by A. Wrighton
Nylan admired the elaborate architecture that would have once been in existence for the servants’ entrance and Beast landing. From the markings on the rock face and the exhaustive number of crumbled pillars, it had been massive and intricately detailed. Solasti had once truly been the Runic hub for all of Solera. Nylan crossed the ledge to the gigantic wood and metal door – its scarred and twisted frame cracked and rotting.
Kalyna approached Nylan and touched his arm. “I’m ready.”
“In we go then.” Nylan kicked open the buckling doors easily. Too easily. He took two steps inside and was immediately surrounded by blackness and dampness. “Coming?”
“Behind you.”
“Good. Light this.”
He knew she smiled at his words. She loved to practice. To use. He felt her clasp onto the dampened branch he had found. Instantly it was set ablaze with blue Runic fire. The flames danced beautifully, illuminating a collapsed entryway. A short obstacle or two further in and the palace’s entrance hall returned to its original structural height.
Nylan stared down the tunnel before turning to Kalyna, whose eyes returned to lavender-laced copper. He tightened his grip on the branch. “Which way?”
“Shouldn’t you know?”
“We mapped the outside, Kalyna. We weren’t exactly invited inside.” Nylan smiled reassuringly. “Just think, Kaly. You said you could feel the surge of power in here. So, trace it. Where is it coming from?”
Kalyna shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. She steadied her breathing until Nylan almost thought her breathless. He leaned in closer to check just as her eyes flashed open. Nylan stumbled back, steadying himself on the wall. Her eyes were a rich violet, terrifying glow.
“Left.”
Nylan led them in silence until Kalyna jerked him back by the belt. She pointed at a collapsed, decaying staircase of grand spiraling proportions – two sides that swirled and swayed down below their level.
“I’m guessing those lead to Great Hall… the mural should be there. We’re close.”
Kalyna took the torch and flourished the flame with a surge of blue. It crackled and blazed fabulously. She held it at arm’s length and surveyed each side of the staircase. The right side was too decayed to even consider conducting a balancing act on the rotting wood and crumbling stone. The left held some promise, if she used Air Runes again. Kalyna glanced back to Nylan. He nodded, accepting her choice.
They descended the left stairwell slowly, stepping over and around broken stairs and missing steps. Nylan followed behind Kalyna, until he saw it. The flicker of paint against solid wall. He almost screamed her name as if they were playing tag in the open flats. “Kaly!” He froze and pointed at the wall. “Kaly, look!”
She panned the light across the wall behind the stairwell that started ten feet above the ground level. In rich paints, a mural encompassed the entire wall. Kalyna extended the torch out from the staircase, illuminating the degrading abandonment of the gutted Great Hall. Every wall had a mural.
“There are at least six of them!”
Kalyna made to jump over the railing, but Nylan caught her arm. “Forgetting something?” He laughed, too sure that she had.
She smiled and took ahold of his forearms. Eyes black with Air Runes, Kalyna floated them the last seven feet to the ground floor that the staircase no longer reached. She set Nylan down at the base of the stairs with the torch before lifting herself higher – a palmed blue flame in her hand.
“Be careful,” Nylan said.
She did not hear him. Kalyna pointed eagerly at an upper quadrant of a mural. “Nylan, you see this? The eagles? These birds went extinct many cycles ago… during the Great War they used them as messengers, but they all got wiped out.”
“You Solerans sure have a tendency to do that.”
Kalyna rolled her eyes as she floated further down the mural.
“Wait – Kaly, go lower… there. What’s that Runic doing?” Nylan asked, jumping over broken furniture and sheets of cobwebs to reach the area. He settled on standing atop a cracked marble table to reach the mural’s area.
Kalyna illumed a robed woman with flowing dark red hair. She had swirls of white air around her and a bird forming in the midst gusts of air. “I think she’s using… Air Runes…. There’s a bird but—”
“Kaly, I know this. I know this Rune.”
“What?”
