The three of them kept watch of the house from a nearby alleyway. When night came, the man who was likely the cult leader came home. Several other people arrived soon after, going right inside.
“Looks like they are having a meeting tonight,” Eiva said.
A moment after the last of the cultists went inside, someone else headed for the door. Whoever it was lowered the hood of their tan cloak, glancing back briefly. The moon wasn’t bright, but Rian didn’t need it to be. He could see who it was clearly.
“Ransey,” Halbert muttered.
Ransey went inside the house. Halbert followed, with Eiva and Rian close behind. They entered the house just in time to hear screams from downstairs. The three of them ran down the basement steps. Ransey threw a cultist against the wall, biting off a chunk of their arm before shoving them aside. Two other cultists were bleeding on the ground. The rest were drawing their weapons.
There wasn’t anyone strapped to the table at the front of the room, but Rian could see the dark bladed dagger through the cult leader’s belt. The sound of shattering glass came from upstairs, then cawing ravens flew down the stairs and into the basement. Halbert looked at Eiva.
“I didn’t call them,” Eiva said. “It’s like they know when there’s trouble.”
Ransey ran at another cultist. Eiva drew her sword and got between them, striking at Ransey. He moved to the side swiftly, the blade not getting anywhere near him. He grinned at Eiva, blood dripping down his face from sharp teeth with dark stains on them. The iris and pupil of his dark brown eyes had grown, blocking out the white entirely. The cultists were running for the stairs while Ransey was distracted.
The one with the dagger tried to run past Rian. He grabbed the man, trying to get the dagger, but the man threw him off. Rian’s hood fell back as he hit the ground. The man had pulled the dagger from his belt, but his eyes went wide when he saw Rian. Rian got to his feet quickly, grabbing the dagger. The man let go of it, running for the stairs with the other cultist. Rian pulled his hood back up.
Ransey looked at Halbert. “Mortua rewards loyalty.”
“How unfortunate I missed the opportunity to eat human flesh,” Halbert said.
Ransey glared. “I know Beth’s fate, and it’s your fault. Her soul will not be allowed to move on so long as yours remains in Ivrua.” He glanced at the dagger Rian held, then lunged at him.
Ransey moved too fast for Rian to get out of the way. Ransey grabbed him, throwing him to the floor and taking the dagger. Ransey ran for the stairs. Eiva pulled Rian to his feet, then she, Rian, and Halbert ran after Ransey. By the time they made it out of the house, the ravens flying out ahead of them, Ransey and the cultists were out of sight. Even the wounded had escaped.
Rian and Eiva looked at Halbert.
Halbert said nothing for a long time. “We shouldn’t stay here.”
Rian and Eiva followed Halbert back to the graveyard.
“Should we go after the next cult?” Eiva asked.
Halbert nodded. “We don’t know if Ransey already knows where that one is as well. If the Sancta knows, Mortua may know and may have told him.”
Rian hadn’t thought of that.
Eiva hesitated. “I think we should stop by the archive first.”
Halbert looked at her. “For what?”
“Maybe we can find out what happens to the souls Mortua doesn’t allow to move on, where she keeps them.”
“Maybe,” Halbert said, sounding a little less tense. “We’ll go there in the morning, but we do need to get to the next cult before Ransey.”
Eiva went to the inn. Rian and Halbert stayed in the graveyard, neither of them saying anything. Rian didn’t hear the voices of the dead or see Trivius that night. Eiva met them in the graveyard in the morning and the three of them went to the archive. They avoided the center of the building, where the archivist would be at his desk.
They searched until midday, finding nothing on where Mortua might keep the souls of the dead she kept from moving on. No book even suggested she might keep souls from moving on. Rian did find a book that mentioned the Raven Witch. He showed it to Eiva.
“She’s one of the old beings that some with wild magic have learned shapeshifting from over the years,” Eiva said. “She’s said to live in a bespelled forest past the Grove of Thorns.”
“We’ll go there after we find the cult in Brush,” Halbert said.
Eiva frowned. “We haven’t found anything on Mortua yet.”
“And it’s likely we won’t find it here,” Halbert said. “She wouldn’t want it known that she keeps any souls from moving on.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Halbert was right, but Rian still hoped they could find some way to help Beth. The three of them left the archive, then left Derwen. They reached Brush late at night. Eiva went to the inn and Rian and Halbert went to the graveyard. In the morning, Eiva went to the archive to find out where the cult leader worked and lived. She returned to the graveyard with word the leader was a woman who worked at the bakery.
The archive had been a tiny building, with hardly anything other than the census, but that had made the census easy to find. The three of them found the house at the edge of the village where the cult leader lived alone. She didn’t appear to be home. They found an open window at the back of the house. The front door had been locked. The house was tiny, too small for it to be where the cult met. Eiva found the woman’s journal in the bedroom.
