by Kova, Elise
“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 true 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?”
“I-I do.”
“So you know that justice will fall to you.” Egmun took another step forward. “It was your mother’s last request to your father to spare you these duties as long as possible.”
Vi didn’t recall Fiera ever making any such request. If anything, the duty-bound woman Vi had known would’ve wanted her son to grow up entrenched in politics, learning from them, and becoming cunning enough to stay alive.
“My mother?” Aldrik asked with such hope, Vi’s heart ached.
The mother she’d taken from him. Had Fiera lived, perhaps Aldrik would’ve never sought out his father’s attention to the point of resorting to crystals. But, had he not, he would’ve never come here, and the world would’ve been a failure.
Everything connected in ways that not even Vi could always see. Which was as thrilling as it was dangerous.
“But you will soon be a man, won’t you?”
“I will.”
“It is rather unfair, no? For your father to be treating you like a child?” Ah, so that was Egmun’s game. Vi’s nails dug into the crystal at her side. Egmun was using the young man’s desire to prove himself against him. “Are you prepared to be the crown prince this realm needs?”
“I am.” Even though it was positively frigid in the Caverns, sweat dotted Aldrik’s brow.
“Then, my prince, for justice, for the strength of Solaris, for the future of your Empire, slay this man.” Egmun dropped to a knee and freed the sword from where he’d tied it to his belt. He offered the crystal weapon to the prince.
“But…”
“This man has stolen from your family; it is a treasonous crime. He is not innocent.”
“Should my father not—”
“I thought you were a man and a prince.” Egmun’s annoyance with Aldrik’s hesitation was showing. Vi loathed herself for sympathizing with the wicked man. Get it over with, she wanted to scream. She wanted to know if her whole future was forfeit or not. “I did not take you as someone who shied from justice or power, Prince Aldrik.” Egmun paused dramatically. “Why are you here?”
“For my father, to conquer the North.”
“With this, all will bend to you.” Egmun smiled encouragingly.
Aldrik took the sword and Vi’s heart nearly lurched from her chest. Every hair on her body stood on end. So… close.
“M-my prince, m-mercy please. T-take my hand for m-my theft. Spare m-me,” the man begged through sobs.
“Minister…” Aldrik hesitated. He’d never killed a man before, Vi realized then. A mere week before his coming-of-age ceremony, he would make his first kill.
“The guilty will say anything to you, my prince, to save their skin. This, too, is a lesson.” Egmun stood and seemed to be holding his breath.
Aldrik unsheathed the sword and passed the scabbard to Egmun’s eager palms.
“M-mercy,” the man begged.
“Kill him, Aldrik,” Egmun nearly shouted.
Aldrik set his jaw and hoisted the sword over his head. He paused with the blade stuck at the apex of his swing. Vi held her breath alongside the whole world.
He swung the weapon down.
Vi lifted her hand at the same time. Her other palm was flush against the crystal at her side. Magic sparked around the sword, almost like flames.
The strike was clumsy. The man groaned and gurgled, his pleas for help vanished. Aldrik raised the sword again, bringing it back down. Carnage splattered across the center of the room.
But Vi’s focus remained on the blade.
She allowed the magic of the Caverns to combine with hers, to guide her as she mentally reached out to the weapon. Vi could feel another magic in the air. Egmun was trying to act on the crystals as well.
Pathetic, Vi thought snidely. This power was hers—hers to claim and hers to control.
The sword shone brighter, as though the power within was trying to burn through. Aldrik slashed twice more before the man lay limp on the ground. The sword clattered to the stone below.
That contact of sword to Caverns was all she needed.
Crystals flared around the perimeter of the room. Aldrik shielded his eyes. Egmun thrust out his arms, as if waiting for the power to sink into him.
One crystal connected to the next, and Vi wove her magic between them all. The stones inlaid on the floor illuminated and, for the first time, Vi understood what they were.
The light that shone between them connected to form a glyph. Setting her eyes on it filled her mind with a roar of sound. It was as if every person in the world screamed a single word in agony, a word so loud she could barely make it out.
Suladin—a glyph of sealing.
A word Vi didn’t yet dare speak aloud.
Keeping her focus on the sword, Vi held out her right hand, reaching for it. The glyph around her left kept her invisible. The weapon was too far for her to touch, but through the bond of the Caverns, she could feel it.
