by SA Magnusson
“It’s her, Katie.”
“She’s not using any mage spells.”
“She was always chasing after different magic. That’s how I know this is your mother.”
I shivered. “It can’t be her.”
Gramps looked at me. There was something in his eyes that I couldn’t fully understand. Was it desperation?
I had thought that he and Gran had adjusted to the fact that my mother was gone, but seeing his expression, seeing the longing in his face, I realized that they hadn’t fully adjusted. How could they? They had lost their only daughter and they wanted her back as much as I wanted her back.
Only, I had been young enough that I had come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t going to return. How could she? If she wanted to come back, if she could come back, she would have done so before now, and the fact that she hadn’t told me that she must’ve been dead.
That was what I had hung onto all these years. It was a belief that my mother was gone, that the woman I loved, the woman who had comforted me all those years, was no longer around.
And yet, looking at her, I couldn’t deny the similarities between us. We had the same dark hair. The same eye color. And her face… her face reminded me of my mother’s.
Would it be her?
She attacked us again, slamming into my barrier.
Other attacks struck from different angles, targeting the other mages. They started into the trees, chasing them. I kept my focus on this mage—not my mother.
“Where is my friend?”
“Your friend will provide the necessary price.”
“What sort of price?”
“One that needs to be paid for my plan to succeed.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I’d seen how sacrifice was involved in certain spells, and if Jen had already been sacrificed, then there wasn’t anything I could do.
“You have my sword.” My voice trembled and I worried that I wouldn’t be strong enough.
“Your sword? I’m quite certain that I arranged for the demon king to be summoned so that I could acquire this blade.”
I stared at her, trying to understand what she was saying. “You arranged for it?”
“The demon king was little more than a distraction. What I wanted was for him to send across those who could help his cause. And this sword was an integral part of it.”
“It’s my sword.”
“I take it that you’re the one who stole from me. Had I known then that you would be so troublesome, I might have arranged a different approach.”
“Why do you want the sword?”
“It doesn’t matter to you. The sword is a conduit, but it’s of little use on this side of the Veil.”
“Then it’s of little use to you.”
“There you would be mistaken, as you were in coming here.” She darted forward, swinging the blade. I barely had time to react, and instinctively I summoned my sword, sweeping around to block.
My arm shook where we collided and she grunted, trying to drive the sword through mine, but I managed to withstand her attack. Sending a surge of power through myself, pushing out with the barrier, I shoved her away.
She grinned at me. “I think you actually could have been a challenger had you more time.”
“A challenger for what?”
“Unfortunately, you will remain ignorant. And you will fail.”
“Is this what Solera wants you to do?”
“What she wants me to do? I think you have it wrong. Were it up to her, she would stay in this place, this prison,” she sneered. “She has no respect for the person that she was, and she would live out her days in misery, waiting for revelers of the sun to come to her. She would squander the gift that she was given.”
“What gift would she squander?”
The woman wagged her finger. “You don’t get to ask questions.”
“Seeing as how you’re not asking them, either, I figured one of us needed to.”
“You present an unfortunate delay in my plans. It’s time for me to remove you and the trouble that you caused before you create additional difficulties.”
She swung the sword around and pulled on the spell, power crackling along the surface of the blade, causing it to glow with the strange orange light.
I countered, sweeping my magical sword around, hoping that if nothing else, I could meet her blade, resist it and turn it against her, but the demon blade swiped through mine, causing my magic to explode outward.
I staggered and would have fallen into her, but Barden was there, grabbing me. He slung out his hands, twisting in a rapid pattern, and pressed upward just as her blade swept toward him. He caught it and avoided getting cut in half through the force of whatever spell he held.
“Go, Dr. Michaels. Find Solera and finish this.”
“Finish it?” the woman asked. “There will be no finishing until my task is complete.”
Darvish kicked, catching the woman on the back of her leg, and she swung around, sweeping her blade. It would have crashed into Darvish’s neck, severing his head, but Aron was there. His blade caught hers, the sound reverberating within the trees.
I looked over at Gramps. His eyes were wide, but I worried that he would do something foolish.
The other mages began to circle the woman. I wasn’t about to call her my mother—I was not convinced that she was.
“Dr. Michaels,” Barden urged. He still lay on his back, his spell holding the sword, the grim concentration on his face telling me how hard he exerted himself.
I nodded and turned to race into the trees. I had to trust that the mages could contain her, and even if they couldn’t, I needed to get to Solera, if only to know what was going on. If she wasn’t involved, then wouldn’t she be inclined to help us stop the mage?
After running fifty feet, I slammed into a barrier.
I looked back to see the woman holding her hand out.
