“Started at thirty-two for me,” Peg-leg grunted.
The water shifted underneath them, eliciting periodic squeaks of fear from Peg-leg—the taniwha’s tail was moving beneath the water as he trailed after them. Clearly, he hoped to still have one of them for a meal.
Grubby held out his hand and pulled Ebba from the water. He pushed Plank back in and laughed.
“Shite, Grubs. Not the time,” Locks scolded him.
Shoulders slumping, Grubby helped out a spluttering Plank.
The serpent rose from the water once they were out, head just above the surface as though debating whether to still strike. “A lucky day for mortals, but I rest easy knowing you will not triumph.” His eyes rested on Ebba. “The truths uncovered by the children of my tribe will haunt you for a long while. You do not enter this place whole. You do not leave this place whole.”
“Cosmo, little nymph,” Plank reminded her, shivering.
Ebba took one last glimpse into the taniwha’s fiery eyes, her gut churning, before turning away.
Eighteen
“This is more like it,” grumbled Peg-leg. “Though I might ask why there be a meadow underground,” he continued, hastily adding, “not that I be complainin’; still a step up in my books.”
“You don’t have any books. And you don’t read,” Barrels replied, peering around the wide space.
The ground had changed from black rock to soft moss and pastel flowers. Light now flooded the spacious underground cavern, though Ebba couldn’t see where the sudden light came from. A wide white gravel path sat ahead, winding to the top of a small, rolling hill sprinkled with wildflowers.
“Blimey, there be a deer,” Locks said, pointing.
Many deer. They pranced through the evergreen of trees set sixty feet back from the main path.
“Better a deer in a meadow than a siren in the dark,” Ebba quipped. This seemed more like Sally’s white glowing magic, though there was something distinctly creepy about its presence in the dark cavern.
Ebba peered down the front of her tunic, thinking to ask if Sally knew anything about such things. The sprite was out to it, deep in slumber after her ordeal through the forest. Well, hopefully the deepness of her sleep wasn’t anything to do with the head injury Ebba gave her.
She scanned the meadow again, and wariness settled in her chest. “I ain’t sure I like this,” she declared. It was too pretty.
“At least this place be warmer,” Stubby said as the ground began to slope upward. “My joints were seizin’ up.”
“Aye, ye can say that again,” Peg-leg muttered, rubbing his left knee.
Locks lifted his eye patch and water poured out from underneath. “Gets caught in my empty socket sometimes,” he explained in response to Ebba’s snort of laughter.
He smiled at her, and Ebba remembered how badly they’d hurt her. She cut off her snort and faced forward again.
Barrels lifted a hand and pointed ahead. “What is that at the top of that mound? A sundial?”
Ebba jumped to see. “Aye, a sundial.”
They followed the path to the top of the hill and gathered around the sundial. It was made of transparent crystal, with a pearly sheen just below the surface. A pearly sheen she recognized too well by now. A black line extended halfway across the circle on one side, and the shadow from the sundial was nearly touching it.
“What do ye think happens when that shadow gets to the black line?” Grubby asked.
“Nothin’ good comes from shadows and sundials, methinks,” added Stubby. “Seems like a bad omen to me. If the black line on the sundial were pink, or purple, then I’d be more inclined to think it good. But it ain’t.”
They all chorused an ‘aye’ to that.
Barrels pursed his lips, glancing around. “Bit easier to keep clean, though, black.”
Stubby lifted his head. “Aye, there’s that. One thing about Malice. Their slops wouldn’t be showin’ half the stains ours do.”
“Hot to work in, though.”
“Can’t win, can ye?”
The sunbeam struck the black line on the dial, and a searing white light exploded where the sundial had been. A pulse of energy flung Ebba across the ground. As the light dimmed, it was apparent only Peg-leg had managed to stay upright.
“Ha!” He barked with triumph. “Bunch o’ landlubbers. And I’ve only got one leg.”
Ebba looked past him to the cause of the explosion.
Peg-leg whirled and jolted violently, falling back on his rear.
