“So, it begins,” Myst sighed and turned her back on me, facing Order.
The air thickened with a mixture of doubt and anticipation. Even the spirits of the departed, who had no idea who she was or why she had been brought here, watched Myst with fascinated interest. They could clearly tell she was different and shouldn’t be here to be judged this way.
I braced myself and decided I would do everything in my power to make sure Myst walked away from this unscathed. It was the least I could offer as my gratitude… perhaps as a token of my affection, too. I could no longer deny it. The Valkyrie had burrowed into my chest and taken hold of my heart.
The last thing I wanted was to lose her to Purgatory.
Sofia
During the Flip, the clones had taken plenty of things with them from the fake island, but they had also left a lot behind. That was our conclusion almost immediately on the first day here. It had taken us a while, but we’d managed to comb through most of the island, documenting every find and adding it to a written inventory of objects not of our making.
We’d found settlements that weren’t supposed to be there, either, though we hadn’t found any clones occupying them. I had wondered why these spots were separated. If the fake island had been meant as a mirror to our home, then the settlements didn’t make sense. They didn’t belong. Fortunately, Viola and the others from Thayen’s initial crew had told us about the rebel clones who’d chosen to live out here. I imagined they’d been taken along for the ride during the Flip, too, forced to leave it all behind.
We’d also begun analyzing the villa that stood in place of the witches’ Sanctuary—yet another oddity that didn’t fit in an alleged copy of our beloved realm. Nevertheless, the villa was real, and it had been home to Hrista, an entity we knew little to nothing about. With Astra and Thayen’s crew gone, there wasn’t much else we, the seniors, could do for the time being. Digging into the enemy’s past seemed an appropriate response. Unfortunately, as far as this building was concerned, Haldor had been unable to offer much insight. Given that Hrista had been suspecting him of playing the long con, Derek and I had agreed that she would’ve been careful with what she’d disclosed in his presence. It was our duty to search and study, anyway.
The villa itself was a beautiful structure with wrought iron railings and French windows and an explosion of fragranced flowers wherever it had been possible to plant some. A lot of care and attention had gone into the details of this place. The furniture, the flooring and the carpets, even the wall art and the cashmere throws in the lounge room were meant to make this into something out of an Earthly magazine.
“I think this fake island was used as testing ground more than anything else,” Derek said. With everyone else working on other aspects of this false island, my husband and I had decided to handle studying and cataloguing the villa. The Daughters and the Reapers were conferring on ways to defend ourselves in case the clones decided to come back, while Rose and Ben coordinated with the Shadians to make sure we were ready if such an event came to pass. “And I’m not just talking about faithfully reproducing our realm. Think about it. The cabin in the redwood forest. That was literally taken from somewhere on Earth. This villa too… it must belong to a certain place back home. Everything here seems like the result of a test. Like, let’s see if we can do this… or that…”
“It could be. Either way, there is a lot we still don’t know,” I replied. “Personally, I am surprised by how much the clones left behind. If secrecy had been their game prior to the Flip, this is just the complete opposite.”
Derek’s gaze darkened. “My guess is they don’t care anymore. Maybe they expect us to die here, never to leave again.”
“I would agree, but then how do you explain Astra? Hrista knew what she could do before any of us did, including Astra herself. We have her to get us out of here. Sure, she needs more practice, but she’s accomplished something incredible already.”
“Yes. That’s true. But what if there is something here that we haven’t discovered yet?” Derek replied. “Something that Hrista thought would end us before we’d be able to leave.”
The thought had occurred to me, as well, but I hadn’t voiced it. There was no evidence to suggest such a possibility. “If she is as sadistically evil as Thayen made her out to be, I’d imagine she’d want to make us suffer. Being stuck here for an eternity qualifies.”
“But we’re not really stuck here, since Astra is still alive, thank the stars.”
I nodded. “True. But maybe that wasn’t planned. Think about it. Minutes passed between the attempt to kill Astra here and the Flip. From what Haldor told us, Hrista was on a tight schedule. She missed the window to take out the half-Daughter who can open shimmering portals, but she couldn’t miss the Flip, too. It was more important.”
