I groaned. My head pounded, the pressure inside making me wonder if I was bleeding from the ears. Groggily, I rolled over and coughed. The numbness had reached my lungs. I could barely get a good breath.
“You must hurry. The soldiers are nearly here,” she urged in her weird accent.
I raised my head enough to glare at her. “Working on it,” I wheezed.
“Perhaps you have overestimated your talents?” She arched a brow, her deep ebony skin gleaming flawlessly in the faint light. With slender pointed ears peeking out through her long, loosely curled locks of black hair, the woman studied me and tilted her head to the side slightly.
She looked like an elf—but not any I’d ever seen before. Her lithe frame was petite but muscular, and there was a bizarre mark on her face. A thin, curved line crossed her forehead and vanished into her hair like a circlet with a small crescent shape right in the center. When she moved, the light shimmered off those markings as though they’d been painted there with liquid silver. Strange—but beautiful.
“What? Melting doors wasn’t impressive enough for you?” I rasped as I dragged my tingling, aching body upright. When I stumbled, she quickly darted forward to grab my arm and steady me. Her grip was surprisingly strong for someone who probably didn’t stand a single inch over five feet.
“I’ve seen such tricks. But I take it you’ve never seen a Lunostri before,” she quipped, stepping away again with one of her eyebrows arched.
“How’d you guess?”
“Because you’re staring at me like I’ve got a second head. I suppose it can’t be helped. From what little I’ve seen, the elves in your lands seem quite different. And my people are not explorers. We prefer to keep to our own and let the rest of the world squabble amongst itself. It wasn’t until the Tibrans landed that many of us had ever set foot beyond our borders.” The woman crossed her arms and stood back to observe me from a cautious distance. I guess she didn’t quite trust me yet. Fair enough.
“Is that how you wound up down here?” I asked.
She gave a stiff nod. “Argonox took many of my people into his ranks after he conquered our land. No doubt he plans to do the same here. Don’t let him see your power—he’s rather fond of adding special individuals to his private collection.”
Hah! Too late for that.
“Does that include you?” I flashed her another look, studying her ragged clothes and bare feet. It was impossible to tell anything more about who she was or where she’d come from. The Tibrans had likely stripped away anything she owned when they took her prisoner.
Her lips bowed into a secretive little smile. “You could say that. But now is not the time for introductions. I checked on your friend. He is unconscious and severely beaten. It seems Argo was very thorough with his interrogation. I will have to carry him. But first, you must show me you can get us out of here.”
“Go get him, then.” I slurred a little as I let my shoulder rest against the closest stone wall. “And hurry.”
I closed my eyes as the elf woman disappeared into Aubren’s cell. I had to get it together—I had to finish this. A few deep breaths, that’s all I needed. Then I could finish killing myself so Aubren would be safe.
So far, valestepping was my most costly talent, just as Jaevid had warned it would be. I’d only done it once, and it had immediately brought me to my knees with a pain like a dragon was doing a tap dance on my head. I wouldn’t survive it this time, and yet I knew it was the only way to get them out of here. I’d send them as far north as I could. Hopefully it would be far enough.
Taking Aubren myself or going along with them wasn’t an option. I wouldn’t be able to make the journey to safety in Luntharda on my own, let alone carrying Aubren. We’d both die somewhere in the snowbound prairie. So, sending this mysterious pointy-eared girl in my place was better. She looked capable. Gods, I prayed she was.
Once they were clear of Northwatch, if I was still alive, I would use whatever remained of my power to bring down this place and kill as many Tibrans in the process as possible. If I could make any dent in Argonox’s forces, it would be worth it. I’d carve my name into his memory with blood, and he would never forget it.
Sounded good at the time, anyway.
Down the hall, the voices and footsteps of the Tibran soldiers grew closer, mingled with the baying of hounds. No wonder they were able to track me so easily.
“Shall I slow their progress?” Noh offered with a gleeful laugh. At least one of us was enjoying this.
