Van shivered. The master demon and Solana have similar agendas. The master demon gets the Coin, so it can destroy an item of Light, one that can kill demons. Solana gets rid of an ancient relic that would have continued Manik’s law, preventing her takeover of Salus Valde.
Solana calmly faced Van. “But I will make you an offer. Give me the Coin, and I will protect the terrigens and let you go.”
Ever since Van’s required field trips off island, she had disliked the mainlanders—the terrigens—even before she knew they generated demons. The people of the Earth World would probably never comprehend the Law of Abundance, so Van could relate to her father’s point of view. Still, she couldn’t condone the mass murder of terrigens.
“If we don’t pay our debt, the demon will consume our souls,” Solana said. “Your father and I will suffer a fate worse than death.”
“Van! You’re not actually . . . ,” Brux said in an incredulous tone.
Van considered Brux naive to believe they could defeat an entire squadron of Royal Balish Soldiers, and Paley lay near death. Making a deal was the best option. Amaryl had made a deal to bring peace to the lands by allowing her sister to marry Manik. Now, as the Anchoress, Van had a duty to act in her people’s best interests and to save her father’s soul. Maybe Solana was right, the Coin should be destroyed. After listening to Amaryl’s story, Van surmised that the Coin had too much power for mortals to use responsibly. If they lived in harmony, no one would ever need to use the Coin anyway.
“I will give you the Coin,” Van said, “but you have to destroy it in front of us.”
“Van!” Brux shouted. “Are you crazy? Solana is lying!”
“And I want to talk to my father,” Van said. She needed to know that her father would be a just and fair ruler. “I want him to tell me that the terrigens will be safe, and no harm will come to the people of Salus Valde under his rule.”
“Van—”
Solana’s vicious laugh cut him off.
It set off Van’s internal alarm. “My father’s not here, is he?” Van accused. “What have you done with him?”
“You’ll see your father soon enough.” Solana waved her hand imperiously. “I didn’t want it to come to this.”
One of her soldiers hustled forward and placed a small metal cage at Solana’s feet.
“Well, maybe I did,” Solana drawled.
Van heard a weak chirrup come from the cage. A surge of terror coursed through her, and she felt as if all of the blood had drained from her body. “No.” She jerked her head back and forth in denial.
“I could have you searched,” Solana said, grinning. “But I can’t take the Coin from you. You must give it to me willingly. My ancestor Manik hid the Coin so well that for you to have retrieved it, you had to be aligned to the good part within your Self. It means the Coin is connected to the power of the Light. Its vibration is too high for someone who conspires with demons. You must surrender the Coin to me, and by doing so, you will surrender your Light. This will neutralize the Coin’s vibration, so I can touch it. Then I will hand over the Coin to the master demon.”
Brux opened his mouth to say something. Solana raised her palm to stop him.
“No tricks.” Solana said. “The master demon knows it will explode and die upon touching the Coin if it is not neutralized first.”
Wiglaf mewled, as one of the soldiers pulled him from the cage.
Van could see her little bunfy trembling. She had never felt so helpless in her life. Her eyes widened as Solana pulled a long thin blade from her sleek knee-high boot.
Van shook violently, unable to breathe. “N-No.”
“Our little chat has been lovely,” Solana said ironically. “However, we must move on. This is your last chance to disconnect from your Light and give me the Coin.”
Van recalled Manik’s text telling her not to surrender her Light, and she didn’t care.
She had almost decided to give Solana the Coin, when Solana said, “Too late.”
Her blade oozed red with Wiglaf’s blood.
The high-pitched screams of the bunfy being skinned alive sounded like those of a tortured human, a child. It was the sound of evil tearing through innocence. For Van, nothing would ever be right in the world again. She dropped to her knees, gagging.
Brux’s hand quivered, as he grasped Van by the elbow. He gently pulled her to her feet and whispered in a strained voice, “Lilla will seek revenge over the needless death of one of her magical animals. Solana will pay for this.”
A flash of red and white flew through the air, as Solana tossed the bunfy skin at Van’s feet. Bile rose in the back of Van’s throat.
