Chapter 28
Chapter
We stood in silence. Dricus sat propped against the wall, looking at us with disbelief. Aidenar came to me slowly. I stood dazed, trying to piece everything together. He took me in his arms and let me weep upon his shoulder.
“It is all right now,” he said softly, as if promising something beyond his power. “I will not let this happen again.”
I cried a little longer, then drew back and wiped my cheeks. I did not want anyone to see me so torn and helpless, and there was more to be settled.
“Dricus,” I said, my voice cold, “I asked you once before. I ask you now for the last time: does anyone visit you in your dreams?”
Dricus kept silent. I did not like that quiet.
“Dricus,” I repeated in an icy tone.
He looked at me calmly, then dropped his gaze and finally answered, “The same woman Aidenar described. Only twice.”
I watched him, feeling betrayed, letting my gaze demand the whole truth, or else trust between us would end. He seemed to understand and went on.
“She tried to persuade me,” he said. “She spoke of my power, of how strong I might be, of how I should rule with her and her Family. She talked about how the Families despised me, that they thought I was a freak, that no one trusted me. That I would never be one of you.” He looked Aidenar in the eyes as he spoke.
“But with her, I would unleash my true potential.”
Aidenar burst out, “And what did you answer her, Cineris?”
Dricus closed his eyes and rested his head against the stone. “After what I endured in the south, a few compliments aren’t enough to make me join some dark cult.”
“How did you break free from the dreams?” I asked.
He smiled at the corner of his mouth. “In my dreams, people mostly burn alive,” he replied. “Twice was enough to discourage her from returning.”
The three of us remained at the entrance to the blackened ruins of the temple. The fighting in the palace slowly subsided. The smell of burned rats hung around us, scorched earth hissed in the cool air, and ash fell like rain.
“We must go down there,” I said firmly.
They both looked at me as though I were mad.
“There is a fifth vase down there,” I added. “I saw it in my dream. That is how the Plague spreads. We must destroy it.”
When they still said nothing, I told them of the temple I had seen with my father, of altars to the elements and the water that led me through maps.
Soon the guards arrived. Their faces went pale when they saw the ruined walls.
“Send someone for my father,” I commanded. “Bring water. As much as you can.”
The air was heavy and dry, as if the fire itself had sucked the breath away. After a while everyone came: my father, several lords, guards, the medics… and Cassandra. I had not seen her in a long time and I would not claim I missed her.
“What happened here?” she asked coolly, surveying the ruined walls.
Thankfully Aidenar still had the strength to speak to her.
“Rats poured from the temple. There is a network of tunnels beneath us and an old altar. They used it to send the Plague here. Dricus drove the beasts back with fire. I doubt that much survived,” he said with effort, while Dricus, leaning against the wall, only nodded.
Cassandra frowned. “They? Who are ‘they’?” she asked, visibly lost.
Aidenar cleared his throat. “We suspect there are people who control this. We have… visions,” he said, casting a quick look at me.
My father narrowed his eyes. “A fifth bowl. The vase of the god of darkness. Are you certain?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “That is why the water on the maps led back to White City. It must be here. Not at the altars of the four elements, but deeper down.”
Silence fell. A tension filled the air that I felt down to my bones.
When the tunnels had cooled enough, we moved into the catacombs. Heat still radiated from the walls, and the air reeked of burning and death. On the ground lay the bodies of rats, not merely burned but fused to the stone as if melted. Their forms looked like wax after a fire.
We had to withdraw. The air was unbreathable.
Aidenar closed his eyes and summoned a breeze. His gift thinned the stifling atmosphere and carved a cooler passage. Meanwhile I asked for water: buckets, jugs, anything.
When they were brought, I laid my hands upon the surface and let the water guide me.
I moved slowly, hearing only the sound of force in my head.
The passages led downward until we reached the cave where I had been with Dricus before.
The paintings upon the walls were charred and black with soot.
The water started circling around and we discovered a hidden shaft in the floor. The stairs led to a lower level.
We went down and a short corridor opened into a bigger room. Torchlight danced upon the walls and revealed over hundreds of dead rats. Some still twitched, trying to crawl before the guards put them to the sword.
At the center stood a bowl, onyx black, set atop a tall column. Just as I had seen in my dreams.
I could not tell if it was a portal or a power source, but I knew one thing with certainty. It was the source of the Plague in the city.
“It must be destroyed,” I said.
A guard bearing a hammer stepped forward and swung with full force. The hammer rebounded with a thunderous crack and the man was thrown back several paces, striking the rock. A medic rushed to him.
We stood in silence, watching. My father looked from the bowl to the hammer, then to his signet ring, the sapphire at the ring’s face caught the torchlight. He took up the hammer and struck the bowl himself. The sound split the air and the stone cleaved.
He bent slightly, clearly the effort costing him dearly. Then other lords took turns, strike after strike, until the vase shattered into black fragments.
Cassandra stepped forward and looked at the remnants. “Gather these,” she said. “Every shard. Scatter them at sea. No one may be allowed to recreate this.”
Victor addressed the assembled lords.
“Send messengers to every town, castle, and village where temples might stand. Every fifth vase must be found and destroyed, whether it is used or not. And make them use the Elementars,” he said, looking at a recovering guard. “We must not allow this Plague to spread.”
Slowly the torchlight receded and men began to leave the cave. I lingered a moment and stared at the shards of black stone. I was exhausted. I was afraid of what would come next. I was afraid to close my eyes.