I summoned my sword and hacked into the barrier. I put everything that I could into it until the barrier shattered, letting me free. Mages surrounded her and power built, spells echoing one after another, before they all disappeared from my view.
I passed a body on the trail, one I recognized. The man lay motionless and I remembered that he had brought me and Aron over here the first time I’d come.
At the tree line, where the clearing started, I paused.
Something didn’t feel right.
There was power within the clearing, which didn’t surprise me. It was a place of fae magic, a place where Solera ruled, holding onto the remnants of her power, and the strange pool at the center of it collected power that connected to the other side of the Veil. That pool was still there, and suspended above it was Solera.
She hung in place, motionless. She was dressed in a golden gown and her eyes were wide, her body stiff. Everything about her felt wrong.
As I stood there, I could feel the direction of the ley lines, and the way the magic swirled, heading toward me, practically caressing me. It was focused upon that pool.
Not just on the pool, but on Solera.
I stepped forward.
Pain burned along my skin and I slammed my barrier into place, holding it. I hesitated, waiting for that pain to continue, but it didn’t.
Where was Jen?
She was going to be the sacrifice, but from the looks of it, from seeing the way Solera was suspended, I wondered if perhaps she was the sacrifice, too.
I continued forward and moved cautiously, waiting for the possibility of an attack.
When I reached the edge of the pool, I hesitated. Within the pool was a reflection. The last time I’d been here and paid any attention to that reflection, I had been with Solera. She had showed me the forest on the other side of the Veil, revealing the presence of that magic, and as I stared, I saw no sign of that forest.
Instead, what reflected back at me was stonework.
It was exquisite. There was detail in the carving, almost as if sculptures were placed i
n the surface of the stone, but it seemed as if I were looking at an incomplete image. There was more that I couldn’t make out, though what was it?
I started to make a circle, working my way around the pool the same way I had the last time, wanting to draw upon the power within it.
“Don’t.”
The voice came from the center of the pool. Solera.
“Why not?”
“This power has been changed. You can’t use it.”
“She has changed the ley lines.”
“What she has done is temporary. There is nothing permanent.”
“It feels permanent.”
“It only feels that way to you because your life has been fleeting.” Solera remained completely rigid, not even looking in my direction. Even her mouth didn’t seem to move. “If you attempt to draw upon this power, it will damage you.”
“Damage?”
“If you share the connection I suspect, it will.”
“And what connection is that?”
“That of royal blood.”
“What sort of royal blood? You mean like the fae?”
“There are other royals, on the other side of the Veil. I hadn’t been certain before, but when you were able to access this power, it made it clear to me that you are something quite different than I ever expected.”
“No.”
“You can deny it all you wish, but that power burns within you. And if you touch this, if you try to use it, you will change. You will die.”
I swallowed. My mouth was dry and I couldn’t take my eyes off Solera. It seemed as if I were so close to understanding what I was, who I was, but the idea that I might be a royal anything didn’t fit with my belief in myself.
But I had to believe that what Solera said had merit. When I had reached the power before, when I had attempted to use that power stored within the ley lines, I had suffered. There had been something within it that had harmed me. I had changed, and it was only through my connection to my other magic, the one that nauseated me, that I had managed to survive.
“How can I stop it?”
“There is no stopping it.”
“What does she want with you?”
“Power.”
“She can use your power?”
“She will be granted power.”
“How?”
“There’s a reason that I have been on this side of the Veil.”
“So I’ve heard. My grandparents shared with me why you are here. It’s because you were exiled.”
“Exiled? Is that the story they share now?”
“Is it just a story?”
“I suppose it may be, but it doesn’t make it any easier to hear. Regardless, there are some who think that bringing me back across the Veil can benefit them. They think that in doing so, they would be granted gifts by those on the other side.”
“Why?”
“Because of what I did when I still lived on the other side of the Veil.”
“And what was that?”
“You’re still looking for others to provide you answers.”
“Considering I have no experience with the Veil, I think that I need to.”
“I would disagree with your lack of experience. I have seen that you have an understanding of your connection to the Veil. You have used that power, and yet now you claim that you don’t understand?”
“I’ve used it through ignorance.”
“I can tell that you have not. You’ve used it other times. I could feel it.”
“You could feel it when I did?”
“I continue to have a connection.”
“How can I get you down?”
“She’s already finished. You cannot save me.”
“I am going to save you. I’m going to save my friend. You know where she is?”
“If your friend is here, then she’s already been sacrificed.”
“I refuse to believe that.”
“Believe it or not, but in order for her to succeed with her spell, she would need to have placed her sacrifice. It binds the calling here.”
“That’s the shifting of the ley lines? That’s the calling?”
“It is.”
“What if we got here before she finished binding it?”
