The Vengekeep Prophecies (29 page)

“Don't waste time laying blame,” Talian said. His rummaging through the spellbook slowed and he studied each page carefully. “It would take us days by mang to get to Vengekeep. With the tapestry's power, the balanx will be there in hours.”

“No!” I said, pulling out the calendar I'd carried since we left Vengekeep. “Mooncrux isn't for three days.”

Talian looked up from the spellbook and studied the calendar. “Jaxter,” he said quietly, “that's last year's calendar. This is a quellyear.”

Quellyears occurred on our calendar every five years. During a quellyear, the third month lost three days. Mooncrux was
tonight.

Talian thumped the spellbook as he found what he was looking for. Taking out his glowing spellsphere, he held it to the book and ran the sphere over the hastily scribbled spell he'd located. As he did, the strange words on the page began to squirm and twist. Then they shot across the surface of the parchment and disappeared into the spellsphere. A moment later, the entire page was blank.

“The quickjump spell,” Talian said, holding his spellsphere triumphantly. “We can still beat the balanx to Vengekeep.”

He stared into the glowing orb and whispered a few hurried words. At first nothing happened. Talian closed his eyes and chanted again. Still nothing.

Opening his eyes, he stared upward. “It's the spiderbats. Their presence is making it harder to cast the spell.”

I'd forgotten about the spiderbats. With the jackalmen subdued and the balanx gone, most of the spiderbats had taken to hanging from the ceiling while others scaled the walls. A few flittered over Xerrus, now standing frozen, covered from shoulder to foot in thick webbing. He appeared to be unconscious. Talian looked rather pale and I remembered how ill he'd gotten in the aircaves.

Callie looked up and around, waving to the spiderbat queen. The queen broke from her formation above and swooped down next to Callie.

“Your Majesty,” Callie said, bowing humbly, “you've done us a great honor today by assisting us in our time of need and providing us with … that which we came for. We've no wish to keep you here any longer. You should attend to your people.”

The queen chirped. “You honorrr us with yourrr thanks, Callie Strrrom. Should ourrr paths crrross again, you will be welcome in ourrr caves.” The queen emitted a string of high-pitched bleats. The rest of the spiderbats responded, swarming around their queen, then flying out the broken window into the approaching night.

“Thank you,” Talian whispered to Callie, and closed his eyes to attempt the spell again. This time, the spellsphere responded. Slowly, a ring of green light flew up and out of the sphere. It rose into the air, widening as it did. The ring floated over to a bare spot of floor and dipped down, coming to rest just above the stone. As Talian continued whispering, the ring of light sizzled with energy and turned blue. I peered down into it. Instead of seeing the sanctum floor underneath, I saw what looked to be thatched roofs and cobblestoned streets as viewed from directly above. The scene within the ring had a dark blue hue, as if twilight was near.

“That's Vengekeep!” Callie noted, pointing into the ring.

Talian traced the pulsating circle with his finger. “Once you step into the ring, you'll find yourself back there.”

“Bangers!” I said.

“What do you mean ‘once
you
step into the ring'?” Callie asked, eyeing her cousin suspiciously. “You're coming too, right?”

Talian glanced over at Xerrus, immobilized by the spiderbat webbing. “I can't tell you how many Palatinate strictures Xerrus has broken here. I know that Vengekeep's in trouble, but my first duty as a mage is to see that those strictures are enforced. The Palatinate has to be notified about what Xerrus has been doing here. They'll do something to help these poor creatures.” He pointed to Xerrus's caged mutations.

When Callie looked unconvinced, Talian said, “You don't need me. You need to warn Vengekeep and destroy the tapestry. Jaxter's got a terrific plan and now you've got the final ingredient. You just have to find that Edilman character and get back everything else you need for the solvent. Callie, I have to do this.”

“C'mon, Cal,” I said, putting my arm around her shoulders. “We'll see him again soon.”

Callie nodded. She gave Talian a hug and I shook his hand. “Hurry,” he said. “Who knows how long it'll take you to find Edilman and make the solvent. Warn Vengekeep.”

Callie and I stood at the edge of the glowing ring. I felt her hand slip into mine and squeeze tightly. The burns on my hands had mostly healed so I screamed only a little.

“Think this will make it into the Grimjinx family album?” she whispered, a smile in her voice.

I squeezed her hand. “Better be in huge block letters.”

Together, we jumped into the ring.

It turned out that the picture we saw in the ring—of the streets of Vengekeep from above—was quite literal. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel disoriented, like when we passed through the illusion barrier. But I didn't feel the slightest tingle leaping into the quickjump ring. We instantly found ourselves in Vengekeep. Or, more accurately, we found ourselves falling down from quite high up onto the hard, stone streets of Vengekeep.

Of course, falling was nothing unusual to me. I'd seen the ground coming up to meet me more times than anyone should. Even from that height, I knew how to prepare for impact, roll, and walk away harm free. Which is what I did. Callie wasn't so lucky.

As I hit the ground and rolled, I heard Callie collide with the street, and a crack rang out with her scream. I jumped to my feet and went to her side. She held her left arm to her chest, her face racked with pain.

“You okay?” I asked, helping her up.

“I think it's broken,” she said, wincing through gritted teeth.

“Let's get you to the healers—”

“No,” she insisted. “Talian's right. We have to warn everyone about the balanx. I'll be fine. Let's go to the Castellan and—”

“There'll be plenty of time to see the Castellan later.”

