“But…”
“This man has stolen from your family; it is a treasonous crime. He is not innocent.”
“Should my father not—”
“I thought you were a man and a prince.” Egmun’s annoyance with Aldrik’s hesitation was showing. Vi loathed herself for sympathizing with the wicked man.Get it over with, she wanted to scream. She wanted to know if her whole future was forfeit or not. “I did not take you as someone who shied from justice or power, Prince Aldrik.” Egmun paused dramatically. “Why are you here?”
“For my father, to conquer the North.”
“With this, all will bend to you.” Egmun smiled encouragingly.
Aldrik took the sword and Vi’s heart nearly lurched from her chest. Every hair on her body stood on end.So… close.
“M-my prince, m-mercy please. T-take my hand for m-my theft. Spare m-me,” the man begged through sobs.
“Minister…” Aldrik hesitated. He’d never killed a man before, Vi realized then. A mere week before his coming-of-age ceremony, he would make his first kill.
“The guilty will say anything to you, my prince, to save their skin. This, too, is a lesson.” Egmun stood and seemed to be holding his breath.
Aldrik unsheathed the sword and passed the scabbard to Egmun’s eager palms.
“M-mercy,” the man begged.
“Kill him, Aldrik,” Egmun nearly shouted.
Aldrik set his jaw and hoisted the sword over his head. He paused with the blade stuck at the apex of his swing. Vi held her breath alongside the whole world.
He swung the weapon down.
Vi lifted her hand at the same time. Her other palm was flush against the crystal at her side. Magic sparked around the sword, almost like flames.
The strike was clumsy. The man groaned and gurgled, his pleas for help vanished. Aldrik raised the sword again, bringing it back down. Carnage splattered across the center of the room.
But Vi’s focus remained on the blade.
She allowed the magic of the Caverns to combine with hers, to guide her as she mentally reached out to the weapon. Vi could feel another magic in the air. Egmun was trying to act on the crystals as well.
Pathetic, Vi thought snidely. This power was hers—hers to claim and hers to control.
The sword shone brighter, as though the power within was trying to burn through. Aldrik slashed twice more before the man lay limp on the ground. The sword clattered to the stone below.
That contact of sword to Caverns was all she needed.
Crystals flared around the perimeter of the room. Aldrik shielded his eyes. Egmun thrust out his arms, as if waiting for the power to sink into him.
One crystal connected to the next, and Vi wove her magic between them all. The stones inlaid on the floor illuminated and, for the first time, Vi understood what they were.
The light that shone between them connected to form a glyph. Setting her eyes on it filled her mind with a roar of sound. It was as if every person in the world screamed a single word in agony, a word so loud she could barely make it out.
Suladin—a glyph of sealing.
A word Vi didn’t yet dare speak aloud.
Keeping her focus on the sword, Vi held out her right hand, reaching for it. The glyph around her left kept her invisible. The weapon was too far for her to touch, but through the bond of the Caverns, she could feel it.
Her fingers tightened around the magic of the sword, yanking it like a tether and sending the magic back into the Caverns. Power flowed into the stones around her. She felt it rush through her body, leaving her breathless and dizzy.
The glow of the crystals faded.
