by S. M. Boyce
“You could have told us the plan,” she snarled under her breath, finally putting it all together. “You stopped there on purpose in the tunnels, didn’t you? You knew they would find us, but you didn’t tell me. We could have been prepared. Instead you let us get captured, and you nearly let them know what Audrey is.”
Fyrn’s face shifted into an expression she had rarely ever seen on him: surprise. She wasn’t sure what had brought it on. Perhaps because she was snapping at him and not letting him lead, or perhaps because she had guessed his plan?
“I trust you, Fyrn, but I will beat the shit out of you if you ever put Audrey’s life in danger like that again.” With that, Victoria pressed ahead of him.
***
Fyrn almost couldn’t believe what had just happened.
How quickly the student becomes the teacher.
She was right, of course. He could have warned them, but he had wanted to ensure they slept. They wouldn’t get to do much of that in the coming days, and they needed their energy. Worrying about an impending ambush would have left them restless and maybe too tense to surrender believably.
He’d had everything under control—at least until the queen had read their minds.
He hadn’t been aware such abilities even existed anymore. To not only see it, but to experience it was a gift he would treasure forever. These powers the queen possessed were lost arts. He would have to earn the queen’s trust and learn her methods, though he had to be honest with himself—Diesel would most likely win that honor.
But what amazed him most was Victoria. Her confidence. Her sacrifice. She would have died in that gilded square to save Audrey. He didn’t have a doubt in his mind.
Victoria was a true leader, one most men would follow into battle and off cliffs. She led with compassion, ferocity, and faith in herself.
Perhaps he needed to turn back now and return to Fairhaven. She had mastered her Rhazdon Artifact’s darkness, even if she didn’t have full control over its power. If she only ever had this one Rhazdon Artifact, he was suddenly convinced that she would never, in all her life, succumb to greed or bloodlust because of the dark magic in her body.
But if he added a second, he very much risked losing the powerful woman she was becoming.
He sighed in defeat, following her and discarding the thought as quickly as it had come. Without the second Rhazdon Artifact, she would die regardless. No, they had a mission, and they would keep to the plan.
To the end, as the girls would say. Despite his weariness, the weathered old wizard smiled.
Chapter 16
Victoria sat across an elegant table from the queen, with a glimmering golden forcefield between them. Three dozen guards stood around the royal woman, more likely as a show of force than out of concern for her safety, considering the powerful ward that sliced the table in half.
With Styx newly freed from his metal prison and now gorging on the grapes covering her plate, Victoria waited for the queen to speak and used the time to examine their surroundings. The golden forcefield certainly looked imposing, but she wondered what it actually did.
To test it, she tossed one of the grapes on her plate at the forcefield, and it dissolved in a puff of smoke.
Victoria quirked an eyebrow. “Overkill much?”
The queen tilted her head slightly at the phrase as if she wasn’t familiar with what it meant, but shrugged. “I do what is necessary to protect my people and myself. Prove me wrong and I will remove it.”
Oh, I’m going to prove you wrong. Just wait. Victoria reveled in the thought of making this woman eat her words about Rhazdon hosts being evil.
Well, Victoria wasn’t evil, at least. Luak was a total dick.
“What do you know of the sphinx?” the queen asked, eyes locked on Victoria.
Victoria waited for Fyrn to interject like he always did, but he didn’t. He eyed her, apparently waiting for her to answer this one.
“Not much,” she admitted. “Just what I know from legends. They’re creatures with the face of a human, body of a lion, and wings of a bird. They’re vicious and cruel, but you can win against them by answering a riddle.”
“Not that we were offered one,” Diesel said bitterly. “I’m quite clever and could have answered it easily.”
Victoria nudged him in an effort to make him be serious, but he smiled charmingly instead. God, she wished he didn’t enjoy messing with her so much.
The queen’s eyes widened, and she momentarily dropped her stately decorum. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned forward in her seat with sheer excitement. “You met it?”
