Purgatory Blood (Harbinger P.I. Book 12) by Adam J Wright

Author:Adam J Wright [Wright, Adam J]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Harbinger Press Ink
Published: 2022-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

SEVEN

The ship descended smoothly to a grassy area some distance away from the crumbling edge of Purgatory. Faber looked at me and grimaced. “This is what the king means when he says the kingdom is under attack.”

“Are you sure this is the work of a person?” I said. “Couldn’t it be some kind of natural process? I can’t imagine anyone having the power to do something like this.”

“We thought the same thing at first. Come with me, I want to show you something.” He waved to one of the crew and the rope ladder was thrown over the side. Faber climbed down it and I followed.

When we got to the ground, I could hear a low hum coming from the void. It thrummed through the ground beneath our feet. Faber led me toward the edge, where the ground was crumbling away into the void.

“Don’t get too close,” he warned.

His warning was redundant; there was no way I was getting close to the edge. The void beyond looked infinite. Falling into it would mean game over.

Faber pointed at the ground. “You’ll see it in a moment.”

We waited, staring at the grass beneath our feet. Then I saw it. Orange-glowing magical runes and patterns flashed along the dirt, snaking through the grass. After the brief pulse, they were gone again.

I looked at Faber. “Some kind of spell?”

He nodded gravely. “There’s no other explanation.”

I thought about that for a couple of minutes, during which the magical symbols pulsed through the ground three more times. Who could cast a spell powerful enough to destroy a realm? To cast one would require an immense amount of energy; the magical equivalent of a nuclear reactor.

“Something doesn’t make sense,” I said.

Faber looked at me expectantly.

The magical symbols flashed beneath our feet again.

“The king has a seer so powerful that she could name my cases on Earth, yet she doesn’t know who cast a spell of this magnitude? I don’t believe it.”

He grimaced.

“You know something,” I said. “Tell me.”

Faber sighed. “The queen does not believe it either. She thinks Lucretia is withholding information.”

Now we were getting somewhere. The threads of the Purgatory court were unraveling.

“Tell me more.”

“At the king’s direction, Lucretia attempted to discover the name of the spellcaster. She told him her vision could not penetrate the magical protection that had been placed around the person.”

“Someone capable of this” —I indicated the land crumbling into the void— “can probably cast one hell of a protection spell but that wouldn’t stop someone like Lucretia at least learning who they are.”

He nodded. “Agreed. And before she told King Krowley that her vision had been blocked, an emotion flashed across Lucretia’s face, just for an instant before she composed herself.”

“What kind of emotion? Fear?”

“No, it was a look of recognition. As if her vision had revealed to her the face of someone she knew.”

“Is that possible?”

“I suppose so. I don’t know much about Lucretia, other than the fact that she is from your world and she was captured by the king as soon as she arrived here.

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