Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (30 page)

Ven Orelius's directions had been very clear and his description of the portal itself had been simple. But this…I didn't have words for this. I noticed the sphere of glyphs and symbols on the floor, just as he had said, but what had stolen all of my attention was what hovered above.

It looked like a piece of the universe. Thousands of tiny white lights floated above like stars in a galaxy, seemingly frozen in clusters and layers of constellations, interspersed with cottony nebulae of pinks and blues and yellows like holes to some other dimension. It was mystifying, mesmerizing and celestial, having the perspective as if I were some kind of god watching over my universe.

No wonder the people of Gesh only let the
venita
pass through the portal. If the world knew about this, they'd probably need a small army at the temple just to hold back all the tourists.

There was a strange energy humming in the air like an electrical current, a prickling sensation that lifted the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck like air charged before a lightning storm. I followed Alex out onto the giant glyph that filled the entire floor. In the celestial light, I could just make out the broad sweeping letters and symbols and runes, all in black ink, though some had been artistically crafted as negative images upon the stone. None of it I could read, but I did notice a few images of what looked like dragons, bodies suspended in the air and great wings arched back in flight.

The
venita
gathered around the broad basin situated at the heart of the glyph. I took a position beside Alex, careful not to stand too close. The
venita
opposite me raised his hands to the skies, sleeves falling on either side of him like wings. He wore a mask similar to Alex's, which muffled his words as he spoke to the heavens. Not that it would have mattered, because it was all in Saqai, anyway, but once he had finished speaking, a rush of energy pulsed through my body.

Unease nagged in the back of my mind.

Was I doing the right thing? Should I be leaving Mercedes and Vera in the middle of the night like this? Not like I could change my mind now, anyway.

The first
venita
took out a shining silver blade and ran the tip of it along his forearm, piercing the skin. He let his hand dangle over the basin, allowing a drop of his blood to slide down his wrist and hand, and it eventually plunked into the empty basin with an empty, tinny sound. The next
venita
did the same, but he did not speak, and then it was my turn.

I pulled my dagger and pressed the tip against my forearm, puckering the skin. With a wince I broke skin, the fresh wound blanched, then blood slowly rose to the surface. I added my blood and Alex added his, and we all joined blood-stained hands.

Energy suddenly buzzed through my body like the shock of electricity. The light above exploded in a great nebula of color, followed by a burst of energy that ravaged my body. Darkness followed with silence, and then there was light once more, a pale, natural light, muted and waning in dusk.

I stood inside the nave of a giant cathedral, or what remained of one. It had been grand in a time that would exist only in history books, before centuries of neglect uprooted its fine marble flooring and threaded its walls with tangles of vines and mosses. It was as though the jungle were slowly reclaiming it, green tendrils snaking through broken, stained-glass windows, trying to pull the cathedral back into the ground, and the weary cathedral had surrendered, sinking deeper and deeper as the seasons strode triumphantly on.

A grand staircase curved along one wall, leading to an upper tier, but a battering ram of earth had pummeled into its side, pouring dirt onto the staircase so that only a sliver remained passable. Chunks of flooring were missing and greenery swept like draperies over windows and doorways. Starburst-shaped holes pockmarked the grand dome overhead, allowing the fading daylight to stream through in buttery ribbons. Dozens of empty candelabras stood about, and broken wall sconces clung desperately to the crumbling stone walls. Pillars rose from floor to ceiling like giant redwoods, cracks and craters running like veins through them, though they stubbornly supported the grand arches up above. And yet even though I'd never stepped foot in this place, I had the strangest feeling I knew it somehow. As though it were a piece of someone else's memory.

This was all wrong. We should not have landed here.

"Alex, I don't…" My words trailed as I realized he wasn't standing right behind me. My heart dropped when I found him lying on the ground, unmoving, and another
venita
wasn't far from him. "Alex!" I sprinted to him and crouched at his side, ripping the mask from his face. His eyes were closed and his skin was alarmingly pale. I placed my hands on his face; he was cold as ice. "What's wrong?" I asked, frantic and holding my fingers on his neck, just under his jaw, checking for a pulse. It was there, but it was faint. "Alex, what's happened?"

