Fallen Thief Page 10

“Shh!” Peter whispered. “We can’t go shouting about going to an abandoned city for the whole town to hear. Unless there’s another way to get there—”

  “There is,” Kay said. “I could make a portal.”

  Mira and Peter stopped their bickering to look at him.

  “I could make one in the creek in the Mosswoods, and it’ll take us right into the sorcerer’s lair.”

  “Y—you could?” Mira asked, dumbfounded. She’d completely forgotten about Kay’s newfound power. “You could!” she said again, elated.

  “I don’t know…” Peter said slowly, watching Kay with a peculiar expression Mira couldn’t place. “What if Appoline finds out?”

  “Why should she?” Kay replied. “There won’t be a giant flying horse in the sky to tip her off this time.”

  “I think it’s a brilliant idea.” Mira beamed. “We’d get there in seconds! We could even go right now!”

  “Now?” Peter asked.

  “Let’s go!” Kay said, already heading down the alley to the busy street.

  “Hold on!” Peter said, making the others turn around. “I—I won’t be able to come.” He fiddled with the apron around his neck. “I have to go back to the workshop.”

  “No problem,” Kay said. “Don’t think it would be much fun for you anyway, staying around the creek by yourself once we go inside.”

  “We’ll come straight to you after we find the vial,” Mira promised, and she and Kay hurried off through the twisting streets, leaving a bewildered Peter scratching his head in the alley.

  They ran until they reached the Mosswoods, where they clambered over the thick roots of the trees towards the trickling sounds of the creek. Once there, they followed the water farther away from the path to avoid any unwanted visitors, left their shoes next to a snufflepod bush, and stepped in.

  The creek was not a very deep one. The water reached Mira’s waist at its deepest point, but it would have to do. She let herself drop down until she was sitting on the slippery bed of rocks. Kay followed suit and held out his hands. It seemed odd, trying to summon a portal in moving water, but Mira supposed it was already odd that her brother could summon portals, to begin with.

  When nothing happened, Kay turned his hands over and frowned at them.

  “It’s not working,” he muttered.

  Mira bit her lip. She was so sure this would have worked!

  “Do you think we have to be in calmer water?” she asked.

  “Maybe,” Kay said. He held out his arms again and set his jaw in concentration. “It’s strange. I can imagine myself back in the sorcerer’s lair, just the way I practiced all around the lake, but it’s not—”

  “You never made a portal into the sorcerer’s lair,” Mira cut in as a thought occurred to her. Kay looked at her. “You only practiced making them to different parts of the lake, like you said, but maybe you can’t make it into the lair because it’s protected. He was a sorcerer, after all.”

  Kay nodded slowly and turned his attention back to his hands. “I’ll make one into the lake, then.”

  And there it was: a whirlpool that faced her and Kay, the outer edges a swirl of water, but the inside completely calm. Kay dropped his arms with a satisfied smile.

  “You did it!” Mira exclaimed.

  “Thanks to you,” Kay replied.

  He gestured for her to go in first. She did so and marveled at the immediate change in her surroundings as the cool, gentle flow of the creek turned into the calmer water of the lake. A moment later, they were both facing the rounded wall of the sorcerer’s tower amid snakelike plants that tickled their fins and the empty dwellings of the abandoned laketown of Nesston.

  They began to swim to the tower when Kay spoke.

  “It looks…different,” he said.

  Mira stopped and followed his gaze until her eyes fell on one of the windows, which was no longer a perfect circle, but jagged and rough with pieces of stone missing from the edges. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach when she noticed the stones in the other windows within sight looked like they had crumbled away, too.

  “It looks like they were knocked out,” Mira said quietly. “I don’t think it looked like that last time we were here.”

  Kay frowned at the craters and said, “Right. Let’s get into the lair before this whole thing collapses around the portal.”

  “What if it does collapse and we get stuck in there?” Mira whispered.

