by S. M. Boyce
Twin pulled Kara into a hug. “I will. You take care of yourself.”
Kara laughed. “I’ll try. Now get out of here before I cave to that little tyrant and take him from you.”
Twin smiled and brushed her finger over Flick’s forehead. She closed her eyes, but Flick glanced back to Kara.
Crack!
Kara flinched at the booming echo. Twin and Flick disappeared in the blink of an eye, too quick to see.
She turned back to the small tunnel that hid the lichgate. She groaned. In five minutes, she would be on her way back to the Ayavelian castle, drumming up some excuse about how she’d gotten lost on a hike and desperately wanted food. Or something.
After she found Braeden and knocked some sense into him, she would have to distract the Bloods from the fact that their subjects were disappearing. The question was how.
Kara took a deep breath and shimmied into the hole. The sting of mold and wet dirt burned her nose, but she kept going. A kick in her gut and the telltale flash of blue light told her she’d crossed through the lichgate. The sudden roar of the waterfall on the other side confirmed it. After the silence of the forest, the water seemed to thunder.
She pulled herself from the hole and stood, trying and failing to brush all the dirt from her clothes. She stretched and looked around, but she was alone. She headed toward the castle and kept her eyes on the forest floor as she tried to come up with a good lie. The longer she toyed with the words, the faker they sounded.
She groaned and ran her hand through her hair. She would wing it.
Kara didn’t have any trouble getting back to her room once she found the castle. A maid showed her through the labyrinth of hallways, a huge smile on the young woman’s face. Kara asked about Braeden, but was told he’d left. The woman didn’t know where, and said the Bloods wouldn’t be available until the next day. After the maid left, Kara punched her pillows in lieu of screaming in frustration, but there was nothing she could do but wait.
And wait, she did. The Bloods wouldn’t see her. She spent the entire next day trying to meet them or catch them in the hall, even going so far as to simply sit in the throne room until they showed up. They never did. They definitely hadn’t left for their homes because none of their soldiers left the kingdom.
The Bloods were avoiding her.
Entire agonizing days passed this way. As the sun set on day four, Kara paced her room in an effort to drum up a plan when the door opened without a knock.
She groaned. “Knocking isn’t hard to—”
She stopped when she looked over to see Aislynn in her doorway.
The Ayavelian queen smiled and bowed her head in the briefest of welcomes. “How has your stay been so far, Kara? I’ve missed speaking to you.”
“I—what? I’ve been trying to find you for days.”
Aislynn’s brow furrowed. “You have?”
“Yes! I needed to ask you about—”
Aislynn interrupted. “I must apologize. I thought you were avoiding me! But I have something exciting to show you. I can promise you will not want to wait, and it might answer your questions. Even Braeden was too excited to wait until tomorrow morning.”
“He was? I thought he left.”
“Who told you that?”
“One of the maids. She—”
Aislynn laughed. “The maids gossip more than a swarm of bees. They’re usually wrong. He’ll be there if you wanted to see him.”
Kara suppressed a sigh of relief. “What exactly is this thing you want to show me?”
“My scholars found an ancient artifact, one they believe was created by the Vagabond. We have no idea what it is, but I cannot escape the feeling it will turn the tides in this war. It might finally be the answer to stopping this incessant fighting altogether.”
Kara waited for her intuition to flare, like it had the moment the queen saw Adele change form. While the twinge of worry sat at the bottom of her gut, it didn’t shoot through her like it had the first time. Aislynn might actually be telling the truth.
“Where is it?” Kara finally asked.
“In Ethos. Braeden is trying his best to dislodge it. The other royals all tried and failed. It’s embedded deep into a cave wall, and we cannot remove it. We were hoping you and your Grimoire might have better luck. Will you try?”
She nodded.
Aislynn relaxed her shoulders. “Thank you, Vagabond. My griffin is saddled and waiting. I’ve heard you can summon mounts with that book of yours. Do any of them happen to fly?”
Kara couldn’t help it. She grinned.
