Call of Sunteri (Keepers of the Wellsprings Book 2)

by Missy Sheldrake

  “The previous Dreamwalker? There was another?” I slide my sword into its scabbard but leave the clasp undone just in case.

  “It is a position like any other,” he explains. “One can be pushed out by another, more powerful. There cannot be two. Only one can rule the night here.”

  The sun is at the noon mark already. Time is moving too quickly for more questions. I have to get to the others before nightfall, before the Dreamwalker comes again.

  “Follow my heart?” I ask. Stubs nods. I think I understand. It’s just like Kythshire. Like traveling through the Half-Realm. I close my eyes and think hard. In my mind, Rian appears before me. His eyes shine with that endearing glint of mischief that belies just how much power is held behind them. His auburn hair is getting longer now. He’s growing it out for the winter months. His robes are soft yellow and blue, his arms warm and welcoming. Rian, I send the thought out, searching for him.

  The ground falls away beneath me and I try not to yelp in surprise as I begin to tumble away from the meadow. Despite the unpredictable plunge, I try hard to keep my focus on my destination: his arms, his smile, his kiss.

  I land hard against him, flattening him to the cold stone floor with a crash that knocks the breath out of me. Rian too, from the sound of it. He lies crushed under the weight of my armor, unmoving. I scramble off of him and help him sit up but he does nothing to greet me. Right away my thoughts go to the vision of Jacek and my heart sinks. He hates me.

  “Rian,” I take his hands in mine, “please forgive me. I shouldn’t have gone with him. I was weak. I’m so sorry.”

  His eyes are wide open, staring but not seeing. Tears stream down his cheeks. He shakes his head slowly and raises his trembling hands to his face.

  “He can’t see you,” a boy says from the shadows. “He can’t hear you, either. He’s someplace else.” I’ve heard this voice before, only once. It called my name just as I was waking from my last nightmare here. I draw Rian closer to me to protect him. Even if he hates me now, even if he renounces me, I’ll keep him safe. I won’t let anyone touch him.

  “Who’s there?” I squint at the source of the voice in shadows, and the boy creeps forward into the dim light. He moves with a graceful purpose, as though every motion is meant to conceal some well-kept secret. He’s a slim young lad, with a fringe of tousled blue-black hair that nearly hides his dark slanted eyes. A half-dozen knife hilts slung across his chest glint in the dim light.

  “My name’s Tib,” he says, “And you’re her, aren’t you? The reason we came here. The knight.”

  I nod in reply and turn my attention back to Rian, who is still staring blankly at nothing, crying.

  “What happened? Rian!” I jostle him again gently. “Where are the others? Flitt, Mevyn and Ki? They came with you, didn’t they?”

  “We got split up. It was all confusing. I could see shadows and then they were on me. Rian tried to cast a spell but they moved too fast. He grabbed me, and suddenly we were here. Then he started going crazy casting spells. He used up a lot of magic. I had to hide, it almost hit me a few times.” His eyes slide warily to him. I’m glad Rian’s somewhere else and can’t see how afraid Tib is of him. It would break his heart.

  “Rian,” I whisper to him, pulling him closer. I kiss his cheeks, his lips. His skin is cool and clammy, his eyes glazed and distant. I know what I have to do even though I’m repulsed by the thought of it. I need to look into him. To see what he’s seeing. I gaze into his eyes, fall into them, spin away from the stone and the walls.

  At first I don’t recognize where I am. A steady rain pummels me, drenching me in an instant, sending rivulets of inky runoff spilling over the blackened earth. Melted coal-like stubs protrude from it in a wide circle around us. The sky above is dark and threatening. It rumbles with ear-splitting thunder as it pours down its wrath. I creep forward, trying to figure out where I am.

  Beyond the circle drenched in rain and soot lie piles of refuse. As I move closer I realize it isn’t refuse at all, it’s bodies. Lifeless fairies, as charred and blackened as the ground. My heart races. We’re in Kythshire. In the Ring. Crocus’ lifeless form, coated in black, withered and twisted, lies slumped over Scree. Shush’s body crackles beside them, still smoking. I spin to face Rian, who’s kneeling in a pool of mud, crumpled and devastated. Beside him, my armor lies singed and empty on a soot-covered white cloak.

