by Tara West
* * *
Alec vomited water and sludge as he crawled to the edge of the shallow pool. He recognized Eris’s chamber, for the guards had taken him here earlier that day. The sirens swam away at Simeon’s command. Alec still couldn’t believe Simeon’s power to compel the voracious creatures to do his bidding. It made him wonder if the sand dweller had used such magic on his sister. Simeon sat beside him, wringing water out of his matted locks of hair.
“How many times have you used your persuasive powers on my sister?”
Simeon had the nerve to smirk. “Only a few times and only for her own good.”
Alec’s blood was ready to boil over. “I’m sure you think so.” How badly he wanted to strike down the sand dweller, but now was not the time. He had to focus on saving his friends from an evil goddess.
Simeon stood, offering Alec a hand up. Alec reluctantly took his hand, rising on wobbly legs.
“You there!” Two soldiers rushed them with swords drawn.
“Go!” Simeon held out a staying hand, his booming command shaking the sweltering air. “Leave us in peace, and do not tell your goddess we are here.”
The guards lowered their weapons and marched away without another word. Simeon certainly had incredible persuasive powers. The thought of him using them to take advantage of Dianna made Alec’s chest seize with anger. Again, he forced himself to put it out of his mind and focus on the task at hand. They had to find the chalice and free Mari’s spirit.
His gaze was drawn to the swirling mists. Then he spied a small chamber behind Eris’s throne aglow with pulsing red lights, as if the very earth was on fire. He trudged toward the chamber, his legs feeling as if they were weighted with a thousand stones. Lying on the stone slab in the center of the chamber was a beautiful young woman. Though her eyes were shut in sleep, he’d recognize that sweet face anywhere.
He gingerly touched one tanned arm, her warmth prickling his skin. He traced her thick eyelashes and full lips, hardly believing this was Mari, the spirit who’d selflessly saved and healed him. At that moment, he realized he’d give his life to return the favor.
“Mari,” he whispered. “How do I return your soul to your body?”
He heard a muffled scream above him. Alec looked up, his jaw dropping when he saw the chalice suspended above Mari, floating in a magical swirling sphere that appeared to be made of mist.
Alec looked over at Simeon. “I can’t reach her spirit. It’s too high.”
Simeon picked up a rock and threw it at the chalice. The stone disintegrated to ash when it hit the sphere.
A light breeze tickled his nape, and he watched with fascination as an invisible force dented the sphere. “Thank you, Father,” Alec whispered.
The chalice tipped, and Mari’s soul streamed out, floating down to earth. “Alec!” She thew her ghostly arms around him, tickling the hairs on the back of his neck with her aura. How he longed for a real hug from her.
She looked at Simeon. “Where’s my father?”
Alec’s heart caught in his throat. If only he’d reached Khashka sooner. “I’m so sorry.”
Her smile faded, and her eyes dimmed. “What happened?”
“Carnivus,” Alec said solemnly, the tightening in his throat making him unable to say more. Though it was Khashka’s deception that had brought them all to this island, he couldn’t fault a father for wishing to save his daughter.
“I see.” Mari turned from him, her shoulders shaking, and covered her face with her hands.
Simeon cleared his throat. “We need to get to Dianna.”
Alec scowled at the sand dweller. He knew that. He was desperate to free his sister, too. “Mari, I’m sorry about your father., but time is wasting, and we need you to help us free Dianna.”
She dropped her hands, her eyes shining like stardust, as she stared sorrowfully at her sleeping body. “And then we must flee. I do not want anyone else dying for me.”
Alec clenched his hands, determination hardening his jaw. “I will not leave this island until your spirit is inside your body once more.”
“Thank you, Alec.” She offered him a watery smile, so sweet and pure, his heart broke all over again. “But enough people have already died on my account.”
“Mari, listen to me. We have come all this way, and I will not let their deaths be in vain.” He badly wanted to grab Mari and force her to listen to reason. “My sister is a powerful witch. After she defeats Eris, we will find a way to put you back in your body. I swear it.”
