Heir of Pendel (A Pandoran Novel, #4) (20 page)

It wasn't long before we reached the granite wall: the entrance to the Room of Doors. I hesitated, searching for any traces of residual magic. I couldn't sense any energy from manipulating the magical fields. If Mistress Dothrai and the Morts had used this portal, it had been some time ago. Still, we had no idea what awaited us on the other side.

"Stand ready," I said over my shoulder. "There could be shadowguard inside."

"In that?" Thaddeus asked. "Uh, all I see is a rock…
oh
!"

I'd placed my hands on the surface, spoken the words so familiar to me, and the shimmering letters had appeared.

"Once we're in, it'll take me a few minutes to secure the door to the Arborenne," I said to Thaddeus and Vera. "Ready?"

Thaddeus nodded, and Vera pulled both her daggers. With a deep breath, I stepped through the barrier.

And found myself facing a pykan and a dozen Morts.

11

ALEXANDER

T
he Morts turned around, and the Room of Doors filled with the scrapes of swords being drawn from their sheaths. Thaddeus and Vera appeared beside me as I adjusted my sword in my hands.

One Mort, who was definitely a half-giant, flexed his arms and clenched his fists as his face contorted with a bellow. The sound was too loud in the small space, and I wondered if the Room of Doors would collapse right on top of us from the sheer volume of it.

"Oh, come on," Thaddeus whined, covering his ears. "Was that really necessary?"

The half-giant Mort charged us. It was difficult knowing his exact target since he was wider than all three of us put together. At the last second, Thaddeus and Vera dodged and I ducked. The half-giant's axe rammed into the wall behind me, emitting a faint spark with a resounding
clang
. Before the half-giant could turn around, I whirled, bringing my sword across the backs of his legs. He dropped with a cry, and I jammed the hilt of my sword into his skull. The half-giant crumpled to the ground and lay motionless. Thaddeus nodded at me approvingly, the pykan hissed, and then the rest of the Morts attacked.

"His majesty wants Del Conte alive!" growled the pykan, who lingered on the opposite side of the circular room.

"Only Del Can't? What about my life?" Thaddeus said nearby. "I'm pretty important"—
clank
—"too!"

"Maybe as a cause for insanity." Vera high-kicked, her boot finding purchase with a Mort's jaw, sending him reeling to the ground.

"You know, V…" Thaddeus rammed an elbow into a Mort's temple. "I'm beginning to think all this special care you take in throwing insults at me means you actually like me."

She groaned, and two more Morts fell beside the half-giant, compliments of Thaddeus and Vera. I didn't have a moment to thank them, because two more Morts were on me. One wrapped an arm around my neck while another approached with a black hatchet. Using the Mort behind me for support, I kicked up, planting both heels onto the chest of the approaching Mort. I pushed hard, kicking him back, using my backward momentum to shove the Mort behind me against the wall.

I rammed my head against his, and, in turn, he knocked the back of his skull against the rock wall. The pressure around my neck eased and I slid free, twisting then plunging one of my short blades through the narrow opening in his armor, right in his armpit. I withdrew the blade right as the second Mort brought down his hatchet. In one fluid motion, I spun and threw the blade at him. It sank right in his neck and he faltered, hatchet freezing over his head before he toppled to the ground. I wiped my brow, and a faint glow registered in my periphery.

This chamber was too confined to fight with magic, but one of the Morts was foolish enough to try. I dropped to the ground, barely missing the orb of blue light. It blasted over me, razing my hair before careening into the rock wall. Chunks of rock exploded, raining all around, and I covered my head with my arms.

"I said alive, you fool!" hissed the pykan.

The fighting continued. My muscles strained and ached, stiff and sore from all the travel and fighting in Yosemite, but I kept going, pouring all my energy into every punch and kick and jab, always aware of Thaddeus and Vera while also keeping one eye fixed on the pykan—who snaked slowly around the perimeter. I didn't know what it was doing, but I didn't trust it.

Vera screamed, drawing my attention away from the pykan. I glanced over my shoulder to see her slashing her knife across a Mort's throat. His own blood-stained blade clattered to the stone floor while he gripped his neck, trying in vain to cease the blood now gurgling from his carotid artery. Vera limped forward, favoring her right leg. She didn't see the Mort behind her.

