by Kova, Elise
“Wh-what did you do to me?” she forced out the words. Her whole body rattled, her flesh searing hot against the ice-cold air of the underground.
She was going to be incinerated from the inside out. Her magic was going to break free of its tethers and, somehow, she would be burned by it. Firebearers could only be burned by the flames of stronger Firebearers, levied with the intent to harm. It should be impossible, but every searing nerve ending screaming in pain told her otherwise.
“Find the apexes. Seek me out.” The man vanished, taking his unnatural light with him, leaving Vi gasping, struggling for consciousness against the bone-rattling tremors that shook through her, alone in the darkness of what she hoped would not be her tomb.
Chapter Nine
It could’ve been seconds, or hours.
But eventually, the shakes faded. Her jaw had been locked, preventing her from making any noise greater than a whimper in the darkness—forcing her to suffer quietly. Yet when those bolts of agony finally vanished, Vi felt better. Great, almost.
She pushed herself away from the ground, straightening. Behind her, the hall stretched onward, but she’d had enough exploring for one day and didn’t exactly feel like going for a swim in the dark. She wanted to put it all behind her, for now, and return to the world above where things made sense. Where she knew what was up, and down, and most importantly… what was real.
“… maybe five minutes now?” Ellene’s voice echoed back to Vi as she emerged from the collapsed archway.
Five minutes? Had it really just been five minutes? She felt as though she’d lived an entire lifetime, died, and been reborn in that cavern.
“That’s it, I’m going down there,” Jayme declared.
“There’s no need for that.” Vi stepped back into the circle of sunlight, looking up at her friends. “I’m right here.”
“What happened to you?” Jayme gasped.
Well, if that wasn’t a question with an answer worthy of a thousand gold. Vi didn’t really know where to begin. But she knew Jayme was focused on the bruises, scrapes, and blood still rolling down her knees from where the wounds had been ripped open again.
“I fell into a hole.” Vi shrugged. Her friends wouldn’t understand—or believe her—if she’d told them what she’d seen. Frankly, Vi didn’t believe herself. Standing in the sunlight, it all truly felt like a dream… more like a nightmare. “I got banged up a bit, but I’m fine. Ellene, can you help me out of here?”
“Gladly.”
A vine slithered down into the hole, bending itself unnaturally into a U shape. Vi grabbed her bow and sat on it like she would a swing. Holding on to both sides, the vine lifted her up and out, depositing her on solid ground next to both of her friends before falling limply behind her.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Jayme asked, looking her up and down.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. It’s all superficial—bruises and cuts—nothing serious,” Vi assured them. “I just may be a little slow getting back.”
“I can still carry your pack,” Jayme said, even though it was already slung across her back.
“I can manage.” Vi held out her hand. “I’m certainly not going to be attempting to hunt anymore.”
Jayme just shrugged, starting into the forest, Vi’s pack still over her shoulder. Ellene and Vi shared a look, a non-verbal agreement that sometimes it was best not to even attempt argument when Jayme had made up her mind. Ellene started first behind their friend, and Vi followed.
“At least now we have a good excuse for why we’re taking the whole four days,” Ellene mused, clearly trying to gild the tension with a silver lining.
“I’m sure they expected us to take the whole time regardless.” Jayme glanced over her shoulder, as if making sure they were still following. “You two will always run to the end of whatever leash you’re given.”
“I think I should take offense to that.” Ellene’s tone clearly conveyed she didn’t.
The two continued on talking, but Vi stayed focused on her feet and the ground below her.
What had happened in those ruins?
Small tremors still shook her hands, and she wished Jayme had let her carry her pack so she’d have something to hold on to. Instead, she balled them into fists, trying to use the tension to still the shaking. The embers within her were now an outright blaze.
She stared down at her fists as if waiting for them to ignite with the raw power that was steadily filling her. Fists. It reminded her of her father’s motion in her vision.
“What is it, Ellene?” Jayme had stopped walking. Vi had been so lost in her thoughts that she almost went face-first into Ellene’s back, who had also stopped dead in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Vi rested her hand on Ellene’s shoulder to jolt her from her thoughts.
Ellene gazed eastward, the same direction the bird had when it’d been initially spooked. The movement was so similar, so instinctual, that Vi knew instantly the correlation was not by chance. Whatever the animal had sensed then, Ellene sensed now.
“What is it?”
“Something big.” Ellene crouched down, digging her fingers into the earth. She closed her eyes. There was a quiet pulsing of magic rippling out from her. “It’s odd…”
“What is?”
She seemed startled, as if she’d somehow not realized she’d spoken aloud. “There’s an odd feeling in the trees around us, all of them.”
“Odd how?”
“As though the earth itself is shuddering.”
“How can the earth shudder?” Jayme asked
“I don’t know.” Ellene’s tone matched Vi’s thoughts. A flight of birds took to the skies in the distance, punching through the canopy of trees with chaotic squawking. The branches of the trees swayed and Vi wondered if the rumbling she felt was only in her mind, brought on by Ellene’s words.
“What do you think it is?” Vi was almost afraid to ask.
“Nothing good.” Ellene went from perfect stillness to motion. She sprinted past them, calling over her shoulder. “We need to go, now!”
