A Threat of Shadows

by JA Andrews

  The other thing that troubles me concerns the elf, Ayda. I spent three weeks in the Greenwood as her guest. I probably shouldn’t have stayed so long, but you know how I love the elves. She didn’t act as I expected—polite, but really just waiting for me to leave. Instead, she seemed genuinely pleased to have me around.

  We spent the time in a contest of storytelling. The first time I realized she was unusual was when I was taking my time getting to the end of Isond and Gondrey’s tragic tale. Ayda had been leaning forward, eager as a child, listening when suddenly she stepped… no, crashed into my mind.

  I was powerless. She entered my mind as if it were her personal library, picked up the end of the story and stepped back out. It wasn’t that she had done anything harmful to me, but the ease with which she’d done it and my utter lack of power to stop her were terrifying.

  Several other times, always in a similarly negligent way, she displayed extraordinary power. But mostly she was pleasant. Pleasant and lovely. I know I found her lovelier than I should have, and I often wondered if she had a hand in that.

  It was the day before I left when I saw what was truly troubling.

  She had found a stone along the river and tossed it to me. The sunlight had caught in the stone, and when I held it in my palm, it started to collect my memories. Milky scenes chased each other through it. My hand on my old knife, writing that report about elves in the library of the Stronghold, throwing stones into a creek during my childhood. Each scene, although mundane, seemed to speak a sort of truth to me. Or perhaps a truth about me. As though the stone were sifting through my memories to find out who I was.

  It was a Wellstone. I tried to direct it, but could get nothing coherent out of it. It was too wild. I realized that by studying it, we could gain insight into how our Wellstone thought—or whatever thinking is called when it’s done by a rock. Perhaps that knowledge could help us decipher the visions from our own cut stone. Or teach us to ask better questions.

  Thrilled with the possibilities, I lifted it up to Ayda, intending to ask if I could keep it. But as I lifted it toward her, I was practically blinded by the light that shone through it.

  Through the Wellstone, I caught a glimpse of her standing alone in the center of a glen, power radiating out from her until the very trees bent away.

  Then the real Ayda, who had been watching me curiously, shifted slightly. In that moment, the light in her was swallowed up by a darkness so deep and so complete that I was terrified. The stone pulled me into blackness—a very old, very angry blackness.

  I knew that all was lost.

  Then the Wellstone was knocked from my hand, and Ayda stood before me as lovely and real as ever.

  “Those stones don’t like me,” she said, kicking it into the river. Then she looked at me, a look of piercing loneliness and sadness. “They expect the worst from me. As though one small thing that I carry could destroy everything else.”

  Please travel to the Stronghold and tell the Shield that the Rivor is not dead, but he may be weaker than he has ever been. Now is the time to act.

  And tell him that Ayda—she should be watched. You may not understand this until you meet her, but there is something about her. When I am with her, I am incredibly fond of her. Still, I am afraid. Afraid of the darkness she carries. And not only her darkness, I am afraid even of her light.

  I do not trust her. Find her, if you can, but do not trust her.

  I will try to return to the Stronghold by year’s end.

  I wish you were here. I am out of my depth and crave your insight.

  Your brother,

  Will

  Alaric sat back, his nerves thrumming with apprehension. He lifted the flame Ayda had frozen that still hung around his neck, watching it glint in the light.

  Did he trust her? If he was honest, he had started to. And if he was honest, he had no reason to. She was hiding something about when the elves fought Mallon. She wouldn’t explain to him why her magic was so powerful. Until the meeting with Saren earlier today, she had never even shown any loyalty to him.

  Will feared that Ayda was manipulating him, and it was easy to see that she did manipulate almost everyone she met. But it had always felt relatively harmless, a childish desire to be liked. Was it more than that? Brandson and Milly obviously cared about her. Douglon, a dwarf, had overcome his dislike of elves to such an extent that Alaric wondered if there was anything the dwarf wouldn’t do for Ayda. Even Gustav had seemed to like her.

  The logical conclusion was that Alaric trusted her because she wanted him to.

