Twisted Legends: Twisted Magic Book 4

by Kaye, Rainy

  We had to get moving, but so many messes were brewing behind me as well. I was nearly paralyzed with indecision.

  With numb effort, I slid my hand into Randall’s. “You ready?”

  “Yep,” he said.

  I jutted my free hand through the frame, and this time, it did not meet the wall. Before I could talk myself out of it, I took a step over the bottom of the frame and entered the pocket world beyond.

  12

  I stared blankly ahead, unseeing, my brain the consistency of oatmeal.

  “Sasmita has a son?” I asked, my voice drifting toward me.

  “Seems so,” Randall said from next to me. “I think we should put that in our back pocket for now though.”

  I turned, blinking, as the new reality around me came into my focus. Black cracked earth, with glowing lava lines of grout, stretched out from under us in all directions. Outcroppings of dark rock jutted at sharp angles. The sky hung low, dark clouds shimmering with ripples of orange, like they held fire instead of water.

  No light reached the ground, and even the flowing bright lines beneath us did little to break the gloom.

  “This is going to be great fun,” I said.

  I started forward, and as my senses expanded outward, I became aware of a tall dark tower rising up against the gray horizon. Distance and the haze of ethereal night obscured any features, but if Otilia were to be believed, then the tower held the keys to the vault.

  “You don’t think she sent us here as some nefarious plan to get rid of us, do you?” Randall asked.

  I stared down at the ground to avoid stepping on the red lines, though the lava flowed too far below the surface to be an actual problem.

  “Hardly seems worth her effort,” I muttered. “We’re good at setting our own traps.”

  As we continued forward, I prepared myself to startle at the slightest movements, but none came. No shadows shifted, not even a hot breeze flitted by. With the darkness had come a stillness that was equally unnatural.

  If it took a strong magic user to make a pocket room, like the one we had found in New Orleans, then I couldn’t imagine what kind of earth-trembling magic had been pulled to create an entire world beyond this portal opening.

  To my right, darkness carved through the ground, the ravine revealed only by the absence of fiery lines.

  A chittering humming sound pulsed around us. The noise filled the air in beats, but I could not place it as a creature. I also couldn’t be sure.

  “It’s coming from the ravine, I think,” Randall said, voice low, as he squinted in the general direction.

  Not like we could make out anything.

  “I had no intentions of exploring it, so we’re good.” I picked up my pace a little, fixing my gaze on the tower to drown out the rest of the world around us. Why the creators of it had chosen this over wooded hills was anyone’s guess.

  Ambiance, perhaps.

  We veered farther from the ravine, trailing a path through the jutting rocks that, once among, took on the unsettling reminder of teeth in a gaping maw. Any moment, they could snap close and swallow us down into the ground.

  I forced my attention back to the tower, away from the unnerving sounds and landscape formations. The tower stood miles away, but I couldn’t make out much of what lay between it and us. If the only obstacle proved to be a long stretch of cracked burned earth, I would consider us fortunate.

  A trickling noise developed, punctuated with wet plopping sounds. Heavy heat pushed at my skin, and it was different than the unpleasant weather in Orangewood Grove. This one had a presence, a curiosity. It wanted to know what we were, why we were here.

  I shook my arms, as if the feeling were a tangible touch.

  Ahead, the lines in the ground grew closer together, thickening, forming into a thin stream that welled into the confines of a shallow riverbed. The stream widened, and as the ground rose in steps, the river parted and dropped off into cascades that ran thicker than water.

  Grimacing, I picked my way, mindful of the lava stream branches that broke off and rejoined in an intricate glowing knotwork.

  From the top of the stepped incline, the network of lava rivers and tributaries spanned out, breaking the even pattern of the lines in the cracked earth. Farther to the left, the flat-topped peaks of mountains rose up against the sky and spewed an occasional burst of red and orange, though no rumbling sound or change in the air indicated the volcanoes occurred on the same plane as us.

  We just had to make it to the tower. The world did not have to make sense.

  I started forward.

  “Saf,” Randall said, voice tight.

  I jerked around to face him. Thick darkness rolled toward us along the ground, like an oil spill. Several short thin lines of lava floated along it. I took a stumbling step backwards, toward Randall. The oil rose up into a loose form, the lava lines taking shape of a fiery bony hand that reached for me.

  My footing slipped as I stepped away from a lava stream. My back slammed into Randall, and he grabbed my shoulders from behind, staring over me as the figure turned toward us, the blackness around its head like a hood; its features shifted and submerged in the inferno of its face.

  From its far side, it swung a long slender sword toward us, the blade dancing with fire.

  A yelp caught in my throat as I jutted forward, hands out. Blue magic swirled up my wrists and across my fingers before slamming into the creature. A small tremble shook the ground under my feet. The creature reared back, its features rolling into a grimace. The sword clattered next to my feet.

  The creature began to sink back into the ground, losing form, until it returned to an oozing inky mass that glided back toward the stream.

  My attention split three-ways—to the creature, lost among the flowing lava; the sword that had cooled; and inside, the feeling that my magic took no effort at all. I hadn’t even realized it was with me. I did not feel it. No tingle, no struggle. It had come to me as easily as speech, as naturally as a breath of air.

