A needle of red crystal appeared on the pedestal in the vision, matching the real one there now.
“Prick her finger with this needle,”the voice said. “Hewn of my blood, it will bind her to life to mine. Do it, or the child will wither.”
Salvia went to the mirror and raised the baby’s still hand over the crystal, sharp as a fang. Her hands shook as she brought it to the baby’s tiny finger.
“Forgive me,” she wept, kissing her brow.
Still in a trance, Alora lifted her hand over the crystal’s sharp point.
Rune moved before it pierced her finger. He seized Alora by the shoulders and tore her back from the pedestal. The baby in the vision screamed out a cry, breathing with life. Wind howledthrough the chamber. The spider lilies shook and every petal glowing bright. The statues groaned and skulls clattered in the walls as if something inside them stirred.
Alora fell back against Rune, limp. She was still half in the vision, lips parted, eyes glowing red with glyph light.
The mirror hummed and the same voice rose from within it, deeper than thunder, older than time.
“The bargain is done,”the faceless shadow intoned. Salvia looked up, her eyes were full of happy tears as she shushed her wailing baby, but her smile faded at his next words.“She will grow in beauty and walk in grace. Where her essence falls, blooms will flourish. Where her song echoes, kingdoms will kneel. Mortals will inscribe her name in histories to come. But what I grant is not yours to keep.”
Salvia’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand.”
The mirror rippled.“She will be raised among mortals long enough to serve a mother’s longing. But she is made to serve my will.”
The shadows moved through the room, a host of unseen shapes shifting in hunger.
“The child is forged of light and dark, a desecration of power your world cannot bear. Once it matures, she could dismantle all you know, spread calamity or abundance. Blood is the oldest key, and hers is shaped to fit every lock in existence. Including my own.”
Salvia shook her head, trembling, holding her baby close.
“When the Blood Moon bleeds on the 20th day of her birth, I will return,the voice intoned and the crystal needle glowed.She will free me from my prison.Through her, I will rise. Through her, I will feed.”
His voice dropped further, crawling through Rune’s bones.
“Beginning with her.”
“No…” Salvia shook her head as shadows reached for her baby.“NO!”
Keeping her child tucked against her chest, she dodged the shadows and lunged at the mantel. She broke the needle in half and fled.
The vision broke, and shadows erupted from the mirror, swarming the chamber. Clawed hands reached swiftly for Alora as that chilling voice echoed through the stone.
“Lashar.”
Ice flooded Rune’s veins at the single word spoken in Hellspeech.
Nexus appeared with a wild snarl, the great panther slashing at the wave of darkness. But the shadows closed around Alora, dragging her toward the jagged crimson shard still embedded in the altar. Rune seized her, hauling her back, but the otherworldly force would not release its hold, no matter how much strength he poured into it.
His own shadows rushed to answer, clinging desperately to keep her hand from pricking her finger.
Panic tore through him.
Then his gaze caught on the sunstone dagger strapped to her hip. Acting on instinct alone, Rune tore it free and drove the glowing blade into the writhing mass of shadow.
The darkness recoiled with a shriek, its grip breaking as Alora sagged into his arms.
That abysmal presence warbled as the chamber trembled. The dagger was wrenched from his grasp, the orange blade flaring as bright as the sun before it shattered, reduced to glowing dust that scattered into the dark.
“Take her away from here!” Rune shouted, tossing Alora up onto the Vareth’s back.
With a roar, Nexus’s black wings snapped out, and he leaped into the air, flying toward the dome ceiling.
