by Shelby Hild
“The hands bring the lost to light. The hands find the truth in the darkness. The hands move the immovable.” In his hands a ring appeared. It was formed of golden braids with blue stones set at regular intervals. It looked as though the stones had been woven into the metal. He traded the last little girl the keys for this shiny new item.
“Vic,” Adelina said his name again. She took a step forward, her hand held in front of her as though she wanted to touch him but didn’t dare. “We can just leave. Take our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. We can go to Trikilio. You’ve always wanted to visit the kingdom of Dravonya. You don’t have to do this. It doesn’t always have to be you.”
Vic looked between the girls in front of him and the love of his life.
“It does have to be me. If we fail here, it's not just this kingdom that will fall. All the kingdoms in all the lands are at risk. All of humanity is at stake if we do not succeed.”
He reached his hands forward and the stones in each piece of jewelry around his great granddaughters began to glow.
“Daughters of light, Daughters of darkness, hear my plea. You know these souls’ destiny. When the time comes to be, return what has been taken. But take it for me now.”
The stones in the jewelry on the girls glowed brighter with each word, and continued to glow as he removed the jewelry. He took them in the same order he gave them. The necklace, the diadem, and then the ring.
When he took the ring, the girl began to wrinkle her face in an unhappy glare. She waved her hand like she’d done for the keys. The stone flared lightly again and then went dull. But the ring remained with Vic. The little girl began to cry.
“When the time comes, they won’t be ready,” Vic said, shaking his head as he stuffed the jewelry into his pockets. “I can only hope enough of their powers remain to not leave them completely unprepared when it returns.”
He looked at Adelina again. “I will leave soon. My tombstone must remain void of anything. Make sure it is blank stone. That’s the only way I think I’ll be able to send word when these need to be returned to the girls. This solution won’t be permanent. But it will buy time.
“Balance must return eventually, but until then the darkness will be locked within our kingdom, unable to plague the whole world. If this doesn’t work, perhaps one of the outside kingdoms will be able to fight it off better than we have.”
“It will work,” Adelina said as she and Victorium picked up the girls again.
“I have seen many possibilities. It may, it may not. Some visions show the magic returning too soon. Some show it returning too late. Some show the darkness escaping the prison I’m creating and defeating everyone here before any magic returns. Some show the outside kingdoms forgetting about the darkness and when we return the world to balance, no one knowing how to fight it. Some show only two of the jewels making it back to the girls hands, leaving them too vulnerable. I’ll do my best to keep any of those from happening. It won’t work unless they all return. That’s the only way their powers will reach full strength. I’m giving up everything for this.”
“It will work,” Adelina repeated.
“There’s so much that could go wrong,” he said quietly to himself as he watched his love and his grandson walk away with the only hope he could see for the future. But he knew he didn’t see everything. He had one night left with his family as it was. Who would they be when he returned? Who would he be when he returned?
The scene shifted.
Vic stood at the gates of his estate, a ring in his hand. He buried it near the fence as a dog started barking and running towards him. A young woman chased the dog. Vic made himself vanish, but watched as the girl dug the ring out of the ground. When she slid it on her finger, it glistened slightly. Maybe it was the stone glowing, or maybe it was the sun reflecting off of it.
“Daphinia,” the young woman called to her sister. “Come look what I found.”
Another shift in the scene.
Vic stood still in the Darkwoods. The jewels had been left in the spots most likely to be able to return to his great grandchildren’s souls. He closed his eyes and drew the last of his power.
Here he would remain, on the edge of the forest defending his people as best he could until at last his skills were needed again. As he murmured a spell, his skin turned to bark and his arms turned to branches.
Soon he stood taller and straighter than even the ancient Grand Trees of Etilidus.
As he finished turning into a tree, screams began to fill the forest.
Vivilyn woke with a start, the screams still echoing through her mind. She sat up in her bed, shaking and confused by her dream.
Was it a dream or a vision?
It took her a couple minutes to realize the screams weren’t dissipating.
“What is going on?” Serinta asked from across the room. She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up.
Vivilyn jumped out of her bed and ran out of the room, not even bothering to slip on a robe or slippers. She sped into the hallway. Behind her, she vaguely heard Serinta curse and stumble around a few moments.
Some of the screams were coming from Darissa’s room. Vivilyn opened the door so quickly it hit against the wall with a loud clatter. She saw Darissa huddled up in the corner of her bed with her blankets up to her nose. On the other side of the room, she saw a part of the wall shut like a door as she entered the room.
Serinta ran into the room just as Vivilyn reached Darissa. Guards ran in immediately after her.
“The wall,” Darissa said, her eyes wide and her voice shaky. “H-he just came out of the wall. Like a g-ghost.”
Vivilyn went over to where she’d seen the door close and ran her hands all over the wall. It wasn’t like her room, where the book easily opened the door. This door seamlessly blended into the wall, completely unnoticeable.
Serinta stood next to her as the guards were trying to get Darissa to make sense.
