Chapter Twenty-Six
Not wanting to alert The Red’s men or the villagers of our departure, we took different routes through Barmhilde. Royston and I kept to the shadows as we moved swiftly across the uneven road to the library.
“Cadby was not pleased that I made him stay behind,” Royston said. “The old bird won’t know what to do without me.”
“Why did you make him stay?”
Royston watched his feet. “He would die trying to protect me from the beast. Might even get in the way. Seems like a waste. Will you care for him once I’m gone? He is an excellent guard.”
“Of course I will.”
I looked like a Ninja Turtle with my shield strapped to my back. The sheath holding my borrowed sword bounced against my side. The French Sentinels had given us a mismatch of Sentinel gear. The helmet was too big, so I left it on the mat in my tent.
Arik and Emily were already at the entrance when we arrived.
The others soon joined us, and Arik spoke the charm to open the entrance. The dark wood-paneled wall shimmied to the side, and we crept inside the library. Emily kept close to Arik. She had a horribly knitted scarf wrapped around her neck and a size too small jacket on.
“What is she doing here?” I asked. “She isn’t coming with us. It’s too dangerous.”
“Oh please. I am, too,” she snapped. “I’m a witch. I can help.”
I gave Arik a scolding glare, and he shrugged. “She followed me. And she’s stubborn, like someone else I know.”
I knew he was talking about me, but I ignored it. Having her along with us made my anxiety rise another notch.
“Don’t worry,” Deidre said. “I’ll stick with her.”
Emily smiled at her. “Yeah, see? With her fighting skills and my magic abilities, we’ll be like one Sentinel.”
“Great.” I forced a smile to match hers.
“I know that’s not your real smile, Gia,” Emily said, a frown replacing hers.
With the two Sentinels and four guards from Couve, there were fifteen of us in the library. Since Edgar knew Esteril the best, he jumped first. We did a library hop, all picking different places to go before ending up at the Saint Petersburg library. By the time the Monitors followed our paths and sent an alarm, we’d be in Esteril.
Once all of us were in the library, Edgar led us around the many display cases crowded by elaborate, cherry wood bookcases. We went by arched beams and more bookcases, passing the one that I knew would take us to Esteril.
“Isn’t that bookcase the entry?” I asked, keeping up with him.
He rounded a corner. “We can’t very well go through the front door.”
Made sense.
He stopped at another bookcase and pushed in one of the wooden carvings of a rose. The bookcase rattled across the floor, exposing an opening in the floorboards. “We’ll take the Talpar tunnel. I’m not sure what state it’s in, so watch your step.” His boot clunked down the rough slope.
I went next, with the others going after me. Jaran and Lei ignited their light globes. The tunnel wall had rocks and roots sticking out of it. I scratched at my hair, feeling a little twitchy at seeing the bugs scurry and slither into the cracks as we passed.
The tunnel inclined, and we went up. It grew steep, and my boots slid over the loose gravel. There was a thick rope with knots for handgrips off to the side, and I grasped it. Hand over hand, I went up after Edgar.
He pushed open the hatch at the top and hoisted himself out. Turning around, he grasped my hand and helped me up. I adjusted my breastplate and sheath, pushing on the hilt to make sure my sword was secured inside.
The flat land with sparse trees was familiar to me. I had come here with Ricardo, a Laniar, who sacrificed his life to save Carrig. Edgar had been there. Sinead, as well. It seemed like ages ago, not almost a year. Thinking of the loss Ricardo and Sinead choked me up, and I cleared my throat.
When the others were up, Edgar kept us to the shadows under the skeletal trees. Our boots crunched through the snow, and I worried about the footprints we were leaving behind. A strong wind swept across the field, sending waves of snow over us, and rattling my teeth and bones. I glanced back to find our prints had been covered.
Demos smiled, lowering his hand, green flashes of light snapping at his palm. He’d used his wind globe to cover our prints.
Esteril’s dark gray castle on top of a rocky hill looked like something out of a horror movie. From a pole on the tallest tower, the black flag with a red flame in the middle waved violently in the wind.
Edgar squatted behind a gardener’s building, and we dropped down around him. “See over there.” He pointed in the distance. “Conemar must have the Tetrad in the basement or the barn.”
“What are those?” I asked, pointing at the horizon across the field.
Edgar looked to where I indicated. “Animals. Conemar most likely had them removed from the barn to keep the Tetrad there.”
