Breaking Stars (Book 2)

by Jenna Van Vleet

  ‘Did it take long? Had Nolen been working on it all this time? What drove him to the point of proffering a dead woman at Gabriel’s feet, and what else had he done to force her love to lose grip on his hope?’

  She could not bear to think of it. Thankfully, the door behind her swung and distracted the tears from falling.

  It was her brother, dressed in a form-fitting breastplate over a blue doublet with white-slashed sleeves, gray trousers, and brown boots that curled up over his knees. His eyes flashed from behind the mop of his hair that never lay in the same place twice. “Casimir has returned. We are leaving as soon as we are gathered.”

  Chapter 14

  The air inside the palace was cold and musty, filled with old moisture like a cave, but nothing grew here. In fact, nothing grew in Roshenin, which Gabriel found odd. It would seem as though nature should reclaim the land, but everything here was dead. The Prince had taken a moment of clear thought and brought with him a sample of a living branch, a flower wrapped in paper, and a few flagons of water he carried in a satchel. But Gabriel could not feel them.

  The palace was tall inside and speckled with light. As they stepped through the doors, their bootfalls echoed off the walls that they could not see in the darkness. Nolen pulled a string of Spirit from Gabriel’s chest to light an orb he lofted over his head. It illuminated a dozen stone statues of the dead. The few closest to the door looked to be unbothered, but the further they went, the more frightened the faces became until people had begun to run. The broken figure of a woman in mid stride lay near doors on the far end.

  “Where do we go?” Nolen asked Kindle, but the girl shrugged.

  “I read it would be here, not its exact location.”

  “How did you even find the information to begin with?” Nolen asked as he turned around slowly.

  “I was cataloguing books, and the bookmark was so pretty and gilded in bronze that I had to pull it out and look at it,” she replied and stepped around a broken vase.

  “Those doors seem to be the most inviting,” Tabor said and pointed to the far wall. He looked at Gabriel who just happened to catch his eye before averting them to the ceiling. “Do you have the energy to do this, boy?”

  “I should think not. Dear brother Nolen kept him awake all night.” Kindle interjected.

  “He handled worse,” Nolen muttered and turned to the far doors. “We begin then.”

  Mikelle came up to Gabriel’s arm and took his hand. For once she did not lean on him. His body still ached, and if he lived through the day, it would hurt all the more next morning.

  Nolen led them towards the doors and gave one a push, illuminating the room inside. The Prince stepped in, and suddenly the darkness speckled with shards of gold. Gabriel followed inside. The large room was covered floor to ceiling with jagged squares of pyrite of every size.

  “Brazzle?” Mikelle asked, which he assumed was an Arconian term for fake-gold.

  “Is this real?” Kindle whispered as she stepped up to tap a finger on one.

  “No,” Nolen replied. “Real gold does not grow like this.”

  As Tabor entered, the door behind them slammed shut, and when he turned to push on it, it had no give. “It begins.”

  “How is this a ward?” Nolen muttered, turning around to look at the room. It was no larger than Gabriel’s bedchamber in Kilkiny Palace, but it was straight and rectangular. “What do you know of this?” he asked Gabriel.

  Gabriel kicked at a chunk on the floor to break it. “It’s pyrite, but I don’t know much else.”

  “Can you create it?”

  “I cannot, no,” he kicked the rock again.

  Nolen drew green strings from Gabriel and began setting patterns to chip at the stone, but it neither broke nor flaked.

  “Some stones can be reduced by oxidation,” Gabriel offered.

  “Of what kind?” Mikelle asked.

  “Water, some by air.”

  “I do not have time for that,” Nolen muttered.

  Kindle gave her father a look, and in unison the two of them moved their hands in a flowing airy movement and drew Air from their chests. They blew oxygen in solid beams at the stones.

  “It will take much longer—” Gabriel began, but Nolen turned around to shoot him a silencing glare.

  “Point it in the far direction. Arconian, you do the same with Water. Find me a door,” Nolen said and gestured to the end of the room. Handing Gabriel the satchel, he motioned to shake the water inside, which Gabriel started. Mikelle pulled moisture from the air to shoot into the stone. Quickly, the stone turned brown and flaked off.

