Durstin Read online

  “Yes. There is a cure at Renwyn.”

  Kiersten took a deep breath. “I hate to say this, Merryth, but we have to leave. We can’t let this future come to pass.”

  Merryth inhaled sharply. “You can’t leave now.”

  “What do you mean ‘we can’t’?” Durstin asked.

  “You aren’t allowed to leave until you have consumed all three elixirs.”

  “We can’t afford to wait that long! We need to get the cure to the merpeople and warn them of what the children plan to do, as soon as possible.”

  Merryth held up her hands. “It’s more important that you unlock the Cave of Knowledge.”

  “More important than a whole realm? Because the entire realm of the merpeople is about to be destroyed.”

  Merryth’s lips thinned. “Yes. The knowledge could change the entire fate of the planet.”

  Kiersten couldn’t believe her sister was this obtuse, and she looked to Durstin for help. “The operative word there is could. We don’t know that it will change anything. But we do know that we can try to do something now. Maybe the visions were given to us for this reason. To stop this from happening.”

  “Yes,” Durstin mused. “Maybe helping the merpeople is part of the test.”

  Merryth was silent for long moments. “What if the test is to deny the vision, to stay and finish what you started? You don’t know what knowledge the other visions might give you.”

  “I don’t think we can take that chance.” Kiersten replied. “What’s stopping us from leaving besides you?”

  “Nothing.” Merryth said finally. “Fine. Run off to Renwyn if you’re so anxious to go.”

  Kiersten waved her hand and opened a portal to Renwyn. “Why don’t you come, too?”

  “I can’t leave the cave until someone passes all the trials.”

  “You can’t?” Right. The knowledge finally penetrated, and Kiersten realized that her sister might have volunteered for the assignment, but once it was done, she would have been imprisoned here until someone passed the tests. She ignored the portal and grabbed her sister by the shoulders. “I’ll come back and finish this, Merry, I promise.”

  A lone tear rolled down Merryth’s face. “Just go.”

  Kiersten didn’t understand everything that was going on with Merryth, but if she wanted to save Aurora, she would have to worry about it later.

  She gave Merryth a brief hug while her sister remained stiff in her arms, and then she exited through the portal.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Durstin

  Durstin was quiet when they emerged on the other side of the portal into darkness. A light appeared, and he looked to his wife, who was holding a flame in the center of her palm. For a second, he froze.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “All of this. You could have created a portal at any time to get us out of the caves. You could have created light. And I’m sure you could have done a hundred other things.”

  “You know why I didn’t.” She was silent for a moment. “Would you prefer I hide it?”

  He snorted. “No, just be who you are. At least it’s honest.”

  Her momentarily gratified smile twisted into a sad one, and she looked away. “I think we’re in the lower levels of Renwyn castle.” She pointed to a staircase in front of them, spiraling upward. “I’ll bet that leads to the castle proper.”

  “Why did we end up down here?”

  “The elves use crystals in each of the castles to focus our portals for travel. Although Renwyn voluntarily split from us, I was hoping that the Renwyn palace had one. And it does.” She pointed at the staircase, and sure enough, a large crystal sat in the wide center column that the staircase spiraled around.

  “Shall we?” she asked.

  He drew his sword. “I think we shall.”

  They proceeded up the stairs, and at the top, she waved her hand for a moment. Nothing happened, and she glanced at him nervously. “This magic is different. Just a moment.” She focused, and finally the floor seemed to spiral open.

  He felt heat as a blast of magic stopped them, and his wife put up her hands to counter it.

  “Who are you?” came a booming voice from above.

  “Tordan! It’s Durstin!”

  The magic cut off, and Tordan’s and Aielle’s faces peered over the side.

  “Who is the elf with you?” Tordan asked, his gray eyes narrowed.

  Kiersten’s image flickered to her disguise and then back to her true self, and Tordan’s eyes went round with shock.

  Aielle just smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before when we were in Vierten.”

