Her father had sent her to take the keystone to Ithilian so the wizards could make sure that it was never, ever used. That was her mission. Keep the keystone in the box. She recommitted herself to ensuring that it was never opened, even if it cost her everything.
A few days passed without event. Phane was entirely absent and her entourage was entirely present, fussing over her comfort, clothes, meals and everything else they could be concerned about until Lacy finally had enough and locked herself in her room for a few minutes of privacy.
Even that didn’t last. Not long after she’d escaped the smothering attention of her staff, there was a knock at the door. Lacy didn’t anger easily, but her patience was wearing thin. She stomped over to the door and threw it open, expecting to find her maidservant, but instead found herself blinking in disbelief at the person standing in her hallway.
“Lacy? Is that you?” the young woman said, smiling with recognition. She was petite with pale skin, curly black hair, and slate-grey eyes.
“Evelyn?” Lacy said, unsure what to make of the sudden surprise. “Evelyn Ithilian? Is that really you?”
Evelyn threw her arms around Lacy and hugged her tightly. “We’ve been so worried about you.” She held her by the shoulders at arm’s length. “How long has it been since we played together as children?”
Lacy’s mind reeled. “It seems like forever. Come in.”
“Prince Phane went to great lengths to rescue you from Zuhl,” Evelyn said, looking at her room appraisingly.
“I’m sorry, what are you doing here?” Lacy asked.
Evelyn giggled with a shrug. “I came here for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“When my father learned you’d been rescued by Phane, he sent a small fleet to escort you home. He let me ride along so you’d have a familiar face to greet you. We arrived this morning. Prince Phane was gracious enough to let me surprise you with the news.”
“So you’re here to take me back to Ithilian?” Lacy asked. “And Phane’s all right with this?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t he be?”
Lacy shrugged. “No reason. He just said he wanted to wait until his armada was finished.”
“He’s satisfied that our fleet can protect you, so you’re free to come home with me,” Evelyn said with a wide smile.
Lacy sat down, feeling a little overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events. She so wanted it to be true.
“There’s just one thing, Lacy.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lacy noted that her naiveté was beginning to fade.
“What’s that?”
Evelyn sat down close to her, leaning in to whisper. “You were sent for a box. Do you have it?”
Lacy got very still.
“My father says it contains a key to part of an ancient weapon we found on Ithilian. It’s the last piece we need to make it work. If we had it, Zuhl would be finished for good.”
Lacy could feel her heart beating in her head. She hadn’t heard this one before. It made her wonder if anything she thought she knew was real.
“Lacy, do you have it?” Evelyn asked, with just a hint of impatience. “If you can just open it, I’ll be able to send word home so my father can plan his attack.”
So many ‘what ifs’ tumbled through Lacy’s mind.
Finally, she smiled at Evelyn and said, “Do you remember that time we went camping when we were children? Conner caught ten fish that day. Somehow cooking the food ourselves made it taste so much better.”
Evelyn hesitated for a moment. “Yes, of course, I remember. It’s one of my fondest memories.”
Lacy stood, drawing her dagger.
“Who are you? Who do you work for?”
“You are becoming tiresome,” she said, the quality of her voice changing. “Open the box. Open it right now.”
“Rankosi,” Lacy said, shaking her head defiantly. “I’ll never open that box.”
The woman surged forward, transforming into a man as she moved, taking Lacy by the throat and wrist at the same time, lifting her from the ground.
“Open the box or I will find your brother and torture him to death.”
Lacy was choking, trying to get a full breath. She walked up Rankosi’s body, planted her feet squarely in his chest and pushed out of his grasp, falling hard. He stood over her, looking down with limitless contempt.
“He’ll die anyway if I open that box,” Lacy said, her voice cracking.
There was a knock at the door.
“Princess? Are you all right? We heard a commotion. Can we help with anything?” her maidservant said.
“You’ll all die anyway,” Rankosi said. “I’ll be watching. I’ll be waiting. And I absolutely intend to take my time with you.”
“Princess Lacy?” her maidservant said.
Rankosi left through the window, vaulting over the railing even though her room was on the third story.
“I’m fine, just clumsy is all,” Lacy said through the door.
She was anything but fine.
Chapter 8
“Will you look at that,” Hod said. “I’ve heard tell of the city before but I always thought the stories were a bit much … now I know different.”
Alexander sent his mind to Chloe to borrow her eyes. After a week on the road, his first glimpse of the Andalian capital city told him it was built with magic.
The city rested in a bowl carved out of the westernmost mountain in a chain of peaks that rivaled the Pinnacles for height, but were much broader at the base.
Steep cliffs rose a thousand feet, culminating in extravagant estates carved into the bedrock edge of the plateau and providing their owners with breathtaking views of the Andalian plains. The entire front half of the city was bordered by these estates, while the rear half was bordered by cliffs rising another thousand feet above the city, culminating in the Andalian palace.
A free-flowing waterfall poured out of the center of the semicircle of estates and fell to the lake below, spraying in the wind and casting a vibrant rainbow in the evening sun. From Alexander’s view, it would have seemed magical and idyllic if he hadn’t been looking at it through the bars of a cage.
“Impressive,” he said. And it was. He doubted that any army could conquer such a place … at least not without the aid of magic.
“It’s said that the city was here before men walked the world,” Hod said.
“How so?” Alexander asked, his curiosity piqued.
“It’s just a folk tale, really,” Hod said. “As the story goes, men found the city where it stands, abandoned and empty. Some of the buildings were worn with age but most were still intact, so people just moved in and made them their own. Always seemed far-fetched to me … until now.” He looked up at the half-ring of lavish houses lining the front cliffs and shook his head. “Seems hard to believe that men could build such a place.”
Alexander just smiled. He knew better, but it wouldn’t serve him to speak of it. The wagons rumbled up the road, through a fortress gate that looked rudimentary compared to the city itself, and into a wide tunnel cut into the bedrock of the cliff face. The well-traveled tunnel was dark and dank and appeared to be the road leading to the city above. It ran for several hundred feet, rising on a gradual grade, repeatedly turning back on itself as it continued upward. He counted forty switchbacks before they came to the final ramp leading to the surface of the city.
Finally, the caravan emerged onto a long straight road running beside the canal that fed the waterfall … and into a city from a fairy tale.
Alexander had wondered at the lack of gates until he saw the giant locks set alongside the river. Within minutes, the city’s defenders could divert the entire flow of canal water into the tunnel, flooding it completely and ending any chance of invasion by that route.