Kara flew for hours, Aislynn always slightly ahead and leading the way on a beige griffin. To keep from scaring Aislynn’s mount senseless, Kara had chosen to summon the Grimoire’s griffin as well. The black dragon would have probably made the creature jump out of its skin.
They flew through a small valley between two mountains. These low peaks didn’t have snow on them, but the chilly night still ate into Kara’s body. She hoped they would land soon.
Finally, Aislynn slowed until they flew side by side. “See that cave below with the light? That’s where we’re going.”
Kara glanced down, and sure enough, light emanated from one of the mountain’s caves. Guards stood on the ledge in front of it. A figure with dark hair clad in Hillsidian clothes walked up one of the paths, too far away to distinguish. That had to be Braeden.
“We’re in Ethos already?” Kara asked.
“Yes and no. The Gala was held far from here, but Ethos is a massive place with many lost caverns. Shall we?”
Kara nodded. They slowed and headed for the cave, but Aislynn pulled back to let Kara land first on a narrow ledge by the entrance. Kara braced herself as the griffin’s hooves clattered on the rock. She dismounted and peeked into the cave.
Narrow walls and a low-hanging ceiling meant she wouldn’t have much space to move. She patted the griffin on his shoulder and wished him away. He disappeared in a puff of blue dust.
She walked in as Aislynn’s griffin landed outside, its hooves clattering on the rock. Kara headed for a large bowl against the far wall. A fire crackled within it. Its flames cast sparse flickers across the cave, the light barely enough to illuminate the only item in the room: a stone table.
The table’s feet jutted from the stone, as if the rock had melted to swallow them. Its surface, however, caught her eye. Thin crevices wove across its face like a tiny maze, or a network of tiny veins. She ran her fingers over them, tracing the indents.
Only two chairs sat in the cave, one on each end of the table. They, too, had been carved from the stone and melted to the floor. A small stone square lay on the table’s surface in front of each seat like a thick placemat. She walked closer to one to get a better view. The raised stone on the table was about as wide as her shoulders, with two curved indents in each one. Kara didn’t have a guess as to what the indents were for, though.
She hadn’t seen the Grimoire symbol anywhere on this table, and she definitely had no idea what it was.
“Aislynn—”
Kara turned, but the Blood hovered only inches from her face. She stifled a gasp and stepped out of Aislynn’s reach. The queen stumbled, as if caught off guard that Kara had ducked out of the way.
Kara reached for her sword. No. This wasn’t happening. Aislynn had just tried to—what exactly?
Aislynn shot a beam of light at Kara. She ducked. Sparks danced along her skin as it brushed her neck. Her muscles tensed and twisted. Numbness seeped into whatever bit of her the sparks touched.
A trap. This was a trap.
The queen reached her hand out again and aimed for Kara’s chest. Kara dropped her sword and summoned the air into her palms. Her neck wouldn’t relax. Her eyes began closing as the numbness spread. She would probably lose control over the rest of her body soon.
Kara pulled the air into a shield. Tension pulled on her fingers as the air bent around her hands and blurred her view of the queen. She pushed against the tensi
on and threw the shield at Aislynn, hoping to knock her over.
All Kara needed was a second to summon the Grimoire, and the griffon would fly her to safety. She just had to hold on.
Aislynn leaned into the blast of air and broke through it. Kara reached for the air again, but Aislynn moved faster. She shot another beam of light at Kara’s chest. Kara pulled the air to block it, but the light tore through her shield and hit her square in the stomach.
A bolt of electricity burned through Kara’s body. Her arms and legs tensed like her neck. Numbness seeped into every muscle. Her throat closed. She slumped against a wall. Her vision blurred until she could see only shapes.
Currents of crippling pain tore through her wrists and up her arms. She screamed. Someone grabbed her collar. They dragged her along the ground and threw her against something solid. She blacked out.
Dry panic scratched against Kara’s throat with each breath when her mind cleared. She looked around. The same bowl flickered nearby, its fire illuminating the stone table as it had before. She sat against a wall, no clue whether seconds or hours had passed.
