“The patrols wanted to tell you—”
“Tell them to fix the problem, and get out!”
“It died—”
“OUT!” Vance sent the guard flying out of the room in an arc.
“I was there…” Regina continued as though there had been no interruption. “More than one soul undoes the test…”
“Hush!” Vance stomped his feet like a toddler. “Your arrogance and stupidity prevent you from seeing the very fact that while Ansel is powerless, I am becoming more powerful than ever before!”
“How can you be so sure?”
Vance’s golden eyes gleamed dangerously in the flickering light of the fireplace.
“‘No Sumrect can escape the bind.’ Ansel wasn’t the only one who struck an accord with the Etherian. I, just like Ansel, can gauge the effectiveness of the spell… As one loses his power, the other… loses his soul.”
He continued, savoring the fear that spread over his wife’s face as she understood before he even finished, “Soul for power, power for soul. ‘A fair trade,’ the Etherian said… Shall we test the extent of my new powers on you, dearest?” His hair-raising laugh sucked the warmth out of the room.
Regina staggered backward, shaking her head, recoiling from the monster before her.
“In that case, Atma, I suggest we act as soon as possible before our enemies figure out a way to reverse the spell.” Quinn pulled Regina aside before she could say another word. He threw her a look of warning. “The execution must take place tomorrow.”
“You”—Vance jammed a finger into Quinn’s chest—“and your sister have been keeping this secret from me for way too long.”
“We were trying to help you,” Regina said in a small voice.
“Lies, lies, lies!” lashed Vance. He paced the room in rage. “Your brother is right. I will not be dilly dallying with your petty games any longer. At noon tomorrow, Ansel Cassadian shall cease to exist in this world, and should you interfere, you’ll endure a fate no different from his. You can count on my word!”
Facing Quinn, he ordered, “For the sake of you and your sister’s lives, ready the Morvyanns and prisoners.”
Chapter 24
Gentle waves carried Myles and Nico to shore where Gail, Kai and Ansel’s Sumrects had already gathered around a fire. Myles welcomed the heat and company, but the momentary relief that fell over him was eclipsed by the gnawing worry that two Morvyanns had been left unappropriated.
“Why the sour faces? At least Vance’s soldiers didn’t catch us. Together, we reprogrammed three and destroyed one. I say the mission was mostly successful!” Kai said in a cheery tone.
“Yeah, successful only if they don’t notice their ruined vessel by tomorrow.” Alexander sulked, prodding at the fire a bit harder than necessary.
Winston patted him on the back. “Lighten up. Vance is probably too preoccupied with the Etherian spell at the moment to worry about his machines.”
Lorenzo nodded. “You know what? Kai is right. We accomplished something no human or Sumrect has ever attempted before. And if anything, I learned today that this one here”—he gave Kai a gentle punch—“is more fearless than a lot of Sumrects I know!”
Jarret flashed a rare smile at Gail, who blushed uncharacteristically. “Successful or not, I think we all discovered something more valuable tonight… When it comes to courage, there is no difference between a human and Sumrect.”
The group murmured in agreement. Myles felt it too—the sense of solidarity and friendship birthed from sharing in the adventure together.
“We can still convert the Morvyanns tomorrow when they are called to action,” he suggested. “Dawn snuck into one. I’m sure we can as well.”
“Yes, that is a possibility,” Winston said. “We just need to figure out when Vance is planning this execution.”
Only Nico faced the moonlit ocean surface and did not speak. Myles knew why. Not all the Phyon Sumrects had made it back. He watched the waves break the sand again and again. Blair, where are you?
✽✽✽
After her conversation with Basil, Dawn had sent a message to all Tempeia residents in possession of an Eye of Elektron. Each was given a choice: Return home tonight or join in the fight tomorrow to help liberate the one hundred prisoners at Crimson Estate.
Not a single soul chose to leave Fors.
