Girl of Myth and Legend (34 page)

It’s an instant reaction: fear engulfs me, festers inside of me, and my body trembles. I retreat. My mind has lost its rationality, and I cannot reason with it. Terror terror terror—that’s all there is; that is all he gives.

He grins.
‘Yes, I remain much remembered by you.’

I want to run run run, to close my eyes, to burn his image from my mind.

‘Korren?’

I bare my teeth, a low rumbling sounding from my stomach.

‘Korren, y-you’re—’

I whip my head around, snapping my jaws, and my keeper jumps back. I flinch and take a step away from her, breathing rapidly. She stares at me, eyes wide. I try to relax my body, adjusting it to her presence. I don’t want her to be afraid of me. No, I don’t ever want that.

‘I thought you were someone else,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry.’

She is hesitant and eyes me warily. ‘It’s OK. I understand. It got to you, too, right? Even though you said it couldn’t.’

‘Yes,’ I admit.

‘How can it be so powerful?’

‘Some maidens just are.’

‘So how did the rebels get their hands on it?’

‘They must have tracked it somehow, but as to how they’re controlling it…’

‘If it got to you, then it might try again,’ she says.

‘No. It’s all right—you’re with me now.’

I feel her surprise over what I said, but she hides it in a firm expression. I didn’t mean anything by it; only that she is a reason to stay sane.

‘If you keep being nice to me,’ she says, ‘I’m going to think the maiden’s frazzled your brain. In fact, if I start being chummy with you or whatever, assume the same.’

‘Now is neither the time nor the place for jokes and sarcasm,’ I remind her.

‘Right. Yeah. I know. Probably excessive inhalation of hallucinogenic mist working there.’ She frowns. ‘Just then, what you felt; I felt it too. Not the same as you maybe, but…’

‘I know. Don’t worry, that will go in time. Like you were told, the intensity of the soul-binding only lasts several days, if that.’

‘That’s not what I was worried about.’ She shakes her head. ‘Never mind. Let’s just hurry. We need to find my dad.’

So we continue through the desolation.

I look up to the mist-clad sky.

‘Yes, I remain much remembered by you.’

My eyes narrow.

Vynguard. How could I ever forget the keeper I betrayed to a fate worse than death?

‘Korren,
stop
,’ my keeper says.

I do.

‘Ahead,’ she whispers.

We see a figure in the mist, coming towards us. I move myself into a pouncing stance. We wait for the figure to come closer, and I’m about to attack when—

‘Sersu,’ my keeper breathes.

LEONIE

THE MAGIC IS THERE

Sersu looks at me as if I’ve stepped out of the sun, and then rushes towards me, pulling me into an embrace. It’s like being hugged by a bear. I push her away, taking in her dishevelled short blonde hair and pale face.

‘Sersu,’ I say, staring at her in disbelief. ‘I can’t believe it. Y-you’re alive!’

‘As are you! Thank the stargods! Oh, I was so worried for you! We searched and searched for you, all of us, but… but the maiden got to everyone else.’ She puts a hand over her mouth, forcing back her tears.

‘The Council members?’ I say.

She nods. ‘Dead, or at least as good as.’

I nod, too.

‘I thought you were dead. I really did. But look at you! You kept yourself alive,’ she says.

‘Not me. Korren. He kind of saved me a few times back there.’

She glances at Korren. ‘Thank you.’

He remains unmoving, but I can feel his surprise.

Sersu turns to me. ‘Why are you wearing these clothes, though?’

‘Korren thought it might help the rebels overlook us.’

‘That’s actually a good idea.’ She smiles. ‘I’m so relieved I found you; I was about to give up on this forsaken place. But now I know you’re alive, we don’t have to give up.’

‘What?’ I say.

She smiles. ‘I found a way to get us out of this hell, Leonie.’

‘The portal?’

‘No, that’s too far. I found something better, but I need your help.’

‘Anything, as long as it doesn’t kill us.’

‘Good. Very good. Come with me.’

