by Gregory Heal
Without missing a beat, Victor smoothed out his doublet and walked her to the podium, all while the spotlight followed their every move. “I am so proud of you, Jenny,” he whispered before handing her off to Cindergray.
Smiling sweetly, Jen kissed Victor on the cheek before taking the Grand Mystra’s hand. Picking up her gown and ascending the stairs, she heard warm applause blossoming throughout the grand ballroom as Cindergray brought her beside the podium. She could barely see the audience in front of her, but she easily spotted Mira, who was frantically waving near the back. Being able to see her friend helped keep her nerves stable and, with a shining smile, Jen waved at the crowd as the applause died down.
“I know these past years have been trying for us all, but just as a flower blooms at the beginning of every spring, hope is just around the corner.” Another round of applause rippled through the ballroom as Cindergray leaned over to Jen. “Would you like to say something?”
“Um . . . sure,” Jen said, even though inside she immediately regretted it.
What am I gonna say?!
Jen walked up to the microphone, but before she could speak, loud footsteps echoed throughout the main level. Soon after, a Shepherd by the main gate boomed a warning:
“Everybody at arms! A Dark Watcher has infiltrated Watercress!”
Every sorcerer in attendance turned around, brandishing their totems and preparing for action, as someone sprinted into the room and slid to a halt when he saw a crowd of sorcerers at the ready. Out of breath, he yelled, “You’re all in danger!” Before he could say anything else, two Shepherds tackled him from behind, knocking him to the ground.
The crowd murmured until Cindergray shouted, “Quiet!” He no longer needed the microphone to be heard. He took two steps to the edge of the stage and asked, “Who are you and what is your purpose here?”
By that time, the Shepherds had restrained the intruder and picked him back up on his feet. Still trying to catch his breath, he said, “My name is Charles Lancaster and I’m here to warn you that the Dark Watchers are coming!”
Jen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her birth father was here? Multiple gasps echoed around the ballroom as she saw Victor push his way through the crowd and stand in front of the man claiming to be Charles Lancaster. Every sorcerer still had their totems drawn and glowing, but when Victor hugged the man, they relaxed and dropped their guards.
“Jennifer, please come,” Cindergray said as he left the stage to see for himself.
Jen was right behind the Grand Mystra as a path parted for them. Shaking from nervousness, Jen passed Mira and Gavin, who had their hands over their mouths in complete shock. Training her eyes on what lay ahead, she held her breath as she walked up to Victor, who was still embracing Charles.
Cindergray waited for Victor to step away and when his face was revealed, Cindergray said, “It really is you, then.”
Jen couldn’t believe it, but she ducked behind Cindergray, scared to let her birth father see her. She had spent so much time focusing on how to find him that she never once thought about how she would act if they met.
“Jennifer?” Charles asked.
He had the same voice as the one she’d heard say “Mintaka” in her most recent vision. Jen closed her eyes and let out her breath before she stepped out from behind Cindergray. When their eyes met, she nearly broke down in tears. Even though he wore the slate-gray uniform of a Dark Watcher, it did not hide his thin frame. She saw the resemblance from his curly, silver-streaked hair to his hazel eyes, which had an inner ring of brown that transitioned to an outer ring of violet. His freshly shaven face was gaunt, leading Jen to only speculate how tough his imprisonment had been over the past two decades; but when he smiled at her, she knew in her heart that they were related. She reached out and time stood still as they hugged.
“You look just like your mother,” Charles said as tears streaked lines down his dirt-covered face.
“Where is she?” Jen asked, not caring that her makeup was getting ruined.
Charles cleared his throat and his voice wavered. “She died twenty years ago”—he looked at Victor—“at the hands of the same madman who is on his way to attack this castle and steal the lost journal of Merlin and find the Ring of Lancaster.”
“Jocelyn is . . . dead?” Victor said, turning white.
Charles put a hand on Victor’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Vic. She didn’t make it out of the explosion.”
