Chapter Twenty-Four
Royston and I would have to jump alone to the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland, where I had left Gian’s book and the leather canister. I was uneasy about it, but Bastien and his guards would be sensed in the gateway, and our whereabouts would be discovered. Bastien would wait for us by the gateway book in the Chetham’s Library with two of the guards from Couve who had joined us in Barmhilde.
The Red and his army had forced the council’s forces out of the library, which allowed Bastien to put a spell on the page into Chetham to lock them out.
Bastien gave me one of the guard’s window rods to contact him should we run into trouble.
Trouble? The end of our quest would bring us smack in the middle of it. To the Tetrad.
I hugged the fur jacket The Red had given me. All the talk about releasing the Tetrad and no one ever mentioned what would happen when the beast was released. Supposedly, whoever opened its prison could control it. But how were they so certain it would work? A prophecy? I had my doubts.
Royston put the strap holding a canteen over his shoulder and then the crown I had removed from my body onto his head. He nodded at me then jumped into the book.
Bastien cradled my head in his hands and pressed a long kiss on my lips. “Take your time. Don’t make rash decisions.” His hands fell away, the warmth of them leaving my skin.
“I will. And Bastien, I, well, I—” I considered telling him how I felt about him, but the words wouldn’t roll off my tongue. Maybe it was better to leave it unsaid. I worried he would think me saying it was only fueled by our situation and not my real feelings.
“What is it?” He watched me curiously.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said and kissed him one last time before leaping into the open page.
After I landed, Royston and I didn’t speak. He handed me the crown, and I returned it to my body. We climbed to the fifth level of the cathedral-like room and went straight to the bookcase where I’d hidden Gian’s book and leather canister. Thankfully, they were still where I had shoved them behind the books.
Royston paused in the middle of putting on his fur coat. “Did you see that?”
I buried the canister into my boot and darted glances around us. “What was it?”
“Might have been a bug.”
A shiver tickled up my spine, and I scratched my neck. “I hope not.”
I had thought we could only jump into libraries, but Emily had found a charm in the ancient spell book that could create a gateway to anywhere. Gian must’ve used it for his book. I slipped on my coat and opened the book to the page with the three-peaked mountain range on it.
“Let’s go.”
We grasped each other’s hands and jumped into the photograph.
Like a million needles, the icy wind stabbed at my exposed skin. I pulled the fur hood over my head. We were at the foot of the tallest peak of the mountains. In front of us, a trail spiraled up to the mouth of a large cave.
With shaky fingers, I opened the leather canister and carefully removed the parchment with Gian’s instructions. “We have to look for etchings. There are clues for getting past traps.”
We followed the trail to a wall made out of some sort of metal. It had to be over twenty feet tall, stretching from one side of the mountain to the other.
“Possibly we need a Chiave for this?” His breath froze in front of his face.
“I think you’re right.” I touched the slick wall and instantly wished I hadn’t. The frozen metal bit my fingertips. “Crap. That was real smart.”
“You should never touch metal that is frozen,” Royston warned, a little too late.
As I rolled my eyes at him, I spotted an etching in the wall. There was a shape of a cross cut into the metal. The spirit of the Chiave had told me the wearer or owner would see things that had come before them. I couldn’t see over the wall, so I guessed using the cross would show me something. Like the other side maybe.
The wind picked up as I opened my jacket, pulled aside my leather breastplate, and lifted up my shirt. I placed my cold fingers on the cross branded into my skin and shivered.
“Reditum,” I said. The cross tugged from my skin, and I fell to one knee from the pain.
Royston caught the cross and slipped it into the etching on the wall. It fit as perfectly as a puzzle piece. The ground shook as the wall separated in the middle, leaving just enough space for one person to pass through it at a time.
I removed the cross from the wall. Holding it on my palm, I chanted the charm to return it to its original form.
“Modificare.”
The cross flattened and twisted into a long metal rod with a blue tint to it. I stuffed it into the deep pocket of my fur coat and shimmied through the opening in the wall.
