by Elise Kova
Jax opened his mouth to speak and Vi silenced him with a finger. In him, she still saw the Jax who had raised her. But now she was the adult and he was the child in some ways.
“Just be quiet, and take the advice of a friend, Jax.” Vi moved again before he could say anything else.
The cavern narrowed to a chute and they crawled forward side by side. It opened into a large room, though their vision was obscured by boxes and crates. Vi recognized them as the same boxes she’d helped unload from the Lady Black days ago.
“… their bodies recovered.” Vi recognized Henrietta’s voice. “None of you are to rest until their bloated corpses are here on a spike to warn the next captain who even thinks of challenging us.” So Dower would take the fall for Vi running after Joyce.
“Henrietta, they’ve surely been lost to the sea.” That was the voice of the woman who’d been on the Lady Black, murmuring dissent before Joyce attacked.
“Silence! It was your incompetence that got us into this mess. I’ll hear none of it.”
“Henrietta is their leader,” Vi whispered to Jax. “You’ll know her by the scar over her right eye. Go for her first.” She’d never seen Henrietta in action, but suspected the woman was lethal. Anyone bold enough to use Adela’s name had to be.
Vi took a deep breath, steadying her hands. They trembled in excitement, anticipation. It had been years since she’d felt like she’d accomplished anything, and now everything was happening all at once.
She emerged from the narrow opening into a bowl-shaped cavern. Vi rushed over to a larger crate and scoped out the six talking. Jax joined her shortly after. At least he was keeping up. Though, judging from his expression, only barely.
Vi took his hand once more. Fire licked from her fingers to his, as though she could give him her strength. His breathing slowed and he nodded. Vi faced forward, ready to—
“Drop the boxes,” a booming voice shouted. Vi heard a groan from Jax. “You are under arrest by the will of the crown for smuggling, theft, murder… and many other horrible things.”
She’d always heard her father was “silver-tongued.” Clearly, that was a trait he’d inherited from Fiera. Because his brother was sorely lacking in eloquence.
Henrietta laughed. “Kill him.”
Vi didn’t waste a second longer, launching herself at the six smugglers. She’d told Jax to go for Henrietta. If he could handle that, she’d take on the other five.
Fire erupted around her hands as Vi swung, shooting a tendril of flame at one of the men still focused on Baldair and Erion. He screamed as the fire consumed him, though the sound was cut short as the fire was doused. Vi dodged backward, narrowly missing a spear of ice thrown.
She side-stepped, dodging another spear, and swept her foot across the ground. A wall of flame sheared off. The burnt man fumbled with his sword, determined to fight until his last breath. The woman shielded herself with a wall of ice that promptly became steam. Vi went for her—she was the more troublesome one.
With a flash of flame into the veil of steam, Vi stunned her, closing the gap. She grabbed for the sword the man was fumbling with, drawing it from the scabbard. Vi sliced his throat and swung for the Waterrunner. The woman had recovered, but her attention was elsewhere as she now engaged Erion Le’Dan.
The Waterrunner sunk a blade of ice into Erion’s side. Vi crossed the distance with a lunge and threw out her magic. “Juth starys,” Vi hissed under her breath—she wasn’t taking chances on the smuggler countering her attack. The woman erupted into white-hot flames.
“Up with you!” Vi shouted at Erion. He blinked, startled. The lot of them were young men, fresh to bloodshed. She’d have to keep pushing them, especially knowing what trials their futures held.
Jax needed her help next and Vi launched herself back into the fray. She moved around him, preempting his motions; she knew his openings and could cover his vulnerabilities now that she’d fought with him once before.
Among the four of them, they dispatched Henrietta and her crew easily. Vi surveyed the room, making sure no others were about to spring toward them, as Jax went to his comrades.
“Erion, you got one on your hip.”
“It’s not that bad,” Erion said bravely and pressed his hands into the wound.
“Nox, do you have any more potion?” Jax asked her. Vi shook her head. Lightspinning wasn’t an option now.
