Cursed by Malignant Magic (Once Upon A Curse)

Chapter 33

Chapter

Thirty-Three

N either torture nor maiming was required to make Tannin talk. We didn't even have to kill him.

Merely the threat of violence was enough to get him to tell us everything we wanted to know.

The bigger challenge was getting him to stop talking. Ehuna had tied him and the other advisors up in a dungeon cell hours ago, and still, Tannin wouldn’t hush up.

His signed confession, coupled with the stack of parchment evidence Varna found with some advisors’ signatures who’d pledged to join Tannin’s treachery, was damaging enough.

Legacy and I stepped outside the dungeon for a break. I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, trying to stop the pounding in my head. This was the first quiet we'd had in hours, and it was blessedly silent.

Legacy lifted her hands to my face, her long fingers stroking gently against my forehead to ease the ache. I would have been more than happy if we just stood here and did this forever, but of course we had business to take care of.

"I had not expected a man with so much power to be such a coward," she mused.

She tugged me forward, and I followed without opening my eyes. Soon enough, we sat at a small table at the end of the hall, where a lantern threw dim light, visible even behind my closed eyelids.

I shook my head. "I didn't either. But it serves us well that he is. Now we know why he did it and what needs to happen next."

Some of the war’s advisors on both sides, including Tannin, had thought that by stealing magic, and stealing me since I didn’t need gauntlets and could sniff out magic, he and the others would have power of their own. If the war stopped, they would have far less power over the royalty who looked to them for answers when it came to magic.

The magic itself was an afterthought, something that infuriated me to no end. Tannin and his co-conspirators had stored the stolen magic in the abandoned building, not expecting me to sniff it out, and had rigged the magic with fuses in case someone accidentally stumbled upon the building.

Magic was a struggle for most mages to find, and as far as I knew, I was the only one with magic in my veins rather than harvested from the land and channeled through gauntlets. It was the height of selfishness for them to hoard it all on their own.

Sighing, I opened my eyes. It was then I noticed the golden amulet hanging around Legacy’s neck. The magic within smelled like lightning.

I reached out to touch it. “I’ve never seen you wear this before.”

“Well, I don’t have much of a choice.”

I flicked my gaze to hers. “What?”

“I can’t take it off, no matter what I do. It was put on me by some street urchin who stole my bracelet.” She shrugged as she fiddled with said bracelet around her wrist.

My stomach twisted. “Was this after you thought I died?”

She nodded slowly, her eyes widening at the expression she must’ve found on my face.

The bracelet was sent to me to “prove” her death. Did the amulet serve a similar purpose? Like to hide her from tracking spells?

“We’ll talk to Ehuna about it later,” I promised.

But first, Ehuna asked us if we’d accompany her to take Tannin to the Caputo queen. There was a portal spell in the library that would allow us to get much closer to the queen quickly.

Spells like this were dangerous and often terrifying to use, not to mention rare, but it would save us days of travel, days where we ran the risk of Tannin escaping or coming to harm before he could tell the queen what he had told us. It was a necessary evil, and it also meant that we could leave now, rather than wait until the morning. The sooner we were in front of my queen, and then Legacy's in the Montrose kingdom, the better chance we had of stopping the war.

We made our preparations quickly, and a small party of us used the spell—me, Legacy, Tannin, Ehuna, and a few guards—to make sure that we weren't overwhelmed.

My stomach lurched as we stepped through the portal, finally arriving at our destination. I gulped and leaned over with my hands on my knees, nausea rising in my throat.

Legacy struggled just as much, bent over with her hands on her knees as she heaved up the contents of her stomach. I stayed with her while Ehuna stepped away, leaving us and the guards to guard Tannin in silence.

Ehuna had enough influence to get us a meeting with the queen, and we shuffled into the meeting space outside the throne room, waiting none too patiently to be allowed to enter.

I gritted my teeth, trying to keep a handle on my magic. Tension radiated, thick enough in the air to make my skin crawl.

The guards watched us, their gazes wary. No doubt they knew Tannin, as most everyone did, and wondered why such an important man was chained in the middle of our small party.

Finally we were allowed into the throne room. Legacy and I walked inside with Tannin between us. He shuffled forward and immediately threw himself on the ground in front of the Caputo queen's throne, his forehead braced against the plush line of carpet that led toward her.

The queen looked down at us, her gaze like cool blue flames. Her hair was raven black, half curling over her shoulders and half in an elaborate updo on the back of her head. Her gown was richest green, studded with glittering gems along the bodice. A slim dagger at her belt was the only indication that she had ever once fought alongside her Battle Mages.

I counted on that brief stint to be enough to inspire her to end this war.

The queen narrowed her eyes. "And why, precisely, is one of my generals holding one of my advisors captive? And if I'm not mistaken, there is also an enemy dressed in Montrose colors in my throne room."

Legacy. Ehuna and I hadn't given bringing her here as much thought as we perhaps should have.