  “I couldn’t hold it anymore,” his whisper is nearly drowned out by the rain. Rather than look up at me, he sinks lower until he’s curled into a tight ball in the mud. “I tried, I tried so hard, but I couldn’t stop it. It’s what I always feared. I wasn’t strong enough. I killed them. I killed all of them. I never should have come back here.”

  I take a deep breath and remind myself that it isn’t real. This is his nightmare, his fear come to life. A trick of the mind, designed to destroy him. I rush to his side and kneel. I take his hands in mine just as I had in the room where I found him.

  “Look at me,” I say. “Rian. Look at me.”

  He refuses. His body wracks with sobs. I feel my own heart sinking, falling into the pit of darkness that he has already plummeted into. I steel myself and take his face in my hands.

  “Look at me, Rian.” I say again. His hazel eyes, ringed in red and smeared with black, lock to mine. It takes only a moment for him. He blinks and pulls me close and kisses me so passionately that I’m breathless, and then we’re falling away again, back to the stone, back to Tib in the tiny cell.

  “Ha! Told you she was here,” Flitt squeaks. “Azi, you have a Mage stuck to your face again.” Flitt’s light shines through my closed eyes as Rian continues to kiss me. This time, I don’t care who’s watching. To feel his arms around me, his lips on mine again is better than any medicine, more powerful than any spell. By the time we reluctantly pull away from each other, we’re both grinning like fools.

  “How did you…” Rian trails off and shakes his head as he gazes into my eyes.

  “Oh, Flitt!” Flitt says dramatically. “I’m so glad to see you! Thanks for coming to this scary place to help find me. What a great friend you are!” Flitt perches on my knee, hands on hips, scowling up at me. I scoop her gently into my hands and kiss her too, on the side of her beautiful, perfect, multicolor-pony-tailed head.

  “I am glad to see you,” I laugh.

  “Ugh, you still have Mage spit on you,” she groans and wipes away my kiss. With her nose still wrinkled in disgust, she floats up to the pouch around my neck. “Good,” she says. “You got it back. Ooh, and Dabble made it nice and shiny, too.”

  “Shh,” I warn. I don’t want to call any attention to it in this place.

  “Now that we’re all reunited…” The voice is droll and heavy, but it holds a certain power that instantly garners my respect. I turn toward him, the fairy in golden armor who I saw in the vision that Stubs gave me, and who was mentioned at the Ring.

  “You must be Mevyn,” I bow my head in greeting.

  “Glad we found you, Lady Knight,” he says abruptly. “Now we should be moving on.”

  Behind him, just on the edge of the shadows, Tib and Ki stand together. The blue stone of her necklace casts a soothing light over the small space and I get the sense that we are protected. Not only is Ki here, but Iren is too, watching over us. I look from her to Tib and back again. Their features are oddly similar. They could be—

  “Oh,” I gasp, “You’re the boy in the roots.” His eyes narrow beneath the black fringe and his lips set in a tight line. “I wanted to go back for you…” I remember my journey with Elliot, when he took me to the sands of Sunteri to show me the devastation there. I cried when he fled the trees where the little bundles were held captive. There wasn’t time to help them, though. There were much bigger things at stake.

  “It’s fine. I got out of it, right?” Tib folds his arms across his bandolier. No thanks to you, his body language seems to say. I don’t miss that one hand is resting on a knife hilt. “Are we going, then
?” he asks impatiently. “We’ve got her, haven’t we?”

  “It’s nearly nightfall,” Ki says softly. “The shadows are starting to creep.”

  “Where are we?” I don’t know why I feel the need to ask. A part of me already knows. I’ve been here before.

  “We saw the castle and thought for sure that if Dreamwalker had you, this is where you’d be,” Rian says. “Mevyn tried to get us in together, but some strange ward separated us. That’s how I ended up in here, with Tib.”

  “Lucky you showed up, Azi,” Flitt says with a grin. “We were only split up for a little while, but we had no way of finding Rian. But then I felt you close by and I brought the others to you. You didn’t bring any sugar cubes, by any chance?”

