“I don’t like this, Alexander,” Anatoly said.
“Me neither,” Jack said.
“What choice do we have? Shivini has to be stopped.”
Anatoly clenched his jaw, but remained silent.
“Be careful, Alexander,” Jack said. “There’s no telling what’s down here, but it seems clear that Shivini knows something we don’t.”
Chloe buzzed into a ball of light over Alexander’s head, facing Anatoly and Jack.
“I will protect him,” she said.
Alexander smiled as he started down the dark corridor with Chloe flying in an orbit around his head.
Chapter 9
Isabel followed Abigail through the Keep, asking passersby for directions at every turn. At first she wasn’t sure where her sister was going but it didn’t take long to realize her destination. Isabel quickened her pace. She knew Abigail was upset, she only hoped she wasn’t so distraught that she would leave the Keep by herself.
Isabel reached the aerie just in time to see Abigail launch from the flight bay on Kallistos.
“Abigail!” she shouted into the wind, but her sister either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her.
Isabel knew she could impose her will on Kallistos and force him to fly back to the aerie whether Abigail wanted to or not, but she wasn’t willing to usurp Abigail’s free will like that. She had come to love and respect her new sister, but even more than that, she valued their friendship.
Mistress Constance approached.
“Lady Reishi, Abigail saddled Kallistos and was prepared to launch before we realized what she was doing,” she said. “Against my counsel, she left the Keep alone. I’m readying two Sky Knights to fly escort as we speak.”
“Good, saddle Asteroth as well,” Isabel said without looking away from Abigail as she descended to gain speed.
Isabel tipped her head back and found Slyder preening himself on the balcony of her quarters. With a thought, she sent her familiar after Abigail. At least she would be able to watch over her through Slyder’s eyes.
The Sky Knights were doing the work of wyvern handlers, so the job took longer than normal. The aerie was just beginning to come to life. With the assistance of the Rangers, they had been busy cleaning and preparing for the arrival of many more wyverns, handlers, and Sky Knights, but for the time being, the place was operating on a skeleton crew.
Isabel paced as Abigail disappeared into the distance, flying south toward New Ruatha and the Great Forest. Isabel had no idea where she was heading. It could be that she was trying to get as far away from the war and her unwanted responsibility as possible. Isabel hadn’t known Abigail for all that long, but they shared a bond of friendship forged in hardship and shared danger. They were close and Isabel ached for the pain she knew Alexander had caused her, but she also knew that Alexander was right.
He had made the hard choice yet again.
She was proud of him and worried about the emotional toll his choice would exact. It was one thing to accept the burden of responsibility upon yourself, but quite another to place such a burden on one you loved. She knew he would struggle with the consequences of his decision, especially if Abigail was hurt in the bargain.
Mistress Constance returned.
“The escort riders are ready,” she said. “Shall I hold them until Asteroth is prepared or send them now?”
“Send them,” Isabel said. “I’ll catch up. Also, send a Ranger to Alexander with a report.”
“Right away, Lady Reishi,” Constance said.
She watched the two escort riders launch. Both were experienced Sky Knights riding mature wyverns with countless hours in the air. They slipped over the edge of the launch bay and tipped into a shallow dive to gain speed.
Not long after, several Sky Knights led Asteroth onto the flight deck. He was saddled and eager to take to wing. Isabel linked her mind to the big wyvern and soothed the beast with assurances that they would soon be airborne. It didn’t take her long to change into riding armor and lace herself into the saddle. Once she was secure and had done her checks, she urged Asteroth into the air. With one thrust of his wings, he gained ten feet, the second thrust propelled them out over the edge of the flight bay. Isabel savored the exhilaration of flight as she leaned into Asteroth’s neck and urged him into a gentle dive.
She caught up to Abigail within the hour. The two escort riders were above and behind, watching over their charge. Abigail ignored them.
Isabel pulled up alongside her sister and signaled to turn around. Abigail shook her head vigorously, wiping tears from her eyes. Isabel resigned herself to follow wherever Abigail led. They flew for the better part of the afternoon, floating high over the Great Forest. The vast expanse of wild lands seemed to stretch on forever.
Isabel had grown up in the forest and knew it well, but even she was awed by the true dimensions of the forest blanketing the world below her. The trees stood tall and proud reaching high into the sky for the light raining down on them from above. The aura of life was so palpable that Isabel almost imagined she could see the colors of the trees the way Alexander could.
She’d often wondered about his magic. It was such a simple thing, seemingly without great power and yet it had carried him so far.
The power to see.
Insight into the nature and motives of those he faced. Isabel had power to cause harm: her light-lance spell could kill a man at a distance with unerring precision, yet she found herself humbled by Alexander’s ability to see. His magic gave him knowledge of his enemy and guided his decisions in a way that no other power could match.
His unique power, coupled with his essential goodness, made him just the right man for the hardest job in all of the Seven Isles. He had proven that once again when he tapped his own sister to be the Queen of Ruatha, knowing full well that such a decision would cause him pain and her despair, but also knowing that it was right and necessary. He hadn’t flinched or stalled. He made his decision and carried out his plan in spite of the personal consequences.
