Confusion, then fear, explodes inside me.
“Elloren!” Kam Vin cries out as she and Ni Vin surge toward me as well, their rune swords quickly unsheathed as Quoi Zhon reaches for one of the silver stars strapped across her chest and I start a rapid retreat backward, my pulse hammering in my chest.
On instinct I flinch sideways as Quoi Zhon’s hand jerks forward, and I lose my footing.
I fall to the ground, and a streak of silver strafes the side of my scalp as it whizzes past, a stinging pain exploding in its wake just as Kam Vin’s sword slices in a wide arc along the back of Quoi Zhon’s legs.
Quoi Zhon falls to her knees, her neck jerking back as she cries out in pain. And then her eyes snap back to me, full of rage-fueled determination as I frantically resume my scuttling retreat backward.
Quoi Zhon reaches for another star as Kam Vin slams an elbow into the woman’s arm, the silver star flashing with reflected firelight as it drops into a patch of smoldering embers. Then Kam Vin strikes the back of Quoi Zhon’s head, and the sorceress collapses facedown on the sand.
Chi Nam slams the bottom of her rune staff onto the ground, and there’s a loud crack as a brilliant flash of blue lights the world. The light quickly clears to reveal Chi Nam surrounded by what appear to be countless spears made of sapphire light, hovering around the white-haired sorceress and pointed at Hung Xho and the sorceresses who seem to have aligned themselves with Hung Xho and against me.
Kam Vin, Ni Vin, and Chim Diec all have silver stars aimed at Hung Xho and her allies. Hung Xho and the sorceresses bracketing her have drawn rune swords that glow menacingly bright with sapphire light. Clearly at a deadlock, the sorceresses launch into another volatile debate.
My heart pounds against my ribs and blood trickles down my neck as I watch the two armed groups face off, knowing full well that my life is at stake. My instinct for self-preservation kicks in, and I glance at the charred ground, searching for a wand but finding neither my Wand nor the wand Chim Diec gave to me.
I immediately realize how futile this search is.
If, by some miracle, I could find a wand that wasn’t incinerated, what exactly could I do with it? Level it at all of them and kill my allies along with my enemies? As well as all of the remaining horses? I would be left alone in the desert, where I would probably starve to death.
I’m the most powerful Mage to ever walk Erthia...and I cannot use a wand to protect myself.
A few more minutes of furious discussion ensue as I pick up a sharp rock and ready it as a possible weapon, my heart thundering against my chest. But then, to my great relief, Hung Xho and her allies lower their weapons then throw them to the ground.
Chi Nam taps her rune staff on the sand, and the glowing spears disappear in a flash of light. Hung Xho snipes at both Chi Nam and Kam Vin then indicates me with a slice of her hand. Suddenly, the two young sorceresses beside Hung Xho run in my direction.
Fright jolts through me and I scuttle backward, readying my sharp rock for throwing, only to lower it again when the two sorceresses simply lift the semiconscious Quoi Zhon and carry her toward one of the surviving horses. I stare as that half of our group—the half that wants me dead—loads themselves onto three of the horses, snarls hate-filled words at me, then gallops away.
Four sorceresses remain, huddled together and talking in hushed tones.
Ni Vin’s face is tense with indecision as Kam Vin makes a case to young Chim Diec. Perhaps a case for my life. Chi Nam calmly leans on her runic staff and listens.
Every now and then, Ni Vin’s gaze wanders toward her mare’s charred, mangled corpse, and pain twists her face.
Remorse spears me. Ni Vin’s mare. Her beloved mare.
Unexpectedly, the mare I thought dead comes to life with a gurgling shriek, head slashing side to side, foam spraying from her mouth. Her eyes fly open, her dark gaze wild with terror as she begins to writhe in agony.
My mouth falls open as my chest seizes.
Something has to be done. She can’t be left to suffer so grotesquely. As if locked in a nightmare, I glance around and, through the thinning smoke, my gaze catches on a slim, pale shape.
The Wand of Myth.
It lies on a raised, flat stone not far from my feet, unharmed, as if it’s offering itself up to me. I rush to it and grab it with shaking hands, my power giving a hard lurch toward its spiraling wood. I stumble to the mare, stopping a few feet away, mesmerized by the grotesque thing I’ve done and sick with desperation to stop the horse’s pain.
