“What?” I joined Craig at the far wall where he was pulling dead vines away from the stone. I helped him, and together we uncovered a large four by four section of carvings, etched deep into the stone and stained black. “That’s this, right?” I asked, motioning to the pedestal drawing then to the one that stood behind us.
“Looks like it.”
We both squinted as he studied the engravings. The first showed an image of what appeared to be an orb of some kind, and there was power or light coming from it. The next image was of a doorway, one that looked like it had been created by the orb maybe? I scratched my head as I stared at the final image of a figure in a cloak stepping through that doorway and that was it.
“Still don’t know what it’s supposed to be,” Craig muttered.
“I think it creates doorways,” I said slowly, “maybe into the realms of the gods?”
“And what, Baladon has it?”
“Maybe… you know, we don’t really know what this realm is either. If it was his to begin with or someone else’s.”
“So, this could be some other god’s realm?”
I shrugged, feeling like we were once again playing catch up in a game that we were not going to win. We needed answers to these riddles that continually popped up. Every time Sabella opened her mouth after a vision, she only added to our ongoing list of confusion. And the riddle she relayed when she touched the stone guardian, we were no closer to solving that either.
I slammed my fist into the wall with an angry snarl, watching the particles of dust fall over my shoulders from the force of the hit.
“Boris,” I shouted, and a few seconds later, he appeared in the doorway. “We need Lucy in here. And send someone back to the castle. Tell them Greyson’s presence is requested as well.”
“And what would you like the men to do until the sorcerer can get here?”
“Attach that main line to this castle, then get more ropes and have them spread out in pairs. I want to search this entire maze, see how large this realm actually is.” I joined him in walking out of the ruins. “See if there are any other secrets it's hiding.”
He set off to relay my orders.
Craig, and I turned back to what remained of the castle. Not much of it was still standing and aside from the cells upstairs and the room with the iron cage, there were a few other tiny rooms that had been empty upon our first inspection.
“It’s going to be a long few days,” I muttered.
“At least here there’s a bit of light,” he said. “Not sun, but better than constant darkness.”
I glanced upward now. There was no sky, but if there was a ceiling, it was hidden by a dense fog that hovered over the maze. “We’ll make camp outside the seam. Not sure how I feel about us staying here, just in case.”
I sighed, then breathed in deep, trying to get a grip on the uneasiness growing in the back of my mind that something was wrong.
The strong scent of lilac struck me again, and I could have sworn that Sabella was standing right behind me. But she was safe and sound back at the castle. As soon as I returned, she and I would sit down and have the serious discussion about our future together like we should’ve done weeks ago.
It wasn’t too late, that’s what I kept telling myself, it couldn’t be too late.
“Tristan, you coming?” Craig called from back inside.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get this search started.”
“There’s another one over here,” I yelled, tugging down more ivy from the stone wall within the maze. “This one’s different I think, maybe? I dunno. Lucy, you’re going to have to come look at it.”
I felt a tugging on the rope attached to my waist and Lucy came around the corner with Craig. We’d spread out to the edges of the maze and found we were actually in some sort of stone mountain with no other exits or entrances, except the seam where our main rope led.
“It is different,” she mused, running her fingers over the engravings and brushing away more dust. “I can’t read any of these. Greyson should be here soon, though.”
“Good. One of these might tell us who used to live here before Baladon moved in.”
She nodded at my words, her brow furrowing as she moved to the images near the bottom of the slab. “These here, they have that orb in them.”
“Any idea what it is?”
“No, I’ve never seen these pictures before, or a reference to an orb, but I think… I think you might be onto something about a doorway. Whoever was here might have been its keeper, and Baladon stole it when he escaped his prison,” Lucy said quietly as she crouched lower, tilting her head to see the images better. “But I think it did more than just create doors.”
“What do you mean?” I bent down, too to see what she pointed at.
“This to me seems to be referring to stars? Or the sky, I can’t decide which and then here, this explosion of sorts… almost like something’s being created.”
The stars and the sky. Two things we had no clear view of in a long time. “Right well, we’ll just have to keep searching and tearing this maze apart for answers.”
“Sire,” Boris yelled, and I called out to him so he could find me. “We have word from Torolf.”
“And? Where’s Greyson?” I asked, my body tensing at the strain on his face. “Boris, what’s happened? Sabella?”
He hesitated, and I was already moving toward the main rope that would take me out of this pocket dimension. “Sire, you might want to wait a moment.”
“You can tell me on the way, what happened to her?”
All I could see was Sabella falling into a vision and then not being able to come out of it. Worse, she did, and she couldn’t remember anything again. What if she hurt someone else, or herself? The wound on my chest was already healing, but I was the alpha. It took a bit more to do me serious harm. I was running until I stepped out of the seam and detached the rope from my waist.
“We don’t know,” Boris finally said and grabbed my arm. “She’s gone.”
I froze and felt sick at the same time. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“It appears sometime during the night she left the castle… but she was not alone.” He stared at Craig behind me, who’d followed me out. “The Vindicar has gone with her, as well as Greyson and Hank.”
