by Franc Ingram
Lorn clawed at the hand that kept him in place. “What have you done!” he yelled. “I’ll kill you, I swear to the Twelve, I’ll kill you,” Lorn felt the spittle land on his chin but he didn’t care. His body was ready to shake apart and his chest felt like it weighed a ton. The air around him was as thick as mud, making it impossible to take in a full breath.
More hands grabbed him and pulled him back. Lorn fought against every inch, to Cornelius’ amusement.
“I think there is something amiss with this generation. They’ve gone rabid. The Guardian acted similarly when I severed those from her head. Who knew such a simple thing as hair could cause such a fuss? Trust me young one, when I left her she was unharmed, though I don’t trust Ivar to keep her that way. She insulted him rather profusely. The longer it takes you to agree to my terms, the greater risk your guardian is under.”
Lorn stopped fighting. He closed his eyes, focusing on just breathing. In the darkness, he could see his mother’s face, feel her calloused hand brush his cheek as she assured him they would see each other again soon. He didn’t want to leave, didn’t want her out of his sight. Everything in him told him it was a bad idea to split up. And here he was facing the ice god without her. How could she do this to him? He had to get her back, if only to tell her how wrong she had been to doubt his instincts.
“You set her free first.”
“Lorn wait,” Lysander warned.
Lorn waved him off. “You set her free first and we acquiesce to your demands.”
“What makes you think I would trust you?” Cornelius asked.
“We’re not the ones that started this fight. We’re not the ones who kidnap and kill. We aren’t the ones who….”
“Exactly, so no point in giving him what he wants,” Leith said, interrupting. “We agree and we all dead anyway.”
“We need to confer amongst ourselves,” Lysander said, before Lorn could object. He grabbed Lorn’s arm and spun him around, moving them both toward the door before Cornelius answered.
Out in the hallway, with the door closed behind them, Lorn sucked in air so hard he thought his ribs might crack. His mouth was dry and his throat tight. The moment Lysander released his iron grip, Lorn started pacing. He couldn’t stand still. His mind and heart raced. His mouth couldn’t form words fast enough to express all that he felt.
“You can’t give in to him,” Daycia said.
Lorn looked at his mother’s mentor. At the woman who had instantly become his friend, someone he trusted. Her tone was flat but the terrified look on her face spoke more than she ever could.
“Are you telling us to just let her die?” Lorn raged. “Just let your student, the Guardian, one of the Heirs of Eternity die without lifting a finger to save her?” Lorn heard the words come out of his mouth but they were too horrible to contemplate. “I can’t! We can’t.” Lorn looked each one of them in the eye, challenging them.
“What you suggest we do?” Leith said. He turned his favorite dagger over and over in his hand. Lorn wondered if the familiar movement actually brought him some comfort.
“Lorn, you know as well as I that none of us would make it back to our homes. Cornelius is not one to let his enemies regroup and try again,” Lysander said. “We have to be rational about this.”
“How?” He demanded. “How can we be rational? That's my mother he’s talking about.”
“It’s the world that hangs in the balance,” Lysander reminded him. “You know better than I how hard things have gotten in this world. People are withering under tyrants like Ivar and Emmaray. Even a land as prosperous as Caledon is suffering under the constant fighting between realms. The yetis have already cut a bloody swath through Arismas. Things will only get worse if we give even an inch to Cornelius. Your mother fought over and over again to get us here. She’d never forgive us if we gave it up for her.”
Lorn wanted to scream. Frustration coursed through his body. He slammed his fist into the wall. Pain cut through him, giving him something to focus on. He was too young to lose the only parent he’d ever known, too young to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. “We tell him no, and she dies. We kill her. Can you live with that?” Lorn challenged them.
“No other choice,” Leith said, but his eyes refused to meet Lorn’s.
“It's better than the alternative,” Lysander added, “but we’ll follow your lead.”
Lorn needed some place to run. Needed time to think, but there was no place for either. They were right about one thing, he had only one choice. Lorn wiped his face. Cornelius had seen enough of his tears. “Then let's go.”
Lorn thought of nothing but his hatred for the thing that would call itself an ice god. All the pain and sorrow he felt now, he would be sure to visit it on Cornelius a thousand-fold in the future.
“Ah the rabid one, have you convinced your fellows to see reason?”
“We have made the only choice you left us with,” Lorn said. He was proud of how steady his voice sounded.
“I knew you were a smart boy the moment I set eyes on you.”
“We reject your terms and propose new ones. You leave this place knowing that we will do everything in our considerable power to hunt you down and destroy every last trace of your despicable presence on this planet. That we will live up to the legacy of the Heirs of Eternity and do what you could not and unite humanity under the cause of hating you.”
“You’ll regret the…” Cornelius started to yell.
“You’ll flee from here, with your tail tucked between your legs, happy that we met on neutral ground, but know that your days are numbered.” Lorn could feel the air in the room change. An electrical charge danced along his skin. He didn’t have to look up to know that in his anger he was pulling together moisture in the room to form a freak storm cloud. “If I were you I would release the guardian and pray to the Twelve that is enough to stem our anger, because if nothing else in this world is certain this one thing is, her death will be the end of you.” Thunder boomed making the ground shake and Lorn’s ears complain. Lightning cut through the air blinding him for a moment until he saw the scorch mark inches from Cornelius feet. “Next time I won’t miss.”
