The Vengekeep Prophecies (25 page)

I nodded. “I keep thinking about something Edilman said. Only a pardon from the High Laird can reverse his death sentence.”

Callie and Talian looked at me, brows furrowed in frustration, and I had to come clean.

“I told him everything, Callie,” I said. “About the tapestry, how we were going to use the plants for the solvent.”

Callie stiffened. “He's going to try to make the solvent himself and save Vengekeep. He wants to earn the High Laird's favor and get his death sentence removed.”

“And he couldn't let us take the credit,” I added. “So he tipped off the constabulary that two refugees from Vengekeep were roaming the town. With us out of the way, he walked into the inn and—”

Callie's balled-up fists slammed into the wall. “But he has no idea what he's doing! He'll waste all the ingredients. And he doesn't even have the spiderbat's milk!”

I nodded, glad I'd never revealed the secret to the last, vital ingredient. “And that's how we're going to beat him at his own game.”

I took out the map of the Five Provinces and pointed out our position. “Listen, once we dock, we're less than half a day's journey to the aircaves. All we have to do is head north, obtain the milk, and come back. He's only got a day's head start. We just have to find a way to return to Vengekeep ahead of him. We surprise him and steal back the satchel with the ingredients. Then, well, we deal with the tapestry.”

Callie's lip curled with skepticism. “‘All we have to do is get the milk?'” she said. “That's always been the hardest part of this entire plan. It could take forever. Let's face it. We're finished.”

I hated to admit it, but she was right. It all
sounded
simple, but it wouldn't be quick and easy. By the time we devised a plan to get the milk, Edilman could go to Vengekeep and waste the ingredients, trying to make the solvent himself. Without the ingredients, Vengekeep was doomed. For the first time since we started this trip, I believed we were finally defeated.

“Actually,” Talian whispered, laying his finger on the aircaves as represented on the map, “I might be able to help you out there.”

“An alibi is worth its weight in copperbits, but a bag of silvernibs makes it worthless.”

—
The Lymmaris Creed

T
he aircaves were all that remained of a massive volcano that exploded thousands of years ago. The area where the mountain once stood was flat, made of smooth, glasslike obsidian. The aircaves got their name from the torrents of hot air rushing through the caves that had once fed magma to the volcano. Many people would visit the mouth of the caves just to see the beauty of the flawless obsidian cascades. But we were going one step farther: into the caves themselves.

Talian and I sat on a bubblelike rock near the entrance, a downward-sloping hole in the ground. We'd spent most of the ride on the ship talking over how to make the solvent. His mage training had given him a wide understanding of several plants, and, together, we crafted what we thought was the perfect formula. All that remained was to get the last ingredient, retrieve Callie's pack from Edilman, and destroy the tapestry.

Easy.

Ha.

Talian and I drank heavily from my water-filled flagon as Callie sat nearby, holding her stomach and looking very, very ill. Her face had gone a bit green and she tried very hard not to let her teeth chatter. I offered her water, but she shook her head.

“Are you going to be okay to do this?” I asked, afraid of what might come out if she opened her mouth.

She fixed me with a murderous glare. “Jaxter, here's something you should know about me. I don't like spiders. I don't like bats. Now …
guess how I feel about spiderbats
!”

I looked at Talian, who simply grinned, and I said to Callie, “You knew we'd eventually come here.”

She tossed up her arms. “Yes, but I've been hoping that when we arrived,
you'd
take care of this part.” She pivoted to stare at her cousin. “I didn't realize that
I'd
be important to the plan.”

Talian shrugged, setting his water aside. “The spiderbats live in a matriarchy. They'll respond better to a female.”

In what little I'd read about spiderbats, none of the books mentioned one very important fact: spiderbats were intelligent. Thankfully, in addition to studying botany, apprentice mages spent years of intense study on magic-resistant creatures, and Talian knew a lot about how to interact with spiderbats. Although, when Callie wasn't listening, he'd quietly admitted to me that everything he knew was theory; he'd never had the chance to try any of it. We decided that Callie was better off not knowing that part.

Talian stood and walked carefully across the slick obsidian. “Everything will be fine.” He held out his spellsphere. “Jaxter and I will be nearby. Just speak and the spellsphere will translate into the spiderbats' tongue. It'll appear as though the words are coming directly from you. They'll consider it a great honor that you speak their language.”

Callie eyed the spellsphere dubiously. “It's that simple?”

Talian considered for a moment, then did something terrible. He chose to be honest. “Not exactly. Remember, the spiderbats are magic-resistant. Their webs cancel out magic. I'm relying on that to hide what I'm doing from the Sentinels, otherwise they'll just track us here and it's all over.”

We had made it out of Cindervale before the Sentinels arrived. Now that they had a lead on Talian's location, it had become even more dangerous for him to use magic.

“Also,” Talian continued, “the webs will dampen the spellsphere's effect. We'll need to be careful.”

