Unearthed (3 page)

“Perhaps we should go to the Haven and get Denise and Gavin. They could help us search.”

“I’m not leaving this castle until we find her. Let’s search the gardens and conservatory again. Come on.”

Greta went quiet, her gaze downcast as we backtracked through the throne room, avoiding the stares and whispers of people gathered around, reading and working on spell techniques. I wanted to snap at her and tell her to keep her eyes peeled, but the obvious wave of guilt that washed her face sent a pang of sympathy to my gut.

“Greta,” I stilled for a moment when we reached the rear throne room doors, “I’m just upset right now. You’re right. She has to be here somewhere.” I gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder, not allowing the comfort to linger long. I stormed through the doors, my legs sprinting back into action, then halted when I heard Ava’s laugh again. “Did you hear that? Ava? Ava!”

“Oh, I hear her!” Greta said, spinning to search our surroundings.

“Mommy?” Ava called out, her questioning voice splintering my heart. I needed my little girl, and I needed her now.

“Ava, where are you? I can hear you but I can’t—”

A hard thump shoved me forward from behind, and Ava’s little hands wrapped around the backs of my legs. Her laughter floated up to meet me and she smiled widely, looking up to find my eyes. “Right here, Mommy.”

I dropped to my knees to grip her shoulders and innocent face. Greta rushed forward to stand at my side, her hand clutching her chest as she heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

“Ava Marie Devereaux,” I scolded, “don’t you
ever
run off like that again, do you hear me? What made you think it was okay to leave Miss Greta’s side? You know you never,
ever
leave a grown-up’s side. Mommy and Daddy taught you that.”

“I’m sorry, Mommy. I didn’t mean to leave. But I found a secret!” Her soft, pale button nose wrinkled as she spoke, her excited almond eyes staring back at me. I ran my fingers through the loose chocolate ringlets that bounced at the sides of her cheeks, as if feeling to make sure she was real.

“What secret?”

“The secret!” She raised a hand, pointing over my shoulder.

I glanced behind me, seeing nothing but the stone of the castle wall. “I don’t see anything, Ava.” I flicked my eyes up to Greta in question and she shrugged, turning to assess the grey stone.

“Look,” Ava said, hopping from my reach. She ran over to the castle wall and placed her hand over one of the stones, then pushed it with her tiny fingers. “See, Mommy? A secret!”

Greta and I exchanged curious glances and I rose to my feet to join Ava near the wall, jumping back in surprise when the sound of crumbling, shifting rock echoed from the place Ava had touched.

“A passage,” Greta gasped, covering her gaping mouth. She took a wary step back and I followed, holding Ava in place against me.

“You found this, Ava? Where does it lead?”

“Found it near the roses. It brought me here. Come on, Mommy, let’s go play!”

“No, honey, not right now.” I held her shoulders tighter to keep her from launching forward into the dark tunnel. A faint glow illuminated the inside, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t about to go roaming around, and there was no way Ava was going back in there. “We have to go find Daddy. He needs us right now, okay? You can show me the entrance from the rose conservatory later. We’ll come back and search the passage later.”

“But you haven’t seen the secret,” she pouted, tugging on my hand.

“I see it, Ava. We’ll come back later to explore. We need to make sure we bring more light.”

She gave another pout and a stubborn kick of her foot, but she let me and Greta lead her away from the castle and down the valley’s hill toward the Haven. Now that Ava was safely at my side again, I felt I could breathe. Greta and I didn’t speak as we made our way into the Haven, and we hadn’t spoken since we left the castle. I was still upset with her, but Ava was safe, and there were more important things to be concerned with at the moment.

3

I hurried into the Haven and worked my way through the crowd to find Gavin, Martin, and Denise. Candlelight and an array of lanterns illuminated the Haven, which was full of row after row of wooden chairs. Some villagers were standing, gathered around in groups, listening to the town leaders speak, while others were in the seats, deliberating quietly amongst themselves or fidgeting restlessly with their hands in their laps.

“What’s going on?” I whispered when I reached Gavin’s side. Denise and Martin were rapt with attention, focused on the crowd’s discussion. Greta huddled up next to them.

“The Book of the Ancients,” Gavin said, slipping an arm around me and taking Ava’s hand. “It’s trying to tell us something.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s lit up again, look.” He pointed to the book. It sat on a table in front of the town leaders, cracked open and glowing brightly, as it did during the days of prophecy, revealing its directions to us to end Gérard’s reign and free the frozen souls.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Not only had it been years since I’d paid any attention to the Book of the Ancients—I’d already learned most of the witches and frozen souls’ history, and my conjure lesson days were long gone—but it hadn’t been active, hadn’t changed, since it had been used to destroy the vampire curse.

“Not only that,” Gavin continued, “but it’s blank.”

“Blank?”

“Yeah, as in…completely blank. All of the content just vanished.” He kept his gaze on the town leaders as he spoke to me. I turned my attention in the same direction, tuning in to what was being said at the front of the room.

“The cause for concern stems from numerous things,” one of the leaders explained, addressing the Haven’s audience. “For one, the history and instruction that we once learned from these very pages is now gone. We have copies, of course, and have upheld meticulous records since settling here permanently, but the fact that the original text is destroyed could greatly threaten the accuracy of that record keeping as time goes on.”

“What does it matter?” a nearby man asked, stepping forward. “It served its purpose. The content is no longer relevant, and we’ve learned all we can learn from the text, haven’t we?”

“That’s one way to look at it,” the leader replied with a shrug of his shoulder, “however, it’s a sacred part of the original witches’ history. After what their magic did for the frozen souls, after what it did to end Samira and Gérard’s reign, don’t we owe the witches the courtesy of preserving their history? To honor them? To show some respect?”

