by Ardis, Priya
Immediately, the gemstone heated. I gasped the intensity of the burn and clutched my forehead. Images flashed through my mind.
I was standing on a narrow ledge, surrounded by green hills and brown rock. Beside me, a waterfall cascaded from a rock outcropping overhead. The waterfall continued past the ledge and down into a small pool about fifty feet below. From my vantage point, the pool didn’t look deep enough for diving. Matt walked into the waterfall. With his palms, he felt along the damp earth of the hill. All of a sudden, a blast of water shot out from the rock, like a horizontal geyser. It tossed him into the air and straight across the ledge. I dove after him, but it was too late. Matt went over the side of the ledge.
Panting, my eyes snapped open. Vane was seeing a vision.
“Yes, DuLac, figure that out all by yourself?” Vane’s voice pounded in my head. He sounded out-of-breath and tired. “I told you it would work.”
“Blake is gone, Vane.”
“Yes.”
“He was your friend!”
“Emerson always wanted to be the hero, DuLac. We no longer have the luxury of heroes.” The words were merciless, but I sensed a trace of regret in his tone. His next words confirmed it. “It was not planned, Ryan.”
In the kitchen, I took a relieved breath at the small hint of the real Vane, hoping it meant he fought against the monster. I pushed for more. “How can you be working with Oliver?”
“I agree that was ill-conceived on my part.”
Ill-conceived. What a massive understatement. But it was also a concession. It wasn’t enough. I couldn’t let him dismiss Blake as if he meant nothing. “Vane—”
Vane interrupted, “Emerson—Blake, that is. He…”
Vane stopped as if he couldn’t actually verbalize his thoughts. Yet I could sense the chaos of emotions swirling inside him. In the kitchen, my fingers tightened on the amulet and I dared to have hope.
Vane read the thought. His voice hardened, “Emerson was one of the first, Ryan, and he won’t be the last, unless you stop resisting me.”
A harsh bark of laughter escaped me. “So this was my fault?”
“No.” There was a pause. “This is but merely a taste of what’s coming. We need to figure out what that is.”
“Is that how you justify attacking us?”
Vane made an impatient noise. “I’m not justifying. I’m explaining.”
I pictured the green eyes of the monster. So far, I’d adamantly held onto the belief that I could defeat it. After today, my faith was shaken. “So, this is how it’s going to be?”
“We don’t have to be on different sides.”
“You can’t have it both ways, Vane. I won’t let you do this again.”
“You won’t be able to stop me.”
I closed my eyes. “I will find a way.”
He sighed. “Then you’ll destroy this world. My brother was very clever to use Excalibur against me, but only the sword-bearer may wield it properly. You’ll have to do better, if you want to defeat me.”
I didn’t want to defeat him. I wanted the real Vane back.
“He is gone.”
“Thanks for the tip,” I muttered.
He paused. “Why do you still care?”
The idiotic question didn’t deserve an answer. Not that I would give him one. He’d just use it against me. I only hoped the fleeting glimpse I’d seen of the real Vane meant something good. I rubbed my forehead. “I’m taking off the amulet, Vane.”
“Want to tell me where you are?”
Matt had one of the wizards put me to sleep so I wouldn’t know—a safeguard against Vane.
He groused, “He is too clever. And making things overly difficult.”
“What was that vision?”
“How should I know? It’s the first one I’ve ever had.”
“Great idea, then, for you to steal them,” I retorted.
“Forget the vision. It doesn’t tell us anything right now,” Vane shot back. “I need you to drink the Gorgon’s blood.”
The Medusa snake. Now I understood why he was still talking to me. “Why are you so bent on this?”
“Time is running out. We still have no idea what is going to happen, Ryan. What good is having the power of a god if you don’t know its purpose?”
I said aloud, “Another thing you might have considered beforehand. I’m sensing a pattern.”
“What pattern?” Matt came into the house.
My hand went straight to my neck. With a guilty grimace, I took off the amulet. The gemstone went cold and I knew Vane was gone.