Talian nodded for me to join them and I slid across the obsidian, losing my balance and falling to the hard, rocky surface. Callie rolled her eyes and picked me up as Talian whispered to the spellsphere. The hot, white-blue glow returned to its core and Talian said, “Both of you. Touch the sphere.”

Callie and I did as we were told. Although it looked hot, the sphere was ice-cold. I pulled back my finger and felt nothing but the lingering chill.

Right. Can you hear me?

The voice was Talian's, but his lips hadn't moved. I'd heard it in my head.

Callie nodded. “Yes.”

No,
Talian's voice said.
Think it. This is how we'll communicate once we're in the caves.

Callie nodded again and then I heard her voice in my head.
Yes, I can hear you.

Talian looked to me.
Jaxter?

I smiled.
Present and accounted for.

Talian's hand closed around the glowing sphere. “Excellent. Now listen, the spiderbats are all about formality and protocol. Starting a dialogue with them can be tricky, but I'll guide you. Just make sure you say
exactly
what I say, how I say it. Then let the spellsphere do the rest.”

Callie looked unconvinced. To take her mind off it, I looked around and scooped up a small, perfectly round chunk of obsidian. “Here,” I said, dropping it into her hand, “our souvenir from the aircaves.”

Callie snorted and pocketed the black marble. “Right. Because I'll always want to remember this.”

Talian nodded at the cave entrance. “Shall we?”

We gathered our supplies and made our way down into the caves. The moment we crossed the threshold, we were met with a burst of hot, humid air. With only my small lantern and Talian's spellsphere to light the way, we soon found ourselves in near total darkness. The rocks on the cave floor were jagged, a sharp contrast to the smooth rock at the entrance. As the hot air wove around us, it made a howling noise that echoed down the passage. Tunnels splintered off in various directions, but Callie and I kept our eyes on Talian, who led us directly forward.

Although the air was stifling and both Callie and I were sweating, Talian seemed to be feeling it far worse. Even in the dim light, I could see he'd grown pale and his face practically glowed with a sheen of sweat. “You okay?” I whispered to him.

He nodded. “When you spend a lot of time working with magical energies, they tend to linger in your body. This is how I know we're getting closer to the spiderbats. Mages don't fare so well in the presence of magic-resistant creatures.”

The tunnel we followed curved to the right and opened up into a massive cavern that looked like the mouth of a cargabeast, with teeth of obsidian hanging from the roof and jutting up from the floor. Slung across the cavern ceiling was a gigantic, intricately woven web of clear, glistening silk. I spotted two spiderbats hanging from the thick strands of webbing, their underclaws gripping the silk tightly. They hadn't seen us yet.

Callie shuddered when she spotted the creatures and looked around. “I don't see very many.”

I nodded. “I knew they were dying out, but I didn't realize their numbers were so sparse.”

Talian, looking more nauseated than ever, leaned forward on a large pile of rocks. “Callie,” he whispered, “Jaxter and I will wait here. Go make contact.”

Callie swallowed and I gave her hand a squeeze. As she stepped around the rocks and walked slowly toward the center of the cavern, I crouched near Talian. The light from the spellsphere was finally drawing the spiderbats' attention. A few more took flight, their leathery wings snapping in the darkness as they hovered overhead. I counted six of them now and they all seemed to be giving Callie a wide berth.

Just then, Callie froze, her eyes locked on the ground. Peering through the dark, I tried to see what she was staring at. Strewn about on the cavern floor were the bodies of several very dead-looking spiderbats.

Talian closed his eyes and sent instructions to Callie in his thoughts. Callie paused, cleared her throat, and said, “I bring you greetings in the name of peace from the outside world. My name is Callie Strom and I humbly seek an audience with your queen.”

She paused and listened to Talian's voice in her head. “I come here with open arms”—she held out her arms to show they were empty—“and the knowledge that I, as a mere human, do not deserve such an audience. So it is with greatest respect and admiration that I—”

A high-pitched chirping sound interrupted her address. A moment later, the spellsphere translated the sound.

“Go away!”

The voice was feminine and heavy with sorrow. More chirping and then, “We rrregrret the day we everrr saw humans!” the female voice cried out.

From somewhere in the shadows overhead, we heard a stirring. Then a spiderbat, a bit larger than the rest, swooped down, grazing the top of Callie's head, causing her to squeal. The large spiderbat landed on the cavern floor and crawled until it stopped at Callie's feet. It chirped.

“Humans hunt the spiderrrbats! Humans send beasts to capturrre the spiderrbats. We want nothing to do with humans. Nothing!”

I could see Callie's hands shaking nervously. But somehow, she summoned the courage to go down on one knee, look the spiderbat in the eyes, and say, “What's happened?”

Callie,
I could hear Talian's distressed thoughts,
don't break protocol. That is the queen spiderbat. It's very important that you say only what I tell you and don't
—