The Armor of Light

by Karen E. Hoover

  The flute pulsed and grew in light, then threw a blue magelight upward to float above her. It had worked! Kayla was thrilled. Now both the lights lit the way before them and showed Kayla their environment. She almost wished the magelight away then.

  They were buried deep within a mountain, a tunnel stretching before them endlessly, and a blank wall behind. Now Kayla had a hard time breathing again as she felt the weight of the mountain press down on her. She stumbled to her knees, the weight was so heavy.

  The flute lit again, and Brant spun from the instrument. He looked like he’d gained forty pounds of muscle overnight, and his eyes and hair were a little wild. He was truly becoming a creature of the flute. He came to Kayla’s side, and the instant he touched her, the weight lifted, and she was able to breathe again and finally stand.

  T’Kato and Shiona stood apart from them, talking, and Kayla and Brant joined them. He didn’t look like he was going to leave any time soon, so she tried to ignore the ache that still gnawed at her chest at the sight of him and listened to Shiona.

  “The mountain doesn’t recognize you. I should have thought of this. Neither of you have been to the academy before, and the mountain has been trained to destroy all intruders. We’ll have to find a way to get it to allow us access to the academy, or this mountain will swallow us whole,” the mage said, glancing around her, for the first time seeming fearful.

  “What do you mean, swallow us whole?” T’Kato asked, his gravelly voice even more threatening than usual.

  A wall to their right lit up, showing a man frozen in its crystalline depths. He looked as if he were caught trying to claw his way out, terror evident in his eyes and face.

  “Like that,” Shiona said, her voice resigned. “If the mountain is showing them to us already, we don’t have much time. We need a plan.”

  “Well, can’t you take us back out the way we came in?” Kayla asked, her voice squeaky with fright.

  Shiona shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I don’t have the energy to call up the portal again. It would kill me. Other suggestions?”

  Brant spoke, his voice still sounding as if it came from that deep well, and made even more hollow with the cavern surrounding them. “If this truly is the mountain that birthed the keystones, then it should recognize the Sapphire Flute. Do you think that will give us a pass?”

  Shiona’s eyes lit up. “It might. Kayla, play for us, would you? Play for our lives.”

  Kayla was fine until Shiona said the last, then her heart began to race and her hands shook as she brought the flute to her lips and began to play the song she wrote for Brant. It was the only one that came to mind at the moment, so she played, pouring her heart into the music like never before. Brant began to glow brighter, the blue sparkles swirling around him so quickly, they almost hid him from view. He rose off the ground, his arms outstretched as she played, as if he gained strength from her music.

  Well, that would make sense, since he was now an extension of the instrument.

  A deep groan sounded around them, as if the walls themselves were speaking. A sharp crack sounded from above and the group scrambled back as a stone the size of a horse fell from the roof and landed near where they had stood. Now desperation set in like never before and Kayla picked up the pace, throwing every bit of passion she had into the song. Brant was glowing so bright, it almost hurt to look at him, but Kayla looked anyway. She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he rose higher and higher until he reached the roof, then, he stretched his arms up and touched the stone.

  A bell-like tone sounded throughout the cavern and the walls flickered around them, showing light, then darkness, a man buried in the midst, then another ahead of them in armor that looked hundreds of years old. Brant kept his hands on the ceiling, almost as if he were communing with the stone itself, and shortly after the flickering and groaning stopped and the weight lifted from them.

  Brant dropped slowly toward the ground, his light fading gradually until he looked almost normal by the time his feet touched the floor. “It is done. We may pass,” he said, then disappeared in a poof that shot back into the flute. Evidently, saving them had used up every bit of energy he had.

  It had used most of Kayla’s as well. She found herself on her knees as she lowered the flute, put it in its case, and back in the satchel. She set a shaky hand on the ground to press herself up, then suddenly found T’Kato on one side and Shiona on the other, helping her to her feet. T’Kato let go as soon as she stood, but Shiona stayed at her side.