She blinked at the flowing woman standing where the sundial had been. Ebba said flowing because though the woman was standing, her feet didn’t touch the ground. The blonde tendrils of her hair seemed suspended in water, floating about her face. Her long, plain dress billowed, though there was not the slightest breeze in the cavern.
Locks scratched his chin.
Barrels cleared his throat.
Peg-leg got to his feet.
“Ahoy,” Ebba said, also standing. She darted a look at Plank and Stubby.
The woman didn’t speak until she’d looked at each of them in turn. Then she clasped her hands behind her back and began to stride around the circle clearing.
“Her feet ain’t on the ground,” whispered Grubby.
“Be on yer guard,” muttered Stubby as the woman floated behind him. He rested a hand on the hilt of his cutlass.
Ebba reached for her own, gripping it tight.
“I am Papatuanuku,” the woman said.
Her voice was a thousand voices all speaking at once. Ebba took her hand off her cutlass, seeing the others do the same. If the wench decided to attack, there wasn’t a thing they could do against her. Ebba knew it as surely as she could breathe. If her tiny pet sprite was as strong as she was and able to hold off Ladon’s snakes, what could a woman of human size do?
“That be a mouthful,” Ebba said honestly.
The woman rested her age-old eyes on her. “You may call me Earth Mother.”
“Ye be the sacred lady Aroha was harpin’ on about, then? Earth Mother this, Earth Mother that.”
The woman winced and halted her stride. She scanned Ebba and the others anew, sighing wearily. “Of all the possibilities, I had hoped it wouldn’t be you.” She added as an afterthought, “Though the band of thieves were a worse possibility, I suppose. I was rooting for the sisters of Kentro, personally. But you assemblers are such a fragile, whining lot.”
. . . What?
Barrels cleared his throat. “Do you refer to the pictures in the cave, milady?”
The pirates glanced at him and red crept above the man’s collar. “No reason not to observe proprieties,” he said, crossing his arms.
“Yes. The task has fallen to you. That I am sure of,” the Earth Mother answered. “When I first dictated this pathway to my original people before the end of the Era of Darkness, the verdict was conclusive. The group intended to defeat evil would reach the sundial at this exact moment. Of course, none of us ever believe we’d be following this pathway to begin with.” The Earth Mother’s face darkened.
“When was the Era o’ Darkness?” Plank asked.
The Earth Mother tilted her head to him. “The Era of Darkness ended seven-hundred and sixty-eight years ago.”
That number was cropping up an awful lot. If Ebba hadn’t heard Plank’s tales of old magic, she’d never have known anything existed before the Reign of Kings and the Age of Prosperity. But the selkie leader had mentioned that same number too. Was that how long magic had been locked away for?
The floating woman continued. “You’ve reached this spot, which shows you are worthy of the purgium . . . and yet all is not as it should be. If you continue like this, you will fight the evil and fail.”
Ebba peered over her shoulder at a stamping sound and saw the deer had come to join them; rabbits, pheasants, and butterflies as well. That wasn’t natural-like. She shivered.
The Earth Mother’s eyes rolled back in her head, showing all white.
“Bugger that,” said Peg-leg, face paling.
The Earth Mother’s eyes returned to normal, a myriad of colors flashing through them. “Eight of you will determine whether darkness or light reigns.”
Locks wheezed in relief. “Is that all?” He laughed. “I thought ye were goin’ to say sumpin’ about stealin’ all the grog.” He glanced at the others. “Weren’t ye worried about that?”
“Aye,” Stubby said seriously. “We’d be right unpopular then.”
That was for sure.
The Earth Mother let out a mournful sound, and the deer bowed their heads in response. “This is why I hoped for the six sisters. The knights of Exosia would have been a good second.”
“If ye need sumpin’ fixed, we be yer pirates,” Ebba declared, ready to negotiate.
Stubby grabbed her arm. “Always up by sixty percent to start, lass. Ye know better than that.”
“I was lyin’,” she said under her breath. “As soon as she hands over the purgium, we’ll split.”
