Chapter Sixty-Five
Arcanii
Michael’s friends breathed sighs of devastation. He sat staring dead ahead, unable to look at their faces.
He’d seen it. A signal of the only thing their company had been tasked to find. The thing they’d risked their lives to confirm. And not only had he come within thirty feet of it, he’d forgotten that it had even happened.
Nichole was the only one looking directly at him, even Carter and James stared grim-faced at the seabed. “When we got captured?” she asked.
Michael, still dead-eyed and gutted, gave another small nod. He looked to the others and barely above a whisper, said, “I’m... I’m so sorry. So much happened-”
“It’s fine.” Carter swept back his hair, his eyes hard as stone and his lips a thin line.
James’ face stiffened at the tone in his voice, and managed to shake off his disbelief as he looked to Carter and said, “Carter, it is fine. Shit happens.”
Michael saw Carter’s face bloom with anger as he turned on James.
“James, it is what it is, and we’ll get nowhere from lingering on it!” Carter snapped.
“No, we’re going to linger, you jackass, because Sparky was the only one of us who noticed anything at all!”
Michael pushed himself forward, pleading, “James, stop, he’s right!”
The Holorhi-Nahni burst back into the scene of the argument with a look of shock on her face. “What is going on here?”
James and Carter both fell into rigid silence and Michael let out his tightly held breath. “Nothing.”
Rose shuffled ahead with the others, leaving Michael, Carter and James slightly behind. “Is the Arcanii willing to help us?”
The sea-princess looked over the dejected group and decided not to press them. “Yes. She knows of a magic which will get you to shore. Come.”
Michael hung back as the Legacies followed her out into the empty lands beyond the reeds, only to find that Oliver had slowed down too, looking gently at him.
“You okay, Paladin?” Oliver asked.
Michael couldn’t bear to look at him and nodded, forcing a smile. In his mind he repeated the sentence, I was so close, over and over.
Oliver knew there was very little to say. He watched Michael’s face as he played the moment over in his head. His face was so bitter in its regret, Oliver almost thought he could see the Immortal Flame glinting in his eye.
They watched as the Holorhi-Nahni swam up to a heavy, circular stone door at the front of the sunken Draendican house. On the centre of the door hung a stone handle which she rapped three times, sending muted click sounds through the water.
After a tense moment, the stone rolled aside, revealing another young Merhoii, clad from neck-to-waist in ritualistic jewellery. She had skin much paler than the Holorhi-Nahni, verging on the white of sea pearls and hair of only a finger’s length, so blond it was nearly silver. Her dark eyes played against her light skin, piercing everything analytically, like she couldn’t look at something without also trying to discern what would stop its heart.
The pale Merhoii looked passed the Holorhi-Nahni to the crowd of escapees and sighed, moving pointedly out of the doorway.
The Chieftain’s Daughter touched her face softly, mouthing Thank you, in her native tongue.
The company rushed inside one by one to find a two-room house, almost detail for detail the same as any faerie-tale witch’s hut Michael’s mum had read to him about. Benches were built into every wall and stocked with phials, strange objects, recognisably terrible poisons, medicines, and even preserved limbs and other body parts. In the centre of the room lay a strange cauldron black as night sitting over a pit filled with coals, somehow licking with purple flame amidst the water. Besides the main room, there was one other small chamber, sealed off by another large rolling stone door.
The Arcanii stood by the front door as it grated closed. Her short white hair moved only a touch as she shifted through the water, cut to be functional. Her dark eyes ran up and down the group of Legacies like frantic beetles that’d had been hiding on the underside of an upturned rock.
Carter drifted forward from the group, his face still tight with annoyance. “I’ve been told you might be able to transport us out of Kavoe Farnea.”
The Arcanii winced, as though the very act of speaking Common pained her. But then, in perfect fluency, she muttered, “It is possible. But the only magic strong enough to transport eight Legacies-”
Michael pressed his palms deeply into his eyes. “Nine. We still haven’t decided about Magnus.”
The company sighed and groaned whilst the Holorhi-Nahni blinked. “The red-eyed Konakiian?”
Sarah nodded. “The Setheen, yes.”
The sea princess noticeably relaxed. “While you were with my father, I received word that he’d vanished from the cave.”
“Vanished?” Michael asked, turning to Carter but the nobleman turned away, leaving Michael with an empty feeling in his stomach. “Did he climb out, somehow?”
The sea-woman shook her head. “There were no marks on the cliff-side but it’s possible. Regardless, you all need to leave, and there’d be no time to return for him anyway.”
Those who’d been against retrieving the Magnus all looked quietly smug.
The Arcanii cleared her throat. “As I was saying, the only magic potent enough to transport you is a displacement door. I’ve never made one for non-Merhoii before but I can’t imagine any reason it won’t work.”
