by Chris Miller
Dad’s face lit up. “Do you remember what it said?”
I strained to recall the phrase and etched it in the dirt as each word came back to memory.
IN GIRUM
IMUS NOCTE
ET CONSUMIMURIGNI
That’s it!” he said excitedly. “The letter sequence I found in the Maze of Rings—the one that reveals the location of the Lost Shard.”
“Xaul told us it means: We Enter the Circle by Night and Are Consumed by the Fire…or something like that,” I said.
“Excellent, Hunter!” Dad said. “Well done.”
“Thanks Dad, but what’s the answer to the riddle?”
“Unfortunately, that’s something I don’t remember,” Dad said with a chuckle. “I wrote that phrase down on a scrap of paper when I was in the Eye of Ends, but when I returned I didn’t remember doing it at all. In fact, I don’t remember much of anything inside the Eye, except seeing the final vision.”
“So, we’ll have to figure it out together,” I said.
“Yes,” Dad said excitedly. “Now, if we had a map of Solandria I could show you what I meant about the matching sequence in the shards.”
“There is a map in the Author’s Writ,” Faldyn suggested.
“Yes, but we don’t have the Writ anymore,” I explained. “Somebody swiped it.”
“Perhaps, you could borrow one,” Faldyn said.
“From…? Do you have one you’re not telling us about?”
“Nope, but I’m pretty sure they did,” Faldyn said, pointing to a couple of skeletons sitting in the corner. At first I dismissed the idea. Clearly, the bones weren’t going to talk, but upon second glance I noticed something dangling from one of their necks, a small chain with a key attached to it. It was a rusty old key that looked like it could dissolve into dust at any moment. The handle of it bore the Author’s mark…three interlocking Vs. It was clearly a key that belonged to an Author’s Writ.
I moved across the room and pulled the chain off the skeleton’s neck. Instantly, my fingers were covered in an orangey dust from handling the key.
“Well, we have a key…but where is the book?”
“The key will lead you to it,” Faldyn said.
“What? Like a compass or something?” I asked. I hadn’t known that about the Author’s Writ before.
“Allow me,” Faldyn said, reaching out for the key. I handed it to him and he moved toward the wall. “Watch and learn,” he said before closing his eyes.
He took the key and with a firm tap, he rapped the triple V handle against the wall like a tuning fork.
TWING...Hmmmmmmmmm!
Despite the rusty appearance of the key, it produced a golden tone, laced with a chorus of heavenly voices. Faldyn held the key out at arms length and keeping his eyes closed, let the sound guide him. The key reverberated with a humming sound that seemed to grow louder and softer as Faldyn moved about the room. It reached its loudest pitch as he hovered over the hay pile my father had slept on. Excitedly, I tore the hay pile apart and found a cloth-wrapped book buried like a hidden treasure. It was the Author’s Writ.
Faldyn opened his eyes and handed the key to me.
“Thanks, Faldyn,” I said.
“You are quite welcome,” he replied.
With hurried fingers I placed the rusted key into the lock on the book cover and turned it to the right. Like magic, the embossed design on the cover lit with a golden light as I turned the page. Words began to form on the pages, becoming visible where once they were not. I got goose bumps every time I watched it happen…the good kind of goose bumps.
I flipped through the book until I came to the page with a map of Solandria drawn on it. I stepped back and the map extended up from the pages like a holograph, lighting up the walls of the room and allowing all of us to look at the map from all sides. There were too many shards to count, but we began to identify collections of shards in formations—like the stars in the skies formed constellations. Almost immediately, my eyes fell on Inire. It was one of the easiest shards for me to spot.
“Here,” my dad said, pointing his finger into the holograph not far from where Inire hovered. “These sixteen shards are part of the Nautilatian collection. I’ll start from the outermost shard and read the names of the shards inward to the center of the spiral. You make a note of the first letter in the shard’s name as I go.”
“Okay,” I said excitedly.
“Inanis,” Dad said aloud, pointing to a small shard about a third of the size of Inire. I wrote the first letter of the shard’s name on the ground with my finger, “I.”
“Nebulya. Galacia,” Dad said, pointing to the frozen shard I had visited on my last trip to Solandria. Again I repeated the first letter, writing it on the ground.
“Insula,” he said, pointing to a smallish shard that looked almost like a speck in comparison to the others. Following this shard, there was a larger gap in the Nautilatian formation, but he moved past the space to the next in sequence.
“Rellim, Ut, Merula, Inire, Mihi, Uberian, Sophmalan, Noc, Obdurant, Cordova, Tepi, Eventu…”
By this time the shards had started to grow closer together and the spiral had grown considerably tighter.
“Well, what do you have so far?” Dad asked.
“IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE,” I said, reading the letters that also happened to make up the first phrase of the riddle.
“Amazing,” Faldyn said, reading it over and double-checking my work.
“What about the second half of the phrase?” I asked.
“It’s there, if you read it in reverse,” Dad explained.
“That’s cool!” I said, mouthing the rest of the phrase as I read it backward. “But what does it mean?”
