Crystal Caged (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles Book 5) Page 6

  Vi watched with a mixture of curiosity and horror as the two young men picked up the stones. They each held them in their open palms and closed their eyes, an intense look of focus overtaking them. She twisted the quill between her fingers, eventually forcing herself to jot down a note. Writing after living in the woods for so long felt uncomfortable and awkward.

  Perhaps it was just the situation that was uncomfortable.

  “Good, join your power with the stone’s. Try to connect your channel with it.”

  Egmun was stealing her words, though it did the young men little good. Vi kept her eyes on the crystals. They didn’t change in the slightest.

  “Let’s start slow,” Egmun continued.

  Victor and Aldrik conjured ice and flame respectively, sometimes pitting their elements against each other, sometimes seeing how long they could sustain frost and blaze, and how intensely the magic could collect. Vi made some arbitrary scribbles, but mostly just gnawed on the end of the quill in thought. They weren’t accomplishing much other than exposing themselves needlessly to the crystals for about half an hour in the name of seeing how crystals impacted their magic.

  “That’s enough for today. We don’t want to risk your minds and bodies becoming corrupted from crystal taint.” The minister finally stood, motioning to the box. “Please, return them.”

  “It feels strange… letting it go after you’ve had it.” Aldrik curled and uncurled his fingers as if he were still imagining holding the stone.

  “Strange how?” Vi asked.

  “I forgot you were there.” Aldrik blinked at her several times, as if he’d just returned to the plane of existence. Then, realizing he hadn’t answered her question, continued, “You can feel it fueling your magic, making it stronger, sharper. When I hold it, I almost feel like I could make or do anything.”

  Victor was intensely focused on the box.

  “And you, Victor?” Vi asked. “What do you feel?”

  It took several seconds for him to shake his blank expression, for his eyes to regain clarity. The man pushed himself away from the chair, standing with a start. “I feel like I want more.” With that, he abruptly left the office.

  “Victor we haven’t even—” Aldrik tried to call after him, but was met with a closing door. “What’s gotten into him?”

  “He’s likely just jealous of your prowess,” Egmun said.

  “Well, he and I are on the same page. I want to practice more, too.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Egmun returned the box to its hiding place. Vi’s focus remained on the door. “But that’s all we are going to work on today.”

  I want more. The words stuck with her. As soon as he’d said them, Victor had stormed off with purpose. A dangerous question crept into Vi’s mind: Had Victor already located the crown?

  Vi set down her notes and made her way out as Aldrik and Egmun spoke. Egmun gave her a questioning look. “Please excuse me, I just remembered an appointment I must attend,” Vi said hastily and left the office.

  She couldn’t waste any time beginning her search, especially now that she knew Victor might already be ahead of her.

  The Tower hallway was empty. She strode down the spiraling pathway, keeping her eyes peeled for Victor, but there was no sign of him. She’d waited too long to follow.

  Cursing softly, Vi headed toward an unmarked door on the outer ring of the tower. Behind this door was a narrow path—a secret passage that connected the Tower of Sorcerers with the palace proper. Vi emerged into a servant’s hall and, after orienting herself, started for the Imperial Library. She hadn’t seen much that would be useful in the Tower Library, and the Imperial Library’s collection was easily ten times the size.

  On entering, she stepped hastily between shelves, easily avoiding the attention of any library staff without the need of flashes of Lightspinning. The last thing she wanted was someone asking too many questions about what she was doing.

  “Histories… Histories…” Vi murmured to herself as she passed between the towering bookcases. Eventually, she made her way to a section dedicated to the histories of the Solaris Empire, organized by dates and rulers. The history of the Solaris Kingdom was tucked away in a corner of the tallest shelf, requiring her to climb one of the rolling ladders to reach.

  Vi plucked the first book and skimmed the pages.

  “Too long ago.” She returned it and grabbed the next one. “The crown of Solaris was bestowed on the eldest son of the original Solaris. It was a boon given to him by the Mother, ordaining him to rule this land,” Vi read aloud.

  The words boon given to him by the Mother were underlined in mostly faded blue ink.

  Vi flipped ahead a few pages. More words were underlined in the same pale ink.

  … a powerful Waterrunner, the crown bestowed the Mother’s blessing on him.

  … then he crafted the first Solaris castle entirely of ice…

  His son did not have magic. However, with the crown, he could inspire loyalty in those around him with powers unlike any other…

  The book was littered with faint blue lines scribbled throughout. Some were dotted, some were double lined. A few passages were even circled. Vi furrowed her brow and ran her finger over a note at the end of the book. Scribbled in the corner on the back of the last page, it read:

  One - Blue.

  “One, blue,” Vi read aloud. “What does that mean?” A frown crossed her lips. She didn’t know what kind of notation system or code this person was using. But she did know one thing with confidence—someone else was tracking the history of the crown.

  Vi just hoped it wasn’t Victor.

  Vi’s head jerked up as she was startled by a knock on the door—three fast raps, followed by two slower ones. Rubbing her bleary eyes, Vi glanced out the windows. The midnight oil was burning in the mostly dark city below and that meant she’d been at it for at least five hours straight.