Michael wondered why she brought it up if there was no doubt but decided to keep that to himself.
The Holorhi-Nahni asked, “Can you open a portal to the Eastern shore? Anywhere in Lighila would be just as dangerous as right here...”
The Arcanii nodded, doing some mental calculations as she plucked a handful of gemstones from her many necklaces. “I can, but I have no idea where in the East it will put them. Great acts of magic tend to attract to each other, so if anything magically significant is occurring in the Empire right now, you’ll likely end up there.”
The Holorhi-Nahni glanced to the company and shrugged. “What do you think?”
Michael opened his mouth to speak when Carter muttered, “That will do. Hopefully we go right back to Fort Guardian. Can we help at all?”
Stolen story; please report.
The Arcanii looked Carter up and down. “No.” And with that, she rolled the stone door open, swam inside, and slammed it shut again with a small tremor.
Aroha frowned to the Holorhi-Nahni. “The Arcanii seems different to you. Is she from Kavoe Farnea?”
The Holorhi-Nahni’s jaw tensed a fraction. “No, she’s not.”
Aroha raised her hands placatingly. “Feel no need to discuss it if you don’t wish to...”
The Chieftain’s Daughter’s hard eyes soften a touch as she sighed. “It probably doesn’t matter any longer.” She looked over the Legacies tiredly as they collectively focused their attentions on her.
“During one of my father’s voyages to another Merhoii city, Dae Alma Kan, he met their Arcanii and been astonished by her ability as a magic-wielder. He tried to buy her services from Dae Alma’s Holorhi, but they refused, unwilling to surrender her. Nevertheless, the Arcanii wanted to travel beyond Dae Alma, so with my father’s help they stole away in the night together.”
Carter cast a wary look to Sarah before saying, “I don’t imagine Dae Alma Kan’s Holorhi took that well?”
The mermaid shook her head grimly. “She couldn’t prove my father took her Arcanii, so no blood was shed. Not long after, however, their city was taken with plague.”
James turned and moved to the window rather casually. No one took notice but Michael and he said nothing as James decided staring out the window was more interesting than the conversation.
The Holorhi-Nahni continued, “Many died without the Arcanii’s assistance, including the Holorhi, who blamed my father. The whole thing nearly had him removed from his office. Public opinion hasn’t been in his favour since.”
Oliver looked around the dark house, filled to the brim with equipment and supplies. He recognised the way it was crammed full. It was no more than a hovel but it had everything one need to stay alive and sane within four walls. “She doesn’t leave, does she?”
“No. She was persecuted and blamed for many years. We had to move her for her own safety. Only the Holorhi and I know she’s here,” she said, giving them all a severe look. “Our culture expects oneness with our people, something she and my father rejected. As such, she cannot return to Dae Alma Kan. Her decision to leave was as good as banishment.”
Michael grimaced at the thought. “She wanted more from life so that makes her a criminal?”
The Holorhi-Nahni gave a sad smile and her hands idly touched a piece of sea glass on one of the counters. “We all want something out of life that life will never give us willingly. Respect. Comfort. Safety. Love.” She glanced at Michael. “Purpose. It always comes at a price. The Arcanii paid hers. One day, the rest of you will too.”
The rhythmic rush of chanting became loud through the walls. Warped by the weight of the water, the noise growled and thumped like a wolf moving through a dying forest. The sound of rotted wood being crushed beneath a prowling beast married to a low, thunderous growl deep in its belly. Light peeked out from beneath the cracks in the room where she performed her ritual, flashing cold blue to blood red.
Michael paid the sounds of ritual no mind, unable to take his eyes off the Holorhi-Nahni. He watched as she then broke away from the group, moving around the house, picking up odds and ends, doing things with the certainty of someone who was familiar with a place. “That’s why you brought us here. Because it’s the last place the Holorhi can check. But he still will.”
The Mariniad nodded, busily tiding up a set of scrolls. “If he wants to catch you, he’ll have to remind everyone of what ruined his reputation before. He’ll have to show Kavoe Farnea that the Merhoii he brought here is assisting in the escape of fugitives. His failure cascading upon itself.” She slotted them into an empty shelf. “He’ll be removed from power if he comes here. And yes, he will.”
The company looked at her with a profound sense of devastation. They knew exactly what it would mean once her father was removed.
Sarah’s piercing blue eyes were soft in the swell of the water. “We’re so sorry.”
The Holorhi-Nahni glanced at each of their faces and a gentle smile came over her. “I always liked Legacies.”
James ducked away from the window, stricken wide-eyed. “We’re out of time.”
The Chieftain’s Daughter propelled herself through the water to the window and peaked over the ledge out onto the street.
