by Brandon Mull
“An attitude like that could take you far,” Ronodin said.
“Should I have brought a weapon?” Seth asked.
Ronodin stared at Seth. “Would you have fought that boar with a sword?”
Seth smiled uncomfortably. “That might not have gone well.”
“Didn’t you have some weapons in that satchel of yours?” Ronodin asked. “The one you carried when Mendigo brought you here?”
“Random gear,” Seth said. “Like one glove. I had a knife in there. Should I have brought that?”
“You used to always carry the satchel with you,” Ronodin said. He produced a short sword. “A weapon isn’t a bad idea in case of emergency.”
Seth accepted the short sword. “Thanks.”
“It’s yours,” Ronodin said. “Mendigo took it from its sheath when he grabbed you.”
“It looks fancy,” Seth said.
“I hope you don’t have to use it,” Ronodin said. “Let’s avoid trouble. Especially boars. Fighting is a last resort. Any clumsy oaf can fight.”
They crossed the stream and continued along the path, moving generally uphill. After coming over a little rise, they saw a wide, muddy crater gaping before them. A few murky puddles sulked in the slick, black mud. On the far side of the crater, near the bottom, a smooth boulder rested beside a stone doorway.
“Is that the crypt?” Seth asked, pointing at the open doorway with one hand while the other covered his nose.
“You guessed it,” Ronodin said.
“Did you move the rock?” Seth asked.
“No small feat,” Ronodin said. “It was enchanted. The Sphinx has a talent for opening things. The harder part was draining the pond.”
“This was a pond?” Seth asked. “Of what? Sewage?”
“Foul water,” Ronodin said. “This would give the sweet bucket a real test.”
Seth peered at the doorway. “It looks like a cave. How far back does it go?”
Ronodin slapped Seth on the back. “That is for you to discover. We should hurry. If the triclops shows up, we might wish that boar had finished us.”
“He’s that tough?”
“You won’t believe how savage,” Ronodin said. “This way.”
Ronodin led Seth down the least steep side of the empty pond. Tarlike mud sucked at each step, covering his shoes with squelchy gunk. Flies swirled above the squalid puddles. The stink was everywhere, but covering his nose and mouth reduced the impact.
Before long they stood before the stone frame of the doorway, gazing into the darkness beyond. “Time to prove your mettle as a shadow charmer,” Ronodin said. “This will be a worthy test of your abilities.”
“Pass-fail,” Seth said.
“Exactly,” Ronodin said. “Sink or swim. Survive or perish. Off you go.”
“You’ll be here when I get back?” Seth checked.
“Me or the triclops,” Ronodin said. “Or some other hideous creature. The faster you go, the better.”
Seth did not like the feel of the cool air wafting from the forbidding doorway. He had a hunch the cave stretched a long distance. “Do you have a light?”
Ronodin pulled out a holly wand. He snapped his fingers, and the tip lit up. He handed the wand to Seth.
“Smooth,” Seth said, starting forward.
“Watch out for traps,” Ronodin remarked.
Seth paused. “What kind of traps?”
Ronodin shrugged. “Anything you can imagine. It’s a crypt that was hidden behind a boulder beneath a pond on an island full of monsters. There might be traps.”
Seth took a final glance at the blue sky and the tall trees surrounding the empty pond. Sword in one hand, glowing wand in the other, he stepped through the stone doorway into the chilly darkness beyond.
Seth promptly realized that the cold inside the crypt came from more than just the absence of sunlight. The rough walls and ceiling of a natural cave led to a chamber lined with yellowed stone blocks. He could sense wraiths ahead in the dimness of the chamber, six of them, spread out in a loose semicircle.
The hostility from these wraiths was unmistakable, contrasting sharply with the neutral attention Seth received from the wraiths in the Under Realm. Seth paused at the entrance to the chamber. The darkness seemed thicker here, offering greater resistance to the modest light of his wand. Wraiths emerged from shallow niches in the walls around the room, slinking toward him. The malevolent cold emanating from the wraiths made the little hairs on his arms stand up. Seth felt like prey; it was time to act.
“Greetings,” Seth said in the brightest voice he could muster. “I brought a message.”
Dezia needs no messages, one of the wraiths thought to him.
You do not belong here, another maintained.
Take his warmth, a third expressed.
He is plump with life, another conveyed.
“Hold on,” Seth said. “My message is for you, not Dezia. Stop for a second. What’s the big hurry?”
The wraiths halted. Seth was poised to run away if necessary.
He speaks to us, one of the wraiths communicated.
“And I hear you,” Seth said. “You don’t want my warmth. It would be a waste. I can help you.”
It’s cold here, one of the wraiths expressed.
He is alive, a different wraith spoke to his mind. He is warm.
“You can speak,” Seth said. “You don’t have to think at me.”
We commune as we choose, another wraith transmitted.
“Have you heard that this dragon prison fell?” Seth asked.
For a time, one wraith expressed. Then one of the watchers revived.
