CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

T wo nights camping in the desert with these brutish men had left a lot to
be desired. Drake was the only one of them who seemed to have any
sense of hygiene, while the others spent far too much of their time burping,
farting and spitting. I didn’t even bother to hide my revulsion, my upper lip
curling whenever they offended me with their uncouth behaviour, knowing
they could do fuck all about my disgust with them as I was the map they
needed to find the treasure.
I kept Azurea’s scale on me at all times, aware those arseholes kept
sniffing around looking for it, knowing it would fetch a pretty price back in
the city. A scale which could summon a dragon? That held value in itself,
and that was before you took into account the value of the material it was
made of.
 We packed up camp early and headed off before the sun had risen,
getting the most out of the cooler hours of the day. We were back to
traipsing up and down the endless dunes, but luckily, we’d found a small
stream back in the ravine and had managed to fill our water barrel which
was strapped to one of the camels. Drake and I had also taken the
opportunity to wash while we could and I was endlessly glad of that.
We rode out into the darkness, the stars above the only source of light as
we gained as much ground as we could before dawn. We were getting close
now, the cave waiting for us so near I could almost feel it with every mile
we got under our belt. But with that came trouble, because I had to find a
way to escape these cutthroats after I was no longer useful to them. And my
plan at the moment was to hijack the camel who carried the water, because
if I ran off without a drop of moisture with me, I was dead regardless.
As dawn arrived, the sun cresting the horizon and painting the desert
gold, I reached for the vision Magdor had placed in me, finding no more
directions gifted to me. It should have been here. Right here. And yet there
was nothing for miles in every direction.
I drew my camel to a halt and Drake called out to slow the men as he
trotted his camel to my side.
“Where next?” he demanded and I swallowed, looking around for some
clue, but this was where the oasis should have been. The vision showed it to
me clear as day, and yet there was nothing here in reality.
Fuck. What do I do?
“What’s going on?” Jador barked as he guided his camel towards us.
“Where next, lawman?” he snarled.
I schooled my expression and pointed ahead of us. “That way.”
The others moved on immediately, but Drake caught my reins, leaning
over so he could speak into my ear.
“You don’t look so sure about that, Cassius,” he hissed, and the
murderous glint in his eyes made my hand rest on the hilt of my sword.
Before I could reply, a cry sliced through the air and we both turned
sharply towards it, finding the men galloping out of sight over a dune on
their camels, but I couldn’t see what had caused the stir.
“Maybe the treasure is beyond that dune,” I said hopefully, and Drake’s
eyes sparkled like rhinestones at that possibility.
“Yah!” he cried, spurring his camel into a run and mine took off after
his as we raced up the dune.
 More cries carried back to us and my concern started to grow as we
barrelled up the dune, because those didn’t sound like cries of joy. They
sounded like ones of fear.
Drake forced his camel to a halt at the top of the dune, but the beast was
moving so fast, it nearly stumbled down over the edge of it. I caught hold of
the saddle, bracing the beast and using my animal Affinity to try and send
calming thoughts its way as Drake got control of it, my gaze dropping onto
the men at the base of the dune and making my breath hitch in alarm.
The sand was moving, shifting like a roiling sea beneath them and a
warning cry ripped from my throat on instinct, “Basilisks!” I bellowed, just
as the first of the gigantic snakes exploded out of the sand beneath them. Its
scales blended perfectly with the golden sand, the creature able to
camouflage itself in any surroundings. Its head was huge and its eyes
starkly white with razor sharp slits down the middle of them. Curving fangs
filled its mouth, but the four at the front were the largest of all, dripping
with venom that could paralyse a horse with one drop.
One of the men fell from his camel with a scream, hitting the sand and
getting a camel foot to the face as the animal fled.
