MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS to look at Jon, but from the puzzled look on his face it was clear he’d never heard of a steel maiden either.
“What’s a steel maiden?” I asked for the both of us.
The old witch looked at me with a smile. “Are you exceptionally good with weapons? Are you particularly adept with swords, or daggers, or anything with a blade?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever wondered where this extraordinary ability comes from?”
“It might have crossed my mind a few times.”
Ada smiled. She seemed anxious to reveal more to me.
“Steel maidens are magic bearers. And if you define persons with magic as witches, then yes, steel maidens are also witches. You are descended from the Steel Maiden clan from northern Witchdom. There are six different witch clans in Arcania and Witchdom, and we administer all of them from here. They are the White and Dark Witch clans, the Augurs, the Elementals, the Shifters, and finally the Steel Maiden clan. I’m from the White Witches clan. Each clan serves a specific purpose, but we are all blood witches.”
“What are blood witches?” I was curious and hungry for more information.
“A blood witch is someone who is born with magic. The steel maidens cannot do magic like the dark witches, for example. They cannot conjure objects out of thin air, cannot hex, or curse, and they cannot wield magic like the other witches. Steel maidens are unique. They were the only clan of witches that did not produce any male heirs. Only a female witch could be a steel maiden.” I had no idea witches could be male, but I decided not to interrupt her. “They are strong,” Ada went on, “and have an innate ability to fight and to wield any kind of weapon. Their extraordinary healing abilities mean that nothing can beat them. They are a force to be reckoned with.
“Witches have been at war with the world of men for thousands of years. Men fight with us because they fear what they don’t understand. More importantly, we have been fighting because men always wanted more: more land, more power, more of everything. Unfortunately magic cannot defeat steel, not always. And when magic couldn’t save the witches, the steel maidens evolved. They began as a fierce group of blood witches that could fight better than any man, could manipulate any type of weapon, and had the unique ability to heal. They became the guardians of all the clans. For centuries the steel maidens kept the race of man at bay.
“But magic comes at a cost, as you have already learned. You cannot use magic indefinitely. If you take something from the Goddess, you must give something back. The magic of the witches was finally exhausted by war with men, and most of us were driven out of Arcania. Some of us, like me, chose to stay to provide refuge to those who were still born with magic in a land that hated it. Soon Witchdom was divided between what is now Arcania, where a few of us remain, and what’s left of Witchdom on the other side of the Mystic Mountains where most of the witches reside today. The clan of the steel maidens thinned over time, and they simply disappeared.”
“Until Elena,” said Jon.
Ada shook her head. “Until Elena’s mother came to us.”
I nearly fell off my bed. “What? My mother?” My heart sped in my chest. “You knew my mother?”
The light in the high witch’s face faded.
“I did, yes, many years ago. Your mother, Katherine, lived here with us before you were born. She was a valuable member of this clan, even though she was a steel maiden.”
“You are the spitting image of your mother,” said she with an added smile. “I knew who you were the minute Jon carried you through the front doors.”
“So why did she leave?” I was dying to hear anything that had to do with my mother. I only still had vague memories of her, and it pained me to admit that sometimes I forgot what her face looked like.
A small frown appeared on Ada’s forehead, and I noticed the slight hesitation before she opened her mouth. “For love. Your mother’s stay with us was very short-lived. She stayed only a few weeks, until she fell in love with a young man and left with him. She never came back, but we kept in touch.”
She looked at me again. A shadow on her face made her lines appear deeper.
“I was very sorry to hear of her death,” she said and blinked away a tear. “She was a beloved member here.” Ada closed her eyes, and I could see the pain in them when she opened them again.
Then her face darkened. “She didn’t deserve to die in the hands of that man, that priest.”
“You mean at the hands of that bastard,” I spat.
My cheeks burned with anger, my lips trembled, and I couldn’t continue. I felt Jon’s reassurance as he squeezed my hand, and I squeezed it back.
“There’s a lot you still don’t know about your heritage, Elena,” continued Ada. “About your blood magic and what you can do.”
The old woman sighed. “You are the last of the steel maidens. I wish you could stay here and learn more, but there’s no time.”
She had clearly left many words unsaid.
“Where’s the stone, Elena?” asked Jon. I suspected Ada had wanted to ask me the same thing. I also had the impression that she knew more than we did about the stone.
Jon leaned closer to me, his face was pale, his eyes haunted. “It wasn’t on you when I found you.”
I clenched my teeth down hard. “Prince Landon has it,” I hissed. “The bastard took it from me while I lay there dying like an animal. He said it was for the good of the realm and some horseshit like that.”
I kept my face as blank and as pain free as I could, even though Landon’s betrayal still hurt. Just the thought of him threatened to release my tears. It hurt to have cared so much for someone who cared nothing in return.
“He said that the priests offered to return his land and his title as king of Anglia if he brought them the stone.”
“Stupid prick!” Jon let go of my hand and raked his fingers through his hair. “How stupid can a prince be? They’ll never give him back his throne and title. They’ll never give it back.”
