Kael let her go and approached the Archoness.
“You do not know the absolute horror we face,” he said. “But I can show you, if you will trust me.”
Avila looked to her daughter.
“Please,” Clara said. “He’s earned this at least.”
“So be it. What would you have me do?”
“Summon a guard.”
Beside her chair were multiple hanging ropes, and the Archoness pulled the one on the left. Immediately a door on the same side opened, two guards marching in with shields and spears. Avila gestured to Kael, turning their attention his way.
“I need one of you to cut my hand,” he said.
Likely not what the guards expected, but they neither hesitated nor questioned it. One approached, his grip on the spear shifting so he could hold it steady.
“Just a tiny bit,” Kael added, worried the guard would show a little too much enthusiasm. He held up his palm. The guard put the spear’s tip into the center of the palm and then dragged it across the skin.
“Will that suffice?”
Kael clenched his teeth against the pain. Blood pooled on his skin.
“Yes.”
The guards turned to Avila, bowed low when dismissed, and then left the room.
“Now what is it we gain by having you bleed upon my carpet?” Avila asked when they were gone.
“You’ll see,” Kael said. He offered her his hand. “Touch the blood with your fingers and do not let go.”
Avila frowned, and she cast another glance at her daughter. Clara stood perfectly still, arms crossed behind her, as if Kael’s request were the most natural thing in the world. Kael could imagine the thoughts going through the Archoness’s mind. Maybe that Skyborn boy you like isn’t quite right in the head.
Letting out the softest of sighs, Avila removed one of her long gloves and set it on the arm of her chair. She stepped closer, eyeing the blood, the fingers of her bare hand rubbing together. Kael said nothing, only waited. Hesitation past, Avila gently dipped a single finger into Kael’s bloody palm. Kael closed his eyes, his heart racing despite his best attempts to remain confident. He was growing stronger, he knew that. His control increased with every attempt. Just like his sister, Kael was learning the true power lurking within his eternal-born heritage.
“Close your eyes,” Kael told her. “Try to keep your mind blank. Look at only darkness. Focus on nothing but my words.”
As he spoke, Kael conjured up images of his own. They weren’t naturally his, which was the biggest reason for his hesitance. This was a vision granted by L’fae. Kael remembered the moment of Ascension, the armies of demons crashing against humanity’s final refuge. Most of all, he conjured the memory of the shadowborn’s arrival.
And then he gave it to her.
“Open your eyes.”
Kael saw as she saw. He no longer felt her finger touching his palm. The sounds of battle overwhelmed him. He and Avila were one, together experiencing L’fae’s sadness and terror as she watched the crawling shadow swarm through the legions. Lives ended by the thousands, flesh ripped apart, bodies burned and shattered. Fear pounded in their breasts. Sorrow weakened their minds. Pain pulsed from the many tubes piercing flesh to drain away the needed blood for the great Ascension. Kael felt the image starting to distort and weaken, the toll even greater on his body than revealing his own memories. He kept strong, focusing on the terrible rage of the shadowborn and his tremendous power. Even as the islands rose, they heard his sickening voice echo in their minds.
You suffer for nothing, my brethren. Humanity will reach its end, even if I must wait centuries …
Kael pulled away his hand, ending the vision. Avila gasped in air as if she’d been holding her breath all the while. Her balance teetered, Clara rushing to her side to hold her steady. Kael hardly felt any better.
“That monster at the end,” Avila asked. “The one commanding the demons. Was that L’adim?”
“It was.”
The Archoness straightened herself and pulled away from her daughter. She stammered a moment, trying to find a way to properly phrase her next question.
“And who … whose body were we? Whose eyes did we look out from? It was surely not human.”
“That was L’fae,” Kael said. “The lightborn whose power keeps our island afloat.”
Avila looked overwhelmed by the information but she took it in admirable stride. Her gaze was frighteningly focused. The anger in her eyes had no equal.