Drake turned his camel back and I was about to do the same when a
basilisk ripped out of the sand behind us, rising up like a cobra and lunging
towards Drake. He stabbed a knife through the air, slamming it up into the
snake’s jaw, making it shriek and fall back. But it only bought us a moment
of time as two more burst from the sand, as large as three chariots stitched
together.
“Go!” I barked as the men’s screams sounded behind us and they urged
their camels to climb the dune in our direction.
“Don’t leave me!” the man on the ground wailed and one glance back
showed me his end as one of the snakes swallowed him whole, his screams
still echoing out from within its body for several agonising seconds.
Drake had circled the dunes and made it beyond the snakes which
slithered back beneath the sand below us, and I tore after him, drawing my
sword and swinging it as I readied to fight for my life.
Ahead of us, the horizon glistened, a wave of heat rippling on the edge
of forever and my gaze snagged on it as it glimmered then changed, the
sand seeming to shift as a rainbow of colours fanned across the dunes.
A snake burst from the ground ahead of my camel, making it honk in
surprise, the words “Evil sand worm!” flaring in my head as my gifts
picked up the animal’s fear.
I swiped the scimitar through the air in a deadly blow, the Forken sword
like a dream to work with as it cut through skin and bone, beheading the
basilisk in one clean strike.
The camel leapt clumsily over its body, honking again in panic as we
took chase after Drake who was slashing his knife at any monster which
struck at him or his steed.
A prickle of magic washed over me and an oasis appeared before us,
stretching out ahead of us in place of the endless desert. Two lush green
mountains which shouldn't have existed in the Lyrian sat right at the heart
of it, the rush of a stream and the call of birdsong sent my heart pattering
and my lips parted in awe at this incredible defiance of nature.
“Into the oasis!” I roared, though it was unnecessary as everyone was
clearly heading there as fast as their camels would carry them anyway.
I turned to the gang to find them smiling wickedly at the sight before us,
proving that this was no illusion.
The snakes didn’t seem able to cross into it, slithering back into the sand
as they got close and Drake whooped as he made it to safety.
The sand turned to grass beneath us and a cheer left my own throat as I
pulled up alongside the thief, his wide smile bringing one to my own lips.
“Fuck me, that was fun,” Drake said and I sheathed my sword, unable to
deny those words as the rest of the men made it to us. I was kind of
disappointed there were still six of them standing, because the odds of me
making it out of here alive were heavily stacked against me. It was also
clearer than ever that Drake hadn’t been joking when he’d told me he cared
not for any member of his gang – there wasn’t so much as a mention of the
dead man as we turned to move further into the oasis and it was clear not
one of the men surrounding me mourned him.
We delved into a deep forest of palm trees where the air was thick with
moisture and laughter spilled from my lips at the relief of falling into the
shade of this hidden paradise. I sighed under the shelter of the trees, the
cooler air a blessing after days of baking in the sun.
A chorus of tropical birds sounded all around us and the gurgling of a
river called us on. It wasn’t long before we found it and we hurried forward,
letting the camels take an eager drink. Drake drew his animal up alongside
mine as the gang dropped down and ran into the river to quench their thirst.
 Drake tugged his cloak off and stripped his tunic too, tipping his head
back and closing his eyes as he smiled up at the canopy of leaves overhead.
I eyed the tattoos on his skin once more, itching with questions over
them as I took in their foreign shapes and intricate details. There was
something powerful about them, each of them so similar and yet somehow
endlessly different all at once. No piece was too close to another, the bare
skin between them like a network of empty chasms which ran across his
muscular body.
“Come on, Cassius, drink,” he commanded before dropping from the
back of his own beast and moving to the stream to quench his own thirst.
I followed him to the soft ground, dunking my head beneath the cool
water and relishing the feeling of the droplets running down my spine as I
surfaced again. I drank long and deep, satisfying the burning desire in my
body for moisture and sating my parched mouth.
