She glared as she took it. “I’d rather go with you.”
Maveryck smiled but said nothing and backed away. Then he turned and walked toward the staircase, his footfalls quiet, though not silent. Anyone paying attention would hear him.
Heidel adjusted the weapon and clicked the gears into place. We watched as Maveryck paced down the stairs, his dark blue robes blending in with the background. He moved with practiced stealth. From this distance, I could no longer hear the sound of his footsteps. When he reached a landing midway between the top of the dome and the bottom, he stopped and outstretched his hand. A faint bluish glow emanated from his fingers as he treaded from one edge of the landing to the other.
“What’s he doing?” Heidel asked.
“Checking for enchantments, most likely,” I said.
When he seemed satisfied, he leapt over the staircase banister and climbed the rest of the way down.
“Do you think he found a spell?” Heidel asked.
“He must have found something,” Kull said.
Heidel sighed. “I don’t like this. I’m following him.” She moved toward the staircase when Kull caught her arm.
“Wait,” he said. “Give him a chance.”
“I don’t want to.”
Maveryck reached the bottom of the staircase and walked out onto the floor. Heidel stayed put as he crossed the expanse of tiles, his footsteps silent, his blue robes swirling behind him. The onyx floor swam with patterns of cobalt blue, an odd enchantment that was stained by Maveryck’s shadow as he passed over it.
When he reached the raised platform, he sidestepped the coffins and headed straight for the egg.
My heart pounded as I watched him near the pedestal where the egg rested. As he approached the egg, he held his glowing hand out and approached the dais. It took him longer to reach the egg than I would have liked, but I knew he was only being cautious.
When he finally stopped by the raised column supporting the egg, he circled it several times and then snatched the egg up and placed it inside his bag. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but I knew he still had to get back up to us.
He walked quickly off the platform and toward the open floor. Heidel’s shoulders relaxed a tiny bit, though she kept the weapon focused below.
Maveryck slowed, then stopped, as his gaze snagged on one of the coffins. He peered up at us, although from this height, I couldn’t make out his expression.
“Something’s wrong,” Heidel said. “What does he see?”
Maveryck stayed by the coffin, unmoving.
“Can you see what’s inside that coffin?” Heidel asked me.
Elven eyesight wasn’t nearly as effective as hearing, but still, it gave me a slight advantage. I scanned the coffin but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “I can’t see anything,” I said. “Maybe he found a spell or something that’s trapped him.”
“Kull, we’ve got to get down there,” Heidel said.
“Wait. If he needs help, he’ll let us know.”
Heidel growled but remained where she was. Maveryck glanced up, his eyes locked with ours, and he motioned us down to him.
“Very well,” Kull finally conceded. “We’ll go down. But stay alert. Olive, lead the way and keep a lookout for enchantments.”
I nodded and walked toward the staircase with Kull and Heidel following behind. Keeping my hand open with my fingers outstretched, I let the magic flow into my palm as I searched for foreign spells. Down below, I sensed the spell on the landing where Maveryck had leapt over the edge and climbed down.
“We’ll have to avoid the stairs here,” I said as we reached the landing. Kull, Heidel, and I each took turns climbing to the floor. When I reached the bottom, I turned and stared out over the enchanted floor.
Everything looked so much larger from this perspective, making me remember that I stood in Tremulac castle, a place of enormous power and ancient magic.
Although my skin tingled with the magic, I was able to keep the overwhelming feelings of its sheer power at bay, but I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up. I focused instead on Maveryck, who stood hunched near one of the coffins.
As we approached, I saw the terror in his eyes.
He backed away as we neared him.
“Maveryck, what’s the matter?” I asked.
He looked from me to the other coffins surrounding him. “Help me get these lids off,” he said.
“Get the lids off?” Heidel asked. “We can’t! We’ve got to get out of here.”
Kull unsheathed his sword as we approached the first coffin—the one that had frightened Maveryck. As we neared it, I saw that the lid was missing, leaving its contents open. What had Maveryck seen that had scared him so badly?
In a place this old, I didn’t expect anything to exist except a mummified corpse. Instead, I found an elven man with long, ornate robes lying in the tomb. His body and clothing were untouched by decay. Except for his skin, which was gray, he looked as if he slept. The man had to have been one of the Madralorde brothers, but what had kept his body so preserved? Was it a spell? I stretched my hand over the tomb, searching for the spell, when a wave of power hit me, making me stumble back. I slammed my mind closed against the magic just in time. Kull steadied me as I pushed the magic away, taking deep breaths and finally closing it off completely.
A loud crash came from one of the other tombs. I rounded and found Maveryck standing in a cloud of dust, the coffin’s lid at his feet. He gasped and drew back as he looked inside the tomb.
“It can’t be,” he mumbled. “It’s not possible.”
Heidel went to his side and took his hand, but he shrugged her off and rushed to another tomb. Maveryck strained against the lid until it slid off and crashed to the ground. I glanced around the room, wondering if he had already alerted the elves to our presence with the noise.
“We’ve got to stop him and get out of here,” Kull said.
“I agree, but what’s gotten him so stirred up?”
“I don’t know.”
