“No, it’s just beyond the top of the ridge.” Vi led Deneya into the forest, following a familiar path. This was a new world, but her feet still knew the way.
“Seems like such an obvious place for the axe to be.”
“Only because we know what to look for. The North is filled with ruins like this. The Empire doesn’t know what’s important and what isn’t.”
Deneya folded her hands and placed them behind her head, strolling. Ahead, the towering stones of familiar ruins loomed. Vi’s feet slowed.
“It was night the last time I came here, too.” The ruins looked almost identical to how they did in her memory. “It was the first time I saw the end of the world.”
“Let’s hope this time is more cheerful.” Deneya clasped her shoulder. “We’re only here for a look, right?”
“For now.” Though Vi was already bracing herself for the first time her fingers closed around the axe. Each of the crystal weapons showed her a vision more vivid and important than the last. “The entrance is this way.”
She led Deneya to the far back side of the ruins. Unlike when she had last been here, when obsidian had lined the opening, there were now live crystals with jagged points barring entry. In her time, her mother had taken the axe, and the crystals had died. It was the very act Vi and Deneya were working to circumvent.
Resting her hand on one of the crystals, Vi reached out into the network of magic and affirmed that the crystals stemmed from a single source. The axe was within, still safe and sound. The stones crackled and shrank to her will. Exercising control of them was becoming all too easy.
“After you.” Vi motioned down the path.
“Oh, why thank you, fair lady.” Deneya gave a bow with a flourish that made Vi bark with laughter.
“But of course, oh noble knight.” Vi held out her hand as if she was escorting Deneya to a ball. With a snicker, Deneya took it and they dusted off the nobility neither of them needed any longer, parading forward.
Deneya’s laughter faded as they reached the circular center of the ruins. Crystals lined the walls, pulsing faintly with magic. Moonlight streamed through an oculus in the roof, casting an eerie ring around the axe embedded in a crystal-covered pedestal.
“This is it, then.”
“It is.” Vi gazed at the axe, as though it were about to grow a mouth and begin speaking to her. If it could, the secrets it could tell. Judging by the power that hung in the air, the axe hadn’t been moved since it was originally placed here by the daughter of the Champion. It was one of the few places on the Dark Isle where the crystals hadn’t ever been touched. “This is a place of great purpose,” she whispered.
“It makes me feel uncomfortable.”
“Does it?” Vi tore her eyes away to look at Deneya.
“Yes… as though everything here is on a delay. Or that we’ve stepped into another world.”
“Perhaps we have…” Vi trailed off. Her attention was on the axe once more. Her presence was already empowering the weapon, imbuing the air between her and it with divine energy. She thought of the otherworldly place Yargen waited.
“Then all the more reason for me to get this over with as quickly as possible.” Deneya stepped forward. Vi matched the movement and the woman held out a hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t touch it. Just taking some measurements.”
Vi eased away, folding her arms to keep them from lashing out. She’d lunge for Deneya to keep her from the axe.
Turning, Vi put her back to the weapon as Deneya began to measure the handle and blade. Some part of her couldn’t bear to see another person so close to the crystal weapon.
Nervous energy rose within her and Vi began to pace. This wouldn’t take too long. Deneya didn’t need much. She needed to make an axe that wasrelativelyclose in shape and size, not perfectly identical. Vi would use the shift to handle the rest. They would leave soon.
What was taking so long?
She lapped the tunnel once more and froze as she reached its mouth. Soft voices echoed to her.
“Has anyone ever gone in?” That was undeniably Vhalla Yarl’s voice. She was here. Yargen above, why was she here?
“In? No,” a masculine voice responded, one Vi recognized but couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t Aldrik. Which then begged the question:Why was Vhalla here in the middle of the night with a man who wasn’t Aldrik?
Too many questions, not enough time for answers. “Durroe watt ivin.” An illusion fell like a curtain over the opening. Just in case they somehow saw through it, Vi blocked the entry, crystals growing with a wave of her hand.
“What the—”
Vi clamped her hand over Deneya’s mouth. “They’re here,” Vi whispered.
