Page 37 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

CONSPIRACY

T hree Cursed Ones staggered toward us, their bulky, monstrous bodies slow and uneven.

Their skin was as pale as death, their veins as black as night, their hair as wild as the overgrown forest around us.

Their clothing was a mixed bag of torn, dirty, and missing articles.

None of them wore shoes. Those rarely survived the transformation.

Three pairs of bright red eyes, burning with hunger, watched us. Drool dripped from their lips. They wanted to bite us. From the day someone was cursed, that was all they knew: biting and spreading the Curse. That single, terrible purpose defined their existence from that moment forward.

“Leave,” I told them. “You are not wanted here.”

And just like that, the Cursed Ones turned and fled.

“Whew. If only all magic were that easy,” I said.

“How did you do that?” A man poked his head out of a very large bush. He must have used it to hide from the Cursed Ones.

“Hey, I know you,” I said.

The man’s voice was thick, smoky, and very familiar. He wasn’t wearing a helmet this time around, but I would have recognized that voice anywhere.

“You’re one of the guys who tried to kidnap me and the other Apprentices.”

“Don’t take it personally, sweetheart. It was just a job.”

His mouth curled into a half-smirk. I guess he was trying to be charming, but the big scar across his face slightly marred the effect. He was muscular, as most Metamorphs are. And from the look on his face, he had a very high opinion of himself, as most Metamorphs do.

“Your name is Harlyn.”

“It is indeed.” Harlyn bowed to me.

I glanced at Conner, who was watching the man the way people watched their valuables around shady characters. Harlyn’s attempt at chivalry had left him decidedly unimpressed.

“You’re Savannah Winters, the infamous Apprentice.”

“Did you know who I was when you and your friends tried to kidnap the Apprentices? Or when you attacked us at the Spirit Tree?”

“First of all, those guys aren’t my friends. I’m an independent agent.”

“A mercenary.”

“If you prefer.”

“I most certainly do not prefer being attacked, kidnapped, or otherwise accosted.”

“I never would have done any of those things—I never would have taken the job—if I’d known about you.”

“What about me?”

“That you’re a Polymage. And that you have Polymage friends. Anyone who’s got the Cursed Ones running scared isn’t someone I want to make an enemy of. You’re just not normal, are you, girl?”

“Not especially,” I admitted.

He laughed. “All right, all right. I give up. How did you scare off the Cursed Ones?”

“I don’t know. I just did. It’s kind of my thing.”

“I believe it has something to do with the way you talked to the Cursed Ones.”

“Decisively?”

He folded his arms over his chest, looking me over. “I’m not sure exactly. Your voice definitely changed when you talked to them. Your pitch was different.”

“My pitch was different?”

“Yes. I think they reacted to that.”

“I wasn’t aware I changed my voice.”

“You did. I have an ear for these things. My hearing is excellent. My last crew liked to use me as a safe-breaker since I can hear those little variations that others can’t.”

Nice that he was putting his hard-earned criminal talents to good use.

He nodded. “Yes. It’s definitely your voice. There’s something in it when you’re controlling the Cursed Ones. A spell of some sort. I haven’t the faintest idea what it is, but there’s something there for sure.”

“There’s some kind of spell in my voice? How can I cast a spell without even knowing it?” I looked at Conner.

He shrugged. “It must be instinctive.”

“Whatever it is, it’s weird,” Harlyn said. “I’ve never known anything, foul or fair, that scares the Cursed Ones. You’re kind of a freak.”

“This freak just saved your life.”

“Na, supernaturals are immune to the Curse. I was never in any real danger.”

“Which explains why you were hiding in a bush.”

Harlyn didn’t seem to know what to say to that, but he did blush.

“You might be immune to the Curse, but you aren’t immune to fangs and claws and all the damage they do. If we hadn’t come around, the Cursed Ones would have ripped you to shreds.”

