by S. M. Boyce
“Who is he?” Audrey stood and slung her backpack over one shoulder.
Victoria shook her head. “No, we need to go see Fyrn.”
“But if Diesel is a better wizard—”
Victoria frowned, glaring at Audrey. Her parents had specifically mentioned Fyrn for a reason. Since merely possessing this artifact could get her killed on sight, she wasn't about to trust anyone her parents hadn’t explicitly mentioned.
Audrey lifted her arms in surrender. “Fine, fine. We can at least pay him a visit.”
“Where does he live?” Victoria asked Bertha.
Smiling as if they were sweet, stupid little things, Bertha shook her head. “You stubborn human girl! Fine, you can find him on the outskirts of town in the Interval and Highland district.”
“Wonderful, thank you. Now, uh, where is that, exactly?” Victoria smiled widely, the grin forced, her cheeks a bit red from how little she knew of the city.
She would have to learn this town inside and out, and fast.
CHAPTER 10
Armed with a map and a backpack full of exotic fruit they didn't know anything about, Victoria held the door for Audrey as they returned to the street. Bertha waved from the window, and they returned the gesture.
As they walked down the still-busy street, dozens of eyes followed their every move. It sent shivers down Victoria’s spine, but it didn't seem to faze Audrey in the least.
“I like it here,” Audrey said, a goofy grin on her face.
“Any attention is good attention, huh?” Victoria said with a smirk.
Audrey laughed.
The road seemed to go on for miles, with intersections every eight to ten buildings as another thoroughfare cut through the main street. A narrow alley separated buildings here and there, each shrouded in shadows.
She checked the map. “I think we need to take a left up here.”
“You mean by the sign with the jacket that has four arms on it?”
Victoria quirked an eyebrow and glanced upward. Sure enough, a sign hanging over one of the doors had a traditional suit coat with four arms etched into it.
Fairhaven would take some getting used to.
They continued to follow the map, twisting and turning through roads that got increasingly busier. Quite a few times, hands the size of her face brushed against her back or shoulders. It seemed personal space wasn't really a concept here, and she nervously eyed Audrey's backpack.
“Keep close tabs on the pouch,” Victoria whispered.
Audrey nodded, eyes darting over the ocean of heads in front of them. Everyone still watched them, but Victoria was starting to get used to it. On the plus side, it was unlikely any thief would try to steal from them with so many witnesses paying such close attention.
With every step, the towering white palace loomed closer, its spires soaring into the sky. It acted as a sort of backdrop to every street. The beautiful green crystal above the tallest tower glimmered and shone, and the closer they got, the more detail she noticed. The light within the crystal morphed and twisted, reminding Victoria of lava held back by a sheet of frosted glass.
Bit by bit, the busy streets faded away. They began to take narrower and narrower paths, until the two of them could barely walk side by side. It got slightly darker, and the buildings were taller and thinner than the shops they had seen on the main roads. Judging by the laundry hung between the each of the homes, this was Fairhaven's equivalent of the suburbs. Each house had a small patch of land, most of them covered with moss or various vines and walking stones.
Eventually even these dwellings faded away, replaced by larger and larger stretches of moss-covered rock that sat undeveloped. The trail began to wind, cutting a lazy bend into the increasingly steep incline. Above them, nestled into a cliff face that got steadily nearer with every step, was a squat cottage with a roof that reminded Victoria of a wizard's hat. Green smoke puffed out of the cracked chimney. She estimated it would take probably another ten minutes to climb the steep trail that wound its way over the cliff face and ended at the front door.
“Did we take a wrong turn?” Audrey grabbed the map from Victoria's hands, tilting it to the side as she studied it.
“I'm positive we didn't. Look! Is that not the most stereotypical wizard’s cottage you’ve ever seen in your life?” Victoria pointed at it as she paused to catch her breath.
Audrey squinted as if she couldn't see the blatantly obvious cottage, and took a few steps forward. She shuddered, and ripples of gold light radiated away from her as if she had just walked through the surface of a pond.
“Oh!” she shouted, startled.
Confused, Victoria took a few more steps as well. Nothing happened. She didn't shiver, nor did she feel a chill run down her back as she had expected. The cottage remained visible, same as before. “What just happened?”
Audrey pointed up the cliff. “Before all I saw was rock, but as soon as I stepped through…well, whatever the hell that was, I could see the house plain as day. Do you think he has some kind of forcefield around his cottage?”
Victoria laughed. “This isn't Star Trek. He might have cast a protection spell, though. He is a wizard, after all.”
Audrey hesitated, peering at Victoria. “But it didn't work on you. You saw the cottage the whole time, right? I didn't.”
Victoria nodded, her lips a thin line as she tried to understand what had happened. It must have been the relic in her arm, since nothing else set her apart from Audrey. All the more reason to figure it out. The thing was filled to the brim with powers, and she didn't understand any of them.