“Is there more you can show me?” she asked. “I would know what this L’fae knows.”
“I don’t have the strength,” Kael said. “But you can meet her for yourself. Come with me to the Crystal Cathedral. Not even Johan Lumens can refuse you entrance.”
It looked like nothing in the world could stop Avila from accomplishing exactly that. She returned to her chair and pulled the center rope, sounding a deep, resonating bell.
“Fetch me a Seraphim escort,” she said as the doors opened and soldiers flooded in. She addressed one in particular who bore the mark of a guard captain. “And send a squad of soldiers immediately to the Crystal Cathedral. I would have them arrive shortly after we do.”
The guard bowed low and then rushed off to deliver the orders. The Archoness turned back to the duo, a bit of life sparkling in her tired green eyes.
“Go don your wings,” she told them. “We leave at once. If what you showed me was true, then you may have spared our entire island from a tragic mistake.”
Avila refused a platform, instead opting to be carried by a Seraphim. Clara and Kael led the way, an older Seraph carrying Avila in his arms, Olivia at his side. The town came and went beneath them, turning to grasslands as the Crystal Cathedral neared. The stone road was barren, all worship and visitation canceled since the theotech’s expulsion. All for the best. A dozen soldiers marched down the road a mile behind them, ready should the Archoness need them after meeting with L’fae. No need for prying eyes that might alert Johan to their plan.
The hairs on Kael’s neck stood on end as the cathedral came into view. The glass ceiling was broken, and Kael winced with remembered pain. He’d been the one to help break it, barreling through wings-first. The wide wooden doors, smashed open during the siege, were now blocked by three men dressed in Johan’s brown disciple robes.
Kael felt a tap on his arm. He turned, saw Clara gesturing behind her, and stretched his neck further. Olivia was signaling for them to slow. Kael pulled the throttle back by a third. The new Seraphim leader left the Archoness behind and joined the two of them, taking hold of Kael’s wrist to keep them both steady.
“Ignore the doors!” she shouted. “Land inside.”
Kael returned his attention to the disciples, a grin cracking across his face as he imagined their sudden panic. There’d be no arguing, no posturing, no questioning of authority here. Four Seraphim and the Archoness of Weshern. Let them try to stop them.
Olivia fell back, Clara taking lead. One by one they flew through the broken ceiling and to the carpeted floor strewn with broken pews and thick shards of glass. Disciples of Johan rushed in from the doors crying out for them to wait or halt, as if they’d listen. Kael landed in front of the door leading down into the sublevels of the cathedral, between it and the disciples, blocking access. The younger men fumed with impotent anger.
“This area is restricted,” one had the courage to yell. “For the safety of Weshern, all access—”
“I decide what is best for the safety of my island,” Avila interrupted. “Or would you dare tell me that Johan commands greater authority than the Archoness?”
Kael joined the others in arming the prism of his right gauntlet. Soft blue lights shone on the disciples. They looked to one another, sweat glistening on their foreheads.
“Of course not,” the protester said. “But below are the machines that keep us afloat. Should you damage something through carelessness we may all plummet to the Endless Ocean.”
“Don�
��t you worry,” Kael told them with a mischievous grin. “I’ve been down there before.”
He checked the door and found it locked.
“Entrance is barred from the inside,” the disciples informed them. “We open only for Johan.”
Olivia looked ready to strike the three of them down with her lightning, practically begging the Archoness for permission with her eyes.
“Can you get us inside?” Avila asked.
“Don’t worry,” Kael said, smiling despite the sudden pang of loss. “Chernor showed me how to knock.”
He spread his palm and braced his wrist with his other hand. The ends of his fingers curled inward slightly as he imagined the anticipated attack. A thick boulder of ice blasted out with tremendous force. The door crumpled without offering resistance and the boulder rolled on to the far end of the hallway before stopping.
The older Seraph stepped close to Avila and dropped his voice to a whisper.
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” he said, nodding his head toward the three disciples.
