The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2)

by Barbara Kloss

  A deep voice said something in my ear as fingers squeezed mine, holding tight.

  I wheezed as I inhaled, each breath burning.

  “…wrong with her?” a voice asked.

  “…was too much…” said another.

  I struggled against my heavy lids to open them. They fought me with everything they had until at last they snapped open and I could see…straight into a pair of rich green eyes.

  Alex. He was alive.

  I swallowed, and the pain inside of me suddenly became bearable.

  Alex rested a palm on my cheek, searching my face. “Daria, can you hear me?” he asked in the softest whisper.

  I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t. Somehow I’d forgotten what needed to happen in order to respond. I blinked at him and bit my lip as pain pulsed through my body, pain mixed with an overwhelming amount of concern.

  Alex’s concern. I could sense him again.

  He said something over his shoulder as he squeezed my hand. More murmuring ensued.

  I parted my lips. “Alex.” My voice scratched.

  He whipped his head around to face me and brushed the hair back from my face. “I’m not leaving your side,” he said.

  Everything inside of me hurt. “What—” breathe “—happened?”

  “Stop talking,” he whispered, and kissed my lips softly. He pulled back and said something to someone, and a young man with purple eyes appeared.

  I knew those eyes. I could never forget such strange eyes, but I couldn’t place them.

  “I told you she was an idiot,” said a sultry female voice.

  Alex searched my eyes. “Ehren’s going to give you something that should help, all right?”

  Ehren. That was his name. I nodded.

  Alex moved to my side, sliding his hand behind my back, holding me up, while Ehren crouched before me. There was a little glass vial in his hands.

  Ehren unstoppered the vial and held it before me. “You need to drink all of it,” he said, his purple eyes piercing. “It may burn a little, but it’ll help.”

  Alex squeezed my hand as Ehren held the vial to my lips and poured. The liquid was cold at first, like ice water and without flavor, running down my throat. Then the burning came.

  My eyes widened as I cried out in pain. This was worse than before; this felt like my insides were dissolving.

  Alex held my hand tight as I clutched my stomach, curling forward. The heat moved down my torso, spreading into my arms and legs.

  “Just a moment more,” I heard Ehren say to Alex.

  And it was gone. Sweat beaded down my forehead, and Alex wiped away my hair. I looked up at Ehren. “A little?” I gasped.

  Alex grinned and someone snorted behind him.

  Vera. Her arms were folded over her chest, her dark eyes were fixed on me, and her lips were pursed in amusement.

  I looked back at Alex, who was still crouched at my side, studying me. “What happened?” I asked.

  He held his palm against my cheek as a grin twitched at his lips. “You have your magic back.”

  I looked quizzically at him.

  “You broke down the barrier on your magic,” Ehren said, watching me with those curious eyes.

  I broke down the barrier? “How?” I whispered.

  “I’m uncertain,” Ehren continued, “but the force required to break such a bond—it should have killed you, princess.”

  Killed me? I hadn’t even been aware that I’d been trying to break it.

  “Lucky for us,” Vera said, “it didn’t and took out the unseen instead.” There were traces of a smile on her lips, which lit up her entire face.

  “The unseen…” I started. “What happened to them?”

  Alex rubbed his thumb along my cheek. “I’m not sure what happened to them.” He studied me, thoughtful. “A bright light shot out of you, pressing all of them back into the wall, and they were gone.”

  A light had appeared…from me? “Are you sure it was me?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t any of us,” Alex said.

  Had my magic really returned? Had I really broken down the barrier?

  There was only one way to find out.

  I shut my eyes and focused. A point of heat flickered inside of me like a tiny flame, but it didn’t push me away. Not like before. Not like when I’d tried a thousand times and it would fade away like smoke.

  This time, I could wrap my mind around it, grasp a hold of it and bend it and…

  Pain ripped through me and I cried out, bending forward.

  Alex wrapped an arm around me, holding me against him. “Your body needs to heal. What you did—Ehren’s right. It should’ve killed you.” He squeezed my waist, and I sighed as the pain slowly faded away.

