Ivan had packed light. One small backpack, and in his hand he held a map, which was clearly marked with locations to camp as well as their final destination.
Juliska had personally planned their safe passage through the valley of Eidolon. As they prepared to depart, the Banon was officially opening the Feast of the Blest Arcane. All eyes would be upon her, and not the two people sneaking into the forbidden valley.
Many thoughts raced through Meghan’s mind. Could she do her job correctly? Could she live through spending a couple days alone with Ivan Crane? How much hell would he put her through before she cracked? She even, for a slight second, thought, I’m only thirteen... well practically fourteen now, but why am I here? I am too young for a journey like this! She had to quell that doubt instantly.
Her thoughts also strayed to Colin. Would he be all right without her? He had never been completely on his own before. Guilt suddenly took over when Meghan realized she had not been in contact with him, other than short updates and letting him know she was busy for a few days during the task. She’d never kept a huge secret like this from him. But the details of the task were not her secret to share.
She had promised Uncle Eddy she would keep their mind connection open, always. Moreover, look at what had happened the last time she had not... Colin had nearly been killed. But her brother had his secrets now, too.
Still, she should be taking better care of him. He might be turning fourteen also, but he’d still barely grown any taller in the last year.
“Nona,” whispered Meghan.
Nona stood at attention, sensing a request from her mistress.
“I have a very huge favor to ask of you.”
Nona knew already what she wanted, and though she was not happy about it, she understood Meghan’s concern and agreed without argument.
Being able to stall their departure no longer, Meghan advised Ivan she was ready, and they took their first steps into the dusty red rock valley of Eidolon.
COLIN GRABBED HIS BAG at the last minute deciding to tag along a small amount of food and water, just in case. Jae paced anxiously in the Mochrie kitchen. The rest of the family was off attending the opening of the Feast.
Jae was late, which typically would not have been tolerated by his father. However, since the outburst a few weeks’ prior, Irving had been unusually quiet and easy going.
“Ready,” Colin announced, securing the bag over his shoulder.
Jae stopped pacing and stared. The look on his face was not one of confidence. Colin gulped, nearly canceling his excursion on the spot.
“Maybe... Maybe I should come with you,” said Jae. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to go alone.”
Colin, on one hand, would have loved to have company. On the other hand, with Jae’s strange behavior as of late, perhaps going alone would be best. Colin did not have to make the choice.
“No. The original plan is better. You should go alone. It’ll be easier for you to sneak through the valley.”
“Okay then,” said Colin. “I’d better go.”
Colin followed Jae out the door. As expected, it was deserted. All Svoda were celebrating the Feast, deep inside the canyon. The Viancourt had announced just the night before that the opening day festivities would take place inside, in order to maintain the nature of the festival as well as the safety of those in attendance.
Colin and Jae walked side by side to the edge of the valley and stopped. Jae nodded to Colin, who did not verbally reply, but rather grunted, attempting poorly to control the rocket of nerves taking off in his chest.
As Colin took his first step in the forbidden valley, a voice startled them from behind.
“And just where do you think you’re going?”
There was no need to guess. It was Darcy Scraggs.
Of all the people to have to follow me...
Darcy’s two bullies were paced a few feet behind her: the eloquent speaking Dulcy Hadrian, followed by a towering Daveena Troast. Colin swore the girl had grown a foot since he’d first seen her.
“I warned you I’d be watching,” Darcy sneered triumphantly.
“You are so in trouble,” chimed Dulcy. “Darcy knew her extra-century complexion would find you up to something.”
Both Colin and Jae burst out laughing.
Even Daveena could not hold back a thick snort.
“Thanks, Dulcy. That is just what I needed, a good laugh!” Colin exclaimed.
“Extra-century complexion... good one,” agreed Jae.
Darcy growled, ignoring her counterpart’s babbling.
Colin contained his laughter. Joke or no joke, this situation did not bode well.
“How did you ever graduate to intermediate level, Dulcy?” Jae questioned.
Again, without thinking, dumb Dulcy made her admittance.
“There’s a little thing called cheating,” she revealed proudly.
“Cheating is impossible,” argued Jae.
Darcy threw her hand over Dulcy’s mouth, cupping it, before implicating herself any further.
“You found a way to cheat?” muttered Daveena’s hardening face.
The other two had clearly not shared this information with her. Colin hoped the distraction would be enough to sneak away. However, three steps in Darcy roared for him to stop. He did, fearing he had no other choice.
Darcy turned to Daveena and tossed her a forced smile. “We’ll fix this whole school thing later,” she promised, in an overly apologetic tone. Daveena scowled and folded her arms, not believing her.
“And as for you two,” Darcy turned to Colin and Jae. “I’ll be turning you in now.”
“How am I going to get out of this one?” asked Colin under his breath.
As if in tune with his thoughts, his book, Magicante began to shake. He dropped the bag as the top popped open and out spun a tornado of leaves, the same one that had helped him locate Meghan back in Cobbscott when she had first become ill. The leaves shimmered in the morning beams of sunlight, expanding in size as it furiously twisted toward the now distracted trio.
Daveena dove into a small crevice, avoiding the blow.
