Aster Wood and the Book of Leveling (Volume 2) (14 page)

“Jade?”

Empty.

I crept down the dark hallway, carefully pushing open door after door, whispering to her.
 

Finally, in the grand mosaic room, I found her. She stood still as a statue, looking out the empty window frame at the sea below.
 

“Jade!” I said, relief flooding through me.

She turned her head at the sound, and then looked back out the window.

“Where’ve you been?” she asked cooly. She sounded mad.

“Jade, I’m sorry I had to go. But you were exhausted, and I had to take the opportunity.”

She turned and glared at me, her arms folded over her chest.
 

“And was it worth it?” she asked. “To rain evil down on our heads in exchange for a meal at the enemy’s house?”

“They’re not our enemies,” I said, already frustrated. “Not exactly.”

Her eyes narrowed angrily.

“Listen,” I said. “This Corentin. It’s not what we thought. Jade, Cadoc wasn’t the Corentin. Or at least, not the only one. Do you remember what he said? About his brothers? The Corentin is still after us. We have to get out of here.”

“What?” she asked, taking a step backward.
 

“Erod gave me this,” I said, holding out what I now saw was a stone. I hadn’t even stopped since the Solitaries to examine Erod’s gift. Now, as we both looked down at it, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Almara’s symbol…no,
Jared’s
symbol, glowing up at me from deep grooves carved into the face.

“What is that?” she asked, alarmed. “What happened?”

“We have to move,” I said. “Where is Almara?”

“But—wait
—
what is it?” she asked again, entranced. “It looks so familiar.” The light from the stone reflected up into her face, casting ribbons of gold across her skin.

“Erod took it from the village leader. I think it might be a link. It’s supposed to lead us to some book. They’ll be coming for it soon. Look, it’s sort of a long story. Can we get moving and I’ll tell you on the way?”

 
She tore her eyes away from the symbol and looked up at me, confused.
 

“He stole it?”

“Yes,” I said, starting to get frustrated. “He said it belongs to me anyways. I don’t know what he was talking about, but his whole village is on the move, and they’re coming here to get this back.”
 

“But this isn’t yours. This belongs to my house, to my father’s house. It has his symbol. What did he mean?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I snarled. “We
are
related, after all, so it’s my house, too, if you think about it.” I took her arm and started dragging her towards the door. “And I also found something out: it’s not Almara’s symbol. This symbol originated from someone else, someone named Jared.”

“But,” she slipped her arm from beneath my grasp and stopped moving, “if this symbol isn’t the symbol of my father, then why didn’t he ever tell me?”

I spun around, my patience evaporating.

“Jade, you were a little kid the last time you saw your dad. Do you think he was eager to tell you every terrifying detail of what he knew? He didn’t know you would be separated, so why would he think to tell you about the symbol? All I know is that the Solitaries are coming
now
. We have to go. Now come
on
.” I stepped behind her and pushed her with both hands through the open doorway.
 

She didn’t argue further as we raced down the hallway to Almara’s study. Sure enough, the old man was awake and batty as ever. I didn’t waste a moment.

“Father!” I shouted down the corridor. I was guessing that, chances were, he hadn’t made a miraculous recovery in my absence. He would still think I was Brendan.
 

He looked around from where he was standing, apparently talking in deep thought to a patch of wall in need of his council.
 

“Brendan?” he squinted in our direction in the dim light.
 

“We have to go,” I said, crossing the room to him.

“Is that you? My boy! Did you find it? Did you—”

“Yes, I found it,” I lied quickly. “But now we have to go. We’re in danger here. We must jump away from here, and quickly. Do you need any of your things?” I looked around the disheveled room, not sure what was junk and what was useful. If being in the Triaden had taught me one thing, it was that sometimes extraordinary items looked anything but.

“Jump?” he asked, looking confused. Then his eyes fell onto the stone in my hand. “Ah! I see you have found the Kinstone! It has been many years since I’ve seen it!”

