The Calling (The Andovia Chronicles Book 1)

by Tiffany Shand

  “I never killed anyone.” She crossed her arms.

  “I have the perfect solution for you too.” Ranelle pulled a book down and whipped it open on the table in front of them. “A mind-to-mind sharing.”

  Darius put a hand over his eyes. “You can’t be serious.”

  Nyx leaned forward; brow furrowed. “What’s it for?”

  “You two can share your knowledge with each other. It’s a good way of building trust.”

  “It’s more than that.” Darius shot to his feet and gripped the edge of the table. “It’s also bloody dangerous. I can’t believe you’re even suggesting it.” He thought Ranelle had gone mad. Mind sharing was high magic and dangerous at that. They could get lost in each other’s minds or both could go insane, overwhelmed by the other person’s memories until they became catatonic.

  “It’s the perfect way for Nyx to learn about magic. At least she’d know what to do during the spell. Thus, it would only be limited. You control it and —”

  Darius snapped the book shut. “No, it’s too risky, and we both need our energy for the spell.” He scowled at Ranelle. “Don’t you have a library to oversee?”

  Ranelle glared at him. “You asked for help. Don’t get angry at me because you didn’t like my suggestion.” She stalked off without saying another word.

  Darius pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “You need to work on your people skills, druid.”

  Darius gave her a withering look then slumped back into his seat. “Just draw those symbols.” He waved his hand and some ink and parchment appeared. Darius turned his attention back to the book that mentioned the spell he needed and read through it.

  Minutes passed with the sound of Nyx scribbling away. The scratching of the quill grated his nerves. Darius looked up to ask her how many symbols she needed to draw and gasped. Nyx had covered several different sheets of parchment with odd-looking runes.

  “What are these?” Darius grabbed one and examined it. The symbols looked beyond anything he had seen before. Nyx continued scratching more symbols out and didn’t look up. “Nyx?”

  Still, she ignored him.

  “Nyx?” He rose and grabbed her arm.

  She jumped. “What?”

  “What are these?”

  “You said to draw the symbols.”

  “This is more than the symbols you drew on the transport circle. What are they? I’ve not seen them before.”

  She shrugged. “How should I know?”

  He shook his head. “You must have learnt these somewhere.”

  “If I did, I don’t remember it. I don’t even remember what happened the other night at the tavern.”

  “We will figure this out. One way or another.”

  The rest of the day passed in a blur of getting ready and trying to prevent Lyon from getting worse. Darius hated having to wait until nightfall, but it gave them time to prepare the circle.

  Nyx paced up and down the length of Ambrose’s sitting room. “Are you sure we can do this?”

  “I’ve told you what you need to do and we’re as ready as we can be,” Ambrose replied.

  “Maybe we should have tried that mind sharing spell, like Ranelle suggested.” Nyx slumped back in her chair.

  Ambrose shook his head. “I doubt it would work given Darius’ immunity to your power.”

  Darius had been relieved when Ambrose dismissed the mind sharing idea. He didn’t want to share his innermost memories with anyone, much less a stranger.

  “The moon is up,” Darius observed. “We should get going.”

  The three of them transported over to Migara where Ambrose had set up a large circle. Alaric carried Lyon into the centre of it. Nyx trailed behind, and Darius knew she must be nervous.

  “Just relax,” he told her.

  “You said the spell you’re casting is dangerous. I’ve barely begun using magic.” She played with the end of her long plait.

  “That’s not true. You’ve been using magic all your life. Now you’re using it in a different way.”

  “Lyon is very weak,” Alaric told them. “I feel we might be too —”

  “I have the potion ready,” Lucien interrupted his mentor and held out two vials.

  Darius took one then handed the other one to Nyx.

  “Drink these, and it will lead you into Lyon’s mind. It will only last half an hour. Maybe less. So you’ll need to be quick,” Lucien told them.

  “Are you sure this will work?” Nyx frowned at the vial, dubious.

  “I know it will. I tested it myself.” Lucien nodded.

