by Elise Kova
“Why now?”
“Because there are those who would move against you and your family.” Vi lifted the sword. “You must be the one to act. Should this sword fall into the wrong hands, it will spell disaster for us all.” Or at least another blasted revolution of the world. And Vi had vowed no more of those. This world would be it, the last time the vortex spun. “Before we go… there’s something I wish to give you.”
Vi pulled out the key to her Tower room from her pocket. “Minister Egmun allowed me use of the uppermost room in this Tower, but I fear I will not need it after tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because that is how the wheel of fate turns,” Vi said ominously. She wanted to seem mystical, too improbable to be real. “I have a feeling the room will prove useful to you.”
Vi thrust the key in his hand, closing his fingers around it. Aldrik’s hand wrapped around hers tightly, the key between them. He stared up at her with eyes so similar to Fiera’s, similar to hers.
This man is not your father.
“Tell me what’s really happening.”
“I can’t.”
He ripped his hand away and stood, looking down at her. “You were insolent, right from the start. You’re lucky you have such utility to Egmun and my family or I would’ve seen you thrown in the dungeon.”
Vi lifted a hand to her chest and gave a small bow to hide her amusement. Her smirk would only make him more upset. “Thank you for not doing so.”
“You said we must go.” Aldrik shoved the key she’d given him into his pocket. “Carry on, then.”
“Very well.” She was on her feet as well, out the library, up, and across to one of the other doors that led to the palace. Aldrik faltered in the hall.
“The minister?”
“He will meet us at the stables.” Vi held open the door for the prince. “Come along, now.”
They walked in silence through the narrow hallway that connected the Tower to the palace. When they emerged, Aldrik immediately went for another side hall and Vi trusted him to lead them in the fastest way possible down to the stables. They passed a long stretch of windows that overlooked an inner courtyard. A lush garden flourished within—a greenhouse in the shape of a birdcage that Vi knew had been made to house Fiera’s roses.
It was supposed to have been a gift from the Emperor—but it was a gift never seen by his bride.
The two emerged onto the dusty grounds of the stables. Two horses were out, tacked and waiting. Vi glanced around, seeing no sign of Deneya or their warstriders. She took a deep breath, ready to let out a sigh of relief. Everything was going according to plan.
A sharp pain seared through her abdomen. Vi’s next breath emerged as a gurgle. The metallic taste of blood filled her throat.
She gawked, blood pouring from her mouth and down her chest. It mingled with the blood flowing around the point of a sword made of ice sticking out of her abdomen.
There was a sword of ice sticking out of her abdomen. Her first thoughts went to Adela. The bloody pirate queen had somehow found her after all these years. She’d known of Vi’s hunt for the crown.
Yet another thing she’d missed.
Vi blinked several times, trying to force her eyes to focus around the pain. Aldrik’s mouth was fixed in a soundless scream as he gaped at her. The presence of the boy was the only thing that didn’t make Yargen’s words of power come immediately.
The sword withdrew, and without its support, Vi fell limply to the ground.
Chapter Nine
“M-Minister, explain yourself,” Aldrik demanded, his voice shaking.
Egmun appeared in Vi’s field of vision. The sword of ice he’d been holding evaporated into mist. “She was a traitor to the crown. I was exploiting her for as long as she was useful.” Egmun led a blindfolded man with a rope, a gag suppressing his pleas for help. “Just like this one.”
“What’s going on?” Aldrik looked up at the minister with none of the ferocity his question held. “She told me we were heading to the Crystal Caverns, that people were acting against my family.”
“That is true.” Vi watched as Egmun rested his hand on the young man’s shoulder. She gritted her teeth to keep from saying anything. “They are called the Knights of Jadar; they’ve hated your family since well before you were born, and she was one of them.”
Aldrik looked to her and Vi pressed her eyes closed. Let him think she was a Knight of Jadar. Let her be branded as that—another nameless, faceless, unimportant traitor of the crown.
Let him think whatever he wanted but let them leave, because she’d bleed to death soon.