“It’s only a guess, but I believe at the center of that spiral there is another shard…a lost shard where the Living Tree is hidden.”
“Unfortunately,” Faldyn added, “it’s not a very friendly part of the Void to fly into. The space you speak of is known as the Black Curtain. Many brave sky captains have tried to navigate through it, only to end up turned around or lost. Sometimes, entire ships come out of the Curtain…only the ships and no men. You’d have to have a death wish to go in there.”
“Which is exactly why we’re going,” Dad said, eyeing the space on the map with courage.
“My thoughts exactly,” I replied, but when I realized what he had said I paused. “Wait, we’re going with a death wish? I thought….”
“What better place for the Lost Shard to be hidden, than behind an impenetrable curtain of darkness?” Dad asked.
“Well, yeah…but can we go back to the death wish part because I was pretty sure that we were trying to stop Tonomis from killing us…and destroying the world…not, you know, hurrying his plan along.”
“We’re not hurrying his plan along. We’re going to change it. The only way we don’t die is if we stop Tonomis, so we’re not really at a loss if we do. We might as well die trying.”
“That’s comforting to know,” I said, feeling rather sheepish.
“I’m not sure I understand,” Faldyn said.
We quickly caught Faldyn up on what my father knew about the Eye of Ends and how Tonomis was going to recover the Bloodstone, if we didn’t get to it first. In the end, he understood the weight of our mission and decided to warn the rest of the Resistance of the potential danger that was coming.
“I only hope the Resistance will trust me this time,” Faldyn said.
“They will,” I said. “Just find Hope and give her this.” I pulled the medallion Hope had given me off my neck and handed it to Faldyn.
“Hope’s necklace?” Faldyn said, grasping it in his palm.
“Tell her I found my father, and that we’re going to try and stop Tonomis from getting the Bloodstone. We could use all the help we can get.”
/> “I will,” Faldyn said. “But how will you be traveling there?”
“Don’t worry about that; I have it covered,” Dad said.
“You do?” I asked. It was the first I had heard of it. In the distance the sound that had haunted me through the night returned.
Craaaaa, craaaaa!
“There she is,” Dad said with a smile. “Come on, it’s time you met Nowaii! I think you’ll like her.”
Chapter 24
Into the Black Curtain
On the other side of the Lost Fortress, the hill dropped down into a ravine where a cave was carved out of the foothills. Just inside the mouth of the cave was a Thunderbird that had grown considerably larger than any I had ever seen. Her foot was tethered to the rocks, but she looked well cared for. Evidently Belac, or my father, had been good at keeping pets.
“Hunter, meet Nowaii,” Dad said, “my Thunderbird.”
“Craaaa,” the mammoth bird responded.
“Hello there, girl,” I said, reaching toward her neck and stroking her feathers. She lowered her head further and ruffled her feathers so I could feel the down beneath them.
Dad untethered Nowaii and together we climbed onto her back. With a giant leap, the Thunderbird took to the skies, carrying us over the terrain of the Shard of Inire and out to the open skies of the Void.
By midday we had already passed the shards of Mihi, Uberian, Sophmalan and Noc. By sunset Cordova, Tepi, and Eventu were behind us. We stopped only to gather food and water along the way, keeping each stop as short as possible.
As we traveled Dad told me stories of his adventures as a Codebearer, how he had fought dragons, Skrills and all kinds of Shadow creatures. Despite the hardness in his heart toward the Author, Dad seemed to genuinely like the Codebearers and had enjoyed his time serving with them. I tried to engage him about the Author, but he brushed the subject aside as if it weren’t important.
Before the last sliver of sunlight faded into the murky mist of the Void, we arrived at our destination. A wall of black clouds rose before us, lit on its sides by the fiery red sun. Beyond the edge of the clouds lay the mysteries of the Black Curtain and quite possibly, the Lost Shard. After seeing our destination, I regretted agreeing to the journey. Breaking into Tonomis’ underground lair would have been less intimidating than this.
“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked nervously, as we approached through the first layer of clouds.
“Pretty sure,” Dad said. “It looks like a black curtain to me, don’t you think? You aren’t wimping out on me are you?”
“No, no….no…I’m just wondering if it would be better to enter it during the day because of all the sunlight that probably…can’t…penetrate the…clouds….Oh, never mind.” Before I could finish talking, we passed through the front of the curtain and were immediately swallowed in darkness.
“Craaaaa!” Nowaii called.
“Steady, girl,” Dad said, stroking her neck and trying to calm her down. Even though I couldn’t see, I felt her body tremble beneath me. She was scared.
“I fear nothing but the Author,” I whispered to myself. The words lit up my Veritas Sword, but did little to lighten my heart because there was nothing to see. What seemed like a million minutes later we still saw nothing but black. I was starting to freak out.
Dad decided to whistle the familiar tune, You Are My Sunshine! He used to hum and sing it a lot when I was a kid, but somehow, here in the blackness it lost its ability to bring comfort. As a matter of fact, it only added to the creepiness of the place.
“Please stop, Dad,” I begged. “Your whistling is freaking me out.”
“Aw, come on, son. Where’s your sense of adventure...your courage?”
