Vortex Chronicles: The Complete Series

by Kova, Elise

  Her uncle had intended the questions to be rhetorical. Of that, Vi was certain. But he’d asked the right thing to give her an answer.

  She knew how her father was alive.

  “You said he died on the barrier islands?” Vi whispered. This time, it was not grief, but a delicate, quivering hope silencing her words.

  “Yes.”

  “On the way to the Crescent Continent, not back from? He never made it there?” she emphasized.

  “Yes. He was to make it to the Crescent Continent and send back word. There has been no word, and the Dawn Strider was sunk on the way.”

  Her whole body was trembling now. She knew her father was alive. For she had seen a vision of him on the Crescent Continent, kneeling before a queen in clothes similar to Taavin’s, in a city that mirrored what he’d described.

  If she’d seen the future with her sight, and saw her father there, that meant her father had somehow made it. Vi remembered her conversation with Taavin. Her visions were of things that would happen if the world remained unchanged. Had the world changed already? Changed enough, and in the specific ways that would have altered that scene?

  There was only one way to be even remotely certain—she had to somehow trigger another vision of her father. If she could see him again, she could squelch the doubt that even now threatened to smother her. But the only places Vi had ever received her visions were the apexes of fate.

  In one frantic motion, Vi snatched up the sheet she’d been working on, turned, and ran.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Vi, wait!” Ellene called after her.

  Her father wasn’t dead.

  “What the—” Jayme and Andru were standing right outside of her main door, though Vi blew right past them.

  Her father wasn’t dead.

  “Jayme, Ellene, keep an eye on her,” her uncle called after sadly. Three sets of footsteps took up chase behind her.

  He couldn’t be. There was no way he was. Her father wasn’t dead!

  The words resounded in her, bouncing back and forth around her ribcage, puncturing her heart and healing it in the same action. The world could think he was dead. But she knew better. She’d seen it. She would be the one flame of belief protesting against their bleak darkness that could be a lighthouse to guide him home.

  All she needed now was proof.

  “Vi, wait!” Ellene tried again.

  Vi didn’t even slow down to respond. She sprinted down the curving passageways and bridges of the fortress. Her feet knew the way in and around the trees, down a pathway she’d run countless times in her life to greet Jayme, her mother, and her father at the stables.

  Rubbing her eyes with her palms, Vi forced her lungs to burn only from the exertion and not from sobs. She wouldn’t mourn her father until she knew he was dead. She would mourn when she had proof of that. Not before. Never before.

  At the hard-packed earth of the stables, Vi made a hard right toward the noru pen. Her hand met the top of the fence and Vi hoisted herself over, landed hard, and was off again. She brought her hands to her mouth and let out a shrill whistle.

  Gormon’s ears perked up and his head turned. On her command, he came plodding over.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Jayme shouted between labored breaths.

  “Let us help you, Vi!”

  “I have to go.” Vi hoisted herself up onto Gormon with giant fistfuls of fur. There wasn’t time for him to be saddled. If she asked for a saddle it would delay things, and someone would stop her.

  “Leave? And go where?” Andru asked.

  “There’s someone out there trying to kill you!” Jayme motioned to the road that led from the fortress. “Now isn’t the best time.”

  Vi looked down at them from Gormon’s back. Every moment she wasted was another moment she could be making headway to Lake Io. Another precious second that she could turn into finding information about her father before anyone else could reach her.

  “You guys can come with me, or stay here. Andru can ride with me, Jayme behind Ellene on her noru. But I have to go now.” She gripped Gormon’s sleek fur tighter, trying to make sure she wasn’t hurting the beast. They all stood, staring at her in shock. Vi let out a curse under her breath and jumped the fence.

  “Wait!” Andru, of all of them, was the one to speak up. Vi didn’t know who looked more surprised by the fact—her or him. “I’m coming.”

  “Well if he’s going, I am,” Ellene declared, quickly summoning her own noru.

  “Jax told me to keep an eye on you, so it’s not like I have a choice!” Jayme mounted, somewhat awkwardly, behind Ellene. Though Vi only saw it for a moment. She was already turning forward, looking at the long road out of Soricum.

  Down the road, past the burnt outer ring, turn hard south, and ride into the dawn. The map spun in her head, confirming the path forward as Vi sprung Gormon into motion.

  * * *

  “Can you hold me less tightly?” Vi finally asked, slowing Gormon from an all-out run. She would continue bounding through the jungle if his sides weren’t heaving. They’d made enough headway… she hoped.

  “Is it over?” Andru slowly released his arms. Vi glanced over her shoulders to see his eyes slowly opening. “I feel sick.”

  “Mother, of course you do. Don’t ride with your eyes closed on a noru.” She shook her head and looked forward again, setting Gormon into a good trot.

  “I’ve never ridden one of these before,” Andru muttered as Ellene and Jayme came alongside them. Vi glanced over long enough to see Jayme’s face set in a scowl.

  “Just what is going on?” she half-seethed, half demanded.

  Vi took a deep breath, enjoying feeling her lungs fully expand without Andru’s death grip. She looked forward as she spoke, making sure they kept their headway. Not once had she checked the paper in her pocket.

