Holding his sword tight, Kull flashed me a crazed grin.
I still wasn’t certain he recognized me. “Kull?” I asked, taking a careful step forward.
“I saved your life,” he said, stumbling. “And for you—” his smile faded as blood dripped from his mouth. His knees hit the floor, and his sword dropped, landing with a hollow clatter that reverberated through the chamber. “—I give my life.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
I grabbed Kull under the arms and helped him lie on the cavern’s floor. The dragons’ cries echoed in the distance. I glanced through the hole in the cave’s ceiling, looking for the winged shapes of dragons against the stars, but saw none. Their cries faded. We were indeed alone.
Kull’s breathing came out in labored gasps. Blood bubbled around his cracked lips, so I pulled off my pack, found my canteen, and handed it to him. He took a small sip, although his eyes were unfocused and he choked as he swallowed the water.
“Kull,” I whispered, stroking his cheeks, “you’re such a brave, mad fool. Why in the world would you do such a thing?”
“Because… they would have killed you.”
“But how did you find me?”
“Tracked you. You made… so much noise trekking through the forest. It would have been impossible not to find you.”
“I wasn’t that loud.”
“You were. I could’ve been tracking an elephant.”
“How do you know what an elephant is?”
He groaned.
I inspected his side, where I found several punctures. “You’re lucky he didn’t take a chunk out of you.”
He looked at his wound. “How deep is it?”
My stomach clenched at the sight of his wound. Ten-inch gashes ran the length of his ribs. Dark blood pooled out, possibly indicative of a liver wound. Excessive liver damage could lead to excessive bleeding, which could kill him.
I couldn’t tell him.
“Not too deep,” I lied. “You’ll live.”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” he breathed.
My shoulders sagged. “Yes,” I whispered. So much for not telling him.
“Can you use magic to heal me?”
As soon as he asked, I knew the answer. My magic was gone. Whatever power I’d used to defeat the dragons had completely drained me. I grabbed my pack and rummaged through it. Something in this pack must be able fix him. There had to be something. I pulled out a scarf and pressed it to his wounds, but it was a temporary fix. It would only stall the inevitable.
Tears stung my eyes. He placed his hand on mine, and only then did I realize I was shaking. He turned his gaze to the ceiling, staring unfocused at the stars overhead.
“My grandfather,” he said. “I found him in the forest.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
He winced and didn’t answer.
I applied more pressure to the wound. If I could create a portal to Earth and cross worlds… but I’d have to have magic to do that. Maybe I could use my own blood as a transfusion. But I’d need medical equipment. There had to be something. I couldn’t let him die here.
“He was an old man when he died,” Kull finally said. “I knew he would never see me grow into a man, although I’ve imagined that he was somewhere looking down on me. Now I am sure he has been there all along, for I have seen him. In the ship, I doubted it was him, but now I know I was mistaken. My grandfather found me here. He has spoken to me.”
“What did he say?”
Kull didn’t answer.
“I’m sure he would be proud of you,” I whispered.
“Yes.” He said with closed eyes. “Yes, I hope so.”
“Kull,” I said as gently as possible, “we are even closer to the island where the dark creatures dwell. It is possible that with our nearness, their powers have grown stronger. Their magic may be clouding your judgment and making you see your grandfather when he is not really there.”
“No.” His hand tightened around mine. “It was him. I am sure of it.”
“How?”
“He spoke to me. He told me things that only my grandfather would know. He told me the story of his quest to find the Valkyrie’s lost sword—the tale he told me as a child. How could some creature’s mystical spell know such a thing?”
“Because the magic is working with your own memories. I understand magic, and sometimes magic is nothing more than illusion. If the spell works by using a person’s own thoughts, then it would be easy for you to recreate conversations that you and your grandfather would’ve had.”
“No,” he whispered hoarsely. “It had to be him. It had to be.” His face paled, and he turned away from me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered after a pause. “Is there any way to rid my mind of these visions?”
“I’m not sure.”
“We must find the cure.” He closed his eyes. “If it is not truly him, then I cannot bear to see him any longer.”
I knew it must have been hard for him. The death of a loved one was never easy to deal with, and having to relive it must have been heartrending. But that wasn’t our only problem. If I didn’t find a cure for Kull’s wound, he would soon bleed to death.
Something stirred at the cave’s mouth.
I focused on the entrance as someone moved toward us. “Someone’s here,” I whispered, taking the knife from my pack.
“Yes,” Kull said. “Someone has been tracking me for quite some time, although I wasn’t able to determine who it was.”
The faint sound of footsteps echoed. I walked quietly away from Kull and approached the figure, though I couldn’t see anything but the silhouette of a woman. As I drew closer, I paused.
The person stopped, allowing me a brief glance. Her dark skin and long white braids were unmistakable. Uli stood in the shadows.
I closed my eyes. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, I repeated in my head.