We traveled up to a fork in the pathway. At a loss for which way to go, I searched for one of the etchings. After several minutes searching, I sat on a large rock and pulled the fur jacket tight around me.
“There’s nothing,” I said.
Royston sat down beside me. Something on a nearby tree distracted him, and he pointed at it. “Is that an eye?”
I popped up. “It is. We must have to use the telescope here.”
After removing the telescope from my side, I peered through the lens at the forked path. One of the paths was blurry while the other was clear. I worried that it was just me and maybe I’d squinted wrong, so I had Royston look.
He lowered the telescope. “The left path is clear.”
“It was for me, too,” I said. “So we go that way.”
I changed the telescope into a rod and continued up the pathway behind Royston.
The trail spiraling upward was difficult to travel with the ice slicking the rocks. I fell twice, landing on my knees. Eventually, we came to a flat part of the path. A large boulder secured with a metal net blocked our way.
A sweep of the area gave us no clues. I stared at the boulder, shivering against the cold. The sun came out from behind a cloud and glistened against the metal surrounding the boulder.
“Search the net,” I said, combing every bit of it until my eyes came to a tiny sword cut into the metal. “Here it is,” I said, opening my jacket to retrieve the sword.
The pain wasn’t as bad this time when the sword tore from me, either because I’d gotten used to it, or because I was a walking Popsicle and couldn’t feel anything. I had to focus to keep my frozen fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword.
The etching on the net didn’t match the size of the sword as the cross had in the wall. My gaze ran across the circumference of the boulder. There had to be some mark or even a hole the Chiave fit in…
Nothing.
There was nothing.
The clouds drifted overhead, the sun warming the back of my neck, its light glinting against the netting.
Of course.
The Chiave could cut metal.
I swung the sword at the lock securing the netting around the boulder. The hilt shook violently in my hands when it made contact.
“Gia! The boulder will crush you,” Royston yelled from an alcove in the side of the mountain.
The net fell away and the boulder rocked back and forth.
I sprinted for Royston. My foot caught on a raised rock, and I fell to my hands and knees, the sword knocked out of my hand. Royston caught my arm and dragged me out of the way. He held me against him in the alcove as the boulder flew past.
“Thank you,” I said.
He didn’t move.
“Are you okay?” I asked when he hadn’t let me go.
“You scared the life out of me.” He released my arm. “Please be more careful.”
It was sweet that Royston worried about me. “I will.”
I picked up the sword and changed it to its original rod form.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”
The trail grew steeper the farther up we went. I could barely climb with the freezing wind whipping around my body. My fingers froze against rocks as I grasped them to pull myself up. I glanced behind us and instantly wished I hadn’t—it was a long way down. One slip of the foot and I’d roll all the way to the bottom.
We finally reached a landing. Royston climbed up first and reached a hand out to me, and when I caught it, he pulled me up the rest of the way. In front of us was a gorge and no bridge to cross it.
“Now what?” My arms were weak and my legs wobbly. We had come all so far and there wasn’t a bridge. There wasn’t a way across the gorge. It was like my soul imploded within my body at my disappointment.
Royston pointed his finger at something across the gorge from us. “See there. It’s a drawbridge.”
In a rock by the edge of the gorge was a handprint. There wasn’t a Chiave shaped like a hand. I ran the list of the Chiavi still left through my mind—crown, badge, hourglass, and scroll.
None of them matched the imprint in the rock.
What is it? I bit at my lip. There was a tiny lump from where the cut was still healing. My mouth was dry. Every single muscle in my body ached from climbing.
“Can I have the canteen?” I asked, reaching a hand out to Royston. He removed the strap from his shoulder and passed it to me, and I unscrewed the top. Royston kicked rocks around as he hunted for clues.
My eyes ran over the drawbridge as I took a big swig of the cold, sweet water. I gave the canteen back to Royston, and our hands touched. His hand.
I looked back at the handprint on the boulder.
Of course. The scroll.
It had Royston’s name on it. I opened my jacket again and placed my fingers to the scroll. The Chiave easily pulled from my skin.