They headed up the trail, puffing a bit as they finally reached the top. Without waiting to catch her breath, Victoria knocked on the door.
It opened immediately, as if someone had been standing there waiting for them to knock. Inside the front door stood a tall man wearing a blue cloak and a scowl. He wore a pointy hat with a brim as wide as his shoulders, and he had three braids in his long white beard. He leaned on a five-foot-tall walking stick with a glowing green stone set into the top.
Victoria smiled charmingly. “Hi. You don't know me, but—”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped.
“Hello to you, too,” Audrey said.
He snorted, and a bit of gray smoke rolled out of his nose. “You two are human. Humans don't belong in Fairhaven. This is a magical city, filled with magical folk. It doesn't make any sense for you to be here unless you're bringing trouble with you. So, out with it! What the hell are you doing here?”
“The trouble thing,” Audrey said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe.
“What my friend means,” Victoria said with a glare toward Audrey, “is that someone is after us. My parents told me to find you. They said you're the only person who can help me.”
“I'm not known for my charity,” he said, closing the door.
“Michael and Alison Brie sent me!” Victoria shouted seconds before the door clicked shut.
The door paused mid-creak, and she heard a deep sigh from the other side of the threshold. It swung open again, and he was scowling even harder than before, if such a thing were possible. “Those meddling jackasses are your parents?”
Victoria seethed. Anger hit her hot and fierce, taking her over. Her grief was still so raw that she suddenly didn't care if this guy helped them or not. It didn’t matter if they lost their only chance to work with him—no one spoke about her family that way.
Her parents had their enemies, sure. It happened to journalists, especially good ones who asked questions people didn't want to answer to get to the truth that so many tried to hide. But no one, not even an all-powerful wizard, would insult the parents who had loved and cherished her with everything they were.
She kicked open the door, and it slammed against the wall. “Those 'meddling jackasses' are dead, killed by some fire-breathing asshole, and I'm going to learn how to kill him if it destroys me. They told me you are the only one I ca
n trust. Why would they say that if you hate them so much?”
His demeanor shifted ever so slightly, and the scowl disappeared. Now he studied her as if she were an interesting book, and she honestly wasn’t sure if that was an improvement or not. He tapped the floor with his cane. “Michael and Alison nearly got me put to death for treason, child. They chased things they didn't understand for the thrill of discovering answers, and it never occurred to them that perhaps the truth was something they didn’t really want to know. Worst of all, they tampered with things they didn't understand, a trait they seem to have passed on to you.”
Fast as lightning, too quickly for an old man like him, he grabbed her arm and lifted her sleeve to reveal the dagger embedded into her skin. She yanked her hand back too late, hiding the artifact as quickly as she could.
He leaned in, eyes narrowing. “They were an utter nuisance, and as far as I can tell, you're no different. Good day, Miss Brie.”
The door slammed in their faces, and all the lights went out at once. The smoke coming from the chimney stopped, the last puff dissolving into the air.
Victoria gaped at the door, baffled by what had just happened. Her one lead, already dry.
“Asshole!” Audrey kicked the door. The knocker bounced once, but no one answered. It was as though he had evaporated into thin air.
Hell, he was a wizard. He probably had.
Overhead, the glowing green crystal slowly dimmed. It reminded Victoria of dusk, and the growing shadows around them reinforced her theory. It seemed that in this underground city where they didn't have the sun, they had found a way to simulate the times of day.
“Please tell me you have a plan,” Audrey said, hands on her hips.
Victoria gritted her teeth, eyes wandering over the city below. Given how long it had taken to get here, it would be dark by the time they found an inn—if they found one at all. They had money, sure, but she didn't like the idea of trying to find a place to stay in the middle of the night. Walking through the streets had been scary enough when the roads were busy, and she couldn’t imagine trying to find her way around in the dark. They had already attracted a lot of attention, and she wondered what kind they would get when there weren't so many witnesses.
She rubbed her eyes. “Tomorrow we locate an inn. We have to find a place to stay, since Fyrn Folly hasn’t exactly been hospitable.”
“And tonight? Sleep on his doorstep?”
They needed someplace safe, out of reach, and out of sight. Victoria studied her surroundings, eyes crawling up the wall as she fought to come up with an idea.
High above, she spotted a cave. A steep trail led to it, so steep and irregular it reminded her of stairs. In fact, the longer she looked, the more caves she saw. Some had thin trails snaking to them, but most were nothing but holes in the rock. She pointed to the closest one with a path, probably a five-minute walk away. “There.”
The light began to dim faster now, and Victoria headed toward the cave without waiting for Audrey to agree. Audrey followed, grumbling under her breath about sleeping on the ground.
