The duelist 10, p.1
The Duelist 10, page 1
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Chapter 1
We all had a lot of questions, and I reckoned it was high time we got some answers.
I turned over the cuff I’d stolen from the insane cleric in my hands, and I ran my thumb over the cool, smooth metal of the surface. There was absolutely no detailing, no carvings, it didn’t even appear to have seams, but I could still feel the echo of the magic radiating off it, the equal-and-opposite energy of the machine that had sent the Cursed Eng-folk into a murderous frenzy.
“Jenner,” I said to the koala-man, and he looked up at me.
His expression was still grave, and a heaviness hung in the air around us all, in the wake of Jenner’s proclamation. But I had no doubt in my mind he was right. Horus, Zoie, and I had stumbled across the very scandal Sha-Kane was searching for.
The Councilman had known for years there was something rotten at the heart of the Council, and now he’d found it. We just needed to figure out how to put it right.
“Yes, Alex?” Jenner asked me.
“Take a look at this,” I said, and I passed him the metal cuff. “The cleric we met used this to control the Engish. There was a machine down in the underground tunnels that could…”
I trailed off when I realized I didn’t quite know how to describe what the machine had done to the koala-people, and the fact Jenner was one of them didn’t make it easier, since he probably wouldn’t appreciate being told about how his people were now all crazy.
“I know what befell my brethren who chose to remain upon the Island,” Jenner told me in a firm voice, and he drew himself up to his full height. Though it wasn’t very much, I could sense his determination, and I had to respect it. “And it doesn’t surprise me that there are those who would seek to use it to their advantage. We can be a fearsome people when needs must.”
“Believe me, I know,” Horus said ruefully, but he was smiling as he looked at the koala-man. His arm was wrapped around Anwaar’s waist, and I could see the ibex-woman was deeply shaken, despite the resolute look in her eyes.
She’d always come across as the more reserved and traditional of the two Mec sisters, in contrast to Amaya’s cheerful idealism, and I had to wonder how the revelation that the Order of Mercedes was corrupt to the very top-- as well as the fact Alem was responsible for the Red Skies-- was affecting her.
Anwaar was my sister-in-law after all, in fact, it could be argued she was my sister-in-law twice over, and I cared about her. She was a part of our Crew, and I wanted to be sure she would be alright. Though with Horus and Amaya at her side, I was confident she would be.
“Then you know I can be similarly fearsome,” Jenner said to Horus and me, and he held the cuff tightly in his hands. “I still have my mind, and that is a gift for which I have you to thank, Alex. So, please, don’t feel the need to coddle me or censor yourself. I need to know as much as you can tell me if I’m going to be of any use.”
“And we’re going to need every advantage at our disposal if we’re to stop whatever nefarious plans the Council and the Order are concocting,” Sha-Kane added. “Mr. Jenner is right. Spare no details, my dear boy.”
I nodded and began to explain as best I could. I gave every detail I could remember about the cleric’s bizarre contraption, how it appeared to work, and what it had done to the already-mindless Engish. Horus and Zoie chimed in to provide more specific descriptions wherever they could, and Jenner nodded at the three of us sagely.
I could already see the cogs working in his mind.
“Do you think there’s any way you could reverse-engineer the cuff’s effects?” I finally asked when I’d finished explaining.
By this point, Jenner had sent Rylan to his study to retrieve a notepad, and the koala-man was furiously scribbling notes and ideas. He looked up at me now, and his intelligent eyes were bright behind his spectacles.
I could still scarcely believe he’d fallen victim to the Curse himself only a few days ago. So much of Jenner was his curiosity, his gentle temperament. He’d literally lost his mind, his selfhood, and I was so relieved we had him back, and not just because he was kind of a genius.
“Do you think you could use it to reverse some of the Curse’s effects?” Zoie then asked, and her blue eyes were large and round with hope.
