by Ardis, Priya
“He’s right,” Grey said. He walked up the slope. Gia and Colin walked up with him.
Colin drew out a knife. Uttering a small command, he changed it into a sword. He handed it to Grey. “We follow him.”
“Not if I win. Then you will bow to me. You will have no choice.” Oliver laughed from beside Vane. The hierarchical nature of the gargoyles demanded it. It physically hurt them to refuse a direct command from their king or even their clan leader. It was the downside to being part of a super-strong, nearly indestructible beast.
Gia gnashed her teeth. “I’ll happily kill you. That will take care of the problem.”
“You’re nothing but a coward, Oliver,” Grey sneered.
Vane held up Excalibur. The shining metal blade sword gleamed in the darkness, catching the light of the moon. It glowed with banked energy.
The most powerful sword in the world, and Vane handed it to Oliver.
Oliver took it with a gleeful smile.
For a second, I simply couldn’t believe it. He’d betrayed us. Truly betrayed me.
My stomach turned. In protest and in denial.
Grey, too, stilled at the unexpected development.
I begged, “Vane, no.”
Vane ignored me. I fought against the freeze spell. Desperate for freedom. Desperate to help Grey. Furious at the prison forced on me. It was all a lie. The hope I carried was based on one belief—that he’d never deliberately hurt us. That belief lay shattered with one single act. Mentally, I pulled hard on the Dragon’s Eye. One arm broke free of Vane’s magical stronghold. It wasn’t nearly enough.
I shouted into his head, “If he dies, I’ll never forgive you.”
The answer that came back was succinct and edged with sadness. “I know.”
The sadness made it that much more chilling. Tears prickled at my eyes and spilled. A mournful symphony traveled from the ballroom to wrap around us as the dance hurried to a close. Under the soulful cry of the moon, knowing there was nothing I could do to help him, I watched my brother go to his death.
CHAPTER 16 – I WAIT FOR YOU
CHAPTER 16
I WAIT FOR YOU
Swords clanked and hacked at each other. Excalibur moved with ruthless precision, but Oliver couldn’t seem to figure out how to command it. Grey and Oliver fought furiously, even for skilled swordsmen. Both attacked each other with desperate determination. Both knew there wouldn’t be a second chance. In a surprise twist, Grey punched Oliver with his free hand.
The powerful blow sent Oliver reeling back. Grey knocked Excalibur out of Oliver’s hands. Oliver fell to his knees. Grey’s sword swung at Oliver’s neck.
Oliver panted. “Stop. You win.”
Grey stopped it just at his skin.
Vane shook his head. “Only one can remain, Ragnar.”
“I’m not a murderer.” Grey lifted his sword and stepped away.
Oliver retrieved Excalibur.
“Grey, watch out,” I cried in warning.
An amulet glowed around Oliver’s neck. A fireball formed in his hand. He threw it at Grey. Gia jumped in front. It hit her squarely in the chest.
“Gia!” Grey raged as he caught her.
The wizards among the gargoyles ran forward. Grey thrust Gia at them and grabbed the dropped sword. He snarled at Oliver. “You’re dead, Oliver.”
Something changed in Grey. The fury I’d seen him repress several times blazed forward. The shadow of the beast slipped over him as he thrust Gia’s limp body at Colin. He raised his sword and met Oliver. He knocked Excalibur away. His blade sank into Oliver’s stomach. He pulled it back out. Oliver fell forward and landed on his knees. Grey swung his sword. As he did, his face changed. The beast took over. A Cro-Magnon forehead protruded and his teeth elongated as he transformed.
Frozen in place, I watched my brother become the gargoyle king.
“No one move.” A voice came from the shadows farther down the slope.
In a few seconds, a contingent of soldiers, about a hundred or so, dressed in black cargos surrounded the pond. They all held long black rifles. Robin and Frank, the two spies, stepped out of the shadows with Matt. Intermingled among the Regular soldiers were several young wizards in prom-wear. Two wizards and Marilynn, still looking like me, rushed to Gia. Relief went through me as they began healing her.
Their eyes took in Oliver’s decapitation.
Unperturbed by the soldiers, Vane locked eyes on Matt. “New friends?”
