The Door to the Lost

by Jaleigh Johnson

  Dozana was feeding her own magic into the stream of animus gathered around the portal site. She was making it stronger, more powerful than ever.

  “Dozana, stop!” Rook cried. “That’s too much!”

  “That’s right,” Dozana said, and her voice was strangely amplified, deep and menacing as it rang out over the lake. “Take it, Rook. With this power pouring into your door, you’ll tear the veil between worlds as if it were paper.”

  “But you’re overloading it!” Drift screamed. “It’s sure to explode now!”

  “Yes,” Dozana said, her booming voice full of satisfaction. “Once we pass safely through the portal, the power I’ve unleashed will destroy Regara. All those in the city who have hated and wronged us will be swept away in the chaos, and the rest of the world will know the price of angering a wizard of Vora.”

  Her words turned Rook’s blood to ice. She understood it all then, the frightening shape of Dozana’s plan.

  She’d never intended to fix the magic trapped in the Wasteland. She didn’t care about sending the rest of the exiles home. All she wanted was to escape and take revenge on the people who had held her prisoner. Revenge that would level the city of Regara.

  “Rook,” Drift said, clutching her arm. “Rook, I…” Her voice trailed off helplessly.

  Rook forced herself to look away from the gathering animus and clear her head. No matter what happened, she had to get Fox and Drift out of here.

  “Keep going with the plan,” she told Drift, but her friend didn’t reply. She was staring in horror at the red light gathering above their heads. “Drift!” Rook tugged her friend’s arm. “Look at me. We can do this!”

  Drift blinked, tearing her gaze away from the animus. She looked at Rook as if seeing her for the first time. “All right,” she said, her voice shaking. “I—I’m ready.”

  Nodding, Rook crouched on the stones as if she were going to draw a door. Beneath her, waves of roiling lake water broke against the legs of the portal arch, cold and deadly.

  Swallowing her fear, Rook closed her eyes and leaped off the stones.

  She hit the surface of the lake, the water dragging her down. It was so cold that for a moment, Rook couldn’t move. She was alone and trapped in a frigid, dark vortex. Forcing her numb limbs into motion, she kicked and fought her way back to the surface. She came up sucking in air and raking her hair out of her eyes.

  Above her, there was a blast of wind and another splash as Drift plunged into the water after her.

  Rook fought the vicious current, her muscles straining. It was so much stronger than she’d thought it would be. No matter how hard she swam, it pulled her back, dragging her toward the deadly center of the whirlpool.

  Maybe this hadn’t been the best plan after all.

  Rook turned toward the shore, searching for Dozana. As Rook had hoped, she and Fox had climbed into one of the boats and were headed out on the lake. For a second, Dozana caught Rook’s gaze. The woman’s eyes burned with red animus light, visible even from this distance.

  That’s right, Rook thought with grim satisfaction. You have to come out here and save me. Dozana wasn’t about to let her ticket back to Vora drown in the lake. She was afraid and distracted now. That gave Rook the advantage.

  To her right, Drift’s head broke the surface. She wiped her eyes and started her own battle with the current.

  This was going to be close.

  Rook counted down from twenty in her head as Dozana’s boat drew closer. She could see Fox’s red pelt and swishing tail as he crouched in the bottom of the boat, waiting for her signal.

  And then it was time.

  “Fox!” she shouted.

  Without hesitating, Fox leaped over the side of the boat. He hit the water, caught the current, and let it whisk him away from his captor. Dozana cursed and tried to make a grab for him as he flew by. She caught nothing but a handful of water.

  They were all trapped in the whirlpool’s current now. It swirled them in a wide circle that got narrower as it drew them into the center. Dozana stared at them, all spread out, and for a moment, a look of helpless rage twisted her face. She’d never expected her captives to escape by plunging to their deaths in the whirlpool.

  But Rook wasn’t about to let that happen.

