“Pip!” Sliding the crystal sword into his scabbard, Gulph rushed to kneel by his friend. He brushed sand from her face and lifted her up. She coughed up more sand, then opened her eyes, stared at Gulph, and hugged him.
“That was quite a show,” she croaked.
“Worthy of the Tangletree Players?”
“The crowd would be on their feet!”
As he helped Pip up, Gulph realized the courtyard was almost silent. With his best friend on one side, and his sister on the other, he made his way cautiously through the drifts of sand. More sand rained down around them in a glittering shower.
Gradually the air cleared. Not a single sand-warrior remained standing. Glancing up, Gulph saw only the huge arrow-shapes of the thorrods and wyverns as they patrolled the light-filled sky. Of the sand-bats and eagles there was no sign.
Presently, Theeta separated herself from the rest of the flock and flew down to land before them. Tarlan climbed down from her back. He looked exhausted.
“We did it!” he said, embracing Elodie roughly. He clapped Gulph on his shoulder. “No stopping us once we get together!”
“It isn’t over,” Gulph warned.
“No,” said Elodie, touching his arm. “But with Vicerin gone, we’re safe from the Sandspear. For now.”
The fur-clad figure of Captain Leom strode up. He bowed, first to Tarlan, then Elodie. Letting go of Gulph’s hand, Elodie grinned and hugged him.
“You’re a good man,” she said. “I always knew you were.”
Leom gave her a grave smile, then offered a third bow, this time to Gulph.
“It is my honor to serve you all,” he said, sinking to one knee.
“And mine,” said Captain Ossilius, emerging from a line of Celestian soldiers. He took Gulph’s hands and squeezed them. He shifted his glance first to Tarlan, then to Elodie. “This is a great day for me, to see the three of you reunited at last. And it is a great day for Toronia.”
Gulph felt a swell of pride, and was amused to see Tarlan shifting his feet awkwardly. He wondered if his brother would ever be truly comfortable among people.
“Who’s this?” Tarlan said gruffly, waving his hand at Pip.
“My friend,” Gulph replied. As he introduced her, the rest of the Tangletree Players gathered around him. He was about to start introducing them all, when a dreadful thought made his stomach contract. He suddenly knew why Tarlan wasn’t smiling.
Mother! Where has he taken you?
“So this is your family,” Pip was saying. She sounded a little awestruck. “I’m . . . I’m pleased to meet you all.”
Gulph gave her a brief hug. “You’re all my family,” he said. “And there will be plenty of time later for everyone to meet properly. But now . . .”
“Now we have work to do,” said Tarlan. His brow furrowed and his lips pressed together.
“We have to rescue Mother,” Elodie asserted. “He must have taken her to the throne room.”
Gulph nodded. “If he survived the wyverns’ attack, that’s where he’ll have gone.”
“Oh, he survived all right!” snarled Tarlan. “I was stupid to think he wouldn’t.”
“No, you weren’t,” said Gulph. “You separated him from his army. If you hadn’t done that . . .”
“None of that matters now,” said Elodie. She grabbed Tarlan’s hand. Tarlan seized Gulph’s. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s get him!” Gulph answered.
CHAPTER 24
Elodie’s glowing crystal sword bounced against her hip as she ran. With the three of them carrying similar magical weapons, surely nothing could stand in their way. Nevertheless, they couldn’t afford to waste time.
Everything’s at stake now, she thought. The kingdom, the crown, our mother.
Our destiny.
Together, Elodie, Tarlan, and Gulph passed through the gaping doorway of the diamond tower and into the citadel beyond. Close behind them came Ossilius, Leom, and the Tangletree Players.
Inside the citadel, a forest of crystal columns opened out into a vast chamber. Diamond windows captured the dazzling colors raging in the sky above and splashed them over the walls and floor. It was like running through a rainbow.
“Here!” cried Gulph, leading them toward a low bridge spanning a dry channel of gleaming sapphire. “We can take the river!”
“What river?” said Tarlan. “Where’s the water?”
“It drained away when Celestis rose up,” gasped Pip, who was running behind Elodie. “Lots of things moved around.”
