The Search for the Shadowsoul, page 22
Neci crossed her arms as if that settled it. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I could make us explode!” Merlynda shouted. “I could magic us into the Forfle dimension! I could accidentally split us all in half and put us back together wrong! I could cause a myuta curse, or—”
“Do the spell properly, even without your staff,” Neci cut in.
Merlynda stopped shouting. “Yes, that is a very unlikely option.”
“My dagger, my rules.” Neci smirked.
“You can do it, Merlynda,” Rafael said. “We can do it. You reminded Percy that he isn’t alone, yes? You’re not alone either.”
“I still think it’s a terrible idea.” Iggy stretched out his wings. “But if anyone can help us, it’s them.”
Merlynda looked between her familiar and her friends. It wasn’t just that they believed in her. They believed in each other. True friendship is like that. It has a way of bolstering our confidence in ways we can’t on our own.
“All right,” Merlynda said. “It might work. Or also, it might not.”
“It will,” Rafael said firmly. “For Percy.”
He scrawled out a quick message and gave it to Leona. “Take this to the new Robin. Find Commander Prin.”
Leona’s feathers bristled, flaring fuchsia.
“I don’t like it either,” Rafael reassured her. “But it’s time for us to do good. We’ll help Percy, and everyone else, by stopping the Shadowsoul. And then we can help Emilia. You want Emilia to feed you berries again, yes?”
Leona’s feathers didn’t change, but she gave Rafael an affectionate peck, then took flight, leading the other plumara.
Rafael watched her go. “The Northern Chapter will be ready to aid us, if they can. Leona will find them even if they’ve moved.”
Neci stared at Faithful. She had a feeling they’d need reinforcements.
She and Rafael stood on either side of Merlynda. They each put one hand on Faithful’s sheath, and one on Merlynda’s shoulders.
Merlynda grasped Faithful’s hilt before her. She was terrified. If this didn’t work, if she messed this up—
“We can do this,” Iggy said. “We stopped a whole orchard of tyrannical trees without the staff.”
Rafael blinked at him. “Tyrannical trees?”
“We’ll tell you later. The point is, we’re unstoppable!”
Merlynda took a deep breath. “I have no idea how this will work,” she said to Neci and Rafael, “but focus on channeling your magic into ours, and then into the lodestone pathway.”
Merlynda focused on Faithful, on how it sang with Aether, and on meeting Iggy’s magic with her own. Just as before, they melded and became one, and moved into the Aether.
Merlynda tried to recall the shape of the magic when Percy had been there, how the twisting and turning had settled into a steady flow through Faithful. She willed the magic to do just that, but already it felt like water hitting rapids.
Sparks popped over them, and Merlynda jolted. Neci and Rafael tightened their grips on her shoulders, reassuring her.
“We’re here, Merlynda,” Neci said. The knight had no idea what connecting with the Aether felt like, but she knew Faithful like she knew the Ye Knoble Knight’s Code of Chivalry. She imagined the magic dashing across the dagger’s blade, and the blade itself extending to meet Merlynda’s magic, building a bridge between them and the pathway.
Rafael felt the Aether every time he blacksmithed, or played with his copper. He knew it well, and he imagined crafting the pathway, hammering and shaping sturdy supports into place.
Merlynda felt Neci’s and Rafael’s magic merge with hers, amplified a thousand times by their connection, and the shock of it nearly made her let go of the dagger. It shouldn’t have been possible, what they were doing. A wizardess and a warlock mixing their magic, combined with a nonmagical knight?
No, that wasn’t correct—Neci might not have been a magical being the way the Merlyns were, but she was still connected to the Aether. All living things were. Merlynda reached for the glimmer of Neci’s Aether, guiding it to her own, and felt the support of Rafael bolstering them. Perhaps it wasn’t that magics didn’t mix. Perhaps it was just that they needed to work together, to be united in purpose.
In the distance she heard a familiar laugh. It used to bother her, this laugh, but now it was a familiar and welcome friend. The Aether, it seemed, remained a mystery, but was delighted in them just the same.