“Of course not,” I answered. “But he seems to believe they will. Those monsters have been lying to us for years, abusing us, raping us, and still he chose to believe them. All he cares about is getting his title back. He doesn’t care about the rest of us.”
“Damn it. We underestimated the priests. Somehow they got to the prince. If he’s been in league with them this whole time, then none of us are safe. The entire rebellion is in danger.”
“None of it will matter if the high priests get the stone,” Ada breathed.
She gripped her staff until her knuckles were white. “There will be no more lands, no more wealth, no more rebellion, no more of anything. If the priests get the stone, there will be only darkness.”
Her eyes rested on mine, her expression hard. “Elena, what did the high priest give you to contain the stone?”
I shrugged. “Some sort of gold cage. Why?”
The old woman just clamped her mouth shut and stared into space. I searched her face. It was unreadable again, but her eyes were focused and full of energy.
“What is it? What are you not telling us?”
“The high priests are not what they seem,” said Ada. “There is something unnatural and evil about them.”
“Like what?”
Her eyes bore into mine. “Elena, did you ever wonder why the high priest sent you on the Great Race? Why would they send an untrained woman on such a deadly mission?”
I nodded, my eyes narrowing. “Because he knew what I was.”
I remembered the sick triumph I had seen in his eyes when I had been captured with the crown I had stolen. It made my stomach churn just to think about it.
“He knew the moment his guards brought me to him. He knew I would be able to touch the stone.”
“Exactly.” Ada shuffled towards the small window and peered outside.
“Steel maidens were famously immune to different types of magic, especially to druid spells and magic stones.”
; She turned around and our eyes met. “It was no wonder that they made you their champion. You were the only one who could bring it back.”
I had always known that I was just a pawn in the high priest’s game. But I had never done it for them or for myself.
“He threatened to kill Rose and all of the inhabitants in the Pit if I didn’t get him the stone. She’s been a mother to me, but she’s a powerless old woman. It wouldn’t take much to kill her…”
“I told you Rose would be looked after,” said Jon. “My people are guarding her.”
My blood raced, and I took a deep breath to try to calm myself.
“I know, but I have a bad feeling. If anything were to happen to her, I would never forgive myself. I left her. I left her all alone.”
“She’ll be fine. I promise,” Jon said.
I felt a sudden urgency to go after Rose. Maybe I could bring her back here, to Gray Havens. She would be safe here with the witches, away from the clutches of the priests.
I met Jon’s eyes.
“He also said that he would kill all the children in the Pit, the entire village if I didn’t get him the stone.”
Jon swore, and even Ada looked like she was about to curse something.
“It was the only reason why I joined this stupid race in the first place. I was forced to do it. And it was all for nothing. He’s going to kill them, I know he will.”
“I won’t let that happen. I promise.”
“The Empire of the Temple of the Sun will never give back the prince’s title or any other titles for that matter,” informed the old witch. “The high priests desire power above all else. They want the power the stone can give them.”
Although I had felt the power of the stone when I had first held it, I had known, even then, that I had only glimpsed its true power.
Jon stood up and paced around the room. He turned and looked at Ada. “But I thought only Elena could touch the stone. How can the priests manipulate it?”
I nodded. Jon had taken the words from my mouth.
“They cannot touch the stone,” said Ada. “Otherwise they would have taken it centuries ago. No, it’s something else, but I’m afraid I don’t know what. All I can assume is that they have discovered a way to use it. They wouldn’t have bothered trying to find a steel maiden unless they knew they could control it.”
“Yes,” she nodded. “They must have discovered a way. We have our suspicions that the high priests are not what they appear to be. I felt it in the earth and in the waters of the world when the high priests first appeared. Something dark came along with them.”
I sat up straighter. I felt a sting where my stitches pulled, but I wasn’t sure it was from the stitches themselves so much as the poison that still lingered there.
“What do you mean? What came along with them?”
Ada let out a breath. “The world changed with the arrival of those priests and their Temple of the Sun nonsense. From the moment they arrived three hundred years ago, I felt a shift in the balance of light and dark, of good and evil. Someone or something is trying to call forth demons from the underworld. Something wants to destroy the world as we know it. Not even the most powerful of witches or the most powerful dark sorcerers can conjure creatures from hell and control them unless they can wield the terrible magic that resides in the stone.”
I tried to sit up straighter, but I kept sliding off my pillows.
“Why is this stone so special and dangerous? What is the Heart of Arcania?”
“In truth, we don’t know for sure,” answered Ada. “A weapon, maybe? The stone is a magical relic. We know that its power is derived from the world’s own magic, and that the stone stores that magic until it can be released. The stone is connected to our world. We don’t know who created the stones, only that they existed before the time of witches and men.”
“The stones?” Jon furrowed his brows. “There’s more than one?”
Ada looked tired.
“Three. But the other two were nowhere near as powerful as this one, and they were destroyed long ago. But we couldn’t destroy the Heart of Arcania. The witch clans decided to keep it secret and safe. It was meant to be safe on Goth, where it was protected by a secret society of men called the Order of the Stones. They swore to protect the stone with their lives.”