I was opening my mouth to yell when Thaddeus dove on top of Vera, taking her down with him. The Mort's blades hit stone instead, and Thaddeus was on him at once. I dispatched the last few Morts, and then the chamber fell quiet. I glanced around; the pykan was gone.

Thaddeus helped Vera to her feet, and Vera didn't even try to resist. I wiped my sword on the armor of one of the fallen Morts then sheathed it. I counted thirteen dead—including one half-giant—and the pykan was still missing. So much death. Always so much death.

"Well, that was…invigorating," Thaddeus said.

"Did you see where the pykan went?" I asked.

"Nah." Thaddeus hoisted Vera's arm around his shoulders, and she sagged against him. "I was hoping you did."

I shook my head, wiping my sweaty brow with the back of my hand. "We'd better hurry before it comes back with reinforcements."

"I don't know…" Thaddeus's gaze slid over the bodies. "You sure you don't wanna just go ahead to Valdon? You might not need to fix that sword to unite the people, because you could probably take on my pop's army all by yourself. Well, with my help, of course."

I turned my attention to the doors, scanning the arched stone slabs, each one an exact replica of the other. The Room of Doors had been designed this way to keep out intruders, being that it was so close to Castle Regius. In order to use it, a person needed intimate knowledge of the doors and the various incantations, depending on one's destination. Without them, a person could enter some magical dimension and never return. Or, a person might not be able to open any doors, trapping themselves inside the Room of Doors. My father had stumbled upon dead bodies in here more than once, and part of his job as aegis over this portal had been disposing of them.

Which was also most likely why the pykan had accompanied the Morts: The pykan would've had the magical capacity to manipulate the fields around these doors and force them open in order to get Morts safely to and from this room and Valdon. I didn't have that kind of magic, but what I
did
have was knowledge of both the doors and incantations, thanks to my father's position.

I stepped over a body and paused before one door in particular. I'd gotten used to the doors' variations of energy. My father had made me practice as a boy. I placed my hand on the door, feeling the soft ripples of cool energy beneath it. This was the right door, but the magical field around it felt…off. Sick, almost.

I stepped away from the door, viewing it in full.

"Lemme guess. You don't know which door to use," Thaddeus offered.

I pinched my lips together. "This should be it."

Thaddeus snorted. "Yeah, because it's
so
obvious."

"No…something's wrong. It feels like the fields have been tampered with."

Vera moaned, and we both redirected our attention to her. She was deathly pale, even though she hadn't lost much blood.

"Hang in there, V." Thaddeus adjusted her against him, then glanced back at me, worried.

One of the portal doors behind us rumbled. The pykan had to be forcing it open. Alone, the pykan could manipulate the magical fields and simply walk through, but in order to bring others, the pykan would need to open the portal. And since it didn't know the proper incantations, the pykan had to physically open the door.

Thaddeus and I exchanged a glance, and then I spun back around and placed my hands on the door, muttering the words that would take us to Imbdell.

Nothing happened.

The portal door behind us kept rumbling.

"Uh, Del Can't?" Thaddeus's voice wavered. "You
might
want to hurry up."

I muttered the words again, but still…nothing. I glanced over my shoulder. Valdon's door was one-third of the way up, and boots were visible on the other side.

"Del Can't!" Thaddeus yelled.

"I know!" I pounded my fists on the rock, muttering the incantation through clenched teeth, but something pressed back from the other side of the portal door. It was as if I were speaking into a black hole of magic that was sucking all my words out of thin air and rendering them ineffective.

Men hollered and yelled behind us. Their door rose halfway.

Sweat dripped down my temple as I focused, pouring everything I had into my words. I strained and sweated and yelled the words, and then finally—
finally
—they pushed through. The door vanished so suddenly I almost fell through the opening. I gripped the edges of the threshold, bracing myself. There should've been a lot more green on the other side, but I didn't have time to concern myself with that now.

"It's open!" I yelled.

"Yeah, well, so is theirs!" Thaddeus shouted.

