Sorcerer Rising (A Virgil McDane Novel) (39 page)

“You’re the Widow Queen,” I said, part question, part statement.

“That is the name your people know me by,” she replied. “But I am much, much more interested in how, and why, you have chosen to come to my web, little mage.”

“You took my people,” I said, the runes on my staff flaring brighter.

“I see,” she replied, now to my left. “You were part of the group we took. I am afraid they’re no longer here,” she said, feigning sadness.

“I know
.” Images of the tower’s depths haunted me. “You killed them. This isn’t about rescue anymore.”

“Than what is it about?” she asked.

“Vengeance.”

I took a deep breath stepped back into my mind. I had to come up with something else, she had taken Pick’s gun. I’d need something that packed a bit more juice.

I was standing on my keep’s tallest tower. It looked out over the whole of my mind. In front of me was a dark forest. It spread as far as the eye could see. In the distance, I could make out Mulciber, its tall peak belching fire and flame.

That’s what I needed, the heart of my power.

I summoned him and in an instant, Al was beside me. “I need that power. I want a curse. Now. Use one of the old ones, one of the last resorts. Tie it into Mulciber.”

“Directly?” he asked. “You have no idea what that’ll do.”

“Do it!”

I stepped back into reality, my staff flaring. I cupped my hand and orange-gold mist formed a ball of fire in my palm. I threw it forward, a pitch that sent it cutting through the webbing, trailers of flame spreading throughout the room.

The Queen just laughed. “I am not afraid of your spellfire, Wizard.”

Eyes, thousands of them, lit up on all sides of the room. The sound of scurrying filled my ears. I threw fire, casting flame and heat throughout the room, incinerating the swarms as they closed in on me, but still they came.

There was a sharp pain in my back and the world spun. I felt myself lifted off the ground, cradled in strong arms. Soft lips pressed against my ear, and said over the din, “Time to feed, Wizard.”

I slipped back into my mind.

“I don’t have any more time, Al!” I roared. “I want that curse up and running.”

Al was hunched over a slanted table, raw strands of power etched in light and fire. “The curse is ready, but
Mulciber is faltering. I need more power!”

“She’s poisoned me,” I said bitterly. “I’m dying.”

I stepped out of the tower, onto the balcony, looking at my walls. I made the decision in an instant. I raised my hands and thick chains, each link weighing as much as a car, erupted from the earth, latching onto the high walls of my keep.

“Al,” I yelled. The clouds were thickening, and
Mulciber was beginning to spew ash into the air. “You’re about to get all the power you need!”

“What are you doing?” he asked. “You can’t touch the Aether!”

I closed my fist and the chains tugged at my walls, felling them all around the keep. Swarms of spiders erupted from the earth, forming from raw mist that seeped from the woods, from the air, the sky, the ground. They swarmed over the rubble of my walls, up the keep, in through windows and doors, filling my mind.

And I let them.

I took a step off the balcony and fell a hundred feet, landing in front of them. I grabbed hold of the nearest spider and willed it away, liquefying it.

All around me the spiders began to shimmer and change, the Aether responding to my will. Not bending to it, the Aether doesn’t bend, but sensing the raw potential of my mind.

I reached my hand into the Aether and grabbed hold.

And then I screamed.

Pain, raw unfiltered agony, ripped through the fabric of my existence. I saw futures that might happen and pasts that had failed to occur. I saw deities and devils, Valhalla and Hell, the jungles under the surface of the Moon, Atlantis under the sea, and the last of the Giants, The Whisperer, He Who Steps Lightly. I saw the Wyrm who sat in Jerusalem and Death Himself who waved me away like a child peaking at Santa. I saw him too, and to be honest Death’s reaction was the nicer of the two. I saw all the worlds in the Aether, the forms they would take, the forms that had been lost when it touched man’s mind.

I saw life. No, that’s not right. I touched the essence that connected all things, everything that would or could have been in every space and time, and saw everything the world could possibly offer in every moment. I s
aw all the possibilities of Creation, all the missed opportunities that had fallen by the wayside.

Lastly, I saw a tall, pale man, dressed in colonial garb. He was smiling, electric blue eyes filled with sinister mirth.

And in the distance I heard Mulciber erupt.

The world exploded and I was thrown back into reality. Smoke filled my lungs and light blinded me. Where before there had been only dim illumination, the sun
shone brightly now. The dome had been sheared off, and much of the ground too. All around me, everything was on fire.

I looked out in horror at the scene, trailers of golden fire spreading as far as the eye could see. It had taken hold of her web, spreading throughout the land. Nidia was aflame, filled with the sound of millions screaming as they webs took flame, as their eggs burned, as their kingdom crumbled.

I woke in my cot, feverish and covered in sweat
, swatting at invisible spiders, tearing away silk that wasn’t there.

Finally, my memory came back to me. I stumbled over to the sink and splashed water on my face. That’s when I saw it.

In the mirror, my Brand was glowing, an angry orange.

And I stared back with electric blue eyes.

I rubbed my face and looked again. My eyes were back, normal coppery brown.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

We spent the next week
buffeted by the storm, the waves tossing us to and fro like a child’s toy in a bath tub. Though at times, it felt more like we were in a washing machine.

I watched the storm play out in the wheel room, enjoying the view.
The sea had never held much fear for me. Storms in particular seemed to calm me, and I enjoyed the show the whole while.