Matt marched up to me, a scowl marring his otherwise supremely aesthetic face. “You’re talking to him.”
I answered evenly, “Yes.”
Matt pointed back in the direction of the funeral. “You still want to save him? Even after all he’s done! After Blake! Can you really tell me you’re happy about how all of this turned out?”
I blinked back tears. Blake’s tousled black hair and earnest eyes swam in front of me. “Of course I’m not happy!”
Matt gave a low laugh. “He’s taken everything.”
I couldn’t disagree. Still I tried to explain. “I saw what Lelex left inside you. It was spreading like a virus. He saved you.”
Matt thundered, “He saved me so that he could take my power. The visions were our one advantage. Now we’ve lost them altogether.”
I ground my teeth. “What was I supposed to have done? Vane didn’t give me a choice.”
“If I had my powers, maybe I could have changed what happened on the rooftop,” he barked. “Maybe we wouldn’t have lost Excalibur. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost…” Matt raked an unsteady hand through his hair. “So many.”
My eyes closed. I forced them open. “I didn’t see another way.”
Matt looked at me impassively. “You should have found one.”
“Really? How?” I took a long breath. “Look, you’re upset. I get it. I’m upset, too. I didn’t want this.” My voice dropped, and I said hoarsely, “It’s killing me, what I had to do, but I’m not going to take it back. I made the right choice to save as many as I could.”
“The right choice today, without a thought of the cost—”
I stood up, shaking. “I am well aware of the cost!”
A hard glint flickered in Matt’s amber eyes. “So it wasn’t without thought. It was with arrogance.”
I sputtered, “A-arrogance?”
“Yes, Ryan. Everything you do has consequences.”
“Is it that? Then, why is it okay for you to make unilateral decisions and not me? I don’t remember you asking permission before you took Excalibur.” I crossed the floor to Matt and poked him in the chest with my finger. “You say you want me to step up. Well, I did. I made a choice. Me. Myself. I.”
“If I hadn’t used Excalibur, we wouldn’t have gotten off that rooftop.”
“You should have found another way.” I spat his words back at him. “You could’ve bargained with the Medusa snake. This battle between the two of you has got to stop. We want the same things—”
“No!” Crossing the short distance between us, Matt grabbed my shoulders. His eyes locked on mine and he stared into them as if he could impress his beliefs onto me by sheer force. “There wasn’t another way, Ryan. There is only enough blood left for one more vision. I would never have surrendered that to him.”
My jaw jutted out. I said his words back, “At what cost?”
He didn’t answer.
“Let me go, Matt,” I said evenly.
“You heard her, Emrys. Back off,” Grey walked into the kitchen. His arm was around Gia’s shoulders, offering her support. “It’s been a long day.”
Gia laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Yes, it has.”
Ignoring them, Matt released me. “Understand this clearly, Ryan. Vane is not to be trusted. He will do what it takes to save himself. He always has. If that happens to be what we need to do, then all is good. If it doesn’t, then we’
re going to be the ones left paying the price of whatever he does.” He pointed at the door, in the direction of the funeral pyre. “Destruction follows him like a plague. Whatever his choices might be, I assure you they will not be the right ones.”
“Like yours would be. I’m so glad you’re here to save us from ourselves.” Taking a few steps, I moved away from him. “You might be upset that I sacrificed your powers, but that’s not what’s making you so angry. You’re furious because you have no idea what to do next. For the first time in your life, you’re going to have to learn to live without a safety net.”
Matt sighed. “This isn’t about me, Ryan. This is about you. You’ve got to do better.”
Gia added softly, “I agree with Merlin.”
I reeled back from her words as if she slapped me.
“You shouldn’t have sacrificed his magic. We lost too much today.” Red-rimmed eyes faced me, but I couldn’t meet them. My legs, suddenly weak and rubbery, forced me to sit down.
Grey frowned. “Blake wasn’t her fault.”
“No, Grey,” I said. “They’re right. It is my fault.”
