“I understand.”
Magic formed in my hands as I held the egg pendant. Blue and amber light glowed from my hands and into the stone, reflecting in the mirror. My hope was that the stone would serve the same purpose as the figurines and we’d have better results this time. But I wasn’t certain of anything, so when the mirror’s screen reacted to the magic and swirled with color instead of remaining empty like last time, I felt a tiny bit of hope.
“Now,” I told Zack, “put your hand on the screen.”
He hesitated, looking from me to the screen, as if uncertain whether or not he could trust me, but finally, he seemed to make his decision and placed a hand on the screen.
Warm magic poured from the glass, enveloping us both as we got sucked into the memory.
Zack and I stood in a small room made of metal and copper wires. A quiet, mechanical hum came from somewhere as the floor vibrated beneath our feet. The small cubicle seemed to be made for a purely functional purpose, although I noted elven aspects of the architecture—the way the metal panels were lined with ivy vines etched around their edges, the elegant curve of the room’s only table.
The room wasn’t what I’d been expecting. Usually a person’s memories took us to a typical Faythander location, somewhere in nature, but this room was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I felt for magic in the room, and a spell came to my senses. The bluish color surrounded us, hard to detect, but it felt like Queen Euralysia’s magic.
I spun around, searching for some explanation to our location, when Zack spoke up.
“I remember this.” He took a step forward, running his hand over the smooth metal table. “It’s difficult to recall, exactly. I remember the portal opening… I remember going through and finding a field full of these beautiful blue flowers. I’d never seen anything like them. Beyond the field, there was a strange building standing on top of a hill. After I went inside, I saw… elves inside. I know that sounds strange.”
I cleared my throat and smoothed my hair away from my ears. “I’ve heard of stranger things. Keep going. You saw elves inside the building?”
“Yes. They were building something—it was made of metal, and it was tall.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “I didn’t know what it was. And then… the elves spoke to me. They said they’d brought me here because they thought I could help them. I was confused and wasn’t sure what they wanted, so they threatened me. I remember being frightened. I thought they would hurt me—kill me, possibly—but then, something happened.” He paused.
“What happened?”
“I cooperated.” He stepped away from the table and searched the room, looking from the copper wires to a panel with symbols etched into its face. He traced his finger over the symbols. “The elves said they were interested in some research I’d done. I was a weatherman back on Earth, but that wasn’t how I’d originally started out. Before that, I was determined to be rocket scientist. In college, I’d even written a paper on an alternate form of rocket fuel using ions. I won an award for it.
“The elves wanted to know more about it.” He spun around as realization lit his face. “That’s it,” he said. “They were running out of their own fuel and needed something else. That’s why they’d taken me. I helped them engineer an alternate fuel, and then they put me on this ship and sent me to their base on the moon.” He spun around, his eyes wide. “I remember,” he said excitedly. “Dr. Kennedy, this is where I saw the egg.”
The room faded, replaced by a building with a domed, glass roof that looked out onto a gray, rocky landscape. Amazingly, the blue orb of Earth rose above us.
“We’re on the moon,” I gasped.
“Yes!” Zack said. “This is where they took me.”
I scanned the room and found neat rows of stacked treasures. Sitting apart from the rest, I found what I had been searching for. The vachonette egg sat on a silver pedestal. It was smaller than I’d imagined, about the size of a beach ball, and its golden bands swirled like clouds. Zack approached the egg.
“This is it,” he said quietly. “This is where they put the egg.”
Despite my elation at finding the egg, I felt my heart drop.
“So that’s where the egg is? On the moon?”
I’d suspected it was somewhere hard to find, but this? I would never be able to get it back, and that must have been exactly why the elves had put it there. I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache blossom. There had to be a way to take the egg back. There always was. I just had to think of a way.
A mist of magical fog surrounded us, the room faded, and we reappeared on the island.
Zack moved away from the mirror, then stood and started pacing, his feet crunching over the stray bits of sticks and palm leaves as rain pelted down around him. He didn’t seem to notice.
“But there was something else.” He grabbed his head. “What was it? Why can’t I remember?” He spun around, his face scrunched as he concentrated. “Why can’t I remember?”
“I suspect a spell is at work,” I answered. “I felt something inside that ship, something odd that shouldn’t have been there. It was a spell, one conjured by an extremely dangerous practitioner—the elven queen. If she was involved, that may explain why you were having such horrible mental delusions and side effects from the lost memories. The elves used your knowledge of rocket mechanics to help them fuel their spacecraft, and then they stole your memories from you. They wouldn’t have wanted anyone to know where they’d transported the egg.”
“Yes, yes, the egg. It had something to do with the egg.”
“You remember something else about it?”
“It’s a hazy memory, like trying to recall something you saw a long time ago. It feels like I’m grasping at smoke. There was more about that egg than I remember, and I think the elves were trying to hide the truth from me.”
“If that’s the case, then how will you be able to remember?”
“I thought you would know.”