A dozen armed guards, covered with the plate armour of the Kavoe Farnea military were swarming toward the house.
The Holorhi-Nahni cursed in Hoiise, before shouting, “Bar the door! Close those shutters!”
Sarah and Oliver swam around the room and snapped the blinds shut, sealing the room in a dark hue as the others began ripping the shelves from the walls and wedging them against the stone door. They piled up furniture and the Holorhi-Nahni helped roll over the enormous, stone cauldron.
Rose summoned vegetation through the floorboards and bound it all tightly to the stone wheel, grimacing with pain as her Arcancy boiled.
The Holorhi-Nahni pounded on the Arcanii’s summoning room and the stone rolled away, revealing the Shaman with a gash in her hand, colouring the water crimson.
“They’re here.”
The Arcanii nodded. “Time to go then. Remember, I made no promise about where you’d all appear.” She ushered them into the circular room as weapons began pounding on the front door and Hoiise voices shouted, “This is the Kavoe Farnean Guard, open up!”
Inside the summoning room, the walls were stone slab coated in a thick rug of algae swaying lightly with the body-made tide of the hurrying Arcanii and the crowd of Legacies.
Oliver pulled himself into the room with Sarah as Carter and James shot in close behind them.
Rose turned to see the three archers not moving. “We’re out of time, come on!”
Michael nodded and yelled, “Go! I’m right behind you. You two, as well!”
Aroha pushed herself into the room and Nichole followed, glancing back to see Michael stuck to the spot with the Holorhi-Nahni.
Michael looked expectantly to the Merhoii and gestured to the guards now slamming on the barred windows. “You two are coming with us.”
“The Arcanii may be forced to leave, yes, but ultimately she will be fine. She was doing as ordered,” the Holorhi-Nahni spoke softly, touching Michael’s arm. “As for me... well I was only doing what I thought was right. Perhaps they’ll understand.”
Michael’s face became tortured with confusion. “You know what they’ll do to you. You committed treason to help me, I-” the word snagged in his throat. “I tortured your father. You can’t stay.”
“It’s okay, Paladin,” she said gently, attempting to guide him to the door.
“They’ll put you on the block because of me...” he said, shaking off her hand.
A spear blew through one of the window-shutters and another ripped through a gap in the main door, but Michael scarcely noticed.
The Arcanii saw his stone-faced resolve and muttered, “We are Merhoii, Legacy. Even if we wanted to come with you, we’d hardly do well on land.”
Michael let his eyes close and the tears welling behind them disappeared into the waves. “Right.” He gritted his teeth and felt his anger glower. Before it could rise to rage however, the Chieftain’s Daughter took his hand and held it tightly in her own.
“I made my own choice, Michael.”
Michael looked up her and shook his head numbly. “I’m sorry.”
The Holorhi-Nahni chuckled sadly. “I would do it all over again. And, I believe you would have done it for me.”
Michael tightened his grip on her hand and closed his eyes angrily. He wanted to scream. It wasn’t fair. She’d helped him, why wasn’t he able to help her?
As the anger moved through him, it left him feeling hollow and numb. He looked up at her patient eyes.
Their two faces together in that moment were the perfect antithesis. A harmony of pain in its vastly different shades.
A sharp crack shot through the water and the door of the Arcanii’s home had split down its axis.
The Holorhi-Nahni shot a look at the Arcanii and Nichole over Michael’s shoulder.
The mage rushed and grabbed Nichole by the wrist and steered her into the room the others had entered.
Michael could see the Kavoe Farnean military, prying the pieces of stone away with tools, yelling in the cryptic tongue. Michael’s hand still in hers, he pulled her closer and the two lightly touched their foreheads together, holding the moment of silence and sadness for just a moment longer. It could have been a breath or a lifetime, all Michael knew was that by the time she’d taken him toward the door and pushed him inside, it had not been long enough. He didn’t so much as take in the room, instead simply doing everything in his power to keep looking at her. Her forest-green scales, her saddened, emerald eyes.
Michael wanted to speak but couldn’t think of anything to say. All the things he yearned for her to hear were hidden too deeply in his heart to find.
With all but the Chieftain’s Daughter in the room, she began rolling the door closed, not breaking her gaze with Michael. As it came one sliver away from being sealed the soldiers breached the house.
The yells of the guard could be heard in the spell-room and the Arcanii yelled, “Seal the door! Quickly!”
“Michael.”
He turned to the soft voice of the Holorhi-Nahni only to find the door a fraction from closing, and the gentle voice carry her farewell words.
“My name is Aeredith.”
The door closed, leaving the Paladin there with his hands pressed against the stone, trembling as the voices of the guards and the princess were shut away.