We’d only managed to cure Jenner because Rylan and I had the ability to go into the Dark Realm. We’d physically pried the Curse from Jenner’s head like a tumor.
“Given enough time, and perhaps some of this cleric’s notes, I’m sure I can release my fellow Eng-folk from the cuff’s control and the rage it induces,” the koala-man said in a thoughtful tone. Then his brow was furrowed in grim contemplation. “However, I cannot say what will happen to the Curse in general. The cuff didn’t cause the Curse, it merely exacerbated the Curse’s effects.”
“You would need a High Priestess of the Order to remove the Curse from Eng,” Sha-Kane said. “Or someone of similar magical skill.”
“A Prophetess, perhaps,” Zoie suggested wryly. “Or maybe the Incarnate.”
Shay gave a flattered little laugh, and I reached over to put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the phoenix-woman soundly.
“As blessed as I am by Mercedes, I don’t have the power to lift a Curse,” she said when we parted, and she smiled apologetically as she outstretched a hand to take one of Zoie’s and squeeze it affectionately. “Not directly, anyway. Perhaps if I healed the Heart of Eng properly, that would help, but the Curse itself is not in my power.”
“The Heart of Eng?” Amaya asked. “I thought you healed it when you healed Om. They share a Heart, don’t they?”
“They do, but that Heart isn’t fully healed, either,” the phoenix-woman sighed. “I couldn’t sense it before-- possibly because of the mist that covers Eng. It does more than cloud the minds of the Engish, it… it’s like the mist clouds Eng itself. Almost hidden from view.”
“Has Eng had to deal with demon attacks since the mist descended?” I asked with a frown.
“Possibly, but it’s unlikely there would be any records if it had,” Jenner answered. “But based on the fact that you didn’t mention seeing any in the tunnels, and we didn’t see any when we landed, I would say no. Why? Do you think the mist hides Eng from demons, too?”
“Demons are related to the Heart of an Island being sick,” I said. “They feed off the Heart to sustain themselves, and so poison it, which causes more demons to crop up. If the mist has hidden Eng’s Heart, maybe demons can’t feed off it.”
“How does that help us heal Eng’s Heart, then?” Horus asked.
“It tells us Eng hasn’t had to deal with demons because it’s been cut off from the rest of Aventoll,” I said. “Eng isn’t just linked to Om, right? All of the Hearts are connected. They lie in a perfect circle in the Ocean, a ring of Islands. It was prevented from being further poisoned by the other Islands because of the mist. The mist hid it and protected it.”
“Can you really call the Curse protection, though?” Zoie asked. Her cat ears were flattened back against her head with slight discomfort, and I pressed a kiss to her forehead to calm her.
“Of a sort,” I said. “If we can find a way to lift the Curse, the Eng-folk would surely just return to normal, like Jenner did. But we’d be leaving them open to demons. Because the Heart of Eng would then be vulnerable to the other Hearts.”
“Jenner,” Shay said, and her eyes had become shiny with the beginnings of tears. She reached out to take both of the koala-man’s hands in her own. “I’m sorry I can’t help your people. Madness or demons, it’s a wretched choice.”
“It is, but none of it is your fault, Shay,” Jenner said kindly.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Sha-Kane had stiffened slightly. Clearly, this parental display of affection by Jenner didn’t sit very easy with the osprey-man. In my arms, Zoie had gone tense as well, and I knew she still disapproved of the Councilman’s decision to hide his relation to Horus and Shay.
“Jenner’s right,” I said to my phoenix-wife. “You’ve done all you can to help Eng. You constantly put yourself at risk to save others, love. And while you’re right that madness or demons are pretty shitty choices, they don’t have to be the Eng-folk’s only choices. We’ll figure out how to heal Eng’s Heart fully, then the Engish will be free, like Om.”
“Even that might be temporary, though,” Anwaar warned. “The Hearts interact with one another. If just one is sick, it would infect the others over time.”