  Above, the clouds flickered icy blue in their depths before returning to glowing orange embers.

  Without thought, I crouched, pressing my palm to the broad side of the blade. My magic coursed down the sword, and it shimmered blue with ice and frost. Gingerly, I grabbed the hilt and, standing, held out the sword as Randall took a step back.

  Not that I could blame him. I shouldn’t be holding pointy weapons.

  But I was less fascinated about the craftsmanship, and far more intrigued by how easily my magic had become to access. It was as if this world pulsed with the energy I needed, and it took less than a thought to shape it to my use.

  I offered the hilt to Randall.

  “You don’t want it?” he asked, hand hovering over the handle.

  “I don’t think I need it,” I said absently.

  Suddenly, I was in less of a hurry to get to the tower and leave this place.

  “Let’s just hope that was the end of the welcome party,” he muttered as he started in the direction of the tower again, sword gripped at his side.

  I could have asked for his knife in return but felt no inclination to hold it at the ready. I would be faster—and stronger—wielding my magic. The thought was foreign, but right. It was as if here, I was everything I was supposed to be, was meant to be. Even if I had no idea how that was possible.

  Maybe I was overreacting to a moment of clarity, a bit of luck. But deep inside, I knew that wasn’t the case. I had my magic here, fully and completely. The realization all but glowed in my chest.

  Despite the oppressive not-weather and the doomsday clouds, I grinned to myself, staring at the ground but light on my feet. I hopped over rivulets of lava and sidestepped thick drops splashed up from the cascade.

  Long dark shadows arched up from the riverbank ahead, laced with pulsing orange lines.

  “What’s that?” I said, but apprehension had morphed into the intrigue I had been denied since the day I had met Eliza Brown in all her ferocious
glory.

  Rabbits should not investigate wolves, after all.

  But here, I was no longer prey. I had seen what I could do, back in Haven Rock. My magic was not pixie dust and wishes. I had powers that I could believe actually had been bestowed by the gods—I just never could find them when I needed them. In this strange pocket, this fabricated world beyond reality, magic was accessible, ready and willing to obey my command.

  I feared nothing.

  With an impish grin at Randall, I bounded toward the still shapes. They developed into long fronds of plants rooted at the bank of the river, marked with fiery veins as it pulled up the lava like water. The fronds shifted, but the air remained heavy and unmoving. No creatures stirred in the base, and I had to wonder if the plant hadn’t moved of its own volition.

  Randall’s footsteps barely sounded as he neared. He stopped a few feet away.

  I stood dangerously close to the lava river, and I took a small step back.

  “It’s like it uses the lava to survive,” I said, gesturing toward the nearest plant as I turned toward him. “How can that even be possible?”

  He tipped his head back to peer up at the sky. “Let’s hope that it doesn’t rain lava then too.”

  I winced, but the thought didn’t bother me nearly as much as I had let on. If it did rain down fire, I would get the chance to push my magic to protect us.

  “We should get going.” He held up the sword. “Realistically, I don’t know a single fighting move with this thing.”

  I nodded, trying to keep my expression serious. We were in a land we knew nothing about. Otilia had not seemed eager to share much about what retrieving the keys entailed. Maybe she had not wanted to frighten us off.

  Maybe she had another purpose altogether.

  We strode forward, nearly shoulder to shoulder, through the strange landscape.

  What other oddities waited to be found just over a hill or on the other side of the ravine?

  “You got to admit,” I said, strangely not out of breath despite the brisk pace, “this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”

  “So is getting killed and resurrected by a necromancer, but we managed to avoid that life experience,” he said. He switched the sword to the opposite hand, away from me. “We probably should save the sightseeing for another day.”

  Before I could reply, yellow-orange light flared through the ravine, filling it up.

  “Whoa,” I said.

  Not my most articulate moment.

  My feet started for the ravine before my brain had recovered. As I reached the edge of the ravine, the light erupted again. I dropped to my knees, waiting for my vision to clear, and then peered down. The returned darkness swallowed whatever was going on down there, but I waited for my chance at a glimpse.

  When it happened again, I caught the outline of cave openings at the bottom of the ravine. The light seemed to be erupting from inside, the source out of sight.

  Probably for the best. Still, the questions already nagged at me as I pushed to my feet.

  What was flaring like the sun from deep inside a cave? What purpose did it serve? What clues did it provide to this world’s strange existence?

  The only problem with the questions was none of the answers would involve finding the keys. Otilia had said to go to the tower. Unless time froze while we were in here, then we really couldn’t risk the mayhem the dark witches and mages were spreading while I was out here acting like this was an episode of National Geographic.

  Still, there were lights. Exploding. In a cave.

  Not that I could climb down the ravine to investigate, anyway.

  I dutifully turned back to the tower. It didn’t seem any closer, and part of me feared this was some kind of optical illusion where we would walk forever and never reach it. Another part of me hoped the path to it would provide a few more opportunities to catalog this realm.

  Pocket. Whatever it was.

