The Turquoise Tower (Revenant Wyrd Book 6) (4 page)

To her right Grace could see nothing but towering stones and debris.

“This is where the academy came down?” Grace asked.

“Part of it,” Aladestra nodded. “We’ve had the glass and smaller rubble swept away; now there’s only the larger stones to break up and dispose of. We were able to clear a path this way.” Aladestra pointed to Grace’s left, where there had been a path cleared through more rubble. From her time in the towering city of ivory, Grace knew this corner well. It was the one where the central city started, the home of all the offices of state and the wyrder’s academy.

“Shall we?” Aladestra asked, and Sara nodded.

As they made their way through the rubble, Grace kept to herself, admiring the staggering size of the city. It was said, though Grace didn’t believe it, that none of the buildings here were constructed with wyrd, but she just couldn’t understand how towers and apartment buildings could reach so far into the heavens without the aid of some kind of wyrd.

They turned right once out of the rubble, and Grace looked ahead of them. Every time she saw the cobble street winding up the hill to the Ivory Tower at the apex, it took Grace’s breath away. The sun sparkled majestically off the crystal observatory at the tip of the tower, where Aladestra was able to stargaze at night and practice the ancient art of astrology she so loved. But as Grace’s eyes drifted down the tower, to where the bridge was supposed to rest, reaching out to the wyrder’s academy, her blood ran cold.

The bridge was gone, as was the upper half of the wyrder’s academy. Grace could see evidence of the ruined tower on the ground all around her.

“Did it explode?” Grace asked. Fragments of the tower lay all around in a circular pattern. Stores and homes had been crushed under the weight of some of the larger blocks. There was blood in various spots on the cobbled streets, where it couldn’t be washed away. The sun had darkened the blood into brown stains.

“I really don’t know,” Aladestra said with a shrug. “I remember fighting the fallen, but there was so much confusion. It sounded like an explosion, but with such destruction, who can really tell one sound from another?”

Grace nodded.

“Would you like to see the fallen?” Aladestra asked. “We have kept it for observation.”

“Yes,” Grace said, despite her better judgment. She hated going into the morgue of the Ivory Tower. Being surrounded by so much death might not bother some people, but Grace just didn’t like it. “I’ve never seen a fallen up close.”

“Really? With everything you’ve been through?” Pi asked, coming to walk beside Grace, or maybe Grace was just slowing down the further they made it up the hill.

“Even with the battles I’ve lived through, no.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Aladestra said. “It’s a terrifying sight. To know that the being in front of you looks human, but has such power, such thoughts that you just can’t understand.” Aladestra shivered. “And something new — this one had black eyes.”

“Black eyes?” Sara asked. “That
is
new.”

“What do you think that means?” Grace asked.

“Eh, who knows? Anyway, the rest of the Realm Guardians are waiting for us, so your inspection of the angel might have to wait, Grace,” Aladestra said, coming to a stop before the oaken doors of the Ivory Tower.

Around the base of the tower was green grass, no gardens like one might expect, and nothing overly grand. The tower sat at the top of the hill, and though it wasn’t crowded, other buildings sat nearby. Off in the distance Grace could see a tunnel leading under a series of streets to the more seedy part of the city, one she might have visited in her younger years.

Aladestra pushed the door open and welcomed them all into the dimly lit corridor of the entrance hall.

The hall was fashioned of mud-colored brick, lending a darkness no amount of firelight could quench. Grace knew this hallway would open out into a lobby of sorts, but they weren’t going that far. To the right, not far from the entrance, a series of stairs carved into the building wound up and out of sight.

“I’m not sure how long this will take,” Aladestra said, turning to the rest of the group. “We only need Grace, Sara, Annbell, and Mag — the rest of you can explore if you’d like. We’ll break for lunch in three hours, and meet anyone who would like to dine with us in the lobby straight ahead.” Aladestra motioned down the hallway ahead of them.

“Oh, what fun!” Rosalee said. “Dalah, let’s walk around the city.”

“You think we could get around the entire city in three hours?” Dalah asked.

But Aladestra was leading them up the stairs, and after only a short distance, Grace lost the rest of the conversation.

The first door on their left was the conference room they would be using. Aladestra opened the door and welcomed the group inside.

Around a circular table sat the other Guardians, and a smattering of their personal entourages; whether guards, advisors, or a little of both, Grace wasn’t sure. Most of them she recognized only through reputation and titles.

Azra Akeed she recognized, having met her once. Her red hair and caramel skin reminded Grace of the short, unfriendly time she had spent in the Realm of Fire.

Still others she didn’t know. She imagined the white-haired child was Pyang Tsang, since he was the only child in attendance, and sat to the west, the blue flag of the Realm of Water hanging on the wall behind him.

Aladestra walked around the room, her hand gracing the top of a new chair with a shadowy black flag hanging on the wall behind it.

“I had hoped we could meet the new Guardian of the Shadow Realm,” Aladestra said. Was there a hint of disdain in her voice? Grace bristled with the thought that Aladestra could hate Joya simply because she was the Guardian of Aladestra’s rival realm.

“She ventures to the west,” Sara said. She took one of the seats to the north, the green flag on the wall behind her. Annbell sat down in the chair beside her. Mag and Grace followed them and sank into two of the other unoccupied chairs.

“Ah, the west,” Azra said, and Grace could barely understand her because of her deep accent. “To what grows there?”

Sara nodded.

“One would have thought the council of Guardians would have decided that,” said a thick-boned blonde who sat in the east. Grace thought it was Rowan Lok, the Guardian of the Realm of Air. She sat alone. Grace remembered Sara saying there had been a lot of destruction in the Realm of Air; likely Rowan couldn’t afford to bring a group with her, and instead left them behind to deal with the destruction.