We both froze on hearing the rough voice from behind. We turned and there stood Maloch, sword drawn, flanked by three members of the stateguard.

“But first,” he said with a smirk, “you'll be paying a visit to gaol.”

I looked up to the night sky. Both moons hung directly overhead, moving slowly toward one another, minutes away from crossing....

“A man with one eye on his coffers and the other on his purse is blind to the theft caused by a lie.”

—
The Lymmaris Creed

“Y
ou're making a mistake, Maloch,” I protested as my former friend and three stateguards with spears marched me down the steps leading to the dungeon under Vengekeep's gaol. The dungeon had gone unused for a century. For them to lock me up down there meant serious, serious trouble.

“The prisoner will be silent,” Maloch barked.

That was all he'd said since the arrest. Repeatedly. Callie and I had been taken to Aronas's office. Despite our attempts to warn of the coming danger, we were ignored and separated. Aronas, seeing he could score points with a member of the town-state council, turned Callie over to her uncle for punishment. Aronas gave his apprentice the pleasure of seeing me locked away.

“You remember those flying beasts?” I asked over my shoulder. “The ones in the tapestry? Well, they're on their way to Vengekeep now. They'll be here any minute. You've got to let me go to my family so I can—”

“We're taking you to your rotten family,” Maloch said.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, the moldy aroma of the dank dungeon air filled my nostrils. My feet slid on the mildew-coated floor as Maloch shoved me forward roughly.

“Jaxter!”

I looked ahead, where my entire family sat in a cell. Ma clutched the bars as Da, his arm in a sling, rose from a wooden stool. Nanni threw a handful of what I guessed was the gaol's excuse for food at the stateguards who opened the cell doors. The guards thrust me through into Ma's waiting arms. I held her for a moment, then turned as Maloch was about to disappear up the stairs.

“Maloch!” I yelled. “I won't be able to warn you again.” But he never turned around.

Before I could say a word, Aubrin pulled me into a hug. Then she stepped back and showed me the black book I'd given her before leaving. “I did just as you said,” she whispered. “I wrote down everything that happened while you were gone.” She thumbed through the book, revealing pages and pages of writing. “And then some.”

“Bangers, Aubrin,” I said with a smile. I turned to my parents. “What the zoc is going on here?”

Ma ignored my cursing. “The last day has been crazy. Yesterday, some old geezer approached the Provincial Guards surrounding Vengekeep, claiming to be a cursebreaker from beyond the Five Provinces. Apparently, word of Vengekeep's problems has spread across the seas and he came to offer his services.”

Da picked up the story. “The whole town-state's been on edge and of course Jorn, eager for any solution, let him in. This ‘cursebreaker' took one look at the tapestry and announced that the scholars had misinterpreted what it meant. It didn't say ‘The star-marked family alone shall be the salvation of Vengekeep.' He claimed it said, ‘The star-marked family alone shall be the
sal'viton
of Vengekeep.'”

I groaned.
Sal'viton
was par-Goblin for “mortal enemy.”

Da continued. “And that's all Jorn needed to hear. He had us arrested and locked up. So that leaves us with a cursebreaker trying to break a nonexistent curse. He probably doesn't even realize that the tapestry is the source of all the problems!”

I nodded grimly. “Oh, he realizes. He's not a cursebreaker. It's your old friend Edilman.”

I reported everything that had happened to me and Callie. My parents were genuinely alarmed to hear that their old partner in crime was somehow involved in this mess. I finished by telling them how he'd stolen the solvent ingredients and was intending to destroy the tapestry to earn the High Laird's pardon.

“A death sentence?” Ma scoffed. “We warned him about dealing in illegal materials. That's why we went our separate ways in the first place.”

“Maybe we should just let Edilman do what he plans,” Da said. “If he destroys the tapestry and saves Vengekeep, the High Laird will pardon him and they won't have any reason to hold us.”

Nanni wasn't convinced. “If he destroys the tapestry,” she said, “he'll have to explain why he did it. He'll tell everyone it was fateskein. Since we're the only ones who feature in a positive light in the tapestry, it won't take them long to figure out who wove it in the first place.”

“I bet he's already tried to make the solvent himself and failed,” I said. “Nanni's right. If he'd succeeded already, you'd be on trial for fateskein possession by now. But he never knew about the spiderbat's milk. That's why his solvent isn't working.”

“So what do we do?” Da asked. “That fool Edilman's going to use up all the ingredients trying to get the mixture right and then we'll be stuck where we were before.”

“It's worse than that,” I said. “The winged creatures are on their way to Vengekeep.”

Everyone exchanged looks. Aubrin's eyes were wide. “You mean, you've seen them?”

I grinned at her and Ma tousled her hair. “She's been chirping like a bird since you left. We can hardly get a word in.”

I nodded to Aubrin. “They're going to tear the town-state to shreds if we don't destroy that tapestry.”

Our discussion was interrupted by the clatter of metallic boots. Aronas descended the stairs, opened the door to our cell, and pointed at me. “You! You're wanted.”

“Why?” I asked defiantly.

“The cursebreaker heard of your return to Vengekeep and thinks you may be important. He wishes to interrogate you himself. Come!”

I looked to Ma and Da gravely. “Don't worry about me. The ‘cursebreaker' and I need to talk.”