  “Left pack pocket.” I roll my eyes as she dives into my pack.

  “Time is passing more quickly now,” Ki whispers. “Soon it will be dark.”

  “Yes,” says Mevyn. “We’d best be on our way.”

  At the back of my mind, something calls to me. An object I thought lost, a beloved old friend begging to be rescued. My sword, propped against the wall in Jacek’s tower, just out of reach. I was so close to it, close enough to touch it. Close enough, but my arms were too heavy and then Jacek, he was right there, right beside me. I could get it back again, and maybe I’d see him, too. My heart starts to race and then Tib walks up and strikes me hard across the cheek, snapping me out of my trance.

  “Hey!” Rian thrusts a hand out toward him and I see the wave of a spell pass over the boy, but he seems unaffected by it.

  “It’s okay,” I push Rian’s arm down and rub my cheek. “He saw it. I was slipping into the Dreamwalker’s grasp.” I turn to Tib. “How did you know?”

  Tib shrugs. His eyes slide sideways to Mevyn just for an instant.

  “I could see the shadows in your eyes,” Tib says. With his frown, I get the sense that this is a talent he’s reluctantly accepted.

  “Can we go now?” Tib asks.

  “We really should.” Ki has her bow out now with an arrow nocked and ready. At the mention of shadows, Flitt shines her light a little brighter, pushing them back until the room is entirely bathed in her prisms.

  “Yes, we’d best go quickly.” Mevyn beckons us closer and we link arms together.

  “I’ll do it this time,” Flitt says around a mouthful of sugar. “Just say where.”

  “Back to the meadow?” Ki says thoughtfully. “There, we can keep the shadows at bay and make a plan.”

  “I have a better place,” Mevyn says thoughtfully. “A safer place.”

  “Where?” I ask.

  “I can’t say. Not here. The shadows have ears.”

  “Sorry,” says Rian. “I don’t know you well enough yet to trust you that much, Mevyn. I have a place. I need to check on them anyway.” He looks at Flitt, who nods slowly.

  “Yep,” she says. “That place is as good as any. It’s already all warded up, too.”

  “Well, how do I know I can trust you, then? Turn those tables, Mage.” Mevyn’s eyes narrow, his golden hair floats around his head as though he’s under water.

  “Do you want our help against the Dreamwalker, and with the Wellspring?” Rian asks. “If you do, then you have to trust us, don’t you? We’re going after him either way, with your help or without it.”

  “Very well,” Mevyn agrees wearily. Beside him, Ki shifts her footing, looking slightly concerned.

  “Are you permitted to leave the Dreaming, Ki? To go to the waking realm?” Rian asks.

  Ki closes her hand over her necklace and bows her head. When she looks up again, she nods slowly. “Iren consents, and trusts in your wards, Your Excellency.”

  I think of Eron, how he was so keen to have me bring Viala—Ki—back to him. Bringing her with us outside of the Dreaming would put her in a dangerous position, and she has no idea of the risk. I wonder if Iren does.

  “Can I speak to Iren though that?” I nod to her necklace.

  “Of course,” she says. “But quickly. It’s nearly nightfall now.”

  She takes the stone in her palm and I move closer to look into it. The gem is a chip of Iren’s own eye, the Oculus: Midnight blue with flecks of gold that float through it like the stars in the night sky. I focus on it and fall into it the same way I fell into Stubs’ amber eyes and Rian’s hazel ones. Iren’s is far vaster, though. Its thoughts greet me cautiously. I can see its kind, stony face smiling down on me as golden orbs drift lazily around us.

  We don’t speak to each other. Instead, I recall the meeting with Eron. I send the moment out into the space between us, and Iren watches. When that memory fades, another one emerges slowly. One from the distant past.

  Viala and Eron stand together in the annex beside the ballroom of Cerion’s palace, their heads bent close together, secretly planning. Beyond the door, the sounds of a ball are muffled and fleeting. I feel myself drawn closer to her until I’m seeing the scene through her own eyes.

  “If we fail in this,” she’s saying, “if we do not succeed together, then we shall both fall. Swear to me.” She holds his hand in hers and traces strange runes over it. Black tendrils curl out from the runes and tighten around their clasped hands, binding them. “If anything happens, swear that you shall stop at nothing to find me, to bring me back to you.”