“In that case, I hope Hrista is restless and miserable right now, knowing it’s only a matter of time before we come after her,” Derek replied with a cool grin. We were in her bedroom, a large round room with a walk-in closet and an attached study. The wardrobes and drawers didn’t yield anything of interest. It was clear she didn’t spend much time here. Her attire was a part of the physical manifestation of her spirit and certainly not something that could be stored inside a dresser or on a coat hanger. “We should try the study next,” my husband suggested.
We left the bedroom behind and started going through the shelves first, since they covered most of the windowless walls. Hrista had gathered an impressive number of books here from all over Earth. Works of philosophy and human history, masterpieces of fiction and poetry. She’d even developed quite the appetite for high fantasy literature, judging by the titles I had glossed over. “Hrista has spent a lot of her time reading,” I said upon noticing the wear on the spines of most of these books.
“Well, that and scheming, of course,” Derek muttered as he went through every drawer he could find. Finally, he found something of interest, motioning for me to join him in front of the desk. It was a folder, its covers made of fine leather and with the letter H elegantly sewn in silver thread on the front cover. Inside it, there were several pages of yellowed paper with black and red ink writing, though none of the symbols and texts seemed familiar. “This is an unfamiliar language,” my husband said, rather disappointed.
But my breath caught in my throat once I found a page I could understand, since it had Viola’s name scrawled in our language surrounded by foreign runes and symbols. “Do you think this could be it?” I asked, though part of me was already hoping the answer might be yes. “The scheme to Viola’s blocking runes?”
“I don’t see any other reason for her name to be present like this,” Derek muttered, checking the paper on both sides. “Regine or Haldor will know, for sure. It’s their magic.”
We needed this to be Viola’s cure, and desperately so. The fact that everything that had happened to Viola had not also happened to Phoenix concerned me—Hrista’s magic and trickery seemed to only affect the Daughter, regardless of her sentry connection to Phoenix. We’d yet to figure out why, but at least getting the runes off her would’ve made everything better. Viola had a certain flair in her power, a deeper insight and way of observing things, and we needed her at full strength.
“Where did we leave those two?” I asked, trying not to smile. Their animosity was amusing, though the current circumstances did not allow for much humor. However, all friction aside, the Berserker and the Valkyrie had been more than reliable from the moment we’d met. While Haldor had caused Thayen and his crew some grief in the beginning, I certainly understood why he’d had to play such a difficult part.
“Searching the woods outside,” Derek said, further studying the folder. “There’s a lot of stuff we know nothing about in this thing.”
I shrugged. “We’ll take it all back to them, then. Surely, they’ll know what’s what.”
Derek let out a heavy breath and settled in the chair for a long moment. Running a hand through his hair, he allowed himself
a moment of weakness. It was written all over his face that he was worried sick. He hadn’t said much since Thayen and his crew had gone through Astra’s shimmering portal. We were both concerned, but I’d kept mine mostly to myself, while Derek had said nothing about our son. Finally, he’d gotten to the point where he could no longer take it.
“What if he doesn’t come back? What if Hrista…” his voice broke. He couldn’t finish that thought. I wouldn’t have wanted him to, anyway. It was an ugly and frightening thought, something a mother should never experience, and I’d already experienced enough heartbreak with Ben and Rose.
I caressed his cheek and pressed my lips against his forehead. He shuddered softly under my kiss, and I settled in his lap for a while. “You know damn well our son is a warrior. Much like Rose and Ben before him, Thayen is relentless to a fault. Do you really think Hrista will get him?”
“If he tries to glamor her? I worry that yes…”
“Oh, honey…” I paused, trying to gather my thoughts. He had every reason to be concerned, but neither of us needed this right now. Our best bet for retaining our sanity was to hope for the best. We owed Thayen that much. “He’s got Astra with him. You know how protective she is of her family and friends. Let’s not forget the dragons. I don’t know Dafne as well as I should, but Jericho… Derek, Jericho will burn the whole island down if he has to.”
