Crystal Caged (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles Book 5)

by Elise Kova

  “We should have time. We’ll go to the cabin first and leave the horse there. We’ll continue on foot. It’ll be less noticeable than the horse’s tracks.” She prayed there was enough time for all of it.

  But Yargen looked over them. She and Taavin made it to the cabin in record time. They started the hike to the entrance of the Caverns, Vi walking ahead with Taavin stepping in the footprints she left behind. Then they repeated “kot sorre” over and over. Their glyphs grazed the top of the powder, pushing and piling it to cover their tracks.

  Just as they reached the cliff in front of the entrance to the Caverns, two horses could be seen in the distance.

  “You think that’s them?” Taavin whispered.

  “Who else would it be?” Vi looked to Taavin. “Listen, if this goes wrong—”

  “It won’t.”

  “If it does… I’m sorry, for risking it all.”

  “Don’t apologize.” Taavin reached up, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “All you’ve done, you did for our world. Yargen could not ask for a better Champion.”

  Vi swallowed all the emotions he inspired by just looking at her. She still had so much she wanted to say to him, and time was running out. But there was no opportunity now and she had to focus on what was to come next. “We’re going to need all the chants we can get in there.”

  “I have an idea.”

  “What?”

  “Follow me.” Taavin led her into the Caverns, the stones glimmering under their feet. The world seemed to hold its breath. Almost all of Yargen’s power was now condensed in this one place, split across her, Taavin, and the Caverns themselves. “It’s a word Yargen told me long ago… but I could never make it work right in Risen. Perhaps it was meant for here and now.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Taavin gripped a nearby crystal and uttered, “Chronot.” The entire cavern flared, a rune sinking into every crystal that lined the walls. It made them all glow with fractured portions of the glyph, power illuminating every corner. Time itself seemed to hold its breath in the presence of the magic.

  “Slow,” she whispered.

  “What?” He seemed incredulous at the translation.

  “Chronot, to slow…”

  “Yes, it makes glyphs cling longer. You should be able to cast two to four at a time but… how did you know that?”

  “I heard it, in the word.”

  “That’s not possible,” he whispered.

  “But I did.”

  “Only Yargen—” The sound of hooves silenced him. “Durroe watt radia. Durroe sallvas tempre.” Taavin chanted first and Vi followed. She tapped a crystal lightly, willing the Caverns to darken to their dormant state.

  “There! There’s his horse,” Victor shouted, though his voice was different—deeper in some ways and pitched in others.

  “We have to hurry!”

  “Carefully!”

  The mounts kicked up a confetti of ice and snow as they skidded to a stop on the ridge beyond. Vhalla was astride one. But Vi blinked at the man on the other. Aldrik?

  No… Magic coated the man so thickly that Vi wondered how Vhalla couldn’t feel it. Victor was using an illusion of Aldrik to get Vhalla to the Caverns. Which was clever, she’d grant him that. Perhaps he doubted Vhalla would give him the axe otherwise.

  It also explained why he was doing his best impersonation of Aldrik’s voice.

  “We need to go. We’re close now,” Victor said with Aldrik’s voice as he dismounted.

  “Right…” Vhalla regarded the massive entrance to the Caverns warily. Vi suspected the woman’s expression was identical to her own when she’d first laid eyes on the place. Even if Vhalla couldn’t sense Victor’s illusion, she could pick up on the gravity of this ominous space.

  Something caught Victor’s eye. He turned toward the valley. “We need to go!”

  Vhalla worked to keep up with Victor, plunging herself into the darkness of the Caverns. Vi took a steadying breath as she laid eyes on the axe. She didn’t know the details of what was about to happen. But she knew that, one way or another, the power would finally be hers.

  Victor placed a crystal in the Caverns, much as Egmun had, and the space illuminated once more. Blue and white light washed over them and magic cascaded down from the ceiling like stardust.

  “There’s no time,” Victor muttered.

  As the two continued forward through the first archway, Vi released Taavin’s hand and he quickly used durroe to conceal them both in sound and sight again. She could no longer tell where he was, and in the Caverns, it was nearly impossible to make out his magical signature from any other crystal. Vi pressed forward, listening in on the conversation that was continuing before her.

