His Cure For Magic (Book 2) (22 page)

"Only the Nine may return. Only the Nine."
 

He got onto his side just in time to vomit onto the grass. He could sense Eryn's power growing, and he watched an army of lightning bolts explode from the ring on her finger, lancing into the trees around them and setting the dead trunks ahead of them aflame.
 

"It knows. It knows to be afraid. Turn back wizard. There is no succor for it here."

Wilem took a deep breath, using every technique he knew to try to keep his magic calm. He could feel the pressure of it, the terrifying fear of whatever it was whose voice was in his head.

He sensed Eryn's power growing again. He had to get the ring away from her! He pulled himself forward on his elbows, fighting to remain as calm as he could and at the same time ignore the throbbing of the burn on his leg.
 

"It is the directive. Protect the secret of the Nine. None are to leave Genesia and none are to enter. Wizards least of all."

He put his body on top of Eryn's, pinning her to the ground. He grabbed her hand and twisted at the ring. If she activated it now, his whole arm would be burned to ash.

Davin screamed behind him. He turned his head to look, and saw only that he was no longer hunched over his wife. He didn't have time to find him. He pulled at the ircidium band, turning it and trying to get it over her knuckle.
 

Eryn groaned, her body spasming so hard the motion almost threw him. He finally wrenched the ring from her just as he felt her power release. There was nowhere for it to go, and so it went everywhere. Her head lifted up and she cried out in pain as a shockwave of magic sped away, sending Wilem into the air and uprooting the trees behind them. He fell a dozen feet or more, coming down hard on his back and remaining still.

"It cannot fight. It cannot hurt. It never could. It never did. It doesn't fear wizards. It fears the Nine."

Wilem could still hear the voice, which meant he was still alive. He opened his eyes.

Something was standing over him.

It was vaguely humanoid, large and black, all sharp angles and jagged edges. It had a face of some kind, with yellow eyes and a small mouth from which rolled waves of moisture. Its skin was thick and scaled, and it reflected the purple glow of the mist as though it were made of dark iron.
 

In its jagged left hand was a large, straight sword, the blade so thick and wide that it looked more like a butcher's cleaver than a weapon of combat.
 

Blood dripped from its edge.

"It should never have come to Genesia."

Wilem tried to move. He tried to pick himself up. He couldn't fight on his back. He couldn't run away on his back either.

He couldn't get up.

His legs were too tired, his body too battered. His magic was reacting violently to this place, and it had left him exhausted.

His attacker raised the sword up and stepped forward. Wilem could see the blade above him. He could see it descending on his stomach. He fought against the tiredness, against the fear. He fought against everything there was to fight against. He needed to get out of the way. He needed to live, or this thing would kill Eryn next.

His body refused him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Eryn

Eryn choked and gasped, fighting for even the smallest intake of air. Her lungs burned, her heart burned, and every inch of her skin felt like it was being pricked with needles.

She had lost control of her Curse. It had gone wild in an effort to somehow defend itself, and in doing so had left her spent again. She was glad to have the cure Wilem had taken from Kelkin. She was going to need it.

She could still feel power tingling inside her, along with the strange feeling of intense fear. She gritted her teeth and forced it away as if she could will the disease into remission, or at least into hiding. The fear didn't vanish, but she did feel a small amount of her strength return.

"It cannot fight. It cannot hurt. It never could. It never did. It doesn't fear wizards. It fears the Nine."

She heard the voice again. It was dry and raspy, and sent waves of dizziness through her head. She focused on her anger, pulling herself to her feet.

"Wilem?" She didn't see him. She looked back, finding Davin and Saretta on the ground. Her face was unrecognizable. His body was covered in blood. "Wilem?" She was more desperate now.
 

Where is he?

She saw his attacker first, its dark skin and angled body standing over his prone form. She saw the huge sword it held and the blood that ran along the edge.

"It should never have come to Genesia."

It lifted its sword and shifted forward.
 

He was going to die if she didn't do something. She knew using her power might kill her, but she had no choice. "Opire!" She called on it, bringing it forth, begging it to slam into the creature and knock it away.
 

The magic came.

It flowed outwards from her, a stiff wind that bent the grass at her feet and slammed headlong into the monster.
 

Nothing happened.

"No," she cried. Her head felt like it was about to burst as she stumbled forward, landing on her knees, blood and salt mixing in her eyes and blinding her.
 

The creature didn't even notice.

There was nothing she could do but watch. The blade started its descent, gathering momentum.
 

Something shimmered in the air, throwing odd reflections of mist and light, turning end over end and smacking into the back of the monster. Where it hit, chips of flesh broke away, revealing a second layer underneath.

It stopped moving, lifted the sword again, and slowly turned.

Eryn looked back. Davin was on his knees, his head split open, blood running from a gash on his stomach. She didn't know how he could even be alive, let alone manage the strength to throw Silas' sword.

"It lives."

It started moving towards Davin, forgetting about Wilem. It raised its sword up in front of its face, still paying Eryn no mind.

She forced herself to stand and drew her own sword from her hip, barely able to lift it. She could see Wilem clearly now. His eyes were open, and his head had flopped over towards her.

"Eryn, get out of here," Davin cried. He was defenseless against the creature, too weak to even move.

She wasn't going to abandon him. She hobbled to where he was kneeling, falling across the monster's path and raising her sword.
 

It paused, its yellow eyes regarding her. Mist poured from its mouth in even puffs.
 

"It is brave. It is strong. It... is familiar."
 

It didn't move. It stared down at her, and she glared up at it, keeping the sword between them.
 

"It came in the subroute. It escaped. It hides. It hides. It hides. It hides."

The voice exploded in her head, forcing her to use every bit of resistance to keep from clutching at it. Her eyes watered and her ears began to bleed, and still the voice continued.

