Breaking Stars (Book 2) (15 page)

The maids hovered in every room, one wanting to fix her hair, another wishing to serve her tea, and a third asking what furnishings she wished in the washroom, so she found herself before a window looking over the City. She gave one maid who got too close a cautionary look.

A page opened the door to announce Lady Aisling, and Robyn admitted her. She had been waiting for word all day. The plan was for Head Mage Casimir and a party of four other Class Sixes to venture to the place they expected Gabriel to be and return with news. Aisling, unfortunately, had no air of excitement about her, so Robyn knew she meant business. She was looking lovely as ever in a long green gown with a pattern of pink pumpkins and autumn leaves around the hem and arms.

“You are not dressed for battle,” Robyn observed.

“I do battle of a different kind in a dress,” Aisling smiled. “And I prefer fighting in skirts; they are so liberating.”

“I find them constricting.”

“A Lady is never permitted trousers, so I learned to live without them. I will not think less of you if behind closed doors you abandon dresses,” Aisling smiled a little. “You know a Queen must look the part.”

“I will wear dresses and crowns and capes and tall shoes as it is required of me. But I shall not like them.”

Aisling chuckled. “We can agree on that. Here, I brought you something.” She proffered a little black bag. Robyn untied it skillfully with one hand and pulled out a silver crown in the shape of a horseshoe. It had a peak in the center, and a blue jewel set in it. “This is a Princess battle-crown. Back when Anatoly was new and the borders had yet to be set, Princesses used to ride out with their mothers to fight. They never really bloodied themselves, but it was always profitable to have them on the field as it lifted the soldiers’ spirits. I pulled this out of the treasuries thinking you might like to wear it today. It belonged to Queen Claudette Oden. She was the first Queen to gift land to the Mages, the land we now call Jaden.”

Robyn looked at it in the sunlight. It had a dozen diamonds specked through the peak, and down the sides as well. “It is beautiful. Would you put it in on for me?”

Aisling took it back and slid it into the twirls of her hair securely. “Now you look the part.” She looked sad for a moment and added, “Gabriel thinks you dead. You must get him to see you as soon as possible. We hope it will give him a push in the right direction.”

Robyn had been thinking the same thing. “Aisling, what if this goes awry?”

“How so?”

“What if Gabriel cannot be saved? What if he dies?”

Aisling swallowed. “I try not to think of such things.”

“It is my plan to marry him. He will have to plan his life accordingly.”

Aisling smiled. “I had hoped so. That was why I sent you to him.”

“You could never have known he would be so powerful.”

“It is a selfish plan only a mother could make.”

“I can still marry him, yes?”

“I am counting on it.”

Robyn chuckled at the thought. “Women make him nervous.”

“As well we should!” They laughed together.

‘I wonder how nervous they have made him.’
Robyn thought. She had no right to banish the Arconian Queen and her ladies, and she had made sure not to venture to their part of the palace. She would surely poke their eyes out if she saw one. No one was talking, and no maids had any rumors, but she still feared she had not heard the whole tale. She wanted to hear it from his lips, but she wanted to know
now
. It was not her place to ask him, but as Queen….

“A Queen outranks a Class Ten.”

Aisling raised a confused brow. “Is that a question? Yes, she does, in her own kingdom. In Jaden a Class Ten is the ranking power.” Aisling moved to leave. “It should not be too long now.”

“Head Mage Casimir has only been gone an hour.”

“With luck he will be ready to move when he returns. I would have your things gathered.” Aisling gave a nod and stepped out into the hall.

Robyn was ready. She had been prepared since midnight. An armorer had been summoned to find a bow she could carry, and the short recurve sat across a couch with a full quiver. She could not fire a bow any longer, but she felt naked without the familiar touch across her back.

She turned back to the window and thought of Gabriel so far away without hope of the rescue she was bringing. All night she had been plagued with the idea of his demise. She spent many waking hours planning her life over the years, and Gabriel had been in most of them. Now with the prospect of his immediate death, she was forced to hold her breath every few minutes at the thought.