“The High Runics and the other Runics of the Court use this all the time. All the time. They summon these birds to carry gossip about. Pesky birds but the people that summon them, they’re always Air Runics. This has to be that.”
“There are no words here to use for the Rune though.”
“I can teach you in Lythgorian then. I remember it because when I was little I used to try to summon one of my own.”
Kalyna stared back at Nylan, distaste on her face. “You used to wish you could be a Runic?”
“What young child didn’t?”
“A Soleran one.”
Nylan pursed his lips as Kalyna’s suspended shadow flitted further along the wall, searching the top while he scanned the bottom. The western wall’s mural was intricate and exponentially massive. The details within the segment of the Air Runic and the bird were so consuming that they had barely surpassed it on the first mural wall, when slivers of warming dusk light pierced through a broken stained glass window that faced into the mountains. The scattered reflections made the eerily vacant hall shimmer with thousands of iridescent tears. Kalyna traced the window reflections on the mural before her, entranced.
“Kaly… we must return.”
“We just—”
“No. It is too close to sunrise. We can’t chance it.”
“Tomorrow?”
He looked nervously at the purple tint in Kalyna’s eyes and exhaled. “Perhaps.”
“Yes.”
“Fine. Just hurry.”
Kalyna conceded and grabbed onto his forearms, lifting them back up onto the less-devastated staircase. Torch in hand, Nylan led them back up the stairs. At the entryway hall, they broke into a jog. He had to calm his gait, despite her agile stride. He paused and saw darkness just long enough to worry, then a blue flame and Kalyna’s silhouette urging him to go on ahead. Nylan turned back, raced up the final incline of the hall, ducked under collapsed roofing, and raced to the ledge.
The thunk of body against body rung in his ears and Nylan was grateful for the strange grip on his arm as he teetered near the ledge’s edge. Alaister heaved, righted Nylan, and walked towards Kalyna with a steady, strong gait.
“Many thanks, Paine.”
Alaister tilted his head in acknowledgment, his face in a firm scowl.
Kalyna stammered as she exited and her eyes adjusted. “Alaister?” She quickly found an interesting stone at her feet as the pink in her cheeks returned.
“Are you all right?” Alaister asked.
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
Nylan shook his head at the improbability that such a strong-willed independent spirit cared what another thought. It was a layer he had not accounted for – Nylan had failed to see beyond her stubborn streak and realize that she actually cared what the Rogues thought of her – especially Alaister.
Alaister turned on his heel and cut the distance between him and Nylan in two strides. “I warned you, Bendran. I told you the one thing that must be kept safe was her. And you bring her here?”
“It was my idea—”
Alaister faced Kalyna. “That much I know. Are you crazy, Kal? Do you have any idea what could happen to everything should you – never mind what could happen to you – but to everyone? Everyone, Kal.”
“I need to see this, Alaister. I can’t just wait for reports from Rogues who probably don’t even know how to read Drakanic, let alone the significance of half the palace. This place is the key – to all of me. I need to know what I am and once I do, I can be what you need me to be – for everyone. This is the only place that can help me.”
Nylan m
aneuvered between the two to watch their intense staring contest. Alaister was more than angry and concerned. There was something else – something that neglected making Alaister notice the sudden violet in Kalyna’s eyes.
Nylan cleared his throat, breaking their stares. “She has a right to know. You ask so much of her but give her nothing to work with – to work from. There’s no harm—”
“No harm? You said you knew why this place is abandoned. Is that true?”
“It was my idea, Alaister. Please, he didn’t—”
“I know about the Sickness. It is part of our mandatory lessons as children.”
Kalyna and Alaister’s faces dropped in shock.
“You Solerans think you’re so isolated from the rest of the world that we don’t know? We may be a bedtime story and a nightmarish race to your people Paine, but we know plenty about the history of you and yours – especially your Runics and Dragons. We strive to learn from past mistakes, from history.”
“And still you brought her? Are you mad, Bendran?”
“It was her choice to make, not mine – not yours either.”
