Crown (The Manhunters Book 3) Read online

  When the smoke from the blast cleared, Brody hung naked in the air. His clothing had burned away and he laughed. “Oh, and magic. I feel as if I should have said that before. I keep forgetting things like this. Impervious to magic energy as well. I guess I came to tell you that. Came to let you know that as far as I can see, unless you drop a building on me, I’m invincible. Thought we ought to talk about that.” Brody smiled. “Just for clarity’s sake.”

  Rayph heard a scream and Brody laughed.

  “If that is who I think it is, then we are done here,” Brody said. “See you soon, Rayph.” He turned and flew off. Rayph cursed, rushing back to the bar. Two walls had been shattered and the building listed back and forth unsteady and falling in.

  Rayph grabbed Smear and Trysliana who lay on the ground, and he popped open a portal to Dran. He picked them up, tossed them in it and closed the portal. He found Cable and looked for Ty. He could find no sight of him. Silk lay on his face in the middle of the room. His back was ripped open, the meat shredded and torn so badly Rayph could see the man’s spine in places.

  He nudged the man with his boot. Silk whimpered. Rayph grabbed him, opened the portal, and slid him in. Lyceanias rushed back into the bar, calling for his brother. Rayph met him in the middle.

  “This place is coming down around us. We have to get out of here.” The roof belched and sagged. Rayph heard the popping of boards and shook his head. “It won’t stay up much longer. Where is Ty?”

  “They have him,” Lyceanias said. “Couldn’t help him.”

  The roof coughed again. Rayph grabbed Lyceanias and pulled him out of the building. The whole of the place was on fire now. It dropped and snapped as it fell to bits, and Rayph searched around with worried eyes. He saw a lump at his feet, and as he looked at it, he smiled.

  “That is mine,” Lyceanias said.

  “No, Chaos belongs to me.” Rayph grabbed Rhonda with a spell and ripped her into the air. He flew away and Rhonda trailed behind him.

  “Why do it?” Rayph asked.

  “He wanted Ty,” Smear said.

  Rayph stood at the top of the ziggurat, looking out at the city beyond, trying to figure it all out.

  “He does not want Ty. Ty is substantial, to be sure, but that is not why he did it. He knows we are his enemy. He knows his main problem is the Manhunters. No way would he turn his back on that for Ty.” Rayph’s fetish hummed. He could almost hear Smear fighting to counter Rayph’s logic.

  “He hit us,” Smear said. “But how?”

  It came to Rayph then, and he cursed. He lifted into the air as he yelled through his fetish. “Everyone sound off. I need to hear everyone check in,” Rayph said, but he knew where they had been hit. He knew exactly where to go.

  “I'm here, boss,” Trysliana said.

  “Here,” Smear said.

  “Check,” Dran said.

  “I'm here at work, Rayph,” Fanhon said. “All of the packages are accounted for.”

  “Sisalyyon?” Rayph said. “Cosmo?” he barked. The cold wind bit him hard as he flew, but he needed to fly faster. “Sisa, are you there?”

  He dropped to the playhouse. The building had been attacked. Radamuss had been here and brought an army of grunts with him. The door was in splinters, the room destroyed. Sisa lay on the ground in her wooden form. It looked as if she had fought for a long time before they struck her down. Even then they could not kill her in that state and she was too heavy to carry, so they had left her.

  Rayph shook her awake. She opened her eyes and looked at Rayph.

  “They took him,” she shrieked. “They have him, Rayph!”

  Buddy was gone. No sign of the dog at all.

  Rayph held back his cry of horror as it came to him exactly where Brody would have taken Cosmo.

  “We meet at Hood. We are calling everyone,” Rayph said. He needed everyone if he was going to take the Crown.

  The Crown

  Rayph stood outside the Crown with his army beside him staring at the building. Everything hateful and cruel about Lorinth lived here. Every dark emotion, every loss of hope was housed in this building. Rayph had brought Cosmo back to the city he had suffered in, and the enemy had taken him back to his hell. Rayph could not bear it anymore.

  “We do not leave until we find him,” Rayph said. He heard a crunching of stone and snow beside him, and looked down to see Buddy snarling and snapping his stone jaws.

