Promising Light (56 page)

It seemed like nonsense at first,
but the words sunk deep into her. Meanings resonated through her
mind, ones she couldn’t define into easy words. She only knew that
this chant was her way of claiming that protective magic inside of
her. Magic to protect the Avialies.

Her stomach warmed—but no, it
wasn’t her stomach, it was her birthmark. She almost let go of
Sierra’s hands, but Sierra held onto her.

Grace was transported elsewhere. A
cold room with stone walls. A large man sat in front of a map.
Without having ever seen him before, she knew he was the Thieran
who cursed the Avialies. He stretched his arms over the map, closed
his eyes, and chanted in an unfamiliar language. Grace felt the
power flow out of him. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew what
was happening. This was the curse. It was dark and it reminded her
of the creatures she’d seen in the cave: crawling, frightening,
shying away from the light. What she was seeing had taken place ten
years ago, yet the magic had reached beyond a few Avialies to any
with the blood, reached beyond that one day.

A similar magic filled Grace’s
body, but this was different. It was light and it held promises of
a bright future. It filled her with warmth and spread from her
hands to Sierra’s and back.

Suddenly, Grace was submerged in
darkness. She saw nothing but blackness. She heard nothing. She
felt nothing but coldness. The blackness pushed down on her,
suffocating her. It tried to get inside of her, tried to reach
around the warm magic for her. She fought and struggled. The magic
around her flickered, fading, and the cold crept in. A frigidness
set into her bones. She tried to fight it, but she had no body. She
was nothing.

A faint memory pushed through the
cold, dark nothing. Dar’s face, pale, fighting to stay alive,
wincing at the pain. She had to fight harder. If he died, it would
be her fault because she insisted to search for something. If he
died, it would be her fault because she gave up. Because she gave
into this darkness.

Voices surrounded her: Sierra’s,
her own, other female voices.

Måljivea adëab
fejån
ljaun pitu reøs. Måljivea Eloha
jidøe adëab ljaun pitu reøs.

Sierra’s voice became louder than
the others, and Grace remembered she wasn’t alone. Sierra. The
warmth came back. The lightness permeated the darkness, and Grace
felt her magic combine with Sierra’s. The cold fled, the darkness
vanished, and their magic soared.

Måljivea reøsä ljaune. Måljivea
khula bique reø.

She felt it go out to different
Avialies. She saw a flash of Dar in the cave; he was still alive,
but fading quickly. Evan fighting Protectors and drawing them away
from the cave. Other Avialies fighting their way through the jungle
in search of Grace and Sierra and the others. Vin and Amina working
as servants in the palace, and Grace now knew the rest of the
prophecy would come true. They’d have a child someday.

Måljivea adëab fejån ljaun pitu
reøs.

Everything vanished, and Grace was
back with Sierra in the humid cave, the firelight flickering around
them. Grace panted, dropping her hands and wiping sweat off of her
forehead. “Oh, my goodness.”

“Wow,” Sierra breathed. “Did that
just…”

“We…” Grace put her hands over her
mouth, then pulled them away to study her palms.

Sierra grabbed them and stared at
them, too. She met Grace’s eyes. “Were you in that darkness,
too?”

Grace nodded, swallowing hard. “I
thought I was going to die.”

“Me, too. But then… then I saw
Evan. And then you came.”

Grace laughed. A grin broke out on
Sierra’s face, and she squeezed Grace’s hands. “We did it! God, I’m
glad I listened to you.”

“Me, too.” Grace shook herself.
“We have to get out of here.”

She nodded. “Did you see the others
in the jungle?”

“Yes, you have to take the ancient
texts to them.”

Sierra swung her bag off her
shoulder. “And where are you going?”

“I have to help Dar. Come on,
let’s get these in your bag.”

They moved the scrolls from the
chest into Sierra’s bag. “I know you’ll be probably running, but
try to be careful.”

“Wait, what about Evan?” Sierra
asked, gazing down the steps.

Grace hesitated. “He’s drawing them
away from the cave. “If you can meet up with Jeshro and the others,
they can help you get to him. Maybe you can even see him from up
there.”

Sierra stared up now, taking a deep
breath. “I don’t know if I can make it through the jungle without
Lee.”

Grace swallowed. “Well, maybe we
should—”

“No, no, I’ll be fine.”

They checked their provisions
quickly. They were both running low on water, so Grace gave Sierra
a water purifying potion. Grace also gave her one of her daggers
and some food. “If all goes according to plan, I won’t need them,”
Grace said.

Sierra pushed the empty chest back
into its spot and hugged Grace. Grace hugged her back
tightly.

“What are you going to do?” Sierra
asked.

Grace pulled away and explained
her plan. Sierra tried to talk her out of it, but she had no other
alternatives.

“We’ll come back for you,” Sierra
said.

Grace half-smiled. “You don’t have
to.”

“Grace, you’ve told us for weeks
how you can’t live your life while someone else is controlling it.
Are you sure?”

“Yes. You’d do the same for Evan,
wouldn’t you?”

Sierra pursed her lips, nodding.
“But what if it doesn’t work?”

Grace didn’t want to consider that
option. “Make sure my family knows the truth… and the
prince.”

“It’ll work,” Sierra said, rubbing
her arm. “It’ll work, and we’ll get you out of there. I’ll tell the
Avialies everything you did for them.”

“You better go.” The shouts in the
tunnels had stopped, but she knew Dar still needed her
help.

“Who’ll take the
torch?”

“You take it. I’ll need both my
hands going down.”

Sierra took a deep breath. “Be
careful.”

“You, too.”

