Plague of Death

by D. L. Armillei

  “And don’t go looking for trouble with Ferox,” Fynn said adding to Uxa’s request as if he were also in charge.

  The ambassador looked relieved. “The Coin will show you the correct path. I’m sure you can connect to your powers to get the specifics on how to mend the seal.” He patted Van on the shoulder.

  “Could you be any vaguer?” Van muttered as a way of hiding her newfound hesitation.

  Ambassador Kasey and the Brotherhood’s approval for her using the Coin made Van wary. She reconsidered Uxa’s concern. Maybe Uxa was right, she wasn’t emotionally ready to handle the Coin again. A wave of uncertainty washed over Van making her sick to her stomach.

  When she had used the Coin last year, its power had overtaken her, resulting in damage to her soul when she used it to kill Solana. If Van remained incapable of handling the Coin’s power, it would corrupt her soul even more. She would be driven to insanity, like her ancestor Amaryl, which over time could lead to her onto darkness. She would end up evil and rotten, like Solana.

  “You must prepare,” the ambassador said, interrupting Van’s thoughts. “The Alignment begins at midnight tonight, and you only have a thirty-day window until…the—that monster is released by…who? The Elementals?” He stared at Uxa.

  Van had momentarily forgotten about the Quasher. The horrific shadow-wolf that never stopped hunting Van. Not until it consumed her light.

  Van rubbed her arms to get out the chill.

  “I guess the Brotherhood’s not as informed as you think,” Fynn said in response to Ambassador Kasey’s bumbling.

  “Tell me, then.” The ambassador stretched his palm toward Fynn to emphasize his words. “What is this Quasher?”

  “Before recorded time,” Fynn said, basking in superiority, “the Elementals—deities—were sent by the Creator to the land of humans to instruct them on the ways of the light.”

  The ambassador sighed. “Really? Going back to the beginning of time?”

  Fynn ignored him and continued. “Instead, against the will of the Creator, the Elementals frolicked with humans and inadvertently formed the Lodian race, including the Anchoress. Since humans seemed to be doomed to failure, the Creator allowed the Anchoress to exist, along with her Items of Creation. These weapons are to be used by the Anchoress to restore order in the worlds when necessary. To give humanity a shot at surviving.”

  “And the Quasher?” The ambassador impatiently tapped his foot.

  “The Quasher is the balancing force of the Anchoress,” Fynn said. “Formed by nature at the time of her birth. Upon its creation, the beast was immediately bound by the magic of the Elementals to protect their daughter so she, the Anchoress, could live in peace.”

  “As a consequence for the Elementals misbehavior,” Uxa interjected, “the Creator banished them to live forever on the physical plane.”

  “Mt. Altithronia to be exact,” Fynn said. “The Elementals didn’t like this one bit. Angered by the seductive nature of humanity, they tied a condition to their magical containment of the Quasher.”

  “The Anchoress must keep her bloodline pure of the contamination of humanity—to mate only with descendants of Elementals, Lodians,” Uxa said. “The purer the bloodline, the better.”

  “If the Anchoress broke the purity of her bloodline,” Fynn said, “the magic binding the Quasher would also break.”

  “This protection ended about a thousand years ago,” Van said, who didn’t like being spoken about as if she wasn’t in the room. She was the current Anchoress after all. “When my ancestor Amaryl, who carried the Anchoress bloodline, frolicked with the Balish Prince Goustav and had a baby.”

  “It’s rumored the Balish are descendants of terrigens,” Ambassador Kasey said, raising his eyebrows. “So, Amaryl definitely tainted the Anchoress bloodline.” He tsked.

  Fynn nodded. “After Amaryl’s folly, and knowing from experience how irresponsible humans were, the Elementals took away the Anchoress’s protection from the Quasher with a caveat. They created the thirty-day window. During this window—or Luxta as the ancients called it—”

  “We call it the Alignment,” Van chimed in.

  “The Quasher is contained by the magic of the Elementals,” Fynn continued. “This is the only time the Anchoress can safely set foot outside Salus Valde.”

  “It can’t cross into my world? Can it?” Ambassador Kasey sounded nervous. “What keeps it in the Living World?”