I glared at Craig, and he had the decency to look guilty for the part Kate played in this.
“Do we know where they went?” I asked Boris as I proceeded to my horse.
“No, not yet, but I’ll send out scouts—”
“Don’t bother. I’m going to find her myself.” I mounted my horse and took off, Craig hurrying to keep up as we raced back to the castle.
How could she do this to me? Up and leave without a word to anyone. What did she expect me to do, just let her go without a fight? All I could think of was her on that cliff facing down those spiders again. If she had a vision of someone in danger, she wouldn’t have waited around for help. Oh no, she would’ve gone off to try and deal with the problem. Alone. Having the Vindicar with her did not count as sufficient backup in my opinion. I kicked my heels into my horse harder, and he picked up the pace, flying down the road.
When the castle came into view hours later, I patted my horse’s neck in appreciation and told the stable hands to see to him as I ran into the castle, yelling for Sabella.
“She’s not here,” Danielle yelled to me from the stairs.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I demanded, and she immediately bowed her head at my fierce growl.
“I didn’t know she was leaving. She was in her room and then the next… the next they were gone. I’m sorry, sire, if I’d known I would’ve chained her to a wall.”
“Did you search her rooms?”
I climbed the stairs as I spoke, taking them two at a time until I reached Sabella’s room, not waiting for Danielle to answer my question. Craig mumbled something about checking his and Kate’s room, and he’d catch up with me.
I threw open Sabella�
��s door, and searched the room. Clothes were missing as well as a saddle bag, but there was no indication of where’d she gone or why. I stalked to my room next, cursing and kicking the door open. A map that had been on the table was gone, and when I spun madly around, I saw the note with my name on it waiting for me against my pillow.
“Wait for me outside,” I ordered Danielle.
I waited until her steps retreated and the door closed before I let myself move to grab the note. Hands shaking as I reached for it, I steeled myself for whatever words she left for me. I unfolded the paper, and the first words forced me to sit as my heart pounded painfully with each breath I took.
She’d left for Silver Valley to seek out this Hansi elf and see what she could find out about Baladon. She was sorry for putting me through so much aggravation and pain, for hurting me when she wasn’t herself. She went on and on about how she would never be able to forgive herself if she’d hurt me worse, or anyone else. And since I didn’t trust her, there was no point in her staying. She hardly trusted herself anymore and felt her sanity slipping out of her grasp day by day. She wasn't pack and she doubted there’d ever been a chance for her to be pack the way I expected her to be. The vise around my heart tightened with each sentence I read, tearing me apart until I was suddenly numb.
The last bit was what made my pain flare into anger. She would always care for me, but she knew there wasn’t a chance the two of us could actually work without one of us getting hurt in the end. She would do her part to save the realms and then she would leave them. Forever.
In my rage, I crumpled the note and threw it across the room. How could she think I didn’t care for her as much as she did for me? I made a mistake, I knew that, but that did not mean I was just going to let her walk out of my life without any sort of blowback.
“Tristan,” Craig said as he knocked on my door.
“Enter,” I snarled, pacing furiously from one end of my rooms to the other.
“I’m going to assume your note was bad.”
I growled in answer. “Silver Valley. That’s where they went, and that’s where I’m going.”
“You sure that’s really where she went? That something else isn’t going on?”
I whirled around and grabbed him by his shirt, shoving him into the wall. “I am not going to let her walk out of my life because she believes I don’t trust her, that I don’t love her. She has no right to do this to me.”
He nodded slowly, not seeming to be bothered by my taking my anger out on him. “I don’t blame you. Kate’s letter… it’s like she’s saying goodbye.”
“What?”
I released him, and he handed it to me. I asked if he was sure and he nodded, so I read through it quickly. There was so much raw emotion pouring out of this one, just like with Sabella’s, but he was right. Kate wasn’t just saying they would be back whenever they got the information they were after. She was telling Craig how much she cherished their time together, no matter how short.
I walked across the room and grabbed the balled-up letter from Sabella and read it again. And again. Each time, the true meaning of her goodbye sank in, and I was shaking my head, not about to accept this.
“She saw something,” I whispered. “She saw something and refused to tell me, to tell us. We’re going after them, right now.”
I sprinted out the door, furious at Sabella for doing this to me. All I could think of was that she saw her own death, and instead of confiding in me and finding a way to stop it, she kept it to herself to what, save me from having to face whatever the future held for her?
The wolf in me wanted to burst free and track down the one person in this life I was meant to be with. I barely managed to keep it in check, but when we entered the courtyard, a guard called out, pointing to the darkness overhead.
A large, blue and white shape was descending toward us.
Dragon.
We made room in the courtyard as the beast circled, then finally landed, shifting as he did. He bowed his head when he spotted Craig and I before running to us.
“King Forrest requests your aid,” he said out of breath. “The banshees and hellhounds are out of control and terrorizing the outer villages. His numbers are too small to stop them.”
“Now?” I snapped.
The dragon stepped back at my outburst.