A white bird circling overhead flicks into my peripheral vision. It flashes bright as starlight and opens a dark corner of my mind.
All of a sudden, it isn’t a horse I’m looking at, but a soldier, his uniform charred beyond recognition, the lower half of his body melted into the ground. His gaze is on me and filled with heart-wrenching terror. But it isn’t just him. I look around, horrified to see soldiers of every race and realm, dying, burning, screaming. A battlefield full of soldiers—Gardnerians, Alfsigr, Noi, Ishkart, Amaz. But not just soldiers, no—women, men, children, even babies, all of them burned, all unspeakably injured by my terrible magic.
In that moment, I fully grasp what my power is at its malignant center.
The vision fades and is replaced by the dying horse once again.
Ni Vin stands beside her beloved animal, her rune sword unsheathed in her unscarred hand. As she considers the horse with her usual stoicism, my eyes take in her melted hand and ear, the scars that cover almost half her body.
She has tasted the same destructive magic that lives inside of me.
I flinch as Ni Vin expeditiously brings her sword down through her mare’s neck. She watches as the animal becomes motionless, her own face devoid of emotion, as if she is resigned to the death of an animal that has been her companion for years.
I look to her beseechingly. “I’m sorry, Ni Vin,” I choke out. “I’m so sorry.”
She turns and meets my eyes.
And there it is—a flash of grief-fueled rage, brief as a cobra’s strike, gone before she turns away, wipes off her blade, and sheathes the sword once more.
Distraught, I look back at the mangled pile of flesh where a magnificent animal once stood—and all of it my doing. The vision of an entire field of death once again fills my mind and sends it spinning.
I cast the Wand away, fall to my knees, and sob.
* * *
A moment later, as my tears fall onto the charred ground, I feel Chi Nam’s steady presence in front of me before she even speaks. She hovers near me, her wizened hands coming to rest on my shoulders.
“Gather yourself, child.”
I look up at her, choked with tears and smoke. Her weathered body, wrinkled face, and age-thinned skin cause me to momentarily question her ability to help me learn how to handle the monstrous power lurking inside my lines. At this moment, faced with this thing inside me, she’s like chaff in the face of a hellish storm. All of us are.
I can feel the claws of my power taking hold, sizzling through my affinity lines. Power I don’t want. Horrific power.
“I’m no good to any of you,” I rage. “I cannot control this power.” I motion toward Ni Vin’s dead horse. “Look what happened!” I glance at Ni Vin with fierce remorse.
Ni Vin’s face tightens and she turns away.
I try to shrug off Chi Nam’s hands, feeling close to hysteria. “Nothing good can come of this! The power was like a thrall once it took hold. I can’t control it!”
A hum of energy shoots through Chi Nam’s hands and courses through my shoulders in a thin line. I gasp at the line’s powerful vibration as it flashes into me. My eyes jerk up to meet Chi Nam’s as the energy charges through my body, riding my affinity lines as it smooths away my panic.
“That’s better,” Chi Nam says. The weight of the blue line of her magic pushes down h
arder, forcibly calming me. Suddenly, she doesn’t seem so much like chaff.
Chi Nam’s grip on my shoulders firms. “You push this fear aside and gather yourself.”
I shake my head, and she presses her blue magic harder against the resurgence of my fear.
“Yes, your power is extreme,” she insists with steeled certainty, “but you will learn to control it. You must tether yourself to that one thought, hmm?” She gently lifts her hands to my bleeding head. There’s another burst of blue light, and almost immediately I can feel the throbbing pain along my scalp recede, the lacerated skin knitting itself back together.
Chi Nam releases her hold on me, picks up the Wand of Myth from the ground, and hands it to me. I hesitate, then take it from her as she regards me keenly, my affinity lines instantly straining toward it as the candle-lighting spell dances on my lips, yearning for release. “You must remember,” Chi Nam says as she reaches back up to place a hand on my shoulder. “The Wand of Myth, the Zhilin, chose you, Elloren Gardner.”
