Keepers of the Crown Read online

  She tumbled into bed. “I’ll be prepared to fight. Claw my way out if I need to. But...with my sisters alongside me.”

  Peter Adriel threw his pipe across the room.

  The instrument landed with a soft thud against the carpet in the Royalty Realm’s palace sitting room. The sitting room he had kept to himself. Before Gnosi called him to be one of their leaders. He had been trying to play his pipe for what seemed to pass like hours. But the effort had been futile. The notes were as dead as his own motivation.

  A rustling followed by the faint thudding of a door against its frame reached his ears from the far end of the room. Peter glanced up and tried to smile. He tried to greet Cam with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. But she sat down beside him before he could rise. “It's been weeks since I’ve seen you,” she said simply. “Why didn’t you tell me you had come back here?”

  Peter shrugged. “I didn’t know you would be returning home so soon. I didn’t expect to see you,” he said softly.

  Cam peered at her friend. The last time she had seen him was before they had learned of the vanishment of their magic. And before that, she had visited him in Gnosi. Just before the riots there had erupted. And Cam knew that he had been staying here for a week now. “Has Owen found out anything else about the tree?” Peter asked at last. Cam diverted her attention from the fire before them.

  She shookher head. “No. Hehas foundout as littleasyou have,” she said simply. When she spoke next, she spoke slowly, without looking at Peter. “As for my returning sooner than expected, well...it wasn’t exactly my choice.” She turned to look at Peter, and his expression bore curiosity.

  “They banished you from Medulla, didn’t they?” His hand was at her shoulder. A small comfort. Cam nodded. Peter had been the one to tell Cole that, with the riots so fierce, Cam couldn’t come back. And there was nothing Peter and Saffira could do about it.

  “The riots are worsening there,” Cam said quietly, her eyes now back to gazing at the fire. She was trying to avoid talking to him about joining the Seekers. But she had to tell him. “I don’t want him finding out another way.” But he seemed so preoccupied and angry with himself for not being present in his realmwhen themagicwas stolen, thatCamdidn’twanttobroach the subject.

  Peter was nodding, and with a sigh, he said, “Tell me about it.”

  Cam was bursting with things she wanted to say to him. With matters, she had to keep concealed as well. He could probably provide insight into the matters of which his father had written. Matters Cam had yet to read. She knew the Spirit Followers believed in a coming Savior and that this Crown of Caelae would aid in his victory, however, that would pan out. But the rest...well, there had to be more. Something as crucial as someone saving the world couldn't be built on rumor alone, could it?

  And there had been more. Inside the chest, Cole had received from Nazeria. Only an hour ago Cam had rifled carefully through it, finding notations in several tongues. Her father had told her that they repeated the same information. The Watchers had brought their different predictions together, gathered by Daniel’s hands. This savior would be born of a woman who had not yet lain with a man. He would come as a human, rather than the being he dwelled as in Caelae. And he would save the world after being beaten by men. Cam had brought her many questions to her father.

  “Why a virgin?” she had asked.

  “Because then no man can claim the child to come from him,” Cole had said simply. “A child born of a virgin means no denial can be made regarding the child’s superiority.” Cole had pattedCam’s back “Don’t trouble yourself, daughter, in believing that it is a matter shaming a woman for sleeping with a man. The matter regards what many would consider impossible.”

  Camhadhadanother question. “Howwillhesave?It says he is to be a king, which means he will likely be born in royalty and will lead armies…”

  Cole had merely shrugged. “Elyon tends to do the unexpected, so we will have to wait and see.” Cam had shaken her head as if she were in disbelief. It didn’t seem probable. But then many things in the past few months of her life had seemed improbable. And miracles, well…Fiera had told her of the spirit of Elyon which had been summoned to slay Apollyon’s army in a silent breath. Cam had heard the valley go silent. She remembered how it had grown cold and still. She had heard the wind.

  Cam was drawn back to the present. The questions settled in her mind as she continued to gaze at Peter. She would refrain. She knew better than to drag Peter’s father into their conversations, especially when there was tension already stretched between them. She sighed, breaking the silence. “Peter,” she said softly.

