Chapter Four
A few minutes later, Rowan and I materialized inside Amelia’s laboratory. I shook my head, impressed. No one could cast a faster transport spell than Rowan.
The lab itself looked more cluttered than usual, and that was quite a feat for Amelia and Kade. Both of them couldn’t cast spells, but Rowan and I had gifted them some hybrid power, enabling Kade and Amelia to share energy through their mate bond. That gift still didn’t allow them to cast spells, however. That said, it did empower them to bare their souls to each other, which Kade thought an infinitely better kind of magick.
Most days, Rowan and I invested our time in magick and mage craft, while Kade and Amelia were obsessed with gears and steam. This entire lab was a labyrinth of tables that overflowed with springs, sheet metal, and tools of various kinds. More strips of copper and long bolts hung from the ceiling in an elaborate pulley system. The effect was like being encircled by a clockwork cloud. As a result, I couldn’t see Amelia or Kade, but I did hear the steady clink-clank of metal which told me they were off tinkering somewhere.
I cupped my hand by my mouth. “Amelia? Kade?”
A chorus of clanging noises sounded. “Yow,” cried Amelia. “My head.”
Rowan and I shared a sly look. Amelia was forever forgetting she had hung so many metal items from the ceiling. It was a wonder the girl hadn’t given herself a black eye yet.
“We’ve come to visit,” called Rowan.
“Don’t move, I’ll find you,” replied Kade.
As Rowan’s brother made his way through the lab, the various bits of metal rattled and gonged. The place was huge, and thanks to the pulley system, it changed constantly. Within seconds, Kade appeared from around a tall pile of copper wiring. Like always, Kade reminded me of a smaller version of Rowan: he was tall and broad chested with green eyes and messy brown hair. His worn leathers held the insignia of the personal guard of Genesis Rex.
Kade wrapped Rowan in a deep hug. “Brother. It is good to see you.”
“Good to be seen.” Rowan glanced my way, which was my mate’s way of encouraging Kade to greet me as well.
Kade turned toward me and gave a curt half-bow. “Elea.”
Disappointment weighed heavily in my heart, but I leaned in to my Necromancer training to hide my emotions. I bowed slightly in return. “Kade.”
Sadly, it was always this way between me and Kade. I knew Rowan wanted more. So did I, for that matter. Kade accepted me as his brother’s mate, but he didn’t relish the idea of having me in the royal family. I seemed to trail death and destruction behind me wherever I went.
In that sense, Kade wasn’t wrong. I wouldn’t necessarily want a family member caught up in my supernatural drama, either. Even so, a mate bond couldn’t be denied. Even being physically separated from Rowan started an ache in my heart and bones. There was no going back now.
Amelia was next to appear from behind the curtain of gadgetry. She wore her hair in perfect red ringlets to her shoulders. Kade had made sure she had pink Caster leathers to wear instead of her flouncy gown, which Amelia adored. My friend still reminded me of a living porcelain doll, only this variety was far more ready for battle. Or in Amelia’s case, blowing things up. There was no missing the scorch marks on Amelia’s leathers. My friend had been running explosion tests again.
The moment Amelia laid eyes on me, she bounced on the balls of her feet. “Elea! You got our message.” Before I could reply, my friend had crossed the space between us and pulled me into what I call her dance-hugs. This is where we embraced tightly while shifting our weight from foot to foot. It was all Amelia and completely wonderful.
I was so happy to see my friend it took me a few moments to realize that Amelia had said something about a message. “No, we didn’t get any message from you. Rowan and I came because I spied on the Sire and Lady, and they mentioned your name. I wanted to be sure you’re all right.”
“That’s so nice,” said Amelia quickly. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the maze of metal.
Now, if most people had just been told they were a topic of conversation for the gods, then they’d have a lot of questions. Not Amelia. The fact that she said that’s so nice meant my friend was leagues deep into a mechanical project of some kind and wanted me to see it right away. Nothing else mattered.
Kade, however, did not miss the comment at all. He followed one step behind Amelia and me. “Gods? What did they say about my mate?” His words came out as a snarl.
