Legend of the Realm

by Alexandra Ott

  Runa tilts her head, considering. “I don’t know how much of the gold we need to make the potion work. What if one flower isn’t enough?”

  “We have to try. For Lilja, and for the rest of the Realm.”

  Runa nods. “All right. Here, help me with this.” She draws two glass vials out of her pockets. The herbalist’s symbol is etched into each of them. “We can collect the dust into these.”

  We quickly set to work. As gently as possible, I brush the gold dust from the petals off the flower and into the vial. It’s messy, and more of the gold dust ends up on my fingers and on the ground than in the vial, but it works. There’s a ton of gold on each petal, and my vial is filled after only three.

  “Ready?” Runa asks, holding up her own vial, now filled to the brim with glittering gold.

  “Ready,” I say, rising. I glance up at the golden light that led us here, still glimmering in the sky. It’s so bright that it’s hard to look at, like a miniature sun. “What do you think that is?”

  “Magic,” Runa says with a shrug.

  “I know, but what kind? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  The heart of the Realm, says Seeker Larus’s voice in my head.

  “Bryn,” Runa says, “come on. I don’t know how long it will take us to get out of here. Dawn might not be far off.”

  I tear my gaze from the golden light and focus. Runa’s right. I can’t tell if we’ve been in here for five minutes or five years, and the trees overhead block any glimpse of the sky. We need to hurry.

  Unfortunately, finding our way out of the trees is even more difficult than finding our way in, now that the light isn’t guiding us.

  “Do you think we’re going the right way?” I ask, scanning a row of identical trees.

  “We must be,” Runa says. She points to the shadows ahead of us. “There’s that hill that rose up when the forest attacked us. See it?”

  I squint at the shape in the distance. “That’s brilliant, Runa,” I say. “I knew you should’ve been a Seeker!”

  She rolls her eyes. “It’s not brilliant to point out the obvious.”

  We make our way past the place where the ground is uneven, the only remaining sign of the forest’s attack, and continue into the trees. From there, the journey gradually gets easier as the forest thins out. A few minutes later, we burst into the clearing, where Vin is waiting for us.

  But something else flares against my gift—another life spark—and I realize too late that there’s someone else waiting for us in the clearing.

  A tall figure wearing a black cloak steps toward us. I sense the Vondur magic immediately, and my heart hammers in my chest—but Vondur magic isn’t the only thing I can sense. As the realization sinks in, bright-red light dances around his hands and illuminates his face at last.

  “I knew you’d find it,” he says, his voice all too familiar.

  It’s the one person I never thought I’d see again. The former Seeker, turned traitor. The reason the Vondur came to our island last time.

  It’s Agnar.

  TWENTY

  Stay back!” I call, and my gift flares to life, glowing green around my hands. “Get away from our dragon!”

  “Your dragon?” He laughs, and the sound is harsh and bitter. “I trained this dragon myself!”

  “You let the Vondur keep him in chains,” I say. “I trained him. He belongs to the Realm, not to you.”

  “I’m not here for the dragon,” Agnar says. His gaze is fixed on the glowing vial in my hands.

  “What could you possibly want with this?” I say, genuinely surprised. “The gold vanishes at dawn.”

  “Don’t recite the legends to me, girl,” he says with a sneer. “I was a Seeker for years, and I explored every inch of the Realm. I always knew there might be some truth in those old legends. But I could never quite find it.” His gaze flickers between the vial I’m holding and the one in Runa’s hands. “The heart of the Realm requires an equally pure heart, as the legend says. It never accepted me, but you, a child… I knew you’d get there eventually. I’ve been following you every night, waiting…”

  I think back to the times I sensed Vondur magic, and the figure Ari and I tried to follow, and then the one I saw tonight with Lilja. “So it was you,” I say. “You poisoned the Realm. The dark magic was yours. But why? You always claimed to love the Realm. Was that a lie?”