“She too dreamed of Mortua giving her the dagger and telling her what to do with it.” Eiva flipped through the pages. “Nothing else about the dream.” She sighed and set the journal back on the floor by the bed.
Eiva knelt, looking at something under the bed.
“Find something?” Halbert asked.
Eiva stood, holding a few bits of what looked to be a dried plant. She smiled. “These herbs, used properly, could cause a strong hallucination and make someone very susceptible to something they want to hear.”
“Such as that Mortua wants something from them, a loyal fanatic?” Rian asked.
Eiva nodded. “Exactly like that.” She dropped the herbs back under the bed where she’d found them. “One of those herbs grows only in the royal conservatory of Acra. It’s extinct everywhere else. Too much is poisonous. Someone knew what they were doing.”
“Such as an herbalist?” Halbert asked.
Eiva nodded again. “Maybe the herbalist even knows about poisons like the one used on Odell in Veron. Whoever did this has to have had access to the king’s conservatory.”
Rian noticed something sticking out from under the pillow on the bed.
Eiva had seen it too. She moved the pillow aside, revealing a dagger wrapped in cloth. She unwrapped the dark dagger, then slid it through her belt. “Do we still need to find where the cult gathers?”
“That might be difficult,” Halbert said. “They could gather anywhere in or outside of the village. I think we need to go to Acra.”
“I think so too,” Eiva said.
Rian hoped they would find who they were looking for in Acra. If the herbalist worked for the king, they likely lived in Isley. The main city wasn’t a small place, but at least they had something to go on now. Had whoever enchanted the daggers also been involved in the poisoning of Odell? Why? The three of them left the house the way they came. They went back to the graveyard.
“What do we do about the dagger?” Eiva asked. “Are the Sancta the only ones who can destroy it?” She took it from her belt and handed it to Halbert.
Halbert looked the dagger over. “I think Rian and I could destroy it.” He set it on the ground, then looked at Rian. “Say what I say. It will be like sealing the Bone Garden.”
Halbert spoke in that language Rian didn’t understand. Rian felt magic gathering in the air. He said what Halbert was saying, stumbling over the words at first. Then the words seemed to say themselves. The magic focused on the dagger. Cracks spread through the blade, then it shattered. The dagger crumbled away into nothing more than ash. The magic faded away. Rian swayed, having hardly any energy left.
He sat on the burial ground, energy flowing back into him. Halbert sat as well.
“Was it difficult?” Eiva asked.
“Very,” Halbert said.
They didn’t stay there long, only long enough for Rian and Halbert to gather a little energy. They were on their way out of the village when a Sancta Knight hurried toward them. Eiva reached for her sword, but Halbert put a hand on her shoulder.
The young knight stopped to catch his breath. He didn’t look about to attack. “I was sent to give you the purified objects and to tell you to seal the way to the Bone Garden.” He held out a bag that had been across his shoulders. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Halbert took the bag. “We’ll seal the way.”
The knight looked relieved. “I should get back to the Sancta.” He hurried away.
“Maybe he hadn’t been back recently,” Rian said.
“If he had, he probably would have come to deliver his sword to our insides,” Eiva said.
Halbert looked in the bag. “All the objects are here. We should go there before Acra.” He looked at Eiva. “We’ll be close to the forest where the Raven Witch is said to be.”
Eiva frowned hard. “Maybe if there’s time we can go there, but we do need to get to Acra.”
The three of them left the village, reaching the Grove of Thorns after sunset. The Grove of Thorns was a clearing in a dense forest. Nothing grew there, not even grass. Thorned vines occupied the edges of the clearing, but they were low enough to step over. There was no one else there.
“Wasn’t the Sancta going to guard this place until the way was properly sealed?” Eiva asked.
Halbert nodded. “The knights must have gone back to the Sancta. The Sancta is distracted by their trial.”
Eiva frowned. “I think we were followed. I heard something a ways back, and I don’t think it was an animal.”
“Very good,” Thorley said, stepping over the thorns at the edge of the clearing.
Thorley was an elemental mage, one with powerful wind magic, whom Eiva had asked about her strange magic. He was a tall, older man with short dark gray hair that was a wild, frizzy mess. He looked at the three of them with dark gray eyes. He had refused to help Eiva unless they took him to the Bone Garden. He had attacked them when they refused to take him there.
Eiva sighed. “This place is dangerous.” She had a hand on the hilt of her sword.
Thorley smiled unpleasantly. “I’ve searched for it for a long time, and now you’ve led me right to it. You may as well open the way now.”
“Eiva, can you hold him off while we complete the seal?” Halbert asked.
Eiva nodded, drawing her sword. Ravens cawed in the distance, the sound getting closer swiftly.