  “My father isn’t dead.” They may never believe her. But she needed their help now, more than ever, regardless of what they believed. They’d elected to come this far with her and she couldn’t let them turn back now and give away her plan.

  “What?” Andru asked from behind her.

  “Denial won’t help. I learned that with my own father,” Jayme lamented bitterly. “Denying the truth is only going to lead you down the path toward even more hardship later… Especially after this stunt.”

  “It’s not denial.”

  “Vi… Jayme’s right,” Ellene said softly. “Take your time processing, but pretending it isn’t real isn’t going to help.”

  Where did Vi begin when it came to telling them the truth? How much truth could she tell them? After keeping her magic secret for so long, Vi wasn’t even sure if she knew the way to honesty.

  “I have future sight, and have had a vision of my father on the Crescent Continent,” she said succinctly. Ripping off the bandage seemed like the most efficient approach.

  “What?” Ellene gasped. Jayme was silent.

  “There’s no record of you having future sight,” Andru said cautiously.

  “Are you shocked that it would be kept off the record, given how the South feels about sorcerers?” Vi looked over her shoulder at him. He shook his head and glanced away. “More than that… it only just happened, the morning you arrived, actually.”

  “Of your father?” Jayme asked slowly, no doubt piecing it all together.

  “Not… that time.” Vi hadn’t given the vision with Taavin much thought since it first happened. There had been so much since to focus on. But now, knowing who he was, that he was on the Crescent Continent… She would find a way there. Her father must be there. Unless Taavin would come to her… All the possibilities of future sight made her head hurt. “But I did see my father in a later vision.”

  “What did you see?” Ellene whispered in awe.

  “I saw my father, before the Queen of Mer—the Crescent Continent,” Vi corrected quickly. “Which means he must make it to the Crescent Continent. If I saw him there, he’s alive, he
didn’t go down with his ship. He survived, somehow.”

  Jayme and Ellene shared a long look with each other. It was as if they were having a silent conversation that ended in a debate of who would speak first.

  “Are you sure these are visions of the future?” Jayme challenged. “Not just dreams or wishes?”

  “I know what I saw,” Vi insisted.

  “But what if you were wrong?” her friend persisted.

  What if she was… That was the solitary wound that had been struck deep within her, a gaping hole she refused to acknowledge. What if her father was actually dead and this was all false hope? What if the events that needed to come to pass to see him on the Crescent Continent hadn’t happened or wouldn’t happen?

  There was still only one way to find out. Vi kept her eyes forward. The trees blurred around them and Vi cast her doubts aside, letting them fall under Gormon’s large paws and be left behind.

  “I’m not,” Vi lied to them and herself. “I know it.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know!” Vi shook her head. Tears stung her eyes again and she swallowed them down, setting her mouth into a hard line. She struggled to keep her composure. “You’re right, I don’t know. But I can find out. The answer is at Lake Io.”

  “Lake Io?” Ellene repeated with surprise.

  “I can only have my visions at certain places… and the next one is at Lake Io.”

  “Is this why you’re so obsessed with maps?” Andru asked. It wasn’t. But by the Mother was that a convenient excuse. So Vi ran with it and gave him a small nod over her shoulder. “Why not just ask Jax for permission if he knows all this?”

  Because he doesn’t know all this. “With the assassin still out there, and the outbreak, there’s no way he’d let me go. All my life, I have played by their rules. I’ve done what they wanted of me. I’ve sat and prepared and repeated and studied unquestioningly. I did it because that was the deal—if I played my part, I would someday be reunited with my family.

  “Now, fate is trying to take that from me, and I’m not going to let it.” Vi stared ahead, waiting for the break in the trees that would show the water she’d hung her hopes on. “I’m not going to sit quietly by. I’m not going to be the perfect princess if breaking the rules will help me save my father. My family is the one thing I’ve wanted, the one thing I’ve been working toward. I can’t give up on it now.”

  The conversation died with that.

  Vi didn’t know if they believed her or not, but they’d stopped objecting, and that was the best she could hope for. At the end of it all, they didn’t need to believe her. She merely had to save her father.

  “I think it’s admirable,” Andru whispered softly from behind her. Vi could barely hear him over the rustle of trees and snapping of foliage underneath Gormon’s paws. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping Ellene and Jayme hadn’t noticed. “Looking out for your family with such fervor when you don’t even know them.”

  Vi swallowed. “My parents have come and visited me, when they were able. I exchanged letters.”

  There was a long pause.

  “I’m in love with your brother… and he’s in love with me.”

  Vi’s hands tightened around Gormon’s fur. She didn’t look at the man behind her—the man who had been sent to assess her. She thought of his nerves around her, nerves she’d misread. She thought about how he mentioned her brother with such reverence at every possible turn. Andru’s slip-ups in saying Romulin’s name without “prince” before it. The letter about Andru’s importance written in Romulin’s own hand.

  “I know,” Vi whispered. And her brother—her twin!—hadn’t trusted her with the fact.

