by Cege Smith
“Of course, where did you think he was going to go?” Caspian said. “The blood won’t hold him long, so you have to be sure that you don’t waste time talking about trivial things. We need to know how to unbind the souls. Make sure you repeat everything out loud. I will transcribe.”
“Is there anything else that I should know?” Angeline asked sharply. “Can his spirit harm me?”
Caspian looked confused. “Why would he wish to harm you? You are of his bloodline and he will know that. No one else could have conjured him.”
“I am just trying to ask everything I can think of to anticipate anything that may happen,” Angeline said. “Let’s just say for the sake of argument, he did wish to harm me. Could he?”
“Well, I would suppose so,” Caspian said. “He will take the same form as those that we are using the boundary spell to keep out. But…”
Angeline cut him off. “Yes, I understand that you don’t think he will harm me, but I need to understand all of the risks. Is there any way to stop a spirit from harming you?”
“We don’t have time to walk through an entire spirit rendering lesson,” Caspian snapped. “Even if we did, such techniques may dissuade one spirit, but certainly not the amount that are itching to get inside the boundary.”
“We will be right here, Princess,” Connor said. “Caspian will be at the ready if it looks like you would be in danger.”
Angeline felt less comfortable with that idea, but she realized she didn’t have much choice. In the end, she wasn’t ever going to be ready for what she was about to do, but she was going to have to do it anyway. She would trust that Connor would have her back.
“All right,” she finally said. “Then I’m ready to begin.”
“From the point where the princess starts the ceremony, everyone needs to be silent until she completes it. We don’t want to risk her safety by compromising the intention of the spell,” Caspian said, scowling at Searon.
Searon, for his part, looked bored. “What?” he said. “The sooner you stop talking the sooner she can start casting.”
Angeline could tell that Caspian wanted to say something else, but he stopped and stomped his foot instead. Any other time she would have found that amusing. She went back to the symbol, took a deep breath, and then slowly started to read from the paper.
Onan bi yan returna, Hear me great spirits
Onan bi yan returna, Hear me great spirits
Alair Robart
Mernan cor direta, I beseech you to heed
Nurnan vei pertsun, the call of my blood
Alair Robart
As she reached the last words she felt her throat clench up. The air around her changed. While before the electric pulses had been attracted to her, now they were crackling around the symbol. And then it happened. A bolt shot off the symbol and hit the barrier at the bowl where she had marked the “X.” And she saw a ripple in the air, and then a spirit form drifted through the barrier into the circle. It came to rest right on top of the symbol in front of her, and as she watched with her mouth agape, it took on a man’s form. She saw small tendrils reaching up from the bowls and then travel to the form, which, as each tendril connected with it, seemed to take on a more solidified form.
Angeline watched as his face fleshed out, and then seconds later she was looking into violet eyes that matched her own. She had always heard that the violet eyes were a dead giveaway of a Robart. As more of the man came into being, her next thought was that he looked just like her father. Although she was sure that he had questions, his eyes held hers calmly, almost as if his spirit was conjured from the outer realms every day. As his form was further infused with her blood, the transparency became solid and moments later, Angeline was looking at Alair Robart in the flesh.
They silently regarded each other. Angeline wasn’t sure who was supposed to speak first, another question that Caspian should have answered for her without her asking. She saw his eyes flicker over her shoulder.
“You keep strange company, daughter,” Alair finally said.
Angeline marveled at his voice. It was rich and deep with a tone that said he wasn’t one to be questioned lightly. It was the voice of a king. And not just any king, but the king who had saved the people of Altera from the vampires. She felt humbled to be in his presence, regardless of whatever wrongs Caspian had accused him of. This man had spent the better part of his life ridding the world of the very creatures he saw behind her. She needed to tread lightly.
“This are strange times m’lord,” she said as she gave him a slow curtsey.
“My bloodline was not meant to be spell-casters. It is a decidedly unnatural occupation for those of royal blood. Unless this means that my bloodline no longer rules?” Alair asked.
“My father is still king,” Angeline said quickly. “Although he is ill. I must return to him as soon as possible. That is why I need your help.” Caspian had said that the spell, if it worked, wouldn’t last long and she was starting to see why. The bowls that made the circle were already starting to empty in an effort to keep Alair’s flesh here in this realm.
“Things must be very dire for you to embark on this dangerous enterprise. Conjuring is only done by a master, and while your blood is strong, I can tell that you are inexperienced,” Alair said bluntly.
Was he testing her mettle? She almost cracked a grin. It was exactly the type of thing her father would do. “For a first attempt, I would consider it a great success m’lord,” she said, lifting her chin.
He considered her for a few moments, and then she saw the glint of amusement flash in his eyes. He had been testing her, to see if she’d lose her composure. A king, or queen, must remain in control of their emotions at all times regardless of whether it was royalty or a pauper standing before them. To rule with your emotions ensured you would not rule for long.
“Perhaps,” he said. “What help do you ask of me, daughter? Although I have many questions, I fear our time together will come to end much sooner than I’d like. It has been a long time that I’ve slumbered, and I look forward to it again.”