But I didn’t linger any longer than it took to fulfil my most pressing
needs. I was anxious to get moving, wanting to get my hands on that coin in
case Magdor had already found someone else to bribe into coming here. A
triumphant smile pulled at my lips. That coin was going to kiss the edge of
my new sword and whatever foul intention she had for it would be
vanquished as surely as I could manage.
I reached for the hilt of my blade, but found it missing, my heart
lurching in surprise as I whirled around in search of it.
A glint of sunlight caught my eye and I turned to find Drake flipping the
scimitar over in his grip casual as fuck, having unsheathed the blade after
he'd stolen it. Again.
How does he do it? It's like he has invisible arms.
“That's Forken steel,” I said, reaching for it but he held it away,
balancing it in his palm.
“And it's Forken beautiful,” he chuckled at his own joke.
I gritted my teeth, wondering if he knew the worth of that blade. It was
the strongest material known to Fae. The Forkens were renowned for their
beautiful and near-invincible weaponry, and luckily for my emperor, he had
an alliance with them. Of course, they loved to claim that was because their
steel was made by the gods themselves, but it was no doubt just a boast to
gain the fear of other kingdoms and empires, but that hadn’t stopped the
Quellioths trying to invade them.
 Anger grew in my chest as I tried to figure out what it would take to
reclaim that prize, but before I had to make any kind of decision, Drake
handed it back to me.
I observed him suspiciously as my fingers closed around the weapon,
unsure why he was happy for me to keep it and feeling like I was on the
back foot with him once again.
“Your fingers are lighter than any thief I've ever known. Is it some
magic?” I asked, sheathing the scimitar again and tying it at my hip.
“No,” he said cockily. “It's pure skill.” He shrugged at me in that way
that said he owned the world.
How did someone with absolutely nothing to his name have so much
confidence? As if he were a far richer man. Perhaps he was already
spending the treasure in that cave, presuming his wealth or perhaps his
position in this world wasn’t as bad as he had led me to believe. But
somehow, I was certain that wasn’t it. He was just fully confident in
himself, in his own talents, and he made no apologies about any of it. I had
been raised to be proper and follow social expectations, trained to become a
man of steel and show no emotion at all, but Drake was just utterly…
himself. I couldn’t even convince myself that that was an entirely terrible
thing either.
I knew it was bad form for me to allow The Forty to get their hands on
any of that trove, but I was satisfied that Azurea would come to claim most
of it, ensuring no more sinners were able to get close to it. Letting these
men take a cut was a trade-off that would allow me to destroy the coin. And
frankly, I was starting to give less of a damn about my code of conduct
since I had no one to answer to right now. But if I one day managed to
expose Magdor for what she was, I’d no doubt be welcomed back into my
old position. My truant tongue would have to learn to behave again then. I’d
return to the company of my thoughts where I let out my inner frustration
and kept my wants and desires firmly concealed within the walls of my own
mind.
That worked before. It can work again. I just need to focus on getting
this done.
The gang returned to the backs of their camels and I led the way on,
anticipation seeping through my veins as we followed the river upstream,
my certainty in our route never faltering now we’d found the oasis.
 As we passed into a crevice between the two mountains, the roaring of a
waterfall caught my ear and a spike of adrenaline rocked through my limbs.
We were close. So fucking close that I could taste it.
I encouraged the camel into a gallop, the thieves crying out excitedly as
they followed my lead. My heart thumped harder as the wind rushed over
me and every passing second drove us nearer to our destination.
The river turned a sharp bend and there before us was the incredible
falls, the roar of them seeming to make the earth beneath us tremble with
their rage. They were higher than any I'd ever seen, tumbling down a sheer
cliff of black rock, the top lost in a cloud of mist so that I had no idea where
they even began. It was almost as if they came crashing down from the
heavens themselves. Rainbows danced between the spray, the water so blue
it shamed the cloudless sky.
There was a large pool at the foot of the falls, but no river continuing
away from them, so I had to assume that the water made its way from here
beneath the ground much like the Carlell River in the city did in several
places.