I shook my head. “Not worth it. Let them come. I need every last drop of power I have left to open the portal.”
“Who are you talking to?” The elf woman reappeared from the darkness of the cell with Aubren’s limp body over her shoulders. He was easily twice her size, but she didn’t shake or waver at all as she strode out to meet me.
“Death.” I chuckled. Maybe that was a bad joke, but it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“I hear them! This way!” Someone shouted down the hall. The soldiers were nearly upon us.
“Well?” The elf woman’s bright eyes flashed with urgent panic.
“Get ready.” I sucked in a few more, final breaths and pushed away from the wall.
The hounds were coming. Their claws clicked off the stone, and their snarling and growling echoing off the ceiling. We had seconds.
Widening my stance again, I pushed both of my arms forward with my palms pressed together and squeezed my eyes shut. I called forth every lingering fragment of my power, every sparse fragment from the furthest corners of my mind and gathered it there before my open palms. My body twitched, resisting the pull. My breath caught. My heartbeat thundered in my ears as everything went numb and cold. Focus. I had to keep calm. This was my last chance and it had to count.
Slowly, I pulled my hands apart like I was opening a curtain.
I couldn’t see it—not with my eyes closed. But I felt it just as clearly as if it were a part of me. The fabric of the living world split, opening to reveal what lay beyond. The Vale. A portal of churning, swirling darkness that led into the realm of the spirits.
“By the goddess,” the elf woman gasped. “You are—”
“G-go!” I roared. She could be mystified by my awesome power later. I couldn’t hold the portal open forever. With every passing second, my pulse slowed, and my body shook under the strain. My lungs constricted. I couldn’t breathe anymore. Something warm drizzled out of my nose and eyes, streaking my face and dripping off my chin.
Blood.
“Go now!”
Peeling my eyes open, I stole one last look at her as she darted past, lugging Aubren over her shoulders like a giant, man-shaped sack of flour. Her jaw was set, vivid eyes flashing with a resolute determination I had to admire. She ran straight for the portal without hesitation.
This was it. She was going to make it.
Something whipped past my head, humming through the air. Too late, I realized what it was.
Oh no.
The arrow caught the elf woman right in the back of the calf. She stumbled. Aubren’s large frame rolled off her back as she fell forward, arms flailing wildly as though trying to catch herself and hang onto him at the same time.
It didn’t work.
The last thing I saw was her long black hair disappearing into the portal as Aubren flopped onto the ground right before it. She’d gone through the portal—or fallen into it, rather—but Aubren hadn’t been along for the ride.
No—No!
Something inside me snapped.
My body jerked suddenly, pitching wildly as the coldness under my skin exploded through every part of me. It was finished. I felt my heart stop with one final, desperate thump.
Then nothing—just a strange silence in my ears where my pulse and breathing should have been.
Dark energy hummed through my veins, vibrating through every part of my brain. The world spun around me, smeared with the light of torches blurring
in and out of focus. The sound of the approaching soldiers was muffled chaos. My body suddenly went slack as the portal closed, like a puppet with the strings cut, and I landed in a sprawl on the floor right next to Aubren.
I barely recognized him, lying only a foot or two away. His entire face was purple and bloated, and there was dried blood crusted around his nose and mouth. One of his eyes had practically swollen shut. Some of the bruises were turning yellow and green—they were older and already healing. Others were a deep, angry shade of purple and fresh. He’d been beaten many times, probably interrogated and tortured. Gods. Was he even alive?
Thoughts swirled through my mind, tossed amidst the churning whirlpool of thrumming power as everything went dark. I’d failed him. I’d failed Jenna, Jaevid, and Enyo, too. Now we were both going to die here in this putrid hole, far away from the people we loved.
“Sorry,” I croaked, not knowing if he’d hear me.
Aubren’s brow twitched. Slowly, his eyes opened just enough that I could see him staring back at me. “Reigh?” he groaned. “W-why? How?”