  “Hmm?” He turned to face her fully. He seemed more relaxed now as if he had taken one moment to just...forget.

  “Eat with metonight? Just...bemy friendfor a fewhours. A friend who won’t fight me. On anything.”

  Peter’s brows furrowed. “Why? What will happen after tonight?” He laughed shakily. “I still intend to be your friend.”

  “And what if I disappoint you too much to keep your friendship?”

  Now, Peter’s face slackened into something more solemn. “Cam,” he said slowly. “You’re still thinking about joining the Seekers, aren't you?” It was a long time before Cam nodded. Peter’s jaw tightened, and he buried his head in his hands. “Cam-” he started again.

  But she interrupted. “Let’s eat first. And ignore everything but ourselves.” She lifted his head, making her look at him. His eyes were wavering with emotion and protestation. “Please.”

  At last, he nodded. “One hour. And then we talk.”

  “You won’t be able to convince me,” was all Cam thought in return. And perhaps she could make him understand if it weren't that he was so engulfed in his own fear right now. “Maybe one day you’ll understand why I do this.” He wanted her to stay in Mirabelle because he deemed it safer. But…“But the people who wish me harm are here. Out there...no one knows who I am.” She could pretend to fare from Nazeria in the north or Caranthia in the east. She had read enough of their lands, could look the part if she wanted. Out there…

  She wasn’t a Spirit Follower. She wasn’t a rebel. She wasn’t a traitor or a coward or a thief as some accused her. “In a way, the outside world is safer than home right now.”

  “Let those curse it, who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.”

  -The Scarlet Spy

  Three

  Riah Drakon woke with a start.

  His mind thundered for answers as he scanned the room in search of the source of the sound that had awoken him. It had been a crash. His eyes flickered to the smashed mirror and the shards scattered upon the stone floor. His bruised knuckles still ached from when he had sent his flying fist into it. But it was not the mirror which had awoken him.

  Riah peered through the dim chamber, which held a bed with a stiff mattress and thin covering, a bowl of water used for both washing and drinking, and some clothing. The only window in his prison was a small, round opening too high in the wall for him to reach. At this late hour of the night, the only light was that of the pale moon filtering through. Or, at least, he assumed it was the light of the moon and that the time was night. The door to the chamber was swinging open on creaking hinges. A shadow was now lurking toward him, wearing a grim expression.

  Riah laughed a sharp, unpleasant laugh which sliced the too quiet air. He laughed, because, after weeks of waiting, he was surprised to find that the creature had finally come.

  “The guard appears as if he has been sleeping in a drunken state,” the Shadow Bearer said with a shrug as his lips split into a wicked grin.

  “Did you slit his throat?” Riah grasped a blood ridden rag, plunged it into murky water and pressed it to his head.

  “My methods are simpler. Cleaner. When I don’t particularly care to get caught.” Leviathan wore a scowl, but his voice held bemusement. Silence intervened while he took a turn to observe the room and make note of its meagerness. He glanced a
t the broken mirror shards but did not comment. “I expected more of a prison. Regardless, this isn’t sufficient for a prince.”

  Riah’s jawtightened. “I was never a prince, nor will I ever be.”

  “Ah, yes, a lord.”

  Riah tossed the rag toward the small bowl of water that also served as his only drinking ration for the week. He approached the solitary chair in the room and slumped into it. “It has been weeks, months. Why doyou come now? Where have you been?” Riah queried at last.

  Leviathan did not smile sinisterly, as Riah expected, but sustained his ominously calm composure. The Shadow Bearer was silent for so long that Riah was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable. “I had other business to attend to. Please, accept my apologies for this ill timing, Prince.”

  “He’s mocking me,” Riah thought.

  “Yes, I am mocking you,” Leviathan said aloud. Riah jumped at the words. “If you really must know, I was following orders. I spent time in Medulla in search of an object necessary to our ventures. A memory you might call it. I was also visiting a new acquaintance who also wishes to become one of the Marked. I will be leaving presently to escort two others who have just recently completed their trials and are ready to be marked.”