When the clouds finally parted, we found ourselves off the coast of a small island, just like the one Arne had displayed. It was rough and barren with sharp cliffs and dark, imposing jungle. A tall peak rose up from the center, a barren mountain of gray stone that loomed over its shores.

The Arcus shone down from the heavens like a beacon, falling right to the center of the island.

We had found its end.

The sight sent a shiver up my spine. We had made it, but I didn’t feel welcome to this place. The jungle looked hungry, and the peak cast a grim shadow. It was all too still, too quiet. Watching the island, I had the same feeling as when I was a kid, standing outside the spooky, supposedly haunted, house down the block.

I leaned against the ship’s rail, looking out at the island, glass of champagne in hand. It had been a long trip, but the end was in sight. In just over a month, I had seen a world disappear, been beset by fay and lycanthrope alike, struck a deal for the Seal of Solomon, and fought a kraken on the back of the Leviathan.

I wondered to myself for the hundredth time what we would find there. Which would be worse? If the island was just some mediocre phenomenon, the Aether’s equivalent to a lightning bolt, or something more, something that would make all else I had seen pale in comparison?

“Lost in thought?” I heard behind me. Lambros had sidled up behind me without my knowing.

“A bit,” I replied, grimacing as I sipped the champagne. I’d never developed a liking for the taste.

“It is a beautiful sight,” she said, looking out over the ocean. “Would you not agree?”

“It is welcome,” I agreed, keeping my reservations to myself.

She leaned against the rail next to me. For a moment we were both quiet, then she said, “You have done good work.”

I poured the rest of my glass over the side. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

“I’m never surprised,” she replied. “Not anymore, and certainly not on this trip.”

It was a sentiment I could understand.

“I am glad you muscled your way into this,” she continued. “As much as it pains me to admit it, you have proven yourself to be a very worthy addition to the expedition.”

“I appreciate that.” And I did. My impression of her hadn’t been a hundred percent dead on either.

“You are more than what they say,” she said. “I do not know much in the ways of magic, but I have a keen sense of appraisal. Our first meeting was one of the few times it failed me. Conrad would say the same, I am sure.” She sipped her champagne. “What are you hoping is out there?”

“Something breathtaking,” I said.

She cocked an eyebrow.

“I have seen a lot in the past few weeks,” I said. “I’d hate for it all to have been for nothing. What about you?”

“I do not care,” she said. “I am ready for this trip’s conclusion.”

I balked at that. “Come on, Doctor. You can’t tell me that none of this interests you. That you are not just a single bit curious about anything we have seen or what we might find.”

“I am very curious,” she said. “And I will be as awestruck as the next, but I am not here for glory or to publish papers. I am here to make sure my company is benefited.”

I looked at her though different eyes. Dorne was right, she would have been a natural Wizard. They didn’t see the world in black and white, they saw it in black and red, profit and loss. The houses funded charters to gain market share, hired out Wizards to earn royalties, sold and traded in the Aether not for the benefit it brought but to fill their pockets.

I wasn’t exactly in a higher position (my bank account being fatter than it had been in years) but at the end of the day, I would have been here regardless.

“So what’s after this?” I asked. “Running the company?”

“Mr. Aberland runs the company,” she said, draining her glass. “And always will.”

“It looks like the village was abandoned gradually,” Dorne said, looking out over the remnants of the civilization.

“How so?” I asked.

We were stand
ing just off the beach, where a cluster of buildings began their steady crawl up the island’s mountainside. We had set up camp and spent the day combing this part of the island. It didn’t take long to find the village. It was a sprawling metropolis of huts and small buildings. The jungle had reclaimed much of it except where they had built right into the rock.

One thing was clear, no one had been here for a long time.

He pointed. “Up near the peak, the buildings are in better condition, more crowded. It looks like as their numbers declined they clustered together up there.”

“That’s where the Arcus is coming from as well,” I said. I shook my head. “Probably no connection there, right?”

“Pure coincidence, I’m sure,” Dorne said with a smile.

Inside
Lambros’ command tent, she pointed to the map, placing her finger on the small mountain set in the center of the island. “This is the point where the Arcus emanates. The mountain is not scalable, so we are assuming there must be another path to wherever it falls. Maybe a cave.

“We will split into five teams and search the surrounding jungle growth for any indication of such an entrance. Conrad, I want you take yours east, sticking to the coast. James, you will take a team in that direction as well, keeping to the interior. Virgil, I want you on the western interior and Arne on the coast. I will take a team into the village and set up camp before we begin the excavation.”

I traded a look with Dorne.

“Are you sure that is the way to go about this?” he asked.

She continued studying the map. “What, in particular, is your objection?”

“I’ll tell you what it is!” James said, standing up. “You want to send me and my men into that damn jungle by ourselves! What in the hell are you thinking?”

Lambros squinted her eyes, as if she was considering a particularly irritating equation. “Sit down, Mr. Baker.”

James bared his teeth. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought he was trying to snarl. “Listen, you b-”

Before he could finish the sentence, Lambros interrupted him. “If you do not sit this moment, I will have you relieved and returned to the ship. Make your decision, Mr. Baker.”

James hesitated, then sat. Even then his body was tense, wound up.

She looked us over. I flinched as her gaze passed over me. “Gentlemen, in case you haven’t noticed, we are in the middle of nowhere. We are steadily running through our food and have no source for fresh water. Furthermore, we are also not alone in this. Our competition could arrive any day. When they do, things will become infinitely more difficult.”

I held up my hands. “Okay, maybe that could’ve been more tactful, but he’s got a point. We don’t know anything about this place.”