The Crown Prophecy

Chapter 22

T he mossy forest under our horses’ hooves turned to the drier, more arid climate of the Dyminian pass as we traveled. This was the point of no return. While it was still technically Enorian soil, rumor had it east of the mountains was a lawless place; Vanessa had even heard whispers amongst the guards that King Orobas had assassins prowling the corridor, ready to capture and execute Wielders on his command.

I tried to put that particular thought out of my head as we picked a path through the rocks, traveling more slowly as the previously well-worn trails faded to nothing and water sources became fewer and farther between.

Without many options to be productive while we traveled, we continued taking turns with the notes, breaking only for meals and to water our horses. By Vanessa’s estimate, we were still about two days’ ride from the Falerian border, and it would be another day after that before we reached the capital city of Valine.

Our working theory was that if Orabas was extracting power, he would want it brought back to him at the palace. Given the ruler’s famed hatred for magic, I wasn’t sure what he wanted with it, but Helmund had spoken as if they planned to use the Gifts they Siphoned. It was conjecture at best, but it was the most logical guess we had.

By the time we stopped to set up camp that night, we hadn’t made any more progress on cracking the code, and I was ready to scream in frustration. Every time I reached for that bond between Evander and me, I was met with that same unyielding wall in my mind.

There was no way to know if it was my lack of magic, his, or both, but I was growing more tempted to down the vial of my Gift just on the slim chance I might be able to feel him again. Instead, I focused on my breathing and reminded myself that my choices needed to prioritize his best chances of rescue over my own peace.

At least we weren’t going hungry. Between Vanessa’s archery skills and Colette’s ability to coax fully fruited vines out of the ground, food was one thing we didn’t have to worry about. I thought of my father’s tales of the hard crusts of bread and stale dried meat he relied on during his travels and felt even more thankful for the zucchini Colette offered.

By the third day, my inner thighs were aching more intensely than I had previously thought possible.

If we get through this, I promised myself, I’m going to do nothing but lie in bed for a week.

Hopefully it would be with Evander lounging next to me, teasing me over my choice of reading material. I’d swat him away with my book and he’d capture my hand, kissing it tenderly before his lips found their way to my neck . . .

I shook myself out of the fantasy before the longing cracked me in two.

Focus. I needed to focus.

Colette was putting up a brave front, chattering away about the different types of flora we passed, but I couldn’t manage more than a one-word reply. Vanessa, even more taciturn than usual, must’ve felt the same way, and poor Colette stopped trying by lunch.

That evening we broke camp early, saving a few hours of daylight for a basic hand-to-hand training session that Vanessa had suggested earlier in the day. I didn’t like the idea of delaying our progress for even a minute, but she had a point; I wouldn’t be of much use to anybody if I were captured before I could make it to wherever Evander and Maddox were being held.

“A lot of this technique is the same as what Colette taught you at the beginning of your Wielding training,” Vanessa explained, meeting my gaze with a fire in her eyes I knew matched my own. “Your priority should be your stance. Get your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly.” I mimicked her position.

“Good. Focus on small, purposeful movements to maintain balance and control.” She turned to the green-Wielder at my side. “Colette, use your wisteria vines to disable your opponent as quickly as possible. Quinn . . .” she trailed off.

“Hit them where the sun doesn’t shine?” My attempt at humor was weak at best, but the left side of Vanessa’s mouth quirked up in an amused smile anyway.

“That, and know where your strongest points of contact are. Since you don’t have your Gift,” she winced, “your most powerful allies are going to be your elbows and knees. I also want you to focus on their most vulnerable areas. Some people say the heel of your hand up into an assailant’s nose can force their nasal bone into their brain, but that’s an old wive’s tale. There’s nothing wrong with going for the eyes, especially if you have fingernails. Biting is also very effective.”

Colette blanched a little at that, but to her credit, with a little shake of her head, she set her jaw and rolled her shoulders back, wiping any trace of squeamishness off her face.

“Now,” Vanessa continued, “I want you to come at me, Quinn.”

I raised my brows, skeptical.

