A Charm for Draius: A Novel of the Broken Kaskea (The Broken Kaskea Series Book 1) (15 page)

“After breaking the Kaskea, Cessina and the child left, taking with them the lodestone of souls. They left in the Tyrran year 998 by the New Calendar, and the Phrenii did not question what Cessina planned, knowing he would do his best. If it couldn’t be destroyed, he would hide it.”

Mahri lowered its head. “We felt Cessina labor toward this end for fifteen years, before he left us to make his way to the Stars.”

Silence covered the ruins, save for the wind. Draius looked at Lornis, who raised his eyebrows. She shrugged in response. Neither said anything. The breeze lessoned, but continued to sigh through the remaining piles of stone.

Finally, she broke the silence with careful words. “An excellent telling in the ancient tradition. Every Tyrran child knows the story of how Cessina’s apprentice Lahna infiltrated Nherissa’s tower in the guise of a young boy.”

She paused, almost overwhelmed by a memory of her mother pointing out Cessina in the night sky over the sister cities, the vividness of this childhood memory probably brought on by the nearness of the Phrenii.

Clearing her throat, which still felt sore, she continued. “However, I never heard of this
lodestone of souls
. I would never doubt your telling of these events, but—and I don’t mean to be disrespectful—what does this have to do with our current investigation?” She was trying to be diplomatic, which was unfamiliar territory for her. After such a story it would be rude to bluntly ask,
So what’s your point?

Dahni picked up the story. “The child Lahna, whom Nherissa mistook as a boy, grew to be a minor sorceress. She and Cessina withdrew from society and no one knows, including us, what they did with the lodestone. We believe that Cessina resorted to hiding it because he could not destroy it. And we know that in the past false-spring, it has been unearthed and used. In this we are certain.”

“This lodestone still exists? What about the souls?” Lornis’s jaw stood out in sharp lines.

“The lodestone was emptied of souls by Cessina and his apprentice. Since it was recently unearthed, however, it has entrapped another one or two.”

Lornis looked ill and Draius understood how he felt. Even her stomach churned. The journey of souls to the Stars was supposedly inviolate, eased by one’s honorable behavior during life and the cleansing fire after death. “Do the Phrenii know where the lodestone is hidden?” she asked.

“No.”

“Then how can you be sure it’s unearthed?” Her eyebrows lifted. She might as well push them to be specific, for once.

“Life-light and necromancy are antagonistic. When a powerful necromantic charm like the lodestone comes near us, our elements become—unpredictable. Uncontrollable. Hence, the uncomfortable rain, wind, lightning, and earthquakes of the last erin. Even when it was close, we searched and couldn’t find its location. Now the lodestone has moved away and our charges in the sister cities are safe.”

“Moved away…” Lornis echoed. He pulled out the small sheets that he used for making notes.

“But how does this relate to the murders?” She doggedly tried to turn the conversation back to the mundane. “It seems the lodestone was gone long before those men were killed. And, in the presence of the King,
you
said that no magic was used in these murders.”

“Mortal weapons did kill those men, but these events cannot be a coincidence. We felt the lodesone feed. Then Nherissa’s art is rekindled, aided by his own records. The murders were used to make necromantic charms. Now someone attempts to use a shard of the Kaskea. This feels like a plan to resurrect necromancy.”

Mahri had picked up the conversation from Dahni. This transition was like watching a juggler play sleight of hand with balls. Being elements of the same mind, they disoriented her by passing the debate back and forth. Was this intentional? And why did two of them came to this meeting?

“To what end?” She ground her right foot into the dust, hiding her vexation. “Why would anyone want to resurrect necromancy?

The creatures said nothing, the equivalent of a phrenic shrug.

“But only the King can use the Kaskea.” Lornis pounced on a point she shouldn’t have missed. “You’re saying someone tried to break his bond? How is that possible?”

“The Kaskea was designed by men, and the binding can only be broken by death. We assumed the broken Kaskea would be wielded the same as before, by one person of Meran blood, but we were mistaken.”

