Maylin's Gate (Book 3) (36 page)

"Come," Ormond said from the room below. The shaman's voice sounded strained and breathless.

Dravin disappeared down the stairway followed by Brees.

She hopped down the short stairway and shifted into a hummingbird. With wings buzzing, she fluttered into the room's open space.

A glowing orb floated free at the room's center. The elemental orb of power. Trace's sphere and the last of the three needed to build Maylin’s Gate.

An ocean of swirling fire and electricity engulfed Ormond who stood near the orb. Sweat streaked the shaman’s face frozen in concentration.

She stifled a gasp. How could one man control so much energy?

Dravin and Brees took a few tentative steps onto the glowing crystal floor. A floor with shifting blue, white, red, and yellow light.

"Don't approach me," Ormond said voice quivering. "We mustn't tarry. I cannot hold this power for more than a few moments." The shaman eyed Dravin with a sideways glance. "Dravin, position yourself beyond the orb. To my right."

Dravin hustled around the sphere. The sorcerer's gaze met Ormond's and the two men exchanged a short nod. An implicit nod. Ormond's gaze drifted to the bag while Dravin stopped where the shaman directed.

Brees stepped toward Ormond.

The ankh dangling from Ormond's neck glowed with shifting shades of orange and blue light.

"Don't come closer," Ormond said. "The item your father left you is trapped beneath the orb. We must move the orb from its position to access the panel."

Beneath the orb, the Brotherhood's symbol sat etched into the crystal.

"Step in front of the orb," Ormond said. "For this to work, I must form the triangle’s tip while you and Dravin form the base."

Brees stepped forward stopping opposite the sorcerer. The orb floated between them. "Here?"

With face trembling, Ormond nodded. "That's it."

Dravin glanced toward the room's opening. Concern crossed the sorcerer's face.

"Open your mind boy," Ormond said. "Open your mind to the power inside the orb."

Brees glanced toward her and offered the barest nod.

Pillars of light extended between Dravin, Ormond, Brees, and the orb.

Brees had given the signal. She shifted into human form and reached for the seeds nestled inside her pouch.

A smile of pure malice crossed Ormond's face trembling beneath the strain of the elements. "I'm sorry for using you in this way my boy. Your legacy is here. Your father's legacy, but I doubt it's one you'd anticipated."

Fire and electricity arced in opposite directions. Energy sped along the pathways of light toward both men.

An electrical bolt arced and slammed into Dravin's chest. The sorcerer's face, locked in pain and shock, sizzled beneath an electrical onslaught.

Unchained fire raced along the second conduit toward Brees. Brees mumbled words lost in the roar.

The fire poured over Brees's body and encased the shaman like an orange and red eggshell. Brees's arm rose with palm stretched out toward Ormond.

She tossed the seeds high and pulled on nature's magic.

Ormond's face met hers and panic ignited the shaman's red-rimmed eyes.

She found the seeds floating in space and sent flows of energy deep inside their kernels.

Black vines with glistening thorns slithered toward Ormond.

The shaman held none of the elemental magic he'd commanded moments before. Ormond backed away head shaking. "It can't be."

She willed her living armor forward. A tangle of vines and thorns sprouted and encased her body. She paused beside Brees who stood engulfed by the elements.

Brees held the room’s trapped energy in a tight cocoon. The shaman appeared calm showing no sign of strain. Brees nodded toward Ormond. "Wrap him up."

Huffing and wheezing, Ormond scuttled toward the stairway.

She poured energy into the vines and wrapped Ormond's leg.

The shaman screeched and fell face first onto the crystal floor. Vines slithered around Ormond wrapping him like an over-stuffed sausage.

Brees crossed the room and hovered over Ormond.

"Can you hold the energy a few minutes longer?" she said.

A spark of annoyance touched Brees's eyes. “I can hold it.” Electricity sparked and flared toward Ormond.

The Brotherhood's leader squealed. "If you touch me, the Brotherhood will see you dead."

She moved around the orb and knelt before Dravin's smoldering corpse.

Wisps of blue smoke coiled from sorcerer's blackened skin.

Her stomach churned. She held her breath and knelt before Dravin’s charred remains. With a sharp tug, she freed the satchel from the sorcerer’s shoulder.

"No." Ormond's eyes flared in full panic. "That's mine. Dravin promised it for me."

Movement came from the chamber’s entrance.

She whirled still clutching the satchel and reached for nature's magic.

Brees faced the door and gathered the flame and electricity into a tight ball. The necklace dangling from Brees’s chest glowed cherry red.

Keely's face appeared through the opening followed by Arber and Jeremy.

"Easy lover boy," Keely said glaring at Brees. The guardian’s finger wagged toward the swirling flame. "You're going to put someone’s eye out with that."

Relief washed over her. "Keely, you're safe."

Brees let go the gathered magic. Fire and electricity buzzed in a tight spiral around the shaman.

"Of course I am." Keely peered toward Ormond writhing on the floor. "What has him all tied up?"

Jeremy stepped forward. A detention shield sprang to life around Ormond's encased body. “Danielle, are you okay?” The knight’s blue eyes met hers.

She smiled. “I’m fine."

Ormond’s horror-stricken face fell on the shield knight. “What are you doing to me?”

Arber shifted into a forest cat and stalked the circular chamber. A low rumble came from the guardian’s throat.

“Keely, did you find it?” She said.

"No. I'm sorry Danielle. I searched every inch of Dravin's house and found nothing," Keely said.

Her shoulders sagged. Maybe Dravin didn't have a heartwood tree, but the sorcerer could've told her where to find one. Now she'd never know.