“I’ll burn it to stanch the bleeding.” Jax leaned forward, flames licking around his fingers.
“Nox? From the Lady Black? The sailor who chased the smuggler?”
“She saved me.”
“And the rest of you,” Vi added as she adjusted her braids. This didn’t seem like a group that valued girlish modesty, so Vi wouldn’t play that card. She slipped into second skins easier than pairs of leggings. “I was told you were a noble fool, but that truly exceeded my every expectation.”
Baldair, the golden prince, the playboy prince, the head of the Golden Guard—his reputation preceded him even after his young death in Vi’s world. Though, seeing him now, at sixteen, it was hard to imagine him as any of those things. All he looked like to Vi was a spitting image of Tiberus.
“Jax, I didn’t realize you were now in the business of babysitting lost, sassy children.” Baldair laughed, his words lacking bite.
“I think I’m the babysitter,” Vi mumbled as she began searching the crates.
“What’re you looking for?” he asked.
“It’s not here, either.” Vi sighed. She should be happy that Henrietta hadn’t found the treasure. But that meant the hard work was still ahead of them.
“You still haven’t told me what we’re looking for.”
“Adela Lagmir stole the crown of Lyndum and fled with the other wealth of the last king.” Vi straightened, placing her hands on her hips. “When the Emperor—your father, Baldair—chased her down the coast, she fled, giving all the impression that she’d taken the treasure with her. But I know it’s still here.”
“How are you so sure she left it?” Jax asked. “You said, if I helped you, you’d give me information on the treasure.”
“I overheard them talking when we were docked in the port here to unload stolen goods,” Vi lied. “They said someone was searching the caves and found ‘it.’ I assumed ‘it’ must mean the treasure. What else?”
“I think you’re right.” Baldair reached down, grabbing a wad of folded papers from his boot. “And we just so happen to have the map.”
“You do?” Vi couldn’t believe it. “Someone made a map to the treasure?” Someone who was very stupid to write such a thing down.
“Renalee had apparently been searching for the treasure for some time.”
“Well, show me,” Vi demanded, not bothering to ask who Renalee was.
“The city guard is coming; we can ask them for help.” The young prince hesitated.
“I’m not interested in waiting.” Vi tried to wave the idea away casually. Involving the city guard was a terrible idea—that was a whole lot of variables Vi didn’t want to deal with. “Besides, it would mean more people can get their hands on it. Don’t you want to be the only one to touch it, to hold it? Think of what the history books will say about ‘he who finally rested his hands upon the lost treasure of Adela.’” What did young men want more than glory? Vi was betting on very little.
“It’s my family’s treasure. If anyone gets to hold it, it’ll be me.”
“I think I deserve this,” Vi said with a roll of her eyes. “Especially after I helped you.”
“Lay out the papers, Baldair.” Erion was the one with sense in the group. Vi could tell that much. “I’m sure there’s more than enough treasure to go around.”
“Now you want a cut too?”
“I agree with the lady; I think we’ve all earned it,” Erion said to the prince coyly. “What better way to end the summer than actually finding some long-lost pirate treasure? We’ve already hunted a ghost, stopped a murderer, and caught smuggl
ers red-handed. We earned it.”
“I agree. At this point, it’s basically our divine right,” Jax chimed in.
Vi snorted. Divine right—they had no idea.
Baldair relented with a chuckle, laying out the papers. He connected different curving lines stretching across multiple sheets to form a map, and Vi’s mind was already committing each to memory. Some of the tunnels she knew from exploring herself, or seeing the maps of Deneya and Taavin’s explorations. But other tunnels were paths they’d yet to go down. Dead ends and switchbacks were already recorded. The hard work was complete.
“All right,” she declared once the map was solidly in place. She didn’t need a moment more with it. “Let’s go.” The other three looked at her with surprise but fell into step.
They made their way through the tunnels, Vi dragging a dagger she’d lifted from one of the dead pirates along the wall to mark the way in case she returned with Taavin and Deneya.
