by K. A. Linde
“What is it?” Cyrene asked. “Has something happened?”
“We sent Ahlvie, Orden, and Avoca out to scour the streets to see if they could locate our horses and saddles,” Matilde said.
“They knew to wait until you returned with your sister,” Vera said.
“Good thinking, leading her away so that we could plan.”
That hadn’t exactly been what she was doing, but at least it’d worked out.
“If they’re able to locate our things, we should leave at first light,” Matilde went on to say.
“First light? But we just got here.”
“Cyrene,” Vera said gently, “I know you wish to learn more about your sister’s new life as a lady, but we never intended to come into Alba.”
“In fact, Alba is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.”
“Unless you count Bienco.”
“Or perhaps Yuve.”
Vera shook her head. “Besides the point.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“What is the point?” Cyrene asked.
“An Alba run by the Guild is worse than when we were here two hundred years ago, and it was horrible then. The lords rule this land with an iron fist, but even they are subject to the Guild. No one takes kindly to visitors. No one takes kindly to women. And an outlaw to the Guild is as good as dead to the lords,” Matilde told her.
“So, if they find out who we are, we will be right back where we started,” Vera said.
“Okay. What happens if they don’t find our things?”
“We’ll have to find an alternative means of transportation,” Vera said.
“I’d hate for the book to end up in their greedy hands,” Matilde grumbled. “But it will not work for them. Their magic is—”
“Ridiculous,” Vera finished.
“I don’t understand it,” Cyrene admitted.
“Their magic seems to be tied to their fighting skills. Instead of training to become Doma, they have used their powers to become fighting machines. So, they cannot control the elements because they do not believe that is what their energy is for. Magic is a weapon to them. They used the ropes to keep us from accessing our energy, but they don’t actually know how to tie off magic.”
“So, you can tie off magic like they did?”
They nodded.
“It is possible but a heinous offense. We will show you at a later time. The more important thing is that using the ropes or their swords or staff as a crutch limits them and makes them vulnerable to an attack from us. If they truly knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t need the ropes. Do you understand?”
“Yes. That explains why the commander was so shocked by your displays of fire and ice.”
“Indeed,” Vera said.
“More importantly, this means, we have one clear night before we leave,” Matilde said. “You said that you would be up to trying to enter a trance to speak with Serafina. Would you be willing to try now?”
Cyrene’s stomach dropped. She was nervous about this trance, but she trusted the twins. “What do I have to do?”
“Just lie back and think about the last place you saw her. You will appear there in the trance and then call Serafina to you,” Vera explained.
“You will need to remember yourself once in there and be sure to ask specific questions about where the lost ones are and why we need to see them. Also see if you can get any more information about the second coin and the woman Serafina mentioned. Breaking through the barrier between life and death is not going to be easy for you,” Matilde said with a nod of reassurance. “Just try to be patient and specific.”
“Are you ready?” Vera asked gently.
Cyrene nodded. Though fear crept through her without warning. She had never reached for Serafina herself. She had always been bombarded by her presence. On one hand, it felt good to have the upper hand and to know what she was getting herself into. On the other…the idea of breaking the barrier between life and death frightened her.
“You will be fine. If anything happens, we will pull you out,” Matilde told her.
“Okay”—Cyrene lay back, facing the ceiling—“I’m ready.”
Cyrene didn’t remember falling asleep.
But, suddenly, she was standing on a bridge in Eleysia. A bridge that no longer existed. In a country that had now been burned.
“Serafina,” she called out.
Matilde and Vera had told her to have patience and to be specific. Maybe Serafina wouldn’t even hear her, and this would all be for nothing.
She called out her name twice more, but Serafina never appeared. Perhaps she couldn’t bridge the distance between their worlds when Cyrene was in control. Normally, she was completely out of it when Serafina was able to reach her.
She didn’t have a plan for failure.
She couldn’t call for Matilde and Vera and tell them it didn’t work. She was stuck.
With a sigh, she tried one last time. “Serafina, can you hear me? I need to speak with you!”
“You don’t have to yell so loud,” Serafina said, appearing behind her with a small pop.
Cyrene whirled around with her hand on her chest. “Creator!”
“How did you manage it?” Serafina reached for her wrist and held it. “No, you haven’t gotten to spirit so soon. That would be…incredible.”
“Matilde and Vera have me in a trance.”
“I see,” Serafina said with a sigh. “That is tricky. They should know that.”
“Why is it tricky?”
“This link between us means that, normally, I should answer you first, Cyrene. But someone else could have. Someone with much more sinister intentions.”
“Like the woman you mentioned.”
Serafina tensed. “Yes. Like the woman. We should not speak of her here. You need to learn to reach into your spirit magic. Only then will you ever be truly safe.”
Cyrene nodded. “I’ll put it on the list.”
Serafina barked a laugh. “Yes, I suppose you will. You sound just like me.”
“Well…I am your ancestor, aren’t I?”