The Earth Mother’s gaze landed on Ebba. “I have already decided. I cannot give you that which you seek. When I explored this path, the vision I had was indisputable. The nine souls who reached this point would fight off evil. And your particular group was only ever eight in my vision which is why I hoped you would not be the ones to arrive. To continue without either means certain failure, to continue with eight instead of the usual nine is probable failure. This angers me greatly.” She rested an absent hand on a deer and it keeled over, dead.
“Sink me,” uttered Grubby.
The Earth Mother spoke to herself. “I must make preparations to cocoon the purgium inside my crystalized corpse to keep it from their evil as long as possible.”
. . . She was pretty serious about keeping it safe. But they needed the purgium. “We have eight,” Ebba cut in.
The woman’s eyes snapped to her, and Ebba swallowed at the thousands of eyes within her eyes.
“Aye,” Ebba murmured. “I have my pet sprite here.” Reaching under her jerkin, she pulled out the sleeping Sally. Sally cracked open one eyelid. Seeing the Earth Mother, the sprite sat bolt upright and screamed, high-pitched and long.
“Bad Sally!” Ebba said, shaking her a little.
The sprite grabbed at some loose skin on the back of Ebba’s hand and twisted it savagely.
“Ow, ye soddin’ rat.” Ebba howled, flinging her off and sucking on the wound. “Ye nearly drew blood.”
“I forgot about Sally,” Barrels said. “The taniwha wouldn’t be happy to learn we had enough people to succeed.”
The Earth Mother raised a brow, appearing amused. “What did Poripori say?”
“We wouldn’t succeed without eight. Pretty much the same stuff ye’re sproutin’. He made us choose between savin’ the tribe, and continuin’ without enough people,” Ebba said.
“He always was dramatic.” The Earth Mother flicked her hair back and lightning struck the ground behind her. Her expression sobered. “Do I understand that you sent back the warriors necessary to save some of my original children?”
“Aye,” Ebba said. The warriors had been in the way, anyway.
The Earth Mother was in front of her in a blink. She placed a hand over Ebba’s heart. All six of her fathers raced forward, but with a flick of the woman’s wrist, a pearly barrier leaped up around her and Ebba.
Her fathers pounded on the pearly wall, their shouts muffled through the magical barrier.
“It is as it should be, and yet something is very wrong. The path of your group was always murkiest of all. Cracked, disjointed between the land of the living and that of the dead. There is possibility for success, and yet how could that be so with only eight?” the Earth Mother muttered. She looked up at Ebba’s fathers, who were still yelling as they circled the magical barrier. “You are the center, their center. As is right.”
Ebba didn’t answer. Beforehand, she might’ve agreed about being the center of her family. Not now. Otherwise, Ebba had no idea what this evil was that the crew were apparently meant to fight. And why having eight or nine people was so important. All Ebba could put together was that the Earth Mother had read the future of this moment a long, long time ago. And could probably kill her by blinking.
“You are unsure of your place. Is this the problem? I do not feel the matter is so simple,” the Earth Mother mused, peering at Ebba’s chest. Her eyes widened. “But what’s this? You are fractured within, child of my children. How is that so? You should be more whole than a normal mortal, not less.”
“If ye know what I should be, feel free to tell me,” Ebba said forlornly. “I’d like to be mended inside too.”
“That is something all of my children desire.” The Earth Mother blinked several times and stared at Ebba’s chest again. “I cannot see the damage within you or who the damage is tied to.”
Surprisingly, she could answer the last part. “The damage be tied to my fathers. They lied to me.”
The Earth Mother didn’t seem interested in that tidbit, studying Ebba’s fathers once more. “This is far more fragile than I would like, and yet you are here, which was always meant to be enough. You are not making my existence easy.”
Sally curtsied and made a series of squeaks.
The thousands of eyes were on her again. “My child says your crew is not what they seem.”
Apparently, her pet could talk, not just squeak. “Aye,” Ebba said, glancing at Sally. “I’ve been seein’ that myself lately.”
The Earth Mother appeared confused by her words. Sarcasm didn’t compute?