Aislynn sat in one of the stone chairs, Kara’s sword lying on the table beside her. The queen stared at the hilt, her eyes out of focus. “At least you fought back, Vagabond. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Kara bit back the urge to spit at the queen. “Traitor.”
“Do be quiet.”
Kara shifted her weight to ease the numbness in her thigh. Pain shot up her arms. She looked down. A pair of shackles wrapped around her wrists, inward-facing spikes dotting her skin with a dozen bleeding wounds. Red streams wound down her hands and into the crevices of her palm.
Kara gritted her teeth through the pain. “Braeden is right outside! What are you doing? He’ll kill you!”
Aislynn laughed. “That was one of my guards dressed in his clothes.”
Kara flinched at the realization. The spikes in her wrists dug deeper into her skin, tearing it open. She stifled a scream. Tears blurred her eyes.
Aislynn shook her head. “Stop whimpering. When I was in the Stele, I spent four days in those chains. Four days straight. You can’t even take ten minutes.”
“I don’t heal instantly.”
Aislynn leaned back in the chair. “It doesn’t matter. You won’t be in those cuffs for much longer.”
Kara tensed. “Just tell me what this is about, Aislynn.”
“You can’t figure it out? This is about power, child. You were the most powerful thing in Ourea until I realized the muses who rescued you were still helping you. I discovered a way to take their power. You are nothing but bait.”
A tall soldier walked in—the same general who had given Kara and Braeden such a rude welcome when they returned to Ayavel. Kara took a longer look at him now. The beginnings of wrinkles covered the edges of his eyes, and his long silver hair was paler even than Aislynn’s. He wore an ornate tunic with gold trim. Metals lined his chest pockets.
“What is it, General Krik?” Aislynn asked.
“Still no sign, Your Highness.”
“The muse should be here by now.”
The Ayavelian Blood pulled a dagger from a sheath hidden in the forearm of her gown. She walked to where Kara sat against the wall and knelt, pressing the dagger to Kara’s arm.
“Aislynn, don’t!”
The blade cut her skin anyway. More pain shot through Kara’s arm and up into her neck. The muscles around her throat tightened. She couldn’t breathe. Another stream of red blood pooled and dribbled across the freckles on Kara’s arm.
“You are the bait, child”—Aislynn’s voice softened—“I wish there had been another way.”
Kara gritted her teeth. “There is another way.”
“No, there isn’t.”
“But they were already helping us!”
“It was not enough. What a muse is willing to give is never enough.”
“What are you going to do, Aislynn? What could capturing one of them possibly do for you?”
Aislynn walked over to the table without answering. She ran her fingers along the veins in the table’s stone, her eyes downcast as she spoke. “Do you know what this is?”
“Answer my question!”
“It’s the reason Ethos fell,” the queen continued. “That nameless Stelian Blood created it, all those thousands of years ago, with the help of an isen. Together, they discovered how to transfer powerful blood from one being to another.
“He killed the isen as soon as it was finished. That’s all we know about him. We don’t know how the other Bloods discovered it, but when they did, they wanted it destroyed. Only, he’d hidden it. They couldn’t destroy it. Out of fear for themselves, they disbanded. That’s why Ethos fell, Kara. They couldn’t trust each other.
“But in our era, the other Bloods know of this machine. They know I found it. They think it’s brilliant. Barely a week ago, I used it to give Evelyn my bloodline. This machine saved the Ayavelian race. And now, thanks to more research from my seers, I can use it again—this time, to take power from an immortal. Only, I’ll take it all.
“It’s risky, but I have an Heir now and nothing to lose. None of the other Bloods would dare try it. They fear the power, that it will be too much. But I can handle absolutely anything.”
“You’re insane, Aislynn.”
“Perhaps.”
Aislynn walked to the table and sat again at her end. For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
“Does it hurt?” Kara finally asked.
“What?”
“The table. If you catch one of the muses, will they feel it?”
