Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (24 page)

She allowed herself to be led roughly by the
arm to stand in front of them. The woman with the braid stood
forward.

“Were you successful?” she asked
greedily.

“Where is Hunter?” Katya demanded, ignoring
the question.

The woman gave a short nod to a man standing
to her left and he hurried out of the room. They stood in silence,
in a stoic stare-down. A few minutes later, the man returned,
dragging Hunter along behind him.

Katya stepped forward to go to him, but the
woman held out her hand, stopping her.

“Don’t give it to them, Katya,” he said,
straining against the hands holding him. “It will let them–” he was
cut off as one of the guards drove an elbow into his stomach and
another waved a hand, spelling him into silence. Whatever he had
been about to tell her would remain unsaid.

She looked over at the woman with the braid
and bared her teeth at her. “Let him go.” She was fairly certain
that she could escape herself, but Hunter was without talent of his
own and spreading a spell out to encompass both of them would make
it too frail to withstand the barrage from all the mages gathered
here. He needed to be safely on the ground before she was going to
give up the stone.

“Why don’t I just take the stone from you
instead?” the woman moved forward menacingly, not impressed by
Katya’s demands.

Katya smiled again. “That would be unwise,”
she told the woman. “I have spelled it so that anyone who tries to
take it from me unwillingly will find the experience,” she paused
for dramatic effect, raising her eyebrows tauntingly at the woman
as she echoed her words, “most unpleasant.”

The woman looked disgruntled and paused in
thought. No doubt she was weighing her options. Eventually there
could be no doubt that she would be able to break the enchantment
that Katya had placed upon the stone to allow her to use it as
leverage, but it would take time. Was killing the two of them worth
the inconvenience?

She apparently decided not, as she waved a
hand for Hunter to be taken below. Katya went to the window and
watched, waiting until Hunter was alone on the forest floor before
turning back to the braided woman.

“He is released,” the woman stated
needlessly, “Now give me the stone.”

“As you wish,” Katya answered, springing into
motion. She launched the stone high in the air, turning on her heel
without watching where it was headed. She dove out the window and
rolled to the edge of the walkway, putting a foot up over the
railing before her brain could register what she was doing.

Then she jumped.

*

Lorcan watched the proceedings from the back
corner. The meeting had been called so suddenly that they hadn’t
bothered to pay attention to who else had also joined them and
Lorcan had taken advantage and slipped in.

His eyes widened as Katya threw the stone
into the air and disappeared out the window. From his spot he saw
her roll to a standing position outside on the walkway before
jumping clean off. It was a good hundred foot fall or more. He
rushed with the crowd of people to the window and looked down. He
saw Katya hit the ground lightly in a crouching position, obviously
having mastered a falling spell. He let out the breath he’d been
holding. Katya took Hunter’s hand, sparking an annoying pang of
jealously, and they disappeared into the woods.

Several of the Forest Guard rushed to the
door to go after them, but Kali held up a hand to stop them.
Apparently she was not concerned with their escape. Either that or
she was confident in their ability to track them with the stone
they’d embedded within Katya and would relish the chase and
eventual punishment. Lorcan suspected it was the latter.

She held the stone out in front of her and
laughed in triumph. She motioned for the rest of the Elders to
begin the preparations. They still had the stones they’d infused
with the essences of the powerstones from the other tribes.

Lorcan looked around for something to stop
her with. If she performed the ritual, the people in the Lost Lands
would truly become a lost people, with no way to pass on their
legacy to their children: For there would be no children. His magic
would be no match for the combined power of the Elders.

The area had already been prepped, the
original four stones set around in a star shape for the final
spell. She set the last stone on the empty point. Lorcan became
frantic. He had to stop this madness!

She held out her hands and intertwined them
with her peers on either side of her. They all began chanting the
spell, closing their eyes in concentration. After a few moments,
there was a faint glowing as the spell began to work. Lorcan
watched as the stone grew brighter and brighter, shedding its light
onto the other four stones and causing them to glow with a
brilliant white light as well.

He rushed forward, no plan in mind but
knowing that there was no time to waste. He only made it two steps,
however, before another spell held him. His feet stuck to the
ground. Belatedly he realized that they had formed a protective
sphere around them, a spell that would automatically stop any who
tried to come into the circle while they were working.

It was too late.

The stones combined in a burst of dazzling
light which shot out from the center and extended through the roof
and into the sky, filling the air with magic.

Kali’s laughter rang out, the evil undertone
nearly palpable.

Lorcan noticed Slade had also snuck in to
observe the scene and was currently staring at Kali with a stony
expression. He glanced over and caught Lorcan’s eye. He nodded
slowly.

Slade believed him.

*

Layna felt numb. The whole situation was
inconceivable. How could they have let this happen to their baby
girl? Until it was confirmed, she refused to believe it. The mages
who guarded Phoenix were with her baby now, working feverishly to
find the enchantment, and Layna was afraid to find out what they
had determined. She had been headed towards the nursery to get an
update, but abruptly changed her direction. She wasn’t quite ready
for the news yet.

She swept into the Hall of Records instead
and laid a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder sitting there. He was
hunched over a large tome, his right hand furiously writing notes
onto a parchment beside it.

“How is it coming?” she asked him.

He looked up, wearing a serious expression.
“I’m just about through,” he reported, “but the information is
disturbing.”

“How so?” she asked warily. She had been
having him going through the Wordless Book, a tome they had
discovered of the Order’s which had outlined the bloodline of the
Dark King in great detail. They had hoped to be able to get a feel
for the scope of how many people this curse would affect. If it
targeted only those who had some of the Dark King’s blood, perhaps
they could contain the outbreak.