  “You were recovering, and I was pretty experienced at hiding my magic,” Kiersten said.

  Aielle beckoned them to come up the stairs, and Durstin shook his head at the way his cousin and his wife just accepted Kiersten as being an elf. Of course, it helped that Aielle was also an elf.

  They emerged in the great hall of Renwyn, directly in the center of the floor.

  “I assume this is urgent since you arrived in the basement in the middle of the night,” Tordan said.

  “Yes, very urgent, and we didn’t have a choice about the location of our arrival. That is where your portaling crystal is located.”

  “Our what?”

  “Oh!” Aielle exclaimed. “Is that what the crystal is doing in the column down there?”

  Kiersten’s lips turned down in dismay. “Yes. Did you not know why it was there?”

  “My mother didn’t tell me a lot of things,” Aielle replied. “I feel like all I’ve been doing is catching up since she passed on. But I don’t know you, so you must be from the village in the mountains.”

  Kiersten pursed her lips. “The village? Is that what you’re calling it? Garthurian is a realm and the first settlement of the elves on this planet. It might be less populated, but it still retains its power. As Renwyn does. How is it that you didn’t know about Garthurian?”

  “If my father were still alive, I would ask him, but he isn’t. So, the why of it was lost with him. Did you know King Ardair?”

  “Yes, he and my father were very close in their youth. After we were abandoned here when the portal closed, they started to drift in their beliefs and it caused a tension that ended their friendship. It was what led to the split between Garthurian and Renwyn. I’m hoping you and I can fix that.”

  Aielle took in a breath. “Then you’re . . .”

  “The daughter of Cithir. Yes.”

  “Oh gods.” Aielle swallowed. “By rights, we should hate each other.”

  “No,” Kiersten countered. “Just because our fathers were fools doesn’t mean we have to be. I don’t believe as my father did.” She gestured to Durstin, blushing prettily. “As you can see.”

  Aielle’s eyes flew to Durstin, and her expression cleared. “That’s right.”

  Tordan stepped forward, clapping Durstin on his shoulder. “Where have you been all this time anyway? We haven’t seen or heard from you since we were forced to flee Vierten.”

  “We were trapped in the caves to the north. Actually, the rest of our people are still down there.” He clenched his jaw as a fresh wave of anger hit him. “Of course, I didn’t know my wife could simply wave a hand and create a portal to Renwyn.”

  Tordan’s brows rose and he glanced between them. “You’ve been down there this entire time? I don’t understand.”

  “Our main tunnel caved in the day after we fled down there,” Durstin explained. “We tried to dig it out, but every time we did, the ground would settle even more. It was as if something heavy was on top of the tunnel—we couldn’t understand it.”

  Tordan and Aielle exchanged a glance. “It was probably one of the Red Death cubes,” Tordan said regretfully. “Another one of them caved in the tunnel the women and children were using to escape the mountain toward Renwyn.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea the same thing would happen to you. I should have sent c
yborgs to scour the area. I should have looked for you myself.”

  “There’s no guarantee you would have found us. There are a lot of dead ends down there, and we’re behind a few of those hidden doors. Remember the ones we used to make when we were young? I had my men make a few of them after the original Ardak invasion in case they tried to follow us. But what are these Red Death cubes you’re talking about?”

  Tordan’s brows rose. “You don’t know? Of course you wouldn’t, you’ve been underground this whole time.” He pointed up at the windows in the ceiling. “Behold, the Red Death.”

  Durstin looked up, and for a moment his heart stopped beating. The sky was red, just like in his vision. “Oh gods.”

  “Yes. The Ardaks dropped a bunch of cubes around Aurora, turning the air red. It’s a poison, but now we have a cure.”

  “And it’s that cure we’ve come for,” Kiersten said.

  “If you didn’t know about the Red Death, how did you know about the cure?” Aielle asked.

  Kiersten was the one to reply. “We found the Cave of Knowledge.”