  “The beast can’t enter Salus Valde,” Uxa said. “Our land is magically protected by the Elementals, which means it can’t get to the portal, so it can’t come here.”

  “During the Alignment the Quasher is unable to track or find the Anchoress,” Fynn said.

  The ambassador asked Van, “What did you do—or, I should say, what did your ancestors do to make the beast want you so badly?”

  Van shrugged. “My light is a threat to its existence.”

  “As long as the Anchoress lives, there will always be light in the worlds,” Fynn said. “The Quasher hates this.”

  Ambassador Kasey shook his head, looking sad. “I guess the Anchoress’s one great flaw is that she’s part human and therefore fallible.”

  Uxa scowled. “I can take it from here, ambassador.”

  He bobbed his head, seemingly eager to leave. “I’ll check on Dinkle’s status. Find out what we’re going to do with him.”

  He dashed out of Uxa’s office, closing the door behind him.

  Uxa turned to Fynn. “Please go update the rest of Vanessa’s team.”

  Fynn gave a compliant nod and scurried from the room to do her bidding.

  Uxa unrolled a large parchment on top of her desk. It was a map of Living World.

  “I have the Coin with me,” she said. “I brought it here so we could use it to confirm that the second seal is located in the west. I wasn’t going to let you take it but—”

  “The Brotherhood.” Van finished her sentence.

  “No,” Uxa said. “Because it’s reasonable to let you take it. Because you’re certain you need it to complete your mission. Because you claim you’re ready.”

  “I am ready,” Van lied.

  “Use it to find the exact location, nothing else. Practice now, here, and see how you feel.”

  Uxa held the Coin on a black cloth and extended it to Van.

  Overwhelming anxiety surfaced as Van reached to take the shiny, gold relic of her ancestors. As soon as it touched her fingertips, she felt a jolt of energy. Van connected to a spiritual pulse cascading back through her entire ancestral line of Anchoresses. The capacity of their blood magic filled Van with hope, wonder, and dedication to the light with such intensity her eyes glistened.

  Van’s fingers trembled. She dropped the Coin onto the map. Not to find the seal’s location but because the power of her bloodline combined with the ability of the Coin frightened her.

  The Coin shifted and pointed to a location on the map.

  “Ah,” Uxa said. “Location of the second seal—confirmed.”

  “Are you sure?” Van asked. “I don’t think I did it right.”

  Uxa nodded. “The Coin jumped from your fingers, eager to pinpoint this spot.”

  “Great,” Van said, although she remained unsure.

  Now, after the surge she felt, Van didn't want to use the Coin to complete her mission. She believed Uxa was right, she’s not capable of handling its power. Finding Daisy, Ferox, and a counter-curse were part of her own agenda and therefore optional. If she felt ready to use the Coin to find them, she would. Otherwise, she’d keep it safely tucked in her pocket.

  Van focused on the map and stared in disbelief at the location indicated by the Coin. Its triangle design clearly pointed right smack in the middle of a sea.

  “Wait a minute,” Van said. “The Coin’s pointing at the ocean—to a place called the Bottomless Sea.”

  “That’s correct. The seal lies on the seafloor.”

  “You’re telling me, that I,” Van swung her index fi
nger to her chest, “have to swim to the bottom of the Bottomless Sea to stitch together a broken seal? Do I have that right?”

  “Here.” Uxa busily gathered more parchments. “The information in these scrolls will help. Let’s figure this out together.” She placed them on her desk next to the map, then stretched to reach the top of her bookcase. “We need this reference book.”

  Once Uxa’s back was turned, Van brushed the Coin with her fingertips, to see if she got another jolt.

  She didn’t, but the Coin vibrated.

  It shifted its direction to a different location on the map. To an island called Cortica.

  Van squinted at the map. She noticed penciled-in scribbles near the island.

  She realized the Coin wasn’t pointing to the island of Cortica.

  It pointed to a drawing of an ankh accompanied by the words: the Cup of Life.

  Chapter 11

  Uxa turned around, holding the reference book. She dropped it on top of the mess of parchments and scrolls covering her desk, shifting the map.