Victor dropped his head to his chest, clutching his staff with both hands. “When I found out you were alive, I prayed that my sister was too.”
Jen was taken aback, but made sure she heard Victor correctly. “Wait, my mother was your sister?” She swallowed hard. “You’re my . . . my uncle?”
Victor smiled weakly at her. “Yes, Jen.”
Tears of joy mingled with tears of sadness. Her birth mother was dead, and Victor was family.
“We’re all that’s left of the Lancasters, Jen,” Charles said, “and Draconex is not going to let us get in his way. He’s coming for blood, and for the journal.” He looked around at the people in front of him.
Cindergray was the next to speak. He pointed at the two Shepherds behind Charles. “Go and warn the other Shepherds. I want you to set up a perimeter around Watercress. You’re our first line of defense.” The two guards saluted and briskly ran to the main gate to hop back on their pegasuses. Then, without missing a beat, Cindergray spun around on his heels and faced the crowd of sorcerers. “Everybody, if you are able to fight, man your designated battle stations! A Dark Watcher invasion is imminent!”
The crowd dispersed as Cindergray said to the small group around him, which consisted of Charles, Victor, and Jen, “This is an all-hands-on-deck situation.”
Mira and Gavin approach. “We’re here to help you, Grand Mystra,” Gavin said.
“Thank you. Two of you help maintain control at the front gate. The other three, guard the other vulnerable areas of entry on this level. The Sacrarium is built for situations like this, so the journal should be safe as long as we prevent them from invading this castle. I will warn the rest of the Elders. The nexus will protect you.” Cindergray reached to the sky, turning into a white beam of energy that shot off toward the Elder council chamber.
Immediately, everyone looked at Victor, who started delegating positions. “Mira and Gavin, hightail it to the front gate—you’ll help hold our forces there. We need to expect that Draconex will look for a weaker spot to exploit, so Charles and I will guard the east and west wings.” Victor clapped and Gavin and Mira took off toward the front gate, where two lines of sorcerers had already begun to form.
“Wait—what about me?” Jen demanded.
“You’re coming with me,” Victor said.
Before she ran to the west wing with Victor, Jen grabbed Charles’s arm. “Charles—Father—did you hear anything about a Richard and Beth Smith?”
“They escaped with me. They’re safe on Camelore until this blows over.” Charles smiled reassuringly, putting his hand over hers.
“Thank you.” Relief washed over Jen as she hugged her long-lost father.
Charles clearly wanted to hold her longer, but he broke away and said, “I have so many questions for you, but now we need to focus on—”
A massive explosion shook Watercress as the ballroom’s glass window detonated, revealing Draconex atop Volcanor, his monster dragon, in the retreating sunset. The blast sent a wall of razor-sharp shards inward, headed straight for Jen, Victor, and Charles.
Quickly, Charles opened his hands and created a gravity field around them, turning the projectiles into dust. Jen watched in horror as a few sorcerers outside of his protection spell fell to the ground after being flayed by a barrage of glass shards.
Behind her at the front gate, Jen could hear commands being issued as her fellow sorcerers fought back a battalion of Dark Watchers.
“No matter what, stay behind us, Jen!” Victor ordered as he held his staff out in
a fighting stance.
Spells were ricocheting around them as Draconex flipped off of Volcanor and landed on a bed of broken glass. He slowly walked toward them with his hands behind his back. “Is this how you greet a former classmate on this historic day?”
He deftly dodged a spell from Charles. Victor still hadn’t moved from his fighting position.
“We know what you want and you’ll never get it.” Victor said. He lifted his staff high above his head and with two hands brought the head of his staff to the ground. Energy rolled through the tiles, lifting them up as it sped toward Draconex.
With a flick of his hand, the Dark Watcher commander diverted its course, sending the earth spell around him, not slowing down. “There are few things I cannot obtain. Exhibit A and B.” He pointed at Charles, then Jen. “I don’t intend on being denied a third.”
Draconex closed his fists, choking Victor and Charles and throwing them across the ballroom with a telemancy spell.
