The Magelands Epic: Soulwitch Rises (Book 7) Read online

  ‘Can I have one of those?’ said Ravi, breaking into her thoughts.

  She glanced over to him and took out a spare cigarette as he sat in an armchair opposite her.

  ‘You’re up early,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, slurping from a glass of water. ‘The novelty of being able to get drunk every night is starting to wear off.’ He lit his cigarette and sighed. ‘Is it wrong of me to be so happy? I know things are rough, especially for you, but I feel like I’ve been given a new life.’

  ‘Of course not, Ravi. I’m glad you’re happy.’

  ‘What are you up to today? I don’t suppose you fancy taking me on a tour of the city? Invisible, naturally.’

  ‘I thought you were meant to be working on the Quadrant with Dean?’

  ‘Yeah, well, that’s not going so well. I’m not sure I can do any more to help. And Dean’s a nice lad, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a hard bugger to talk to. Can hardly get a word out of him. Mostly our days consist of him with his head deep into some dusty tome on Rahain history, trying to find any mention of the Quadrant, while I sit around picking my nose.’

  Karalyn smiled.

  ‘And,’ Ravi went on, ‘because he’s going out with Nyane of all people, I have to watch what I say around him.’

  ‘Don’t you like her?’

  Ravi shrugged. ‘She means well, I guess. So, is that a yes or no about our invisibility tour? I’ll buy you a beer.’

  Karalyn thought for a moment. It might be nice to go out for a while; forget everything that was going on in the intense atmosphere of the palace; relax and have fun.

  ‘What about Kerri?’ she said.

  ‘She’s not in the mood.’

  ‘She needs more time.’

  ‘I thought that when she came off dullweed she would go back to acting like her old self, but she never wants to do anything. She just sits about all day drinking tea and staring out of a window.’

  ‘You’re maybe being a little harsh on her.’

  ‘Harsh? I’ve sat with her every night when she can’t sleep; said nothing whenever she’s lost her temper, which happens a lot by the way, and have generally been there for her since we got back. I could do with a little break, though. This is the first time I’ve been in Plateau City, and I’ve yet to actually see any of it.’

  A door to the living room opened and Ravi’s eyes turned to watch Belinda enter. She was dressed in light armour with a sword strapped to her back, and her face was shining with sweat.

  ‘You look like you’ve been working hard,’ he said.

  ‘I exercise every dawn,’ she said, going to a table and pouring herself a glass of water, ‘it’s just that you’re never usually awake to notice.’

  ‘I’m not much of a morning person.’

  Belinda turned to Karalyn. ‘I’ll take a quick bath and then we can get started.’

  ‘All right,’ said Karalyn.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Ravi.

  ‘Working through a course on moral philosophy together,’ said Karalyn.

  Ravi groaned. ‘What? How indescribably dull.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Belinda.

  ‘We’re just following the programme set down by Laodoc,’ Karalyn said, ‘and I think it’s important. Maybe you could join us, if you like.’

  ‘Who, me?’ said Ravi. ‘Thanks, but I’d rather be chained up in Rahain if it’s okay with you.’

  ‘I can always put you back.’

  A courtier knocked and entered the room with a tray.

  ‘Your morning coffee, my ladies and gentleman,’ he bowed, setting it down onto a low table. He picked up the slender pot and poured three cups of hot, dark liquid, then bowed again and left the room.

  ‘Nah,’ said Ravi. ‘I think I’ll stay here. We never got service like this in the dungeons.’

  Belinda sat. ‘Coffee first, then bath.’

  Karalyn spooned sugar into each of the cups, and put a little milk into her own. A loud banging noise came through the wall from the room shared by Ravi and Kerri, and a moment later their door opened.

  ‘This is where you are,’ said Kerri, her eyes red, and her hair dishevelled. ‘You got up and didn’t wake me.’

  ‘Sorry, babe,’ said Ravi. ‘Sit down and have a cup of coffee.’