The wizardess reached her free hand out and began moving through the complicated patterns Percy had performed. She went by instinct, following the flow of the Aether. Rafael remembered the shapes, channeling them through the Aether to strengthen the pathway. Neci grounded herself, anchoring the others.
The magic rushed, chasing Merlynda, threatening to overwhelm her, but she kept just ahead of it. She wouldn’t let it overtake her, she couldn’t! She would keep her friends safe, and they would find Percy.
She strained with the effort of concentrating, and Iggy whispered encouragement. The colors flashed and spiraled. Sweat poured down her face. Her arm ached, trembling from the effort of reaching, of twisting, of tracing the patterns of the Aether.
And then in a brilliant, colorful flash the pathway opened and swallowed them.
* * *
“Merlynda’s not coming,” Percy said. He tried to sound confident. “We had a fight. She doesn’t know where I am.”
Kipling chuckled, which was one of the more unpleasant things Percy had ever heard. It was a rasping sound, as though not much practiced. “She will come. And her friends will follow, and then I will have that dagger, and then I will Hollow you both.”
Percy waited a few eternal moments, until Kipling was absorbed once more in his stitching. “Forest,” he whispered, barely daring to speak. “You have to warn Merlynda.”
Forest spat out a strand of embroidery that had gotten stuck in his teeth. It was very unpleasant-tasting, this magical thread. “I’ve gotta get you out of here!”
“The others don’t know he can block our magic,” Percy insisted. “If he steals her magic—if she has to go through that again—”
Forest pushed himself against Percy’s wrist. Calm flooded the wizard, and he took a few deep breaths.
Percy strained against the leather straps. The one Forest had been working on felt weaker, the buzzing distant. “Please, Forest.”
Forest knew with all his heart what Percy wanted—what sort of familiar didn’t?—and even though leaving felt wrong, he nodded. “All right, Percy. I’ll go.”
He scurried away.
Unfortunately, it was only a moment later when an enormous whoosh echoed through the cavern, followed by something crashing into the shelves and a brilliant flash of golden light.
Kipling carefully set the waistcoat on the table. “Predictable.”
“No!” Percy screamed, pulling at his restraints. He tried to summon his magic, but the buzzing still blocked him.
A swarm of sugar gliders carried Merlynda’s dazed form into the glow of the swirling emerald Aether. There was Percy at least—alive! But looking very distressed indeed.
Several of the creatures grabbed on to Iggy, restraining him as he thrashed, body buzzing. After all that tough magic, they’d fallen into a trap! Made of silly chalk runes drawn onto the cavern floor, no less.
Neci and Rafael were pinned from the weight of the sugar gliders. “Desist, brigands!” Neci shouted as Faithful was unbuckled from her waist (for of course, as soon as Merlynda had dropped the dagger, it had reappeared in its sheath).
Rafael’s magic buzzed from the golden flash. The creatures darted between them with ropes until the knight and warlock were tangled and tied. Then the sugar gliders marched them all to the center of the cavern. A group split off to deliver Neci’s satchel and Faithful to Kipling.
Another rocking chair materialized from the shadows. Merlynda was strapped in with the same embroidered arm restraints, next to Percy. A pedestal appeared in between them, and Iggy was chained to it, his mouth muzzled and wings tied back. He writhed and writhed—oh, how awful, to feel the buzzing going through Merlynda!—but no matter how much he struggled, he barely moved.
Neci watched, furious, as Kipling emptied the contents of her satchel. He scattered trading parchments and books until he found the Disrupter, and smiled. “Your thoroughness doesn’t disappoint. Thank you, Dame Neci. I hadn’t prepared enough restraints.”
Rafael tried to move, but the buzzing still shook him, ropes bound him. The Shepherd snapped the Disrupter to the warlock’s ankle—his elf ankle.
The bronze and elemental stones shimmered against Rafael’s light brown skin. He was distantly aware of Neci shouting a number of unknightly things as an endless feeling of free fall swept through him, a cold that numbed the buzzing and his entire being, cutting him from the Aether, his magic.
“You vile thing,” Percy snarled at Kipling. He automatically reached for his magic, not caring that his first instinct was to hurt, but of course there was only the skipping and buzzing.