“The hour of Crescent Lagoon is over,” Seth said. “I’m here to grant you freedom. You don’t have to stay in a forgotten hole at a fallen prison. You can go where you want now.”
He speaks pretty words, one of the wraiths put in.
Beguiler, another wraith accused.
“That one watcher won’t last long,” Seth said. “Besides, very few people even remember you’re here. The world has moved on. You’re guarding nothing. Nobody cares anymore.”
Drain him dry, one of the wraiths yearned, stepping forward.
Seth held up a hand. “I wouldn’t do that. I’m the only friend you’ve got. The only voice of warning you’re going to get.”
Hear him, another wraith demanded.
The wraiths kept still.
Hungry, one of the wraiths expressed glumly.
“I come from the Underking,” Seth said. “I’m on an errand for him.”
There is truth in his language, a wraith conveyed.
“I’m here to offer you a deal,” Seth said. “Are other wraiths guarding this crypt?”
We six, one wraith expressed.
“If one of you agrees to serve me, the other five can go free,” Seth said, hoping the deal sounded enticing. He had no real authority to allow them to leave, but he hoped that they remained there largely because nobody had given them permission to go. He also hoped that asking one wraith to serve him would make the others feel lucky about the bargain.
Serve you how? a wraith asked.
“Whatever I need until I leave the crypt,” Seth said. “The one who serves me will be released when I leave. You’re never going to get what you really want by staying in this forsaken burrow. I have met tons of wraiths who live better than this. I freed some recently. Now I’m here to free you.”
Who will serve you? a wraith asked.
“The best one,” Seth said.
“That would be me,” one of the wraiths vocalized. No others challenged him. “I accept your offer.”
“Smart wraith,” Seth said. “What about the rest of you?”
“Yes,” a wraith said.
Yes, another conveyed.
; Yes.
I wish freedom, but to remain here for a time, a wraith expressed timidly.
I wish the same, the final wraith added.
“If you promise not to harm me, you may stay here, free to leave when you choose,” Seth said.
I agree.
As do I.
“You who will serve me,” Seth said. “Do you promise me no harm during your service and afterward?”
“You have my pledge,” the wraith assured him.
“Congratulations,” Seth said. “The path to freedom begins now.”
May we leave in the night? one of the wraiths asked.
“Sure,” Seth said. “As long as you don’t trouble me.”
All but one of the wraiths withdrew to their niches in the walls. Seth felt tension leaving his muscles. He had not been sure if the invitation would work.
“Ready for your first task?” Seth asked the wraith who had agreed to serve him.
“Speak and I will serve,” the wraith replied.
“Do you have a name?” Seth wondered.
“Call me what you will,” the wraith said.
“How about Midnight?” Seth proposed.
“As you desire,” Midnight replied.
“I need you to guide me safely to Dezia,” Seth said.
“You claimed your message was for us,” Midnight said.
“I have other business with her,” Seth said.
“I shall escort you to her door,” Midnight said. “I cannot cross the threshold.”
“Lead the way,” Seth said.
The wraith strode away from the chamber down a winding corridor of natural stone. Seth followed, aware that the other wraiths were now behind him. He hoped their agreement not to harm him was binding.
Before the end of the corridor, Midnight stopped. “If you look upon any of the idols in the next room, you will go blind. I can guide you.”
Seth tucked his hand inside his sleeve and extended his arm. “All right.”
Midnight took his sleeve, and Seth closed his eyes. Icy cold spread from the place where the wraith touched his clothing. The wraith led him smoothly forward along a serpentine route. Eyes squeezed shut, Seth took halting steps, worried about running into obstacles, but the wraith led him true.
“You may look again,” Midnight said, releasing his sleeve.
“We’re through the room?” Seth checked.
“Yes.”
Seth opened his eyes to find himself in another natural corridor of the cave. He realized that if there had been no room containing idols, and Midnight had been fooling him, there was no way for him to know. Seth started rubbing warmth back into his arm as the wraith led him forward.
The temperature began to rise, and Seth saw a red glow ahead. Around the next bend, they came into view of a circular room with a floor of hot coals, mostly black, but with irregular veins of fiery red. The air shimmered with heat.
“Dezia dwells beyond,” Midnight said. “I will wait here.”
Seth saw an open door on the far side of the room. It would take four or five consecutive jumps to get across. Even from down the hall, the heat was intense.
The coals were burning too uniformly and with too much heat to have been recently lit. He suspected some magic kept them eternally smoldering.
He edged forward, stopping about ten feet away from the room, when the heat became unbearable. His hair starting to singe, Seth took a few steps back to where the temperature was endurable.
“Can you cool it down?” Seth asked Midnight.
“Alas, no. These coals mark the beginning of Dezia’s dominion,” the wraith replied.
Seth flexed his fingers. How would it go if he tried to sprint across, maybe jumping as needed? He strongly suspected his carcass would get added to the coals.
What if he cooled the coals? The room was orders of magnitude hotter than a torch. Seth closed his eyes and focused on the relentless heat. He turned his focus inward, searching for the darkness within and the associated reservoir of cold. He located the source and circled it, feeling for the coldest place from which to draw. Then he shifted his energy to project a steady flow toward the coals. The effort seemed futile against the intense heat, but as Seth poured out all the cold he could summon, he felt the temperature of the nearest coals wavering.
