In the adjoining room, the doorknob turned.
She stiffened and reached inside taking hold of the blackness polluting her soul.
The door opened and Jo appeared holding a knapsack filled to the brim.
She released the black magic and pushed herself higher in the tub. “You’re back.”
“I am.” Jo smiled from the next room. “I’ve brought gifts.” Jo’s eyes gleamed.
“What gifts?”
“Get out of the tub and see for yourself.”
She stood and water dripped from her naked body. Minty suds slid down her legs and back into the tub’s brackish water. She grabbed a white towel from a short stack perched on a nearby table and wrapped her body.
Jo appeared in the doorway smiling. “Hungry?” Jo held a basket filled with steaming cornbread and butter.
Her stomach growled and she stepped from the tub. “That food smells delicious.”
Jo bit into a muffin before crossing into the adjoining room. “That’s not even the half of it. I’ve brought roast chicken, fresh potatoes, and warm apple pie.”
“I would’ve gone downstairs to meet you. You didn’t need to trouble yourself.” The words rang empty in her ear, and she doubted Jo believed them either.
“Wait until you see what I found at the store next to the inn.”
“Where did you get the money?”
“Lady Rika,” Jo said. “She told me to buy whatever I needed.”
She dried her hair and toweled the water from her body before slipping on a plush robe. “What did you buy?”
“Come out here and I’ll show you.”
She cinched a knot in the robe and wandered into the bedroom. The scent of roast chicken hung heavy in the air and her stomach growled.
Jo hovered over the water basin unpacking an odd assortment of jars, bottles, and tubes.
“What’s all that?”
Jo pointed to the food piled atop a desk. “Eat and I’ll tell you.”
She grabbed a wooden plate beside the cornbread muffins. “You found plates and cutlery?” Was there anything Jo couldn’t do?
Jo’s cheeks reddened. “Nathan gave them to me.”
“Ah yes.” She smiled. “It’s all coming clear.”
She piled roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and cornbread onto her plate. Like a condemned prisoner, she settled into the desk chair and gobbled down the feast.
Jo arranged the bottles and jars in an ordered line. With brow furrowed, the girl studied each one like an alchemist preparing to transmute gold.
“What are you doing?”
“Double checking. I need to make sure I have everything.”
“Everything for what?” She grinned. “You’re being so mysterious.”
“Growing up I learned some…tricks.”
“Go on.” She bit into a chicken leg.
“A friend of mine taught me how to apply cosmetics.”
“Oh?” She’d never had any use for cosmetics. Her path led her in a far different direction.
“My friend taught me how to change a woman’s hair color.”
She perked up. “Really? What sort of friend would teach you such things?” She scooped a bite of potato from her plate.
Jo’s gaze lingered on the label of a cobalt-blue bottle. “She worked with my mother.” Jo’s voice drifted as if tripping over unpleasant memories. “But, she was kind to me.”
She’d not meant to dredge up painful memories. “What color did you have in mind?”
Jo shook free from the trance and stared at her. “Color?”
“For my hair. What color did you want to dye my hair?”
“Blond of course,” Jo smiled.
“Blond?” The idea of running around with blond hair seemed laughable.
“Everyone has blond hair. You’ll blend right in.”
“I can’t argue your logic.”
“Good.” Jo took the half-finished plate from her hands and set it on the desk.
Her eyes tracked the plate while her stomach filed a protest.
“You can finish eating later. We have to get started.”
She sighed. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
Jo fetched a towel from the water closet and pointed to the chair near the basin. “Sit.”
She sat and for the next hour Jo applied creams, ointments, and salves to her hair, face, and eyes. The girl plucked and tweezed in areas she’d not known grew hair. Jo applied the cosmetics with a maestro’s touch and an artist’s concentration.
After what seemed hours, Jo stepped back flashing a wide grin. “You look beautiful.”
Beautiful? Her stomach flip-flopped. She’d never heard that word applied to her. “Can I look now?” She reached for the mirror.
“No.” Jo leaped for the mirror and shoved it away. “I have one last surprise.”
“Do you promise it’s the last one?”
“Shush.” Jo’s hands slipped inside the pack and pulled something free. “I bought these too.” In each hand Jo held a dress. One pale blue and the other a muted yellow. “I like the blue one for you.”
Her insides turned to butter. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“Because we’re friends. Aren’t we?” Jo’s eyes searched hers.
“Of course we are. Thank you.” Tears welled in her eyes.
“No. You can’t cry. You’ll ruin the cosmetics.”
She smiled and dabbed the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry. It’s just…nobody has ever treated me like this.”
Jo reached inside the satchel. “These are for you too.” Jo handed her the dress and fresh underclothes. “Go try it on.” Jo gestured toward the water closet. “Nathan will be back soon to fill the tub with fresh water.”
She disappeared into the water closet and emerged a few minutes later wearing the blue dress.
Jo glanced up from a half-eaten plate of food.
“Well, what do you think?” She felt fresh and clean in a way she couldn’t ever remember.
Jaw hanging open, Jo leaned back in the chair and stared. “I don’t think I would recognize you. Amazing. You’re stunning.”