“Hrista has Berserkers on her side.”
“Thayen has one of those too, as well as a Valkyrie. Besides, remember what the mission objective is. Recon. They’re not supposed to interact with Hrista,” I said. Derek had often been my rock, but there were times when he couldn’t take it anymore, and it was my turn to comfort him. This was one such moment, and I did not hesitate. “Babe, we’ll get him back. I can feel it in the pit of my stomach. It’s kind of hard to explain, really…”
“Don’t tell me it’s your motherly instinct,” he chuckled dryly.
But I went with it. “Yeah. That’s right. My motherly instinct. You bet your ass. Thayen’s our third. We lost Ben a couple of times along the way, but overall we’ve done a fine job of raising and nurturing kids, Derek. I doubt we’ll fail with Thayen.”
“We did raise him well,” he said, a smile testing the corner of his mouth. “Maybe I’m just overwhelmed by everything.”
“Anyone would be overwhelmed,” I replied, confident that he was coming back to me now. I could tell from the faint light in his eyes, glimmering brighter with every moment. He looked my way, and I felt it. The connection we’d shared over the years, stronger and more intense than ever.
I kissed him deeply and got up. “We’ve survived fresher hells than this, my love.”
He started to speak, but the sound of voices downstairs startled us both. One male, one female, both angry and booming through the entire villa. Derek and I exchanged glances, then he grabbed the leather folder with its old papers, and we rushed downstairs. We found Haldor and Regine standing in the middle of the lounge area, a large space with sprawling arches of sofas clustered around a trio of mahogany coffee tables with crystal tabletops. It smelled of orange blossoms and cinnamon here, though I wasn’t quite sure where the fragrance came from. There were so many porcelain bowls filled with potpourri, it was difficult to identify the source.
But it wasn’t the Purgatory beings’ presence that brought both Derek and me to a sudden halt down the central stairs coming from the upper floor. No, the three people they had captured and brought inside were the new point of focus.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“What’s going on is that Haldor here is the type to beat the answers out of people, but he just doesn’t know his own strength sometimes,” Regine replied, giving the Berserker a stern look. She pushed the three captives forward, and I realized they seemed awfully familiar. “We found them lurking in the woods outside, spying on you. Well, looking to spy on you. They never made it close enough.”
I was confused. “Wait, I know you… Ida, right? Ida Swanson, from the Vale.”
“Erm, guess again,” Regine shot back, raising an eyebrow.
It didn’t take long to connect these particularly awful dots. “Clones?”
“We have a winner,” Haldor grumbled.
“I’ll show you a winner when I bash your head in,” another captive said, though I could see why she was angry. The left half of her face was covered in bruises and cuts, some of her hair caked with dirt and blood. Her arms were battered, too, and dirt was still falling from her clothes. “You brute…”
“Meet Missa,” Regine sighed, then pointed at the third young woman. “And Laurel. Three happy little clones who were somehow left behind.”
Missa brushed some of the dirt and grass off, cursing under her breath, while Laurel took a deep breath and a couple of steps forward with her hands up in a defensive gesture. “We mean you no harm.”
“That’s rich, considering… well, everything,” Derek shot back.
Missa tried to come closer, but Haldor yanked her by the arm. She nearly fell backward, but Regine stepped in and helped her stand. “See? This is what I mean. You can’t control yourself,” the Valkyrie snapped at the Berserker. The two seemed to hate each other, yet they made an exceptional team… most of the time.
“I’m not interested in coddling prisoners,” Haldor replied.
“How about not breaking the prisoners, then?” Missa muttered, giving him a murderous glance before she put on a friendlier face and looked at me. “I swear, we are peaceful. There are twenty of us in total that Hrista left behind, but it wasn’t an accident. We demanded freedom and independence.”
I had a hard time swallowing this pill. “How can we believe you, after everything you’ve done to us?”