Of all men, she thought he would be the last to break.
‘I wonder what it was like, to feel everything inside you die at once. Or is it like slowly slipping down a hill without a catch, a progressive thing with an obvious outcome? Would he compare it to one of his Elements, like inhaling a breath of water he tried so hard to stave off, or being suddenly consumed by fire?’

She bit her lip and felt the breath catch in her chest.

‘Did it take long? Had Nolen been working on it all this time? What drove him to the point of proffering a dead woman at Gabriel’s feet, and what else had he done to force her love to lose grip on his hope?’

She could not bear to think of it. Thankfully, the door behind her swung and distracted the tears from falling.

It was her brother, dressed in a form-fitting breastplate over a blue doublet with white-slashed sleeves, gray trousers, and brown boots that curled up over his knees. His eyes flashed from behind the mop of his hair that never lay in the same place twice. “Casimir has returned. We are leaving as soon as we are gathered.”

Chapter 14

The air inside the palace was cold and musty, filled with old moisture like a cave, but nothing grew here. In fact, nothing grew in Roshenin, which Gabriel found odd. It would seem as though nature should reclaim the land, but everything here was dead. The Prince had taken a moment of clear thought and brought with him a sample of a living branch, a flower wrapped in paper, and a few flagons of water he carried in a satchel. But Gabriel could not feel them.

The palace was tall inside and speckled with light. As they stepped through the doors, their bootfalls echoed off the walls that they could not see in the darkness. Nolen pulled a string of Spirit from Gabriel’s chest to light an orb he lofted over his head. It illuminated a dozen stone statues of the dead. The few closest to the door looked to be unbothered, but the further they went, the more frightened the faces became until people had begun to run. The broken figure of a woman in mid stride lay near doors on the far end.

“Where do we go?” Nolen asked Kindle, but the girl shrugged.

“I read it would be here, not its exact location.”

“How did you even find the information to begin with?” Nolen asked as he turned around slowly.

“I was cataloguing books, and the bookmark was so pretty and gilded in bronze that I had to pull it out and look at it,” she replied and stepped around a broken vase.

“Those doors seem to be the most inviting,” Tabor said and pointed to the far wall. He looked at Gabriel who just happened to catch his eye before averting them to the ceiling. “Do you have the energy to do this, boy?”

“I should think not. Dear brother Nolen kept him awake all night.” Kindle interjected.

“He handled worse,” Nolen muttered and turned to the far doors. “We begin then.”

Mikelle came up to Gabriel’s arm and took his hand. For once she did not lean on him. His body still ached, and if he lived through the day, it would hurt all the more next morning.

Nolen led them towards the doors and gave one a push, illuminating the room inside. The Prince stepped in, and suddenly the darkness speckled with shards of gold. Gabriel followed inside. The large room was covered floor to ceiling with jagged squares of pyrite of every size.

“Brazzle?” Mikelle asked, which he assumed was an Arconian term for fake-gold.

“Is this real?” Kindle whispered as she stepped up to tap a finger on one.

“No,” Nolen replied. “Real gold does not grow like this.”

As Tabor entered, the door behind them slammed shut, and when he turned to push on it, it had no give. “It begins.”

“How is this a ward?” Nolen muttered, turning around to look at the room. It was no larger than Gabriel’s bedchamber in Kilkiny Palace, but it was straight and rectangular. “What do you know of this?” he asked Gabriel.

Gabriel kicked at a chunk on the floor to break it. “It’s pyrite, but I don’t know much else.”

“Can you create it?”

“
I
cannot, no,” he kicked the rock again.

Nolen drew green strings from Gabriel and began setting patterns to chip at the stone, but it neither broke nor flaked.

“Some stones can be reduced by oxidation,” Gabriel offered.

“Of what kind?” Mikelle asked.

“Water, some by air.”

“I do not have time for that,” Nolen muttered.

Kindle gave her father a look, and in unison the two of them moved their hands in a flowing airy movement and drew Air from their chests. They blew oxygen in solid beams at the stones.

“It will take much longer—” Gabriel began, but Nolen turned around to shoot him a silencing glare.

“Point it in the far direction. Arconian, you do the same with Water. Find me a door,” Nolen said and gestured to the end of the room. Handing Gabriel the satchel, he motioned to shake the water inside, which Gabriel started. Mikelle pulled moisture from the air to shoot into the stone. Quickly, the stone turned brown and flaked off.