  “After you aid me in my release, correct?” The words were almost set in a pleading tone. Riah’s detest at himself for the tone writhed in his chest. Certainly, Leviathan was here to aid him in release. Wasn’t he?

  “No.” The Shadow Bearer said as he idly examined his nails.

  Instant rage kindled within the young man. He nearly sprang from his seat, but Leviathan waved a hand and said, “Not yet. You are of better use when they release you.”

  Riah’s eyes narrowed in confusion. Leviathan unstrung his cape and hung it on the prisoner’s bedpost before searching the room for the only chair, a wooden, rickety seat layered with dust upon which Riah was already sitting. Leviathan plopped unceremoniously onto Riah’s mattress and smiled wickedly at the former Gnosi prince.

  “The Royals are forming a group called the Seekers. I learned this from an acquaintance in Medulla. These Seekers are heading east to find my pretty pet Ilea. They think they can get her to talk about the location of the Crown.” At this, Leviathan laughed. “If she does truly know, perhaps she will be more willing to tell them. But she doesn’t. She lost sight of the Crown hundreds of years ago.”

  “Why do you keep her if she is of no use?” Riah asked absently. He didn’t particularly care who exactly Ilea was.

  “She and I...well...we have a history. She is also the one I have spoken about as being accidentally marked as one of the seven. Shehas to stay controlled. Andbesides, sheis pretty.” The creature paused with his single eye of ice fixated on Riah. “You will go with the Seekers.”

  Riah scoffed and interrupted. “They will ask you to. They will grant you release in exchange for your service. You will join them on their quest and eventually meet me at my home where Ilea is. But before you do, you will kill each of them. That is, the three aligned with the Spirit Followers and the young huntsman. I will send two young warriors from recommended successfully rid us of the formerly listed victims, kill the allies, too. When you meet me in the Forest of Thorns, I will then take you to your final destination where you will fulfill your destiny.”

  “Finally,” was all Riah could utter. The months in this prison had consisted of nightmaring and some painting when he could find cloth to use his remaining paint on. The painting had been as painful as the dreaming. His father appeared in both.

  Leviathan gave him a smile which was almost charming. “You’re welcome.”

  After a pause, Riah inquired hesitantly, “What has become of Saffira Adriel?”

  Leviathan stared for a long moment before shrugging. “I haven’t the faintest idea.” He leaned forward, his elegant form bending towards Riah. He whispered in a tone which was nearly a hiss. “Youmust reflect neither on her nor therealmfrom which prepared to object, but Leviathan

  Imber Fel as your allies. They come highly from another ally there. Once you have you came. Gnosi was a prison, even when they preached freedom. You are free now. Free...and enslaved.”

  “Enslaved to what? You?” Riah asked coldly. Leviathan’s lips shifted into an equally cold smile as he spoke with a dramatic airiness. “To your eternal destiny.”

  “She betrayed me anyway,” Riah said bitterly, ignoring Leviathan’s last remark.

  The Shadow Bearer laughed. “She was never on your side, and I doubt she ever will be.” Leviathan spoke the truth. Saffira had never been on his side, not when it came to anything beyond friendship. And that truth struck him down every time he remembered it.

  “The Master thinks you will be most beneficial in the mountains of the north,” Leviathan changed the subject. “The Mountain of Dragons has been without a master for quite some time. The Master is in need of a young prospect to come and manage...affairs there.”

  Riah mused over Leviathan’s words. He had never thought about dragons much. They were drawn on some corridors in the Gnosi Realm castle. Aside from that, they were merely legend. “A dragon lord,” he murmured.

  “Invincible enough?” Leviathan cocked the brow which wasn’t disclosed by an eyepatch.

  Riah’s lips lifted in a twisted grin. “Dragons,” he murmured once more.

  “After I have left you at the mountain, I may return to my home. The one Ilea is now at.” His words had taken a softer tone until he spoke next in a near growl. “Sheis still a mystery to me.”