  “…we missed Victor along the way,” Vhalla said as Vi approached the archway that led into the antechamber. She was just in time to see Victor grab her. “Aldrik, your hands are cold. Let me go.” Victor laughed at her rising panic. The sound pricked uncomfortable goosebumps into Vi’s flesh. “Let me go!”

  “No, I don’t think so, my little Windwalker.” Victor had dropped his poor attempt at Aldrik’s voice. “Do you know how long I’ve bided my time? Waiting, waiting! Everything has been going according to plan, and you will not take this from me now.”

  My plan, Victor. I’ve been the one who was waiting, Vi thought darkly as she watched him shed his illusion. Victor had tricks up his sleeve she wasn’t expecting, however. He produced a crystal from his pocket, slammed it into the base of Vhalla’s neck, and coated it with ice to keep it there. Vi scowled, her spark tickling her fingertips. Victor had clearly taken it upon himself to do some additional crystal research.

  She combated the urge to protect Vhalla.

  Vi’s focus was on the doors that Victor brought Vhalla toward by force. A new barrier was there, albeit a clumsy one. Vi had wondered what exactly happened to “end” the War of the Crystal Caverns. She always suspected that people merely stopped going there, thus, no more monsters. But judging from the traces of Aldrik’s magic in the new barrier over the doors, the man had inherited some of his mother’s intuition when it came to the crystals.

  Victor lodged an insult at Vhalla and threw her against the doors.

  “Rhoko.” Vi held out a hand to help the barrier fall.

  She watched as blinding magic wrapped around Vhalla, tightening across her. Vi could feel an aspect of the woman’s power knotting with the crystals. Victor was using the young woman as a catalyst, trying to unlock the door himself.

  If Vi released her glyph now and destroyed the barrier, Vhalla’s magic would be wrapped in with it. There was no time to separate the two; they were intertwined. Vi panicked. Severing the magic could result in Vhalla losing her power.

  Your mother found the strength to overcome overwhelming odds and be reunited with her power, thanks to this.

  Fritz’s words appeared in Vi’s mind, as if ushered there by Yargen herself. He’d written them on the letter attached to the watch he’d gifted her. Vhalla had lost her magic in her time, too.

  Have faith, Vi commanded herself. Everything was on a course for success. If she didn’t believe that, she couldn’t complete this task.

  Closing her hand into a fist, Vi yanked her arm back. The thick barrier of crystals on the door shattered.

  “Kot sorre,” Taavin whispered from somewhere nearby. The doors swung open, giving Victor access to the heart of the Caverns.

  The man rambled madness to Vhalla as he carried her within, throwing her down like a rag doll. Ice coated the Windwalker, keeping her in place. Vi blinked, swaying, but kept her footing. Destroying the barrier had left her momentarily stunned.

  “What is he doing?” Taavin whispered at her side.

  Vi watched as he laid crystals around Vhalla’s prone form. What was he doing? Vi worked to get her mind moving again after the burst of energy.

  “Don’t lump me in with the incompetent fools who are so hungry for power that they are blind
ed by it,” Victor boasted to Vhalla. “I am of a far greater stock.” He believed that because of Vi. “Egmun thought he could take this power, but he didn’t have you.”

  It clicked for Vi, then, and she wanted to scream. She’d been so focused on driving the momentum to get the weapons to the Caverns that she hadn’t thought about how old actions would echo in the future. Around and around the world spun, mistakes made and made again.

  “He was Egmun’s student. He knew the same things as the former Minister… he’s going to use her as a sacrifice.” She kept her voice a whisper.

  Taavin’s hand clasped over her shoulder and he was visible to her once more. The touch barely registered through the numbness that tingled over her flesh like dark magic. “What?”

  “I will kill you,” Vhalla swore through chattering teeth.

  “Will you? I would certainly love to see that.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  “That would be impressive, as this place will soon become your tomb.” The Minister affirmed Vi’s suspicions.

