Page 11 of Blood of Ancients

Chapter 5

Magnus

KELVAR THE WHISPERERpulled the leech from my arm. I hissed at him from the slight jolt of pain.

“That should do it,” he said, clicking his tongue. The shadowwalker stood over the chair where I sat, examining the black leech wiggling between his fingers. Frowning, he said, “Don’t give me that look, boy. Like a spoiled child. These leeches are much less painful than the leechings you suffered before I came along. I’m sure of that.”

He had a point. The Hersir had essentially rescued me from the blood-testing operation in the heart of Fort Woden, a month ago.

I had done the dirty work of creating a shadow-image of myself in the testing chair. With nowhere to run, it was the Whisperer who came to my aid. It had been a complete shock, since I’d thoughthewas ordering the blood-leechings.

That turned out to be Tomekeeper Dahlia, the rotund queen of Mimir Tomes, our campus library. She had it out for me, and had a good reason to want me dead. I had killed her bastard daughter Astrid.

I asked Kelvar, “Why are you helping me, Hersir?”

The same question, again. Wouldn’t be the last time I asked it, I was sure. I respected his ability to keep mum, because it was a quality I shared.

That didn’t make his non-answers any less aggravating.

With a sigh, Kelvar turned around, long, straight gray hair sweeping to the small of his back. He was a slender man, with a skeletal face and concave cheeks slightly withered by age. If I had to guess, I’d put him at fifty years old.

The man had been doing things behind the shadows for many, many years. He wasn’t going to answer an eager pup like me, no matter how unthreatening I made myself.

We were in a small cave-room, scattered off from earshot of any other alcoves in the underground tunnels. It was Kelvar’s personal dwelling, not much bigger than a room an initiate might have.

Then again, I supposed the Whisperer didn’t need many supplies or wares to ply his trade. He worked by manipulating the mind and the shadows around him. It made him impossibly unpredictable and dangerous.

I pried. “When you helped me escape Fort Woden, you said you were helping me because you’d made apromise.A promise to whom? What did this promise entail?”

“Save your breath and quit asking your questions, bloodrender. My reasons are my own.” He hunched over a small table of tinctures and vials, clanking them around as he tossed the leech into one of the beakers.

I clenched my jaw, frustrated. “You said we’d discuss it more once we were safe, away from the Fort. That was three weeks ago.”

He tossed me a menacing look over his shoulder. “Have we not been discussing it?”

“No. You’ve been plucking me with leeches like a medieval witch-doctor, drawing more blood and studying me just like the bastard doctors at Woden.”

“The difference being I’m studying you tohelpyou. They were studying you for less altruistic reasons.”

I sniffed, shaking my head and locking my gray eyes with his. “I have a sneaking suspicion nothing you do is altruistic, Whisperer. Don’t play that card with me.”

The man pushed himself away from the table, taking slow, measured steps toward me. Making not a sound with his unnerving gait. “You’re growing too big for your britches, boy. Might you forget who you’re talking to?”

He leaned closer. Looking at his pale face too long made me pull back in my chair, naturally averse to conflict with this dangerous man.

Averting my gaze, I lowered my shoulders. “I’ve not forgotten who you are, Hersir Kelvar. Or what you did for me when you seemingly had no reason to. All I want to know iswhy.”

“In time, perhaps.” He stepped back, crossing his arms over his narrow chest. With only a single torch in the corner of the room, and the Whisperer dressed in black, he nearly melded into the shadows around him. “Thewhyis not important. What is important is understanding what’s coursing through your veins.”

I scoffed. “Yes, well, you’ve done a damned fine job of sucking all that out of me.”

Kelvar stood back on the edge of his desk, hands splayed behind him casually. “You have something special inside you, Magnus Feldraug. I don’t mean your bloodrending. I intend to find out what it is before anyone treacherous does.”

Treacherous? You’re the most treacherous of them all!“And you intend to keep me in the dark during your search.”

He shook his head firmly. “Not true. When I know more, you’ll be the first to know.” He quirked a half-smile, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking with me or not.

We were two emotionless sociopaths locked in a battle of wits. There was never a chance it was going to be anything other than awkward and infuriating.

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