  Darius pulled the cork from the vial and gulped down its contents. Its acrid taste burned his throat.

  Nyx gulped hers down too before they both fell into unconsciousness.

  The circle faded, and Darius found himself surrounded by darkness. He had never had much experience with going into people’s minds. He knew how to read people’s surface thoughts if he chose but going deep into someone’s mind took a lot of energy and he had never liked to do such a thing anyway, it felt like a violation.

  Darius stopped and stared. Had the potion worked?

  “Nyx?” he called out. “Are you here?”

  The darkness around him whirled then turned into a riot of colour until he found himself standing inside a long hallway.

  “Good, you’re here, druid. Finally. I thought I’d be stuck here by myself.” Nyx strolled over to him. “This place looks strange. What are all these doors?”

  Are you both in? Ambrose’s voice echoed around them.

  Yes, we are. At least I think we are. Darius frowned. He hadn’t expected to see a hallway.

  Nyx went over to one of the doors and a rush of images flashed by. She slammed it shut again. “What was that?”

  “I think we are here because of your power. Those were Lyon’s memories.” He sighed. Darius had feared this would happen. Her power was active even here. “Your power is allowing you to access his thoughts and memories. That isn’t what we came for. We need to find the dark magic and eradicate it.”

  “You know I can’t control it. I didn’t expect us to end up here. I was hoping for somewhere… pleasant.” She rubbed her arms. “How do we find the poison? This is a maze.”

  Darius cast his senses out. A chill ran over him. “We may not see the magic. It feels like it’s all around us.”

  “How am I supposed to move the poison if I can’t see it?”

  “You’re sensitive to dark energy. I have to begin the spell here.” Darius took a deep breath.

  “But Ambrose said we would be somewhere neutral, not in the depths of his mind.”

  “Ambrose, a slight change of plan. It seems Nyx’s power took us deeper into Lyon’s mind than we expected,” Darius said. “Should we continue?” They waited, but no response came. “Ambrose?”

  Still nothing.

  “Why isn’t he answering?” Nyx glanced around, uneasy.

  “I don’t know. I’ll have to do the spell without him.”

  “They were supposed to guide us and–” Nyx paled.

  “Nyx, not everything works out as intended. I have cast spells by myself for most of my life.” Darius took another deep breath. The words didn’t come for him. He had always feared using high magic in case he lost control. Using it often brought out a darker side of his powers.

  “Poisoned body and soul, shall once again be whole,” he chanted.

  Bolts of lightning flashed over the walls of the hallway as his power flowed through.

  Nyx flinched. “You sure this is safe, druid?”

  “Relax. The spell can’t harm us. We are only connected to Lyon through our minds.” He chanted the spell again. “Nyx, use your senses. See if you can trace the poison.”

  The intensity of the lightning grew brighter.

  Nyx closed her eyes, and he felt her power flow to life. Darius chanted the spell once more. The lightning shot in every direction, bursting doors apart.

  Power rose through him l
ike an uncontrollable storm. He gasped, and the doors around them flashed in and out of existence. He said the spell one more time and energy intensified. One by one, the doors exploded and winked out.

  Darius sank to his knees. He couldn’t control it.

  Lyon’s life force was fading, and his heartbeat slowed.

  “Druid, he’s dying. I need to move the poison.” Nyx raised her hands which flared with a green light.

  They were too late.

  His power flared at the edge of his senses. No, Lyon couldn’t die. Darius would not let that happen. He let his power go, ordering it to heal Lyon and hold his spirit there.

  “Druid, what are you doing?” Nyx’s voice sounded far away now.

  Darius ignored her. He couldn’t stop. Part of him didn’t want to either.

  “Druid!” Nyx came over and gripped his shoulder.

  The landscape around them shifted in a blur of colour. Dizziness rolled through him until they appeared surrounded by enormous trees. Golden leaves fluttered around them, and the branches creaked and groaned, forming a protective circle.