Solana strolled to where Paley lay unconscious. “Now . . . hand over the Coin.” She held the point of her bloody blade to Paley’s jugular. “Or watch your friend die.”
After seeing Solana kill Wiglaf, Van had no doubt she would also kill Paley. “Stop!”
Van reached into her pocket. She had no time to fumble around, trying to determine the real Coin by touch, so she pulled out its contents. Two coins. One was shiny gold. The other was a dull, aged b-stip. Van turned her palm and held out the two coins for Solana to choose.
Solana slid her lethal blade into her boot, blood and all, and meandered over to Van, her chin in the air. “People always bend to my will.” Without hesitation, Solana snatched the gold coin. She squinted, holding the coin between the thumb and forefinger of her gloved hand, and raised it in the waning evening light for a better look.
Van held her breath.
Solana broke into a slow, satisfied grin. “Thanks for retrieving it for me.” She tucked the coin into the hip pocket of her obscenely tight black pants. The spark of excitement in her golden eyes clouded. “Kill them!” she said so strongly that spit flew from her mouth.
Van, still in shock over losing Wiglaf, barely noticed as two soldiers grabbed her. They started shaking her. Shaking and shaking. What was that earsplitting noise?
“Landslide!” yelled one of the soldiers.
Van cringed, trying to protect her head, as stones and dust came tumbling down.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Day 24: Late night, Living World
The soldiers scattered.
A mass of boulders, rocks, and granite roared downward, as if the mountain had imploded.
Van grasped through the falling dust, reaching for Brux, and felt a wooden handle. She reflexively wrapped her fingers around it and pulled back, clutching Zachery.
From the corner of her eye, she then saw Brux make a dash for Paley. At the same time, a soft mass hurtled toward Van, knocking her backward into the cave.
Van thumped to the ground, winded. She smelled jasmine. Her throat tightened.
Solana straddled Van and had wrapped her hands around Van’s neck. “It seems your luck’s run out,” Solana drawled.
Van attempted to pull Solana off her by yanking Solana’s hair.
The ground underneath them shuddered and then gave way.
She and Solana crashed to the bottom of a cavern, splitting apart.
A sharp pain ran through Van’s chest. It hurt to breathe, probably from more fractured ribs. She rolled onto her feet, saw Zachery several yards away, and snatched it, ready to face Solana.
The two circled each other, crouched in defensive stances.
Solana tried to hide a limp. “You want the Coin back?” Solana snarled, her pretty face now ugly to Van. “This isn’t Providence Island. Nothing will be handed to you here. You’ll have to earn it!”
“How do you know about Providence Island?” Van asked, straining to hold Zachery in one hand. She had never used the labrys in a fight before, and it was much heavier than it looked.
“Your father told me, idiot,” Solana replied, as she lunged for Van.
Van jumped out of Solana’s reach, carefully dodging the sinkholes around them.
“You make me sick,” Solana taunted. “Your bloodline gives you the power to rule your people, and you ar
e too stupid to use it. You’re a princess. Royalty. You have a right to your throne, just like I do.”
Van snarled. “You don’t know me.” Her ribs howled in pain, as she swung Zachery in wide arc at Solana.
Solana easily dodged the swipe and said, “You barely know you.” She swung her fist at Van, catching her on the chin.
Van spit blood. “I know I’m the Anchoress.” Van twirled Zachery and nicked Solana’s injured leg with its blade.
Solana cried out in pain and thudded to the ground. “That was handed to you by your mother,” she said, catching her breath. “It’s just another thing you didn’t earn.”
Solana attempted to stand, and Van kicked her back down. They teetered dangerously close to the edge of an enormous sinkhole in the cavern’s floor.
Van straddled Solana and held the labrys’s handle across Solana’s throat.
“Lodians and their democracy,” Solana said, straining. “The Lodian Consilium is trying to hold you back, making you hide your power because they fear it.”
“Let’s see how you like it,” Van growled, ignoring Solana’s taunt, as she pushed the handle deeper into Solana’s throat. “Tell me where my father is! Why won’t he see me?”