“My, my, you look gorgeous tonight, Jennifer. Would you like to dance?” Draconex taunted.
With her eyes shining purple, Jen tapped into her nexus and cast a fire spell. A flame wheel spiraled out of her palms toward Draconex, but right before it hit his chest, he clapped his hands together, sending out a pressurized burst of wind, extinguishing her attack and leaving her frozen in fear.
Still five yards out, he chuckled. “I need you alive, so I can’t kill you—but I can get you within an inch of your life.” Draconex’s hands sparked with red lightning as he brought them to his chest, containing the energy. Like a loaded spring, he thrust his hands out, sending tendrils of electricity toward Jen.
Unable to escape, she waited to feel the searing jolts course through her body, when all of sudden a man jumped in front of her, taking the brunt of the spell. The lightning strike was so blinding that she couldn’t tell if it was Victor or Charles, but either way she was saved.
After he fell to the ground in a heap, Jen slid over to see Charles. He was seizing from the lightning strike. “Charles!” She cradled his head.
“If you wanted to go first, Charles, you could have just asked!” Draconex laughed. He lifted his fingers to unleash another round of lightning, but it never came. A sideways pillar carried Draconex off of his feet and trapped him to a wall, pinning his arms.
Jen looked over to see her savior, Victor, lower his staff and rush over. “We need to get him out of here!” he said as he knelt down, sliding one of Charles’s arms over his shoulders.
“Leave me. I’ll only slow you down,” Charles rasped, wincing from his injuries.
“Never,” Jen said, picking up his other arm. She looked at Victor for support, but his eyes were glued to where Draconex hung, trapped.
“Simone, watch out!” Victor warned, watching as she walked in front of Draconex.
Simone acted as if she didn’t hear him. Instead, she turned toward the pillar and punched it with her glowing rings, shattering the marble into dust and freeing the dark sorcerer.
“What are you doing, Simone?!” Victor yelled, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
She sneered. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Thank you, my dear,” Draconex said appreciatively, dusting off debris from his spiked shoulders. “It’s true . . . you wouldn’t understand, Victor.”
“Jen,” Victor said quietly, not taking his eyes off the enemy in front of him, “you have to run.” Before Jen could refuse, he continued, “I know what you’re going to say, and don’t. I’ll be fine. Take Skarmor and get to Camelore. Now!”
As sorcerers were dueling to the death all around her, Jen tried to think. Blasts shook the open space of the ballroom, amplifying their noise to almost deafening, giving Jen an urgency to heed Victor’s request or stay.
Still kneeling in front of her, Jen looked, conflicted, at Victor, her uncle: the man who risked everything—and everyone—in his life so that he could protect her. Between them lay an injured Charles, her birth father: the only other living omnimancer, who did the impossible and escaped Feralot’s prison with her parents and took it upon himself to warn the entire Sorcerer’s Guild about Draconex and his surprise attack.
Jen could not physically leave them—especially when she had no guarantee that she would ever see them again. Deep down, though, she knew that Victor was only asking her because he knew it to be the safest option for her. Also, if she stayed, he would be more worried about making sure she was protected than defeating Draconex and whomever would attempt to hurt her.
With heart-wrenching reluctance, Jen said, “I’ll come back for you,” and pushed off of the cracked ground, not looking back.
As Jen’s feet took her farther away from Draconex and into the main hallway, she saw Mira, Gavin, and the other sorcerers hold the front gate as Dark Watcher after Dark Watcher either fell into the steaming river below or dropped dead on the drawbridge.
How am I going to get to Skarmor? Jen thought, frantically looking for another way out.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Malcolm, who dropped down from one of the second-story balconies, blocking her exit path.
“Miss me?” Malcolm laughed as he cracked his knuckles, preparing to fight.
Explosions boomed on all sides, causing Jen’s ears to ring. With her nexus already powered up, she extended her hand and shot out a condensed ball of air toward Malcolm. It connected with his shoulder, but he only slightly flinched.
