“Alistair, you must. Accept it. Now.”
Alistair’s eyes opened, his expression pure torment. His eyes locked on Arabel’s and suddenly his expression changed, hardened. He turned back to the demon.
It happened too fast to follow. One instant the demon was there, a blinding red-hot presence, barely kept back by the white light of Oswald’s projection, and the next, it was gone, and Alistair had collapsed back into the chair. He looked even heavier than he had before, but much less exhausted. He opened his eyes and they were sadder, but brighter. He looked at David.
“Is he all right?”
Arabel heard Avery catch her breath, saw her slim hand go to her mouth as Oswald went over to David’s still form.
The old man bent over the dark-haired boy, placed his hand—no longer glowing—on his chest, and leaned his ear down in front of David’s lips. He waited a long time, but at last he nodded.
“He lives.”
The tension drained out of Arabel. Next to her, she heard Avery turn and walk out.
17
One evening a week later, Arabel lay on her bed, one arm behind her head, staring up at the ceiling and listening to Avery feverishly turning pages. She imagined herself hiking through the woods alone, coming upon abandoned castles, finding long-lost treasures… her eyes drifted closed.
A loud bang reverberated through her consciousness. Her eyes shot open, only to find the room dark.
“Arabel,” Avery whispered. “Did you hear that?”
Another loud bang shook their door. Someone was knocking.
Avery slipped out of bed and opened the door a crack. “Y-yes?”
David, his face illuminated by torchlight, peeked his head in. “You guys are sound sleepers,” he whispered. “I’ve been knocking forever. Come on.” He looked past Avery, saw Arabel glaring at him from her bed. “It’s time for the initiation. Get dressed and—” Arabel threw back her covers and he saw she was fully clothed. “Er, all right, come on then.”
Arabel waited while Avery pulled on some clean clothes with shaking hands. “You’re going to do fine,” Arabel said. Avery nodded once but didn’t meet her eyes.
Blinking in the light, they followed David down the corridor to where Ferne and Charlotte were waiting, Ferne bouncing on the balls of her feet with nervous energy. Both she and Charlotte were clad in matching leather that left a large amount of thigh and cleavage visible, with dramatic purple eyeliner drawn out into wings on the sides of their faces. Arabel wondered if they slept like that, or if it had really taken David that long to get her and Avery up.
“Can you tell us what it’s going to be, now?” Charlotte asked. David didn’t answer. Instead he led them across the courtyard, into the vault, and down a wide stone stairway with low ceilings. They delved deeper and deeper underground, finally coming to a landing with two doors: one large, one small. David opened the smaller door and gestured for them to enter, holding up a hand to stop Arabel.
“You’re first,” he said.
“Good luck,” Avery mouthed, catching Arabel’s eye. A nice, unfamiliar bubbly sensation filled Arabel’s stomach. She couldn’t remember anyone wishing her well or wanting her to succeed. Of course, back at her father’s castle the only things she’d ever really attempted had been messing with people or stealing things. It would have been weird for someone to wish her well on those. But, still, it would have been nice. She grinned, mouthing “You too,” back at her, only slightly disappointed to see Avery’s face go paler.
David closed the door, locked the others in, and picked up a battered piece of wood from a rack on the wall and handed it to her. It was about three feet long, a shining and heavily polished branch of yew. One end was narrower and darker than the other, and as Arabel took it she realized that it had been rubbed away by countless hands grasping it. Excellent. If hitting things with a stick was part of the ceremony, she figured she had this.
She gripped the branch with both hands as David opened the large golden door.
Beyond the door was an enormous stone chamber, at least fifty feet wide and rising up into darkness above. Around the edges of the room were rows of circular benches, lifting up into the dark. The room was large enough to have held a crowd of several thousand, but only around two hundred figures, cloaked again as they had been the first night, scattered the seats. Strings of lanterns burning with blue flames illuminated the scene, contrasting with the warmer glow of the red flames licking up from bronze basins arranged in a circle around the center of the floor. In the center of the room were seven marble pedestals. On each of these pedestals was a glowing glass sculpture, like those Arabel had seen in the vault. On the far side of these was a row of five stone chairs. Oswald sat in the center, Naomi at his right. The others were empty.
