by S. M. Boyce
The chair in front of Victoria shifted and a man peeked over the headrest, quizzically glancing at Diesel.
Victoria grinned. Out of context, it must have sounded like Diesel had used an innuendo. To let off some steam, she winked at the man in front of her who was butting into their conversation. “Do you want to see his truth dagger for yourself?”
He blushed and settled back into his seat, clearing his throat a few times too many for it to be natural. Victoria stifled her laughter and added below her breath, “It’s my truth dagger, remember?”
Diesel grinned. “Of course, my love, but couples share.”
With a groan and a chuckle, she leaned against the cushy headrest and tried to relax. It was only a two hour flight, so she could suffer through his advances a little while longer. Their journey, however, would be a long one. She might as well enjoy first class while she was here.
***
On a dusty desert road near Sedona, Victoria panicked and grabbed the handle above the window of their rented four-door sedan. Rocks protruded from the road like icebergs waiting to carve open something important in the bottom of the car, and she didn’t like this one bit.
Styx clung to her hair, hiding in her locks in case anyone passed them on the empty road. So far they had only seen one dusty red pickup as it sped by, the driver laughing and shaking his head as he surveyed the tiny four-door sedan.
They had left the highway several miles ago, and it seemed as though they were in way over their heads. Their car that would be torn open by the rocky road at any minute.
Diesel drove as fast as he safely could while dodging the biggest obstacles, grumbling to himself about being able to flatten the road magically if only the Order of the Silver Griffins would let him perform magic on Earth. Even when it seemed like no one was watching, someone probably was. He couldn’t risk it, and thus they followed the bouncy road and cringed with every scrape of rock against the car’s metal underbelly.
“Why didn’t we just use a portal?” Audrey asked from the backseat, her arms pressed against the windowsill and middle seat to keep her balance in the chaotic car.
Fyrn huffed. “Portals are dangerous, and in most cases illegal. Mundane travel is safer. There’s less chance of you getting lost in the in-between. Would you rather live for eternity as a ghost lost between worlds?”
Audrey grumbled and stared out the window as the car hit another rock-berg. She winced. “Maybe.”
Victoria chuckled to herself as Diesel drove them around a particularly large boulder. “I can’t believe this is the best route.”
“I’m following the little magic man, okay?” Diesel snapped, uncharacteristically tense.
For a moment Victoria felt bad for pushing his buttons, but then her brain caught up with what he had said. “’The little magic man?’”
Diesel gestured to the GPS he had rented with the car. The arrow representing their sedan blinked along a blue route, and the estimated arrival time kept creeping backward as they drove under the unpaved road’s ludicrously high speed limit.
“If you don’t know what a GPS is, I’m astonished you know how to drive,” Victoria said.
Diesel shrugged, his obnoxious charm creeping back into his face for a second. “There’s much you don’t know about me, my love. I can pull over if you’d like to explore the subject for an hour or two.”
Ah, there’s the old Diesel. Victoria rolled her eyes.
As the minutes passed, the blinking blue arrow grew closer to the orange pin that represented their destination. Eager to be out of the jostling car, Victoria sat on the edge of her seat and peered into the horizon. Heat simmered along the dusty road, and in the distance Victoria thought she could make out something dark gray blocking their path. “What’s that?”
Everyone in the car peered forward, eyes squinting as they studied the object. Heat waves continued to obscure most of it. It wasn’t until they got nearer that they could make out the smooth gleam of asphalt and a sign pointing them to the interstate.
A road. And not just any road—a perfectly smooth road leading from the highway. All along, there had been a much smoother route to take.
In unison, Victoria, Fyrn, and Audrey turned their heads to glare at Diesel for the last hour of torture. He tensed his jaw, but refused to meet their gazes.
“Idiot boy,” Fyrn muttered under his breath.
Once on the asphalt, their little car sputtered as if with gratitude and they turned left, racing toward the destination on the GPS. In a matter of minutes, Diesel parked in an empty lot. Everyone stepped out of the car, stretching and mumbling about the ride as they tried to shake away the soreness.
“I’m driving on the way back,” Victoria said, snatching the keys from Diesel’s hand. This time he rolled his eyes. Victoria smirked. She seemed to be rubbing off on both the wizards in her life.
Arms crossed, Audrey looked around. “Where are we, Fyrn?”
Victoria stared across the empty parking lot at a guard house which sat beside a concrete walkway that cut through the desert underbrush. A metal awning stretched over a picnic table, providing shade and a place for tourists to whip out their picnic baskets. Beige sand covered much of the desert around them, though there were an abundance of short bushes with twisted trunks that cast limited shade from the harsh sun.
Above them stretched a massive hill, so high Victoria couldn’t tell what lay at its peak. The concrete path by the guard station wound toward the peak, dotted with stairs and occasionally decorated with handrails on the steeper parts.