Harlyn stood taller, puffing out his chest in indignation. “I can handle three Cursed Ones.”

“Except there aren’t just three Cursed Ones out there, are there? There are hundreds of them. You could have picked a better place to hide out.”

“No, I could not. That wily General has soldiers everywhere. There’s nowhere to hide. And I can’t run either. There are only two Spirit Trees within any reasonable distance, and the General’s soldiers have both locked down good and tight.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I got past them.” Conner smiled at him.

“You did? How?”

“I set several of the Watchers’ vehicles on fire, and then when they rushed over to put out the flames, I slipped past them under a cloak of invisibility.”

“I can’t make myself invisible.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Conner’s smile stretched wider.

Harlyn grunted. “What do you want?”

“Information.”

“And in exchange, you’ll get me past the soldiers to the Spirit Tree, so I can leave this accursed realm?”

“That can be arranged.”

“All right then. What do you want to know?”

“You can start by telling us who hired you. Who sent you to Gaia?” Conner said.

“No idea. I never saw his face. He was always hiding in the shadows. Like I said, I was just the hired help for the kidnapping, and so was Starling.”

“Where is Starling?”

“No idea. When things went sideways, it was every man for himself, you know? We hightailed our way out of there before the General’s soldiers or the Knights arrived on the scene. I lost track of Starling. But he can’t help you anyway. He didn’t see the man’s face either.”

“But you heard his voice?”

“That’s right,” I said. “You told us you have excellent hearing. If you heard his voice, you would recognize it, right?”

“Sorry, sweetheart. The guy’s not stupid. He knew who he was hiring. He wore one of those voice-modulating devices.”

My hopes deflated.

“We were hired to wear the suits, kidnap the Apprentices, and not ask any questions. That’s all. If you want to ID the guy, you should talk to the Polymage. Starling and I aren’t Templars, but she is.”

“Did you ever see her face?”

“Sorry, peaches. The girl likes her privacy. She always wore a helmet or a face mask that covered everything but her eyes. She has nice eyes. Nice and brown.”

“Thanks. You’ve really narrowed it down. Let’s go search the Many Realms for a woman with brown eyes.”

Harlyn shrugged. “You have to start somewhere.”

“This is nowhere .”

“The Polymage sounded young. Somewhere between your age and your friend’s.” Harlyn indicated Conner. “That’ll narrow it down.”

“The only thing narrowing it down is the fact that she’s a Polymage. Which we already knew before we talked to you. If you can’t tell us anything new, I’m afraid the deal is off.”

“Wait!” Harlyn reached for Conner as he turned to walk away. “I know something. The Templars are the soldiers—the knights—for an organization called ‘The Order of Kings’.”

“And what do you know about The Order of Kings?”

“Not much.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Wait,” Harlyn added quickly. “The Order of Kings is a secret supernatural society. They have their fingers in a little bit of everything across the Many Realms. No, I don’t know what exactly, but I do know they’ve made a deal with your Government.”

“The Order of Kings made a deal with the Gaian Government?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know the particulars of this deal?”

“Not the particulars of the deal, no, but I know the general gist of it. The Order of Kings wants Apprentices, and someone in your Government arranged for them to get them.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Someone in your Government told the Order of Kings where and when the Apprentices would be that day we burst through the wall into the conference center. And the Order of Kings hired us to go get you.”

“I thought you didn’t know who hired you,” I said.

“I don’t know which person was in charge of hiring us. I know the organization he works for.”

“You’re playing games with us.”

“No, I’m trying to survive. Information is power. I didn’t want to give up any more than I had to.”

“You’re despicable.”

Of course I’d already known that. Harlyn had kidnapped Apprentices. He’d attacked us. He was not a nice person. He was cold and opportunistic, and all he cared about was himself.

“So is that good enough for you? Do we still have a deal?” He directed the question to Conner.

“You claim someone in the Gaian Government is working with the Order of Kings, supplying them with Apprentices?” Conner asked him.