Merlynda moaned. The buzzing felt like a million tiny needles poking at her magic. She tried to blink it away, failed, but caught sight of her staff resting on its pedestal on the platform.
The wizardess stared at her staff. How had she not sensed it? What had that flash done to her, to disrupt her magic? She couldn’t feel Iggy, either, though his growling reassured her. This was different from what the bracer had done. Instead of emptiness, she felt as though her magic was just out of the corner of her eye.
The Shepherd smiled like a host welcoming his guests. “And now I have the final piece to complete my work. It was very kind of you to bring Faithful along, Dame Neci.” He pulled Faithful slightly out of its sheath so that the lodestone blade was exposed but not fully removed, then placed both sheath and dagger on the lone empty pedestal. Apparently, being partially connected to its anchor point didn’t trigger Faithful’s lodestone enchantment.
Neci stuck her tongue out at Kipling. It wasn’t knightly, but it was her only recourse at the moment. She was tied with rope as Rafael was, lying uncomfortably on the ground near the twins.
Merlynda studied the enormous glass sphere above her. “Aether?”
“Aether,” Kipling confirmed. “Brother dearest can fill you in on the rest. I have work to do, and we all must play our parts.” He returned his attention to his worktable and embroidering the waistcoat. His sugar gliders scurried and leapt across the cave, tending to the Aether-filled containers, checking silver chains.
The wizardess, her familiar, the knight, and the warlock all turned to Percy for an explanation.
He grimaced. “Apparently I Hollowed his grandfather, and now he’s going to Hollow us to infuse himself with Aether.”
There was a stunned silence.
“Say again?” Rafael squeaked.
“He’s been storing up Aether, like I did. Only not like I did. I don’t know how he’s managed to contain everything—more runes?”
“Maybe.” Merlynda considered this, through the buzzing. She really would have to speak to Mother about adding some books on runes to the manor’s library, if they survived this. When they survived this.
Percy continued, “He’s going to Hollow the elemental items he’s stolen—the Horn of Beckoning, Batu’s ocarina, the fyrethorn, Faithful, and Merlynda’s staff—to have enough Aether to power up his Hollowing device.”
Merlynda swallowed. “And then he’s going to Hollow us?” She’d been Hollowed once, and coming back from that had been nothing short of miraculous. If Kipling Hollowed her staff, she didn’t imagine she’d be able to be de-Hollowed again.
“He’ll have the magic of both heirs of Merlyn,” Percy said. “Which, I don’t mind saying, is a lot.”
“Merlyn’s goat,” Neci breathed. “He’ll be unstoppable.”
“If it works,” Percy said. “He’s, um… never successfully done it before.”
“We’re his experiments?” Merlynda almost squealed. “Does he realize how dangerous this is?”
Percy shook his head. “He doesn’t care.”
“It’s not just dangerous for us,” Merlynda hissed. “Infusing himself with Aether—with that Aether”—she glanced emphatically up at the chaotic magic above them—“will almost certainly kill him!”
“I told him that.” Percy grimaced. “And… there’s more.”
The others groaned.
“After he infuses himself, he’s going to try to infuse everyone in Faelor—maybe the known world?—so that everyone will have magic.”
“But if he probably won’t survive, but somehow does survive,” Neci said, “wouldn’t… wouldn’t that just kill everyone else?”
“Or twist them in some way.” Rafael pushed past the free fall to focus. “That Aether is volatile, yes? It would be like the myuta curse, only worse.”
They glanced over at the platform and the stolen magical items. Runes on the pedestals glowed green, along with the silver chains connecting them to the glass sphere hanging above the table. The sugar glider minions continued to scuttle around the cavern.
Neci managed to twist herself into a sitting position. “So Kipling’s minions are sugar gliders,” she said casually.
“Yes,” Percy said.
“And Forest is a sugar glider.”
Percy sighed. “Yes.”
Iggy muttered something unintelligible, but the gist was of great distaste.
