Jar of Souls (9 page)

* * *

W
hen I woke up
, my clothes were waiting for me just inside of the door. They had been scrubbed clean and dried. After dressing, I packed the rest of my gear and headed downstairs. I was shocked at the sight that awaited me. The bodies and all of the blood had been cleaned; the inn looked as if nothing had happened the previous night. A few wet planks still dotted the floor, but everything else was spotless.

At my appearance, the innkeeper called to his family. They lined up, including the woman I had healed last night. She looked a little worse for wear, but her dress was clear of blood and outside of a wince or two, she seemed in good spirits. The innkeeper rushed forward and clasped my hand, shaking it several times. “Thank you so much for protecting my family. We have the supplies you requested ready to go along with a few small additions that should make your travels a little more pleasant.”

“Thank you for your kind hospitality. I’m sorry if our presence led you to any additional hardships.”

“Those men have been plaguing our village for months. Everyone was happy to see them disposed of. They even helped us clean up.”

“I’m happy we could be of service.” I was always slightly uncomfortable with any kind of praise, let alone praise heaped on me for killing five men. I waved cheerily at the innkeeper and his family, and then made my way to the door. Adam had already loaded the supplies. After securing my saddle bag, we were on the road again.

“I take it the tracking spell is working again?”

“It is. I’m a little worried at the clarity of it now, though. After we talked the other day, I doubted the weather could have masked it so well. For it to be coming in so clear now can only mean you were right about a trap.”

“I agree. How do we stop them now?”

“All we can do is follow the spell and deal with what we find. It won’t be pretty, but even with the Jar, they shouldn’t be a match for me.”

“Ah, that’s what makes me feel so good about traveling with you. It’s the air of confidence. It’s inspiring.”

Adam gave me a quick smile. “I’d expect nothing else.”

Again with the jokes
, I thought. It was nice to know the head of our order was actually just a man like the rest of us.

* * *

W
e rode
for the next four hours in silence. The road was almost dry, and our horses were fresh. The countryside seemed to fly by as we moved across it. Adam pulled his horse off the main track and started to head into the hills to our right. After an hour, he slowed our pace to a walk. I watched as he moved around a tree three times in a circle. When he finished the third circle, he arched his eyebrow at me, and it started to rain again.

“So you can make it rain?”

“Oh, I had nothing to do with that. Funny how the rain started just as we were getting close. My tracking spell has grown fuzzy again.”

“Well, that is strange. Did you get a lock before the spell was blocked again?”

“We should be about another hour in the direction we were traveling. If they move now, we won’t know.”

“Maybe we should just go check it out. Anything is better than just waiting in the rain.”

“Maybe not anything,” he said with a laugh. “Follow me.”

For the next forty-five minutes, we rode through the hills. Every now and then, I could see a valley on our right. I only got glimpses, but I could have sworn there was a cave against the far wall. As we circled closer, I could make out two stone pillars at the entrance. If I knew anything about architecture, I was looking at the opening to a tomb.

“Adam, tell me we aren’t going into that valley.”

“I wish I could.” He said with a hint of resignation in his tone.

“How do you want to play this?”

“We will leave the horses here and enter on foot. From there, we will have to improvise. Your job will be to make sure nothing sneaks into the valley from behind us. If Gaston and the Jar are in there, then I will handle it.”

“All right, let’s do this.”

Adam pulled his staff from behind his saddle. I was a little more traditional, pulling out my rapier and checking that my two long daggers were lose in their scabbards. Each of my weapons had been infused with silver and would be deadly to any Pretenders we might stumble upon. Not that it would matter if they were already dead. I had problems believing Gaston could have pulled this off on his own. He had to be getting help from someone.

Adam strode down the hill toward the tomb’s entrance, drawing all of the attention to himself. I was glad he was here. The steep hill offered absolutely no cover, and if they were watching, we had already been spotted. I scanned the hills above the tomb for any signs of trouble. Nothing yet. A quick look behind us showed that the way back to our mounts was still clear. A man in a black robe appeared in the entrance to the tomb, flanked by two others. He waved his hands at us, and the other two stepped forward. I couldn’t make out exactly what he said, but it sounded like
handle them
. He turned and headed back inside the tomb.

Adam gave me a quick glance. “I’ll need you to deal with these two while I go after Gaston.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I’m counting on you to do better.”

With those wonderful words of encouragement, he ran down the hill, heading to the tomb. I stayed about twenty feet back, keeping an eye on the hills above the entrance. Adam blocked the spells of the two apprentices, and as he ran past them, he sent them flying to the side. I had to pick one, so I ran to the right. I sent a fireball at the one on the left. Maybe I would get lucky. Pulling my sword free, I charged the last twenty feet to the prone figure on the ground.

When I was five feet away, I heard the howls sounding above the tomb. The figure on the ground flipped back to his feet, his hood falling as he did. When he looked back at me, I almost recoiled in horror. His face was pale white; one of his eyes was milky white, the other burned with intensity. I swung my sword down in a diagonal arc, hoping to move him back. Instead, he lifted his arm, and the blade bit into his flesh and then bounced away. Well, this was going to be more interesting than I had hoped. If his bones were dense enough to deflect my blade, then I was in for a hell of a fight.

He cast his arm out, throwing me back about ten paces. Damn, the sword wouldn’t hurt him, and he was super strong. That didn’t leave me too many options. The howls sounded again from the top of the hill, and I could clearly see four Lycans getting ready to charge. I was not sure I could take the two apprentices, let alone four Lycans. A quick glance to my left showed that my fire ball had hit the other apprentice, but without much effect. Her robes had been almost completely burned away, but outside of that, the flames seemed to have little effect.