Serafina smiled. “Indeed. Magic never dies. My magic was passed to you. It passed many times before reaching you, but no one harnessed it. You are the only one who wanted more.”
The world shimmered all around them, and Cyrene gripped the railing. “What is going on?”
“I am going to show you something.”
The world around them disappeared, and they were on a beach, staring up at a small thatched cottage. The waves beat against their feet, and the weather was balmy but comfortable. It was a dream location.
“Where are we?” Cyrene asked.
“This is where I had my child,” Serafina said wistfully. “Her name was Anne. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. And this cottage was my safe haven during those months.”
“You had the baby in secret?”
“I had to. If Viktor ever…” She broke off and swallowed, the clouds turning stormy and the waves churning at their feet. “Well, he eventually did find out.”
“It wasn’t his.”
Serafina shook her head.
“Was it…Jon’s?” Cyrene asked, racking her brain for the name of the man she had seen in her last vision in Eleysia. “The man you met in Eleysia.”
“Yes.” Serafina wistfully glanced off to the ocean. “He was a man that I met while I was training with Matilde and Vera in Eleysia. I was there for several years.”
“But you were already bound to Viktor?”
“I was. I think it was how he knew.”
“What did he do when he found out?” Cyrene asked, caught so profoundly in this memory.
Serafina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “He killed Jon and would have killed Anne too.”
“But…what happened?”
“That is for another day,” Serafina said with a sigh. “Come.”
They walked out of the surf, across the sandy beach, and into the cottage. It wa
s a simple place with one big room and a kitchen. A woman sat, nursing, oblivious to their presence.
“That’s Maribel. She was my closest friend and confidant in the years that I was training. She took care of my babe and raised her as her own for Anne’s protection.” Serafina touched Cyrene’s arm, and they took a seat. “We should be safe here. I am deeply connected to this cottage.”
Cyrene had gotten completely caught up in her vision here with Serafina. She was supposed to be specific and ask about the dragons. Yet she felt Serafina leading the dream about like a horse by the reins.
“You are troubled,” Serafina said intuitively.
“Yes. You told me to use the coin to find the lost ones. I am on the path. I used the coin, but there is a second. The woman in the darkness gave it to me.”
“It must be Viktor’s,” Serafina said with a sigh. “We had a matched set.”
Cyrene flinched at the words. That was what Kael had called them. Were she and Kael as much a matched set as Viktor and Serafina?
“Do you still love him?” she asked.
Serafina nodded without an ounce of reluctance. “He was and always will be my love. If his jealousy of my magic had not changed him, we would have found a way to truly be together, despite the prejudice against non-magical people.”
“The lost ones,” Cyrene forced herself to say. She needed to stay on track. Considering what once had been wouldn’t help her current situation. “Why do I need to find them? How do I find them?”
“You are something new. They are something old. The oldest creatures still known to man,” Serafina said. “If you hope to contain the darkness inside you, no one else will do.”
Cyrene clutched at her skirts. “The darkness…but I thought…I thought I was the light.”
“It’s a funny thing about prophecies,” Serafina said. “They’re open to interpretation.”
“And you interpret me as darkness?”
“I see you as a person—a Doma, a sister, a friend, and an ambitious, beautiful young woman—Cyrene,” Serafina told her, pressing her fingers against her shoulder. “You choose your destiny. You walk your path. Seers have been wrong in the past. It does not do well to focus on what might happen and forget to live.”
“I like the idea of choosing my own destiny.”
Serafina smiled. “I felt the same way. But take care. You do not know all that is happening in your world. Forces simmer in the background, and I would hate to see your life torn asunder, as mine once was.”
“Where…where do I find the lost ones?” Cyrene asked.
“Some things were lost for a reason,” Serafina said. She folded her hands and stared back at her lost daughter, Anne. “They do not want to be found.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Perhaps. Shall I tell you another story?” Serafina asked with a glint in her eyes.
“No, I want an answer. I don’t need to know more about the past. I need help with the future.”
“I’m afraid that the past is much more informative than the future.”
“Hardly. The past, your past, is a love story.”
“A love story that broke the world,” she said sadly. “Love is the most powerful force on earth.”
Cyrene sighed and nodded. “I’ve seen that to be true.”
“Your guides know of the lost ones. I believe that they have been waiting for the right person to find them, Cyrene.”
“But where can I find them? Please, Serafina!”
Serafina opened her mouth, but then the cottage began to shake.
“What’s going on?” Cyrene gasped, jumping to her feet.
“Our time is up.”
“I’m not ready to go.”
Serafina pulled her into a hug. “I will never be ready.”
“I feel like you haven’t told me enough.”
She nodded. “You’re right. There is so much more for you to learn. Come back to me when your spirit magic makes you safer. I promise to reveal as much as I can. And, Cyrene?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t use the second coin.”
“What? Why not?”
“I made that mistake once. Do not repeat mine.”
“But that’s not an explanation,” Cyrene cried as the cottage disappeared.