Surprised that her spell barely affected Malcolm, Jen felt a different energy exuding from him. His voice seemed altered, and when he stepped further into the light, his eyes were as black as Draconex’s.
“Is that all you’ve got? I forgot to mention that I’ve grown stronger since we last met.” Clenching his fists, he rose into the air, levitating three feet off the ground.
Realizing that she was not going to make it to the front gate, she banked to her left and ran down the east wing. As Jen checked each locked door, panic began to set in until she was at the end of the hallway, backed up against a large window and running out of escape options.
As Malcolm flew toward her, she looked out the window to see a steep drop-off into the river. A jump like that could kill a person.
But Jen was no ordinary person.
She was a sorceress who knew animancy.
“Looks like your luck has run out, Jenny,” Malcolm said as he hit the ground running.
Jen didn’t respond; instead, she took a few quick breaths to steel herself before she made the jump. Seconds before she opened a window pane and Malcolm reached her, something shot through the window. Jen crouched to protect herself from flying glass and Malcolm skidded to a halt as Grand Mystra Cindergray burst in, riding a gray pegasus and wielding a sword.
“No!” Malcolm yelled as he shot spell after spell at Cindergray and his winged pegasus.
Cindergray deflected all of the attacks as though swatting away flies, and with a cut of his sword sent out a white energy arc that struck Malcolm so hard that he crashed through a locked door and into a darkened room.
“Jen, there’s no time.” Cindergray slid off his Sacrarium signet ring. “The lost journal! The ChronoCrystal! The Ring of Lancaster! Protect them all!” He tossed it to Jen, who caught it in her hands. “Do whatever you must to keep them safe.” He fired a few cover spells at the broken door, sealing Malcolm inside. “Go! I can only hold him for so long!”
Jen slid the signet ring onto her thumb and made her way toward the Sacrarium, but first stopped to pick up Mira’s shoulder bag from the bathroom in which to carry the journal. Returning into the hallway, she noticed that the drawbridge had been successfully pulled up and the sorcerers stationed there were leaving to assist in other areas.
“Mira! Gavin!” Jen called as she saw them running toward the ballroom. “I need your help!”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Camelore was deserted. Everyone was at the Sesquimillennial Jubilee—everyone except Richard and Beth Smith. Charles had asked them
to wait in the ceremonial chamber until he returned with Jen.
Sitting quietly underneath the helioarch of the ceremonial chamber, Richard looked at the shadow on the table and tapped Beth. The sun was at the perfect angle to depict an individual raising an open book toward the sky.
“Who do you suppose that could be . . . ?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Having Jen run was a bad move, Victor,” Draconex said, slowly circling Victor and Charles, trying to find a weak spot. “If you had just given her to us, I’d have let you two live as a gift.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Victor said, keeping Charles by his side while he watched Draconex and Simone, who had them surrounded.
“No matter. I’ll make quick work of you, then capture her myself.” Draconex took another step on the littered battleground.
Victor was right in the middle of both Draconex and Simone. Thinking on his feet, he said, “What would you do with Jen? Mold her into a Dark Watcher while promising ultimate power?”
Draconex laughed. “Don’t play coy, Victor. You know as much as I do that the only way to break the Halostone’s spell is with the Ring of Lancaster and the blood of the sorcerer who cast it!” He took another step, and so did Simone. “Or any relative for that matter. Since Genevieve died fifteen hundred years ago and Charles will croak any minute, that leaves Jen.”
Victor’s breathing was controlled, almost trance-like. “If you haven’t been able to capture her now, you never will.” He glanced behind him. “Unlike you, Simone, easily tricked into betraying the Guild.”
“I wasn’t tricked into anything,” Simone spat from behind him.
Victor’s emotions were raw. Charles, his brother-in-law, was miraculously alive; Jocelyn, his sister, was truly dead; and Simone, the love of his life, was a traitor who had turned her back on everyone who cared for her. Now, more desperately than ever, Victor prayed that Jen had made it to Skarmor.