  And the darkness Will saw, what was that? Will was fun to the point of being reckless, at least the Keepers’ idea of reckless. Yet there had been real gravity in his warning. The fact that Will had gone to such lengths to keep the message secret was astonishing.

  Alaric was a little surprised he hadn’t found a crumpled, stained letter stuck to his door with tree sap labeled, “Secret information for Keeper Alaric.”

  Alaric sat back and rubbed his eyes. He shouldn’t be mocking Will’s Keeper skills. At least Will had noticed something off about Ayda. Alaric had been completely taken in by her. If this little side trip to the palace had done nothing else, at least it had shown Alaric all of the ways that he had missed things a Keeper should have seen.

  A bell somewhere in the city tolled midnight. The rain had lightened to a pattering outside his window.

  He looked again at the frozen flame necklace he had. Who was Ayda? He started to pull it over his head, but paused. There was something about the necklace that felt like it should be kept close. Maybe he shouldn’t be trusting his own judgment any longer, but he let it drop back down next to the ruby.

  This collecting of troubling stone necklaces was getting to be a habit.

  Chapter 36

  Alaric turned back to the book. Will’s warning had filled the page, and Alaric, flipping idly to the next, was surprised to see a postscript spring into view, filling the page completely.

  One more thing. I go west directly. Beyond the Scale Mountains are rumors of a gathering war. A holy man walks among the nomadic tribes recalling them to the Rivor’s banner.

  A village that I visited near the Greenwood told me tales of a Shade Seeker who had served Mallon. An elderly man who still comes through their village, demanding food and money. Mallon had left him in their village the day he had gone into the Greenwood. They said the Shade Seeker had never harmed any of them and that he wasn’t even particularly threatening, but they were still afraid. The fear Mallon spread still lingers, even after all this time. When the Shade Seeker left, some young men from the village followed him on a dare. He went to the Roven Sweep. I think this Shade Seeker is the one gathering the Nomads. Could he know the Rivor is not dead?

  Was Will talking about Gustav? If Brandson was right and Gustav had spent time among the nomads, then it could be. There were not many Shade Seekers, and it was highly unlikely there would be two of them interacting with the nomads.

  But that would mean the wizard had been close to Mallon, trusted by him. Which meant Gustav wasn’t an idiot at all. If Mallon found him useful, Gustav must be powerful.

  The Rivor cared for nothing but power.

  A cold knot sat in Alaric’s stomach. He had underestimated Gustav to a dangerous extent.

  Duke Thornton’s estimation of Alaric’s worth as a Keeper was feeling more and more accurate.

  Alaric turned back to the book and flipped the page one more time, just to be sure he was at the end. He found one last line of writing.

  Last I heard, the Shade Seeker was masquerading as some elderly western lord.

  Lord Horwen.

  The exhausted fog in his mind stirred. Lord Horwen was Gustav. The truth of it blew through his mind like a breeze, clearing away the cloud that had hung over him all afternoon.

  Alaric dropped the book and swore. The wizard had done it again. He wasn’t exhausted. He was being manipulated by Gustav’s influence. Again.

>   Alaric dropped the book and raced into the hall, calling out for the nearest guard to take him to Lord Horwen’s rooms. The guard ran ahead of Alaric leading him to Lord Horwen’s apartment in a different part of the palace.

  Alaric turned the doorknob, expecting it to be locked, but the door swung open. He ran into the lavish quarters. They were empty.

  A servant girl stood inside, looking wide-eyed at the guard and Alaric.

  “Where is he?” Alaric demanded.

  “Lord Horwen left hours ago,” she answered, shrinking away from his scowl.

  The room was messy, trunks rummaged through, and drawers left open, as though it had been hastily vacated. Gustav was gone.

  “Close the gates,” Alaric commanded the guard. “Inform Queen Saren that Lord Horwen is an imposter. Search the premises for him.” At the man’s hesitation, Alaric snapped, “Now!”