  Putting down the book she’d been combing through, Vi opened the door without hesitation. Only one person knocked that way.

  She was met with the face of a Tower apprentice—a pale-skinned young woman with straw-colored hair.

  “I wasn’t expecting anyone,” Vi said with a tired smile.

  “Well, when you become a hermit for a few weeks, you run the risk of people seeking you out.” The young woman’s eyes darted down the Tower hall. “Now, let me in before someone sees I don’t belong here.”

  “I doubt that would happen. For how secretive they are, the Tower doesn’t seem like it has the best security.” Vi stepped to the side to let Deneya enter, and she watched the illusion vanish from her shoulders.

  “Can never be too careful.” Deneya hoisted a folio in the air. “I found it.”

  “You did.” Vi carefully grabbed the time-worn folio from Deneya’s hands. She opened it on the table, pulling out the papers one by one.

  “Don’t get your hopes up. There’s not much there about the theft of the royal treasure.” Deneya leaned on the back of one of the chairs. “All the names have been redacted.”

  She wasn’t wrong, of course. Four lone sheets of paper were all that remained recorded of the greatest heist in the history of the Solaris Empire.

  “Why would they blot them out?”

  “I have a theory. Here, look at this one.” Deneya held up a sheet of paper. She pointed to one of the names that had been poorly inked away. The pen scribbles were hasty, and only covered half of the letters.

  A—la

  “Whose name does that look like to you?” Deneya asked with a grin.

  “Adela.” The ink in the books had been too faded to be recent. The person who made those notations to find the crown’s location wasn’t Victor. “She was the one searching for the crown and who ultimately stole it.”

  “That’s my theory. Also why they blotted out all other references of her name.”

  “Men and their superstitions,” Vi muttered. She remembered how just the whispered name “Adela” had been considered bad luc
k in Norin.

  “My bet would be pride for this one. Losing your family’s heirlooms and treasure is one thing… letting your father be murdered by that same thief and then having her slip through your grasp? Too much for a young, budding Emperor to handle.”

  “Do you know what happened to the rest of the records?”

  “If there were more, they’re long gone. It’s a miracle I could find these.”

  “Thank you for your hard work.” Vi paused her reading to look Deneya in the eye when she gave her thanks. Having another set of eyes on everything she was piecing together—another set of hands to double the work—was invaluable.

  “I am in Lumeria’s Order of Shadows.” Deneya smiled gleefully. “Collecting information like this is my job. The Queen will be all too happy if it’s also information on the bane of the seas.”

  “Adela,” Vi whispered. She lifted another sheet of paper. “The thief fled to the coast. The treasure was never recovered.” Setting down the paper, Vi quickly went to the shelves underneath the windows in the back of the room. Vi had grown tired of constantly going back and forth to the library, so she’d been ferrying books back and forth for weeks now in secret.

  “You’re amassing a little library,” Deneya observed.

  “I’ve had a lot of time to read lately,” Vi murmured. She’d discovered reading to be different than she remembered—especially when it came to histories. She read both the black ink of the words and the white space between them. There were phantom memories within her; sections of her subconscious remembered past worlds and connected them in ways that should be impossible.

  Likely, the memories weren’t her own at all. They were Yargen’s. But that was a truth Vi left in uncharted territory, for now. Taavin was right: they had enough to worry about.

  “Here it is.” Vi located the book she was looking for and crossed back to Deneya, handing it over.

  “The Imperial Summer Palace in Oparium.” Deneya opened to the middle and was greeted by blueprints that were now familiar to Vi. “Architectural drawings?”

  “Yes, I had to get into the Imperial archives for this one… Unlike my other stolen books, I’ll need to return this soon. But for now, look at the foreword.” Vi’s mind was moving so fast her mouth could barely keep up. “The date, specifically.”

  “Construction began in 308.” Deneya glanced up at her. Vi held out the paper she’d been reading. “The theft was in 307.” Comprehension lit up Deneya’s face.

  “The theft of the Imperial jewels that dated back into antiquity was in 307. King Romulin Solaris was murdered the same year, leaving Tiberus Solaris to become King. Then, the man who was to declare himself Emperor the very next year decided to make his first act as a ruler building a summer home?”

  “Young men are fickle creatures.”

  “You know Tiberus,” Vi said seriously. “He wouldn’t let Adela’s transgressions go.”

  “Then what do you think it is?”

  “The manor is a front for something, I’d bet.”

  “A front for what?”

  “I don’t know, but look.” Vi took the book back from Deneya’s hands and rested it on the table, flipping through. “These plans are incomplete… There are sections missing. Doors lead to nowhere and hallways crop up from nothing.”

  “How can you tell?” Deneya shifted, looking over her shoulder.

  “I just can. See, here, there’s—”

  “I’m going to stop you there; I’m not going to understand anyway.” Deneya laughed. “I trust you.”

  “I don’t know how you can understand how to make leather and smithed goods, but claim you can’t grasp architecture.”

  “We all have our strengths.” Deneya held out her hands and shrugged with a small smile, but her expression turned serious once more. “So where does this leave us with the crown?”