Inside the holding cell, Dawn racked her brain to piece together the puzzle. Someone, most likely Vance, must have tried to access their channel of communication through the Eye. She wondered just how much of her and Basil’s conversation he had heard, if any. A message had already been sent out to the Pathfinders concerning the distribution of centinums. They were going to need all the help they can get. If only Ansel can regain his powers…
During her talk with Basil, a wild idea formed in her mind. What if Regina is right? What if having two or more souls present at the casting of the spell rendered it useless? What if I can reverse the spell?
The notion that she, a measly human, could reverse the spell was preposterous, but Dawn was determined to give it a try. She lay down on the metal bed, purposefully facing away from the glass wall, holding the portal containing the Etherian spell in her hands.
One last time.
Dawn did not enter the secret passageway with Ansel when she landed in his study. Instead, she waited until the hooded Regina appeared. The long-haired Sumrect hurried to the open tunnel, wearing an expression of unease. After glancing both ways, she climbed inside with Dawn following closely behind.
A sadness welled up inside Dawn. Again, she sensed the dense desolation that saturated the air, but she pushed aside the wretched feeling to focus on the task at hand. Soon, they approached the turn in the passageway. Dawn crept along the wall and prepared herself.
Wind picked up. The Etherian’s cold voice began to recite the spell while horror flooded Regina’s delicate features. Dawn waited still, her hands clammy, her throat tight.
Suddenly, the tunnel flickered to the concrete walls of her holding cell as someone called her name from a distance.
Quinn has come for me, she thought in panic. But she could not leave now. Just a few more seconds.
The Etherian continued to speak:
“Transfer power or meet defeat…”
Dawn poked her head out only far enough to see Ansel with his back to her, his right hand locked with the Etherian’s.
“Eleven years, it is complete…”
With her head tilted back, the Etherian resembled someone very familiar, but Dawn could neither pinpoint the resemblance nor dwell on that peculiar detail; her holding cell flashed into view again, interrupting her concentration. Quinn’s voice was louder. Closer.
Almost there.
“Only One soul shall rule the rest…”
Dawn darted from the turn in the tunnel.
“More than One soul undoes the test.”
When the spell caster said her last word, Dawn grabbed the Etherian’s hand, joining in the bind with Ansel. Instantly, a numbing chill spread through her body.
The Etherian let out an ear-splitting shriek of rage. Her hollow eyes dropped to meet Dawn’s fearless gaze. Pale blue light imploded from the joining of their hands, sucking with it all sound before a massive explosion slammed Ansel to the ground and hurled Regina and the Etherian toward opposite ends of the tunnel.
✽✽✽
“Wake up, human!”
This time, Quinn’s voice originated from less than ten feet away. Dawn shot up from her metal bed, cold sweat lining her forehead. Have I done it? Have I nullified the spell?
“Hand over the portal!” Quinn brandished his arms inside the holding cell, his nostrils flaring with each intake of breath. He must have been monitoring her through the glass wall. The still warm amber piece escaped from Dawn’s grasp and flew in an arc toward the Sumrect.
However, before the piece could make it to Quinn’s hand, Steve, who was standing right behind him, struck Quinn on the head w
ith a jolt of electricity, knocking him out, while Cameron bound the massive Sumrect with what appeared to be ropes made of water.
Steve and Cameron? Dawn’s mouth fell open. What is going on?
As if to answer her question, the Sumrects’ faces changed; Cameron shrunk a foot and a half in height. Seconds later, Dawn was staring flabbergasted at none other than Moira… and Blair?
“Never liked him,” Blair grumbled, stepping over Quinn’s motionless body.
Moira tiptoed around the unconscious soldier and stuffed the portal back into Dawn’s hands. “I thought something happened to you, Miss Dawn!”
“Why are you at Crimson, Blair?” A thousand questions raced through her head.
Blair scoffed as she tied back her wet hair. “Obviously, to rescue you! If not for my goddaughter here, it would have taken me ages to find you.”
“Goddaughter?”
Blair dismissed Dawn’s look of incredulity and carried on with her tirade. “Look at the mess you landed yourself in! And Ansel, too. Would he be stuck in this predicament if you had just stayed at Chesterfield as you were told? No!”
