Ariadna, help me. I was expecting to meet a Vladykar, maybe two, down here in the lower levels of the Malum Palace. Perhaps even some trainees.
But I did not expect Vladykar Malyncor, the leader of the Vladykars, to be here.
And now he stands across this small room from me, with Vladykar Lochan at his side. Vladykar Malyncor’s eerie, solid black eyes bore into me, and I tremble as I lean against the stone doors behind me, clinging to Ariadna’s Star in my hands. I can faintly feel Astralux’s worry. Mostly I’m just filling up our bond with fear.
“Now, Ward Estelle.” Vladykar Malyncor takes another single step forward. The command of power in his every movement is frightening, as is the aura of cruel malice that emanates from him. “While it was most impressive that you were able to retrieve the key, if you would be so kind as to return the Star to its cage, things will go much better for you.”
I reach behind me with a trembling hand and try one of the door latches. It opens, and I imagine what might be beyond these doors. Vladykar Malyncor’s suite, perhaps? But then maybe there’s a way for Noxmalum to get in and out, meaning there might be an escape route.
Vladykar Lochan chuckles. “Ward Estelle has lost her voice again.”
“Where are you going?” Vladykar Malyncor is still peering at me with his hands behind his back, as if he were completely unconcerned about what I was going to do. I don’t blame him. “That is the wrong way.”
I fling open the stone door and rush down a short flight of stairs to another hallway, intending to run until I can escape or hide. Except that I come to a halt at the sight of prison cells lining the walls to my right and my left, stained with blood. The air reeks of a sickly iron scent, and fear. I hear screams of agony from further down the hall, faint sobs from some of the prison cells.
Ariadna above!
“I told you this was the wrong way,” Vladykar Malyncor’s deep voice filters over me. I spin to see Vladykar Malyncor walk down the steps, Vladykar Lochan following behind him. “Or, the right way, I suppose, if you don’t cooperate.”
Astralux suddenly floods me with anger. I don’t know if she decided that my fear needed to change, or if she’s now in a fight herself, but the anger gives me the last push I need. Grasping Ariadna’s Star tightly, its crystal chime voice shouting in my head with warning, I turn and sprint back toward the Vladykars, pulling my shield loose off my back.
Vladykar Malyncor reaches up into the air. Then, as if from an invisible satchel, he pulls out a large, dark metal flail. The head has numerous chains attached to it, each one with a strange red-tipped black claw tied to the end. It glows with an unsettling, dark red light.
A Dragon Weapon. And more terrible than even Vladykar Eder’s Dragon Weapon, a barbed whip I had seen him draw from nothing months ago.
I scurry to the sides, trying to skirt around him as I flee up the stairs. With the most unnatural grace and speed, Vladykar Malyncor swings the flail around, and I hold up my shield. At the last second, I realize that he’s moving so fast that while it looks like he’s aiming for my head, he’s actually aiming for my side. I spin and lower my shield to block myself.
The force of the attack on my shield rings through my arm, clattering my bones, while the tip claws grab the shield and wrench it off my hand, breaking one of my fingers. Summoning yellow-tipped, red-core flames to my hand, I lob a blast at Vladykar Lochan, intending to sprint past him.
An inky darkness suddenly envelopes me. It’s freezing, like an icy mist, but there’s something else to it, like a life-sucking wallow of despair. I just want to curl up on the ground and give up, and I hesitate.
Hands suddenly grab my arms. Horrified, I clutch Ariadna’s Star, twisting and kicking. But the Vladykars hold me tight between them.
“Easy, Ward Estelle,” Vladykar Lochan says, his voice a purr, his tone so ecstatic it makes me sick. “Just give us the Star. It really is your best option.”
“I don’t think you realize how powerful you could be,” Vladykar Malyncor says. I still hear faint, eerie whispers in the air whenever he speaks. “Your born magic, combined with the cold blood of a dragon, could make you a force to be reckoned with!”
I struggle as hard as I can, but my bonded strength is nothing to theirs. Especially Vladykar Malyncor—he feels like a statue holding me, barely even budging despite how hard I strain against his grasp. My boots slip on the stone floor as I try to find some sort of crevice to push off of. An edge. Something.
“And where is your bonded anyway?” Vladykar Lochan asks.
My heart leaps up into my throat as I look from one Vladykar to the other. I don’t know how they haven’t found Astralux yet, but it gives me hope. I send her a rush of warning. Please go, Astralux. Go find Thorn and Vitegadium. I wish so badly we could communicate at this distance.
Vladykar Malyncor chuckles. “Such a mute little beauty. Yet your power!” He brushes a strong, calloused hand across my cheek, and I shudder at his icy touch. “You could rule kingdoms, Ward Estelle. Now give us Ariadna’s Star.” He gestures to Vladykar Lochan, who’s holding out the cage I had taken the Star from. When I hesitate, staring between them, a cold smile forms on Vladykar Malyncor’s face. “I know you don’t yet fully understand just how much this is going to hurt. But if you have any reasoning, give us Ariadna’s Star, or I will make you scream until you have no voice left.”
“Don’t you wish to see your mother?” Vladykar Lochan asks. “We could take you to her.”
I hold back a sob. And then I clutch Ariadna’s Star to me even tighter, even as I fight the urge to collapse to the floor and weep. “I will never give you Ariadna’s Star,” I whisper.
Vladykar Malyncor’s eyebrows go up in surprise. But Vladykar Lochan laughs lightly. “I told you. It’s why Amon is dead. When backed into a corner, Ward Estelle finds her fight.”
“Good.” Vladykar Malyncor’s grip on my arm tightens, as if he’s about to pull my hands apart. Or snap my arm. Maybe both. “It will make breaking you much more enjoyable, Ward Estelle.” He smiles. “This is your last chance. Give me Ariadna’s Star, before I take it.”