I dismounted the camel, tying its reins to a tree before advancing on the
towering waterfall. I drew my scimitar, a creeping sense of danger flooding
over me from this place despite its apparent beauty. We were treading the
path of the Fallen here, I knew it in the deepest fibres of my being. This was
a place that Fae had no business in being anymore, yet we were still
advancing on it, defying the will of the lost gods and taking our fates into
our own hands just as they’d cursed us to do all those years ago.
A strange humming filled the air which had everything to do with magic
and I hesitated, fearing the power of old and the price we might pay for
messing with it. But I didn’t let it hold me back for long, raising my chin
and forging forward. The gods had abandoned us over a thousand years ago,
so I wasn’t going to cower from them now.
Drake moved to walk at my side, exchanging a look with me which said
he could feel the dark hum of power radiating from this place too as he
followed me into the water. It wasn't too deep, allowing us to wade through
its chilly depths and only rising to our waists. Luckily, no current attempted
to drag us under either and I had to admit that the water was eerily calm in
comparison to the falls, the taste of magic on the air only growing stronger
the closer we got. The water pulled us forward as if it wanted us to walk
this path just as much as we did, defying the laws of physics as it failed to
push us away from the falls.
A strange whispering filled my ears, like the echoes of songs once sung
and prayers once spoken, but I couldn't make out the words which seemed
to be breathed in an ancient language.
I stepped beneath the falling water and it didn't pound down on my flesh
as I expected; instead, it trickled over me in a wave of heat, working
through my limbs and into the very depths of my being. The sensation
slipped beneath my skin and an inch of fear found my heart as I fell under
some power which was so much greater than myself.
We emerged in a wide cave on the other side of the water, stepping up
onto a flat expanse of dark rock which rose ahead of us, blocking the view
onwards.
The others followed, the eight of us striding up the incline of rock to its
edge and my breath was stolen by the view beneath us.
The cave dropped down into an enormous garden which grew
impossibly green and lush within the dimly lit space. But instead of fruit,
gemstones hung from the branches of the trees, nestled amongst glowing
red flowers and leaves so bright they glittered.
It was magic, pure and simple, the likes of which I’d only ever heard
about in tales from days so far past that I wasn’t sure I’d ever truly believed
in them at all. But here it was, cold hard evidence of the history of our kind
and all we’d lost at the cost of a simple lie.
Drake's men muscled past us with whoops of excitement, but my gaze
stuck on the one thing in this place that mattered. A single beam of sunlight
cut through a hole in the roof of the cave, falling on a pedestal at the far end
of it, illuminating the golden coin upon it. Even from this distance I could
tell what it was, the magic Magdor had placed in me drawing my gaze to it
irrevocably with a certain sense of destination to it which I couldn’t shake
off.
I knew that coin was powerful, I just didn’t know how exactly. But I’d
have it in pieces before I ever found out.
A fierce determination took hold of me as I took a step forward, but
Drake planted a hand on my chest to stop me before I could head for the
prize I was here to claim.
“That's what you want?” He pointed at the coin and I nodded firmly.
“That's all,” I growled, as his eyes twinkled with some thought.
 It was only a brief moment but I saw it for what it was, greed and
cunning twisting in his dark gaze as he assessed my interest in the coin. The
one thing in this cavern that I desired which looked to be worth so much
less than all the other treasures here that it should have been irrelevant. My
muscles tensed, my fingers twitching for my blade. I was so close to
finishing this, but that look in his eye said it might not be so damn simple.
“Why?” he demanded.
My tongue swelled with heat and suddenly the answer burst from my
lips even though I willed it not to. “I think it holds some magic, some power
that Magdor wants. It must be immeasurably valuable.”
I clamped a hand over my mouth in shock and Drake gazed at me
eagerly as the truth spilled from me beyond my control.
“It's mine,” I snarled, heat pumping through my veins as I fought to rein
in my temper and keep to that single demand. “Take whatever else you
want. We had a deal.”