“Stop!” demanded Darcy, thinking this tornado would somehow stop its advance on her command. When it did not, she sacrificed Dulcy to the whirling chaos and scurried away. The tornado lifted off the ground leaving the dimwitted girl scrambling in the dirt.
Satisfied that Dulcy was out of commission the tornado chased after Darcy and when it reached her, the leaves formed into a cone-shaped leg, which it proceeded to use as a foot, kicking her backside. She went sprawling onto the red dirt, yelling a non-stop stream of profanities as she fell face first onto the ground.
The tornado caught the tongue-tied Dulcy trying to slip away and pushed her onto the ground next to her swearing counterpart. Both frantically crawled away, but not before Darcy got in one last hideous glare.
Colin did not care. She was a nuisance that he did not have time to deal with.
Daveena snorted in laughter as she watched her counterparts flee in humiliating defeat.
The leaf tornado returned to the book, which promptly slammed shut, leaving behind a trail of swirling, dusty air.
Daveena slid from her hiding place, eyeing Colin. Would he have to fight her now? He felt certain she was much too large for him to win. She stepped closer, her face showing signs of uncertainty. To both Colin’s and Jae’s bewilderment, her mouth twisted with the slightest hint of a smile, and she turned and sauntered away.
“Okay, was not expecting that!” Jae mustered out.
“Which part?” Colin said hotly. “That they were spying? That Daveena didn’t pound on us? Or that Magicante once again saved the day?”
“All of the above, actually,” answered Jae.
“Our lucky day I guess,” said Colin, more calmly. “I’m sure peace won’t last on the Daveena front. Darcy is sure to win her back, somehow.”
“Very true,” replied Jae. “And on that note, you’d better get goi
ng, Colin.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed.
He looked at the great expanse before him.
“Wish me luck,” he mumbled, taking his first steps into the valley of Eidolon.
A DUST COVERED, OBLONG shaped mirror balanced aside eight others, forming a circle inside a darkened room. A weathered and gaunt face materialized into one of them, followed by another and then another, until all but one held similar ghostly silhouettes.
The Grosvenor.
Each eyed the other suspiciously, wondering why this meeting had been called.
It had been years since they’d heard the summons to gather.
Not that they made personal appearances. The mirrors allowed them to see and speak to each other, but from a safe, secret distance.
“Why have you summoned us Freyne Rothrock?” a penetrating female voice demanded.
“Patience, Narona,” replied an ashen faced man, from a nearby mirror. His voice lowered sardonically. “I have learned a terrible truth about our fearless leader, Fazendiin.”
“He’s not our leader,” another spoke firmly. “Simply the original of us.”
“And if you think he sees you as his equal,” started Freyne, but he was cut off.
“Oh get on with it. What is it you have discovered?” another spat out impatiently. “It won’t be long before Fazendiin is aware of the summons, too.”
“Very well. I summoned you here today because we have all been betrayed.”
“This is not news, Freyne,” replied a bored voice. “Rather dramatic aren’t we today? We already know about the Projector. If this is all you called us here for...” the voice trailed off snidely, and the man’s face began to dissolve from the mirror.
“This has nothing to do with the Projector,” declared Freyne. “Fazendiin has broken the oath! He has fathered a child.”
Horrified chokes emanated from the mirrors, turning into malicious snarls as the gaunt faces sounded their fury over this revelation. The mirror of Narona Fentress cracked under the pressure of her enraged scowl.
“We all swore to it!” she bellowed.
“How dare he?” another voice barked in displeasure.
“How do you know this?” the man with the bored voice asked. His face reappeared, feigning interest.
“How is not relevant!” Freyne retorted. “A Projector is nothing compared to this treachery! Power will no longer be equal amongst us if this Grosvenor’s offspring is allowed to live!” his grating voice echoed.
“Our offspring would be immortal, they cannot be killed,” Narona reminded. “Which is why we each took the oath. How did he break it?”
“He is coming,” a voice warned before Freyne could answer.
The displeased grunts quieted as the ninth mirror fogged over and a face materialized in the glass. Jurekai Fazendiin: the firstborn of the immortal Grosvenor.
“I thought I felt a summons, though weakly,” he said, peering at the others suspiciously. His gaze stopped on the mirror belonging to Freyne Rothrock.
“Yes. We need to make a decision about the Projector,” Freyne replied haughtily. “Something needs to be done.”
The others agreed ardently.
“The Projector is of no concern,” said Fazendiin with amused insistence. “As we speak, the Projector is being tracked by others in the magical community. There is no need for us to come out of hiding, when others can do the job for us.”
No one objected.
“Once the Projector is dead,” continued Fazendiin, “we simply need to collect the last remaining copy of Magicante. With this book safely in our hands, there will be nothing left that can stop us, no one equal in our power.”
The eight listeners roared in agreement, at the same time eyeing each other in distrust. If what Freyne told them was true, the meager trust they had kept in each other all these long years was now at an end.
“Soon, my friends,” Fazendiin added, “we will control all magic, and will no longer hide but rule side by side, as equals.” Fazendiin stared directly into the eyes of Freyne Rothrock as he spoke as if daring him to counter his claim. He did not. Only glared through beady eyes.
