Maylin's Gate (Book 3) (30 page)

Like a boulder in a stream, electricity flowed around the fruit.

She knelt and placed her hand on the skin. “I’m sorry for this next part, but I can’t help it.” She closed her eyes and willed the fruit to open.

The back half of the fruit split apart. Pink pulp and sticky juice poured from the opening.

She stepped aside and directed energy through the core. Like a snail without a shell, the pulp slithered across the room. She cut off the flows and surveyed her work.

An empty husk remained. Like a hollowed-out pumpkin, a round tunnel led through the curtain. The ultimate prize waited on the other side. Unfettered access to the cell’s locked door.

She shifted into an ice bear and shrank her body small enough to fit through the tunnel.

The crystal door, glowing with veins of blue and silver, stood closed.

She nursed a short growl and bounded forward passing beneath the fruit’s empty shell. Like a battering ram before a castle gate, she lowered her head and bared her shoulder.

The moment before impact, the door clicked and swung open.

Her eyes widened and she jammed her paws into the husk slippery with pulp and juice. She tumbled ahead and somersaulted through the open door.

Lights swirled and pain ripped through her shoulder. Impact. She slammed against a marble wall and pain flared in her leg.

She shifted into a forest cat and rolled.

Through a jumble of lights and colors she made out a figure standing before the open door with arms folded.

She whirled, flashed her teeth, and growled.

“Don’t take that tone with me,” Keely’s finger wagged in her direction. “Not after I’ve gone to all this trouble.” The guardian gestured toward a pair of robed figures lying motionless beside the open door.

Relief washed through her and she shifted into her natural form. “Keely.” She grinned and bounded forward wrapping her best friend in an embrace.

“Take it easy,” Keely said. “You’re covered in some sort of goop. Is that fruit?”

“You can’t imagine how glad I am to see you,” she said.

Keely glanced inside the cell. “No, I can imagine.”

“There’s so much I need to explain,” she said.

“I already know most of it.”

“How?”

Keely's expression soured. “Danielle, I’m a guardian and a damn good one at that. Do you think I stumbled across you by accident?”

“You were in the temple during the ceremony?”

Keely nodded.

“And in the cell when Brees and I spoke?”

A knowing smile flashed across the guardian’s face. “Again, right. You’re good at this.”

She bit her lower lip not wanting to ask. “Do you think Brees is right?”

Keely nodded.

Her stomach sagged and her gaze dragged to the floor.

“I tasted last night’s dinner and it was every bit as good as Brees said.”

“Keely, stop. You know what I meant.”

“I’m not paid to think, but if you want my opinion….”

“Yes?”

“Something about Brees’s story doesn't feel right.”

“You think he’s lying?”

“No, that’s not it.” Keely’s brow furrowed. “If the heartwood trees hurt people, why wait two-thousand years? Why not get on with it? And they didn’t exactly put up a fight against the dragons.”

“Lora would never unleash a plague on the world,” she said.

“I think there must be some truth to Brees’s story,” Keely said.

“Then you’ll help me?”

“Find the last heartwood? Of course.”

“What if that means building the gateway?”

Keely glared with arms folded. “Do I have to repeat myself?”

The sound of distant voices echoed through the hallway.

She jerked her head toward the sound. “We can’t stay here. We have to find the elemental sphere. Trace wouldn’t let it go far from his reach. We need to check his private quarters.”

Keely nodded. “Help me drag these two into your cell.”

She and Keely dragged the unconscious channelers into the cell and clicked the door shut.

The distant voices turned into a low chant.

Keely shifted into a desert sparrow and fluttered upward.

She shifted into a finch and landed beside Keely on an air slit high on the wall.

“I’ve seen…things. Disturbing things I can’t explain,” Keely said in a whisper.

“What do you mean?”

“It will make more sense if I show you.”

“But Trace’s sphere —”

Keely’s wings fluttered.

“Keely wait," she said. "Have you seen Arber and Jeremy?”

“They’re in Zen?”

“I’m supposed to meet them on the palace rooftop at midnight tonight.”

“That’s no good. No good at all.”

Her pulse accelerated. “What?”

The chanting grew louder and Keely took flight.

She leaped from the perch and followed Keely into Zen’s night sky.

Glowing crystal walkways crisscrossed the palace grounds. In scattered groups, channelers walked between the buildings.

Keely soared high over the jewel-encrusted fountain. A crystal statue in Trace’s image stood at the fountain’s center. Water streamed from the emperor's outstretched arms. At the fountain's base, water swirled in a shallow pool. Like coins tossed in a wishing well, precious jewels lined the bottom.

She drank in the opulence. A shrine to Trace’s ego didn’t come as a surprise, but the emperor’s wealth astounded her.

Keely pitched right toward the palace. The guardian climbed higher on a path toward the palace's top floor.

She followed on Keely’s tail ascending into the night’s chill air.

Keely soared a hundred feet over the palace grounds and cut left toward the palace's backside.

On the palace's dragon landing, torchlight flickered.

Shedu’s perch. The dragon who betrayed the herd.

A group of robed channelers sat on their knees with heads bowed. A crystal wall loomed over the worshipers. At their center, a figure wearing an ornamental mask stood with arms raised.

Something about the man’s costume set off warning signals. She beat her wings faster and set a course for the crystal wall beside Shedu’s perch.

Keely loosed a rapid burst of sparrow’s chatter.

She ignored Keely's warning and glided lower.

The wall blocked her view of the ceremony, but kept her and Keely hidden during their approach.