  ‘An odd ward,’ Gabriel thought, perching on a cluster of stone to take the weight off his feet. He looked back at the door to see pyrite creeping into the hinges in rapid succession. He frowned and looked at a spot on the floor. Pyrite rose in thin layers across each square, forming tinier squares grew. ‘Were they growing when we came in?’

  He stood and stepped forward and nearly careened into the floor. He caught himself on a large square, cutting a sharp slice into the outside of his hand. He pushed himself back up, but newly-grown fake-gold snapped around his boots.

  “Problem!” he yelled. “The stone is growing.”

  Nolen turned with a surprised look as the doubling stone shone under his light. He turned back to the breaking stone before them. “Focus all your attentions there.”

  “We don’t even know if a door is there!” Mikelle snapped.

  Nolen turned to look at Gabriel, and for once held his eyes without lashing out. Gabriel nodded and pulled green strings from his chest with some difficulty, twisting them in his hands until they formed a simple pointed pattern. “You can feel the walls with this.”

  Nolen nodded and formed his own pattern, slipping it into the walls. His own foot was caught and he broke it loose right before pointing to the floor in the center. “Here—a door is here.”

  They immediately refocused their attention on the floor, watching as glittering gold formed around them. Gabriel calculated, the growth of rock against the destruction of it, and he soon realized they were not moving fast enough.

  “You need another Water pattern in there,” he said to the Prince.

  “I already hold three patterns, Mage.”

  “I could hold dozens. It’s not hard.”

  “For you!” Nolen snapped.

  “Then you need to drop the orb and take up a Water pattern.”

  Nolen opened his mouth to retort when Tabor agreed. “We can work in the dark for a few moments.”

  The Prince did not look as angry as Gabriel thought he would, right before the light vanished, and the sound of another jet-pattern picked up. Gabriel could feel the rocks growing around him, feel the strange sensation of living stone. It was something he never experienced. In the center of the room, though, the stone felt dead, and as he extended his senses, he felt he could see the room. It was alive all around him save for a black part in the center steadily widening. The room smelled like metallic dust, and he put a sleeve over his face to keep the iron oxide out of his lungs.

  He felt the floor give, and Nolen illuminated the room. He wasted no time and flung a light source down into the next space, grabbing both women by the shoulder and guiding them to jump. Kindle balked for a moment but followed after Mikelle silently. Tabor was quick to follow. “You next,” Nolen stated to Gabriel, picking his feet up and breaking the gold around him. Gabriel quickly obeyed and jumped into the light.

  He landed solidly not far below. Turning, he gave the new room a long look. It was set up on a dais and made of black stone unlike the gray jagged rock of the city. It stretched as far as the dim light of the orb’s faint greenish light shone. The ceiling hung small arched supports in a row of seven that repeated every few feet down. From the bottom point of each support suspended a precariously balanced drop of liquid. Below each one was a bowl of some fluid that stood level with Gabriel’s chest.

  What really made Gabriel raise his brow
was a skeleton in the center of the room, lying face down and long-since decomposed. ‘Someone else made it this far.’

  Mikelle stepped up to a bowl and sank a Water pattern into it. “Ice is in this room,” she said, making Gabriel feel the chill in the air, “And something else I do not recognize.”

  “What is it that hangs from the points?” Nolen asked, brushing flakes of gold off his boots. As he set his foot down, the droplets gave a little shake.

  Gabriel stepped up and gave both the droplet and the bowl a hard whiff. He pointed to the bowl of a smoky solution. “There is bleach in this ice.”

  “Are you sure?” Mikelle asked and sniffed. “I do not think I’ve smelled it before.”

  Nolen sighed. “Best make a start.”

  “Wait,” Mikelle said and put a hand out before he could step onto to the floor. “What happens when this mixes with that?” she said quietly, pointing from droplet to bowl. “We should be generously careful.”

  Nolen seemed to agree as he stepped out gently onto the floor. Nothing moved, so he continued. Tabor joined him and Kindle followed, moving ever so softly. Gabriel and Mikelle stepped last, walking with a line of milky bowls between them.