David led her forward, bowed deeply to Naomi and Oswald, and took a seat in the stands. Arabel strode into the center of the ring, calmly scanning the faces in the stands and the glowing shapes around her.
“Welcome, aspirant,” Oswald said. “If you wish to continue your guardian training, you must be able to sense the eidolons. Whichever of these seven confines contains an eidolon, smash it to free the eidolon inside.”
That was too easy. Arabel almost laughed. She swung the bat onto her shoulder and began to examine the confines. They each glowed a separate color, but there was something off about each of them. She couldn’t feel anything from any of them. Was there something different about these? Was it harder to sense them in here for some reason? She took a deep breath and focused again, letting herself forget about everything around her and just feeling whatever came. A sense of calm and focus came over her as she slipped into that deeper place in her mind. Still nothing.
She looked up at Oswald and Naomi then. A change had come over them both. Naomi was filled with a pure white light, glowing solidly, tinged with gold at the edges, but Oswald… Oswald was bright, and most of him was white light, but there was a ragged edge to him, a dark hole on one side, and in that dark hole something dark and bloody and red pulsed. Something deeply familiar to Arabel, only she couldn’t tell from what.
Wondering, Arabel turned to scan the crowd of watching guardians, saw mostly whole, glowing, pulsing lights. A few grey spots or ragged edges, but mostly they were illuminating the chamber with clear white light. She couldn’t hold on to the vision, and the light began to fade, her sight returning to normal.
“Choose,” Naomi said sharply. Arabel looked at her, saw her impatience, and something else. Anticipation.
“They’re all empty,” Arabel said, and Naomi’s face fell.
Oswald nodded. “Congratulations, aspirant.”
Disappointed that she hadn’t been allowed to smash something, Arabel allowed David to take the stick from her and lead her into the stands.
She sat and watched while they removed one of the confines and brought out another. This one had an eidolon in it. A sense of inferiority wafted out of it. As she waited, Arabel tried to bring back the vision she’d had earlier, but it wouldn’t come. She took long slow deep breaths until she started getting light-headed, but it wouldn’t return. What was wrong with Oswald? Didn’t anyone else notice it?
She didn’t have long to contemplate before Charlotte was led into the room. Charlotte gripped the stick like she was ready to smash fifty would-be suitors over the head with it, and when Oswald told her the task her whole body relaxed. She made a quick circuit of the confines, the stick dragging along the ground behind her, came to the one with the inferiority demon, gripped the stick with both hands, lifted it over her head and smashed it down hard. The confine exploded into millions of glittering glass shards as a small, bird-like eidolon fluttered out. Almost immediately David was there, swooping it up with his blade.
“Congratulations, aspirant,” Oswald said.
Charlotte grinned as she was led over to sit next to Arabel. She grimaced as she brushed pieces of glass off her arm. Tiny droplets of blood welled up in a few places.
“
Well, that wasn’t too hard, was it?” she said, before Naomi glared at her to keep quiet.
Ferne was led in next, but when she was given her instructions she tensed and looked at her sister. Slowly, she circled the room. A new eidolon had been brought in, but its position had been switched with another of the empties. Ferne came to the pedestal where the inferiority demon had sat, clearly noticing the glass shards, and bit her lip. A pulsing sadness came from another of the statues, two over from the one her sister had smashed.
Without any more hesitation, Ferne smashed the one her sister had chosen. Whispers of consternation filled the hall, and Ferne blushed.
“Aspirant,” Oswald asked calmly. “Is that where the eidolon was?”
Ferne shook her head without speaking, eyes wide.
“Where is it?”
Ferne pointed.
Oswald sighed and massaged his temple. “Congratulations, aspirant,” he said. Ferne gave a little hop of happiness and went to join her sister, grinning. They clasped hands and moved closer to each other.