  Randall strode next to me, sword in his grip. Against this landscape, he carried the air of a fierce warrior, crossing the wastelands to slay the evil at the end. I liked this side of him. Everyday life didn’t often put this facet on display, for anyone.

  It was nice to know that given the right weapon and task, Randall was pretty much a badass.

  I linked my fingers with his free hand. He glanced down at our hands, and then squeezed a little but made no further comment. Warmth tingled through me, a comfort that was pure and whole and exactly as it should be.

  I nestled back into the feeling. A smile twitched on my lips, refusing to be suppressed.

  Somehow, in this rugged, fiery terrain, I was free.

  The lava streams curved off to the left until they disappeared into the darkness, giving way to piles of rocks that looked like slate. We worked our way up, little by little, fingers entwined together. Randall tensed to brace me as I climbed higher, and then hefted himself up in a few wide steps.

  “Careful of anything hiding among this,” he said, scanning the ground. “Lots of crevices to tuck away in.”

  I nodded, mindful not to be openly dismissive, but I mentally shooed away the thoughts. If I had survived the necromancer’s blast of death, I doubted this world’s version of a rattlesnake bite was going to be the end of me.

  A cry cut through the air. I jolted back, magic sparking on my fingertips. Randall didn’t release my hand as I jerked back and forth, seeking, but the sound was directionless.

  I took a step forward, across the rocky earth, and Randall followed. The top gave us a clear view of the landscape, at least as far the gloom would let us see, but only cracked earth spread to the right, and ahead, the ground developed into tall rocky walls.

  “Was that human?” I asked softly, unsure how far my voice would carry.

  I hadn’t been counting on running into other people here, but I supposed it could be possible. Were they also here for the key? If so, for what purpose? Who else needed into the vault?

  “Let’s hope not,” Randall said in a low voice. “It looks like we’re taking the path less traveled for a good reason. Let’s get back down onto the flat ground. It’ll be easier.”

  I nodded but started farther across the rocks. Disappointment dulled my excitement a little. We hadn’t found any fauna, not even as minute as an insect, among this terrain. Randall was right though; my legs were already feeling the workout from going up these rocks. I had done enough climbing in Haven Rock.

  “Okay, back to the ground,” I said. I let go of his hand to keep my balance as I hopped down. Randall barely broke his stride as he followed down behind me.

  Our shoulders brushed together as we hurried past the jagged rocks, the pile to our left growing higher and wider until it formed into a hill that continued to climb upwards.

  “Maybe the keys are in suspended animation or something,” I said, trying to avert my attention back to our task. “I can’t imagine why they would choose to live here on purpose.”

  Randall nodded but didn’t say anything. I could tell that he was listening for that sound again, the one that might have been human. That might have been a plea for help.

  We had no way of knowing where it had come from, though, so we continued to aim toward the tower.

  A golden light flashed. I stumbled, blinded, and then blinked to clear my vision.

  The light had not come from the ravine this time, the one we had given a wide berth. Instead, the golden glow had burst from the top of the rocky hill to our left.

  I slowed my step, squinting up into the darkness. If I tipped my head just right, I could make out the outline of a cave opening, only a shade darker than the rock and gloom around it.

  “Whatever was making that light in the bottom of the ravine is also up there,” I said, pointing to the cave, but my words were only to convince Randall to come along. I had already decided I wasn’t giving up the chance to answer one of the questions about this pocket that was sure to irritate me in the future, when mages weren’t destroying the planet and I had
time to worry about the details of what transpired here. “That could be where the cry came from too.”

  There was nothing that indicated it had come from there; it was as educated a guess as flipping a coin.

  I didn’t bother to bring my magic to the forefront as I climbed up the rocks in long steps. I didn’t need to. It was already there, as accessible as flipping a switch. I was prepared for anything this strange little world wanted to throw at us.

  If the dark witches and mages came to this world, would I be able to fight them fair?

  The thought didn’t set well with me, not as much as I would have expected, so I flicked it away. Nothing would get to ruin this mood, not now. There would be plenty of that once we retrieved the keys and had to return to the real world, where my magic was volatile at best and every mage or witch defeated seemed to be using up my lucky chances instead of actually developing some kind of skills.

  At the dark cave mouth, I expected another burst of light to illuminate the inside. I intended to use that as the opportunity to get a sneak peek at what was happening.

  No such light came again.

  Without much thought, I flicked my hand upwards, and magic roared to life in my palm. I startled, and then stared down at the magic I had conjured.

  It was yellow.

  I had seen different colored magic—the green of the tentacles, the red of torture, the purple of enslavement, the white of the spell Joseph Stone had cast in Green River—but even though I had started to tap into them occasionally, I still wasn’t used to seeing any color on me except blue.

  With a nod to myself, I stepped forward. The glow didn’t beat back the darkness more than a few inches, so I willed more oomph into my magic until it illuminated the cave walls made of the slate-like rocks.

  “You can see okay?” I asked Randall.

  “Yeah.” He seemed as if he intended to say more, but he ended at that.

  We crept forward, and I held up my light, scanning it back and forth to reveal the inside of the cave. The rocky ground seemed darker in some areas than others, like a dirty worn path between the mouth opening and some place farther back, out of sight.