‘An odd ward,’
Gabriel thought, perching on a cluster of stone to take the weight off his feet. He looked back at the door to see pyrite creeping into the hinges in rapid succession. He frowned and looked at a spot on the floor. Pyrite rose in thin layers across each square, forming tinier squares grew.
‘Were they growing when we came in?’

He stood and stepped forward and nearly careened into the floor. He caught himself on a large square, cutting a sharp slice into the outside of his hand. He pushed himself back up, but newly-grown fake-gold snapped around his boots.

“Problem!” he yelled. “The stone is growing.”

Nolen turned with a surprised look as the doubling stone shone under his light. He turned back to the breaking stone before them. “Focus all your attentions there.”

“We don’t even know if a door is there!” Mikelle snapped.

Nolen turned to look at Gabriel, and for once held his eyes without lashing out. Gabriel nodded and pulled green strings from his chest with some difficulty, twisting them in his hands until they formed a simple pointed pattern. “You can feel the walls with this.”

Nolen nodded and formed his own pattern, slipping it into the walls. His own foot was caught and he broke it loose right before pointing to the floor in the center. “Here—a door is here.”

They immediately refocused their attention on the floor, watching as glittering gold formed around them. Gabriel calculated, the growth of rock against the destruction of it, and he soon realized they were not moving fast enough.

“You need another Water pattern in there,” he said to the Prince.

“I already hold three patterns, Mage.”

“I could hold dozens. It’s not hard.”

“For you!” Nolen snapped.

“Then you need to drop the orb and take up a Water pattern.”

Nolen opened his mouth to retort when Tabor agreed. “We can work in the dark for a few moments.”

The Prince did not look as angry as Gabriel thought he would, right before the light vanished, and the sound of another jet-pattern picked up. Gabriel could feel the rocks growing around him, feel the strange sensation of living stone. It was something he never experienced. In the center of the room, though, the stone felt dead, and as he extended his senses, he felt he could
see
the room. It was alive all around him save for a black part in the center steadily widening. The room smelled like metallic dust, and he put a sleeve over his face to keep the iron oxide out of his lungs.

He felt the floor give, and Nolen illuminated the room. He wasted no time and flung a light source down into the next space, grabbing both women by the shoulder and guiding them to jump. Kindle balked for a moment but followed after Mikelle silently. Tabor was quick to follow. “You next,” Nolen stated to Gabriel, picking his feet up and breaking the gold around him. Gabriel quickly obeyed and jumped into the light.

He landed solidly not far below. Turning, he gave the new room a long look. It was set up on a dais and made of black stone unlike the gray jagged rock of the city. It stretched as far as the dim light of the orb’s faint greenish light shone. The ceiling hung small arched supports in a row of seven that repeated every few feet down. From the bottom point of each support suspended a precariously balanced drop of liquid. Below each one was a bowl of some fluid that stood level with Gabriel’s chest.

What really made Gabriel raise his brow was a skeleton in the center of the room, lying face down and long-since decomposed.
‘Someone else made it this far.’

Mikelle stepped up to a bowl and sank a Water pattern into it. “Ice is in this room,” she said, making Gabriel feel the chill in the air, “And something else I do not recognize.”

“What is it that hangs from the points?” Nolen asked, brushing flakes of gold off his boots. As he set his foot down, the droplets gave a little shake.

Gabriel stepped up and gave both the droplet and the bowl a hard whiff. He pointed to the bowl of a smoky solution. “There is bleach in this ice.”

“Are you sure?” Mikelle asked and sniffed. “I do not think I’ve smelled it before.”

Nolen sighed. “Best make a start.”

“Wait,” Mikelle said and put a hand out before he could step onto to the floor. “What happens when this mixes with that?” she said quietly, pointing from droplet to bowl. “We should be generously careful.”

Nolen seemed to agree as he stepped out gently onto the floor. Nothing moved, so he continued. Tabor joined him and Kindle followed, moving ever so softly. Gabriel and Mikelle stepped last, walking with a line of milky bowls between them.

“Why are they so high?” she asked.