“Your father hates you. Hates all Lodians.” Solana’s lip curled. “He blames you for killing your mother. If you hadn’t been born, Aelia would’ve survived. That’s what he always said.”
“What do you mean said?” Van asked, gripping the handle tighter.
“Oops. Picked up on the past tense, did we?” Solana’s words came out in a croak, yet she kept grinning. “Your father’s dead.”
Van’s body went numb, loosening her grip. Brux had been right all along. No wonder she hadn’t seen her father on their journey.
Solana took advantage of Van’s stunned reaction. She wasn’t as injured as she had pretended and easily flipped Van over the side of the sinkhole.
Van instinctively swung Zachery, digging its blade into the side of the cliff.
She continued to slide rapidly downward, dangling from Zachery. She jerked as the blade caught on an outcropped rock. She managed to maneuver herself onto a nearby ledge.
“The master demon appeared to your father in the Earth World, letting him know it was time to enact our plan by stealing Manik’s text,” Solana yelled over the side of sinkhole. “He went through with it because you are so incompetent. Useless. Weak. Nobody wants you. Just give up. Jump.” The wily sorceress stomped her foot, causing the sinkhole to shake.
Van wobbled and clutched the wall. Once steady, she checked to make sure she still had the Coin, but her pocket was empty. Did she lose it during her fall into the cavern? She tried to intuitively feel the location of the Coin but couldn’t. Apparently, her locator instinct had turned off after she had retrieved it.
“The mighty and powerful Anchoress. Surrendered your Light when you gave me the Coin.” Solana’s voice carried down to Van. “Not so powerful now, are you?” Solana dropped an item over the side.
It whizzed past Van. It was Manik’s text.
“You’re next,” Solana said, stomping her foot again.
The ledge beneath Van’s feet crumbled. She flattened herself against the wall.
“Your father thought he’d brokered a deal with demons on my behalf.” Solana cruelly chuckled. “The whole time I was already working with the master demon behind his back. Your father died for me the night he lured my brother into the woods. Now you will, too. There’s no escape. Fall!” She stomped her foot again.
Van felt stunned by this newest piece of information, as she gripped the wall to hold herself steady on the shaking ledge.
“He had to be killed during the attack,” Solana continued. “He knew too much from reading Manik’s text, and he was Uxa’s right-hand man. It made him too powerful.”
“You were paranoid he would betray you,” Van cried. “The same way that you betrayed him!”
“I never planned on sharing my rule, especially not Salus Valde!” Solana bellowed. “Michael knew how to fight demons, so he didn’t die right away. He became mortally wounded. Like a good boy, he lived long enough to carry out my plan of destroying the text—you know, the one that confirms Goustav has an heir. But he screwed up, putting the text directly into Lodian hands. My worst nightmare.”
Now, it made sense to Van why Solana had kept Manik’s text in Araquiel, despite needing Van to retrieve the Coin. The Balish princess had worked too hard to get it; she wasn’t about to give it away. Solana had confidence that Van would be able to retrieve the Coin using her intuition, along with Solana’s secret help.
“You said Goustav doesn’t have an heir!” Van hollered.
“My, you are dimwitted,” Solana drawled. She stomped her foot again, harder this time.
The ledge trembled and dislodged an arrowhead at Van’s feet that pointed to a small accumulation of dirt, as if Trey had given her a hint from the beyond. Curious, Van bent down, brushed away the pile, and found . . . the Coin!
It had powerful magical abilities, and Van had magical warrior blood, but she no idea how to access either to create magic. Maybe it would’ve helped if she had paid more attention in school—with a pang, she remembered Elmot and his mock topography class. Hadn’t he told her these caves consisted of a network of interconnected tunnels?
She ran her hand along the dirt wall of the sinkhole. It wasn’t as thick as she had thought. One portion gave out. Van pushed again, and again.
Solana stomped her foot one more time, and the ledge beneath Van’s feet gave way, just as she stepped into an opening in the side of the cliff.
She followed the tunnel, which dripped with moisture from the massive cenote above.