“It’s not a ghost,” Vivilyn said out loud. “I saw the wall close when I came in. There’s a hidden door here.” Serinta leaned against the wall as Vivilyn continued to feel around.
“So how do we open it?” One of the guards, Lance, asked as he came over.
“I don’t know,” Vivilyn said.
Serinta set her head lightly against the wall and shook her head. Then she pushed herself away from the wall. “I’m going to figure out who else was screaming.”
As she pushed away from it, something clicked in the wall and slowly, it began to swing open.
“Well, that was creepy. I’m not going to go in there. I think I’ll just stay here instead.” Serinta walked over to Darissa and set her arms around the crying woman.
Vivilyn looked over at the two for a moment, but then moved into the hallway. It was dark, but Lance handed a torch to her and lit it for her. He also lit one for himself. The other guard came in behind them with his own torch.
“Which direction did the person go?” The other man asked.
“I’ve no idea,” Vivilyn said.
“These passages are too vast if we stick together.” Lance shook his head and rolled his eyes as though he didn’t like what he was about to suggest. “We need to split up then if we’re going to find them.” Lance and Vivilyn looked to both sides quickly.
“I’ll go right,” he said. “You go left and upstairs. Rico can go downstairs.” He hadn’t even finished speaking when Vivilyn went running to the left and up the stairs.
Every time the flames shifted with her movement, it caused shadows on the wall that made her jump, but she continued to run. She went upstairs and downstairs, not really going in any specific direction, but something seemed to be pulling her toward a specific place. Every few turns, Vivilyn felt as though she saw someone scurrying along ahead of her.
Her breathing came in spurts. Her legs grew tired. But she continued running. She wasn’t sure how she’d find her way back out of the hidden halls.
Eventually, she felt as though it
had been too long since she’d seen any of the shadows.
She stopped running as she clutched her side. Pain shot through her as she struggled to catch her breath, between her side cramping and the remnants of her back hurting.
She came up to a door and, without even thinking about it, opened it and walked in.
It was a mostly empty room. The walls were completely made of stone and on the wall behind an altar was a large carving of a dragon with a broken chain around its foot.
“Pity,” a voice said to her side. “You really shouldn’t be here.”
Vivilyn turned to the right and saw five figures standing in dark robes.
“What are you doing here?” another person said, her voice muffled and grainy.
“You’re the one that saved the prince,” the first voice said again. “It makes a sort of sense that you should be the first to fall to us as we make way for the dragon.”
“What are you talking about?” Vivilyn said as she backed up slowly.
The man raised his hands and a soft light rose from them.
One of the robed figures hit the glowing-handed figure in the back of the head.
“Run, Vivilyn,” the woman said, grabbing the man’s shoulder. “You didn’t say anything about hurting anyone.”
“What did you think was going to happen? We need—"
All the robed people began to argue, their voices overlapping so Vivilyn could no longer understand what was being said.
She didn’t need to be told twice.
She turned around and ran. After turning a corner in the hallway beyond the door she’d entered, she crashed into Lance and the other guard.
“They’re in there,” Vivilyn panted as she pointed behind her. Three more guards and Colin, Princess Elissa’s husband, ran up to them. “There are five of them,” she panted again. A nod from Colin made all but one of the guards go where she’d just come from. She turned around to go back with them, but Colin’s voice halted her.
“Lady Vivilyn,” he said, with a slightly hurried bow. “You should go back to your room. We will take care of this from here.” The remaining guard lightly grabbed her arm. “It’s too dangerous for you here.”
“It’s too dangerous for me here? It’s too dangerous for us anywhere. There are spies in the walls. And they’re trying to bring a dragon to life or something.” Her voice squeaked as she spoke. Her heart hammered.
Before she could argue any more, a familiar sound filled the air. An explosion caused everything around her to shake. Vivilyn shrunk down, covering her head with her arms. She couldn’t survive the pain she’d gone through from the first explosion. Not again.
Debris fell to her sides. Colin was yelling at her. He gestured at her as though trying to get her to move. Vivilyn didn’t hear what he said. All she thought of was the pain from the last time.
I’ll die in an explosion. The thought filled her head. She felt just as certain of it.
Vivilyn buried her head in her knees. She wouldn’t look. She wouldn’t see her ending come for her.
A hand grasped her wrist. Someone was pulling her up and into their arms, lifting her as though she weighed nothing. Warm arms. Vivilyn didn’t move. She didn’t open her eyes.
She didn’t know how long she was carried. Light surrounded her as she was set on something soft. When she looked up, she saw large silver eyes staring back at her.
“Prince Aiden,” she said weakly.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his gaze never leaving her eyes. She shook her head. She was trembling all over. Even her hair felt like it was quivering.
“Vivilyn,” Darissa’s voice called out. “There you are.”
Vivilyn didn’t look away from Prince Aiden, but she did feel Darissa’s arms wrap around her shoulders. Other voices called her name and as more people crowded around her, Prince Aiden backed away.
