Finally, all the elements were in place. The gallows were built and the needed equipment brought in. My incredible relief at seeing Opal surprised me. Her mouth was pressed in pure determination as she readied her tools.
Another worry crossed my mind. Within the underworld, I hadn’t felt cold, hot, hunger or thirst. But if I stepped back through the fire, would it burn me? I would find out soon enough. The Fire Warper hovered near me, his amusement plain.
Opal grasped a long metal pipe and poked it into the kiln. I wondered where they had gotten the glassmaking supplies. She turned the pipe and drew it out. And proceeded to create a glass animal.
When she moved to blow into the pipe, I inhaled the Fire Warper’s soul. He yelped in surprise and seared my skin as I sent him through Opal and into the glass. He screamed in panic and resisted. But I controlled him. He was a soul after all.
Opal jerked as if burned, but returned to her task, making the ugliest, squattest looking pig I ever saw.
Placing the animal into the annealing oven, the wait began. Had our experiment worked? If the Fire Warper was truly trapped within the glass, then we could encase all the Warpers who knew how to perform blood magic, preventing them from passing the information along. And I could go home.
Twelve of the longest hours passed before Opal withdrew the pig and held the statue up for all to see. It was then I noticed just how many people had come to watch. I expected Leif, the Master Magicians and Councilors, but it appeared that Fisk and the entire Helping Guild members were there. My mother and father lingered at the edges. Perl’s hand was clamped to her throat in dismay, but she looked as determined as Opal.
Cahil and a regiment of soldiers, including Marrok stood at attention. Ari and Janco waited with Leif. Janco scowled, showing his extreme dislike of magic.
Valek glowed with his own inner fire. For him, I would risk the flames’ heat.
I turned my attention to Opal’s creation. It pulsed with a muddy red light. The Fire Warper was locked inside.
The audience cheered. Opal placed the pig in the sand, and gathered another blob of molten glass, preparing for the next soul.
Roze, under the control of three Master Magicians, was forced to mount the gallows’ steps. The noose was tightened around her neck and the executioner stepped back. Her face contorted with rage and she shouted.
Time froze for a moment and I felt what it would have been like to stand there terrified, waiting for the floor to open and my life to end with a quick snap of my neck. If I had chosen the noose instead of becoming the Commander’s food taster two years ago, I wondered if any of this would have happened.
Roze fell in slow motion. Her body jerked at the end of the rope. Her soul flew. I captured it.
Her hateful thoughts filled my mind. Guardian of the underworld suits you, Yelena. You belong here. You don’t really believe you can go back? You’ll be feared by all and become an outcast in record time.
If I was a Soulstealer, I would agree with you, I said. You don’t scare me, Roze. You never did and that bothered you more than me being a Soulfinder.
Opal blew. I sent Roze on her final journey. Then Gede. Then the other four Warpers. Seven in all, including the Fire Warper.
When all the Warpers had been encased in glass, Opal sank to the ground in exhaustion. Now I could leave. I glanced around, trying to determine whether I missed anything, whether a soul who could do harm remained. Roze’s words had a bit of truth to them. Regardless of my explanations, Sitians would be frightened of me and the Council’s suspicion and unease would linger for a long time.
I welcomed the difficulties. All part of living, and I planned to enjoy every minute.
As I walked through my window to the Keep, sounds reached me first. The roar of the fire. Leif calling my name. Then scalding heat sucked my breath away. Bright yellow and orange stabbed at my eyes. My cape caught fire. I dived to the sand and rolled on the ground to snuff the flames. So much for my grand entrance.
I SPENT MY FIRST HOURS back cocooned in an excited babble of all my friends and family. Everyone except Valek. But I knew I would see him when the horde dispersed.
Once my fire had finished its macabre task of burning the traitors to ash, it was doused. Thick smoke boiled from it and clung to the ground until Gale Stormdance created a fresh breeze to whisk it away.
I noted with much interest how fast life resumed. Though glad I had returned, the Councilors left for a meeting, and Fisk and his guild hurried off to work in the market.
Before he left, Fisk flashed me a wide smile and said, “Lovely Yelena, you’ll need new clothes for the hot season. I know the best seamstress in the Citadel. Come find me when you’re ready.”
The hot season? Ari told me it had just started. I had lived in the underworld for seventy-one days, missing the entire warming season. I viewed the time with mixed emotions: glad my perceptions in the underworld didn’t match reality, especially if I ever needed to go back; and upset I wasn’t here to help clean up the mess left behind by the Vermin.
Ari and Janco grumbled over the hot, sticky weather and confessed their desire to go home to Ixia.
“We had fun rooting out all those Daviians,” Janco said. “But I’m sure Maren misses us.”
Ari looked doubtful. He had washed the black dye from his hair, and his light skin had burned in the Sitian sun. Janco s skin had tanned, matching his Sitian clothes.
“Oh this?” Janco said, when I mentioned his new coloring. “You missed some beautiful days.”