“Do we have reason to worry?” the Archoness asked.
“I’m not sure, but I’d rather not risk it. They give me bad feelings every time I look at them.”
Avila acquiesced. Matter settled, Kael led the way into the halls below the cathedral. They were lit by the soft glow of light elemental prisms wedged into the ceiling in evenly spaced sockets. Clara and her mother followed, with Olivia taking up the rear. The older Seraph stayed back, arms crossed as he guarded the doors down.
The four slipped around the corner past Kael’s boulder of ice. Kael’s pulse increased with every step. He’d met two lightborn in his life, and both had been awe-inspiring. Part of him felt more nervous than the others with him. They didn’t understand what they were to meet, not really. Not until the light fell upon you and the psychic emanations washed over your body with naked emotion could you truly grasp the comforting, yet alien, presence.
They passed the rooms that had been used to house knights when the theotechs still controlled the cathedral. Most doors were open, the insides tossed and looted. Kael slowed as he approached the next turn. His pulse pounding in his neck, coupled with a sudden certainty he’d made a mistake. If the secret doors were to open only for Johan … then where were the disciples guarding the halls?
Kael turned, meaning only to warn Olivia to keep an eye out behind them, but then felt his heart halt as the doors to two rooms silently swung open.
“Behind!” Kael shouted, gauntlet snapping up. Olivia dove, dragging Avila with her to the ground. Clara whirled, legs braced as she brought her gauntlet to bear. Four disciples rushed from the opened doors, the front two wielding swords, the back two holding bows. Arrows loosed, one sailing down the hallway, the other plinking off the wings of Olivia’s harness.
Kael retaliated with arrows of his own, razor-sharp projectiles of ice tearing into the chest of the leftmost archer. He turned his aim to the other, trusting Clara to handle the nearer two.
Clara dropped to one knee, her right palm pressing to the ground. A wave of ice rolled out, coating the floor. The disciples slipped on their approach but kept charging forward. Even as they stumbled and slid, they lashed out at Clara with their swords. Kael took the opening to fire a single ball of ice down the hall and into the other archer’s face. The bow dropped, the strung arrow springing harmlessly against the wall.
Clara slid back another foot and then rolled as the archer fell. Her hand touched ground, blue light flared, and then a solid wall of ice rose up from ground to floor, sealing the disciples away on the other side. Metal plinked against the other side, then quieted.
“They’ll escape,” Olivia said, jumping to her feet. Lightning shimmered across her palm. “Clara, drop it, now!”
Clara rolled to her ice wall and pushed her hand against it so the firing prism made contact. The ice broke on her command, shattering into a fine mist to reveal the other two disciples sprinting down the hall toward the broken door. Electricity swirled into a beam from Olivia’s gauntlet. It thundered down the hall with a deafening clap, striking both of them down.
Ringing filled Kael’s ears in the ensuing silence. Avila accepted Clara’s hand, and together they stood over the bodies of the disciples.
“Johan has much to answer for,” the Archoness said. “Did he plan to hold the cathedral as a blade above my neck?”
“We won’t know until we ask him,” Kael said.
“Trust me,” Avila said, taking lead. “We will. About a great many things.”
They crossed the final stretch to L’fae’s chamber. The grand double doors loomed above them. Golden writing danced across the doors, pulling Kael back in time to when he first laid eyes on their design during his frantic rescue of his sister. He never could have guessed the wonders waiting within, nor the connection to his blood that L’fae had sensed the moment he stepped inside.
“Ready?” he asked.
Avila stood with shoulders back and head held high. She’d seen the vision, and she looked ready to meet L’fae as if she were a diplomat of another island. Clara looked far more eager, having heard Kael’s tales but not seen a lightborn for herself. Only Olivia appeared afraid.
“Whatever lies beyond that door is not of our world but of heaven and hell,” she said. “I can feel it. Must we enter?”
