Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (25 page)

“Not while they are held by another.”

Her mouth moved uselessly. She rolled her eyes, looking for inspiration. She needed her memories back. Without them how could she even know what she wanted? Thayl stole them from her and she had to find a way to get them back. “We need to get to the castle and deal with Thayl. Can you get us to Thayl? Fly us there?”

The dragon huffed. “I am no beast of burden. You think like those hunters, seeing me only as a predator and animal, never even considering my true power. So be it. You want to travel, then for your boon I will teach you how. I have seen how you fold the world and move across it. You have the power already, but random, limited, human.”

“The Veil doors?” Eloryn breathed.

“Only that one will learn,” the dragon boomed, pointing with a reaching claw at Memory. “Defying nature’s laws as she does, yet it is still she that I owe.”

With a lash of its tail, the dragon took Memory and vanished with her into the Veil.

Within the Veil, time meant nothing. Neither did space, or self. Memory could see panic within her like watching from a distance, but a strange sense of calm kept it smothered. The very sensation, although disconcerting, made her grateful. It meant she could still think, still feel. She still existed. This time, unlike the last time she had spent within the Veil, she was aware. Even if it still felt only like a faded dream as she lived it.

In the presence of the dragon, the raging winds she remembered of the Veil were also calmed. Hollowness and pure power surrounded them. She could almost see it moving, a force of nature and life within the gusts and ribbons of wind that flowed out like a golden tide. It swarmed like particles around her chest, warming the fire within her.

The dragon whispered to her, its voice worming its way deep into her subconscious. The long pages of magical words any other person in Avall would need to behest a Veil door were distilled into basic theory. A concept rather than a contract, a way of understanding that Memory could use. The idea of using it horrified her.
What if I could be lost again?

After a length of time that felt both instant and eternal, the dragon brought Memory back to her friends and the forest. The looks of outrage and horror she had seen on their faces when she was snatched away were still there. Not a moment had passed for them.

Memory breathed deeply, enjoying real air in her lungs until Eloryn latched onto her in a shaking embrace, squeezing the air back out again. Over Eloryn’s shoulder, Memory smiled to Roen and Will. Will flinched and turned away. Looking faint, he leaned suddenly against the trunk of the closest tree.
I could have been lost again.

Eloryn let go, backed away and looked at her with a face full of questions. The dragon spoke as though in answer, all its focus on Memory. “You’ve been taught, now you must be tested, to know you can control what has been bestowed.”

“Right now?” Memory gulped, filled with stage fright.

“I will watch over your first journey through the Veil. You will be safe.”

Memory turned to Eloryn and Roen. “Where do we go from here? To Thayl?”

“Somewhere safe,” said Roen. His jaw moved as though he had to force the words through. “If Eloryn has a plan, we will hear it, but we will hear it somewhere safe.”

“I know where.” Eloryn nodded, and took a long moment before she turned her eyes from Roen back to Memory. She spoke her words of magic that formed images of illustrations and maps.

Eyes closed, Memory filled her mind with the place Eloryn shared with her. The fire within her burned and she could feel the Veil all around her, how it hovered over and connected to the physical world like a shimmering net. She reached with her hands but touched nothing. She moved as though conducting an orchestra, pinching the Veil, bringing it together by two points of the world like folding a map, and tore it at that point. She opened her eyes to see the dark wisps of Veil door standing in front of them.

The fire inside her cooled and with the chill that followed she felt a rush of disappointment that she’d succeeded. Memory shook pins and needles out of her hands. It would have been better if she couldn’t do it. She never wanted to step through a portal like that again. Just seeing this magical doorway- like the one from her very first memory, the one she summoned the dragon through, the one she was thrown through as a baby- made her chest ache as though it had been carved again.

The dragon waited.

Under his intimidating gaze, Eloryn stepped up to the doorway first. She nodded to Memory confidently, but the next step, the one that would take her into the Veil, didn’t come.

“Do you not trust your sister, or do you not trust me?” the dragon rumbled. It almost sounded amused.

Eloryn paled. Memory didn’t find it particularly funny either. She and Roen took their place on either side of Eloryn, and took a step.

Eloryn and Roen vanished, but a hand grabbed onto Memory, pulling her back. She looked up into Will’s eyes.

Will shook his head in a brisk movement, his mouth formed “No” but no sound came out.

The dragon’s shape loomed behind Will like a mound of black diamonds. Impatience oozed from him. Roen and Eloryn were already on the other side of Avall. “I have to go through. Come with me?”

Will slumped forward as if in pain. He reached a hand toward the smoky tendrils, then looked into her eyes. “This time I won’t let go.”

Memory crushed his hand in hers. She tried to be brave, for him, but still released a tiny, crying scream as she stepped through.

They arrived at a small cottage. It overlooked a sea that ended in a horizon of mist, lit by a near full moon. Lonely on a rocky bluff made barren by salty winds, a grove of malformed grey trees skirted the cottage, making it more sinister than cozy. Will vanished again into those trees the moment they arrived.