  Both Tordan’s and Aielle’s faces lit up.

  “Are you serious?” Aielle clapped her hands. “If you found the Cave of Knowledge and you’re here, does that mean you’ve passed the tests?

  “Not yet,” she allowed, “but we were just given visions of the merpeople having magic and being destroyed by the Ardaks. Believe it or not, the Red Death was almost incidental to that. It was horrific.”

  “They are also sick from the red poison,” Durstin added. “We believe our task is to take them the cure and warn them of the ramifications of attacking the Ardak ships.”

  “Nirjhar did send us a message about teaching his children to use their powers, and I’ve been meaning to get back to him, but I got sidetracked,” Aielle said slowly. “But he didn’t say anyone was sick. We thought they were safe under the water.”

  “If their water is slowly absorbing the poison as ours did, it’s only a matter of time,” Durstin replied. “And the rest of our people are still hiding in the caves, still avoiding the red poison in the air. We also need to get the cure to them.”

  Tordan turned to Kiersten. “Can you create a portal back to the tunnels? Perhaps three-quarters of the way here? I’m not sure how close Stephan will be to Renwyn, but we can search for them in both directions.”

  Kiersten nodded. “Yes, but it will be easier than that. I specifically left a crystal behind with Stephan that I can use to locate them.”

  “Perfect. Follow me. We’ll bring them into the laboratory where we can give them the cure.”

  Tordan opened the enormous door and they exited the throne room. They passed through a grand entrance, elaborately carved columns rising toward a ceiling that was too high for him to make out clearly. Durstin had to concentrate hard not to keep craning his neck and admiring the beauty of the elven palace.

  Tordan immediately turned and took a corridor to the left, opening the first door on the right. He opened the door and led them into a room filled with metal—long tables with strange devices, rectangular devices along the walls with strange, glowing letters and images. He followed Tordan to the first table, where a bunch of small packets sat at the end.

  Tordan opened one of the packets, finding two mugs and dumping a small amount of the white powder into each.

  But Durstin couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering to the metal tools laid out everywhere. “Is this a . . . torture chamber?”

  Tordan barked a laugh, the first time he’d heard it in a long time. “No. Those are tools for surgery. So, if you get injured and there aren’t any healers around, we can get inside your body and repair it. We got all of this from the Ardak ship, and believe it or not, this equipment is from only two of the ten labs they had on board.”

  Durstin picked up one of the tools. It looked horribly painful. “Is this what they used to make cyborgs?” he asked hesitantly.

  Tordan clenched his jaw, and Durstin bit back the apology he knew his cousin wouldn’t accept. “Yes. But they have also saved many lives. I’m coming to terms with being a cyborg. It isn’t all bad—I have a lot more abilities than I used to.”

  Durstin wanted to ask more, but two younger elves entered the room, each carrying a jug of water and several mugs, which they set on the table. “Mordjan said you wanted to see us, King Tordan?”

  “Yes. We are going to open a portal and bring my cousin’s people here. As they come through, I need you to make sure everyone gets a dose of the cure and get them settled.”

  The two elves nodded, and Tordan gave them each a packet. “Remember, one thumbnail per person.”

  “Yes, King Tordan,” they replied dutifully, setting out the mugs and beginning to apportion the powder.

  Tordan took the jug from the table and poured water into each of the mugs. Then he turned to them, holding out two mugs. “These are for you. Drink it all.”

  Durstin took the mug, looking at the contents skeptically.

  “It’s just the cure, I promise.”

  “Yes, I know. It’s just, the last thing I drank was the elixir, and the experience wasn’t one I’d like to repeat anytime soon.” He drank the liquid. It was cool and refreshing, despite the sweet, almost floral tang of the powder.

  Kiersten drank hers and then set the mug aside before holding her hands up. “Are you ready?”

  At his nod, she opened the portal.

