by J. L. Weil
And so did I.
Before the descendants divulged their plans of action, revealing too much to the witch, I crept closer to the edge of the water again, my nose nearly touching the water, but this time I let gravity take me and tumbled into the pool. This place was magic, and I was counting on it being strong enough to keep the witch from plucking me out before I was able to summon the women in white—or one of them at least.
The low tide of the water rushed over me, and I was sucked into its depths. Biting down on my lip, I stopped myself from nearly yelping at the freezing shock of the temperature.
Help me! I called out into the water, not wasting a moment of this chance. Come on. Come on.
I had only seconds, a minute at the max until Tianna found a way to fish me out of here. I didn’t know who or what heard my pleas, but the water suddenly rose up around me in a wrath of powerful waves that surged into a swirling typhoon. My body was swept up in the current, jerked from right to left in endless circles. Soon, I’d lost all focus, the world around me becoming nothing but a blur of turquoise sea.
Had this been a mistake, one that was going to cost me my life? I didn’t know what to do. My lungs burned for air. My head pounded with pressure. I was dead. Surely, I would drown. There was no way out of the watery tomb encasing me. I had to take a breath. I needed air. I—
A jolt went through me and when I thought I could no longer stand it, when I was on the verge of passing out, the waves roaring around me stilled. The fire in my lungs eased, filling with fresh air, and the compression in my head released like a balloon. Following the sudden calm, the scent of autumn fires, wet leaves, and cinnamon wafted over me as I floated in the depths of the pool—with little effort on my part. I wasn’t sure I was even still in the Pool of Mirrors. For all I knew, I could have been whisked to some other body of water, or some other land.
“Hello?” I called in my head, afraid to open my mouth.
The water in front of me swirled in circles until those rings formed images of a face I’d rather never see again. Tianna. Except, she was different. Younger, and she wasn’t alone. A woman very similar in appearance stood beside her in a cream room that looked fit for a goddess. Decorative gold columns lined all corners of the space.
I watched with earnest curiosity as the young woman in her sheer pale blue dress crossed her arms, eyeing Tianna with worry. “Tianna, are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked. It was obvious in the way the woman fidgeted with the rings on her hand she was unsettled.
Tianna strode across the white marble floor, the golden train of her thin dress trailing behind her. The fabric swished over the room as she put an arm around the young woman’s shoulder. “Corvina, it is the only way for magic to take its rightful place in the world. Why should we continue to hide who we are, what we’re capable of? I’m tired of being shut off from other realms. There was a time when magic was worshiped. Humans bowed at our feet.”
“But to double-cross the dragon kings, is that wise?” Corvina refuted.
Holy crap. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This was a conversation from before Tianna cast the curse on the descendants, prior to her double-crossing the dragon kings, and before she went crazy.
Tianna gave Corvina a squeeze on the shoulder. “I can handle them. The curse will give us the stars and power to rule. We just need to be patient, sister.”
So Corvina was her sister. What happened to her? Where was she now? So many questions, but all I could do was watch and see what unfolded.
“The only way to set things back to the way they once were, is to find the dragon stars,” Tianna explained. “Then magic can once again be respected. We won’t have to bow to anyone. They will bow to us.” She grinned in that smug way of hers.
The vision was swept away with the tide, but brought someone else.
“Keeper of the stars, you seek my guidance.”
I spun in a half circle at the omnipotent voice that sounded from behind me. Long silver hair haloed around a slim, and pretty face. Although her skin had an alabaster sheen, I could tell she had spent many hours in another life basking under the sun. I wasn’t dumb enough to mistake the light in her grey eyes for anything other than wisdom beyond this world.
“You came.”
“Our spirits have lingered for nearly a hundred years for the sole purpose to aid the one—the key.”
Fabulous. “I need to get a message to the descendants.”
“That is beyond the scope of our abilities. What we can offer is pieces of information regarding the stars.”
“How am I going to get out of here?” The words had been mumbled in my head as a question to myself, but the woman in white heard them.