“It’s you,” I said. “Your hand goes in the print.”
He surveyed the gorge. “How do we get over there?”
“There must be one on this side.”
We checked the boulders on either side of us and found it.
I handed him the scroll. “I guess you just place your hand in the print.”
Royston bent and pressed his palm into the etching. The drawbridge lowered, banging hard against the edge. He handed me the scroll and, before leaving, I changed it into a rod.
The bridge shook and swayed as we crossed it to the other side. There was less of a slope on this part of the pathway, and it felt good to walk on flat ground. I could totally sleep on one of the large boulders, and I wouldn’t even care if I froze. But I had to push on.
After nearly twenty minutes of hiking, Royston asked, “Why do you suppose there were two handprints?”
Why were there two? A thought came to me. Shit. “Maybe to raise the drawbridge again.” Dread settled in my stomach. I glanced behind me. It would slow us down if we went back and would cost us forty minutes. Twenty to get there, twenty to return where we were now. But only Bastien and his guards knew we’d jumped into this book. It would be okay to leave the bridge down. I returned my focus to the path in front of me. We ended up at a steaming waterfall. It was so hot I could feel the heat as we approached it.
We searched for another etching for nearly ten minutes. Finally, I paused and stretched my back. “Where could it be?”
“This is maddening,” he said. “Why not just put it where we can find it easily?”
I shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand, searching the sides of the mountain. My gaze traveled over the top of the waterfall, and then down. On the other side of the dropping stream, against the rock wall, was an outline of a crown.
“Found it. You wear the crown and pass through the waterfall,” I said.
“How can you be certain?”
“I’m getting the hang of this, I guess.”
He gave me a doubtful look.
“The crown. When I got it, the spirit told me the wearer would be invisible. I thought it was just in the gateways, but it’s for this.”
Royston shot me an uncertain look. “I refuse. The water will burn my skin.”
“I don’t think it will.”
He shook his head at me.
“Come on,” I said with a sigh. “We’re almost there. It looks like there’s a cave on the other side of that waterfall.”
He studied the steaming water clapping down on the rocks. “Very well. Hand over the crown.”
I removed it from my side and gave it to him.
“How will you pass?” he asked, placing the crown on his head.
“I don’t know.” That was a good question. “The keeper of the Chiave said it wouldn’t shield the wearer for that long. So I’m assuming, if I follow you, I could get caught in the water.”
Royston scratched his hair under the crown. “Hop on my back.”
“What if it just keeps the water from burning you and not me because I’m not wearing it?”
“I suppose it is the chance we must take,” he said, removing his coat. “Put this on top of yours and cover your head.”
“Great.” I took the coat from him and put it on.
He laughed at the sight of me, then turned and bent over for me to hop on his back. “You are a bear.”
“I’m glad you’re amused.” I jumped on and he grabbed my thighs, hiking me up higher.
He placed the crown on his head.
As he neared the pool surrounding the waterfall, the water level lowered, exposing a raised beam. Royston adjusted his balance and stepped on it. As we neared the waterfall, the water stopped falling. He wobbled a little, and I gripped his shoulders tighter.
“Be careful.”
“I am,” he grunted.
Foot after foot landed on the narrow beam. It rocked under Royston’s weight, and I held my breath. Something snapped, and the beam started to drop. Royston darted for the other side, and I clung to his neck.
“You’re choking me,” he grunted.
I loosened my hold, bouncing on his back until we reached the other side. “We made it!” My heart pounded fast and furious. I took several breaths, trying to calm down.
He lowered me to the ground, took off the crown, and handed it to me.
We glanced back at the waterfall at the same time.
“We broke it,” he said. “It has stopped falling.”
“I guess so. The beam must be connected to the waterfall.” I stared at the crown in my hand before saying the charm to change it into its original form. “Modificare,” I said.
The crown shrunk and thinned until it became a metal rod. I turned it in my hand, the blue tint to the metal reflecting in the rays of the sun. I followed Royston around a corner in the cave to a sealed entry.