Their puzzling answer shook her. Tyrrans had no gods, but the Phrenii are True-Starlight-Below, making them brothers and protectors to the Tyrran ancestors. Tyrrans believed the Phrenii were immortal, they couldn’t lie, and they were never
mistaken
. “Does the King know about this?”

“He knows our nightmares,” Dahni said. “We feel mortals attempting to touch us through the shard of the Kaskea. We feel blood and death magic, anathema to us.”

It might have been a trick of the early morning light, but she thought she saw Dahni shiver. With its brilliant green eyes, the creature looked searchingly at her, as if expecting some response. Locked by its gaze, she struggled to look away.

“Only those of Meran blood can bind to the Kaskea,” Mahri said. “A sorcerer helped the King through his first use of the relic—”

“Until the sorcerers were gone,” Dahni added.

“Now that the Kaskea is broken, it still requires preparation on our part and by the wielder before it is bound. Last night, when another tried to use it—”

“With blood, pain, death,” Dahni added.

“And by avoiding rapport, he risked his own sanity and the sanity of the King,” Mahri finished.

“He? Last night?” Draius focused on the points that might, just might, help her. Her mind recorded the words as well as a clerk could write them, but she set most of them aside as gibberish. “Do you know who attempted this?”

“We know he is male and he has some Meran blood. We also glimpse his heart—he is coerced into this and he avoids rapport, which will lead to madness.”

“But do you know his
name
?”

“Not yet, but we will know him should he come in contact with us.”

Of course, they can’t give me anything practical, only intangible myth and madness
. Whoever attempted this would be avoiding the Phrenii, but that would make him like any other adult in the sister cities. She turned away and watched the river below, having a momentary insight that disturbed her:
the Phrenii are frightened
. Stepping over each other’s words was a behavior she’d never seen, perhaps evidence of panic. The concept of the Phrenii fearing anything or anyone was strange, like the thought of the Phrenii being
wrong
. She walked over to where the edge of the tower had been and pulled her cloak tighter about her while she gazed down at the cities.

“So this person must have Meran blood, yet the use of blood is ‘anathema’? I don’t understand.” Lornis’s voice carried thinly on the breeze.

“Neither do he and his cohorts. Perhaps we should use the words lineage or bloodline.”

“Oh. So there’s no blood involved in bonding to the Kaskea.”

“We do not talk about the process of binding, for many reasons. We just say that sufficient need and free will are required from the user. The murderers, however, have assumed the Kaskea resembles a necromantic charm. They taint our bond with blood and pain.”

Something in Dahni’s voice made Draius shudder and she forced her thoughts back to the
physical
evidence. This reasoning was too tenuous to suit her: necromancy was the only connection between the thefts of the Royal Archives, the murders, and the lodestone, and only because the Phrenii said so. The Phrenii were considered unconventional information sources at best. The King’s Justice preferred evidence that could be seen, handled, and heard, from real people. She needed to leave the mysticism behind, she thought, as she turned back to face the creatures.

“Only a mortal with access to Nherissa’s notes would be able to fashion the charm that nearly strangled you.” Mahri gestured at her with its horn.

“You knew about Taalo’s charm?” Did they also know where Taalo had gone? Lornis and Miina, with the help of the watch, spent a day tearing apart the laboratory for clues. They found a false floor, where several circles were burned into the wood. Lornis identified the use of something he called ‘aqua regis,’ which could dissolve almost anything, given enough time. Otherwise, they found nothing of significance.

“No, we couldn’t see the charm because the maker effectively obscured it. We only felt the evil, but we remembered we must warn you.” Mahri’s tense was garbled, an indication their prescience had mucked up their sense of time. When was the ‘present,’ for creatures that had lived so many years and not only experienced, but foresaw, the same events over and over again?

She fingered her throat while her heart pounded from the implications. Taalo had managed to
hide
something from the Phrenii. She’d worn the charm right in front of the creatures, yet they merely
felt
something was wrong? It was difficult to accept such imperfections in the Phrenii. Taalo was more than an eccentric murderer, and much more dangerous than she suspected.

“We must examine this charm,” Mahri said.