Her eyes opened as two hands slipped under her arms. Vi groaned as Egmun hoisted her, dragging her through the mud into an open stable.
“You thought you could have the power?” Egmun whispered into her ear. “You will never know the power of the Caverns. But I thank you for all you’ve done to help me get to it.”
“And this man?” Aldrik asked, unaware of Egmun’s sinister remarks. He held the bound man by the rope until Egmun returned.
“He is merely a run-of-the-mill criminal.” Having discarded Vi’s body like a piece of refuse, Egmun forced the bound man onto the saddle. “We will need him in the Caverns.”
“For what?” Aldrik asked, following Egmun. He spared one glance back at her, though Vi could hardly make out his expression. Her head was swirling.
“I will tell you on the way.” Egmun crossed over to where she’d dropped the sword. He hoisted it reverently—like it was the final piece of his plan falling into place as he slid it through a rope attached to his belt. “We must ride before dawn.”
Vi closed her eyes, pressing her hands into the wound to try to stave the bleeding. Her whole body screamed in agony. She waited until she heard the rumble of horses departing the stables before she took a quivering breath.
“Ha-hall-halleth…” Her lips fumbled over the words. Yargen above, give her strength. “Halleth,” Vi started again, more determined than ever. She had to mend her torn flesh. She didn’t care how gnarly the scar. If she didn’t get on a horse now, everything would be forfeit. Red lightning cracked behind her eyes as she squeezed them shut, reminding her of what she fought for. Vi worked to dredge up strength as blood flowed freely from her. “Halleth—”
“Halleth ruta sot.” Light flared around Vi’s body, illuminating the grime-coated walls of the horse stall. “Halleth ruta sot,” Deneya repeated.
Vi twisted, confirming that the voice wasn’t a hallucination brought on by pain. The woman moved her hands over Vi’s body. Glyphs soaked into Vi’s torn flesh. She could feel her skin knitting underneath Deneya’s skilled hands. “Halleth ruta toff,” Deneya finished, pulling her hand away.
“What are you doing here?” Vi asked, rubbing the freshly mended skin of her stomach.
“By the light, woman, you just had a sword through you and you’ve not so much as a single tear on your cheek. Are you even human?”
“No.” Vi sat upright. “It’s hardly the worst I’ve endured. The prize for worst pain goes to my body being rebuilt between worlds,” Vi said grimly as she pushed herself to her feet. There were aches and pains, but it was nothing halleth maph couldn’t fix. “I thought I told you to leave.”
“Well, aren’t you glad I didn’t?” Deneya walked out of the stable. “I was collecting my things from my room when I saw you.”
“What about the horses? I didn’t see them in their usual stalls.”
“They’re here.” Deneya led her quickly down the long stretch of stables and out the main entrance to the castle. Sure enough, both horses were there, their reins looped lightly around a post at a tavern. “I hadn’t put Midsummer back in since I followed Egmun. So all I did was take Prism out.”
“Why aren’t there guards posted?” Vi looked around, still making haste for the mounts.
“I’m sure there will be soon. Egmun sent them away. I didn’t catch what he said, but they were sent running.”
“Things really didn’t go well with the illusioned sword.”
“I told you as much.” Vi grimaced as she mounted. Deneya followed her lead. “Mistakes or no, this is all for nothing if they make it to the Caverns without us and destroy the sword. Let’s go.”
With a kick and call, Prism bounded down the main road of the city with Midsummer right behind. The glyph halleth was still around Vi’s wrist, stinting any lingering pain. Her skin had been mended, but no glyph could return all the blood she’d lost. Her vision was blurry, and Vi felt faint.
“Look, there.” Deneya pointed as they departed through the main gate of the city. “I think that’s them.”
Sure enough, on the switchback down the mountain, two other horses with three riders between them rode out through the night.
“Let’s slow down. We don’t want to give them room to be suspicious,” Vi declared.
“Egmun thinks he killed you.”
“Egmun will jump at his own shadow right now.”