When they reached the cave Victoria peeked in, half-afraid she would find a pair of glowing eyes staring at her. Thankfully, she was met only with darkness and a shallow, eight-foot deep depression.
She sat down, stretching her legs in the space that was barely big enough for them both. She looked out at the city, and even though she was uncomfortable, she had a brilliant view. The magnificent white castle was front and center, and the roads radiating from it like sunbeams reminded her of the sunny California beach not far away. A few buildings swayed in the growing night, leaving slight streaks in her vision as the final glow faded. Lights shone in some of the windows, the effect not unlike stars in the sky.
Audrey stretched out on her stomach, chin on her hands as she stared across the city. “What have we gotten ourselves into, V?”
Victoria blew a raspberry, tapping one finger on the dusty rock. “An adventure.”
Audrey snorted, but a smile spread across her face. “You're a hopeless optimist, you know that?”
Victoria nodded. “You love it.”
Audrey offered a fist, smiling. “To the end?”
Victoria fist-bumped her bestie. “To the end.”
CHAPTER 11
Luak strolled through one of the hallways in the magnificent Fairhaven Palace, hands behind his back as he gloated about the fools who had let him in. As he passed, a servant in a crisp blue dress pressed herself against the wall, eyes wide. His grin broadened.
One day this would all be his, and he was so very close.
He was on his way to see King Bornt, ruler of Fairhaven and descendant of a once-fearsome family line. Now the elf could barely string sentences together without his advisors’ approval. Luak smirked. It had been almost too easy to infiltrate this place.
Time to convince the king to hand it over.
Even though Luak had lost track of that girl with the artifact he wanted, this was still a good day. True, he had been shot, but an elf didn’t rise to his level of power without expecting and preparing for setbacks. He resisted the urge to rub the still-healing bullet wound in his chest, grimacing as pain blistered down his torso. He would make sure to find the girl’s friend as well so that he could torture her as punishment for the gunshots.
As he approached the king’s council chamber, he could hear the ruler’s tinny voice, muffled as it was by the thick wooden door. Always eager to eavesdrop, he leaned against the wood, his keen ears picking up what most others would not.
“...but that creature is advancing up the lower levels of the city,” the king said.
“We have no evidence of that,” a woman replied. Her voice shook, betraying nerves. Luak tried to put a name to the voice, but he didn't quite recognize her. He suspected this was the Speaker of the Senate, whom he had heard of but not yet met.
Someone banged their fist against a wooden surface, likely the table. “It killed three sewer workers last night. We’ve blamed a wayward thief, but we can’t keep that up. If the public finds out what’s really going on, they will panic.”
Hmm. Luak had heard enough. He opened the double doors with a flourish, the thunder of the wooden panel banging against the wall enough to startle birds off the balcony railing. The voices stopped. Light streamed through a skylight, revealing the famed White Tower as it stretched toward the crystals above.
“The public will do more than panic, my good king,” Luak said, allowing only the thinnest of smiles. Arrogance and confidence, when blended together, could intimidate the king like nothing else.
King Bornt stood taller, as did the three people surrounding him. Luak recognized the goblin Minister of Finance, Grange, as well as General Force, the king’s second-in-command and leader of his army. But an unfamiliar woman also stood beside the king, draped in a white robe with a gold hem, her long black hair pinned into a bun. A witch, by the lack of point to her ears. This must be the speaker of the Senate, Lady Spry.
“This is a private meeting, Luak,” the king said. But the man’s knees trembled, and he balled his hand into a fist.
Nerves. Almost too easy to spot.
It never changed with this elf—he was such a coward. A disgrace to elves everywhere, honestly. Luak had barely needed to exert any effort to weasel his way into the castle, and it would take only a few strategic deaths to overthrow the king, who had never fought a day in his life. This man didn't understand strategy, and he didn't even notice the slow but steady coup taking place under his nose.
“And I do apologize,” Luak said with an insincere bow. “My keen ears couldn't help but overhear your conversation, and I must warn you—I know your subjects, and they won't simply panic when they discover the creature beneath the city.”
Lady Spry’s eyes widened. “What do you know of the monster?”
“Only what I overheard a moment ago,” he lied.
“And?” She quirked an eyebrow, scanning his face with her purple eyes.<
br />
Luak set a finger on his lips as he flashed a charming smile. “Your secret is safe with me, I assure you. I mentioned the monster only so that I could fairly warn our dear king that his people will revolt if they feel their government cannot protect them. You are taking the required measures to remove whatever it is that plagues the people?”
“Of course.” The king's eye twitched.
A lie.
Luak suppressed his laughter and made yet another insincere bow. The king was ignoring the issue in the hope that it would resolve itself. Luak could see the elf’s resolve weakening even faster than he had anticipated.