  Riah jumped at the sound of shattering glass. “That was my only cup,” he groaned. “What will I do with the dragons? What purpose will they, as well as myself, serve for the Master’s?” Riah said these words as images flashed in his imagination, fire and mountains. The young man still wondered about the Master. He knew only a name and a handful of facts.

  Whenever he inquired of him to Leviathan, the Shadow Bearer answered that he would know soon enough. Riah did not find himself caring much. The Master was giving him a purpose and a future.

  “The Mountain of Dragons lies at the entrance to the Infernal Cities that the Souls take. You will be stationed there to welcome them and keep the servants of Elyon from the gates. They come at times in bellows of blinding light and steal the Souls that would otherwise be ours. You will be placed in charge of the location and, in return, will receive a home, wealth, weapons, power…” Leviathan paused, “Women.”

  “Icarenot for thepleasureof women in light ofthelarger picture. Eventually, I may.” Riah’s thoughts flickered to one specific person as he said these words. He swallowed hard. No woman could take her place or fill the hole in his heart that he had created himself on account of her.

  Cam rose at dawn and clad herself in clothing fit for traveling

  across terrain she had never before laid eyes upon. A sliver of white-wine colored light peered through the looming clouds. The anticipation hit her like the chilly, morning air. A new opportunity, a new adventure. New...dangers. She shivered. “And what if there are new valleys of shadows andevil mothers and overlords who want to take over entire populations?” Cam’s mouth was pressed into a grim line. “But perhaps...while I am away, the riots will diminish of their own accord.” But Cam knew it would more likely start another round of rumors. Ones involving her running away out of guilt to hide the magic elsewhere.

  Cole Caddell was waiting for Cam at the front door of their home in the Royalty Realm to bid her goodbye and wish her great fortune. He embraced her. It made Cam feel warm, reassured. Peter was nowhere to be seen.

  Cam had learned moments before her departure that he and his sister Saffira had traveled back to their home in the Gnosi Realm. Cam did not wear a smile, for Peter’s absence dampened her spirit. He hadn't even said goodbye. And the last time they had spoken… He had been stiff when she had tried to embrace him and would not meet her gaze with anything sincere in his own.

  “Peter, youdon’tunderstand,” she thought silently as s
he made her way up the misted path to the palace atop the hill. The white blossoms of the trees about her were fluttering in the breeze. “This...new adventure will distract me from the nightmares and the chaos going on here.” And maybe she should have told him that but… Well, anyway, it was too late now.

  “He may not agree that we need this… crown,” Fiera was saying to her. Cam glanced at her taller, darker sister. She had arrived from her journey from the south just this morning. They now stood within the hall of the Royalty Realm’s main palace, a structure built on the highest point of an enormous mound of now foggy landscape scattered with trees. The white garden, it was called, especially this time of year when the blossoms were in full bloom, soon to drift from their boughs to the rivers and streams scattered over the land.

  Cam gazed from the window, her arms folded over one another. Fiera slumped against the sill, tapping her fingers on its surface. Cam turned to her sister, locking her eyes with one's dark and striking. “But Peter’s one of them. A Spirit Follower, I mean. He’ll want whatever will help them,” she replied with a resigned sigh. She remembered Owen, her dearest friend from the Medulla Realm, informing her that someone outside of Mirabelle knew the whereabouts of the Crown of Caelae.

  Fiera made no further comment on the subject but inched herself away from the window. The remainder of their group had entered into the hall. Above an array of darker figures sauntered a golden-headed person, and below that sweep of golden hair, ever-laughing hazel eyes and a broad smile. Dashed off with a completely unnecessary wink. Cam smirked, and shook her head.

  “I don’t know if I’ve missed you yet, Caleb Opados,” Cam said as Fiera’s fellow Cinis Lumen comrade neared her.

  Caleb’s mouth fell open in feigned shock as his handflew to his chest. “But how could you? I miss myself all the time, and Iammyself!” Camglancedsideways ather sister whowas glaring while attempting to keep her mouth from twitching in amusement. “You must say that you miss me more than him, at least,” Caleb added under his breath while jerking his head at another figure.