The Song of Eloh Saga (59 page)

“I believe you,” Larnack said. “But why are you down here with me instead of hunting down my wife and daughters? I’m not important anymore. The land is in too much chaos. No one pays attention to me anymore. They’re too busy fighting their own personal vendettas.”

“Without you, Alia can’t go through with her plan. She needs you as much as she needs me. So we thought finding you first would help us catch her.”

He chuckled. “You’re telling me that my wife and daughters want to kill me and you’re using me as bait to catch them? It’s obvious you’re Kandek’s daughter.”

I gasped and took a step back. I’d believed no one but Kandek knew. At least that’s what he’d always told me. “How did you know?”

“We’ve known since your birth. We allowed him to keep you here, subdued and quiet. You were hidden in a place where no one gifted would discover you. We knew where you were every second of your life. That tea he gave you when he’d invite you in his chamber to give a prophecy was concocted by one of our people. We’ve been using you your whole life.”

“Why are you telling me this?” For a moment I wondered if my trick from earlier was still working on him. I didn’t ask for this truth, nor did I force it out of him. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know. Some secrets could stay buried with my father.

“No one’s going to use me ever again. Not you, not my wife, or daughters. Frankly, Reychel, I really don’t care anymore. The Malborn are totally disconnected from our homeland. I don’t think anyone there would recognize us anymore. We’ve become soft and we’d be disgraced if we ever headed back home,” he said.

“Where will you go when this is all done?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the hallway in case Alia arrived.

“I guess we’ll have to see if I live first,” he roared, pushing through Mark and running toward the dungeon entrance. Mark stumbled against the wall and cursed. He staggered back to his feet.

“Damn him!” Mark chased after Larnack, leaving me alone in the dungeon.

I stood still for a moment, wondering if I should run off after Mark or wait here for Alia. I hadn’t expected this. I wished I knew how to communicate with everyone else like I’d seen Nemison do. That was one trick I hadn’t learned.

Before I could make a decision, footsteps echoed around the corner Mark had taken. I held my breath, hoping it was someone I knew and not Alia.

Mark’s head popped around the corner and his breath scraped in and out of his throat, ragged and sharp. “I lost him. He’s fast for an old, fat guy,” he said between heaving breaths. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone. What if someone else would have found you before I got back?”

“It’s okay.” I rested my hand on his arm. “I could have handled myself.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, I would have done my best,” I said. “For Eloh’s sake. I’m not a child. Now that I know a bit about using my gift, I’m sure I could have held them off until you got back and ran them through with your sword.”

“Let’s not chance it,” he said, finally straightening up. His breathing returned to normal and his fist tightened around his sword. “Where do we look next?”

“Well, she can’t leave the castle. She’s here somewhere. We just have to find her,” I said. If Alia came here and Larnack was gone, what would she want next?

“Me,” I said. “She’ll need me. I have to go back to the room she was holding me in.”

“Open a portal, then, and we’ll wait for her there.”

I turned to Mark and held my hand up. “You can’t come with me. There’s nowhere to hide in the room. If she barges in and sees just the two of us, we could have trouble. We need backup.”

“Fine. Where is it? I can gather a few of our troops and capture her there.”

“The north wing, just before the entrance to the tower. It’s the last room on the left.”

I laced my fingers with Mark’s and squeezed his hand. He leaned closer, pressing his warm lips against mine. I wanted the kiss to go on forever, but I broke away. We had a job to do. We’d have all the time in the world when that was done.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Mark said, running his hand through my hair. “Don’t get yourself killed. I’ve lost you too many times. I can’t go through that again.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me to him. The smell of leather and soap mixed together, tickling my nose in the most appealing way.

“You know I don’t want to leave you, right?” I asked.

Mark squeezed me closer and landed a kiss on my cheek.

“I know,” he admitted with a smile.

I flicked my fingers, opened a portal, and stepped through.

Chapter Twenty-Five

I landed on the bed in a cloud made of sheets and blankets. I couldn’t help smiling. In my mind, I’d aimed for a soft landing on the bed and I got it. My gift was turning out to be not just useful, but a lot of fun. When the war ended, I would finally have some time to explore it. If I could find a way to get rid of those visions and stop the madness, everything would be perfect.