Without much time left, I had to do something drastic to survive. The two apprentices charged toward me, and the Lycans dove over the rim of the valley, charging toward us. They moved like the wind. If these were the undead under control, they moved differently than the last Lycans I had fought. The male apprentice had already covered the distance to me. I used my magic to superheat my sword, and made a swing toward his leg. Just as I thought, he didn’t try and move out of the way. This time, my sword swept cleanly through the bone, severing the apprentice’s leg.

He stumbled and then launched himself at me. My sword snapped in two from the heat. I shoved the last four inches of the hilt at the man’s eye as I fell away. As luck would have it, it hit the eye that still had some color to it. He let out a roar of rage and pain. Two hands encased my throat as the apprentice tried to squeeze the life out of me. I pulled the hilt of my sword from his eye, and he slammed me into the ground. I stabbed at his throat with the broken blade, cutting through every vein imaginable. No blood poured from the wound, and I was starting to see stars. In a last act of desperation, I bathed my hands in blue fire and gripped the sides of his head as hard as I could. I ratcheted up the intensity of the flames and continued to squeeze. Eventually my hands met in the middle. The body fell on top of me, and I shoved it away.

I only managed to suck in two painful gasps as I stood up before the other apprentice barreled into me, sending me flying again. I rolled to my feet and got my head up just in time to dodge her next charge. It was not often that I was forced to fight a woman, let alone almost naked ones with super strength. Something about the pale skin and her being mostly dead robbed any of the fun out of fighting her. She charged past me, and I ran for the entrance to the tomb. The Lycans had covered more than half of the distance into the valley. They moved with their normal inhuman grace as they ran, but I could already tell they were dead.

The tomb should buy me a little time. There was no way more than one of the Lycans could fit. I was pretty sure I could kill them one at a time. The female apprentice was going to be the wild card. She was running toward me again, and I pulled both of my daggers out. I let her slam into me as I heated the daggers. I shoved both of them forward in a slash as she hit me. I flew backward, the useless hilts falling from my hands. The blades had broken again, but this time I was rewarded when I looked at her. Her head was only still attached by a thread of muscle. I ran forward and kicked it off before she could heal from the damage, if it was even possible to heal a wound like that. I hated fighting something I knew almost nothing about.

Her corpse continued to try and crawl toward me. Her male companion’s body lay limp on the ground, giving me some indication as to what I needed to do. Calling on my gift, I pooled the flames around my hand until they were burning white hot with intensity. I laid a hand on her head while avoiding the still struggling body. As her head burned away under the flame, the body started to twitch and then finally became still. I wondered just what it would take to kill one of these things without fire. Was it even possible? What if they too grew stronger with age?

Standing, I stumbled against the wall. The use of that much magic had weakened me more than I thought it would. I could hear the Lycans closing in; I called on the last of my power and created a rock wall over the entrance to the tomb. It wouldn’t hold them forever, but it would at least buy us some time. My legs gave out, and I slid down the stone wall. I tried to fight against it, but the blackness finally won.

When I came to, I could hear the sounds of clawing at the earthen wall. I wasn’t sure how much longer I had before they got in. I had to find Adam. I needed help, and I wanted to get the hell out of here. Fear gripped at my heart for the first time. If I didn’t find him quickly, there was a distinct possibility that we both would die. The adrenaline fueled my limbs into motion, and I stumbled down the tomb, using the wall to help push me forward. I could hear yelling coming from in front of me. The sound of it drove me forward.

Adam spared me one glance as I came around the corner before he turned the full force of his magic back on Gaston. I had never seen anything like it before. Spell after spell he launched, only to have them deflected. The amount of power he controlled was amazing. I wasn’t sure how anyone could have stood against it. Gaston must have been calling on the power of the Jar to save himself, somehow using the souls contained within it to shield him from the magic.

I watched with growing horror as Adam started to fall back. He wasn’t able to hit Gaston with any of his spells, and now he had been forced into a purely defensive role. A bolt of power slammed into him, sending him flying into the tomb wall, falling onto the ground next to me. If Adam couldn’t stand against this threat, there was nothing I could do. The sudden realization that I was actually going to die crippled me. I slumped down the wall, coming to rest on the ground opposite of Adam. I looked into his eyes and didn’t see the defeat that I thought I would, just cold hard resolve.

That little spark of resolve gave me some small amount of hope. “The apprentices are dead,” I managed to whisper. “I had to incinerate them.”

Adam nodded once, a small gleam in his eye. “Damn you, Gaston!” he shouted. “We could have unlocked the secrets of the Jar together. United we could have accomplished so much.”

The same grating voice I remembered from the chateau replied, “The power of the Jar is too great to share, old friend. You have felt what it can do. Why would I ever want to share that?”

“I would have put you in charge of the research. You would have had unlimited access,” Adam coughed out.

“Why would I want access when I can control the Jar myself? No one else would be willing to go as far as I would to access its full potential. Already the Jar calls to me, telling me what to do. With its power, anything is possible.”

Gaston came into view, the scar on his face almost glowing red. The power of the Jar had taken him over. I wasn’t sure who was in control, him or the Jar. All of his attention was fixed on Adam. He completely ignored me.

“Gaston, I can still help you. We can still work this out together,” Adam wheezed.