  ‘I don’t like waking up by myself,’ Kerri went on as if she hadn’t heard him. ‘I didn’t know where I was for a moment, and thought…’ She glanced up, seeing Karalyn and Belinda sitting there also. She fell silent.

  Karalyn gazed at her. Neither she nor Belinda had seen much of Kerri over the two thirds they had lived together in the fortress. For many days, Kerri had suffered from dullweed withdrawals, and had never left her room, and since then her trips out had been rare. Her eyes settled on Belinda, and hardened.

  ‘I haven’t forgotten what you did,’ she said.

  Belinda frowned, her eyes narrow. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I remember,’ Kerri said. ‘You all think I was out of my mind on dullweed, but I remember everything that happened.’

  ‘Oh really? I hope you remember the part where I saved your lives.’

  Kerri stormed across the room, her fists clenched. ‘When those bastards were about to torture me, you were just standing there, watching. It was you who suggested it; did you think I would forget? If that crazy soldier hadn’t attacked them, you would have let them do it.’

  Belinda picked up her coffee and took a sip.

  ‘Well?’ cried Kerri.

  ‘Stop shouting,’ said Ravi.

  ‘Stay out of it,’ Kerri yelled. ‘I want this bitch to answer me.’ She stared at Belinda. ‘You would have let them torture me, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Belinda. ‘I would have. I judged that even if you lost a few fingers the mission would still have been a success. You were expendable.’

  Kerri screamed and hurled herself at Belinda, her hands reaching for the woman’s face. Karalyn heard the thrum of battle-vision as Belinda sprang up out of Kerri’s grasp; the Rakanese woman falling into the chair where Belinda had been sitting. The young mage drew her sword in a blur of movement, its tip resting against Kerri’s throat as she lay sprawled over the chair.

  ‘Put that down!’ cried Karalyn.

  ‘She tried to attack me,’ said Belinda, her voice calm.

  Karalyn stood. ‘Step back from her.’

  Belinda glared at Karalyn for a moment, then lifted her sword. Ravi rushed over, taking Kerri into his arms as the woman began to weep.

  ‘It’s alright,’ he said. He glanced up at Karalyn as he pulled Kerri to her feet, an arm around her shoulder. ‘I was wrong about the moral philosophy. Probably best if you keep it up.’

  Karalyn said nothing as the two Rakanese went back to their bedroom.

  ‘I wasn’t going to kill her,’ said Belinda as she sheathed her sword, ‘even though she’s useless.’

  ‘Take your bath,’ said Karalyn. ‘I’ll get the lesson ready.’

  Karalyn went for a walk at noon, taking inspiration from Ravi’s suggestion and going invisible as she wandered the streets of the city. She had spent three hours with Belinda, going over a dry text debating whether people could really know things or not. She had tried to make it interesting, but Belinda had sat bored throughout. She was doing it wrong, she knew; she would never be a teacher like Laodoc, but felt a responsibility to keep going. Belinda was clever, of that she had no doubt, but her moral reasoning remained that of a selfish child at times.

  The walk eased her frustrations, but as they vanished the old sadness returned, and her thoughts went back to her father. He had died a hero, people said, saving two of his children from the same kind of attack that had claimed Laodoc. Keir may have saved Rainsby, but despite the guilt it made her feel, she would still rather it had been her father who had survived. There was so much more he could have done. He should have been commanding imperial armies instead of being tied to Keir and Kelsey. Couldn’t Celine have loo
ked after them? Or even her mother?

  Her mother. Only once had Karalyn looked into Daphne’s mind since the murder of her husband and she had recoiled from the depths of rage and violent hatred she had witnessed boiling up inside her. She knew that Nyane harboured doubts about her mother’s ability to perform her role as First Minister while thoughts of vengeance dominated her mind, but the Empress had seemed content to send her back to rule her republic, especially as it had meant that she wouldn’t have to keep listening to Daphne’s persistent requests for Keir to be recalled from Rainsby; which the Empress had made clear was never going to happen as long as he was needed there to defend the walls.

