The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) (38 page)

“Not on purp—”

The mountain trembled and with a terrible crack, snow and rock began falling all around like rain.

“What’s happening?” I yelled over the noise.

“The stone,” Ehren shouted. “You unleashed something when you touched it.”

The mountain shook again and I fell down, propping myself up with a gargoyle. The entire world felt as though it were falling apart.

“We have to get out of here!” shouted Vera.

Alex walked over to the vox and stood before it for a long, silent moment.

“Now’s not the time to be admiring, Alexander,” Vera yelled.

The vox whinnied as the mountain trembled, and another dark shape rose behind it. Another vox.

Alex nodded at the vox and placed a hand on its nose before glancing back at the others. “Get on!” He grabbed my hand, pulled me forward and helped me up, jumping on after me.

Vera and Ehren leapt on the other, and Alex slipped his arms around my waist, holding me tight.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” he said in my ear, and the vox started flapping their wings, rising in the air.

With a terrible crash the mountain rumbled and the entire hillside—ruins and all—started sliding down the mountain. Down and down they went, tumbling into oblivion.

The vox beat their wings against the wind and snow, each gust more powerful than the one before it. Vera and Ehren were nothing more than a dark splotch on our right. Even though I could see nothing, even though I had no sense of direction, the vox flew forward with purpose.

Alex’s grip was firm as he focused ahead, and the snow and ice cleared until finally, we could see.

Valdon.

The sky overhead was dark, but it wasn’t snowing, here. Not yet. I glanced back. All I could see of the mountain was a wall of white, an endless veil of clouds where the sky had touched the snow-covered ground, and there was no telling where one ended and the other began.

“What happened to Danton?” I asked over my shoulder.

Alex’s fury burned hot. “I don’t know,” he said. “Right after Kenley left, Danton vanished.”

“Danton said the shield was being stolen.”

Vera and Ehren moved beside us. “To the wall?” Vera shouted.

“Yes,” Alex replied. “Let the king know what happened, and tell Alaric that Daria and I are at the castle checking on the shield. I can’t return with the three of you, anyway.”

I’d forgotten. Alex had never entered the games. He had merely shown up to protect me.

Ehren nodded, understanding, and the two of them veered away back to the wall, while Alex and I stayed course for the castle.

I could already see torchlight behind some of the windows. The vox circled before touching down in the courtyard with the grace of a swan.

No one was there to greet us.

Alex jumped from the vox; I jumped down after him. The vox whinnied and stomped its feet.

“Thank you,” I whispered, running my palms along its nose. “You saved our lives. Again.”

It whinnied and snorted and leapt into the air.

“Daria, we need to hurry,” Alex said beside me.

The castle was quiet—eerily quiet compared to how it’d been the past few weeks. Everyone was gathered just down the hill, waiting for someone to reappear with the stone.

Perfect for anyone that wanted to steal the shield.

Alex and I drew our weapons and started running. We pushed through doors and wound down halls while our boots scraped along the stone floor.

“Where are all the guards?” I panted.

“No idea,” Alex said. His anxiety was as strong as my own.

We had rounded a corner and pressed through the doors to the assembly hall when shadows peeled from the wall.

“Alex!” I yelled.

“Stay at my back,” he replied, holding his sword ready.

They materialized from the corners, the dark patches where the ceiling met the wall, black swords in hand. Alex and I waited, our backs to each other. The guards moved around us until we were surrounded by a black circle, and then they pressed in.

I parried with one dagger while striking with my other. One ducked low and I kicked, sending him reeling back and knocking a few others off balance. A bolt of light shot from the hands of one, and I leaned back. The bolt slid past my face as though it were happening in slow motion.

“Down!” Alex yelled, and I dropped.

Light sparked from either direction, the bolts colliding into each other like electric currents, exploding in static and sparks right above us.

I swung my leg, kicking the feet out from one and meeting his face with my elbow as he fell. Alex leapt to his feet, helping me to mine, and we went at it again.

And the shadowguard suddenly disappeared.

Alex and I were heaving.

“Where did they go?” I gasped.

Alex wiped the sweat from his brow. “The shield,” he said.