Beside the rock barrier was an imprint the shape of the Chiave badge. I removed it from my skin and put it into the wall. The rocks tumbled inward and rolled left, down an inclining trough big enough to fit a person. It reminded me of how marbles rushed down the ball shooter lane in a pinball machine.
I converted the badge into its rod form and tucked it into my pocket with the others. There was one Chiave left. We followed the tunnel to a large cavern at the end.
There were torches on the wall, so I created a fire globe and lit them. The minerals in the rocks glittered under the light.
Turning on my heel, I inspected every wall. “It’s a dead end.”
“Impossible. It must be hidden.” Royston ran his hands across the smooth surface. “What is the last Chiave?”
“An hourglass,” I said, joining him in the search.
We’d combed every bit of the cave and came up with nothing. I rested my back against the wall and slid down to sit on the ground. Tired and cold, I just wanted to go home.
Home.
It was a foreign word to me now. Could I ever go back to Boston? To our cute apartment in the North End? I seriously doubted I’d ever see that place again. Basically, I was homeless. And then I remembered what Nana Kearns always said. The place didn’t make a home. People you loved did.
Royston sat beside me, crossing his legs. “What shall we do? Sit on our backsides and wait until it magically appears?”
I opened my coat, lifted my shirt, and placed my pointer and index finger on the final Chiave. “Reditum,” I said, releasing the hourglass from my skin. It grew and floated in front of my face, the sand in it glittering in the light coming from the torches.
The sand. It’s the same as the minerals in the wall.
There had to be a reason they matched. I snatched the hourglass from the air and turned it around, inspecting every inch. There was nothing on it. I tugged on both bases and the arms. They didn’t budge. When I pushed on the glass, it moved slightly.
“There’s something here,” I said, gently pushing the hourglass until it popped out of the stand. Engraved on the inside of one of the wooden bases were instructions.
Royston glanced over my shoulder as I read: “Sprinkle the sand into the crevice aligning the wall without torches, and light it. Then shall past meet present, stopping time and revealing the Tetrad’s prison. Make haste for once the granules burn out, the spell will be broken.”
Pushing myself up the wall, I stood and crossed the cave to the other side. A thin line had been dug into the ground, and it ran the length of the wall. Gingerly, I sprinkled the sand in the crevice and down the line.
Royston grabbed one of the torches and touched it to the sand. Like a fuse, the fire rushed across the crevice. The wall of the cave lowered into the floor, exposing a metal door with seven holes forming a circle in the middle.
“We found it!” Excitement flushed my cheeks, and I hugged Royston tight.
When he didn’t respond, I let him go. He wasn’t as excited as I was. His stare on the door said it all. This was the end of the line for him. The end of his life.
“What is next?” he asked, his eyes still stuck on the door.
“The rods go in those holes. Then the door will unlock and the Tetrad will be freed. You drink the potion, and you will be able to destroy it. I’m not sure how. I have no idea what will happen.”
“Then we shall see. I am ready.”
I put the glass back in its wooden case. “Modificare,” I said, and the hourglass changed its form to match the others. One by one, I removed the rods from my pocket and placed them on the ground. Next, I tugged the leather canister from my boot, uncapped it, and removed Gian’s notes.
“Let’s see what’s next.” I unfolded the parchment and read Gian’s notes. “You have to light each Chiave, by saying accendere and then insert it into one of the locks—the holes.”
Royston picked up the first one and said, “Accendere.”
The rod didn’t light.
“I haven’t magic. You must do it.”
I took the rod from him and said the charm. It glowed blue, and I inserted the key into the door. I picked up another one and repeated the process for each Chiave until I had one left to insert.
An electric charge hit the ground by my foot, and I dropped the rod and parchment. I spun around.
“Bravo, Gianna.” Conemar’s voice came from the entrance to the cave. He was in Sentinel gear, shorter than the Sentinels flanking him, yet more menacing with his fierce glare on me. “You led us here, and you even left the traps open for us. Such a considerate girl, you are.”