It took Gabriel a moment to reason it out. “They’re at eye-level. Or they would be if you were shorter like these people were back them.”

“What are the chances of these becoming a gas if mixed?” Nolen asked not far ahead.

“Sounds plausible,” Tabor replied. “Since they are so close to the nose and would be inhaled quickly.”

“Halt!” Nolen suddenly exclaimed and flung his arms out to catch his balance. He stepped back and looked at what on the floor had caused him to slip. It shimmered in jagged threads as far as the room was long.

“What is it?” Mikelle asked.

“A kind of hoarfrost.”

“What did he just call me?”

“No, it’s a word for ice,” Gabriel replied. “Like when dew freezes.” He felt Water drawn from him as Nolen attempted to pull the ice into his hand. Shortly after he snapped his fingers together to make fire. The droplets of moisture closest to him jumped and wavered in the light.

“It is not melting,” Nolen said. They had nearly reached the skeleton in the center of the room. “Be very careful from here on.”

They set out again, taking each step with great caution. No one dared touch the bowls, so all balance had to come from their arms that could not be swung out wide. Gabriel knew it was only a matter of time before someone loosed a droplet. Nolen was lithe and fast, but Tabor had a few extra pounds about him. Kindle was small but lacked grace, and while Mikelle claimed Water Mages were excellent dancers, Gabriel knew she was often uncertain on her feet. And Gabriel, well, he could go at any moment, but he had worked with ice and water enough to know how to move on it. He did not bother picking his feet up, but rather slid along the floor to maintain the largest surface area on the ice. The skeleton passed on his right, fallen as if in sleep.

As he was working through who would be the first to fall, Kindle gave a sharp squeak and flung her arms out to catch her balance. She slammed the side of her hand into a bowl. The droplet above wavered and fell. Mikelle flung out a Water pattern to catch it, but the solvent slipped through her pattern and fell onto the mixture. Kindle looked at it for a moment as though the world held its breath, and suddenly fell to the ground.

The droplets around them jumped and fell. “Run!” Nolen shouted, tearing ahead. Tabor looked back at Kindle a moment before he followed his son.

‘Had it been anyone else…’
Gabriel thought. The girl lay right in front of him on her back. “Go,” he told Mikelle who held her scarf over her mouth. Her eyes were wide but she did not argue and skidded across the ice.

Gabriel took as much a running start as he could, stooped as he reached the little Princess, and slipped a hand under her neck and knees. She was light and easy to heft into his chest even for his weakened state. His mind couldn’t help but contemplate what the mixture made despite the danger. He had studied liquids in Jaden, but it was more to understand what was flammable, what could not be molded, and how earth could benefit the different Elements.
‘Ice, bleach and some other solvent that once breathed in could knock a grown woman out?’

He felt faint as he took in a breath, but he held it before any more of the gasses could get in.
‘Ice, bleach and what else?’
His shoulders ached, but he would not put the girl down.

Nolen made it to the far end with the others not far behind. His eyes were wide as he turned to look. A door stood on the other end, but his two greatest possessions were in danger. “Hurry!” he yelled, trying to step out onto the ice, but Tabor grabbed him. For the first time, Nolen looked frightened, and Gabriel was at last a valuable asset.

‘Ice, bleach and…acetone.’
He looked up. “It’s flammable!” he shouted. “Set it alight!”

The breath he took made him stronger, and he pushed himself off a bowl as Nolen drew Fire and snapped a flame. Gabriel crouched and fell to one knee as he used his forward momentum to skid the last few yards. The world exploded above him. He fell over the edge of the dais and turned onto his side to keep Kindle from hitting anything. He laid there panting with her on top, feeling the sting in his knee where the frost had cut him.

“You star-crossed boy, you should have left her,” Mikelle shouted in Arconian so quickly it took him a moment to translate. She crouched and put her hands on Kindle’s face, feeling for breath and pulse and then made sure Gabriel was alright.

“You left her behind,” Nolen growled at his father.

“As did you. She is fine, let it go.” Tabor snapped and turned to the girl tucked safely in Gabriel’s arms. “I owe you a great debt, Class Ten.” He stooped, and the two of them put Kindle on the floor. “Will she live?”