They didn’t question, running immediately behind her.
A rustling in the distance grew to a cacophony of snapping tree branches and crunching undergrowth. With a roar, a hulking noru cat burst into view. Vi turned, and froze with a mixture of fear, fascination, and stomach-churning recognition.
The beast oozed white globs from open sores that plopped sickly to the ground. It was as if every drop of blood in its veins had been replaced by the grotesque liquid. Its eyes were glossed over and pale, with familiar red streaks bulging in them. In fact, the magic-filled veins pulsed upward from its fur across its body, casting an ominous glow on the tree bark around it.
“The White Death,” Jayme uttered from behind her.
It suddenly made sense. What Vi had seen in her vision, what she was confronted with now. They’d said the plague was in the North. But it hadn’t seemed real until the moment she stared it in its unnatural, white eyes.
“Grandmother,” Ellene whimpered, her voice nearly as frozen with fear as Vi’s feet.
The beast slammed into a tree, as though it were drunk. A new wound burst open in the center of its head, as though its skin had gone brittle; chunks fell off like chips from a sculptor’s chisel. It shook its head, swayed, and picked itself back up slowly.
“Ellene,” Jayme whispered. “Can you take us up to the treetops? It hasn’t seen us yet, maybe we can avoid it entirely.”
Its hulking head turned slowly. Two orbs, like polished stone, stared right at Vi. A shot of energy ran straight up her spine.
“It saw me,” she breathed, panic flooding her.
“How do you—” Jayme never finished her thought. The beast turned, charging right for them. “Ellene, we have to go!”
Jayme lunged for Ellene in an attempt to get her moving. Vi watched as the girl buried her hands in her hair. She knew what was coming next—Ellene’s magic would act on instinct to pro
tect her. A stone shell, like a turtle’s carapace, shot up from the ground around her. Jayme was close enough that she was encased in it as well.
But Vi… she’d been two steps too far away, and now she was alone with the charging Noru.
“Let me out!” Jayme’s muffled shouts could be heard.
“Mother, mother,” Ellene cried. If it were possible, the rock seemed to thicken. The voices vanished entirely.
Vi’s eyes turned back to the still charging Noru.
This was how she was going to die. That was the prevailing thought that ran through Vi’s brain, muffling everything else except for her heartbeat. Why was her heartbeat so loud? She couldn’t hear the snapping of wood or the snarls of the beast. All she could hear was the sound of her own vital signs. Well, at least as long as she heard that, she knew she was alive.
And if she was alive, she’d do everything in her power to stay that way.
Turning, Vi began to run. There was no way she could outpace a noru, so she’d have to try to outsmart it. Vi slid, gripping a tree root to swing into a shaded alcove at the base of the tree. She pressed her back into it, hoping to confuse the maddened animal and hide from it.
The tree rumbled, bark snapping, as the beast ran head-first into its trunk. Vi bit back a scream. The noru roared. Vi curled her legs, digging the balls of her feet into the earth, seeking some purchase underneath the thick covering of leaves. Her toes slammed into a root and her thighs wrapped under her chest, exploding with power as she began running again.
Fire. She had to make fire. Surely they were close enough now for the watchers to see a warning.
Her side burned from her heavy breathing; her knees ached. The only thing keeping her moving was the knowledge that if she stopped she would be a snack for the giant cat trying to kill her. Darting between the trees, trying to out-nimble the large beast, Vi swung in a wide arc, trying to dredge up her spark in the process.
A paw, twice her size, came out of nowhere. Vi dodged inward, narrowly avoiding the claws, but was batted across the jungle like a toy. Her body slammed into another tree and stars exploded behind her eyes for the second time in one day. Vi fell limply to the ground, trying to push herself up as the creature stalked closer.
Get up. She had to get up. She was the daughter of Aldrik and Vhalla Solaris—cut from a cloth that couldn’t be sheared so easily. Even if the giant saber-sized claws were about to prove her wrong.
“Get up!” Vi cried. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She would die before ever having the chance to live with her family—without ever finding her true home.
The noru’s breath was hot on her face as it leaned down. A row of razor-sharp teeth glinted. The cat reared back, and dove in to eat her whole.
Vi screamed, and fire exploded from her.
Like a sailor watching a lifeline slip over the deck-rail, Vi watched as her control over the magic escaped her hands. Just as Ellene’s magic had sprung forth to craft a shell to protect her, so did Vi’s. Except hers was an inferno. Flames spread across the ground, fed by her magic and uncontrolled.
Too much. She had to get control of it. Her mind was frozen, unable to do anything but look on in horror as her magic took over.
She felt like she could burn the world down if she wasn’t careful.
Vi continued to fight to stand, the ground beneath her ash and barren already. Her clothes had burned off entirely, as they had the last time, and the only thing she saw was white-hot flames.
Withdraw, withdraw, her mind urged in panic, mirroring her uncle’s words. She would hurt her friends if she didn’t. But the fire was too big. It had spread too far, too fast, and was beyond her control now. There was too much magic.