  If Gustav had left hours ago, it wouldn’t matter, but Alaric had to do something. The guard raced off, and Alaric stepped into the room, letting his eyes roam across the mess. The room smelled earthy, like mud. Alaric looked around for the source and saw a grungy canvas bag tossed on a table by the window.

  He walked over to it and saw smudges of dirt all over the table and chairs. He picked up the bag and under it found a wide-open box holding a grimy red handkerchief. Alaric stared at the box, his stomach sinking. He reached forward slowly and flipped the box lid closed, revealing the cover, carved with a sprawling oak tree.

  He had seen this box before in the memories of the Keepers’ Wellstone. It was the box Kordan had used to store the emerald he had created when he had tried to save that young boy’s life. The emerald he had wrapped in a red handkerchief.

  Alaric sank into a chair. This box, covered in dirt, was what Gustav had dug up in Bone Valley. A box containing an emerald. Not a Wellstone.

  Kordan hadn’t even buried the Wellstone in Bone Valley.

  The book Alaric had found in the Stronghold had read: I will store all of my memories in the Wellstone, and bury my treasure here beneath a young oak. Alaric had assumed the treasure was the Wellstone, never thinking that Kordan would have valued the emerald after the boy had died.

  Alaric’s head thumped down on the table. It made perfect sense. Kordan had buried the emerald under the oak tree for the exact same reason Ewan had buried his wife under one, to give the boy a burial place of honor.

  Alaric had been chasing the wrong treasure this entire time.

  Alaric fell into bed in his own room. His body felt like it was made of stone, like it would be a simple thing to just lie on this bed forever.

  The guards weren’t going to find Gustav. He had left the palace hours ago. He was probably back with his dragon, a half day’s journey north of here. But why had Gustav come to the palace? What did he want?

  Alaric groaned and threw his arm over his face.

  And where was Kordan’s Wellstone? Alaric had thought back over everything, but he could think of nothing that had specifically said that the treasure buried in Bone Valley was the Wellstone. Alaric had supplied that idea all on his own. Of course Kordan would have buried the emerald. It had gone dark after the boy had died. Why would Kordan have kept a Reservoir Stone that didn't hold any energy?

  Which meant that Kordan’s Wellstone was probably in the place where he went after he left Kordan’s Blight, after he left the Keepers. Kordan’s Wellstone was sitting in the very tower where Douglon had found the map.

  There was a polite knock at the door, and Alaric heaved himself into a sitting position before calling for them to enter. Matthew, the queen’s steward opened the door.

  “I’m sorry, sir. No trace has been found of Lord Horwen.”

  Alaric nodded.

  “Her Majesty also wants you to know that your horses will be saddled and ready for you at first light.”

  “Thank you.”

  “If you need anything before then, anything cleaned or brought to you, please let us know.”

  “I think I will be fine, Matthew,” Alaric said. “Besides, your conscientious cleaning crew already came by this afternoon.”

  Matthew’s eyes narrowed as he looked around the room. Following his gaze, Alaric saw muddy stains on the tile by the door from when he had first arrived, drapes still pushed back unevenly from when he had first looked out the window, and a candle knocked over on his desk lying in a hardened puddle of wax.

  “I sent no one to clean your room today,” Matthew said. “And if any of my people had done this shoddy of a job, they would be unemployed by now.”

  Alaric’s heart stuttered. It was only his pack and his cloak that had been tidied.

  He pushed himself off the bed and sank down next to his pack, dumping it upside down on the floor. He searched through the contents before swearing. It wasn’t here.

  Gustav had taken back his ominous medallion.

  Chapter 37

  By the time the sky began to lighten the next morning, Alaric wasn’t sure he had slept at all. His mind churned with the same thoughts that had plagued him all night. Ayda, Gustav, the Wellstone. The theme of Alaric’s failure to see the truth of things wound through his thoughts. It was like a snake, hissing accusations and constricting tighter and tighter.

  After taking leave of the queen who was already awake and in her study, Alaric went to the stables. In the east, the sun rose behind the remnants of the storm clouds, turning them a molten orange-red. The vibrancy of the morning felt like a personal affront to the despondency settled deep in Alaric’s bones.