“They’re a little upset at you for killing the Defense Secretary.”
Vane shrugged. “Convenient for you that I do all the dirty work, isn’t it, Merlin?”
“Because you’re so altruistic,” Matt said. “What are you thinking, Vane?”
Vane glanced at Oliver’s severed head. “You know we needed this decided. Tonight happened to be the night the fates chose.”
“I’m not talking about the gargoyles,” Matt said.
“I know,” Vane replied.
The soldiers pressed closer. Vane watched them with a derisive curl of his lips. Matt picked up Excalibur from where it had fallen beside the corpse of Oliver.
Vane signaled Leonidas. The mermaids turned to face the pond.
“Upari,” Vane commanded, raising his hand. Fierce wind blew, shaking the willow trees. Gusts howled across the small clearing, surrounded by a tall forest of high-rise buildings. The water on the pond rippled wildly. Mist rose and mingled with Vane’s magic to become a thick fog of mossy green.
“What is he doing?” Robin yelled.
“I think you’ll want to see the little discovery I’ve made. Your secret is no longer, brother,” Vane said lightly. “I had it brought here especially for you this morning. I have to say the gas accident to cover up digging was played quite well by the Regulars. I don’t think the townspeople of Derbyshire like the reopening of their quarries after all those years of protest. Your friends are nothing if not overbearing.”
Matt asked, “How did you find out?”
Vane took the seeing stone out of his pocket and held it up. “I convinced a spy of my own.” He grinned wolfishly at Robin. “Their allegiance was remarkably easy to buy. Something about surviving the end of the world.”
With a growl, Robin took a step toward Vane. The soldiers behind him gripped their guns and aimed at Vane.
“Wait,” Matt said to Frank, who motioned for the soldiers to hold.
Under cover of the mist, a truckload of black metallic rock in all different shapes and sizes emerged from the pond. Vane directed the rocks with his hand. Taking them from the water, he dropped them on the grass. The mermaids started singing. The soulful aria filled the air and increased in pitch. The sound became painful. Soldiers, wizards, and gargoyles alike held their hands to their ears. Some sank to their knees as the pressure became too agonizing.
The aria heightened even more. The windows of the ballroom rattled and then completely shattered in a booming explosion. Screams and yells followed as glass shrapnel scattered. Most of the blast went outward, directly at us.
As the mermaids continued to sing, the blocks of broken rock seemed to change state and become gel-like. They formed into the shape of the trilithon—two giant vertical lines and one horizontal slab. The structure reminded me of the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, on a much smaller scale. The vertical slabs stretched nearly two stories high, the horizontal as wide as football goal. The song stopped.
A mermaid took out the Fisher King’s trident and handed it to Vane. Leonidas went to a plastic bag tucked behind a willow tree. The label ‘MIT Bookstore’ marked the bag. Leonidas drew out a metal box from inside the bag. He opened it and held up the golden apple.
Matt stalked toward him holding Excalibur. He stopped close to me.
“Hand it back,” Matt ordered Leonidas.
The soldiers got to their feet and trained all their guns on Leonidas. With a bored glance, Vane sent a green wave through the crowd. The soldiers and Matt froze in place. Leonidas handed Vane the apple.
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In one hand, Vane held the apple and in the other, the trident. He slammed the staff of the trident against the ground. The ground rumbled. A crack formed on the ground and ran along the green lawn. A tremor went through the area. Buildings around us shook and shuddered. Everything quivered as the power of the Earth Shaker was called.
The trilithon shuddered, but nothing happened.
Vane slammed the trident to the ground once more. The crack grew wider. Under us, the ground woke like a sleeping giant and growled. The lights of every building in sight flickered and burned out. With a cry, Vane fell to his knees. The monster rose.
Green flowed into Vane, but for a moment, the shape of the bull solidified. Around us, the mini-earthquake he was causing under the ground grew more intense. The high-rise buildings shook harder and for a minute, I was afraid they would crumble. People rushed out of the ballroom and the hotel. They stopped to stare at the imposing trilithon and the wide crack in the ground that seemed to be extending from it.