We sprinted. The closer we got to the hall holding the shield, the more I felt this overwhelming sense of dread. I was so focused on the feeling, deep in my gut, that I didn’t notice the shadowguard ram into Alex—not until I’d already run through the doors.

I skidded to a stop and spun around, and the doors slammed shut between us. I grabbed the handles and jerked and tugged, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Alex!” I screamed, pouring all my strength into pulling the door open, but still…nothing. I couldn’t hear anything on the other side, either. I focused, trying to reach into myself and draw magic, but once I got near, it felt like I was trying to rip apart my organs. With a cry, I sagged against the door.

I felt a presence behind me and slowly turned around. The shield, the one that had been on display at the front of the room, was gone. The bowls before it were glowing with flames as before—Pendel’s burned the brightest—all except for Alioth’s. Steerforth’s name had dulled and the flame was gone.

Just like he was gone.

The presence in the room moved. It was hiding in here, somewhere in the shadows, and it was a presence that seemed familiar to me, somehow. Very familiar. But there was a force keeping me at bay, keeping me from getting too close.

Where was it coming from?

I noticed the tapestry, the one they’d been weaving for the festival. It hung from an iron rod, complete, and the picture that they’d woven made me pause. It was a single tower, like a rook, the piece Thad had given me that I’d given to Fleck.

And then Fleck appeared from behind the tapestry.

His eyes were wide with fear and his legs wobbled as he stood.

“Fleck!” I screamed, and ran toward him.

I realized that someone was holding on to his cloak, and that someone stepped from behind the tapestry.

It was Thad.

My heart dropped in my stomach. There was no life in his eyes—no amusement or humor. They were…cold. “Thad?” I gasped. “What’s wrong?”

Fleck wriggled but Thad would not let go. Why wasn’t he letting go?

“I need you to come with me.” Thad’s tone was flat.

This had to be some kind of joke. “Now’s not the time, Thad,” I said, but my voice shook. “The shield is—”

“This isn’t a joke, Daria.”

He didn’t call me Rook.

He didn’t smile or wink or chew on that blasted piece of grass.

He stood there staring at me as though I were nothing more than an inconvenience.

My lips parted. “What is wrong with you?”

A tortured expression crossed his face, but it was gone as fast as it had come. He swallowed, clenched his jaw, and the seriousness returned. “I need you to come with me,” he repeated, lower this time.

“What is wrong with you?” I screamed at him.

“Lady!” Fleck cried. “Don’t go with him! He needs you to use—” His words were cut off as he let out a soft cry.

Why was Fleck crying?

“Let go of him!” I yelled at Thad.

Thad pulled a knife from his cloak and pressed it against Fleck’s neck. Fleck winced and shut his eyes tight. Thad…
my
Thad.

How could he do this? It felt like someone had stabbed a knife through my chest. “All this time,” my voice trembled, “you…you were…” My throat shut down and I couldn’t speak.

Thad’s eyes narrowed. “Come with me now,” he said in a harsh whisper, “or he dies.”

My world stopped, and everything in it suddenly felt cold and empty. “You wouldn’t.”

He held Fleck tighter, pressing the dagger deeper against his neck. “You think I give a Nord’s hide about the little runt?” Thad’s lips twisted bitterly. “You think I cared about…
you
?”

The knife in my chest twisted, and my entire body felt like it was bleeding. “You don’t mean that.” I could barely speak.

His eyes flashed with something I could not read. “Honestly, what kind of a
friend
would tell you to enter the games?” His eyes narrowed. “The games would kill someone like you—someone without any magic or power. It’s a wonder you made it as far as you did, because you certainly weren’t supposed to.”

Every word felt like a physical blow, hitting harder, landing deeper, bruising and breaking everything they touched.

“But then again, I certainly hadn’t realized who the dark rider really was.” He smirked. “I won’t ask you again,” he said through his teeth, jerking Fleck’s head back by his hair as he held the dagger to his little neck.

My entire body felt numb and my feet began to feel like they were sinking into the floor. In a daze, I walked forward, step by shaky step, while Thad waited.

I searched his hazel eyes, holding on to them with each step, trying to find a glimmer of hope. Trying to find a piece of him that hadn’t lied, a piece of him that had cared. A piece of him that had been my friend.