Fyrn set his hands on his hips and stared at the hill. “Montezuma’s Well.”
Victoria quirked an eyebrow. “That sounds ominous.”
Fyrn nodded. “It’s supposed to. This is a spring, one filled with leeches and monsters the likes of which you can’t even imagine.”
Victoria stared at the unassuming hill and whistled. “There’s a spring up there?”
“It’s more of a massive sinkhole, but yes. It’s technically a spring.”
Audrey shielded her eyes with her hands. “We’re not going for a swim, are we?”
“No,” Diesel answered.
Thank goodness. Victoria had enough of watery monsters back in Atlantis. She glanced toward Audrey, who caught her eye and nodded. They had apparently had the same thought.
His staff tapping along the pavement, Fyrn led the way up the path and huffed a bit with the effort of the steep climb. “Sedona is a vast and powerful place rife with magic. Even the humans know that. This isn’t an accident, of course. There was once a kemana below the ground, much like Fairhaven is built within the rock. The Sedona kemana was a place for witches and wizards, a haven for the most powerful of our kind. The massive city sprawled for miles in every direction. In those days we had formidable numbers, and most lived here.”
Diesel nodded and offered Victoria a hand, which she ignored. He didn’t seem fazed. “The old lore says a flood destroyed them, but we all know better. Kemanas are protected by powerful magic, the kind that would never allow a natural disaster to have any effect. No, the flood was a result of something greater. Something attacked the kemana and destroyed it, and it’s been leaking magic ever since. Only one girl escaped the carnage, and she joined a local human tribe aboveground.”
“Do you think it’s true? Or is that just a legend?” Victoria asked.
Diesel shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. If it is true, she left her magical heritage in the past and refused to ever write or speak of what happened.”
“But I think I know,” Fyrn said ominously.
“Care to share with the class?” Victoria asked, puffing as she trotted up several steep steps.
Fyrn leaned on his staff as they neared the top of the hill. “They were sabotaged from within. Someone betrayed them.”
Victoria frowned, her mind racing with possibilities of what really happened all those centuries ago.
Fyrn continued, “These were powerful witches and wizards, w
ho would not be taken down by some beast. Many modern members of the Order of the Silver Griffin claim to have bloodlines from this kemana as a point of pride, whether or not it’s true.”
“I have the bloodline, for instance,” Diesel said with a grin.
Fyrn shook his head and ignored the comment. “For such powerful witches and wizards to lose their city, they must have been infiltrated. It’s the only answer that makes sense. Someone either wanted something they had—”
“Or wanted to hide something so it would never be found,” Victoria finished, her lips almost moving on their own. It all clicked into place for her in that moment, and Fyrn gave her a curt nod.
This long-lost magical city had been chosen for its power to hide something deadly. Something dangerous.
The Rhazdon Artifact she was here to find.
She tightened her fist, frowning a bit at the severity of the situation.
The party reached the top, and the stunning vista stole Victoria’s breath. For a moment she could only stand still and mutter a soft, “Wow.”
Fyrn took a deep breath. “Welcome to Montezuma’s Well, entrance to the once-great kemana of Lochrose.”
Victoria’s eyes scanned the impressive scene, not entirely sure where to look first. A massive pool of water lay below them, with only a thin metal rail between solid ground and a fifty-foot fall into the murky depths. Mountains rose into the sky beyond the water-filled sinkhole, and a dusting of short trees with twisted trunks covered the landscape along the rim.
Most impressively, the ruins of a once-great dwelling were built into the rock wall to their left, with the basic structure still standing. A window and doorway were visible in the remnants of the building, but not much else was left.
Audrey pointed to the ancient home. “That’s not where we’re going, is it?”
Diesel shook his head. “That’s an ancient native ruin, one we will respect and avoid. It’s best not to touch the remains of other cultures. What we seek is underground.”
“Here,” Fyrn said, hardly looking at the scenery.
Victoria pried her eyes away from the beautiful spring as he began to descend along the cliff wall. “What are you doing?”
“Walking down the stairs,” he said without looking back. She tiptoed closer to the edge, and sure enough—smooth, steep steps that led to the water had been carved into the cliff wall.
“I thought you said we weren’t going for a swim,” Audrey said dryly.
“Will you three hurry up?” Fyrn snapped, not answering Audrey’s concern.
Frowning, Victoria followed her mentor down the stairs, with Audrey and Diesel hot on her heels. The steps were easy enough to hurry down and open to the public, which suggested they had been added by the park rangers. It was a neat effect, walking into the sinkhole—like descending into something ancient and forbidden. Victoria couldn’t help the childish grin that snuck onto her face as they neared the rocky shore.
Victoria trailed her fingertips along the cliff as they descended, still mesmerized by the magical place. It radiated life and energy, and called to her with a siren song she didn’t fully understand. “Where are we going?”