“Yes. But I'm going to screw over every last one of you to get the best
haul,” Drake said, then his eyes widened as if he hadn't meant to say it.
“Shit,” he hissed. He glanced back at the falls and I followed his gaze. “We
can't lie here,” he whispered and I nodded, biting my tongue in case any
more of my secrets flowed out.
The power of this cavern was ancient indeed if it had managed to bind
us to the laws of the Fallen, forcing the truth from our lips in place of any
lie we might have tried to tell.
“What will you leave for Azruea?” I asked, this having troubled my
mind for the past nights.
“Nothing. Not a single coin. I will take it all and the dragon be
damned,” he snarled.
Fuck. We’re dead.
“You’re a fucking fool,” I hissed.
“Maybe, but I’m soon to be a rich one.” He grinned at me, giving in to
the power of this place and just owning what he was.
This was old power. The magic of our kind which had long since been
stolen from us. The legends all agreed on that one single fact. Fae used to
be known as the fair folk, gifted with magic and immortality by the lost
gods who loved them dearly. But that love turned sour with a single act
from a traitorous Fae who had cursed our entire kind.
 There were certain things which were built into the very fabric of our
being such as our Affinities, which had once been touched with pure magic
we could wield freely, and the way iron burned and weakened us unlike any
other substance we knew. And once, so long ago that none living could
remember it, we had been bound in truth as well. No lies had passed our
lips in any shape or form, the truths we spoke sometimes cast in riddles or
tricks, but always true nonetheless. It was the cost the gods required from us
so that we could never plot against them, and we had been bound to it in
payment for the gifts they had bestowed on our kind in turn.
Until the Fallen learned to lie. And with that, the gods abandoned our
kind and left us to rot in mortality and without our magic.
I had grown up hearing those stories, but never until I felt the power of
this chamber forcing truths from my tongue had I even come close to
understanding it. And now that I did, I could hardly fathom how anyone had
ever learned to tell a lie, let alone why they had been so determined to do
so.
A blood-curdling scream tore the air apart and we both ran forward to
the edge of the garden in alarm, our realisation forgotten in favour of the
agonising screams which were echoing off of the walls. All six of the
thieves who had accompanied us here were on the ground, writhing in
agony as they held huge gemstones in their fists.
“What’s happening?” I gasped, but Drake had no answer.
The screams grew louder and more desperate, their knuckles whitening
around the gems they clutched as if they could do nothing other than hold
onto them despite the way they glowed with a power which must have been
the cause of their pain. My eyes widened as their skin started ripping,
tearing open and blood poured out to stain the grass all around them. I could
barely stand to watch as their entire bodies turned inside out and their
screams cut off as death claimed them in a sick and twisted curse.
“Holy mother of fuck,” Drake breathed as a wave of nausea gripped me.
Blood bubbled from their corpses, their eyes bulged and all that
remained of them was muscle, sinew and shredded skin alongside the
resounding echoes of their screams which were dying out in the system of
caves that surrounded us.
I dragged my gaze from their mutilated bodies, my heart thundering in
my chest as my task filled my mind and I fixed my sights on the coin. My
sole purpose for coming here washed away any fear I had at walking
through this cursed garden, and I gritted my teeth as I rallied myself for
what I knew I had to do.
Power thrummed through the air, the whispering voices drawing closer
as if they’d taken strength from the deaths they’d caused here, and I swear I
felt the touch of icy fingers against my skin too. But I couldn’t waste time
worrying about Fallen Fae and long-lost gods, because I knew with all my
heart that I could touch that coin and survive the consequences. I wasn’t
sure how, I just knew it was so.
But I didn't care for touching it anyway, I was going to destroy it with
the Forken sword and take away Magdor's chance of ever getting her hands
on it. That vow was all I had left of the man I’d been, and I would see it
done no matter the cost to myself.