  “Adela successfully stole it, of that I’m confident.” Just saying it aloud made Vi’s toes curl with how right it felt. “She must have fled to Oparium. It’s the largest port near Solarin.”

  “Makes sense for the most infamous pirate the world has ever seen. Tiberus followed her in pursuit and… built a house with incomplete architectural drawings?”

  “I don’t understand that bit either,” Vi admitted. “But that’s a mystery for another time. The first order of business is to make sure Adela actually got the treasure out of the palace. We have to rule that out with as much certainty as possible before we go chasing another lead.” Vi doubted that Taavin would go with her on a gut feeling when it came to this. She needed more proof of her theories before they took action.

  “If she didn’t get it out of the palace, wouldn’t someone have already found it?”

  Vi glanced back at her collection of books—a wealth of history on the Solaris family. Theirs was a bloodline that ran all the way back to the eldest son of the Champion.

  “No,” Vi said. “This place is old, very old, and it’s been built on time and again. Who knows what may be hiding in its depths?”

  Chapter Six

  The moment Deneya left, Vi summoned Taavin. He barely had time to orient himself before she asked, “Do you know where Adela’s room in the Tower of Sorcerers was?”

  “Excuse me?” Two emerald eyes blinked at her in startled confusion.

  “Adela’s room, when she was a student of the Tower… do you know where it was?”

  Focus crossed his face and Taavin shook his head. “A moment.” He held out his arms and murmured the chant that connected him to all the knowledge of their past iterations. As the light faded from him, he shook his head again. “This isn’t something you’ve asked me before. Why do you need to know about Adela?”

  “I think she’s the one who took the crown—well before the point at which the world is being rebuilt time and again. The crown’s location has always been variable. Her stealing it may have been a stone in the river, but everything else about how she did it—”

  “Changes,” Taavin finished thoughtfully. “Adela would be an agent of chaos in the world.”

  “Exactly. I need to figure out if the crown left the palace or not.” Vi filled him in on all her discoveries—the books, Deneya’s records, her gut instinct. “If it’s here, we have it. If I’m right, and it’s not… then it’s either in Oparium, or with Adela herself.”

  “Let’s hope it’s not the latter.” Taavin sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I don’t know where her room was.”

  “Do you know anything about her? Beyond the obvious? Any memories of her, no matter how insignificant, might be helpful.”

  “You seem desperate.”

  “I am.” Vi folded her arms. “Victor might be ahead of me in the hunt for the crown. I’m not sure.” She shook her head at the whole situation—at the mere thought of Victor getting his hands on the crown. In her world, when he had, he’d used the crystals’ power to challenge the Solaris family in a bloody coup. He’d become known as the Mad King for his twisted ways, and any effort Vi could make to thwart or postpone his nefarious tendencies would be effort well spent.

  “I see.” A pained look crossed his features. “I’m sorry, Vi. I don’t have much knowledge on Adela beyond what you likely already know.”

  “It’s all right.” Vi crossed to him and took both his hands in hers. She gripped them tightly. “The knowledge you’ve given me has already done so much. I can take care of this.” Leaning forward, Vi placed a chaste kiss on his lips, quickly pulling away. Now was not the time for romance. Deneya’s revelations had lit a fire in her. “I’ll let you know what I find.”

  “Where are you—” She’d dismissed him before he could finish.

  “Sorry,” Vi murmured to the empty air and left her room. The night was young, and the iron of her mind was hot—ready to strike.

  She wound about halfway down the Tower to a central room. Long tables stood empty, projects scattered about them, waiting for their Waterrunners to return in the morning. Around the out
side of the room were narrow doors that led to private workshops.

  Vi peered into the darkness, imagining Adela here. The woman was sixteen, or maybe just seventeen. She had the same icy blue eyes. Her hair was blonde, not white. She was younger, but as confident and arrogant as the Adela Vi knew. She sauntered around the Tower and this room like she owned the place.

  This was the shade of the woman who had marked up Imperial Library books, if Vi’s theory was right. She plotted the greatest theft in Solaris history right under the eyes of the royal guard and family. Adela had been so confident that no one would suspect her, she even left a paper trail.

  “You wanted someone to find you, didn’t you?” Vi whispered into the imaginary face of the young Adela. She could almost envision the teenager smirking back. Adela would want someone to piece together her brilliance.

  What good was a history-making theft without leaving enough behind for the bards to spin tales of her infamy?

  Vi’s midsection tensed with a phantom pain and she suppressed a shiver, remembering where Adela had gouged her with an icicle. She hated the thought of playing into Adela’s plans. But letting the crown slip through her fingers was not an option.

  To the right of the door was a narrow bookshelf. Each of the books on it seemed to contain records of the projects and supplies used by Waterrunners within the Tower. Vi went right for the year 307.

  Sure enough, a familiar pale blue ink was neatly scribbled next to various dates throughout the year. The Tower records had been exempted from the systematic expunging of Adela’s identity. Likely, in part, because her name wasn’t actually written anywhere.

  Vi focused only on what she assumed to be Adela’s entries.

  A.L. — Storeroom duty.

  A.L. — Borrowed seven tokens from the storeroom.

  A.L. — Training grounds, Waterrunner combat.