Wicked Games Read online

  Khalid snorted. “I don’t remember you leaving me alone when I had my reasons. Which means Anders is fair game, and I plan on harassing him on the regular.” He grinned at her before stepping away from the wall and heading toward the rooms he’d indicated earlier.

  “All you huntsmen have reasons,” Scur said. “I personally think you just come up with excuses ‘cause you enjoy having blue balls.”

  “Khalid, I am not Senara. If you had to deal with her, wouldn’t you be pulling an Anders? She isn’t ready for him but if you recall, I was more than ready for you.” They made it further into the structure, coming to a fork. “Which way was your caved in section?”

  “I think it’s about time everyone lets Senara decide what she is and isn’t ready for. But then again, I’m used to huntswomen, so who the hell knows.” Khalid stopped, looking to the path in front of them and then the one to the right. “This way,” he said and continued along.

  Vines snaked along the walls and large roots, as big as a man’s thigh, pushed up through the stone ground, causing the path to jut up, making it tricky to walk. Khalid stopped before an arched doorway and pushed at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Scur, give me a hand.”

  The berserker stepped up next to him and her two guards started to push at the door that looked to be made of stone. At least a minute later and after some very creative cursing, she heard the sound of stone scraping against the floor.

  “That’s my boys,” she murmured as she let her mind roll through what Khalid said. Sen was the sweetest girl ever, and getting saddled with a fucking big-nuts go-hard like Anders Folle, well, regardless of what Khalid said, she didn’t think either her or Anders were ready for the out and out attraction they were probably feeling. But that was how it went. It was like that with her and Abaxley. Her faeblin prince was fighting the attraction, and the call to be with her, because he didn’t feel he was good enough for her. She begged to differ, but he was stubborn. Things were going to have to change, though, and soon. She needed him, needed that call answered.

  Back in the present, she trained her light on the doorway, noticing the slight glow in the darkness, but it wasn’t white or moonlight, it was blue, like the glowworms. She brushed past the boys and slipped into the room, noticing a pedestal with an urn on it, and a large basin for liquid. “I think we found an offering shrine.”

  “I think I’ve seen this movie,” Scur said. “So whatever you do, do not pick up that urn.”

  “I don’t know. I always wanted to try to outrun a boulder,” Khalid said.

  “Dude, your commander was Riven. You probably ran from a boulder on a weekly basis.”

  “True.” Khalid walked up to her right and Scur came up to her left. “Probably should take some pics, see if Nihar knows what it is.”

  “Way ahead of you.” She touched the basin. “It’s not basalt, it’s crystal. I think it’s quartz,” she said and took a few more stills. “There’s a hole in the center. Anything on the walls?” she said as she looked up. “If this is an offerings shrine, it’s not a sacrifice chamber. I think it might be the gift of water.”

  The idea wasn’t unknown to them. Several of the places they had found recently had a gift of water room. Though only two, this and another, had an urn. “Remember what happened last time? We got that Faerie opal,” she said.

  “Luck,” Khalid said. “We’re lucky it didn’t set off some pressure trap. “

  “Always such a negative ninny,” Scur said, leaning forward to look over at him. “As to anything being on the walls? I don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

  Scur was right. “So, do we figure this one out or move to the next puzzle?” she asked her captain. “That Faerie opal was extremely valuable...”

  “Given the location, I vote to find the room Nihar mentioned,” Khalid said. “There is still only three of us...”

  “If princey-boy would pull his head out of his ass, I would say we go through every room with a fine-tooth comb, but the huntsman is right,” Scur said. “We need to go in and out as quickly as possible this go round.”

  Sighing, she nodded. They were right and if Abaxley would just... Shaking her head, she pushed the thoughts out. It wouldn’t do to get all riled up when she couldn’t rage at him. “Majority rules. Let’s backtrack then, find this room.”

  Fifteen minutes, a level descended, and no booby traps, which pissed Scur off, they were in front of another door with inscriptions on it. She walked closer and hit her call button.