“Some of it looks different,” Gulph agreed, halting in the middle of the bridge. “But I recognize enough of it to know where we’re going.”
“So where are we going?” Tarlan demanded impatiently.
“Over the side!” Gulph leaped from the bridge, landing lightly in the empty channel below.
Elodie vaulted over the rail and landed next to him on the blue crystal riverbed. A breath later, Tarlan joined them.
“We’re nearly there, aren’t we?” Elodie said. Her blood was fizzing through her body, as if all the colors in the air had soaked into her skin and were filling up her veins.
“Look, it slopes down.” Gulph pointed ahead to where the dry channel became a rapidly descending ramp. “If I’ve worked this out right, it should take us straight to the throne room.”
“Will we be able to stop when we get there?” Tarlan eyed the slippery-looking slope uncertainly.
“I’m not even going to think about stopping!” said Elodie. “Not until this is finished, one way or another.” She grabbed Tarlan’s hand, then Gulph’s. “Who’s going first?”
Tarlan grinned. “We all are!”
As one, they raced forward. Elodie’s feet first slid on the smooth crystal, then slipped from beneath her. Gulph fell at the same instant, and between them they dragged Tarlan down with them. Now they were on their backsides, slithering helplessly down the rapidly steepening slope of the sapphire riverbed.
“I hope . . . ,” Tarlan began, and then they were plunging into the mouth of a yawning tunnel. The light winked out, leaving them in total darkness. Elodie tightened her grip on her brothers’ hands, and clenched her teeth against the jolts as they plummeted down the twisting channel. Afraid as she was, she couldn’t help letting out a whoop of exhilaration.
The riverbed steepened into a chute. Elodie’s stomach lurched into her throat. For a moment, they were falling like stones.
When we land, we’ll break every bone in our bodies!
They flew along the ridge, which gradually flattened out, slowing their descent until they were slipping along at little more than a walking pace.
Green light bloomed around them. The ridge spilled them onto a wide, open floor. Still hand in hand, they continued to slide, stopping only when they reached the foot of a towering set of diamond steps.
Breathless, Elodie clambered to her feet.
“Is this it?” she gasped. “Are we here?”
Beside her, Tarlan was helping Gulph to his feet.
“It’s the throne room,” said Gulph. “It was just a cave before, but”—he shuddered—“this is where I killed it.”
Eyes wide, Elodie looked round. The mountain of steps rose before them. Draped across one of its slopes was the skeleton of some monstrous creature that looked part-snake, part-bird.
“The bakaliss?” she whispered.
“Lady Redina.” Gulph’s face was white.
Walls of blue-green jade soared overhead, curving inward to meet in an immense vaulted ceiling. Walls and ceiling were studded with dazzling green emeralds. Spiral pillars rose like twisted fingers, not so much supporting the structure as caressing it.
On top of the steps, at the mountain’s peak, stood three thrones. One was made of green emerald, the next of red ruby. The third was made of gold.
“Elodie!” cried a familiar voice. “Tarlan! Gulph!”
Tied to one of the pillars near the thrones was Kalia. She squirmed against the rope
s, the gag hanging loose around her chin. Her eyes blazed with joy.
“So,” snarled Vicerin, down at Elodie, “you are the reason!”
“The reason for what?” Elodie replied. She started forward, eager to race up the stairs and free her mother. But Gulph’s hand closed round her arm, holding her back.
“The reason it isn’t working,” Gulph called up to Vicerin. He was smiling fiercely. “You worked so hard to get those jewels. You came all this way. But it’s all been for nothing, hasn’t it?”
Baring his horselike teeth, Vicerin held up his fist. From it dangled the three jewels he’d stolen from them.
“No games!” he shouted, still fixated on Elodie. “Tell me what I must do with these wretched trinkets. Tell me, or your mother dies.”
“Don’t listen to him!” shouted Kalia.
“The jewels won’t work for you,” said Gulph simply.
“That’s because they don’t belong to you,” Elodie added. “Those jewels are ours. The magic is ours. And the crown”—she cocked her head to the side—“that’s ours as well.”
