Heiress of Lies (23 page)

     “Tell me what I need to do,” she said. She stood up and set the cup on the seat behind her. She was anxious and the sooner they got started the better.

     “I’ve set up everything here.” Caspian pointed toward the tree that Angeline knew all too well.

     She walked over toward the tree trunk and stopped. There was a circle beside it that was about ten feet in parameter made up of small bowls. In between each bowl, a line had been drawn with a substance that looked like salt. The lines connected all of the bowls to each other. And in each bowl was a red liquid. Her blood. Then there was a large bowl in the middle of the circle. She tried not to think about how much of her blood she was looking at. She had no idea how someone could lose that much blood and still be alive, but then, she wasn’t quite alive anymore, was she?

     Before she could lose her nerve, she looked back over her shoulder. “What next?”

     “You stand in the middle of the circle. Be very careful not to disturb the perimeter. I’ve written down here what you need to say. And again, you have to say it just perfectly. The inflections need to be accurate.” Caspian handed her a piece of paper.

     She took it and looked down at it. It was in the old tongue. She said a small prayer of thanks that the nuns had thought mastery of the old tongue was a critical piece of her studies.

     “What else?” she said. “What is supposed to happen?”

     “If you do the spell perfectly, then he will appear,” Caspian said. “Like I said, I’ve never done this spell before. I’ve never seen it done before either. This is another one of those things that was lost during the war.”

     Connor appeared at her side. “Let me help you into the circle, Princess,” he said.

     Angeline took a deep breath and then she stepped forward to the edge. She turned and put her hands on Connor’s shoulders. She looked up into his eyes. Even though she had known him a short time, she recognized the expression on his face. He was worried. Connor put his hands around her waist and easily lifted her into the air. Then he set her down on the other side of the bowls.

     Once inside the circle, Angeline could feel a weird energy pulsing. It was like little bursts of electricity were shooting all around her, in her, and through her.

     “Are you all right, Princess?” Connor asked.

     Angeline wondered if she was about to be turned into a divining rod. “Yes, I just feel a strange energy in here.”

     Caspian and Searon had drawn closer. Angeline could see that Searon was watching Connor. It was like he was trying to see into Connor’s head. She hoped that he didn’t have a mind-reading talent, but if he did he would have been able to read her thoughts long before now.

     “It’s your blood calling out to you,” Caspian said. “And when you enact the spell, the blood will call to Alair.”

     Angeline’s attention was drawn by a far-off shriek. “What was that?” she asked.

     Caspian blanched. “You have to hurry, Princess. If the spirits have figured out that the way to break my barrier spell is to use blood, then we don’t have much longer before they will be here. And I fear that their anger at being held at bay so long may mean some unpleasantness for all of us.”

     This was the first time that there had been any mention that the vampires may also be in danger, and now she understood their urgency was being driven by their own self-interests. But she couldn’t let that thought disrupt her. She was anxious enough. She found Connor’s eyes again. The nod was slight, but she saw it. He was trying to reassure her. She wondered why he felt such confidence in her. He barely knew her. But she had felt all along like he knew her in some ways better than she knew herself. How had he done that?

     Angeline realized that she wanted to trust Connor. She wanted to be close to him. She wanted him to hold her close and tell her everything would be okay. Her eyes widened slightly. She had feelings for him, feelings that felt very much like those feelings that she felt for Malin.

     She didn’t see anything in Connor’s face that said he had heard her thoughts. She hoped that her demon was helping to shield her mind. She was confused and needed to think more about what these feelings meant.

     “Princess?” Searon said. “Everything okay? Again, don’t mean to rush you, but time’s a-ticking.”

     “Sorry,” Angeline said. “I was going over the spell’s words in my mind. I also wanted to be sure I didn’t have any further questions.”

     “You need to make the symbol at the top of the page on the ground in front of you,” Caspian said.

     With her blood of course. Angeline tried to detach herself from her body as much as possible as she knelt down and dipped her fingertip into the bowl. The blood had cooled and congealed just enough to have a thick consistency. She looked at the symbol again on the paper, and then slowly traced it in the dirt at her feet.

     “Good,” Caspian called out. “Now find the bowl that is directly off the point of the symbol.”

     Angeline looked at the symbol and then off to her left. She went to the bowl that most looked like the symbol was pointed toward.

     “You are going to make an ‘X’ in front of that jar. That is where his spirit knows to enter the circle,” Caspian said.

     Angeline made the “X” quickly, but then stepped back to the edge so that she could look Caspian in the eye. “Alair’s spirit is going to enter the circle?”

     “Of course, where did you think he was going to go?” Caspian said. “The blood won’t hold him long, so you have to be sure that you don’t waste time talking about trivial things. We need to know how to unbind the souls. Make sure you repeat everything out loud. I will transcribe.”

     “Is there anything else that I should know?” Angeline asked sharply. “Can his spirit harm me?”

     Caspian looked confused. “Why would he wish to harm you? You are of his bloodline and he will know that. No one else could have conjured him.”

