King of Dust

Chapter 11

Astrid's fingers trembled as I sat by her side on the dusty bed. "Yüsyi..." she uttered under her breath. Her fingers twinkled with light as she ran her hand over her own heart. Color returned to her cheeks, and she exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Your spells are getting good!" I encouraged. "That was very impressive!"

"But I'm spent..." She shook her head, thinking deeply on something. "I don't know if I'll be able to do any more intensive magick today."

"Remember that you always have your crossbow."

"I found a book in the library," Astrid muttered as she pulled it from her backpack. The book was titled Hymns of Ohaldin. "Do you think it'll be bad if I take it?"

"This house has long been abandoned. I'm sure no one will miss it."

"I'm excited to study it. Maybe I'll learn something new."

"You must stay behind me from now on, okay? I'll protect you."

"Okay, Darius. Thank you."

She hugged me. Her arms wrapped around my waist, and she gave me a good squeeze. I froze for a moment. She had never done that before, and to be honest, it had been a while since someone had given me a hug. I returned the gesture and sat in it for what felt like minutes, in the silence of the house, when the door to the bedroom opened.

"Everything all right in here? I heard a crash," Urien asked as he entered.

I pushed away from the hug quicker than I should have. Astrid looked startled at the sudden movement, and I brushed dust from my pants. "All is well. Astrid had it handled. Find anything?"

Yra wandered into the room with his arms crossed, his garnet eyes judging me. Urien looked around the room. "No. Just the bedroom belonging to the house's previous owners. As far as I can tell no one has lived here for hundreds of years. You?"

"A nursery. I thought there was a baby in there, but..." Astrid started, her mind drifting in thought.

"Everything in this house is a lie. Take everything you see for granted. Did you thoroughly search the room?"

"I was attacked before I could."

Urien's eyes flitted about the space. Astrid's torch had gone out in her struggle and lay on the floor, put out by ectoplasm and useless. While Urien looked, Astrid made sure the burgundy curtains that hung in front of the window were tightly closed to protect me and Yra from rogue blocks of sunlight. After a moment of searching, Urien moved a mirror aside. With one hearty push to the wall, something clicked, and a door popped open, cobwebs breaking and floating to the floor.

"It seems this house has secrets yet," he muttered.

"Okay, so how long do we keep going up before we get to go to the basement? This plan seems terrible," Yra complained.

"I haven't seen any other way down, have you?" Urien prodded. "We searched the bottom floors and couldn't go outside."

"It feels like this house is funneling us into a trap."

"Then we best prepare a good stacking order. I'll hold front, Yra, behind me, Astrid afterward, and Darius, to the rear."

"I don't remember agreeing to take orders from hellspawn," Yra quipped.

"And I don't remember agreeing to not torch you." Urien pulled a hilt of a sword from the inky black of a tattoo on his chest, barely visible behind the collar of his shirt. The hilt he held had been pilfered from an old temple months ago, a sacred magickal artifact. I had hidden it there in hopes no one would find it, but... obviously, he had. With a click, a beam of sunlight erupted from the hilt and Yra backed up. The blade was made of pure daylight. "You've been nothing but obstinate today. Don't forget who you work for."