There were screams—distinctly animal. Hopefully Ellene’s rocky shield protected her from the blaze. Vi curled into a ball, holding herself, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Find the void. Find the void, she chanted in her mind. Vi closed her eyes, but there was no darkness. Instead there was only light, and the unstoppable tide of her magic. She felt every expanse of flame, as though it was a part of her. It filled her lungs and seared in her ears, as though trying to lick her mind itself.
The screams cut through to her. How was the animal still alive? Or was it perhaps Ellene and Jayme?
Vi’s head jerked up and she looked around frantically. But it was the same as behind her eyes. It was as though she had been dropped into the sun itself.
Her friends, confidants, the two true allies she had. She would kill them with her own hands. Vi looked down, already seeing their invisible blood staining her skin.
What Vi had always seen as fire was replaced by strands of magic peeling off her flesh. They unfurled as though spinning from a spool of magic within her. Vi watched as they stretched off her, flowed into the air, and knotted into tendrils of pure fire.
What was this power? It wasn’t anything like she’d ever witnessed before. Yet it was as if she’d known it all along.
Samasha.
The word echoed through her like the peel of a bell, bringing crystalline clarity to the chaos roaring around her. All at once, Vi realized she’d never truly seen her magic before. This was not future sight. This was not fire magic at all.
Her power was light itself, and all the possibilities of the world stretched within it—the code of the universe writ large. Just like the glyphs she’d seen winding around the man, and around her watch—this was her magic. Vi took a breath and slowly brought her hands together, pressing her fingertips to make a cage. Narrowing her eyes, Vi focused on channeling the wild tendrils of light and fire to condense, to form a knotted ball of those same incomprehensible glyphs underneath her palms.
The fire subsided, her magic focused on one place. When it was squarely under her control, Vi merely pulled a string in her mind, and watched it all harmlessly unravel. Just like that, the flames vanished.
Vi blinked into the black, barren, smoking field, her eyes adjusting. They barely had a moment to come into focus on the charred bones of the noru, all flesh burned away, before darting to where Ellene’s protective cocoon of rock pulled up from the earth.
It had been split open, and Vi let out a scream of anguish—a sound unlike any she had made ever before.
Chapter Ten
She had killed her friends.
Her magic had broken free and unleashed its true nature—whatever that thread-like power had been—and it had been deadly to the two people who had been closer to her than any others in the world.
Vi buried her face in her hands, wishing she had been the one to burn instead. She stayed curled up on the barren field, naked and uncaring in her grief. The Empire would carry on just fine without her. She’d served her purpose as a ward in the North to keep peace. Romulin could take the throne and her parents—
“Vi!” Jax’s voice broke through her thoughts.
Vi lifted her head, turning. Off to the side, at the edge of the burnt ring, a group stood. Her eyes widened as she looked past the noru—the non-diseased kind—past the two warriors who were still mounted, and landed on Sehra clutching tightly to Ellene, with Jayme standing awkwardly off to the side.
Sehra was saying things Vi couldn’t hear from this distance. Her green eyes, on occasion, would flick Vi’s way. But neither woman made any motion to bridge the gap between them.
Better Ellene angry with her than dead.
“Vi,” Jax repeated, panting as he came to a stop before her. He stood bare-chested, eyes turned up toward the sky. His tunic was clenched in his palm. “Here.”
Vi looked from him to the article of clothing he’d removed to give her. Vi took his shirt and hastily slid it over her shoulders. He waited an extra second with his eyes averted, then looked back. She could see the relief that flooded his expression.
“By the Mother.” He dropped to his knees before her, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders. Vi winced slightly from all the cuts and bruises, but his embrace was welcome sup
port. “What in gods’ names happened?”
Where should she begin?
She’d banged herself up falling down a hole. Had an out-of-body experience tangling with the future, again, and then met a man who’d seemed to be more light than matter. She’d been chased and nearly eaten by a diseased noru. And then saw a magic she didn’t even know how to describe unraveling from her.
If she’d been tasked with imagining the strangest, most exhausting day possible, Vi wouldn’t have been able to come up with half of it.
“There was a noru that had the White Death and—”
“The White Death?” She hadn’t thought his tone could get more serious, but he proved her wrong. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” Vi affirmed without doubt.
“How do you know?”
“Jayme saw it,” Vi explained, avoiding mention of the vision of her father and the caged man. She’d tell her uncle eventually. But right now, her head was already swimming and there was only so much she could process at once. “She said she knew its signs from the capital. But even without her account, I had no doubt as to what it was.”
“This close to Soricium…” he muttered. Jax’s dark stubble folded in around his mouth as he pressed it into a thin line. “Let’s head back. We can discuss this with Sehra.”
He brought his fingers to his lips, letting out a shrill whistle. Gormon, the noru Sehra had gifted Vi a few years ago, came padding over. Vi watched it come close, swallowing hard. She’d had enough noru for one day. But she also knew when she was being ridiculous; Gormon was a loyal beast.
Crown princesses did not have the luxury of clinging to past emotional distresses.
She’d already learned that the hard way, multiple times. Whatever trauma life threw at her, she had to bury it, push forward, and move on, or else risk being suffocated by her own self-doubt. No one would understand, or have any sympathy, if she complained.