by Elon Vidal
SHADOWLIGHT
LIGHTKEY:
THE INTREPID LUCY DUCEAUL
Book 3 (PART 1)
ELON VIDAL
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed
in the novel are either products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2021 Elon Vidal
Cover copyright © Light Age Media
A Light Age Media Production
All Rights Reserved
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s
Intellectual property. If you would like permission to use the material
from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact
[email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Light Age Media
Barcelona
First Worldwide Edition: July 2021
Version: 1. July 2021
MORE BY ELON
Witchlight, Book 1 in Lightkey: The Intrepid Lucy Duceaul
(Get this book for FREE when you click here and sign up to Elon’s newsletter!
Also, available on paperback here.)
Eclipse (Dawnbringer, Book 1)
(Read it now for FREE here!)
The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)
(Read it now here!)
The Attraction Wielder – Juro’s Backstory (The Indomitable Ella Larisse)
(Get this book for FREE when you click here and sign up to Elon’s newsletter!)
The Time Wielder (The Indomitable Ella Larisse, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
The Sword of Varen (Daring Alina Luxera, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
The Dragon Signet (Valiant Eva Stellara, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
CONTENTS
FREE GIFT
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ELON’S AUTHOR NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OTHER BOOKS BY ELON
THE SWORD OF VAREN
ECLIPSE
THE TIME WIELDER
THE ATTRACTION WIELDER
THE DRAGON SIGNET
CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR
REVIEW THE BOOK
FREE GIFT
Dear Light Rider!
Thank you for reading my book!
Before you continue, be sure that you have read the first book in the Lightkey series. Else, this one won’t make as much sense.
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Happy Reading Light Rider!
CHAPTER ONE
Shadows of light,
shadows for light.
Break through the night,
discern what is right.
Excerpt from the Lumenary Prophetiae
The cave leading to the gates of the underworld was dark, and cold water occasionally dripped down to the stone floor as Lucy and the group followed the sea wyrm. Phoebe had a light shining above her forehead, while Aquarius slithered before them, leading the way.
The cave was tall enough to contain a sea wyrm as huge as Aquarius, and large enough for about ten people to stand side by side.
As she followed her group, Lucy noticed an opening in the walls of the cave, to the right. It led to what she guessed was another tunnel. When she spotted another, she spoke up.
“What other places does this cave lead to?”
Aquarius craned his head to the side as Phoebe's light illuminated a tunnel up front to the right. “The caverns lead to many dimensions and short cuts to places in the Dragon territory. As the keeper of the gates of Dracoterra, I live in here, keeping intruders from going where they don’t belong.”
“Is it me, or does this cave smell like death?” Anwar asked as his footsteps echoed along with the others walking through the hollow rock. “No pun intended,” he added.
“Yeah, because that's the perfect thing to say on our way to the land of the dead,” Molly scoffed beside the leaner boy, hands in his black pants' pockets.
“That would probably be my wife's cooking,” Aquarius huffed.
While they spoke, Lucy thought over Aquarius's words. She had learned he was the keeper of the Dracoterran gates before now, when he attacked her team on their first arrival into Dragon Territory. But was that all he did? Why did he live among portals to other dimensions, apart from guarding Dracoterra?
Lucy touched the cold, wet wall, and a black smudge came off of it. She scrunched her nose in disgust and tried to wipe it off her hands. It only made it worse as it smeared across her palms and prickled on her skin. She could get faint traces of energy from the black goo, but it left as soon as it came.
“Here,” Ivar whispered, offering his dark blue jumper sleeve for Lucy to rub it off on.
The dark matter cleaned off fairly well, but still left a light gray coating on Lucy's palms. Her hands still felt weird, like a faint fit of pins and needles. Strange.
“Um, Aquarius?” Lucy called out from where she loitered at the back. “Is there anything you have to say about the dark smudges on the cave walls?”
There were dark splotches the size of an average human scattered across the huge cave, some as high as the ceiling.
Aquarius rubbed his tail against one of the mysterious marks, making his greenish scales turn black. “This? It is the energy residue of beings called ‘Shadow Dwellers’. Ever heard of 'em?”
All except Madge, Phoebe, and Didi shook their heads.
“You mean people that live in the shadows? They like being by themselves,” Didi said, clasping her hands together.
Aquarius weighed the answer. “Close.”
