by Walsh, Sara
“I’m relieved it still stands,” my father replied.
“You haven’t been back?”
“I doubt I could ever go back,” he said.
He pointed to the bench on the opposite side of the table. I sat, back straight, chin up, feeling a little like when I’d interviewed for my job at Mickey’s. Here’s a resume of my life, Dad. Sorry you’re not in it, but you were busy with other things. But I didn’t want to talk about me.
“You know your son is here,” I said. “That Elias, or whatever his name is, took him and six other boys.”
My father’s gaze never once left my face. “It’s why I came,” he replied. “I received a message not long after it happened and I immediately set out. I have been traveling night and day.”
What did he want? A Boy Scout badge?
“A message from whom?” I asked.
“From your uncle, Petraeus.”
Petraeus? “You mean Pete? But Pete’s in Crownsville.”
He took from his pocket a palm-sized stone, sapphire in color and highly polished. He placed it on the table between us. I snatched it up. “I’ve seen this before! On the living room shelf.”
“It’s a parler stone,” said Bromasta, still watching me intently. “A communication device. This is one of a pair. Your uncle holds the other.”
“So you’ve been checking up on us.”
“More regularly than you know.”
I ran my finger across the surface and caught my face reflected back. My frown was so deep it reminded me of Oscar the Grouch. I pictured Pete alone at the house. I saw the blue stone on the bookshelf. Crownsville had never seemed so close. “We should call him.”
Bromasta took the stone from my hand and laid it back on the table. “There’s nothing Petraeus can do to help.”
“But he might care to know that I’m still alive!” I caught the accusation in my tone as soon as I’d said the words. I paused. This wasn’t about Pete and polished stones. “What are you doing here?”
“I came for you and Jaylan.”
“His name’s Jay. And you’ve had years to do that. Why now?”
“Because everything your mother and I’d planned for you has unraveled.”
My heart kicked as soon as he said “mother.” This was going to be harder than I thought. He was holding back, almost as much as I was. You could see it in the tension around his mouth, the deep ridges on his forehead, and the white knuckles of his clasped hands.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“She is gone.”
“Gone? Or dead?”
He failed to reply. It didn’t take a genius to put it together. “It’s because of what she did, isn’t it?” I said. “She stole the necklace.”
It was only when Bromasta looked to the doorway that I remembered that Sol was there. “How much does she know?” he asked him.
“Not much,” replied Sol. He turned away, clearly wanting no part in the conversation. “I’ll be outside if you need me, Mia.” He closed the door behind him.
“Why did you leave us?” I asked, as soon as we were alone. “I can look after myself, but Jay? He’s just a kid.”
“We had no choice,” said Bromasta. He shifted in his seat and the scent of horse and sweat rose from his coat.
“I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Giving you up was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I wouldn’t have done it differently. If I’d had my way, you would never have come back here.”
At least he was honest.
“Too late now,” I said. “Why did they kill her?”
It was clear we were cut from the same cloth; he kept his emotions almost as tightly reined as me. But that one question finally made a crack in his businesslike facade.
“Because of who she was,” he said.
“And who was that?”
Pain entered his eyes—deep, heartfelt pain, more physical than emotional, and right away I knew that he’d loved her.
“Your mother was the rightful keeper of the Solenetta.”
It took a couple of seconds for that to sink in. I’d spent so many years profiling a woman I’d never known, a thief, or worse, languishing in jail, serving time as she deserved. My father’s declaration turned the entire theory on its head. All these years, I’d thought my mother was the worst kind of scum and she’d done nothing wrong? The Solenetta had been rightfully hers?
“Your mother’s name was Ilalia,” he continued. “She was Balian. Born of the bloodline descended from the creators of the Barrier. They, and only they, have the power to manipulate the solens and create a true and lasting Equinox.” He’d regained his calm manner. It suited me fine. I could handle calm and collected.
“Then how come other people can use grains?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. Was that a trace of a smile?
“You’re sharp, Mia. Tell me what you know.”
“Not much,” I replied. “A solen grain is in an orb, the orb contains a spell, the spell allows the grain to open the Barrier. But there’s no spell strong enough to harness the power of a complete solen. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“But you said someone with Balian blood doesn’t need the spell. That they can open the Barrier using only a solen. So even if Elias finds a solen, it’s worthless without one of that bloodline to use it?”
“Without a spell, which he cannot conjure, there would be no reaction. There’s no doubt Elias has solens, Mia, yet he’s been unable to open the Barrier.”
“And that’s why he’s taken Jay,” I said. The explanation felt right as soon as I said it. It wasn’t simply about the Solenetta. Elias had been drawn to Jay because of where he’d come from.
“I just assumed Elias was looking for the Solenetta and that he’d thought Jay had it,” I stated, my argument gaining strength. “But he was looking for someone Balian—someone who could use a solen. He must have given up on the Solenetta. He’s just trying to open the Barrier any way he can.
“But it doesn’t make sense. Of all the Balian people, why Jay? Why those other boys? I don’t get it!”
“It will be hard to understand unless you know it all.”
“Then tell me,” I urged.
