An Empire of Stones

  Two of the ghouls were focused entirely on Queen Trina and Memenion. I plunged my sword in the back of the ghoul whose claws were in the king. It shrieked, falling back onto the ground. Together we finished the job, dismembering the body parts.

  “Give us back our powers!” Memenion roared at the trembling ministers.

  “You had no right!” Queen Trina screamed as she fought one of the ghouls. “End this now—give us back our powers!”

  The Impartial Ministers responded with silence.

  I lopped off another part of the ghoul’s limb, and Memenion did the same.

  No sooner had we finished I heard the bellow of King Hadalix. I spun around to see one of the ghouls right in front of me. Before I could react, its claws ripped across my chest, carving deep lacerations in my flesh.

  The sensation was agonizing. Any power or energy I had left seemed to be sucked out at the ghoul’s touch. My vision blurred, and I stumbled forward, sinking my sword into the ghoul and then releasing the hilt. As I came crashing toward the ground, I saw Hadalix finishing off the job I’d started.

  Hazel.

  Her clear eyes flickered in my vision before the grey swirls consumed me completely.

  “King Tejus, King Tejus…he’s not responding.”

  I heard the voice of a sentry, as if from a distance. My head felt like it was a million miles from my body, my mouth dry and arid. Slowly I came to. It was still dark, and the mists enveloped the Impartial Minister who was peering down at me, his eyes full of concern.

  Too late for your concern, I thought bitterly as the memories of the battle with the ghouls came flooding back.

  “Irresponsible! Foolhardy! Never in my life have I been at the mercy of a group of such inept…” I could hear King Memenion ranting and raving, and smiled in a wry amusement. At least he was saving me the bother—I hardly had the effort to stand, let alone unleash the anger I felt toward the ministers and their actions.

  “Get out of the way!”

  The Impartial Minister was knocked sideways, and Memenion’s furious face appeared in my line of vision.

  “Tejus, can you stand?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “How many dead?” I muttered.

  “Just Thraxus. Hadalix is wounded—he’s already been carted off to the other side of the ridge. We need to get you out of here too.”

  I nodded, groaning as shards of ice seemed to penetrate my skull. Memenion offered me his arm, and I took hold of it, allowing the king’s weight to ground me as I raised myself off the floor.

  “Our powers?” I asked.

  “Back—though yours won’t be much good for a while. You need to rest,” Memenion ordered.

  I looked down at my chest. My shirt had been removed, and the wounds bound with its torn fabric. Blood had already soaked through them. I felt light-headed and weak, a position I couldn’t afford to be in right now—not when my kingdom and the rest of Nevertide was in danger.

  Memenion helped me walk back along the ridge. It was slow work, my legs wanting to give way with every step I took. I idly thought about asking Memenion to take Hazel back to his castle and keep her safe, but I quickly dismissed the idea. I didn’t trust anyone to protect her other than myself, and she would not go if I asked it anyway.

  Soon, Lithan and Qentos came into view. I could practically see the panic that was running through Qentos, and I rolled my eyes, ready for his pointless clucking and fearful questions.

  “Highness! Your Highness!” he squealed, wringing his hands.

  “Enough,” I barked out. “Silence—just ready the bird. We need to get back to the castle.”

  “But your highness, the Impartial Ministers are better equipped to heal—”

  “The Impartial Ministers have done enough,” I cut in. “We return to Hellswan.”

  I had left Hazel alone too long already.

  Ruby

  I was pacing again. Three steps forward, three steps backward. There was no room to do anything else, and the only way I could get rid of some of my pent-up fury was by moving about as best I could. Already I had pictured Queen Trina’s death a million different ways—and when I’d run out of scenarios, I’d felt nothing but an impotent, hopeless rage.

  I will get even, I vowed.

  I repeated it out loud, muttering the words to myself over and over again until my throat felt too dry to continue. I hadn’t shed a single tear since the queen had locked the cell. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction—whether or not she was watching.

