The Knave of Souls - Fantasy - Sequel to The Jack of Souls

Chapter 2

Even the Iberg do not embrace all magic unequivocally...even they forbid traffic with the Unseen Moon, damning to death those who carry its dark stone to drowning...

        —From "Notes From Abroad," by Sir Martis Wise

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BLACK MOON INTERLUDE

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On a crag above the fort, in a grotto of stone hemmed in with trees gnarled and silvered with age, Fink groveled in the dark before his sisters. Wind moaned through the branches, and the old limbs creaked like the laughter of crones.

Zire, Sic, and Missy loomed above him like a trio of vultures. Chief among them stood Zire, in the form of a pillar of black smoke traced with threads of lightning. Missy and Sic swayed beside her, skeletal shapes coiled in shadow.

"THE COUNCIL HAS FINALLY CONSIDERED YOUR STATUS," said Zire, her voice a grating sub-bass like a stone slab sliding on stone. "THEY CONCLUDE THAT YOU FAILED TO PROTECT YOUR MASTER GREMIO. YOU ALLOWED HIM TO BE SLAIN, AND YOU ALLOWED HIS NEXUS STONE TO BE STOLEN."

"That isn't true!" Fink said.

"YOU WERE WATCHED."

"If I was watched, then someone knows Gremio slew himself! He disobeyed orders. He was to avoid combat, but he got greedy, thinking he'd take the Kwendi secret himself, and what'd he do? He got clobbered, that's what, and the nexus was stolen the second he dropped it—"

Sic moved. White bones in cloaking shadow. "Gremio is the second master to die in your charge." Her voice was a faint hiss like wind among stones.

"I got the stone back! I got the kid."

Sic fell silent. Missy whispered something.

"WE KNOW THAT YOU INITIATED THE YOUNG THIEF," said Zire. "THE OCULUS YOU GAVE HIM WAS NOT SANCTIONED AND WOULD NEVER BE SANCTIONED. DO YOU CLAIM YOU HAVE SECURED HIM IN A BLOOD-SOUL PACT?"

"Of course I have," said Fink, tugging at his nose. "I have a responsibility for that nexus."

The lightning in Zire's smoke intensified. "FIRST AN UNSANCTIONED OCULUS, NOW AN UNSANCTIONED MASTER. YOUR NEW MASTER MUST BE DESTROYED. THEN WE WILL TAKE YOU TO THE BLACK CIRCLE TO BE CONSUMED."

Before Fink could speak, a clawed hand reached from the smoke to seize him as if she'd consume him then and there.

He squeaked and hopped backward. "I just got an inside track to the secret of the Kwendi magic! You need me! Mother needs me!"

Zire halted her advance. Missy turned her skeletal head to Zire. "He speaks truth," said Missy, in a voice like mournful owl.

"Missy understands," Fink said, gaining confidence in Zire's silence. "Initiating Harric means we're in. That oculus means he needs me. He has to trust me. And as long as he's with the Kwendi, I'm with the Kwendi. And you know where they're going? Nowhere less than the Kwendi's secret city. So don't speak to me of 'unsanctioned initiation.' That oculus is our key to the secret of the Kwendi magic."

The sisters stood in stunned silence. Fink grinned. This matter went to the highest and most urgent of Mother's schemes—higher than any one present had ever reached.

Sic's voice slanted in from the side, an echo of wind in a chimney. "This is a high claim. Mother will know of it, and we will return with her will. If she grants your life, know this: if you fail to acquire the secret to the Kwendi magic, you will be consumed."

"I WILL CONSUME HIM MYSELF," said Zire.

"Right, only, no, you won't, Zire," said Fink, "because when this is over, Mommy's going to reach down to weak little untrustworthy demoted outcast Fink and lift him on high to sit at her side at the very center of her web. And she'll grant me a noble form—something real sleek, like a pillar of fire—and then I'll demote your sorry carcass for being an insufferable obstruction to greatness and send you scampering to fetch me treats."

Zire rose, expanding above him like a colossus climbing up from its knees, a juggernaut of billowing rage. Missy and Sic stepped back, and Fink's impit heart fluttered.

Now I've done it.

He timed his leap to avoid the blow, springing up with a desperate flap of his wings. In that moment, the three sisters vanished, and he saw his mistake. The air collapsed around the space they'd occupied with a deafening clap, and the wind of it plucked Fink sideways from the air. The gust dashed him against a tree, and he crumpled onto the roots.

Howls of sisterly laughter echoed in his skull.

Spitting curses, he rose. He tested his wings. Tested his limbs. Nothing broken.

As he fled the scene, he allowed himself a secret smile. The kid's trick had worked. He'd told them he had a new master, but in fact he was free, and his sisters couldn't tell the difference.

J<7'

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