Arik scooted up to Edgar’s side. “So what’s the plan? We go to the barn and Royston destroys the Tetrad?”
“You have it wrong,” Uncle Philip’s voice came from behind us, and I almost fell over.
I shot up, rushed over, and pulled him down to the ground. “What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“My mind is good today,” he whispered back. “I still have my magic, and it’s a high wizard’s power. You’ll need it going up against Conemar.”
“What if—?” I couldn’t say it, but he could.
“I lose my mind?” He touched my cheek. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“I’m not,” I said.
“It isn’t your choice.” Uncle Philip smiled. “You have been the best surprise of my life. Let me do this for you. If I die, so be it. Soon, my quality of life will diminish.”
I stared at him for a long moment. It was wrong of me to stop him from fighting for a cause he believed in. Or even fighting an unfathomable beast that could kill us all. History had shown that sometimes it took great sacrifices to ensure that good prevailed over evil. The memory of Bastien zapping my hand so that the Writhe didn’t take me along with him punched my heart with a life-threatening blow. It was Uncle Philip’s choice to make, not mine. I had to let go.
Tears stung the back of my eyes, and I nodded silently to Uncle Philip.
He gave me a knowing nod back, then crouch-walked over to Edgar and Arik. “He’d never leave the Tetrad in such an unsecured place. It would be in the basement. There’s an old torture chamber just off the corridor to the prison cells. It’s large enough to hold the beast.”
Though we left at two in the morning from Barmhilde, the sun would be rising in Esteril soon.
I moved closer to Edgar. “We can’t bring all these people in there. It’ll be a parade. I have to go on my own with Royston. I’ve been to the basement before; I know my way. You have to get the others to a shelter or something. They’ll freeze out here.”
“She’s right,” Arik said and turned to me. “But I’m going with you.”
Edgar surveyed the others. “All right. We go to the barn. Lei?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said.
“A covered passageway leads from the barn to the castle.” Edgar inclined his head in that direction. “You can access the castle from there. We won’t be too far away if needed.”
“Okay, let’s move,” I said.
The wind blew blankets of snow that threatened to bury us. Each step was a struggle, and my exposed skin burned as the frozen air smacked me. Finally, we reached the barn and relief from the torturous storm. There was a large hole there where some of the animals must have escaped. Uncle Philip had made the right call. Conemar would never keep the Tetrad in such an unsecured place.
Our group found warm corners and settled in for the wait. One of the Couve guards, a young guy with big ears, gave Arik a window rod to contact Edgar if we needed help.
Emily removed her scarf and wrapped it around Arik’s neck.
“I shan’t be outside,” he said.
“It’s for luck.”
He glanced down at it and gave her a dimpled smile. “Thanks.”
Royston took Deidre’s hand in his. “You are like the sun in this dark world. Thank you for allowing me a small bit of life.”
“I wish we had more time,” she said softly. “There’s so much I could show you.”
“See it all for me.” He released her hand.
Demos gave me a tight hug. “I thought you should have some sort of emotional parting like the others.”
I laughed and pulled away from him. “I’ll carry your hug with me.”
“You do that.” He winked.
Jaran came in for a hug and Lei joined him. “Keep your head on the goal,” she said at the same time he whispered, “I love you like a sister.”
When we parted, Uncle Philip kissed my cheek. “Don’t worry about us out here. You keep your mind on what you have to do. Think of nothing else.”
“I will.”
I created a light globe and led Arik and Royston into the passageway. The wind whistled through the cracks and shook the walls violently. Arik ignited his fire globe and moved beside me with Royston following.
We came to a large fissure in the wall. Snow rushed through it and covered the stone floor of the passageway. A chittering sound came from the rafters above, and I glanced up. A bat or a miniature dragon was perched on one of the wooden beams, staring down at us.
I raised my globe to see it better and it took off squawking. It circled around and dove for us, and I ducked. It hit Royston square on the chest, knocking him to the ground. He was back on his feet fast.
“She’s protecting her nest,” Arik said, climbing over the crumbled rocks in front of the opening. “Keep moving, and she’ll leave you alone. And, hopefully, her attack hasn’t announced our arrival here.”
Keeping my head down, I continued after Arik.
“Evil bird,” Royston snapped under his breath.