Victoria nodded. “It’s ugly as sin.”
The queen inhaled as though she were a sixteen-year-old who had just gotten the keys to a convertible. “You met it, and you lived? How is this possible? What did it do to you? Did you go into the cavern? If so, how in the heavens did you escape?”
Victoria suppressed the smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. It seemed the queen had more to her personality than cold commands and a regal presence. For the briefest of moments, they had seen the real woman beneath the royal mask.
A few of the soldiers behind her raised their eyebrows, apparently surprised at the outburst. Seeming to sense their confusion, the queen retreated to a proper position in her seat.
It was clear that Victoria had the upper hand. She and her friends had done something amazing in the queen’s eyes, and that meant Victoria had bargaining power.
“What’s your name?” Victoria asked plainly.
Fyrn nearly spit out the water he was drinking, and Victoria reveled a bit in his discomfort. Her eyes never left the queen’s, who smiled mischievously at Victoria’s brazen question. “You haven’t met many monarchs, have you, child?”
Victoria shook her head. “Just one.”
She had wanted to add that he was an asshole and that she hoped this wouldn’t be an emerging pattern with the monarchs she met, but she held her tongue. Victoria didn’t want to push her luck.
“I am Queen Angelique, but you may call me ‘Your Majesty.’”
Ah. Point taken. Victoria nodded, conceding for the moment to keep the conversation amicable. She had no intention of calling her “Your Majesty” long-term.
A nervous prickle raced down Victoria’s spine, and she subtly tilted her head until she could find Audrey in her peripheral vision. Audrey remained at the edge of the conversation, quiet and looking a little faint from holding her shift so long. Her face had gone pale, and she leaned slightly to the left.
Victoria willed her friend to hold on a bit longer. She would get all four of them—five including Styx—out of here as fast as possible.
Fyrn set his goblet on the table and leaned toward the queen. “Your Majesty, please tell us how you were trapped here. It will help us in our,” he shot an annoyed glare toward Victoria, “quest to help you.”
The regal woman sighed wistfully. “I’ve lived two hundred years, and yet I’ve never known life outside the city. We are trapped here by that…that thing, and I want it dead. If you kill it, you will be rewarded handsomely. You will be heroes to us, treasured champions who will be remembered for all time. You will never want for wealth or status again in your lives.”
Victoria tried not to roll her eyes. Thanks to her parents’ inheritance she didn’t need the money, nor did any of her friends. When she had told the queen they were there to help, she had made a desperate statement to save their hides. Truth be told, she wasn’t indebted to these people. They had threatened those she loved most in this world. Invaded their minds and treated them like criminals.
Though Victoria always strove to protect those who needed it and deliver justice where no one else could, she did not like the Queen of Lochrose one bit.
She wasn’t proud to admit it, but part of her wanted to lie or do anything else it took to get the hell out of there without lifting a finger to kill the sphinx.
However, a stronger part of her told her she had to do what was right
.
Even if Victoria didn’t like that they had treated her like a criminal, she could understand their point of view. These people had been trapped here for centuries, maybe even millennia, with a deadly monster. Of course they were a little hostile.
She sighed, hating her conscience just a bit in that moment. She already had Fairhaven to save and protect. She didn’t need another city under her care.
“Every time my people try to leave,” the queen said, “the monster chases them down. Our tracking charms show that they always end up in that cursed cavern, and only one has ever come back alive.”
“May we speak to this survivor?” Victoria asked, one finger tapping on her temple as her mind raced.
The queen eyed Victoria. “I’m afraid he will be too terrified to speak to a Rhazdon host, even through this ward.”
Victoria rolled her eyes.
The queen sighed. “Since the monster took over the Lochrose tunnels, more monsters have crept in. No tunnel is safe. We have lost control of our home and are forced to live here, in the heart of the realm. In her heyday Lochrose was composed of miles and miles of tunnels, and many smaller cities. We were truly a force to be reckoned with. Why, we even had smaller kemanas on the outskirts of the city, with crystals of their own.” She gestured upward, no doubt in reference to the magnificent gems embedded in the cavern ceiling far above them.
