Book 2: Chapter 16: The Mind Singer

Book 2: Chapter 16: The Mind Singer

Arthur and Cressida ran up the stairs to find the scholar's guild in complete chaos. The scourge-bats had not made their escape quietly, and it seemed they were not used to flying outside of the confined space of the room. There were black marks wherever they had brushed the stone walls -- patches of scourge rot. Arthur hoped it would not take root before someone came to exterminate it.

A distant scream came from a level above. He and Cressida exchanged a grim look. The scholar's feast had been interrupted.

He supposed he should have felt guilty. Certainly, he didn't want anyone to get hurt.

But he didn't.

Instead, he felt seething anger.

He and Cressida weren't the ones responsible for neglecting a Rare card so badly that it had rotted away. Even then, he doubted that rot had instantly resulted in these scourge-beasts. No, that had taken time to appear. Then there was the damning presence of the runes meant to keep the worst locked in the Rare room.

Someone had tried to cover up their mistake.

No one could be held at fault for blundering over a carelessly laid Trap card. The law pointed toward the wielder. He had to believe it was the same here.

Arthur's main worry wasn't for the scholars, who were responsible. It was for the actual innocents. The servants, caretakers, and other staff. Including Barlow and his kitchen workers.

New Technique gained: Rapid Stair Climbing (Endurance Class)

Due to your previous experience and your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 5.

Really? He thought with a mixture of amusement and frustration. How was stair climbing a technique?

Much like Running, it wasn't as if his legs grew any stronger, he became aware of how to position his feet to make each step that much more efficient.

Suddenly, Arthur was taking every other step two at a time. Not impossible even before, but now it felt exactly as easy as taking one step at a time.

He surged past Cressida without realizing it. Turning back on the next landing, Arthur extended a hand to her. She waved it away.

"Go! Warn them!"

He intended to, if by "them" she meant the workers. As far as he was concerned, the scholars were on their own.

Arthur bolted up the next set of stairs.

Another scream alerted him to trouble at the next level.

A man in dark scholarly robes was facing off against a scourge-bat just down the hallway. Backed into a corner, the man swung a candlestick holder at the scourge -- a lit candlestick holder.

One swing and two of the three candles went sailing off their base. One snuffed out as it fell to the ground. The second rolled under a full-length window curtain where it started to smolder.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

Clearly, the man didn't have a Common Sense card.

"Stop!" Arthur yelled, before the man could swing again and send the third candle flying.

Too late. The darting scourge-beast folded its wings and struck at him, aiming for the scholar's neck the same way Arthur had been bitten.

No... no, he was wrong. It wasn't aiming for his neck. It was aiming for his heart. The scourge-beast was trying to chew the cards out of his heart deck.

The man dropped the candlestick and tried to claw the scourge-beast off him. But it had a tight hold and judging by the man's watery scream, a vital one.

Meanwhile, the curtain had caught aflame.

Arthur hesitated for a second, torn.

Barlow gestured them to the back of the kitchen. It was slightly less noisy -- they could hear each other if they yelled.

"I thought you were dead for sure!" Barlow said. "How'd you get past the mind mage?"

Arthur thought he didn't hear correctly. "Mind mage?"

Barlow nodded. "One of the servers caught the edge of the spell -- heard singing. Tried to tear the cards out of her own heart." He gestured to a figure Arthur didn't see before as she'd been in shadow: A young woman with lank black hair tied into a bun. Currently tied to a chair, she was slumped unconscious. "One of my cooks charmed her to sleep so she didn't hurt herself."

"You drowned out the noise?" Cressida yelled, though it was more of a statement than a question. She had snapped back to herself and even seemed impressed as if not believing mere common workers would figure out a way to counteract mind magic on the fly.

Again Barlow nodded. "How bad is it out there?"

"Bad--" Arthur started to say.

"It's no mind mage," Cressida cut in. "It's a scourge infestation."

Barlow went pale. "An eruption? Here?"

"No, an infestation," Cressida said with emphasis. "The scholars working against the hive. Keep the doors barred. Ern--" she caught herself, "Arthur and I must leave."

Barlow turned to him, eyebrows raised. He didn't believe her. Arthur didn't blame him. It was pretty unbelievable. He was also surprised at Cressida's truthfulness, and her accusation.

Almost as if... as if she expected Barlow to spread the word around the city. Knowing Barlow, he would do just that.

Arthur wasn't entirely sure of Cressida's motivation, but he was sure they didn't want their names to be associated with what had happened here today.

"The scholars let cards rot right under our feet," Arthur said. "Rare cards that infested scourge."

Now Barlow looked a bit green. He took a step back and made a warding sign, as if speaking about it was unlucky.

"Are we safe?"

"Keep the doors barred until the hive dragons arrive. They should be here any time." He couldn't imagine people hadn't escaped out of every exit once the chaos started. "Carded can't catch scourge-diseases. And Barlow," he reached into his personal space and withdrew every Rare shard he'd collected except for the corner piece. "We were never here."

Barlow took the bribe with a nod and unbarred the exit for them.

None of the workers followed. There was no telling how many of the scourgelings had escaped into the night. While in the kitchens behind shut doors, the workers were safe.

Arthur and Cressida didn't have that luxury. They escaped into the night.

They barely made it down the block before the first of the dragon roars started. The hive had been alerted.

Cressida pulled Arthur to a stop. Her eyes were wild. "Do you think that man was telling the truth? The scholars had mind magic cards down there?"

"You saw the banquet hall," Arthur said. "Something snared all those people in a blink. It looked like no one fought back."

They had been lucky that the scourgeling with the mind magic hadn't stopped to snack on them first. The banquet hall must have been too tempting of a target.

Her eyes went wide. Then, just as fast, they narrowed again. "I hope whoever was responsible was in that hall."

Arthur did too, but in his experience people responsible for atrocities rarely paid for them.

Cressida must have seen the doubt in his eyes because she squared her shoulders and tossed her hair back. "I'll testify against them. The leadership will take my word as a noble and... as a Rare dragon rider. If I'm lucky." At once, her bravado melted away. "I only collected four Rare cards."

"I got one," he said. It wasn't as many as they had hoped, but it was better than nothing. "Let's see if the pink likes the look of them."

They needed somewhere private, and he had just the spot.