  Sisalyyon stepped up beside Rayph. She wiped a tear from her wooden face.

  “Do not kill any of them,” Rayph said.

  She nodded. Rayph turned to Smear and Trysliana. Cable stood close to them and Rayph grimaced. She wanted to go after her brother. She had raged and screamed until Smear calmed her down. He explained about Cosmo, and Cable agreed to get him first. Now she stood chomping at the bit for a chance to draw blood.

  Rayph made a cutting motion with his hand and Smear and Trysliana leapt, with Cable following close behind. They bound forward over the wall and onto the gate. A few moments and the gate was rumbling up. Rayph and his crew stormed in. Smear dropped down to Rayph’s side with a head.

  It was painted with war paint and scarred terribly. The hair had been shaved to a mohawk and its teeth had been filed to points.

  “Not exactly standard issue,” Smear said.

  “He has locked up the guards and freed the prisoners. This will be easier than I thought,” Rayph said.

  “Why is that?” Cable asked. Her words rang with every syllable.

  “We can kill them all.”

  They reached the main doors and Rayph fired his bow. The arrowhead slammed the door and the fortified wooden door exploded. He dropped his bow to his side into a pocket of air at his hip.

  They rushed into the fold and straight into a volley of arrows. Rayph held his magical shield up and felt it buckling in front of him. It held back the first volley but would not last. The Crown had a magic-dampening spell on it. Magic would not last long here.

  The room filled with prisoners.

  The room filled with death.

  Smear and Trysliana fought side-by-side with Rayph. Trysliana pulled her sword, a wedding gift from Rayph, and stroked the crossbar. Suddenly the room filled with an all-encompassing fog. Rayph and all Trysliana’s allies could see through it fine. They headed into the mess with swords and hate.

  Rayph cut everything down before him, every face that rushed out to meet him got a blade or a fist. Blood, hot and mean, filled the air around him and he slashed through it with drive and verve.

  They reached the middle of the floor and the fog spell played out. Rayph turned to Trysliana to speak and saw her take an arrow in the shoulder. It came in from high, snapping her clavicle and lodging itself in her chest. Trys dropped to the ground and screamed. Smear looked her way and took a dagger to the cheek. He cursed and killed the man before rushing to Trysliana’s side.

  “Get me up!” she yelled, and Smear pulled her to her feet as she screamed in pain. She switched her sword to her other hand and growled.

  “I have to get her out of here,” Smear said.

  “No, I stay,” she snapped. “I’m not leaving here without Cosmo.” Another arrow took her in the thigh. It came from up high and Rayph looked to see a head surrounded by snakes. He cursed and averted his eyes.

  “I have this,” he said. “Keep fighting if you can.”

  “Smear, stop looking at me like that,” Trysliana said. “I’m not leaving. Just try to keep me alive.” They rushed back into the fight and Rayph lifted into the air.

  He landed on the balcony overlooking the main foyer and pulled his hood down over his face. He could hear her snakes hissing. He did not know if she had her eyes back, but it was possible.

  Rayph grabbed an enemy and pointed him at Mayakill. He waited until the man slumped and turned to stone before Rayph cursed again. He hid behind the man as the gorgon stepped around the statue, laughing.

  “Your bitch of an assassin stabbed out my eyes, but I regene
rate. My body is so immense it heals itself.” She grabbed Rayph as he swung for her head blind. She stabbed him in the side and he cried out in pain. “You die now.” She grabbed the hem of his hood and threw it back. He snapped his eyes closed. She laughed as her viper hair hissed against his skin, their tongues lapping his cheeks and forehead. “You will decorate the bar for long years while we torture this city and crush its will,” she said.

  Rayph heard Sisalyyon’s voice just behind him. “Hey bitch!” she said.

  The gorgon turned and Rayph opened his eyes. Sisalyyon stood with her clubs in her hands, her hood drawn over her eyes.

  “The dryad. Oh, what a treat. I will kill you and make him watch. Then—”

  “Shut your mouth,” Sisalyyon said. Her club was a blur as she swung and connected with Mayakill’s face. Sisalyyon threw her hood back and Rayph stared into her wooden face.

