The Devil's Liege (The Mathias Saga Book 2) (7 page)

Finally, he found the library. Even though Vlad had said it would probably take him a few times to find it, his directional memory was better than he thought. Or, he was tapping into something else entirely. Either way, he wasn’t upset about it. At least one thing worked right today.

He forced power into his hands and repeated the pattern Vlad had shown him. It seemed like years ago now. Too much had happened. Slowly, the door ground open. Mathias stepped inside.

Like before, the turret was lined with shelves and shelves of books. They stretched up to the ceiling which was hundreds of feet away. Every so often, the books were displaced by a stained glass window. The windows had various scenes of old epic battles. The sheer number of volumes was mind-blowing. The books were all different. Some were old leather-bound tomes. Others were cloth bound. And, there were some modern bound books entered into the mix as well. The variety made the room smell like paper, glue, and some sort of mustiness that he couldn’t identify. He didn’t really know where to start. It wasn’t like there was a computer in the room so he could look up call numbers. Hell, there wasn’t even one of those old-style card catalog things he’d seen in movies.

And then, he had a strange idea. If it didn’t work, he wasn’t out anything. If it did, however, he would have something to work with. Mathias stilled himself and took a deep breath.

“I need information on finding people, lost objects, and spells to accomplish this,” he said aloud. It wasn’t his dumbest idea. He just hoped it did something.

Then, he waited. At first, nothing happened. Then, the books began ruffling themselves on the shelves. Finally, they stopped and there, at his feet, was a small pile of books.

This was definitely not like any library he’d been inside before. Granted, he was relieved it worked, but it was still fucking weird. But still, it was about time something he tried actually worked. His idea wasn’t so stupid after all.

“Thank you,” he said. No sense in not thanking whatever it was that ran the library. It was too sentient to be just a spell. Then, he picked up the stack and left. As soon as he stepped out of the library, the door shut behind him … without any assistance at all from Mathias.

* * * * *

“Does Mathias seem okay to you?” Vlad asked Stuart. He’d taken Mathias’ seat at the table. Even Stuart had to admit that the boy had just seemed deflated once Tallus had taken his own life.

Stuart raised his head. Vlad had been watching him look over the list of prisoners. As far as he could see, there weren’t any left and they were still in the same shape as when they started. “No, he’s not all right. But, that’s kind of to be expected.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be with him at all times?” Vlad asked.

“Technically, yes. But, the prisoners needed questioned and Azazel is busy dealing with Tallus’ body.” What did Vlad expect him to do, magically wave his arm and create a golem crew of servants?

Vlad grunted. “I just want the boy to be safe is all.”

“And that’s something that probably isn’t going to happen. You made him king, remember?” If he wanted the kid safe, he should have set him up in an apartment in a city somewhere where he could live his life in peace.

Vlad adjusted his chair and turned his body completely toward Stuart. “Yes, and?”

“We can’t just take him off the throne and replace him with Nosferatu again. The years of rule between turns of rule are killing us. Mathias will have to remain where he is until someone else can take over again.” Stuart wouldn’t dare go against the old rules anymore than they already had. The rules about who could be the monarch had been set when Lilith hadn’t been insane. They were there so no one vampire could become the dictator of the kingdom forever. Too many civilizations had died that way.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Vlad said. He drummed his fingers on the table. “How many do we have left? Is there more to the list?”

“Prisoners to question you mean?” Stuart asked.

“Yes.”

“None.” Stuart almost wished that there were more because they hadn’t found out one single thing that was helpful, but even he couldn’t work miracles.

Vlad stared at him for a moment. “And the advisor?”

“In the cell, waiting,” Stuart said. He didn’t put out much hope. Chances were, the idiot knew about as much as Karsavin did, but the difference was, Karsavin hadn’t even been involved.

* * * * *

Mathias had hauled all the books back to the rooms and spread them across the table in Vlad’s sitting area. It was the biggest table he had easy access to, and Mathias wanted privacy. He needed to be able to think. Especially if he expected to be able to read these books as quickly as possible.

He picked up the first book. Not knowing where to look, he decided to do what he’d done in the library. The worst thing that could happen was that nothing would happen and he’d have to look through the books manually.

“Show me information on finding lost people or objects,” he said toward the book.

He set the book down on the table. Suddenly, book opened by itself and the pages of the book flipped themselves until they finally settled with the book open.

He picked up the book. It was in some language he didn’t immediately recognize. It was not good. One: evidently he never knew the language in the first place. And two, there was no way he was going to get the information he needed if they all were like this. It was almost as if something was doing its level best to keep things from moving forward.

“Shit.”

“You could just change it to English,” Vlad said.

Mathias jumped. Why couldn’t he just announce his presence like a normal person? “Dammit. I hate it when you do that.”

Vlad laughed. “You aren’t blocking again, but no matter. Interrogations are done. Only one prisoner remains.”

“And who is that?” Mathias asked.

“Elias, Nosferatu and Lilith’s royal advisor.”

Mathias gnashed his teeth together. “And why’d you put him in the cells?”

Vlad smiled. “Because we knew you’d want a crack at him. He’s the one that offered Nossy the pomegranate seeds that allowed him to get kidnapped.”

Mathias pushed all of his doubts out of his mind and forced himself to not explode—not then. He set the book down on the table. “Let’s go.”

* * * * *

For Mathias, going back to the throne room was kind of weird. He wasn’t exactly sure what he should be doing. He hadn’t exactly proven himself to be a great interrogator. Yeah, he wanted to find Nossy, but his last try at interrogation hadn’t gone so well. Having your subjects kill themselves didn’t exactly instill confidence. Maybe he had better let Stuart and Vlad take the reins on this one. This advisor may be their last chance at answers no matter the bravado he’d used earlier. He didn’t even know if the vampire world had seers.

