The Hunt for the Hollower, page 22
Merlynda skidded to a stop before the trench, puzzled, not quite to the outside ring of enormous stone doorways. Percy had traded his usual robes for a darker, more formfitting outfit, but this was definitely her twin in front of her. She’d know those blue eyes and that chestnut hair anywhere, and not just because they were the same as her own. But there was something new behind those eyes. Something shadowy and dark. “Percy?”
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
Merlynda took a tentative step forward. “I’m rescuing you. You sent for me.”
“I didn’t.”
Merlynda could not believe that after all she’d been through to get here, after finally finding the Omnivia and Percy, that this was the welcome she got! She huffed and jumped across the narrow ditch, still holding Neci’s dagger as she strode toward him. The stones towered above her, gray and rough and covered in moss and lichen, far wider and thicker than her entire arm span spread fingertip to fingertip. Shorter blue-tinged stones, as tall as Merlynda, were also scattered between the rings of doorways. “You did! Iggy arrived—that’s my familiar—and then somehow we created that second portal and you vanished, but then a third portal opened and you sent me this message!” She thrust the parchment with the Omnivia clue at him.
Percy snatched it and glared. His eyes widened when he noticed Merlynda’s bracer. “Why are you still wearing that?” he growled. “You were supposed to use the firestone!”
“Iggy was hurt and—” Merlynda stopped. “How do you know about the firestone?”
“I know everything, Merlynda,” he sneered. “At least, I did, except you kept meddling.”
“Meddling?” Merlynda’s temper flared. Weeks and months of trying to find Percy, of worrying and imagining the worst possible scenarios, and this was how he thanked her? “You get sucked through a terrifying portal to Merlyn knows where, pop up again looking terrified, and send me this clue about the Hollower”—here she jabbed her finger at the parchment Percy still grasped—“and say that by trying to rescue you from losing your magic, I’m meddling?”
Merlynda paused to catch her breath, and a screech sounded from above. She instinctively whipped up the dagger as the twisted falcon swooped down toward them.
“Watch out, Percy! That falcon’s attacked us more than once.…”
Merlynda trailed off as the falcon alighted on Percy’s shoulder. He reached up to stroke it, smiling.
Understanding froze Merlynda like a wave of ice, but she shied away from it.
She had to be wrong. This was wrong. Not her partner in crime, who always had a mostly harmless scheme up his sleeve. Not her talented twin, who was always there to clean up her magical messes. Not her brother, who had promised that they would figure out her magic together.
But then she glimpsed the shadowy something that was now behind Percy’s eyes as he went back to magically digging his trench, and she couldn’t deny it. She tried to breathe, but her lungs felt like the wind had been knocked out from them.
Percy was the Hollower. Percy had stolen the magic from the Oceanid, and countless others across the centuries. Percy had ordered the falcon to hurt Iggy, and Pugachev to—
“You did this to me?!” she shrieked, thrusting the bracer in Percy’s face and startling his falcon away into flight. Her voice shook from the anger and from the tears she fought back. “This is how you keep your promise to help me with my magic? By taking it away? By being the Hollower?”
Percy paused from his work to smirk and offer a mocking bow. “Do you think Merlyn knew his seventh descendants would be the Septimum Genus and the Hollower?” he asked, straightening. “Two of the most powerful people of all time.” He glanced at her bracer with disdain. “Well, at least one of us is.”
Merlynda had never given much thought to what a broken heart might feel like, but it had to be exactly what she felt now. Empty. Emptier than empty. As if she’d already been Hollowed, but instead of her magic being taken, it was everything she was. Everything she trusted. Everything she’d believed.
Percy sliced his arm through the air again, extending the ditch farther around the Omnivia. “I’ve got a schedule to keep, Merlynda.”
Merlynda wrenched her focus away from her broken heart and back to her brother. To his betrayal. “But why?” Her confusion spiked her anger, and she clenched her fists. “Do you know what I’ve been through to find you?”