  Kicking the stones, I let a small growl of frustration escape my throat.

  It wasn’t just Queen Trina I was angry with. I was angry with Ash for never believing me or listening when I’d warned him away from the Seraq kingdom. I was angry with Varga for not exposing the queen for who she really was—as soon as I got out of here I was going to give him a piece of my mind. I was angry with Hazel even, for not magically appearing at the door to rescue me. She had known how dangerous the queen was…if she hadn’t heard from me, why hadn’t she come looking?

  Because Benedict and Julian are missing too—idiot.

  I sighed. I felt like I had a list of resentments a mile long and nowhere to vent them except to myself.

  I kicked a stone into the barrier that was just visible between the iron bars. It shimmered lightly, the faint blue light casting a glow in the darkness.

  Stupid barrier.

  Stupid me.

  I should never have come back here.

  As I glared at the barrier, the glow seemed to become more intense. I thought it was my imagination, and blinked a few times, then turned my head away, and then back again. It was definitely glowing brighter.

  I inhaled sharply, hardly daring to hope…

  The barrier was changing! Suddenly it flashed, and a tearing sound echoed across the cell. I ran over, jamming my hand out between the bars. It had gone.

  Oh!

  I couldn’t believe my luck. Was she dead? Had her powers failed her? Or was this just a cruel trick she was playing on me to get my hopes up?

  I didn’t have time to speculate. I needed to take the chance I’d been given while I could. With every bit of energy I could muster, I flung my mind outward, just as I had done in the trials when Ash was trying to find me. The key difference now was that he wouldn’t be listening for me—so the communication channel was entirely one-sided…and I wasn’t sure that it was going to work this way.

  Ash! Ash—please hear me!

  Nothing. I felt the impossibility of the task weighing down on me.

  Don’t give up! I scolded myself. Taking a deep breath, I sat down on the floor. I closed my eyes and tried to picture him, somewhere within the palace, wandering down an empty hallway.

  Ash! Ash, can you hear me? It’s Ruby!

  Still nothing.

  I tried again, focusing on the image of Ash, picturing him as clearly as I could in my mind. It wasn’t hard. Hey, shortie, I imagined him saying, what are you doing here? I smiled at the thought, sending out images of gold light with my mind—imagining it traveling to reach him, wherever he was.

  Then I got a reply.

  It was tentative at first, like a slight breeze of energy whispering about me. But then I felt him: Ash entering my mind—fighting through the physical distance between us.

  Ruby?

  I heard his voice echo through my mind. I still couldn’t see him, but I could feel him and hear him. It was enough.

  Ash, I’m locked in a dungeon, in Queen Trina’s palace—please come get me!

  I pictured the cell, the bars on the door and the dank stone. I sent it outward, trying to strengthen our connection with visual memories and images. Soon I could feel rage travel back toward me—it was his rage, mixed with shame and self-loathing for not listening to me.

  I tried to reassure him that it was all right, that I just wanted to get out, but his feelings were strong, and they overwhelmed the connection for a while. Then I felt a more reassuring emotion—d
etermination. Ash was going to find me.

  I kept my eyes closed, trying to focus entirely on the connection that had formed. Eventually an image flickered into my mind—it was of a carriage, one of Queen Trina’s, and Ash was riding alongside it. Through the window I could see that Queen Trina looked pale and weak, being held by another minister whom she appeared to be syphoning off.

  It made sense. Queen Trina had somehow been weakened in the trial, and hence the barriers had come down. I sent back my anxiety that soon she would regain full strength, and I felt Ash’s response. It didn’t matter now, even if her powers did come back, Ash would do whatever it took to get me out of here. I could feel his resolve strengthening our bond.

  I sighed in relief.

  Not wanting to leave him, I stayed a moment longer, drifting around in my mind, just wanting to feel connected to Ash in some way. I smiled as he sent through an image of him rescuing me from the palace dungeons. In it we kissed, and it was so real that I could almost feel the sensation of his lips pressed against mine.