  “I don’t know about you,” Vera said, fixing her dark eyes on me, “but I’d like to get out of this mountain, unless the princess would like to stay…?”

  I shook my head and pushed myself to a stand, with a little help from Alex. “I’m okay,” I said, despite the dull aching inside of me. “Which way?”

  Vera’s brow peaked. “There’s only one way to go, princess. You collapsed the other.”

  I realized we were standing inside a cave of ice, much like the cave we’d walked through before entering that cavern, only this cave was completely blocked on one end.

  I took a deep breath and looked ahead; the cavern angled up and faded to darkness. “Does it lead out of the mountain?”

  Alex and Ehren exchanged a glance. “We hope so,” Alex said.

  We wound through the cave made of snow and ice, always trudging higher and higher—our only light the little white-blue light Ehren had made. Sometimes a side of the cave was missing and we were forced to walk along a narrow ledge that fell away to infinite shadow.

  The higher we climbed, the thinner the air became. I had to stop every so often to catch my breath, but everywhere, throughout everything, the mountain was quiet. Our shoes scraped along the ice, and once in a while little dustings of snow would flutter from the ceiling. Other than that, it was just the four of us, trapped inside a mountain of ice.

  Yet despite the chill, despite the cold and snow and ice, something pulsed ahead. A sliver of life, a warm flicker amidst winter.

  The unity stone.

  The farther we walked, the stronger it pulsed. I didn’t know how I knew, exactly, that it was coming from the unity stone, but I did. I could feel it deep in my gut. I also couldn’t believe the headmaster would hide it all the way in here.

  After what must have been hours, dim light shone up ahead—natural light. The others saw it, too, and everyone glanced at everyone else and walked a little faster, with hope.

  It was an opening to the world beyond. One by one, we stepped outside. The cold winter air bit my skin and stung my eyes, and every breath was like breathing in hundreds of tiny needles.

  We stood on a sort of terrace all covered in snow, situated in the side of the mountain. Right in the center of the terrace was a stone slab, like an altar, surrounded by snow-covered gargoyles. Some of the gargoyles were missing wings, some heads, and beyond them stood the remains of stone pillars, torn in half with only their base as proof that they’d existed.

  I gazed beyond and started.

  All along the mountainside were ruins, embedded in the snow. Half of a crumbling tower, part of a wall, the stone outline of what had at one time been an enormous room—much larger than the ones at Valdon. Large like the remains of a castle.

  It sprawled out over the mountainside, and even in its state of decay it looked magnificent. Pieces of a bridge reached over a canyon, towards a cliff, and on that cliff was another stone structure, worn down to its bones from time and weather.

  “Galahad’s castle?” I asked.

  Alex’s eyes flickered to mine, and he nodded.

  I wanted to see it as it had been, grand and magnificent and breathtaking. I wanted to see it in its glory, see the people that had passed here, the colors that had shone brightly.
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br />   I reached out and dusted the snow from a small gargoyle beside me. “What happened to it?”

  Ehren stepped forward, the wind blowing his hair in a white cloud. “It crumbled when Galahad fell, and everyone inside of it died.”

  So much wealth, so much power and promise, swept away.

  Strange that the headmaster should hide the stone here.

  I heard a thud and turned to see a gargoyle on its side with Vera standing over it, arms folded and frowning.

  “There’s nothing here.” She scowled.

  But I could feel it, the soft pulse of life. It was somewhere not far from where we were standing, but for some reason I couldn’t pinpoint it.

  “No, it’s got to be here somewhere,” I said as the wind blew my hair in my face. “I can…just feel it.”

  Vera threw her sword and it landed in the snow beside me. “Your feelings are what have us trapped on the side of a mountain.”

  Alex’s anger flushed. “Vera, her feelings are what have kept you alive. Why don’t you direct your anger toward something useful, like helping us find the stone?”

  Vera’s anger burned hot as she glared at him, then me, before trudging off through the snow.