His hands formed a pyramid beneath his chin, the skin around his eyes crinkling as he watched me. “From the beginning of the Barrier,” he said, “the Balians knew of the connection between the solens and the Equinox. Having created the Barrier, they devoted themselves to remaining its master. They experimented, tested its powers, its limits. They found that individual solens created a brief, temporary Equinox. It was the idea of a Balian Elder to link solens, to harness their power in a single entity that alone could effect a true and lasting Equinox.”
“So they made the Solenetta?”
“And in doing so, created an object of such power that it could transform the future of our world and its Barrier. They did not fear what could be brought about through individual solens; it was a reaction they’d long ago mastered.”
“And the Solenetta?”
“An entirely different entity, one of such strength that anyone who wielded it could induce the Equinox at any Barrier weakness, however small. Using the Solenetta required no training, no skill. It is a key that opens the Barrier.
“Such power would need all of Balia’s protection. So they made a decision. In each generation there would be one—and only one—bound to the Solenetta by magic. Only one could use it.”
“And at one point that was my mother?” I asked, stunned.
“It was,” said Bromasta. “And Elias, through his many travels, his many guises, learned this. Your mother left Balia during the Great War. It is a long story I have no care to tell you and one the Balians would rather forget. Still, Elias hunted her to the valley.”
“He destroyed the valley to find her?”
“Partly. The valley wasn’t safe anymore, for anyone, especially Rheinholds. We took you when you were just a baby and gave you and the
Solenetta to Petraeus. He hid you on the Other Side with a woman we knew from this world.”
“Grandma,” I said, nodding.
“She was no blood relative, Mia. She was a magician who’d fled following the Purge. She had the skills to protect you. She kept you safe. Petraeus kept the Solenetta himself—away from you, where you and it were safer still.”
“But you said only one in each generation could use it. That was Mom.” Chilled, I paused. “Hold on. I used the Solenetta on the Ridge.”
“That is right, Mia,” said Bromasta. “The Solenetta was passed to you. You are its rightful owner.”
Clearly he’d made a mistake. Why would it pass to me? I’d never even been to Balia! It belonged with someone who knew what they were doing, who understood solens and the Equinox and magic, not a high school student from Nebraska! Bound by magic? What did that even mean?
But I saw myself on the Ridge, the Solenetta in my hand, the Barrier opening before me. And the night the demon had taken Jay, the Barrier had been closing by the time I’d gotten there. That is, until I’d stepped onto the Ridge with the Solenetta around my neck and the great wall of light had expanded. The Equinox.
“You passed it from Mom to me,” I said, disbelieving though I understood. “Before you sent me to the Other Side.”
Bromasta nodded. “Using a spell Ilalia conjured. We had no choice. Elias would never have given up looking for her. It had to pass on. With you and the Solenetta safely on the Other Side, we eluded Elias for many years. When Jaylan was born—”
I straightened. “We have the same mother?”
“Yes.”
The blonde in the photograph with the sad but beautiful eyes. She was my mother too. “What happened to her? How did she die?”
“Eventually Elias’s men found us,” Bromasta replied. “They took her. Though the Solenetta was safely beyond his reach, Elias found other solens and tried to force Ilalia to use them to forge another opening, however insignificant it might be. Your mother resisted. She was strong, Mia, but strength only lasts so long.”
Horror-struck, I listened to his tale. No wonder Sol had kept quiet about the necklace. If I had been in his place, I wouldn’t have wanted to be the one to tell its story either.
“Increasingly desperate, Elias searched for those of your mother’s bloodline, determined to find any person who could connect with the solens in his possession. Balia itself was closed to him. Following the Great War, they’d barred their doors, creating an impenetrable web of spells and enchantments. All Elias could do was to look for others in Brakaland who shared Ilalia’s blood. That was when I removed Jaylan from this world.”
“And that’s why they’ve taken him.” My voice strained. Everything that had happened since Alex had disappeared, since Jay had seen his mom in the cornfield, flashed before my eyes. “They found out you had a son on the Other Side, they just didn’t know who. Elias’s demons weren’t snatching random kids. They were looking for Jay. They’re going to make him open the Barrier.”
“They’ll fail,” said Bromasta. “Without the Solenetta, Elias cannot create a lasting Equinox, no matter how hard he deludes himself that he can. He’s looked for the Solenetta. He hasn’t found it. All he has is a pitiful belief that the son of Ilalia Rheinhold might bring down the Barrier with individual solens.”
“But he might know something you don’t! He has Jay. He has solens.”
“You’re not listening, Mia. An individual solen is dumb without a mind tuned to its power. Jay does not have that power.”
“How can you know that? You haven’t seen him for seven years!”
Pain again entered Bromasta’s eyes. “When I took Jaylan to the Barrier, I placed a solen in his young hand,” he said. “Nothing. Away from this world, he’s never learned the skills necessary to manipulate the stones. He cannot help Elias. Only the Solenetta, in the hand of the one bound to it, can create the lasting Equinox.”
“Then Elias is on a false trail.”
“There is only one who can use the Solenetta, Mia. Only one that it hears. You.”
I put my head in my hands and tried to digest what I’d heard. For the first time since stumbling into Brakaland, the story did actually make sense. All of it. Only, it was impossible. “This is bad.”
