Chapter 4
PORTALS AND PARAGONS
There were no seasons in Fenris’s dungeon. No night or day. No wet or dry. It was timeless and endless, neither hot nor cold, neither bright nor dark. It was just a muted, bland mush of terrible monotony.
But, luckily, I did have magic, and that magic broke through the monotony.
I could hear when the guards changed shifts, when they ate, and when they slept.
So when they came to our cell, marched us down the twisting corridors, and presented us to their prince, I knew fifteen hours had passed since I’d last stood opposite Fenris in the hall.
His Polymages stood on either side of him.
The remaining three Apprentices, those who had not yet succumbed to him, were locked in their cages.
I briefly met Kylie’s eyes. The hint of a smile touched her dry, cracked lips.
She thought I was going to save her. I would certainly try. Please, oh please, let this plan work.
“Prince Fenris,” I coughed. My throat was as dry as sand. Being imprisoned in a dungeon was definitely not good for my health.
“Savannah Winters.” He stood opposite me, his smile as dark as his soul. “If that’s even your name.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded.
He stepped toward me, folding his spindly fingers together. “In this place, I will ask the questions,” he snapped sharply. “And you will answer them.”
The ‘or else’ was implied.
“When did you go to Gaia?” he asked me.
I blinked. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“How old were you when you moved to the realm known as ‘Gaia’?”
“I didn’t move to Gaia. I’m from Gaia. I was born there.”
“Gaia is a realm without magic, and you, Savannah Winters, have a lot of magic.”
“I gained magic when the spirits blended with me. That’s how Knights are made. We aren’t born with magic; we get it later.”
“I know how Knights are made,” he hissed. “I don’t care about those pretenders. I want to know where you came from and why you went to Gaia. Who sent you? Who is trying to ruin my plans?”
Oh, crap. It seemed Fenris had indeed figured out that I’d had magic before the Blending.
No need to panic, Savannah, I told myself. Just stay calm.
“If you’re referring to your plans to kidnap lots of Apprentices, then the answer is I am trying to stop you.” I met his cold eyes. “In fact, I will stop you.”
“Will you?” he said with a sinister laugh. “Well, you’re not doing a very good job of it, are you?”
“The last time your guys came to my cell, they shot me full of magic.”
“You tried to escape.”
What I’d done was test their defenses. Conclusion: they were good.
I lifted my aching, bruised arm in front of my face. “How much magic did they shoot me with anyway?”
“Far more than what should have been required to subdue a girl your size. You refused to go down.”
I shot him a defiant look. “I don’t go down easily.”
“But you do go down eventually.” He shot a warning glare my way. “Remember that.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I have a feeling you won’t let me forget it.”
“Enough!” he bellowed.
The word echoed off the stone walls about a dozen times before it faded into the darkness.
“Let’s get down to business. Where do you come from?” he asked me.
“Gaia.”
“Your abilities reveal your lie. You are a Polymage. Since I didn’t turn you into a Polymage, there’s only one other possibility: you were born one. No one from Gaia is born with magic.”
“No one that you know of,” I said. “Until you met me.”
“I hate teenagers,” he growled under his breath.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t kidnap them.”
“Is that your plan?” he demanded. “To annoy me until I abandon all of my plans?”
“Will it work?”
“No.” He bit out the word.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I can be very annoying,” I promised him.
His cold eyes met mine. “I don’t doubt it.”
“Good. Glad that’s been cleared up. Now save yourself the trouble and let us go.”
He watched me, his scowl deepening. “You aren’t human. I’m certain of it.”
He was right. For whatever reason, I wasn’t human. Kato and Conner weren’t human either. But how? And why? What were we?
“I’ve had my eye on you, Savannah Winters,” Fenris said. “And you are nothing but trouble.”
He’d had his eye on me. Well, wasn’t that nice?
“Why are you trying to ruin my plans?” Fenris demanded.
“Because your plans involve kidnapping people, experimenting on them, and brainwashing them. I know you played hooky the day moral compasses were handed out, so here’s a tip: all of those things are evil.”
“You don’t understand anything.” He laughed in my face, spraying me with spittle. Gross. “You don’t even know what you are, do you, child?”
I winced.
“I thought so. How sad for you. You have all this power, and you don’t even understand why. You don’t even know who you are.”
I gave him a defiant look. “I know exactly who I am. I’m the person who’s going to stop you.”
He gave me an amused look. “I’m sure you’ll try. But in the end, you will fail. Knowledge is power, Savannah Winters, and you don’t know anything.”
I glared at him.
“I can help you,” he said, pleasant and false. He was such a liar. “I can help you learn who and what you truly are.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Let me guess. All I need to do in exchange is swear fealty to you.”
“Your fealty would make this easier, but it is by no means required. I will find out what you are, Savannah, one way or another. Understanding how your magic came to be is key to my project’s success.”
“By project, I trust you mean kidnapping Apprentices, pumping them full of the spirits’ magic, and brainwashing them to serve you.”
“I wouldn’t put it that crudely, but if you must, then, yes, essentially.” His smile was without conscience or concern.
I countered with a smile of my own. “You will fail. Those Apprentices will be free again.”
“And who’s going to free them? You?”