“You encourage her to folly, Bendran – death even.”
“Stop talking like I am not here. I am right here! I have a say and this is where I need to be. This is where I need to look. The Sickness is gone Alaister, and even if it weren’t, the Dragons and I would have caught it the moment we stepped foot in this part of the Soleran Chain. I feel fine… better than fine. Let me have this. I have to have this.”
Alaister growled as he turned to pace along the ledge, pebbles skid down the mountainside as he went. None spoke, though Alaister and Kalyna, and then Nylan and Kalyna, exchanged worried glances in intervals. Alaister could not get his father’s voice out of his head. Or Brother Feynt’s as he told his story. Or Kalyna’s voice when she begged for a fighting chance. That was what they all wanted – a fighting chance to prevail in a free realm. Freedom.
Alaister stopped and sent a call for his Beast into the air. His baritone voice rang with the stillness of approaching death. “It is almost sun up. We have to get back to shelter.”
“Right away, Paine.”
“But—”
Nylan shook his head, silencing Kalyna’s protest. He turned to the sky and called for Fynix, as Jaxin appeared hovering alongside the ledge.
In two strides, Alaister leapt onto his Beast. “With me, Kal.”
“Of course.”
LEOSAN CAVERN
SOUTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS, SOLASTI
He’d never been one to waste energy on hiding his emotions. What years of war did not hide naturally, he had no energy left to bother with it. He could barely think logically; his anger still stirred for her carelessness and Nylan’s encouragement. He was not that unlike Callon’s predecessor. He was driven – to a point of recklessness. He was the kind of man who would do whatever he needed to succeed – even disobey orders.
It was what had gotten Callon’s predecessor killed. It was the kind of man you either abandoned or allied with unquestioningly. They were the most dangerous kind of allies. Alaister seethed at Nylan’s willingness to risk Kalyna and her acceptance of it. Like it was nothing. Like she was nothing. Like everything was for nothing.
He stopped pacing and stood in the middle of the ledge. Drystan, Callon, and Lanthar were to his left while Kalyna and Nylan shirked off to his right. Alaister huffed at the chilling air and checked the perimeter. They were finally being ignored by the masses and able to speak without any wanting to listen.
“I need volunt—”
“Not it.”
“Cal, let him speak.” Kalyna paused thoughtfully. “Please.”
“We’re going into Lynae,” Alaister said.
“Searching for the palace ruins isn’t enough?” Lanthar asked.
“We found the palace Lanthar…” Kalyna hesitated until Alaister nodded encouragingly. “The Solastian Palace was actually built into the mountain. Like the Den. That’s why it’s so well hidden. There’s an entrance through Lynae. It’s the way inside the ruins.”
“Inside,” Lanthar repeated. The thought made his stomach ache.
“Udlast no,” Callon said. “She’s a bretzing Runic – the Sickness!”
“The Sickness is gone. It would have affected the Dragons and myself already, if it wasn’t.”
“I doubt it’s actually gone, Kaly. It’s not like it can pack a satchel and leave. It’s engrained here – into those ruins and probably into Lynae itself.” Callon exhaled sharply and crossed his arms. “Bad bretzing idea. Bad form, Alaister.”
Alaister cut a glare at Callon but said nothing.
“You were saying, Alaister?” Lanthar asked.
“I’d like two of you to accompany me and Kalyna through the mountain entrance into the ruins. There are some murals we have to see.”
“Me,” Nylan said.
Alaister nodded, unsurprised. “That’s one.”
“I’ll done go.” Drystan stepped forward and saluted. “You best be bringing me along anyhow, ‘case somet’ing done gone wrong.”
Alaister patted Drystan on the back eagerly; he wanted a medic along – just in case. Drystan’s volunteering was more than a need, it was unusual, marked. Drystan was known for his loyalty and willingness to put others before himself, but was also deeply superstitious. All Creipans were. To volunteer to go, Drystan was either desperately loyal, deeply concerned, beyond bored, or a combination of all three. That thought made Alaister’s unease settle; at least now, that made two of them.