“Just listed her name, that’s all,” I called over my shoulder. “At the time, I couldn’t hear much of what they were saying…just a snippet of a word here and there. Amelia’s name was all I heard.”
“May I have a minute of your time, brother?” asked Kade. That boded ill. The edge in Kade’s voice said that the conversation would take far more than a minute. Kade had never been enthusiastic about our plan to spy on the gods. No doubt, he was worried that my actions were dragging my friend into danger.
Again, he wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
Every so often, I wondered about hiding from the world. Perhaps I could retire to some small Cloister and wait until all this was over, one way or another. Then, I’d realize the truth. I couldn’t protect myself and my friends, but leave the rest of the world to Viktor’s not-so-tender mercies. After all, Rowan and I were the only ones who could fight him.
Amelia dragged me past a long curtain of what looked like metal hair and stopped at a small clearing on the lab floor. In the center of the space, there was the statue of a kneeling figure that had been made of bronze, wood, and stone. It wore scraps of black leather that had probably once been part of a Necromancer robe. Arms, legs, even the jawline…all the pieces of the statue had movable parts. It was a life-sized doll.
And it looked a lot like me.
As I stepped around the figure, the world took on a dream-like quality. Who would make a statue that looked somewhat like me? I knew the Casters were just starting to warm up to the idea of me as Rowan’s mate. It seemed a little early for them to be carving statues. Besides, Caster statues were typically enchanted stone. This creation was definitely mechanical.
A dozen questions flew through my mind at once. Leaning in to my Necromancer training, I calmed my mind and selected the query that would give me the most information. “Tell me how you made this.”
Amelia bounced on the balls of her feet once more. “Made this? No me. I found it! You know how Kade and I have been visiting my great grandfather, Justinian?”
“Yes.” I glanced around, looking for Kade and Rowan. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their voices rumbling from not too far away. I’d have liked to have Kade here to tell his side of the story, but I supposed that would have to wait. It always took a little while for Rowan to explain why we had to do things for the best of the Casters, not only Kade’s mate. It was an argument Kade never liked to hear.
“Well, on our last visit, we stopped waiting at the doorstep for entry to Justinian’s chateau. Instead, Kade broke the door down, and we got into a battle with three mages.” Amelia lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It didn’t go well for the mages. I used my new dart shooter on them.” She pulled what looked like a miniature crossbow from her jacket. “Took them down like that.”
“You killed them?” I knew Amelia had been getting battle training from Kade, but somehow I never thought she’d use it.
Kade stepped out into our group. Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled Amelia into his arms and spun her about in a circle. “Amelia had to kill those fiends; they were attacking without provocation or remorse. My mate is fearsome in battle.”
Amelia set her hands on Kade’s shoulders. Her big blue eyes sparkled with delight. “I wasn’t that scary.”
“Yes.” Kade brushed a gentle kiss over her lips. “You were.”
Rowan walked out of the maze and into our group. When he saw the statue, he froze in place. His eyes narrowed. “What’s this? Who’s making statues of Elea?”
Amelia broke free from Kade’s embrace and started circling the statue, touching bits of bronze or stone as she went. “As I was saying, we broke into Justinian’s castle and finally got to speak with the old goat.”
“You did?” Bands of excitement tightened about my chest. This might be the information we were looking for. “Did he tell you where the Sword was?”
Amelia sniffed. “He said the Sword was hidden and would find me when the time was right.” Amelia poked at a bit of worn leather on the statue. “The man really was useless, but then Kade had the idea to search the chateau, and we found this statue.”
Kade turned to Rowan. “I had the palace mages transport it back here to the laboratory. They ran some Assessment Spells on it. The thing is made of bronze gears, wood, stone, and some small leather bits. It was made by Amelia’s forebears.”
“This certainly looks like the work of your family,” I said.
“The mages also ran an Age Incantation on it. You won’t believe the results.” Kade gestured toward the kneeling figure. “That’s two thousand years old.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Two thousand years old? Are you certain?”
Amelia kept poking at the statue’s shoulder. “Positive. They ran the spell about a dozen times.”
Two thousand years old, so it was built around the last time someone was sacrificed during the Martyr’s Comet. Plus, this statue looked like me and was an heirloom of Amelia’s family. Instead of getting answers, every time I got more information, I only turned up more questions. In this case the query went something long the lines of: What in blazes is going on here?