  “I can make portals out of the lair, remember? The sorcerer must have just protected it from people trying to get in, not out.”

  They reached the round door just as a loud crack resounded through the lake. A few bits of stone sprinkled down into the water from above.

  “What was that?” Mira breathed.

  “I think it came from the tower,” Kay said.

  They gave each other one look of surprise and then darted up to the surface. They squinted up at the tower. Was it wobbling, or was it a trick of the eyes, with the clouds moving across the sky behind it? Another crack, and a rather large rock broke from the side of the tower and dropped merely feet from them.

  “We have to get out of the way!” Mira cried.

  Mira, stop! Kay grabbed her hand and pulled her down so that their eyes were just above the surface. Look!

  Mira followed his gaze across the lake. A movement on the edge of the water caught her eye. A dark figure disappeared behind a building, his black cloak billowing behind him as he turned out of sight. Mira’s eyes widened and she gripped her brother’s hand tightly.

  As they watched, flashes of black darting between the buildings revealed a Shadowveil rushing away on his horse.

  They found us, Mira thought.

  Before Kay could respond, another crack echoed through the air. The whole city seemed to hold its breath. Then a huge ripple flowed from the base of the tower and shook the two merrows as the ancient tower finally gave in.

  Mira screamed as they dove back down. The shadow of the tower loomed over them, growing ever closer as the enormous structure sank and toppled down. Rocks were falling from the sky in every direction, raining down on them inside the lake, heavy enough to break through the roofs of the underwater houses.

  “Kay!”

  Kay was already holding out his arms.

  The growing shadow of the tower enveloped them in darkness. Kay grabbed Mira’s arm and pulled her through his swirling portal just as a rumbling crash shook them to the core.

  Gulping down water that tasted fresher than before, Mira looked around to see that Kay had brought them across the laketown to the waterfall that turned the underwater mill. Straight ahead was a hazy cloud of stone and dirt where the ancient tower had crumbled.

  “No,” Kay breathed, darting forward.

  “Kay, wait! It’s not safe!”

  “But the lair!”

  When they reached the giant pile of stones, it became painfully clear that the minuscule entrance into the sorcerer’s lair had been lost. Kay pushed against the stones desperately, but he could barely get any of them to move, let alone pry enough of them away to reach the portal in its center.

  “The Shadowveils did this,” Kay said through his teeth. “They nearly killed us!”

  “But how did they know we’re here?” Mira panted, then gasped. “What if they found the vial in the lair already?”

  “They can’t have known about all that…can they?”

  Mira looked around at the ruins of the tower. “They clearly spied on us enough to know we’d be here. What if they even heard the conch shell’s message? We’ve been watched this whole time and we didn’t even know it!” She didn’t know if she was shaking from fear or from shock.

  “We can’t let them win,” Kay said through gritted teeth. He swam around the pile of stones restlessly. “We have to see if the vial is still there. There’s got to be a way to get to that portal!”

  Mira shook her head helplessly and looke
d around, noticing for the first time that the little houses nearest to the tower had also been destroyed. Along with a rush of anger at the Shadowveils that destroyed everything they touched, she felt a surge of determination to help her brother find a way into the lair.

  They needed to find something that could clear a path to the sorcerer’s portal. Something that could push the stones out of the way…

  Her gaze fell on the enormous mill in the distance that steadily turned with the force of the waterfall, and an idea sparked in her head.

  “Kay, can you make a portal right under that waterfall?”

  Kay stopped swimming to raise an eyebrow at Mira.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “And do you remember exactly where the entrance into the lair was in the tower? Can you make a portal to get to that exact spot?”

  “Yeah, but it’s completely buried—”

  “The portals aren’t for us to go through,” Mira said excitedly. “We need to get all that water rushing out of the waterfall to go right into the middle of those stones.”

  Kay’s eyes brightened as he understood Mira’s plan. “It’ll do all the pushing for us—get the stones out of the way!”