We stepped onto the raised dais and approached Maveryck. Heidel stood near him with her hands balled into fists, her silver arm guards gleaming in the firelight.
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” I asked.
“He’s gone mad,” she answered as another crash echoed through the room.
Kull hefted his sword as he approached the thief. Heidel and I followed behind Kull. I glanced into another open tomb, finding a corpse similar to the first, this one with crimson robes.
“Come away from there,” Kull said to Maveryck. “We’ve got to get out of here with the egg. We don’t have time for this.”
“No! I won’t leave. Look what’s inside.”
“It’s a body. What else did you expect?”
“Look again. Look inside this one!”
We approached the tomb he stood beside and glanced into its depths. Inside, the tomb was empty.
My heart pounded as realization struck me. Was it possible?
Maveryck rubbed his temples as he paced the length of the coffin. “The potion didn’t restore me, it altered me. It changed my memories, and now I know who I am. Who I really am.”
“Who are you?” Kull asked.
From behind us, a familiar, musical, yet bone-chilling voice answered, “He is Dracon. The last of the Madralorde brothers.”
We rounded to find Queen Euralysia emerging from a portal, along with several other elves wearing long robes and dark cowls. Was it true? Could Maveryck really be the last Madralorde brother?
The portal closed as the elves surrounded us. Kull cursed under his breath and gripped his sword.
Queen Euralysia approached us, her footsteps ringing out against the stone. She wore an unadorned black gown, and the color was gone from her cheeks, leaving her skin chalky and white. She wore her hair pulled back in a severe, straight ponytail. It seemed the only color on her body was the red rimming her eyes.
> But it wasn’t her appearance that made me shudder. The magic she held felt tainted and impure, the way magic became when exposed to death.
Ice ran through my veins as I backed away from the queen, but I knew it would do no good. With Theht’s presence attempting to take control of my own magic, I wasn’t sure I trusted my powers.
The elves removed their basita weapons as they surrounded us.
“What do you want from us?” Kull demanded.
The queen gave us a wan smile. “Want from you? We are friends, remember? Return the egg, and I will ask nothing more.”
“And if we refuse?”
I glanced at the gleaming basita weapons surrounding us. Was there any way for us to fight them? With my unstable magic, Kull’s sword, Heidel’s knife, and Maveryck’s weapon, it seemed we had a pretty slim chance. Still, we could try.
Maveryck walked forward. His fear had disappeared. Instead, he walked with an air of confidence.
“No,” he said. “We will not give it to you. You have no right to be in this place.”
The queen’s smile disappeared. “I have every right to be here.”
“No, you do not. This is a sacred chamber, and you are not welcome here.”
“You cannot make me leave.”
“Actually, I can.” He outstretched his hand, and a flash of brilliant silver light blinded us. I fell back as the magic hit me in the chest. The queen and her men also stumbled backward. Magic buzzed around us, filling the room with its energy.
But Maveryck had never been a powerful practitioner, and even if he were the last Madralorde brother and wielded more power than we realized, it must have been hundreds of years since he’d used it last.
Queen Euralysia reached out, and dark energy swirled around her fist. It grew into a large void and then snuffed out all of Maveryck’s power.
“Don’t toy with me,” she snapped. “I’ve enough power to bring down this castle if I wanted. Guards, shoot them all and bring me the egg.”
Bolts of lightning erupted from their weapons. I ducked and hid behind a coffin as the energy bursts filled the room. Kull and Heidel also managed to dodge the weapon fire and hide beside me, but Maveryck fell back with a scream, landing on his back, clutching a hand to his chest.
“Maveryck,” Heidel screamed, lunging for him, but Kull caught her arm and drew her back to us.
“Stop,” she yelled, “I have to go to him!”
The elves closed in on Maveryck and grabbed his arms, dragging him toward the altar where the egg had been. In horror, I watched as they searched his clothing, and then his bag, until they found the egg.
My heart thudded as the elves placed the vachonette egg back on the pedestal.
“We’ve got to get him back,” Heidel whispered.
I knew we only had a matter of seconds before the elves were no longer distracted by the egg and came for us, so I conjured a masking spell to hide us from view. It was a temporary solution, but as the magic left my body and enveloped us, I felt safer.
With the ease of using my magic, and Theht still not able to take control of me, my confidence was boosted. If my magic were cooperating, maybe we would have a fighting chance against the elves after all.
“Find the others,” the queen said, “and prepare the weapons for the sacrifice. We’ll use him.” She nudged Maveryck with her boot.
“Use him for what?” Heidel asked. “For the sacrifice?”
“I’m afraid so,” I answered. “They’ll need some sort of dark energy to fuel the spell. Maveryck’s death would be a good solution.” Having been nearly sacrificed once or twice, I felt I was becoming an expert on the subject.
“We won’t let it happen,” Kull said. “We’ll get him free.”
“How do you plan to stop them?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Kull answered.
Flames crackled around us as the elves stoked the large biers surrounding the coffins. A few elves emerged carrying weapons, one that I recognized—the staff of Zaladin. I counted six ancient-looking weapons that they placed around the egg.