“The information seems to suggest that nearly
every person in Gelendan, and a large portion of Treymayne as well,
has some familial connection to the Dark King. If this spell really
does target any percentage of the Dark King’s blood, it could
potentially sterilize about eighty-five percent of the
world-as-we-know-it’s population.”

Layna was dumbstruck. If Hunter’s information
was correct, the curse would begin to spread person to person after
being initially exposed. Already baby Phoenix had come into contact
with much of the palace staff, and then they had gone home and
exposed their families and friends, and who knows how many others.
Did it only spread upon contact, or was close proximity enough?
They could have a full-blown outbreak already and not even know it.
The only symptom was the inability to have children.

If eighty-five percent of all people suddenly
lost the ability to have kids, in fifty years the population would
suddenly plummet. Had the tribes known this when they came up with
the spell? Maybe it wasn’t just a wish to get rid of the Dark
King’s taint, perhaps it was a way to get rid of them all together
so that the tribes could take back their homes.

She closed her eyes. “Thank you, Thomas.” She
left the room in a daze, and walked back to where Gryffon was in
the nursery to relate the bad news.

“Gryffon,” she sighed, settling down next to
him and stroking a finger across baby Phoenix’s face sadly. To
think her precious child could be the cause. “Are you ready for
more bad news?”

“If I say no will you not tell me?” he asked
hopefully.

She humored him with a small smile. “Thomas
reports that the scope of the infection could reach almost every
person in Gelendan and a large portion of Treymayne as well.”

Gryffon whistled and looked down at Phoenix.
They had already locked down the palace so that hopefully the curse
would be contained, but there was no way to know how many had
already been affected in the city as well. When the only symptom
was not immediately apparent, how could they tell?

“Where are the mages?” she asked, steeling
herself for the conference. The fate of too many people’s lives
would be affected by the curse. She had to put her feelings as a
mother aside and act like a Queen. She needed to find out what they
had learned.

Gryffon seemed to sense her inner turmoil
over this task and he took his time answering, bouncing Phoenix’s
tiny hand up and down on his finger. “They are in the spell rooms,”
he answered finally.

Layna gave him a curt nod and turned away,
biting her lip to stay in control. She needed to be the Queen.
The Queen
, she repeated this over and over to herself as she
swept down the hallways to the spell rooms.

She reached the door to the rooms much too
quickly and she laid a quivering hand on the handle. Gripping it so
tightly that her knuckles turned white, she threw the door open,
forcing anger to replace fear to hold herself together for the
news.

Once it was confirmed…

“What have you determined?” she asked in a
voice that was so steady it surprised her. She was better at
covering up her emotions that she had thought. Perhaps she’d picked
up a thing or two from Katya.

The mages all looked back at her with wide
eyes, none of them speaking. One bit his lip and looked down when
she caught his eye.

“You,” she pointed to the closest one, “Tell
me what you’ve learned.”

He stammered out, “We’ve located the
enchantment within her, Your Majesty. There is no doubt that there
is indeed some sort of curse upon her.”

Layna could not stop her intake of breath,
which she held for a moment before releasing it in a
much-less-regal moan. She felt her eyes beginning to water and her
nostrils flared.

“We haven’t been able to find much more about
it,” the man continued, looking away, “but there is every
indication that it is what Hunter has claimed it to be, and
furthermore, we’ve confirmed that it is indeed already spreading.
It is extremely hard to detect, but we have confirmed that it has
reached at least one of her nurses already, Amelia. There is some
good news though,” he added hopefully.

“Which is?”

“It does appear to take some time to take
hold in a person before they can spread it to anyone else. We have
been unable to detect it in any of the healers, even though they’ve
been in close near-constant contact with her for her sickness, so
it seems she’s not yet spreading the curse herself. We think. So
that’s something…” he trailed off.

Layna could not stand to be there any longer.
“Thank you,” she choked out, spinning around and out of the room.
Her poor baby daughter had the chance of having her own children
torn from her. And it was all riding on whether or not Katya
returned to the tribe with the stone that would seal her fate. Seal
all their fates, Layna reminded herself. Already it had spread to
Amelia. No doubt she and Gryffon were already infected, or would be
soon. They certainly weren’t going to stop seeing Phoenix because
of this. Their dreams of adding another little one to their family
were dashed. Along with the dreams of anyone else who had contact
with Phoenix.

She hurried back to the nursery, hoping that
Gryffon was still there. She needed him.

Now.

As she passed a window, she glanced out just
in time to see a bright flash of light extending upwards into the
heavens far to the north. A chill ran down her spine. She picked up
her skirts and increased her pace, nearly sprinting down the
hallway, heedless of all propriety.

CHAPTER 14

Katya finally paused and pulled Hunter into a
dense section of foliage. She drew out a knife and dug into her arm
where the Myaamia had implanted the tracking stone. She hissed out
a painful breath and mentally dove into the stream of power, using
her talent to sever the roots of magic that bonded it to her. One
by one she removed the tendrils of power from her body, destroying
the last remnants of the spell in the tiny stone.

She let out a whoosh of air as she pried the
stone totally loose, flipping it out onto the forest floor where it
dulled to blend in with the rest of rocks.

“Ouch,” Hunter commented, having stayed
silent throughout the removal.

“Nothing compared to other things I’ve had to
pry off me,” Katya joked.

Hunter just gave her a concerned look.

“Are you alright?” she asked him, quickly
sealing the cut and wiping away the blood with her sleeve.

“I’m fine,” he answered, holding out a hand
to inspect her arm. “Besides being bored out of my mind waiting in
the cell for you to return, I’ll live.” He hesitated a moment
before continuing. “There is something that I have to tell you,
though.”

“What is it?”

“There was another man in the cell with me.
His name was Gareth.”