     “I am just trying to ask everything I can think of to anticipate anything that may happen,” Angeline said. “Let’s just say for the sake of argument, he did wish to harm me. Could he?”

     “Well, I would suppose so,” Caspian said. “He will take the same form as those that we are keeping out at the boundary. But…”

     Angeline cut him off. “Yes, I understand that you don’t think he will harm me, but I need to understand all of the risks. Is there any way to stop a spirit from harming you?”

     “We don’t have time to walk through an entire spirit rendering lesson,” Caspian snapped. “And even if we did, such techniques may dissuade one spirit, but certainly not the amount that is itching to get in here.”

     “We will be right here, Princess,” Connor said. “Caspian will be at the ready if it looks like you would be in danger.”

     Angeline felt less comfortable with that idea, but she realized she didn’t have much choice. In the end, she wasn’t ever going to be ready for what she was about to do, but she was going to have to do it anyway. She would trust that Connor would have her back.

     “All right,” she finally said. “Then I’m ready to begin.”

     “From the point where the princess starts the ceremony, everyone needs to be silent until she completes it. We don’t want to risk her safety by compromising the intention of the spell,” Caspian said, scowling at Searon.

     Searon, for his part, looked bored. “What?” he said. “The sooner you stop talking the sooner she can start casting.”

     Angeline could tell that Caspian wanted to say something else, but he stopped and stomped his foot instead. Any other time she would have found that amusing. She went back to the symbol, took a deep breath, and then slowly started to read from the paper.

     Onan bi yan returna,
Hear me great spirits

     Onan bi yan returna,
Hear me great spirits

     Alair Robart

     Mernan cor direta,
I beseech you to heed

     Nurnan vei pertsun,
the call of my blood

     Alair Robart

     As she reached the last words she felt her throat clench up. The air around her changed. While before the electric pulses had been attracted to her, now they were crackling around the symbol. And then it happened. A bolt shot off the symbol and hit the barrier at the bowl where she had marked the “X.” And she saw a ripple in the air, and then a spirit form drifted through the barrier into the circle. It came to rest right on top of the symbol in front of her, and as she watched with her mouth agape, it took on a man’s form. She saw small tendrils reaching up from the bowls and then travel to the form, which, as each tendril connected with it, seemed to take on a more solidified form.

     Angeline watched as his face fleshed out, and then seconds later she was looking into violet eyes that matched her own. She had always heard that the violet eyes were a dead giveaway of a Robart. As more of the man came into being, her next thought was that he looked just like her father. Although she was sure that he had questions, his eyes held hers calmly, almost as if his spirit was conjured from the outer realms every day. As his form was further infused with her blood, the transparency became solid and moments later, Angeline was looking Alair Robart in the flesh.

     They silently regarded each other. Angeline wasn’t sure who was supposed to speak first, another question that Caspian should have answered for her without her asking. She saw his eyes flicker over her shoulder.

     “You keep strange company, daughter,” Alair finally said.

     Angeline marveled at his voice. It was rich and deep with a tone that said he wasn’t one to be questioned lightly. It was the voice of a king. And not just any king, but the king who had saved the people of Altera from the vampires. She felt humbled to be in his presence, regardless of whatever wrongs Caspian had accused him of. This man had spent the better part of his life ridding the world of the very creatures he saw behind her. She needed to tread lightly.

     “This are strange times m’lord,” she said as she gave him a slow curtsey.

     “My bloodline was not meant to be spell-casters. It is a decidedly unnatural occupation for those of royal blood. Unless this means that my bloodline no longer rules?” Alair asked.

     “My father is still king,” Angeline said quickly. “Although he is ill. I must return to him as soon as possible. That is why I need your help.” Caspian had said that the spell, if it worked, wouldn’t last long and she was starting to see why. The bowls that made the circle were already starting to empty in an effort to keep Alair’s flesh here in this realm.

     “Things must be very dire for you to embark on this dangerous enterprise. Conjuring is only done by a master, and while your blood is strong, I can tell that you are inexperienced,” Alair said bluntly.

    
Was he testing her mettle?
She almost cracked a grin. It was exactly the type of thing her father would do.

     “For a first attempt, I would consider it a great success m’lord,” she said, lifting her chin.

     He considered her for a few moments, and then she saw the glint of amusement flash in his eyes. He
had
been testing her, to see if she’d lose her composure. A king, or queen, must remain in control of their emotions at all times regardless of whether it was royalty or a pauper standing before them. To rule with your emotions ensured you would not rule for long.

     “Perhaps,” he said. “What help do you ask of me, daughter? Although I have many questions, I fear our time together will come to end much sooner than I’d like. It has been a long time that I’ve slumbered, and I look forward to it again.”

     Angeline had tried to think of the best way to ask for what she was about to ask, and couldn’t think of a way to do it without offending him. So she decided that it was better to be direct and get it over with. “I’m trapped inside the Amaron Forest, and the spirits are only being kept at a bay by a sliver of a spell that is quickly dissolving. I need to know how to unbind them so that I can pass and return to my father before he leaves this place and joins you in the spirit realm.”