So they knew she still carried it. She unwrapped it and displayed it to the Phrenii, having to get closer to them than she had ever been since childhood. Her hands shook as she held out the pouch, lying upon the cloth wrap. Their noses bent over her hands, and she fought an intense urge to step back—
please, I don’t want to see blood on my hands
. She didn’t know how they were examining the item. They might have been sniffing, because they closed their eyes, but she wasn’t sure they could breathe or smell.

“It is minor death magic. Made by mortals through torture and murder,” Mahri said after they were finished and she could step away. “It has been a long time since we felt this. The maker was skilled enough to use a spell of concealment, so even if you happened to notice it, your thoughts would slither away from it.”

She wore the pouch the entire day without remembering it or having anyone remark upon it. Not even the Phrenii saw it. “Why did he use the councilman’s finger and ring?”

“This charm has, as its source of power, the violent and shameful death of a powerful man,” Mahri said.

“Why the symbols, the extra blood?”

Mahri hesitated, perhaps having the entire phrenic mind consider the question. “We do not understand their significance, but we believe rituals help the necromancer focus and tether the power.”

Draius wrapped up the charm again in several layers of cloth, tying the bundle firmly with leather lacing.
I’m not frightened of this thing.
She yanked the knots tight.

“The charm was given a command based upon a trigger, so you must present a danger to the necromancer,” Mahri said.

She thought back to the moments before the choking episode. There had been no bright enlightenment regarding the case, no dawning awareness, only the comfort of an evening where she had felt safe and secure. Comfort she rarely felt, true, but nothing regarding the case.

She shook her head. “The murderers are only in danger from the King’s Law and Justice—if I die, someone else will take my place.”

The creatures looked at her as if she had missed their point. She sighed, wanting to end this conversation, but it couldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for this lodestone. Perhaps this was the way to uncover the conspiracy. “We know what the Kaskea shards look like—they’ve been on display for hundreds of years. What about this lodestone? What does it look like?”

She seemed to have stumped the creatures. They cocked their heads and said nothing, their eyes following her as she paced slowly across the foundation of the tower.

“Surely you remember. You described the stand that held it.” Her voice was challenging. “How big was it? What color? How heavy? It could be carried by a child of twelve and an old man, correct?”

Finally, after several moments, Mahri answered. “One does not
see
the lodestone. You will
feel
it long before you come close to it. Many mortals will not live through a close encounter with the lodestone. It has been built from death and its purpose remains: our destruction.”

The hair rose on the back of her neck. The fear the Phrenii felt for this thing would be a heart-stopping fear for a mortal. She remembered how Perinon had been affected when the Phrenii first saw the necromantic symbol. It wouldn’t be good for the Tyrran people to discover that the Phrenii, their immortal protectors, could be so frightened—or that they believed they could be destroyed.

“I think we should keep information about the lodestone between myself, Officer Lornis, and perhaps our captain.” She looked at Lornis and their eyes met, his glance as wary as her tone. Perhaps she shouldn’t even speak to the captain about the lodestone, since it might not be relevant to the case.

“A wise decision,” Mahri said. “And, for the King’s safety, the Kaskea shard should be found as soon as possible. Our dreams have been touched, and any madness that occurs within our circle will damage his mind.”

She swallowed, hard, picturing Perinon when he was young and happy. When he was just her younger cousin Peri. The warning suddenly hit home.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

First Farmday, Erin Three, T.Y. 1471

I consider last night to be a success, even if my employer doesn’t. We bound his assistant’s blood to a shard of the Kaskea and had him attempt to walk the Void, using my charms to hide him from the Phrenii.

I can’t express my loathing for that milk-and-toast assistant—why can he go where I cannot? The man is weak; he barely hung onto his sanity during the process. We had to tie him down to prevent him from hurting himself. Afterward, he babbled about creatures hunting him; I assume he meant the Phrenii. Luckily, he isn’t privy to our plans and can’t reveal much more than our identities if the Phrenii catch him and rip open his mind. But that’s risk enough, so I put as much power into my charms as possible.

Next we’ll try to have him pull me into the Void with him. I’ll prepare a charm to assist this, based upon Nherissa’s notes.