“Do you think he’ll hurt Aldrik?” Deneya asked gravely.
“Not until Aldrik lowers the barrier.” Vi cursed under her breath. “After that… Well, let’s hope he doesn’t try.” She watched as the horses below turned, winding further down the mountain. “They’ll take the direct path there, I’m sure of it. You and I will go the long way. Straight for the cabin and around the mountain from the other direction.”
“Riding through the woods could take double the time.”
“Perhaps for riders who don’t know them as well as we do.” Vi grinned wildly. Challenging fate itself required all the arrogance she could muster. “And for riders who don’t have purebred warstriders.”
“These beasts are getting pretty old.” Deneya patted the neck of Midsummer.
“Hardly. Warstriders don’t hit their prime until at least thirty years.” Vi watched as the other two horses crossed into the tree line below before giving a light kick, spurring Prism into motion with her heels. It was a good thing warstriders could live till seventy. She’d been counting on it from the first moment she’d taken these horses.
The mounts didn’t disappoint her. They expelled plumes of white from their noses into the brisk, late winter air. The wind pricked her face and made Vi feel more alert and awake despite the blood loss. Her heart raced and her watering eyes gained clarity somewhere between their turn into the forests and winding around the mountain near their cabin.
The horses began to slow as they emerged from the back path to the Caverns. Vi could see the outcropping of rock she’d hidden in months before, to watch Egmun ride off. She hurriedly dismounted and Deneya followed.
“Tie the horses out of sight,” Vi whispered, knowing how voices could carry over rock and snow.
“I don’t think they’re far ahead.” Deneya did as Vi instructed, pulling the horses into an alcove as Vi continued on. She could hear the rumble of hooves over the mountain pass, slowing as it became narrow and treacherous.
“They’re not. We just have to stay out of sight.” Vi leaned around the rocks, looking up the path. The swish of a horse’s tail was barely visible.
“Durroe watt radia,” Deneya whispered, and Vi followed suit.
The chant was to conceal, a far easier task for something that wasn’t moving. Whenever Vi glanced behind her, through the blurred and hazy edges of her vision, she could make out Deneya’s form sliding over the rocks like running water distorting a riverbed. It wasn’t perfect, but she suspected that the two men, in their haste, wouldn’t look back long enough to notice.
Victor’s keen eye for illusion wasn’t here, thank Yargen.
They rounded the pathway and saw Egmun and Aldrik up ahead. Egmun was saying something to the young prince as he jerked the man he’d brought off the horse. Vi grimaced. She’d read about Jadar’s attempts to use blood to open the Caverns. Apparently, that was something Egmun put stock in.
The three went into the Caverns with Vi and Deneya following closely behind.
Yargen’s magic cast a blue aura on the fog that hung in the air. Egmun lifted a stone, dropping it to the floor. Vi used the distraction to slip into the Caverns. As was usually the case, the crystals illuminated at her presence. The magic greeted her with a familiar embrace, as if begging her to take the power that was here—to rejoin with it, once and for all.
Egmun smiled smugly at the light as he straightened.
I bet he thinks he did that, Vi thought bitterly.
“This way, your highness.” Egmun led Aldrik through the main entry and into the antechamber with the confidence of a man who had walked among these crystals many times. Every few steps, he gave his prisoner a shove. The man attached to the rope carried on blindly, shivering in the dim light.
The poor sod had no idea where he was, or what awaited him.
Vi took a step forward to follow and Deneya grabbed her wrist. Their magics merged, and the woman was visible once more.
“What do you want me to do?” Deneya whispered to Vi, her voice no louder than the plops of water in the depths of the Caverns.
“Whatever you think needs to be done.” Vi leveled her eyes with the elfin. “I trust you.”
Deneya gave her a long, hard look and then a small nod. Vi stepped away, feeling her magic slip back into place around her. In the Caverns, Lightspinning was more of an art than a science. It was less about what words spoken and precise glyphs conjured, and more about intent.