  “I didn’t poison it!” he snaps. “The other Vondur did. It was what they wanted to do from the beginning, you know. The original plague, all those years ago, it was caused by their magic, when they tried and failed to take control of the Realm. They wanted to try that again, but I convinced them otherwise. I traded the items they would need, helped them plan the attack during the competition… But then it went wrong, no thanks to you, and so they ignored my advice and went for their original plan. They don’t actually care if the Realm’s creatures are alive or dead, you see. They need magical items for their spells, and it matters not at all how they get them. But I don’t particularly want to see the Realm killed. I’ve been trying to stop them.”

  “Stop them? If that’s true, why didn’t you come to the Seekers and tell them—”

  “The Seekers cast me out! They never would have listened to me. I have to prove to them that I have always had the Realm’s best interests at heart. I will cure the Realm myself, using those golden vials you have there.”

  I frown. Something about this story doesn’t quite add up. “So you really think they’ll reinstate you as a Seeker or something if you cure the plague?”

  “No,” he says, and his mouth twists into a horrible smile. “I think I’ll offer them the cure for the plague in exchange for what I want.”

  “Ah. Now it makes sense. You’re going to try to blackmail them. Well, good luck with that.”

  I glance at Runa, who’s still frozen behind me, clutching one of the vials tightly. “Get ready,” I whisper to her.

  “Now, now,” Agnar says loudly, taking a step forward. “There will be no whispered plotting between you two. Stay exactly where you are.”

  “Um, I don’t think so,” I say. “I’m a Seeker now, so I don’t have to take orders from you. We’re leaving, and we’re taking these vials, and you can’t stop us.”

  “Can’t I?” he says, and his gift flares brighter, the red light filling the clearing. His strong warrior gift.

  Runa and I have strong gifts too, but they’re not suited for fighting. The only way I can see us getting out of here is if I distract Agnar so that Runa can get to Vin—

  “Did I mention,” Agnar says casually, “that more of the Vondur are about to arrive?”

  Overhead, the beat of a dragon’s wings fills the air. I don’t have to look to know that it isn’t one of the Seekers coming to help us. It’s more of the Vondur.

  Agnar gives me another horrible smile. “Surely you didn’t think I’d spend all this time chatting for no reason, did you? We’ve simply been waiting for my associates to arrive.”

  “Yeah, well, give them my regards,” I say. “Because we’ve really got to go.”

  This time I don’t risk warning Runa. I whistle a sharp, clear melody.

  Vin leaps up, responding eagerly to the signal I taught him. Before Agnar has time to react, Vin charges toward me, plowing right past Agnar. I race to meet him and scramble onto his back as quickly as I can, clutching the vial tightly in one hand. As soon as I’m steady, I glance back for Runa, who’s scrambling up Vin’s back with slightly more difficulty. I grab her hand and pull her up as Vin races excitedly through the clearing.

  Agnar shouts something behind us, but I don’t look back. I summon more of my gift and channel it toward Vin, directing him into the air.

  “Hang on tight!” I shout to Runa. “We’re going to go fast!”

  “Don’t you know any calmer dragons?” she shouts back, but she’s composed enough to wrap her arms around one of Vin’s spikes as the baby dragon lurches into the sky.

  T
he clouds are heavy, making it difficult to see, so I can barely make out the silhouette of the other dragon as it lands in the clearing below us. By the time they get it into the air again, we’ll be too far ahead of them—I hope. But we’ll have to be fast.

  “Vin,” I say, “time to fly as quick as you can!” I release more of my gift, which feels strong and full after so much time spent in the heart of the Realm, and direct it to mix with Vin’s energy, letting him sense what I want him to do. This time, I don’t give him any gentle nudges. I give him a push.

  Vin responds with a wild cry of joy and surges forward, pumping his wings at full speed. Runa lets out a gasp as we fly low and fast toward Dragon’s Point.

  “What’s the plan now?” Runa shouts. “How do we stop Agnar?”

  “Same plan,” I shout back. “Create the cure and save Lilja first, before the Fairy’s Gold disappears. Then we get the other Seekers and go after Agnar.”

