Heir of Pendel (A Pandoran Novel, #4)

by Barbara Kloss

  It was surprisingly light, weighing in at around a pound, which meant the sword weighed even less. I pulled the ribbon free, lifted the edge of the smooth velvet and unwound the bundle, turn by turn, and there it was.

  There were four fragments in total—each bone white, with marks and chips from use. It had lost its sheen over the years, and if I was being objective, it wasn't much to look at. Other than the chalky quality, it looked like any old, broken sword. The hilt was intact, with a crossguard that tapered at the ends toward its wielder. Rubbery black leather wrapped around the grip, remarkably preserved for a relic so many centuries old. The pommel was circular in shape, though flattened into a disc, and all along the fragments were small etchings in what looked like ancient Karthan. Carefully, I pressed my thumb against the edge of the blade. It was sharp, as if it had seen a grindstone only yesterday.

  So this was dragonbone.

  "Huh. Not much to look at, is it?" Thaddeus remarked behind me.

  "Neither are you, but you're incredibly resourceful," I said.

  "May I see it?" Vera asked.

  Her gaze was awed—reverent, even—as she stared at the fragments. And then I remembered she was from Gesh, and the people of Gesh worshipped the dragons. She may have left her homelands, but her homelands hadn't left her.

  "Sure…" I stood, handing her the cloth with the sword fragments.

  Vera reached out and trailed a finger along the flat of one of the fragments, hesitant as though it were a dandelion puff and one touch might dispel all the seeds. She held the cloth back to me. I took it from her, wrapped it, and refastened the crimson tie.

  "Do you think there are more of them?" Vera asked, gesturing to one of the fallen Morts.

  "I have no idea, but it looks like Rome isn't the only city that'll need backup."

  "Now what?" Thaddeus asked.

  I exhaled, glancing at the disaster around me. I hated leaving the place like this, but there were so many other, more pressing matters to deal with. And there was a particular matter I wanted to handle right now.

  "I want to put Clara somewhere safe," I said. "At least until we can give her a proper burial." No matter how tight our timeline, I couldn't leave her out there, alone and discarded by the dumpster where more animals could feast on her.

  The whole thing took almost three hours. We weren't able to bury her since the ground was frozen solid, and I wasn't about to call the police. Instead, I had the others help me wrap her in blankets, and the three of us carried her down into the detached cellar on our property. It was cold and deep enough to hide the smell, and this way she'd be protected from the elements until we could formally do something about her body.

  Still, I said my blessings over her, down in the cellar, and when I finished, Vera said, "I can see your family loved her very much, and I am sure she knew it. You can't…hide that kind of love." Her voice broke a little over the last word.

  In the kitchen, we found the box with our weapons. The box looked as if it'd been mauled by a black bear. Whoever had opened the package had apparently never encountered packaging tape. Thankfully, all our weapons were accounted for and sprawled across the kitchen table.

  Thaddeus lifted an edge of cardboard, scrutinizing the tape it was stuck to. "What kind of magic is this?"

  "It's not magic. It's tape." I snatched my blade by the hilt, eyeing the smooth metal. At least whoever had brutally disrespected the package had found ample respect for our weaponry. My sword was in perfect condition.

  "Tape..." Thaddeus tasted the word in his mouth.

  Vera scooped up her blades, also checking for signs of abuse.

  A sharp pop sounded right behind me. I jumped, spinning around, the tip of my blade landing inches from Thaddeus's nose. Thaddeus looked startled, holding a large sheet of bubble wrap in his hands. His eyes crossed as he studied the tip of my sword.

  I lowered my sword, narrowing my eyes at him. "Is it too much to ask that you keep your hands to yourself?"

  He looked genuinely thoughtful for a second, then smiled and said, "Yes."

  I glowered at him a moment longer before setting my sword back on the table, and I walked to the pantry.

  Pop. Pop. Pop.

  Vera cursed, followed by a sharp, "Knock it off!"

  "It's fun!" Thaddeus said. "Here. You try…" He held the bubble wrap out to her.

  She rolled her eyes with an emphatic harrumph and stalked away from him.