  “Why are they so high?” she asked.

  It took Gabriel a moment to reason it out. “They’re at eye-level. Or they would be if you were shorter like these people were back them.”

  “What are the chances of these becoming a gas if mixed?” Nolen asked not far ahead.

  “Sounds plausible,” Tabor replied. “Since they are so close to the nose and would be inhaled quickly.”

  “Halt!” Nolen suddenly exclaimed and flung his arms out to catch his balance. He stepped back and looked at what on the floor had caused him to slip. It shimmered in jagged threads as far as the room was long.

  “What is it?” Mikelle asked.

  “A kind of hoarfrost.”

  “What did he just call me?”

  “No, it’s a word for ice,” Gabriel replied. “Like when dew freezes.” He felt Water drawn from him as Nolen attempted to pull the ice into his hand. Shortly after he snapped his fingers together to make fire. The droplets of moisture closest to him jumped and wavered in the light.

  “It is not melting,” Nolen said. They had nearly reached the skeleton in the center of the room. “Be very careful from here on.”

  They set out again, taking each step with great caution. No one dared touch the bowls, so all balance had to come from their arms that could not be swung out wide. Gabriel knew it was only a matter of time before someone loosed a droplet. Nolen was lithe and fast, but Tabor had a few extra pounds about him. Kindle was small but lacked grace, and while Mikelle claimed Water Mages were excellent dancers, Gabriel knew she was often uncertain on her feet. And Gabriel, well, he could go at any moment, but he had worked with ice and water enough to know how to move on it. He did not bother picking his feet up, but rather slid along the floor to maintain the largest surface area on the ice. The skeleton passed on his right, fallen as if in sleep.

  As he was working through who would be the first to fall, Kindle gave a sharp squeak and flung her arms out to catch her balance. She slammed the side of her hand into a bowl. The droplet above wavered and fell. Mikelle flung out a Water pattern to catch it, but the solvent slipped through her pattern and fell onto the mixture. Kindle looked at it for a moment as though the world held its breath, and suddenly fell to the ground.

  The droplets around them jumped and fell. “Run!” Nolen shouted, tearing ahead. Tabor looked back at Kindle a moment before he followed his son.

  ‘Had it been anyone else…’ Gabriel thought. The girl lay right in front of him on her back. “Go,” he told Mikelle who held her scarf over her mouth. Her eyes were wide but she did not argue and skidded across the ice.

  Gabriel took as much a running start as he could, stooped as he reached the little Princess, and slipped a hand under her neck and knees. She was light and easy to heft into his chest even for his weakened state. His mind couldn’t help but contemplate what the mixture made despite the danger. He had studied liquids in Jaden, but it was more to understand what was flammable, what could not be molded, and how earth could benefit the different Elements. ‘Ice, bleach and some other solvent that once breathed in could knock a grown woman out?’

  He felt faint as he took in a breath, but he held it before any more of the gasses could get in. ‘Ice, bleach and what else?’ His shoulders ached, but he would not put the girl down.

  Nolen made it to the far end with the others not far behind. His eyes were wide as he turned to look. A door stood on the other end, but his two greatest possessions were in danger. “Hurry!” he yelled, trying to step out onto the ice, but Tabor grabbed him. For the first time, Nolen looked frightened, and Gabriel was at last a valuable asset.

  ‘Ice, bleach and…acetone.’ He looked up. “It’s flammable!” he shouted. “Set it alight!”

  The breath he took made him stronger, and he pushed himself off a bowl as Nolen drew Fire and snapped a flame. Gabriel crouched and fell to one knee as he used his forward momentum to skid the last few yards. The world exploded above him. He fell over the edge of the dais and turned onto his side to keep Kindle from hitting anything. He laid there panting with her on top, feeling the sting in his knee where the frost had cut him.

  “You star-crossed boy, you should have left her,” Mikelle shouted in Arconian so quickly it took him a moment to translate. She crouched and put her hands on Kindle’s face, feeling for breath and pulse and then made sure Gabriel was alright.

