by Joshua King
"I'll do my best," she whispered into my ear.
"I know you will."
Giving her the same instruction to keep her mind open, I walked with her a few steps toward the entrance to the collection and released her hand. Unlike Bex or Stephana, she glanced back over her shoulder before going inside. The entrance closed quickly behind her, and Ashe and I exchanged glances. There were only two of us left now. Neither wanted to say it, but we were both wondering what possibly could have happened to the others. The thought was terrifying, but I refused to assume the worst. Instead, I released a breath to take as much anxiety out of me as possible and reached out to connect to Aurora. It was easier to get to her this time than it had been when she was wandering through the fortress by herself. As soon as I could see through her eyes, I could tell she was overwhelmed by everything around her. She was turning in a slow circle, letting her eyes sweep over as much of what surrounded her as possible. This gave me a clearer view of the room and I was surprised at its size. Stephana must have already been deep into the space by the time I connected with her.
Finally, Aurora made her way over to one of the tables. It wasn't one that Stephana had shown me, but these objects seemed to draw Aurora to them. She reached out and rested her hand over a wooden box.
"I've seen something like this before. It was a really long time ago." She made an exasperated sound like she was frustrated with herself for not being able to remember more about it. "I was much younger." Her fingertips tapped out a rhythm on the box. "The mountains. That's where I saw it. My father brought me into the mountains to meet with another group of vampires. It was during a brief time when he was making connections with Primes from all over, like he was building alliances. It seemed like a good thing at the time, but now looking back on it, it's a bit more unnerving."
"What's in the box?" I asked. She couldn’t hear me, but it didn’t stop me from trying to communicate with her. "Why would Ryu want it?"
Aurora moved her hand away from the box and picked up a small statue. It looked like one of the fairies, one wing still bound down its back and the other broken off. She set it down and picked up a vase. Long shimmering cracks along all sides of it showed where it had been broken and then pieced back together using melted silver. Setting the vase back in its place, Aurora started away from the table, then thought again and came back. She reached for the box and lifted it out of place so she could bring it closer. Setting it on the edge of the table, she bent down to look at the clasp on the front.
"That's my girl," I thought.
The lid fell back, revealing dark blue velvet inside. Three orbs of milky green stone sat inside. They reminded me immediately of the orbs Malakan used during the ritual to show me my past, present, and future. But Aurora had said this box was from a vampire clan, not the warlocks, and the ones Malakan used were of three different colors of crystal rather than the smooth, creamy-looking stone. Aurora touched the orbs.
"The Prime had these in his throne room. I remember my father being so obviously jealous of the room because it was bigger and more impressive than his. It was almost funny watching him try not to show how inadequate it made him feel. He just kept commenting on the room and looking at the box. It took three days before the Prime opened it, and when he did all he would tell us was that the orbs were made from stone taken from the mountain. He didn't explain what they were used for, but the way he protected them made it obvious they were really important to him."
That bit of information felt important even though it didn't make sense, and I tucked it away in my mind. She continued around the room for several more minutes, occasionally pointing out objects that she recognized. She wasn't able to give me as much information as Stephana had, but everything she pointed out gave me more insight into the collection.
"There's so much here. I don't even know where to look. Nothing seems to be organized in any way or even kept with the same species. But it's more than that. Everything is just kind of here. Does that make sense? There are different sizes of furniture and some things are up on higher shelves than others, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of rhyme or reason to it. I don't feel like anything in particular is on display or set aside in any special way. The king is used to stealing things from other species, but the way he's been dealing with us tells me there's something more to what he stole from the other village. He takes some sort of pride in it. If he didn't, it wouldn't matter to him if we knew what it was. Whatever he took from the other Fae has some sort of value, and I would think that would mean he would have it in a special place or at least have some sort of indication of how important it is. I don't know. Maybe not. There's just something so strange about this whole collection."
Aurora was thinking so many of the same things I was. The entire time both she and Stephana walked through the various displays, I was waiting for something to stand out to me. Anyone who collects things has that prized possession, that central item of their collection that they value above the rest of them. There are a lot of different reasons why any particular item ends up being that favored piece. Sometimes it's the one that has the most financial worth. Other times it's because of its rarity or how difficult it was for the collector to find. And for others it's the story behind how they came to have that object. Whatever the reason, that object is the one that is most treasured and usually either shown off or at least kept the most protected. What the Dark Fae King stole from the other village had to be important or they wouldn't both be so fixated on it, yet nothing in the space seemed to have any more significance than anything else.
The thought crossed my mind that this was all part of the game. Ryu was sending us into his jumbled collection just to watch us wander around confused, knowing there was no way we were going to find what we were looking for because it wasn't there to begin with. An image of the woman in the glass box swelled in my thoughts. Her eyes were so desperate and afraid, her sweet, delicate beauty making the terror etched on her face even more pronounced.