“Well, it’s not our fault the damn thing went blank. I say we leave it alone and move on. What harm can really come from it? There’s nothing we can do about it, anyway.”

“You may be right about that, but then there’s the other concern to consider.”

“What else is there to be concerned about?”

“Why is it active in the first place?” The leader’s eyebrows rose, his head cocked to the side thoughtfully. “Why have the pages suddenly gone blank? I think we need to explore these questions to rule out any possible danger or threats from the other side.”

“The other side?” Gavin asked, calling over the crowd.

“Yes.” The leader looked to Gavin. “It was, after all, original witches who were responsible for helping to complete the spell that destroyed Gérard and Samira’s reign. They communicated from the afterlife via links, premonitions, and even visions.” He gestured to me, referencing to the way Vivienne had appeared before me after her death in Samira’s throne room during the final battle that changed the Amaranthians’ fate. “What if the Ancients aren’t pleased with how we’ve been using their magic here in Amaranth? What if they’re trying to communicate something?”

“Please,” the man who’d spoken up before Gavin griped. “We’re still practically living in the Dark Ages here. It’s not like we’re using their magic to create lavish things, or worse, repeat the same power-hungry decisions Gérard and Samira made. We’re not doing anything to dishonor them, we’re simply trying to survive.”

“And evolve,” Greta countered, speaking up. “We’ve come a long way since we established a new kingdom here. Many villagers who have become conjurers have created new spells, and have manipulated old ones. Wasn’t that what the witches were against in the first place, when Gérard began to use their magic to his advantage?”

“You can’t possibly compare what Gérard did with their magic to what we’ve been doing. That’s just ridiculous.”

“Well, sir,” Greta lifted her chin, her upper lip stiffening as she bobbed her head to search for his face in the crowd, “I must say, I think
your
idea to just ignore this change is ludicrous. What if the leaders are right? What if the Ancients are trying to tell us something?”

“Order, order,” the leaders shouted in unison, shushing the growing tension in the room. “Let’s keep our deliberations civil, shall we? Attacking others’ views will get us nowhere. Now, our suggestion—which will of course be open to a vote—is to keep watch over the Book of the Ancients for say, another week, and see if there are any more significant changes. In the meantime, we believe it would be wise to sit down and consider any and all possibilities as to why the originals would be trying to communicate with us, and if so, what our response should be. Please, a show of hands. All in favor?”

Hands began to raise throughout the Haven, Gavin and mine included. What other choice did we have? With no clues or no possible explanation for the sudden change, we were all in the dark.

The leaders declared the agreement and chatter ensued. I pulled on Gavin’s elbow, ready to explain what had happened with Ava back at the castle, but the leaders’ shouting broke through my train of thought, putting a halt to my words.

“What in the world?” Greta leaned over my shoulder, trying to get a peek at the source of all the buzz.

I felt my breath falter when we were all hit with a familiar, glaring light.

The Book of the Ancients’ glow exploded into a gorgeous beam, its light streaming upward from its pages and hitting the Haven’s ceiling, bouncing all around us and ricocheting off the walls. It wasn’t supposed to be happening, but it was. Right there, in front of me, the book that had been such an integral part of my journey to Amaranth and the key to destroying Gérard was coming alive. Once again, it was bursting with life, calling us to its energy.

“There’s…there’s text!” one of the leaders stuttered, squinting from the book’s bright light, shielding his eyes with his hand. Eyes were suddenly turning to Gavin and me, looking for answers. We simply stared back in wonder.

We didn’t have any.

As the light lessened, dulling to a dim flicker, Gavin took my hand, keeping Ava nestled against us, and led us forward. The villagers parted for us, watching in astonishment as we joined the leaders at the table. Greta and Denise followed behind, allowing us to get up close and personal with the ancient text. The book’s pages danced from left to right, stalling to reveal page one. The blank page began to stir, and a sharp, crisp golden script began to appear, as if an invisible pen were trailing ink over the parchment.

Gavin began to read the words aloud:

At once and with great relief

Amaranth is destined to turn over a new leaf

Do not delay, do not lie and wait

Search instead for the passage that holds its secret fate

Air whooshed from my lungs and I sucked in a gasp of complete disbelief. Gavin’s hand gripped mine tightly, but he kept his eyes on the page, studying the text, reading it over and over again. His lips moved as he quietly read them aloud to himself, stopping only when an illustration began to appear below the golden font. “Wait a minute,” he whispered, “is that…what I think it is?”

“The castle,” I said, my brows pulling in confusion. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Let me see, Mommy!” Ava pleaded, hopping and squeezing in front of me to peek at the table. She tiptoed, stepping on my feet as she struggled to get a look.

“Hold on, love,” Gavin said, holding her steady.

“Is this what you experienced before?” a leader asked me, wide eyes scanning the mysterious illustration.

“Yeah, this is very similar, but I don’t understand why the book’s communicating with us. I mean, it only did so before to fulfill certain prophecies.”

Gavin placed his palms on the table, his gaze glued to the animation on the page. It was still moving, still shifting and shading to create a beautiful image of the side of Samira’s old castle, the same stone wall Greta, Ava, and I had just stood next to. “The frozen souls no longer exist. Gérard is dead. What would the witches want from us?”

“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the frozen souls. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with us at all.”

“That’s a possibility,” Gavin tilted his head, “but why show us this?”

“We don’t even know what it is,” the leader said.

“It’s definitely the castle,” I said, nodding with certainty.

Gavin straightened, crossing his arms. “But the message is unclear.”

“It usually is.”