“They still don’t have the sword,” I said. “This is not going to turn out well.”
They must have been planning to harness her power with only six weapons. If they failed, they would unleash Theht on the world, and if they succeeded, the elves would control the goddess. Either way looked bleak.
“Do you think Maveryck is really one of the Madralorde brothers?” Heidel asked.
“It’s possible,” I said. “It explains why he was acting so strangely as we traveled here. He must have been remembering this place.”
“But why didn’t he remember sooner? He said he had perfect memory.”
“He might have believed he had perfect memory. I suspect someone must have tampered with his long-term memory and created an alternate past for him, one that was similar to his real past, but different enough to make him forget his true identity.”
“But who would have tampered with his memories?” Kull asked.
I shook my head. “He said his brother gave him the potion, but he was remembering a false memory. It could have been anyone.”
We watched as the elves moved Maveryck’s limp body atop a long slab of stone. The heat from the fires enveloped the room, creating a dense fog of smoke that drifted up to the ceiling.
Beside me, Kull glanced up, and I followed his gaze.
“What would happen if we brought the castle down on us?”
“Are you serious?” Heidel asked.
“Olive, do you think you could manage it?”
Above us, I could only make out the faint X-shaped outline of the arching stones illuminated in the firelight. “Maybe. I couldn’t bring down the whole place, mind you, but I might be able to manage a wind spell and dislodge a few of the larger stones.”
“Good enough,” Kull said. “You stay here and wait for my signal. Heidel, come with me. We’re going to rescue your thief.”
“And then what?” I asked. “How do we escape? Leaving the way we came is out of the question. It would take too long, and by the time we made it to the top level, the elves would have caught up.”
“Could we use the portal the elves made?”
“Yes, we could use it, but there’s an entire squadron of armed elves on the other side. They’d capture us before we got a chance to escape.”
“Couldn’t you create a portal, Olive?” Heidel asked.
“Possibly, but creating portals requires much stronger magic than masking spells or wind spells. I don’t fully trust my magic. Plus, my mirror is broken. It won’t be an easy portal to create, if I even manage to create one at all.”
“But it may be our only way out,” Kull said.
Once again, everyone had way more faith in me than they should have. “I’ll do what I can.” And hopefully not release Theht in the process.
Kull eyed me. “Your mirror is broken?”
“Yes. Massive tornado. Long story.”
He stared at me a moment longer but didn’t press the issue. Maveryck’s moans came from where he lay, which was a good thing—it meant he was still alive.
The queen and her elves surrounded Maveryck and locked hands as they began chanting. Déjà vu returned as I was reminded of a scene similar to this, one I’d witnessed in the presence of the Everblossom tree, when I’d seen a vision of myself as an infant prepared to be sacrificed.
Time had come full circle. In a place like this where magic was so strong, it wouldn’t take much to bring Theht back into the world, and with the amount of power they already had, they wouldn’t need the sacrifice of an innocent like the others had needed when I was an infant.
Gathering my magic within me, I turned to Kull and Heidel. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll release the spell.”
He nodded, gripping his sword tight. “Heidel, follow me.”
They crept to the next coffin. Several elves wandered the room as they
searched for us, but with the aid of the shadows and my masking spell, spotting us wasn’t easy to do.
When Kull and Heidel reached the tomb closest to Maveryck, Kull turned to me and nodded. Inhaling deeply, I stared overhead and focused as best as I could.
“Cirrus,” I whispered, letting the wind spell flow from my fingertips, up through the air, brushing the fires and making them flicker and dance, until the wind dashed against the domed roof.
Rumbling filled the chamber as the stones tore loose of their mortar.
The chanting stopped.
Debris rained down around us, followed by a massive stone that gained speed as it sailed to the floor and landed with a deafening crash.
Chaos ensued as more and more stones dislodged from the ceiling. Clouds of dust choked the air, making it hard to breathe. I moved away from my hiding spot as a boulder-size rock smashed the tomb in front of me.
“Get back,” one of the elven guards yelled as another giant stone fell inches from where he and his companions stood.
It seemed that I’d unleashed more destruction than I’d hoped for as one stone after another crumbled from the ceiling. My heart raced as I realized we had to get out before we were buried.
Kull and Heidel appeared in the dust cloud. They each supported Maveryck, who stood upright between them but seemed too weak to walk on his own.
The queen yelled over the chaos, “Bring him back! Don’t stop the summoning!”
I felt the queen’s power fill the room—a tight feeling in my chest that made me wonder if I was having a heart attack—as the blue swirls dusted the air and shored up the ceiling. Only a few pebbles continued to fall. As the queen’s magic dissipated, I felt my own spells diminish. The flimsy masking spell I’d used began to disappear. It wouldn’t be long before the elves spotted us.
“Run to the staircase,” I said to the others. “Hide under the stairs.”
I prayed it gave me enough time to remove my ruined box and create a portal. As we ran, I pulled the bag off my back and grabbed my mirror case. My blood pumped with added adrenaline as we made it to the staircase and hid beneath it. Sitting deep in the shadows beside the others, cold radiating from the stones surrounding us, I lifted the mirror case’s lid.
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