Ember and Kayla desperately want to be
on their way in search of the keystones, and after Kayla is confronted by the
Ne’Goi in an attempt to steal the sapphire flute, they decide to leave with or
without Ezeker’s blessing.
Caught attempting to leave, Ezeker
strikes a deal with the girls: take the remaining students safely home. After the disastrous battle
in Karsholm, the mage academy is in near ruins. Headmaster Ezeker has no choice
but to send the students away until the school can be repaired.
Unfortunately, leaving the mage academy
does not end their problems. It seems the Ne’Goi Shadow Weavers are in search
of the same Keystones Kayla and Ember seek, and it is only with the help of the
shapeshifting Bendanatu and Phoenicia that they have any hope for success.
In
finding the third keystone, The Emerald Wolf, Ember and Kayla gain a powerful
ally against S’Kotos, but also form an unexpected and uneasy alliance with the
one person they never thought would help them . . . C’Tan.
Prologue
Darkness. A black so absolute it nearly
drove Marda to insanity with its monotony and the stealing of her most used
sense. Marda thought for days that C'Tan had blinded her somehow on the flight
from Karsholm. There was no sense of time, no understanding of the days sliding
by. She slept when she was tired and ate when food slid through the slot at the
base of the door.
Ember’s mother moved slowly so as not to
break herself on the cold, stone walls. She couldn’t help but wonder about
C’Tan. A student of the fire magic, especially a disciple of S’Kotos, should
have a warm home, comfortable or uncomfortable. But no. The dungeon was cold
like the end of a crisp autumn day--the kind that requires thick blankets to
keep the shivers away and smells of dusty leaves. Marda trembled, wrapping her
arms around herself, partly for comfort, partly to chase away the cold.
The darkness was just one weapon in
C’Tan’s arsenal, she knew. It didn’t take much thinking to realize that Marda
was being punished for Jarin’s taking away their daughter, Ember. The Chosen
One. Marda snorted. C’Tan had wanted the girl since Ember was a babe. S’Kotos
had commanded it and Jarin had saved his wife and daughter at the sacrifice of
his own life.
Marda leaned up against the cold wall
and pressed against it, determined. Well, C’Tan could not have Ember. It wasn’t
an option. Ember was the only chance the world had to destroy the darkness that
came with S’Kotos and C’Tan.
Feeling around her, Marda found the
sharpened stone that had cut her fingers too many times. She ignored the pain
and began to scratch into the floor. Words, unseen and only felt, like braille
for the blind, she continued her letter to Ember, ignoring the blood that
slickened the stone and dripped onto the floor. It would only add power to her
spell. Ember could not afford to give in to her emotions and try to save Marda.
She had to complete her mission and retrieve the keystones. It was the only way
they could be free.
She scratched the last word into the
smooth rock and dropped the stone, her fingers trembling with pain and cold.
She would wash her cuts if she had water, but had no idea the next time it
would be given to her, so she wiped her hands on her shirt, ripped a strip of
cloth from the bottom of her skirt, and when the pain began to ease, she
reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a half stone. It was small enough
to fit into her palm, rough on the rounded side and smooth as glass on the
flat.
Setting the stone flat side down on the
floor near where she imagined the middle of her letter might be, she said the
words that would get her letter to Ember, whispered them so that none would
hear.
“Send,” she said in her softest voice.
And in an instant, the darkness was
gone. Marda blinked, then winced as the light brightened, white at first, and
then a rainbow of colors that took her ragged, bloody words and sucked them
into itself before sending it to her daughter. She leaned back against the wall
with a smile when the light faded away. It was done. Complete. She only hoped
Ember could find the keystones before C’Tan or the Shadow Weavers. It was a
race, and her daughter needed to be in the lead.
Marda bowed her head and drifted into
the first relaxed sleep she’d had since C’Tan had kidnapped her. Peaceful
Oblivion.
Kayla wiped a blackened arm across her
brow, soot and sweat mixing to form a dark streak that ran from temple to temple.
The room was hotter than Heldar, and despite two days effort, lava still leaked
from the floor and walls. Not for the first time she wished she could walk
through the wall and freeze the liquid rock at its source. It would be so much
simpler than patching never-ending leaks of burning stone.