He was the right man for the job and she would support him come what may. In this case, it fell on her to convince Abigail of the necessity of accepting her duty. She was the right woman for the job of leading Ruatha. Isabel knew her strengths as well as anyone. They had stood shoulder to shoulder against many enemies and Abigail had never wavered. She would make a fine queen … once she accepted her duty.
Isabel intended to see to it that she did just that. She knew Abigail wouldn’t like it. She would resist, but in the end she would come to understand and she would live up to her brother’s trust.
It was late afternoon when they floated past the edge of the Great Forest and into the southern plains of Ruatha. Abigail banked sharply when they came to the road leading from Southport to Highlands Reach. She followed the road for a while and then began to descend. Isabel followed.
When it became clear that Abigail intended to land, Isabel gave a hand signal to their escort riders to fly overwatch. They broke off and settled into a wide orbit.
Abigail landed near the burned-out ruins of a large manor. Isabel followed and set down near Kallistos. She dismounted and followed Abigail to the husk of the house.
Abigail stood in the center of what used to be the courtyard of a stately manor house at the center of a ranch estate. Several of the outbuildings were still intact, but the place seemed abandoned.
She was holding her stomach and sobbing, tears steaming down her cheeks.
Isabel approached slowly.
“It’s not fair,” Abigail said through her tears.
“I know,” Isabel said.
“My whole life has been taken away from me. My big brother is dead. My home is burned to the ground—and for what?” Abigail slumped to her knees and cried.
Isabel knelt beside her, cradling her head silently, holding her sister as she cried. After a while Abigail sniffed back her tears and sat down. Isabel sat next to her, but still said nothing.
“We grew
up here,” Abigail said. “This was home and now we can never go back.”
Isabel just listened.
“My room was right up there,” Abigail said, pointing to a place that no longer existed. The house was a shell of its former form, just stone and charred timbers.
“That was Lucky’s workshop. He always had something on the stove. We used to stop by in the afternoons for a snack. He was always happy to feed us and listen to stories of our latest adventure, even though our mother would scold us for ruining our appetite before dinner.”
She picked up a handful of dirt and let it slip through her fingers in the gentle breeze.
“Everything that went before is dust.”
She fell silent as she stared at the broken remains of her former life.
“We were happy here. We grew up surrounded by people who loved us and watched out for us in a world filled with possibility. The greatest dangers we ever faced were always the result of our own poor judgment. We don’t deserve this.”
“I know,” Isabel said.
“What am I going to do?” Abigail pleaded, close to tears again.
Isabel turned to her sister and waited until she was sure she had her full attention.
“You’re going to make certain that no one else has to suffer the way that you and your family have suffered. You’re going to do your duty, Abigail.”
She closed her eyes against more tears and shook her head.
“Why does it have to be my duty? I don’t want responsibility for other people’s lives. What if I make a bad decision and people get hurt? I’m not ready for this.” Then she whispered, “I’m just a farm girl.”
“There’s where you’re wrong,” Isabel said gently. “You are a queen and a Sky Knight. You’ve stood by your brother this long. Are you really going to abandon him when he needs you most?”
Abigail looked up sharply and sniffed back her tears.
“I’m not abandoning Alexander. I would never do that.”
“I know,” Isabel said with a smile. “He isn’t doing this because he wants to, he’s doing it because he has to. The other island kings won’t accept him as both the Sovereign and the King of Ruatha.”
“There has to be another way,” Abigail whispered.
Isabel sat in silence while Abigail worked through her feelings and the demands weighing on her.
“I don’t know how to be a queen,” she said in a very small voice.
“Me neither,” Isabel said.
Abigail frowned, deep in thought.
“You didn’t ask for this either,” Abigail said. “How is it that you’ve accepted it so easily?”
Isabel shrugged with a smile. “I got Alexander in the bargain.”
“How do you do it, Isabel? How do you make the right choices when there aren’t any good options to choose from?”
“I’m not sure I do,” Isabel said. “I just try to make choices that will help Alexander the most. He has the weight of the world on his shoulders and sometimes I think he feels like it’s more than he can bear.”
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s more than anyone can handle,” Abigail said. “I worry about him. He’s had just as much taken from him as I have. I worry that one day he’s going to lose something so dear to him that he’ll break.”
“I know what you mean,” Isabel said. “He told me about the day you and I were taken by the Sky Knights. Without Chloe, I’m not sure if he would have made it off the Reishi Isle. He said she gave him hope and love when all he could find within himself was despair.
“Don’t you see, Abigail, he needs us, all of us. He’s just one man standing against terrifying enemies. And he isn’t doing it because he wants to. He’s doing it because it’s the only way to have the life he wants.”
“I don’t have any choice, do I?” Abigail asked.
“You always have a choice,” Isabel said. “It’s just that in this case, the only choice you have that’s consistent with who you are, is to support your brother.”
She was silent for a long time before she nodded and rubbed the tears from her face.
“It’s getting late,” Abigail said. “We should probably be going.”