  Darius blinked. “What… Where are we?” He couldn’t tell if they were inside his mind or he’d woken up and been sent somewhere else.

  “Strange, I’ve never brought anyone here before. We must be in my mind now.” Nyx strode over to him.

  “But how? What did you do?” Darius scrambled up. “Where is this place?”

  “Lyon is dying, and we couldn’t stop it. You kept using magic to revive him.”

  He sighed and looked away. Darius lost control again. Worse still it had been in front of her.

  “You struggle with controlling high magic, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” he growled. “It’s a good thing you stopped me. There, you’ve seen my biggest weakness. Satisfied?”

  “No. I’m not going to judge you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  Darius frowned at her. “You’re not?”

  “Everyone struggles with something, druid. I know better than anyone what it’s like to have something inside you that you can’t control.” Nyx crossed her arms. “Maybe now you won’t be so quick to judge me.”

  Darius fell silent. Too ashamed to look at her again. His friends knew of his struggle, but they had rarely seen it. Not like this. He hated admitting to having such a fatal flaw.

  “I’ve been learning high magic for most of my life,” he said after a few moments. “It’s part of my nature too in a way. All druids can access it — some more than others. It’s potent, and my family can use it in ways others can’t. That’s why… that’s why it’s easy to give in and let the power take control.”

  “Is that why your father is so awful?” Nyx came and sat beside him.

  Darius shook his head. “I don’t know. But that same temptation runs through me too. It’s why I don’t use high magic unless I have to. Ambrose is gifted with the ability to control it but… I’m not sure I ever will be.” He ran his fingers through a pile of leaves, surprised to find how solid they felt. “What is this place?”

  Nyx shrugged. “It’s special. I always come here when I need to feel safe. Sometimes it feels like my body comes too. No one can find or harm me here.”

  “It feels so real. How long have you been coming here?”

  “Forever, I suppose. I don’t remember anything about my life before I got sold to Harland. I was around ten at the time.”

  “You really don’t remember what happened at the tavern?” He had suspected she had lied before, but now he couldn’t be so sure.

  Nyx shook her head. “No. It’s a blur. I remember you and your friends looking for me, then Traveller died and after that… everything is a blur.” Her hands clenched into fists. “Harland was dead when I woke up. I don’t know what happened before that.” Her shoulders slumped. “I wanted to save Lyon. I wanted to know I’d done something good for once.”

  “He was dead the moment the darkling attacked him. One thing you have to learn is we’re not gods. We can’t save everyone.” Darius glanced around. He decided he liked this place. It felt calm and safe — a haven in the chaos of the outside world.

  “How do we get back to our bodies?” Nyx rested her hands on her knees. “I always open my eyes when I want to go back, but you’re here too.”

  “The answers about you must be locked away in your mind somewhere. We’ll figure them out together.”

  Nyx closed her eyes and Darius did the same. He willed himself back to his body.

  Nothing happened.

  Oh no. Had something gone wrong?

  “Nyx? What —?”

  Nyx gasped as the forest burst into flames around them. Screaming and a faraway voice calling out was the last thing he heard before blackness swallowed him.

  Darius’ eyes flew open as he came back to himself inside the circle.

  Nyx jolted awake. “What was that screaming?” Her face turned pale.

  “I think it must have been a memory.”

  “What happened?” Ambrose came over to them. “I couldn’t reach either of you.”

  Darius glanced over at Lyon and guilt pitted in his stomach. “We were too late.”

  Ambrose shook his head. “We did the best we could.” He squeezed their shoulders. “It was a long shot anyway.”

  Lyon’s spirit hovered over his body. Nyx drew back in alarm.

  “It’s alright. This isn’t unusual,” Darius whispered to her.

  “Lyon now is the time for you to move on,” Ambrose told him. “Be at peace now.”

  “No, wait. I came to tell you that something killed me. It drained my magic and —” Lyon screamed as his glowing form evaporated.