“Thank you,” Alaister said.
“Naw. It all right. It for Kaly. She gonna need all the help she can get, ya know?”
Alaister nodded, glad that Drystan’s loyalties extended to Kalyna as well, as did most of his men’s loyalties. It was all for the better. The way Kalyna wielded Runes, she would need Drystan and the others sooner rather than later, unless she could master control. And if the key to that mastery lay deep inside Lynae and the palace ruins, so be it.
One step deeper into the Prophecy. One step closer to freedom.
“Thanks for the reminder,” Kalyna laughed.
Drystan shrugged sheepishly.
“So then, you have your two. What are we left to amuse ourselves with, Al?”
Callon’s usual smirk was missing. He was serious, and despite the refreshing bite of it, Alaister wished he could at least lighten the gravity of the situation. Callon eyed Kalyna and Nylan, and Alaister knew what he was thinking. He did not trust the Darkling Commander and he sure as hell did not trust him with Kalyna.
Kalyna still responded to Alaister over Nylan and Alaister knew he had to count on that – that if there were danger and Alaister insisted they leave and Nylan insisted otherwise, that Kalyna would follow his lead. That she would willingly remain under Alaister’s care so he did not have to force her hand. She was Udlast-bent on him keeping his promise. She had no reason not to obey him, but Alaister did not want to entertain the thought of forcing Kalyna to do anything they did not want to do. It was part of why he had agreed to the crazy mission in the first place. When she got that look in her eyes, the love of life and her Runes, it was hard to say no. And, Kalyna knew it.
“Al…”
Alaister looked to Callon. His cheeks flushed from his exposed daydreaming. Alaister shook the stares off with a sigh. “I need you and Lanthar to hold down everything while we’re gone. Run the night patrols and, if for some reason we aren’t back by the morning – go home.”
“Sure… like that’d happen,” Callon muttered.
Alaister refused to acknowledge the comment. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Lanthar answered.
Callon rolled his eyes. “Fine. Agreed.”
“Alaister, if I may,” Lanthar began softly, “This…She’s the last Runic—”
“I am standing right here, Lanthar.” Kalyna attempted to erase Lanthar’s distance from her by resting her hand on his forearm. It did not work; it was futile. No
thing broke through Lanthar’s barricade – emotional or logical – and Kalyna would not be the first to attempt to do so and fail. She would not be the last either. Kalyna frowned. Lanthar was now even more distant than when he had first met her. Antsy. Awkward. The unbridled distrust sat in Kalyna’s stomach and putrefied.
“I know that I frighten you, but you have to understand... I have to learn these things so we can do this – so we can win and take back what has been denied to us. I need to see those murals. At least one more answer is there. One step closer.”
“If you get the Sickness – what then? Vee—”
Callon attempted to break the pair’s tension, but Alaister restrained him. Alaister wanted to hear Lanthar. The new Lanthar was odd, interesting. Perceptive. The Lanthar who had more and more often found a voice when speaking about Kalyna and the Cause was intuitive and alarming. He managed to vocalize what all the officers thought. They’d be stupid not to think of the circumstance. They’d all heard the horrible story of how the Queen of Solasti, a Tri Runic, started the war on the Runic race. The story was still used by the Council to induce fear and affirmation in what had been done to the Runics. The last thing the Rogues could use to their advantage was a barely controllable, sick Runic. If Kalyna fell, it left only Vee, who was nowhere near as powerful or able-bodied. She was not The One.
Kalyna thwarted Lanthar’s speech with a squeeze to his shoulder. The two broke into a gaze that chilled the air around them. Lanthar had his hand on her arm. Their grips were succinct. No one moved. Something about the exchange was unsettling.
Kalyna broke the contact, struggling to do so at first, and patted his hand. “Sometimes Lanthar, when we have a great gift of power, we have to be willing to die trying to wield it, so we can serve those who need us. I am willing – wouldn’t you be?”