Beneath the alabaster sp.., p.32
Beneath the Alabaster Spire, page 32
Larkin and Harlow both nodded as they took hands. Harlow dug deep into her well of power, drawing aether from the threads around them, as well as the pinprick portal into the limen within her. Finn shuddered a little as she directed her power into him.
“Not too much,” he warned. “You need to be able to fight.”
She smiled. “It’s no trouble, McKay. I’ve got plenty.”
His eyes widened with pride. “That’s my girl,” he said, and they blinked out of the alley.
The library’s courtyard was dead silent in comparison to the chaos that had taken over below. Harlow’s ears rang for a moment as she adjusted to the quiet, and the force by which they’d teleported.
“Everyone okay?” she asked Finn and Larkin.
Larkin nodded, but she looked slightly ill. Teleporting made nearly everyone sick unless they were used to it. Finn shrugged. “I feel great. To be honest, I’m starting to think you could probably teleport on your own now. How do you feel?”
Harlow shrugged. “Fine.”
“No energy drain? No nausea?”
She shook her head. “No, I feel fine.”
Finn shook his head. “We’re going to look into that tomorrow, okay?”
She smiled. “Sure. Let’s get going.”
They made their way through the maze of flowers and hedges to the fountain. Harlow couldn’t figure out what felt wrong with the courtyard until it came into view: it was the silence, of course. The courtyard had never been silent before, because of the running water from the fountain.
As they approached it, they saw that the fountain was still, and completely drained of water. “He’s already here,” Finn said, pointing to the staircase that the dry fountain had exposed.
“Darn,” Larkin said, her voice dry. “I was really hoping we were going to have to answer some sort of obscure riddle to get down there.”
Finn smirked, but then his expression grew serious. “Just like we talked about, okay? Larkin, you stay back and get ready to get Cian out. We don’t know what kind of shape they’ll be in. Harls, you’re with me.”
Harlow nodded. “Leave Axel on and run if things get hairy, okay?”
Larkin hugged Harlow. “We’ll be fine.” She hugged Finn too. “We’ll get Cian and this will all be over fast.”
Harlow knew that Larkin’s extra-bright outlook was a coping mechanism. She was scared, and Harlow couldn’t blame her. What they were about to do was probably stupid, and completely terrifying. Rakul Kimaris was a seasoned soldier, and Finn, while a talented fighter, was not.
They were all banking on the fact that Harlow’s magic, and her ability to turn into the Feriant, might turn the tides of the fight, if it came to that. But both Harlow and Finn still hoped they could talk Rakul out of whatever he had planned and get them both out safely.
Harlow felt there had to be a way to free Vivia from the vascularity, but they needed more time to figure things out. She just hoped Rakul could hear her. As they descended the dark stairs, Finn lit the way with a bit of magic.
“Let me talk to him first, okay?” she whispered as they took turn after turn.
Finn nodded, concentrating on the way ahead. “You can give it a try.” He looked back. “But if it were you, and this was my chance to get you back…” He shook his head. “I’d be ready to kill anyone who got in my way.”
“Why hasn’t he come before this?” Larkin asked, her voice quiet behind them.
Harlow shrugged. “I don’t think he knew how to get down here.”
“I think the little temple in the nekropoleis was the original entrance to wherever we’re going,” Finn said. “I have a feeling they’re connected somehow.”
Harlow agreed. They were both temples devoted to Akatei; it made sense that somehow they were both connected to this place. Whatever was down here, however it got here, this all started a long, long time ago. She wondered if they’d ever really know the truth about what had made the portal, and why the Illuminated had contained it this way.
“Careful,” Finn cautioned. “We’re almost to the bottom. Let me see what’s ahead.”
Harlow looked up, but all she could see was stairs and Larkin. When Finn moved forward, his smile was tight. “It’s really something down here. This must be a part of the catacombs under the temple.”
When Harlow stepped off the last stair, she saw what he meant. The way was lit by torches with strange blue flames, and they cast a weak gray light onto the walls.