‘Wait.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I can’t leave without my dad, Sersu. I need to get to him first.’

She nods. ‘And we can, but first we need to get something.’

‘Yeah? Define “get something”.’

‘In one of the chambers in the temple, there’s a relic, a powerful one. It was brought here a few days ago from another temple outside of the Dator Isles.’

‘Wait,’ I say, ‘you mean the relic that peacock—uh, I mean that ilwio person brought here?’

‘Yes, how did you know about that?’

‘I saw him holding it. But how will that help us?’

‘With it, we might just be able to stop this maiden.’

‘
Stop
it?’ I repeat.

‘No object can stop a maiden,’ Korren says.

She looks at Korren like he’s a dog that just spoke out loud, but she doesn’t comment. ‘This relic can. It’s very old and precious, and believe me when I say, one of a kind. It’s not supposed to be used to stop a maiden, but it has enough power to do so. I wish I didn’t have to use it, but we have no choice if we want to save everyone.’

I look at Korren. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think it’s unwise. What exactly does this relic do?’

‘It can seal any power, any soul,’ Sersu says, and I’m thankful she’s replying to Korren like an equal instead of biting his head off for asking. ‘If we get it, we can trap the maiden within it and release everyone from this hell.’

‘And then what?’ he says. ‘The Thrones may be dead and we’d have to face the rebels on our own. If it’s true what they said, the rebels have control over this maiden, which means they’re still alive. No, I say we go to the portal, little lion, and let the maiden tear this place apart.’

‘Leonie, please,’ says Sersu, stepping closer to me. ‘We can still save people. It’s not hopeless. If we obtain the relic we can set everyone free and save your father.’

I glance from her to Korren. So it’s my decision, my choice. That’s a first. I know that Korren is right, that getting and using this relic, an object we don’t know anything about, will mean the rebels will find us more easily and attack, and it will also mean wasting time that could be used to save Dad. I don’t even know if the relic will work, and we might even die trying to get to it, but…

‘We’ll get the relic,’ I say. ‘If there’s a chance people are alive, we have to take it. It wouldn’t be right to leave them to suffer when we can save them.’

Sersu smiles in relief. Korren doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he’s disgruntled.

‘But after that, Sersu, you help us get to my dad. I want to find him before we use the relic so the rebels don’t get in the way.’

‘Absolutely, my Lady.’

Sersu takes us to the outer quarters of the temple, a part of it I’ve never been to before. I vaguely remember how the ilwio came this way, walking with a group of soldiers. The mist isn’t as thick inside, but it still fills up my lungs, chilling them. We come to a beautiful door decorated in scarlet and gold, and we get Korren to pry it open. Sersu tells me that the doors are usually guarded, and when Korren fully opens the door, we see that it is guarded—by two soldiers’ corpses. There’s no visible damage to them, and their eyes are wide, jaws open as if they died of fright. I stare at them for a moment, fear prickling against my resolve, but I push it aside. I have to concentrate. I have to see this through.

‘This way,’ Sersu says, and I follow her.

There’s a spiralling staircase ahead, and I tell Korren to stay at the top of it so he can look out for danger. Sersu and I descend.

‘I wonder where the ilwio is,’ I say.

‘Dead,’ she replies. ‘I looked for him, thinking he could help with the relic. It’s unfortunate. But we’re not going to end up that way, Leonie.’

We reach the bottom of the staircase and walk into a room of gold and silver and treasure that gleams and glints in the torchlight. On the walls hang woven tapestries, looking old and worn, but somehow that doesn’t diminish the art. In glass cases lined with gold are strange artefacts, their beauty probably hiding the malevolence of their purpose. At the end of the room is a stone statue, chipped and damaged, and it seems odd in a place filled with beauty.

‘The fallen stargod, Ji-Husa,’ says Sersu. ‘A long time ago, the late Divinity forbade all worship of Ji-Husa, claiming that Elisuwi, stargod of wisdom, had visited him and told him that the stargod had fallen from grace. All representations of him were destroyed in an effort to wipe his existence from Duwyn.’