When I opened my eyes, she was gone, yet I heard the footsteps again. My heart thudded. I stepped forward. The dim light made it impossible to see anything but the dark forms of rocks. The footsteps grew louder, echoing, making it impossible for me to tell my own footsteps from the intruder’s.
“Uli?” I whispered. This was a trick. I knew it was a trick, and still, I held out hope that what I’d seen had been real.
I am here, Deathbringer.
Her voice echoed in my head. I held my knife so tightly I felt my circulation being cut off.
A woman emerged from the cave’s dark maw, but it was not Uli. Princess Euralysia walked toward me.
The glow from her necklace illuminated her face, but it also deepened the shadows under her eyes. She wore breeches and a loose shirt, and her platinum-white hair was pulled into a sloppy bun. She held only a leather pack as she casually walked forward, although her shrewd gaze made me feel vulnerable.
“Princess?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Following Kull,” she said. She looked at my knife. “You’ve no need of that.”
I held it a moment longer. Was this some sort of trick?
“Kull was under the dark creatures’ influence. I feared he would hurt himself or someone else, so I have been following him for some time now. When I saw him scaling the mountains to the dragons’ lair, I knew he was in increasing danger of losing his life.” She stared past me. “It looks as if I was correct. What happened?”
“He didn’t get along with the dragons. He gets grumpy when someone tries to kill his girlfriend.”
“You must let me help him.”
“How? You have no magic.”
She touched her necklace. “I’ve no need of it.”
I’d never trusted her. She had more secrets than my father, and that was saying something. But if she could help Kull, then I had no choice but to let her.
“Fine,” I answered. “But I’m keeping my knife.”
“Very well,” she said with a nod.
We walked out of the shado
ws and into the domed cavern. Although the ceiling had cracked, evidence of the elven architecture was still present. The princess glanced at the pillars but made no mention of them.
I led her to Kull. With his pale skin and closed eyes, I wasn’t sure if he were still conscious or not. Dark blood formed a pool beneath him. He wouldn’t last much longer if we couldn’t stop the bleeding.
We knelt beside him, and the princess’s delicate fingers moved with grace as she peeled away the soaked scarf and inspected his wound. She pressed gently right above the gash, and dark blood trickled out.
“He’s injured his internal organs,” she said.
“Yes. That’s what I suspected.”
“Kull,” she said softly. “Can you hear me?”
His eyelids fluttered. He whispered something, though I couldn’t make out his words.
“I am going to heal you, but in return I ask for your aid. You must help me implicitly without hesitation. Do you agree to this?”
He moaned but didn’t answer.
“He would never agree to such a thing,” I answered for him.
She shot me a calculating glare. “I did not ask for your opinion.”
I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “If you are truly concerned for his well-being,” I said, “then you would not ask him to give up his free will in order to serve you. You would heal him without reward.”
“That is true; however, it is necessary that I receive his help. And yours, as well.”
“Why?”
“Because the fate of our future is in grave danger. There is more at stake than the survival of magic. You must believe me when I say I serve the greater good—just as your father. I promise I will not ask him to do anything contrary to his beliefs.”
“Then why are you making him bargain for it?”
She was silent for a moment. “Because I must be guaranteed that he will help me, no matter what the circumstances.”
I knelt beside the princess, hoping she saw my determination. “And what are the circumstances?”
Our gazes met, and for a brief moment, she let her guard down, revealing the fear in her eyes. “We travel to Verutith,” she said. “We will take back the island’s magic so the blossom can be restored, but in order to do that, we must defeat the dark creatures.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“We will use the power of the Everblossom.” Her eyes darkened. “And we will kill them all.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
We walked through the tunnels under the dragon’s mountain. Despite my misgivings, the princess had healed Kull. I wasn’t sure he understood what he’d agreed to at the time, but at least the princess had been true to her word. She’d used her crystals to heal him completely, so that not even scars remained after she’d finished. She’d also removed the spell that was causing his visions, though I had no idea how she’d accomplished such an enchantment. I would have never been able to pull off a spell like that, which made me feel humbled to be in her presence. And also a little frightened.
The princess walked ahead. She held her necklace, using it as a lantern to guide us through the cavern. I didn’t feel prepared for what lay ahead. I didn’t know what the dark creatures were. At first I’d believed them to be the Regaymor, but the more I learned about them, the more I doubted that conclusion. What did the princess know about them? Obviously, she knew more than she was letting on. Perhaps it was time to find out.
“What do you know of the dark creatures?” I asked. “And don’t tell me you know nothing, because I’ll know you’re lying.”
She didn’t answer. Our footsteps echoed, lending an eeriness to the dark, sulfur-smelling caves.
“You must tell us,” Kull said as he walked beside me. “We must know everything about our enemies to be prepared. It is the only way to defeat them.”
“Yet I have taken an oath not to reveal what I know,” she said. “It is impossible to tell you anything.”
“Then don’t tell us everything. Tell us only what you can,” I said.
“I cannot.” She pursed her lips.