“Give us a moment,” Craig told the dragon, and he backed away further. “They’re going to Silver Valley, they’ll be safe with Drake and his army of elves.”
“You’re serious? You want to go fight banshees and hellhounds instead of finding out why Kate and Sabella decided to up and leave?” I ranted.
I knew we were having problems, but I was willing to try and work them out. Guessed I just wasn’t fast enough. I stopped my pacing short and grunted in frustration.
But the dragon and demon numbers were still recovering from the fight against Cassius. If he was calling for aid, then Forrest meant it. He was in serious trouble.
“Fine, we’ll help Forrest, but the moment his people are safe, I’m going to Silver Valley with or without you.”
Craig ran to the dragon and told him we’d be on our way.
We had to gather those shifters not needed to defend the castle and our own villages while Craig would send a message to Boshen and have Luca send whatever aid they could spare.
Orders delivered, I mounted a fresh horse, but when I neared the gate, I turned back to stare at the corner where Sabella’s room sat. Would she ever be in there again? Would I ever hear her quiet steps walk into my room at night to keep me company when the rest of the world threatened to suffocate me?
“Tristan, let’s go,” Craig urged.
The dragon had already taken to the skies, and the rest of my shifters were moving out.
I’d get her back.
One way or another, I would make her see no matter what she might see in those damned visions of hers, she and I were meant to face this darkness together.
8
Sabella
Wow,” I whispered in awe as the first few elf dwellings came into view along the main road.
Silver and gold torches lined the way, flickering in the evening breeze as elves walked alongside us, calling out greetings and waving excitedly to Kate.
“You know them?”
“Craig and I came here on my tour of the rest of the realms,” she explained. “They’re probably the friendliest group I’ve met.”
“Seem like it.”
I imagined Tristan and I finally going on our own adventure through the realms, but then my vision came back to slap me into reality. It was better this way. Leave now and cut myself off from causing him pain. Well, any more pain. I’d wanted a chance at a life with him. Have a romance as strong as Kate and Craig seemed to, but something was missing for us. Deep down, I thought he hoped to find another shifter to help him rule his pack, and instead he’d found himself tethered to a seer.
“Sabella,” Kate said, tapping my arm and pointing.
“Huh?” I looked in that direction and my jaw dropped. “That’s the elven palace?”
“All glass and silver,” Kate explained.
I admired the view of the four towers rising up behind a formidable stone wall. The gates were open, and several well-armed soldiers stood at attention.
“The inside is even more incredible. Gardens everywhere, a stream runs through the middle of it, too, and an incredible garden that’ll leave you breathless.”
The candles and fires burning from within the palace made it glow, a beacon of pure light against the darkness. A sense of peace came over me at the sight, knowing that we hadn’t lost this battle yet. There was hope, still, and with my being here, learning about myself and Baladon, I clung to that hope like a lifeline.
“They are expecting us,” Hank stated. “Greyson?”
“I sent word to Hansi, in my own special way,” he said with a smile. “Come, the elves are known for their feasts when guests come to visit.”
; Food was the last thing on my mind, and I was about to tell Greyson I didn’t think wasting time was a good idea, but then we were going through the main gate, and I was swept away by the graciousness of our hosts as well as the beauty surrounding me.
The river lands had their own form of beauty, the rolling grasses, and the rushing river. But this was an elegant charm instead of rustic allure, something I only ever expected to experience in books I’d read at the asylum.
Stable hands met us to take our horses and Drake was there to shake hands with Greyson and kiss Kate on the cheek. I’d only met him once, when Tristan called a council meeting to discuss the darkness that had fallen over the realms. He’d been there when I faced down the stone guardian the first time, but I hadn’t officially been introduced until later.
As he approached me now, he took my hand and kissed the back of it. “Welcome, Sabella.”
“Thanks for letting us come. I know it’s a bit unexpected.”
“It’s wartime. Nothing is unexpected, though I will admit I have been kept in the dark as to the purpose of your visit and why Tristan and Craig are not accompanying you.” His curious gaze shifted from me to Kate, both of us shifting our weigh, clearly feeling guilty. “Hmm, I sense there is a story, and for a story, we need wine. Come, a feast has been prepared.”
“And Hansi? Is he here?” I asked, noting how Hank fell right in step behind me, true to his orders to guard me. That should make Tristan feel a little better, at least.
“He is and will be available to you after the feast.”
“King Drake, I really don’t’ think we have much time to waste,” I said, trying to be as polite as I could. “We’re on a bit of a time crunch.”
“Have you eaten in the last twelve hours?”
The ride here took four days, and I hardly touched any of our rations during that time. “Well… I mean, we had breakfast… a while ago,” I mumbled.
He arched his brow. “If you are to be locked away with that old scholar in his tower for the next few days, trust me, you’ll want to eat as much as you can while you have the chance. Life is precious now, during this dark time. Let yourself enjoy the little things.” He patted my hand and then continued to lead the way inside the glass and silver palace.
Visions (Dragon Reign Book 7) Page 7