“I do, yes.” Percy didn’t look up from the trench he continued to carve just outside the stone doorways of the Omnivia. He blasted air at the exploding earth to keep it away from himself. He did not extend the same courtesy to Merlynda, who ducked behind one of the stones. “I inherited Grandfather Merlyn’s foresight, remember. But as Merlyn always said, foresight can’t be trusted entirely.”
Merlynda lifted her arm to protect her face from the blowing dirt, stepping over and around the huge fallen stones while she followed Percy around the circle. “You saw me using the firestone on my bracer,” she accused. “If I’d done that, I wouldn’t have been able to enter the Impedimentum.”
Percy blasted one final section of earth. He brushed specks of dirt from his robe, pleased with how the ditch had turned out. “The bracer was only supposed to be temporary. It’s not my fault you kept it on.”
“It’s your fault I’m wearing it at all!” Merlynda shouted. “But if I had removed it, you’d be free to—to do whatever it is you’re doing.” She looked at the trench, which formed a deep circle around the outside of the entire Omnivia.
“The bracer was supposed to keep you from interfering. With you out of the way, stealing your familiar’s magic was supposed to be easy. My falcon almost got the little worm that last time.” He studied the parchment she’d handed him, puzzled. “I could’ve gone back to when it first arrived and drained its magic then, but the potential would’ve been significantly less prior to your bonding with it.”
This was another layer of information for Merlynda to process. “You travel through time?” But of course it made sense. If Percy was the Hollower, he’d have to time travel to steal magic from all those centuries.
“Just like Merlyn,” he said, distracted, then finally looked up from the parchment. “Almost, anyway. I can only go backward. I can’t travel beyond our present like Merlyn could, to see if my foresight is right.”
The shadows in Percy’s eyes deepened.
“I went back and listened to his prophecy about us,” he almost snarled. “All this time, we’ve been looking at him as some sort of great wise wizard, but he was a bumbling twit! And so selfish. He had access to all this power”—he gestured at the Omnivia—“but kept it to himself!”
This darkness and anger were not Merlynda’s brother. “What happened, Percy?” Merlynda whispered. “What made you like this?”
“I made myself,” he said coldly. “I was furious your familiar came first. How could it be possible that you were the Septimum Genus and not me?”
His voice was so icy, Merlynda felt like he’d slapped her.
“And then I was terrified, getting sucked into that portal. The In-Between is an empty place. Time doesn’t make any sense there. I was trapped alone for ages, with only my fear and anger and confusion echoing back at me. It was awful.”
Percy was haunted by the memory for a moment, then shook himself loose. “But then I found this.” He reached up to a silk cord tied around his neck, and from beneath his robes he lifted a flat silver disk. Beautiful, intricate etchings surrounded a glowing amethyst in the center.
It was the amulet of Morgan le Fey.
He moved toward Merlynda, who took an involuntary step back. “I summoned my own familiar, and Vis arrived. And when we went back and listened to the prophecy, I realized something.”
Percy’s gaze was frenzied. Merlynda kept backing away until her foot slipped into the ditch. “And what’s that?” she asked, because she knew she was supposed to.
“We make our own destiny. And I’m going to be the greatest wizard of all time.”
“Yes, well, you’re already one of the world’s greatest terrors, well done,” Merlynda spat. “Are you going to travel back and magic Merlyn away?”
Percy grinned, but it was maniacal. “Even better. I’m going to make a Concursus.”
Merlynda was stunned for a moment, sure she’d misheard. But no, of course she hadn’t. “You’re delirious!” she shouted. “Percy, this isn’t you! Merlyn broke his Concursus for a reason—he didn’t leave instructions on purpose—”
“Because he didn’t want anyone else to be better than him!” Percy bellowed back. “I’m going to open up the In-Between and be more powerful than he ever was!”
He calmed down, breathing hard. The amulet flared, and his eyes hardened. “I tried to protect you, you know. The amulet’s whispers wanted your magic, but I planned to give it your familiar’s instead. I gave you that bracer to keep you out of the way. To keep you safe.”
This was by far the most twisted reasoning Merlynda had ever heard. She started to say so while Percy gazed at the amulet, but then he looked at Merlynda with such intensity, she froze.
“But now I don’t have a choice. If I can’t have that little worm’s magic, I’ll have to take yours.”