“They took my brother, Henry, and threatened to kill him,” Dawn tried to explain.
“You are so easily played.” Exasperated, Blair threw her palms to her face.
“But Miss Dawn did the right thing by trying to save someone she loves.” Moira assured Dawn with her earnest blue eyes. “Isn’t that what we are doing now, Blair?”
“Whatever.” Blair tapped her foot impatiently, rolling her eyes. “Moira and I are here to get you and Ansel out of this dreary place.”
“Yes!” piped Moira. “We must leave now. Daddy has lost his mind and wants Uncle Ansel executed at noon tomorrow!”
Dawn stared at Moira in shock. “How do you know?”
“I overheard him talking with Mom and Quinn… They mentioned something about the Eye coming back to life…” Moira trailed off, wrestling with what she imagined was an act of betrayal.
Blair laid a hand on Moira’s shoulder. “Your dad is about to make a huge mistake, and we will not let that happen.”
Moira nodded, puffing out her chest.
“Right. Let’s go before Quinn and the other two guards wake up,” Blair said.
“What about Ansel and Henry?”
“I’m not sure where they have hidden your brother exactly, but I presume, like the other workers, he’s being held underground on the east side of the Estate where it’s nearly impossible to break in. Only you and Ansel are over here on the west side. You and Ansel will leave first to join with the Pathfinders. Tomorrow, when Vance brings out the prisoners before the execution, we’ll work together to free them all.”
“Follow me!” Moira was already out the gate when she beckoned to Blair and Dawn.
They raced down the hallway in the direction opposite the glass pod and tube until they reached an old-fashioned, steel-gated door. Moira produced a ring of keys from her pocket and selected the largest one from the bunch.
“The drop is steep,” she warned while she unlocked the gate.
Only darkness lay beyond. She wasn’t kidding. After looking down the never-ending shaft, Dawn realized they were perched at the edge of a cliff.
Without a moment’s hesitation, as though she had done this hundreds of times before, the child strode into the abyss.
“Moira!” Dawn reached out instinctively to grab her, but the child had already fallen in.
“Not so loud! She will be fine,” Blair said. She gave Dawn a light shove on the back. “You are next.”
This is insane! Dawn squeezed her eyes shut to quiet the rational mind, which protested the insanity of stepping into a void, but at the thought of Henry and Ansel, her courage returned, and she jumped into the bottomless shaft.
The fall was not at all like what she had expected. In fact, it was not much of a fall at all. Air pushed up against her feet like an enormous pillow. She sank through warm, fast-flowing air currents which kept her at the center of the shaft, away from the jagged stone walls. The farther they dropped, the warmer and stuffier the air became. Dawn lost track of how long the descent lasted, but the popping inside her ears told her they must be hundreds of feet underground.
A rancid smell struck her nose as the increased resistance beneath her feet slowed her fall into a cushy landing. They found themselves in an ancient cavern lit by burning torches.
“What in the world is this place?” Repulsed, Blair wrinkled her nose at the rich scent of rotten decay emanating from a small crimson lake in the middle of the cavern.
For an instant, Dawn thought she saw a shadowy movement underneath the water surface, but when she blinked, the shadow disappeared. The hairs on her neck bristled. At the same time, her anger toward Vance rose to a boiling point. What a cruel place to hold his brother captive!
“Come with me!” Moira’s voice echoed through the cavity. “He’s right up ahead.”
“Ansel!” Blair’s call bounced off the columns in the cave, but it received no response.
Gripping on to each other’s hands tightly, they crept along the edge. Dawn was careful not to step into the crimson water; instinct told her what dwelled in the lake should best be avoided.
Suddenly, about a hundred feet ahead, she spotted the prisoner. Overwhelmed by a surge of relief and heartache at the sight of him, she half ran, half stumbled toward the man she had not realized she cared about so ardently till now.
Ansel sat cross-legged on a flat-topped stone, his eyes closed as if in a trance, a yellowish glow emanating from his hands. The long chains fettering his wrists and ankles extended deep into the murky waters. Dawn’s heart throbbed upon seeing the dark circles under his eyes and the long, nasty scar running down the left side of his face where Vance’s flaming vines had slithered over.