  “You got Hendrix,” the scourge said. She knew he was probably in command center one, his office, already pouring over data.

  “Hey, hey. I’m sending some images. It looks like pictograms but of course none of us read old Bog or anything like that.”

  “Is it old Bog? Damn...”

  “Hendrix, I have no clue, I was merely saying...” She took a few snaps of the door and then stepped back, taking a full-length, with both Scur and Khalid’s lights trained on them. “What do you think?”

  “Hold please,” they all heard in their ears. Clearly he opened the full com link.

  “Did he seriously just tell us to hold?” Scur said with a snort. “I mean fuck, there could be three dozen Cambodian zombies trying to eat us. He didn’t even ask.”

  “Pretty sure Alyx would have mentioned that before she sent him the picture,” Khalid said, shaking his head.

  “Okay, ran it through the language program. This fucking thing is going to be Nihar’s goddamn legacy. Oh, it says...‘Within lies all that can be, should be, or ever will be. A break in heaven, a portal to hell, an eternity.’ Well I have no fucking clue what that means, but there’s no warnings, only information.”

  “A fucking riddle? Seriously?” Scur groaned. “You sure Cetus didn’t write this shit himself? I heard he loves a good riddle.”

  “It’s not a riddle, you fucking troglodyte,” Hendrix said. “I think it’s a knowledge repository, of all things. At least that’s what the information is coming off as.”

  Alyx nodded. Sound thinking. “Okay, so, how do we open it then? Is there a push or pull pictogram?”

  Hendrix laughed. “No, take a picture of the bottom.” She did. “Hold please.” He was gone a moment and then his voice rang in their ears. “Royal blood. That’s how you open it.”

  “That would be you, minx,” Scur said. “Neither of us Neanderthals have a drop of royalty in us.”

  Her captain reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small pocket knife, handing it to her. “Hendrix, does it happen to mention how much blood? ‘Cause I’ll be damned if Alyx is going to feed this damn door more than a drop.”

  “Nope. Doesn’t even say she needs to cut herself either. Just says royal blood,” he intoned.

  Grabbing the knife from her captain, she walked forward, worried. “I’m newly royal. If this doesn’t work...”

  As she stepped up to the seam of the doors they heard a groaning, and she felt the piece of stone she was standing on warm and looked down. Bright blue color filled the stone, and she realized she was standing on a block of quartz. The doors started to open, pulling back into the walls they were on.

  “I’m guessing the time of your royalty doesn’t mean a damn thing,” her captain said, his grin wide when she looked back at him. “This means no more of this new royal shit. The damn floor knows you’re a princess.”

  Scur started to laugh. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t fall through the floor ‘cause they want a princess who’s been royal for at least three years, eight months, and fifteen days.”

  “You’re an asshole,” Khalid said, but took a step closer.

  Tiles in the floor before her lit up the same color. Around them, other colors, but the color she was standing on was a direct path. “Hen, you seeing this?”

  “Stick to your color, don’t let those two idiots veer off.”

  She nodded, walking the path. The room itself was vast, and she could see tree roots on the closer wa
lls, and little chips of sparkle as they walked. Rows of what looked like tables flanked the path, and she walked further, Scur and Khalid right behind her.

  “Haven’t seen a room like this in any of the temples we’ve hit,” Khalid said. “It feels different, too.”

  “Don’t know if any of you have ever been to any of the old monasteries,” Scur added, “but I’m getting the same feel as I did when I was there. Something ancient, but not haunted by violence. More like a silent place of reflection.”

  “Have them look for any place that could house scrolls,” they all heard Nihar yell over the com. “And make sure you document everything.”

  Alyx laughed. “I take it he’s having a coronary because he’s downloading new stuff?”

  “I think the word monastery gets him off,” Scur said with a snicker.

  “More like what I just downloaded,” Nihar said. “The temple you’re in, while I can only find pieces of information, was partially used to document Faerie as it came to be. Maps, logs, changes... Scur wasn’t far off on his assumption.”