“Well, Didi is right, in a way,” Madge spoke for the first time since they ventured into the cave. “Shadow dwellers are creatures that keep a low profile, which is why many people don't know about them.”
“Are good?” Crick asked from Lucy's side, catching her sweater's hem as he tripped over his own feet.
Madge patted her slivery hair as she shook her head. The light floating over Phoebe highlighted Madge's forest green eyes, and Lucy detected an emotion she couldn't place in them.
“Shadow dwellers should be good,” Snack answered for Madge, sitting on her shoulder, “but now, many of them are plainly —”
“Whoa,” Ivar interrupted, abruptly stopping in front of Lucy.
Dark forms sauntered into their tunnel from a different one upfront. Shadows, but where were the bodies casting the shadows, and why did they randomly sparkle?
“Shadow dwellers,” Phoebe hissed, stopping and manipulating the light over her head into her raised left hand.
Lucy guessed that the shadow dwellers were a threat, judging from Aquarius's glare and Madge coming forward to block the rest of the team, even though the cave was too wide to successfully barricade them from th
e shadows.
Lucy reached for her anelace, then remembered with a broken heart that it had been destroyed during her fight with Doyle at Temple Aerius, back at Dracoterra. She suddenly felt defenseless and vulnerable. Having her anelace with her gave her boldness similar to that she had seen in her mother, who had gifted her with it. She doubted any other weapon could do the same for her, and now she had only her powers to depend on.
The shadow dwellers were eight in number, and they slowly moved towards the group, sparkling in the darkness surrounding them. They had almost indistinguishable facial features; huge, shiny black eyes and what seemed to be a black mouth and nose. They looked more intriguing than scary, at least Lucy thought so.
“Stop right there,” Madge ordered in her firm, authoritative voice. “Where do you think you're going?”
“Your dimension,” a raspy voice said from among the shadows.
“I don't think so.” Phoebe moved her light closer to the shadow dwellers.
Lucy thought that they would shriek and back away, maybe get hurt by the light, but instead they welcomed it and soaked in the rays. Like moths to a flame, they moved closer to the sphere of light.
“What's going on?” Lucy asked Ivar.
Ivar raised his eyebrows and put his hands on his hips. “Do I look like I have a speck of an idea?”
Madge placed her hand on a side of the cave, sending green pulses through the rock, while Aquarius let out a deafening roar and blasted the shadows with a gust of freezing cold breath. The shadow dwellers screamed as ice formed on their bodies, and Lucy discovered that they were actually solid.
“Help me,” Madge called out to her niece.
Phoebe directed her ball of light towards the wall Madge placed her hand on. It looked like large ripples of green spread out across the wall from her hand, and Lucy wondered what was actually happening. Did the wall open a door to another dimension or something? She could feel energy in it, but maybe it was just Madge's powers she was detecting.
Madge stretched out her arms and pulled at the air, drawing the frozen shadow dwellers off the ground and towards the wall. One by one, they slid into the wall as if it was an open door.
“Look!” Crick cried, pointing at the last of the shadows, which was slightly far and slower than others.
It felt like time slowed down as Lucy looked up and locked eyes with the lone shadow. Its large dark eyes hypnotized her. She felt weightless and calm, unable to break eye contact by her own will.
“Lead me to the light. Please...” a male voice whispered in her head. The shadow dweller. He could telepathically communicate with her?
“What do you mean?” she asked, still stuck, looking into his eyes. There was unsettling silence, and no one moved. Lucy realized time was still.
The harsh whisper echoed again. “The. Light.”
Lucy heard a low rumbling, like ice cracking. Before she could react, the ice binding the shadow shattered, and he sprung forward, right at Lucy. Everyone became animated again, and Ivar tried to stand between the shadow and Lucy, but the shadow dweller zoomed right through both of them, leaving black dust on their bodies and causing them to fall to the ground. It felt like a gust of heavy wind had blasted Lucy. How did the shadow dweller do that?
“Great, they are incorporeal too!” Ivar spat, picking himself up from a depression in the cave floor. He gave Lucy a hand, tugging her up.
“Don't let it get away!” Madge ordered, palm still placed on the rippling wall.
Didi transformed into a phoenix and flew after the shadow, while Anwar pumped his legs as fast as they could go, closer to the shadow more than Molly's smooth chase.
