Tris stood in silence for a moment watching the weeping mercenary with compassion, and then left Vahanian to his private grief and quietly slipped from the stable, using a flicker of magic to drop the bolt behind him so that no one might intrude.
He barely made it back up the path to the Library when he encountered Carina. "Where have you been?" she asked. "Kiara and Royster sent me to find you. They think they've found something in one of the books. Come on!" she said, and frowned, looking past him. "Is Jonmarc with you?"
Tris shook his head. "He's busy in the stable. He'll be along in a little bit."
Carina looked skeptically at him. "I suspect he'd seen that bit of jewelry before?" Tris drew a deep breath, decided against a lie, and nodded. "I'm amazed he wins at cards at all if that's his best betting face," she replied, but the comment lacked her usual barb. "You don't have to answer, but from that reaction, and the way he acted at the village, I'd bet he didn't have much success fighting off the things the last time." Tris hesitated again, then nodded. "Do you think he'll really leave, once we reach Principality City?"
Tris shrugged. "That's what he says and he's a man of his word." He looked at Carina. "I thought you'd be glad to get rid of him."
It was her turn to shrug. "He's a good sword," she replied noncommittally. "And having patched him up twice, I hate to think what he'll do to himself back on his own."
Tris chuckled. "You may have a point there. But you and Kiara will be going back to Isencroft once we get back to Principality City."
"I know," she replied. "And as homesick as I've been, I'm not looking forward to it."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
When Tris and Carina reached the third floor of the Library, they found Kiara and Royster bent excitedly over a massive book. The yellowed pages were dusty and brittle, and the old ink of the fine handwriting took a bright lantern to decipher.
"Tris, you've got to read this!" Kiara called excitedly, beckoning him to stand beside her. He bent over her shoulder, following her finger as she traced the lines while Royster read.
"'For three days, and three nights, the battle arcane raged between the Obsidian King and the sorceress Bava K'aa,'" he read. "'"Yield to me!" the Obsidian King demanded, "and I will grant you a painless death."
""T will yield only with your death," the sorceress replied.
"'Believing she was wounded mortally, Bava K'aa loosed her last, most potent spell—a gray magic which would bind both of their souls. The Obsidian King had wrought a magicked sphere, which opened into the Abyss itself, with which to catch and bind souls to strengthen his power. Into this Abyss Bava K'aa thought to seal the Obsidian King, even if she must forever stand guard.
'"As Bava K'aa spoke the words of binding, there appeared a great light, and the image of the Lady appeared with them within the warding, between Bava K'aa and the Obsidian King, so that when the final words of power were spoken, the spirit of the King was bound to the crystal orb, but the spirit of Bava K'aa the Lady did not permit to pass. We blinked, and the light and Lady were gone. Bava K'aa fell to the floor. We lifted her up and bore her away, as her wounds, though grave, were not mortal. And the orb was given to the sons of Dark Haven to guard, where it remains to this day.'"
"That's it," Tris breathed. "The Soulcatcher."
Kiara looked to him, puzzled. "Soulcatcher?"
Tris told her of the pulsing orb in Arontala's quarters. "I've been afraid that somehow Arontala found a way to bind Kait's spirit," Tris said. "I keep seeing her in my dreams, pressed against a glass prison, calling for me."
Royster was deep in thought. "Dark Haven is a holding on the Principality border of Margolan," he mused. "Foor Arontala came from there."
"Foor Arontala was one of the sons of Dark Haven," a familiar voice said from the shadows. They looked up to find Gabriel standing in the moonlight that streamed through the mullioned windows. "He betrayed us, and stole the orb."
Tris felt a chill that had nothing to do with the winter night. "Can he free the spirit of the Obsidian King?"
"He will try," Gabriel said. "At the Hawthorn Moon. He has great power, and the blood magic he works has strengthened him even further. You must stop him."
"That's half a year away," Tris replied. "The summer solstice."
"When our world and the spirit world have few, if any, boundaries," Royster said quietly.
"I remember the misery that dark wizard brought. This land cannot sustain another mage of his evil," Gabriel replied.
"You knew my grandmother?" Tris asked. The vayash moru nodded.
"She was a great woman," Gabriel said. "And a trusted friend."
"Who are the sons of Dark Haven?" Kiara asked.
Gabriel looked at her, his dark eyes luminous against his pale skin. "The sons of Dark Haven are Those Who Walk the Night," he replied. "Long has Dark Haven been a refuge for out-kind. Longer still has the temple to the Dark Lady in those hills been sanctuary."
"If Arontala was one of the sons of Dark Haven," Kiara said, "then he is—"
"He is vayash moru," Gabriel confirmed.
"But that doesn't make sense," Kiara argued. "The refugees told me that Jared Drayke was trying to exterminate all vayash mora."
"It is the truth," Gabriel replied. "Arontala is a traitor to his kind because he fears us. He believes that were we to act together, we might be successful against him. There is one more thing he fears, even more," Gabriel said, looking at Tris. "He knows now that you are a spirit mage. He, too, would have been able to feel the power you wielded in the Ruune Vidaya. Arontala fears that we would follow you, should you rise against him."
"And would you?" Tris asked neutrally.
"I believe so," Gabriel replied. "Never have my people sworn allegiance to any mortal ruler. We are a solitary lot," he said, licking at his thin lips. "But I have been to Margolan, and I have seen the burned bodies and severed heads of my kind, and of mortals, killed like vayash moru to feed the fear of those around them. If there are any left when you return, my lord, I believe they will follow you."
"I thought Dark Haven was abandoned," Kiara said.
Gabriel shrugged. "When Arontala stole the orb, he rent the foundations of the great house. In the chaos, the lord of Dark Haven died. Since then, the great house has been empty, awaiting the will of the Dark Lady. But what is ten years out of the course of hundreds?" he replied. "There will be another lord."
"What brings you to Westmarch?" Tris asked.
"I came to speak with Mikhail about some dealings in Dark Haven."
"And I imagine you'll want to do some reading on your own," Royster said with a grin. Gabriel smiled, a disquieting expression that made his sharp teeth more obvious. "I once thought that immortality would answer all my questions," he said in a voice laced with ennui. "Now, I learn that it only disproves my answers, and replaces them with more questions."
"If vayash moru are immortal," Carina said slowly, "how can they be destroyed?"
"Immortal is a relative term, my lady healer," he replied. "Years alone will not destroy us. Nor will disease. But immortality is not the same as godhood. I and my kind can be destroyed, by fire and stake and magic, just as all those the Lady names immortal have some weakness, unless they truly be gods."
"So Arontala can be destroyed," Carina said.
Once more, Gabriel shrugged. "I believe so. That he is vayash moru I know without doubt. But what abilities his magic gives him, and what protections his blood rites have wrought, I cannot say. One thing I do know. The power of blood magic comes at a terrible price. Those who use it to gain strength often become quite vulnerable, if a mage knows where to look."