Angeline had tried to think of the best way to ask for what she was about to ask, and couldn’t think of a way to do it without offending him. So she decided that it was better to be direct and get it over with. “I’m trapped inside the Amaron Forest, and the spirits are only being kept at a bay by a sliver of a spell that is quickly dissolving. I need to know how to unbind them so that I can pass and return to my father before he leaves this place and joins you in the spirit realm.”
She knew she was leaving out huge chunks of the story, but she couldn’t see how it would make the situation better for him to know that she had been turned into a wraith, and that her journey home required a stop at the coven of the vampire master.
Alair drew back and his eyes widened in alarm. “You should never have been allowed anywhere near the Amaron Forest. It is a dark place for anyone of my bloodline.” He looked around him with a slightly panicked expression. “Is this the place where you have conjured me? If so, you have put us both in danger, your life, and my peaceful afterlife.”
Angeline frowned. She had never considered that in his current form that Alair could be in danger as well. She glanced back over her shoulder. Caspian was writing in his book. Searon had wandered back to his chair and was picking at his nails with his knife. Only Connor seemed to be paying attention, and his worried expression mirrored her own.
“The boundary will hold for a time longer, m’lord. You have no reason to fear. But I do,” Angeline said with a confidence that she didn’t feel. “How I arrived here is of little consequence. I am here and I am in trouble. If my father dies before I return home, Altera could fall into chaos. I am the heir to the throne.”
Alair’s eyes narrowed. “My throne falls to a woman? How could a descendant of mine have been so careless to not secure the throne with a son?”
Angeline felt a familiar anger, but not one that was part of her demon. She was tired of being told
that she should have been a boy. She wasn’t, and the possibility of a male Robart heir was long gone.
“My father chose not to remarry when my mother passed,” Angeline said. “I have been preparing to take over the throne since I was born. My father has trained me well, and my kingdom will be in good hands.”
Alair snorted, but said nothing else.
“You bound these spirits here. You have to tell me how to unbind them,” she said.
“You know nothing,” Alair hissed. “Whatever your friends told you isn’t the truth. Or what you’re telling me isn’t the truth.”
“What do you mean?” Angeline said, crossing her arms. Alair wasn’t making any sense.
“Those spirits are gatekeepers, yes. They are guardians of Altera and they serve a very special purpose. I will not unbind them, no matter what,” Alair said firmly.
“Gatekeepers of what?” Angeline said.
“They protect the boundary of Altera from the most vicious predator of all, more dangerous to my kingdom than even the vampire, which at least can be reasoned with,” he said, looking her squarely in the eye.
Angeline realized that he knew her secret. He had known from the moment she told him what she needed.
“They protect the boundary from wraiths,” she said faintly.
“Indeed they do,” Alair said. “They had to. Even after my wife and eldest son became ones.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Angeline felt dizzy and she wanted to sit down. But she couldn’t let her emotions overrule what she needed to do. She needed to escape this forest intact.
“So, that part of the histories remains lost,” Alair said, nodding in satisfaction. “Good. Marietta and Josiah did not deserve to be remembered for the way their lives ended.”
“No, it is said that they died in the plague,” Angeline said numbly. If this man was willing to wipe all existence of wraiths from the face of history, how could she get him to help her?
“Close enough,” Alair said. “The beast found them when they had taken ill with the disease that was sweeping the land. We called it the plague, but it was something far worse. My enemy had found a way to strike at me in the most insidious way. He was taking my people and raising a horde of wraiths to ravage and destroy the countryside. The vampires had less to fear. Their histories spoke of the wraith and they knew how to fend them off. But humans had never been exposed to this abomination and so we were ill prepared. I was forced to grovel before the Clan to save my people, but not before the disease visited my own house.”
“What happened?” Angeline said.
“I made a deal with the devil. They gave me the means to rip the souls from the bodies of the wraiths and they all set upon each other in a frenzy. While they were distracted, I banished them across the Solera Valley on the far side of the kingdom to the Amaron Forest and forbade anyone to go there. I admit that I had hoped that the souls would have turned their attention on the vampires, but unfortunately my enemies had already figured out a way around that problem too.”
“If it saved your people, then it sounds like a good deal,” Angeline said.
“Oh no,” Alair disagreed. “They gave me that power, but in return I could no longer fight the vampire. I had to declare a blood truce with the Grand Counsel of vampires and cease all future efforts to eradicate that race from all existence. You see, even then the Clan was playing both sides.”
“A blood truce?” Angeline asked in horror. It was another barbaric practice that she had read about in those books that were hidden in her father’s secret library. “Who?”
Alair sighed heavily. “I was becoming an old man. The years of war had worn on me, even though I had thought that the tides had finally turned completely in my favor. But then the wraiths came, and I lost my wife and my eldest son. To ensure my bloodline, I could not afford to sacrifice my remaining son.”
“Who?” Angeline asked, more forcefully this time.