  Mira nodded. They hurried over to the waterfall together and stopped a few feet away from the wide area where the water came crashing down into the lake. Even from a distance, Mira felt her hair get pushed back from her face from the force of the current.

  “Here we go,” Kay said, holding out his hands.

  In the middle of the bubbling water, Mira thought she saw a hint of one of Kay’s spinning whirlpools.

  It was the crackling sound that almost immediately reached their ears from behind them that told them their plan had worked. They twisted around to see the water rush out from the center of the ruins and all the way up to the surface of the lake like a fountain.

  Mira laughed triumphantly as Kay cheered, still holding out his hands to keep his portal going. When Mira no longer saw any stones being pushed out of the ruins, she tapped Kay on the shoulder, and he let his portal close. The water at the ruins calmed immediately.

  It only took Kay a few seconds to find the hidden portal once they returned to the diminished pile of stones.

  “I think this was your best idea, yet,” Kay said over his shoulder as he led the way into the opened portal.

  Mira grinned and followed her brother.

  They found the sorcerer’s lair looking just the same as when they’d left it.

  “Now, let’s hope the vial is still in here,” Mira said. She remembered the box of vials she had discovered on their last visit to the lair, found it, and brought it to the large table where they had once found the conch shell. She dumped them all onto the table and scattered them, hopeful that amidst the ones that were filled with sand and stones, they would now find one that contained the sorcerer’s blood.

  “None of them look like the one we need,” she said, disheartened.

  Kay swam over to her, picked up a pair of vials, and shook them to hear the clink of the stones inside. “You’re right. Just more junk.” He tossed them back into the pile. “Besides, I don’t think such an important vial would be in the middle of all this worthless stuff. Couldn’t the sorcerer have given clearer instructions if he wanted someone to set him free?” he said in frustration.

  “Shh! What was that?” Mira snapped.

  She had just heard a rustling sound, like the swish of a tail or a whisper.

  “What was what?” Kay asked.

  She heard the sound again, and this time Kay whipped his head around too.

  “Someone’s in here!” he hissed, backing into the table and making the vials clink against each other. “Who’s there?” he called out.

  Mira’s heart hammered against her chest. Did the Shadowveils lure them into a trap?

  The sound of the whisper rose again. Mira couldn’t make out any words, but she looked up at the domed ceiling.

  “I think it’s coming from up there,” she breathed, grabbing Kay’s arm.

  Slowly, they swam up to the mosaic of the planets and stars. When they heard the whisper again, the words were clear, “What do you seek?”

  Mira and Kay looked at each other. Even as a whisper, Mira could tell the voice was that of the sorcerer, but it sounded lifeless—like an echo. Mira gulped and replied, “We’re looking for the sorcerer’s blood.”

  “What do you wish to do with it?”

  “Return it to the sorcerer,” Kay said at once.

  There was a moment of pressing silence. Then, the whisper said, “Look to the moon. Beware its powers. None can control it.”

  They spun around to see twinkling silver tiles that formed a wide circle towards the center of the mosaic. A moment later, they glowed so brightly that Mira and Kay had to shield their eyes from the blinding white light. When it subsided, they looked over their fingers to see the mosaic back to normal, but a small, red vial was slowly sinking from the ceiling, trailing a silver chain from its narrow neck.

  Mira watched it sink in bewilderment at the sorcery they had just witnessed. Then she shook herself to her senses and darted forward to grab it before it hit the floor. She held the vial up to inspect it more closely. The crimson liquid was swirling gently, almost shimmering in the dim sunlight that came through the small windows.

  “It’s sorcery,” Mira whispered in awe. “Feel it—it’s warm.”

  Kay pressed his fingers to the glass, and his eyes grew wide.

  “I think the Grimmir will be happy to see this again,” he said.

  “We can set him free!” Mira laughed in excitement. She put the chain around her neck, letting the warm vial rest against her chest.

  “Come on,” Kay said, already making another portal. “Let’s get back to Crispin before the Shadowveils realize they failed to stop us.”