“Some might think the time was for action, not politics,” Annbell fired back. “If what we have been told by Azra and the dreams of the LaFaye children is true, there wasn’t time to discuss, only to act.”

“There is a darkness growing in the west,” Azra reminded Rowan.

Rowan Lok rolled her shoulders and sniffed.

“The darkness has already risen,” Grace said, drawing most eyes to herself.

“You know this how?” Rowan Lok asked.

“Angelica and Jovian LaFaye are anakim, they are gifted with farsight. They’ve seen what’s coming in the west.”

“And that is?” Aladestra asked.

“Come on,” Annbell erupted. “You’ve seen the warning signs, you can’t tell me you don’t know?”

“Enlighten us,” Rowan said.

“All of these attacks aren’t just caustics,” Sara said, cutting her hot-headed twin short. “We’ve been attacked by fallen, we’ve warded off an alarist. There have been similar reports pouring in from all around the realms. The Ivory City has lost all of its verax-acis, and Aladestra herself has fought a fallen, with
wings
.”

Silence fell around the table. Rowan sat back in her seat, studying Sara as if gauging the truth of her words. But to question what Sara said was to question what others had also seen, and in that Rowan was outnumbered.

“The Turquoise Tower,” Azra said, finally breaking the silence. “It’s been found?”

“And is calling out to all beings with angelic blood,” Grace nodded. “That’s why Joya LaFaye, the Guardian of the Shadow Realm, wasn’t able to be here. The pull was too strong, and her responsibilities to her family and her stolen sister too great to ignore. She ventures west with a small group, mostly others of angelic blood.”

“So what is this darkness?” Rowan asked.

“Arael,” Sara said simply.

No one spoke. It was evident to all of them that Arael had been seeking the Turquoise Tower before, and if it had been found and breeched, it was either by Arael or an alarist, and since only an angel could activate it and give wings to those with angelic blood, it made sense. They hadn’t seen any white-winged angels yet, only black-winged, which meant the alarists had been ready and waiting, most likely with scores of half-breeds ready for the change.

“Where’s the proof?” Rowan asked, though Grace thought the fight had gone out of her voice.

“We don’t have any hard proof,” Sara said. “We can tell you first-hand accounts of things we’ve seen, but other than this piece of parchment, we don’t have anything to show you.”

Annbell handed the parchment with the names of the nymphs on it around the table.

“Where did you get this?” Aladestra asked, handing it off to Rowan to her left.

Grace recounted the story of her early travels with the LaFaye youth, and how it had taken her into Betikhan Valley to witness the death rites of the nymphs.

“Those names and ages were given to us there. It wasn’t until later that Mag was able to decipher the puzzle and tell us what it meant.”

“Arael lives,” Azra whispered, nodding her head. “It makes sense.”

“What other stories?” Pyang asked, taking the parchment from Azra, but not looking at it. He handed it to Grace.

“I’ve seen the Beast,” Mag said. There were gasps all around the table.

“How?” Rowan asked, her reserve shaken.

“In the Orb of Aldaras, when Sara was very sick. She was clasping her hands to the orb, and within the surface I saw the image of the Beast.”

“Those relics don’t lie,” Aladestra said.

“Some people might,” Rowan mumbled to herself, leaning back in her chair.

“I think that’s about enough,” Pyang said. “I too have seen alarists destroy my city, and a black-winged figure flying off and to the west after Nanta Lake spilled into my home. I killed an alarist myself. I believe every word that’s being said here, and I say if you aren’t completely with us, you have no room at this table.”

Grace cleared her throat to mask her smile. It was one thing being scolded openly, but to be rebuked by someone who looked little more than ten years of age was something completely different.

Wisely Rowan didn’t comment, or even look as if the words bothered her. She did sit up, however.

“So, what do we do?” Aladestra asked. “What do we know of these angels?”

All eyes turned to Grace. Since she was the one who had been closest to angels, in the form of Sylvie and Pharoh, she was deemed the one to know most about them.

“Well, from what Pharoh and Sylvie spoke of before, I imagine how things work in the Ever After is by energy exchange. Some philosophers think the Goddess has power because of her believers. Without everyone holding faith in her, the Goddess’s power would cease to be. It is through belief that angels derive their power as well.

“If angels don’t have anything to rally behind, they lose their power. So, the Goddess obtains her power through the faith of her people, allegedly, and angels obtain their power from the Goddess. For the fallen angels, I assume their figurehead is Arael. Without him, they would have no power.”

“So,” Rowan said. “What you’re saying is that the fallen are getting their power from Arael, and the angels are getting their power from the Goddess?”

“Precisely,” Grace said.

“Then all we have to do to destroy the power of the fallen is kill Arael?” Aladestra asked.

“Let’s hope Angelica and Jovian are successful,” Annbell said, marking the holy symbol of the five-pointed star over her body.

“And that’s how Arael wants to take over the Ever After,” Mag said, slapping her hands on the table. Everyone jumped. “If he destroys the people’s faith in the Goddess, he can destroy her and take her place.”

“Dear Goddess,” Pyang breathed. “That has to be what’s happening.”

“So if we’re striking at the Turquoise Tower, where Arael is, where is his target?” Azra asked.

“The seat of the Goddess in the realms, the holy see — Lytoria,” Grace said.

“Yes. If he wants to strike a blow at the faith of the people, then he has to decimate the seat of all our faith.” Aladestra nodded. “So, we venture to Lytoria.”