Her fingers tightened around the magic of the sword, yanking it like a tether and sending the magic back into the Caverns. Power flowed into the stones around her. She felt it rush through her body, leaving her breathless and dizzy.
The glow of the crystals faded.
And the Sword of Jadar turned to obsidian, fractured, and dissolved into dust.
Chapter Ten
“What?” Egmun lowered his arms and spun as the light of the Caverns faded. “What did we do wrong?” he shouted to the ceiling above. The echo of his voice was the only reply.
“M-minister… I… I don’t feel so well.” Aldrik swayed. His eyes were still on the mangled body before him.
“She… it’s her fault,” Egmun seethed, ignorant to the boy. Vi almost felt proud that he was laying blame at her feet. “She knew what must be done and kept it from me and now—”
Aldrik interrupted Egmun’s ravings by turning up the contents of his stomach. Egmun jumped back to avoid the vomit splattering on his shoes.
“We should go, you foolish boy.”
“Foolish?” Aldrik looked up at the minister, as though in a daze.
“Your power was not enough,” Egmun sneered. “And now your desire for power has opened the heart of the Caverns once more to any who would dare use it against your Empire.”
“I only did as you asked!” Aldrik pleaded.
Vi’s breath caught in her throat. This young man, this child, who stood stained with blood and bile, would one day become the rough-tongued, harsh man her father had always been rumored to be. It wasn’t Fiera’s death that had set her father on a torturous path of transformation. It was this moment.
Either way, it was her fault.
She tried to steel herself, but everything ached. The only thing she could tell herself was that this was all worth it. She would make it worth it. It didn’t matter if he was aware of the vortex or not, this would be the last time Aldrik would suffer the loss of his innocence in such a brutal way.
Rumbling filled the Caverns, as though a mighty beast within was starting to wake. Vi looked around, as startled as the two men. The sound was followed by a burst of light that rose from the floor and flowed out the Caverns, rushing to the opening like a torrential river of magic.
“We must go,” Egmun said grimly. “Before the crystal taint claims us.” He grabbed Aldrik’s arm and wrenched him from the room.
As the two sprinted out, Vi knelt down, dipping her fingers in the river of light. It felt like nothing. There was no power here, only air.
Vi lifted her eyes and released the glyph for durroe watt radia. She stepped out of the inner chamber and through the doors just in time to see Deneya emerging from where she’d wedged herself between two crystals. The two men were long gone.
“Think I need to keep this going?” Deneya held up her arm, a strip of golden magic rotating by her elbow.
“Maybe for a bit longer.” Vi dragged
her feet down the steps on the other side of the door, but she didn’t quite make it to the bottom before she sat heavily. She still felt dizzy. Though Vi couldn’t tell if the dizziness came from her earlier wound or the current of power still rushing through her. “Just until we’re certain they’re far enough away.”
“Durroe watt ivin,” Deneya murmured, flicking her other hand toward the entry. Vi saw a haze of light fill the air.
From Egmun and Aldrik’s perspective, the beast that was the Caverns had been woken with a roar, unfurled its tongue, and was letting out a sigh of pure magic.
“Clever.” Vi appraised Deneya’s handiwork.
“Thank you.” As Deneya spoke the words, she tilted her head in a motion that said both, “don’t worry about it” and, simultaneously, “I know I’m pretty great.” Vi couldn’t help but chuckle and shake her head. Deneya came over, glyphs still hovering around her forearms. She sat next to Vi. “I doubt we’ll be seeing them back here anytime soon.”
“They’ll be back soon enough.”
“Why?”
Vi sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. Most of her braids had slipped out. “Because the river of fate moves forward, and the War of the Crystals Caverns is next.”
“People fight over the Crystal Caverns?”
“Fight against the Caverns.”
“How does one fight a cavern?”
“I wondered that myself, when I first learned of it.” Vi thought back to her lessons with her tutors. The War of the Crystal Caverns had seemed like impossible lore. “In my world, the magic of the Crystal Caverns seeped out into the land and tainted the people and animals; they called it ‘crystal taint.’ The crystal taint disfigured man and beast, changing their minds and bodies into monsters.
“I think the taint comes from Raspian’s power mingling with Yargen’s in the crystals, once the glyph holding him back is weakened.”
“Monsters, wonderful,” Deneya murmured and looked back through the doors. “But we don’t have to worry about any of this. You got the power out of the sword and into the Caverns, right?” Deneya leaned back and finally relaxed the glyphs. The illusion of magic faded and the air was still once more.