There were a thousand things I wanted to say. He was right about everything. I was his brother, albeit a lousy one. I shouldn’t have left them after that first battle. I was a coward. I’d run away like a sniveling child and hid because … because I was embarrassed and ashamed. Maldobar deserved better than that. I should have been there to fight for Barrowton again. Maybe if I had, none of this would have happened.
It was too late for all that now, though.
And besides, I couldn’t say any of it.
As soon as I opened my mouth to try to speak, someone grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head off the floor. I dangled, delirious and defenseless, staring groggily into the sneer of a Tibran soldier dressed out in elaborate bronze armor. He wore a matching sloped helm with a mane of light feathers down the middle, the visor raised so he could wrinkle his nose at me.
“We’ve got you now, Maldobarian rat.”
Under any other circumstance, I’d have snapped back with a clever and witty one-liner. I was good at those. Maybe something about how nice he looked in that fancy pink helmet. Did they give those to the lousiest fighters in the Tibran armies? Or just the ugly ones?
But I couldn’t speak. My lungs squeezed and spasmed for want of just one tiny breath.
“Lord Argonox! I’ve found him!” The solider dropped me like a rotten apple, sending me face-first back into the floor. Then he used the toe of his boot to poke me in the ribs. “I think he’s dead.”
As if I would ever be that lucky.
“Turn him over,” a deep, smooth voice spoke over me.
Immediately, the soldier roughly rolled me onto my back. I couldn’t move. It took every ounce of strength to suck in one, short, desperate little breath. Just enough to keep me conscious a few seconds more. I was helpless, sprawled out in the most undignified way possible, as I stared up at the stone ceiling overhead. I didn’t have much choice about that because I couldn’t move my head.
Then an unfamiliar face eclipsed my view.
A man about Aubren’s age peered down at me, his slate blue eyes narrowing as he grabbed my chin and turned my face to the side long enough to look at my ears. “My, my. The Fates have smiled upon me today after all.” The smile that curled over his lips was nothing short of disturbing. “He’s not dead. This is the boy Hilleddi discovered, the one who turned the tide at Barrowton. He’s human, although he dresses like one of those elf savages from Luntharda.”
“T-the one who serves the dark goddess?” The soldier stammered. “The angel of death!”
Wait—the Tibrans knew about Clysiros?
“None other. No wonder your men have had such a difficult time containing him.”
“Yes, My Lord. He slaughtered everything on the ground floor. Even the two dread-hounds.” The soldier paused as he leaned over me again, trying to peek around his master’s head. He swallowed hard. “If he truly is not dead, then perhaps we should take precautions in case—”
“He is no longer a threat, Captain. He obliterated two legions of my finest soldiers at Barrowton—after that, sieging a tower should be elementary for someone playing with that kind of power. He must have drawn out too much of it in an effort to save that shoddy excuse for a prince. A convenient mistake for us. And here I thought today would be a waste.” Argonox’s smile widened. “Pushed it right to the brink didn’t you, boy? A pity no one in this kingdom seems to know anything about divine power.”
“What shall we do with him, My Lord?”
“Bind him and take him to the experimental wing. Phoebe will have much work to keep her occupied.”
“And the prince?”
Argonox’s face disappeared from my view. He sighed as his heavy footsteps began to retreat. “Put him back in the cell.” The footsteps stopped abruptly. “No … wait.”
“My Lord?”
“Hilleddi said this boy broke the Mirror of Truth. That he was able to defy it with his dark power.” Argonox’s voice drew closer again. His eyes narrowed slightly, brow creasing as though he were trying to read my mind. “Coming down here was utter madness. There is no exit from this portion of the tower, and he must have known he was already pushing his abilities to their limits. But rather than escaping with the rest of his cohorts, he came down here. He must have known he would be risking death.”