“But how did this sphinx get in?” Diesel asked.
A sour look passed Queen Angelique’s face, and she glared at Victoria. “My ancestors trusted a traitor, a mistake I do not intend to repeat.”
Victoria settled into her chair, all but scowling at the queen’s unspoken accusation.
Queen Angelique tapped her slender fingers on her chair’s armrest. “We were at war with the Atlanteans.”
From behind Victoria, Audrey hiccupped. It must have been torture for her to hold the shift this long. Victoria would have to speed this up. To keep from giving her friend away or putting her on the spot, Victoria pretended to ignore the noise and prodded the monarch to continue so they could get this over with. “And?”
“And,” the queen said with a hint of indignation, “their entire military invaded. We were tricked. They used portals to infiltrate the farthest reaches of the kemana, and they attacked in droves from all directions. Worse, they carried with them dark magic powerful enough to attract a creature like the sphinx from between the worlds, and those petty bastards opened a portal big enough to let it in. They lost hundreds of soldiers to unstable portals, but they didn’t care if it meant destroying us.”
Victoria lifted one brow in doubt. She didn’t like Atlanteans as a whole, but she was familiar enough with their culture to know without a doubt that they honored each other like family unless one betrayed the many. They would never sacrifice themselves or each other over something petty. They had likely believed Lochrose was a threat and that their lives were worth sacrificing for the good of their fellows.
My, my, my, how history spins lies, she thought to herself.
The queen was lost in her story and didn’t seem to notice Victoria’s hesitation. “They tossed the dark magic into a cavern, which the monster then made its home. It has been warping our wards and spells ever since, trapping us here. None of us can leave so long as that thing remains.”
“What was the dark magic the Atlanteans brought with them?” Victoria asked.
The queen stiffened. “I hardly think that’s relevant.”
Oh, but I do. Victoria had a hunch that she knew what it was, and she glanced at Fyrn to confirm. He nodded once into his drink, almost too subtly to notice.
Diesel set his elbows on the table, hands under his chin as he leaned in with curiosity. “Why don’t you use portals to leave?
The queen pursed her lips in annoyance. “To protect ourselves from invaders, we crafted powerful charms to protect ourselves from any portals opening in our city. We can’t undo those charms unless we perform a certain ritual beneath every crystal dome in the kingdom, and many of those are in the burned and sacked cities the Atlanteans destroyed. In fact, I suspect many of those crystals are broken, leaking our magic and power into the human world above,” she added with a disgusted grimace.
Victoria almost smiled. She wondered if the famous vortexes of Sedona, where there was said to be powerful healing energy, were merely the result of the broken crystals of the vast Lochrose cities.
The queen leaned back in her chair, casting an unexpected glance at the floor. “I do so wish I could send teams to repair each of the crystals and retain our power, but alas…we are trapped.”
Victoria hesitated, wondering if the queen was playing the damsel in distress to get them to do her dirty work for her.
“You know what the dark magic is,” Victoria said bluntly.
Thankfully, Fyrn didn’t bother with a spit-take this time. He had likely prepared himself for this question, and it needed to be asked.
The queen glared at her. “Perhaps. Do you?”
Victoria nodded. “It’s a Rhazdon Artifact.”
“One you are no doubt here to find,” the queen snapped.
Victoria hesitated, wondering how she should play this. Finally, she opted for the truth. “Yes, I am. You need to be rid of a monster, and I need the treasure the monster protects. It seems we have a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
The queen tilted her chin upward. “A Rhazdon host seeking another Rhazdon Artifact. I was warned about people like you. What you crave is endless power, and you will hunt it to the ends of the Earth. It seems I was right about you after all. You’re a monster just like the sphinx.”