“Well, we didn’t do anything. Not the three of us, and not the rest of our village, either,” Laurel said. “Hrista agreed to let us loose because she couldn’t bring herself to destroy us. We are what she likes to call ‘non-compliant’ since we have free will. She thinks that’s a construction flaw.”
“Free will is a construction flaw? That is beyond absurd,” Derek laughed. “Free will is the single greatest thing that this universe could have given us. Sure, many of us squander or misuse it, but it is ours forever, and that is how it should be.”
It reminded me a little too much of Ta’Zan’s original treatment of the Faulties, but this was nothing like Strava whatsoever. This was infinitely bigger and more complex. Our enemy didn’t even belong to the world of the living.
“Point is, they claim they have intel,” Regine said, elbow resting on the pommel of her sheathed sword. She and Haldor didn’t really fit into the design of this lounge room, but I was glad to have them around. They were both strong and capable beings, and we had a better edge against Hrista thanks to them.
I worried the clones might be hiding ulterior motives. “How can we trust anything they say?” I asked, giving Ida, Missa and Laurel a wary look. “Clones have invaded us. They’ve pretended to be us, and now… they’ve stolen our home from us.”
Ida wasn’t impressed with my skepticism. “You’ve got witches and warlocks, Daughters and Reapers, you even have a Berserker and a Valkyrie in your service—”
“Whoa, I serve no one but Order,” Regine interjected, but Ida kept going.
“Pipe down, Barbie. Point is… you’ve got enough mojo and knowledge and power within your ranks to disintegrate us if you find us deceitful,” she said. “We have intel, and we want to help. Hrista’s world vision is terrifying. We’d rather take our chances with you and your realm.”
“This is only the beginning,” Missa warned. “Worse things are coming.”
It was hard not to take them seriously. The gravity of their words alone was cause for concern. It made sense, too, that this would be merely an unfortunate beginning, and that more trouble awaited us down the line. If we wanted our son and his friends to survive, if we were to get our home and our world back, we would have to step outside our comfort zones.
We would have to take chances. Derek took my hand in his. “I think we should at least listen to what they have to say.”
And listen we would. We weren’t exactly overloaded with other options, anyway.
Astra
“Myst. What do you have to say for yourself?” Order asked when the Valkyrie stepped up, raising her chin slowly ahead of judgment. I had spotted the look of fear on Myst’s face earlier. I knew this wasn’t where she wanted to be. She didn’t deserve such scrutiny, but like Brandon had said, it was already happening.
I only hoped that he would be proven wrong, and that Order would be fair in her assessments. Staying close to the Berserker, I found muted comfort in his close company, the darkness oozing off him and strangely soothing me with lazy chills down my back. The more time we spent together, the weirder our reactions got. At first, my internal light had made Brandon take a step or two back, but only because it was a natural response. Gradually, however, he’d become accustomed to my glow. At first, his darkness unsettled me, until I realized that it was Brandon who had that effect on me, not just this singular trait.
“Where should I begin?” Myst replied with a tired shrug.
“That is your choice. But tell me the truth,” Order demanded, her golden brows slightly furrowed. A delicate shadow drew itself between them, though the blue in her eyes burned brighter than ever.
Edda watched Myst closely as well, but I didn’t see any aggression in her expression, only a tinge of irritation. Leaving Purgatory was clearly a serious crime, regardless of the reason. But I wanted to see Myst prevail in this situation. We had so much work to do in the realm of the living, and I doubted we’d get far without her.
“Hrista went missing,” Myst said. Every single spirit in the White Hall of Judgment was watching her. Every Valkyrie and Berserker, too, though most among the latter kept stealing glances at Brandon. I would’ve given anything to hear their thoughts, since their expressions yielded absolutely nothing. “I searched for her, high and low. Through the shifting mountains and across the silver dunes. In the Berserkers’ woods and caves, too. All over Purgatory, but I could not find her.”
A Shade of Vampire 91: A Gate of Light Page 17