Cornelius turned and left, leaving a trail of ice crystals on the floor behind him. Lorn watched as the Ice Ultra receded, kept staring even when the door blocked his view. The others said they could live with it, but Lorn didn’t think he could. He said it was the end of Cornelius but Lorn knew it was the end of him too.
“Master of Earth, Master of Skies, you have both completed your trials of power.”
Lorn blinked. The transition was too much for him to process. He laughed.
“How can that be?” Lysander said.
“Your wall is strong, and the clouds above us proves his power. All three of you pass the trial of Integrity, putting the world ahead of the guardian. That leaves only the Master of Animals to prove his power, then we move on to the final test. Intelligence.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE TWELVE
Oleana said the code phrase as she had a dozen times before. Without having a clear view of the outside, she didn’t know if the signal would be clear, but it was better to try and fail than never try at all. Oleana felt her mind pulled out over Euphoria. She tried to hold on to the feeling, tried to find a particular signal amongst all the chaos. She didn’t know how far she was from Evermore, but her previous attempts to search came up empty.
Being stretched so thin hurt. Oleana’s mind was forced to process too much incoming data and she had to fight against the intended path from her to the Twelve. Desperation overrode pain and Oleana clung to the open signal with all she had.
The snapback was brutal. Oleana heard the Twelve screaming at her like a million needles piercing every nerve ending. Oleana was sure her head would explode. She lost herself in the cacophony. She couldn’t tell what thoughts were hers and what belonged to the collective.
“Guardian.”
Oleana heard Four’s voice and
latched on to it, building her reality around it. Four was a star and Oleana was the proto-planet forming in its gravity well. Piece by piece Oleana pulled herself together. “G.u.a.r.d.i.a.n.”
“Is Lorn safe? And the others. Tell me please.”
“We are not here to be your…”
“Please just tell me.” Oleana pleaded. She dug her nails into her palms. Her body felt taught as if she’d been stretched over a boulder and left to dry in the sun. “I didn’t get to say goodbye. I need to know. Just this once don’t stand on ceremony and do this one thing for me.”
Silence filled the black space behind her closed eyes and Oleana thought that the connection had been severed. Oleana would bang on that door until her head cracked open if that's what it took to find out about her boy.
“The Master of Skies’ bio signal is strong. It is at the heart of Evermore with the Master of Animals and the Master of Earth.”
“Can I talk to him? I tried to connect with him on my own, but I just don’t have the strength. Please.”
“This is very unusual,” One said joining the conversation.
“Cornelius has me. I don’t know what his plans may be for me, but I know they won’t be good. As you must know, I spent the last of my resurrection energy saving Leith. There is no coming back for me. I just want to say goodbye to my son. After all that I have done in your name, for the cause you forced upon me, do I not deserve this little thing?”
“The quality of the connection will not be up to the standard you have become accustomed to,” One said. His voice was tight and Oleana swore she detected sorrow in his tone. “Prepare yourself.”
Oleana nodded. Her words of thanks caught in her throat. She felt another voice join them, but it was grabbled. One said something, but it sounded like the shadow of a distant echo. She strained to make sense of it. If she could just make out a word. One word and the rest would fall into place.
“Lorn,” Oleana screamed. “Lorn, can you hear me?”
“Hold on, we are adjusting,” Four explained.
“Mom.”
Oleana’s heart fluttered. She wished she could see Lorn’s face. The image her mind conjured looked incomplete, intangible, and to ethereal to hold. “Lorn, my boy. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t be there for you.” Oleana felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she didn’t care who saw them. If saying goodbye to her only child wasn’t a good enough reason to cry, there never would be.
“No mom I’m sorry. Cornelius was here. He said he would free you if we surrendered. We had to….”
Even without seeing his face Oleana knew Lorn was torn. She could hear his pain in the high register of his voice and the deliberate way he spoke every word as if it hurt to let them out. Oleana didn’t have to stretch her imagination far to guess what Cornelius put before them.
Oleana felt her last hope slip away from her. She knew Lorn and the others couldn’t forsake the rest of the world on the off chance that Cornelius would actually keep his word and set her free. That didn’t mean a part of her hadn’t hoped they would find some way. In the back of her mind a piece of her still clung to the hope that she would make it out alive.
“Lorn, you did the right thing. You made an impossible decision and you choose well. Never think otherwise.”
“But he’ll….”
“Cornelius and I have done this dance before and while I had hoped it would turn out differently for me this time, I surrendered myself to save you and the others. Nothing matters to me more than that.” Oleana swallowed hard against the jagged lump of dread in her throat. She wanted to hold her son one last time, but her words would have to be enough. “I’d die a thousand times for you, Lorn. Just promise me you’ll earn your crown and finish the work we started together. You deserve that life. The sooner you rid this world of Cornelius and the other ultras like him, you can live the life of peace I always wanted for you.”