‘Then why keep this statue?’ I ask.

‘I was told that it was indestructible, the only vessel through which Ji-Husa can come into this world.’

When I look at the statue closely, the expression carved on his face seems sad, and I wonder what he did that was so bad that it caused him to fall—I shake my head. Why am I feeling pity for something that’s not even real? It’s not the time to be feeling sorry for some made-up god.

‘Here it is,’ says Sersu, looking down.

On the floor is the Imperium’s symbol, with a rendition of the cosmos around it in blues and greens and reds.

‘It should be beneath this part of the floor,’ she says.

‘How do you know?’

‘I just do.’

‘What’s this gold writing around it?’ I ask.

‘It’s not important.’

‘Tell me anyway.’

She’s hesitant. ‘“A truly terrifying punishment will befall any who open this”.’

‘Oh, now I
really
want to open it,’ I say.

‘Nothing will happen,’ she assures me. ‘It’s supposed to scare people, that’s all.’

‘It did the job. Sersu, normally I’d laugh at stuff like this as superstition, but after everything I’ve seen here, and after watching
The Mummy
several times, I’m really thinking opening up a relic with a truly terrifying punishment tagline is a bad idea.’

‘It’s all we have,’ she says. ‘But it’s your choice, Leonie. Only you can decide whether or not we should open this vault.’

‘Me?’ I ask.

‘A Pulsar should have enough power to break the seal. Several Thrones could do it together, but I’m not even one Throne.’

‘Sersu, I… I
can’t
do this. My powers, I mean, I haven’t even got any.’

‘But you have magic.’ She kneels in front of the vault. ‘It might not have reached its potential yet, but it’s still within you. Just put your hands on it, like this, and focus your magic.’

I crouch down. ‘And you’re sure this will work on the maiden?’

‘I’m sure. Believe in me.’

I hesitate, and then kneel beside her. How am I supposed to focus my magic? I’m reminded of O’Sah, his constant nagging to find inner peace. I rest my hands on the seal and close my eyes.

Inner peace,
I remind myself.
Find inner peace.

Something like that is impossible, though. If I thought I didn’t have inner peace before, I definitely don’t have it now. But, if this will get us out of this hell, I’m willing to concentrate.
Don’t fail me now, O’Sah.

I try to remember something, something that will make me forget where I am, or at least make me calmer. I think of a day, more than two years ago now, when I was sitting on the edge of a hill looking out to the soft hills and blue sky. The wind was warm that day, stirring my hair gently. I could smell the freshness of the grass, feel the soil beneath my hands, taste the summer air that was so inviting after long months of rain and cold.

And I remember
her
beside me. Her long blonde hair, her blue eyes, her constant smile. It was catching. I always found myself smiling back for no reason at all. She had been happy that day because she had made it to the next stage of her violin competition. I hadn’t been allowed to go to it—Dad never let me go anywhere—but I had been cheering her on anyway, resolute to go to the next one.

Abi.

That was probably such a non-extraordinary day, the day we sat on those hills, but it was one of the best. We were so close to the end, though ignorant of that, and the future was still there for us, and there were so many possibilities. The sky that day belonged to us, and even now, it still does. It always will.

‘You did it!’ I hear Sersu say.

I blink and look down to see my hands are faintly glowing. I instinctively pull them away, reminded not so fondly of my human glow-stick show, and the light fades. The floor begins to open up and reveals a small relic, a silver urn with intricate patterns etched on its surface.

‘This is the urn I saw the ilwio holding,’ I say, and I slowly take it out and give it to Sersu.

‘I can’t believe it,’ she says, ‘we can actually get out of here now.’

‘First, my dad,’ I remind her.

‘Of course, my Lady.’

We stand and head towards the staircase, climbing up the stairs and meeting with Korren at the top.

‘You have it?’ he asks.

Sersu holds it up.

‘Now to my dad,’ I say.

We go down a hallway that leads to an antechamber, and as we turn around another corner, I see someone walking towards us. When he spots us and recognises us, he runs at us.