  “Lean on me, if you will. Let me be your support,” she said, wrapping her arm around Kayla.

  It was the most comforting sound and feeling in the world. She put her arm around the woman’s waist, and together they moved forward into the darkness.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Ember and DeMunth reached the top of the stairs and were about to go through the portal when Ember stopped. This was wasting time. She had to take a chance, whether there was lava in the school or not. “There is a faster way,” she said, and without telling him, she threw out a hook to the library, and sent the two of them hurtling through the stone until they stopped in front of the library. DeMunth wobbled on his feet for a second, then stepped forward and pushed against the double doors. The heat was almost unbearable. DeMunth spoke to Master Earl, their mumblings coming to Ember, but completely unintelligible. Tyese was still there, her books sailing through the air as she scribbled in her notebook. Ember wanted to talk to her, to ask her about anything she may have found, but there just wasn’t time. Tyese looked up just as DeMunth took Ember by the arm and said, “Take me to your room.”

  “Wait!” the girl called out, but it was too late. Ember was already locked on and plunging through the stone to stand in her room. There wasn’t much here to take. She grabbed her satchel with her birthing day gifts from the week before, picked up the scrollstones her step-brothers had given her, a few robes and slippers, and that was it. There was nothing here to make it seem like home as of yet, and nothing on Lily’s side of the room that seemed personal at all.

  At the doorway, DeMunth turned her to face him. “You can make your way back to Ezeker’s tower using that hook and pull trick of yours, right?”

  Ember nodded. DeMunth squeezed her shoulders. “Good. I want you to go back there. I’m going to go on and warn the guard and the elders so they can get this place evacuated. With traitors running about, I don’t want you anywhere near here. You need to be safe with your mother and Ezeker. I’ll send her to you as soon as I find her, all right?

  “But—” Ember started, but DeMunth cut her off. “I can’t work knowing you are in danger, love.” Ember’s heart twittered. He’d never called her that before. He pulled her to him and gave her a sound kiss on the lips, and even the brusqueness of it had her head in a whirl. “Now, go! I’ll see you soon.” He smiled, turned on his heel, and ran down the hall in the opposite direction, leaving Ember alone and a little discombobulated from his kiss.

  She was readying her power and about to send out her magical hook to

  Ezeker’s tower when she heard a child sobbing. She considered letting DeMunth handle it, but he was far away by now, and she was here. What harm would it do to get one child to safety?

  She followed the sound and found the boy just down the hall around the corner, crouched in a doorway hugging his knees. When he looked up with his tear-stained face, Ember was surprised to see that it was Markis, the little one she had helped through the caverns on the trip here, the one Lily hated so much. She debated. If Lily hated him, maybe there was a reason for it. Maybe he was the traitor. But then he looked at her with those pleading eyes, and when he saw her, he stood and raced to her side, wrapping his arms around her waist as he sobbed.

  “Oh, Miss Ember! I’m so lost! It’s getting so hot in here, and I can’t find my way out. Can you help me? Please?”

  Powerless at his plea, she nodded. “Certainly. We’ll get you out of here, Markis.”

  “Thank you
, Miss Ember! I just need to get something from my room. It’s very special to me. I can’t leave it behind.”

  Ember was worried, but she couldn’t refuse. She had come back to collect her own things, after all. “All right, but we have to hurry. Some bad things are going to happen here soon, and we need to get to Ezeker’s tower where it will be safe, okay?”

  Markis nodded and ran the direction DeMunth had, full tilt. He was fast. Ember could barely keep up with him. He kept gesturing for her to hurry and come, and she was doing her best. Finally he ran straight through a wall. Ember almost stopped at that, and she most certainly slowed down, but then she realized, if she could go through a wall, there was no reason he couldn’t do it as well, and so without further thought, she stepped through what turned out to be sheer illusion and into a dimly lit room, much like Rahdnee’s. There was a large stone basin filled with water, the walls red and glowing with the heat.

  This was no bedroom.

