Sworn To Raise: Courtlight #1 (22 page)

She walked past the Oracle. Dark hedges arose to her left and right and the path ahead was dusted with fallen red leaves strewn over the dirt. She could see the clearing ahead and the moonlight shining down from the round orb lighting her path. Just before she stepped out of the maze, Ciardis turned and reached into her knapsack. She held out the water bottle and asked, “Is it yours?”

The Oracle did not turn, but replied, “No, child—it is yours.”

Ciardis kept the water and hobbled toward her orb. She saw that she wasn’t the last to arrive, thank goodness; the green orb hovered nearby. The yellow orb, Samantha’s, lay unmoving on the ground. Reaching for the purple, she carefully palmed it. She could tell upon touching it that there was an activation switch on the side.

As she prepared to flip the switch, a sharp whistle pierced the air.

Turning to her left, she saw Sebastian standing off to the side. He gestured for her to come into the shadows. “What?” she snapped. “I have another half hour. I need to flip the switch on the side of this orb – it will notify the judges that I’ve completed the maze. I would
prefer
to do that before the last contestant grabs their orb.”

She looked anxiously over at the green orb to ensure that it was still there.

“I was wrong about the time. I—
we
—miscalculated the time of the winter equinox by twenty minutes. It’s sooner than I thought. We have to go now!”

“Alright. Let’s go then,” she said while moving to flip the orb’s activation switch.

“No! If you flip that switch, it’ll transport you directly to the winner’s hall.” He reached out a hand. “Here. I can activate the panel so they judges will know you’ve made it to the end of the maze and you don’t disappear on me.”

Frowning, she handed over the orb.

After a few quick seconds when he poked the orb, a panel on its side lit up. “Touch the panel,” he said. She rested her palm on it, and a message that read, “
Completed
,” began to scroll across the surface. “There,” he said, “Now, come on.”

“Wait, there’s something else,” she said, remembering the ache in her leg.

As he looked at her with impatience, she explained, “I hurt my leg. I can’t run.”

Swiftly, he knelt down and eyed the cloth wrapped around her leg. Carefully, he prodded the tender muscles beneath the bandage with gentle fingertips. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

“I can heal small things,” he said, concentrating. “Broken fingers, small bruises, little cuts.” Looking back up at her with a wicked smile, he said, “Comes with the territory of being semi-connected to the land. Otherwise I could heal a person at the brink of death.” He touched her leg once more and stood up.

She gave the leg a test shake. The pain was gone. Flashing him a vivacious smile, she said, “Looks like you’re good for something after all, Prince Sebastian.”

He snorted in amusement and said, “Glad to be of service, milady,” and they proceeded to move out, Ciardis following close behind him.

When she turned around, Prince Sebastian was already heading up a worn mountain trail that she could barely see in the dark. A couple of light orbs appeared in the air in front of him and one floated back to her.

The entrance to the mountain was located on the southwest slope of Varis Mountain, in the vale of Varis itself. Vaneis was on the other side of the mountain; this was the barrier separating the two communities. “You don’t want to head that way,” she called urgently.

“Why not?” he said as his voice drifted back to her.

She stumbled, stubbing her toe, and cursed quietly as she hurried to catch up to the light. “Because,” she said reluctantly, “it’s haunted.”

Even in the darkness, she could read the mocking expression on his face as he looked back at her. “It is,” she insisted.

“I don’t believe in things being haunted.”

“Well, I don’t believe in Land Wights, and yet here am I?”

He shushed her when they reached the mountainside entrance and she punched him on the shoulder in irritation.
The nerve of the brat, shushing me like that!

“Whatever orders I give you, from now until we leave this mountain, you must follow without question,” he said urgently. She hesitated. “Ciardis!” he said holding up his hand as she began to protest. “The mountain isn’t inhabited by a ghost, but rather an elemental trapped between the Aether Realm and the mortal realm. It manifests here, but it knows nothing of leniency or mercy. It knows the codes and the blood, that’s all.”

She gritted her teeth and said, “The codes and the blood?”

“My blood,” he said, “and the correct answers, which will allow passage to its grotto.”

When they reached the entrance to the mountain, he took off his pack and motioned for her to do the same. Armed with a small knife at her waist, she followed the Imperial Heir through the stone doorway and into the pitch darkness. Sebastian produced a third light orb from his pocket, gave it a shake, and set it floating above their heads along with the other orbs illuminating the way.

They followed a twisted path with walls that felt like they were closing in and stalactites that dripped constantly, filling the air with the echoes of water splashing into lightless pools. Otherwise there was silence, save for the scuff of their feet and the occasional whisper of the wind through the small branching tunnels. Before long, they came to an open hole in the ground, though Ciardis thought that calling it a “hole” was being generous. It was really just a crack with rounded edges. “Here we are,” Sebastian said cheerfully. “We’ll be going down this ladder.”

“Ladder?” Ciardis peered down into the darkness. “What ladder?”

“There are small notches chiseled into the stone wall,” he said.

Ciardis looked at him like he’d gone insane. “That hole is barely big enough for either of us to fit into!”

“Which is why we left the knapsacks behind,” he said patiently.

Ciardis sighed. “How far down does this go?”

“Only about fifteen feet, from what I remember.” At her scowl, he said defensively, “It’s been ten years since I’ve been here!”

Ciardis couldn’t argue with that. “What’s at the bottom?”

“A straight tunnel. We’re going left.”

“What’s to the right?”

“An invisible drop-off into a bottomless chasm.”

“Good to know.”