Jon and I shared a look. “The masked men in Hollowmere.”
Shame burned on my cheeks.
“They were protecting the stone…and we killed them.”
Ada looked at us gravely.
“The stones were meant to be secret. Magic is magic. It can be used for good or evil. I don’t believe that the stones were ever meant to be wielded by anyone alive today. Their power comes from a world long forgotten in this land. It is a power that we should never have discovered all those years ago.”
Her eyes looked wild.
“You must stop it. Forget your friends, your lovers, forget everything. There is nothing more important in this world than to get the stone away from the priests before it is too late. Before they damn us all.”
“If I hadn’t stolen the Anglian crown, none of this would be happening,” I said softly.
I could feel Ada’s eyes on me, but I stared at the sheets instead. The long silence was enough of an answer. I couldn’t just sit here pitying myself. I had to make things right again.
Jon cleared his throat. “There’s no point in blaming yourself, Elena. You didn’t know. None of us did.”
“What’s done is done.” Ada moved to the foot of the bed.
“Never mind that now,” she said and pointed her staff at me. “First we need to get you well enough to travel. Preferably tomorrow, if you can.”
I leaned back against the headboard, nodding. “I will. I’ll get it back.”
She moved closer to me and spoke with a fierceness that made me cower a little.
“Elena, you must stop the stone from getting into the hands of the high priest. Do you understand?”
She slammed her staff on the floor, and her voice rose. “The world as you know it will burn if you fail.”
CHAPTER 30
I LAY IN BED for about an hour after Ada and Jon had left me to recover and rest. But I couldn’t rest. I was haunted by the idea that I had damned the world with my own stupidity. I’d always known that the high priests were evil, but hearing it from the witch’s mouth just made everything clearer. The high priests were planning to destroy the world, and I had helped them.
They wanted to use the stone to summon some great army of demons to destroy us all. I had only once run across demons, those that had sprung from the mist at the edge of Death’s Arm, and I never wanted to face them again. I didn’t know how Jon had made it unscathed all the way to Gray Havens with me in his arms. I would have to ask him about that later.
Ada had mentioned that the high priests were unnatural. What did that mean? Were they men or not? Were they men with corrupted souls?
I already knew the answer to that, but what if they weren’t men at all, but something more sinister and evil? I had a feeling the old witch was keeping information from me, and I was going to find out what.
In the meantime, I was haunted with images of death. Death. Death, and more death. Ada’s words haunted me — a burning world, dying children, Rose…
I had to get the stone back before Landon reached Soul City. I needed to leave now.
If my calculations were correct, I’d been here about half a day. That meant he was one day ahead of us. If we left while there was still light today, we might even catch up to him tomorrow or the day after. My memories of Landon made my stomach muscles tighten until they hurt. I had been such a fool to fall for his bright eyes and winning smile.
I swung my legs off the bed and moved to the dresser. I was dressed in a matter of two minutes. The young witches had done a remarkable job on my tunic and cloak. Only an expert eye could see where they had stitched it back together nearly seamlessly. Apart from the pain of the red monk�
�s poison on the back of my neck, I felt fine. More than fine. I was ready.
I smelled food and found a platter with bread, cheese, grapes, apples, cold meats, and a pitcher of water. I didn’t realize how ravenous I had been until the only evidence of the food was crumbs on the silver platter. I washed everything down with a cold glass of water.
I pulled open the bedroom door and peered down a hallway that resembled the bedroom with pine wood paneling, wood floors, and wood trim. It smelled curiously like a forest, and it was like stepping into a woodland tunnel. I made my way down the corridor and had passed a number of closed doors when I came to a landing.
My breath caught in my throat.
I stood on the second floor of a grand mezzanine. A massive fireplace centerpiece rose at least fifty feet from the bottom floor to a roof of soaring log rafters. Wooden moldings and wildlife were carved into the red cedar logs. I leaned over a wooden railing that had been carved with leaves, bears, wolves, and birds, and I peered out at another four wings that fanned out from the rotunda. I saw a dining room and another large room that might have been used for ceremonies. The whole place felt like a castle with its massive size and grandiose ornaments, but it was built with logs instead of stone. I had never seen anything like it before, and I beamed at its beauty.
I could see through the windows that this enormous structure sat in a forested wildlife sanctuary and on the shore of a sparkling lake. It was a secluded paradise. It’s no wonder the witches wanted to live here. It was a spectacular setting. Rose would love it here.
Energy rippled through the building, the wood beams, the floor, and even in the air. The light in the room pulsed with it, and my skin tingled. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it course through me, too. It was magic. And for the first time in my life I felt like I had come home.
Women of every shape, size, and ethnicity moved about the building, busying themselves with chores, carrying books and potted plants, even a few cats, but mostly just walking and chatting amongst themselves. They all wore the same shapeless linen gowns that Ada and the other girls wore, but their colors were different. Some were dark green, and others were brown or red. The girls all wore white. Maybe you had to graduate to earn a colored robe.
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