With a Golden Sword (DFZ Changeling Book 2), page 9
“Thank you for waiting so long,” Simon replied, forcing himself to hug the blood mage back.
“I am nothing if not patient,” Victor said as he let go. “But I also didn’t get this far by taking people at their word.” He held out his hand. “You don’t mind if I test your sincerity.”
It wasn’t a question, but Simon was ready for this. He took Victor’s hand without hesitation, opening his mind as his master’s magic flooded in.
If they’d been anybody but who they were, this was where Simon would have failed. There was no one better at searching minds than Victor, but there was no one who knew his blind spots more thoroughly than his apprentice. He came into Simon’s mind like an invading army, but rather than trying to hide what had happened in the prison between Lola and his younger self, Simon shoved a different memory at him: the one from his actual past of the first time he’d submitted.
As always, the memory of that night made him feel dirty as nothing else could, but Simon didn’t hesitate. He embraced the awful feeling, embellishing the old scene with new layers of greed and resentment that he was not the one looking down. Each one was an echo of the feelings he’d picked up from his master over years of servitude, but that just made them even better, because the only person Victor had never doubted was himself. All Simon had to do was mirror his own feelings back at him, and the old man accepted them without question, embracing Simon again with open arms.
“You really are ready,” he said, squeezing him tight. “I always knew this day would come. That’s why I tolerated your continued disobedience. I was certain my efforts would pay off in the end, and I was right.” Simon felt Victor’s face move below his illusions as his master broke into a grin. “I was right!”
“You’re always right,” Simon said, pulling back to meet Victor’s smile with a nasty one of his own. “That’s what finally did it for me. A man can only be wrong so many times before he has to accept that he’s the problem. But I’ve realized my stupidity, and I’m eager to make up for lost time. Now, what did I miss?”
“Too much to bother repeating,” Victor said, bursting into motion now that his apprentice’s loyalty had been confirmed. “The important part is that I’ve got five thousand new blood mages who’ve sworn their loyalty and no time to train them.”
“Five thousand?” Simon repeated, glancing at the red-coated figures he could see waiting just outside the room’s frosted-glass door. “How did you get so many? And why isn’t the DFZ crushing you?”
“A great deal has changed while you’ve been coming to your senses,” his master explained, pacing the room grandly. “Thanks to my efforts, the world has reversed its opinion of our art. We’re finally on the cusp of the golden age of blood magic I’ve been working toward all these years, but there are still a few hurdles that must be overcome before I can truly claim victory.”
“What kind of hurdles?”
“It’s more of a singular large one,” Victor said casually. “For petty reasons of his own, Alberich, the Underground King, has decided he wants to kill me. I’m perfectly amenable to this since his attack will give me another chance to play the Hero, but that plan only works if I survive his assault. If it was just him alone, there’d be no question, but Alberich and his entire court have been feasting on fear for the better part of a month, which makes things more challenging.”
Lola had already told Simon that much, but he still managed to look appropriately shocked. “Isn’t Alberich the fairy you were working with?”
“Ours was always a marriage of convenience,” Victor replied with a dismissive shrug. “It was useful in the beginning, but we’re both working to build worlds in which the other has no place. So, naturally, it has come to war.”
“And how do you mean to win?” Simon asked, genuinely curious. “Blood magic manipulates humans, but with the exception of the pills you made for Lola, I’ve never heard of it doing anything to fairies.”
“The changeling’s pills were actually what gave me the idea,” Victor said, looking delighted by a chance to explain his brilliance. “Just like spirits and their concepts, fairies are slaves to human belief. All I had to do was spread the rumor that blood magic was their weakness, and it was done.”
Simon couldn’t believe it. “How did you get so many people to buy into something so absurd?”
Victor’s face split into a grin. “Because the average human has no idea what blood magic actually does. They know it only as forbidden power, dark magic, which made the lie even easier. Humans are naturally self-centered. It was no stretch at all to convince them that anything so dangerous to us that it’s been banned in every country must also be deadly to our enemies.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Simon was impressed. Even so. “How are you actually going to beat them, though?” he asked. “Even with five thousand mages abusing a weakness, Alberich is a king, the biggest of his kind. You can’t just go head-to-head with—”
“My dear boy,” Victor interrupted with an indulgent smile, “you must learn not to question your master. There is no contingency you can imagine that I have not already foreseen and prepared for. I will, of course, be happy to explain all the details of my plan to defeat Alberich when we have more time, but now that I’ve responded to the hysterical calls about monsters at the hospital, I must move on to my meeting with the DFZ.”
Simon didn’t have to fake his surprise this time. “The DFZ?” he repeated, eyes wide. “You have a meeting with the spirit of the Living City?” When the other mage nodded, Simon began to sputter. “How? She hates blood mages.”
“Maybe before,” Victor replied smugly. “But everything’s different now that I’m her Hero.”
He said that last word as if it were the secret to everything. Simon still didn’t understand, but he was sure Victor would make good on his promise to explain. His master never could pass up an opportunity to brag.