“Oh, that’s just wrong,” Larkin said as she stepped down after Harlow. “Who makes whole walls from people’s skulls?”
“Our ancestors, silly,” Harlow said, keeping her voice low.
Larkin grimaced.
“We should try to be as quiet as possible from here on out, okay?” Finn cautioned. Both sisters nodded in agreement and they made their way into the hall that stretched ahead. The ceilings were arched, and made from the same alabaster as the temple itself. Periodically, intricately carved stone plaques were interspersed between the skulls.
They depicted a story of sorts. In the first one she noticed, there were two winged people, Ventyr children. Though Harlow wasn’t completely sure what was being depicted, she understood that the next few plaques showed them growing into adults. In different phases of their growth, different creatures and activities were shown, though to keep up with Finn, Harlow couldn’t stop for long enough to examine them closely. The last that depicted the Ventyr pair showed one of them performing a ritual while the other looked to be asleep.
The final plaque depicted two rows of what Harlow assumed to be portals, and the Ventyr that had performed the ritual. In each one, horrible things were happening. Harlow couldn’t stand to look for long. This vaguely reminded her of the little book of poetry Thea had found. Could this be part of the story that she’d read? Another set of panels began, but whatever they depicted was lost. Someone had destroyed each of them with a sharp implement.
The tunnel didn’t smell musty, as she’d expected it to. In fact, it smelled distinctly like water. As they moved further along, Harlow heard the sound of a river, or more accurately, she felt its presence. The sound itself was quite faint, but the feeling amplified it in her mind. Could the Pyriphle run here as well? That might make sense, given Cian and Finn’s suppositions about it. She paused for a moment and pressed the side of her head to one of the damaged stone plaques.
Finn stopped to watch her. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you hear the water?”
Finn gave her a quizzical look, tilting his head. “Sort of.”
She drew back from the wall, surprised. “Really? You don’t hear it?”
Finn shook his head, and when she turned to ask Larkin, her sister also indicated that she didn’t hear the water. Finn took her hand. “Is it the Pyriphle? Do you hear its call?”
Harlow squinted. Somehow that made it easier to listen. Yes, she heard the rushing water, but mostly what she thought she heard was not a noise at all; it was the silent call to the limen, to the heart—to Nihil. Now that she recognized it, it was more than noise; it was a song, an invitation.
When the path branched in three directions, Finn was perplexed, but she was not. “It’s this one,” she said, pointing to the path that veered furthest left and downward.
He didn’t ask how she knew. He obviously remembered all too well how she’d rushed towards the river in the cavern under the Vault. “Are you okay to do this?” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said, with confidence she wasn’t sure she had. What other choice did they have? Cian’s life was at stake.
When the river’s song sounded like it had a vocal accompaniment, she began to worry, but Finn turned. “Okay, that’s chanting, isn’t it?”
Larkin nodded. “Definitely.”
Harlow shrugged. “Sure.”
Finn kept moving forward, and as they rounded a sharp corner, he pushed them back, then peeked around. He motioned for them to stay silent and take a few steps backwards. He pushed Harlow forward and made the motion for Larkin to stay put. She nodded, understanding that she should stay here until someone brought Cian to her or called for her.
Harlow stepped forward and peeked around the corner. An enormous cavern with carved walls spread out before them. Rakul Kimaris faced away from where she stood, and he was chanting over a huddled form, with a silver shock of hair. Cian.
But her focus could not linger there, due to the beautiful woman who was suspended in a grotesque web of aether at the other end of the room. The physical aspects of the vascularity were horrifying. It looked like a web of organic veins, pulsing with power, feeding into a firedrake. From what Harlow could see, removing the Argent would be nearly impossible to do from a purely physical perspective, as the vascularity itself was connected to her spinal column, and likely her brain.
Vivia Woolf’s hair was long and silver, though her face was young. She was as pale as Cian, though they did not look alike otherwise. Her features were broad, with high cheekbones and a generous mouth. Vivia was tiny—very likely shorter than Kate, in Harlow’s estimation. Her eyes were closed, but she did not appear to be resting peacefully. Every so often, a little surge of power in the vascularity jolted her, and she made a soft noise that echoed throughout the room.