“What, this?” I asked, looking down at the rock. “What’s a Kinstone?”

He looked confused.

“I think too much time on Earth has played with your mind, my boy,” he said. “Give it here.” Before I could stop him, he snatched the stone from my hand and held it up above his head.
 

In the split second between the rock leaving my hand, and Almara’s mouth opening to give the command, I realized his intentions.

“Jade!” I screamed. “Now!” I reached out both hands, one to Jade, one to Almara, and we barely held on as he spoke the word and pulled us behind him into a jump.
 

As the fabric of space circled our rocketing forms, I realized three things in quick succession. First, Almara and Jade both had recognized the stone. Second, Almara knew how to use it. And third, I had to get it back from him. This man who had been talking earnestly to a wall a moment ago was not the best one for us to be following into interstellar jumps.

We landed on soft sand in the stark light of day. Almara leapt away from us before I could grasp his robes.
 

“Jade!” I shouted as I scrambled after him. “Stay with me!” I held out my hand to her and she didn’t argue. Together we ran.
 

In a split second his hands were above his head again, his mouth forming the word I couldn’t hear him command. I grabbed him.

We spun. This wasn’t going to work. If he kept jumping, we would lose him for sure, and then where would we be?

I readied myself for the landing, and this time when it came I tackled Almara to the ground. Morning light trickled through trees as I pressed the tiny man into damp forest earth. I held both of his hands down, squeezing the one that held the stone.

“You must release it,” I said, trying to sound calm. “Give me the stone. You are not well.”

He spit out a mouthful of twigs and leaves.

“What could you possibly do with the Kinstone?” he asked. “It won’t work for you. You are confused!”

“No, I’m not. Please let it go and give me a chance to explain.” I felt his hand loosen its grip ever so slightly, and I took the opportunity. I released both of his hands and grasped the stone. When I had it, I stuffed it deep into the side pocket of my pants. Slowly, I released Almara up from the bed of leaves, not sure if he would attack me.
 

Luck was on my side. He hadn’t yet forgotten again who I was, or who he thought I was. He sat on the ground and looked up at me.

“Please trust me,” I said. “There is something wrong with the stone.” It was a lie. I didn’t know anything at all about the stone. All I knew is that if I let it fall back into his hands, we’d lose him again, probably forever.
 

“Something wrong?” he asked. “But how can it be? There cannot be anything wrong with the Kinstone.
 

“In blood and fire the stars await

To lead us—”

“Beyond Jared’s gates,” Jade finished.
 

We both turned to look at her. She stood over the two of us, her green eyes wide with recognition and amazement.
 

“What?”
I said.

She looked dazed.

“I remember it now,” she said. “The stone was kept in the castle when I was a young child. In the mosaic room.”

“What wickedness is this?” Almara spat, his long, bony finger pointing up at Jade. “How do you know such things?”

She looked down at him, forcibly reminded that he still didn’t recognize her, and then turned, taking several steps away from us.
 

I stood up and followed.
 

“What is it?” I asked quietly, so Almara couldn’t hear me.
 

“It’s a link,” she said, staring blankly into the trees. “It’s a link that only works for the head of the family. For us, that’s him. He’s the only one who can command it.”

“But, if this is your family’s stone, why did the Solitaries have it?” I asked.
 

“I don’t know,” she said. “Perhaps they stole it when they drove us from Riverstone the first time.”

But that didn’t sit right with me. The Solitaries had clearly thought the stone belonged to them. Hadn’t they told me that it had been passed down from Jared over thousands of years, and that they were Jared’s descendants?

I turned back to Almara.

“Father,” I said softly. But I had waited too long.
 

“Brendan, is that you?” he began.

Ugh.

I knelt down beside him, and he embraced me before I could speak. Over his shoulder I saw Jade’s eyes flash angrily as her father clung to me.
 

 
“I need you to focus, to answer a question,” I said, pulling away uncomfortably.
 