  "You know, V, it won't kill you to let loose every now and then," Thaddeus remarked.

  "No, it won't kill me," she replied. "It'll kill you."

  It took all of five minutes for us to change out of our things and into our aegis gear. Thaddeus made some remark about preferring Vera in a skirt, and Vera almost skewered him to the stair banister. I made my way to the upstairs closet and grabbed a few cloaks—just in case we needed them—snatched a handful of energy bars from the kitchen pantry, and soon we'd all loaded back in the Jeep with me driving into the heart of Yosemite Valley.

  The other two were quiet during our short drive. They still didn't speak when I rolled the Jeep into the familiar, empty lot at the base of Yosemite Falls. The last time I'd been here, I'd been with my parents and Daria, and Clara had been driving.

  I killed the engine. The three of us got out of the car and stepped out into the stiff chill. The Falls were quiet, still dehydrated from the summer heat, and the air smelled like balsam and campfire. I'd always loved Yosemite this time of year, when tourist season was over and winter nestled in. In winter, Gaia felt closest, when the snow covered the earth and trees, baptizing everything in white. It was then Yosemite became fully tranquil and magical, but it didn't feel so now. Now, I found no tranquility in the silence, only anxiety, and the remnants of white snow brought thoughts of death, not magic.

  I left the keys inside the Jeep. We wouldn't be coming back here anytime soon. A breeze whispered through the trees, dusting flakes of snow from the giant branches.

  "It looks like Gaia, here," Thaddeus whispered.

  "I know," I said, staring up at the starlit sky. There were thousands of them, so bright and so close. Stars always reminded me of Daria. When she'd visit, we'd try finding the various constellations. It was a difficult task with so many stars visible. She was always better at finding them than I was. But that might've been because I'd been too distracted by her proximity.

  I motioned for the other two to follow, and we headed for the trailhead. We walked up the dirt path in silence, winding around large boulders and pines. My mind kept wandering to Daria and the day we'd brought her here. She'd had no idea what awaited her on the other side. She hadn't cared much because she'd been too focused on her anger toward me. So much had changed in such a short amount of time.

  It wasn't long before we reached the granite wall: the entrance to the Room of Doors. I hesitated, searching for any traces of residual magic. I couldn't sense any energy from manipulating the magical fields. If Mistress Dothrai and the Morts had used this portal, it had been some time ago. Still, we had no idea what awaited us on the other side.

  "Stand ready," I said over my shoulder. "There could be shadowguard inside."

  "In that?" Thaddeus asked. "Uh, all I see is a rock…oh!"

  I'd placed my hands on the surface, spoken the words so familiar to me, and the shimmering letters had appeared.

  "Once we're in, it'll take me a few minutes to secure the door to the Arborenne," I said to Thaddeus and Vera. "Ready?"

  Thaddeus nodded, and Vera pulled both her daggers. With a deep breath, I stepped through the barrier.

  And found myself facing a pykan and a dozen Morts.

  11

  ALEXANDER

  The Morts turned around, and the Room of Doors filled with the scrapes of swords being drawn from their sheaths. Thaddeus and Vera appeared beside me as I adjusted my sword in my hands.

  One Mort, who was definitely a half-giant, flexed his arms and clenched his fists as his face contorted with a bellow.
The sound was too loud in the small space, and I wondered if the Room of Doors would collapse right on top of us from the sheer volume of it.

  "Oh, come on," Thaddeus whined, covering his ears. "Was that really necessary?"

  The half-giant Mort charged us. It was difficult knowing his exact target since he was wider than all three of us put together. At the last second, Thaddeus and Vera dodged and I ducked. The half-giant's axe rammed into the wall behind me, emitting a faint spark with a resounding clang. Before the half-giant could turn around, I whirled, bringing my sword across the backs of his legs. He dropped with a cry, and I jammed the hilt of my sword into his skull. The half-giant crumpled to the ground and lay motionless. Thaddeus nodded at me approvingly, the pykan hissed, and then the rest of the Morts attacked.

  "His majesty wants Del Conte alive!" growled the pykan, who lingered on the opposite side of the circular room.