Harlow motioned to Finn that she was going to approach Rakul, and he nodded. He would hang back for a moment and see how things went. He squeezed her hand reassuringly and then she stepped into the cavern, making sure to step heavily.
Rakul turned, his chanting dying on his lips. “I’ll have to start over, little bird.”
Harlow nodded. “You might have to. Could we talk first?”
Rakul sighed. “Please don’t try to convince me to stop. You’ll only be wasting your time.”
“How can you even be down here, with the binding?” Harlow asked, respecting his wishes for the time being. She moved towards him, and though he eyed her warily, he did not make a move against her.
Harlow dared a glance down at Cian, who she could see now was bound and gagged, but conscious. They blinked once at her and nodded to show they were all right. There wasn’t a mark on them; Rakul had been gentle enough, she supposed.
“They never thought I’d find my way back to this place, so it wasn’t a part of the binding,” Rakul said, shaking his head. “And until you started looking for it, I never thought I would either. But you led me right to it.”
“Ashbourne can’t help me, can he?” Harlow asked. “You just wanted me to find this place for you.”
Rakul nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry to have lied to you about all that.”
Harlow believed that he was sorry. The slump in his proud shoulders told the tale. “And you tricked us—didn’t you? Using Vivia’s name at Cerberus to get Finn and Cian to leave Nea Sterlis?”
Again, Rakul nodded. “Yes, I had to get Finn at least out of the way so the two of you wouldn’t figure things out.” Rakul paused, sorrow clouding his eyes. “I wish I could have helped you in some way. And I am sorry about Cian, but you’ll find a way to get them out.”
Harlow heard the pain in his voice; there was no doubt in her mind that this was wretched for him. He thought only of Vivia, and seeing her for herself, Harlow understood. She didn’t want to leave the Argent here either. But what Rakul wanted to do was dangerous. They didn’t know what could happen, and she wasn’t about to let Cian be put up there in Vivia’s place. “It’s a risk taking her down, Rakul. We don’t know what it might let out.”
Rakul’s eyes were full of pain. “She has been up there for nearly two thousand years. Don’t you think she’s had enough?”
Harlow stepped forward, reaching out towards Rakul. “Of course I do, and we’ll find a way to help her, I promise, but it’s too dangerous to let the vascularity go down for even a few moments.”
He was shaking his head, losing patience with her. She saw that and spoke faster. “Just give me some time, and we’ll come back and close the portal for good, and she’ll be free.”
He quieted for a moment, staring at his love, and then his shoulders slumped in defeat. Relief washed over her. She stepped forward, reaching out to touch Rakul’s arm. “I can work on getting the binding removed for you too, Rakul.”
The vascularity pulsed with light, causing both Harlow and Rakul to turn. Vivia’s eyes flickered open. “Don’t do this,” she whispered. “Do not break the spell, my love. You know I have to stay. This was my choice.”
Rakul growled in fury, beating his fists to his chest. “But you didn’t give me one. I didn’t choose to live this life without you, nothing more than the Duke’s enforcer.”
Harlow’s heart lumped in her throat as she reached out to comfort Rakul. She didn’t know who the Duke was—maybe Connor—but the pain emanating from him was visceral.
A single tear marred Vivia’s ethereal face. “I am still here. Still yours. And still committed to protect this world at all costs. You know what will happen if I fail. You must go.”
The words the firedrake spoke seemed to drain all her energy. Her head drooped and she appeared to lose consciousness, though Harlow couldn’t be sure. Rakul tensed visibly. She hadn’t realized she was still touching him, and it surprised her when he launched into action. His arm pulled back from her touch, and he spun so quickly she didn’t even see him move. He had hold of her arm before she could snatch it away, tossing her like a rag doll towards the entrance to the cavern. She slammed into something pliable.
Finn. He’d been rushing to her rescue. She tucked her body like she’d been taught and rolled, shouting, “Go!” as he crouched to check on her.