Fazendiin’s face dissolved into mist, leaving behind an empty mirror.
The remaining Grosvenor followed, each mirror returning to its empty state.
Freyne Rothrock’s face was the last to dissolve. He let out a dark chortle.
“At last we come to it. A new war. The final war, with only one winner.”
And if Fazendiin wasn’t going to play fair, neither would he.
COLIN JACOBY CAME TO an abrupt stop.
He hoped he was out of sight from any wandering eyes of Svoda that might happen to be peering into the valley.
He needed to figure out where he was, so he dug into his backpack and took out Corny’s map, and even though it was clearly a map of the E Valley, Colin could not figure out where he was. He turned it this way and that, trying to find something that made sense.
“Hey,” he shouted, caught off guard.
Something yanked the map from his hands and he watched it soar up over his head. He grabbed for it, but it was just out of reach.
“I haven’t even gotten started yet!” he yelled in frustration.
A face he did not expect to see again peered over the map’s edge.
“You!” Colin exclaimed. “So you did follow us from Grimble.”
It was the bird-human, flapping its wings and holding the map in its beak. They hadn’t seen it after it saved Meghan by transforming from a bird to a human, shooting off a spell and changing back to a bird again, when she was fighting to get Colin’s book back after he was attacked and left in a coma. Without the bird’s help, Meghan would not have gotten the book back and might not have made it out alive. And without the book, Ivan Crane would be dead, not alive. Something he didn’t know as the twins had not told him he had been killed during the battle and brought back to life with the help of the Magicante.
Colin let out a sigh of relief.
“Can I have the map back, please?” he requested nicely.
The bird chirped and lowered the map in front of Colin’s face so that light could filter through it. His breath cut short. The map changed before his eyes and he stared, enthralled. He’d been reading it all wrong. It didn’t work like a normal map.
A silvery glow illuminated his current path.
The bird-human flew backwards, encouraging Colin forward.
With each step, the map changed ever so slightly, as if it was tracking his movements. Colin stopped when a rock formation blocked him from going any further. On the map, the illuminated path ended and words appeared that stated, turn right.
Colin obliged, along with the bird-human. The path illuminated again, showing Colin he was heading in the right direction, but also indicated a warning: do not touch any plants found along this particular path. Doing so would cost you greatly!
“Wow,” said Colin. “I think I get it now. This is a wicked cool map.” Somehow, he needed to find a way to thank Corny. But how did you thank a man whose mind was so messed up he preferred to live in a closet?
The bird dropped the map back into Colin’s hands. He studied it for a moment longer, realizing that his current path went on for some distance, so he tucked the map securely inside his shirt.
“Thanks,” Colin told the bird-human. “We’re going to have to figure out some way to repay you.” Another group of favors he had no idea how to repay.
The bird perched on a nearby rock, nodding its beak and squawking in reply.
Colin followed the path and was delighted when the bird-human followed him. Perhaps he would not be alone during this quest after all. When his current path suddenly veered off into two directions, he consulted the map again. He held it in front of him and the light filtered through, illuminating which way to go. He continued in this manner until late afternoon, when upon looking at the map again, a warning message appeared.
“You must get t
o a safe spot before dark!”
Colin’s heart sped up. The closest safe spot appeared like an inky splotch on the map. It was not far, but he would need to hurry to make it in time. The bird-human chirped aggressively, encouraging Colin to move faster.
Finding his way through the goblin-like formations would have been impossible without the aid of Corny’s map. He took one last look through the failing daylight. His safe spot was close. He lowered the map and with his actual eyes, saw the entrance to a cave. He took off running as fast as he could with the sunlight fading behind his heels.
Colin leapt into the cave alongside the low flying bird-human, just as the final rays of light disappeared fully. After catching his breath, he dared himself to peek into the darkening outside. Why was it so important to be inside this safe spot?
A mixture of bizarre and eerie noises resonated outside the cave. As it leaked inside and bounced off the smoothed cave walls, it gave the impression that a sinister presence was in the cave, with them. Colin’s heart pounded as he listened to the grinding, groaning and crashing of rocks that rippled its way inside the cave.
What could possibly make such an unnerving sound?
Colin crept closer to the exit of the cave for a better look. He was sure to stay hidden in the shadows. He reached the edge and forgot how to breathe. He stared in awe, his jaw hung open and limp. No words would form. The bird-human chirped from somewhere close by but Colin could not take his eyes off the valley.
A monstrous silhouette slithered by, leaving a foreboding shadow in its path. This was followed by a thunderous crash of rock against rock a few seconds later.
Colin’s eyes fluttered, his heart stuttering and skipping a few beats as his eyes rolled up in his head and his body fell limp to the ground.
MEGHAN DRAGGED BEHIND the fast-paced Ivan. Not on purpose. She tried her hardest to keep up, but her pack weighed her down. For the first few hours, they did not speak other than basic small talk directly related to the task. However, Meghan could feel Ivan’s brazen satisfaction whenever she stumbled.
Fated Fantasy Adventure Page 53