Sebastian turned his body so that it was parallel to the side of the wall were the ladder was. He laid down on the floor and eased his feet over the edge to look for the notches in the wall... Once he was sure he’d found them, he eased his way down the ladder a few feet and waved for Ciardis to follow when his head dipped below the ledge. “There will be a light orb trailing above me to light your path,” he said, “but whatever you do, don’t let go of the wall, okay?”

He continued his descent down into the hole and Ciardis quickly followed after. When she got to the bottom, he was standing there waiting. Turning left, he said, “Keep your hand on my shoulder at all times. The walls are spelled to induce hallucinations to uninvited guests.”

“Are you inviting me?”

He flashed her a sarcastic smile. “Yes, and the Land Wight should recognize my genuine desire for you to be here. If he doesn’t, you’ll probably be crushed alive.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” she grumbled.

“I wasn’t joking that time.”

She hastily placed a hand on his shoulder as they began to walk. Once beyond the sphere of light provided by the light orbs, they were encased in darkness, the light occasionally reflecting off the dampness of the tunnel walls. After a few minutes, Sebastian said in an oddly strained voice, “A portalway should soon appear – on our left side. We’ll walk past that to a smooth stone wall. Above the smooth wall will be the Algardis crest, with a rearing lion carved into the stone.”

Ciardis began looking to her left and then suddenly the portalway appeared like a mirage before her eyes. It glimmered in the wall in front of her, temptingly. The swirl of harnessed lightning and flickering color looked so inviting… She became entranced with the portalway, her escape from this tiny, claustrophobic tunnel.

Even with her hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, Ciardis was beginning to have visions of dying in the depths of the mountain.
I could go anywhere,
she thought, taking a hesitant step forward.
I’d better leave now. The walls could cave in at any moment. I’d be trapped!
With that last thought, she dropped her hand from where it rested on Sebastian’s shoulder and took a step toward the portalway.

Turning with a cry, Sebastian latched on to her hand tightly. “Don’t listen to the portalway,” he said harshly. “Concentrate! We’re almost there. The portalway has desire spelled into it. It’s fixating on your worst fears and making you experience them as if they’re actually happening. If you step through that portal, I guarantee you that you’ll find yourself in a far worse darkness than you’re experiencing here.”

She nodded, truly frightened for the first time, and he dropped her hand. “We’re almost there,” he repeated.

Sebastian scanned the wall in front of him and said quietly, “There it is.” He pointed toward the Algardis crest, carved into surface of the wall with deep lines. He reached for the stone carving. He gripped it firmly, obviously hoping that it recognized him as one of the Imperial line. It did. The gray wall rolled aside. Leading Ciardis through, Sebastian retrieved all his light orbs but two, expanding both of those until each was the size of a cart wheel.

Her eyes wide, Ciardis saw that they were now inside a vast cavern with carved walls, a roof supported by pillars, and a bridge that arched above a deep pit full of water. The way forward was wide enough for them to walk side by side. They crossed the bridge and headed straight for an elaborate doorway carved into the stone wall on the far side. Sebastian turned away from the door and knelt by a small stone urn near the edge of the bridge. He lifted it up and put it aside.

Then, with his fingertip, he traced a glyph into the small block set into the floor beneath the space the urn had occupied.

The glyph glowed golden for a moment; and then, with a faint
pop
, the block rose up from the floor. Smiling now, Sebastian reached down and pulled the block from its snug niche in the floor. He reached into the hole under it and brought up
lantern on a chain.

Ciardis said nothing but raised her eyebrows raised in speculation. Sebastian turned to her and asked sheepishly, “Um, do you have a match?”

“No.”

“Tinderbox, by chance?”

“Of course not.”

“Dreck. I forgot that I had to light the lantern,” he said.

Ciardis sighed, shaking her head. Noting a few small flints lying on the ground, she bent down and, wincing at the destruction of the fine garment, tore a strip off of her skirt. She lifted her hand, “Give the lantern to me Sebastian. Please?”

After he handed over the lantern, she set it on the floor next to her, picked up a stone, and began to strike it against the wall, trying to catch a spark in the fabric. Luckily it was still bone dry, despite the dampness of the cavern, and she got the third spark going. Blowing on the baby flame, she nursed it until it was large enough to do the job, then managed to ignite the lantern’s wick.

“Thanks,” he said, grinning with relief. “I knew I brought you along for a reason.”

As soon as the lantern was back in Sebastian’s hands, the fire roared up between the glass panels and a bright light beamed straight from the wick to a small window far up on the ledge. They watched in wonder as the light reflected from that window to another, then another and another. Each responding glass window was set high in the wall. Soon, the glowing structure of a bridge made entirely of lantern light arced across the chamber, suspended in the air with no anchors.

Following Sebastian, Ciardis walked up and over the fire bridge to a ledge on the far side of the dark water. A second doorway lay beyond that ledge. This one was made of wood and had metal latches, and was much less elaborate than the first. Turning to her, Sebastian asked, “May I borrow your knife?”

She flipped the blade out of her belt and handed it over. He cut a tiny slice into the palm of his hand and pressed his torn skin to the door. “The final door requires a blood sacrifice,” he explained.

They heard a lock click, and several bars slid back into the doorframe. Then it swung open. The room beyond was filled with light and five very large, very angry lions. Ciardis blanched and immediately began to back up.

“No,” whispered Sebastian urgently, “follow my lead. Always
.
”

Ciardis stopped backing up, but she stayed behind Sebastian. If anyone was going to get eaten, it was going to be him.

Raising his hand, Sebastian showed his bloody palm to each lion. Ciardis didn’t think that was such a good idea, but kept her mouth shut. To her astonishment, each of the five lion took a whiff, backed away, and lay down on its stomach.