Brave Men Die: Part 3 (2 page)

Carina glanced at the list of artefacts the archaeologists had catalogued. She was scanning for names from the history books, magi who were so influential in the arts that their research could unlock some of the mysteries of the forgotten spells.

The orb of light hovering over her shoulder illuminated the tent in the pre-dawn. She scratched the back of her neck as her eyes rolled over the list. Carina flicked the edge of the paper as her mind drifted to the bloodstained sheets. The creature that shredded Rigel was something from the past that could have originated from any one of these magi.

There was one name on the list that intrigued her, if it was indeed the same Swanson from the history books. But at the end of the list the unnamed books were some of the most interesting. They could be anything; the general reference to a bound book had the potential to be a grimoire of untold power.

Musing over how to obtain first-hand knowledge of the books without the suspicious eyes of the dig team watching, Carina went in search of Rigel. He’d slept for the better part of the week after he’d slayed the beast. He’d managed to drag himself from bed only a few hours ago, complaining that if he didn’t get up and start moving, he’d kill someone to alleviate the boredom.

She had been forced to play nurse and change his dressings to ensure he avoided infection. It was frustrating that her limited healing spells were having no effect. The gashes were deep and unsettling. Carina had never seen Rigel that bad, and they were healing very slowly despite his own attributes. He hadn’t even complained about her bedside manner for the better part of the week. And that worried her. They couldn’t afford to have him off his feet for too long. There was too much going on.

Carina needed him to be able to hold off the diggers and the mercenaries when she stole some of the artefacts. If he couldn’t stand or move then that would be a problem. His reputation wouldn’t keep them from acting stupidly and she would need to burn them all — and that would get back to the Academy, and she was sure it would cause all sorts of trouble for her.

Carina clicked her fingers and extinguished the orb above her shoulder as she threw the list onto the bloody bed. Pinching the bridge of her nose to alleviate the oncoming headache, she figured she needed to find Rigel and see what condition he was actually in.

Rigel was sitting comfortably with Finn, chatting about the progress of the dig. Carina put her hand gently on her acolyte’s shoulder then leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek. Finn seemed surprised at the sentiment, but Rigel smiled so Carina felt the effort was worth it. She still needed him to select one of the artefacts that she wanted.

‘Feeling better today?’

‘I’m getting there. My side still burns where the claws shredded the flesh but that’s a sign that the salve is working. Apparently.’

‘We’ll need to head back to the Academy at some point. That thing you killed is a creature of magic, some kind of demon that was summoned here.’

‘You don’t know what kind?’ Finn asked, disbelieving. ‘Rigel brought you its head.’

‘Yes, it was very good of Rigel to kill it, but maybe he could have done it without bleeding so much.’

‘Hey,’ Rigel muttered.

Carina reassuringly tightened the grip on his shoulder. ‘Still, summoning is not my area of expertise. I’m better off speaking to one of the elders about its origins rather than guessing.’

‘Are there more out there?’ Finn asked, looking over his shoulder to the field where Rigel had left the rotting carcass.

Carina looked at Rigel who shook his head. ‘I only tracked the one...’

‘I’ve checked since you blacked out,’ Carina reassured him. ‘I scanned the area. There is no sign of another of those beasts, but nor could I find the origin of the power that summoned it here.’

‘So you being here is achieving …?’ Finn started.

Carina stared at him.

‘It was Rigel that tracked and killed the shadow creature. You haven’t actually done anything yet,’ Finn added.

‘All he has done is bleed all over the place,’ she said with a smile and a wink.

‘And I’ve done that with gusto.’ Rigel grimaced after he laughed, clutching at his wound.

Carina squeezed his shoulder a little tighter. ‘Any chance you can ride today?’

Rigel pointed in the general direction of his wounds and nodded his head. ‘Yeah darling, I’m right as rain.’

‘A simple no would have been fine.’

‘When do you want to go?’

‘As soon as you stop bleeding.’

‘Picked what you want yet?’

‘I’m still deciding. Have you looked at the list?’