On Conemar’s right stood Nick, an electric ball zapping between his hands. His eyes were almost gray. It wasn’t Nick. Some other wizard was compelling him.
“Accendere la stun,” I said, creating a purple globe and pitching it at Nick.
He released his power and it exploded my globe, snuffing it out before it could hit him. I quickly formed a fire globe.
“Grab the Chiave,” I ordered Royston, nodding to the final one on the ground.
As he reached for it, Nick shot an electric charge that barely missed Royston and hit the rod, sending it flying across the cave.
Royston stepped back.
“Nick. Stop. It’s me, Gia,” I pleaded with him.
He ignored me and formed a fireball between his hands this time. Two Sentinels came to Nick’s side wielding their battle globes, one green and one yellow—wind and lightning. Conemar created an electric charge on his palm.
“They outnumber us!” Royston stated the obvious.
One of the Sentinels shot her green globe. I threw an ice one at the blast of wind with so much force that frozen shards flew back, hitting the Sentinel and knocking her to the ground. The other Sentinel released his lightning, and I stunned it with mine.
My eyes went to the canister on the ground by my boot, then to the rod against the wall a few feet away. “They’ll control the Tetrad,” I said.
“Before we could release the creature,” Royston said. “They’d have us. If we do not run, you will not have me,” he whispered. “They will kill me. Then no one will be able to destroy the monster.”
They had us trapped. I glanced around trying to find an escape. The trough where the rocks went down was our best bet, but I had to drive back Conemar, Nick, and the two Sentinels so we could have a chance to make it.
“Get ready to run to the trough where the rocks went down.”
He nodded his understanding.
Dashing for the rod, I created fire globe after fire globe and hurled them at Conemar and the others. Nick dodged the exploding flames and charged after me. He collided into me, and we crashed into the metal wall.
I pushed him off me and threw a knee strike to his stomach. He stumbled back, and I snatched up the rod. A wind globe hit me, and I landed hard on the ground, the rod jarred from my hand and pain exploding across my back.
My head throbbed, and fear shook my body.
Get up. Don’t stop. I rolled onto my knees and grasped for the rod. Nick’s boot came down on my hand, and I shrieked. He picked up the rod.
“No, Nick,” I pleaded. “Don’t give it to him.”
Nick tossed the rod to Conemar.
“No!” It was as if the ceiling of the cave crashed on top of me and all hope punched out of my soul.
Conemar caught the rod, a sinister grin twisting his lips.
Royston tackled Nick and slammed a fist against his jaw, and then another. Nick lay motionless on the ground.
Nick. I couldn’t think about him right then. I had to get Royston out of there.
I repeatedly launched fire globes at Conemar and his Sentinels. The balls bursting into flames created a wall between them and us.
Conemar and his Sentinels backed out of the cave.
“Run!” I yelled.
I grabbed the canister and note and shoved them inside my boot. Royston took off for the trough, and I sprinted after him. I ignited another fireball and threw it at the entrance before jumping into the trough behind Royston. We rode it down like a slide, pebbles flying up, pelting my face. It went a long distance before I shot out of it and landed on top of Royston at the bottom.
Crawling over the rocks, Royston and I went out of an opening in the cave. The light blinded me for a few seconds before my eyes adjusted. We’d ended up at the base of the mountain. We needed Bastien’s and his guards’ help. I fumbled to get the window rod out of my pocket. It was broken in half. I tossed it to the ground.
“We have a head start,” I said. “They’re going take time releasing the Tetrad.” Saying that caused my stomach to drop. I’d failed. Because of me, both worlds were in danger. No telling what Conemar would do with his new weapon.
“How do we get out of this place?” he asked.
I hadn’t thought about that. “Let’s just go to where we entered. There has to be a way out.”
Screeches sounded above us. A half dozen Writhes, changed into menacing creatures by Conemar, slithered down the mountain heading in our direction. Their deformed bodies, contorting over boulders and through cracks, moved inhumanly fast.