I bowed. "My apologies, Your Majesty. It will be explained, but I assure you Legacy is no threat to you."

I winced briefly as I realized I likely shouldn't have spoken her name, nor brought her here at all, as it might undermine our case, but I had never even considered that she shouldn't come with us.

I bowed again, even lower this time. "My name is Collie. I work with General Ehuna and have for several years. It was in the course of performing my duties that I discovered Tannin's treachery."

It took quite some time to explain, as a lot had happened since all this had started. Still, I did my best as clearly and concisely as I could, although some aspects of it certainly didn't shine the best light on me in front of the queen.

While most of what I had done was not technically illegal, it also didn’t make me look like a professional Battle Mage that she would want to let run amok with important information. Like the fact that one of her top advisors was the reason we hadn’t managed to stop the war in so many years. Ehuna filled in the blanks in my story during the numerous times I’d been unconscious.

The queen was all but snarling by the time we finished, and Tannin shrank into himself as her lips peeled back from her teeth, her eyes frigid as she looked down on him from her throne.

From here, it was easy to see that she was a ruler. This was the type of woman who could end wars, who could have a man killed with a simple wave of her hand.

Tannin knew that, and no doubt he wanted to attempt to save his skin as he babbled through tears that he hadn't meant to hurt anyone.

"If this war ended, the kingdom would fall apart," he said.

Despite how quietly he spoke, and the difficulty of hearing him through his hiccuping tears, the room grew painfully silent as we listened. Even the guards, who I could typically hear clattering when they breathed, seemed not to move at all. Everyone stayed still as they listened to the excuses Tannin gave to the queen.

“And somehow you seem to believe that you should be the one to make a choice like that?” she snapped. “A choice that could shape the lives of millions of people?”

Tannin shrank back from her. She had not moved, other than one dark brow rising toward her crown, and yet Tannin looked like she had struck him.

“My queen,” he said, “I never intended to make a choice that should have been laid at your feet. I only intended to help keep this from ever reaching you. Ease your burdens in the only way I knew how.”

Immediately I cringed, and even Legacy winced. Big mistake. He shouldn’t have said that. That might be the last mistake he ever made.

The queen sneered at him, but she controlled herself, rising from her throne and waving her hand at the guards to seize Tannin. The guards stepped forward, their faces grim and determined. A few stayed back, spears ready to strike at a moment’s notice, but they were still more than a match for him.

They dragged Tannin away in a matter of moments, his struggles and protests, shouts of pleas for clemency, still audible as he disappeared from the room. Heads turned to follow the sound, cut off as the heavy wooden doors slammed shut after them.

Silence blanketed the throne room as we all waited to see what would happen next.

I brushed the back of my hand against Legacy's, the briefest instant of comfort, but I dared not hold her hand fully in front of the queen. Perhaps it had been a mistake to bring her here in the first place, but now that we were here together, I would take whatever comfort I could get from her presence.

The queen's copious amount of jewelry jangled as she looked down at us. I gulped.

"So. What am I going to do with you two?" she asked.

Neither of us answered, and none of the guards moved either.

"You have dragged one of my finest, most trusted advisors here in chains and accused him of a sin akin to treason,” she continued. “You, a Battle Mage in my army, and you, an enemy who stands in my throne room as if you have a right to be here."

I shifted, placing myself between Legacy and the queen, but she gripped my elbow gently to pull me back to stand next to her. I glanced at her, startled, but she smiled gently and squeezed my arm.

I nodded, raising my chin. "Your Highness, we did only what we had to do for the good of the kingdoms. Both kingdoms. Legacy has been instrumental in discovering the plot that has allowed the war to go on for so long. I could not have done it without her. She deserves your gratitude, not your ire."

I flushed, cringing back slightly. I had gone too far, but it was too late now. I was just a Battle Mage, and often not even a very good one at that. I was more like a pet monkey that caused chaos and occasionally did what Ehuna said. I didn't know how to speak to royalty, but I did know how to protect the people I cared about.

Legacy bowed her head then knelt in front of the Caputo queen. "Yes, we are enemies, but I have found Collie to be intelligent and kind, not to mention loyal. It took a while, but we realized that we had the same goal in mind—ending this war. I could not have done it without her, and I do not seek your gratitude. I only want to live in peace once this war is over."

The queen sighed as she flicked her gaze to me. "For now, you will remain here in the castle in case I need you further. But you …" She leveled a look at Legacy.

I bristled. Legacy did not deserve to be treated poorly, whether by my queen or anyone else.

"I'm not leaving Legacy," I burst out. "So if you send her to the dungeon, I'm going with her."

I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about spending the foreseeable future in the dungeon, especially since I had spent most of the last however long either tied up or locked up, but I also wouldn’t let Legacy go alone. We'd been through too much together. I’d lost her once, and by some sheer force of luck, I’d only just found her again.

The queen chuckled, although there wasn't much humor in it. "As you wish. For now, you will both be my guests."