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself.” She rolled her eyes. “Remember who my mother is. You won’t hurt me.”

“If you’re sure,” I shrugged, and with no further warning, I charged at her. When I made a move to knee her in the abdomen, she caught my leg and had me on my back in the dirt within seconds.

“You’re projecting your movements,” she corrected, offering me a hand up. “Don’t go for such big strikes. Use your size to your advantage. Focus on agility and speed.”

I accepted her outstretched hand and pulled myself to standing, panting already. This was harder than I’d thought.

“Try again, and when I grab your arm, I want you to swing it in an arc backwards to break my grip. You’re not going to defeat a trained guard after a few days of hand-to-hand lessons, so your main objective is to get yourself free in the event of capture.”

She beckoned me forward with her fingers.

“Let’s go again.”

We practiced until we were sweaty and thoroughly exhausted, breaking only when our tired muscles had slowed so much that Vanessa declared any further work a waste of energy.

Sitting by the fire, massaging our stiff arms, we heard a male voice from the east, barely audible over the symphony of the forest.

Vanessa put a finger to her lips, eyes wide.

I smothered our fire, unwilling to risk drawing anyone toward us without knowing if we could count them among our friends. This close to the Falerian border, I was willing to bet we couldn’t.

Following my lead, Colette moved to unhitch our horses as the voice got closer. As we worked, Vanessa cocked her bow and held it at the ready.

One moment I registered a flash of movement at the edge of the clearing, and the next, a man stood in the middle of our encampment.

When I threw a nervous glance at Vanessa, I was thankful to note that she already had an arrow trained on him.

The man put his hands up in placation, speaking with an unfamiliar accent.

“It’s all right there, love. I ain’t going to hurt you.”

Vanessa didn’t lower her weapon even an inch.

“Then leave.” There was no flash of gold from her amber eyes. Smart. If these were Orobas’s men, we didn’t want them to know about our Gifts.

The man turned around, and I hoped that he would do as she asked, but instead he shoved his hands, laden with golden rings, into his pockets as he began to take a leisurely lap around our campsite.

He made a big show of nonchalance as he nudged one of the logs that lay by our fire.

“You misjudge me, sweetheart,” he said. “My friend and I were hunting about a half a mile to the east when we heard you over here. I was only wondering what three young ladies from Enorias were doing unaccompanied in the middle of the pass. Dangerous out here, you know.” He waggled an eyebrow. The man gave me the creeps.

“You heard us from half a mile away?” Vanessa asked, also dubious.

“Well not me, exactly,” he said. “I’m traveling with a friend who has a talent for that sort of thing. She wanted to see if you were all right, so she sent me to check on you.” He raised his eyebrows in a show of concern that felt insincere. A quick glance to Colette, whose mouth was drawn into a tight line, told me that she wasn’t buying it either.

“I could get here faster, you see. I have a talent of my own,” he bragged, puffing out his chest. He raised his foot to take a step, and suddenly he was at the edge of the clearing again. Repeating the motion, he stood in front of us once more.

The man looked around, clearly expecting some kind of shock and awe, but instead we stood silent, stony-faced and tense.

Sighing, he took off his flat brown hat.

“Where are my manners?” he chastised himself. “We haven’t properly introduced ourselves, have we? Theophilus Narder, at your service.” He sketched a bow. “And you are?”

“Not about to tell you anything,” Vanessa said harshly. “Leave us alone.”

“In the middle of the pass, defenseless?” he asked. “What kind of gentleman would I be then?”

Vanessa looked pointedly at her weapon, reminding Theophilus that she was not “defenseless” in the slightest.

“Make no mistake, love,” he said, shaking his head, “that’ll do you a fat lot of good in here. Can’t use a weapon like that against them.”

“Them?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“The Wielders.” His words were a whisper, as if he were sharing a salacious piece of gossip. “They roam these parts, waiting to thieve from honest, hardworking Falerians trying to make the journey to Enorias. Brutal, they are.”

“You’d make such a generalization about your own kind?” I asked. “You obviously have a Gift yourself.” I gestured to the edge of the clearing, referencing his little trick, but he shook his head gravely.