I rolled over and the smile fell from my face. Alia sat in the chair, tapping her fingernails on the wooden arm. It appeared she came for me first. I had misjudged her.

“You’ve been lying to me Reychel. You pretended like the severing worked and you didn’t have your memory or any control over your gift.”

“I learned from the best,” I said, never forgetting how Alia had fooled me not long ago. Once I thought I could trust her, but now I knew how deep her deceit could run. I didn’t just let her betray me; I forced myself to learn from it.

“Don’t bother using your gift in here. It won’t work.” Her eyes moved to a spot behind me. I turned and saw Zuri, holding her hands up in the air. I tried to open a portal, but my gift didn’t work. “If your people can block us from leaving the castle, then we can block you from leaving this room. Well, at least until I’m ready for you to leave.”

Alia stood and walked around the bed. I didn’t move. There was nowhere else I could go. I scrunched against the headboard. Not out of fear, but to ready myself to leap off the bed if I had a chance. I was done rolling over and letting others hurt me.

“Jada and my mother have recaptured my father. Thank you for letting him go. They were on their way to see him anyway. When he came running out in the hall, they opened a portal in front of him and whisked him away. I’ll rendezvous with them after I’ve taken care of you.”

So that’s why Mark couldn’t find him. I had a hard time believing Larnack was faster than him. We’d figure out where they went soon enough. First I had to stop Alia. I just wasn’t sure how.

“There’s something your little force field doesn’t do, Reychel.” Alia stepped closer to me. I glanced to each side, but didn’t see a way to get away from her. Sweat pooled in my palms. All the confidence I’d gained in the last couple days drained out of me. The fear returned, the inadequacy, everything I’d felt since the day I knew I was gifted, but couldn’t use my gift.

My chest tightened and my breath quickened as Alia inched closer, her eyes boring into mine. Then she paused and stared at me, her eyes questioning.

“What?” I asked, pulling bravado out of a small place inside me that screamed at me to fight back. “Don’t like what you see?”

“It’s gone. I don’t understand how this can be.” Her voice trailed off. Alia’s hands grasped the sides of my face, squeezing so hard I had to let my mouth open or risk a broken jaw. She titled my head to one side and then the other. “Where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“Your spark is gone, which means the severing worked. And yet you’re still able to access your gift. How is that possible?”

“I guess you’ll never know.” I grabbed her head between my hands and kneed her in the stomach. Alia flew backward, landing on the floor with a thump. Zuri’s hands fell to her side, the force field dropped.

“Alia, are you okay?” Zuri crouched on the floor next to Alia’s inert body, her hands running over Alia’s hair as she covered her face in kisses. I stepped back, stunned. I had often wondered why anyone would be so loyal to Alia, but it was clear now that Zuri had feelings for Alia far deeper than that of master and minion.

I flicked my fingers open, creating a portal. Mark hadn’t arrived yet with help, so it was time to take things into my own hands. I was going to take Alia to the only place no one could get to us. I held my hand out toward Alia, levitated her body, and flung her through the portal.

“Where are you taking her?” Zuri screamed. I blocked her with a small force field of my own.

“I’m holding her captive until we can fix this. I swear to you, on the life of my beloved, I will not kill Alia.”

Zuri’s eyes filled with tears and she nodded. “If what everyone says about you is true, then I can believe your promises. But if you’re lying, I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb with my bare hands.”

I glanced at Zuri’s meaty paws and tried not to shudder. Dying like that would be worse than anything her gift could do to me.

“I promise,” I said. Then I stepped through the portal, coming out on the opposite end next to Alia’s body. I nudged her with my toes, but she didn’t move. Still knocked out. Good. I wanted her to stay that way until I could get someone to help me. I carefully closed the portal, making sure to leave behind a string in the room they’d held me captive in. Mark would know to look for it. They’d be here soon.

The wind whipped my hair, smacking my face and stinging my skin. For a brief moment, I wished I was bald again or that I had a ribbon to tie back my hair. Or a cloak. It was freezing up here. Snow flew in every direction. Perhaps the tower wasn’t the warmest place to hide Alia, but it was the only one I could think of where no one would stumble on us. I just had to wait until Mark came with reinforcements.