“Good luck, then,” he said, remembering to bow at the last second. “What would you like me to do in the meanwhile? Should I keep resting here or—”
Victor scoffed. “I didn’t teach you how to rebuild your body from nothing so you could rest. Did you miss the part where I have five thousand mages to train?”
Simon frowned. “Do they need training? I saw the stains on the ones you brought with you. They look like they’re already quite familiar with blood magic.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Victor said, reaching into his pocket. “The idiots accompanying me today didn’t even know they had a death inside them before last week. The reason they look as they do now is because of these.”
He held out a familiar-looking orange bottle. Simon took it gingerly, unscrewing the plastic cap to shake a blood-red pill into his hand. It looked the same as all the medicines Victor made for his clients, though not as strong as the pills he’d made for Lola. Simon didn’t think a human could take one of those and survive, but he wasn’t sure what this one did. The magic inside felt very complex as he rolled the pill around in his palm, feeling out the spell Victor had coiled under its shiny surface.
“Is it a teacher?”
“It’s the teacher,” Victor said proudly. “Blood magic is a challenging art. Even a gifted student like yourself took six months to master the basics. My new army doesn’t have that kind of time or talent, so I took everything I needed them to know and put it in there.”
He took the pill back from Simon, squeezing it between his fingers like a tick. “This pill contains a curated copy of my own skills. One dose is enough to bring even the most talentless mage up to my level, at least for a few minutes.”
“But what about their own magic?” Simon asked in horror. “It takes years to build up the conditioning necessary to use the higher-level techniques without damage. If you give a bunch of untrained mages your skills, what’s to stop them from accidentally obliterating their own minds?”
“Nothing,” Victor said. “But that’s what’s so wonderful about my new recruits. They’re here because they want power, and I give it to them. Honestly, the fact that my magic is so dangerous only makes them want it more. Everyone knows real power always comes with a price.”
“But what are you going to do with them all?” Simon asked. “Unless you actually give them training, an army like that can only be used a few times before it disintegrates.”
“That’s not a problem,” Victor replied casually. “If everything goes as planned, a few times should be plenty. The real problem is making enough doses for everyone before the Wild Hunt arrives, which is where you come in.” He handed the red pill back. “Do you think you can copy that?”
Simon had no idea. Victor had never trusted him enough to let him make pills before. If he was doing so now, then Simon’s lie must have worked even better than he thought. Either that, or his master really was so pressed for time that he had no choice but to delegate. Whatever the reason, it was exactly the sort of opening Simon had been looking for, and he couldn’t nod fast enough.
“I won’t let you down.”
“Make sure that you don’t,” Victor said. “Even if you’ve seen the error of your ways, you have a lot to make up for. Jamie told me what happened when she caught you, how you denied me in favor of the changeling, who, by the way, is dead.”
That lie was so bold, Simon had to remember to look surprised instead of furious. “Lola is dead?”
“Slain by Alberich’s monster,” Victor said with a sad sigh. “Not that it could have ended any other way. Fairies always eat their own in the end.”
Just like you, was what Simon wanted to say, but he was deep in his role now, and he managed to keep his face blank. Victor, however, wasn’t finished.
“You need to be on your guard,” he cautioned, lowering his voice. “She was Alberich’s changeling before I found her, and while our Lola is gone, the Underground King is capable of making others that look and act just like her. If one should approach you, she is the enemy. Do you understand?”
Simon nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Even knowing what a liar Victor was, it was hard to believe he could say all of that with a straight face. A good apprentice didn’t speak back to his master, though, so Simon quickly moved on to less dangerous topics.
“When would you like me to start on the pills?”
“Immediately,” Victor said, striding toward the door. “You couldn’t have come back at a better time. I’ll need eight thousand more doses before the end of the week. That should give us enough for the battle against Alberich plus extra for all the other incidents that are bound to crop up before then. Jamie will come by later to check you out of the hospital and get you set up at my new building. She’ll also bring you a change of clothes. We have an image to maintain.”
“Yes, Master,” Simon said with a bow.
Victor waited until his head actually touched the sheets before he left, marching out of the room through the crowd of red-coated mages, who leaped to follow him.
~~~
When Victor said Jamie would be by later, Simon had assumed he meant in the next few hours, but she didn’t actually arrive until nearly midnight.
That suited Simon just fine. Even if the coma had been magically induced, forcing his body to go from complete immobility to relative functionality in less than an hour was not without its price. He was utterly exhausted, and the moment he relaxed his control over his pain responses, every muscle in his body began to complain. He was perfectly content to lie in bed while the nurses rolled him to a room that didn’t have a man-sized hole in the wall.
The doctors were amazed by his recovery, which was only natural since it had literally been miraculous. The Hero had already ordered his discharge, but they still wanted him on bed rest, which, again, suited Simon just fine. He spent the time catching up on the news he’d missed over the last three weeks, which turned out to be even crazier than Lola or Victor had made it sound. No wonder his Tinker Bell had looked so wrecked.