Good, a whispery female voice spoke to his mind, startling him. Not the intended method of passage, but clever. Keep trying.
Seth redoubled his efforts, trying to fully extinguish the coals the way he had doused the torch with Ronodin. The coals seemed to yield voluntarily to his power, and soon he had cooled a wide stripe of them across the center of the room. But the coals to either side continued to radiate significant heat.
In previous attempts, Seth had siphoned cold from himself to douse fire; now he wondered if perhaps he could call upon it to protect his body from heat. Drawing more gently from his power, Seth directed the cold to encompass his body, and the chill seeped over him until he was shivering.
Keeping the coldness close, Seth raced onto the path of neutralized coals across the center of the room, kicking up ashes with each crunchy step. Intense heat encroached on the cold cocoon he had summoned, and he drew on the cold more powerfully until he dashed through the far doorway. As he staggered down a short hall beyond, the heat receded, and he disengaged from the darkness within.
A few steps later, Seth found himself entering a domed cavern. Panting, he held up his holly wand. Crude pictograms decorated the smoother parts of the circular stone wall. Other than the archway he had used to enter, there appeared to be no other passages out of the room.
“Dezia!” Seth called.
I hear you, the phantom responded. It was the same susurrant voice that had aided him with the coals.
“Where are you?” Seth asked.
A short figure stepped into view through the far wall of the cavern, her dark form semitransparent, gauzy wrappings flowing as if in a strong breeze, although the air was still. The figure seemed to be wearing a wooden mask with crude holes cut for eyes, nose, and mouth, embellished by ornamental carvings. But when she spoke, the mouth of the mask moved.
“What business have you with me, shadow charmer?” Dezia inquired, her voice matching the one Seth had heard in his mind.
“I’m looking for a flower,” Seth said.
“Tell me more,” the phantom said.
“The Everbloom,” Seth explained.
“And why shouldn’t I kill you for your impudence?” Dezia asked. “You discharged my wraiths.”
“I’m on an errand for the Underking,” Seth said.
Dezia waved a dismissive hand. “What is that to me?”
“Isn’t he your king?” Seth asked.
“The Underking is one of many powers in the darkness,” Dezia said. “I have no obligations to him.”
Seth had hoped his errand would carry more weight. Maybe she was posturing for bargaining power. “I’m sorry about the wraiths. I needed to reach you.”
“You’re a shadow charmer,” Dezia said. “All you required was access. Dismissing them lacked elegance and courtesy. Had you left the wraiths in place, my secrets would have been better guarded from your rivals.”
“I can ask if any of them want to stay,” Seth said.
“Not likely after your invitation to freedom,” Dezia said. “Blunt but effective. I see some entities of note have offered to train you. I also observe that you have destroyed some powerful demons.”
“How can you tell?” Seth asked.
“The signs are there,” Dezia said. “The records of your interactions. It is evident that you stood in the presence of the Underking. No small feat for a mortal.”
“I was telling you the truth,” Seth said.
“You may know some true things,” Dezia said. “But no mortal pos
sesses very much truth. A mortal telling the truth is like a blind woman painting a portrait.”
“I know plenty of truth,” Seth asserted.
“It can be difficult to perceive what one does not know,” Dezia allowed. “If I had a mind to teach you, there is much I could share.”
“I’m looking for the Everbloom,” Seth said.
“Merely the Everbloom,” Dezia said. “Do you understand what you are asking?”
“It’s a flower that never dies,” Seth said.
“It’s the supreme source of power on these islands,” Dezia said.
“The Underking wants it.”
“Everyone wants it. What if I refuse to help? Am I to be your next victim?”
“I’m not looking for trouble,” Seth said. “Just information.”
“You found trouble the moment you entered my crypt,” Dezia said. “You are either quite good at concealing your thoughts, or else your past is a fog.”
“Do you know where I can find the bloom?” Seth asked.
“That was your best question so far,” Dezia said. “There are limits to what I know about the location of the Everbloom.”
“What can you tell me?” Seth asked.
“I know generally where the Everbloom grows,” Dezia said. “Not specifically.”
“Will you share what you know?”
“Why should I?”
“To help the Underking?”
“Are you here because you love the Underking, or because you owe him?”
Seth could think of no clever response. “I owe him.”
“You want me to help you repay a debt to the Underking,” Dezia said. “What will you do for me?”
“I’ll let you teach me something,” Seth tried.
“You’ll let me do you a favor as payment for a favor?” Dezia verified.
“How about we play hot or cold,” Seth proposed.
“Hot, I’ll wager,” Dezia said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Seth asked. “Don’t I have to guess first?”
“I won’t help you that way,” Dezia said.
“What do you want?” Seth asked. “What can I do for you?”
“We’re back to useful questions,” Dezia said. “I was losing hope. Do you know anything about me? Or about phantoms?”