The dragon did not travel with them, and Memory knew she wasn’t the only one to hope they wouldn’t meet again.

Slowly, they shuffled indoors. Their grand scheme to stay up planning was laid to waste when they all passed out from exhaustion.

“That’s it,” Eloryn said.

“That’s the plan?” asked Memory.

“That is the plan.”

“Huh,” Memory said. She sat on the very edge of a plush armchair, knees bouncing, chewing her lips. Blood red rays of the setting sun cast over waves below and through the wide open windows, dragging in the smell of rotting seaweed and sea foam. They had slept like the dead, and woken late. In the remaining hours of sunlight, Eloryn reviewed every last piece of information they had, every angle and advantage, until she finally explained her plan.

“It isn’t any good?” Eloryn stood in front of the windows, backlit almost too brightly to look at, lips pulled into her mouth and frown forming.

“No, I mean, it’s sort of brilliant. Free the Wizards’ Council as a distraction, then some identical twin shenanigans to cat and mouse Thayl off on his own. Having the resistance help once Thayl is beaten is good. I reckon there’ll be some unhappy people around.”

“I won’t ask the resistance to act until we’ve done our part, so they aren’t exposed. I think they will agree to that. Alward has a Speaking Mirror here that he used to contact suppliers when setting up this home, and I saw that Lanval owns one, so we can send our messages through him.” Eloryn drew in a deep breath. “I wasn’t sure I could bring it all together, but the dragon giving Memory the knowledge of Veil doors was the final piece.”

“Stupid dragon making me the important part,” Memory muttered to herself.

Roen’s head wobbled, somewhere between a nod and a shake. “I won’t say I like it, but it could work, if your theories are right.”

Eloryn turned a shade of pink that glowed in the setting sunlight. “All laws of nature and magic say they are. Like calls to like. Energy will channel to where it belongs.”

“It still sounds dangerous,” said Roen.

“I’ll keep Mem and myself moving fast. I can behest our bodies to react quicker, keep us a step ahead of Thayl. He won’t know which of us is which. I think we’ve a good chance of luring him away from the rest of his men with glimpses of us.”

Roen leant forward in the matching armchair across from Memory. “And you say your behest can also help me fight better, to hold back any men with him until he’s on his own? Will too, if he shows up again?”

Eloryn nodded, moved as if to pace, but instead fidgeted in place.

Memory leaned back into the upholstered comfort, pulling her knees up in an effort to stop their jittering.

This cottage had been set up by Alward, Eloryn had told them when they arrived. A home away from home in case their other was lost, bought and fully stocked with essentials by Alward’s guidance from afar. Stocked and furnished but too sparse to be considered cozy. Memory now sat in a simple cotton dress, more grey brown than lilac, taken from a small supply in a room fitted for Eloryn. Inexpressible happiness filled her to be out of the destroyed black ball gown. Clean, dry, fed
and
sitting. All the good things in life. But a dark unease at what lay ahead continued to build.

“I don’t know, isn’t it risky though? He’ll still have his magic the whole time. We know he hit me once and it did nothing, but the two of you... We’re going to have to get so close to him. Maybe it should just be me. I can do it, lure him out by myself,” Memory said past the fingers in her mouth, having graduated from chewing her lips to chewing on them.

“I can’t let you take that risk on your own,” Eloryn said firmly. “He could have any number of men with him even with the distractions. You need us there to help. Even if you’re immune to his magic again, he could hurt you in other ways.”

Roen rested his elbows on his thighs and bent his head down into his hands. “If anyone is to confront Thayl on their own it should be me. He doesn’t know me, and I can probably sneak in close enough without being seen. Both your lives are too valuable.”

“It needs to be all of us for the plan to work. Thayl needs to see Memory and me. I need to be there, close by, for my behests to work. Memory must be there for the chance to get her memories back.”

“Then Roen at least can stay behind then, and Will; he doesn’t need to be part of this either,” Memory said, volume growing.

Eloryn paused with her mouth open, looking across to Roen.

“Not a chance.” Roen’s voice was barely below a yell as he stared at the two of them.

“But-” Memory said, her voice rising again to match.

“Mem, Roen, please, if we do this, we have to do it together. I won’t let either of you do this without me, so you won’t stop me. It is my plan. Now, do we follow it? Together?”

Roen nodded gravely then put his head down into his hands.

Memory tore off her last fingernail between her teeth and chewed on the rough fibers left behind. Her mind whirred, but all she could catch from the thoughts that flew past was a large amount of cursing.

She shrugged and nodded.

Eloryn sighed out enough air that she visibly decreased in size. “Then we do it tonight.”

“I figure you heard all of that?” Memory said out loud to the copse of trees, feeling foolish.

With the faintest rustle of leaves, Will dropped down in front of her, landing as easily and quietly as if he’d simply taken a step forward. She squeaked a gasp of shock at his arrival. At this point she could do without such surprises, and punched him in the arm in retribution. She thought she saw him smile in response, but it passed too quick for her to be sure.