“We all knew he was hiding something,” Percy said. “And I’m angry. But I also don’t think he’s entirely untrustworthy. He tried to chew through these runes.” Percy nodded his head at the leather restraints on his rocking chair. “The runes are blocking our magic now.”
Iggy let out a muffled “Hmph!” and continued wriggling against his bindings.
Percy examined the restraint Forest had gnawed through. Half of the embroidered symbols had been undone. The buzzing was fainter. His magic felt like a current kept sweeping him back right before he touched it.
“If he Hollows my staff,” Merlynda said, trying to keep her voice level, “I won’t be able to— We can’t—” She took a deep breath. “We won’t be able to de-Hollow anyone. We won’t be able to restore anyone’s magic.”
That was something Percy had been avoiding thinking about.
Kipling held out a thin silver wand tipped with an emerald. He moved it in a series of complicated forms in front of the platform. A green light traced where the emerald went.
“He’s tracing more runes,” Neci whispered. “I don’t know that one…. That one’s ‘focus.’… Not sure…. Not sure…. ‘Channel.’… ‘Power.’…”
The questers cried out as the objects glowed. Emerald light pulsed across them, then flowed up the silver chains attached to their pedestals, and into the sphere. With each pulse the light dimmed, until—
The fyrethorn seed darkened.
Batu’s ocarina clouded.
The Horn of Beckoning tarnished.
Faithful’s blade dulled.
And the amethyst that crested Merlynda’s staff went black.
Above them the emerald Aether raged like a storm, straining against the glass that held it. Kipling was entranced. “I’ve done it,” he said quietly. Then, louder, “I’ve done it!”
The sugar gliders burst into chittering approval. He waved them silent and faced the questers, who recoiled at the smile dancing across his face. His gaze settled on Percy. “It’s time to avenge my grandfather, Percy. It’s fitting that you’ll watch your sister be Hollowed.”
The others shouted as Kipling hooked thin silver chains from Merlynda’s chair to the sphere. Wild fear raced through the wizardess. Iggy thrashed, doing his best to snarl. Percy pulled frantically at his restraints, fighting through the buzzing, trying to catch the magic that lurked just out of reach, to save Merlynda.
Kipling looped the final chain, victorious.
“Kipling!” Percy shouted. “Hollow me, take me!”
Kipling held out his silver wand. “In due time.”
He muttered as he traced his runes.
The chains around Merlynda glowed. It was strange, to feel an echo of her magic through the buzzing, but she couldn’t grasp it, couldn’t reach it. She felt the Aether in her rise, float away, trickle along the chains—
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
A cream-colored blur smashed into Kipling’s face. The Shepherd dropped his wand as a rogue sugar glider scrabbled all over him, scratching and clawing.
The wand clattered near Rafael. He stomped down on it with his foot, then passed it to Neci, who kicked it as hard as she could across the cave.
“You are still a bad, mean person!” Forest bellowed (as much as a sugar glider could bellow).
Kipling’s eyes flashed. “You! Ungrateful maggot, I’ll collar you again!”
Forest chomped down on Kipling’s ear as hard as he could, then dodged a slap and leapt away.
“Hiya, Percy!” Forest quickly nibbled through a few more of the embroidered threads on Percy’s restraints.
Kipling growled and lunged for Forest. Percy jabbed his feet out, and the Shepherd plowed into them, winded. Forest snipped through another thread, then dodged once more. He landed on Iggy’s pedestal, gnawed through some of the bindings on the wyvern’s wings, then leapt away.
Kipling’s fist finally connected. Forest flew back and crashed next to Iggy, limp.
“Forest!” Percy cried. He struggled, trying once more to call his magic. The buzzing still answered.
A handful of sugar gliders returned Kipling’s wand to him. He rounded on the twins, breathing hard, blood trickling down his face from where Forest had bitten him. “No more wasting time. Watch as your sister is Hollowed, Percy, and know that you can do nothing to stop it.”
The wand danced, and the emerald left a dazzling light behind it. Merlynda struggled and cried out as her magic trickled away along the glowing chains.
Percy watched Merlynda, angry, ashamed. He’d promised to protect her. It was all his fault, there was no way out, he couldn’t stop what was happening—