As she made her way through the passage, she processed Solana’s confession.
Solana and the master demon had recruited her father and used him to construct the perfect plan. He father knew demons were coming to kill Prince Devon and trusted that Solana would use her magic to control them. When the demons attacked him, he figured Solana was wrong about her magic being powerful enough to control demons. In reality, once Van’s father had stolen the text, Solana no longer needed him.
Van recalled her vision in the bushes outside Mt. Hope Manor. When she saw her father toss Manik’s text into the fire, he had said, “Let us hope . . . no Lodian . . . ever lays a hand on this.” By burning Manik’s text, he’d ensured that Solana would have no competition in retrieving the Coin, and so anti-Manikists wouldn’t get traction by having evidence confirming Goustav’s heir. Her father had believed in Solana’s agenda and destroyed Manik’s text to protect Solana’s throne.
Van felt sick to her stomach by this truth. She continued to follow the tunnel, which led only one way, back to the surface of the cavern.
She emerged on the far side of the cavern, across from Solana, who kept peering over the side of the sinkhole, checking to make sure Van had died. Solana had her back to Van. Big mistake.
Never turn your back on the enemy, Van thought—Lesson 101 in her special classes. She tiptoed toward Solana. Then paused. Could she really push a human being off a cliff?
A crow flew overhead, landed on Solana’s shoulder, and chattered near her ear, as if telling her a secret. Solana abruptly turned toward Van, seething. She slid two fingers into those skintight pants, pulled out the decoy coin, and flung it to the ground.
The crow flew away.
Her nostrils flared in anger. “I want the real Coin!”
The crow must be her familiar, Van thought, spying from the sky and revealing secrets like a tattletale. She pulled out the Coin to intimidate Solana.
Solana threw Van a lopsided grin. “Even if you knew how to access its magical power, you can’t use it against me.”
“Don’t you see how you’re playing into the master demon’s hands?” Van asked, as she tucked the Coin back into her pocket. “The master demon wanted you to destroy Manik’s text—an instruction manual on how to kill demons. It also want
s the Coin destroyed—an item of Light that can eliminate demons. At the same time you are being coerced to create more violence in the Earth World. Killing terrigens will give demons more energy to breed and the strength to rise. This master demon is using you to bring about Dishora!”
“There you go, spouting those Lodian beliefs again.” Solana shook her head in disgust. “Just because I dabble in dark magic doesn't mean I like demons!” she said, affronted. “Once I take over Salus Valde, I will prevent Solmor—the rise of demons generated from the terrigens. I will assign the duties of the Grigori to my militia, so they can keep demons under control in the Earth World. Fewer terrigens equal fewer demons. Decimating the terrigens will take power away from the master demon—and given the strength of this demon, it needs to be done.”
Van felt unnerved to see Solana so threatened by the master demon’s power. Solana was all about control, and this master demon had a lot of control over Solana, until she made her payment.
“Our Grigori will stop you,” Van said fiercely.
“Lodians won’t stand a chance against my Balish army in a war for Salus Valde,” Solana said. “That’s why Uxa is so desperate to keep Manik’s law intact.”
“How can you be sure this master demon will destroy the Coin?” Van asked, changing tactics. “The Coin will amplify the dark part of the demon’s Self. It will turn the Coin into an Item of Darkness! This demon will then have the power to destroy the Light of all the worlds! It will be unstoppable!”
“Nice try, but sorry. Nope,” Solana said. “Demons can’t connect to the Coin’s power because demons do not have a Self, you dimwit. Even with the Coin neutralized, it’s still an item of Light made by the Creator. The Coin will do nothing but bring out the master demon’s true nature of darkness. The master demon will become enraged and seek to destroy the Coin, not use it.”
“The Living World will be left defenseless, if you allow the Coin to be destroyed!” Van spoke with fervor.
Solana laughed once again. “I can control demons. Especially after working out this deal with the master demon. I know I am smarter, more cunning, and more powerful. Now, payment is due. Give me the Coin.”
Shock of Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (Anchoress Series Book 1) Page 39