He didn't answer.

I cursed under my breath. The cleansing draft—it had been poisoned. I didn't know by whom or why, but I would have to sort that out later. "We need to get out of here." I felt around on Alex's body and searched for the pack. There was a small vial in there he'd brought in case of emergencies. It was supposed to be some kind of universal antidote; I hoped it would work against whatever poison had been in that draft. I needed it to work, because there was no way I could carry him all by myself. And I had absolutely no idea where we were.

"There you are." The voice froze me in place. "You're surprisingly difficult to catch for one so small."

Everything suddenly clicked into place: Ven Orelius had sold us to
him
.

Eris stepped from the shadows, but it wasn't the Eris I remembered. The last time I'd seen him, he had been a wraith of a man, but this man was the Eris from the portrait. The one who had resembled my father, with handsome features, intelligent blue eyes, and a charming smile that made you instantly want him to like you and count you as one of his inner circle.

But this was the man who had murdered my father.

I have been waiting a very long time for you.

The voice split through my head. Involuntarily, I pressed my hands to my ears, but his words echoed through my mind.

"I've done what you asked, your grace." A voice trembled from somewhere not far from where I was crouched beside Alex. Ven Orelius stood off to the side, hands clasped and body bent forward like a hunchback, humbly approaching his lord and master.

He had snuck in, too? Then what had happened to the third
venita
? I didn't know if I wanted the answer to that question.

"If you had done what I'd asked, then why is Mercedes Bellona still alive?" Eris demanded, his mien suddenly predatory.

"Please, your grace. I beg your forgiveness. We would have succeeded if the princess had not intervened—"

"I am not concerned with how you
would have
succeeded. You failed." Eris's tone was low and even. The air trembled around him.

"I understand, your grace—"

"Do you?" Eris crept toward Ven Orelius, lithe like a wildcat. "Do you really understand that a child without the ability to use magic to—"

"I do not believe she is without magic, your grace." Ven Orelius was now cowering before his master, his robes visibly trembling.

Eris eyed Ven Orelius for a moment, his features hard and cruel. "Explain." Eris drew out that one word so that it sounded more like a sentence.

Ven Orelius wrung his hands. "I am saying that—that I conjured a specter and she…she was able to stop it." His voice shook even worse than someone suffering from cold.

Eris turned his focus on me with the intensity of the Eye of Sauron. I shrank away despite myself, clinging to Alex as though he might protect me from withering away beneath the power of Eris's gaze. Eris then turned back to Ven Orelius. "I do not employ you to tell me what I already know; I employ you to carry out my objectives." He stood before the cowering Ven Orelius now. "How, precisely, did she manage to
stop
your specter?"

"With…with her dagger," Ven Orelius said.

Eris frowned. "That is not magic, high priest. That is called a weapon. Perhaps you spend too much time in prayer and have forgotten the difference between the ethereal and substantive."

Ven Orelius kept his head bowed.

"Look at me." He grabbed Ven Orelius's chin and jerked it upward, forcing Ven Orelius to look at him.

Ven Orelius blanched, panic-stricken, as his wide eyes focused on the man before him.

"I do not tolerate failure," Eris continued, his voice like ice.

"I….I am sorry, your grace." Ven Orelius managed. "It will not happen again."

"No." Eris frowned. "It will not."

Power surged forth from Eris's fingertips, a vapor so hot that I could feel the heat of it from where I crouched. Ven Orelius screamed out in agony as the heat penetrated his body. His skin erupted in boils and burns, and he continued screaming until his skin melted away and all that remained of him were his robes.

I turned away as my sickness spilled on the floor. I clutched my stomach and my breath came in short, panicking gasps, and then a pair of black boots appeared before me. I heaved, trying to catch my breath while still gripping Alex's cloak with one hand. "You…you're a monster…" My words croaked and my mouth tasted like acid.