He looked at me with eyes of a young child, obedient and frightened.

“Where did the Kinstone come from?”

“The Kinstone?” he said. “Why, from my father, of course.”

“And where did he get it?” I said.
 

“He took it, his birthright,” he said. “When he came down from the mountains, he brought it with him.”

“The mountains? What mountains?”

“Mount Neri,” he said.
 

“So he stole it?” I asked.

“Of course not! How can you steal your own birthright? The lines were drawn as clear as day all the way back to the first of us. He took it, yes, but he took what had belonged to his father, and his father before him. It has always been this way. When one of our kind leaves this life, the next takes up the Kinstone.”

I sat back in the leaves, understanding now what I hadn’t before. I wasn’t just descended from Almara, but the entire Wood family was descended from Jared, himself.
 

Just like the Solitaries.
 

I had wondered how the entire village had not been born with the gift of magic, all being descended from Jared. But not all of them were free of the gift; Erod clearly had it. When Almara’s father had fled the village, as Erod had done, he must have brought the stone with him. That’s why they believed the stone belonged to them, despite its lineage through the Wood family.

And Almara, this insane old man, was the only one who could use it.
 

Finally, I spoke again.

“Ok,” I said to the both of them. “The plan is that we head for the Fire Mountains. That’s where the book is supposed to be, so that’s where we need to go.”

Almara’s eyes widened.

“Book?” Jade asked.

Almara turned away. He spoke in a low, harsh whisper. “The Book of Leveling lies deep in the fire. Alas, it has never been found since it was hidden there so many ages ago.”
 

His hands were gripped over his chest as he began to pace, his fingers working madly in his nervousness, and I realized he was shaking.
 

“A journey to the Fire Mountains is not to be embarked upon lightly. They are beautiful from afar, but there is evil there, inside and out. In the Fire Mountains, the Corentin rules. Invisibly. Savagely.”

He cut a path through the fallen forest leaves with his dragging feet.

“We tried to get there,” he mumbled. “But we couldn’t find the way. And then they fell. One by one they fell.” He stopped and put his head in his hands, overcome.
 

“We have the way now,” I said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Just tell us how.”

“You do not understand,” he said, looking up at me. “We stand to lose more than just our lives by entering that place.”

I ignored his warning. I was too full, still, of the adrenaline from my flight to really consider his words. Erod had renounced his own people for me and this cause, might even be dead by now, and I wasn’t about to push his sacrifice aside.

“It all comes down to this,” I said. “Your life’s work. You know we have to go.”
 

I turned to Jade, who stood frozen, watching our exchange. I nodded towards Almara, and she understood. She might not have agreed with me all the time, but months of traveling together, facing down monsters side by side, meant that some of her trust in me still held fast. She walked up behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder.
 

“Maybe,” she said quietly. “Maybe if you think of Mother, of Morna, then maybe you will discover how.”

“Morna? How do you know of this, girl?”

“How will that help?” I whispered to Jade.

She shrugged. “He always told me that were it not for Mother he would have always chosen the wrong path. That she was the reason he chose the right one.”

“Listen to me,” I said. “I’m going to give you the Kinstone, but you have to control yourself. You have to think of Morna and try to take us to the Fire Mountains. If you can do that, we can get to the book and fix everything. Do you understand?”

His eyes were unfocused.
 

“Morna.” Then he looked up at me and nodded.

I pulled the Kinstone from my pocket and handed it to him, gripping his arm with one hand and Jade’s with another. He raised it above his head and shouted
“Herrash!”
into the misty forest.
 

We landed in a meadow, surrounded by rolling green hills. I quickly snatched the stone from Almara and looked around.

There wasn’t a mountain in sight.
 

“I don’t think this is it,” I said. “Can you try again?”

He took the stone.

“Remember, Fire Mountains,” I said.
 

He raised the stone.

Flat, snow covered prairie.