“Oh no, lovie, I ain’t one of them. Those bastards are born with so much power they don’t even know what to do with it. My Gifts are earned .”

I didn’t miss the plurality of the word. What other powers did he have hidden? And how was it possible for him to wield multiple Gifts?

“Earned?” I asked, praying he might give away some information that would help me with my own Gift.

“My benefactor has a certain talent for . . . redistributing the power, shall we say?”

My heart skipped a beat as I realized the implications of his admission.

“Don’t look so scandalized, sweetheart. They deserve it, I promise you. All of them. Overpowering, conquering, taking . . . that’s all second nature to them,” he said. “They think they deserve to rule just because they were born with a Gift. Well, we ain’t going to let them stay in their golden palace, I can promise you that.”

My chest tightened at the threat. How many just like this man were out there, fed propaganda by Falerin and itching for violence? If he knew who I was, I’d be dead on the spot without even having a chance to explain myself.

“You should watch how you speak about things you know nothing about,” Vanessa gritted out. “Not all Wielders are like that. The Enorian King certainly isn’t like that.”

“Met him, have you?” Theophilus chuckled.

“As a matter of fact, I have.” She said nothing more.

“Is it true what they say, then? That he’s a self-centered piece of shite content to sit up in his ivory tower and let the Mundanes do all the work while he galivants around kidnapping women to come entertain him at his palace? Never met a good Wielder, I’ll tell you that.”

That, I couldn’t endure.

“He’s worth twenty of you,” I spat. “You aren’t fit to clean his boots.”

But Theophilus only laughed in my face. “An oppressor's boots will be covered in blood no matter how many times his servants shine them.”

My face flushed with anger. I opened my mouth to retort, but Vanessa must’ve sensed that I was about to say something foolish, because she shot me a warning glare.

“Time to go,” she ordered Theophilus. There was more than a hint of violence in her tone, but he paid her no mind, instead strolling over to a bush of berries that Colette had grown in preparation for dinner.

“Well this is curious, ain’t it?” he asked, rubbing a leaf between his fingers. “Never seen a berry like this grow in these parts before.” He looked around, eyes settling on Colette, who had gone pale. I was reminded of an old folktale as he shed his sheepish smile, instead donning a wolflike grin.

When he extended a hand toward the bush, a purple flame slithered out from his fingertip. The instant the fire touched the leaves, Colette crumpled in pain. On her hands and knees now, she lifted her head and snarled at him, raising one hand to grow a vine that wrapped around his arm.

It only took one flick of his wrist to turn the whole shoot to ash.

“Wielders after all,” he frowned. “I was afraid of that. Awfully sorry about this, my dears.” Raising two fingers to his lips, he whistled a few notes, a strange mimicry of a bird call.

Just as quickly, Vanessa shot at him, but he stepped away effortlessly, reappearing on the other side of me to pin my arm behind my back. I yelped in pain as he turned and positioned me in front of him so Vanessa couldn’t target him again.

“And what about you, love?” Foul breath tickled my ear. “What little Gift are you hiding?”

There was no time to answer before a woman with a shock of purple hair emerged from the outcropping of rocks to the south of us.

“See? I told you, Katriana,” Theophilus called out, swinging me around him in a circle. “That one’s got some kind of a green-Wielding Gift,” he said, nodding his head to indicate Colette. “Not sure about the other two.”

I dared a glance at Vanessa, whose bow was now pointed at the woman. Even without Colette or me here, I was fairly certain the captain’s daughter could end these two with very little effort.

“Let her go or I'll shoot your friend,” she threatened.

“Big claim from a little girl,” the woman laughed, drawing my eye. She stood about twenty paces away now, moving toward us with a gait that was direct, but unhurried.

The clothing she wore was finer than I expected from a bandit, and she carried a leather bag with a symbol on it. I squinted to make it out and barely contained my gasp.

It was the same mark from the journal.

Making sure to catch Vanessa’s attention, I glanced quickly at the bag, widening my eyes, and shook my head as much as I could without alerting Theophilus. She followed my gaze before flicking her eyes back up to mine too quickly for him to see.