  “What was that?” Nyx touched her face. “Did he move on? Is he at peace now? That didn’t seem right, but I’ve never seen anyone’s spirit leave their body before.”

  Ambrose shook his head. “No, something pulled his spirit away.”

  Darius stared at Lyon’s now lifeless body in disbelief. “More like someone.” Darius scrambled up. “I’ve seen enough spirit magic to recognise the signs. Someone stopped him from talking to us.”

  “Why would they do that?” Nyx frowned.

  “That’s what we must find out,” Ambrose replied.

  Chapter 21

  The next two weeks passed in a blur of endless chores and flying around the islands as they tracked darklings. Ambrose had been so busy he hadn’t had time to train Nyx much. She still hated seeing the condition of the slaves and, even worse, she couldn’t do anything to help them. At least she had the illusion of freedom when she lived with Harland.

  This strange place still felt so alien to her.

  Nyx was already gathering supplies for her escape. Every time she and Darius went somewhere, she made a note of the escape routes and planned how she would use them. She still had to remind herself that staying here was only temporary. Getting off the island and to the lower realm would be the hardest part. How she would do that she didn’t know yet. Stowing away on a ship didn’t seem like an option — too many things could go wrong. Taking a dragon seemed the safest route, but she had no idea how she would steal one.

  So far, Ambrose had concentrated on teaching her to control her mind whisperer abilities. As much as she wanted to control them, she still wanted to learn how to use magic itself. Darius had reluctantly started teaching her a little bit of druid magic. Their working together had at least made him trust her. She learned that druid magic came from nature itself and all druids had an affinity for different elements, whether it be fire, water, earth, air, or light. He said some druids even had an affinity for spirit magic as well, but that was much more rare. Most druids had one or two affinities, but Darius himself could tap into all the elements, though lightning was his strongest.

  Ambrose called her into the sitting room one morning, and she found him sat on one of the divans. “We need to practice your powers more so you gain some semblance of control.” He motioned to a scroll on his desk. “Gideon sent
a message summoning you to him this evening.” His expression turned grim. “I had hoped we would have more time.”

  Nyx’s blood went cold. She had known this was coming. Darius had managed to come up with different excuses as to why she could not go there over the past few days, but she knew he couldn’t keep his brother away forever. Nyx had grown used to Darius and thought they could tolerate each other now at least.

  “What are you teaching me today then?” She sat down on one of the wooden divans. So far, he told her to concentrate on finding a place of peace inside her mind, but that did nothing when dozens of people surrounded her. The more she practised with her abilities, the harder they became to control. Even retreating to her grove hadn’t helped.

  “We are going to test your abilities.”

  Wonderful, more tests. How she despised them. Nyx would have thought he had tested her abilities enough by now. What more could there be?

  A knock came on the door, and Alaric came in dressed in his usual forest green tunic and hose.

  “I want you to test your powers on Alaric.”

  Nyx’s mouth fell open. “What if I kill him?” Nyx didn’t want to risk hurting someone else after what happened with that Redcap. She had avoided using her powers on anyone since that incident and didn’t want to use them now.

  “I’m here if anything goes wrong. Controlling your emotions is the key to controlling your powers.”

  How could anyone do that? It wasn’t like she could stop herself from feeling things, no matter how much she tried.

  “The people you’ve harmed so far have usually been a threat, yes?” Alaric asked. “We believe your power may be responding to your fear.”

  Alaric went and sat on the opposite divan. “What do you feel from me?”

  She furrowed her brow. “Your energy is raw. Almost primal… like a wolf.” He reminded her a little of Lucien, although Darius insisted he was different from Lucien.

  Alaric chuckled. “The wolf is my favoured form.”

  Ambrose nodded. “Good, now you are going to go into his thoughts.”

  Nyx blanched. Had the old druid lost his mind? She didn’t want to risk harming anyone again. Darius had mentioned Lucien was harder for her to read due to his shifter nature. She hesitated when Alaric held out his hand to her. “I’d rather not touch you. I touched the Redcap and he…”