There was a great commotion behind them as Ossilius, Pip, and a seemingly endless stream of battle-worn soldiers poured down the channel and into the throne room. On the opposite side of the chamber, Theeta flew in through a low archway, closely followed by her fellow thorrods and the two wyverns.
Elodie’s heart soared as her friends and allies gathered around her and her brothers. Their voices murmured threateningly. Their armor clanked. Their crystal weapons glowed.
“You’re beaten, Vicerin!” she cried, mounting the first step. Tarlan and Gulph followed her. “You might want the crown, but the crown doesn’t want you!”
Vicerin’s expression changed slowly from anger to what looked like triumph. Elodie hesitated.
“Do you think you are the only ones with magic at your command?” Vicerin held up the Sandspear.
“Quickly!” shouted Elodie. “Don’t let him get the advantage!”
Drawing her sword, she started running up the steps. Her brothers followed close on her heels. The air above Vicerin’s head was boiling. A cloud of sand appeared from nowhere, billowing outward and transforming into an army of bloodred warriors. Their bodies were rough, like unfinished sculptures. As they flew through the air, their blank faces sharpened, and their stubby limbs became flailing arms and legs. By the time they hit the ground, they were fully formed.
Elodie found herself running straight toward a pair of freshly made sand-warriors. Before they could react, she sliced her sword through them both. The crystal blade tore through them, its magic unbinding their bodies. Sand exploded around Elodie. She ran on, climbing ever higher.
More shapes formed out of the swelling cloud of sand—giant bats, and strange six-legged beasts with heads like shovels and teeth like plowshares. Elodie ducked as one of the bat-things flew low enough for its claws to tangle briefly in her hair. She shook it loose and it flew on, headed straight for the thorrods.
Meanwhile, Tarlan was engaged in frantic swordplay with a knot of sand-warriors. Cutting one down, he threw back his head and called for the thorrods. At once, Theeta forced her way through the swarm of bats toward him. Tarlan knocked aside another enemy soldier, then leaped onto Theeta’s back as she swooped down to meet him. Together, they flew over the battle and began to hack their way through the flocks of flying creatures that had been summoned by the Sandspear’s magic.
Reassured that Tarlan was safe for now, Elodie looked round for Gulph. She spotted him nearby, using his sword to drive a herd of crablike creatures toward the skeleton of the bakaliss. Pip was with him, and as Elodie watched, they were joined by the rest of the Tangletree Players. The blows of their swords and the snapping of the crabs’ claws were steadily reducing the giant bones to dust.
Shouts rose up from below. Spinning round, Elodie saw Ossilius forming his troops into battle lines just in time to meet the first wave of Vicerin’s new army. The immensity of the battle—and its suddenness—was too much to take in.
We’ve just defeated one sand army. Are we really supposed to face another?
A sword hissed. Elodie threw up her own blade instinctively. It clashed with the enemy’s weapon barely a hand’s width from her face. With a scream, she pushed her attacker away, prepared to thrust . . . then stopped.
“Sylva?” she stammered, staring straight into the face of the girl she’d known all her life. “What are you doing?”
Sylva said nothing, simply hacked at Elodie with her sword once more. Elodie knocked the blow aside. Sylva came on, forcing Elodie back down the steps. Elodie parried blow after blow, unwilling to strike out at her.
“How did you get here?” she cried. “What are you doing?”
Elodie stumbled off the bottom step and into the chaos of the ground battle. The next instant, Sylva was gone, lost inside the press of bodies. Before Elodie could react, Cedric was there.
“Cedric!” she said. “Did you see . . . ?”
Just like Sylva, he remained silent. He raised his one hand. In it was a mace, its bulbous end studded with cruel spikes. He swung it toward Elodie’s head.
Ducking, she backed away in confusion. This didn’t make any sense.
“Don’t!” she cried. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
Then Cedric too was swallowed in the confusion.
Forcing her way through the throng, Elodie regained the steps. Gulph was still struggling amid the remains of the bakaliss, only it wasn’t the crabs he was fighting anymore.
He was fighting Pip, his face a mask of horror.