What seemed like far too soon, my connection with Aurora started to fade and I knew her time in the collection was running out. Soon the link disappeared completely, and a wider smile curved on the bearded face of the king. It was obvious he was getting a lot of amusement out of the game. It was probably going exactly as he intended it to. There were only two of us left, and he could see the end drawing near. I remembered what he said about us being perfect for replacing his guards, and I wondered what that meant. None of us were Dark Fae. A creeping thought in the back of my mind told me that didn't matter. He would find a way to force us to fit the mold, even if that meant grafting broken wings onto our backs and tying the spears to our hands.
I had my moment with Ashe and sent her into the collection for her own turn. Now it was just me and Ryu. The tension in the room grew with every passing moment. I waited for him to say something, but he stayed completely silent. It felt like he was choosing his silence as carefully as he chose his words, controlling me with it as much as he tried to control me with every question and taunt. Being alone in the room with him meant there was no one there to block him from staring at me as I tried to link in with her. I had no choice but to do it under his gaze, so I did it defiantly. Staring directly at him, I let my mind move away from the reality of the room where I stood and wander through the stone wall into the collection with her.
Like she often was, Ashe was harder to link to than the other women. I didn't know what that said about her, but it didn't feel like she was trying to keep me away. There was just something different about the way my mind melded with hers. It had been hers that had first drawn me in deeply enough to see what she was seeing, but the connection still came in flashes and flickers for several seconds before finally stabilizing. When it did, she was roaming through another section of the room. She seemed to be moving through it much faster than the other two women and Bex had, briefly scanning tables and shelves before moving on to the next, rather than spending much time exploring the objects. Sh
e had barely been inside for two minutes when her hand shot out and took hold of a piece of twisted metal that looked like a tangled vine. It rolled around in her hand for a few seconds as she examined it from all angles.
"I saw a tattoo that looked like this once. It was on a man who used to come into Solomon's Fang all the time. He told me it represented his family. I later found out he was part Fae. I think this is what the king stole."
The words had no sooner passed her lips than I saw the tangle of metal fall from her hand and my connection with her ended. The Dark Fae king laughed as the wall opened. For an instant I thought she might have chosen right and that all four of them would come out of the collection, but none of them appeared. I stalked angrily toward him.
"What happened? Her time isn't up yet."
"Isn't it?"
He gestured to the Time Chaser. Ashe appeared inside, miniaturized down so she was smaller even than the metal balls counting the time still slipping by. One came toward her and she struggled to get out of the way, so it didn't crush her.
"What the hell did you do?" I demanded.
"It's not what I did. It's what she did."
"The others didn't end up in there."
"That's because she made a mistake the others didn't. She rushed. After mere moments inside my collection, she thought she was clever enough to understand me. She chose the wrong object, so I'm teaching her a lesson about the importance of using her time."
Seething, I turned away from the king and ran through the open section of wall into the collection. Ryu's laughter echoed around me, cutting off sharply when the gap closed, sealing me into the room. Even seeing the space through the eyes of the three women hadn't fully prepared me for standing in it. It was vast, stretching out further than I could see on either side. I refused to let it overwhelm me. Looking around me, I identified the areas where the women had ventured and then walked past all of them to the far end of the room. Starting there, I paced from one side of the narrow room to the other, moving up slightly with each pass so I covered the entire space and looked at everything I walked by. Everything I learned from the women during their turns repeated through my head as I considered the various objects. By the time I stood beside the metal vine Ashe dropped, I was convinced nothing on these tables or shelves was what the king stole.
7
Despite feeling confident none of the objects I had seen were what the king had stolen, I kept moving along the room. There was so much. The collection was overflowing, and I wondered how often he actually came in here to look at what he'd gathered. Something told me there were areas of this showroom he hadn't been in for a long time. It was like a spoiled child’s bedroom after Christmas. The shiny new toys that had been so enthralling for the few minutes after they were unwrapped were tossed aside to join the countless others, largely forgotten unless they were stumbled on.
I didn't know how long I had been within the walls of the massive exhibit hall before the king's voice thundered around me.
"Don't forget, Hayden, you are on limited time. Don't waste it."
"I don't think it's here. I don't think there's anything in this room that would matter to the other Fae. You just sent us in here to watch us. Live up to your word, Ryu. You told us we would have the opportunity to find what we seek and bring it out of the fortress."
"And you have that opportunity. I didn't lie. So, I have to admit, it might have been fun. Watching the way you try to find your way through my collection has been the most amusing thing I've watched in a long time. But I do have a sense of honor, Hayden. We made an agreement and I will still uphold my end of it. What you are looking for is in my collection. You have as much opportunity to find it as anyone else. And if you do, you can take it and leave. But don't take too long. Your time is running out quickly and I don't think your friend is enjoying it very much."
The memory of him laughing while he watched Ashe run from the metal balls in the Time Chaser made my stomach turn. I forced myself not to let it get to me. He was just trying to control me, trying to use my emotions to distract me and keep me from going through the collection the way I needed to. Blocking out the effect of the sound of his voice, I tried to think only of what was around me. Tapping into all my senses, I examined the space more critically. I still didn't know if the king was actually telling the truth. In fact, I was almost certain he wasn't. But I couldn't let that hold me back. Not looking for the stolen object because I didn't believe it was there wasn't going to do me any good. I had to keep looking, but not in the same way. Just because he said what I was looking for was in the room didn't mean it would be easy to see. There had to be another way to think about it.