  Ember turned to step out when a puff of dust was thrown in her face. She gasped, breathing it in before she could help herself, then immediately stiffened and fell to the ground as if she were a board. She could move nothing. Not her arms or legs, nor fingers or toes. Only her eyes still moved as she watched Markis, now with that same evil look on his face as he had with Lily. He circled her, laughing in tones that were familiar, but that she could not place.

  “Not so easy to get away this time, is it, Ember?” The boy knelt at her side, a slim rope in his fingers, and tied her hands together in a complex knot. In her mind she exerted every effort she could to pulling away, but she couldn’t move. Evidently her muscles were only wooden to herself, as he seemed able to move her limbs quite easily. Furious and terrified, she tried calling to DeMunth, praying he would hear her and come to her rescue, but she remained alone. She couldn’t help the despair that filled her. There truly was a limit to mindspeech.

  Markis dragged her to the wall, propped her against it, and tied her ankles together, then tied ankles and hands together so she was hunched over uncomfortably, draped over her knees and unable to sit up. It was uncomfortable and humiliating. Markis shoved her head back hard, slamming it against the stone. The kit was stronger than he looked. “You thought you were so smart, shifting into a wolf to get away from me before. Well, not this time.”

  Ember tried to throw out a magical hook to pull herself away, but evidently her power had been frozen along with her body. Her heart sank with the realization. She hadn’t felt this helpless since she was chained to the floor in a cave after Ian Covainis had kidnapped her. Her eyes widened—the one thing she could still control.

  Suddenly Ember knew who Markis was. It was obvious he was the spy who had come in with her class, and done such a good job of gaining her trust that she had gone with him without thinking. But beyond that, he’d done this to her once before, only then he had bound her with chains and pounded them into stone. Somehow, Markis the boy was also Ian Covainis, the man who had kidnapped her and traveled with her family to Javak.

  If Ember’s heart hadn’t been pounding with fear before, now it did a triple beat. Her stomach was in turmoil and adrenaline raced through her system.

  He must have seen the fear in her eyes, for her face wouldn’t move. “You know me now, don’t you? I’m glad you know who brought down the mighty Ember Shandae. I’m glad you know who destroyed the first and last white mage.” He laughed again. “I’ve got someone here who wants to speak with you.” At that, he turned to the stone basin and dropped something in the water. A fuzzy shape began to appear in the air above it, one Ember knew better than she ever wanted to.

  C’Tan.

  When the image was fully in place, it looked over Ember with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk to her face. “So the mighty one who would save the world has been brought down at last. I must say, I’m rather disappointed we didn’t get to continue our game any longer.” C’Tan was quiet for a moment and looked almost sad as she said, “You have much of your father in you.” Then she wiped the emotion from her face and the snarl was back.

  “I have a proposition for you, and I don’t see where you have much choice at the moment. You will join my ranks, become one of my servants and a servant of the Guardian S’Kotos in our venture to heal the world our own way. You will accept my master—or you will be left here to die, to burn in the lava that is even now racing toward you, and believe me, I have no problem letting you die. If I can kill my own brother, it will be easy to kill his child. You were the reason I had to kill him to begin with. Now I can be forever rid of you both. So, what will it be? Will you join with me? Or will you choose to die?”

  What a choice. Ember couldn’t speak. Her mouth and tongue were frozen, but she had no questions for this woman—not really. She was choosing death either way. A living death with the guardian of fire and evil, or a permanent death that would take her back to Mahal and her father. She didn’t want to die, but it was the better choice. She knew it.

  Still unable to vocalize, she sent her thoughts out as strong as she could and hoped the woman could hear them. No! I will never serve you, nor your master. I would rather die than serve a living death with you two.

  C’Tan smile was cold and never reached her eyes. “I had a feeling you would make that choice. Too much like your father, you are.”

  Well, I’m happy my apple doesn’t fall far from his tree, unlike your own daughter.

  The red-headed woman stopped at that. “What do you mean?”