But while the Hero seemed to be taking the human world by storm, Simon felt Victor was deluding himself about his chances against Alberich. Despite what the pro-Hero channels were desperately trying to spin, it was obvious the Wild Hunt was running roughshod over every effort to control it. Even with an army of blood mages jacked up on pills, facing the Nightmare King head-on sounded like suicide, which Simon would have been fine with if he hadn’t been so convinced that his master had something else up his sleeve.
Victor might be an egomaniac, but he wasn’t a fool. If he was pitting himself against such extreme odds, he must have a secret strategy, something no one else would think of to make sure he landed on top. Simon was picking apart the pills to see if the spell inside did anything extra besides just transferring Victor’s expertise when Jamie finally strolled in.
“Well, well, well,” the statuesque blond said in a singsong voice. “If it isn’t the turncoat come crawling back. I told you you’d regret it.”
“You did say that,” Simon replied tightly, scooping the pills back into their orange bottle as Jamie plopped herself down on the end of his hospital bed.
It was a lot harder to keep the rage off his face with her than it had been for Victor. Simon’s hatred of his master was bitter and complicated, but Jamie was a petty sellout, which made her easier to despise.
She was also not alone. There were two women in the red coats of the Hero’s Army with her. Both looked like blood mages, but their souls were freshly stained, not the deep crimson he’d seen on the mages who’d accompanied Victor earlier. New recruits, then, which was perfect. Sensing when someone was using blood magic was a lot easier than doing it yourself, but these mages were so inexperienced, they didn’t even flinch when Simon’s magic touched them, filling their minds with a command so subtle, they probably thought it was their own idea.
See nothing.
“I still can’t believe you came back,” Jamie said, completely unaware of her escorts quietly leaving the room. “Victor’s acting like he always knew it would happen, but he didn’t see you in the diner. You were ready to die to protect that fairy monster. And here I thought I was the one with bad taste in crushes.”
“You are,” Simon said flatly, putting the bottle of pills aside. “Can we get on with this?”
Jamie shrugged and pulled out her phone. “Victor wants you brought in at the top level,” she said, flicking her fingers through the complex augmented reality haze lists and spreadsheets that only she could navigate. “He’s giving you access to his own workshop, and I’ve got a team working on setting up a bedroom for you just down the hall from the Black Rider’s.”
Simon arched an eyebrow. “He gave the Rider a room?”
“More like a closet. Not that the Rider ever has a chance to use it. Victor’s been keeping him on a tighter leash than usual ever since…”
Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively as her voice trailed off, and Simon’s scowl sharpened. “Ever since what? I’ve been in a coma for three weeks, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, snickering at him. “It’s just funny. I mean, you were so into her. Now you’re back to being a team player, and you don’t even know.”
“Know what?” he asked through clenched teeth.
Jamie leaned closer with a wicked grin. “That your precious changeling slept with the Black Rider.”
Simon went still.
“I heard it happened the same night you went into the coma,” Jamie went on, eating up his silence. “She didn’t even wait three hours after you were gone to jump on that ride. Kind of makes you wonder if she ever cared about you at—”
“Shut up.”
Jamie froze like someone had pressed her pause button. Simon fell back into his bed a second later, his forehead drenched in sweat. His body hadn’t been ready for that much magic just yet, but Jamie always knew how to get under his skin.
He’d have to be more careful in the future. For now, though, the outburst worked to his advantage. He’d blasted Jamie’s mind wide open, leaving the suspiciously beautiful woman empty-eyed and silent as Simon pushed himself back up.
“You are never to speak of Lola’s love life to me again,” he instructed, pressing on Jamie’s mind until she nodded.
He didn’t have to do it hard. As expected from Victor’s oldest servant, Jamie’s mind had been invaded so many times it was practically paved smooth. He’d have to take care to leave no trace since Victor was clearly in here constantly. For now, though, Simon settled back against his pillows to take advantage of the opportunity he’d always been too afraid to seize before.
“Tell me what really happened while I was gone.”
The magic fell from his lips like bloody drops, filling his throat with bile. This was the sort of blood magic he’d always avoided. Doing it now made him feel dirtier than ever, but desperate times, desperate measures, and the fact that it was Jamie definitely made things easier.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have much to say that he was interested in. He learned all about the media promotion strategy for Victor’s new Hero persona as well as tons of random other information, like the fact that Jamie had turned seventy-five yesterday. He’d had no idea she was so old under the beautiful face she’d sold her soul for. But while Simon would definitely be throwing that back at her later, Jamie was infuriatingly ignorant when it came to the stuff he actually cared about.
Since she’d helped Victor pay for the movie, she didn’t believe the story they’d told the rest of the world about Fenrir being the first wave of the Wild Hunt’s invasion, but she didn’t know anything about how the giant wolf had been created or where it had gone. The only piece of new information she was able to give him was that Victor had been furious about how the battle went. He’d passed off Fenrir’s walking away from him as part of his strategy to the cameras, but Jamie had talked to him right after it happened, and his anger had terrified her. Even she could tell he’d lost, which was why she was working so hard to promote his Hero now. She’d thrown all-in with Victor. If he couldn’t recover from this, she was done for.