‘I noticed that you circled some things for me, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Good. Pick one of them for me.’

‘So there’s a few things you want down there, Carina?’ Finn asked.

Carina shrugged.

‘How are you going to decide?’

‘I won’t. I plan on taking what I want.’

Finn broke into laughter. ‘The archaeologists are going to chase you down.’

‘Nah, Rigel will kill them.’

Finn looked from Carina to Rigel. ‘They are paying me to protect them and the dig site.’

‘Are we going to have a problem with you Finn?’ Carina asked.

‘How much are you planning to take?’

‘Only a couple of things — definitely not enough for Rigel to kill you over, but.’

Finn hesitated at her seriousness. He knew Rigel was the better swordsman, and was considering whether Carina would order Rigel to actually kill his own uncle.

A thin smile formed on Carina’s lips, judging what the older man was thinking. ‘If you feel obliged to try and stop us, I’ll make sure he only wounds you, so you can say you at least tried.’

‘Gods, you two will be the death of me,’ Finn said, shaking his head. ‘Can you leave some fake things in place of whatever you take?’

‘That could be possible, I’d need to acquire a few things …’

‘Make it bloody possible. I don’t need you thieving things, especially since I brought you in.’

Rigel clasped his uncle on his shoulder, keeping him seated. ‘I’ll sort it out Finn. The diggers will know nothing.’

Carina led Rigel to the dig site, moving with hurried expectation. Today was the day that she would walk away with untold secrets from centuries ago. Ara would never be able to keep up with her development now. Finally she might be able to leap ahead of her and join the Eighth Circle first.

The diggers eyed them suspiciously as they neared. Finn had told them that they were coming to collect their fee and none were happy about it. They had argued that they hadn’t had the adequate time to study and catalogue all the material.

Carina had scoffed at their request for another week with the two items that they’d selected. Once they had taken their two items, they were returning to the Academy where she was determined to study the wealth of new material.

The diggers lined the walkway to the underground site, tools in hand as Finn stood at the entrance blocking their entry. He stood next to the lead archaeologist who had a clipboard in hand, ready to mark down what they had taken.

‘You have to leave your bag outside,’ the archaeologist stated.

Carina glanced from her bag to Finn, who only nodded his head reluctantly. She propped her bag against the small wall beside the entry to be met with the smiles of the dig team that thought they had just stopped her from stealing more than she was entitled to.

‘We are not to be disturbed until we are ready to come out,’ Carina stated as she followed Rigel into the underground chamber.

‘You have an hour,’ the lead digger started, but was cut short when Carina cast and a barrier formed across the entrance.

‘Was that necessary?’ Rigel asked.

‘Yes, it put them in their place. I’ll not work to anyone’s deadline but my own.’

Rigel continued down the hall in the dark, heading instinctively toward the chamber. In the darkness he let his injuries show, walking with a limp and clutching his side. Carina snapped her fingers and her orb of light appeared over her shoulder once they were out of the diggers’ vision, illuminating the hall and beyond. Rigel didn’t falter, his eyes adjusted immediately and he stepped confidently into the chamber.

‘So this is what all of you have been salivating over?’ he asked, looking around.

The diggers had cleaned the room since Carina had first been in there. The dust had been removed and brackets had been mounted to the walls to carry torches. Every item had been carefully cleaned, moved and catalogued.

‘Do you know what you want?’ Rigel asked.

‘I’ve made a list. I’ll have to verify a few things but yeah, I know what I want.’

Rigel leaned against the wall beside the entrance and indicated she should get on with it.

‘You know, if I’m stealing what I want, you probably can choose something that you actually want.’

Carina moved quickly to the collection of books, scanning the titles for those she’d highlighted on the list she had been provided. The first she found was of no use, same name but instead of a mage, the book was collated by a cook. Of the other six, only three were the spellbooks of magi.

Swanson’s was there, and she sighed in relief. He was one of the most creative and dangerous magi of his era and what would be contained within the pages of his own compendium would be exceptional. Carina planned to devour the spells within
Beyond
and marvelled at the possibilities of what she could learn.

