21 Nights After Winter Solstice
CALL OF GLASS
“No,” Cassia pleaded.
She couldn’t see the Collector. But she knew he was here with her before the door.
“No, please,” she begged him. “Anything but this.”
She couldn’t hear his laughter. But she felt it. He savored her desperation like a fine wine.
Pain erupted out of her heart, and she clutched her chest. His icy, unseen hand reached for the spark of power and promise inside her. His nails dug into her magic.
“No, please,” she sobbed, grasping at her magic, at herself.
It slipped through her fingers. So beautiful. He was taking it from her, the only treasure she’d ever had, and she would be empty forever.
The door shuddered. Her hoarse screams and the rumble of stone echoed through the halls. She went down on her knees as her power bled out of her throat and the door cracked open.
Through the blur of her tears, she saw what lay beyond the portal.
A second door, sealed tighter than the last.
“Cassia!”
Another presence filled the halls. So much power. His resonant voice could bend the world to the shape of his words.
Glasstongue.
“Cassia!” he called her again.
She tried to answer, but she couldn’t get air into her chest. Couldn’t push words through the agony in her throat.
His Will cut through the stones and the pain. The Collector’s hold on her shattered. She felt Lio’s arms around her as the vision of the breached door—and the next portal behind it—shredded into nothing.
Cassia came out ofthe Slumber all at once, heaving at the air. Lio held her shuddering body tightly against him.
“It’s not real.” His voice, potent with thelemancy, oriented her. “It was a day terror. I pulled you out of it as soon as I could.”
Not real. She dug inside herself, scrambling to feel her magic.
Her power welled up from within her, lush and verdant. Dark and eternal. Her plant magic, but more than that. She felt her mouth, and when she cut her finger on one of her fangs, she sobbed with relief.
“You are whole.” Lio rocked her in his arms. “You are powerful, my immortal. He can never do that to you again.”
Her Grace’s presence flowed through their Union, immersing her in his closeness. Together, they traced the arcane paths in her veins, reassuring her that her magic thrived. He held her until her weeping calmed, and she could breathe again.
She sat up in the luxurious bed of the Changing Queen, which they had claimed as their own. The fading glow of twilight came in through the window. “You pulled me out of the Dawn Slumber early?”
Lio sat up beside her. “That’s the first time I’ve ever cast a Night Call. I’m thankful it worked.”
“So am I.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
He stroked her bare back. “I tried to be gentle, but I’m afraid having another Hesperine use magic to yank you out of your sleep is never pleasant.”
“I’ve heard the stories of an elder jolting a youngblood awake with a shout that feels like a blizzard in your veins.”
“That’s how my uncle does it.”
She caressed Lio’s face. “Your Night Call was nothing like that. You sounded like…rescue. Thank you.”
That power echoed in Lio’s aura still. “I will make him pay for that dream.”
Cassia swallowed. “I’m not sure it was a dream.”
He pulled her close again. “Talk to me about it.”
She described what she had seen, their hearts racing faster together as the realization sank in.
“Was it a premonition?” Lio asked tightly. “A warning from the Lustra about what he has yet to do? Or…”
“Or a vision of what he’s already done.” Cassia spoke their greatest fear aloud. “I don’t know. I only know he has the power to open the first door. Because he took it from me.”
“We have to stop him before the next door falls.”
“We’re not ready.” Lyrosleaned both hands on the table in the dining hall.
“I know.” Cassia glanced over their scrolls and maps in the wavering light of the hearth. She saw only their questions, not any of the answers they were searching for. “You know I would rather train more before we go to Castra Roborra. But I can’t tell from the dream how much time we have left.”
“We can’t afford to wait any longer,” Lio said. “We must face Miranda and do the best we can.”
Mak put his hand over Lyros’s. “We still have one advantage. Surprise. As long as the Collector believes we were last seen in Patria, he’ll think we’re focusing on the war. The longer we wait, the more time he has to realize we’re not there—and that we’re racing him to the doors.”
Lyros bowed his head, his brow furrowed in thought. Then he straightened. “Right. We don’t have a choice. We’ll make the best of it. Let’s adhere to the strategy we agreed on, even though we didn’t have time to finish practicing. We’ll work together to wear Miranda down enough to capture her, then bring her back here for questioning. Are all of you clear on your roles?”
Mak nodded. “While you focus on defensive wards, I’ll cast Blood Shackles on her to prevent her from traversing away.”
“I have something that might help.” Lio set down a pair of heavy iron cuffs linked with a chain. “Mak, can you tell us if these are still in working condition?”