  She gauged the distance between her and her friends. Fox was closest, swimming about twenty feet to her right. He bared his teeth as he strained to keep his head above water, red pelt plastered to his body.

  That’s it, Fox. Stay with the current, Rook thought, tracing the whirlpool’s pattern so she could guess about where it would take him. In her mind, she repeated the last thing Heath had told her about her magic.

  How you express your power is unique to you, Rook. You draw doors because that’s how you see your power, as a doorway to another place. But you don’t have to draw a physical line to open a door. The chalk, the lines—they don’t fuel your power. It comes from inside you. You can make a door wherever you want.

  Praying Heath was right and that her power wouldn’t fail her, Rook reached out a hand and pointed to a spot in the water near Fox.

  Please. Please. I need a door.

  The lake’s surface flashed golden. Beams of light burst from the white-capped water.

  Rook shouted in triumph as the water parted, revealing a yawning black hole, a doorway to safety in the middle of the churning lake. Water poured into it, disappearing as if down a drain.

  And Fox was on a course straight for it.

  “No!” Dozana’s shout rang out over the lake. Rook looked up just in time to see her drop one of the boat paddles and point at her. Rook braced for the weakness, the light-headedness that meant the wizard was draining her power.

  But it never came.

  Dozana screamed in rage. She grabbed the paddle and began rowing faster.

  Hope surged in Rook. Something was wrong with Dozana’s magic. Had she used up too much when she fed it to the cloud of animus? Or had so much power built up in Rook that Dozana could no longer take it all?

  Either way, her door stayed open, and Fox slid right into it, disappearing into the darkness. Rook cut off her power, and the door vanished.

  One down. One to go.

  Drift was on the opposite side of the whirlpool from Rook, but they were moving faster now, trapped in the current. Almost out of time.

  “Rook, stop!” Dozana screamed, and there was desperation in her voice. “Fight the whirlpool or you’re going to drown!”

  She was right. Rook’s limbs felt like they were weighted down with stones. The longer she stayed in the water, the closer she got to the center of the whirlpool, the point of no return.

  Rook did her best to ignore the pain and pointed to another spot in the water. Gold light speared toward the sky as a second door opened. She started to call out for Drift, but her friend had already seen the door and was swimming for it as fast as she could. With the current pushing her, it was only a matter of seconds.

  Casting one last frightened glance at Rook, Drift disappeared through the door to safety.

  Leaving Rook alone with Dozana in the heart of the Wasteland.

  ROOK CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND Drift, and a wave of relief swept over her. No matter what happened now, Drift and Fox were safe.

  But for herself, things weren’t looking so good.

  Rook trembled with the cold. She could barely feel her arms anymore, and she’d given up trying to fight the current. Her vision blurred, and she dipped low, sucking in a mouthful of lake water. Choking and gasping, Rook tried to pull her head up, but the lake was too strong for her.

  The water pulled her down into the dark.

  Frantic, she fought back, clawing her way toward the surface, but she couldn’t even tell if she was moving anymore. The water was a wall pushing against her, draining her physical strength
just as Dozana had tried to drain her magic.

  This is it, Rook thought. She wasn’t going to make it. She hoped Drift and Fox could forgive her. She’d tried as hard as she could, but it wasn’t enough. The Wasteland was too powerful.

  A hand grabbed the back of Rook’s shirt, yanking her out of the water. Rook sucked in air, gasping and coughing, dimly aware that she was pressed against the hull of Dozana’s boat. She heard a grunt and felt herself hauled up and over the side. She collapsed in the bottom of the boat, unable to do anything for a moment except breathe and shiver.

  Dozana had saved her, caught her again, but it didn’t matter this time. By now, Fox and Drift were safe back at Heath and Danna’s house. Dozana had no power over her anymore.

  When some of her dizziness had passed, Rook rolled onto her back and looked up at Dozana. But the wizard wasn’t paying attention to her. She was too busy trying to steer the boat out of the current’s grip. Her arms shook, and her lips were pressed into a line of determination.