Thoughts of how much is at stake blare through my mind, making me light-headed. Both my magic and Vogel’s mounting power are something born of nightmares.
I remember how Vogel murdered the Lupines, mercilessly cutting down innocent families, children. How he murdered Diana’s whole family. Agony sweeps through me over how the Gardnerians and their allies, the Alfsigr Elves, are bent on taking over the Realms and forcing their hellish worldviews on everyone.
“What do I do now?” I ask Chi Nam hoarsely as I struggle to beat back the storming anguish.
Chi Nam sits back on her haunches and clucks as she considers me, her white hair covered in ash. “Well, we must crawl before we can run, eh? Seems we must simply keep you alive for now.” Chi Nam stands creakily and exchanges a look with Kam Vin as the sorceress hands her staff back to her.
“Our allies grow thin, Elloren Gardner,” Kam Vin says to me, her expression troubled and hard. She glances at Chim Diec. The graceful sorceress is watching me with grim indecision. Ni Vin stands beside her, stony-faced, her focus once again inward.
“Where did the other sorceresses go?” I ask Kam Vin, reaching up to touch the dried blood over my healed scalp wound.
“To the Noi Conclave in Voloi,” Kam Vin answers as she glances in the direction that the other sorceresses rode off. “They want the Conclave to send Kin Hoang assassins after you. They want you executed immediately.”
The blood rushes from my face. It’s what I surmised, but to hear it pronounced so starkly makes it terrifyingly real. I peer up at Kam Vin. “What should I do?”
Kam Vin hesitates then launches into a conversation in the Noi language with Chi Nam. The only words I can make out are those of a name—Lukas Grey. Surprise stings through me as a smile lights the elderly sorceress’s face, and she exchanges a conspiratorial look with Kam Vin.
“Ah, yes, Lukas Grey.” Chi Nam bumps my shoulder with the back of her hand and chuckles to herself. “Like a cat, that one. I used to spar with him, back when he was a lower rank. He made a game of it and tested me in turn. Seemed to enjoy it.” She grows reflective. “There is an elegance to his power. And it is formidable.” She eyes Kam Vin with cool calculation. “Yes, he’ll do nicely. The Kin Hoang will be well matched by Lukas Grey.” She turns to face me, newly serious.
I hold up a hand, disbelieving. “Wait. You can’t be seriously considering sending me back to Lukas?”
“We’re past considering,” Kam Vin stonily affirms. “When you reach him, place yourself under his protection. Immediately.”
I stare at Kam Vin, Chi Nam, and silent Chim Diec, rendered speechless. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. They brought me here to train with them, so that I could learn to control this power and save all the people I love. So I could learn to fight against the Gardnerians and their allies.
Now they want to send me back into Gardneria to the man who claimed he was a friend to me and then made use of my beloved uncle’s death to fast to me against my will? And I’m supposed to go and beg him for protection?
“No,” I protest emphatically, sickened by the very idea of it. “I hate him.”
“It’s the best way,” Kam Vin insists. “If we’re going to keep you alive.”
“Lukas seems to be flirting with a break from the Gardnerian military,” Chi Nam tells me, a slight lift to her lip. “He and I have been in touch from time to time.”
My head is spinning. Lukas Grey? In touch with Chi Nam? But then I remember his obvious hatred and disdain for Marcus Vogel. My own hatred for Vogel rises, hot in my gut, as I remember imploring Lukas, raging at him, to break with the Gardnerian military and his refusal.
I look to Chi Nam with fierce skepticism. “How can I learn how to control my power if you send me back to Gardneria? If the Gardnerians find out what I am, I can’t even protect myself there. I’d kill everyone around me if I tried. I might even level Valgard.” Killing countless civilians, Gardnerian and non-Gardnerian alike.
“Which is why you’ll keep your power hidden,” Kam Vin states.
“If they find out what I am,” I counter, facing down their level gazes, “Vogel will find a way to break me. And wield me.”
We’re all silent for a heartbeat.
“It’s a gamble, Elloren Gardner,” Chi Nam allows, a hard glint in her eyes. “But I’m convinced that your power is a tipping point. If you’re killed, I fear that we’re no match for what’s coming.”
Another terrible silence.
