by John Corwin
It had been some time since I'd ventured into the crack, especially in the normal world. I rubbed the green pebble on the chain around my neck and remembered the words. As above, so below. The rock was a piece of the anchor stone, the great green moon in the Glimmer that kept all the realms of Earth from drifting apart. It also allowed the user to travel to the reflected world.
That was now where Naeve lived, Cora's soul trapped in the flesh that had been her reflection.
The crack in the world was larger than I remembered it. I no longer had to crouch. Once past the outer lip, the rock gave way to a tunnel tall enough to stand in. Black vines writhed like snakes against the walls. The sounds of grinding rock echoed in the space and I realized with a start that Evadora was preparing the way for an exodus.
Whether we wanted to or not, it was apparent that before long our world would meet the lost people of the Glimmer.
Chapter 13
Evadora took me to the rift, a star-filled void where an invisible bridge spanned the gap between Eden and the Glimmer. Three orbs of brilliant light, the guardians of the rift, drifted in the sea of stars, streams of plasma trailing behind them. One of them keened, a ghostly sound that made the hairs on my neck rise.
Evadora repeated the sound and the orbs danced in a circle. She made a beeping sound and the orbs responded, soft cooing sounds echoing through the endless void. They zipped away to the left, vanishing into the starry expanse.
My mouth hung open. "You can talk to them?"
"I sat and listened to them for a week," she said. "Their language is harder to learn than those of animals, and the sounds they make are not quite words."
"They don't attack you anymore?"
Evadora sighed. "They will let me go back and forth between the Glimmer and Queens Gate, but if you came with me, they would attack. They also refuse to let my people leave the Glimmer."
"They didn't let Cora through." I frowned. "Why didn't she ever learn their language instead of risking the dangers in the reflected world?"
"I do not think she thought it possible," Evadora said. "I do not let such things limit me." She stepped beside me. "But that is not why I brought you here." Her arm rose, a finger pointing into the expanse.
At first I saw nothing and then I realized it was the nothingness that was important. Hardly a space existed that wasn't filled with stars or galaxies, or streaking comets. All except for one black void that, from this distance, looked about as large as my hand.
My arms trembled. "What is that?"
She shrugged. "During the week I spent learning the language of the guardians, I noticed it. It grows larger every day and I think it comes for the Glimmer."
"Are you certain?"
Evadora tapped her chin. "I suppose it could be coming for all the realms. Perhaps we are all doomed."
Goosebumps ran up my arm at the thought of being swallowed by a void. "How much time do we have before the darkness gets here?" I asked.
Evadora's eyes grew round, full of fear. "I do not know."
"How do you plan to evacuate the Glimmer if the guardians won't let anyone else pass?"
"The reflected world is the only way." Her eyes glistened with tears. "I fear for my people, the beasts, and the wood."
"You can't bring the trees with you…" I remembered how Naeve had made trees walk and narrowed my eyes. "Can you?"
"I can bring some, but not all." Evadora bit her lower lip. "But how am I to take beasts and trees through the reflected world? Even if they can traverse into that world, it would allow Naeve to escape and take control."
It was a monumental task. One I had no idea how anyone could manage. There was one person that might have a chance, but she was dead unless… "What if we could give Naeve's body to Cora?"
Evadora gasped. "What do you mean?"
"When Cora went into the reflected world, her reflection stole part of her soul." I tore my eyes from the void in the stars. "Her reflection came back to the Glimmer and ruled as Naeve while Cora went to Eden."
Tears sparkled down Evadora's cheeks. "Where she died."
I wiped moisture from my eyes, a knot of grief lodged in my throat. "Naeve said when Cora died, the rest of her soul came to her."
"It does not work like that," Evadora said. "Naeve would have had to touch Cora's body at the moment of death. Since she did not, the rest of her soul is lost."
A vice squeezed my heart. "No, that can't be true. How would you know?"
"Mother told me before she left." Evadora perched on the edge of the rift, feet dangling in the stars. "She said Naeve might have a slice of her soul, but she would never have it all." Tears dripped into the void. "I am glad she was with you her final days, Conrad."
I wasn't brave enough to sit so close to that drop into the void, but I ventured far enough to kneel behind Evadora and squeeze her shoulders. "I thought I had a way to save our mother, but I was wrong."
She spun around. "Save her, how?"
I told her about the Broken Relic, and the relics of Juranthemon. "If there's even the slightest chance it could save her, I was going to search for it."
"Juranthemon?" Evadora's eyes flared. "What does it have to do with relics?"
"It?" I blinked several times. "You know about Jura?"
"It is in our ancient history." Evadora took my hand and started walking back through the tunnel to Queens Gate. "Saila of the great city Juranthemon tried to stop the war of the Apocryphan. She did not succeed."
"Saila?" It was odd hearing such ancient history from a girl who appeared to be my age. "Did this woman live before the Sundering that tore apart Earth and split it into realms?"
"She was the daughter of Kathazal and a Lyrolai woman." Evadora stepped out of the tunnel. Daylight sparkled along her bluish skin and her hair shimmered like polished silver. For a moment, she looked more regal than the simple girl I'd met last year.