“Gulph?” Elodie murmured.
The air hummed as Theeta swooped past. Tarlan was leaning out from her back, thrusting his sword again and again at a man who was clinging on to the thorrod’s dangling claws and trying to stab at the giant bird’s breast.
The man was Captain Leom.
Elodie staggered backward until her shoulder fetched up against something hard. It was the skull of the bakaliss. The monster’s empty eye sockets seemed to glare at her. Her head felt ready to burst.
She glanced up the steps to where Vicerin was prowling from one throne to the next, waving the Sandspear around like a madman.
Our friends! she thought desperately. Somehow he’s turned our friends against us.
“How are you doing this?” she yelled.
Tarlan had managed to knock Captain Leom to the ground. But a horde of sand-warriors had taken the man’s place. They clutched at Theeta’s claws, trying to drag her down.
As the thorrod fought to break free, an old woman emerged from the enemy ranks. She wore furs and carried a hunting spear. Elodie watched aghast as the woman drew back her arm. She was aiming the spear right at Tarlan.
Mirith?
It was the same old woman she’d met in the Realm of the Dead—the frost witch who’d raised Tarlan. But Mirith was dead. And the woman trying to kill Tarlan was no ghost.
“You’re not Mirith!” Elodie shouted, sprinting up the steps and striking the woman down with her sword.
“Mirith!” Tarlan howled in anguish. He turned to Elodie, eyes blazing. “What have you done?”
“It’s not her!” Elodie replied as the old woman’s body collapsed into a heap of sand. “It’s just a trick! Don’t believe your eyes!”
Understanding dawned on Tarlan’s face. Hearing her words, Gulph steeled himself and ran his sword through Pip’s stomach. For an instant Elodie’s heart stopped.
I’ve made him kill his best friend!
Then Pip’s body burst open and red sand rained down around Gulph’s feet. A moment later, the real Pip emerged from behind a jumble of giant bones and embraced him.
Filled with new fire, Elodie began to fight her way back up the steps.
“You think your magic’s real?” she shouted, cutting a sand-warrior down. Hearing her voice, Lord Vicerin paused to glare down at her. “Well, it isn’t. It’s all a fake. Just like you’re a fake!”
“Is this
real enough for you?” Vicerin retorted. He turned the Sandspear on Kalia, who was still struggling to free herself from the ropes tying her to the pillar.
Six crimson snakes rose up around Kalia. She screamed. The snakes drew back their heads and bared their fangs. Just as the serpents were about to strike, one of the wyverns slashed at them with its ruby claws, reducing them to sand.
“I can summon people too!” Elodie cried. “Only my friends aren’t illusions!”
Now she was halfway up the steps. From the corner of her eye, she saw Gulph running to catch up to her. Tarlan was circling above her head. Her brothers’ eyes were ablaze.
She drew in her breath.
“My friends are real!”
Red mist gathered at the edges of her vision. Desert wind moved through her. Her mouth filled with sand.
Good sand! she thought wildly. My desert!
“Rise up!” she shouted. “Rise up from the Realm of the Dead! Come to me now!”
The wind howled, blowing in from far, far away. But the distance no longer mattered.
Once I needed their graves, she thought in triumph. Not anymore. Now I can bring them from anywhere! Anyone I choose! Here and now!
“Rise, Lady Vicerin!” Elodie cried. “Have your revenge!”
Hearing his dead wife’s name, Lord Vicerin recoiled.
The air rippled, and a ghost appeared at Elodie’s side.
At the sight of her, Vicerin fell to his knees.
Lady Vicerin was tall, just as Elodie remembered her. Even in death, she carried herself with haughty pride. Her body shimmered, gray like smoke.
The dagger she carried looked as sharp as the glint in her eye.
“Shall I kill him for you?” Lady Vicerin’s voice rustled like a breeze through river reeds.
“Do what you want with him,” Elodie replied.
Lady Vicerin smiled.
As the ghost of Lady Vicerin began to ascend the stairs, Elodie opened herself to the desert wind once more, and sent out a fresh summons.
A Kingdom Rises Page 26