* * *
Iggy, Neci, Batu, Dame Illondria, Zahilda, and Fang stared at the spot where Merlynda had vanished.
Iggy sniffed at the Impedimentum. “It smells like the In-Between.”
“We’ve got to help her.” Neci looked at Zahilda. “Don’t you know anything that will get us inside?”
“Oh, sure,” Zahilda said. “Expect the witch to solve everything. Haven’t a clue, dear.”
A familiar poof sounded from behind them, and Neci groaned. As one, they turned to find a group of fairies.
Zahilda raised an eyebrow. “Who are you, bug-brains?”
The chubby, daffodil-skinned fairy with the goatee darted forward. “Presentin’ the Right Honorable Lumont of the Oak Tree, Prime Minister of the Woodland Fairies—”
“That’s quite enough, Horace.” Lumont flew forward, squinting through his monocle down his sky-blue nose. Horace backed into the group.
Neci glowered. “You’re a ways outside of fairy territory.” She hadn’t appreciated the fairies much to begin with, but she’d never forget how they refused to help Merlynda with the Rusvokians.
Lumont cleared his throat. “We have been tasked with the protection of the Impedimentum.”
“You are on the wrong side of this conflict, Master Lumont.” Dame Illondria’s eyes narrowed. “I suggest you leave.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” the prime minister answered. “Our instructions are to stop you, by force if necessary.”
“You and what army?” Neci challenged.
Clouds of sparkly dust poofed all around them, and the air filled with fairies winking into existence. There were scores and scores of them, all growling and wielding tiny weapons.
“Great,” Zahilda muttered. “Looks like those messages we sent were invitations to a party.”
“But the fairies weren’t invited.” Neci turned to Lumont. “What’s happening in that Impedimentum?” she demanded.
Lumont lifted his feathered hat from his head and brushed it off. It sparkled, then morphed into a battle helmet. “It is no concern of yours.”
“Here’s a concern for you, fairy scum!” a deep voice boomed.
“Aye, you tell that twinkletoes!”
“More concerning than Freiydin’s wrath!”
“Hail, Fenrir!”
A host of Nordvings marched in from the west. Neci spotted Brynhild and waved, and even Batu was excited. Iggy bobbed a greeting to a still-hovering Vilhelmina, who pawed a lazy hello and then eyed Fang.
“This conflict isn’t yours, Lord Fenrir,” Lumont said testily. “You’ll want to return home.”
Fenrir swung his battle-axe around as if it weighed nothing. “I was thinking the same of you, Master Lumont. I’m glad we were already pillaging in the area when we received Merlynda’s message.” He looked at Vilhelmina. “These the fairies that imprisoned you, my precious?”
The aerial liger bared her teeth, and the fairies flinched.
Lumont tried to compose himself, but the feathers on his helmet shook. “There will be no mercy offered to the beast this time.”
Pop! “None indeed,” a voice cackled from the east.
Prince Whiskerkins hissed, and Zahilda whirled around, furious. “You were most certainly not invited.”
Pop! Pop! A mass of black-robed figures appeared, each accompanied by a pop and a black cat. The lead witch removed her hood, revealing a face that looked very much like Zahilda’s. “We received an invitation from the good Master Lumont,” the witch crooned. “How disappointed we were to hear that our own dear sister was having a soiree without us! Wizards have kept the In-Between’s power from us for far too long.”
“And you’ll be kept away a bit longer!” a voice called from above.
“Nikolai!” Batu waved.
The three mini armies and the travelers looked up to find a horde of raiders swooping and gliding on the backs of the flying boars. “Hello, Mitya!” Nikolai called down. “We received your message!”
“Oh, ho!” Fenrir cried. “I’ve been waiting for another chance to give Pugachev’s ilk a taste of my axe!” He raised his weapon, but Batu stepped forward.
“No, Lord Fenrir! We’re allies now. And… I’m sort of their leader? Since my, er, uncle has disappeared.”
Fenrir looked at Batu, astonished. Then he belly-laughed. “Very clever, Batu of the Lake! If I’d known who you really were, things might have gone differently for you. But if you say we’re allies, then allies we are!”