“With the information necessary to get those Apprentices, yes.”

“Apprentices have been going missing for years. Has this arrangement between the Government and the Order been going on for years?”

“From what I can gather, yes. It has.”

“And in exchange? What does the Government get out of this arrangement? What is the price they’ve set on the Apprentices’ lives?”

Conner’s voice was level, but I could sense the turbulence—the anger—building up beneath that layer of careful control.

“The Order of Kings has been providing your Government with supplies,” Harlyn said.

“Supplies?”

“Food. Materials. Other things they need to rebuild your civilization.”

“We need people to rebuild our civilization,” Conner said tightly. “Knights and Apprentices and people who can fight the Cursed Ones. And they traded that for stuff ?”

Harlyn watched Conner with a wariness that bordered on anxiety. “I’ve told you what I know. All that I know. Now are you going to fulfill your end of the bargain or not?”

Conner lowered his shaking fists. He looked down at them, then tucked them behind his back before he met Harlyn in the eye. “I will. I’ll get you past the Watchers so you can escape through the Spirit Tree.”

“Ok, then let’s go.”

“No. Not now,” Conner told him. “First, I need to get Savannah back home safely.”

“The Cursed Ones are afraid of her. She’s the only one who is safe!”

“Meet me tonight, just after sunset, at the north gate of the Park. We’ll head to the Spirit Tree from there.”

“Ok.” Harlyn turned to leave.

“Wait,” I said.

He looked at me. “I have to get moving. Unlike you, I actually have to worry about the Cursed Ones. I don’t have time for chitchat.”

“It won’t take long. I need to ask you about Kylie.”

“Who?”

“The Apprentice that the Polymage took from Gaia.”

“The dead girl?” Harlyn frowned. “What about her?”

“She’s not dead.”

Harlyn looked thoroughly confused. “She’s not dead?”

“No, she’s not. Her magic mark didn’t fade. That means she’s still alive. And, also, why would anyone want to steal a dead person?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. I thought the Polymage was just a weirdo who collected bodies.”

“So you don’t know where Kylie is?”

“No.”

“How about Asher? That’s the boy who fell through the Spirit Tree during the battle.”

“Honey, I have no idea where Kylie, Asher, or any of the other missing Apprentices might be. Can I go now?”

I released my hold on his arm, and he ran off. The trees were thick, and Harlyn was wearing camouflage. After a few seconds, I couldn’t see him anymore. And the birds and the waterfall and all the sounds of the wild drowned out his steps.

I turned back to Conner. “So all the pieces are coming together. The missing Apprentices. The mystery supplies. Everything.”

“Yes,” he said quietly.

His face was solemn, contemplative. I could see why.

He’d left the Knights and started the Rebellion because he thought the Government wasn’t doing enough to find the missing Apprentices.

And now he’d just learned the reality was so much worse.

The Government—or at least someone in the Government—was involved in the kidnappings.

“I should have done more,” I said. “I should have fought harder. If I had, I might have saved Kylie and Asher.”

“Look at me, Savannah.” He waited until I did.

He held my gaze. His hands closed on my shoulders.

“You did everything you could—and far more than anyone could ever expect of you. You made a difference. If not for your actions during the heist, more Apprentices would have been taken. The kidnappers never expected the Apprentices to fight back. You did. You saved them.”

I laughed weakly. “I live to defy expectations.”

“And later at the Spirit Tree, once again, you fought to protect the Apprentices.”

“If only it had been enough.”

He set his hands on my cheeks, pressing his forehead to mine. “We will save them. That I promise you.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Practice.” He stepped back and winked at me. “And all-around awesomeness, of course.”

“At least we’re closer to finding the Apprentices than we were an hour ago.” I sighed. “That’s something.”

“It is indeed.”

But so many questions still remained. Who exactly was the Order of Kings? What did they want with the Apprentices? And who in the Government was helping them?