My heart was racing so fast, I could barely keep my hands steady. This had to work.
“No, not me,” I said. “Them.” I pointed straight up.
Fenris’s gaze snapped to the ceiling. First came the spark of magic, like a match being lit, then the explosion.
A roaring whirlpool, a light show of swirls and streaks, burst to life high above us.
Two figures came out of it, but they didn’t drop.
They fell slowly, like two skaters stroking across the ice. Capricorn and her partner Scorpio.
One of Fenris’s guards went down. Then another. Three more. They were dropping like flies, and I couldn’t even see the spells Capricorn and Scorpio were casting. They were so good.
Capricorn landed in front of the vampire. “Prince Fenris, I presume?”
His eyes narrowed. “Who the hell are you?”
“They are Capricorn and Scorpio, agents of the Zodiac Order, defenders of all magic in the Many Realms,” I told him. “Surely, you’ve heard of the Zodiac Order.”
“Yes,” he said tightly.
Fenris glanced at Capricorn. She smiled. He looked at Scorpio, who was most decidedly not smiling. His eyes were an obsidian jungle, dark and predatory, a wild spirit contained by a thin sheet of civility.
Fenris took a step back. “How did they…why are they…” He was having trouble pulling his thoughts together. His nervous breakdown was an absolute pleasure to watch.
“I reached out to them,” I said.
“That is impossible. I’ve had protective spells placed around this compound. No magic can get in and no magic can get out—unless I allow it.”
I shrugged. “Polymages are different. Our magic doesn’t work quite like other people’s magic. I thought you knew that. Isn’t that what this whole experiment of yours is all about?”
Fenris looked like he wanted to punch something. His gaze met Scorpio’s, and his fists unclenched. He turned and ran. Scorpio took off in pursuit. Fenris’s guards fell before him, brought down by Scorpio’s invisible spells.
I turned to Capricorn. “Thanks for coming.”
“After what you told us about what Fenris is doing, we had to come.”
“Protect your prince!” Fenris shouted.
His brainwashed Apprentices formed a protective circle around him. They linked hands. A magic dome, made of translucent gold light, flared up. Capricorn joined Scorpio, and together, standing before the big dome, they began chanting.
I headed for the three big cages of trapped Apprentices and the many smaller cages of trapped spirits dangling from each of them. The magical glow on the cages fizzled out. I hummed a few notes, and the locks snapped off the cages.
The tiny glowing spirits, blinking so many different colors, like fireflies in the night, hovered for a moment, and then they disappeared.
A chorus of voices chanted in my mind. Thank you, Savannah.
The spirits were free.
Fenris’s enraged voice bellowed across the chamber. “Do you know how hard it was to catch them!”
Capricorn and Scorpio were bombarding the protective magic dome with spells, but it was holding.
The Apprentices inside the cages rose slowly, cautiously, to their feet, as though they were afraid that it was all a trick.
Except for Kylie. She burst out of her cage and threw her arms around me. “Savannah.” Her voice was hoarse. “I knew you’d come for us.” She clutched me tightly. “I knew you’d save us.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.”
She took a step back to shine her smile upon me. “I never stopped believing that you would. The others, they said there’s no escape from this place. They said it’s impossible. But they don’t know you. I do. Savannah Winters always finds a way.”
The spell bombardment stopped. I turned and saw the dome peel open and fade to smoke. The seven Polymages stood there, looking disoriented.
I came to stand beside Capricorn. “What did you do?”
“We freed their minds.”
“How?”
“By returning their memories to them. Fenris erased them so that he could more easily control them.”
“You brought back their memories? How do you bring back something that’s been erased?” I asked.
Scorpio pressed his palms together, putting out the magic sparks sizzling across his skin. “Nothing is ever truly lost. There’s always something: an imprint, a clue, a string to unravel. That’s how we returned their memories to them. It’s a spell we recently learned from the Princess of Portals.”
“The Princess of Portals? She’s one of the Paragons of Magic, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” he replied. “But most people know her by another name: Portia.”
“Portia is the Princess of Portals?” I struggled to fit that revelation into my understanding of the universe. It was a hard fit. “What does that mean? What are the Paragons? What do they do? Where does their magic come from?”
Capricorn set her hand on mine. “Savannah, I know you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them as best I can. But right now, we need to bring these people to safety. That is our top priority.”
“She’s right, Savannah.”
I turned to Seriana. I’d totally forgotten that she was there.
“Ok.” I looked at Capricorn and Scorpio. “Can you make a portal to bring the Apprentices back to Gaia?”
Capricorn drew a large circle in the air. A portal formed in front of us. Ok, I guess she could.
“Apprentices, this way.” Scorpio waved his hand. He stepped through the portal, and the Apprentices followed.
“See you soon, Savannah.” Capricorn fell into step behind the final Apprentice in line.
Seriana stepped up to me, sheathing the sword in her hand. She must have stolen it from one of Fenris’s soldiers.
I looked at Fenris, sitting inside the ring of his fallen guards, hugging his knees. “What do we do with him?”
“We bring him in front of the Court for judgment,” she said coldly.
Suddenly, Fenris was on his feet. He moved with preternatural speed, so fast I hardly knew what was happening. In the split of a second, he threw something into the portal and then pushed us inside.