I joined her and rejoiced in the warm sunlight. "Who was Kathazal?"
"Kathazal is the father of the Apocryphan." She held up a finger and a yellow bird perched there. "He is in the Abyss with the other Apocryphan."
My heart skipped a beat. "The Apocryphan had children with other species?"
Evadora nodded. "The history only speaks of a few, and even then." She shrugged. "Maybe some of them still walk the realms."
"What happened to Juranthemon?" I asked.
"When the Apocryphan went to war with each other, Saila held peace talks in Jura. Someone sabotaged the meeting." Evadora shook her head sadly. "She was very powerful and tried to stop the fighting, but the city was blown apart." She put her hands together and pulled them apart like something exploding. "One of the histories says the Sundering happened right in that very spot."
I couldn't imagine the amount of raw power that destroyed the city and split the world into realms. It was no wonder the relics created from that destruction were so powerful. "Can I read your history books?" I gripped her hands. "Please, it's very important."
Evadora frowned. "We don't have books. We have the Soul Tree." She touched the leaf on a nearby bush. "It is where the memories of the Lyrolai used to go when they died no matter where they were in the world."
Could that possibly mean—my hopes rose. "Are Cora's memories there?"
Evadora looked down. "After the Sundering, only the Lyrolai who died in our realm took their place in the Soul Tree."
A dagger pierced my heart. Cora had died in Eden and her soul was gone forever.
Evadora leaned on my shoulder. "I wish her memories were with us, Conrad." Her body shook with sobs. "I wish I could listen to her memories and find out why my mother didn't take me with her. Why she left me with Naeve."
I took a deep breath to ease the pain in my chest. "How do you find specific memories?"
"You must search," she said. "The ones who died long ago are on the bottom branches. I found the memories from the Apocryphan war on one of those branches, but there is no easy way." A smile shone through her tears. "Yoghra
tends the tree, and even he does not know all the memories."
My face pinched with confusion. "Yoghra?"
Evadora's gaze grew distant. "He protected me when Cora was away. He taught me the ways of life. Now that I am queen, I am granted access to the memories on the tree."
Cora's memories are lost. I squeezed shut my eyes and saw my frail foster mother in the hospital bed, hair gone, flesh hanging from bones, eyes sunken. The green rock on her chain, the fragment of anchor stone should have protected her, but the demon curse I carried killed everyone I loved—even her. Now I carried the last link to her broken homeland, the Glimmer.
My eyes flicked open. "The anchor stone, even a piece of it is like a link to the Glimmer, isn't it?"
Evadora sat up straight. "Yes, I think so."
I held out the stone. "Cora was wearing this when she died. What if it linked her to the Glimmer somehow? What if her soul was able to come back here after all?"
"Yoghra can find out." She leapt to her feet. "Mother's soul would be the newest bloom on the tree."
"Wouldn't he have noticed?" I said.
"He probably thought her soul was lost," she said. "Since she didn't die in the Glimmer, he never checked." Evadora danced in place. "Oh, I hope her memories are there." Her teeth chattered. "What if they aren't, Conrad? What if we're wrong?"
"It doesn't matter." I thought of the piece of Cora Naeve still carried with her. "Even if the rest of her soul is lost, maybe we can fix the part that's left."
Her hands trembled. "Transform Naeve into Cora?"
I nodded. "We need the Broken Relic."
Evadora grew very still. "What are the other relics of Jura?"
"I only know of a few," I admitted. "The map and key allow travel anywhere in the world by linking doors. The hands can bind or unbind magical properties." I thought back to the book I discovered in the Seer library. "There's also an Eye of Jura, but I don't know what it does."
"Hands and eye?" Evadora pursed her lips. "Those are body parts."
"If Saila was destroyed in the Sundering, do you think parts of her body became enchanted?" I shuddered at the thought. That might be something Gwyneth could answer.
"I will search the tree for Mother," Evadora said. "If she is there, I can search her memories."
"Can you talk to her?" Desperation hung heavy on my words. "I would really like to talk to her too."
Evadora shook her head sadly. "The memories are like a window into a life, and the pieces are not all there." She tapped a finger on my head. "Even beings with short lives do not remember all their experiences."
My shoulders sagged. "I see."
She hugged me and kissed my cheek. "Cora was our mother, Conrad, even if not yours by blood. If she is there, I will bring you back so you can see through her eyes."
"That would mean the world to me." My tears rolled off the tip of my nose and onto Evadora's gossamer dress. I pushed back and managed a smile. "I should practice my magic."
"I will see you soon." Evadora backed away and twirled before vanishing into the crack in the world.
I flew my broom up to the broken second story of the mansion and set the portrait on a dilapidated chair. Instead of practicing, I stared at the portrait and wondered what Jeremiah Conroy might have done in my place. This particular painting looked oddly familiar and I wondered if it was the same one I'd seen in the lower levels of Moore Keep.
Had Ansel stolen artwork from there and was now asking me to destroy it? Though I didn't know much about the man, he seemed the type to trick me into doing something like that. I gathered the portrait and flew back toward the keep. Instead of flying up to my room, I went through the lower doors and wandered through the halls until I found the room I was looking for.
