by Everly Frost
The other object rests on a simple wooden pedestal. “A book?”
“A very special book. It’s the only object that Howl saved from the old palace before he destroyed it.” She positions herself beside the door. “I will keep watch. Go on, open it.”
I peer at it. The inscription on the front says: Incorruptible.
That was the Gargoyle Queen’s name. The pages inside the book progress through a rainbow of different-colored sections: starting with white first, followed by shades of purple, blue, orange, green, and finally red.
As I turn to the first page, it’s clear that it’s a journal: Queen Incorruptible’s journal written hundreds of years ago. I flip through the entries until I get to one that stops me.
It wasn’t Hideaway’s fault. It was mine. I was the one who wanted to see the humans—the ones with the strange metal sticks that cause animals to fall down dead. I tried to tell the King that I put myself in danger, but he didn’t want to believe me. Hideaway is such a loyal friend that he took the blame.
I guess now I know why Cassian’s family was born into servitude. As I read on, the entries become more and more despairing. The humans hunt the gargoyles like animals—the females especially are hunted for their beautiful wings and the males are hunted for their wing daggers. Some of the descriptions of what they face are so horrifying that I have to skim over them.
The gargoyles flee across continents, trying to find a safe place to live, joining up with the elves to travel through a vast continent called Europe all the way to a place she calls the ‘new world.’ Along the way, the Queen begs her husband to allow her to fight back, to kill the humans, but they argue about the morality of a pre-emptive strike versus self-defense. She is close friends with Prime, Lightsworn, and Virtuous and they all want to fight back, but in the end, the King says he won’t become the monster the humans think he is.
Finally, I reach the passage where the gargoyles and elves reach an accord: a desperate plan to leave the Earth’s surface and descend together into the earth.
I reach the very last passage before the white-colored section ends.
I am Incorruptible and this is my last written vow.
My husband, the gargoyle King, has already given his life to part the Earth. The elven King has given his life to create a new sky. Today I will ascend with the Elven Queen. I will become the moon and she will become the sun. I give my life willingly, but it is with one regret.
I am true and loyal to my husband, King Supreme. I am true and loyal to my people. I have never betrayed them. But my truest heart, my deepest love, belongs forever and always with Prime. When I ascend with the Phoenix today, my final thoughts will be of him.
My heart lurches. I understand her pain. The Queen was in love with Prime but she never acted on it. She couldn’t be with him the same way I couldn’t be with Baelen. But I’m determined that our story will end differently. We will be together.
I suddenly feel like I’m eavesdropping on someone else’s life. I mean, I guess I am. As I flip through the other sections, I realize that each one belongs to a different Queen: each successor who came after Incorruptible. I flip to the final section of the book, its pages crimson. The first entry is marked with a date four hundred years ago. The name written at the top of the page is:
Bethesda.
My mother gave me this book today. As the daughter of the Queen, I am heir to the throne. When I marry in a week, she will step down and I will be Queen. She told me that when I write my name, the pages will turn the color of my life. I’m not sure what it means that they have turned the color of blood.
Two days later, she wrote:
I met the Elven King today. He is here for my wedding. My mother told me not to trust him, that he is treacherous, but I don’t know why she would say that. He has been nothing but polite and attentive. I’m not afraid of him.
The two entries after that contain only dates, but no writing, which is odd that the pages were dated but left blank. The third entry says only:
Now I am Queen.
I flip through the pages and the details of her life, her husband; sometimes she talks about her brother who seems fiercely protective of her. In fact, it reads as if that’s his job. He doesn’t seem to have a wife or children. I guess that if the throne passes from daughter to daughter and the brother never has children, that means there’s no fighting about the rightful heir.
I reach the end of the book, the last passage.
My children were born today. My son came first, which is not how it should have been. He should have been born second, to be his sister’s protector. He struggles to breathe and his wings are not strong. It’s my fault. I know it is.
But… my daughter is perfect. There are no signs that she is not what she is supposed to be. She will be Queen one day. The fact that she was born second doesn’t change that. In fact, it is as if she is her brother’s protector and not the other way around. I have named her Elyria, because she will need to be unbreakable. If she ever learned the truth—
“How did you get in here?”
I jump, spin, and drop the book. It hits the floor with a slam.
“Were you reading that?” Howl pounds into the room, wings spread, both heartstones shedding an angry glow, lighting up the rage oozing from every angle of his body.
“No,” I squeak. Luckily the book landed closed. “Just looking at the cover.”
Where is the Priestess? I can’t see her anywhere. I didn’t hear her leave, but I tuned out to everything so she could have left at any stage.
Howl veers toward me and it’s abundantly clear that he’s no longer intoxicated, but sharp and angry. I backpedal fast, angling for the door, but I don’t quite make it out of there before he grabs me by my shoulders and presses me hard up against the wall. “Nobody reads that book!”
“Okay.”
“Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
He releases me and I jump away from him. Luckily I memorized the way here, because I’m going straight back to my room before he grabs me again. I race to the door and stumble down the stairs, glancing back to check whether he’s following me.