  "Only Del Can't? What about my life?" Thaddeus said nearby. "I'm pretty important"—clank—"too!"

  "Maybe as a cause for insanity." Vera high-kicked, her boot finding purchase with a Mort's jaw, sending him reeling to the ground.

  "You know, V…" Thaddeus rammed an elbow into a Mort's temple. "I'm beginning to think all this special care you take in throwing insults at me means you actually like me."

  She groaned, and two more Morts fell beside the half-giant, compliments of Thaddeus and Vera. I didn't have a moment to thank them, because two more Morts were on me. One wrapped an arm around my neck while another approached with a black hatchet. Using the Mort behind me for support, I kicked up, planting both heels onto the chest of the approaching Mort. I pushed hard, kicking him back, using my backward momentum to shove the Mort behind me against the wall.

  I rammed my head against his, and, in turn, he knocked the back of his skull against the rock wall. The pressure around my neck eased and I slid free, twisting then plunging one of my short blades through the narrow opening in his armor, right in his armpit. I withdrew the blade right as the second Mort brought down his hatchet. In one fluid motion, I spun and threw the blade at him. It sank right in his neck and he faltered, hatchet freezing over his head before he toppled to the ground. I wiped my brow, and a faint glow registered in my periphery.

  This chamber was too confined to fight with magic, but one of the Morts was foolish enough to try. I dropped to the ground, barely missing the orb of blue light. It blasted over me, razing my hair before careening into the rock wall. Chunks of rock exploded, raining all around, and I covered my head with my arms.

  "I said alive, you fool!" hissed the pykan.

  The fighting continued. My muscles strained and ached, stiff and sore from all the travel and fighting in Yosemite, but I kept going, pouring all my energy into every punch and kick and jab, always aware of Thaddeus and Vera while also keeping one eye fixed on the pykan—who snaked slowly around the perimeter. I didn't know what it was doing, but I didn't trust it.

  Vera screamed, drawing my attention away from the pykan. I glanced over my shoulder to see her slashing her knife across a Mort's throat. His own blood-stained blade clattered to the stone floor while he gripped his neck, trying in vain to cease the blood now gurgling from his carotid artery. Vera limped forward, favoring her right leg. She didn't see the Mort behind her.

  I was opening my mouth to yell when Thaddeus dove on top of Vera, taking her down with him. The Mort's blades hit stone instead, and Thaddeus was on him at once. I dispatched the last few Morts, and then the chamber fell quiet. I glanced around; the pykan was gone.

  Thaddeus helped Vera to her feet, and Vera didn't even try to resist. I wiped my sword on the armor of one of the fallen Morts then sheathed it. I counted thirteen dead—including one half-giant—and the pykan was still missing. So much death. Always so much death.

  "Well, that was…invigorating," Thaddeus said.

  "Did you see where the pykan went?" I asked.

  "Nah." Thaddeus hoisted Vera's arm around his shoulders, and she sagged against him. "I was hoping you did."

  I shook my head, wiping my sweaty brow with the back of my hand. "We'd better hurry before it comes back with reinforcements."

  "I don't know…" Thaddeus's gaze slid over the bodies. "You sure you don't wanna just go ahead to Valdon? You might not need to fix that sword to unite the people, because you could probably take on my pop's army all by yourself. Well, with my help, of course."

  I turned my attention to the doors, scanning the arched stone slabs, each one an exact replica of the other. The Room of Doors had been designed this way to keep out intruders, being that it was so close to Castle Regius. In order to use it, a person needed intimate knowledge of the doors and the various incantations, depending on one's destination. Without them, a person could enter some magical dimension and never return. Or, a person might not be able to open any doors, trapping themselves inside the Room of Doors. My father had stumbled upon dead bodies in here more than once, and part of his job as aegis over this portal had been disposing of them.

  Which was also most likely why the pykan had accompanied the Morts: The pykan would've had the magical capacity to manipulate the fields around these doors and force them open in order to get Morts safely to and from this room and Valdon. I didn't have that kind of magic, but what I did have was knowledge of both the doors and incantations, thanks to my father's position.