“We have seen such efforts from Maldobarian troops on behalf of their royals before,” the Captain offered. “They are nothing if not fiercely loyal.”
“True, but this goes beyond mere loyalty to the crown.” A hand grabbed my chin again roughly. Argonox turned my head, forcing me to make eye contact with him. “And you are no mere soldier. It was not your power that spared you from the mirror, was it? You spoke the truth to it.”
Bright spots swam in my vision as I started to lose it. Air—I needed air! Someone—please!
Gleeful realization sparkled in his eyes. “You are a Prince of Maldobar.”
A greedy, endless darkness dragged me under. It snuffed out everything. My mind reeled, whirling with panic at that last glimpse of sheer excitement and delight on Argonox’s face. I didn’t want to imagine what that meant. Would he torture me? Kill me?
Or something worse?
THREE
“Reigh? Reigh! Wake up!”
A loud shout startled me awake, as though someone were bending right over to yell down into my face. But when my eyes flew open, there was nothing. Only empty air. What had happened? Where was I?
I couldn’t even move to find out. My whole body was numb and limp, nothing but an itchy, tingly, dead weight. Lying on my back, my vision gradually adjusted to the dimness of the prison cell where I was sprawled on the floor. It was essentially a windowless stone box with one heavy iron door. The smell of cinders, ash, and something else—like scorched metal—wafted past my nose. Each one of my shuddering breaths turned to white fog in the cold air.
“Reigh? Can you hear me?” The voice spoke again, so clear it seemed as though whoever was talking should be standing right over me. But there was nothing.
“W-Who?” My voice scraped hoarsely through my raw throat.
“Oh, thank the gods,” she replied. “I thought I was too late. It’s Hecate.”
Hecate? But where? I forced my aching eyeballs to roll around, searching as far around the cell as I could without being able to move my head.
“I’m here, in your head. It’s hard to explain. Noh let me in,” she explained quickly. “But I can’t do this for long. It’s still difficult. I’m trying, though. I’m practicing, just like Jaevid said. Soon I can help.”
“W-With what?”
“Hush now. Don’t waste your strength trying to talk. Just listen. I may not have much time,” she cooed gently. “I was able to find out where you are. The foundling spirits are much easier for me to talk to, so they’ve been helping me search,” she said. “The Tibrans have taken you aw
ay from Northwatch, further to the south. My grandfather believes you’re in Solhelm, at the old estate that used to belong to King Felix when he was still a duke.”
Solhelm? Why would Argonox want to bring me here? Surely Northwatch had been more defensible. It was a tower built for war.
“He’s been searching for something,” Hecate went on, as though she could read my mind. Maybe she could, if she was taking up Noh’s usual spot buried somewhere deep in my semi-conscious brain. “At first, I assumed it was the crystal. But I was wrong. Reigh, he’s been combing the estate’s cemetery. He’s opened almost all of the crypts, even the one where Jaevid was supposedly buried during the Gray War.”
I got a bad feeling about a second before she confirmed my worst fear.
“He’s exhuming the bodies of fallen dragonriders. He’s even collected the remains of several of their mounts. I think he’s planning something terrible. We must find a way to get you out of there before—”
Her voice went silent, as though someone had snuffed her out of my brain like a candle in the night. It didn’t matter. She’d said enough. Argonox was digging up old dragonrider graves and raiding them for their bones? That did not bode well for anyone, especially me. I didn’t know exactly what he intended to do with them, or me for that matter, but if the past was any clue, I was willing to bet it was going to be something horrible.
Lying alone in the depths of some duke’s dungeon, I tried to think of anything I could do to end this before it began. In this state, I couldn’t even try to kill myself. I was helpless, cut off from everyone who might be able to help me. I might as well have been sitting on the dark side of the moon.
No matter what I did, a persistent flicker of hope remained, burning brightly in the back of my mind that maybe Jaevid would come for me. He was probably the only one who could at this point. My better sense knew otherwise. Coming here would be suicide.
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