“Regardless,” the Earth Mother continued. “No one else will come. That much I know for certain. And containing the purgium within my body will only hold them back for a few centuries. Hesitating now will guarantee darkness across the ages. The wall holding what’s left of my abilities will crumble completely in the coming weeks. Then, I hope to make out more. Then, I will know if this choice is the right one. There will be time to correct, but not if I keep the purgium with me now. The pillars will not fail if they secure the root of magic a second time.”
The pillars? “What are the pillars?”
“You don’t know who the pillars are?” The woman closed her eyes and the light in the cavern flickered out for a full second. “The six pillars are evilness itself, child. How is it that you have never heard tell of them? The pillars ruled this realm for nearly five thousand years. Surely history made note of that.”
Is that what Verity referred to back on Febribus? The six pillars . . . Ebba had never heard of them. Not even with Plank’s stories. “If they be so bad, and ye’re able to kill deer so easy, why can’t ye stop them? It ain’t got naught to do with us.”
The Earth Mother paused. “Until the wall crumbles, I am vulnerable and must remain hidden. If I do not, I risk becoming part of the pillars’ plan. I am one of the powers of the oblivion. I used to rule this realm ten thousand years ago—”
“Ye’re one of the people who judges if I’ll be goin’ to Davy Jones’ Locker or given wings?” Shite, if she’d known that, Ebba might’ve minded her manners.
The Earth Mother ignored her exclamation. “For every ruler since the dawning of time there have been three watchers, those who had the power to keep leaders of this realm in check—until the pillars. Through dark magic, their six minds were twisted into one, like bees in a hive. Except each of the six were already powerful in their own right. With their thoughts and powers melded together, they were near invincible, but once the pillars seized control of the root of magic, their power had infinity. Once that happened, their blackness, their taint, was unable to be controlled by the rest of us. For four and a half thousand years, none could shake their evil, not even the three watchers.”
Despite herself, Ebba had leaned forward to better hear. “Who took them out in the end?”
The Earth Mother lifted her chin. “Good magic banded together with the three watchers of that generation to help steal back the root
of magic, to weaken their hold on the realm, and to turn that power against them. But the pillars were still a mighty force. It was decided that the only way to rid the realm of their evil was to lock them away for all time. But this action came at a cost; to lock away the evil of the pillars, we would have to lock out magic entirely. For magic could not exist in this realm without the root of power. If the root was not in this realm, no immortal creature could stay, but if the root remained, the pillars would forever seek it, and always pose a threat. After thousands of years of darkness, the decision was easy.”
“And these three watchers were doin’ that? Lockin’ the pillars away? But ye said sumpin’ about the three watchers o’ the generation.”
“Yes, the watchers are mortal; their lifespan the same as any other human’s. Their powers are passed down—for the most part.”
Ebba straightened. She might not be great with numbers, but there were more than three members in the crew of Felicity. That was a relief. They weren’t the three watcher people. “Is that what the wall was? The watchers lockin’ away magic to trap the pillars?”
“Yes, the wall was created using the root of magic from the inside. But we did not factor one thing in our plan, and only realized our mistake once magic had been ripped from this realm.”
Ebba strained to hear.
“The wall was made using the power of the root, and the root of magic calls to its three watchers always. Except these three mortals are not magical beings. They were not locked away with the rest of us but remained in this realm. Over the course of seven-hundred and sixty-eight years, the root called to them, and slowly the wall containing immortal beings weakened and began crumbling so the three watchers and the root could be reunited.”
Ebba asked, “That’s why Ladon and the siren and the selkies just appeared out o’ thin air?”
The ethereal woman dipped her head. “Most immortal creatures returned in the past several months. The weakest of our kind, able to slip through the gaps with greater ease, got through first, ten years after the root of magic disappeared from our midst to return to their guarded locations. The powers of oblivion were the last. I was only able to return now, and with the barest wisps of my power.”
Ebba-Viva Fairisles: Stolen Princess (Pirates of Felicity Book 2) Page 21