I glanced at my mirror. “We could try the spellcasting again. But this time, I want you to focus on the lost memories, the ones you didn’t see just now. Maybe that will help. I will warn you, though, I’ve never done anything like this. I don’t know how safe this is.”
Zack breathed deeply. “Let’s try it.”
He knelt by the mirror once again. I held the egg on the chain, letting my magic flow into the stone. With the second spellcasting, a wave of dizziness washed over me and I felt my energy being drained from my body.
“Are you all right?” Zack asked.
“Just a little dizzy. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready, but are you sure about this? You look very pale. Maybe you should rest. We can pick this up tomorrow after the doctors have looked you over. You took a nasty blow to the head.”
If only I could make him understand how dire the situation was. My stepfather would die if I didn’t get that egg back. It didn’t matter how I felt at the moment. I could rest later. But once Silvestra killed my stepfather, I would never be able to get him back. No amount of begging or pleading would save him once she’d killed him, and the frightening thing was—I knew Silvestra would do it. She was too proud and too precise not to follow through with her threats.
I pushed away my panic to stare at the mirror’s surface, coming face to face with the desperation reflected in my own eyes. Glancing away from the screen, I focused on Zack.
“I can’t rest now,” I said. “Please understand when I say this is the most important thing you may ever do. If you help me retrieve that egg, you’ll be saving more than just my stepfather. You’ll be saving an entire kingdom—an entire world.”
He studied me a moment, then reached for the screen and placed his palm on the glass. I touched my own hand to the screen, keeping the egg between the mirror and my hand, letting the magic absorb all the energy from us, when the world faded around us, the light dimmed, and an uncontrollable shiver of fear raced down my spine.
/> We stood in a dark, cavernous room. Sounds of dripping water echoed through the stale air. The smell of damp earth filled the room, and the chill air prickled my skin. Usually, the memories didn’t replay with such clarity, making me wonder if we’d entered a memory at all.
Zack stood beside me, his eyes wide as he took a step forward. We stood on a balcony overlooking the room below. Beneath us was a circular platform. Fanning away from the raised area, I counted seven ornately carved coffins.
Seven coffins. Like the seven Madralorde brothers.
A magical presence pushed against my own, forcing itself against my skull, a gradual pressure that slowly increased. I rubbed my temples as I tried to concentrate on the scene unfolding beneath us.
I counted four elves gathered in the room and recognized one of them as Queen Euralysia. She wore dull gray robes, and unlike the first time I’d met her, she looked aged and sickly. The color had drained from her cheeks, and her limp hair was more gray than golden.
An elven man with red hair and pale white skin also stood in the room. He had an unusually thin frame, even for an elf, and he moved slowly, as if it pained him to walk. I was certain I’d seen him before, but couldn’t remember where.
An elven woman with long, midnight blue hair and velvet, navy-colored robes stood with the others, but my gaze snagged on one man in particular.
He stood taller than the rest, with dark, stringy hair and chalky-white skin. A shiver of fear ran through my body as I stared at the man. I’d never seen him before, yet the taint of his magic was unmistakable. It came to me, challenging my own, making me step away from him, although I knew I had nothing to fear as this was a memory.
“Do you remember this?” I asked Zack.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t remember any of it.”
“Then why did the spell bring us here?”
“You don’t know?” he asked.
“No. It should have brought us someplace where you were, but I don’t see you anywhere.”
Fear settled in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t sure what sort of magic had brought us here, but it wasn’t something I was familiar with. Below us, the elves gathered around a raised pedestal atop the center dais. The man robed in black placed something atop the surface. As he stepped back, I gasped.
The egg.
Its golden bands shimmered in the dim light, swirling against a backdrop of onyx. Its warmth radiated through the room, even up here, I felt its power and strength.
“That’s it,” Zack said. “That’s the egg I saw. I remember that feeling because it’s stayed with me all this time. Even after I returned to Earth, I knew that feeling, even though I didn’t know where it came from, I know now. I’ve seen that egg, but I didn’t see it here.”
“Then why did the magic bring us here?” I asked.
The four elves circled the egg.
“When will it hatch?” the queen asked.
“Not long,” the man in black answered. “Another week at most.”
“Good, that gives us enough time to locate the staff.”
The woman with the dark hair spoke up. “My hunters will infiltrate Danegeld and remove the staff within a fortnight. We shall have it in time.”
“What of the sword?” the red-haired elf asked.
“We don’t need it,” Queen Euralysia answered.
“But how will we control Theht’s powers without it?”
“I have my ways, Echorion. You’ve no need to question me.”
“If I fear for the life of my wife, then I feel I should question you.”
His wife? Yes, this must have been the queen’s new husband. I’d heard she’d married but didn’t know anything about him. I scrutinized the man. He seemed frail and sickly, and it made sense why she’d married him. She needed someone she could manipulate. If she’d married a man of power, she’d have a harder time controlling him.