But I found nothing.

I stopped before him, clenching my teeth to keep my tumultuous emotions at bay. “Let him go.” My voice shook.

“Your daggers,” he said.

I loosened my grip; the daggers slipped from my fingers and fell to the ground, echoing in the room with an empty clatter.

Thad shoved Fleck forward. Fleck scrambled on the ground, crying. “Lady, don’t! You can’t help him use the shield!”

Fleck had started crawling back to me when Thad spat, “Get back, or I hurt the lady.”

Fleck choked on his tears, but didn’t come forward another inch.

Thad grabbed my arm tight and held his blade to my neck. I couldn’t feel it, though. I knew the metal was cold and I knew Thad was holding my arm tighter than necessary, but I was numb.

He started pulling me to the far edge of the room, opposite the door.

“Why?” I barely whispered.

“Why?” Thad sounded annoyed. “You know as well as I do that Darius is nothing but a tyrant. He’s sat on his throne longer than he ever deserved.”

“Who’s next?” My voice was weary. “You?”

For a split second, something flashed across his face. Something tortured and horrified, but then he smirked and it was gone. “Not me.”

“Commodus, then?”

“Commodus is an excellent choice,” replied a deep, commanding voice that seemed to come from everywhere, “but, alas, the throne will fall to me, now.”

A man stepped from the shadows, and my blood turned cold. It was the man from the fields—the man from the mirror and my dreams. Eris, my dad’s brother and my uncle. He stood like a wraith wrapped in black, and his skin was so white it looked blue. His long, bony hands clasped before him, and he regarded us for a long moment with his nightmarish face. “Thaddeus,” he said, “Well done.”

Thad nodded beside me.

Eris turned to Fleck, who was crying as he looked helplessly at me. “We could still use the boy,” Eris said.

“No!” I screamed. “Stay away from him!” I jerked forward, but Thad’s knife dug deep against my neck. So deep my skin pinched and started burning.

Eris observed me without expression, and then like a breeze, something cold reached inside of me, in my mind, sifting through my thoughts and memories. I winced against its chill, as though someone covered my soul with ice, and then it was gone.

“Where’s her magic?” Eris asked Thad.

“The king blocked it,” Thad replied.

He knew? All this time…Thad had known? My throat clamped shut.

Eris studied me, ruminating. “There is no block on her, now, but there is…something else. I think, perhaps, she—”

“What do you want from me?” I yelled.

He stood silent for a long and terrible second. “Daria,” he said at last, his tone sharp. “I don’t believe we have officially met.”

“I know who you are,” I hissed.

“Do you?” Eris moved steadily toward me, and I hated the very sight of him. “You are so like her,” he said, stopping before me, tilting his head. “Aurora. I can still see her face—” his fingers were like ice on my jaw “—the day she died.”

My heart stopped, and then my anger burned inside. “You were there?”

A shadow passed over his face. “Pity. Alaric must not have spoken much of me to you.”

“Maybe he would’ve if there had been something worth speaking about,” I spat.

Even though Eris didn’t appear to have eyes, I could feel them burning, and when he spoke again, his voice made me feel small and vulnerable. “What I’m about to do,” he said, “will be spoken about for centuries.”

An explosion reverberated throughout the room and the doors blew away. Alex and Dad burst into the room. My father’s horror was smothering.

“Ah, and there he is now.” Eris stood tall, moving forward. Even the air seemed to part for him.

Alex’s gaze settled on me, then Thad, and a myriad of emotions crossed his face before it settled in anguish. Fleck rushed to Alex’s side. Alex whispered something to Fleck, and Fleck ran out of the room.

At least Fleck was safe.

“My niece and I were just talking about you, Alaric.”

“Eris, leave her out of this—” Dad started forward, but with a flick of Eris’s wrist, Dad was thrown back against the wall, hard, as if he were no more than a ragdoll. Alex ran forward, but he rammed into an invisible barrier before he, too, was thrown back against the wall.

And Eris hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Dad staggered to his feet, eyes red with fury. Never in my life had I seen him so angry or afraid. “Let her go, Eris; she’s of no use to you. Wasn’t Aurora’s death enough?”