“Mom, I’m sorry. I can’t.” Lorn’s voice was so high and hoarse Oleana barely recognized it. “I can’t do this without you.”
Oleana kept herself hard and strong for her son. “You can and you will. Don’t be like me, weighed down by my mistakes. Be better. Move swift. Be safe. I love you.”
“Mom, I…” Lorn’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Love you too, Mom.”
Oleana felt the connection drop and she was left alone. She refused to open her eyes. The room around her didn’t have Lorn in it. With her eyes closed she could hold on to the image of him and then maybe things weren’t as bad as them seemed.
She could see him smiling back at her. Hear him talking so fast his words ran together into one excited jumble. She could feel his silky curls as she ran her fingers through his hair.
“I would die for you a thousand times,” she told his shadow. “I just hope this once is enough.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: MAZE
Leith didn’t like the sound of the test of Intelligence. It wasn’t exactly his most prized quality. Leith knew he wasn’t as stupid as most people judged him to be, but the other trials proved to be more than just simple tests. His teacher, Lorn, was practically comatose due to his grief. Leith had no idea how to console the boy. He didn’t feel up to being cheerful himself.
He may not have known Oleana long but the impression she made on him was a good one, and getting over her loss would not be a simple matter. The Keeper, Kameke proved to be a cold-hearted taskmaster, not giving them a moment to process their grief before pushing them into the next, and final trial.
“Lorn,” Leith said touching the boy’s shoulder.
The boy shrugged it off and didn’t bother to look up at him. “I’m fine. We can do this. The intelligence test is the most straightforward of the tests. The fourth and fifth floors of the tower are built into a maze. Navigate it in the time given and you pass. There are no tricks to the maze. Nothing I can teach you to help. Just run the maze. You don’t need me for that.” Lorn walked away leaving Leith to look into Kameke’s cold eyes. They may have been a striking green but they held the same reptilian look that Cornelius had. What made her their ally and him their enemy?
“Are you prepared, Master of Animals?” she asked in that sickly sweet little girl voice that set him on edge.
“If I say no, do I get a pass?’ he asked, only half joking.
“If you do not complete the final test you cannot be crowned king, and neither can the others.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
“I don’t understand,” she replied tilting her head to the side like a curious dog.
“I’m ready.” Leith said irritated.
Kameke picked up the hourglass. “You have until the sands run out to reach the heart of the maze and ring the bell, then you will be shown the way down and the next Heir will have his chance.” She flipped it over and Leith couldn’t help but watch the first sands fall.
When he could tear his eyes away from the hourglass, Leith bolted up the steps into the dimly lit fourth floor. The idea of facing a maze didn't bother Leith. Every time he had to run from the city patrol he ran the gambit of the city, finding back alleys and shortcuts no one else knew about. Where the test of his intelligence would come in, he didn't know, and that worried him.
Lorn had to have known more, but he clearly wasn’t in the mood for talking. Leith tried to cut the boy some slack. He did a hard thing telling Cornelius off the way he did. Leith didn’t know if he would have had it in him if the roles were switched.
They did the right thing, Leith knew that, but he didn’t know if the boy was strong enough to live with it. Even with her other flaws, Oleana never missed an opportunity to teach, to protect hers. Lorn stepped into the position, but was falling short when they needed him most. It wasn't the time for mourning, for being angry at the people that were there for him.
Leith was so wrapped up in his worrying he came to a dead stop inches away from the first wall of the maze. It was ten feet high, reaching all the way up to the ceili
ng and made of the same crystal that covered much of the rest of the building, except this version was completely opaque. He glanced behind him to see what he had missed on his way in.
The stairs weren’t easily visible. He’d traveled some way without realizing it. He could barely make out the top of steps a dozen feet behind him. As he looked up at the wall in front of him, Leith noticed the markings on the wall. Three hash marks were etched into the green crystal. Ordinarily Leith wouldn’t have thought twice about them, but if there were marks on this wall they had to be important.
Leith retraced his steps to find another way. Six steps back he found a branching corridor that curved off into the dimness. As soon as Leith breached the entrance a tingling crawled up his spine that made him stop. He didn’t believe what his body was telling him. The guardian didn’t keep wild animals locked up in her maze, did she? Leith reached out to whatever was making him uneasy.
First Leith caught the signal of a dozen different things bouncing around at him from odd angles. Leith shook his head and rubbed at his temples trying to undo the headache building there. Then all the signals flickered out of existence like some giant wave had extinguished their flames all at once.
“What game you playing?” He asked the maze.
When nothing but silence returned, Leith tried again to pinpoint what had set him on edge. Again, the multiple signals assaulted him out of nowhere. The thought of facing that many unknowns in the tiny confines of the narrow corridor made him want to head back down the stairs and demand of the Keeper a restart, an explanation, or something that would take the blame off him and on to the circumstances he found himself in.
In the monotony of the maze, Leith’s mind returned to the image of the sand pouring down through the hourglass and the haunted look in Lorn’s eyes. The boy faced his greatest challenge with boldness and courage. What could Leith say if he gave up on his trial at the first sign of trouble? He had to fake some courage if he couldn’t find any in his heart.