Then, Serafina winked out of existence, leaving Cyrene alone in the cottage, wondering what in the Creator’s name that coin did.
Cyrene awoke with a gasp. Light was streaming in through the shuttered windows. Hours had passed, and it had barely felt like a full hour with Serafina. Clearly, time worked differently there.
“Did it work?” Vera asked.
Cyrene nodded. “Yes.”
“What did she say?” Matilde asked eagerly.
They both looked deathly tired but excited about a new magical discovery.
“She…she told me the lost ones don’t want to be found. That my guides, you, know of the lost ones. That they have been waiting for the right person to be found. It was riddles again. I’m sorry. She is only truly informative about her past.”
Vera sat back on her heels and sighed. “Gods!”
“Gods!” Matilde spit out. “She wants us to go to the caves.”
“The caves?” Cyrene asked. “How did you get that from what I said?”
“She said we were guides, and we know the way. We do,” Vera told her.
“You do?”
Matilde nodded and chewed on her bottom lip. “There are two places in all of Emporia that she could mean.”
“We’ve checked there hundreds of times,” Vera complained.
“But, if it is true, then perhaps only Cyrene can find the caves once more.”
“What caves?”
“The caves of the lost ones,” Matilde told her. “An ancient settlement for the dragons before their race was hunted down and nearly destroyed. Before the dragons fled. Well, at least we have a destination.”
“We do?” Cyrene asked.
“The Drop Pass through the Barren Mountains.”
Cyrene shivered at the idea. “Isn’t it haunted?”
“It received its reputation from the dragons. Now, most take care when going through the mountains,” Vera said.
“The dragons were alpha predators. The creatures of the Pass thrived in their absence, and now, it is a place of horrors.”
“And we’re to go in there?” Cyrene asked with a gulp.
Matilde and Vera nodded. “At once.”
Avoca dropped into the room through the window with a sigh. She looked run-down but straightened and dusted off her dress. “Nothing. There’s no sign of our horses or belongings”
Cyrene’s face fell. “I’ll have to ask Aralyn then.”
“She won’t like it,” Avoca said.
“I know.”
“It’ll delay us. Possibly a day. Maybe more.”
Cyrene chewed on her lip and stared out at the city of Alba. She’d hardly seen any of the city last night when she was dragged in by the Guild.
It was…drab.
There was no other way to put it. The buildings were dark and foreboding, glistening with fresh snow. Spires topped the spiraling towers that jutted from the forbidding churches that dotted the city. She had seen a half-dozen men dragging black robes enter the church down the street before the sun was fully up. The day was bitterly cold, bleak, and dreary. Whatever trickle of sun that had edged over the horizon was already obscured from view from the snow-heavy clouds blotting out the sky.
A knock at the door broke them apart. Avoca quickly hid her dagger, and Cyrene reached for the serenity that constantly evaded her.
Aralyn poked her head in. “We break fast in the formal dining room. Baths will be drawn for everyone henceforth. My husband has agreed to allow you to remain here on one condition—that he speak with you all first.”
Cyrene caught Avoca’s gaze, and she felt a warning tug through the bond. “That would be wonderful. Thank you for everything, Aralyn.”
“Of course. You’re my sister.”
Then, she was gone, and they had nothing to do but follow her downstairs. Orden and Ahlvie were already at the dining room table, and Orden seemed to be working over Lord Berg, as was his specialty. Cyrene remembered more and more why he was so valuable to their party. He could charm a snake.
Ahlvie seemed to be on his best behavior, which was never too far from his worst behavior. He sighed in relief when she and Avoca entered the room though, as if he knew he wouldn’t be able to control his mouth or inevitable facial expressions without them.
Avoca carefully moved around him and took the seat next to Orden instead. Cyrene grimaced. She had thought that Avoca and Ahlvie had fixed their issues, but it didn’t seem so. Cyrene quickly cleared the room and filled the gap next to Ahlvie. He shot her a grateful look, but she knew it was tinged with sadness. This was clearly eating at him.
“Lord Berg,” Cyrene said, nodding her head at him, “thank you so much for allowing us to remain in your home.”
He gave her a stern, reproachful look. “That remains to be seen. You’re Lady Berg’s sister then?”
Cyrene stifled a glare. “Yes.”
“Yes, sir,” he ground out.
Cyrene startled. “Yes…sir.”
“My wife is a kind soul. She doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions or how having foreigners on our doorstep might appear to the other lords and the citizens we represent. So, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m none too pleased that she went behind my back and allowed you all to stay here last night. Or that I’ll have to make explanations for your visit.”
“We understand that circumstances are not entirely satisfactory, but we hope we can help in any way that you need,” Orden said before she could open her mouth. He darted a quick glance at her that told her to keep her mouth shut and let him do the talking. “We’re here to assuage any concerns that you might have.”
“Don’t beat them down before I even arrive for the meal,” Aralyn said, appearing in a gorgeous black silk gown with full lace sleeves.