A Time of Darkness (The Circle of Talia) (24 page)

Sinjenasta sensed the realmist and sat up. Avruellen
had to gently shake Bronwyn’s shoulder. “Hey, sleepyhead. It’s time.”

Bronwyn yawned
and rose from her position against the panther.

“Oh
, wow. That time already? Are you sure I’ll be able to do it?”

“Bronwyn, I’m as sure as I can be. You’re intelligent, you’ve worked hard
, and I know you’re determined. I’ve taught you as much as I could, and now you have to trust that we’ve done the work. I think you’ll do fine. Follow me.”

Bronwyn scrambled to her feet and had to jog to catch Avruellen as she left the library and turned left down a narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor
, they followed another left turn. When they reached a staircase, Avruellen walked up. Bronwyn was surprised because she had assumed they would activate the amulets somewhere safe, like a basement.

A pair of wall torches lit the landing at the top of the stairs, low flames reflected off the
polished-gold door handle. Without hesitation, Avruellen opened the door, and they stepped out into a rooftop garden unlike anything Bronwyn had seen before. A lush carpet of grass spread out before them, fringed with topiary fruit trees, flowering vines twined around their trunks. The full moon gifted silvery light to the scene, highlighting buxom lemons, apples, and dark, ripe plomes.

“Take your boots off
, dear,” Avruellen instructed. Bronwyn sat and undid her laces, leaving her shoes next to the door. Standing, Bronwyn felt the coolness of spongy grass under her feet. The musty odor of dirt dampened her nostrils, and the usually-crimson petals of the armin flower—on a vine adorning an apple tree—leached to rust in the cool, empty light. A strange sense of timelessness and decay settled over her, and when she looked at Blayke, Avruellen, and Arcon, who all stood in the center of the otherworldly park, their images shimmered—healthy bodies overlaid with phantoms of bloody carcasses, their waxen skin peeling away like milky scum scraped from a diseased cave wall. Hoping this was not a vision of their futures, she took her position with them and waited.

Sinjenasta
, Flux, and Fang sat together—a few feet from the realmists—and watched.

Why can’t we help
? asked Fang.

It must be those four. Anyone else and the energies would not be ba
lanced. They would risk failure
, answered Flux.

How do you know
? Fang licked his tummy, a nervous habit.

He’s right, Fang
, said Sinjenasta.
I lived with Drakon for centuries
. He looked down at the brown and white rat.
I spent my time there wisely
.

Do you think they’ll do it
? Fang asked.

I don’t know, but we’ll soon find out.
Look: they’re starting
. Flux wished he could do more to help.

Avruellen stepped out the
perimeter of the ward and took her place at the eastern point of their square, opposite Arcon. Blayke stood at the south point opposite his sister—a balance of blood on every corner. Through the ages, their family had borne the burden of The Circle, and now they were the last hope for Talia. Avruellen had sometimes wondered why, but knowing she would likely never find out, she accepted it and moved on. Although the moving on was harder now: the lives of her niece and nephew stood in offering before her. Talia’s fate walked a precarious road, and tonight, if the amulets didn’t undergo their second activations, Talia would be headed for an inevitable end—at the mouths of hungry gormons.

“Take
off your amulets and hold them,” instructed Arcon.

Blayke fumbled his fingers into his shirt and pulled the necklace over his head. He looked up to the stars and squinted at the brightness of the moon. The quartz in his open hand absorbed the hoary light and glowed, the sweat on his palm sparkling like
a scattering of gold dust in the sun. Blayke raised his head and met Bronwyn’s eyes. His closed-mouth smile was meant to be reassuring.
We can do this, Bronny
, he said mind-to-mind. She returned his tempered smile and nodded.