“We don’t know if she can defeat Eris.”
The tension in Alec’s neck and back wound so tight, it felt as if he’d been beaten by the plague. “Yes, she will,” he insisted.
Dianna had to defeat Eris. It wasn’t just Mari’s soul at stake. It was all of humanity.
* * *
Why had Dianna thought pretending to be Madhea would be a good idea? She’d hoped Eris would back down if she thought Dianna was a goddess. She heaved a sigh, burying her face in her hands. She supposed it didn’t matter who Eris believed her to be. If the vindictive goddess could starve her own children, she’d not hesitate to do the same to her niece. With a groan, she climbed up the stone slab, pulling her knees to her chest, hoping to air out her water-logged feet.
She had to think of a way out of here before Eris turned her wrath on her brother and friends. She’d already tried and failed to put out the magical blue fire surrounding her. She’d scooped water into a hollowed-out skull, throwing it at the fire, only to watch hopelessly as the flames rose ever higher. She’d never forgive herself if Alec and her friends perished at Eris’s cruel hands.
She coursed her fingers through her hair, clenching the roots while struggling for ideas. “There has to be a way out of here,” she said to the stones.
If there was, don’t you think the Elementals would have escaped? Neriphene answered.
You must wait on your friends to find you, Sindri echoed.
“Then what?” Dianna asked.
The heptacircle spell has trapped you within the stones, Sindri explained. It is a spell similar to the one Madhea used when she trapped my mothers, sisters, and me in rock.
Because we are already trapped, Neriphene continued, we should be able to pass through the heptacircle if a mortal carries us out.
Dianna wiped tears from her eyes, her insides trembling. “What if my friends don’t find me? What if Eris reaches them first?”
Then all the world will perish, Neriphene said darkly.
Chapter Twenty-One
Alec led the way through the dank and humid tunnel, relying on dim torchlight. He recalled images of the maze from his dream. All they had to do was reach the center, and they’d find Dianna. He halted when he heard a rustling above him. He looked at Mari, who floated beside him, then turned to Simeon. The sand dweller gaped at the tunnel’s low ceiling.
Alec looked up. Hundreds, mayhap thousands of creatures no bigger than Alec’s palm were nestled in holes lining the top of the walls. A few were grooming themselves, licking their red scales, but most were sleeping, their horned heads tucked under their wings.
Simeon put a finger to his lips. “Pixies.”
Alec had heard of these winged demons. Though Madhea’s pixies had delivered Markus safely to Adolan, Alec had heard tales of them stripping away human flesh as fast as sirens.
Alec tried to tread lightly, then winced when he accidentally kicked a pebble, sending it across the tunnel. His heart hammered, his gaze flying to the demons above. A few shifted, but thank the Elements, none of them attacked.
Alec’s shoulders slumped in relief when they reached a watery cavern with flaming stones. He recognized the magic seven-pointed circle from his dream. He pointed to the walls, a barrier lit with torches. “She’s in there,” he said to Mari. “Her magic is trapped inside.”
Simeon trudged through the muck, banging on the stone walls. “Dianna! We’re here to save you!”
Alec grumbled. Of course, Simeon had
to reach her first, no doubt to take credit for the rescue.
“Simeon,” she cried, her green eye wet as she peered at them through a crack in the wall. “Is that you?”
Alec nudged Simeon aside, forcing a smile as he peered at her. “And Alec and Mari.”
“You can’t put out the fire. It’s fueled by magic. You need to find a giant or a dragon to tear down the walls from the outside.”
It could take days for the monsters to claw their way down to Dianna. By then it would be too late. “We don’t have time for that.” He nodded at the beautiful spirit floating beside him. “Mari can do it.”
Dianna peered at Mari. “Are you the spirit?”
“I am,” she answered, her soul flickering like lamplight. “But Eris has my stone.”
“Can you fly over and get one of Dianna’s stones?” Alec asked.
“No!” Dianna shrieked. “She’ll be trapped here, too. The circle imprisons magic.”
Simeon rubbed his chin. “Then Dianna’s stones are trapped, too.”