Perhaps responding to the anguish in my eyes, Chi Nam holds out her hand and gives me a fierce, bolstering look as she helps me to my feet. She fishes an onyx rune stone, etched with a midnight blue runic design, from her tunic’s pocket. The rune glows sapphire. She places it in the palm of my hand, and it feels cool to the touch.
“Keep this hidden and with you at all times,” Chi Nam says, closing her hand around mine. “It will summon me if you need me. You understand?” I nod once, and she reaches up to squeeze my arm. “That’s it, child. Be strong. There’s no other way.” She gives me a penetrating look. “If we’re going to defeat Vogel, we are going to need your power. We will come back for you.”
“There is no more time for talking,” Kam Vin cuts in, glancing worriedly toward where Hung Xho and her allies have gone. She sets her harsh gaze back on me. “You have to leave, Elloren Gardner. Now.” She turns to her sister, Ni Vin. “Take her to the Phi Na Portal. Ride fast. To hesitate will seal her fate.”
Panic rears. I cast a beseeching look at Kam Vin, Chi Nam, and Chim Diec. “But...where will you go?”
Kam Vin glances back at me with an expression of somber resignation. “We will travel to Niem and beg Vang Troi to spare your life.”
Vang Troi—I remember the image of their powerful military commander, dismounting from a sapphire dragon on the North Tower’s field, a silver, horned headpiece circling her brow.
“Do you think she’ll listen?” I ask.
Kam Vin surveys the wreckage surrounding us, flames dotting the landscape far into the distance as the dark of night descends. She turns back to me, eyes grave, and doesn’t answer as I clutch the rune stone.
“Find Lukas Grey,” Chi Nam says to me. “Use your position as his fastmate to secure your protection. And, if you can, use it to find the weapon the Gardnerians used to kill the Lupines. Then give me this weapon when we come for you. If you’re able to find this weapon for us, perhaps we can convince Vang Troi to spare your life. And ours.”
CHAPTER TWO
MAGICAL ADDICTION
ELLOREN GARDNER
Sixth Month
Verpacian Province of Gardneria
I watch Ni Vin through the flickering campfire light as I lie on my bedroll in the small forest clearing. The dark of night envelops us.
Ni Vin is sitting on a fallen tree in her black military garb, sharpening the cutting edge o
f her curved rune sword on a small whetstone, the blade glinting in the dancing firelight, the runes glowing Noi blue.
I’ve grown uneasily used to traveling with Ni Vin as we make our way west, first through the Phi Na desert portal to the Caledonian wilderness, then through a secret passage under the Northern Spine.
Headed for the newly annexed Keltish Province of Gardneria.
By now I know that, for Ni Vin, honing her weapons is her nervous tic. She sits, night after night, sharpening her rune sword and runic blades and her silver stars, even though all of these weapons are already razor-sharp.
I understand this compulsion of hers, because I’m equally drawn to wood, although I’m now actively struggling to fight my attraction to it lest I lose all control and give in to the heightened urge to send magic through it. I avoid all contact with the wrathful trees and their fallen branches as we travel through the deep wilderness of what’s now the Verpacian Province of Gardneria. The forest’s atmosphere of revulsion and fear zings along my affinity lines in sharp pinches.
As if the trees are quietly sizing up the enormity of my magic.
My eyes flick around as I take in the fallen branches and twigs strewn across the forest floor, some so straight and weathered that they could already pass for wands. My wand hand involuntarily clenches as the power in my lines strains toward each piece of wood I set my sights on.
I increasingly itch to touch dead wood, to feed what is increasingly feeling like some overpowering addiction that I have no control over, my yearning for wood seeming more and more like Ariel’s yearning for the drug nilantyr.
To fight the urge, I clench my wand hand so tight that my nails dig into my palm, even though the longing grows stronger through my resistance. After using that wand, I finally know this compulsion of mine for what it truly is.
My access to unspeakable power that I yearn to release.
I’ve grown especially afraid to touch the Wand of Myth, which is rolled up in a coarse cloth and stuffed into the side of my left boot. I can sense its presence, sense the starlight tree reaching for me in the back of my mind, but I fight against the pull, scared of it.
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