A piece of cloth fluttered down from Nikolai. Batu tied it around his wrist, to show his true colors. “I guess I’m a raider after all,” he told Neci.
Neci could have hugged him for bringing reinforcements. Instead, she turned to Lumont and the witches, to Fenrir and the Rusvokians.
She drew her sling and loaded it with a rock.
It was going to be a glorious battle.
* * *
In the past when in danger, Merlynda unconsciously summoned a mysterious Aether shield to defend herself. With the bracer, she knew this was impossible, so instead she took the only other recourse she knew.
She tackled Percy.
Light flared up from the amulet and zapped into the top of the Impedimentum high above them, missing Merlynda by a breath. She’d caught Percy by surprise and pinned him, scrabbling with Neci’s dagger, trying to cut the amulet’s cord from his neck. One thing had become clear to her—whether or not Percy realized it, he was under the sway of Morgan le Fey’s favorite evil item.
An invisible force slammed Merlynda back, sending her tumbling across the grass. She frantically stabbed Faithful into the ground to stop herself before she crashed into one of the Omnivia stones. Even the shorter bluestones were a great deal thicker than her and would pack a wallop.
Percy stood, panting. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. It’s your turn to help me, like all those times I helped you.”
Merlynda scrambled behind one of the towering gray pillars on the outer ring. “I’m not going to help you steal magic!” she shouted, edging around the stone and away from Percy’s voice. She wished she had a shield instead of Neci’s dagger!
She was about to make a run for it when Percy’s hand shot out from behind the stone, holding the amulet. Merlynda was slammed back again, this time landing hard on the grass inside the Omnivia’s inner ring. She blinked, dazed, holding on to Faithful like a lifeline. Now she could see that there weren’t two rings of broken stone doorways, like she’d thought. The inner circle was actually arranged like a horseshoe. Time had broken the stones so that instead of five clear doorways, only three stood on their own, the remnants of the others strewn about the ground.
Percy chuckled as Merlynda struggled back to her feet, idly swinging the amulet. “Morgan lost to Merlyn because she was arrogant,” he said. “I don’t plan to make that same mistake.”
“Could’ve fooled me!” Merlynda shot back. She tensed, trying to remember any of the battle tactics Neci had babbled on and on about, but they all escaped her. “Mother will be here soon,” she threatened, then winced at how pathetic that sounded.
“Oh, because your witch friend sent her a message?” Percy pulled a scroll from his sleeve. “This message?”
Dread snaked into Merlynda’s stomach, wispy tendrils that twisted and squeezed. “How did you know about that?”
The scroll burst into blue flames in Percy’s hand. He let the ash blow away. “I wasn’t taking any risks. I made sure all magical correspondences to Mother were routed to me. Thankfully”—he gave her another infuriating smirk—“none of your attempts to contact her were anywhere near successful.”
Merlynda ignored her crumbling hope, stumbling over a fallen bluestone as she tried to put more distance between her and Percy. Mother wasn’t coming, but hopefully the other messages Zahilda sent had been successful. Percy had no reason to monitor Fenrir or the others.
“You know, I think Merlyn was afraid Morgan would come back,” Percy mused. “He put a charm on this amulet so that only his blood relations could touch it. Funny, isn’t it? Only descendants of Merlyn can wield the amulet of Morgan le Fey.”
He jumped toward her, amulet outstretched, and again Merlynda was blasted back. She bashed into one of the pillars, gasping.
“Then why can’t I get near it?” Merlynda growled, trying to get her footing for the third time. He was playing with her.
Percy’s cocky smile grew. “Because I’m smarter than Morgan and Merlyn.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a lock of hair, bound with a shiny gold ribbon. “The fairies were more than willing to help once they learned what I could do.”
The coils in Merlynda’s stomach tightened. Percy really had thought of everything. He’d sent the fairies to take a lock of her hair and then used it to put a restriction spell on the amulet. As long as the hair was bound, she couldn’t touch the amulet, couldn’t get near it, couldn’t stop Percy from making a Concursus for whatever malevolence the amulet had planned.