  She glanced around at her surroundings. She had thought she had been wandering aimlessly, but her feet had taken her deep into the Kellach quarter of the city, to a small area where the ground had been cleared. A tenement had once stood on the spot, but had been gutted by fire. It was where her father had died, killed by someone like Belinda. Workers were busy in the centre of the cleared space, digging the foundations of a large memorial that the folk living in the quarter had paid for. When finished, a large marble statue of her father would stand on a tall pedestal; another member of her family immortalised in the city.

  ‘Killop ae Kellan ae Kell – Chief of the Severed Clan,’ the inscription would read. That was how he was remembered by most of the Kellach Brigdomin. Many had expressed surprise at his death, thinking that he must have died years previously, or perhaps had been living down in the old homeland, as no word had been heard of him for so long.

  Killop’s body had been placed in a crypt next to Laodoc’s, but would be moved in a grand ceremony to a vault beneath the memorial once it had been finished, and it was expected that hundreds, maybe thousands, would turn out to attend. There would be speeches from dignitaries who had never met him, and a eulogy was planned, to be read out by the Empress herself. Karalyn’s invitation was sitting unopened in her room. She knew she would have to go, but was dreading it.

  She sat down on a high kerb and watched the workers wield their pickaxes and shovels until the tears blurred her sight.

  When the midnight bell rang, Karalyn dimmed the lamp in her room and sat on the bed. She took a breath, and willed her vision to leave her body. The date and time had been arranged for days, and she was nervous about what she was about to do. She looked down on the dark city, the harbour lights reflecting off the swell of the Inner Sea, and turned towards the east. Her vision sped away, keeping to the coastline as it raced over the miles to her target. She had been this way many times before, and her attention drifted onto the words she might soon be saying. Whatever happens, she told herself, don’t get angry.

  After a few minutes she saw lights in the distance as the city of Amatskouri came into view. It occupied an area three times the size of the imperial capital, and had no wall, or any significant defences. The Empress had expressed concerns about the city’s ability to protect itself if the Rahain moved north to attack, and had positioned the bulk of the imperial army to its south, but since the re-capture of Stretton Sands, their guard had relaxed a little. The outskirts of Amatskouri appeared, and Karalyn’s vision shot over them like an arrow. Lights shone up from the busy streets close to the centre of the city where citizens were out enjoying themselves in the bars and taverns that never closed. Ravi had told her lots of stories about his escapades in Amatskouri, relating how he had often stayed out drinking and partying for days; describing a youth that she could only dream about.

  She reached the government district, and made for the home of the prime minister, who lived in a great mansion by the riverside. She went through an upper floor window, entering the private rooms of the city leader. She was up, working at a desk alone, surrounded by a pile of paperwork and documents, a quill in her hand. Karalyn went into her mind, remaining silent and hidden, and ignoring the woman’s thoughts. She sealed off a small part of the prime minister’s mind and waited.

  Keir? she whispered after a while. Are you there?

  Nothing. Maybe she was early. Maybe they had over-estimated his skills, and Amatskouri was too far for his range-vision to travel.

  Ha! he said. You think so, eh? I can range just as far as you.

  Brother. How are you? Congratulations on becoming a father.

  Thanks. Where’s mother?

  Not here yet. How’s your outer-vision?

  Good.

  Karalyn used her powers to build a representation of their back porch at the Holdfast mansion in the sealed-off part of the prime minister’s mind, and projected an image of herself standing by the railing.

  Join me, she said.

  An image of her brother appeared by her side. He was taller than she remembered, and much broader, as if he had put on muscle in the year and a half since they had last met. He had been fifteen then, and now his seventeenth birthday was just over a third away.

  ‘That’s better,’ she said.

  Keir glanced around at her handiwork, pretending he wasn’t impressed. She imagined a warm wind, and her mind made it so; the breeze carrying scents of their homeland over them.

  ‘Now you’re just showing off,’ he said.

  ‘You would know about that.’

  ‘I was just doing my job; I can’t help if I’m so good at it. Rainsby would have fallen if I hadn’t done something.’

  Karalyn nodded. ‘How’s Kelsey?’

