Page 1 of Untraceable
Chapter One
Amulti-city tradeconference. Levora City.
She was outside when the explosion rocked the city. Others ran from the building, but Heyval ran toward it. Death wasn’t something she feared, and if she could stop it, she would.
Her apprentice’s robes flapped as she ran. The mark of the cursed city was on both of her shoulders, but no one coming toward her recoiled. They were all running to get away.
Heyval entered the council chamber, and the carnage was everywhere. Pieces of dignitaries from across the continent were littering the walls and tables. There was even a hand stuck to the ceiling.
She heard a wheezing moan and scrambled through the corpses to find the survivor. She found him lying under a table and pushed it aside to make sure that she could heal him.
“Sir? Sir, I have to ask you a very important question.”
Gold-green eyes were blind with pain. The man slowly focused, and she saw his soul and magic preparing to depart.
She reached out and caught the energy, keeping it from leaving.
“Sir, do you want to live?”
“What?”
“Do. You. Want. To. Live?” She had time now; he wasn’t dying until she let go.
Healers were coming, but they wouldn’t be there in time.
His gaze took on awareness. “Yes. What will it cost?”
“Nothing. But after I do this, I have to run. You will be fine. You will never be in this situation again.”
He groaned and nodded. “I accept.”
She smiled. “This is gonna hurt.” She jammed his energies back into his body and wrapped them in place with hers. “I am sorry, sir.”
His body arched, and she got his severed arm and leg into position. They attached and began to heal immediately.
His breath was wheezing in his lungs, and then he relaxed.
She waved over the medics and healers, who brought a backboard with them. “He’s alive.”
The healers rushed in, and one stopped. “Did you do anything?”
The woman gestured to the icons on Heyval’s shoulders. “No. Not a thing. He’s got a will to live.”
She stood aside as the man was lifted onto the backboard and strapped down. A troll medic came in and took the man and his support carefully, following two of the healers while the other five were going from body to body, looking for life signs.
Heyval could see the life signs in the room, and they all belonged to searchers. Anyone at this meeting was now dead.
One of the searchers said, “You aren’t assigned to rescue. Get out of here, but register with the peacekeepers.”
Heyval nodded and made her way out of the carnage. She hoped they would find out who did this. She was going to register and go through any documentation she needed to fill out, and as soon as she was clear, she was leaving. By the time they figured out what she had done, she needed to be a few cities away.
Being born as a healer but trained as a necromancer was a rough way to start her career, but it was what Heyval was stuck with. The city of Suura had crafted a lot of mis-trained mages. Parents tried to teach their children their own skills, and more and more of those skills did not match.
She had to wear the marks of her city on her, just so her instructors knew that her reactions might not be right. Using necromancy on an unwilling subject or a high-ranking one was forbidden. She didn’t know who her patient had been, but his clothing was fancy, and the dead that she did recognize were all masters or city heads. She was going to be in a lot of trouble.
Time for her career to head into Plan B.
* * * *