“And it’s not feasible for us to keep hopping from Island to Island, chasing the disease,” Zoie agreed.
“It feels like we’re treating symptoms more than the infection itself,” I said with a nod. “It’s inefficient. We’ll need to figure out something more permanent. But for now, Jenner, see what you can figure out from the cuff. There’s no sense in keeping the Eng-folk in their current state any longer than necessary. They can be taught to fight demons, and we can help defend them from the Scourge. Leaving them savage is no kindness.”
“Agreed,” Sha-Kane said gravely. “Beside
“That’s certainly my plan,” I said to the osprey-man with a nod.
Whatever the Council and the Order stood to gain from having demons around, we needed to figure it out, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to figure it out if we didn’t have to constantly fight off hordes of foot soldiers. We needed to shut off whatever caused the Hearts to become sick, and whatever let demons feed off their poisoned magic, if we were to have any chance at confronting the brains behind this conspiracy.
“And I suppose that all starts with the cuff you’re holding, Jenner,” Sha-Kane said to the koala-man with a sigh.
“I suppose it does,” Jenner agreed, and he lifted the cuff up to let it catch the light.
I swore as it glittered that the echo of magic became a little stronger, like the light of the sun, the pure essence of Mercedes’ power, made it a little more powerful, just for a moment.
“Jenner,” I said firmly. “You’re to stay on the ship. If you need anything from the ground, get one of us to fetch it for you.”
Even before we’d come to Eng, I’d known I didn’t want Jenner to go savage, and now that I’d seen it up close-- both in Jenner himself and the amplified madness from the cleric’s machine-- I was in no rush to see it again.
“And I want you to have a… an assistant,” I added, because ‘babysitter’ sounded more than a little demeaning. “Someone to help you, and to keep an eye on you to make sure the cuff’s magic isn’t affecting you.”
“I’ll do it!” Rylan offered. He grinned up at me eagerly, like he was just a regular kid who wanted to watch his grandpa or his elderly uncle tinker away in a workshop. “I can help!”
“Are you sure?” Zoie asked, and she crouched down to be on Rylan’s level. As she ruffled his hair, she cast me a slightly unsure glance, and I shrugged.
“If you promise you can be helpful to Jenner and not just bombard him with questions,” I said with a teasing smile. “He needs to get actual work done, remember.”
“I know,” Rylan said firmly. “I can help! Plus, I’m like you, Dad. I’m immune to a lot of the weird magic stuff that affects the Engish. I’m Traveler blood, like you.”
“You are.” I nodded. “Alright, then. If you promise to obey Mr. Jenner.”
“I promise!” Rylan said with an earnest expression, and he looked at Jenner hopefully.
When the koala-man nodded, Rylan’s face split into a delighted grin.
“Shall we get to work, then, Rylan?” Jenner asked, and Rylan nodded enthusiastically and dashed off toward Jenner’s study with the koala-man in slower-- but no less excited-- pursuit.
I was actually quite relieved Rylan had offered, because he was right. Since he possessed Traveler blood, he was at a much lesser risk of any dangerous magic than full-blooded Aventollians. Not to mention, with everything that had happened over the last few days, everyone else was in serious need of a break. If Rylan had the energy and enthusiasm to help out, who was I to say no? He’d be a man of his own soon, and he needed opportunities to learn and to prove himself. He needed to start making his own mistakes, cleaning up his own messes, and coming to his own conclusions.
And I was desperate to know what he and Jenner would uncover about the cleric, the cuff, and Krev Alda.
“The cuff is only the beginning, though,” I then said. “How that cleric guy was able to control the Engish is one thing, we still need to figure out how the Order and the Council benefit from all this. The Ashers enjoy an elevated status on Aventoll, but it has to be more than that, or the Order wouldn’t be in on it. Or Alem.”
“It’s all tangled up in one big, messy ball,” Horus said as he pursed his lips. “The Order, the Council, the Hearts, the Prophetess.”