Now that I thought about it, I remembered where I’d seen the man. He’d been a guard in the queen’s palace when I’d gone there to seek the Wults’ help finding my godson, although he’d changed since then and looked more frail. I was surprised I remembered him. But why did she marry a guard? Perhaps to bridge the gap between the more common folk and nobility?
But those were questions for later. Right now, I had bigger problems to handle than elven courtship.
“Are you sure the staff is in the Wult keep?” the queen asked the woman.
“Yes, I’m positive. My source will not fail me. I have faith he will help us retrieve the staff in time for the ceremony.”
Source? Who was the woman referring to?
The magic grew stronger as it pressed against my skull, squeezing tighter and tighter until I was forced to shut my eyes. Gasping for air, I stumbled back.
“Dr. Kennedy,” Zack said, “are you all right?”
Buzzing filled my ears. The magic wormed its way into my brain, searching, trying to identify me. Had the elves known I was coming? Where did the magic come from?
As if from a great distance, I heard Zack’s screams. My eyes opened, and the face of the man with black robes filled my vision.
“You,” he said, “should not be here.”
I turned to where I’d last seen Zack to discover two elven guards on either side of him, dragging him away.
“Zack,” I called as the man grabbed my arm, “take your hand off the screen!”
The air grew thick with magic as it surrounded me and sucked me into its portal. Relief washed over me as the pressure in my head disappeared.
Zack and I appeared back on the beach, both of us gasping for air. The mirror lay in my lap, and as the magical fog disappeared, I focused on the screen. A crack split the mirror in half.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I reached for my broken mirror and brushed my fingers over the glass. The magic faded, leaving me with two ordinary shards of broken glass. My heart fell. The mirror had been one of the only possessions I cared about. Now it was gone, and I wasn’t sure how I could replace it.
“What was that?” Zack breathed beside me. “Those people—were they going to kill us?”
“If they’d gotten the chance, yes, I believe they would have. I’ve seen what the queen is capable of.”
I shuddered as I recalled the day I’d witnessed the queen exterminate the entire race of goblins. The elven queen scared me more than anyone I’d ever known. I’d known some pretty dangerous people, but no one wielded the kind of power she possessed.
Overhead, the sky grew dim as evening approached, and I knew I was running out of time. I had to get back to Faythander, tell Kull and the others what I had seen in the mirror, and then somehow figure out where that place was located. But how could I get back now that my mirror was broken?
I rubbed my head, the dizziness making the world spin around me. The concussion, coupled with the loss in magic, made it hard to think straight.
As I brushed my fingers over the glass, I forced my brain to cooperate. Getting back to Faythander shouldn’t be too hard. Really any sort of reflective surface would do, although I could never be sure if the glass were tainted or not. As it was, I had no choice.
Crafting a new mirror box would take time I didn’t have right now. But I could still use the mirror—I would just have to fuel it with my own magic.
“What are you doing?” Zack asked.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go back. Thank you for all your help.”
His forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What do you mean? You can’t leave without me. You have to take me with you.”
“If I did that, you would lose all your memories again.”
“But, no! I won’t let you leave without me. You need to go to the hospital first, and I need to help you.”
“I wish it were that simple.”
“But I haven’t even paid you.” He reached for his wallet.
“Zack, don’t worry about paying me. Where I’m going, your mo
ney is useless, and I’m not even sure I’ll make it out alive, so there’s no point in giving it to me.”
“But why do you have to go?”
“Because that egg stands between the life and death of my stepfather. I have to get it back. No matter what the price, I can’t let him die.”
Zack only watched as I moved my hand over the glass. My magic flowed weakly to the surface, sluggish and slow, making me even dizzier as it rose to my fingertips. I directed the magic into the glass and focused on opening a portal.
In my mind, I conjured an image of the Wult keep. If the elves were intent on taking the staff from the keep, then I had no other choice but to go there and stop them. With my mind not cooperating, it was the best plan I could come up with.
Blue magical mist gathered around me and made my skin tingle. The portal opened with a loud howling wind, sucking me inside before I had a chance to catch my breath. Bursts of magical energy surrounded me as I flew from one reality to another. Air hissed in my ears as bright spots of light blinded me.
The violence of the portal caught me by surprise. If anything, I’d expected the portal to be weak, so what caused it to be so powerful?
An image of a woman formed in front of me. The form was too blurry to see the features, yet its glowing, ember-orange eyes focused on me, and I knew who it was—Theht.
The phantasm didn’t speak. It only stared into my soul, giving me the feeling of familiarity, making me realize that this was the part of Theht that lived inside me.
“Go away,” I screamed, although my words had no effect on the creature.
The wind quieted, the portal dissipated, and I crashed onto a stone floor. I felt as though I’d broken my spine, and making any sort of movement at all was beyond me. I only lay there, my breathing heavy as it echoed through the room.
I clutched my head with the image of Theht still fresh in my mind. The urge to vomit welled up inside of me as I contemplated the evil inhabiting my own body. There had to be a way to get rid of the creature inside me. But how?
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