Chapter 10
Alexander cautiously moved down the corridor. In his right hand he held the Thinblade, in his left, a vial of night-wisp dust. The corridor ran for several hundred feet from the shield before it ended with a staircase leading down, deeper into the heart rock of the Keep.
Alexander descended the stairs, straining the limits of his all around sight to prevent Shivini from surprising him. The shade had promised to let him live so that he could witness the horrors he had unleashed, but he didn’t believe it for a moment. Shivini had been bound to Phane’s will. If the shade had a chance to kill him and take the Sovereign Stone, he would. Alexander had no doubt about that.
He slowed when he saw light coming from the base of the staircase. The landing opened onto a platform at the edge of a giant room, which was shaped like a toroid and measured at least two hundred feet across and forty feet high at the highest point. The center of the room was occupied by two formations that would have been a stalactite and a stalagmite in a natural cave but here they were clearly cut with exacting precision.
Suspended in the space between the two stone points was a giant spinning crystal shaped like an elongated diamond. It was easily six feet tall and two feet wide at its widest point. It spun with such speed that it almost looked like it was standing still.
Colors of magic poured off the crystal, flowing into the stone of Blackstone Keep. Alexander had never imagined such a thing, but he knew instinctively that the Keep’s magic was powered by this spinning crystal. Waves of energy flowed outward, filling the toroid with heat and light. He realized with a jolt that this place had to be in the exact center of the mass of the Keep.
Shivini was climbing toward the crystal. He was halfway there already and slowly inching his way up the artificial stalagmite. Alexander had no idea what would happen if the crystal was disturbed and he didn’t want to find out. He was sure that it had been spinning in perfect balance for over two thousand years.
He slipped over the edge and slid down the gently sloping wall to the floor, then raced across the room toward Shivini. The shade saw him coming and tried to climb faster, but he could gain little purchase on the smooth pillar. As Alexander neared, Shivini slipped and slid to the ground. He drew his sword and faced Alexander with a grin. His nose and fingertips were grey from frostbite.
“Looks like moving through the aether is taking its toll on you,” Alexander said.
“Not on me,” Shivini said, “on my host. But he doesn’t matter, Alexander. Even if you destroy this host, I’ll just take another and come back to finish my work.”
“What’s your plan?” Alexander asked, leveling the Thinblade at his enemy.
Shivini shrugged. “I’m going to destroy your Keep, kill you, and take your fancy necklace to Phane, not necessarily in that order.”
“You’re more forthright than I would have expected,” Alexander said as he tried to formulate a plan.
“As a general rule, I prefer to lie unless the truth will cause more fear,” Shivini said. “Here’s another truth, Alexander. You can’t win. You and everyone you love were doomed the moment Phane bound me to his will and sent me to destroy you.
“Did you know that we’ve never failed to accomplish a task we were assigned? Over the decades that we were summoned and pressed into service by Malachi Reishi we always succeeded, every single time. It’s no wonder he came to rely on us so heavily when he could have summoned many others from the darkness.
“Face it, Alexander. You’ve lost. Embrace the despair growing within you. Give in to the hopelessness.”
Alexander laughed bitterly. “You don’t really expect me to take your advice, do you?”
“I guess not, but it’s always worth a try. Next to fear, my favorite human emotion is despair. It nourishes my very soul. Or at least it would if
I had one.”
“The way I see it—you’ve lost,” Alexander said as he edged closer to the shade. “Now that I know your target, I can stop you from ever getting down here again.”
It was Shivini’s turn to laugh. “I can float right through the stone and take one of your sentries at my leisure. You can’t hope to guard this place against me.”
“There’s where you’re wrong,” Alexander said as he attacked. He slashed off the first two feet of Shivini’s sword, then brought the Thinblade back up, taking off his hand and forearm. It thudded to the ground, blood flowing onto the floor. Alexander wasn’t trying to kill him … in fact, he needed him alive, but he also needed him defenseless. In the back of his mind, he mourned the loss of yet another Ranger to his blade, but this time it was necessary.
As Shivini recoiled from the sudden attack, Alexander kicked him in the chest, sending him sprawling onto his back. He dropped the Thinblade and jumped on Shivini’s chest, pummeling him in the face several times.
Shivini laughed.
Using his attack as a distraction, Alexander withdrew the collar Kelvin had fashioned for just this purpose and snapped it around Shivini’s neck. As it clicked into place, Alexander saw its colors swell with power as the enchantment was invoked. He rolled off the shade and retrieved the Thinblade.
Shivini sat up with a look of alarm, then he howled with rage as he bolted to his feet and charged toward Alexander in wild fury. Alexander sidestepped and tripped the shade, sending him sprawling to the floor again.
He was trapped.
He got to his feet again and faced Alexander with growing awareness, but then he broke into a malicious smile. Before Alexander could react, Shivini snatched up his bloody forearm and threw it at the spinning crystal filling the chamber with light and power.
It hit with a thud. Blood splattered against the crystal, and the arm ricocheted with terrible force across the room, smashing into the wall so hard that it left nothing but a clump of bloody mush that slowly slid toward the floor, leaving a streak of gore in its wake.
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