With a holler, the reinforcements poured through their opening right as the three of us tumbled through ours. Right over a short ledge, then dropping a few yards before colliding with soft, damp earth. I coughed and rolled, then jumped to my feet to help Thaddeus lift Vera. The portal we'd just stumbled through returned to rock wall, the glittering letters already fading.

"That was too close," Thaddeus said while we propped Vera against him.

"I know, but we aren't—"

A bolt of light sailed overhead and blasted into a tree branch, sending bits of bark and wood and leaves all over the place. The pykan was forcing this door open.

I cursed. "You two get back!"

Thaddeus didn't need coaxing. He hobbled Vera toward a thick of trees while Morts crawled out of the half-open doorway. I had to close that portal. That meant I needed to somehow get past all of them—by myself. I sighed. I didn't have energy for this.

I pulled my dagger first, throwing it at the closest Mort. It sailed end over end, plunging right between the Mort's eyes. He stumbled and collapsed to the ground, while the rest bounded past him. I drew my sword and deflected a blow. My movements were slower now, my body weighed down by fatigue. Sweat dripped down my forehead, stinging my eyes, but I couldn't get a moment's pause to wipe them. A few Morts headed in the direction of Thaddeus and Vera, and Thaddeus laid Vera down to fend them off.

I saw the light from the pykan just in time.

"Thaddeus, down!"

Thaddeus glanced up then dropped, shielding Vera's body with his own. With a loud crack, the blast landed in the tree trunk, right where he'd been standing. The tree creaked and moaned, teetering as though it was suddenly too heavy to hold itself up, and then, as if in slow motion, it twisted and started falling. Thaddeus and Vera were right in its path. Thaddeus noticed. In a whirl of panic, he tried pulling Vera out of its path. Morts yelled and sprinted away from the falling tree. Branches snapped and popped, leaves rained down, and the tree crashed to the ground. Right on top of Thaddeus and Vera.

No.

Fury boiled through my body. I yelled, charging the four Morts in front of me. They were down in under a minute, but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. I wouldn't—not until every last one of them paid for this with their lives. I hacked and beat and kicked, my body working on impulse, and then a wall of light rammed into me.

The light hit with such force I flew back a few feet before colliding with the ground. My body ached everywhere. I rolled to my side and tried to stand, but a net of light spread over me from head to toe, pinning me to the ground. I grunted and strained against the mesh of light, but it wouldn't give. Morts stepped aside as the pykan approached, its yellow, cat-like eyes focused on me as it held the spell in place. I writhed and pushed, but the pykan's magic held firm. I wasn't going anywhere, and the pykan knew it.

The pykan smiled, showing off pointed black teeth. "His majesty said to bring you alive, but there are many things worse than death, young prince." He hissed that last word and crouched at my side. His breath smelled like rot. "I suggest you come willingly or—"

There was a whoosh of sound followed by a wet
snick
-
snick
-
snick
. The pykan toppled backwards. Two arrows with bronze fletching protruded from its chest, and a third stuck out of its forehead. Arborennian arrows.

The pressure on top of me evaporated. More bronze arrows shot from the trees, not ceasing until every last Mort had fallen. Quick footsteps crunched and a figure crouched over me.

It was Ehren Venia, champion and prince of the Arborenne.

"I heard the commotion and came as fast as I could." He extended his hand, which I took. "Are you all right?"

He helped me up.

"Yes, but…" I bolted for the fallen tree…where Thaddeus stumbled out from under it like a drunken man. My footsteps slowed to a bewildered stop. Thaddeus and Vera had chanced upon a natural depression in the ground, and the tree had fallen over them with only a few inches to spare. Thaddeus had more lives than a cat.

"Quit gawking, would ya? I need help with V."

I hurried to his side and helped him pull Vera out. Her eyes were shut, her breathing labored, and her lips were tinged blue. I touched her forehead; it was cold as ice. Thaddeus and I exchanged a worried glance. I'd learned some things from my mother, who was a gifted healer—enough to know this was beyond my abilities.

"Poison?" Ehren asked.

I nodded grimly. "This is beyond me. Can you do anything to help her?" I stared down at Vera's still form. It didn't matter what my mother had said about Vera's choosing to follow me on this mission. If Vera died from this—under my care—I would never forgive myself. By the looks of it, Thaddeus wouldn't either.