  They returned to the gentle creek, climbed out of the water, and sat in the grass, watching their fins shrink and transform back into feet.

  Mira waved her hands over her and Kay’s clothes, pulling the water out of them, and dropped the vial down her shirt to conceal it. Without a moment to lose, they hurried to find Peter.

  Mira threw her thoughts to Peter once they reached the puppet shop again. When his face didn’t appear at the window, she and Kay peered into the shop but didn’t find him there, either.

  Peter, are you there? Mira thought. Still, there was no sign of him. We’ve got the vial!

  A moment later, Peter gestured from his window for them to come up. They hurried inside, waved at a busy Mr. Waylor at the register, and ran up the stairs to the workshop. Peter was carefully painting the face of a puppet that had bushy gray hair and wore long robes with a pointed black hat—no doubt a witch in one of the fairy stories.

  “We found it,” Mira whispered, leaning over the table to get into his line of vision.

  “Did you?” he said, though he didn’t seem to care much as he stuck out his tongue and painted the finishing touches on the puppet.

  “Don’t you want to see it?” Kay said. “Or is your puppet more interesting than a sorcerer’s blood?”

  Mira raised the chain over her neck and pulled the vial out. In an instant, Peter’s indifferent expression broke into awe as he stared at the glimmering liquid.

  “That’s really the sorcerer’s…blood?” he whispered.

  “It is,” Mira said. “We found it in the lair. It was just like the sorcerer’s message promised—we couldn’t find it before because we’d never heard his voice. He spoke to us in the lair.”

  “He spoke to you?”

  He gawked at Mira as she told him about the voice that led them to the vial hidden behind the mosaic pattern of the moon.

  “I think it was a spell,” Mira finished, remembering the whisper. “He was checking if we truly wanted to give the vial to the sorcerer.”

  Peter reached over to touch the glass gingerly.

  “You mean, instead
of using it?” he asked.

  Kay shrugged. “I don’t see how we could use it. The glass is sealed shut. Besides, that whisper warned us it’s dangerous—that its powers can’t be controlled. Don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in being cursed like that sorcerer. So we grabbed the vial and got out.” Kay crossed his arms and gave Mira a smug look. “The Shadowveils better think twice about trying to stop us from now on.”

  “The Shadowveils?” Peter asked, turning to face him. “What do they have to do with all this?”

  “They tore down the tower to try to stop us from getting inside the lair.”

  Peter’s jaw dropped. He listened with wide eyes as Mira and Kay recounted their glimpse of the Shadowveil who nearly crushed them to death under the ruins of the sorcerer’s tower and nearly sealed the way into the lair forever. When they finished speaking, Peter stared at the vial in Mira’s hands before he spoke.

  “They tried to kill you…not just stop you, but kill…”

  “I’m not sure they knew we were there, actually,” Mira said. “The Shadowveil rode away as soon as the tower collapsed.”

  “It’s just like Amara’s portrait and the fire that destroyed it.” Peter looked at each of them seriously. “They don’t want us learning more about the sorcerer.”

  “Meaning we’re on the right track,” Kay said with a smile.

  Peter nodded slowly, then muttered, “I can’t believe you remembered to come here after all that happened.”

  “We said we’d come back, didn’t we?” Mira said.

  Peter shrugged. “I figured you’d have more exciting things to worry about than me in my workshop.”

  “Well, you weren’t wrong,” Kay said, earning an unimpressed look from Peter.

  With a start, Mira realized that Peter was jealous that he’d been stuck at home while she and Kay had gone to the tower. A sense of guilt made her bite her lip. It had been a while since she had wished she and Peter could be the same, but back then, she had wanted to be human like Peter. Now, she wished Peter could be a merrow like her.

  “They’re only exciting if you’re there,” she said.

  “Then you won’t go off making portals anywhere you’d like without me?” Peter asked, raising his eyebrows.