"It hides. It hides. It hides. It-"

She heard a cry from behind the creature, and then the tip of Silas' blade exploded through the heart of the monster in a flood of black blood. It didn't scream, or cry, or show any sign of pain or emotion. It just fell onto her, lifeless.

"Get it off," she said. She pushed against the creature, but it was no use. She was too weak, and it was so heavy. Its blood was spilling out onto her, and she could feel her clothes being soaked through. The blood was warm, almost hot. She struggled against its grip, becoming slick with its life force. The moisture helped her slide out from under it.

"Eryn?" Wilem was there, his face weary and covered in dirt. He held out his hand to help her up.

She ignored it. She turned herself around and crawled to where Davin was laying, his body draped across Saretta's. Dead.

"The cure," she said. "Wilem, we need the cure."

He knelt down next to her. "No, not yet. We only have three more vials, and we can't replace it. What we need is to rest."
 

"This is all my fault," she said, unable to hold back the tears any longer. "They're dead because of me."

She fell into Wilem's chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. The adrenaline fled and exhaustion caught up to them, leaving them both on the ground asleep within minutes.

###

There was no way to know how much time passed. When they woke, everything was just as they had left it, cast in the endless purple hued luminescence created by the fog.
 

Eryn's eyes were open, but she didn't move. She could smell the wood she had burned with her power, and the flesh that Wilem had burned with his. It was the scent that reminded her what had happened.

"Wilem?" She found his hand resting across her shoulders, and she took his arm and shook him. "Get up."

His hand shifted as he woke. "I fell asleep. I'm sorry."

She pushed herself away from him. Every muscle in her body ached, but she was able to stand without much difficulty. The dread she had been feeling wasn't gone, but it was greatly reduced.

"We need to bury them," she said, forcing herself to look at the corpses. She considered both of them friends. It was only right to see them safely to the arms of Amman.

"Here?" Wilem asked. "This place is evil." He stepped up next to her. "It was my magic that killed her," he whispered, his eyes red.
 

"It isn't your fault. Davin knew it. He saved your life." She kneeled down and pushed the mercenary's eyes closed. "That thing... The Curse was afraid of it." She looked back to where the creature lay face down in the grass. The area around it was dark with its blood. It reminded her that she was coated in it as well.

"It still is, but not as much. I have a bad feeling that there are more of them."

She had been thinking the same thing. She looked down at her clothes. They were stained, but the stains didn't look like any blood she had seen before. "It was immune to magic," she said. "I tried to knock it over, but it didn't even notice."

She remembered the way its skin had flaked away when Davin had struck it. She got back on her feet and approached it.
 

Sure enough, the area around the wound had also flaked away, revealing a layer of radiant metal beneath it. "It isn't skin," she said. "It's armor. Ircidium armor."

"No wonder your magic did nothing," Wilem said. "The Carriers wear ircidium armor, but I've never seen anything like this. Where are the seams? Where are the joints?" He bent down and lifted the monster's arm, straining to do so. The armor around the elbow looked creased, but it was all one piece. "Nobody can wear armor this heavy." He dropped it and then looked at his hands. They were covered in flakes of the deep red that coated it. He wiped it off on his pants.

"Let us see who is inside. Help me turn it over."

They positioned themselves on one side and took hold of the heavy arm, using it as a lever to flip the monster onto its back. It offered only the resistance of its weight, rolling over in a cacophony of scraping metal.
 

"How does it come off?" Wilem asked.

Eryn knelt over it, running her hands along the roughness of the flaky scales in search of a hidden seam. There had to be a clasp or something holding it on the wearer.

Her eyes landed on its fatal wound, and she gasped.

This can't be real. This can't be true.

She could see down into the wound. She didn't see any flesh.

"Wilem, can you make a small light, one that will fit in the wound?" She didn't have enough control to guide it.

"Ignus," Wilem whispered. A tiny light flitted over Eryn's shoulder and landed at the edge of the hole before diving in.

Eryn felt her heart begin to pound. There was still no sign of any living thing beneath the metal suit. She got to her feet and found Silas' sword laying in the grass. She picked it up and examined the black blood that clung to the metal. She brought it to her face. It didn't smell like blood. It smelled musky and slightly sweet.
 

"What are you doing?"
 

"There's nobody in there," she said, taking the sword and stabbing it into the armor. She sawed with the blade in a line along its chest, and then shifted and cut another. As she did she heard a click, and the whole chest opened.

What she saw confused her, amazed her, and frightened her.
 

There were ircidium rods attached to ircidium gears, attached to strange rubbery strands that lined the underneath of the thick ircidium shell and a secondary set of clear strands where random drops of the dark liquid still hung. The strands spread along the guts of the creature in an intricate patchwork she didn't understand, but she traced the bulk of them back to the center of the chest, where a thick ball of ircidium rested. It swung open as she watched.

The crystal inside was pitch black and nearly opaque, and she could feel the energy pouring out the moment the ircidium was no longer blocking it. It soaked into her, and she felt a rush of excitement and happiness at the sight.
 

"It's amazing," she said. "Beautiful." She reached out to touch it.

"Eryn, don't." Wilem smacked her hand away, and then reached into the monster's chest and pushed the tiny door closed.

It was like jumping in a cold river. The excitement vanished, leaving her feeling empty and alone. She stared at the ball. "It's ebocite, isn't it?"
 

"I don't know what ebocite looks like, but if I had to guess, I would say so. I felt such a pull towards it. That I wanted it more than anything."

"So did I. How did you fight it?"

"I was ready to hurt you to get it. I didn't like that."

She smiled at him. "Really?"

He nodded.

"Thank you for caring for me," she said. "I care for you, too." She blushed. "In case you hadn't guessed already."