There was some brief debate when they met a fork in the road. Ultimately they went right—something about a woman wearing an earring contributing to the decision.
At the end of the path was a dead end. Though wind howled through it. The four set to feeling out the walls, eventually finding an illusioned tunnel.
On the other side was another cavernous space, large enough to fit two of the Lady Black side by side. The platform they stood on was just wide enough to stand comfortably without fear of falling. Beneath them, at the bottom of a sheer drop, was a swirling whirlpool. White caps battered the rocks, and the churning waters made it impossible to tell its depth. Though Vi knew, somewhere beneath it all, was a short tunnel that cut through the cliff and let the water rush out to sea.
Stretching from the middle of the room was a column. Nestled at the top was a block of ice that had a mountain of treasure frozen within. That treasure was further protected by the column’s distance from all the walls, the sheer drop, and the deadly water below.
Vi looked from water to ice to treasure as the men spoke.
“So then who made the ice?” Baldair was saying. “It’s still frozen solid, so it must have been recent.”
Vi doubted that. “Adela,” she chimed in.
“I thought Adela was dead,” Erion said cautiously.
“Just because she hasn’t been seen in a few decades doesn’t mean she’s dead.” Vi shrugged. It was the best tip she could give them on Adela, and she hoped to Yargen they listened. “And she seems to be as greedy as ever.”
Adela never got the treasure out, so she froze it in place to prevent anyone else from getting to it as if to say “see but don’t touch.” It seemed like a very Adela thing to do.
“It doesn’t matter who’s making the ice—made the ice—if we can’t even get to it,” Baldair said. “We have no Waterrunners in our party to cross the gap.”
“Should we go back to town and look for one?” Erion thought aloud.
“I don’t think we need to,” Vi said, her mind working swiftly to avoid bringing more people into the situation. “Adela was a smart woman—or it seems.” Vi was loathe to pay Adela a compliment, but intellect didn’t play favorites between good and evil. “She wanted to keep the treasure from anyone else, but it wouldn’t be impossible to believe that at some point, she might need to send someone who was not a Waterrunner to fetch it. Maybe she would’ve made it more difficult for them… but there has to be a path.”
“Or Adela was a murderous madwoman who wanted to keep her prize only to herself and send anyone who attempted to claim it to a watery grave,” Erion said grimly. Vi hated that a part of her agreed that it was possible.
“No… I don’t think so…” Vi looked up to the ceiling that was mostly cast in shadow. The only chutes of light were coming from three-fourths of the way up on the walls around one side of the room—the side that faced the beach where she’d found the coin, she hoped. “We merely have to see past another illusion.”
A dark line of shadow caught her eye and Vi lifted her hand, sending a burst of fire up to the ceiling.
“Look there.” She pointed to the line she saw, the firelight illuminating it. “I would bet that’s wide enough to shimmy around.”
“How did you even see that?” Baldair murmured.
Vi focused solely on moving forward. She was so close now, and all she wanted to do was get to that treasure.
“There are cut hand- and foot-holds here.” Vi gripped a narrow outcropping of stone. “Had to be some reason why someone wasted the time. I would bet that behind that pillar is a bridge of some sort, connecting it to the far wall. We just can’t see it from here, and Adela knew this would be the only entrance.”
Jax boldly followed behind her as she began to climb.
“Jax, wait, what’re you doing?” Baldair stole Vi’s words from behind her lips.
“Someone is going to go over, right? We’re not really going to get this far and just wait for a Waterrunner, are we? We all know I make the most sense. It’s not like my life really matters, not like yours or Erion’s.”
“Your life most certainly matters,” Erion blurted, warming Vi’s heart. “If you are reckless here, I will pull you from the Father’s halls myself.”
“You’re our brother,” Baldair said, joining Erion’s cause. “And I don’t want to see you die here.”
“Is that an order, my prince?” Jax asked in an almost timid tone that nearly betrayed all the brokenness she’d seen in his eyes.