The passageway ended at a metal double door with a large sliding latch secured by a thick lock. Arik inspected it. “This may be complicated. It’s tungsten. Hard to break.”
“The lock is ancient,” Royston said. “When I was a boy, I would unlock the one securing the pantry by using a sharp object. It requires a few tools.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Let me just grab my toolbox for you.”
Royston raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you being sarcastic again?”
A noise came from the other side of the door, and Arik waved us back. We shuffled fast the way we’d come, trying to prevent our boots from making too much noise, and we were around the corner and out of sight just as the doors opened and slammed against the walls.
Arik squeezed through the broken opening in the wall with me, then Royston behind him. Flattened against the outside wall, the blizzard-like snow smacked my face. The mumbling of voices grew nearer. The dragon-esque bird squawked.
“Damn thing,” a man grumbled. “Why won’t Conemar let us kill that nuisance?”
“He said it’s the only one left of its kind,” a woman answered.
“Let’s just feed the animals quickly,” another man added. “This weather is going to freeze my man parts off. Tonella will have hot stew for us when we return.”
When they had passed and were a ways down from us, Arik pulled out the window rod and called one of the Couve’s guards. “You have company coming,” he said and closed the rods. “Let’s move.”
After single-filing back into the passageway, we sprinted to the entrance, my shield bouncing on my back. Thankfully, the door had been left open. Arik and Royston kept close behind me as I moved us swiftly through the bare, cold corridors, ducking into corners or other rooms whenever I heard someone approaching.
We came to a wide staircase with a corridor on each side of it. The one on the right led to the kitchen, and the left one to a stairway to the dungeon.
I went left with Arik and Royston on my heels.
The stairs were slick, and I took them carefully down to a narrow hall. The small sconces on the walls of the corridor didn’t provide much light. We passed several iron doors with small barred windows lining the walls. The door I’d cut the hinges off with the Chiave sword when I rescued Carrig from his cell was still missing.
If I weren’t rushing so fast, I would’ve realized making it this far into the castle had been too easy. Maybe Arik would have noticed, too. I crossed the guards’ room to the door leading to what I believed to be the torture chamber.
Arik and I created fire globes and he slowly opened the door. Except for the shackles hanging from the ceiling and a number of bloody torturing tools, the room was empty. The Tetrad wasn’t there.
“I’m thinking Edgar’s source lied,” I said, backing up. I didn’t want to be in a room where people had most likely lost their lives.
“What’s that noise?” Royston asked, weaving through the torture racks, surgical-like tables with bindings, and baskets of tools.
I followed close behind him. “This is so creepy.”
The closer we got to where the sound originated, I realized it was a tiny voice. I peeked around Royston’s arm. Sen hung from manacles fastened around his wrists and nailed to the wall. A book faery sat in a birdcage on a table nearby. She was much younger than Sen. Her hair was brown like his, but her wings were almost transparent.
“Help her,” he said weakly.
“How did you end up here?” I searched a nearby table for keys.
Royston joined the search.
“Conemar took my sister,” he said. “If I refused to spy for him, he threatened to kill her. He wanted to know the goings-on in the libraries. Specifically, your whereabouts.”
Arik inspected the birdcage.
I opened a drawer and found two tiny keys threaded together with a thin wire. “Found something.” I handed them to Arik.
He unlocked the birdcage, reached in, and picked up the girl. “You’re safe now. We’ll take care of you.”
“My brother?”
“Him, too,” he said, passing the keys to Royston. “Can you do the honors?”
Royston took them. I cupped my hands underneath Sen as Royston removed the manacles, and the faery dropped into them.
“I’m truly sorry,” he said, sitting down on my palms. “I had no choice.”
My gaze went to his sister in Arik’s hands. “Of course you didn’t.”
“This will do.” Arik set the girl faery into a box and handed it to me. “They’ll have to ride in it. It’s all I could find.”
“It’ll work,” I said, placing Sen inside next to his sister. The girl hugged him and he wrapped his arms around her. “Royston, can you carry this?”
He snatched the box from me, the faeries bracing themselves from the force. “I have been demoted to a faery nursemaid,” he snapped.
“I should contact the others.” Arik pulled out the window rod and called the guard in the barn again. “What happened with your guests?”
“We have them tied to the poles,” the guard said.
“I must speak to Edgar.”
Edgar cleared his throat before answering. “What is the problem?”
“The Tetrad isn’t here.”