“Did the mages get the figure to do anything else?” asked Rowan. “It looks like it was designed to move.”
“The mages didn’t.” Kade beamed with pride. “Amelia did.”
“It took some tinkering, but I got it to work a little,” said Amelia. “This dolly-mech doesn’t function like it should.”
My brows lifted. “Dolly-mech?”
“It needed a better name than statue.” Amelia pointed to the statue’s base. “You can see that this was broken off from a larger set of dolly-mechs. I think there were three figures in the original piece. That’s why I can’t get it to do everything it was created to do, but I have gotten our dolly-mech here to say a few things.” Amelia stood behind the figure and fiddled with some tiny buttons and levers on the back of its neck.
A small door on the back of the dolly-mech’s head swung open. Amelia began fiddling with whatever was inside this machine’s head. For a few long seconds, there was nothing but silence.
After that, the dolly-mech moved.
The figure lifted its head and opened its eyes. Metal creaked and groaned as its jaw moved. “I am Elea,” it said.
Her words ricocheted around my head. I am Elea? How can that be?
“And she looks like you,” gushed Amelia. “What are the chances?”
“What are the chances indeed,” I said slowly. Other Necromancers like me had died every two thousand years for these damnable gateways. Had the girls all shared my name as well as my proposed fate? If so, it didn’t bode well for me getting out of this alive.
“The Sword of Theodora is in two parts,” continued the dolly-mech. “Do you have both?”
My brows lifted. “The Sword is in two parts? That’s news.”
The figure blinked over and over. “Do you…Do you…”
“Oops.” Amelia bent over the figure again. “This happens sometimes.” A soft clang sounded as Amelia fixed something inside the dolly-mech’s head. “Ah, here we go.”
The dolly-mech began speaking again. “The Martyr’s Comet has come at last. It is time to heal the gateways. I am prepared to make my sacrifice…Sacrifice…Sacrifice…”
As the dolly-mech stayed stuck on the word sacrifice, I thought back to the many Necromancers like me who died to fulfill the Prophecy of the Martyr’s Comet. I stepped against Rowan’s side; he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“Yipes, she’s never said that before.” Amelia fiddled with the dolly-mech’s head, and the figure froze in place. “Sorry about that. I’m sure you don’t like being reminded of, you know.” Amelia slammed the tiny door shut on the back of the dolly-mech’s head. “That’s all she’s ever said. What an odd happenstance, finding her like we did.”
Rowan pulled me closer against his side. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
I leaned my cheek against Rowan’s shoulder. “It’s maddening. Instead of finding out what the big picture is, I keep getting more unrelated puzzle pieces. Are these dolly-mechs all part of some greater plan? If so, how?”
Amelia nibbled on her thumbnail. “So, does that mean you’re going to do it? You’ll call Mlinzi and Walinzi tonight?”
“That’s the idea,” I said. And as soon as the words left my lips, I wished they rang with more confidence. “We’ll join the Festival of Monkeys and make our wish with everyone else.”
Rowan kissed the top of my head. “Perhaps they won’t even answer our call for information.”
“It’s possible,” said Kade as he glared at me. I knew what the man was thinking. It might be possible it was anyone other than Elea.
Rowan raised his right arm, which was a sure sign he was beginning a spell. “Let’s go back to our rooms and get ready. The festival starts soon, and we need to prepare. I’ll cast the transport spell.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’ll always take you up on any offer to transport.”
“I’ll take that as a complement.” The veins in Rowan’s arm began to glow with crimson light as he pulled in more energy for his spell. Rowan glanced at Kade and Amelia. “We’ll see you there, yes?”
Rowan’s brother and my best friend barely had time to reply yes before Rowan and I were encircled in red smoke. The transport spell had begun.
Soon, it would be time to get ready for Mlinzi and Walinzi.
That said, I didn’t know if anyone could truly be ready for trickster gods. The most I could do was expect the unexpected and hope it ended up with my having the Sword of Theodora and some way to avoid death in three days.
But that wasn’t a comforting thought at all.