“Help can come in different forms, and when you least expect it.”
So not helpful. “Who are you? Why are you helping me?”
“We’re the wives of the kings, the murdered queens of the Veil, and the mothers of dragons.” Her voice joined with a collection of others as they spoke the words in unison.
In some part of my mind, I had known the women appearing to me had been the descendant’s mothers. Something in each of them had been familiar. “Which one is your son?” I asked.
Her cool grey eyes filled with a mixture of pride, sadness, and love only a mother could have for a child. “He is the dragon who breathes no more.”
Tobias, my mind hissed.
“Where do I find the Star of Fire?” I projected.
“The stones are like sisters. Like calls to the like.”
“What does that mean?”
The water around us suddenly became agitated, rippling and swirling.
“She comes,” Tobias’s mother murmured, her gaze looking straight through me before her eyes returned to focus on my face. She lifted her hand, and using a wave she sent a phantom caress along my cheek. “We’ll meet again, daughter.” The sound of her voice began to fade. “Be strong. Be brave. Don’t lose hope. Our sons will find you…”
Her body drifted toward the dark abyss below, the white material of her lacy dress engulfed by the shadows. She was leaving, her spirit pulled back into another part of the world where I couldn’t follow.
“Wait!” I called out, my arm stretching toward her. “Don’t leave me. Not—”
Fingers latched onto my honey-blonde hair and yanked, ripping me out of the water. I took a gasping breath of air, lips trembling as I let out a shriek of pain. My scalp was on fire, and strands of my hair twined around Tianna’s alabaster fingers.
“You bitch,” she hissed.
A string of curses was ready to roll off my tongue, but I coughed instead, spitting up water. My fingers flew to her hands, nails scoring over her flesh as I bucked and fought to be free of her clutches. Her deadly grasp only tightened, regardless of the skin and blood now under my nails. Caught in her own wrath, she was mindless of her soaked gown, or the blood dripping down her ivory hands.
“Was there a no swimming sign I missed?” Dumb. So dumb to taunt her in the midst of such animosity.
“A valiant effort, even if it was pointless. The pool doesn’t allow you to communicate with those in the visions. That little stunt will cost you,” she seethed with a low calm that unnerved me. What kind of creature was she that she could turn off her emotions with a flick of a switch? From boiling rage, to immoral eagerness as she regarded me now.
“I’m not the bitch. Try looking in the mirror,” I snapped, unable to help myself. She deserved much more than a few scratches and nasty words. I recalled the vision with her sister and considered asking what happened to Corvina, but held my tongue.
Her eyes so full of hate and twisted excitement remained zeroed on me. “I’m going to enjoy this. You can kiss your freedom goodbye.”
It would be a lie if I said her confirmation of my continued imprisonment didn’t get to me. It stabbed me in the heart. But never for a mere flickering heartbeat had I believed she might let me go.
I was a tool.
And
she wasn’t done with me yet.
Tianna dragged me by my hair, hauling me out of the cavern and into the tunnels. Dress plastered to my skin and body shivering, I scrambled to keep my footing to no avail. It was an effort to try and keep my own panic and fear hidden, but for the sake of the descendants, I attempted to be brave, to be strong. My wild emotions would distract them from finding me, muddling their focus.
My struggles to break free were futile. When we entered into another chamber, she released me with a jerk, discarding me like trash. I wanted to curl into a ball and disappear into myself, but the witch had other plans. A flick of her hand and shackles appeared at my wrists, chaining me to the ground. I whipped my head upward to Tianna towering over me. My gaze was drawn away from her face to the shiny thin dagger fitted into her hand.
She smiled, cocking her head to the side. “A vile of blood was the agreement, but I never specified how I would take it.”
The arms holding me up on the cold stone floor went weak. Deceived. I’d been a fool. “You tricked me.”