Jeremy nodded toward the satchel dangling from her hand. "Is that it?"

"The antidote? Yes." She shifted the satchel in her arms. "Ormond and Dravin made a deal for it."

"Let's see it," Keely said.

She opened the satchel and peered inside.

Crystal canisters filled with clear liquid rested inside.

She reached inside and pulled out one of the canisters.

Ormond's gaze locked on the canister. "You can't. That's mine," the shaman whimpered.

Keely shot a hard glance toward the bundled shaman. "Pipe down or I'll have him shut you up permanently." Keely nodded toward Arber stalking the distraught shaman.

Arber’s white teeth flashed and the guardian's nose crinkled into a snarl.

Ormond's eyes widened.

Jeremy came up beside her and grabbed a second container from the open satchel. "This cures the plague?"

She nodded and pulled free a crystal stopper resting inside the container's neck. "There's enough here to cure thousands of people." She raised the open container to her nose and inhaled. The liquid registered no scent. Her brow furrowed. "That's odd."

"What is it?" Jeremy said.

"I expected to smell cinnamon," she said.

"Maybe it's not real?" Keely said.

She glanced to Keely and back to the canister. "There's one way to test." She reached for nature magic and directed a current into the liquid contents.

The green glow she expected never materialized. Nothing happened.

She pressed the container to her lips and tasted the contents. Her stomach sank. "It's water."

"What?" Ormond's face flushed. "That can’t be. Dravin promised. He showed me proof."

"What proof?" she said.

The shaman's eyes flickered from side to side. "I saw the healing process with my own eyes," Ormond said in a low mutter.

“What did you see?” she said.

“Dravin brought a boy from Niska to the temple for healing. Red marks covered the child’s arms,” Ormond said. “Dravin gave the boy the antidote and the next day the red blotches vanished.”

"He played you," Keely said and glanced toward Dravin’s corpse. "But, I’d say Dravin never bargained for this."

Ormond's face turned a sick shade of green. "That's impossible."

“You believed what you wanted to believe,” she said.

“Then I’m not cured?” Ormond said.

Brees stepped toward the orb spinning at the room's center.

Her head jerked toward the sphere. "What are you doing?"

“I want to take a look at that symbol.” Brees murmured words lost in the hum of swirling elemental energy.

The orb stirred and shifted.

Her mouth fell open and she gawked at the orb moving from its trap.

"He'll go mad fooling with the orb," Ormond said. "Even I can't touch the emperor's raw power."

"I thought you said he could take the orb's power," Keely said.

Ormond's face flushed crimson. "I meant that for Dravin's benefit. I never —"

"In other words, you lied," Keely said.

The orb shifted and floated away from the room's center. On the floor, the Brotherhood’s symbol sat etched in the crystal floor.

She stepped forward and knelt before the symbol. The symbol she'd seen in the ruins and again at the temple. But, where she'd seen empty sockets for the orbs of power, three keyholes appeared. Symbols written in the ancient language stood above each one.

Keely knelt beside the symbol and gawked. “Well, what do you think about that?”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Alone on the Savanna

The campfire crackled and popped. Smoke drifted skyward carrying the aroma of fresh meat into the night air. Around them, the mist hung like a stranger stopped at the door. The fire repelled the mist, the savanna's roaming beasts, and the faceless man.

With a full belly, Ronan kept a wary eye trained on the mist rolling in from the north. Toward the forest where, hours ago, the faceless man had ended Tarbin's life.

Distant chatter and the blare of some exotic beast rolled across the savanna.

General Demos stood over the fire prodding the meat with a stick. The general appeared no more tired than when they'd awoken from camp a day earlier.

Despite his exhaustion, he couldn't sleep. Not with the faceless man roaming the mist and the savanna’s strange beasts lurking in the shadows. All waiting for them to rest their heads and close their eyes. All waiting to strike. "Are you going to sleep?" He glanced toward the moon hanging low in the western sky. "It'll be morning in a few hours. One of us should sleep."

"On this night, sleep won't find me human," General Demos said.

He glanced toward the forest. "We should find Tarbin and give him a proper burial."

General Demos glanced up from the fire and paused. "The beasts will have taken Tarbin's body by now."

A lump formed in his stomach. "We should at least check."

General Demos nodded and poked the embers beneath the blackened logs. A fresh flame took hold and a shower of sparks filled the air.

He picked up the arrow lying beside him and rolled the black shaft between his fingertips.

Orange and yellow feathers sprouted from its shaft. The arrow's tip, a wide barbed head chiseled from stone, could double as a knife. The arrow would rip a fist-sized hole in a man's chest. Whoever fletched these arrows didn't mean to use them against humans.

"I wonder who made these." He said.

General Demos tossed another log atop the fire and glanced toward the mist. "I don't know, but the thought has weighed on my mind all night."

"Was it the faceless man?" He dismissed the idea as soon as it crossed his lips.

"He used a sword," General Demos said. "I don't think the faceless man has interest in killing the creatures roaming the mist."

"Did you hear the rattling sound? When we first saw the faceless man I mean?"

"I heard it and the war cries."

He whirled his head toward General Demos. "War cries?"

"Ancient baerinese tribes used similar war cries. At least, that's what I've read."

He returned his focus to the arrow. "Those cries were..."

"Unsettling?"

"Yes. I think the faceless man felt the same way."

General Demos nodded. "Whoever made the rattling sound also chased away the faceless man. For that, we can be grateful."

"Do you think those same people crafted this arrow?"