  The gorgon hissed and Sisalyyon laughed. Rayph cried out and waited for Sisa to turn to stone. He could do nothing but stare at his beautiful friend and watch her die.

  “You turn flesh to stone,” Sisalyyon said. She kicked Mayakill in the gut and brought her clubs down on her five times. The gorgon stumbled back and Sisa laughed. “Not wood.” Mayakill looked at Sisalyyon in horror. Sisa swung her clubs in a dizzying display of twirling death. Mayakill took hit after hit. She was knocked back time and again and soon she could not move. Sisalyyon kicked her and beat her. When Mayakill’s arms, legs, and hands were broken, when her face was a ragged tear, Sisalyyon pulled a cloth from her pocket and bound Mayakill’s eyes with it.

  Rayph looked up at Sisa and smiled a pained grin. “Wood, huh?” he said.

  “Tougher than you would think,” she said.

  Rayph stood. His side hurt and bled freely. He let Sisa bind his wound then turned to see the floor behind him.

  He had the room. The foyer was filled with dead or groaning bodies of prisoners and fiends. Rayph looked at his crew, seeing everyone intact, more or less. His eyes scanned for Dran but did not find her.

  “Dran?” he called down to Smear. Smear held Trysliana up and turned to Rayph.

  “Haven’t seen her,” he said.

  “We will go looking later,” Rayph said. “We need to find Cosmo now.”

  Rayph whistled, and Buddy looked up at him with a bloody mouth filled with tissue and bone fragments. “Can you find him, boy?” Rayph asked.

  Buddy wagged his tail. Rayph had seen that tail snap legs and break skulls with a single wave, and he grinned.

  “Smear and Trys will follow Buddy,” Rayph said. “If you think you can do that.”

  “I’ll find a way,” Trys said.

  “Maybe Cable and I should do it,” Smear said.

  Trysliana growled and shook her head. “Absolutely not!” she yelled.

  “Take Lyceanias with you. Get my friend back,” Rayph said. “Cable will come with me.”

  “I’m with Smear,” Sisalyyon said. “Cosmo will need to see me when they find him.”

  “You’re right, go, but be fast,” Rayph said. “Fanhon, you in place?”

  “I’m here, Rayph. The spot is marked.”

  “Good. Cable, Eloam, let’s go find a rat,” Rayph said. They turned from the balcony and headed into the heart of the Crown’s darkness.

  Rayph heard screams of insanity and pain as he walked the halls. If Radamuss was in charge of the Crown, as Silk’s information network told him he was, then he would be in the office, or one of the towers. Rayph heard anguish radiating around him. He wanted to enter every door and free those in pain and mental torture. He hated the building. Hated the idea of it. And he swore to himself as he walked its darkened blood-splashed hallways he would have Thomas do something about this place when this was all over.

  Every now and then, a prisoner would come out of a room. Blood covered and usually carrying some diabolical instrument of torture. These were prisoners freed by Brody, and they were exacting terrible vengeance for the horrors visited upon them at the hands of the guards. Rayph had no time to rationally see to their sanity or their guilt. If they cowered and begged forgiveness, he would slam them into a room for justice later. If they came at him, they were dead.

  He fought to remember the layout of the place, trying to remember where the office was and what was coming up before him. He had been here just two years ago, but his distaste for everything done here was so great he did not hold onto what and where things were. He kicked open a door and rushed to the side of a bound and naked guard.

  Rayph lightly slapped the man awake, and when his eyes opened, he cried out in pain. He looked at Cable, at her crystal jaw, and screamed in terror. “Calm down, no one wants to hurt you. I want to free you if you are not mad. I need your help. I am Rayph Ivoryfist.”

  The man screamed and pulled back. “I didn’t hurt your friend. I didn’t even know him. You came back!” He screamed. “You want revenge.”

  “I want to help. Yes, I attacked this place recently, but I have come to liberate it now. I need your help to do it. Now, your fellow guards are being punished, do you want to help them or not?”

  The man nodded and fought for control.

  “Tell me where the office is. I need to purge this place of the sickness that has taken it over.”