I close my eyes.
Ariadna, I need you.
There’s a flash of light so bright I see it through my eyelids. Both Vladykar Malyncor and Vladykar Lochan suddenly release me, hissing. As I peek open my eyes, I feel a strange pressure in my chest, and look down to see Ariadna’s Star, which I’m still holding tight, is literally sinking through my leather armor—into me.
I gasp in shock as Ariadna’s Star fills me with the fierce fire of her radiant light. The Star had restored my energy earlier and given me strength—now it bursts life through me, until white-core fire fills my palms and then spreads up and down the length of me.
“No!” Vladykar Malyncor hisses. He raises his palms toward me, and the icy darkness that struck me earlier forms in his hands and seeps out, engulfing me. It’s so cold and heavy that it squelches the fires on me until there’s only a faint yellow flame in my palms. But Ariadna’s Star continues to pulse through, fighting back. As soon as Vladykar Malyncor stops, the flames spread back over my body. “Aneiros will have the Star.” Vladykar Malyncor steps forward, glaring down at me.
I sprint for the doors behind them, but Vladykar Malyncor pours more of the chilling black mist over me, reducing my fire again. Then he grabs my arm with one hand, cringing as the fires around me flare back up, yet he holds me fast.
“What do we do with her?” Vladykar Lochan whispers. “Will the Star appear if we kill her?”
“Unlikely. Based on what I’ve read, I believe the Star will reappear elsewhere if we kill her ourselves—far away from us.” Vladykar Malyncor suddenly gestures to his comrade. “Grab her. We’re taking her to the pit.” He grimaces and pours more of the cold darkness over me as a flame sparks under his grip. “Perhaps that will wear her and the Star down enough so that we can coax them to separate.”
With Vladykar Malyncor still pouring the dark magic over me, Vladykar Lochan grabs my arms, and together they drag me back into the prison hallway. I stare about, overwhelmed with the power of Ariadna’s Star coursing through me, and the dread I feel. We pass so many prisons, so many with poor souls that cry out as soon as they see the Vladykars, and my heart yearns to free them. Ariadna’s Star only makes the feeling worse, and for a brief moment, the fire within me starts to break through the icy darkness surrounding me.
“Still,” Vladykar Malyncor hisses. “Or I will whip you and scar that pretty face of yours.”
I’m not sure how degrees of torture could be a threat, since it all sounds terrible to me, but I don’t really have a choice in the matter as the chilling black mist smothers my fire.
At the very end of this prison hallway is another connection of corridors, and the Vladykars turn down the left one. This leads to spiral stairs down, going deeper and deeper. The little light from the torch-lit prison hallway fades. The temperature, already uncomfortably cool, gets even colder, until my breath comes out in puffs of mist. After what feels like many, many minutes, we reach the bottom landing, a metal door before us. Vladykar Lochan opens it with a screech and they pull me inside.
At first, I’m not sure what I’m looking at, it’s so dark here. But as Ariadna’s Star blazes through me and a few flickers of flame spark along my hands, I realize that I’m standing at the edge of a platform at the door, staring down at a smooth black floor about three or four meters from the edge of the platform.
“Take off her armor,” Vladykar Malyncor says. “Don’t want her drowning too fast.”
Vladykar Lochan swiftly undoes the straps on my leather armor wrapped around my torso, my arms, and my shins. He even removes my leather boots, until I’m down to my white cloth shirt and gray slacks, and I shiver, colder now.
Without warning, Vladykar Malyncor shoves me forward. I yelp as I fall, my heart in my throat, and I cringe, expecting to hit a hard floor.
There’s a gross, goopy splash as I fall into cold water. Or some sort of muddy or oily liquid, as it’s heavier than regular water. I flail for a bit before finally reaching the surface, glad Mortimer had given me a couple of lessons on how to swim. Gasping for air, I have to work hard to rub my eyes, the liquid resistant to being wiped away. But at last I’m able to peek my eyes open, and I stare up at Vladykar Malyncor and Vladykar Lochan, who are smiling smugly down at me. Then it hits me—there’s nowhere to climb up. The walls are smooth and slick in here, and as I swim to the edge of the platform, I find nothing in the way of crevices to pull myself up.
Vladykar Malyncor holds his hands out and summons the icy black mist above my head until it fills the ceiling above me. It begins to slowly sink down. As does my heart.
“When you’ve had enough and you’re ready to surrender Ariadna’s Star to us, Ward Estelle,” Vladykar Malyncor says, “we’ll take you out. Until then—enjoy your leisurely swim in the Malum Palace!” Chuckling, he and Vladykar Lochan exit the room, slamming the metal door shut with a clang.
Now it’s pitch black. Even with my dragon bonding, I can’t see anything. Slowly treading this thick liquid, I swim along the edges of this pit, uncertain of how long I have until the chilling darkness hits me. This liquid is cold as it is—I can’t imagine how much worse it’s going to feel when the dark mist falls. Maybe the dark mist is what made the small pool under the star’s cage so unnaturally freezing cold.
There’s nothing on the walls. There’s no way up, not even a groove in the walls to hold myself up and rest for a bit. It takes more energy to tread this liquid, and as the icy darkness hits me, I sink a little with the freezing cold and the weight of hopelessness. Ariadna’s Star is still blazing through me, but the warmth it shoots through me is barely enough to keep me from giving up, while the energy is being sapped up just trying to stay afloat.
Worse yet, Astralux feels so, so far away. But while my heart hates the distance, it gives me courage that somehow, she found the strength to get away. Ariadna, I hope that’s so—please keep her safe. Her, Thorn, Vitegadium—keep them away from here. Protect them from this darkness.
And be with me while I’m in it.