  “Don’t be upset with—”

  “I’m not,” Vi interrupted sharply. Then, much more softly. “I’m not upset with him… Or you. I’m sure you both had your reasons to keep it from me—from everyone. But I don’t want to discuss this now. If I’m going to know, I want him to tell me on his own. He deserves that… I love Romulin, too. He’s my twin. Of my essence. The one I’ve known longer than any other. And I want him to tell me. It’s his truth to say.”

  Andru was silent for a long moment and for once Vi felt as awkward as him. Vi released Gormon’s fur and patted the back of his hand lightly where it rested around her waist. She hoped he understood.

  “Please don’t misunderstand me. Romulin can love who he loves,” she whispered. “I couldn’t be happier for both of you… But I want him to tell me all his secrets, in person, when we’re together for the first time—with both our parents— come spring.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  They’d made good time.

  The sun was setting over Lake Io when they first laid eyes on it.

  Out of nowhere, a lake larger than any Vi had ever seen—so large she couldn’t even see the other side—appeared like magic in the center of the jungle. Trees ran right up to the water’s edge, their gnarled roots draped lazily over giant rocks to lap up the deep blue waters. Even in the fading light, the foliage was bright and verdant. The greens were more vivid—almost neon—the flowers boasted full rainbows of color in nearly iridescent petals. Vines created extensive spider-like webs, folding over each other, curled anchors holding them together.

  “It’s beautiful,” Jayme whispered softly.

  “Isn’t it?” Ellene said proudly. “I don’t come here enough…”

  “Why don’t others?” Jayme asked, dismounting. “Surely, there would be more buildings, towns, along the water?”

  “Sometimes there are… some of the traveling clans will set up camps here. But this is a sacred place. It was made by Dia herself and said to give us all life-sustaining, fresh water. It’s more of a place of pilgrimage than of residence or industry.”

  “Is it all right that we’re here?” Andru asked, dismounting stiffly.

  “If anyone is permitted, I would think it’s the future Chieftain, future Empress Solaris, and their sworn guard,” Ellene said with a note of pride. Then, hastily added, “And a future Senator, son of a Senator, Southern Court… man.”

  “I think my title was somewhere in there.” Andru gave her a sly grin.

  “Even still… we don’t exactly have time to linger.” Jayme reminded them. “I’m surprised they didn’t send a search party immediately after us.”

  “For all we know, they did, and we’re just ahead of them,” Vi admitted. “I was hoping I’d get enough of a head start to throw them off our trail…”

  “But mother has trackers too good for that,” Ellene finished Vi’s thought. She gave her friend a nod.

  “Which is why we need to get you your vision and return.” Jayme folded her arms over her chest.

  “Do you need something special?” Ellene asked, turning to Vi. “Is here good enough?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “One way to find out.”

  Vi took a few steps back from the water. They’d been surveying the lake on one of the large boulders protruding from the earth. It was a good vantage to see from. But not the best place for a vision—just in case she collapsed in shock, or fear, or exhaustion after. The last thing Vi wanted was to go into the water head first and unconscious.

  Holding out her hand, Vi summoned her flame, stared at it, waited…

  And waited.

  “What do you see?” Ellene asked with a whisper. Her face was alight with awe, as though she was witnessing something mysterious and sacred. Vi hated to be the one to burst her bubble.

  “Nothing.” She closed her fist, looking across the lake.

  “Could we be in the wrong place?” Ellene looked back the way they’d came.

  “Perhaps it wasn’t Lake Io?” Jayme mused.

  Vi shook her head. “No, it’s here… But Ellene may be right. This spot, right here, may not be the right place.”

  “How so?” Andru asked.

  “All the other places I’ve received my visions were remnants from the start of Shaldan. There were the unde
rground ruins, the ruins at the edge of the city…” Ruins. That’s what it was, Vi realized. Taavin had said something about a temple of the sacred family.

  “So you’re saying we need to find ruins?” Jayme followed Vi’s logic. “Or some other remnant of old Shaldan?”

  “There must be some near the lake, somewhere.” Vi looked to Ellene. “Do you know of any? Specifically related to Dia and her family?”

  Ellene shook her head.

  “That’s a lot of ground to cover.” Jayme looked out over the water.

  “Perhaps there’s a faster way,” Ellene mused, wiggling her toes.

  “What’re you thinking?” Andru glanced between Ellene and her feet.

  “I could feel out the earth. If there are ruins underground, or an odd shape of stone, it should feel different to me than normal earth.”

  “If this is really supplying the water for all of Shaldan, there must be countless passages underground…” Vi murmured, trying not to dash their hopes.

  “I can try,” Ellene insisted. “I’ll try to feel for smooth rock, something finished.”

  “It can’t hurt if you can do it while we walk.” Jayme was already moving around the lake’s outer edge, starting off in a somewhat arbitrary direction.

  “I should be able to.”

  “If it goes too slowly, we can always jump back on the noru,” Andru suggested.

  Vi gave him a nod and they started along the water.

  She felt small pulses emitting from underneath Ellene’s feet with every step. The girl’s eyes closed from time to time, but she never ran into a single tree or bush. Even with her eyes closed, her magic mapped the forest for her into a sight beyond sight. Once in a while, she’d touch a tree, and Vi felt the same pulses vanish into the bark, down into the roots, and then fade past the realm of her perception.