  “Looks like most of what was worked on here has been gone for a while,” Khalid said. “But if there is anything left, we’ll find it. As long as we stay on our color, though, right?”

  “Stay on the colors, dear gods,” Hendrix said.

  Alyx followed further in, watching as more lit up. They made it back a few feet further and she stopped. Before her, there were rows and rows of scrolls. But the tiles led her straight to one.

  “I hope Hendrix is letting you see what we see, Nihar,” Khalid said. He moved directly behind her, placing his hand against her hip and leaning down. “I have a feeling Faerie is leading the way for you, love.”

  Nodding absently, she reached out, pulling the scroll from its cubby. The moment she pulled it free, the tiles all went dark and then lit once more, but a whitish glow came from all of them.

  “Well that was interesting,” Hendrix said over the mic. “Alyx, what is it?”

  She turned to Khalid and handed it to him, then looked back at the rows of scrolls that were illuminated. “Are you guys seeing this?”

  “When Hendrix’s big head and damn wings aren’t in the way,” they heard Nihar say. “It’s almost like some magical catalog system. Almost like it might be registering what’s being taken.”

  “It better not be a fucking trap,” Scur said. “Each scroll taken being used as a trigger.”

  “Now there’s a positive way to think about it,” Khalid said. He stayed right behind her, hand still on her hip, but gave her enough room to maneuver.

  “We should probably see what it is it wanted us to grab,” she said and turned, walking over to where Scur was and placed the scroll down, flattening it. There was writing across it, in Old Sidhe, she knew, because Octavia’s mother had beat both High Sidhe and common Stanga, both forms of the original fae writing, into her and Tavi. “Well...this is interesting,” she murmured. “Nihar, you getting this? Old High Sidhe. It hasn’t been used in...well, longer than any of us have been alive. Probably since Argie was a child,” she said. “I need more light.”

  As if the temple heard her, the glow got brighter. She looked to Khalid.

  He gave her a sheepish grin. “You’re going to have to read it to me, love. Ancient language wasn’t exactly a class given to Hunt children.”

  “Don’t feel bad, Khalid,” they heard Nihar say. “Most fae don’t read it. I do believe Faerie knew that Princess Alyx wouldn’t have any issues. I’m only getting part of what is written.” There was a long pause and he cleared his throat. “You know, if you want, you can bring them to me and I’d be happy to transcribe them all.”

  She laughed. “Or you could have Gogo come here with you for the weekend and you could enjoy her away from them and get your knowledge on.” She looked down at the scroll. “Well this is fucking interesting.”

  “What, Alyx? The suspense is killing me,” Hendrix said.

  “Well it seems there’s... Well, this is only part of the story because this bottom part is written in...” She frowned. “Is that fucking Goblish? Fuck.”

  “What does it say? What can you read?” Hendrix said. “Nihar is literally vibrating over here and I am not going to be around him when he blows.”

  “It says long ago there were spaces in between our own lands that accepted only us. That our courts were once one, and we lived in harmony, on islands of wonder and fertility.”

  “The fuck you say,” Scur said. “Light and Dark in harmony? Was the being writing that fucking high?”

  “No,” Nihar said with a squeak before clearing his throat. “It would make sense. All the information I’ve been getting in has been of war and deceit lately, but it’s from several centuries after Faerie was created. It never made sense to me. I mean, why would there be so much war after the fact? I would think something like that would have been ongoing if they had always been separated, but what I’m discovering feels more like something happened to split them apart.”

  “But without any history of the Light Court, that would be hard to piece together,” Khalid said.

  “Exactly,” Nihar agreed. “We need to find out what the rest of it says.”

  Scur looked at her, brow raised but a smirk playing on his lips. “Gee, I wonder who we know who is fluent in Goblish?”

  “You are a real asshole, you know that, right?” she said through clenched teeth.

  “It’s not like he would deny you,” Hendrix offered.