“We can't let it enter the waters. We can't let it undo death,” said Phoebe, hugging herself and tapping her feet. The crease on her forehead seemed to deepen as the shadow got farther.
Lucy didn't fully understand what everything meant, but she spun on her heel and rushed after the shadow dweller.
“Stop right there!” she telepathically ordered.
“Why?” Anwar answered, looking back for a split second. That was all it took for the shadow to stretch out his arm and send a sparkling black streak at Anwar, striking him in the forehead.
Anwar cried out and clutched his head, stumbling before finally collapsing on the floor.
“Anwar!” Lucy screamed, panic flooding her chest as she stopped right beside the boy. What powers did a shadow dweller possess? Death, because they came from the land of the dead? No, Anwar was panting furiously. He was still alive.
Lucy pressed her middle and index fingers against his forehead and closed her eyes. She tried to feel some healing energy in her spirit, but all she could see was the healing powers flowing through Anwar. Powers she couldn't access to heal him. Lucy knew she was still working on her healing powers, and that most of the time, it was a hit-and-miss, but she really needed it to work this time. Unfortunately, her powers refused to cooperate with her, and she felt like kicking something.
Molly dove at the shadow, but was surprised when he passed through the incorporeal shadow and fell to the ground, covered in black sparkly dust.
Didi landed between the shadow and the exit to the long tunnel. She spread her huge wings, which spanned the width of the tunnel, blocking the shadow.
“The thing is incorporeal!” Ivar informed her as the shadow dweller didn't slow his speed. It looked ready to zoom right through the phoenix.
Didi nodded once and set her wings aflame. The shadow dweller screeched and roughly pulled back when it was centimeters away from the wing, frantically looking back and forth as if searching for a different exit.
Still kneeling next to Anwar, Lucy stretched out and reached into the shadow's mind, which felt like sinking into quicksand. She tried to tweak his thoughts, to make him stand still long enough to be captured and pulled into the wall, but the shadow's mind swallowed her wills and aggressively threw Lucy out of his thoughts.
It was as it there was a raging tornado in his mind that sucked in Lucy's wills, before flinging her away. Lucy had never seen anything like this before. During this moment, her arms flailed, and she grabbed in the dark, holding on to the shadow's thought that came off his mind in the darkness. It felt warm as Lucy's hands absorbed it. The thought now echoed through Lucy's mind, telling her to ‘find the light’. What was all this fuss about the light anyway?
Now back to reality, Lucy blinked, and her senses tingled. Ducking, a stream of icy breath flew over her head and hit the shadow dweller.
“Aquarius can't hold that shadow dweller,” Anwar panted from where he still lay, eyes shut tight. “I can feel the shadow's powers at work.”
Lucy could feel it too, as it buzzed and zinged in the atmosphere. Aquarius needed reinforcement.
Getting on her feet, she easily pulled water molecules together as the air was humid, and covered the shadow with it. The water froze under Aquarius' breath, and Lucy kept her now icy hold on the struggling shadow.
Madge grunted as she heaved the frozen shadow into the wall, and everyone seemed to let go of their breath simultaneously when she finally took her hand off the wall.
“That's something you don't see every day,” Didi commented, now back to her normal, less intimidating size. “We should do it again!”
Molly flashed an amused smile at her, before turning to the others.
“Am I going to be alright, though?” he asked, dusting the black matter off his body. “I feel like a cross between pins and needles and electrocution.”
Phoebe turned towards the sea wyrm. “Aquarius?”
Aquarius shook his head. “The residue is harmless, as far as I know.”
“But its raw energy is very powerful and harmful.” Anwar got up from where he had been laying after being struck. His eyes had black smudges around them, darkening his light brown skin, and when he opened his eyes, his sapphire blue irises were nowhere to be seen.
“A-Anwar...” Lucy cautiously spoke while others stared on in shock. �
�Why are your eyes white?”
Anwar bit his bottom lip. “I think… I think that shadow dweller made me blind.”
CHAPTER TWO
From the dark comes a beast;
pleasure from the liar's feast.
Excerpt from the Lumenary Prophetiae
“What he says is true,” Madge said after she waved her hand before Anwar's unblinking eyes. “He truly is completely blind.”
Lucy couldn't imagine Anwar not being able to see ever again, and that it was her fault he’d been hit. All she wanted was to distract the shadow!