  “Are you going to let her die?” Taavin asked. His eyes were filled with genuine uncertainty.

  “I don’t want to.” But Vi couldn’t promise she wouldn’t.

  Vi stepped forward, out of Taavin’s grasp. He disappeared from sight. Trusting her invisibility to remain in place thanks to chronot, Vi strode forward into the living core of the Crystal Caverns. She ignored the raving lunatic and prone woman as she walked around the edge of the room. The only reason she could ignore them was because she could feel the dark god underneath her feet, waking.

  She’d given Raspian a taste of freedom for the War of the Crystal Caverns, and now he knew his time had come.

  “I fear, my dear, that you must die without ever seeing my new world order,” Victor was saying. “But know that your death will build a society that favors sorcerers for eons to come.”

  Vi positioned her stance wide, connecting her magic with the crystals around her as Victor wielded the axe. She was ready to make the transference. It would shatter the axe before it could wound Vhalla. That was how this would end, Vi decided.

  But right as Victor was about to deal his final blow, a tall shadow appeared in the distant entryway, barely visible through the archways and doors.

  “Aldrik!” Vhalla screamed.

  “Vhalla!”

  Mother above! Vi nearly shouted.

  “It seems you shall be the first Solaris to die by my hand!” Victor said with glee.

  Oh, Yargen, this was becoming a mess. Fire and ice battled as Aldrik and Victor levied their magic against each other. Chaos took over the Caverns and Victor finally put a temporary pause to it when he blocked the prince’s progress with a wall of ice in the doorway.

  “Rhoko,” Vi whispered, hating herself for using the word. But she had to regain some control and contain the situation. Her magic flowed through the crystals on either side of the door, strengthening Victor’s barrier of ice. Aldrik slammed into it, hard, and winced. He banged his fists against the frozen wall, bloodying them. No fire or rage was going to break through her barrier.

  Vi’s chest ached as she watched the frantic prince staring at Vhalla. Her hand pulsed with the magic that was keeping them apart. This suffering and the deaths that would follow would mean something when she ultimately succeeded. That was the only thing she could cling to.

  Za and Sehra were in the Caverns now, too. Vi was grateful they came and escaped the Capital, until one of the warrior’s arrows managed to pierce her barrier with a flash of light. Sehra was using her limited Lightspinning to try and get through.

  The chaos had distracted her from Vhalla and Victor. Somehow, Vhalla had freed herself and the two were now struggling over the axe. It had only seemed a second, but it had been long enough. Victor snatched the axe and had it over his head.

  A scream rose in Vi’s throat and was stopped short as Victor swung the axe down, carving through Vhalla from shoulder to sternum. Vi saw glyphs appear where the crystals met her flesh. She recognized the shapes as halleth. Taavin was working to ensure Vhalla survived this so Vi could focus on what she was meant to do.

  The axe shone brighter, as though the magic within was trying to explode outward. Vi reached toward it with her mind and closed her magic grip around Yargen’s power, pulling it from the blade. The bright light of future sight tried to overtake her. Not now, not yet, Vi begged.

  She kept herself grounded in the present by grabbing for the power that surrounded her. If she kept absorbing Yargen’s magic, she could keep the visions at bay. The crystals in the room flared brightly. The axe turned to obsidian, falling from Victor’s grasp.

  Kneeling down, Vi pressed her palms into the floor and closed her eyes, remembering the word she’d seen glowing in this place years ago. “Suladin.”

  Magic lifted off the stones and flooded her senses. Victor was still shouting. Attacks were being levied against him. Vi’s world was a hazy blend of light and magic. She saw the intricacies of the barrier that had been crafted to seal Raspian and, for the first time, began to understand them.

  She pulled at the edges of the glyph, trying to uproot it from where it was anchored. “Juth calt. Juth mariy,” Vi whispered over and over, focusing on the cornerstones that kept Yargen’s power in place.

  The world tilted, and a streak of red lightning shot across her skull. Raspian could sense that the cage holding him was weakening. He fought to be released once more.

  The power surging through her made Vi dizzy. It swelled her veins to the point of pain. Everything within her hurt, and then was healed instantly by Yargen’s magic. Her mind was overwhelmed.