What oath had she taken? Why would she need to take an oath in the first place? This was getting out of hand. She wouldn’t discuss the creatures, so maybe she’d fess up about something else.
“The dragon caves were built with elven architecture,” I said. “Any idea how it got there?”
“My people have traveled many places. Not all of their journeys have been recorded. The dragons’ caves may be evidence of one of these adventures, but I cannot say for sure.”
I wasn’t thrilled with her answer. “Yet you made no mention of the architecture while we were there. It almost seemed as if you expected it.”
She gave me her shrewd glance, the one that made me feel two inches tall. “Are you always so observant?” she asked.
“Only when I need to be. I’m also very persistent. Just ask Kull.”
“It is true,” he said with solemnity.
“So how did the architecture get there?” I asked.
She sighed.
“I think it would be wise to answer,” Kull insisted.
“Very well,” she answered. “An expedition was launched long ago, before modern times, in an age when dragons were slaughtered and our people had yet to learn the principles of peace they now uphold. It was a perilous journey. My people almost died, though they managed to make it to the smaller island. Most records of their journeys were lost, though a few were preserved in our libraries. There is one document in particular that tells of their journey.”
“Is this the document you spoke of earlier? The Pa’horan prophecies?” I asked.
“Yes, part of it. Pa’horan commissioned the trip to the outer isles. It was a highly controversial move. The isles were considered cursed.”
“Why did he commission the trip?”
She gave a sidelong glance at Kull. “Because there were some things meant to be kept secret, and there was no better place to store those secrets than on the isles.”
I recalled our earlier conversation. “Are you speaking of the elven torture?”
“Yes,” she answered. “The voic-py’anah.”
“I thought you said he wanted to do away with violence.”
“Yes, he did, but he also knew that destroying all knowledge of the magical torture would be foolish. It was a great power, and to destroy all knowledge completely would be unwise. He sent the information to the place he thought safest—to Verutith Island.”
I tried to put the pieces together. It sounded as if we traveled to some sort of library where knowledge of the torture was kept. If that were so, were we going to destroy that knowledge? And if we were, wouldn’t there be a few people angry at us for doing so?
“The dark creatures guard the knowledge of this torture,” the princess said, “but my people have decided that simply guarding it is not enough. The knowledge must be destroyed. And,” she added, “we must bring down their temple in order to do that.”
“Temple?” I asked. “Was that the labyrinth you showed me in the maps?”
She nodded. “The temple uses Verutith’s magic to guard it, but with the magic gone, the knowledge can no longer be protected. That is why it must be destroyed. Once it is, and once the temple has been demolished, the blossom will be able to flourish once again on Verutith.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” I asked.
“I could not. The very traitor who seeks the knowledge of the torture was aboard the ship. I was not able to determine who this infiltrator was, but it made revealing the truth impossible. I could not reveal more than was necessary. As it is, this infiltrator followed me through the forest, and although I believe they lost my trail, it is only a matter of time before they find it again.”
I held tight to my pack’s strap, feeling the weight of the orb inside and trying to decide if I could trust the princess. Dark crystals grew along the walls. At one time, they most likely glowed with magic, but now, they
only reflected the necklace’s light, a strange combination of dark and light colors. An eerie stillness blanketed the caves, muffling the sounds of our booted feet crunching over loose pebbles.
I kept my knife out. The tunnel widened into a gorge. Far below, a river of lava snaked through the crevasse. Heat roiled, creating a breeze that sent embers flying up through the air currents. We followed a narrow path that led us along the wall and into another tunnel.
Time seemed to lose meaning as we traveled. We stopped only for short breaks, eating our dried fruit and drinking a little water. To me, it all tasted of sulfur. The stale air and my sore feet were beginning to weigh me down.
At one point, we set up a small camp on a flat ledge of rocks. With my adrenaline gone, and having little to no sleep for the past several days, I lay on my cloak and fell into a deep sleep. I must have slept several hours before the princess woke me and we began our journey once again.
We spent the rest of the day traveling through the caves. No one spoke. It seemed that if we did, the tunnel’s spell would be broken.
The tunnel branched, and the princess took the path to the left without hesitation.
“How do you know which way to go?” I asked quietly.
“I’ve studied the maps.”
She must have memorized the maps. How did she navigate with such certainty? It almost seemed as if she’d been here before.
“We’re almost there,” she said as we rounded a bend. Up ahead, the tunnel widened and the ground leveled off.
Evening sunlight brightened the tunnel, surprising me. Had we spent all night and a day in the dragon’s mountain? Amber rays reflected off the giant crystals growing along our path. It was only then I noticed the crystals were cracked. Deep fissures ran the length of the beryl-shaped stones. The loss of magic must have been affecting the crystals as well as the creatures.
The princess replaced the pendant around her neck as we walked out of the cave and onto a lifeless, volcanic plain. The bloated orange sun sank below the flat horizon. Pumice stones crumbled underfoot as we walked.
Spellweaver Page 28