“My daughter Sophia,” he said simply. His eyes never left hers. “I had no choice.”
Angeline felt sick. She wanted this interview, or whatever it was, to end. But she couldn’t until she had pulled every bit of useful information out of this hateful man.
“How do I leave the forest?” she asked.
“You don’t,” Alair said. “I regret that this leaves my kingdom without an heir, but it is much more important that the demon inside of you never has a chance to see the light of day on my throne. I’d rather die a thousand deaths all over again than to help you.”
That was when Angeline saw his hand slip inside his cloak and he pulled out a glowing red knife. She heard Connor yell and saw a blinding flash of light. She felt his pain as he bounced off her barrier of blood.
Angeline let herself fall backward just as the knife sliced through the air above her. It was like she was moving in slow motion. As soon as the knife completed its arc, she rolled to her left and flipped over. She hit the ground and rolled again just as the knife dug into the dirt where her torso had just been. She heard the voice whisper in her head, and for once she listened. As Alair’s shadow fell over her and she saw his arms raised over his head, she kicked out her foot and connected with the bowl of blood that had been sitting in the middle of the circle. As soon as it went over she heard Alair’s scream of frustration, and as the knife came down she flung her arms over her face.
Then there was another blinding flash and Alair seemed to explode into a thousand tiny bits of dust that swirled all around the circle. He was gone. Seconds later Connor hovered over her.
“Princess, are you all right?” he asked.
The dust particles caught in the firelight and lit up, reminding her of the ceiling of the cave where she had first woken up after she had been bitten by the spider. Now, just as then, she was mesmerized by them. But in this instance, they were the final remnants of her great-great-great-grandfather, who had tried to kill her. She felt Connor’s hands tuck under her arms and he drew her to her feet. She leaned against him, wanting for just one moment to feel like someone else would take care of her.
“That was…unexpected,” she said.
She heard clapping and looked up to see Searon looking at her in delight. “How wonderful!” he said. He jumped into the circle and grabbed Angeline out of Connor’s grasp and swung her around.
Angeline wanted him to set her down. She could feel his cold fingers biting into her waist and although he was smiling she sensed a cruelty lay just underneath the smiling surface. He finally set her down and threw his arm around her shoulders.
“Caspian!” Searon barked. “Go dig in those ragamuffin trunks of yours and find a ball gown worthy of a queen. We can’t have my cousin meeting my father in these common rags!”
“Cousin?” Angeline said. Her head was spinning, not only from everything that Alair had told her, but from the crazy turns that Searon had just spun her around in.
“Yes, of course. I’m surprised I didn’t see it before,” Searon said. “Caspian! Forget it. You have no idea what you’re doing. I’ll do it myself.” Searon leapt from the clearing into the left eye up the cliff.
“What is he going on about?” Angeline muttered.
Shock laced Connor's words. “Sophia was Searon’s mother.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Angeline felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. How much of her life was false? How much didn’t she know about who she was and where she came from? How could her family have kept these terrible secrets all these years?
Connor was hovering, and she wanted him to wrap her in his arms and take her away from this place. Away from this truth that had spun everything she thought she knew and had taken for granted. Good and evil, black and white, everything now seemed to be a muddy shade of gray.
Caspian suddenly appeared in front her, searching her face with a new inquisitive eye. “Huh. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. No wonder the Master was so secretive of his wife’s bloodline; she wasn’t a true pure-
blood vampire, although one can’t sniff at her background. It has been one of the well-kept secrets in the coven. Even I couldn’t ferret it out, and I can usually find out anything.” He turned away and buried his head in his book.
Angeline heard a ruckus coming from up the cliff, and then shredded fabric started to pepper the air. Silks, chiffons, and cottons in varying textures and colors. None of them appeared to be meeting with Searon’s approval.
Despite the intense desire to be comforted, she knew that a problem still existed that hadn’t been resolved. She turned to Connor. “We didn’t find out how to unbind the souls here.”
“No,” Connor said. “We will have to take our chances up above.” He pointed to the top of the rock wall.
“If that was another option, why did we have to go through all of this?” Angeline asked. She hated the slight shriek of her voice that signaled she was stressed. She also started to feel a familiar twinge in her stomach.
“There are creatures beyond the Altera limits that give even vampires pause,” Connor said. “It didn’t seem prudent to subject you to that. Even though you are likely stronger and faster than any one of us, you are still bound by your human flesh and easily hurt.”
“I don’t understand the benefit of this form, or how I could have inherited what is supposed to be the best of both species, and still be so frail,” Angeline said.
“Every species has weaknesses,” Caspian said, finally raising his nose from his book. “The only way to kill a vampire is to stab it through the heart. The benefit of your frail skin is that you can still go out in the daylight. Be grateful for it. Every weakness has its opposing positive benefit.”
Angeline chewed on her lip. “We need to get out of here. Is there any other way? Anything that you haven’t already thought of?”
Connor shuffled and cleared his throat. “There is one other way. But you won’t want to do it.”