It was the entrance to Tol Shen’s vault.
Like the cells, the Builders had designed the vault to account even for Augurs. Kan was completely inaccessible once through the archway, and the vault beyond was keyed to only specific people’s Essence signatures—allowing some to unlock the vault door, and others to actually enter without triggering the vault’s defenses. One ability was useless without the other, ensuring that at least two authorized people had to be present in order to access the vault’s contents.
And if anyone else even entered the antechamber and wasn’t recognized by the vault’s defenses, their source was immediately targeted and drained.
“So you’re sure this weapon will still be there?” asked Davian quietly as they walked.
“As certain as I can be.” Driscin scowled, evidently annoyed at being asked the same questions multiple times. “Lyrus was the only one able to enter the vault. If what you say is true and he’s dead, I cannot see how Rohin could have taken anything.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I still think that there has to be another way, though. There has to be a way of separating Ishelle from Rohin. If we just can do that, we can use the amulet I told you about instead. It’s a much better solution. It wouldn’t just disable Rohin—it would hide him from Ishelle’s ability to track him, too. I’m almost certain of it.”
Davian blinked, then glanced across at the older man. He’d worn the same look of worry and pain since they’d settled on this plan, and Davian wasn’t sure that he could blame him.
“There isn’t a way,” he said softly. “Not if the amulet needs physical contact. Rohin knows how easily another Augur could get to him now. I hate the thought, too, Driscin, but as long as he keeps Ishelle nearby and she’s maintaining her Disruption shield, none of us have a chance of getting close enough to put it on him.” He shrugged. “As much as I despise the idea of this Vessel you’ve told us about, it’s our only choice.”
Fessi grunted at that, shooting Driscin a dark look. Of everything kept in the vault, there was only one Vessel that Driscin thought would be effective through a Disruption shield—something he knew about, because it had been specifically stored there for use in the event that one of the Augurs residing in Tol Shen became hostile.
A stone dagger that he said could drain anyone’s source, from anywhere, simply by feeding it a matching Trace.
“I still don’t see how you can justify keeping something like that on hand,” muttered Fessi, echoing the concerns that they had already raised when Driscin had admitted to the Vessel’s existence. “Nobody should have access to a weapon that powerful.”
Driscin raised an eyebrow. “The current situation is how we can justify it,” he said quietly. “It’s in the vault because it’s the safest place it can be, and we stored it there for exactly this eventuality.”
Fessi grunted again, still looking displeased, but said nothing further.
They walked without incident for about five minutes—Fessi once again showing no sign of tiring, despite the intensity at which she maintained her ability—before Driscin suddenly nodded to the right, toward a thick copse of trees. “Down there.”
They angled away from the Tol’s wall, heading for where the Gifted had indicated. The undergrowth was thick here, the view of the wall completely concealed by a tangle of bushes and close-growing leafy trees. Davian grimaced at the twigs and branches scratching his arms as they pushed their way into the foliage.
“You’re sure this is the right way?” he muttered after fighting his way forward for a few seconds, not seeing an end to the thick brush.
Driscin squinted. “It’s been twenty years,” he conceded, “but I’m fairly certain … ah. Here we go.”
The way ahead finally opened up again to reveal a small clearing, in its center a grass-covered mound with a rocky base. A dark shadow in the stone marked a narrow, muddy, dank-looking hole, about Davian’s height and overgrown with weeds.
“We have to go in there?” asked Fessi dubiously.
Driscin glowered at her. “I’ll try and find a nicer secret entrance for you next time. Now stop wasting time and get inside.”
The three of them squeezed one by one through the dirty, claustrophobically tight opening, Driscin going first so that he could light the way with his ball of Essence. Davian was relieved to see that the passageway widened once they were inside; soon there was a corner and the tunnel—much longer than it had appeared from the outside—began to angle sharply downward.
Within a minute they had arrived in front of a single, large stone door. Davian strode over to it and pushed.
Nothing happened.
“How do we open it?” he asked with a frown.
Driscin shrugged. “I told you—this was the entrance that the Augurs used when they wanted to avoid notice, back before the war. The sig’nari knew where it was, but that was the extent of it.”
Davian sighed, nodding. He closed his eyes, feeling his way toward the door with kan, sensing that Fessi was doing the same.
“The door is a Vessel,” said Fessi abruptly, coming to the conclusion at the same time as Davian. “The left half already has Essence in it. The right half looks like it could be activated.”
She glanced around, then shrugged and drew some Essence from Driscin’s illuminating globe, ignoring his annoyed look as she fed the energy into the right-hand side of the door. The stone sucked in the light, glowing white for a moment.
Then it faded again. Nothing happened.
Davian frowned as he considered the entrance. The Essence had done something.
“If this was meant only for the Augurs, just using Essence to open the door wouldn’t be enough,” he realized abruptly, addressing the observation more to Fessi than Driscin. He pointed to the left part of the door. “What if it’s a double lock? One Vessel that won’t move without Essence, and another—the left-hand side—that won’t move while it contains Essence.” He closed his eyes without waiting for affirmation of the theory, placing his hands on either side of the door. He carefully extracted the Essence from the left, then let it flow through him and into the right.