“It is,” Baldair affirmed. “Stay alive, Jax.”
Vi continued her climb so she wouldn’t be caught staring at the unorthodox little family—the start of the illustrious Golden Guard. Jax’s feet scraped the stone behind her as they shimmied across the narrow ledge that rounded the room. Vi glanced at him from time to time, wondering if she could, somehow, convince him to turn back. But it would be suspicious if she pushed too hard. So Vi said nothing and prayed his balance was good enough to stay on the path.
Finally, on the other side of the cavern, they descended onto a narrow ledge that had a wooden bridge connecting it with the column in the center of the room.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Jax asked.
“We came this far. Are you really going to turn back now?” Vi hoped he’d say yes, but knew from his determined expression, he wouldn’t. “I’ll go first.”
“Wait—”
“What?” She stopped, one foot on the bridge.
“Be careful.” He eased away.
Vi gave him a faint smile. “Worrying about little ol’ me?”
“Have you looked at this bridge?” He grinned and pressed himself against the wall, putting as much distance as he could between them.
“It’s all I’m going to look at,” she muttered, shuffling her weight onto the planks of wood.
The bridge held as Vi walked, arms outstretched for balance. She crossed without the boards even creaking. Vi went immediately to the ice, taking a deep breath and whispering “Juth starys” before Jax could cross.
The fire burned underneath her right palm, outstretched to the ice. Vi lifted her left hand, summoning tendrils of flame to hide the glyph that spun there. The ice was certainly Adela’s magic and it would need more than the splintered elemental affinities of the Dark Isle to bring it down.
Motion caught her eye. Jax was at her side, hands lifted as well, fire burning from them. She kept her gaze forward, focused, digging into Yargen’s power and pushing it outward. She begged for the magic that lived in her to seek out its own and find the crown hidden underneath this frosty tomb.
Her hands were nearly on the crown after years of searching. The thought made her almost dizzy.
A monumental crack in the ice was accompanied by a rumbling roar that echoed against the cavern walls. Vi pushed harder. Steam filled the Caverns as the magic that gave the ice shape gave way beneath their joint efforts.
She saw Jax slump, panting. Vi launched herself forward into the haze.
The gold was so cold it near
ly burned her fingers. Vi pushed through it, scattering coins across the scant platform, discarding them into the waters below. She knew the water was moving fast enough to carry the coins—at least some of them—out. There was enough gold here to buy a ship, and she needed the wealth far more than any of these young men did.
“What’re you doing?” Erion shouted.
“S-Stop!” Baldair bellowed. “That belongs to the crown.”
Vi ignored them, taking bags of gold, ripping them open, and tossing them over. It rained coins and jewels into the raging waters. She’d secure as much gold as she could for her, Taavin, and Deneya. In the process, she’d find the crown.
“Nox, stop!” Jax reached for her and Vi swung. He dodged backward and Vi grabbed for another bag.
Where was the crown? Yargen above! The damn thing must be here. Her mind raced as panic began to fill her. What if the past years of searching were for nothing? If the crown wasn’t here, then where was it? Did Adela have it, after all?
Had she already failed? Had Victor beaten her here and this was his ruse, not Adela’s? The thought nearly made her scream. It would be too much to bear.
“Jax, stop her!”
Jax kicked at Baldair’s command and Vi dodged. She tumbled, rolled, and righted herself.
“Don’t touch it!” she yelled. She needed him to wait a moment, just one moment to—
“What’re you doing? Tell us, we can help you!” Jax pleaded.
As if you could.
Vi’s eyes landed on the last, plump bag that’d been hidden at the bottom of all the other treasure. She lunged for it and Jax stepped on her hand. Vi pulled away with a hiss and grabbed a bunch of coins, throwing them at his face. When he was distracted, she grabbed the final satchel.
If she could get it all in the water, she could search through it later. The crown must be in this bag. It would be in her possession and this whole infernal vortex would be put to an end once and for all. If she got the crown here and now, she could get the scythe, and the axe, and then—