  The connection started to break, the images becoming fainter and fainter until they disappeared altogether and I was left alone in my cell once more.

  It no longer bothered me as much as it had.

  For the second time since arriving in Nevertide, Ash was going to come and save my ass.

  Hazel

  I was woken by the sound of jangling keys before a crack of light appeared in the doorway. I shrank back against the corner of the stone room, shielding my eyes with my hands and making my body as small as I possibly could.

  “Hazel!” Tejus’s voice splintered through my fear, and I lifted my head up in disbelief.

  “Tejus?” I gulped, so grateful and relieved to see him that I wanted to cry. I crawled toward the doorway, my body aching from being cramped up for so long.

  “What in Hellswan happened?”

  “B-Benedict…under the control of the entity. It was awful.”

  It was all I could manage to say about what happened. I didn’t want to relive the memory. Ever.

  I stumbled out into the light of the room, and got my first proper look at Tejus.

  “What happened to you?” I cried. His bare torso was covered with blood and his face ashen.

  “Trials,” he replied with a sardonic grin. Then he reached out to hold me at arm’s length, and his expression turned painfully solemn. “Hazel, I’m so sorry I left you alone. I shouldn’t have done it. It was foolish and irresponsible.”

  I couldn’t really take in what he was saying—my gaze was entirely fixed on the blood seeping from his chest, and the taut muscles of his torso as they quivered in pain. He was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and looked feverish. What had they done to him?

  “On the sofa, now,” I replied sternly.

  He nodded, and dropped his arms. He turned to walk slowly across the room and I could see bruises starting to form on his back, and more, shallower, cuts.

  I helped him lie down, making sure there was a cushion behind his head, and removed some of the books that I’d left lying around.

  “Shall I fetch the ministers?” I asked, not knowing who else was going to help heal him.

  He winced. “No—I think I’ve had enough of the ministers for one night. I’ll recover fine on my own, I just need to rest.”

  “Okay, but I need to clean your wounds,” I replied, eyeing the unhygienic-looking shirt tatters that seemed to be holding him together. I stood up to get a bowl of hot water from the bathroom, but he grabbed my hand.

  “Wait—there’s something I need to tell you. It’s Ruby. Ash doesn’t know where she is. She was with Varga, and heading back to the palace, but she didn’t arrive.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  I tried to steady the panic that was building up inside me. If she was travelling with Varga then perhaps she was with his killers now—and in serious trouble.

  “Tejus?” I swallowed, wanting him to say something that would put my mind at ease. Maybe he had a theory that was more optimistic than mine?

  “We’ll look for her as soon as we can.” He sighed. “But I can’t keep hunting down your friends like this. Can’t you keep them in one place?” He managed a weak smile at his own joke, and I squeezed his hand.

  “Hopefully she’s okay. Ruby’s pretty capable—w-we’ll find her when you’re better…and hopefully Ash will have enough sense to start looking for her too.” I tried to reassure myself as much as Tejus. I didn’t want him thinking that he needed to somehow miraculously speed up his recovery to help me and my friends once again. He had been through enough.

  “I’m going to get hot water, don’t move.”

  He cocked an eyebrow up at me in amusement as I hurried out of the room. Guards were back in position outside the door, five nodding a good morning to me, all looking shame-faced. They obviously realized that they’d failed in their job to protect me. Not their fault, obviously, but I didn’t want to discuss it or pretend that everything was fine when it so blatantly wasn’t.

  I entered the bathroom, and while I searched for something to use as a bowl, and located some clean towels, I felt anxiety starting to consume me. I tried to push my fears for Ruby to one side. There was nothing that I could do to help her right now. To go off on my own in Nevertide felt like an irresponsible thing to do, especially with Benedict now fully possessed by the entity. If I went missing like Julian and Ruby, then who would help him?