  Ehren observed the landscape, his face unreadable. “I’ll search and keep an eye on her.” He drew an arrow, leapt over the altar with the grace of a gazelle, and ran after Vera.

  The wind blew hard and the mountain groaned. I didn’t like it here. The ground felt unstable.

  Alex’s brow furrowed. “Any idea where?” He seemed as uncomfortable as I was.

  I shook my head. “It feels like it’s coming from everywhere.” I surveyed the deteriorating landscape.

  Although, it did feel a little stronger…

  “How about you look over there”—I pointed to a spot of land where a broken tower stood—“and I’ll check that one.” I pointed toward a cluster of crumbling walls, just off to the side.

  Alex regarded me a moment, hesitating. He didn’t like the idea of us splitting up, and I couldn’t say that I liked it either, but we could find it faster if we did.

  “All right,” he said, looking warily at the mountain.

  I started to walk when he said, “Daria, be careful.”

  I held his gaze a moment before he drew his sword, and he walked toward the tower.

  The sky overhead was dark, and the wind was picking up, colder and colder with each gust. The stone had to be here somewhere. I could feel the edges of it, but it was like the magic had always been—just beyond my reach, as though my senses could merely graze the surface but nothing more.

  I walked between the broken pillars toward the crumbling walls, stepping over fallen rocks and boulders; my boots left soft imprints in the snow. I rounded one of the walls and picked up a chunk of stone that had fallen in the snow. I squeezed it in my palm and it crumbled through my fingertips.

  “Looking for this?”

  Danton stepped from behind a broken piece of wall, his black cape fluttering all around him.

  “Danton…?” I took a step back. What was he doing here? Something shone brightly in his hands. The unity stone. I looked back into his blue eyes. They weren’t the friendly eyes I remembered. These shone with something callous and bitter.

  “Danton, what are you doing?” My voice shook.

  Danton turned the stone over in his hands, staring absently at it. “To be honest,” he continued, hiding the stone back in the depths of his cloak, “I’m a little surprised you made it this far without me. Then again—” he tilted his head, glancing at me with a sardonic smile “—you had help. Tell me, princess, how did you find Steerforth?”

  Steerforth?

  Had he…?

  I might have believed it of Danton’s father, but not Danton himself. He wasn’t capable of anything so cruel…was he?

  No, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to.

  “You didn’t,” I whispered.

  His eyes flashed with perniciousness. “Not technically. I guess you can thank my friends the shadowguard for that.”

  This wasn’t the Danton I had sat with on the roof, or the Danton who had understood and comforted me. This wasn’t the Danton with the warm smile and handsome face, but looking at him now, the face I had thought handsome before was shaded in malice. “I can’t believe that.”

  “Can’t you, princess?” he growled.

  I shook my head as my eyes stung from the wind. “No, Danton, that’s not you. You know it’s not you. You are better than that.”

  He grimaced. “And you would have someone like Steerforth on the throne?”

  “If he’d earned it,” I said.

  Danton’s anger flared. “For too long has this world been under the oppressive thumb of an incapable and weak man. His time is done.”

  I didn’t like the king, either, but even more than that, I didn’t like what Danton was saying. “That’s the purpose of the games, Danton, you said so yourself—”

  “Mortis curse what I said,” Danton hissed, and I stepped back farther. “All you had to do,” his voice turned low and frighteningly even, “was trust me.” He stepped forward, halting inches before me. “I didn’t want to do this alone, Daria. I knew you wanted freedom. No one blames you for that and certainly not me, but you didn’t have to enter the games for it. With me holding the shield and your knowledge of how to use the stone…”

  “What do you mean, my knowledge?” I cut him off.

  The wind howled, and his lips curled. I didn’t like the twist of his thin lips.

  “I know who you are.” He stepped closer still. “Daughter of a Pandor. You hold the secret to utilizing the shield to its full potential, and together—” he reached out and ran his cold fingers along my jaw “—we could do anything.”