  ‘Being a little brat as usual,’ he said. ‘She spends all her time with a couple of hedgewitches that live with us, though there haven’t been many to heal, not since the last attack. The Rahain have pulled their lines back a dozen miles, to get out of my range.’

  ‘Your range?’

  ‘Yeah. I can throw fire way beyond the limits of what other fire mages can do. I use my vision first to find the enemy, then fry them from far away.’

  Karalyn shook her head. ‘You’ve killed lots of them, then?’

  ‘Oh yeah. Hundreds, probably thousands.’

  ‘And that doesn’t bother you?’

  ‘Why should it? They were attacking us. Was I supposed to gently singe their noses as a warning?’ He laughed. ‘No. I incinerated the bastards.’

  She said nothing.

  ‘I can see you disapprove, sister, but you don’t understand. You’ve been sitting behind a desk in Plateau City smoking cigarettes and drinking tea; how would you know what war feels like?’

  Karalyn smiled, glad that she was able to hide her real thoughts from him, and pleased he didn’t know anything about her mission to Rahain.

  ‘It’s coffee, actually,’ she said.

  That’s my girl, said her mother, ghosting into the conversation.

  Karalyn and Keir watched as she materialised before them. Her eyes went to Keir, and they embraced.

  ‘Son,’ she said, smiling, ‘it’s great to see you looking so well. This is almost as good as being there with you in person. I have news from Holdfast. I visited with Corthie after returning from the imperial capital, and saw your baby son. He’s doing great, and Jemma’s fine. She named him Cole. Cole Holdfast.’

  Keir looked away awkwardly.

  ‘He looks like your father,’ Daphne went on, ‘but he has the same eyes as you.’

  She smiled, but it was tinged with sorrow. Keir gazed back at her, giving her a look that Karalyn knew melted their mother’s heart.

  ‘I read your report,’ Daphne said, ‘and I know that you and Kelsey were the last people to see your father alive. His death burns a hole in my heart, but knowing that he died saving you and your sister gives me a little comfort. I want you to know how proud I am of what you did in Rainsby. Without you, the Empress would be losing this war.’

  ‘How’s Corthie?’ said Karalyn.

  Her mother turned to her. ‘Well, all things considered. He still has nightmares about the day Laodoc was murdered, and he misses his father, as we all do.’ She gazed at them both. ‘My poor, beautiful children, as the eldest it falls to you both to help me gain revenge
on those who plotted and carried out your father’s murder. The man slain by Corthie is connected to the woman who killed your father. They had a range of different powers, these high mages. No, that’s not enough. I am a high mage, as are you both. The assassins are more like archmages, if that is the correct term.’

  ‘There are more than two of them,’ said Karalyn.

  Daphne turned to her. ‘What do you know?’

  ‘There are at least two in Rahain, orchestrating the war from behind the scenes. There may be others, I don’t know.’

  Her mother gave her a sharp look. ‘How do you know this? Are you hiding something from me?’

  ‘You’d better not be,’ said Keir.

  Karalyn glanced from one to the other. The Empress had ordered her complete silence on the matter of Belinda, the Quadrant, or any details about what had happened in Rahain. Her mother knew she had been away from the city, but in the immediate aftermath of her arrival back, grief had driven every other thought from their minds, and they had never discussed it.

  ‘There’s much I’m hiding from you. I work next to the Empress every day, and know most of the secrets of the empire. But I promise you, I won’t keep back anything I know that will help us bring father’s murderer to justice. The truth is that no one knows where she is.’

  Her mother shook her head at her. ‘You’re a Holdfast. Your loyalty should be to the family before all else. I know Bridget. I know the compromises that she has to make every day; I do the same as First Holder. I make decisions that I think will benefit the people, but nothing’s ever clear cut; nothing’s without its risks and sometimes I make the wrong decision. This is different. There’s no halfway compromise that will bring your father back. The justice I require cannot be bargained away. Lord Holdfast will be avenged and no one, not even the Empress, will be permitted to stand in my way.’