Under the moonlight, Vane glowed like a charged battery. Green colored water from the pond rose into the air and soaked him. He went to the trilithon and touched the empty space. As soon as he did, the charged air crackled with contained lightning. The door opened.
Vane’s power ebbed. Although exhausted, the monster remained.
“Take him.” Vane pointed two mermaids to Robin. “Leonidas, get Ragnar.”
“Vane,” I gritted out. I thought to him, “Are you going to leave us frozen?”
Through the Dragon’s Eye, in my mind, I searched for Vane. The monster sent me flying back to reality. On the ground, I found I could move. I took a shaky step.
The two mermaids picked up a frozen Robin. Leonidas picked up Grey.
The monster’s cold green eyes watched me. He held the apple casually in his hand. “It appears I must take my leave, love.”
“I don’t think so.” I moved to take Excalibur from Matt, who remained frozen just a foot away from me. When my skin grazed his, Matt drew from the Dragon’s Eye.
“Anuzyayati,” he muttered.
I swayed, momentarily dazed, as power flowed from the amulet and the freeze spell broke across the crowd. Inside my head, the monster made an unhappy sound.
I grabbed Excalibur from Matt.
With somber eyes, Matt held out the Kronos Eye. I blinked, but my hands closed around it. I palmed the small crystal and dropped it into the top of my dress.
Vane and the mermaids were a few steps from the gate. Two mermaids were in front holding Robin. I sprinted toward them. Matt followed behind me. The two mermaids went in. Vane took a step into the mist. I hurled Excalibur at his shoulder, the side that held the apple. With my spot-on accuracy, the blade sank into him and the apple wobbled. He dropped the trident to grab the apple closer. Vane fell through the gate. Matt scooped up the trident.
I reached Leonidas, who was last. He carried Grey over his shoulder. I grabbed Grey’s feet as Leonidas entered the mist. I pulled him out of the doorway. Grey toppled to the ground. A hand caught me and yanked me through instead.
***
Tumbling, I found myself on the other side. I landed hard on a neatly manicured lawn and fell flopped onto my stomach directly on top of Leonidas. Beside us, Vane pulled Excalibur from his shoulder with a pained grunt. It fell beside me. I rolled off Leonidas to grab it.
Early morning birds chirped as Apollo rode his chariot to bring in the dawn.
Another trilithon stood behind us. Between its columns, the light was gone.
The doorway had closed.
I instantly recognized where I was.
Buildings ran around a football field-length rectangle all connected by a ten-foot wall of grey stone. On one end stood a plain English manor. On the other end, a long, pointed tower with beautiful rose-and-ivory stained-glass windows stood attached to a majestic medieval cathedral that shimmered softly with morning dew. Behind the trilithon, a large fountain with several lion heads spouted water.
I was back at Avalon Prep. I was in Vane’s stronghold.
Mermaids and wizards started to crowd the square at the sudden appearance of the newcomers. Leonora came running out between them and almost tripped in her Grecian white gown. She stopped between Vane and Leonidas. Her eyes widened at Vane’s sword wound. She moved to heal it, but Vane waved her away.
He handed her the apple and stalked to me.
Glacial green still coloring his eyes, he knelt beside me. “Miss me already?”
My hand tightened on Excalibur. I hurled myself at him. Vane’s eyes widened before I knocked him over and straddled him. I brought Excalibur crashing down on him. The blade never made it anywhere close to him. Green magic bent my wrists backward. I let out a pained gasp. His magic handcuffed my hands in the air in an invisible steel grip.
“You’re upset,” he said.
“What reasons could I possibly have? You used prom to draw out Oliver. You used me to get to Grey.” I spat. “You left Gia lying across the field, dying.”
He’d crossed the one line I never believed he’d cross.
“You gave Excalibur to Oliver,” I ground out.
“It was necessary,” he replied without apology.
My insides lay in shambles while he stood in cold isolation—completely unaffected by the goings on of mere mortals.
“I hate you,” I whispered in my head.
“You’ll get over it,” came the calm reply.
I dropped the blade, hoping it would sink into his neck. It didn’t. With god-like arrogance, he simply shot me with a sleep spell and knocked Excalibur aside.