"Now, now, we mustn't call names, dear niece. It's unbecoming—especially of the nobility. It shows a lack of self-control and it makes us appear vulnerable," Eris said lightly, as though he hadn't just cooked a human being to death and was instead taking great pride in improving my etiquette. "Your Aegis does not look so well."

I grit my teeth and glared up at him. "What have you done to him?"

His brow was the only feature on his face that moved. "Hm. Perhaps I should direct that question to you, dear niece. For it is a very strange thing for an Aegis of the crown to leave his post in order to accompany the Princess of Gaia—alone. I wonder what Lord Danton would think?" Eris's voice had a
tsk-tsk-tsk
quality to it, and he spun on his heels, his cloak flaring around him like a cape. "Lord Danton is ever anxious about your welfare, you know."

We were not having this conversation. "What do you want from me?" I growled.

Eris spun back to face me, steepling long, jeweled fingers, his face disturbingly calm. "What I
want
is your help, dear niece. By a stroke of good fortune, I have recently acquired the unity stone and the seven pieces of the shield, but I need you to show me how to use it."

I made a fist with my free hand. "Like I will ever help you."

"Helping me is the only thing that will save those you hold dear." His gaze rested pointedly on Alex.

"Well, I hate to disappoint you," I said through clenched teeth, "but I can't help. I have no idea how to use the shield,
and
, as you so astutely pointed out, I have no magical ability whatsoever. So maybe that same stroke of good fortune will decide to enlighten you on the matter."

Eris drummed his fingers and regarded me without expression. "I see you inherited your father's temper."

"I've been told that." I glared at him. "But unfortunately he's no longer alive to ask."

Eris regarded me a moment. There was something incongruous about the way his charming features rested in an expression of shrewdness. Alex's arm twitched beneath my touch, drawing my focus back. I sifted through his pack and my fingers brushed upon the small glass vial.

"I can save him," Eris said.

"You've done enough, I think." I pulled the vial out. It was a small, decorative bottle, made of ribbed glass and stoppered with a kind of silvery wax. The liquid inside swirled a pale blue. I picked at the wax seal and Eris moved a step closer in my periphery.

"That won't work," Eris continued. "The poison is made from dragon's bane. It works fast, crystallizing organs, though interestingly enough, I've heard the effect gives one the impression that they are burning to death. I can't speak from experience, however." He paused. "I'm afraid only high magic can save him now."

I glared back at him, my heart pounding. There was no deception in those cruel eyes of his, no emotion in those charming features. Still, I had to try. I used my thumb to pry open Alex's lips and tipped his head back a little.

"You'll only make it worse," Eris said.

Ignoring him, I ripped the wax free and poured the contents of the vial into Alex's mouth. I pushed his jaw closed and pinched his nose, forcing him to swallow. For a second, nothing happened. And then his body convulsed. Wrinkles webbed the corners of his eyes as he squeezed them shut, his jaw tightened and the veins bulged along his temples as his body convulsed again. A wave of searing hot pain racked through me.

"No…" I whispered, grabbing his hands and face. "Alex….no! Stay with me!" I squeezed his hands tightly, letting him know I was there and begging him to hold on. Sweat beaded on his forehead while his body shook, but I did not let go. I squeezed his hands harder as if I could hold his spirit to this world, my eyes stinging as I watched him. I tried reaching out to find the wind, pressing my consciousness beyond, desperate, but there was nothing.

This couldn't be happening.

"I can save him, dear niece." Eris stood over my shoulder.

I glared up at him, furious and desperate as my tears welled. "Then save him!"

Eris's cold gaze slid from Alex and settled on me with the chill of frost. "Come with me."

"Don't you get it?" I growled in frustration, forcing words through my tight throat. "I don't know the first thing about using that shield. I. Can't. Help. You."

"Yes, you can," he said in a voice that was unnaturally calm. "You do not realize it, but the information is locked safely away inside of you. Protected, if you will, and I now have the ability to draw it out."

I shook my head, overwhelmed in desperation with tears streaming freely down my cheeks. Alex's life was fading right beside me and there was nothing I could do to save him. This was like a horrible, horrible nightmare, only it was really happening.