The lava pushed at her, its positive
energy of fire affecting her negative magic of air. Opposites, they fought and
pushed at each other, and thus far only Kayla and her flute were sensitive to
it. Without being asked, Brant’s spirit turned air elemental dove into the wall
and spread cold through the heated stone. Kayla called out to the group of
teenagers who worked with her, students of the mage academy with nowhere to go.
“Behn, Miek. To the left about three feet. Rachel, Aryana, Eden, to your right
about half a foot. The surge will come between you. Are you ready?” The kids
nodded, grim-faced as they waited the fiery blast.
The tension built until Kayla thought
she might explode and then the wall blew outward in the exact spot she had
predicted. Brant’s elemental form surged out behind it, still spinning cold air
in his wake. The students thrust their hands into the stone and helped to break
it up and cool it until only chunks of darkened rock remained. Kayla didn’t
know how they did it. What kind of magic did they hold to be able to handle the
heat the way they did? She hadn’t had time to ask. She’d barely had time to
find a few hours’ sleep in the past few days.
She felt into the stone with the energy
of the flute and was relieved to feel nothing new stirring. It didn’t mean it
wouldn’t, but for the moment, this area was clear.
She straightened and looked at her
group. They were strong, despite their age and she was pleased with them. She
gave them a half smile—she didn’t have the energy for more than that—and put
the flute in the leather bag at her hip. “That is it for now. We’re safe for
the moment. Why don’t you go clean up and get some sleep while you can. I’ll
wake you when we need you again. Thank you for your efforts.”
The boys nodded to her, solemn and
exhausted, it looked. The girls smiled, also seeming exhausted and chattered as
they made their way out of the room. Of course they were exhausted. So was
Kayla. “And how about you, my friend,” Kayla asked Brant. “Are you as tired as
the rest of us?”
Brant tipped his head and looked at her.
“I don’t seem to tire like I once did. I’m growing stronger even in this
elemental form.” Brant spun in the air, picking up bits of gravel that pinged
Kayla and stung her skin.
“Well, I’m tired,” she said. “How about
you rest for a while so I can sleep?” She held open the top of the bag in
invitation, though she knew he didn’t need it.
He began to dive into the flute, when he
looked over Kayla’s shoulder and stopped, then reversed himself and swirled like
a living tornado at her side, but didn’t say a word. She turned slowly, afraid
of what she might find behind her. C’Tan? A monster? One of the Shadow Weavers?
But it was none of those, and she let loose a sigh of relief.
“Counselors,” she said, addressing the
group of magi before her. “To what do I owe this honor?” Her voice was
pleasant, but something niggled at her. She couldn’t place it, but somehow she
knew that something was wrong.
The magi stared at her for a moment,
then looked at each other and a man stepped forward. “Miss Kayla, would you
please come with us?” His voice was a deep bass that resonated through Kayla’s
bones.
“And where would you have me go?” she
asked, the feeling of wrongness getting stronger, very similar to what she felt
whenever she was around her grandfather.
“There is a meeting of the mage council
and we need you there,” he said, but she could feel the lie.
“Why would I need to be with the mage
council? I am not a member. I can do no magic.” She was stalling for time,
hoping someone would come back and assist her. If this group truly were members
of the mage council, they were traitors, just as Magnet and Seer had been. And
if they were not members of the mage council . . . well, she hated to even
think about what that might mean and who they could be.
A woman stepped out from the back of the
group and gathered magic around her. The man turned to her, surprise apparent
on his face. “She already knows,” the woman snarled. “We can’t afford to waste
time. Get the flute.” The entire group gathered magic around them then. All
colors of magic and different genders, but all of their magic was tinted with
black streaks.
Shadow Weavers.
Kayla didn’t say a word, but pulled the
flute out of its bag and placed it to her lips. The weavers surrounded her,
each spaced out evenly so that all together the eight men and women stood as if
points on a compass. That is when they began to chant and a heaviness filled
the air. Something was coming. Something big and dangerous and Kayla and Brant
were the only ones there to stop it. Two against eight, but those two had something
the others did not: the power of a keystone.