“We never did find those buried Archives,” Zoie said in a slightly glum voice. “We got so distracted by that man.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” I told her gently, and I took one of her hands and threaded our fingers together. “You were just focusing on keeping Horus and me alive and out of as much trouble as possible.”
“We still got into a fair amount of trouble,” my cat-wife pointed out as she raised an eyebrow, and I grinned.
“Yeah,” I said. “But imagine how much more trouble we would have been in if you hadn’t been there.”
“Alex is right,” Amaya said with a sweet smile as Zoie let out a laugh. “Don’t worry about the Archives for now. We’ve seen for ourselves how Vel-Rala is the true Prophetess, and regardless of whether she is or isn’t, there’s no way we’d hand her over to the Order.”
The oryx-woman gave a small shudder as she no doubt remembered what her own life was like when she had the prospect of becoming the next Prophetess looming over her. She was a kind, gentle woman, and I knew she would never let anyone take Vel-Rala.
“Luckily, the fact she’s pregnant with an Asher’s child should buy us some time,” I said, and I shot Bodin a grin.
He flushed and looked away, and Vel-Rala laughed softly and patted his cheek.
“But it’s still only a temporary fix,” I went on. “Like Jenner said, the child will be a few seasons old eventually, and the Order will come knocking. Not to mention, there’ll be other Prophetesses in the future. We still don’t know what the Order was planning to use the Prophetess for, but we know they’re willing to wait-- across generations, if they have to.”
Nova made an uneasy trilling noise at that, and I hugged her tight, with my hand rubbing over her arm in a comforting motion. She’d been silent throughout the entire conversation thus far, and I suspected it was because all this talk of demons and Ashers and Prophetesses was dredging up some very painful memories.
“Having the Prophetess shut away like some distant oracle sounds like a good way to get people to obey you unquestioningly,” Zoie said darkly. “But what exactly they want people to obey, we don’t know yet. And we won’t know those details until we dig up the Archives.”
“They’re everything the Order and the Council didn’t want Aventoll to know,” I agreed.
Just that alone was enough to make me want to search for them. That one sentence held the promise of a hundred salacious secrets. I’d never been interested in gossip magazines or the like, but the information in those Archives was sure to be fascinating.
“It would be easier to wait until the mist has been lifted from Eng, though,” Shay said. “It’ll be a lot easier to figure out where the Archives were buried if we can talk to the Eng-folk. Not to mention, some of them might remember pieces of information that are in those Archives.”
“There was a drillbeast in the tunnels, poor thing,” Zoie said, and her ears drooped. “Its snout had been almost completely destroyed from over-drilling. I agree with Shay, waiting is probably the best thing to do.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. Searching for the Archives would be a lot easier with the Eng-folk helping us-- or, hell, it would be easier without all of them trying to tear us to shreds. “And we don’t have the kind of time to keep randomly drilling, anyway. Not with the Order’s obsession with the Prophetess looming over Vela, and not when we know the Council has a vested interest in keeping demons around.”
“The cleric said the Moon created the first demons from the most disrespectful Aventollians,” Horus said thoughtfully. “That transformation magic could only be matched by Mercedes herself, who imbued a few of the most faithful Aventollians with Asher abilities. A tiny fraction of her own transformation magic. The Council knows this magic is divinely mandated. How would the Order stand such heresy? Aventollians trying to be gods?”
“People will put up with a lot for power,” I said. “Power structures where authority isn’t questioned are the easiest to corrupt. People who want absolute power will gravitate to those structures because they know if they get high up enough, they’ll basically be gods themselves.”
“What about those who just want to serve their gods?” Amaya asked, and her rain-colored eyes were round and sad. “Is the entire Order poisoned?”
“Not all of it,” I said firmly, and I cupped her face in my hands. “Not you. Or Anwaar. But higher up, someone is pulling at the strings. Someone wants the power of Mercedes.”