  I cling to Vin’s back for dear life as the wind rushes past us, the ground nothing but a blur below. Runa closes her eyes, her fingers clenched around one of Vin’s spikes. “I don’t like this ride anymore!” she yells.

  “Almost there!” I call back, watching Dragon’s Point loom closer on the horizon. I nudge Vin into a much calmer descent, and he handles it even better than I expect, easing up in plenty of time to make a smooth landing.

  I stumble from Vin’s back, brushing my windswept hair from my eyes. Runa clings to his spike for a moment longer before opening her eyes, straightening her shoulders, and climbing down. “Next time, I’m steering him,” she says. “You can’t be trusted.”

  “You got it,” I say as Vin spreads his wings and takes off again, heading back into the Realm. “Next time we’re flying a dragon out of the Realm in order to cure a plague and save all of the magical creatures while at the same time being chased by the Vondur, I’ll be sure to let you take things slow.”

  “Why do I even help you?” Runa huffs. “I’ve been up all night, I nearly died falling off a dragon, and there is dirt in my hair. Honestly, the things I do for you.”

  “I’ll shower you with gratitude later. I promise,” I say. “Right now we have a potion to make. Let’s go.”

  We run through the dark, empty streets of the village, and Runa leads the way to the herbalist shop. “The potion is all ready to go in the back,” she says as we reach it. The shop’s door is closed, and the lights are off.

  “Please tell me you have a key,” I say.

  “Um.”

  “Runa!”

  “I didn’t think about it,” she says, tugging on the door handle. Sure enough, it’s locked. “Elder Ingvar is usually here.”

  “Where does he live?” I ask, pacing in front of the door. Surely we didn’t brave the wilds of the Realm just to be thwarted by a locked door. Lilja does not have time for this.

  “We can’t just wake him up!” Runa protests.

  “I’m a Seeker. I’ll tell him it’s a Seeker emergency. Which it is.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Runa says, walking away. “I think I can get us in through the back.”

  We circle the squat stone building, and Runa leads me into a tight alleyway. “Um, Runa? There’s no door back here,” I say, gazing in dismay at the impenetrable stone wall in front of us.

  “No,” she says, “but there is a window. Up there.”

  She points, and I crane my neck to follow her gaze. Way, way above us is a tiny square opening, barely visible in the dark.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “On the other side is a big storage cabinet,” Runa says. “It’s nearly as tall as the window, so it should be easy to climb onto it once you get through.”

  “But how do I get through? I’m not a dragon, Runa. I can’t fly!”

  She sighs impatiently. “You’re a Seeker, aren’t you? Don’t you, like, climb trees and cliffs and things all the time? Or don’t you have some kind of Seeker magic you can use?”

  “Being a Seeker doesn’t mean having a magic spell for everything!” I protest. But I study the wall more closely. Her first point… well, she’s not entirely wrong. This is old stone, the jagged kind used on some of the earliest structures in the village, and it’s not very smooth. There are dips and ledges in the wall here and there that might—might—be big enough to serve as handholds and footholds. For someone who’s scaled Realm cliffs before, how hard can it be to scale a wall?

  “Okay,” I say finally. “We’ll have to try climbing it. But please have your healing gift ready if we fall and break any bones.”

  “We?” Runa says. “Oh no. I’m not climbing it.”

  “But you have to! I don’t know how to find the potion and add the gold dust by myself.”

  “But once you’re inside, you can just open the front door for me,” Runa says, grinning. “I’ll leave the rock climbing to the experienced Seeker.”

  I glare at her. “You’re lucky you’re the best healer in the village,” I grumble, “or I’d find someone else.”

  “Good luck,” Runa says sweetly, gesturing to the wall.

  Okay. I can do this. How hard can it be?

  I use my gift to illuminate the wall, seeking the best place to start climbing. Finally, I identify the largest ledge and use it as a handhold, hauling myself up. My feet dangle uselessly for a moment as I scramble to find purchase. Finally, the end of my boot manages to wedge itself in place, and I search for the next handhold.