Without looking at anyone, I grabbed the bag on the table and pushed myself up. Feeling about a hundred years old, I walked slowly into the courtyard. Outside, the sky was colored in ominous hues of purple and dark grey. I could have marveled at its majesty, but all I could focus on was how glad I should feel to even see the clouds… thrilled to see another day… because of Vane. And yet… what he’d done… He was destruction personified.
I put my fisted hand into my mouth and bit down on it. Doubt, an ugly disease, bore down on me. Every insecurity I ever had about being the sword-bearer rushed back. Who was I to make any decisions? But in truth—there was no one else. When Matt and Vane locked horns, they couldn’t see past themselves.
I took a ragged breath. I had to hold onto the one truth I knew.
I was the sword-bearer. The burden belonged to me.
My hand pressed down on the side of the fabric bag slung across my chest. Inside was the snake from Medusa’s head, a slim bronze artifact about a foot in length. Unbeknownst to me, Matt put it in the bag when Hari picked us up from the airport. The Medusa snake had been in the car the whole time we were up on the rooftop.
Medusa was a Gorgon, who was either seduced or raped by Poseidon, the same god whose power Vane now possessed. Athena, the goddess of knowledge, caught them in the act inside her temple and cursed the poor maiden. Later, after being beheaded by Perseus, Medusa’s blood was saved and bottled. Thousands of years later, we found the blood in Athens. The blood held mystical properties and led us to the mermaids. The mermaids—one of the many secrets the sea kept to herself. I looked at the ugly, black scars on my arm. I got them during my last encounter with the snake, and I’d have them forever.
Biting my lip, I took the bronze squiggly metal out of the bag.
Matt ran down two short steps into the courtyard. “Ryan, what are you doing?”
Probably making another dumb decision. Taking out the snake topper, I saw he’d been right, only a few drops of blood remained inside.
Matt rushed to me. “Ryan!”
He wasn’t fast enough. I put the metal snake to my lips and took a swallow. The last drops of the thick liquid burned as it descended my throat. My eyes watered. I barely felt Matt snatching the snake from my hands. I clutched my throat as I choked and coughed. The blood went down like rotten, maggoty meat. Gagging on it, I spat it back out. And then, spat some more.
I seriously lost respect for all those movies where vampires drank the stuff like sweet nectar. Ambrosia? It wasn’t. Matt thumped my back.
I coughed again. “That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted.”
Grey hurried out of the house toward me. A furious expression contorted his face as he barked, “Have you lost your mind? You almost died last time!”
I scowled back. “I had to try.”
Matt said, “It didn’t work.”
“The last two times we had it, you drank it,” I said.
“Even in the dungeon?”
I shuddered at the thought of the grisly cell which the mermaid king kept Matt in for weeks. I hoped never to experience that horror again. “You don’t remember, but Vane poured it down your throat.”
Matt stared at the empty snake. “Since Vane holds my power, only he could drink it.”
“Now no one can,” I said, waiting to be chastised. It didn’t come. Matt’s lips curled down, his expression seemingly equal parts anger and desolation. It was much worse than any reprimand. My hand reached out to touch him, but I dropped it halfway. “What do we do next?”
Matt sighed. “We fix this mess.”
Your mess. I heard the sentiment in his tone even though I could no longer hear his thoughts. Would I ever do anything right in his eyes? I wished I didn’t care. Despair jackknifed through my already lowered spirits, and I tried not to let it turn into resentment. It took real effort to stick out my chin. “What brilliant plan do you have up your sleeve?”
“Nothing brilliant,” Matt said with a faraway look. “I intended to find the Healing Cup all along.”
“The Healing Cup? Do you think it really exists?” Grey asked, his voice hopeful. We thought we’d found the precious item once already.
Matt nodded. “Lelex told us the Fisher King came to him. There is no way he could have survived the wound Vane gave him without it. I absolutely believe it exists.”
“Rourke doesn’t have much time left,” said Grey. “We could spend forever trying to figure out where it is.”