“Janco s been sunning himself every chance he gets,” Ari said with obvious disdain. “He claimed he kept the fire going, but I caught him snoozing in the sand a few times.”
“Once!” Janco said.
They began to bicker. I laughed and moved away, but heard Ari call out, “Training yard, five o’clock.”
Kiki’s urgent summons had nagged me the whole time I’d been back. I hurried over to the stable to spend an hour with her. Perhaps Valek would show up and we could get reacquainted in the straw.
I scratched her ears, fed her peppermints and ducked behind a stack of hay bales when the Stable Master came looking for me, probably to give me a lecture about borrowing Garnet for so long.
Lavender Lady not go again, Kiki said in my mind.
I’ll try to avoid it. No promises, though.
She huffed. Next time Kiki go.
A Horsefinder?
Help Lavender Lady, Kiki said, as if that ended the discussion.
Even though I longed to return to my rooms in Irys’s tower, my parents insisted I come to their quarters in the Keep’s guest wing after I visited the stables. Leif, Irys and Bain followed me, and the six of us sat in the living room, sipping tea. Wedged tightly between my father and mother on the couch, I was held prisoner. My desire to seek Valek would have to wait.
Bain and Irys were most interested in what had happened in the fire and shadow worlds. After giving them a brief sketch, Bain made me promise to visit him and recite the details for his book.
“You passed the Master-level test,” Irys said.
“What?” Caught off guard by this sudden change in topic, I choked on my tea.
“You entered the underworld and returned with a spirit guide. Your encounter with the Fire Warper was your challenge, and his defeat your success.”
“But I don’t have a spirit guide.”
Leif laughed. “Your bat! I thought he was strange. Beside the obvious fact that he wanted to hang out with you.”
“Leif. That’s not nice, considering all your sister has done for you,” Perl admonished.
“Oh, right. How can I forget that she made me bait for a snake, left me under house arrest in Ixia and smuggled me into the Keep in a coffin. And don’t forget the time…”
I ignored Leif’s rant. I wondered, why a bat? Why not something fearsome like a fire dragon or necklace snake? Irys had a hawk, Bain a wind leopard and Zitora a unicorn. Thinking of Zitora, I reminded myself to go visit her in the infirmary. She had been severely wounded during the fight with the Warpers, and her recovery had been slow.
I kept glancing out the window, hoping to see Valek. My mind circled through various excuses for me to leave everyone to search for him.
Bain interrupted Leif’s list of grievances against me. “According to our policies, Yelena is Fourth Magician.”
I raised my hand to prevent any more wild speculation. “No. I can’t light fires or move objects like the Masters can. I’m a Soulfinder. My job is to find lost souls and send them home, including the souls of Ixia. There is still need for a Liaison between the two countries. I plan to reassume the role.”
And the first order of business would be to assess Cahil’s intentions. His help in defeating Roze and uncovering all the Vermin nests had proven invaluable to the Council, but I wasn’t convinced his new role meant he wouldn’t try some way to claim Ixia’s throne.
Leif asked, “What do we do with those glass prisons? They’re under guard, but we don’t want them falling into the wrong hands.”
“What would happen if they break?” Perl asked.
They all looked at me. “If the souls are freed, they will go to the fire world, unless there is another Soulfinder to place them elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?” Leif raised his eyebrows.
“Into another body or to the sky.” I sighed. “We will have to find a place to protect and to hide them.”
“The Keep,” Bain said.
“The Illiais Jungle has some deep caves,” Esau suggested.
“Under the Emerald Mountains,” Irys said.
“Sunken in the deepest part of the sea,” Leif said.
“Buried under the northern ice,” Perl recommended.
“All good ideas, but the Council will need to debate the issue and decide.”
My gaze met Irys’s. She gave me a wry smile. We both knew the Council would argue for months, and it was up to me to find a home for them.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with my family. Perl and Esau made me promise to come visit them.
“A nice relaxing visit,” Perl ordered. “No chasing Vermin or saving anyone. We’ll sit and talk and I’ll make you a new perfume.”
“Yes, Mother.”
She made me eat before I could leave. I hurried to the training yard, hoping Valek would be there.
He was not. The man must be torturing me on purpose. I had made him wait over two months. Perhaps he was returning the favor.
Ari and Janco sparred with swords. And although Janco sang his rhymes and Ari used his brute strength, they were equally matched in skill. They stopped when they saw me.
“Come on,” Janco said. “Ari wants to make sure you’re in good fighting shape before we leave.”
“I do?”
“Yes, you do. Otherwise you’ll worry about her.”
“I will?”
“Of course.” Janco waved away Ari’s comments. “Besides, this is just a lull before the next storm. We need to be ready!”
This time I piped in. “The next storm?”
Janco sighed dramatically. “There’s always another storm. It’s the way the world works. Snowstorms, rainstorms, wind-storms, sandstorms and firestorms. Some are fierce and others are small. You have to deal with each one separately, but you need to always keep an eye on what’s brewing for tomorrow.”