As Avruellen began the incantation, Blayke swallowed against his fear. He focused on the crystal in his hand and searched for the
Second Realm. Bronwyn whispered, “Mum and Dad, wherever you are, I love you”—before she stared at her amulet and sent her thoughts through the darkness. Both young realmists were vaguely aware that Avruellen and Arcon now spoke in unison: a different incantation to the first activation, their voices rising and falling, gathering power as Blayke and Bronwyn, their energies side by side, seeking the corridor.

Bronwyn
felt her brother’s energy as a warmth and a subtle tug—similar to the awareness she had of Sinjenasta. It reminded her of the day they bonded. When she had climbed out of the lake, she knew where he was with her eyes closed. Now she could see the mouth of the tunnel as a darkness blacker than their black surroundings. Just as they approached, Avruellen and Arcon spoke into their minds,
Stop
!

What? What’s wrong
? Blayke asked, halting, his awareness floating next to his sister’s.

Wait a moment. When Arcon and I have finished what we’re doing, another tunnel will open. This is the one
through which you must travel
. The connection cut off.

Where are they sending us
?

You know as much as I do, Bronny. I don’t want to be negative, but if we don’t make it through this, I want you to know I’m glad we found each other. If
I have to have a sister, I’m glad it’s you
.

Um, thanks, I think. I
’m sorry if I’ve been cranky. I want you to know that finding you has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wish we could’ve met our parents, but….

You never know. If we do survive, I’ll help you find them, okay?
Blayke felt Bronwyn’s energy pulse with happiness for a moment before it changed to fear.

What’s that
? Bronwyn watched as a small dot of white light turned into a circle, growing larger and larger until it was all they could see. Engulfed by the incandescence, they felt themselves sucked farther in. In the distance, Bronwyn saw another dot—a dark spec, which expanded as they neared.
This must be the other tunnel,
she reasoned. Forgetting she was in spirit form, she tried to reach out and grab Blayke’s hand, but there was nothing to grab. Struggling not to panic as the darkness coalesced into moving shapes, Bronwyn reached her awareness towards her brother’s. Reassured he was there, she focused on what she wanted: to get through this and whatever was coming.
I am a realmist. We have to save Talia. I want to live to meet my parents.

The shadowed vista jumped forward until it was all they could see. A rush of warm, dusty air pushed into their faces. Blayke
grunted as they were spat onto the hard, red ground. Bronwyn, on her stomach, lifted her face to look around, spitting dirt out of her mouth. She saw Blayke lying dazed next to a boulder. Tufts of silver-green grass interrupted the otherwise desolate soil, and white-barked trees stood at intervals, their crowning domes of jade-green leaves ignoring the midday sun.

She rolled over, sat up
, and clamped her hand over her mouth to stop from screaming: Bronwyn was staring at a leather-clad pair of muscled legs. She looked up, past the sword that sat in the scabbard at the man’s waist, past the arrow in his strong, brown hand, past the fitted white shirt and into a sun-bronzed, black-bearded face. The wrinkles around his dark eyes were not earned from laughing. He spoke to someone behind him, someone Bronwyn couldn’t see. “Well, Sandar, it looks like our prayers have been answered. Although, call me skeptical, but I have no idea how these two children are going to defeat Devorum.”

The man who must be Sandar walked around his comrade to get a better look at Bronwyn. Bronwyn gasped when she saw his face.
It can’t be. Not again.
He spoke in a familiar, soothing voice that caused her heart to race. It was the young man from the realm she had been to when bonding with Sinjenasta. She was torn between staring into his blue-green eyes and looking away—she didn’t want him to know the effect he had on her.

“Princess! Is it really you?”
He held out a hand to help her up, but she ignored him, standing by herself and slapping the dust off her clothes. She finished by wiping a forearm across her mouth to clear the last of the dirt.

“I told you before
: I’m not a princess. My name is Bronwyn, and that’s my brother, Blayke.” She walked over to help him up and whispered in his ear, “Are you okay? I don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into, but we need to be careful.”

Blayke leaned on her as he rose. “I’m okay. I
headbutted that damn rock when I came through. I don’t think anything’s permanently damaged.” He rubbed his head. “Where the hell are we?” The two men had followed Bronwyn over, and the older one spoke.