“The entrance to the long-lost city,” Fyrn said absently from the bottom of the steps. He meandered along the shoreline, weaving between boulders and the occasional scraggly tree as though searching for something. He tapped his staff on the ground with every step, the dull thunk like a drunk and tired woodpecker stabbing a tree without rhythm or consistency.
“But what are you—”
The staff struck a dent in the rocky ground, and a sharp vibration filled the air. It hummed through the sinkhole like a choir in a cathedral, so loud that Victoria held her ears. She and Audrey cringed, almost kneeling under the intensity of the sound.
Fyrn and Diesel, however, seemed utterly unaffected. Fyrn muttered something under his breath, and a flash of light erupted from the tip of his staff. The overpowering ringing faded.
Diesel helped Victoria to her feet. “Are you all right?”
Victoria nodded. “What the hell was that?”
Fyrn grumbled under his breath. “A defense mechanism to ward off non-wizards. I should have expected it, but I didn’t think it would still be active after all these years. Apologies, girls.”
Audrey rubbed her temples and muttered something about where he could shove his apologies. Victoria smacked her friend’s shoulder, and the Atlantean shrugged unashamedly.
His staff still rooted in the small indent, Fyrn set his hand against the jagged wall nearby. Instead of his palm pressing on the rock, however, his hand disappeared into the cliff. He nodded to himself and gestured to the wall. “In you go.”
“But it’s… Where’s the door? All I see is you missing a hand,” Audrey said.
“Come on, come on,” Fyrn said, waving them through as he eyed the top of the stairs.
Victoria followed his gaze, and a light bulb went off in her head. The shrill vibration would no doubt draw the attention of anyone nearby, and while they hadn’t seen anyone, it didn’t mean their small party was in the clear.
Victoria went first, summoning her sword in case they encountered anything deadly on the other side. Braced for battle, she charged through the gap.
The rock rippled as she passed, and she sucked in a breath as her body trembled with the sensation.
Styx, apparently picking up on her frenzied energy, sailed out of his hiding place in her hair and lifted his tiny hands as though he would karate-chop the first thing he saw into submission.
Victoria skidded to a halt on the other side with her magical blade in her hand and surveyed her surroundings. She was in a silent pitch-black cave. Not even the whisper of a draft or the drop of water on the ground broke the quiet.
She held her breath, body tensed for an attack.
Feet shuffled behind her, and with a burst of light Audrey and Diesel entered. Fyrn jumped in behind them, and their forms vanished into the darkness when the light from outside was cut off.
Audrey’s voice echoed through the dark cave, making Victoria jump. “If it’s just a hidden door, can’t humans stumble in accidentally?”
“A wizard must be present for it to open,” Diesel said with a shrug.
“Elitists,” Audrey said with a chuckle.
Victoria laughed, the tension of the moment broken by her friend’s hypocrisy.
“Ladies, focus,” Fyrn said.
The familiar tap of Fyrn’s staff on hard ground echoed through the space. The crystal in the top of his staff shimmered to life, casting a dim glow on his weathered face. Within seconds, bands of light radiated from the stone like ripples on a pond.
The bands passed through Victoria, tickling a little, and hit the wall. The wall seemed to shiver as it absorbed his magic, the movement like a dog shaking off water. Victoria tensed for battle, unnerved by the almost human movement of the walls around her.
Fyrn, however, looked as bored as if he were surveying a rainy sky.
Humming filled the cave once more, and the walls began to sparkle. One by one, gemstones appeared and glimmered like stars in a night sky. Purple, blue, green, pink—the wall erupted into a rainbow of color. Brilliant light radiated from the crystals around them, eliciting a few stunned gasps.
Fast as lightning, the colorful illumination spread down a tunnel that had been shrouded in darkness.
What had been an impossibly dark cave now glowed with light radiating from the brilliant crystals embedded in the cave wall. Styx muttered his usual gibberish, shoulders slumping as he stared around. Even Victoria relaxed, marveling at the sight. “It’s beautiful.”
Fyrn huffed. “Much of Lochrose is beautiful, designed to capture your attention while something else kills you. Let’s go. Whatever is down here already knows we’re here. The warning signal out front would have alerted it, as will these crystals.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have lit the crystals, then,” Victoria said, hands on her hips.
&n
bsp; He eyed her warily. “These tunnels are designed to confuse. To mislead. To kill. Without the light, we would be lost in their depths forever.”
A thought occurred to Victoria. Not long ago, Fyrn had trusted her with the knowledge of a powerful weapon he was building. A secret, one he had told only her and Audrey. He had cursed the tunnels that led to that project cave in a similar way to the Lochrose tunnels, and she wondered how much of his magical protection had been inspired by the once-great city they were going to visit.
Fyrn was a mystery, one she would probably never fully unravel. Every time she thought she knew her mentor, he revealed something else.
If she hadn’t already trusted him with her life, that fact might have unnerved her.