Drawing in her breath, Kayla visualized
a frozen dome over her, much like the one she’d used in battling Sarali’s
brother, Jihong, then released her breath on a sound so pure the walls shook
with it. The dome formed around her immediately, even sliding beneath her feet
so that she was completely encased in crystal-like ice. The bell like effect of
the tone gave her an idea, and she played the high note again, envisioning the
walls trembling and the floor quivering as if an earthquake had struck just
this one room. Most of the shadow weavers were on the floor before the sound
tapered off and she started to play again. She sent out the cold that had
frozen the path beneath the ocean. She sent it to the eight fake magi and
farther—into the walls and the ground. She sent the cold as far as it could
reach and continued to play, despite her own shivering.
Brant dove into the walls and encircled
the group, adding to the disastrous tremors that shook them all. It got colder
and colder until the shadow weavers got to their feet and tried to leap into
the air and return to wherever it was they came from. But not this time. Kayla
froze their feet to the ground. They weren’t going anywhere without taking half
the cave with them. Instead of an escape they cried out and reached toward
Kayla, their magic surging to attack her ice bubble, but it had no effect. She
had a keystone and she was its guardian. No one would take it from her.
The anger built in her and surged outward
in a concentric ring that froze the shadow weavers in place and penetrated the
walls to a depth she couldn’t feel, and for the first time in two days the heat
was gone. Everywhere. Her battle with the shadow weavers had sealed all the
cracks and frozen the lava.
Slowly the ice bubble shed itself from
around her and Brant came back to her side. Together they stared at the eight
ice statues that had been men and women only minutes before. Kayla couldn’t
believe their audacity, to stride right into the mage academy and attempt to
take the flute from her. Again the anger built and Brant began to spin faster.
In an instant, he leapt into motion, spinning in circles around her, cracks and
snaps assaulted her ears until finally he stopped and all that was left of the
eight were bits of fine ice floating in the air and gathering in the corners.
Brant had decimated them. There was nothing left and nothing for her to do.
Nothing but go and speak to Ember. The
attack was a sure sign it was time to leave.
Ember clamped her hands over her ears as
Tiva screamed. She couldn’t fight the tears that streamed down her cheeks while
seeing her brother’s pain. They may not share blood, but he was her brother
nonetheless. His twin, Ren, seemed to be having much the same problem as he
squeezed Tiva’s hand so hard his fingers turned white with the pressure.
The nurse peeled back more of the
bandage covering Tiva’s face, chanting all the while and didn’t even flinch as
another scream tore itself from the boy’s throat. It had been two days since
the attack on Karsholm and the Mage Academy. Two days since Tiva had been
shoved into the lava to be blinded and burned, but the healing that had taken
place had been miraculous. Painful, but miraculous all the same. The burns on
his face and hands still looked waxy and scarred, but he had gone from
blackened to the bone on both hands and face, his lips gone and teeth forever
bared, to almost normal in forty-eight hours. Another practical use for magic
Ember had never seen.
Unfortunately there was no healing
Tiva’s eyes. They had boiled in his skull and burst like okra seeds. There was
nothing left to heal—just a bare nerve and empty sockets of bone. The healers
were doing their best to bring flesh around to cover the eye socket and soothe
the nerve, but every time they touched the bone around his sockets the pain was
excruciating.
Thus the screaming. After several
minutes of rough-voiced screams, Tiva passed out and the healers were finally
able to work on the most painful parts of his skull.
The woman looked up at Ember, tears
swimming in her eyes. She quickly looked back down as another healer, a man,
entered the room to help her quickly change the bandages and use their magic to
further desensitize the nerve before Tiva awakened. Their fingers were long and
thin and moved quickly across his face. Ember cringed as they dipped into the
hollows where his beautiful blue eyes once laid and completely burned away the
nerve that protruded from the back of his eye socket. Ember couldn’t help but
reach for her brother as Tiva’s back arched in a soundless scream before he
once again met oblivion from the pain.
Once the nerve was gone, the healers
rounded balls of clay and placed them in his eye sockets, adding some here,
taking some there, until the balls fit perfectly. Once sized, they enfolded the
clay in their hands, which began to glow with orange light, smoke coming out
from between their fingers. After several moments of that, they rolled the clay
balls in light sand, then once again heated them in their hands.
When they were finished and opened their
hands, Ember gasped. What was brown clay had become a white globe, looking very
much like an eye—minus the color and pupil. Another healer entered the room to
take care of those details. Using a stone stamp, the man took up colored sand,
much the color of Tiva’s true eyes, and pushing downward he embedded the sand
into the white, creating colored glass, then did the same with black sand for
the pupils.