  “Vanessa,” Uxa scolded. “Pick that up. Put it safe.” She pointed to the Coin, unconcerned with its change in direction, probably assuming the book had pushed the parchments into the map and moved the Coin.

  Van didn’t understand why the Coin had moved, so she kept quiet about the Cup of Life.

  “Tell me about Cortica,” Van said.

  “People call it Outlaw Island. It’s a dangerous place on the fringes of the Living World. There is no law or order there.”

  “They’re not ruled by the Balish?”

  Uxa shook her head. “The Moors have no power in Cortica. The island is full of pirates, cutthroats, and thieves. You’ll do well to stay away from there and focus on the Bottomless Sea.” Uxa stood behind her desk and opened the reference book. “Let’s get started.”

  Van took a seat on the firm, no-nonsense couch near the wall, away from the desk. “Why wait so long?”

  Uxa reluctantly raised her nose from the book.

  “The seal’s been cracked for a while, I would guess,” Van said. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that my mission would be to fix it? I’ve been asking you for almost a year. We could’ve poured over these documents for months instead of a few hours.”

  She paused as if scrutinizing Van. Then said, “For security reasons. It’s best if you and your teammates don’t know your assignment until right before you leave.” She slid into her desk chair. “Besides, I wasn’t sure if we were dealing with a cracked seal. I’m still not a hundred percent sure.”

  Van grunted as if accepting Uxa’s poor excuse for an explanation. But her mentor’s mysterious ways only served to raise more questions in Van’s mind about whether Uxa secretly worked on behalf of the Moors as a spy in Lodestar.

  Van’s eyelids were already feeling heavy, and she knew she’d get no further explanation from Uxa. She got up and swiped a scroll from Uxa’s desk, went back to the couch, and began reading.

  They spent hours hashing out the information in the ancient writings until Van couldn’t stop yawning. She stared at Uxa with glassy, tired eyes.

  Uxa closed the ancient book they had been reading together on the couch. “I think it’s best you get some rest. Fynn already informed Iphigenia, along with your other teammates and their parents. Of course, the parents weren’t filled in on details. All they know is that their children will be working on a summer project on the reservation for a month.”

  Van wearily raised from the couch and yawned. “The Alignment begins tonight at midnight.”

  “Tomorrow at five a.m. come back here, to my office,” Uxa said. “You’ll have a quick pack and prep and depart shortly thereafter.”

  Van refused an escort home. She needed time alone to absorb the challenge of facing yet another impossible mission on behalf of Uxa.

  When Uxa stared to make a fuss, Van said, “If I need an escort to walk home safely on Providence Island, then I don’t stand a chance of conquering the Bottomless Sea.”

  Apparently, Uxa couldn’t argue with that reasoning and conceded to let Van walk home on her own.

  Once Van arrived at Mt. Hope Manor—and after Genie’s interrogation—she went straight to her bedroom and settled into her comfy queen-size bed, exhausted.

  Annoyed that she didn’t fall asleep right away, Van took steps to stop the chatter in her mind by taking a deep, relaxing breath. She grabbed one of her pillows, hugged it to her chest, and curled her body around it in a fetal position. She loved the fresh feel of the smooth sheets on her skin and the softness of the mattress as it cuddled her body.

  She neared sleep when a peaceful amethyst mist filled her mind.

  Jacynthia, Van said in her mind’s eye.

  Her spirit guide appeared, complete with amaranthine dress and matching cape, hovering several feet from the ground.

  “Hello my little warrior,” Jacynthia said.

  What’s up? Van’s words sounded casual, but they masked her dread. Her mission seemed insurmountable and the Quasher looming the background waiting to pounce didn’t help matters. Yet she needed to act like nothing bothered her. To show her true feelings would make her weak.

  “The Quasher is a good lesson for you,” Jacynthia said.

  What? Why?

  “No phenomenon is devoid of its opposite state. Every positive force must be balanced by a negative one. This is part of nature,” she said as her waist-length, silver hair, flowed in an ethereal breeze. “The Quasher challenges you to exist in an equal state with destructive energy. It teaches you to create harmony between darkness and light. You must accept the duality of all things, even the Self. Make peace with your dark side. By doing so, you aid the will of the Creator.”