A guardian replaced the smashed confine with another empty one, and Avery was led in next; even her lips were white with fear. She held the stick tightly and nodded once when she was given her instructions. Arabel leaned forward in her seat, resting her elbows on her knees.
Come on, she thought. You can do this. It’s right there.
Avery went to one of the empty confines, stood there contemplating it for a long time, then moved on to the next. She moved slowly around the circle until she came to the one with the sadness eidolon. She stared at it for nearly a minute, then moved on to the next one. Arabel’s heart dropped. She really couldn’t tell it was there?
Avery continued making her way around the circle. Her hands were shaking visibly now, and her expression was set, but she didn’t stop. She continued two more times all the way around; each time she came to the eidolon, Arabel willed her to notice it.
Avery was a much better person than anyone else here, and she wanted to be a guardian. This was a stupid test that didn’t matter. She deserved to be a guardian if she wanted to be one. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t sense them; they were giant glowing monsters out in the wild, she had to be able to see that. Or she could figure out a way around it. Arabel looked from Naomi, whose face wore a look of pained surprise, to Oswald, whose glasses, illuminated by the torches, made his expression unreadable.
Arabel couldn’t take it anymore. She leaned gently into Charlotte, then jumped back.
“Ow, crap, Charlotte!” she yelled. Her words reverberated around the chamber, and two hundred hooded faces turned to her, as did Avery’s.
“Sorry, sorry,” Arabel said, lifting her hands. “Glass.” She couldn’t give a signal with everyone staring at her. Damn. Avery was the first to turn away, completely focused on the task at hand. Charlotte stared at her, confused and annoyed, but finally turned back to her sister.
Argh. Arabel racked her brains. What if she threw something at Avery? Or at the confine with the eidolon in it? Or could she make the eidolon do something to make it more noticeable?
She frowned, clenching her teeth. Avery picked up the stick and started to swing it uncertainly at the wrong one. If Arabel didn’t do something Avery was going to fail and get thrown out and Arabel would lose her chance at the closest thing she had to a friend. Also, Avery would be sad. There was no way she was going to let Avery fail like this. She glared at the back of Avery’s head, willing her to turn around and look at her. All she needed was a second of her attention, in a moment when everyone else was looking at Avery.
She took a long, slow, frustrated breath, and suddenly her vision popped back into that other mode, and there was Avery’s soul, nearly whole and complete already, like that of the other guardians, nearly as bright as Naomi’s, but missing one small piece. That blank spot had smooth edges; whatever it was had been neatly and cleanly excised, leaving the rest solid and intact.
Arabel was still focusing intently on Avery, willing her to turn around and look at her. Something in her stomach shifted and she looked down, saw her own light. It was a mess. Dark blues and blacks and ragged edges and huge holes everywhere, everything shifting around on itself in a roil of confusion. Damn, Arabel thought. I’m a mess. She felt something tear, and before she could cry out in pain she was only half a foot from Avery, staring up at her. Without thinking, she reached out, grabbing hold of Avery’s soul and tugging hard.
Avery stumbled, gasping, her hand to her chest, and instantly Arabel was back in her own body. Avery looked up, and their eyes locked. Arabel pointed at the confine that contained the eidolon, lifted her eyebrows, and jerked her head in that direction.
Cool. Wonder what that was.
Whatever it was, it had done the trick, and no one else seemed to have noticed. Avery was staring at the correct confine now. Oswald and Naomi relaxed visibly, and the tension went out of the room. Avery readjusted her grip on the bat, lifted it, then dropped it on the floor and turned to Oswald.
“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t do it.”
“You’re looking at the right one,” Naomi said. “What do you mean you can’t do it?”
“I… I overheard people talking before I came in. I heard someone say which one it was in.”
Naomi looked skeptical. “No one said anything about it; you can’t have heard.” Her eyes flicked suspiciously up to Arabel.