Victoria slammed her fist on the table and stood, knocking over her chair in the process. Both Fyrn and Diesel flinched, but the queen’s cold stare never faltered. Victoria did her best to maintain her composure, but she’d had enough. “You have some nerve, woman. You don’t know anything about me. You don’t know about the murderer trying to take over my home. You don’t know about the dozens, maybe hundreds he’s killed to take power. You don’t know about the mercenaries who are kidnapping and killing people in the streets. You don’t know about the fear my fellow citizens live in every fucking day while they wait for someone to save them. You don’t know how desperately I want to intervene, and yet I can’t. I’m not… I’m not…”
Victoria leaned her hands on the table, eyeing the porcelain dinner plates with their golden trim. She fought back a tear and managed to push down the ball in her throat. When she finally did finish her tirade, it was barely a whisper. “I’m not strong enough.”
For a moment, Victoria didn’t want to lift her head. She didn’t want to know what her friends thought of her outburst, much less the queen. But when she forced herself to look at the monarch, the regal woman’s expression had softened. She still sat with her ankles crossed and tucked beneath the chair, both arms draped over the armrests like a goddess in a temple. But her shoulders had relaxed, and she watched Victoria with slightly tilted eyebrows, as though she understood the sentiment all too well.
Maybe she did.
“Your payment will be the Rhazdon Artifact,” the queen said softly.
Victoria nodded. “It’s more than enough.”
“And we will help you,” the queen added. She snapped her finger at the soldiers surrounding her, though Victoria had almost forgotten they were there, and all three dozen stiffened to attention.
“That’s not necessary,” Victoria said with the barest glance toward the ever-paling Audrey. “All we need is information.”
Diesel watched Victoria warily, as if he didn’t quite agree, but he knew he had little choice in the matter.
“Of course,” the queen said. She waved her hand at the guards, and they marched in unison out of the throne room. The queen, however, didn’t stand, and Victoria had the feeling their conversation wasn’t yet done.
“Yes?” Victoria asked when the last guard had left.
The queen took a deep and steadying bre
ath. “Whatever you need, short of people, we will provide. You will not speak to my citizens, only to the soldiers. I do not trust you, Host, but I see that we need each other.”
Victoria nodded, assuming that was the end of it, but the regal woman stood. She was taller than Victoria by a few inches, and yet she stared down at her as though she were still on the balcony. “And, human girl, if you betray me once you have the Rhazdon Artifact, I will destroy my city if that’s what it takes to end your life.”
Victoria quirked one eyebrow, unfazed by the threat. “That’s not a very strategic survival method,” she said curtly.
With that she marched out of the room and into the street with her friends and the pixie close behind her.
Diesel leaned in, and Victoria tensed for bad news. Maybe the guards had circled back. Maybe this was a trap. Maybe—
“I’ve fallen in love with you all over again,” the obnoxious wizard said in her ear.
She groaned, but couldn’t suppress the smile that tugged at her lips. If he could be an idiot again, the danger had truly passed.
Thank-freaking-goodness.
Chapter 17
When they reached the tunnels and left the Lochrosian guards at the entrance to the city, Audrey all but collapsed with relief and exhaustion.
To be honest, she hadn’t listened to most of what Victoria and the queen had been talking about. The entire time, she had silently begged for it to be over. Holding a shift was hard enough, but to do so under the pressure of death and with no idea for how long… She had nearly passed out. Only her koi had kept her rooted and focused, and it had come at the expense of all other things, like talking, focusing, and sometimes breathing.
“Jesus, monologue much?” she snapped at Victoria once she had her breath back.
Victoria set her hands on her hips as Styx snuggled into her hair. “’Thank you for saving my life, Victoria. You’re the greatest, Victoria. You’re so pretty and I like your hair, Victoria.’”
“Thank you,” Audrey spat impatiently, struggling not to pass out. White and black dots threatened the corners of her vision with every gasping breath. She sucked in air, cleared her head, and calmed her selfish Atlantean blood long enough to say it genuinely. “Really, Victoria. Thank you. They would have killed me.”