“Go, go, go,” I yelled, and took off down the trail.
I sprinted behind Royston. My lungs burned with the cold air rushing fast and heavy into them. The place we had entered came into view—a floating image of the library. Royston slowed down, seemingly not knowing what to do.
“Keep going,” I shouted, passing him and jumping into the image. I dropped into the library and landed on my hands and knees.
Royston flew out and crashed into the bookcase to my right. A Writhe’s claw reached out of the book, but I kicked it shut and sat on it. The book bucked with so much force, I could hardly keep it closed. The Writhe’s wailing stung my ears.
“Sei zero sette periodo zero due DOR,” I spurted out the numbered charm to call the gateway book.
The Writhe kept knocking the book. It was like riding a bronco across the floor. The gateway book flew over and Royston caught it.
“Find the entry into Chetham’s Library,” I said, grasping the side of the book underneath me.
Royston flipped the page to the photograph. “Give me your hand,” he shouted over the siren-like screech coming from the Writhes.
I reached my hand out to him and he grasped it.
“Aprire la porta,” he spoke the charm and jumped into the page, pulling me in with him. I stretched to turn the page but Royston’s larger body yanked me too fast into the gateway and I missed it, my fingers brushing over the edges.
We flew out of the book, and my side smacked against the floorboards. Royston landed hard on his feet and stumbled forward.
“Gia!” Bastien ran over and helped me to my feet. “What happened?”
Arik, our Sentinels, and the Couve guards stood ready for a fight.
Two Writhes came sailing out of the book. One charged after Demos, and the other knocked me to the floor on my back. Royston backhanded the creature, and it flew off me. Another one jumped out. Bastien shot an electric charge at it, and it thudded to the floor, shaking and wailing on its back.
Demos and Jaran sliced one of the creatures down with their swords.
“How are they transporting through the book?” I shouted to whoever would listen.
Lei blasted a lightning bolt into a Writhe climbing a bookcase, missing by an inch. Books flew off the shelf, and burned paper floated down. “See that silver mark on the back of their hands? It’s a charm. Only the council knows how to create one of those.” She sent another strike at the beast and hit it this time. It fell back and thumped against the floorboards.
Several more Writhes shot out of the pages. I created an ice globe and threw it at one, freezing the beast. I landed a front kick to its body and it shattered, the pieces thumping to the floor. My stomach roiled at the bloodied flesh and rotting smell.
Arik had one of the Writhes caught in his fiery whip.
Bastien, with an electric charge dancing between his hands, faced off with another one. The gateway book shook on the floor behind him.
“Bastien, the book!” He didn’t hear me, so I barreled for it, landing my butt on the cover.
The book bucked. And bucked. On the third one, I flew off, hitting the floor hard on my side. A Writhe shot out and grabbed Bastien’s legs, pulling him into the book.
I scrambled for them and caught Bastien’s hands before he was pulled fully inside. “Don’t let go,” I said, tightening my grip. He was half out and half in the gateway.
Bastien cried out.
“Oh my God, what?” Panic fluttered in my stomach.
“Its claws are digging into my legs.” He clenched his jaw and groaned.
“Kick it,” I said, then yelled over my shoulder. “Help! Someone help me!” I slid forward as the beast tugged Bastien harder into the book.
“Let me go,” Bastien pleaded, pain twisting his face. “It’ll take you, as well.”
“I won’t,” I said, tears pouring from my eyes. “You didn’t let go for me. I won’t, either. You go, I go. We’ll fight them together.”
Bastien smiled before wincing in pain again.
His hand slipped a little inside my right one.
As he was yanked back again, I was yanked forward.
“That won’t do this time. The worlds need you.” He pulled one of his hands from my grip and formed a charge on his fingertips.
“What are you doing? Stop!” My voice cracked with the panic releasing from my chest.
He touched my hand with the charge, causing me to let go of his other hand.
The Writhe pulled him into the gateway, and just as I started to jump in after him, the pages caught on fire. Strong arms wrapped around me and dragged me back from the flaming book.