He isn’t. He’s bending to the floor instead. I pause for a dangerous moment, watching as he picks up the book, but he doesn’t place it back on the pedestal. Instead, he curls both hands around the outside covers and pulls.
It doesn’t open.
He tries again, straining, the heartstones glowing brightly with the effort, but it remains closed.
He slams it onto the pedestal. “Humph. Nobody reads that book.”
I race away as fast as I can. Halfway back to my room, the old Priestess jumps out at me. I swallow a scream that turns to anger. “You left me there.”
She takes my elbow and steers me down the corridor toward my room, whispering. “You needed to see that.”
“See what?”
“That the book can’t be opened.”
“But I opened it.”
“Yes.” She grins. “You did.”
Cassian paces outside my room. He pulls up as soon as he sees us. “Did she?”
“She did.”
He blows out a breath, staring at me. He suddenly launches into action. “I’m not waiting for the morning. I’m taking her back to the mine right now. She’s not safe here. If Howl scents her, she’s dead.”
“Agreed. Especially because Howl is on his way here.” The Priestess’s whisper is a quiet hiss as she hurries back down the corridor, darting away into the darkness.
“Wait… what… but… I can’t just leave.” Baelen is here. The Storm is here. I have to talk to the Storm about what I just read. I’m certain that the last journal entry was written by her mother. She wrote about her daughter Elyria and something about learning the truth. I need to face the Storm once and for all and find out what happened.
I don’t realize I’ve backed away from Cassian until he says, “I’m not going to hurt you. The mine is the safest place f
or you. You have friends there who will protect you. And the furthest you’re away from Howl, the better.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go back—I actually really want to get out of here—but I don’t understand what all of that book stuff was about.”
“I… can’t tell you.”
Footsteps sound down the hall. Heavy ones. Howl ones.
I won’t be able to say goodbye to the Storm. I try to gather my thoughts. Howl told me to find a heartstone. Once I’m free, I can find out everything I need to know about the Storm. There will be time for that. Right now, Cassian believes my life is in danger. I hate leaving Elyria, but I can’t help her until I help Baelen and I can’t do that until I find a heartstone… which I don’t want to do because that will only make Howl more powerful.
I seriously want to scream right now.
Cassian holds out his hand. “We have no time for a crate. I will carry you. Through the window.” His eyes meet mine. “Please.”
I slip off my shoes, step onto his feet, wrap my arms around his waist, and hold on. Howl turns the corner as Cassian lifts off the ground. There’s only just enough room for his wings to stay aloft.
Howl seems more perturbed than angry. “What are you doing?”
Cassian says, “What you asked: making sure she stays alive.”
“Very well. Take her back to the mine. But Princess,” he addresses me. “You will bring me Prime’s heart by the end of the week. Otherwise I will bury Baelen Rath under a mountain of rock.”
And the Storm with him.
I shudder so hard that my knees knock against Cassian’s legs. He zooms up and out of the wide window, taking me with him.
36. Marbella Mercy
We fly in silence. The moon is a large white circle above us. I wonder if Incorruptible still thinks and feels like the Storm still thinks and feels. I suspect it’s a bit different because Incorruptible became a stable part of nature and the Storm, well, she is a deliberately unstable one.
“Hideaway helped the Queen,” I say into the silence between Cassian and I. My loose hair cascades between us. Cassian is wearing armor but it’s made of thick leather straps so it’s not too uncomfortable against my cheek. After we first ascended, once he was sure we were far enough away from the palace, he stopped mid-flight to tie parts of his armor around me, making sure I won’t fall.
“The Queen wanted to find out more about human weapons—guns I think they’re called. The King thought Hideaway put the Queen in danger and wouldn’t forgive him. Not even when the Queen said it was her idea. Anyway…” I shrug. “I thought you might want to know.”
“I do. Thank you.”
I clear my throat. My voice is small. “When you… said that you found something to care about a month ago…” I was too angry when he told me, but I’ve had time to think since then. A month ago was when I arrived at Mount Erador. I guess I find it difficult to believe that he means me.
He starts to speak but stops. Starts again. His voice is scratchy in the night air. “I felt something when you leaped from the cliff’s edge with that dagger in your hand and smashed through Howl’s shield. It was the night you first got here. Do you remember it?”
“Of course.”
“You sliced through Howl’s deep magic like nobody ever had before. Even the Priestesses. They tried getting through his defenses. Died trying actually. They weren’t strong enough. I watched them die and I… gave up. I followed him out of self-preservation.”
He swallows. “But you broke through. Without even realizing what you’d done. You were terrifying and ferocious and… I had no reason to fight Howl before you did that. You changed everything. With one strike.”
He stops talking and doesn’t start again. When I came to Erador, I had a singular purpose: to save Baelen. But now I need to do so much more than that. Howl has taken his people prisoner, enslaved them in his thirst for power. And worse, he is in league with the Elven Command who have succumbed to sorcery.