Keely fluttered beside her and glared but held silent.

The crystal wall’s peak came into view and she fluttered to an abrupt landing.

Keely settled on the perch beside her. The guardian leaned in and whispered. “You’re being foolish Danielle. What if we’re caught?”

The worshipers faced the priest and chanted in unison. The chant, a slow rhythmic sing-song, set her flesh crawling.

She couldn’t understand their words, but she’d heard the chant before. The shaman in the temple had chanted in the same sing-song voice.

She locked her gaze on the ceremony unfolding below. “Something about the man in the costume….” Her voice trailed off as she focused on the priest wearing the ornamental mask. A mask that made the priest’s body appear small by comparison. A mask depicting the face of a demon. A mask she’d seen before.

A lasso appeared in the priest’s hand and a nearby worshiper knelt low in a posture of submission. The priest placed the lasso around the worshiper’s neck and raised his head skyward.

The memory slammed into her and she stifled a scream. The ruins. She’d seen the demon depicted in the ruins. She’d seen the figure leading humans and baerinese on a leash.

“Let’s go Danielle.” Keely’s voice registered urgency. “I know another way in.”

She snapped out of the trance. “Arber and Jeremy. They’re supposed to meet me here. If I don’t show up, they’ll come looking for me.”

Keely glanced at the moon hanging two fists above the horizon. “We’ll make it back, but we have to hurry.” Keely fluttered from the crystal perch and away from the ceremony.

She followed Keely across the rooftop.

Near the wall’s edge Keely circled a tube extending a few feet above the rooftop. One of many tubes running along the roof’s perimeter. Like the rooftop, soft muted light shone from the tubes casting a warm glow across Keely’s wings.

She darted ahead and glided over the narrow opening. Moist air flowed through the tube and tickled her belly.

The scent of spring tulips mingled with lilacs and jasmine.

Spring time in Ayralen. Home. Her stomach fluttered. She chattered and looped back toward the ventilation shaft. She inhaled searching for the elusive scent that defined the heartwood. But, the fragrances, caught by the desert breeze, vanished.

Keely disappeared head first down the tube.

Heart racing, she pinned back her wings and followed. Yellow, green, and orange light shone through the narrow tube. Far below, grass, green and lush, spread across a meadow.

She raced forward pressing against Keely’s tail willing the guardian to move from her path. She inhaled and the scent of forest pine set her head spinning.

Keely reached the tube’s bottom and shot sideways leaving the chamber clear.

Warm rich air washed over her carrying the forest’s exotic scents. She pushed clear of the tube and soared into the open air. Oak, maple and pine trees grew amid an array of flowering shrubs.

Orange and apple trees blossomed beside an indoor stream. Purple, white, and yellow flowers crisscrossed a bed of river rock. Lush green grass and knee-high shrubs carpeted the indoor forest.

On the room’s far side, neat rows of vegetables grew in a rectangular garden. Tomatoes, corn, squash, and green peas grew in long neat rows. Crystal stepping stones bisected the garden.

Beside the garden, a green crystal door stood closed.

She soared beneath a branch heavy with ripe pears and landed beside the stream. She shifted into human form and gawked at the nature surrounding her. Tapping into nature’s magic, she opened her mind.

A variety of plants greeted her, but none a heartwood tree. Not even a sapling.

Keely touched down beside her and shifted.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this place,” she said.

“You think I knew?” Keely said.

“You said you knew another way in.”

“I saw the vents when I scouted the palace earlier, but I didn’t know about this place.”

She knelt and ran her fingers through the lush grass. The gurgling brook eased the tension in her shoulders and back. She battled a strong desire to stretch in the grass and take a nap. If she closed her eyes, might she hear the rustling of the leaves and the sweet scent of cinnamon drifting on the wind?

“I don’t see it in here,” Keely said.

“See what?”

Keely’s eyes rolled. “You need to get your head out of the clouds and focus. Trace’s orb of power. Remember?”

“Yes, of course.” She stood and glanced across the preserve. “There’s no heartwood trees in here either.”

Keely pointed toward the crystal door beside the garden. “That door must lead to Trace’s private quarters.”

She hopped over the stream and strolled along the bank toward the door.

“Pick it up,” Keely said brushing by her. “This place isn’t safe or have you forgotten the demon worshipers on the other side of the wall?”

“I’m sorry. Of course.” She trotted forward staying on Keely’s heels.

An intricate weave of etchings and patterns decorated the closed door.

“If we’re lucky, we’ll find it stashed in his closet,” Keely said.

“Honestly, Keely. It’s not an old pair of shoes. It’s one of the most powerful artifacts the world has ever known. He wouldn’t hide it in his closet.”

“That’s where I’d put it,” Keely said in mumble.

A sharp click came from the door.

She held up her hand and froze.

The handle turned.

“Go,” she whispered and shifted into a forest sparrow.

Keely shifted beside her and the two took flight.

The door creaked open an inch and the sound of voices carried through.

She fluttered into the treetops and settled on a branch while Keely landed beside her.

The door pushed open wide and two robed figures stood in the doorway. The shorter of the two appeared childlike. A sorcerer. But with hoods drawn, she couldn’t make out their faces.

“The emperor would see you dead for stepping inside his sanctuary,” the sorcerer said.

The larger man, a shaman, shrugged. “He’s no longer my concern.” The shaman ambled forward and waved the second man through. “Come on.”

The sorcerer took a tentative step through the doorway. “This place feels wrong.”

“But, we’re alone,” the shaman said and eased the door closed.