  Okay, sure. Van really didn’t understand Jacynthia’s point and didn’t care. The lull of sleep became too intense. She would mull over her spirit guide’s words of wisdom tomorrow.

  “Shed your mask of perfection and accept your new reality.”

  Jacynthia’s words faded as Van succumbed to a dream state.

  In her dream, she and Wiglaf were in a dark hole, a dungeon? No, they were on a ship headed to Cortica, both enveloped by the darkness of the crew’s quarters. She watched Wiglaf’s little white paws as he stretched and grasped the rung of the ladder leading to the above deck. His coiled tail bobbed as he climbed each step.

  “Where’re you going?” Van asked in her dream.

  His answer filled her mind. “To find the truth.”

  Then Wiglaf disappeared above deck into the bright light of day.

  The blare of her alarm clock abruptly woke Van. She shot up in bed, not surprised 4:00 a.m. had arrived so soon.

  To Van’s chagrin, Genie and Rummie had woken early too so they could say their goodbyes, both dressed in PJs and bathrobes. Van endured their fussing and hovering, counting the minutes until she could break free and head back to Uxa’s office at the complex.

  “Stop,” Van pleaded as they jabbed glazed orange scones at her. “You’re going to make me late.”

  Gratitude surged when Providence Island Taxi pulled into the driveway and honked.

  “Be safe,” Genie shouted from the front steps of the manor, Rummie by her side.

  Van leaped into the backseat of the classic yellow six-seater buggy with her backpack.

  “Hey, Urvi.”

  The driver grunted a hello and stepped on the gas. The jolt of the buggy slammed Van back against the nylon seat.

  She twisted around to see Genie and Rummie out the back window, waving goodbye. She gave them a half-hearted wave, rolling her eyes at their lame, overt attention.

  Van had scheduled the buggy to pick up her friends too. First stop, the Gables to get Paley.

  “Hey,” Paley said, as she slipped in next to Van. She wore sky blue contact lenses and looked like she didn’t get much sleep. “Sorry if we upset you yesterday, you know, after that thing with Bicycle Bob.”

  “Sorry, I ditched you guys.” Van slid over to ma
ke room.

  “I came by last night to sleep over, and you weren’t there.”

  “I stayed with Uxa until late,” Van said. “We were reviewing old parchments to help with our m—summer project.” They weren’t allowed to talk in front of anyone not directly involved with the mission. Although Urvi seemed disinterested in their conversation, Van knew better than to take any chances. She had almost blown it. Uxa might have been right to withhold details of their mission until the last minute.

  On their way to pick up Brux, Van told Paley about her stepmother’s secret boyfriend, Rummie.

  “Are you sure you’re not imagining him, like your ‘friend’ Jacynthia?” Paley giggled.

  “As if.” Van scrunched her face then said, “I’m happy for Genie. Old people need love too.”

  “Really?” Paley raised her eyebrows at Van. “So you’re okay with some old dude walking around at breakfast in his tighty-whities?”

  “Ugh.” Van’s shoulders slumped. “It really is quite disgusting.”

  “Is he your new father, now?” Paley teased.

  “Not funny.” Van didn’t think she was going to like Rummie hanging around her house. Now that she thought about it, he had no right to be there. She wondered if Genie allowed him into her father’s private study in the basement—the room with the secret portal. The thought tormented her.

  Then she calmed, remembering that Uxa had her people put a new lock on the door. No one could get in there. Not Genie. Not even Van.

  Paley crossed her arms. “Genie has some nerve dating so soon after your father died.”

  Although Van had said otherwise, she silently agreed with Paley. Genie’s desperate need for love made her weak and exposed Van, her house, and everything in it to a stranger. Rummie’s presence was a security breach.

  The taxi halted at the gate to Sweet Bay Drive, the part of the reservation where vichors from the Living World moved after being stationed on Providence Island. Brux and his father, Professor Lake, lived in the bungalows there.

  The island security guard staffing the booth asked them to state their names. He turned to a computer screen and clicked the keyboard.