“Not until Aldrik lowers the barrier.” Vi cursed under her breath. “After that… Well, let’s hope he doesn’t try.” She watched as the horses below turned, winding further down the mountain. “They’ll take the direct path there, I’m sure of it. You and I will go the long way. Straight for the cabin and around the mountain from the other direction.”
“Riding through the woods could take double the time.”
“Perhaps for riders who don’t know them as well as we do.” Vi grinned wildly. Challenging fate itself required all the arrogance she could muster. “And for riders who don’t have purebred warstriders.”
“These beasts are getting pretty old.” Deneya patted the neck of Midsummer.
“Hardly. Warstriders don’t hit their prime until at least thirty years.” Vi watched as the other two horses crossed into the tree line below before giving a light kick, spurring Prism into motion with her heels. It was a good thing warstriders could live till seventy. She’d been counting on it from the first moment she’d taken these horses.
The mounts didn’t disappoint her. They expelled plumes of white from their noses into the brisk, late winter air. The wind pricked her face and made Vi feel more alert and awake despite the blood loss. Her heart raced and her watering eyes gained clarity somewhere between their turn into the forests and winding around the mountain near their cabin.
The horses began to slow as they emerged from the back path to the Caverns. Vi could see the outcropping of rock she’d hidden in months before, to watch Egmun ride off. She hurriedly dismounted and Deneya followed.
“Tie the horses out of sight,” Vi whispered, knowing how voices could carry over rock and snow.
“I don’t think they’re far ahead.” Deneya did as Vi instructed, pulling the horses into an alcove as Vi continued on. She could hear the rumble of hooves over the mountain pass, slowing as it became narrow and treacherous.
“They’re not. We just have to stay out of sight.” Vi leaned around the rocks, looking up the path. The swish of a horse’s tail was barely visible.
“Durroe watt radia,” Deneya whispered, and Vi followed suit.
The chant was to conceal, a far easier task for something that wasn’t moving. Whenever Vi glanced behind her, through the blurred and hazy edges of her vision, she could make out Deneya’s form sliding over the rocks like running water distorting a riverbed. It wasn’t perfect, but she suspected that the two men, in their haste, wouldn’t look back long enough to notice.
Victor’s keen eye for illusion wasn’t here, thank Yargen.
They rounded the pathway and saw Egmun and Aldrik up ahead. Egmun was saying something to the young prince as he jerked the man he’d brought off the horse. Vi grimaced. She’d read about Jadar’s attempts to use blood to open the Caverns. Apparently, that was something Egmun put stock in.
The three went into the Caverns with Vi and Deneya following closely behind.
Yargen’s magic cast a blue aura on the fog that hung in the air. Egmun lifted a stone, dropping it to the floor. Vi used the distraction to slip into the Caverns. As was usually the case, the crystals illuminated at her presence. The magic greeted her with a familiar embrace, as if begging her to take the power that was here—to rejoin with it, once and for all.
Egmun smiled smugly at the light as he straightened.
I bet he thinks he did that, Vi thought bitterly.
“This way, your highness.” Egmun led Aldrik through the main entry and into the antechamber with the confidence of a man who had walked among these crystals many times. Every few steps, he gave his prisoner a shove. The man attached to the rope carried on blindly, shivering in the dim light.
The poor sod had no idea where he was, or what awaited him.
Vi took a step forward to follow and Deneya grabbed her wrist. Their magics merged, and the woman was visible once more.
“What do you want me to do?” Deneya whispered to Vi, her voice no louder than the plops of water in the depths of the Caverns.
“Whatever you think needs to be done.” Vi leveled her eyes with the elfin. “I trust you.”
Deneya gave her a long, hard look and then a small nod. Vi stepped away, feeling her magic slip back into place around her. In the Caverns, Lightspinning was more of an art than a science. It was less about what words spoken and precise glyphs conjured, and more about intent.
Harnessing the true nature of Yargen’s power was more like how she’d been initially taught magic: instinct. The more she worked with it, the more she understood it in a way that defied words, even the words of the goddess.
“Behind here,” Egmun said, motioning to the crystal-covered doors at the top of a few steps, “is the heart of the Caverns. It is where the true power lies.”
“Where we must go to help my father to victory,” Aldrik murmured, repeating Vi’s words from earlier.
Vi crept ever closer. The fingers on her right hand twitched, ready for magic, as her left hand remained balled in a fist, keeping her invisible.
“Just so.” Egmun nodded. “You are the one who needs to undo this barrier. Only your great power can fell it.”
“How do I do it?” Aldrik asked, looking up at the minister. He didn’t seem to question for a second that he was the one destined for this greatness.
