Awaken the Curse (7 page)

The professor shoved his spectacles up his nose. “I dare not attempt more. Not with such a violent reaction to my healing spells.”

“What are you doing? He tried to kill us to get his hands on the disk.”

“The four disks that make up the Gylferion are sacred relics to his people.”

“Sacred enough to kill for?”

“Oh, yes. Sacred enough to die for as well,” the professor answered sadly, his hands bloody to the wrists as he pressed a torn strip of cloth hard against Cade’s chest. “They are referred to in some of the earliest chronicles, but even the most scholarly of researchers doubted their existence. It would be like stumbling upon the sword of Arthur or the legendary books of Deresphides. Who would not wish to capture such a priceless treasure?”

“But we left him tied hand and foot back at the obelisk. How did he get here?”

“The nightwalkers know every secret way and hidden trail within these mountains. That’s how they’ve survived undetected for centuries.”

“Shit,” James muttered. “It’s true? The Imnada really exist?”

“Your proof lies dying before you. The chevalier used a silver dagger on him. The slash to the heart was bad enough, but silver is lethal to the shapechangers.”

“So I’ve been told. But why? Aren’t Cade and d’Espe in league with one another?”

“In league? Hardly. Cade has spent months trying to frighten both d’Espe and myself away before we could discover the secret of the Imnada’s existence. His plan might have succeeded, but for one thing—your disk. Once d’Espe heard about it, he was more determined than ever to remain and continue his work.”

James’s hand instinctively reached for his neck where his amulet should have hung. The attack on the road, the break-in at the house—it all began to come together. “But he needed my disk to do it.”

“Indeed. I figured out what he planned and would have been there to warn you but for that last horrid snow that left me stranded in the mountains,” Professor Lacey explained.

“Gylferion . . .” Cade’s eyes snapped open and focused on James, widening in recognition, a grimace twisting his lips. “Go. D’Espe knows the Imnada’s secret . . . must stop . . . stop before he uses . . .”

James scrambled to his feet, shaking off the dizziness crowding his vision. Ignoring the questions avalanching through his brain at Cade’s revelation. Time enough for them once Katherine was safe. “How long ago did they leave?”

“An hour, no more.”

“I’ll go after them.”

“The chevalier is strong, Duncallan,” Professor Lacey cautioned. “Stronger than you can imagine. Be very careful.”

“I’ve a few tricks up my sleeve as well.”

The professor grabbed James’s arm, dragging him close as if he sought to impart some last piece of wisdom, his craggy face gaunt, the skin wrinkled like parchment, yet his eyes remained as piercing as a dagger point. “I . . . that is . . .” He dropped his hand to rub it on his sleeve as his gaze cut away. “Oh, bugger all, lad. I’m sorry.”

James nodded. Clasped the man’s thin bony hand in his. “I’ll see her safe.”

The man offered a sheepish smile in return. “I know you will. Why do you think I asked you to Wales in the first place?”

*   *   *

“There it is, mademoiselle. The very source of Imnada power is but a few footsteps away.” Monsieur d’Espe dragged Katherine the final steps to the ridge where the obelisk stood dark and menacing against a predawn sky. Cold and fear dulled her senses, but not her thoughts. These whirled like leaves upon a wind—or snow, which even now drifted and spun in the dawn mountain breeze.

“And all this time, the professor really
was
sheltering in some hovel with a smelly pack of sheepherders and their offspring. I was certain he was buried beneath a drift, awaiting a spring thaw.” D’Espe gave a rude burst of laughter.

Oh, yes, nothing like a good, ironic kick to the gut to bring on the merrymaking. She couldn’t decide which tickled her funny bone more. Was it her grief causing her to throw herself at James like a common trollop—again? Or her violent braining of him afterwards when he tried to abandon her father to the chevalier’s knife? Hysterical giggles chewed their way up her throat. She stumbled as she fought off both her frenzied laughter as well as the hot tears scalding her eyes. She couldn’t fall apart. She needed to think, and then to plan. “How did you know where to find us?”

D’Espe gave a halfhearted Gallic shrug as he jerked her forward. “I have ways, Mademoiselle Lacey.”

“So the rumors are true. You’re working the forbidden magics.”

His gaze was stony, his lips curled in a sneer. “I’ve done what I needed to gain the prize I sought. No more than necessary. Much less than some I could name.”