  Ember was happy to deliver a little bad news to this woman who had destroyed so much. Your daughter? Lily? She’s telling Ezeker all about your plans to flood the school with lava, and she told him the identity of your spies. I’m afraid your time here at the mage academy is over. They are a step ahead of you now.

  C’Tan looked aghast, then furious. “Die, then,” was all she said before she disappeared.

  Ian came to her and, still grinning like a maniacal kid, kicked her in the side as hard as he could. Ember felt something give, and pain started up her side. Tears streamed from her eyes and she could do nothing to wipe them. She slowly fell over until she was curled up on her side against the hot stone. “Not smart to get the Mistress angry. I’d say it’s been nice knowing you, but that would be a lie,” he said. Then laughing, he stepped through the illusory wall, and Ember was left in the room by herself.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  The caverns seemed to go on forever, much like the waterway under the sea, but at least there Kayla had something interesting to look at in the fish and the turtles and the manta ray that swam just outside of the air passage. Here there was nothing but rock, rock, and more rock. It wasn’t even pretty, except for the clear quartz that held the prisoners of the mountain—the prisoners the mountain showed them every time they neared. It may have given them permission to pass, but it was obviously not happy about it.

  Kayla ate her other breakfast sandwich shortly after their showdown with the mountain, and found herself still hungry. She had used a lot of energy between passing through the portal and playing the flute. Though Brant battled for her, he had pulled from her energy and the magic of the flute, and she was weak with hunger.

  Finally, after what seemed hours of walking, they came upon another portal. Shiona glanced around at them. “Are you ready?” T’Kato nodded. Kayla did not. She wasn’t ready, but she didn’t really have much choice at this point. T’Kato pulled her forward, and they went through the portal side-by-side.

  This time it wasn’t as difficult. It was a much shorter journey, and having T’Kato with her made the transition easier. When they exited this portal, they were in a large cavern, the sound of rushing water overshadowing all else.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  Shiona came over, evidently so she wouldn’t have to shout to be heard. “We call this place Deirdre’s tears. Just look,” she said, sending her magelight high above them, brightening as it rose. At its apex, Kayla could see what she meant. Water streamed from two
holes in the rock to cascade down the face of the cavern, making it look as if the holes were weeping eyes. It was a beautifully sorrowful sight.

  Kayla sat down on a boulder, nearly collapsing from exhaustion. Shiona looked at her more carefully, then dug in Kayla’s pack and brought out some dried fruit and jerky. “Here, eat this. You need to restore your strength. I’ll get you some water, and you might want to cool your feet in the pool.”

  Kayla nodded and absently chewed on the tough meat. She had never really liked jerky. At least this had some flavor to it, much better than the soggy rations she’d eaten after being dropped into and then dragged through the sea.

  Shiona dug through her pack and pulled out a cup, then filled it with water and gave it to Kayla. Kayla downed that with the rest of the meat while sipping at the cool liquid. She ate the dried apples slowly, enjoying the treat, then went to the pool, took off her boots and socks, and put her feet in the water. Between the food and water, Kayla began to feel better and regain a bit of energy. Shiona sat beside her.

  “You are obviously new to magic,” she said quietly.

  Kayla nodded. “Yes, it’s only been a week since I got the flute.”

  Shiona pursed her lips, obviously thinking, then spoke. “Normally I would wait for you to get to the school to give any kind of instruction, but you need a few basics right now, things someone should have told you when you received the flute.”

  “Yeah, they should have told me a lot of things,” Kayla said, knowing the bitterness of her heart crept into her voice. She scooped up a handful of pebbles and tossed them into the water one by one.

  “Yes, well, nothing to be done about it now, except give you what I can,” the mage said. “First, magic uses energy, and the only ways to recoup that energy are to rest and to eat.” Shiona joined Kayla in tossing pebbles into the water. It surprised Kayla that she would participate in what seemed a childish activity, but it was mindless and gave their hands something to do. Kayla watched ripples grow from the plunks of the stones.