“Mayhap,” Dianna said, then whispered, “The stones are saying someone without magic can come and get one of them.”
When all eyes turned to Alec, he threw up his hands. “How am I supposed to climb over the wall?”
Simeon held out a hand. “Get on my shoulders, and I’ll give you a boost.”
“Come, Alec,” Dianna pleaded. “I’ll catch you with my magic on the way down.”
He peered up at the tall stone slab he’d have to mount. Even if he could climb over it, what about the flames on top? They’d light him up like a pyre. Still, what choice did he have? He was the only non-witch among them, and his sister needed to be freed before Eris discovered them.
Alec took Simeon’s hand and climbed onto his shoulders, wobbling while trying to balance himself.
“Hurry up,” Simeon snapped. “Your bony feet are killing my back.”
Alec seriously doubted that. Simeon was twice Alec’s width and at least a head taller, and his shoulders were as solid as marble slabs. He latched onto the top of the stone wall but flinched when the flames scalded his fingers.
Simeon shook beneath him. “Just do it,” he hissed.
Mari floated up to him. “Jump through as fast as you can. Dianna will catch you on the other side.”
Though Alec was not a big man, like Simeon or his father, he feared Dianna would not be able to hold his weight.
“Hurry up!” Simeon shifted, glaring up at Alec.
Alec tried to mentally prepare himself for the ascent. He flattened his palms against the wall, amazed when a strange buzzing sensation rippled through him. He looked down. “What is that sound?”
“Pixies! Hurry!”
Alec grabbed onto the ledge, cursing when flames burned his skin. Simeon pushed Alec up and off his shoulders, and he scrambled to the top, crying out as fire burned his chest. He pulled himself through the flames, then tumbled down the other side, screaming as he fell. An invisible force caught him, suspending him in the air.
He was slowly lowered to the ground and into his sister’s arms. “Here.” She kissed his cheek, running a soothing hand down his burned chest before placing a stone in his hands. “You must hurry.”
Alec sucked in a scream as he was moved back to the wall. Again he scrambled through the fire and fell off the wall into a swarm of pixies. “Mari!” he screamed, holding the stone tight while the demons tried to pry open his fingers.
The spirit’s warmth encompassed him as she took the stone from him. “I’ve got it!”
“Ouch!” Alec struggled to sit up, swatting pixies off his head while they ripped chunks of flesh from his ears and scalp.
“Stop!”
A blinding light washed over him. When he opened his eyes, the light had faded to a dull glow, there were pixie entrails hanging off his tattered clothes, the heptacircle walls had toppled, and Dianna was standing before him with a smile. The smell of burned flesh hit him like a punch to the gut, and it took him a moment to realize the nauseating smell ’twas his flesh. When his sister leaned over him, her soothing hands were a balm to his soul. He smiled up at her before feeling his world slip away.
* * *
Rowlen was sitting in the shade of a mighty Lyme tree beside two soft mounds of dirt. Alec recognized his parents’ graves and wondered why his father had brought him here.
“I’m proud of the man you’ve become, despite your traumatic childhood.” Rowlen smiled at the gravesite. ”Beloved mother” was etched into the smooth slab of wood. “You have a gentle heart, just like your mother did.”
He struggled to speak around the lump of emotion in his throat. “Like you, Father, before your heart was poisoned.”
“Aye, before it was poisoned.” His smile faded. “Mari is a beautiful soul. She will be lost without her father. You must protect her.”
He nodded, not realizing he’d desired his father’s approval of Mari until this moment. “I will, Father.”
Sorrowful, Rowlen grasped Alec’s shoulder. “Tell Markus and Dianna how proud I am of them, and that I love them.”
He tried to hold back tears to no avail. “I will.”
“I love you, son.” Rowlen’s eyes softened, saddened. “It was my love for you and desperate fear for your life that made me climb Madhea’s mountain.”
“I know.” Alec’s voice shook with emotion. “I love you, too.”