He shoved Katherine aside in his haste and excitement. Coat billowing, he approached the obelisk to caress the rough faces of granite, trace the runes carved upon each side with a lover’s finger. As dawn neared, the sky brightened enough that she could make out the bones of his face jutting like knives, the taut muscles in his neck, and the deadly glint of a pair of pistols strapped to his waist.

“I knew it must be true,” he preened. “The Imnada are here still, afraid to reveal themselves, knowing we would take up arms to complete what our ancestors began.”

“That’s why you spent a lifetime trying to find them? So you can kill them?” Katherine blurted.

The chevalier whipped around as if he’d forgotten she was there or had assumed she’d be silently gibbering in terror. Under normal circumstances, she might have been, but whether it was numb toes or a spinning brain, she couldn’t sit quietly while d’Espe plotted genocide.

If only she could turn him to stone or destroy him in a puff of smoke. No, she’d been gifted with little innate talent beyond the basic household magic all Fey-born were blessed with and a smidgeon of healing powers. She could summon him a nice spell for his rheumatism, but stopping him dead in his tracks was beyond her.

“Of course, I do not
want
to kill them, mademoiselle,” he answered proudly. “How would I prove to those who disparaged my research that I was right all along? No, I will trumpet my discovery until the world reveres the name of Gilles d’Espe. But once the Other realize the continued threat the Imnada pose, they will take steps to eradicate them. An unsatisfactory outcome, but inevitable.”

“What threat?” Katherine asked, surprised at how calm she sounded despite her thrashing heart and trembling hands. “The shapechangers have lived hidden away for well over a thousand years with none the wiser. Had they wanted to cause trouble, surely they’d have tried already. We’ve nothing to fear from them.” All her frantic planning and unfortunately this was the best she could come up with. Keep the chevalier talking. Stall for time until help arrived.

D’Espe paced off a square around the obelisk, his manner dismissive. “The Imnada are dangerous monsters. Haven’t your history lessons taught you they can’t be trusted? They are a treacherous, brutal, cunning race, not of our blood nor born of our seed. Their power does not originate among the Fey as ours does. It is subject neither to our laws nor to our principles, making it turbulent and ungovernable.”

“You mean the Imnada power you want for yourself?” she continued to argue despite the increasingly angry looks he shot in her direction. “You’re the greatest threat to the Other. Not the Imnada.”

He slammed to a halt, wild rage boiling up behind his eyes. Katherine cringed, awaiting an incinerating blast of battle magic. Instead, a snaky smile curled over his face, his eyes fever bright. “You remind me of my daughter, Mademoiselle Lacey. Renata has the same reckless courage and the same proud bearing. I will let you live for that reason alone. But say one more word and naught will stay my hand. Do you hear?”

Katherine nodded, slumping down into the snow, her bones gone to jelly, her innards fighting against the nausea that threatened. So much for that plan. She flashed one last frightened look to the trees, to the deep shadow of the hills. Nothing moved. No voices called. She was on her own. If anyone was going to put a stop to d’Espe’s plans, it would have to be her.

The chevalier held up a disk of bronze to the first piercing light of dawn climbing over the mountain.
“Nivatha Chu. Anada Asantos,”
he intoned solemnly.

The words he spoke meant nothing to her, but their effect was immediate. As he placed the disk in the eastern face of the obelisk, light curled and rippled up his arm to dance over his skin before seeping beneath the snow at the base of the obelisk.

“Anakalo Filios. Anada Asantos.”
The second disk was copper, dulled green with age and bent at one corner, but still recognizable. He placed this one in the southern slot, jiggling it until it clicked into place. Again the light shot free of the obelisk in a rain of sparks, firing its way down over the chevalier’s body to bury itself into the ground. A rumble vibrated the earth, accompanied by a high chiming of bells.

“The mountain, d’Espe! It’s moving!” she cried.

The obelisk shimmered as if a ghostly shape writhed beneath its surface. The runes, minutes ago moss covered and barely legible, now glowed blue. The ancient symbols shifted and twisted like living creatures.

The chevalier ignored her. Stepping to the western face of the obelisk, he lifted high the third disk, a circle of beaten gold shaved thin as a piece of paper, the etchings on its surface almost invisible.

“Pinota Asneeri. Anada Asantos.”
It caught the dawn sun in a blaze of blinding light before he slid it, like the others, into place.