  “Up,” the man said. “The God Tower is what we call it. It has a landing point on it for when our boss flies in. It houses the globe and the main switch.”

  “What globe? What main switch?”

  “The switch that opens and closes every door in this prison. The globe that dampens the magic cast by outsiders.”

  Rayph looked at Cable and Eloam.

  “I would be much more useful to you if that globe were gone,” Eloam said.

  Rayph nodded. “I agree. Let’s go. You’re coming with us,” he said to the guard. “Get up.” Rayph cut him free and turned for the door. He motioned to the guard and pointed forward. “Lead us. And don’t get lost.”

  The prison was a maze of halls and doors. Cages behind doors slowed them down. Rayph had no magic he could cast that would blast them through. Cable picked each lock and they kept moving. The freed prisoners were regrouping, and they met with pockets of resistance with every turn. Most were scrappers with little training. They fell quickly and painfully. Others were dangerous and took some time to crush. Rayph fought his way through, wondering if Radamuss was even in the office anymore. He decided the man would want a showdown. He would want to brag about what he had done to Trisha, and Rayph counted on that, holding onto hope the rat king would wait it out.

  The guard took them to a door and pointed with fear in his eyes. “The office is at the top of that tower. I’m not going in there,” he said.

  “Okay, either find a place to hide or get a sword and fight. I can’t spare anyone to protect you, and I can’t take you out of here. Go now!” Rayph said. The man nodded and rushed away.

  Rayph turned to Cable, who picked the lock and opened the door. Rayph stepped back and motioned for everyone to get out of the way. He opened the door and a dart came flying through it. It snapped against the wall and Rayph nodded. They entered, climbing the stairs, weapons out.

  Rayph found a door and turned to Cable. She tried the handle and shook her head.

  “Not locked,” she whispered.

  He kicked it in and jumped away. No traps, no darts. He rushed in with Cable behind him.

  A globe hovered in the middle of the room. Rayph walked to the globe and looked at it for a long time. The pillar it hovered over had a latch, but it was locked with a large, three-keys lock.

  “Can you open it?” Rayph asked.

  “I can,” Cable said. “I’m sure of it.”

  “Good, work on it,” Rayph said. “Eloam, come with me.” He took the mage away so they could talk. “I’m leaving you in this room.”

  Eloam grimaced but nodded.

  “I don’t want anyone coming in here. No one, not even me. If anyone tries, you hold them out. If they persist, atta
ck them. I will cast a screen on the door when I walk out. This is a place I want to hold. I’m counting on you to do it. Can you hold it, or do you want me to leave Cable?”

  “I have it, Rayph. Count on me.” He looked scared, and Rayph had to remind himself he was talking to an apprentice. But in Rayph’s time, he had seen apprentices do amazing things.

  Cable called them back. She stepped away as Rayph looked at the latch. He thumbed it open and the globe hovered higher. The entire top of the pillar opened like a box. Rayph pulled it open and the globe lowered into the pillar. After Rayph snapped it closed, Cable locked it back.

  They left the room, sealing a terrified Eloam in to hold it.

  They reached a second door and Rayph stopped there. He cast on the door. The color ran off the wood and Rayph could see inside the room.

  A massive switch ran through the floor. It was a large room with gears and screws filling the floor. Chains stretched across everything. Rayph looked at the mechanism and sighed. He and Cable entered the room, then Rayph grabbed the lever.

  A small stone beam rose from the ground and stopped at Rayph’s hip. It had a hand print painted on it and Rayph cursed.

  “It’s magically locked. We can’t make it work,” he said. He stared at the handprint, wondering what it would take. It would take authority. He would have to be the head of the building in order to make it work at all, he was sure of it. He let the problem run through his mind before he grinned and pulled out his badge. He held it over the handprint and spoke out loud.

  “I claim this building in the name of the king. I assume command of it and all of its moving parts, organization, and workers.” He slipped his badge away and placed his hand on the print. As the beam sank into the floor he gritted his teeth. “Let’s see if that worked.”

  He grabbed the lever and pulled. It would not come at first. He grunted and pulled and had about given up when the switch began to move, and the room began to turn. He heard the room snapping and rolling. The chains pulled taut and stretched.