My eyes narrowed on Matt. “You think you know where it is, don’t you?”
Matt inclined his head.
“But you’re not going to tell us,” I added.
His expression hardening, he took the now empty metal snake from my hand. “I’ve found that things work out better that way.”
Gia came down the courtyard steps, her long red hair shrouding her face. “Right, Merlin. Nice try. So, where is it?”
“We’ve been over this before,” I said. “This concerns all of us. I’m the sword-bearer—”
“Who no longer has a sword,” he pointed out.
“And you no longer have any magic,” I retorted before I could stop myself.
Matt’s expression froze, closing us all out. Light dimmed above us as night closed down on the sky. Movement sounded from inside the house, and the wizards streamed indoors. I watched the throng of people, their mournful faces as they leaned on one another. Under the expansive sky, however, Matt and I stood alone. Apart.
Emptiness made my stomach hollow. I tried again. “Matt—”
“As you pointed out, I’m sure I will learn to make do without magic.” Turning on his heel, he started walking away. “It has been a long day. I suggest you get some rest. You have a flight early tomorrow. The cars are leaving at first light.”
In a few short strides, he crossed the courtyard and went into the house, while the rest of us could only stare after him.
“I really want to know where we’re going,” Grey muttered.
“I’m pretty sure Marilynn made the arrangements for him,” Gia said.
She and I both winced at the same time. Marilynn did not like either one of us and she worshipped Matt. We wouldn’t get any help from her. For a brief second, I met Gia’s gaze and her demeanor thawed. It was fleeting, and a stony mask fell over her face, shutting me out.
Grey snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. He doesn’t have any magic. Gia can spell him to tell us—”
“Can you spell the greatest wizard in the world?” she murmured.
I let out a small bark of laughter, edged only slightly with hysteria. “You can today.”
***
“I’m going back inside,” I said, one hour later.
Grey nodded.
Moonlight shone down on the dark house. The power was out. A nightly occurrence in this part of India we were told. The sky still grumbled a
nd rumbled, trying to make up its mind about the storm. In the bubble of momentary peace, we sat out on the front lawn, alongside other wizards. They built a small bonfire in a pit at the front of the house and sat around it, trading stories. Grey, Gia, the gargoyles, and I sat with them.
Sitting on a log beside Grey, Gia continued to stare into the golden flames of the fire blazing before us. In the mystery of the night, in a certain slant of the firelight, I could almost see Blake’s ghost, a shadowy form, sitting on Gia’s other side. I took a hard breath. There had to be something I could do. Fix this mess as Matt declared.
I listened to the wizards telling some exaggerated and some not so exaggerated tales about their departed friends. It was sweet, really. Matt didn’t join us. It made me uneasy. Past an open terrace, a small lamp emitted a yellow glow in the room he’d taken. But I hadn’t seen his profile in quite awhile. The hair at the back of my neck stood up. Following my instincts, I left the campfire and walked up the short steps onto the veranda.
“Sword-bearer,” a voice called from the shadows.
I stopped just before the front door. Sangeetha walked toward me, a ghostly figure in a flowing, white sari. Tears covered her cheeks. I opened my mouth. She shook her head. “No, you do not have to say anything. I do not think I could stand any more condolences.”
I closed my mouth. After a second, I asked, “Can I do anything?”
“Raj tells me the one who killed Hari was Merlin’s brother.”
My insides twisted. “Yes.”
“It is a terrible thing. One brother a savior, the other a murderer.” She swallowed hard. “I know not what comes, but Hari told me Merlin thought the earthquakes were just the beginning. You must help him, sword-bearer.” She took my hands into her icy ones. “I see the way he watches you. Merlin loves you.”
“Not any longer.” The words slipped out.
“He does. You must not allow him to push you away. Hari did not choose me at first, either. He said we were too young, but I prevailed. Now, my only regret is that I waited long than I wanted. Merlin will have to battle this brother. It will be difficult, but with you at his side, he can triumph.”
“Vane’s not himself,” I said. “We may yet be able to save him.”