“Then perhaps it’s not too late. It soon will be. She’s incredibly gifted.”
I looked around, searching for someplace—anyplace—that the woman would have left Jen, but could come up with nothing. If she were here, I didn’t have any way of knowing where the woman had brought her.
I could find nothing, but I knew there had to be someplace where the woman would’ve brought Jen. Glancing over at Solera, I considered trying to rescue her first, but how? She was suspended above this pool and I had no way of reaching her.
“How is she holding you there?”
“It’s all part of her spell. Even you must admit that it is quite impressive.”
Pushing out with my magic, I tried to wrap a barrier around Solera, but it slipped off. Trying again, I failed once more.
“You won’t be able to stop her,” Solera said.
“I don’t believe that,” I said.
“You can choose what to believe, but the spell is too far along.” Resignation hung in her voice.
“What is it you fear? What does she plan to do with you?”
“It’s not so much what she plans to do with me. It’s what will happen when she carries me across.”
“That’s what this is about? She intends to open a way across the Veil?”
“She’s already begun that.”
“And what’s the point of redirecting the ley lines?”
“All part of her plan.”
“I have to stop it, but how?”
It might involve stopping the mage, but how could I do that if she was as powerful as she seemed?
Releasing my connection to magic, I continued to circle around the pool, looking for where the woman might have kept Jen. There was a small structure near the tree line, and I hurried over to it, pulling open the door.
Any hope that Jen might be inside was dashed. It was empty.
There had to be some way of finding out what she intended, but what? Where would she have kept my friend?
I took a deep breath, heading back toward the pool. Solera claimed that I would be damaged if I were to try to use it, but if I didn’t, then she would succeed.
I started making my circle around it, dragging my foot and adding power to it.
“What are you doing?” Solera snapped at me.
“I’m going to stop this.”
“I’ve already told you what would happen if you attempt to do it.”
“You told me that it might affect my magic. That it would alter me. But I’m willing to take that risk if it means restoring the ley lines and stopping her.”
There was something about changing the ley lines that was important. It was more than just about capturing Solera, though that had to be a part of it. And if she intended to funnel the power of the ley lines across the Veil, then whatever was on the other side receiving that power would be even more powerful.
As I neared the completion of the circle, a voice hollered out at me.
“If you do that, your friend will die.”
I glanced back. The woman stood, Jen clutched in her arms, the sword pressed up against her stomach. Jen trembled, unable to move.
Jen stared at me, panic in her eyes. She shouldn’t even be involved in this.
“Kate?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Don’t hurt her,” I said.
“Don’t finish what you’re doing,” the mage said.
I had only a few steps more, close enough that all I needed to do was complete the circle, and if I did, I would either be able to summon the power from within it, drawing off the Veil and hopefully rerouting whatever she had done to the ley lines, or I would suffer.
But if I did it, my best friend, a person who wanted nothing to do with the magical world,
would die because of me. Could I do that to her?
“What is this about?”
“As I said, you can’t begin to understand.”
“I can begin to understand. If you’re the reason that the demon king was summoned, somehow you have been trying to influence events on this side of the Veil for some reason. What purpose do you have?”
“It’s power,” Solera said behind me.
It was more than about power. It had to be.
“Once this is over, I will be gone, and it won’t matter. You can seal off the connection to the Veil, and you can go on with your days, no longer needing to worry about what is happening on the other side of the Veil,” the woman said.
“Let go of my friend.”
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that. You see, I do need the blood of a non-magical person, and your friend happened to be in the right place at the right time. While I could go and grab another, I don’t really want to take that time, especially seeing as how you and your council have been foolish enough to come here after me.”
“I’m not letting you succeed.”
“You aren’t? How do you intend to stop me when all of the mages you brought with you were unable to do so?”
Could she really have stopped all of them?
That involved people I cared about. People like Aron. Darvish. Barden. Gran and Gramps.
I had a hard time thinking that she had succeeded in destroying all of them. More likely, she had placed some sort of barrier, restricting access, but even that might be enough to make it so that they weren’t able to help.
I had to finish this, but how?
I stared at the woman, trying to make sense of what she was doing, but unable to do so.
I had a decision to make. The woman hesitated, but she had said that she intended to use Jen, so regardless of what I did, she intended to harm my friend.
But if I drew enough power, if I was somehow able to connect to the other side of the Veil, even if it involved using the tainted ley lines, I might be able to overcome whatever she did.
I ran forward, completing my circle.
The woman glared at me. Her blade slipped forward, sliding into Jen’s stomach.
With the completion of the circle, power filled me.
It was different than the power that I had connected to before, and I reached for it, no longer feeling as if I couldn’t react. I had moments, probably nothing more than that, before Jen died of her wounds.