“Traversal cuffs!” Mak examined them. “Yes, the metal and enchantments are sound.”
“How did you get your hands on a pair?” Lyros asked. “These look ancient.”
Cassia gestured downward. “We found them in the cellar. We’re not sure if they were Ebah’s or Lucian’s, but it’s no surprise they’d have such things to use against their enemies.”
“Excellent find,” Lyros replied. “Snapping these on Miranda may be easier than casting Blood Shackles, depending on how the battle plays out. Lio, Cassia, any questions about your part of the battle?”
Lio shook his head. “I’ll focus my thelemancy on helping Mak disable her. Fishing for secrets can wait until we secure her in the tower.”
Cassia shifted on her feet. “I’ll watch for your signal of when to activate my enchantment on our weapons.”
Lyros put a hand on Cassia’s shoulder. “We’ll need your roses.”
“You can trust me not to hesitate,” she promised.
“Good.” Lyros gave her shoulder a squeeze.
“You two will still need to be careful,” Mak told Lio and Cassia. “A few weeks of intense training can’t catch you up to the lifetime of professional skill Lyros and I have.” He lifted a hand to ward off Lio’s protests. “That’s not a criticism, just common sense.”
Cassia put a hand on Knight, but she knew that even with a liegehound at her side in battle, Mak was right.
“Let Lyros and me take the hardest hits,” Mak said. “This isn’t the time for noble self-sacrifice, understand? Let the warriors do what we do best. You two focus on using your magic and fall back on your combat skills when you’re in a tight spot.”
Lio nodded in acquiescence.
“All right.” Lyros stepped back from the table. “Let’s saddle up. We’ll step there, a safe distance from the ruins, then approach on horseback. We’ll need to scout our path carefully to make sure we don’t spring any traps.”
Cassia shuddered, recalling the necromantic traps that had been waiting for her and Lio at Paradum when Miranda had tricked them into stepping there with her. Lio’s memories of it also flashed across their shared mind’s eye. Excruciating pain, followed by blackness. Then they had woken with Lio chained to a wall and her strapped to the Gift Collector’s work table.
Here they were, following Miranda into another ruin from Cassia’s past. The Gift had helped Cassia forgive Miranda and herself for the betrayals that had brought them to this point. But she knew Miranda’s pain and rage would only burn hotter after their last encounter.
“We held our own against four Gift Collectors,” Lio reminded them, “and Cassia and I have defeated Miranda before. Victory isn’t impossible.”
“It’s never impossible,” Lyros replied, “but it’s always a question of what it will cost.”
“As long as we capture her alive,” said Lio, “it will be worth it.”
The different outcomes they had prepared for ran through Cassia’s mind like another terrible dream. She didn’t like any of her and Miranda’s possible futures.
Cassia’s throat tightened. “Do you think there is any hope of freeing her from him?”
Mak and Lyros exchanged glances.
Lyros spoke gently. “There has never been a Gift Collector whose loyalties changed. Not one, in sixteen hundred years.”
She gave a numb nod. “Thank you for being honest with me.”
“We know you prefer the truth,” Lyros said. “In our opinion, once Lio gets the information we need from her mind, the best possible outcome is to defeat her to the point that her master must revive her. Perhaps then you’ll have a reprieve from her quest for revenge, for a time.”
Was this to be their fate? Both immortal and doomed to an eternal duel through each round of the Old Masters’ game?
Lio’s touch on her cheek fetched her gaze to him. I freed Eudias. If my thelemancy can break the Collector’s hold on Miranda, I’ll try.
Cassia clutched his hand. She knew why he was whispering this intention into her mind. Lyros and Mak would never agree to it. She wasn’t sure she should, either.
This is different, she protested silently. Miranda isn’t an innocent victim like Eudias. She gave her magic to Kallikrates and asked him to possess her. She won’t fight him with you as Eudias did.
I know. But imagine if I could discover a way to sever an Overseer’s bond with Kallikrates. We could rob him of his most powerful playing pieces and make the Gift Collectors mortal again…and perhaps give Miranda some hope of a different future.
I want to believe that’s possible, but I don’t think it ever will be unless she makes a choice. Don’t fight him for her freedom if it puts you in greater danger. He’s waiting for his chance to take revenge on you for freeing me.
I’ll be careful, her Grace promised.
So why did she feel he had left his caution behind in Orthros? If her words of compassion toward Miranda came back on Lio, she would never forgive herself for that.