“
Sorry to interrupt. I’m Korden, and this is my cousin, Sander. You’re in the Sacred Realm. Please forgive me, Bronwyn, but you do look like Princess Tawin.”

Bronwyn rolled her eyes.
“Okay, Korden, great. Now that’s settled, what do you want from us? We must be here for a reason, and whatever it is, I’d like to know as soon as possible.” She looked around. “Oh, bugger, the corridor’s gone. How are we going to get back?” When she had found herself here the first time, she knew the lake was her way home. Were they going to have to find the lake again? Even if they did, they would end up back in Vellonia, not where they needed to be.

“
You’re right.” Blayke turned in a circle, hoping to see the hole in the air from which they had dropped. He faced the men. “Where in the Third Realm are we? Where exactly, or what exactly, is the Sacred Realm?”

Sander answered
, “It’s the realm from where all other realms come, the perfect realm that gods plunder from to create other, inferior versions. It is said there are mirrors of our realm, although I’ve never seen them.”

“So,” Blayke asked, “if the First Realm, where we come from, is a mirror of this one, then there should be another one of me here and one of you there
?”

“I don’t know if it works exactly like that, but it is possible. Maybe that’s why Bronwyn looks like the princess.”

“Oh, for the gods’ sakes, can we please just get on with what we have to do and stop talking nonsense? In case you haven’t forgotten, Blayke, if we don’t activate the amulets properly, there won’t be any First Realm to worry about.” Bronwyn turned to Korden. “What do you want us to do?”

“
We’ve been ordered by our king to capture Devorum. But we can’t kill him; we need him alive.”

“Who, or what, is Devorum?” Blayke asked.

“Devorum is a dragon: an enormous, black dragon—the most feared creature in this realm.”

“Why does he want to catch this dragon, and why would you think we could help? Surely you have realmists here who can do the job?” Bronwyn didn’t want to die fighting someone else’s battles when she had enough of her own.

“What’s a realmist?”

Blayke and Bronwyn looked at Sander, their mouths open in disbelief. “You don’t know?” Both men shook their heads
, so Blayke continued, “Bronwyn and I are realmists—we can draw power from the Second Realm to
do
things. Although I don’t know if we can get access from here. Hang on a minute.”

Blayke
concentrated and searched for the corridor.

“What’s the Second Realm?” Sander asked.

Bronwyn, sensing that Blayke was busy, answered, “It’s a place where you can’t physically go, but you can send your spirit there, to gather power. It reminds me of the night sky. You do have a night sky, don’t you?”

Sander looked at Bronwyn, cocking his head to one side. “Ha, ha, very funny. Yes, we have a night sky.”

“Thank the gods; I was beginning to worry for a minute there.” Bronwyn grinned.

“Yep, Bronny, we can get to the Second Realm.”
Bronwyn let out a relieved breath. Blayke turned to Korden. “So, why do you need us to catch this dragon?”

Korden and Sander exchanged glances, the younger man giving a small nod. Korden
answered, “The gods have spoken to our king. Even though other realms mirror ours, we know nothing about them: we are not permitted to see. But, if any other realms are threatened, the balance here is affected. There is an island in the Verren Sea; well, there was an island. It is now a whirlpool of black—nothing comes in, nothing goes out, but the island—and all its people—were sucked into that black hole when it formed. The gods have told us it’s because of an imbalance that occurred fifty years ago, and the next one will have a much greater impact.”

“Where did it go?” asked Bronwyn.

“We don’t know. Please tell us you’ll help us?” Sander stared into Bronwyn’s eyes, hoping she liked him enough to agree.

Blayke stepped between Bronwyn and Sander. “My sister and I need to discuss this
… in private. We’ll be back when we’re ready.” Blayke grabbed Bronwyn’s arm and dragged her out of hearing range of the men. “What do you think?”