Aislynn’s voice softened again. “It’s agonizing. Evelyn almost couldn’t bear it. She begged for us to stop, but I refused. I thought it wasn’t the pain of the machine, but the thought of losing Gavin that made her beg us to stop. I would not allow such weakness.”
Despite the pain of the shackles, Kara laughed. “Wait, Evelyn and Gavin are together?”
“For years,” Aislynn said with a hint of disgust.
“It’s not like they’re obvious about it.”
“They were. You simply didn’t know what to look for, I suppose. She still loves him, but no lover should interfere with the right to rule. Evelyn has a responsibility to her people, one I ensured she would fulfill. No one was meant for the throne but her.”
“If she were meant for the throne, she would have been born with the Bloodline.”
Kara hadn’t even tried to stop herself. She was right.
Aislynn glared through the corner of her eye in a look that sent a shiver up Kara’s spine. Regret flared for a moment in Kara’s gut, but she refused to show it. She straightened her back and met the queen’s eye. Aislynn stood in a movement too fast to see and smacked Kara across the face.
The sting crept up her neck. Her cheek ached where Aislynn hit her, but she bit her lip to keep from showing how much it hurt.
Aislynn paced the cave. “No wonder none of the Bloods respect you! I tried. I tried to make them see you as an asset, but you’re a tool. You don’t understand politics. You don’t understand what it takes to rule. If my niece had chosen Gavin, she would have lived a lie, just as Braeden did for so long. No matter how accepting Hillsidians may seem, they would never accept a queen of a different race. No Blood is powerful enough to change the will of every subject, and there is no denying that Gavin would urge her to live in her Hillsidian form. She is so much more! Evelyn sees that, now. She knows in her heart what is right.”
“I bet Gavin was devastated when he found out.”
“Yes, and he needs to hate her for it. It’s the only way he can get over this…this infatuation.”
“I had no idea you were heartless, Aislynn.”
“You can’t bait me, child. I’m not heartless. I have loved. I am in love. And he would never dream of distracting me from my people.”
“Why does no one know he exists?”
Aislynn turned the full force of her glare
on Kara. The look made breathing difficult.
“He isn’t Ayavelian, is he?” Kara asked.
Aislynn walked over with stunning speed and lifted Kara by her shirt until she stood. “You will never mention this again.”
Pain tore through Kara as the spikes ripped open her wrists. She reached for Aislynn’s arms out of instinct, but that made the agony worse. The careful control the Vagabond had taught her in her week at the village disappeared. Instinct returned, and Kara’s magic pulled from Aislynn the queen’s most influential memory.
Light dissolved from the cave. Aislynn disappeared. Wisps of white and gold light blipped into being around Kara. They twisted around each other and created the glowing outline of a forest. A path of broken grasses wound through a meadow, and Kara—seeing through a younger Aislynn’s eyes—watched the dark sky above.
A horse unlike any Kara had ever seen walked over the hill ahead. A thick beard covered its chin, and a long mane hid its neck. A silver horn protruded from its forehead.
Information sped through Kara in an instant, the stream of thought unlike any other memory she had ever experienced. Knowledge flooded into her brain bit by bit and pooled there until she didn’t know what to do with it.
Aislynn had only recently begun hunting for a way to pass along her bloodline. She was barren. That shamed her, but she was also in love with an isen—Niccoli. She could never bring herself to marry another Ayavelian, especially when a barren queen would do no good.
Her seers brought her rumors, useless bits of information with no truth, until one found ancient scrolls with everything she needed. To pass her bloodline on to another, she had three possibilities: steal the blood of a drenowith; steal the horn of a unicorn; or find the lost table of Ethos. These were her only leads.
Drenowith were nearly impossible to find. She’d hunted everywhere for them without any luck, but she’d always thought she had better odds of finding a drenowith than a lost table or an extinct animal.
But unicorns weren’t extinct. One stood before her now!
Aislynn walked slowly to the creature, but it walked away at the same pace. She followed it through the field, into the forest, into a glen—