Harnessing the true nature of Yargen’s power was more like how she’d been initially taught magic: instinct. The more she worked with it, the more she understood it in a way that defied words, even the words of the goddess.
“Behind here,” Egmun said, motioning to the crystal-covered doors at the top of a few steps, “is the heart of the Caverns. It is where the true power lies.”
“Where we must go to help my father to victory,” Aldrik murmured, repeating Vi’s words from earlier.
Vi crept ever closer. The fingers on her right hand twitched, ready for magic, as her left hand remained balled in a fist, keeping her invisible.
“Just so.” Egmun nodded. “You are the one who needs to undo this barrier. Only your great power can fell it.”
“How do I do it?” Aldrik asked, looking up at the minister. He didn’t seem to question for a second that he was the one destined for this greatness.
“Touch the crystals, and allow your magic to do the rest,” Egmun answered cryptically. The man didn’t know how to lower the barrier; Vi had never told him. And it didn’t seem Fiera’s instincts for the crystals had passed on to Aldrik. Lucky for them both, she was there. It wasn’t how she imagined the sword meeting its end, but she had no other options.
Aldrik stepped forward, his hand held out rigidly as he ascended the stairs. Just once, he looked back over his shoulder and Vi froze, not wanting him to see the shift in her illusion. But the prince’s eyes went to the minister. Egmun gave a nod, and Aldrik reached out to touch the thin layer of crystal covering the doors
“Rohko,” Vi whispered, feeling the magic flare. Rohko was the word Fiera had uncovered in the crystals when she’d made the barrier. Vi could still sense the glyph holding the stones together.
Now, with that same word and her will, she’d see it dismantled.
The crystal glowed brightly in tandem with Vi’s intensifying focus. Spiderweb cracks spread out from underneath Aldrik’s hand and in a burst of light and sound, the stones came crashing down. Aldrik stumbled back, dazed. The minister stepped forward, catching the boy by the arm.
“Kot sorre,” Deneya murmured from her side. To push.
“Durroe watt ivin,” Vi whispered hastily. A flash of light hovered around Deneya’s glyph, concealing it. The men were still blinking from the release of the barrier; Vi suspected they hadn’t caught a glimpse of the tr
ue powers at work as the doors swung open.
“Wh-what’s going on?” the blindfolded man had bitten through his gag. “Where am I?”
“Quiet, you,” Egmun snarled, jerking the rope around his wrists so hard that the man tripped and fell in a heap.
“Was that necessary?” Aldrik said, still dazed, looking between the prisoner and Egmun.
“He is a criminal, the lowest of the low.” Egmun wrenched Aldrik forward by the arm as the prisoner scrambled to find his feet once more. “Come, both of you. Destiny awaits.”
You’re not wrong about that, Vi thought grimly.
She’d practiced the transference of power from the weapon to the Caverns for fourteen years. After her breakthrough, her confidence and skill had increased at a shocking rate.
Yet a shiver still rattled her teeth.
It all came down to this. The sword Egmun held wasn’t a decoy. She had one shot at seeing the sword’s power returned to the Caverns. If Egmun’s magic won over hers, if his clumsy attempts at manipulating Yargen’s power bested her transference, the sword would be broken and irreparable damage done to the Caverns.
She would fail. And if she failed now, she failed the entire world.
Egmun led Aldrik and the prisoner into the depths of the Caverns. Vi could almost see Raspian’s invisible hands reaching outward, seeking the world he was shut off from, yearning for release. Every vertebra in her spine vibrated in a resonance that screamed “no” the closer she drew to the final room in the Caverns, the place Raspian had been sealed away. Every sensation was deeper, heightened, worse than the first time she’d come to this place.
With a kick to the back of the man’s legs, Egmun brought the prisoner to his knees in the center of the stone floor. Vi crept to the door, perching herself by a crystal at its side to remain hidden.
“Prince Aldrik.” Egmun took a step toward the boy, who wore a mixture of fear and wonder. “Someday, you will be Emperor. Do you know what that means?”