“Not as bad as you think,” Bromasta replied. “Elias doesn’t know you exist. He knows only that Ilalia bore a son. He doesn’t realize that she passed the Solenetta to her daughter long before Jaylan was born.”
“He knows someone opened the Barrier,” I said. “You should hear the talk in Bordertown!”
“But he doesn’t know it was you. That is our greatest strength. And now we have to get you out before you’re found.”
“And if I am found?” I asked. “I’m not my mother! I can’t stop the Barrier from opening. I’ve already used the Solenetta and I didn’t even know what it was then! We’ll have to destroy it. I’ll use grains to get me and Jay back.”
“It can’t be destroyed, Mia.”
“Of course it can,” I exclaimed. “How else did they get grains? They ground up solens. Let’s grind it up.”
“It can’t be done. The Solenetta cannot be destroyed.”
I felt like a time bomb waiting to go off. My mother, Jay, Pete, me—all of us were wrapped up in a tale of which I wanted no part. And then there was this man, Bromasta Rheinhold, my father.
Stunned, speechless, I sat as Bromasta wearily removed his coat and placed it on the table. Beneath his coat, he wore a deep green shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. I frowned.
“The tattoo,” I said, pointing to his arm. “You have the tattoo.”
Bromasta glanced at his forearm where the Lunestral lay strong and true.
“I was the king’s man for many years, Mia,” he said. “Before the madness of the Purge forced me out of that court of lies. But I am the king’s man in my heart. Many who support his reign bear his mark.”
The mark of a king.
“That’s what it means?” I asked, my mind racing. “It’s connected to the king? Then why did you tattoo Jay?”
Bromasta shrugged, clearly surprised by my interest in something he obviously considered of little note. “The Lunestral’s protection is always granted to the sons of those who stand at the king’s side,” he said. “I am now a Freeman, Mia, but King Solander is my friend. A good friend. An old friend. The Rheinhold family stands by him, no matter what disagreements we may have had in the past.”
For the first time in my life, I wished I had that tattoo. I’d swap it for the Solenetta any day of the week. I’d seen how invulnerable Sol had been to the demons and the shadow imps.
My heart kicked, then raced. My mouth dried. I stared at Bromasta, but I saw only the dream bird’s wings in red and gold, green and blue stretched from shoulder to shoulder, from neck to hip on Sol’s back.
“Sol,” I said. “He has the tattoo.”
“Solandun? But of course. He is descended from the Lunestral. Its power is in his blood.”
“The king,” I said, my voice falling into a hush. “You said his name was Solander?”
“Solander the Second of the House of Beseye.”
Everything slipped into place. Sol’s father was in the West. Malone’s wariness around him. Why Sol had worried he’d be recognized at the store.
“It can’t be,” I whispered, though already I knew it was true.
Solander.
Solandun.
Sol.
I looked at my father. “He’s the king’s son.”
* * *
I sat on the steps in the alley outside Vermillion’s walled yard, my emotions lurching between shock, embarrassment, and rage. Solenetta? Fate of the world? A long-lost father turns up on the doorstep? Small fry. I’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for a guy descended from the dream bird. I’d fallen for the king’s son.
Okay, I knew it could never have been. I knew I belonged in Crownsville and Sol belonged here. But it had bee
n nice to pretend.
There was no pretending anymore. The time we’d just spent together walking Orion’s streets. When we’d stood side by side in the valley and he’d told me about the Falls of Verderay. I’d gotten it all wrong. It was as Delane had said. Sol thinks about one thing and one thing only—defeating Elias and closing the Barrier forever. And I was the means to do it.
A chirrup came from across the alley, and from behind a crate, a gutterscamp scurried into the open, drawn by the scraps of food left here during the day. It offered me a cursory glance before darting back behind its crate where I knew it watched me.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, strangely glad for the company and wishing my life was as straightforward as a gutterscamp’s.
Its eyes peered out. I pulled the Snickers from my pocket, the one Sol had given me to bribe the gate guard. “I know you want this,” I said. I took off the wrapper and held it out. “Come and get it.”
The gutterscamp took a couple of dancing leaps, but stayed well back. It watched me, head to one side, its long neck stretched. I tossed him the candy bar. The little guy snatched it up.
“You really shouldn’t feed them.”
It was Sol. I hadn’t heard him open the gate to Vermillion’s yard behind me. The gutterscamp took one look, and then bounded into the shadows. Stomach churning, I turned away. “It looked like it hadn’t eaten for days.”
“It’ll follow you everywhere now.”
He stepped through the gateway, then sat at my side without invitation. I pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
There was no avoiding this, no matter how much I wanted to. What was I going to do? Hide from him until the moment I stepped back through the Barrier?
“He told me everything,” I said.
Sol leaned forward, trying to catch my eye. I stared at his hands, unable to trust myself to look at any other part of him. From this moment on, he was strictly off-limits, rescuing Jay our only connection. The illusion of him was fading like ripples on the surface of a pool.
“I was in Crownsville to watch you, Mia,” he said. “Why else do you think I’d go to that awful school?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, empty inside. “You tell me.”