Battle Lore
had been Dale Struthers’ crowning achievement and copies had been lost in the purge. For centuries now, magi had gone to war with only limited knowledge of what battle spells were most effective and destructive, those passed down by the survivors of the purge. They had mostly been novices or lowly ranked magi, the senior magi had never returned from the fields and what they had cast there had gone with them to their graves. It was claimed Struthers had created the most brutal spells, had wandered the borders for skirmishes to test them. Legends described him as a one-man wrecking ball.

The third and final book was written by a female mage and was simply titled
Manipulating Weaves
. Carina had never heard of Lola Gale, but the contents looked promising. It was all about twisting the weaves, incorporating new elements from other spells and combining the strengths. The concept was simply fascinating.

‘Can you help me with this?’ Carina asked, disrobing.

Carina turned her back to Rigel and he opened the thin pack and removed the two books that they had prepared earlier. Carina had aged them with a spell that made them artificially appear as if they belonged with everything else in the chamber. Rigel picked up the first spellbook and placed it in the pack, then the second, before closing it securely.

He held up her robe for Carina to slip into, before walking over to the table with the weapons and picking up a dagger with a sheath that was practically falling apart.

‘There are prettier ones than that,’ Carina provoked. ‘There is one encrusted with gems.’

‘Pull out the blade,’ Rigel prompted, indicating the fancy dagger.

Carina moved to the table and unsheathed the blade. The hilt was in good condition, but the blade had rusted.

‘In my line of work that dagger is nothing but useless. The gems could make me rich but acolytes don’t really accumulate wealth and if I wore it, someone would try to slit my throat while I slept.’

‘And that one?’

Rigel flicked the blade up an inch with his thumb. The red tempered steel flashed eerily in the magical light. The edge was as sharp as the day it was forged and Carina got the sense that the blade was probably the most valuable artefact in the chamber.

‘They are going to hate you.’

‘This will probably be the reason they hunt us down,’ Rigel joked.

‘An Acheon blade. I thought these only existed in royal treasuries these days.’

‘I guess not all of them.’

‘I didn’t see it listed …’

‘No, you didn’t. They kept this all to themselves, it was described as an old dagger in a rotting sheath. Practically the most unappealing item on that list.’

‘So does this make you a blade master?’

‘Huh, gorgeous, you know how to make me laugh. I’m the furthest from it that you can imagine.’

Carina stepped closer and kissed him gently on the mouth. His hand came up to hold her at the back of her neck and pulled her body close to his. Finally, she pulled away from him, both wearing smiles.

‘And that is why you are mine Rigel Harding — nothing proper about you at all.’

After a moment more of kissing, Rigel released her taut body. ‘I think it’s time we smuggled your prizes out of here and got you back to your precious Academy.’

‘Why so eager?’

‘I want you in a proper bed.’

Carina playfully slapped him across the face and stormed down the hall with mock indignation.

Rigel caught back up as Carina reached the barrier. Snapping her fingers, the orb of light diminished and the barrier dissipated. The diggers eyed them suspiciously and Finn, standing there aloof, only rolled his eyes at Carina’s flair for the dramatics.

Carina presented the book that Rigel hadn’t tucked away.
Beyond
promised to be the most explosive of the three and if they had any idea about the importance of the books in their possession, they would have guessed this was the volume she would have opted for.

The head archaeologist scribbled the title down in his ledger and, disgruntled, turned to Rigel who held up his selection.

‘Old dagger in rotting sheath,’ Rigel told him, with a smile as cold as ice.

The man’s face turned sour when he registered exactly what the acolyte had chosen. Yet Carina noticed that none of the other diggers’ expressions had changed, which meant that only one of them knew the true value of the dagger.

Carina collected her bag from Finn. ‘The site is all yours. We’re going home.’

Finn walked with them back to the camp and only opened his mouth when he was sure that no one would overhear their conversation.

‘So how much did you steal?’