We all stood around Tyne’s bed, watching the spellslinger who called himself Dexan Videris as he examined the markings around the sleeping boy’s eye.
‘I apologise for sending those men to bring you,’ Beren said, visibly uncomfortable that his son’s life was in another’s hands. ‘I was desperate to find help for my boy, and when I heard the stories about you I couldn’t take the chance that you might refuse to help us.’
‘Well, can’t say I appreciated those ex-marshals using man-catchers on me.’ He reached up and rubbed at his neck. ‘I can still feel those damned metal prongs.’
‘Again, I can’t tell you how sorry I—’
Dexan reached out a hand and patted him on the shoulder. ‘You did what any father would do, I reckon, so no hard feelings. This time.’ He went back to peering down at Tyne. ‘I’m going to touch the markings now,’ he said. ‘It’ll probably hurt, so I need someone to hold the boy down.’
Beren went to his son, but Dexan shook his head. ‘Not you. I ain’t asking a father to make his son suffer.’ He looked at me. ‘Want to help me out, Kellen? I reckon you should watch.’
I glanced at Ferius, then felt ashamed of myself for doing so, and went to hold the boy down. He was so small and weak I didn’t think it’d be much work, but once Dexan got started, it took all my strength.
Dexan reached into a pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a small sliver of glistening black stone. ‘Onyx,’ he explained. ‘Well, a special kind of onyx. Comes from around here actually.’
‘Can it help him?’ Seneira asked.
‘Afraid not. Removing the shadowblack ain’t an easy process. It’ll take days, and that’s only if the most important requirement is met.’
‘If it’s money …’ Beren began.
‘Oh, don’t worry, you’ll have to pay plenty for me to put myself through this again, but no, I’m talking about something else. Now, everybody shut up so I don’t hurt the child more than necessary.’
Dexan gently reached down and pressed one edge of the sliver of onyx against the puffy black flesh around the boy’s right eye. Suddenly Tyne bucked so hard I could barely hang onto him.
‘Hold him,’ Dexan ordered. I did, but part of me couldn’t help but watch what was happening.
The black winding lines around Tyne’s eye were … moving … slithering. The boy started screaming, so loudly and so horribly Seneira tried to pull Dexan away. ‘Stop it! You’re killing him!’
Dexan shrugged her off, continuing to press the onyx sliver even as he spoke a spell under his breath and formed a somatic shape I didn’t recognise with his other hand. A kind of smoke – no, more like a thin black mist – rose up from the boy’s eye.
‘Damn it,’ Dexan said, pulling away. He put the sliver of onyx back in his pocket. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help him.’
Seneira went to her brother’s side, grabbing a cloth and wiping some of the sweat from his forehead. ‘What is it? Why can’t you—’
Dexan turned to me. ‘How much do you know about the shadowblack?’
I chose my words carefully. I wasn’t sure how much of the dark part of our shared history had come out since the death of the dowager magus. I’d told the council, and Shalla knew, which meant my parents did too, but had they revealed the truth? Or did my people still glibly pretend we were a noble culture, seeking only to master the ways of magic to protect ourselves? ‘I know it’s connected to demon magic.’
‘Close, but not quite. The shadowblack isn’t a connection between the victim and some vague demonic energies. It’s a direct link between the victim and an actual demon. That’s why those afflicted suffer horrible visions and have urges to commit terrible acts of violence. It’s the demon pulling at you, demanding subservience, trying to take control once and for all. They prefer mages because, well, mages can do the most harm.’
I shuddered involuntarily.
‘Yeah,’ Dexan said. ‘Puts that particular curse in a whole other light, don’t it?’
‘Please,’ Beren begged. ‘Why can’t you help my son?’
Dexan sighed. ‘Because there’s two parts to the curse.’ He went back to Tyne’s bedside and reached down a finger, almost but not quite touching the markings. ‘This is one aspect, but the other is inside the person who cast it in the first place. Whoever did this to your son is a whole lot more powerful than I am. So long as the dirty rotten son of a bitch is alive, I can’t break the hex. If I try, I’ll just end up killing your boy.’
‘What about Seneira?’ I asked. ‘Can you—’
Dexan shook his head. ‘I don’t need to torture the girl to tell you it’s gonna be the same mage as the one that did her brother. I’m sorry, folks. I really am.’ He walked away from the bed and towards the door.
‘Wait!’ I called out. ‘What are you doing?’
Dexan stopped. ‘I told you, the only way to help that child is to find the person who cast the curse on him and kill them.’
‘Is that what you’re going to do then? Find the mage who—’
‘First rule of spellslinging, kid: don’t mess with another mage’s business.’ He turned to look back at me and I saw something vaguely approaching humility on his face. ‘I’m not like those Jan’Tep masters you knew back home, Kellen. I’m just a spellslinger, like you. All I got’s a couple of spells and a few tricks up my sleeve.’ He held up his forearms to show the faded tattooed bands. ‘I’ve been away from my city’s oasis for a long time now, my spells get weaker every year and I got people chasing me just like you do.’ He looked back at Beren and Seneira. ‘Sorry about the boy, and if you can find whoever did this to him and end them, well, I’ll come back then and do what I can to fix him and his sister.’
He left the room, and Beren came to Ferius and me. It says something about how desperate he was that he looked to us – two strangers he’d only just met hours before – and dropped to his knees. ‘Please,’ he said, grabbing hold of our hands, ‘help me find who did this to my son. Help me kill them.’
It says something about me too that, as I felt the itch on my own markings, I pulled my hand away and ran out the door to chase after Dexan Videris and the chance to cure myself.