Inside, I found the image of Jeremiah on his knees while Daelissa, an angel of immense beauty and fury, fired a bolt of lightning at him. Next to it was a painting of a broken world, the Glimmer. The author's initials, S.M. were scribbled near the bottom. The same man, Serpus Mandracorn had painted other landscapes and people here.
I continued down the row and found the one image that still puzzled me—the life-sized painting of a door engraved with a triangle, the sides of which curved slightly out like parentheses. The image was so lifelike, it seemed I could reach out and open the door. I passed several more paintings until I found one that matched what I had in my hand.
Apparently, Ansel had made a replica. The one he'd given me was not a perfect reproduction. There were no skulls hanging from the tree. Instead, there was a door hanging open in the trunk. Something caught my eye and I leaned in for a better look. Carved into the door was a symbol just like the one in the other portrait.
What does it mean?
I looked back and forth from the painting Ansel had given me to this one and noted the obvious difference in quality. The one painted by Mandracorn was flawless, the colors rich and lifelike. Ansel's appeared as though it had been hastily copied and subverted with skulls to add a negative connotation.
In other words, I could safely destroy the fake painting.
The triangle symbol piqued my curiosity, so I continued searching through the strange museum. I found other images of Moses in his guise as Ezzek Moore entering a door marked with the symbol, but it was the fourth one that brought me to a complete halt. In this one, Ezzek and another portly man stood before the open door, apparently in conversation.
It was the background that held me captive. I backed up and peered down the room toward the far end. Statues and display cases partially blocked my view, but even so it was plain to see that this image depicted the corner of the room with the painted door. If that was the case, why did it show the painted door hanging open?
My stomach growled as it was well past dinnertime, but it could wait a few moments more. I started at one end of the gallery and carefully examined each painting. It took the better part of an hour, but I counted four more images with the mysterious triangle doors in them. One was in a forest, and the others in cities I didn't recognize, though a little research might uncover their identities.
The paintings were telling me something important, I could feel it. I just had to figure out what.
Chapter 14
More complaints rumbled from my belly so I left the museum and went to the dining hall. Once again, I was nearly alone in the room except for a few students. I shoveled down a helping of stew and bread and then hurried back to the keep.
I flew my broom up to the room to see if Max was there and found him sitting on my bed reading one of the books I'd stolen from the Seers. He flinched and averted his eyes. "I'm sorry, Conrad. I got curious to see what was in these books."
"It's fine." I patted him on the shoulder. "I've been meaning to read them too. Did you find anything interesting?"
Max looked up, eyes brightening. "Your mum was a real bright student and nice until she got mixed up with Victus."
"Yeah." I took the book and traced the leather edge with my finger. "I wonder if Victus was always mean."
"There was something about that earlier." Max thumbed through the pages, some of them adorned with illustrations.
One of them caught my eye. "Wait." I put a finger in the pages so I wouldn't lose the place and flipped through them until I found it again. Two circles sat side by side, and a third rested on top. In the space between the three circles stood a tree that resembled the one in the original tree painting copied by Ansel.
"Delectra asked to reinstate the original Arcane Council crest," Max read. "She argued for a return to heritage, but Arcanus Primus, Jarrod Sager, refused, saying it was time for modernization in Arcane practices."
The name tickled something buried in memory. "Isn't he the primus who was murdered after he began reforms?"
Max snapped his fingers. "Yeah, we read about it last year in history." He chuckled. "I guess we learned something from Professor Beetle after all."
"Hardly," I scoffed. "There was resistance to modernizing Arcane magic
practices, but that wasn't what got him killed." I traced the circles with my finger. The area where they connected formed a triangle with curved sides, just like in the paintings. What does it mean?
"What do you see?" Max said.
"A clue." I tried to remember if I'd seen the circle pattern anywhere else, but didn't recall it.
Shushiel blurred into view, dangling from a thread nearly in front of us. Max and I leapt backwards across the bed with cries of alarm.
Max caught his breath. "I completely forgot you were here!"
"Apologies," the spider said. "I have been away on family matters and only just returned." Her eyes seemed fixed on the book. "I have seen this symbol before."
"Where?" I scooted back across the bed.
"In a painting downstairs." Shushiel dropped to the floor with hardly a sound. "Shall I show you?"
"Yes, please." I put the book back in my trunk.
"Since I must remain unseen, go to the first floor museum." Shushiel faded from sight. "I will appear when you are alone."
Max and I raced down the stairs, out of the dorm and into the common room. Ambria looked up from a pile of books at a table in the corner and waved us over.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" she asked.
"Not sure yet." Max grinned. "Come with us."
Ambria frowned. "What sort of answer is that, Maxwell Tiberius? Does it look like I have time to run around the keep like an imbecile?"
"Shushiel is taking us to see something," I explained. "It could be very important."
Her eyes flashed. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Ambria closed her books and set them in a stack on the table. "Let's go."
We reached the bottom floor and went into one of the galleries. I looked up and down the rows, but didn't see one with the circle-tree symbol on it.