Sierra moved up the steps slowly.
When there was enough room for Grace, she got onto the nearest step
and eased her way down. She still had a small amount of light from
Sierra’s torch, but as they got father away, Grace saw less and
less. She wanted to go quickly, but she forced herself to take her
time. They’d been climbing up at least twenty minutes, and she
didn’t want to fall.

Occasionally, Sierra called down to
make sure she was all right. Sierra faded to a glowing ball of
light as they went opposite ways. Grace stepped on all kinds of
things, and every now and then she’d feel something crawling on her
hand she had to shake away without screaming.

“Come on, you’re nearly there,”
she kept telling herself. “At least halfway now.”

Her whole body was tense. She kept
thinking of the time she fell from the city wall in Rahuda with
Matilda.

She lowered her foot and stepped on
some unstable rock. She reached her foot out to the other side for
something more steady. Another creature skittered across her hand,
and she flung up her hand to get it away. She lost her balance and
slipped from the step. She scrambled to keep her other foot firm,
but she slid down the steps. Her knees knocked on the steps as she
went down. Her hands scrambled for some kind of stronghold, and
rock cut into her elbows, the fabric on her left arm
tearing.

She suddenly hit the ground, her
ankles taking all of her weight. She crumpled on the ground,
groaning.

“Grace?” Sierra’s voice seemed so
far away, and her torch was just a small twinkle now. “Grace, are
you all right?”

Grace pulled herself to her feet.
Her ankles and knees were sore, but she could stand on them. She
didn’t have very good luck climbing down things. “I’m fine,” she
called up. “I’m fine.”

Grace checked the two potions in
her bag: they weren’t broken. She took a moment to orient herself,
then stood up, running her bleeding hands along the walls. She
broke into a jog after a minute and eventually the wall to her left
ended, and she turned toward it. She ran with her arms out in front
of her, and soon she could see a small speck of light in front of
her. She almost called out for Dar, but she knew anyone could be in
the cave. She pulled the potions out and ran with one in each
hand.

The tunnel walls opened around her,
and the air opened up. The light was growing larger and larger, and
Grace saw the open mouth of the cave. Dar still sat against the
wall, but he was limp, his eyes closed.

Grace’s heart slammed against her
chest as she ran to his side. “Dar?” She pulled his chin up, and he
stirred awake. “Dar, where’s Lee?”

“He…” Dar trailed off as Grace
looked at his bandage. The blood had covered the fabric again. “He
left…”

“It’s going to be okay,” Grace
whispered. His face was colorless, even his lips. She kissed them
softly.

He smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

She kissed him again, then picked
up the potions and stood up. She took a deep breath and walked to
the mouth of the cave. The jungle stretched out before her, the
lake to the side. She gasped when she realized she’d seen this
before: in Lisbeth’s vision.

A man stood a hundred feet away,
pacing and kicking at the dirt.

“Hey,” she called.

* * *

Chapter
Thirty-Three

The man started and spun around
with his sword drawn. His eyes widened. “Lady Grace.” He made a
loud whistle with his fingers.

Grace swallowed. “Where are the
others?”

“Do you have any weapons?” the man
asked, stepping closer. Grace recognized his pointy face; he’d been
in Aron with the prince. She thought his name might be
Jael.

“I have one dagger,” she
said.

“I need it,” Jael said, holding a
hand out.

She shook her head. “What’s going
on out here? Where are the others?”

Jael hesitated. “Where did you come
from? Inside the cave?”

Grace clenched her teeth. He
obviously wasn’t going to answer her questions. She peered out at
the jungle. Two men were running over to them from the vegetation.
She recognized Kilar. He was bleeding from the arm. Dar had told
her Kilar was one of the main leaders of the Protectors. The other
looked twice the size of Grace and held an axe in his hand. It had
blood on it, and a chill went through her despite the humid
air.

“Lady Grace,” Kilar one called.
“How are we to know it’s truly you?”

Grace stared at him for a moment.
“How am I to know you’re who you are?”

Kilar smiled and he pulled a
manacle out of his bag. “A Mahri manacle.” He tossed it to Grace;
she let it fall to the ground as she pocketed the purple
potion.

She picked it up, feeling the
familiar rush of tingling in her fingers before it faded.
“Satisfied?” She’d said the same thing to Dar in his inn room so
long ago.

Kilar nodded, holding his hands
out. She tossed it back. After he put it back in his bag, he said,
“Your friends have deserted you.”

“Where are they?” Grace
asked.

“They’re gone except for Dar,” the
short one said.

She didn’t care if they’d deserted
her, Grace just hoped they were safe. She glanced over her shoulder
at Dar, then back at the short man. “Are you in charge?”

Kilar paused. “I think you should
come with me. We can bring you back to your father.”

“What’ll happen to Dar?” Grace
asked.

Kilar hesitated. “He’s not going to
live much longer.”

She moved the potions around in her
hands. “Do you have a Thieran?”

Jael glanced at the man next to
Kilar.

“Do you want us to look at your
arm?” Kilar asked.

She glanced down at her left arm.
Blood drenched her torn sleeve and her arm. It’d been stinging with
pain, but she couldn’t believe it was bleeding so much. “I want you
to save Dar’s life.”

Kilar actually chuckled. “Why do
you think we’d do that?”

Grace held up the gold-colored
liquid. It was such a misleading color. “This is a fast-acting
poison. I’ll take it unless you heal Dar.”

Kilar hesitated. “You don’t need to
do that.”

“I want you to heal him.” Grace
motioned to the axe-holding man. “He’s a Thieran, isn’t
he?”

“Lady Grace.”

She shook the flask. “It’s a poison
we bought from a Mahri in Aron.”

Kilar glared at her, taking a few
steps closer. Grace stepped back, and he stopped.

“You know that Dar has broken many
laws.” He was stalling, and every moment, Dar was slipping further
away from her.