  Above them, the red light of the animus was getting brighter, its strands twisted into a ball that shone down on them like a second sun. The air pulsed with power. It was building to a critical point. If they didn’t do something quickly, it would explode and turn the whole city to ruins.

  Rook looked in the direction of the shore. The constables were coming to, sitting up and staring out at the raging magic storm in the center of the lake. But even if they could get to her and Dozana, there was nothing they could do about the magic.

  The boat stopped with a jerk, throwing Rook off balance. She looked up and saw that Dozana had managed to steer them into one of the pillars of the portal arch, the current temporarily wedging the boat in place against the stones. Dozana stood, wobbling for a second, then reached down and seized Rook’s arm.

  “Climb or we drown,” she said. She dragged Rook to her feet and pushed her onto the stones, scrambling up the pillar behind her. As soon as they were out of the boat, the current snatched the craft and spun it back into the whirlpool. It circled once, twice, capsized and was gone, sucked beneath the roiling water.

  Rook and Dozana climbed to the top of the pillar, a narrow, broken ledge directly beneath the swirling red light. Rook instinctively ducked away from the magic, which was now giving off a disturbing amount of heat.

  “Use your power,” Dozana told her, raking wet hair out of her face. “Let the animus be drawn into your body and out through your door. It’s not too late.”

  “I’m not doing it!” Rook shouted. “I made my choice! I won’t destroy this city!”

  “Regara is already doomed,” Dozana said, gesturing to the ball of bright light hanging above their heads. “If you care so much about the people who hate you, open the door between worlds. It may drain some of the magic away, lessening the explosion. If you do this, some in the city might even survive.”

  Rook shuddered at the coldness in Dozana’s voice. “Do you really hate them that much?” she asked. She raised her arms, encompassing the lake and the Wasteland. “Look at what magic did to this place. It turned the plants and animals against us, turned them into monsters! That’s enough to make anyone terrified!” She dropped her voice. “Is that what it was like in Vora? Is that what you want to go home to?”

  “This place is nothing compared to our homeland,” Dozana said. “No matter what our world has become, I would rather live in a wasteland of magic than spend one more day in this hovel.”

  “What about the exiles?” Rook tried to take a step forward, but her foot slipped on the slick stones, and she had to go down on her knees to keep from falling back into the lake. “You told me you were supposed to protect them. If you destroy Regara, the people here will never even try to trust magic again. They’ll hunt all the exiles down. They’ll hunt your daughter down! Is that what you want?”

  For an instant, Dozana’s cold mask cracked around the edges, and there was a flash of regret in her eyes. She looked away from Rook, staring up at the deadly sphere of animus.

  “Help me stop it,” Rook pleaded. “There are still exiles out in the world you can protect. They need you.”

  Dozana continued to stare up at the bright ball of animus. Rook didn’t know if she’d heard her. Then suddenly the wizard raised her arm above her head, reaching toward the wild magic.

  A faint thread of power rose from the palm of her hand, but it was silver this time instead of red. It drifted up to join the animus, disappearing into the red ball. In response, the sphere brightened, flashing briefly to pure silver before deepening to red again. Heat blazed from its surface. Rook had to duck down and protect her eyes. The power scorched her back, heating her skin like sunburn.

  After a moment, Rook raised her head, shielding her eyes to look at Dozana. “What have you done?” she shouted.

  Dozana had her eyes closed against the brightness, but her expression was serene. “I fed it the last shred of my power,” she explained. “Some wizards choose to do that, at the end of their lives. We give up all our magic to a greater cause.” She opened her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out. “I never had a daughter, Rook.”

  Stunned, Rook grasped the lip of stone to steady herself. “Drift was right,” she said. “You…you were lying to us.”