“Tricked,” Tianna mused, tapping the tip of the smooth blade against her nose. “How is it my fault you didn’t ask?” Her words were like punches, hitting me with enough force to knock the air out of my lungs.
I shook my head and scooted as far away as the chains would allow. Not far enough. “No,” I managed to get my mouth to say.
“A bargain is a bargain.”
My face went pale. I wasn’t getting out of this. No one was coming to rescue me.
The glint in her eyes was the most hideous thing I’d ever seen. A desire to cut them out shredded through me, but the only thing getting torn apart today was me.
The witch crouched down so we were at eye level and twirled the blade once in her fingers before pressing it against my cheek. Her brows rose as she met my wide, fear-stricken eyes. “Shall we begin?”
Counting on her malice, I braced myself against the pain I knew was coming, and prayed I was strong enough to withstand the torment she had planned. She didn’t disappoint.
With slow movements, meant to prolong my torment, she pierced the flesh on my face, running the blade sideways from cheekbone to chin. A hiss escaped between my gritted teeth, fingers curling at the first sting. Every muscle, every bone down to the core of my soul begged me to run, but I couldn’t. There was nowhere to go, no way to escape.
Again, she touched the end of the blade to my skin, a new spot this time—the top of my shoulder. I stared at the length of the weapon as it sunk through flesh. Something about the dagger held my gaze. Something about it was different. Not that I had much experience with being diced up like a piece of meat, but I knew—I felt the tang of magic transfer from metal to blood.
It was cursed.
A cry escaped my lips, and I slammed my eyes shut against the agony. When I opened them I gasped at the weapon causing me such torment. Part of the gleaming silver blade filled a quarter of the way with crimson fluid, and I instantly understood its magic. It was my blood the dagger collected, siphoning it from my veins.
Tianna’s eyes glowed white, her pretty features contorting for a split second into someone much older. I blinked and the image was gone. Her lips curled—holding the same color that now filled her dagger. “Oh, don’t look so miserable, Olivia. The fun is only beginning.”
I blanched.
With each cut I felt my skin open up, felt the blazing pain, the flow of blood leave my veins. My arms slackened at my side. Dose after dose, biting pain after pain, she continued to make small cuts over my body. Arms. Legs. Back. Stomach. I was a human dummy for her to practice her voodoo.
Ear-splitting screams left me over and over again, my voice going hoarse and throbbing. The more I cried, the harder Tianna laughed, until I clamped down on my lip to keep from voicing my pain. Metallic warmth filled the inside of my mouth as another slash crossed my back. I had pierced my lip. It did very little to centralize the agony.
My entire body was now flaming, burning hotter than the center of the sun. I would have sworn she was peeling back my flesh. Silent tears streamed down my face and neck, intermixing with the channels of blood flowing over my body.
I went somewhere far, far away. A place she couldn’t hurt me. A place free of pain. A place of love where I was surrounded by my dragons.
Time ceased.
I don’t know how long she tortured me, or how much blood she’d stolen from my body. I had a faint recognition of her locking me back into my box of darkness, her voice a mocking whisper rippling in my ear.
Then there was nothing. No pain. No sorrow. No chains.
“Olivia,” a voice summoned me from within the darkness and despair. I groaned, not ready to wake and deal with the aftermath of what Tianna had done to me. At least unconscious, the pain, the horror, and the fear didn’t breathe with life, but the moment I opened my eyes, it would hit me again.
Whether I wanted to come or not, the world came back into focus. Inky darkness still surrounded me, but differently, and I remembered…the box of darkness. I inhaled and immediately regretted the simple act of breathing.
I was lying on the cold floor of my cell—now stained a russet red by my blood. Remaining motionless, I took stock of my injuries, and gently tested the movement of my arms. I wasn’t dead, which spoke volumes. Although I had many cuts on my body, none was life-threatening and all had clotted. Groaning, I braced my palms on the floor and used what strength I had left to push myself into sitting position.
The room spun…
“Good, you’re awake.”