He sprung into action, shedding his glamour immediately. Rakul did as well, and they circled one another, Cian at the center. Finn lunged for Rakul, and Harlow could see it was a mistake the moment he did it, but she also understood why he’d taken the risk of letting Rakul get a hold of him.
Cian was left unguarded. Harlow rushed forward, dragging Cian out of the center of what appeared to be a sunburst, carved into the floor. As she dragged her friend out, she focused on loosening their bonds.
“Go,” she said, pushing them toward Larkin’s open arms as soon as they were free and moving.
She didn’t wait to make sure they left, but turned back to the fight she could hear raging behind her. For a split second it looked as though Finn might be winning, but Rakul’s body twisted like liquid, out of Finn’s grip.
And in a movement Harlow’s sorcière eyes could not follow, Rakul gained the upper hand, slamming Finn into the wall with such force he passed out immediately. Harlow cried out, rushing toward Finn with no thought for herself, and as she did, she caught sight of movement behind Vivia and the vascularity.
In the shadows, creatures were gathering, swarming, really. Harlow was immobilized by the sight of them. They were horrifying, vaguely humanoid forms. Their limbs were pale, and far too long, their hands and feet tipped with razor-sharp talons. Their heads reminded her a little of insects—perhaps it was the eyes, or the tiny mouths.
“The Vespae,” Rakul said. “We locked them into the breach when we closed it. They were killing everything on this planet. The breach somehow made them stronger. It was one of ours that opened it, you know? Cut across all kinds of worlds, using his sister’s power. Such a mistake.”
Harlow listened to him, not knowing what to do. He was clearly in distress, and she didn’t want to provoke him into more violence. “This is how the Illuminated manipulated the people here? They closed the breach and stopped the Vespae?”
Rakul laughed. “Yes, and the fools gave up all their power in the process. Did you know humans could do magic when we came here? It was incredible. Never saw anything like it on another world.”
Harlow inched closer to Finn. He was breathing, but she didn’t dare lunge for him.
Rakul stared at Vivia. “Make no mistake, we lost plenty of our own locking those creatures in with the Ravagers. It was a bloodbath.”
Harlow had finally reached Finn. She bent down—his pulse was strong, and at her touch, he stirred. He would be fine. She left his side to try reasoning with Rakul once more. “Please. If you bring her down from there, it will let them loose on the world. Maybe even the Ravagers.”
Rakul’s expression was pained. “Yes, it will, and I am sorry for it. Close the breach with your Argent. My Vivia’s time is served.”
Before she could even think to shift, he’d tossed her to the side again, and she hit her head on the wall, hard enough to stun her. Finn came around just in time for them to watch Rakul Kimaris pull Vivia Woolf from the vascularity by force.
It did not want to let her go, but Rakul was determined, and the ritual he’d been doing had apparently loosened her enough that the vascularity stretched, pulling at her spinal cord. She let out an infernal noise, more than a scream, a sound of unbearable pain. Tears ran down Rakul’s face as he pulled a sword from the scabbard strapped to his back. He sliced through the sinew of the vascularity, careful not to cut Vivia herself. Her screaming stopped, and it was obvious from the look on Rakul’s face that he’d made the decision to free Vivia whether she lived or not. He gave Harlow a long, lingering look of sorrow—and then they were gone, teleported out.
Time slowed as the vascularity faltered. Without Vivia, it didn’t have enough power to cover the breach. The Vespae whipped into a frenzy, surging against the weakening barrier.
“What in seventeen hells is going on here?” shouted a voice in the distance. Connor McKay rushed into the chamber, pushing Cian ahead of him at the end of a white ash spear. Harlow’s heart stopped when she saw the figures behind him: Merhart Locklear, Berith Sanvier… And her mother. Aurelia.
Aurelia was here, which meant she’d known about this place all along and never said a damn word. Her eyes locked with Harlow’s and she shook her head slightly, mouthing “do nothing.” Harlow’s chest nearly burst with rage at her mother. How could Aurelia have betrayed them all this way? How could she ally herself with Connor now? Her chest shook with silent sobs.