Prisms of energy flowed over her, through her. But this power was neither wild nor incomprehensible. It danced with colors she recognized and moved in twisting strands she understood. This wasn’t the power of the shapechangers. This was Fey-born power, derived like all Other magic in the summer kingdom of Ynys Avalenn.

“D’Espe!” a deep shout erupted from the trees. “It’s over!”

James! Katherine closed her eyes on a quick prayer of gratitude to every god she could name.

“The Imnada are here to retrieve the stolen disks. You’ve failed.”

As Katherine watched, a wolf stole low through the undergrowth, but it wasn’t alone. A second animal crept at the edge of the western hills. A third lurked on the far side of the clearing by the road. And a fourth stood at James’s side as he emerged from the wood, its coat black as night, its teeth gleaming like knives. Four enormous wolves, death in their eyes.

The chevalier gripped James’s amulet, the final Imnada disk, liquid silver leaking around his fingers, dripping like water where it spread to form a glistening pool across the snow. “You’re too late, Duncallan.”

James’s gaze flicked to Katherine, his expression forbidding. “End it. Or they will.”

The wolf at his side took a step forward, haunches bunched to spring, a growl rumbling low in its throat.

The chevalier’s gaze shifted from creature to creature, but Katherine knew he was beyond reasoning, beyond understanding the danger. His face shone with a fanatic’s zeal, his lips drawn back from his teeth in a parody of the wolf’s bloodthirsty grimace. “Let them try.”

The rumbling intensified until the ground rolled and pitched like a ship in a storm. The breeze had quickened to a wind that pushed against her face with a groan like the scraping together of glaciers or the dying cry of a million souls. Unearthly blue fire licked the sides of the glowing stone column. Over the roaring in her ears, Katherine heard d’Espe shouting,
“Krylesos Pryth! Anada! Asantos!”

Before she thought better of it, she lurched shakily to her feet and stumbled forward over the quaking ground to grab his arm, her fingers digging into the chevalier’s wrist, her nails drawing blood. He shouted, wrenching himself away, but she clung like a burr, tightening her hold. The disk flew from his hand in a flash of silver. They both followed the track of its spinning fall. Both leapt after it almost before it hit the snow.

He was stronger, but she was faster. She palmed the disk just as d’Espe gave her a slap to the side of the head that left her ears ringing, her knees wobbly. “Get away!” he hissed. “I’ve suffered too much to let a ridiculous little English
putain
stop me.”

“Katherine!” James shouted, running toward her, the wolf leaping ahead. “Look out!”

A pistol appeared from nowhere, the barrel aimed at her head, the muzzle like a great black eye staring her down.

“No!”

The enormous black wolf launched itself, body stretched, tail extended, paws as big as dinner plates, saliva dripping from its gaping jaws. Katherine threw herself backwards just as an explosion of smoke and fire shook the blood in her veins. She felt herself falling. Snow filled her eyes, her ears. She felt it drift over her frozen cheeks. She heard the wolves howl in unison. Then nothing more.

*   *   *

James slammed to a halt, mind blank. Heart racing. Focus shredded.

The black wolf standing guard over Katherine’s body grew as vague and indistinct as last night’s mysterious mist before disappearing completely. So, too, did the other three conjured creatures. Each one drifting like smoke caught in the lash of January wind. The magic he’d spun to bring them to life thinned to a few frayed strands of energy. Then they were gone as well.

Through the narrowing of his vision, he’d a vague notion of his amulet being lifted high. In spite of the fog that gripped his mind, he knew when it had been placed in the last empty setting within the north side of the obelisk. He took a step, then another. Then he was running, but too late. The earth gave a final great heave as a shock wave pummeled the air. He fell, his spine striking an outcrop of barren rock. The force of the tremor knocked the breath from his lungs and vibrated like a tuning fork along his bones. Shards of stone exploded outward as the obelisk disintegrated before his eyes. Smoke and ash seared his throat and blistered his face. Blood dripped hot over his cheeks and slid like tears into his mouth.

Katherine lay a few paces to his right, the red-gold tresses of her hair mingling with the seeping pool of blood beneath her. He tried to go to her, but his legs wouldn’t move. His body refused his commands. He crawled hand over hand until he reached her side. Threaded his fingers with hers. Closed his eyes and waited for death.