He followed Vlad into the throne room. It felt more normal to be coming in from the regular entrance. Maybe he could request that he didn’t have to use the other room. This time, chained to the floor was a guy Mathias couldn’t remember having seen before. But then, he hadn’t exactly been paying attention to anything other than Lilith when she’d been around either. He had been concentrating on how to learn to deal with this new world.

This guy was dressed in old short breeches with hose and a white shirt up top. Guess no one had ever told him it was the 21
st
Century. He had longer brown hair that hung down into his eyes. Mathias couldn’t tell what color they were. Every so often, the man would pull against the chains.

Vlad guided him back to the chair behind the table. The cart of torture instruments was off to the side, well out of the prisoner’s reach this time. Mathias couldn’t help but wonder why that hadn’t been done before. Maybe the excitement had made all of them lose a bit of their senses.

“So, that’s Lilith’s old advisor?” Mathias asked.

“Elias, yes,” Stuart said.

Stuart seemed tired. He had dark circles under his eyes.

“And he had something to do with Nossy’s kidnapping?” Mathias asked.

“So we understand,” Vlad said. He’d pulled up a chair and now sat on the other side of Mathias. He smelled like myrrh, dark and rich. If he’d been a girl, he would have been pulled in by that smell. But, since he wasn’t, it was just distracting.

“What can we do?” Mathias asked.

Stuart paused. “We do what we want. He is a prisoner.”

Mathias rolled his eyes. “That is not what I meant.” He took a deep breath. “Is there some other way to get him to talk besides torture?”

He did not want a repeat of last time, no matter how far away they rolled the cart.

“Like a truth serum?” Vlad asked.

Mathias shrugged. He didn’t really know what he meant. He just wanted to do the best by Nossy he could. And, if they let this one croak, their chances of finding him would get even more slim. “Yes. No. Maybe. I just don’t want this to be all fucked up. Nossy needs our help. Who knows when it was the last time he ate?”

“We know, Mathias,” Stuart said. “Do you have any ideas?”

Why did they think he’d asked them? But, whatever. He pushed away his annoyance. If they wanted him to take over, fine. If he fucked it up, it would be their funeral. “I have to make him tell me what he knows.”

Vlad and Stuart said nothing. Mathias got up. It was time to focus. He sort of flipped a switch in his head. He tapped into that other side, the tortured one. He knew he didn’t have too much time. Something was telling him that Nosferatu needed out—
Now
. Waiting around wasn’t going to help anything. And, if it took Mathias having to drudge up painful memories, then so be it.

He walked over to the figure lying prostrate on the floor and looked down. Might as well get started. “So, you helped Tallus?”

Elias nodded. His face was strained. The manacles he was chained to stretched his arms out taught against the floor. His wrists were red where he’d been pulling at them.

“What did he promise you?” Mathias asked him.

Elias tried to readjust, but the binds were so tight that he could not move. If he kept it up, he was going to tear the skin around his wrists.

“Don’t make me ask again,” Mathias said.

Elias looked up at Mathias, glared, and spat in his face. The gob of yellowish phlegm stuck to his cheek. Mathias wiped it off with his hand and flung it to the floor. He forced himself to think about control. If it wasn’t for the fact that this asshole was needed, he would have killed him right there. But, Nossy was more important. He calmed himself…to a point. Fine. The bastard would learn.

Mathias made himself still. He focused his energy and let it build. Then, he threw it all at Elias’ mind. The man’s blocks seemed to explode at Mathias’ force. Thoughts and images rushed through Mathias’ mind. Everything was there. Then, Mathias slacked off the power and slowed down the rush of images, searching for anything to do with Nosferatu. It wasn’t like looking through a computer for files or anything like that. More so, the thoughts appeared as whispy things amongst something that looked not unlike a solar system except the stars were not twinkly.

Finally, he caught a flash of an image of pomegranate seeds. He followed it and his brain opened another section of Elias’ mind. Colors burst forth and Mathias saw Elias meeting with Tallus, the bowl of drugged pomegranate seeds presented to Nosferatu, and Elias running out of the room. He flipped back through everything like pages in a book, but there was nothing about where Nossy was to be kept. No conversations. Nothing. This had been a complete waste of time.

“Fuck.” His mind snapped back into himself and Elias cried out in pain. Good.

Mathias looked over at the table. “He knows nothing.”

“What do you want to do?” Stuart asked.

Good freaking question. Now, all he had to go back to was those books. He had to keep hope that there would be something in there that he could work with. But, Elias, however, was not going to live to see the result. “Kill him. I need to finish my research.”

With that, he walked out of the room and went back to Vlad’s. If there wasn’t anything in those books, Nossy was so screwed, and he would have failed. He didn’t like to fail.

* * * * *

Mathias took a deep breath after he seated himself in front of the great book. It was as huge as one of those old dictionaries you used to see in libraries. The thing was at least ten pounds. It was going to take him forever to try to read through the whole thing, even with changing the language to something he could read. There had to be an easier way.

He sat there for a minute, thinking. It had been a hell of a day, and it was getting later as he sat there. He didn’t want to overload his brain or anything, not with how unstable he knew he was, but his sanity was worth losing if it meant saving Nossy. It was probably a really crazy idea, but, at this point, he felt like he was backed into a corner. His options were limited.

He owed Nossy. Even if there had been times that things had been weird between them; like the time almost a millennium ago, when he’d arrived at his home and Nossy came onto him. Poor Nossy. He couldn’t help the way he was just as Nossy couldn’t help his nature. He’d let him down as careful as he could, and they’d still remained friends as a result of it.