“My mother’s serum worked its magic on the burns, but the scars… they could not be healed…” Moira quietly said from behind.
Tears welled up in Dawn’s eyes. She traced her thumb gently along the winding disfiguration, and as she did so, Ansel’s eyes flicked open. He neither moved nor spoke. Instead, he locked his penetrating gaze on hers and tilted his head to one side as if to say, “About time.”
“Thank God you are alive,” whispered Dawn.
Blair cracked her knuckles in rage. “When I see Vance, I’ll make him pay for what he did to you!”
Beside the flat-topped stone, Moira got down on her knees and sifted through her large ring of keys, trying them one after the other on the shackles.
Frowning, Ansel glanced down at Moira working frantically. “Haven’t I told you not to come down here again?”
“But Uncle Ansel! This is important! Daddy intends to kill you tomorrow at noon, and we have to get you out of here before then!” The desperation in her voice seemed to wrench him from his reverie.
“So… it has come down to this,” Ansel murmured. He took the keys from Moira, putting a stop to her frenzied search. “Keys cannot unlock these chains.”
“One of them must work… these belong to the guard, Steve!” Moira shook her head in denial.
“There has got to be a way,” Dawn said to herself, examining the rusty handcuffs and the twisted scars on Ansel’s hands.
Ansel gave a grim chuckle. “This cave is permeated with dark forces. You shouldn’t remain here for long.”
“Dark forces, you say?” Blair tapped on her bottom lip and squinted her eyes.
“Stand back!” she said after a while. Extending her arms, she backed away from where Ansel sat.
“Blair, don’t—”
But impulsive as always, Blair cut Ansel off by throwing a silver vunn over him. Eyes closed, she mumbled unintelligibly under her breath. Although less defined and substantial, the same flaming vine Vance used to torture Ansel shot from her palms and snaked its way up the chains. Dawn snatched Moira by the hand and dragged her out of harm’s way right before the vines sliced into the vunn.
A deafening blast roc
ked the ancient cave. Buried within the explosion was an unsettling howl which sounded anything but human. Dawn maintained a firm grasp on Moira’s hand while the stones shook beneath her feet.
When the tremors subsided, the silver dome had vanished, the chains had snapped, and a furious Ansel was on his feet, scolding Blair for her rash actions, “Foolish! You know not the consequences of bringing such evil powers into this chamber!”
“It worked, Ansel, didn’t it?” Blair fired back.
Ansel snatched her arm. “We must leave this place now!” He motioned for Dawn and Moira to follow him further down the cavern where they only saw darkness.
“Where are we going?” Dawn asked, bewildered.
“Away from Quinn and his Sumrects… and away from the evil that lives here! We are not alone…”
What did Ansel mean? Even as he spoke, ripples appeared on the crimson lake surface, and the heat inside the cavern rose to an uncomfortable temperature. After recalling with a shudder the shadowy movement she thought she had seen earlier, Dawn pulled Moira closer and hastened her step.
“Quickly!” Ansel said, glancing back at the water’s bubbling surface.
Careful to avoid the stalagmites and stalactites, they hurried forward with Blair and Moira lighting the way. The group moved in silence down the cave until they could no longer see the crimson lake.
“Ansel,” Dawn said after a while, “I went back into the portals. Once to reignite the Eye of Elektron and once… to break the spell.” She needed to know. Perhaps she had been too naïve to assume she could alter the spell.
Ansel turned to her and said softly, “I was aware.”
He was? Hesitant, she presented to him her theory: More than one soul present undoes the test. Regina had the right idea, but she failed to recognize that being a passive observer in the tunnel was not enough. Regina had to have been an active participant during the casting of the spell in order to break it. By joining in with the Etherian at the last second, Dawn ensured Ansel was not alone in making the pact. She, not Regina, was the extra soul in the agreement.
The Eye of Elektron: A Clean Urban Fantasy (The Sumrectian Series Book 1) Page 26