  Momentarily blind while his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cave, he heard curses and the slide of metal being drawn. “Stop!” he thundered, irritated when something slammed into his chest and then fell to the ground. He turned to face his attackers. “It’s Durstin.”

  “Durstin? How the hell did you get here?”

  “I’ve come through a portal to take you to Renwyn. Gather your things and go through it.”

  Everyone had stopped and stood there, gaping at him and the portal behind him.

  “Now!” he ordered, spurring them all into action. He saw a pair of boots lying at his feet, Serai creeping up to retrieve them. He raised his eyebrows. “You hit me with boots?”

  “I didn’t have anything else.” She shrugged impishly before scampering off to gather the rest of her things.

  He smiled to himself, amazed at all that had happened in one short day. Once they were ready, the children went through first as he moved to the back of the underground procession. Durstin grinned when he saw Stephan and the rest of his men. With them, everything was as it should be.

  When Durstin finally returned with Stephan, proclaiming the caves empty, he saw that the elves were handling the influx of people flawlessly. As each of the River people came through, a group of younger elves handed them a mug of the cure, instructing them to drink.

  Then Tordan separated them, sending them down different corridors to wait for the younger elves to take them to their quarters.

  Finally, Tordan refilled their mugs with water. “Drink, please. The waters of Renwyn have healing powers, and one of the first things we do in battle is forget to drink.” He nodded to Kiersten. “And I’ve found with Aielle, water makes all the difference to her magic.”

  “That makes sense. She’s a water elf, isn’t she?” Kiersten asked.

  “Yes. And now we need to get the cure to the merpeople.” Tordan opened a drawer and took out a package before returning to them. “Here’s the cure for the Red Death to take to the merpeople. Please tell King Nirjhar that we apologize for the delay, but this wasn’t easy to create. He should have enough in this package to cure all of his people.” He handed the package to Durstin.

  Aielle stepped forward, adding, “Tell him that we are willing to help teach the children how to control their magic.”

  “Thank you.” Durstin clasped Tordan in a huge hug and then bowed to Aielle. “It’s good to see you both again.”

  Tordan smiled briefly and then looked down. “And you. I can’t believe you and your people have been in that cave system the entire time.
I can’t say how sorry I am for that.”

  Durstin clapped him on the shoulder. “Never mind about that, it’s done now. And don’t forget that we had the ability to portal all along—even if someone was hiding it.”

  Kiersten ignored the pointed remark. “Are you ready?”

  Durstin let Tordan go and stepped back with a nod.

  She waved her hand, and a portal appeared before her. She walked into it without another word, and he was right behind her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kiersten

  They emerged from the portal on an outcropping of rock in the middle of the sea. Freezing rain pelted her in the face.

  “What’s wrong?” Durstin called over her shoulder.

  “It feels like there is a force field around the castle that’s keeping my magic out.” She shook her head, searching with her magic to find an entrance. “I can portal to a point directly in front of the palace, but not into it, which means we’re probably going to get wet. Let me go down alone.”

  Durstin drew his sword. “No. I should go with you.”

  “It will take more of my focus to portal us both there—and protect us both should he try to attack.”

  Durstin began to suck in some deep breaths. “I can protect myself. And I can hold my breath for a count of two hundred. Take me with you. At least I can block a sword.”

  Reluctantly, she nodded, waiting for him to finish a few more breaths. When he nodded, she created a portal to the entrance of the palace, taking them deep under the ocean.

  The water was frigid, piercing her body until she regulated her magic. The grand entrance to Nirjhar’s underwater palace glowed with a welcoming light. To the right of the gates, she spied a mallet. Picking it up, she banged the enormous gong above it.

  No sound emerged, but there was a wave in the water that even she could feel.

  Moments later, a merman emerged. His demeanor was stately, magnificent. Long dark hair flowed past his shoulders, his upper body naked and thick with muscle. But his lower body was that of an enormous fish, covered in beautiful, iridescent blue-green scales.