“The castle grounds are a bit too quiet, as well,” Edgar said.
“Can you get any information from your captives? Use force if need be. We’ll be back shortly.”
As we passed through the corridors to the passageway back to the barn, I noticed just how quiet it was. Two women carrying linens came around the corner and, spotting us, quickly turned back the way they had come, yelling something in a language I couldn’t understand.
Next, we heard boots clapping against the tiles, coming from where the women had gone.
“Get ready,” Arik said.
I created a stun globe, thinking that whoever was about to fight us was probably forced by Conemar. They could have families, and I was tired of death.
Four Esteril guards, all men of various sizes, came around the corner. I threw my stun globe at one, and he dropped to the floor. Arik wrapped his fire whip around another guard’s wrist and the man dropped his drawn sword. Before I could ignite another battle globe, the tallest guard swung his sword, hitting my breastplate, which stopped the blade. I spun away from him and pulled my sword out of its sheath.
Royston made to go after the guard, and I yelled, “Stay back! You can’t die. Remember? And be careful with that box.”
He pushed out a heavy sigh. “I was a great warrior in my time.”
“Good to know,” I said, keeping my eyes on the guard. “Now sit back and relax. Watch the show or something.” So I wasn’t as good as Demos with the quips.
Arik’s sword connected with the other guard’s, and the man stumbled back.
The guard in front of me hesitated, studying my face. “Gianna Bianchi,” he said like a statement with a thick accent.
“Yes?” I wasn’t sure where this was going.
He dropped his sword and yelled something to the other guard, who stepped back from Arik and lowered his weapon.
“We are with you,” the man said in choppy English. “We do not want Conemar as a leader. End him. End the Tetrad. Go in peace.”
The men walked off down the corridor.
“Well, that was unexpected.” I returned my sword to its sheath. And then, a thought hit me. I ran after the men. “Hey, wait.”
The guard who could speak English turned. “Yes. What is it?”
“A wizard,” I said, hope sounding behind my words. “He would have been a prisoner. Bastien Renard.”
“He was here.”
My spirits lifted. He was here. Alive.
“Where is he now?”
The man studied my face again. “Conemar. He took him. Earlier, with the Tetrad and his army.”
“Where were they going?” Arik asked.
“That is all I know,” the man said.
I wanted to cry; whether with relief or with fear, I didn’t know. He was alive but still with Conemar. He could be hurt. The thought of what Conemar was doing to him, and the image of the torture chamber with all the bloodstains, made my stomach lurch and my hands shake.
Though blood was already on my hands, I never wanted to kill anyone. Life was too precious to take. But if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t hesitate cutting Conemar down. It scared me that I wanted to watch the life leave his body. For all the Mystiks and humans he had harmed or murdered, I would witness that for their revenge.
Arik put a hand on my back. “We must keep moving. It’s the only way to save him and our worlds.”
He was right. I couldn’t give up. Giving up was losing.
Not bothering to be quiet, we darted through the passageway, our boots thudding against the floor. The strange bird squawked at us as we passed it. Royston leaned over the box, most likely worried the bird would snatch Sen and his sister up for food. For not wanting to be a nursemaid, he sure was gentle with the box.
We were met with grave faces as we entered the barn.
“What’s the matter?” I searched their eyes.
Edgar rubbed the back of his neck. “We missed Conemar by an hour. He was on his way to Barmhilde with his army and the Tetrad. We sent a message through the window rod to warn The Red. Rebels from Tearmann, Veilig, and Santara are rushing to Barmhilde’s aid.”
The sound of his voice was grave and dark, like the wasteland surrounding us. We couldn’t catch a break.
“Wait,” I said. “How are they getting there? They think there isn’t a gateway book in Chetham’s Library. It burned up after they took Bastien.”
In what had to be Russian, Edgar asked the three Esterilians tied to the poles barely holding up the barn. The woman answered him.
“She says they took the Talpar tunnels.”
Demos hopped off a gate he was sitting on. “That could take hours to move that many through the tunnels. And the Tetrad might be too big for them.”
Edgar asked the woman another question, and she wrung her hands while answering. “The Tetrad can use their powers to widen them as they go.”
“Then we run,” Arik said. “We can get there faster through the gateway.”
The Red was right—we should have burrowed in and waited for the attack. This mission was a complete waste of time. How many would die because of our mistake?