  She knew Abaxley wouldn’t, but he also was fighting their attraction and her call with everything he had. She had tried to coax him, tried to bully him, tried to rail at him, but in the end, she had left the stronghold for her own Sithen without her third guard in tow. Problem was, she didn’t know why he was so against it as he wouldn’t tell her. Now she was going to have to go back to him to get this worked out and while seeing him wouldn’t be a hardship, she hated to be presented with her failures.

  “There’s more,” she said and grabbed Scur’s light, bringing it closer. “It’s faint but... It mentions two islands, kingdoms gleaming white with daylight, and cloaked in twilight. And...oh, this is interesting, ‘the wellspring from which all magic becomes, and the beginnings of the Hands of Magic.’” She blinked. “Nihar, do you remember ever reading the bedtime stories about the rift? Because this sounds like the real account of the rift.”

  “What’s the rift?” Hendrix asked. “Remember, Sluagh children have their own bedtime stories. This isn’t familiar.”

  “The rift in the stories was the time that magic was pulled asunder, creating a rift in the land, the people, and the magic. The people were cast out, set adrift to new lands from where they were created. The rest of this is Goblish. Looks like it was...I wanna say erased and then re-written in Goblish as a precaution or a hindrance.”

  “I remember,” Nihar said. “I spent years trying to find information about it in my head, but never was able to. Damn, if the rift is real... I seriously need to get my hands on those scrolls. Alyx, the temple, does it feel like they would welcome others to it? Gogo might kill me if we go there and I end up getting myself maimed because I go in even if I’m not wanted.”

  “Royal blood,” she said as it popped into her head. “A royal needs to be with you, and you will be fine. There is so much here, Nihar. It feels like it must stay but...” She ran her hands down the scroll she was reading. “But this one, I’m allowed to take with me.”

  “After New Alexandria, I’ve learned how to control my urges of taking,” Nihar said but his voice sounded distant.

  “He’s off to find Gobeth, isn’t he?” Khalid said with a laugh.

  “Hendrix,” Scur said, pulling out the map of the temple. “Are there any other rooms here we need to explore? Something is telling me to get this scroll out of here before someone realizes we’re taking it.”

  “Hold please,” they heard Hendrix say.

  Alyx smirked. “This place feels like it’s done with us, like it
s tasked us with something, though I don’t know what since I can’t read this fucking thing completely, and it’s ready for us to start.”

  “To your right,” they heard and a door opened.

  Alyx skirted the platform, rolling her scroll up as she did, and walked toward the right, seeing a room with blue glowing titles. She walked forward on them, toward another pedestal. Sitting on it was what looked like a spyglass, with an end glittery with crystal. Made out of a black metal with gleaming white bands around it, she picked it up, noticing the larger end wasn’t crystals, but one large faceted one, rimmed in the white. The tile colors went white, and she knew whatever it was, she needed to take it with her. She showed it to Scur as he came up behind her.

  His brows were drawn together as he looked down on it. “Not sure it’s purpose, but whoever is guiding you definitely wants you to have it.” He ran the tip of his finger down the length of it. “Think it could possibly be some kind of decoder? Maybe it will translate the Goblish for you and you can avoid the elephant at the faeblin stronghold.” Scur grunted when Khalid came up to his side and smacked him in the back of the head.

  “I’m not that lucky. Though the Goblish...it just seems like... I don’t know, like we need to work together.”

  “Good thing goblins aren’t completely extinct yet, eh?” Hendrix said. “The temple is dark now, so I guess you got what you came for. Sadly, no treasure.”

  “Hendy, if you think this isn’t treasure,” she scoffed. “We have to see Abaxley,” she said to Khalid and Scur.

  “Think it would be smart to head there directly,” Khalid said. He stepped to her other side and turned her toward him. “I can get a hold of Jed and have him tell the prince we’re coming, or we can just pop in. But I’m thinking time is of the essence. No sense in putting it off. Faerie is leading us somewhere, she wants to be healed, and the prince is about to be neck deep in it whether he wants to be or not.”

  She grinned. “I’m not giving him an opportunity to be indisposed,” she said. “Hendrix, can you see if there’s a portal close from here anywhere close to you?”