Rowlen’s dark features hardened. “You and your sister must face a final trial with Eris. Beware, her earth speaker approaches. Be strong, and I will do my part.”
“Your part?” How would a ghost help defeat a goddess?
“Son.” His father shook his shoulder. “I will pass to the Elements soon. You must wake. Your friends need you.”
* * *
Alec sat up and looked into his sister’s soulful blue eyes. “Dianna, the earth speaker is coming.”
“How do you know?”
“Father told me.”
“Father?”
“Aye,” Alec said. “His spirit has been visiting me in my dreams.”
The cavern was dimly lit by a few torches that had been pressed between fallen stones and the walls. When he reluctantly let Simeon help him up, he tasted bile when he saw they were standing knee-deep in water bloodied by pixies. Wing pieces and pixie heads floated in the warm, murky water. A few tiny torsos were still twitching while their lifeblood drained out of gaping holes where their legs used to be.
Alec checked his hands and legs, pleased to see they’d healed so quickly. Even his scalded stomach no longer pained him. Had Dianna healed him while he slept? Her powers had indeed strengthened.
Simeon touched Dianna’s shoulder. “We need to leave before Eris finds us.”
“Leave?” She shook her head. “I can’t leave until Eris is destroyed.”
“Listen to reason.” Simeon waved at the crumbled circle that would have trapped her forever is she hadn’t given a stone to Mari. “You’ve already felt the power of Eris’s magic.” There was no mistaking the concern in the sand dweller’s eyes. Perhaps he did care for her.
Alec stepped forward, resolve hardening his spine. “We’re not leaving without Mari’s body.”
Mari protested. “It’s my fault we’re on this cursed island in the first place. I will not have you jeopardize your lives again.”
Alec was determined to make her see reason. “We didn’t come this far only to turn away without your body.”
“He’s right.” Dianna brushed Simeon’s hand off her shoulder. “Besides, if we leave now, Eris may retaliate by destroying your body. Then your spirit must pass on to the Elements.”
“It’s fine.” She gazed at the hem of her flowing gown. “I will join my father in the afterlife.”
“But I’d miss you, Mari.” Alec forced out the words, despite the anvil striking his heart.
“Alec,” she said and sniffled. “I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.”
He took a step f
orward, losing himself in her pretty golden eyes. “I feel the same way about you.”
“Mari,” Dianna argued. “This goddess murdered her own children. She would not think twice about destroying all of humanity. She must be stopped.”
Mari hung her head, translucent tears stained her face. In that moment, Alec knew he could not fail her. She had suffered too much for too long. He would end her suffering or die trying.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eris leaned against her throne, her tail gleefully slapping the stone slab, watching her soldiers prepare the girl’s body for the ritual. Her first task as a human would be to kill the foolish earth speaker who’d flooded her island. Her second would be to visit the blue man in the dungeon. Her final objective would be to take over the world. If her blue man pleased her, perhaps she’d spare his ice people when she flattened Madhea’s dominion. If he did not, she’d smite every last person he’d ever loved.
“Eris, my love, I have returned to warn you.” Thorne floated up to Eris from her pool, flaunting his Elemental magic, bubbles trailing in his wake. He truly was a gifted speaker, his power over the Elements stronger than any witch Eris had ever known. Too bad she would have to kill him.
“Warn me of what?” she snapped, snarling at the scrawny man like a rabid animal. “That you’ve destroyed my island with your foolish flood?”
He floated next to her, bending the knee and reaching for her hand. “I had no choice, my love.”
She snatched her hand away. “You take liberties without permission. I never gave you leave to call me your love!”
He flinched as if she’d struck him. Was he such a simpleton? “But we are lovers.”
“I have many lovers.” She waved him away with a dismissive flick of the wrist. “And none as bothersome as you.”
He floated upright without asking permission. “Forgive me, but I thought you should know Madhea’s daughter, Dianna, is here, and she’s brought dragons and a giant.”
“Madhea’s daughter?” Eris shot up, panic icing her limbs. “What does she look like?”
“Like her mother but without wings,” he answered. “She is half mortal.”