Once the eyes were finished and cooled,
the healer set them gently in Tiva’s eye sockets, then gestured for the other
two healers to continue, and continue they did. Somehow, they took Tiva’s skin
and stretched and molded it to created eyelids that almost looked natural, and
as a final touch, lashes and eyebrows grew from his skin—something Ember never
thought she would see again.
It was odd to see Tiva asleep or
unconscious with his eyes open, but he was now whole. The female healer spoke.
“The waxy texture of his skin will fade with time. If he wishes to have facial
hair, that will require a separate healing. It would not be healthy for his
skin to deal with it right now. Besides, he is still young. He has time for
that. Our work is done. Now all that is left is for Mistress Vanine to teach
him how to see, despite his blindness, and to use his other colors of magic.”
The healers began to back away, but
Ember caught the woman by the hand. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You saved his
sanity, if not his life. We can never repay you.”
The woman smiled, her eyes brimming once
again. “Payment is neither needed nor desired. It is our calling to help those
in need. Knowing we have made a difference is payment enough.” She squeezed
Ember’s hand and let go, walking across the room and out the curtained doorway,
just as Mistress Vanine stepped to the side and entered the room.
It was always strange seeing her in the
caverns with her darkened glasses, moving as if she saw everything with the
brightest of light, and Ember guessed that in her own way, she did. She just
didn’t use her eyes to see. According to the healer, it was now her turn to
take Tiva under her wing and teach him how to do the same. The orange teacher
approached them and smiled.
“And how is my newest trainee doing?”
she asked, putting her hands behind her back and rocking on her toes.
For some odd reason, Ember suddenly
wondered if the woman was married. She knew so little about her, aside from the
fact that she had known Ember’s father. Could she really trust her brother with
this woman? She glanced at Ren, who gazed at his twin with a mixture of
heartache and pride. It was he who answered. “He seems to be doing well,
Mistress. He just had his optical nerve severed and artificial eyes created. He
just needs to wake up for us to see how he feels. Last time he awoke he spent
most of his time screaming,” he said with a bit of chagrin.
Mistress Vanine chuckled. “That is to be
expected. If what I’ve seen of Tiva is any indicator of his gifts and
determination, I’m sure he will make a fine pupil indeed.” She put her hand on
Ren’s and seemed to look into his eyes, though Ember knew that was impossible.
“He’s going to be fine, Ren. I promise you. He shall be fine.”
Feeling a bit left out, Ember left Ren
and Mistress Vanine to their discussion and wait for Tiva’s awakening. She had
other things that needed doing, including talking to her cousin Kayla as well
as headmaster Ezeker.
Heading down the hall to her left, Ember
made her way to her quarters, which had, miraculously, remained untouched by
the lava that had ravished the caverns. Her clothes smelled of smoke and stone,
but it was a small price to pay for her things remain intact. So many had lost
everything and some even their lives. She was very aware of how lucky she was.
She stopped just inside the doorway to
let her eyes adjust, unable to cast a magelight like so many others. She still
had to depend on candles. Why such a simple spell eluded her, she didn’t
understand.
Once she could make out the shape of
hers and Lily’s beds, she went to her dresser and, fumbling a bit, found the candle in its brass stand. She may not be
able to create a magelight, but she could make fire. With the touch of her
finger, she brought the candle to life, then set the three legged candleholder
back on her dresser. She took a few minutes to walk around the room and light
the other candles. If Lily were here she could just cast a magelight and
brighten the room as if they were outdoors in the sunlight, but the girl had
been scarce lately. Ember knew little, but from what she’d heard from Lily,
Ezeker and the council had been questioning her about her mother, C’Tan, and were
using Lily to repair some of the damage done to the school.
Ember moved back to her bed and sat with
a sigh, rubbing her hand over her face and tired eyes. All she wanted to do,
really, was take a nap, but she knew if she did she’d never sleep that night,
and she really did have things to do. Her eyes closed of their own volition for
just a moment and Ember felt herself sag.
Shaking her head, she lay back and put
her head on her pillow. What would an hour of sleep hurt? If she didn’t rest,
she would be useless to everyone around her. It didn’t seem she had a choice.
Her body demanded it.