  Dozana shrugged. “I thought it would make you more inclined to help me,” she said. “I lied then, but I’m not lying now. You may yet save lives if you do as I say and channel the magic through the portal. It’s time, Rook. Open the door, or die alongside the people of this world who never wanted you.”

  Cowering beneath that ball of heat, Rook knew she was beaten. Dozana was right. The only thing left to do now was try to open the door between worlds, to draw out some of the magic so that the explosion wouldn’t kill everyone.

  She had to draw out the magic.

  Using a door.

  A prickle of awareness teased Rook’s scalp.

  Of course. That was the answer. There was a way to get rid of the magic safely, just not the way Dozana wanted.

  A tremor shook the ground, followed by a deafening rumble. It was as if the Wasteland itself was straining under the weight of the magic. On the shore, the constables who’d managed to get back on their feet were thrown to the ground by the force of the earthquake. Beneath Rook, the pillar cracked right down the middle, chunks of stone breaking off and splashing into the lake. Rook dropped flat, clutching the remaining stones to keep from falling.

  Dozana wasn’t so lucky. With a shrill scream and arms flailing, she fell backward and plunged into the water. Immediately, the current seized her.

  Rook crawled back up to her knees. She was almost out of time. Calling on all her strength, she stood up, raised her hands, and began making doors.

  ROOK IMAGINED DOORS ALL AROUND her. She didn’t try to draw them. She simply looked at a spot in the air and pictured a door, and it appeared, a column of gold light tearing the red sky. Hands shaking, she stretched her arms high over her head and let the animus from the glowing sphere flow through her. It fueled the magic, just as Dozana said it would, using her body as a conduit.

  Doors began appearing between the skeletal trees. Five of them. Then ten. Twenty. More doors than Rook could count. She never could have created so many on her own. The sphere of gathered animus made them possible. Rook didn’t even feel a tingle of light-headedness from expending all that power.

  Rook willed the doors to open, but she didn’t try to tear the veil between worlds. She directed them all over the world of Talhaven, to every kingdom, every remote location she’d ever opened a door to in her practice sessions back at the roost.

  And the magic flowed through each and every one of them, slowly draining out of the Wasteland.

  Rook closed her hands into fists, willing the magic away, and the power coursed through her like a thousand threads of heat. It wasn’t painful, but it was strang
e, unsettling, the light of the animus surrounding her in a cloud.

  Shouts rang out from the shore as the constables saw what she was doing. Another scream echoed from the lake beneath her as Dozana fought the raging current, at the same time realizing that her magic, everything she’d sacrificed, was being torn apart.

  “Rook, stop!” Dozana shouted, but she could do nothing. Her power was gone. Rook tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and channeled it away into dozens of doors, letting it flow harmlessly out into a world that had never known magic until the wizards of Vora came.

  Thunderous booms shook the pillar, but Rook held herself steady and kept her power from faltering. Gradually, the magic and the light began to fade.

  As the power ebbed from her body, Rook opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that the trees of the floating forest had fallen from their suspended poses. They now floated in the lake, half-submerged, dragged down by the whirlpool. But even the lake’s current was slowing, no longer churned up by the magic raging in the area.

  Dozana was still in the water, but she’d managed to swim free of the dying current and was making her way back to the shore, where the constables were waiting, lined up to watch as Rook funneled the last of the wild magic through the doors.

  One by one, the doors winked out of existence as Rook let them go. The last shreds of power drained out of her, and she collapsed on the pillar. Her body trembled. She was cold, weak, and sick. She needed to get off these stones before she fell in the lake and drowned. She raised her hand, trying to summon one last door so that she could follow Drift and Fox.

  Nothing happened.

  Rook dropped her head into her hands. What had she been thinking? She hadn’t left enough power for herself. It would take time to replenish.

  On the shore, the constables hauled Dozana out of the water and put her in chains. The wizard had no strength left to resist as Captain Hardwick led her away. Then a voice rang out over the lake, one Rook recognized.