  “I swear it, my love,” Eron says passionately. “I am yours and you are mine, always. One day, we shall rule together. Our kingdom will be endless, as will our power. I will never lose you. I will always come for you.”

  “Together, or not at all,” she whispers. “This spell seals it. Bound by words, heart, deeds, and darkness, never to be undone, except in death.” Eron leans closer to her. I feel his lips on hers and pull away, disgusted.

  “Some magic,” Iren says quietly, “cannot be undone except by its caster. Your refusal to cooperate with Eron matters little. He will stop at nothing to reach her, no matter who she is now. To him, as long as she is alive, she is Viala, the one who cast the spell to bind them. Even now, only she can sever those bindings. So you see why I must allow her the chance to choose well, should she be faced with it.”

  “But she has no memory of that time now. How can she possibly undo a spell she can’t even remember casting?”

  “She is no longer clouded by fear, darkness, power, hatred. She has been given a second chance. When the time comes, if she is faced with it, she will remember. This is her final test. I must allow it.” Iren shows me another memory, this one more recent.

  Ki and Tib in the Ring, holding each other. Ki and I in the cave together, guarded by Iren’s blue light. Ki, standing at the crest of the Shadow Crag, keeping watch over Kythshire and the lands beyond the border. Ki, resting curled in the protective crook of Iren’s elbow. With every scene, I can feel the confidence and peace in her, the sense of purpose and belonging.

  “It would be cruel of me,” Iren says, “to conceal this from her. To deny her this chance to redeem her past. Even while making his choice for her, Rian said the same. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

  “But what if she chooses poorly?” I ask. “What if she allows herself to be clouded again and Eron gets his way?”

  There is a long silence before Viala’s voice drifts into the space between us once more. As I fall away from Iren and back to the stone room, her words drift through my mind over and over.

  “Bound by words, heart, deeds, and darkness. Never to be undone, except in death. Except in death. In death.”

  I’m aware of my feet on the ground and Rian’s hand on my shoulder as I slip away from Iren. Ki is watching me curiously, but I avoid her gaze. I don’t want her to see what I’ve seen.

  “All right?” she asks quietly. I nod. Beside her, Tib watches me with suspicion, his eyes narrowed. It makes me feel uneasy, like I’ve been caught in a lie. I shake it off and turn to Rian.

  “We can go,” I whisper. “All of us.”

  With Viala’s spell still echoing in my thoughts, I take Rian’s
hand. The rest of our group comes together, linking arms and holding on, and Rian murmurs the spell that will take us to the Half-Realm, and then on to Sorlen River Crossing.

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Plans

  Tib

  It’s the third time today I’ve been lurched through space to someplace new, and I don’t like it any more this time than I did the first two. I cling to my sister and squeeze my eyes shut and try hard to concentrate on something else. Like the conversation between Azi and the stone giant, Iren. The things I heard, just like I could hear Rian telling Flitt we were going to Sorlen River Crossing. Just like I could hear Crocus talking to Scree.

  I feel like I should tell Ki. Tell her what they said. This is some sort of sick test. He’s controlling everything she remembers, just like Mevyn did with me. If she fails, death. How did we both get ourselves into this mess? It’s her fault, really. She never should have agreed to go with that Sorcerer. A gift is a trick, Nan told her. If she’d stayed and just picked blooms like she was supposed to, if she’d started filling her basket and stopped reading her stupid books, neither of us would be here.

  Maybe she deserves what’s coming to her.

  Rian whispers something as we spin around, and I feel the magic around us shifting. Preparing for us. Letting us in. I never noticed things like this before the fairy ring. I was never sensitive to magic the way I am now. I know what it’s doing before it happens. I can see it and avoid it.

  I think back to the stone room when we got split up from the others and Rian was raging. He was flinging spells everywhere and not one of them touched me. I knew where they were going, and I just moved away. Then after I slapped the knight, he tried it again and I didn’t even feel it. It’s like it split in two and went around me. I don’t understand it, but I’m not complaining, either.