  Their horses had been readied, and the others were preparing to leave when Alaric joined them. Alaric studied Ayda for a moment. She was chatting easily with Milly, her hair glittering with flashes of copper. Alaric readied Beast mechanically, realizing he had absolutely no idea what to do about Ayda.

  He gathered the others together and told them about Gustav.

  “I hate that wizard,” Ayda said. “It’s even harder to pay attention to him than it is to the rest of you. I couldn’t even work up the interest to look at that lord.”

  Alaric had spent a good portion of the restless night wondering how he had missed noticing Gustav again. Alaric couldn’t even reconstruct a good picture of Horwen’s face. He mostly remembered his doublet with the white hawk. That and the fact that he was old and slightly daft. Horwen had seemed unimportant, a nuisance to be suffered. And the day had been full of so many distractions. Ewan, Saren, Duke Thornton. Gustav had taken advantage of all those things to distract him.

  The nuance of the wizard’s influence spell was staggering. A normal influence spell would distract someone by suggesting something particular to them. This is how you could recognize an influence spell. If someone suddenly had an overwhelming interest in mushrooms, or staring at a blank wall, it was a sign. But Gustav’s was different. Somehow, he managed to cause each person to be distracted by the things they would most naturally be distracted by.

  “I have never heard of anyone using influence in such a far-reaching, subtle way as Gustav does,” Alaric said. “I’m not even positive he knows what his spells will draw. I don’t think he expected to see us at the palace. I think he just casts out nets for things he needs and sees what is drawn in. Maybe a web is a better analogy. And he’s the spider waiting to see what is caught. It’s entirely possible that the fact we ran into Menwoth was Gustav’s doing.”

  “Why was Gustav even at the palace?” Brandson asked.

  “He said he was studying maps in the library,” Alaric said. “I’m guessing he was looking for some clue as to where Mallon might be in the Greenwood. The Keepers are on good terms with the elves, and we know barely anything about their woods. I can’t imagine the Shade Seekers know anything at all.”

  They saddled up, all subdued, and headed out of the palace in silence.

  “This isn’t all bad,” Milly said as they passed out of the western city gates. She ignored all the eyebrows that statement raised. “We missed our chance to stop Gustav at the
palace, but we now know that he’s not as far ahead of us as we thought.”

  “True,” Alaric said. “And I think he may not be heading straight to the Greenwood. The stone Gustav dug up in Bone Valley was Kordan’s emerald, not his Wellstone. The emerald was probably what Gustav was after all along, but after yesterday’s council meeting, he knows that Kordan also had a Wellstone.

  “I believe the Wellstone is at Kordan’s tower where you found the map, Douglon. Gustav would have come to the same conclusion. A Wellstone would help Gustav hold all the energy he’s going to need when he tries to wake Mallon. Since the valley with Kordan’s tower is between here and the Greenwood, I think he’ll go look for that first.”

  “That’s the Wellstone you need, isn’t it?” Brandson asked. “The one with the antidote for Evangeline?”

  Alaric nodded. The thought of Gustav having the Wellstone rankled deep inside of him.

  “It won’t take long to stop there,” Douglon said. “To get to the northern edge of the Greenwood, we’ll pass right by the valley. It’ll just take a couple hours to get to it and back.”

  As the day went on, Alaric kept Beast near Ayda. She was riding quietly, not bothering Douglon or paying attention to the trees. Something was different about her this morning. Ever since she had defended Alaric in the council meeting, she was more open and honest. More present than she normally was. This morning, it felt less like he was keeping tabs on an unpredictable elf and more like he was riding alongside a friend.

  Alaric tried to come up with ways of broaching the subject of the darkness Will had seen in her. But there really wasn’t a good way to ask someone to share their deepest, darkest secret while you rode with them on a sunny summer morning. Not a way that seemed likely to work, anyway. It was Ayda who finally spoke first.

  “Will you return to the palace when this is over?”

  That agreement hung over him like a cloud. “I told Saren I would. After we stop Gustav and after I…”