In less than a minute, the doors were covered by faintly glowing stone. And the innermost chamber of the Crystal Caverns—Raspian’s tomb—was sealed.
Chapter Thirty
“Fiera, Fiera,”Vi said, shaking the woman. Deneya had laid her down carefully on the walkway, murmuringhallethover her again and again.
“There’s something strange about her.” Deneya’s head jerked up, her eyes worried. “I can’t describe it. Her magic—Yargen’s magic… There’s somethinginher now, something that wasn’t there before.”
“Crystal taint,” Vi whispered in knowing horror. “Because their powers are fractured, the affinities on this continent can be tainted by Yargen’s magic. She’d avoided it with the sword now and I dared to think…” Vi cursed under her breath. She’d been the one to pump Fiera’s body with power from the crystals. “I don’t have time to explain it properly—we just have to get her out of here. She’ll be fine if we can get her away from the crystals.”
“Then let’s go.” Deneya shifted and slid her arms underneath Fiera, lifting the woman with ease.
“Are all elfin so unnaturally strong?” Vi asked. She’d seen Deneya carry Fiera like that to leave the castle. The woman didn’t even grunt with the exertion. And Fiera was no small woman.
“I make it a point to train regularly.” Deneya gave her a smug grin, then turned her head further, looking back at the door that was now sealed. “What happened? And that word you used, it made her create the glyph in flame…”
“It’s one Yargen gave me,” Vi affirmed.
“What does it do?”
“Excellent question…” Vi reflected once more on the past two times she’d used it as they walked through the archway and back into the main chamber of the Crystal Caverns. “I think it awakens some kind of knowledge or awareness in someone?”
“Likesamashato a Lightspinner just beginning?”
“Perhaps something like that.” It felt like a lifetime ago that Vi hadsamashaused on her and she had to work to remember what Taavin had said the word meant. “But for more than just the words of Yargen. I think to some greater truth or purpose.”
“I’m surprised Taavin hasn’t told you not to use words until you’re certain of what they mean. In this time, that’s a standard warning from the Voice.”
“Oh, he did… But perhaps Yargen gave me that one because of my recklessness.” Vi wondered what Taavin would think when she told him of how the word had been used again. After all she’d done, Vi doubted he’d be surprised.
Movement at the entrance of the cave caught Vi’s eye. In the time it took for her to look, the archer had already loosed his arrow. She opened her mouth, but no sound came. The projectile moved faster than thought, faster than she could react.
For those brief moments, they’d felt victorious. The world had been hopeful. And Vi had almost dared to feel safe.
The arrow lodged itself through Fiera’s neck and into Deneya’s shoulder. Deneya dropped to her knees with a shout. Vi stared at the crimson tide pouring from them both.
So much blood. How did Fiera still have blood left to bleed? The macabre thought was the only one Vi could wrap her head around.
“Vi!” Deneya snarled, snapping off the fletching of the arrow and sliding Fiera off of it. The woman was limp on the ground, as dead as Zira had been.
Halleth. Her mind placed the word on her tongue. But Vi was silent. There was no word to bring back the dead.
Vi slowly lifted her gaze. The world was fuzzy. The haze of the crystals had never been so bright or thick. She felt drunk, and everything seemed to have a nauseating tilt. Her motions and thoughts had a sluggish delay.
She saw the men running toward them. The archer knocking another arrow.
“Juth calt,” the words slipped through someone else’s lips. They couldn’t be hers. Everything had gone numb. The archer seized and fell. Vi wrought her wrath next on the man running through the opening of the cave. Again, she repeated, “juth calt.”
Kill them all.
Clearly that was the simplest solution. She should’ve done it from the start. Holding back was a fool’s decision.
She was the agent of the goddess, a traveler between worlds. What good was humanity to her now?
The Knights of Jadar had been an enemy of her family. In every world, they rallied against Solaris. In every world, they resulted in the death of Vi’s grandmother and left her father motherless. It had been her vision to break that cycle.
A vision that was now tunneled.
“Juth calt.” Another body fell, and fire exploded in front of her face.