“Maybe it will catch up to me when we’re back on solid ground. I don’t like being…nowhere.”
“Craaaaa!” Nowaii squawked in agreement with me.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m not too thrilled with it either,” Dad admitted.
Suddenly, the wind began to pick up. Nowaii started to shift from side to side in the currents of the air. Once or twice she dropped so quickly I left my stomach somewhere behind me. Then, in the distance ahead, there came a great whooshing sound. At first it sounded like a waterfall or a great wind, but then it became something more.
“Do you hear that?” I asked. “It sounds like a train or something. What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Dad said calmly, “but I think we’d better hold on tight. I see movement ahead.”
He was right; at the furthest reach of my sword’s light the clouds began to move abruptly to the right. Something was stirring in the center of the Black Curtain…something big and powerful. There was a half-second of absolute stillness and then…WHOOSH!
In an instant Nowaii was pulled to the side by a massive gust of wind. The jolt was so sudden that Nowaii’s wings nearly broke from the pressure of it. She tucked them close to her body and gave in to the will of the wind. All at once, we were tumbling through space with no control over our direction. Up, down and side to side, we were tossed about in the wild currents, riding an unseen airstream. There was no flying here, no fighting the constant pulling and twisting; we were completely at the mercy of the winds.
The sensation was disorienting, like a roller coaster in the dark. I clung to my father as long as I could, but eventually the G-forces pulled us apart. The only thing keeping us connected to Nowaii was a tether rope that was latched to her saddle. Soon, even that began to give under the pressure.
“Hunter, the rope is not going to hold!” Dad shouted over the roar of the wind. “Hurry, give me your hands, son! We have to stay together.”
“Where are you?” I asked, unable to find him through the blackness.
“Here…I’m here!” he shouted back.
I reached out and felt his fingertips in front of me. I took hold of his wrists just before the tether broke loose and we separated completely from Nowaii. The winds were pulling even harder now, spinning us around the center of what seemed to be a massive cyclone. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I sensed we were rising higher and higher through the middle of it. Eventually, the gusts of wind began to pry my father and me apart; my strength was failing and my hands began to slip.
“Hunter, hang tight!”
“I…I can’t, Dad…I….”
Before I could finish speaking, we were torn apart by the wind and I was spinning away through the air on my own.
“Hunter!” I heard my father scream before the sound disappeared in the roar of the Black Curtain’s fury.
The last thing I remember before losing consciousness was the sense that I was falling, dropping fast, like a comet bulleting toward the ground at break-neck speed.
This is why you should never pick a fight with a tornado, I thought as I fell. Then it was over…. Everything went black.
Chapter 25
The Lost Shard
I woke up feeling like I had just lost a fight. My body was sore and bruised. I was thankful to be alive, but at the same time I was worried about my father.
I saw a grey sky and black trees above me. The air was warm and still, with not even the slightest bit of wind. I heard thunder in the distance but the cloud cover overhead did not look anything like storm clouds. I tried to sit up, but my muscles felt like they were on fire.
“Easy there,” a girl’s voice said. “You haven’t got the strength for that yet.”
“Hope? Is that you?”
Her face appeared above me, as if out of thin air. Her lips curled in a sweet smile and her almond eyes searched my own and calmed my nerves. The medallion I had sent with Faldyn hung elegantly from her neck. It looked so much better on her than it did on me. It belonged.
“Here, drink this,” she offered, bringing a cup to my mouth. “Be careful; it’s hot. It will help you regain your strength.�
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The aroma of the foamy drink aroused my senses, the same juniper scent I first smelled when I awoke. I took a quick sip and almost immediately began to feel better. The sweet drink had a rich velvety texture, much like my favorite latte, only much…much better.
“This is good,” I said, taking a longer sip from the cup.
“I’m glad you like it,” Hope replied. “Feeling better?”
“Much,” I answered. I wiped a bit of foam from my lips with my sleeve and sat up easily. Like magic, the pain was almost completely gone.
“Where am I?” I asked, taking in my surroundings. I was sitting in the middle of a grove of blackened trees that looked as if they had recently survived a forest fire. Their limbs and trunks were as black as soot, but what struck me most of all was what they held. Skeletons, hundreds and hundreds of skeletons lined the trees, some of them hanging from the branches and others scattered about the ground. I eyed the scene nervously. “Am I…dead?”
“No, you’re on the Lost Shard,” she said simply. “But I wish you would have waited for me. I could have made your arrival less…dramatic. Why did you leave Noc without me?” Hope asked.
“I was just anxious, I guess. Once I figured out where my father was I couldn’t wait to get started. Then Desi arrived and I kinda got…carried away….”
I took another sip of the drink, but to my dismay I found the cup was already empty. I didn’t realize how quickly I had downed it.
“I understand,” Hope said. “Patience is one of the hardest things to learn. But good things come to those who wait.”
“Is there any more?” I asked, handing the empty cup back to Hope and licking my lips expectantly.
“One cup is enough, trust me. You couldn’t handle more.”
I frowned at the news. Whatever was in her concoction was powerfully good stuff.