Her hands were trembling. Kael could hardly believe it. The woman was unflappable during battle, so why was she frightened now? He turned back to the door, frowning as he put a hand upon it. L’fae’s presence dripped through, faint waves like light fading from a distant campfire. It reeked of sorrow and despair.
“Something’s wrong,” Kael said. He grabbed the handle and pulled it with all his might. The right door cracked open and shuddered as it moved wider. Kael ran inside, the other three following with slow, worshipful steps.
L’fae hovered in the center of the room, her light dimmer than he’d ever seen. Her golden eyes were downcast, her hands limp above her in their chains. Liquid light pulsed out of her through the tubes, and it seemed to move slower than Kael remembered. His footfalls prompted her eyes to meet his, and he felt her shock reverberate through his every bone.
“L’adim!” the lightborn cried. She flung her body toward Kael, towering over him as the chains rattled and groaned. Whatever fading of her color ended with a sudden flourish of blinding white light across her skin. Her cry was a desperate shriek contained within his skull. “Where is L’adim?”
Kael glanced to the others, baffled. Clara and Avila stood with mouths agape. Olivia knelt beside them, head bowed low in respect.
“L’adim?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”
L’fae stretched her hand as far as the chained allowed.
“The shadowborn is here, Skyborn. See his face.”
The lightborn’s memory entered his mind, but this was not comfortable like the other times. This felt like an assault, the image hurriedly slammed over his eyes and consciousness. The others let out similar gasps, all four sharing the same sight.
He hung from the ceiling, chains supporting his weight as blood poured out of him at a steady rate. The grand doors cracked open and a man entered. No fear filled his chest, not yet. Just curiosity.
“Another stranger come to visit?” he asked.
“Not a stranger,” this newcomer said as the light fell across his face. “Hello, L’fae.”
Kael felt his body lean closer. He knew that face. He knew that voice. Johan pulled back his hood as he smiled. The shimmering lightborn essence washed over him, but instead of illuminating it burned away flesh, peeling it like the skin of a fruit to reveal swirling shadow of rottenness beneath.
“L’adim?” Kael heard himself cry without lips and lungs but instead with a psychic shriek of horror. That horror remained as the memory tore back out of him, returning him to the chamber deep beneath the Crystal Cathedral.
“Johan,” he gasped as he fell to his knees. “Johan is the shadowborn.”
“No,” Avila said, the first to recover her strength. “We have not defeated him, but we know his face. My army will put an end to him and his disciples.” She spread her arms wide and bowed in respect. “Please forgive me, angel of the heavens. I must start at once, before the fiend does any more damage. I will return, though, I promise. I am Archoness Willer, and I will not rule without hearing the words of the one who suffers in our stead.”
Kael had to scramble to catch up with Avila. The other two stayed behind, and he heard Clara asking the lightborn a question.
“Wait,” he cried to the Archoness. “What will you do?”
“I will put a bounty on Johan’s head,” Avila said. “Every soldier and Seraph at my disposal will scour Weshern until he’s found.”
“But you heard L’fae,” Kael insisted. “Johan’s just one of his faces. If he finds out we’re searching for him, he’ll take the appearance of another, one we’ve never seen. There will be no capturing him then.”
Avila stopped, and he heard her sigh.
“You are correct,” she said. “We must bring him in unsuspecting.”
“Arrest the three disciples here and request a meeting with Johan from one of the disciples back at the mansion,” Kael said. “Put him right where we want him for an ambush.”
“The threat of the shadowborn, the threat you showed me … might we stop it then and there?”
“I don’t know,” Kael said. “But I pray it does.”
“Then fetch the others,” she said. “We’ll end that monstrous shadow forever, bleeding and burning him out on my mansion floor.”
CHAPTER
26
Bree lurked behind the long red curtain, her hands on the hilts of her swords. Fire raged within both blood and breast as her mind worked around the sudden revelation. Her brother crouched next to her, their silver Seraphim wings touching.
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