With a sigh, she let her eyes remain
shut and was about to drift off into sleep, when she heard voices outside her
room. Two girls. One voice she knew well. Her room-mate and cousin on her
father’s side, Lily. The other she knew almost as well though they’d known each
other for only two days. The only other cousin she knew, this one from her
mother’s side—Kayla, holder of The Sapphire Flute and one of the warriors from
her dreams.
Unable to make out their words, Ember
opened her eyes with a sigh and glanced at the ceiling, then froze.
Words. Many, many words were scribbled
across her ceiling, looking almost scratched into the surface. All in
handwriting she recognized.
Her Mother’s.
“My dearest Ember,
“I
do not know how many days it has been since C’Tan carried me away on her dragon,
and I can only be thankful that she took me instead of you. I need to know that
you are safe and not running off on a foolish errand to save me. I know that if
it were you who had been taken, that would be the first thing on my mind, but
if I had been given a chance such as you have, to bring the keystones here and
do battle, even if it is on her terms, to assure your safety, that is the
choice I would make, and so the one I would ask you to make.
“I
know how difficult this must be for you, Ember, but please heed my wishes. I
hate being held by her. I hate speaking to or seeing this woman who murdered
your father, but so long as I know you are safe, I can endure.
“If
anything does happen, as it sometimes will, more than anything I need you to
know that I love you with all my heart. I always have and that will never
change. Keep yourself safe—for my sake if you can’t do it for your own.
“If
Paeder doesn’t know of my kidnapping, will you please be sure to tell him that
I am well and safe and will return home to him soon. If I know you there are
already plans in action to find the keystones and bring me home.
“I
am proud of you, Ember Shandae. You have grown to become so much more than the
woman I ever imagined you could be. Always remember that you can do anything,
if you believe enough.
Forever yours,
Mum”
Ember read the message several times,
until she could no longer see for the tears streaming down her face to wet her
pillow. Kayla and Lily chose that moment to enter the room.
“Ember?” Lily asked, concern dripping
from her voice like water from the hanging spikes in the back caves. “Are you
all right?”
There was nothing she could say, so
Ember pointed at the ceiling and both of her cousins craned their necks to
read. Lily seemed sad and relieved at the same time. Kayla was harder to read,
but she was the first to respond.
“From your mother?” she asked.
Ember nodded.
“And she wants you to do what C’Tan
demanded and go find the keystones.” Kayla’s mouth pursed and she put her left
hand on the bag carrying the sapphire flute. It seemed an unconscious gesture.
Ember sat up, nodding once more.
Kayla looked at Lily and something
passed between them. Kayla then turned to Ember and squatted down so their
heads were on the same level. “That makes this a lot easier, I think.” Again,
she looked to Lily, then seeming slightly unsure of herself she told Ember
about the Shadow Weavers and their attack on her, the mage academy, and the sapphire
flute. When she had finished, Ember was
lost for words but felt something pressing at her to take action.
Kayla didn’t mince any words after that.
“Between your mother’s letter and the attack on the mage academy, I believe it
is time to leave.”
Ember’s mind had difficulty grasping the
words for a moment. “Leave? And go where?”
Lily spoke up for the first time. “In
search of the remaining keystones and their guardians. You’ve told me of your
dreams, Ember. We know what must happen in order for C’Tan to be destroyed and
balance to return to Rasann. How can we do that when the mage council keeps us
locked up, doing their bidding, and keeping us from the work the Guardians have
given us to do?”
It was a good question and Ember was
finally able to put a name to what pushed at her.
Kayla was right. It was time to go. She
nodded to the girls, got up and started packing. “Okay, so we go, but we have
to go tonight before we are caught. We aren’t doing anything illegal, but I
know Aldarin and Uncle Ezzie and even DeMunth will do everything they can to
keep me hidden and safe, no matter where my mum is or what I’m supposed to do.
Just the three of us then?” she asked, finishing her
packing and turning to the girls.
“For now,” Kayla answered, standing. She
stretched her back and glanced at the ceiling once more. She was quiet for a
long moment before speaking. “I need to see Sarali before we leave. We may be
able to convince her to accompany us. She would be an asset to the group.” She
looked at Ember and Lily, her eyes resigned and determined. “One hour, then?”
The girls nodded and
Kayla left the room.