Vivilyn didn’t know how long she remained curled up, but when her heart finally began to calm down, she looked up. All of the Chosen were clustered in groups around a cavernous room. There was at least one cameraman per group.
As she looked around, Vivilyn noticed that her normal cameraman wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Where’s Maxwell?” she asked Darissa. “And Fiona?”
“I’m not sure,” Darissa said. “Everyone has been focused on trying to gather all of the Chosen. And I assume the rest of the royal family.”
“What happened?” Vivilyn asked. “Where are we?”
“It’s one of the safe rooms,” Prince Aiden said. He stood near the only door Vivilyn could see. “There are six in all, so anyone who isn’t here will be in one of those.”
One of the guards came in and the prince began speaking with him.
Vivilyn watched them whisper intently to each other for a little while and time finally began to settle into a normal pace again.
Before too long, another guard entered. It was the one she met before going to the gardens and speaking with Prince Aiden. Ori, she thought his name was.
They were the only ones still talking consistently in the room and she could barely hear what they were saying.
The entire section is destroyed. They all escaped, despite the explosion causing the entire roof to collapse over them. At least one has to be injured. No deaths. They grew to soft for her to hear after that.
They said no deaths, she couldn’t help but release a sigh of relief at that.
Time continued slowly. Soon, most of the women settled down.
Vivilyn couldn’t sleep. Between the dream of Wizard Vic and the explosion, there was no chance she’d be able to doze off again.
Instead, she sat and just listened to everyone breathing. Darissa had fallen asleep on her shoulder and the angle of her head seemed to keep her from snoring too loudly.
As Vivilyn was lost in her own thoughts, she watched as Brayleigh extracted herself from the group she’d been sitting with and walked over to her. Then she sat on the side of Vivilyn that Darissa hadn’t claimed.
“Why did you run after them?” Brayleigh asked without any sort of preface.
“I’m not sure,” Vivilyn said. She kept herself from shrugging because that might have woken Darissa up.
“Well,” Brayleigh said, “don’t think this changes anything. You still don’t belong here. Soon enough, even if Prince Aiden doesn’t see, the people will, and you’ll be sent home. You won’t win this.” Brayleigh stood up again and began to walk away.
“But,” she paused and looked back, “I’m glad you weren’t hurt this time.”
Vivilyn continued to watch everyone around her as the night turned into day. It was some time after daybreak when more guards entered the safe room and allowed everyone to return to their own beds. As they exited, they went up a lot more steps, more than she could count before stepping down a single step in the main hallway. It appeared the hallway to that place was hidden behind one of the paintings of an old king.
King Warrick and his sons stood near the opening as the ladies exited.
“Lady Vivilyn,” the king said. All the women curtseyed as they moved along. Quicker than Vivilyn hoped, it was just her, the princes, the king and two guards.
“It seems,” he said, “you are at the center of the situation again.”
“I just ran after the person who frightened Darissa,” she said, looking down at her feet. The king stood tall next to his sons. Both Prince Aiden and Prince Ethan slouched with exhaustion. The fatigue was easily visible on their faces.
“Walk with us,” The king said, making the command sound like no more than a simple request. “Tell us what happened.”
Vivilyn did. She didn’t hide anything. Starting from the moment she woke up to screaming until she was set down in the hidden chamber. She even explained that she froze and broke down after the explosion because she felt sure that she was going to die.
“And then Prince Aiden left as Darissa and the others surrounded me.”
“He said ‘make way for the dragon?
’” The king asked when Vivilyn finished her tale. “This does not bode well.”
The king shook his head and then turned to his sons. “We must continue forward as planned.”
“But what about Mother?” Prince Aiden said.
“For now, she will be appeased that you won’t be here. It’ll be safer for us all.”
“If she does what she’s been threatening—” Prince Aiden started, but King Warrick cleared his throat.
“I have her word nothing will happen yet, and you have a ceremony to prepare for. All of you.”
Vivilyn curtseyed and began to walk away.
“I’ll never forgive her,” the prince finished quietly as the king walked away.
Chapter 16
Vivilyn entered her room to find a small crowd. Malcolm, Andrea, Fiona, Nell, and Tia all stood around waiting for her. Malcolm pulled her into a tight hug as she stepped into the room.
“We were so worried,” he said. With a smile, he let her go. “When we heard you ran off toward the danger, we thought you’d come back injured again.”
Andrea and Fiona hugged her as well, just as quickly. She looked over at Nell and Tia and saw both of them had bruises. Tia, in fact, had a black eye.
“Did you two get into a fight or something?” She asked.
“Sort of,” Nell said, then shrugged. “Tia got in a fight with a door and I got in the way of it as she shoved it open.”
“A door did that?” Vivilyn asked, carefully reaching up and almost touching the bruising around Tia’s eye. “Must be some dangerous door.”
“It looks worse than I do,” Tia said with a smile.
“Now,” Malcolm said, “we have a ceremony to get you ready for.”
“It’s going to be in the garden, so we have the perfect dress for you,” Andrea said as she held up a long white gown.