The door shimmered again.
There was a click, and it swung silently open.
“Clever,” murmured Driscin appreciatively. “Leave the left lock drained if you want the Gifted to have access as well, or make it Augur-only by filling it.”
They headed into the passageway beyond. Unlike the narrow, dark stairwell that they had just come down, here clean, bright lines of Essence lit the way ahead. The stone underfoot was smooth, the path was wide, and the walls were neatly hewn.
Davian made to push on immediately, but Driscin held up a hand. “The door,” he said quietly.
Davian gave him an objecting look. “We don’t have time to waste. Every second gives Ishelle longer to react.”
“We’re not going to leave a way into the Tol just … open like this.” Driscin’s expression was sober, and something about his tone suggested that he found the very thought offensive.
Davian just inclined his head, not prepared to argue. You in?
Of course.
He swung the door shut and then refilled the locking mechanism with Essence. “Done.”
Despite the urgency of their mission, Driscin tested the lock himself before giving a satisfied nod. “Let’s go.”
They walked for several minutes, the tunnel straight and wide, with only the occasional flight of stairs to climb. At a few points the path split, but it was always clearly in the wrong direction—once into a section that had evidently collapsed years ago, once jagging back in almost the same direction from which they’d come, and once downward into a tunnel that emitted the faint sound of falling water.
There was no conversation as they climbed a final set of stairs, finding themselves facing a door identical to the one through which they’d entered. Davian hesitated, then at a nod from Driscin drained the lock, feeding the Essence back into the door.
The door swung open, and
he breathed a sigh of relief as he peered into the room beyond. It was dark, but clearly empty.
They slipped inside, Davian watching in fascination as Driscin pushed the stone door closed again behind them. It sealed seamlessly with the wall, nothing to indicate from this side that there was an entrance there at all.
“We’re in Central Ward now. Probably only five minutes from the Archive,” murmured Driscin, walking over to the door outside and opening it a crack. Evidently not seeing any threats, he swung it wide and gestured them through.
The next few minutes were tense as they kept to the shadows, twice having to skirt what appeared to be makeshift checkpoints along the streets. Davian could see the strain beginning to show on Fessi’s face as they walked—extending the time bubble to include three people was something Davian didn’t think he would be able to do for more than a few seconds, let alone minutes at a time—but her ability never once faltered.
Big group coming your way, and quickly, came Erran’s voice in Davian’s head. I think they’ve figured out where you’re going.
It’s all right. We’re already there, replied Davian, breathing out as they came within sight of the Central Archive. The large, silent building wasn’t locked, and they encountered no Gifted as they hurried inside. Whether that was because Rohin didn’t think there was anything worth guarding here, or simply because he didn’t think that they would be able to break into the vault, was impossible to say.
The three of them finally entered the large hall—Davian rolling his shoulders uncomfortably at the memory of his incarceration—and came to a stop in front of the archway into the vault. Time swept back over them and Fessi stumbled, shaking her head and grasping Davian’s arm tightly to steady herself.
He looked at the dark-haired girl. “Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine.” Fessi looked at the closest cell with obvious distaste. “Are you sure this next part’s necessary, though?”
Davian nodded grimly. “We have no idea how Rohin’s influence works. This is the safest way.”
Fessi grunted a reluctant acknowledgment, then slipped inside the cell and shut the door, experimenting a few times to make sure that she could still open it from the inside.
“If anyone opens that door …”
“I’ll use a time bubble and get out before they can see me.” Fessi gave Davian a grim nod, then slid down so that she couldn’t be seen through the bars.
Davian exhaled, turning to face the archway as Driscin gave him a worried look.
“You’re certain this trick of yours will work?” The older man continued to peer at Davian uncertainly. “Because I’m not heroically coming in to get you.”
Davian paused, examining the hardened shell of kan he’d carefully created within himself. It was larger than the first one he’d made, but he still appeared to be suffering no ill effects.
“I was fine when I was in there with Fessi.” He shrugged awkwardly. “The vault targets any source that it doesn’t recognize—but I don’t have one. I’m guessing even the Builders didn’t anticipate a dead man breaking in.”
Driscin studied him for a long moment, then shook his head, clearly still fascinated by the concept. Davian had been more than a little reluctant to admit his condition to the others, but it had been necessary. After Driscin had described how the vault’s security worked, there was no other way to explain how he had gotten around it when saving Fessi.
“And you’re certain that the vault won’t simply target the Essence you’ve got stored instead?” Driscin asked, not for the first time.
“It’s inside hardened kan. It’s no different to it being stored inside a Vessel, as far as I can tell. The logic is sound. It worked before,” he reiterated.
Driscin nodded reluctantly. “I’ll take your word for it. But once we’re inside …”
“I know,” said Davian quietly.
He swallowed, rechecking the Essence stored in his body. There were plenty of things about this plan that could go wrong, but this was by far the riskiest part.
He followed Driscin into the antechamber.
