“Hang on…” Ava delicately lifted one of the papers. “I know these runes. Charlie… we didn’t just steal any ship from that cove. We stole The Great Escape!”
Marcus chuckled. “What a great escape that was— ow!”
Kallie nudged him in the side again, harder this time.
The breath left my lungs as the realization struck me, and I ran a hand over my face. “The answer to the Astromancer key was in our hands before we ever knew about it.”
“It appears so,” Takahashi agreed. “Which is why you must return to Kinpago and search those ships for any remaining records. We must find where Yuto sailed to before landing in Kinpago, because wherever he went is where we’ll find the Astromancer key.”
I sprang to my feet. “Then let’s get going.”
“Hold on,” Ava protested. “How exactly are you going to get to Kinpago? There’s a shield around Ilamanthe keeping anyone from getting in or out, and portals won’t work to get around it.”
“We’ll have to open a hole in the shield,” I suggested. “A small one, just big enough for us to get through. Then we’ll cast a portal once we’re outside the shield. It’s your magic sustaining it, so the shield will respond to you.”
“I don’t have my magic anymore, so it’s not going to work for me,” Ava argued.
“We have to try. Once we’re outside the shield, we can portal to Kinpago.”
“A hole in the shield will leave us vulnerable to the Warden if he discovers it,” Ava stated. “Are you sure about this?”
“We have to risk it for the Astromancer key,” I insisted. “If we don’t leave, we’re sitting ducks waiting for the Warden to show up. But if we go to Kinpago, find out where Yuto hid the Astromancer key, and get our hands on it, we can unite all seven Divinity Keys and open the Elven Gate now. Then I’ll lead the Elves through to the afterlife, and the broken connection between the living world and the afterlife will be restored. All the souls stuck in the in-between will be able to get through, and we can use that power to finally beat the Warden. We’ll finally have a fighting chance with the gods on our side.”
This sounded so easy when I said it out loud, but I knew it would be far from it.
Ava sighed. “I never thought I’d say this again, but you’re right. This is our last chance to make things right. All right. I’ll do whatever you need.”
“First things first. We need to get into the royal vault where the other Divinity Keys are being held,” I told the group. “We need to be prepared the second we get our hands on the Astromancer key, so we can portal straight to the Elven Gate and open it right away. We might not have another chance to leave Ilamanthe without Cameron stopping us, so we need to do this all in one go.”
Danny rubbed his hands together. “I’m up for another heist. How are we getting into the vault, considering Emperor Cameron controls it now? Judging by the state of Charlie’s face, the Emperor’s not going to let us waltz in.”
Okay, so my face was worse than I thought. They’d all noticed and hadn’t said anything. Did they think I punched myself for fun?
Yes, Oberi said, noting my thoughts. I ignored him.
“I know the code to the vault,” Ava said. “Cassiel entrusted me with it before he died.”
The confession hurt more than it should. Why had my grandfather given Ava the code and not me? “He gave the code to you?”
“Yes,” Ava said. “He didn’t trust Cameron to rule. He worried if it came to that before he could install you as Emperor, Cameron would try to get the code from you. Cassiel trusted me to pass the code on to you once you rose to power, but he asked me not to share it before then in order to protect you from Cameron. It’s too late for that now.”
There was something else in her tone that she failed to mention. She tried to hide it, but I knew her so well I heard everything she left unsaid. My grandfather trusted Ava more than me because he worried I might take things too far, and he’d been right about that. Maybe he didn’t confide that to Ava directly, but we both knew it was true, and that fucking hurt.
I didn’t want to think about that painful truth right now, so I swallowed it down.
“Ava’s got the vault code, but we’ll have to create a distraction,” Kallie said. “Cameron’s never going to let us into that vault, no matter how great our chances are at beating the Warden once we get the last key.”
She was right about that. My father was an incompetent fool who didn’t trust any of us. I was certain he’d keep us out of that vault just to let the Warden win. Not because he was on his side, but because my father had already given up, and doing anything about the issue was too difficult in his eyes. He was content to live out the rest of his days here in the luxury of the palace rather than risk another battle, even if those days were shortly numbered. We needed a distraction— and a good one.
Danny cracked his knuckles. “Just bring me a drop of blood from the guards stationed at the vault, and I’ll compel them to let us through.”
“They’ll just run to Cameron the second we leave,” Kallie pointed out skeptically.
“Not with my powers, they won’t,” Danny boasted. “I can’t wipe their memories, but I can scramble their brains enough to confuse them. They won’t even know we were there.”
I shook my head. “It’s not enough unless you can command a hundred guards at once. Cameron’s got guards crawling the palace everywhere at all times. We don’t just have to get past the guards stationed at the vault. We have to get past every guard in the rest of the palace on our way out. If we have any hope of pulling this off, we have to do something to occupy Cameron and the majority of his guards, because the fewer of his soldiers we have to get past, the better chance we have of getting out with the keys unnoticed.”
“Oh, I know!” Marcus burst with excitement. “We can put on my play!”