“Regardless,” Oswald said. “This stage of the trial is simply a formality.”
Tears welled in Avery’s eyes. “No, sir. I truly can’t tell where the eidolons are. I… I seem to be blind to them.”
Naomi glanced at Oswald, her eyebrows lifted in surprise. “There hasn’t been a… a failure… in five hundred years.”
Oswald nodded thoughtfully. “If you truly cannot sense the eidolons at all, we cannot in good conscience allow you to continue your training. Not with what is coming next.”
“Surely you can sense them somewhat? See something?” Naomi shot back at Avery.
Avery lifted one shoulder miserably. “I can sometimes see them a little, if they’re close.”
“There, then. That’s enough.”
Oswald pursed his lips. “Do you get any sense of what emotion they hold?” he asked.
Avery started to shake her head, then stopped herself. “Maybe a little.”
He nodded. “That can be built upon. As I said, this test is an old ritual that has long been simply a formality. There have only been two in recorded history who have ever been turned away because of it. And one of those I think was actually turned away for other reasons.” He took a breath and paused, examining her face. “This will not be an easy road for you, should you choose it. But it is possible.”
Avery looked up in surprise, hope illuminating her face. “Then I choose it.”
“Very well. Congratulations, aspirant.”
Naomi nodded in approval.
Arabel excitedly wondered what the next challenge—the real challenge—was going to be as three hooded guardians led them down a steep stone tunnel. Maybe they would have to fight several eidolons at once. A cold breeze played across her face from up ahead, even though the tunnel was still completely dark except for the light of the torches carried by the guardians. She could hear Avery following behind her. She hadn’t made eye contact at all.
Coming around a corner, the darkness expanded, the walls around them disappearing. They stood on a rough ledge looking out over darkened treetops, illuminated faintly by the lights from the castle above. The night was cloudy and moonless.
Still in silence, Naomi and Oswald led them along the cliff. A single rope protected them from the drop-off. Were they going to have to scale the cliff? Maybe break into the castle? Arabel cracked her knuckles. Then they came to a stone table lit with candles and laden with every kind of delicious food imaginable. Cakes, pies, savory soups, breads. The smell wafting up from it was so delicious that Arabel didn’t notice the rickety rope bridge extending out to the r
ight.
“Aspirant Fossey,” Oswald said, and she jerked her attention away.
“What?” They wouldn’t mind if she grabbed one, right?
He gestured to the bridge.
“This is the test of commitment. To the guardians, to yourself. Cross this bridge and stay on the other side until we return for you.”
Arabel reached for a cake.
“Not touching those is part of the test.”
Of course it was. She sighed. “All right, then. See you later.”
She stepped out onto the planks of the bridge, which swayed as she walked. It sagged down in the middle and then climbed ten feet back up to a platform on a jutting rock spire. She stopped in the middle of the bridge, leaning far to the side and peering down in the dark. Giving an experimental hop, and feeling the ropes hold, she began to swing left and right, smiling in satisfaction at the horrified gasps that came from the ledge behind.
“Please just cross so we can keep going,” Naomi said, yawning.
Arabel waited while the bridge stopped swinging, then slowly ascended to the platform. When she turned back, the group was already making its way off along the ledge. She swept her gaze upward along the sheer rock face to the castle walls above, trying to get her bearings. The castle was dark and forbidding from this angle. She could just see the two towers looming up on the far side of the wall. And some ivy peeking over one wall might have been from the gardens near the practice grounds.
She took stock of her new home. It was a circular platform about ten feet in diameter, paved in large slate stones arranged in a geometric pattern. A stone basin on one side held fresh water, with a spigot above it. Around the edge was a track, where the stone had been worn down several inches. Arabel lay flat on her back in the middle, crossed her legs at the ankles and clasped her hands behind her head, staring up at the dark clouds. It was late summer now, but the wind that played along her face and lifted her hair had a cool edge to it, and soon she had to wrap her arms around herself. Not long after that she was shivering.
The Eidolons of Myrefall Page 11