Her face flushed and her gaze drifted to the floor. “Now you’re just making things up.”
Jo stood, took her hand, and dragged her to the full-length mirror. “Don’t believe me?” Jo turned the mirror so she could see. “Look for yourself.”
She gasped. She didn’t recognize the woman standing before her.
With golden hair, long dark eye lashes, and an unblemished complexion, she appeared a real Meranthian lady.
Jo’s smile widened. “See? I told you.”
“How…?” She choked on the words and tears welled in her eyes. “I can never repay this.” She shook her head and dabbed at her eyes.
“Never mind that,” Jo said. “Just don’t cry. You’ll ruin your face.”
She stared into the mirror. Could she find a new life in this new world? Could she put her sins behind her? An ember of hope sparked deep inside her.
Jo moved in behind her and gazed into the mirror smiling. “I’d say you’ll turn more than a few heads. Maybe Nathan will like you more than me.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “I doubt that.”
“I just wish he’d refill the tub. I smell like an outhouse.” Jo sat at the table and picked up a piece of roast chicken. “When I was downstairs, I heard them talking.”
“Who did you hear talking?”
“Lady Rika and the Prime Guardian.”
Her stomach fluttered. “About what?” She sat at the table and pushed away her food.
“Harlech isn’t safe and neither are the southern villages and towns near the coast. Meranthian forces are gathering at Prynesse. The Prime Guardian is marching at daybreak.” Jo’s face soured.
“What’s the matter?” She said.
Jo’s gazed drifted to the table. “Certain people in Prynesse might know me.”
“What sort of people?”
Jo’s
eyes flickered upward and touched hers before darting away. “People that would bring me trouble.”
Leaving the safety of the army might bring them more trouble. She didn’t have an easy answer. “When we get to Prynesse we’ll leave.”
Jo’s expression brightened. “You promise?”
“Of course.”
“That’s not all I overheard. They were talking about the king.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Oh?”
“He’s not in Harlech,” Jo said. “He’s not with the army at all.”
Her heart pounded. “What’s wrong with the king?”
“I don’t know, but he’s been gone for weeks and Lady Rika is worried. The Prime Guardian tried to comfort her, but I don’t think he helped.” Jo’s glance shifted toward the ceiling. “She said, ’I’ll not sit by idly while he throws his life away.’”
“That sounds like trouble.”
“I almost forgot. Lady Rika said that the knights captured some baerinese soldiers. They are holding them prisoner in Harlech.” Jo bit into a slice of cornbread and crumbs tumbled onto the tabletop.
The room spun. “Where?” The word came off harsh and coarse as it tripped from her throat.
“Where what?” Jo said spitting bits of cornbread across the table.
She wanted to leap across the table and pry the words from Jo’s throat. “Where are they holding the baerinese captive?”
Jo nodded. “There’s an army camp east of town. They have them locked behind shields.”
With the army marching at dawn, she might find General Demos among the army and set him free.
“Are you okay? You look like you might sick up.”
She snapped her head toward Jo. “I’m sorry. Bad memories.” She picked up her fork. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Sanctuary
The seed’s kernel contained enough power to level a village. At least in Danielle’s capable hands it did. She rolled the seed between her fingertips and surveyed the electric field.
The strange seed and the fruit it bore held properties she'd never encountered. The desert had infused the seed with powerful secrets. Secrets she’d kept to herself.
She placed the seed on the polished marble floor near the electrical field. Tapping into her warden’s magic, she opened her mind to the seed’s essence. With a slight mental nudge, she pushed.
A green vine bearing ripe yellow fruit shot outward. Wrapping in tight spirals, the vine circled the cell sprouting two dozen pieces of fruit.
She nodded to herself and tracked the vine around the room. “That’s better.” She knelt beside the largest piece of fruit. “You’ll do fine.” With a gentle tug, she plucked the fruit from the vine and inspected her palm-sized prize.
She strode toward the crystal door taking care to step over the vines. She placed the fruit near the energy curtain and stepped away. “Let’s see how powerful you really are.”
She opened her mind to the fruit’s seeds. Drawing on her power, she infused the seeds with nature’s gift. She added resistance to fire and electricity. With a push, she sent flows of nature energy into the fruit causing rapid growth.
The fruit expanded and touched the electrical field. Sparks bounced from the waxen surface and wisps of white smoked curled into the air. But, the skin held under the assault.
She released the magic and surveyed her work.
Like a boulder in a stream, electricity flowed around the fruit.
She knelt and placed her hand on the skin. “I’m sorry for this next part, but I can’t help it.” She closed her eyes and willed the fruit to open.
The back half of the fruit split apart. Pink pulp and sticky juice poured from the opening.
She stepped aside and directed energy through the core. Like a snail without a shell, the pulp slithered across the room. She cut off the flows and surveyed her work.
An empty husk remained. Like a hollowed-out pumpkin, a round tunnel led through the curtain. The ultimate prize waited on the other side. Unfettered access to the cell’s locked door.
She shifted into an ice bear and shrank her body small enough to fit through the tunnel.