Alia lay still on the stone floor of the highest tower in the castle. The stone wall rose about four feet. Six notches, like huge open windows, broke up the wall before it soared fifteen feet into a point. I shivered and pulled my hands into my sleeves. I had been traveling so much between the north and south that I hadn’t even been outside once. It was snowing, but I had no idea how cold it would be. Spring and winter in the Northern Kingdom weren’t too different. One day soon, the flowers would bloom and the snow would disappear.

I had been here once as a small child. Kandek brought me up to show me how far his dominion spread. I’d been awed by the forest outside our town, having never seen it so clearly before. I remembered the bright, sunny day as clearly as any other day in my childhood. It was one of the few times he’d met with me without asking for a story. Maybe it was his strange way of being my father.

A snowflake landed on my nose, ripping me back to my cold reality. I flicked my fingers toward the other end of the tower and a fire sprung to life, its warmth spreading through the whole enclosure. Alia stirred. It was time the two of us had a little talk.

Her eyes opened and a sigh escaped her lips. Snow blew through the windows, coating her body in a light blanket. The fire melted the snow as quickly as it fell and kept us warm, despite the dropping temperatures. I let out my breath. A crystal cloud danced in the air. The sun shone bright as it peeked through the cloud-packed sky.

“Reychel,” Alia groaned. “Where are we?”

She lifted her head off the stone floor. Her glazed eyes swept around the tower.

“In the highest tower. We’re going to stay here until Mark arrives with help. I started a fire to keep us warm until then.”

Alia’s eyes narrowed. “Then you’re going to kill me?”

“No. We aren’t going to kill you, Alia. If we did, that would make us just as evil as you.”

“So cliché, Reychel. I was hoping you had more danger inside you, like your friend Krissin. Unfortunately you’re just as boring as I always believed. You don’t deserve to have a place as the Prophet. Some leader. When you finally capture your enemy, you don’t act on it. You hide, like the coward you are, until your friends can help you. Pathetic.”

I stared at her, the silence as still and heavy as the stones surrounding us.

“I care about life. If that makes me a pathetic coward, then that’s fine.” I walked over to Alia and crouched on the floor next to her. A few days ago I would have been afraid of her, but now I wasn’t. Cowardice and confidence were two different things and I’d changed. Alia had no power over me that I didn’t have over her. “There is someone who cares about you, Alia. Maybe if you’d stop being so angry and power-hungry you could see that.”

“I don’t have time for love. Not now.” Her eyes flashed at me. “Maybe once I’ve destroyed you and taken control of Serenia, I can talk to Zuri about her feelings.”

My eyes widened in surprise. So Alia did know.

“I’m not blind, Reychel. Sadly, you’re the one who’s been far too trusting and blind when it comes to love.”

I looked out the window and a passing cloud, heavy with snow, captured me. I fell to the stone floor, overcome with a ripping headache.

The night swirled around me, confusing my senses. I didn’t know if I was inside or outside, but the blackness weighed on my soul. Clutching the knife to my breast, I walked on silent tiptoes, dancing circles around the box before me. Whatever lie inside it made mewling noises, not quite like a kitten, but unlike anything I’d ever heard before.

I grasped the hilt of the knife with both hands and raised it above my head. My arms shook. I debated whether or not to kill whatever was in that box. The noise annoyed me and I wanted, no needed, it to stop.

Taking a deep breath, I plunged the knife into the blanketed bundle.

Silence. Finally. Sweet quiet.

I pulled the knife out, blood dripping from the blade.

I left the vision in time to see Alia’s fingers flicking the air and a shimmering portal appeared. Ivy stepped through, her bald head glistening in the magical air surrounding her.

“How did you do that?” I snapped my head back between Alia and Ivy. The last I’d been told, Ivy was held securely in the Southern Kingdom. There was no way she could have ported between the two while Nemison’s force field was in place. My eyes flickered to the windows. The shimmering air confirmed that Nemison’s plan was still working.