For weeks, I’ve been mining side by side with gargoyles who have shown me friendship and loyalty, courage and bravery. For weeks, I’ve been falling asleep cold and pushing away a hum in my ears that tells me which of the King’s bones to pick, ignoring a whisper telling me to choose the fifth tunnel, the fiery tunnel, the one that the gargoyles fear the most. But it calls to me. It called to me the moment I first stood at its entrance.
As we fly toward Mount Prime, I stare up into the light of the moon. I remember Badenoch telling me that he can sense Prime’s Heartstone, that it pushes him away. But it doesn’t push me away. It calls to me.
The closer we fly to Mount Prime, the colder I become. At first it’s only my toes and fingers, but as we enter the mountain, my skin frosts over.
“It’s happening again,” Cassian says, shivering next to me. “We need to get you to a hammock and get you warm.”
“No,” I say. “Cassian, I think I understand now why this is happening. I think I understand why I’m so cold.”
We soar down the first opening, the Cavity moments away. He says, “I don’t think I’m going to like what you’re about to say.”
“You aren’t.”
“Then don’t say it.”
But I do anyway. “I need to go to the fifth tunnel.”
We touch down inside the quiet Cavity. The gargoyles are all asleep in their hammocks above us. Three sleepy guards jump to attention as soon as they see Cassian, but he dismisses them. “It’s fine, I’ll take watch.”
The only thing that needs watching is me.
I step off Cassian’s feet. As soon as my bare feet touch the rocky ground, ice crystals spread out from them. I must have been hurting him again but he didn’t say anything. I rub my hands together and puffs of ice waft up around me.
I’m a walking snow storm. “I have to go to the fifth.”
“Not alone.”
“You can come with me.”
“I mean that you should take your team.”
He’s right. “Will you wake them for me? Jasper and the other team leaders as well. I need them to be part of this. It’s not about me finding a heartstone to take for myself. They need to know that.”
He frowns down at me. “What is it about then?”
“Finding a heartstone for all of them.”
He doesn’t understand. I don’t exactly yet either, except that a plan is forming in my mind, a plan that might free us all.
I wait at the entrance to the mine shaft. I don’t expect the gargoyles to trust Cassian so I stay in plain sight even though the cold is killing me. Perhaps literally.
Cassian keeps his distance as the others make their way to me, wiping the sleep from their eyes. It’s the middle of the night. The coldest time.
Jasper is the first to reach me. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”
I resist the urge to hug him. I want to tell him that Elyria needs help, but it will only worry him and I need this plan to work first.
“I need you all to come with me to the fifth,” I say, not mincing words.
Llion is the quickest to get on board, his golden eyes flashing in the dim light. “I don’t understand why you’re asking us to do this, but if we’re going to the fifth, we need to prepare water, protective clothing—”
“You won’t need it.” I point at my feet, my hands, the ground I’m standing on, and the rock wall directly behind me, all covered in ice. “I need to go quickly, I’m afraid. I don’t have much time.” Already I sense my heartbeat slowing, the ice eating away at my insides. “Cassian?”
He flies forward, snatches me up, and plummets down the mineshaft with me. I don’t have time to wait for the others to make their decision. “You’re freezing up,” he says, swooping across the entrance to the first tunnel and down the next mineshaft.
I catch my breath after the sudden motion forces the air out of my lungs. “I hope I’m right about this or I’m going to need your help. Big time.”
By the time we reach the fifth tunne
l, my teeth have progressed from chattering to jaw-locked. A blast of warm air up the mineshaft is the only thing keeping me alive. We touch down and Cassian soars toward the nearest flame. It sizzles and dies as soon as we reach it, the fiery surface freezing over as I approach.
I force sound out of my throat. “Let… me… warm… my… feet…”
Cassian allows me to slide to the ground but doesn’t touch it himself. When my feet connect, it’s like heaven. Heat, glorious heat, shoots up into my legs. I run for the nearest tower of flame, disappointed when it sputters and diminishes as soon as I get near it. I hurry to the next one. Each time the flame dies and my body absorbs the heat. Every time a fire warms me too much, my body reacts, freezing the fire down.
When I’m warm enough to function properly again, I look back the way I came to see that the tunnel where I walked is free of flames. Its hot surface has turned black, coated with a glossy-looking substance.
Cassian touches down on the ground and I gather from his expression that the floor isn’t scorching anymore. The other gargoyles join us, crowding into the tunnel, looking around, touching the cool walls.
This time, I can stop to speak to them. “I freeze every night, but only here on Mount Prime. Here… Prime’s heart calls to me. I tried to stop listening but it didn’t work. Prime’s heart wants to be found.”
“No, Lady Storm. Please.” Badenoch is the first to step forward. The pale scars across his chest are highlighted in the glow around us. “If we find the heart, we have to give it to Howl.”
“Do we?” I look around me. “Tell me why.”
“We can’t control it and we can’t use it against him. Rhain tried…”
“Because he tried to control it alone. Howl is one gargoyle. We can beat him if we work together. I know we can.”