Vane sat up as I pitched forward. He put a hand under my knees and rose to his feet while still holding me. My head flopped against his chest.
Leonidas pushed Robin forward. “What do you want to do with him?”
“Set him free,” Vane replied. Shifting me, he took the seeing stone out of his pocket and tossed it to Robin. “Return it to your superiors. Tell them they’ve lost. Merlin can no longer help them. It is time to admit the world is lost.”
The cryptic statement was all I heard before my eyes shut.
***
I am Vane, I said to myself and asked for strength.
My nightmare walked closer. The hill seemed to tremble with every step he took. I tensed. Deadened eyes swept over the camp until they found Sergius.
Septimus sighed. “I am proved right again. If you want something done, you must do it yourself.”
I pushed myself off my knees. “I’m not going with you.”
“I’m not here for you.” Septimus smiled, a very different smile from the lascivious one he usually gave me. This smile was calm, neither friendly nor unfriendly, yet at its edge I sensed a dangerous cliff. The earth trembled under his every step. Nervous sweat broke out down my back… something that never happened with Septimus. Whatever stood in front of me, I realized, was not Septimus. I very much doubted him to be a man at all.
“Who are you?” I dared to say.
Septimus’s lips curved into a chilly smile. His eyes glowed a furious green. “You are correct. The true spirit of this body has already crossed realms. I am merely borrowing it. However, I am disappointed. Have you forgotten me already, Vane? Have I not always treated you like a favored son?”
The sweat on my back chilled my skin down to the bone. I couldn’t say the name out loud. I didn’t dare. Poseidon.
He strode to the little princess and picked her up.
It was the only thing that could have made me move. “What do you want with her?”
Poseidon glanced at me with mild amusement. “You ask a lot of questions. I shall forgive your impetuousness since you have served me well. You found the little one, but her destiny lies not in this place.”
I stared at the princess. “Is she yours?”
Poseidon laughed. “No, she is not mine. I leave such things to my brother.”
I swallowed. “She is one of you?”
He shook his hea
d. “A mere mortal with just a touch of the divine and thus, entirely vulnerable. I meant for the gargoyle to protect her, but it seems I chose poorly. I admit we have allowed their numbers to dwindle, but perhaps with the dark times coming they will have room to flourish again.” Bright green eyes fixed on me. His voice warbled with suppressed power as he demanded, “Now, where are the apples?”
Unable to resist the compelling voice—a gift I always enjoyed using on others and didn’t enjoy having used on me—I glanced at our bedrolls. A whip of power rose in the air. The apple tore through the bag of hidden gold we buried and floated before us. Poseidon plucked it from the air. He opened his mouth and a strange song filled our ears.
I jumped as the ground ripped open. Clumps of dirt mixed with stone rose up. The dirt fell back to earth, leaving only stone. Poseidon re-shaped it into a three-sided bluestone structure. I recognized it. The Domnoni knew the stone circle of the giants. Caer Sidi. Saturn’s circle. The Roman god, Saturn, known to the Greeks as Kronos. The stone monolith was one from Kronos’s Circle of time.
Poseidon took the sleeping girl and tucked the apple in the crook of her arm. “Time for you to make your journey, little one.”
“No,” I cried out in protest.
Green eyes softened. “She is not meant for you, Vivane.”
His eyes made a movement. If I hadn’t been watching with petrified awareness, if I hadn’t been trained to look for every weakness, I would not have noticed the slight movement of his eyes that sought out my brother. Merlin.
What could my brother have to do with her? They just met.
“She has another purpose. You must let her go. My mother has chosen.” Poseidon answered the question I hadn’t formed.
His words nagged at my spotty memory, but I couldn’t decipher them. Yet, the way he said it, I knew I’d already lost her.
“Do not worry.” Poseidon inclined his head at the sleeping bodies across the hill. “Limited strength remains in me, but I will make certain none of you remember her. You will all forget until the time is at hand.”
Forget her. I would not even have that much. The meager pieces of my life, leftover scraps sown together with flimsy ties and desperate need, would once again be torn apart. I didn’t know if I had it in me to bear more. I said hoarsely, “Why?”