  In theory, this is way less dangerous than any of the climbing I’ve done in the Realm. The wall isn’t nearly as high as the cliffs we scaled to reach the gyrpuff nests. But at least the cliff had plenty of crevices that made it easy to scale. I’ve never had to climb something as smooth as this wall before, and it’s slow going. The window feels impossibly far away, the footholds too few and far between to make it.

  “There’s one!” Runa says, her gift swirling around a ledge, and I jump sideways to reach it, my palm scraping against the rough stone. “You got this! Keep going!” Runa cheers.

  Finally, after what feels like a century, I reach the open window ledge. It’s such a short window that I have to crawl through headfirst and hope Runa’s right about what waits on the other side. I let my gift brighten the dark room, but it’s still hard to make anything out in the shadows as I dangle halfway in, gripping the window ledge, my feet hanging behind me.

  “It should be right below you!” Runa calls, her voice muffled. I look down. There’s definitely a large object of some kind beneath the window. I stretch as far as I can to reach it—

  My other hand loses its grip on the window, and gravity does the rest. With a tremendous crash, I tumble headfirst from the window and land in a heap on top of the wooden chest below.

  “Bryn! Are you okay?”

  I lie still, taking quick stock of my injuries. Limbs: still attached. Bones: unbroken. Heart: absolutely pounding.

  “All good,” I croak, sitting up slowly. “Go to the front and I’ll let you in.”

  Runa’s response is too muffled to hear as I scramble off the furniture, my feet hitting the floor with a thud. I make out a doorway in the darkness and head for it carefully. Something clinks to my left as I bump into a table covered in glass bottles. I duck into the front room, climb over the counter, and finally reach the front door. With a twist of the lock, it swings open, revealing Runa on the other side.

  “Took you long enough,” she says with a grin.

  “Next time, you’re the one climbing through the window,” I grumble.

  Despite her teasing, Runa’s all business once she’s in the shop. She lights a lantern and leads the way into the back, ducking around cluttered tables and cabinets to reach a tiny workbench, where a single iron pot rests, covered with a large lid.

  “This is it?” I ask skeptically as Runa takes the lid off and peers at the concoction inside.

  “It’s a test batch,” she says. “Obviously I’m not going to make a giant vat of this stuff until I’m su
re that it works.”

  “Fair enough,” I say. “So what now?”

  Runa reaches for a long, slender spoon and gives the potion a few quick stirs, the blue light of her gift flowing around her. “Consistency is good,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me. “Smell is fresh. Should be ready to add the gold.” She draws one of the vials from her pocket, the gold dust glimmering in the dim light.

  “How much do you need to use?” I ask.

  “Not sure exactly. But since it’s going to vanish at dawn, might as well use it all, right? We can’t save it for anything.”

  “Good point.”

  Runa dumps both vials of gold dust into the potion and starts stirring. Within moments, it transforms from a brownish-yellow color to a bright, shimmering gold. Pure magical energy radiates from the pot, and I can’t help but grin.

  “This has to be it,” I say. “How could this much magic not be the cure?”

  “We’ll see,” Runa says, biting her lip nervously. “I wish I had more time to batch-test….”

  “You’ve done great,” I assure her. “This will work. I can feel it. Now we just have to find Lilja.”

  “There’s that ‘we’ word again,” Runa mutters.

  “I need you in case it doesn’t work. You can see what it does and modify the potion from there, if you need to.”

  “That means flying on a dragon again, doesn’t it?”

  I grin. “Want to see if we can go even faster this time?”

  Runa closes her eyes. “We’re doomed.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  Vin is very confused when we whistle for him at Dragon’s Point again, but he thumps his tail happily, waiting for us to climb aboard. Overhead, the moon is dipping low in the west, threatening the horizon. Will the potion still work after dawn? Or will the gold dust within it disappear? We hardly have any time left.

  “Do you actually know where Lilja is?” Runa asks as we climb onto Vin’s back. “I thought Ari took her.”

  “He did,” I say. “But I’m pretty sure he would’ve just taken her to her den, where she’ll be the most comfortable. I know right where it is.”