against lions. It seemed a paltry defense, but I knew there was power in the Light; just as much power as the Dark held. And I, unlike Eva, knew how
to wield my magic. As shadows condensed into menacing shapes, I lashed at them with streaks of blinding white. But we were soon surrounded, and Eva was using more than Darkness.

  Electricity crackled and collected in the air; leaping like monkeys from tree to tree. The witches spread out in a circle, chanting, preparing their spells. I wondered if Eva had to go through that routine anymore or if Darc's magic allowed her to cast like a goddess or a shining one, just fling the magic out of her.