The change was immediate as he stepped through the archway, Davian’s sense of kan vanishing completely. Unlike in the cells, he couldn’t even sense the power here. It was just … gone.
He forced down a sliver of panic. Not being able to check on his self-made Reserve was unnerving, but after a few seconds he breathed out, nodding in response to Driscin’s questioning look. He didn’t have long, undoubtedly—even now he felt a little light-headed—but he wasn’t collapsing, either. It seemed like it would be enough.
“I’m fine,” he said grimly.
Driscin looked at him dubiously but inclined his head, aware that time was now even more against them. The older man strode forward and placed his hand against the next door.
Blue and white light began to pulse across the door’s surface as Essence poured out of Driscin, entwining with the symbols in the stone. The outline of the door glowed blindingly bright for a moment and then went completely black, darkness rippling inward, eating away at the light until it was completely gone.
Driscin took his hand—which was trembling slightly—away from the door’s surface.
It swung open.
Driscin gestured for Davian to move. “Remember—don’t touch anything except the stone dagger,” he said quietly. “We store things in here for a very good reason.”
Davian gave him a grim nod, exhaling slowly, steadying himself.
He strode into the darkness.
Chapter 23
Davian blinked as his eyes adjusted to the inside of the vault.
He’d expected everything to be stored here, immediately inside, but it appeared that this was little more than an entryway. Ahead, a set of wide, smooth stairs led straight down, though he couldn’t see the end of the tunnel into which they disappeared.
He paused for a few moments, holding his breath, waiting for … something. Some indication that the vault’s defenses were going to try and kill him.
There was nothing, though. Davian glanced behind, a sudden wave of uncertainty rippling through him. The door was still open but Davian knew that if it closed, he would be utterly dependent on Driscin to open it again.
He frowned at it for a few more seconds, then sighed and turned to the stairwell. He couldn’t afford to delay.
He moved onto the first step.
At once a low sound thrummed in the air; Davian faltered, heart sinking as the step he had touched began to glow—and then the next, and the next, until the entire staircase was shining with a glimmering white. Lines of blue flickered to life on the walls, tracing several unusual, complex patterns. He stepped back quickly, feeling a faint tug of dizziness.
It quickly passed, though; Davian hesitated and then started forward at a brisk pace, not letting himself be tempted into turning back. The vault had evidently registered his presence, but he felt no worse than before. As long as he hurried, he should be fine.
The stairwell was not as deep as it had first appeared, and within a minute Davian could see the bottom. The stairs flattened out into a long, wide hallway, which was lined with multiple small recesses containing shelves that held texts, Vessels, or other items. Everything was lit with a mixture of sharp white and cold blue Essence, a decidedly unwelcoming illumination.
Davian rubbed his forehead, staring down the line of storage alcoves in bemusement. Driscin had warned him that what he was after was not the only thing stored down here, but he hadn’t expected there to be so much.
He hurried on, scanning the shelves as he passed but not seeing anything like the stone dagger that Driscin had described, making himself ignore the urge to pause and examine some of the objects more closely. There was an enormous globe balanced on a slender stand, taller than he was, made of dark metal and with unfamiliar continents etched onto it. A golden helmet with Darecian words covering every inch. What appeared to be a wooden goblet, unadorned, but three times a usable size an
d with edges as thick as his fist. A black bracer that looked suspiciously like the ones the Blind had worn, though he didn’t have time to more than glance at it before moving on. A set of five copper rings, three of them tarnished green. More. Each was positioned meticulously, as if each shelf were a tiny shrine.
Davian hurried past them all, his curiosity strong but still far from overpowering his sense of urgency. Though he tried not to think about it too much, he could sense his energy receding. Already his movements were slower, a little more sluggish than they had been a few minutes earlier.
Finally he reached the end of the hallway, the sound he had first heard upstairs now an almost physical presence in the air, a deep hum that felt as though it was pressing against his skull and trying to burrow its way into his brain. Was that normal, or was it the vault recognizing that he shouldn’t be here?
He took stock of the items in the final set of alcoves, fighting down his steadily increasing sense of dread. To his right were two swords, completely different in design and yet somehow similar. The first had a sleek, curved blade, shorter than average but still wicked-looking. The second was straight and long but with a notched edge, giving it a barbaric, darkly bloodthirsty look.
To his left was a miniature stone dagger, little more than a letter opener in size. Beside it was a golden amulet in the shape of an eagle, emanating its own soft glow.
Davian released a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, stepping up to the shelves upon which the Vessels sat. The dagger was a deep-green marble with black flecks throughout the stone. The amulet, on the other hand, was smooth gold; the eagle’s widespread wings curled upward, designed to be worn just below the throat. It was incredibly detailed, shaped by a more artistically skillful set of hands than any Vessel Davian had ever seen.
He hesitantly, carefully leaned forward and picked up the dagger. Waited for something to happen.
Nothing did.
He released a breath, snatching up the amulet as well and dropping them both into the leather satchel he’d brought for the purpose. He turned to go.
An Echo of Things to Come Page 36