  Tilting her gaze up, she tried to focus on the real world as the edges of her vision became hazy.

  Victor reached down and picked up a crystal. He used it to channel power, not even realizing what he was reaching toward. The eyes of the dark god flashed in Victor’s briefly.

  No!

  Aldrik was there now. The barrier she’d made must’ve been destroyed when she’d focused on gaining the power of the Caverns.

  Vi couldn’t tell if everything was happening incredibly slow, or very fast. Time had gone sideways. She was losing the battle to keep her mind in the present.

  Aldrik scooped up Vhalla, fleeing with her as the Caverns began to break beneath them. Victor followed close behind.

  The crystals around her exploded as the last of Yargen’s essence was absorbed into her and Raspian was freed. The burst shattered the doors to the barrier room. The ground cracked beneath Vi, while rocks jutted up around her. Victor didn’t even turn to look over his shoulder. He was so focused on tracking down his prey that he was ignorant to the true work being done.

  Raspian’s essence roared forth. It sought out the man who had gained just a taste. Just as Vi was a channel for Yargen, Victor had become the first channel for Raspian. He would taint the world with the dark god’s magic, not even realizing the power he had.

  Vi’s vision grew tunneled. The power was about to overwhelm her. She couldn’t fight it any longer.

  The last thing she heard was a man’s scream, before the world went white.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The blinding white of the vision faded with the crackle of power. She moved, casting another beam into the darkness that engulfed her. She was shooting blind, her target evading every attack.

  Spinning, she searched the desolate wasteland for any sign of Raspian. Vi moved across the ashen stone and rubble of a great civilization that had been reduced to dust. Her feet hardly hit the ground; her body no longer felt like her own.

  Lightning cracked behind her. She spun on instinct, readying an attack. A plume of smoke rose from a dark spot on the ground where lightning had struck the earth, but there was nothing else.

  A growl at her ear was the only warning she got before rows of razor-sharp teeth sank into her shoulder. Two clawed hands wrapped around her. They dug into her abdomen, flaying her alive. Lightning sparked
through her, rising within her until she was limp and lifeless.

  Then, darkness.

  The vision slipped away like a veil.

  Vi cracked her eyes open. They were crusted with sleep, or perhaps it was blood and sweat, given how much everything hurt. She raised a palm to her temple, feeling a tender spot where her head must’ve met a bit of jagged stone when she collapsed. Vi let out a groan and sat.

  A fire crackled happily in the hearth next to her. Snow fell outside the window, piling high. She looked to the bed across from her—it was perfectly made. Deneya always tidied up her bed before leaving for the day.

  Massaging her temples, Vi closed her eyes. That had been the most horrible dream. Red lightning sparked behind her lids and they shot open once more.

  It wasn’t a dream. She could already feel Raspian’s essence on the earth like oil on water.

  The door opened and her attention went to the man in its frame. Given his tired and worried eyes, she wasn’t the only one who could sense Raspian’s renewed presence.

  “How do you feel?” Taavin asked, crossing over to her bed and sitting on its edge at her side.

  “Fine.” The aches were already dissipating and she didn’t need him worrying about her. She needed information. “What happened after I passed out?”

  “They made it out alive. I kept Vhalla stable for as long as I could—not healing her so much that it would raise questions.”

  “But enough to keep her alive,” Vi finished for him. She looked to the window once more. “That was unnecessary.”

  “What?” He took her hand. “Didn’t you—”

  “It doesn’t matter. Raspian is free. Though some of his magic went into Victor.”

  “I could sense it,” Taavin said with a cautious note. As though he was suddenly wary of her. “He headed toward the Capital.”

  “Expected. Blood will run in the streets of Solarin.” The words were passive; though she physically spoke them, she didn’t feel them. She was a mouthpiece of sorts, it seemed. Perhaps she was in shock. The dream—no, vision—she’d had was fresh in her memory. That was the only thing her mind could focus on. “It’s time to go to Salvidia.” Taavin stood, pacing. “You’re uneasy,” she observed.