The crystal door, glowing with veins of blue and silver, stood closed.
She nursed a short growl and bounded forward passing beneath the fruit’s empty shell. Like a battering ram before a castle gate, she lowered her head and bared her shoulder.
The moment before impact, the door clicked and swung open.
Her eyes widened and she jammed her paws into the husk slippery with pulp and juice. She tumbled ahead and somersaulted through the open door.
Lights swirled and pain ripped through her shoulder. Impact. She slammed against a marble wall and pain flared in her leg.
She shifted into a forest cat and rolled.
Through a jumble of lights and colors she made out a figure standing before the open door with arms folded.
She whirled, flashed her teeth, and growled.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” Keely’s finger wagged in her direction. “Not after I’ve gone to all this trouble.” The guardian gestured toward a pair of robed figures lying motionless beside the open door.
Relief washed through her and she shifted into her natural form. “Keely.” She grinned and bounded forward wrapping her best friend in an embrace.
“Take it easy,” Keely said. “You’re covered in some sort of goop. Is that fruit?”
“You can’t imagine how glad I am to see you,” she said.
Keely glanced inside the cell. “No, I can imagine.”
“There’s so much I need to explain,” she said.
“I already know most of it.”
“How?”
Keely's expression soured. “Danielle, I’m a guardian and a damn good one at that. Do you think I stumbled across you by accident?”
“You were in the temple during the ceremony?”
Keely nodded.
“And in the cell when Brees and I spoke?”
A knowing smile flashed across the guardian’s face. “Again, right. You’re good at this.”
She bit her lower lip not wanting to ask. “Do you think Brees is right?”
Keely nodded.
Her stomach sagged and her gaze dragged to the floor.
“I tasted last night’s dinner and it was every bit as good as Brees said.”
“Keely, stop. You know what I meant.”
“I’m not paid to think, but if you want my opinion….”
“Yes?”
“Something about Brees’s story doesn't feel right.”
“You think he’s lying?”
“No, that’s not it.” Keely’s brow furrowed. “If the heartwood trees hurt people, why wait two-thousand years? Why not get on with it? And they didn’t exactly put up a fight against the dragons.”
“Lora would never unleash a plague on the world,” she said.
“I think there must be some truth to Brees’s story,” Keely said.
“Then you’ll help me?”
“Find the last heartwood? Of course.”
“What if that means building the gateway?”
Keely glared with arms folded. “Do I have to repeat myself?”
The sound of distant voices echoed through the hallway.
She jerked her head toward the sound. “We can’t stay here. We have to find the elemental sphere. Trace wouldn’t let it go far from his reach. We need to check his private quarters.”
Keely nodded. “Help me drag these two into your cell.”
She and Keely dragged the unconscious channelers into the cell and clicked the door shut.
The distant voices turned into a low chant.
Keely shifted into a desert sparrow and fluttered upward.
She shifted into a finch and landed beside Keely on an air slit high on the wall.
“I’ve seen…things. Disturbing things I can’t explain,” Keely said in a whisper.
&n
bsp; “What do you mean?”
“It will make more sense if I show you.”
“But Trace’s sphere —”
Keely’s wings fluttered.
“Keely wait," she said. "Have you seen Arber and Jeremy?”
“They’re in Zen?”
“I’m supposed to meet them on the palace rooftop at midnight tonight.”
“That’s no good. No good at all.”
Her pulse accelerated. “What?”
The chanting grew louder and Keely took flight.
She leaped from the perch and followed Keely into Zen’s night sky.
Glowing crystal walkways crisscrossed the palace grounds. In scattered groups, channelers walked between the buildings.
Keely soared high over the jewel-encrusted fountain. A crystal statue in Trace’s image stood at the fountain’s center. Water streamed from the emperor's outstretched arms. At the fountain's base, water swirled in a shallow pool. Like coins tossed in a wishing well, precious jewels lined the bottom.
She drank in the opulence. A shrine to Trace’s ego didn’t come as a surprise, but the emperor’s wealth astounded her.
Keely pitched right toward the palace. The guardian climbed higher on a path toward the palace's top floor.
She followed on Keely’s tail ascending into the night’s chill air.
Keely soared a hundred feet over the palace grounds and cut left toward the palace's backside.
On the palace's dragon landing, torchlight flickered.
Shedu’s perch. The dragon who betrayed the herd.
A group of robed channelers sat on their knees with heads bowed. A crystal wall loomed over the worshipers. At their center, a figure wearing an ornamental mask stood with arms raised.
Something about the man’s costume set off warning signals. She beat her wings faster and set a course for the crystal wall beside Shedu’s perch.
Keely loosed a rapid burst of sparrow’s chatter.
She ignored Keely's warning and glided lower.
The wall blocked her view of the ceremony, but kept her and Keely hidden during their approach.
Keely fluttered beside her and glared but held silent.
The crystal wall’s peak came into view and she fluttered to an abrupt landing.
Keely settled on the perch beside her. The guardian leaned in and whispered. “You’re being foolish Danielle. What if we’re caught?”
Maylin's Gate (Book 3) Page 21