  I stepped over a body and paused before one door in particular. I'd gotten used to the doors' variations of energy. My father had made me practice as a boy. I placed my hand on the door, feeling the soft ripples of cool energy beneath it. This was the right door, but the magical field around it felt…off. Sick, almost.

  I stepped away from the door, viewing it in full.

  "Lemme guess. You don't know which door to use," Thaddeus offered.

  I pinched my lips together. "This should be it."

  Thaddeus snorted. "Yeah, because it's so obvious."

  "No…something's wrong. It feels like the fields have been tampered with."

  Vera moaned, and we both redirected our attention to her. She was deathly pale, even though she hadn't lost much blood.

  "Hang in there, V." Thaddeus adjusted her against him, then glanced back at me, worried.

  One of the portal doors behind us rumbled. The pykan had to be forcing it open. Alone, the pykan could manipulate the magical fields and simply walk through, but in order to bring others, the pykan would need to open the portal. And since it didn't know the proper incantations, the pykan had to physically open the door.

  Thaddeus and I exchanged a glance, and then I spun back around and placed my hands on the door, muttering the words that would take us to Imbdell.

  Nothing happened.

  The portal door behind us kept rumbling.

  "Uh, Del Can't?" Thaddeus's voice wavered. "You might want to hurry up."

  I muttered the words again, but still…nothing. I glanced over my shoulder. Valdon's door was one-third of the way up, and boots were visible on the other side.

  "Del Can't!" Thaddeus yelled.

  "I know!" I pounded my fists on the rock, muttering the incantation through clenched teeth, but something pressed back from the other side of the portal door. It was as if I were speaking into a black hole of magic that was sucking all my words out of thin air and rendering them ineffective.

  Men hollered and yelled behind us. Their door rose halfway.

  Sweat dripped down my temple as I focused, pouring everything I had into my words. I strained and sweated and yelled the words, and then finally—finally—they pushed through. The door vanished so suddenly I almost fell through the opening. I gripped the edges of the threshold, bracing myself. There should've been a lot more green on the other side, but I didn't have time to concern myself with that now.

  "It's open!" I yelled.

  "Yeah, well, so is theirs!" Thaddeus shouted.

  With a holler, the reinforcements poured through their opening right as the three of us tumbled through ours. Righ
t over a short ledge, then dropping a few yards before colliding with soft, damp earth. I coughed and rolled, then jumped to my feet to help Thaddeus lift Vera. The portal we'd just stumbled through returned to rock wall, the glittering letters already fading.

  "That was too close," Thaddeus said while we propped Vera against him.

  "I know, but we aren't—"

  A bolt of light sailed overhead and blasted into a tree branch, sending bits of bark and wood and leaves all over the place. The pykan was forcing this door open.

  I cursed. "You two get back!"

  Thaddeus didn't need coaxing. He hobbled Vera toward a thick of trees while Morts crawled out of the half-open doorway. I had to close that portal. That meant I needed to somehow get past all of them—by myself. I sighed. I didn't have energy for this.

  I pulled my dagger first, throwing it at the closest Mort. It sailed end over end, plunging right between the Mort's eyes. He stumbled and collapsed to the ground, while the rest bounded past him. I drew my sword and deflected a blow. My movements were slower now, my body weighed down by fatigue. Sweat dripped down my forehead, stinging my eyes, but I couldn't get a moment's pause to wipe them. A few Morts headed in the direction of Thaddeus and Vera, and Thaddeus laid Vera down to fend them off.

  I saw the light from the pykan just in time.

  "Thaddeus, down!"

  Thaddeus glanced up then dropped, shielding Vera's body with his own. With a loud crack, the blast landed in the tree trunk, right where he'd been standing. The tree creaked and moaned, teetering as though it was suddenly too heavy to hold itself up, and then, as if in slow motion, it twisted and started falling. Thaddeus and Vera were right in its path. Thaddeus noticed. In a whirl of panic, he tried pulling Vera out of its path. Morts yelled and sprinted away from the falling tree. Branches snapped and popped, leaves rained down, and the tree crashed to the ground. Right on top of Thaddeus and Vera.