  My heart beat fast and my insides screamed at me to run, but I couldn’t move. I was stuck, frozen in place. What was he talking about? I didn’t know anything about how to use the shield, and if that knowledge had belonged to the Pandor family, it had been buried with my mother. Even Headmaster Ambrose had known that.

  “The shield is being stolen as we speak,” he whispered. “I can protect Fleck, you know.” He leaned so close I could feel his breath on my lips. “I can give you what you want if you just come with me and…”

  Something inside of me snapped, and I made a fist and punched him in the face.

  He staggered back, startled, flexing his jaw, and his eyes went from wide to furious. “Why you little…” He lunged forward, but I jerked my daggers free, holding them between us.

  “Don’t think I won’t!” I growled, and he saw that I was serious.

  His anger boiled, but I wasn’t sure if it was from rejection, or something much, much deeper. “Don’t be a fool.” His voice could’ve melted the snow. “There’s no other way for you. You’re a Pandor. If you don’t come with me now, you will be hunted for the rest of your pathetic life, just like your mother—”

  A shadow flew from above, and Alex landed right into Danton’s side.

  The pair of them rolled and tumbled through the snow, ramming into a pillar in a heap. They were thrown apart, but leapt to their feet within seconds, swords a blur. Danton ducked away from Alex’s sword, and Alex jumped up as Danton thrust his sword in return. “I should’ve known better,” Danton grumbled.

  “And, like usual, you didn’t,” Alex retorted as he rounded Danton, brandishing his sword, eyes narrowed in fury.

  Danton blocked Alex’s strike, but barely. “Still angry I kissed her?” Danton sneered, and then he tilted his head. “Or”—clang—“maybe you should be reminded about who kissed who. What do you say, Daria?”

  My stomach twisted inside of me.

  Alex’s jaw clenched as he came at Danton again, and Danton started laughing. “You won’t win this, Del Conte. Even your skill and power are no match for him.” Danton ducked away as Alex lunged forward.

  “You’ve bought into a lie,” Alex spat.

  “Kenley!” Dant
on yelled.

  Kenley appeared from the shadows, short and dark and brooding. Danton tossed something over his shoulder—the unity stone—and Kenley caught it and started running.

  He ran past me, and I threw myself on top of him.

  We rolled on the ground in a heap. He might have been short, but he was stronger than me and his movements were quicker. I saw his fist coming and reacted, using his momentum to throw him forward.

  I snatched the stone from him as he rolled. The light inside of the stone, the one that had pulsed a white-blue light, became blinding. It burned in my hands, illuminating the landscape with its light, and for a moment everything went still. Alex and Danton hesitated, Kenley gaped, even the wind ceased to blow.

  Then a breeze ripped through, swirling and twirling in a gust of white and silver, wrapping around me in a whirlwind. For that moment, for that split second that felt like forever, I felt nothing but raw power, as if it were flowing from the depths of the world, suddenly running through my body, coursing through my veins with a connection I’d never felt before. A connection that made me feel as though I might do anything, conquer anything, and no one could stand in my path.

  The gust died, the light dimmed and faded, and right as I glanced back, I was knocked sideways and Kenley grabbed the stone from my hands.

  With a grunt, I pushed myself up and bolted after him. I leapt over stones and boulders as the wind ripped through the ruins, blowing snow all around. Kenley ran and dodged quick, jumping without effort. He landed on a ledge and glanced back, a twisted smile on his face. He extended a palm, and a bolt of light shot forward, straight at me.

  I jumped to the side and the blast hit, the force sending me tumbling through the snow, rolling until I rammed hard into an old wall. My body ached as I forced it to move, cold and wind biting my face, my hands, anything it could touch.

  My vision blurred and everything had become a mass of white and grey. Finally, it came back into focus and I saw Kenley edging his way along a narrow ledge toward a thin slit in the rock, and Vera and Ehren just within sight.

  “Vera! Ehren!” I screamed, running through the snow, trying to catch up to him.

  They glanced back and followed my gaze; Vera started running, too, and Ehren strung his bow.