  Finding an old brass bowl that had obviously once been used to hold dried flowers, I washed it out as thoroughly as I could and then ran the hot water until it spilled out with billows of steam. I carried all of the equipment back to the living room.

  “Do you have alcohol here?” I asked one of the guards.

  “Umm…” He looked taken aback by the question. “Like mead?”

  “No—like spirits; really strong alcohol…vodka? It’s to clean a wound.”

  He looked puzzled, but then nodded.

  “I think I know what you mean. I’ll have some brought up.”

  “Thanks,” I murmured as he opened the door to the living quarters for me.

  Placing the bowl on the floor by the sofa, I looked over at Tejus. He was still conscious, but his breathing had taken on a rasping quality, as if the effort of moving his chest was becoming harder.

  “What did this?” I asked, kneeling up to slowly try to remove the makeshift bandages. His skin was too hot. He winced as my colder fingers touched the swollen skin around the wounds.

  “Ghouls. But they were out of control. The ministers took our powers, and we tried to fight them, but they seemed so much more alert and intelligent than the ones you and I came across in the Labyrinth…almost as if they were organizing themselves at one point. King Thraxus died.”

  I was speechless. It was completely barbaric! To remove the sentries’ powers and put them in front of ghouls? The Impartial Ministers were insane. Surely the last trial and the faulty disk had been enough for them to learn to temper the tests that they put the contestants under? Didn’t they learn? They were meant to be the council of Nevertide…but to me they seemed about as dumb as a bunch of hens.

  I also felt a wave of relief pass through me that it wasn’t Tejus who was dead. Ghouls were foul creatures, and my family had plenty of experience to support that.

  “You knew what they were,” Tejus murmured, “when we were in the Labyrinth…are those creatures something that your people have come across before?”

  I briefly told him about my uncle Benjamin in The Underworld—kept there with thousands of other spirits like goldfish for the ghouls’ amusement.

  “I was surprised to see ghouls here,” I remarked.

  Tejus took a sharp intake of breath as I removed the last of the bloody bandages. “I thought they came from another dimension…but the ministers claimed that the ghouls have long been creatures of this land.”

  I wondered why they hadn’t been mentioned in any of the books that I’d read of Nevertide’s h
istory. More evidence of the ministers being vague and inept? I wasn’t sure. And I wondered if the sentries truly knew how dangerous and malicious the creatures were—especially if they’d been willing to let them take part in a trial. Then again, so far the ministers of Nevertide hadn’t exactly shown that they valued the lives of their people very highly.

  I wet the towel and placed it as gently as I could against Tejus’s wounds. Now that the bandages were removed, I could see that there were four deep gashes torn into his skin. The skin around them looked faintly bluish, as if it were infected. I needed the guard to hurry up with the alcohol.

  “You should really get a minister to take a look at this—or who else in Nevertide knows about healing?” I asked.

  Tejus’s eyes flickered open.

  “We normally heal quite well on our own,” he replied softly. “My energy will just take a little while longer to come back.”

  “You can syphon off me when this is finished,” I replied. “Take as much as you need—I spent the night in the stone room, so I should be good.”

  “Thank you,” he breathed.

  The guard knocked at the door, and I hurried to get the alcohol I hoped he’d brought me. He handed it to me with the same bemused expression as he’d exhibited earlier. It was a tall glass bottle, with the liquid inside completely clear.

  “Thanks.”

  I closed the door before he could say anything else, wondering why he thought it was so strange that I’d asked for it. Maybe sentries didn’t use alcohol as a disinfectant? If they had healing properties of their own, perhaps they usually didn’t need it.

  “This is going to hurt,” I murmured, uncorking the bottle. The smell of pure alcohol assaulted my nostrils.

  Disgusting.

  “What is?” he asked blearily.

  “This.”

  I poured the liquid on his chest. Every muscle in his body seemed to jump in reflex, and he took a sharp hiss of breath before grinding his teeth.