Theophilus barked a laugh. “Nice try, girlie. Lower your weapon and I won’t hurt your little friend here.”

Gingerly setting her bow on the ground, Vanessa shot me a meaningful look that said, “You’d better be right about this.”

The purple-haired woman sauntered over to where he held me. She reached into her bag, and my wrists met cold metal, the shackles feeling oppressive and wrong, wrong, wrong. Set into each cuff was a tiny chip of a stone, so dark that it seemed to suck in all the light around it.

I drew in a sharp breath. More hyalperite.

Wracking my brain for a plan, I watched as Theophilus made his way over to my friends, shoving Colette’s hands roughly to her back and lazily flicking a knife up to touch the soft skin of her throat.

“In case you get any ideas,” he winked at Vanessa. Colette’s eyes shone wide with confusion and fear as she looked between Vanessa and her bow on the ground.

“Don’t you dare hurt her.” Gold flashed across Vanessa’s irises.

I hoped Katriana was too preoccupied to notice when Thoephilus’s grip momentarily slackened before he resumed his position, a blankness in his eyes that I recognized as Vanessa’s thrall.

Well done, my brilliant friend.

The purple-haired woman was now circling me like a cat who had found an injured mouse and intended to bat it around before devouring it.

“This is the fun part,” she grinned maniacally, gripping my shoulder. Her other hand went to a pack at her waist, from which she procured a small glass vial, strikingly similar to the one that was still concealed at my hip. Without further warning, her power swept through me, an unfamiliar tidal wave that reached the depths of my soul.

“ Dividere potentiam et aperire viam ad maiorem potentiam ," she chanted, her hand white hot on my skin.

An incantation, like the one General Finch had used during our tethering ceremony. I recognized the Old Language from the few sections of the coronation that used it ceremonially.

“ Potentiam ” stuck out to me. That one I knew–power. But what of the rest of it?

Her magic swept into the empty cavern where my Gift had been, threatening to make me vomit onto the dirt, but then it slowly retreated.

The woman looked at me quizzically. “No trace of a Gift. What are you doing with these two?”

I had to think quickly. Many years of tiptoeing around my mother had made me a decent liar, and though it wasn’t a skill set I was particularly proud of, I was thankful for it now.

“I was forced to come with them,” I said, making my voice as pathetic as possible. “They didn’t want to do their own dirty work, so they made me come along as a servant. If I didn’t, they said they’d cover my family’s cottage in ivy so thick no one would be able to get out.”

Katriana tossed a disgusted glare in Colette’s direction before nodding sympathetically at me.

Thank the gods.

“Apologies for my mistake,” she said, removing the cuffs. I couldn’t believe my good luck.

Vanessa caught my eye, flicking her gaze to where I was concealing the vial of my power. I sent up a silent prayer that I understood her correctly.

“Is there the incantation to reunite a Wielder with their power?” she asked Katriana.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” the purple-haired woman scoffed, turning around to face my friends.

“Chant it now,” Vanessa ordered.

“And why would I do that?”

Vanessa’s amber eyes alighted, brighter than I had ever seen them.

Katriana’s mouth opened up to shoot out another derisive comment, but instead what came out was “ Coniungere potentiam et adsumere summam potentiam. ”

They really should’ve restrained Vanessa first, I laughed humorlessly in my head.

My hand shot to my belt and my fingers closed around the vial, which gave a happy little zap, as if it, too, understood what was happening.

Uncorking it, I brought it to my lips, the split second of anticipation stretching out into what felt like an age. As soon as I tipped it back, I was overcome with the surreal feeling of a wave of light washing over me. It swept into that chasm until it was filled to bursting, a thousand-year-old song of power being sung throughout every inch of my body.

Praying for a response, I reached down the string of power that tied Evander and me together, but nothing answered.

“Time to go,” Vanessa called. Turning to Theophilus, she issued another command to freeze, just as she had given Helmund.

Smiling sweetly at his rigid form, Colette stepped easily out of his grasp. A graceful movement of her arms sent her signature flowering vines shooting out from the ground to restrain both the bandits. These were the thickest shoots I had ever seen her conjure, and when I looked closer, I could see thorns.