I jumped at the deep male voice. There, under the cover of shadows in the corner stood a three-foot man. A goblin.
Chapter Five
Alarm tornadoed inside me. Forgetting about the cuts and bruises covering me from head to toe, I clambered to the other end of the cage. “W-what do you want?” I stammered, hating the fear that overcame me.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he insisted, holding up both palms in a gesture of goodwill. His green skin wasn’t as pasty as the other two who had escorted me to Crimson, and something about his speech was clearer, less otherworldly and more human.
Lies! He lies. Tianna sent him, my mind screamed. “I don’t believe you.”
“It is wise of you to mistrust after what you’ve been through, but I don’t have time to explain. If you want to get out of here, you need to come with me. Now.” A sense of urgency spiked his features.
“Did someone send you?” I asked, wariness tugging my lips into a thin line.
“Quick. We must be quick,” he asserted again.
I shoved to my feet and winced, feeling like I’d aged a thousand years. “How can I trust you?”
Alight with understanding his yellow eyes watched me, and he carefully took a step toward me. “Not all creatures are loyal to the witch. Some of us know the world she promises is nothing but lies, smoke, and magic. Some of us remember the old.”
He was offering me a chance to escape this place. And if it was a trap? I shuddered. My punishment would no doubt be far worse than what I had suffered last night. But could I pass up what might be my only chance at escaping… Time-pressed down on me, on us both. I could see the earnestness on his face, and the risk he took in coming here. If I didn’t take his hand now, he would leave and take his offer of help with him.
Be brave. Be daring.
Fear wouldn’t rule me.
So I placed my hand in his.
The familiar, cool darkness cocooned me. Weightlessness. Dizziness. Speed. The goblin willowphased, spiriting us out of the box of shadows to—
That was the question. Where was the goblin taking me? Was he friend or foe? It was too late to ask, unfortunately.
The next second, I was falling through the night until my feet landed on solid ground. I was free. I was a hot mess, but I was free. Chunks of disheveled hair were plastered to my face. My clothes and body covered in grime and dried blood, and to top it all off, I barely had the strength to stand
up on my own two feet—my knees wobbled from the weight.
Eagerly, I gulped down steadying gaps of air, savoring the way they glided in and out of my lungs. Freedom, I could all but taste it.
“We’re not out of the clear yet,” the goblin announced, seeing the pure hopefulness slide over my features.
The sound of his gruff voice was a slap of cold water, reminding me I wasn’t alone, and far from danger. Yet, I was out of the mountain. That had to count for something. “Why are you helping me?”
“Come,” he ordered, not bothering to answer my inquiry. “We’ve no time to waste with questions. The wanderer waits to escort you across the Nameless Lands.” His stubby legs moved quite quickly for his statue.
I was forced to jog to catch up. “Who is the wanderer?” I asked, figuring the Nameless Lands were this barren place of endless sand, formidable mountains, and dead brush that tumbled with the evening winds.
The goblin shrugged his shoulders, keeping a brisk pace and his eyes sharp. “Don’t know, but he paid a hefty fee for your release.”
Coin. It was true then, the myths of goblins and their treasure. My mouth turned down at the realization. How much had this wanderer paid? It had to have been a fortune for the goblin to risk so much to get me out of the witch’s lair.
The night’s sky was vast, sprinkled with starlight, and I let my eyes soak up the wonder. How long did we have before Tianna realized I was missing? Seconds? Minutes? I didn’t think we would be lucky enough to have any more time than that. My eyes cut back to the goblin. “Thank you for helping me. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“I’ve been compensated. You don’t need to repay me,” he mumbled, climbing over a dead fallen tree trunk.
I followed him with great effort, my body and limbs aching fiercely from the cuts. “What is your name?” I asked. It would be a name I’d never forget.
“My name isn’t important.”
Okay. Maybe it was better we didn’t talk. I stumbled over my own feet countless times, but I never complained. I only hoped wherever we were going wasn’t much farther. My energy was quickly waning.
