by Elise Kova
“You want me to follow behind on the way to the Caverns?”
“No, get out ahead. Go to the cabin and stash our things there. I don’t know what will happen, so I want you to be nimble and ready.”
“All right, anything in particular you want me to ferry?”
Vi pointed the sword at two packs in the corner. “All my things are collected.”
“You were ready to go?”
“I knew we’d have to move soon… I was just hoping it wouldn’t be like this.” She’d hoped to head right to Oparium and bypass the Caverns entirely. But there was no way to win Taavin over to that plan. “I need to go to Egmun.”
Taavin grabbed her arm, stopping her. Vi swung to face the ethereal man. “Be careful,” he said, far more tender than the moment deserved. “Remember, everything you’re doing is a risk. And if you die now—” he touched the watch around her neck lightly “—if you don’t get this to Vhalla when the time is right. There is no Champion reborn.”
“I know, and I’ll be careful.” Vi was growing weary of Taavin’s well-intentioned reminders. She’d been spoiled by fourteen years when he didn’t feel the need to press the issue nearly every day.
“Your eyes say something different.” His touch was feather-light, but Vi was as immobile as if he’d snared her.
“I’ll be careful,” she repeated, softer, gentler. Vi leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips, releasing her hold on narro hath before opening her eyes.
“It’s a cruel existence,” Deneya said faintly, looking at where Taavin had stood just moments before.
“It is for all of us, don’t you think?” Vi shrugged and left before Deneya could answer.
She would take the sword and present it to Egmun now. It was only two weeks before the coming-of-age ceremony and Aldrik would be busy for at least one of those weeks. If she pressured Egmun hard enough, in the right ways, he’d spill about the incident with the Knights and from there—
“By the Mother.” A gasp interrupted her frantic planning. Vi looked up. Egmun was there, staring up at her with a mixture of awe and, to her surprise, horror. “You look like Fiera reborn.”
“So I’ve been told.” Vi lifted the sword, pointing its tip at him. The subtle threat was intentional. “You wanted the sword. I want the prince. Tonight, let’s put an end—”
“I had a meeting with the Knights of Jadar,” he interrupted her a second time.
Vi lowered the weapon. She didn’t even have to feign annoyance and irritation, just surprise. “You what?”
“I had my doubts,” he began. “Perfectly rational… When we first met, you spoke of Fiera’s death with confidence. My research shows that the only people there when she died were the Knights. Then, after the fake sword, after I thought you had help from a Waterrunner—conspirators… Well, what would you have thought in my position?”
He took a breath to continue, but it was Vi’s turn to interrupt him. She stepped forward, lifted the sword once more, and put it under his chin.
“I would’ve known when I looked upon an entity greater than myself. I would’ve known not to question,” Vi said, dangerously quiet. Even though he was held at sword point, Egmun didn’t look the slightest bit scared. His eyes were wide with anticipation, thrill, and a shameful lust for the immense magic contained within the crystal. “Can you feel it? The power this sword holds? Does it make you shiver and shake and yearn for more?”
He swallowed, the lump in his neck nearly scraping against the sword point.
“There’s more of this magic to be had, much more.” Vi slowly lowered the weapon and his eyes followed. “We’ve wasted too much time. We go to the Caverns tonight.”
“Tonight, there’s no—”
“Let’s step into your office.” Vi glanced over her shoulder. Deneya would be coming down any moment with supplies to load before departing. She looked down the hall as well to avoid appearing suspicious. Egmun obliged her suggestion and Vi continued the moment the door was closed. “Soon Aldrik will be too focused on preparations for his coming-of-age ceremony. We should go now and break down the barrier. We can sort the rest later if needed. I can secure the prince. You go secure the horses necessary for our flight.”
“You will secure the prince?” Egmun arched his eyebrows. “Don’t you think I should?”
“I know where he is at this time of night.” She’d run into him in the library more than once when she skulked around the Tower in the dead of night. Like Vi, he had a tendency to take books and not return them with any speed, so she hadn’t put together a clear picture of everything the prince was researching so faithfully. “I know how to make him bend to our will.”
“If you’re confident, then.” Egmun nodded, a satisfied smile spreading across his lips. “I’ll meet you down at the stables.”
“Very good.” Vi sheathed the sword and emerged into the Tower hall once more. Just ahead, a Tower apprentice carried two bags slung over her shoulders.
Deneya. Good, she got out without suspicion.
Vi descended the spiraling walkway of the Tower. For a short stretch, Egmun’s footsteps followed her. But he soon veered off, departing through one of the doors that connected Tower and palace. Vi continued on, straight for the library.
A man was seated by the lit hearth. Blessedly alone.
Aldrik’s head bobbed as he fought off sleep. He didn’t notice her approaching. His chin had met his chest when her feet came to a stop right before him.
Vi watched the boy for just a moment. He was fourteen, barely a man. A slip of a thing still in transition to the Emperor that would someday lead a united Solaris Empire. So much of the world’s future rested on his shoulders. All Vi could do was guide him in the right direction. When it came down to it, the actions had to belong to him, and Vhalla, and all the other mortals confined to time.
“Wake up,” Vi said gently, kneeling down and shaking his shoulder lightly. “Your highness, wake up.”
“What?” He blinked sleep from his eyes. His tone became sharper as his eyes focused on her. “Vivian… Is this a dream?”
“No, it is not. Though you might wish it were come the dawn.” More like a nightmare. “I need you to listen to me, there’s precious little time.” She couldn’t keep Egmun waiting—he’d start to wonder. “Tonight, we must go to the Crystal Caverns.”
“The Crystal Caverns, why?”
“There is a barrier there, one only you and your magic can undo. It must be done, for the fate of this world… for the future of Solaris.” His eyes widened slightly as she spoke and Vi knew she’d struck the right chord. “Your father will bring the North to its knees with the power of the Caverns. But only you can unlock it.”
“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.”
“Likely some lie about the Knights of Jadar attacking,” Vi mumbled as she swung herself up onto the saddle. “That way he could argue my corpse was one of them.”
“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 barrie
r.” 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.