Snatching the hyalperite cuffs, I bound Theophilus’s hands so he couldn’t disintegrate them again when he regained the ability to move. Taking my lead, Colette raised her hands again, and the thick green ropes slid to cover both bandits’ mouths and hands, cutting Katriana off from any casting as well. Four eyes full of murderous rage glared at us, as we packed up our supplies and mounted our horses.

“You’re lucky I’m not doing worse to you for putting your hands on her,” Vanessa seethed, looking back at Colette as if to reassure herself she was unharmed. Colette put a hand on Vanessa’s arm in a show of tenderness that made me smile.

“Tell me,” Vanessa asked, “can we expect any more of this unpleasantness on this trip?”

Theophilus glared at her, looking down at the vines around his mouth and throat. On Colette’s command, the vines retreated just enough to allow him to speak.

“Why would I tell you anything, you filthy Wielder scum?”

“Because,” Colette smiled, “I can either make these vines shrink back at sunrise, or I can instruct them to hold you for a week.” She tilted her head and shrugged. “Or more. Though I’m guessing you won’t make it that long without food or water.”

Fear cast a shadow over his face, his eyes widening for a moment before his brows set themselves into harsh, angry lines.

“This is our territory,” he said. “No one else will encroach from here to Moiaria, a half day’s ride East.”

“Good boy.” Colette patted him on the cheek, and the vines slid back into place.

“Let’s go.” Vanessa still looked unsure about her decision not to slice him open like a fish that needed to be cleaned.

“Hold on,” I said, making my way over to the woman. It felt dangerous to leave the bandits alive, especially with the wards down. The knife from Katriana’s belt sliced through the strap of her hip pack easily.

“Am I correct in assuming you can’t perform your little trick without these?” I jiggled the pack, the sound of glass clinking within. Staring at me with a hate-filled gaze, she made no reply, but something in my gut told me I was correct.

If we came across them on our way back, I’d be sure to take the cuffs as well, but right now it was more important to ensure they were restrained and couldn’t follow us.

No glass could be heard from Theophilus’s bag when I removed it, but I wasn’t going to take any chances leaving the bandits with anything they could use against other unfortunate Wielders who crossed their path, so I secured it to my mount and tipped my imaginary hat.

“It’s been a pleasure,” I grinned, and my friends and I cantered off to the east.

. . .

A few hours later, we were regretting our decision to ride through the night. The path was no longer covered in rocks and debris, so our horses were having an easier time of it, but my muscles ached and the lack of sleep was getting to me.

“Are we going to talk about Vanessa’s badassery back there?” I asked my companions, hoping the conversation would keep me awake.

“Yes!” Colette exclaimed. “I’ve been dying to say something, but Nessa hates it when I compliment her casting.” She pecked Vanessa on the cheek, and though Vanessa rolled her eyes, I caught the ghost of a smug grin on the edges of her mouth.

“The way you managed to make your commands sound like regular conversation so the woman didn’t notice was seriously impressive,” I said.

“I’ve never successfully controlled two people at once.” Vanessa admitted, keeping her gaze trained on her horse’s reins. “It was a gamble, but I’m glad it paid off.”

“How are you feeling now?” Colette asked.

I took a moment to reflect. I hadn’t had any time to adjust to the reunification with my power, but now I noticed a warm buzz throughout my body.

“Better,” I beamed. “Whole. Being without my magic was . . . horrible.” I left it at that.

“I’m so sorry, Quinn. Maybe it will be easier for you to access your casting now that you can feel the difference,” she said hopefully.

I had been wondering the same thing. I was dying to test the theory, but my legs were too sore to keep me on my horse with my arms in a casting position and there was no time to stop. We needed to make it to town before nightfall.

Moiaria was only a half day’s ride from Valine, the Falerian capital, and after our encounter with the bandits, I was more determined than ever to get to Evander before his power could be taken from him. I ignored the voice in my head that had been reaching out for that connection to no avail, which whispered to me that it was very likely it already had. We would make it in time. We had to.