  “You left her behind,” Nolen growled at his father.

  “As did you. She is fine, let it go.” Tabor snapped and turned to the girl tucked safely in Gabriel’s arms. “I owe you a great debt, Class Ten.” He stooped, and the two of them put Kindle on the floor. “Will she live?”

  “She will,” Gabriel said, sitting up. “It formed a kind of unconscious-rendering gas, though I thought it should take longer to form…” he trailed off, thinking. “Once it gets out of her lungs, she will wake.”

  “I never studied air in these forms,” Nolen said as if trying to make himself feel better. “Never how it was formed, just what I could do with it.”

  “So that poor fool inhaled the mixture, fell asleep, and then never woke up because he continued to breathe it? He starved to death?” Mikelle asked.

  Kindle gave a stir, and her eyes fluttered open for a moment. Nolen rushed to her, falling to a knee and taking up her hand. “Can you hear me?”

  “What happened?” she whispered. “My head is splitting.”

  “Did you drop her?” he snapped at Gabriel.

  “She fell you great lout,” Mikelle interjected and turned to Kindle. “Mage Gabriel rescued you and carried you out. Looked like something out of a dream with the air above him burning and him skidding on the ice holding you safe.” She sighed. “So romantic.”

  Nolen looked at her as though he smelled something awful. Standing, he drew Kindle to her feet. “Do you want to continue or do you want to stay here?”

  “I daren’t stay,” she replied and looked back into the darkly green room that still glowed hauntingly. “It is safer with him.” To Gabriel’s surprise, she took his hand up and held it fast.

  He could tell by the way her hand squeezed now and again, that she still felt the effects of the gas, so he pulled her hand onto his elbow to give her something to lean on. His shoulder screamed at him, but he learned long ago tell himself he was fine.

  Nolen turned them to the black door in the center of the wall tucked into a domed alcove. With great care, he opened it inward. No great threat assaulted him, so he stepped in with the others following closely. This room was circular and brightly lit from a large orb the size of a dinner plate hanging against a wall. As before, the door closed behind them as they entered. This time there were no bodies inside. The round room glowed a sky blue near the orb and a dark teal furthest away.

  Immediately the o
rb moved slowly in a circle around them, rotating on a lip above their heads.

  “What is it?” Kindle asked, watching it carefully.

  Tabor muttered, “Not sure.”

  The orb gained speed as it rotated, casting beams of light in the dark edges as quickly as it darkened them. Gabriel suddenly felt something building inside him. As he watched the orb streak by, he knew whatever the sensation was, it came from the light source. Nolen must have felt it too, for he rubbed a hand over his chest uncomfortably.

  “It’s energy,” Gabriel said, his voice breaking the silence and making Mikelle jump. “It is alive, whatever it is, and it’s giving off Spirit energy.”

  “Why is it speeding up?” Tabor asked, as if to himself.

  The orb continued to rotate and as it gained speed, Gabriel felt it swelling inside him until it became tight, and he put a hand against his chest and grunted. Nolen turned to watch him.

  “Are you unwell?” Kindle asked in a kind, worried voice. He tried to answer but inhaled a gasp instead.

  “What is wrong?” Mikelle turned, her hands outstretched as if to catch him.

  “It’s the orb,” Tabor replied. The light whipping around them cast ghastly shadows on their faces in rapid succession. “Spirit works off of a living thing moving to create kinetic energy. It remains constant unless acted on by something else. Whatever is causing that orb to move is increasing the kinetic energy in him.”

  Nolen suddenly pulled off the Castrofax control piece and bent over, gasping for breath and clutching his chest. The pressure in Gabriel’s torso only grew until it became painful. He closed his eyes as the room began to hum.

  “Gabriel,” Mikelle said, her voice concerned. “You’re bleeding.” She put cloth under his nose.

  He opened his eyes to see blood spreading into her shawl. Kindle let his arm go as he pitched forward, but gravity was an unkind ally, and he toppled onto a knee.

  “Stop the orb,” Tabor commanded, and a moment later Air flew around them, but the light did not slow. Mikelle tried to form an ice barrier, but it had no effect.