Allowing my vampire senses to take over, I broke down my surroundings into their most visceral elements. What had seemed like total silence awakened into a veil of sound. Tiny clicks, soft sweeping sounds, and gentle tinkling chimes stood out against a constant low hum that settled over me. Filling my lungs with the air of the room, I noticed the warmer atmosphere than the room with the king held notes of spice and flowers, with something cool and crisp in the distance, like flowing water.
Perception. Perspective.
The words flashed through my mind again. The speech had sounded like babbling. It reminded me of some of the endless, useless lectures I'd been forced to sit through in the philosophy class that rounded out my course schedule my freshman year of college. They didn't make sense then and what the king had rambled on about hadn't made sense, either.
Until suddenly, it did.
Ignoring the pressure of the minutes passing me by, I stayed in tune with what my senses were telling me. I isolated each sound and each smell and let them move through me. Finally, I felt a tug. It was subtle, a pull in my chest that could have meant anything. But I followed it. Leaning into it as much as I had the other senses, I let it guide me through the passages between the tables and displays. It ebbed and flowed, sometimes becoming so strong it was almost unbearable and other moments getting so faint it almost disappeared until I made another movement and it returned.
I felt like I was playing a game of ‘hot and cold’ with some unseen force.
It drew me to the far side of the room and a tall table. In the center was a heavy, ornate snow globe. It reminded me of the ones my mother used to bring out at Christmas, only this one didn't have a cheerful scene of tiny houses and miniature bottlebrush trees speckled with snow. Instead, it was full of prisms. Grasping the base on either side, I lifted the snow globe and turned it over. A cold prick touched my cheek as snow started falling around me. An instant later, the collection disappeared, and I found myself standing in a hall of glass. Confused, I started walking along the corridor. A glass maze developed around me. Stretching from the floor up into darkness above me, some of the panels of glass were clear, others mirrored, and others prismatic.
"Very good," Ryu's voice said around me. "But have you found what you're looking for?"
I thought about Ashe in the Time Chaser. Learning from what she had done meant I hadn't rushed through the collection, but I still didn't want to make a decision that felt too rash. Not until I was sure.
"No," I said, moving faster down the corridor.
"Just remember, your time is running short."
All around me, clocks appeared on the glass panels. They swayed and tipped, some seeming to rush closer to me as I looked at them. Clocks of all kinds filled the glass, from simple versions to elaborate, whimsical designs with dancing figures swirling madly out of tiny doors held open by their constant movement. They were oppressive, making the walls feel like they were closing in on me. The sound of the hands moving throbbed in my ears, getting louder the further I tried to run from them. I couldn't ignore my time slipping past me, but the deeper I moved into the maze, the more complicated it became. The clocks appeared and disappeared, making it hard to judge where the panels of glass ended. What looked like open sections could be clear glass, while reflections of smaller clocks further along corridors tr
icked my mind into running past open sections.
I turned around a corner and the Fae woman from the glass box appeared in front of me. No longer in the box, she was standing at the end of a longer corridor and I ran toward her. Just before I got to her, the image rippled and disappeared. In that instant, I knew without a sliver of hesitation that woman was what I was looking for. I didn't know how or why, but the Dark Fae King stole the beautiful fairy from the village and had been keeping her here. Now I had to find her and get her away from her captor. Moving faster, I followed the maze, chasing the image of the woman as it appeared in front of me and disappeared again and again. I had to find how to get to her, how to release her. An idea suddenly took hold and I rushed to find her again. As soon as I saw her again, I didn't run toward her. Instead, I turned around and sent a blast of magic into the pane of glass behind me. The panel shattered and when I turned my face back to it, I saw the incredible woman standing in front of me. Her body trembled and a look of terror stretched across her face.
"Come with me," I said, extending my hand toward her. "You're safe. We're going to help you get out of here."
Velvety purple eyes dropped down to my hand, then lifted back to my gaze with uncertainty. Finally, she reached out and rested her fingertips to my palm. A gentle, guiding tug on her hand helped her step over the shards of broken glass and closer to me. As soon as she was no longer contained within the maze, the air around me erupted with Ryu's enraged scream.
"No!"
"Come on."
I wrapped my hand around hers and started down the corridor. On either side of us the glass panels exploded, sending a cascade of glass slivers onto us. Lifting one hand, I imagined a protective barrier over us. Using the magic dragged the energy out of me, but I kept it over us as we ran, shielding us from the sharp edges. Now that I had found what the king had stolen and claimed it for myself, I should have been able to leave the fortress, but there wasn't a single part of me that actually believed the king would live up to his promise at this point. He didn't think I'd figure out how to get the woman out of the glass, and now that I had her, his fury took away all semblance of honor and integrity.