Sky Warriors: Poleuthan's Thief (Sky Warriors Saga Book 1) (48 page)

She smiled as she recognized the windowless small room with a vault door on the far back wall from the door. She unhinged the vent and pushed her head out to peer into the room confused, there were no visible lasers…

“About time you got here, Fox,” a voice teased from below. “Haven’t lost our touch, have we?”

Ange smiled as she looked down at Vera leaning casually against the wall by the digital combination pad.

Quickly sliding out, Ange flipped down to a crouch by Vera and looked back through the slightly open door to see two men unconscious on the carpet floor. Standing up straight she smiled gratefully at Vera who winked at her before gracefully slipping out without a whisper.

“I’ll stand on guard. Be quick, I’ve arranged for an iron horse for you to slip away with quickly nearby.”

Ange nodded grateful, relaying the information back to the group.

She sensed surprise from Ileana at Vera’s help but agreed the horse would be more useful for her to get away while they slipped out and met with her with the compass in a distant location.

Ange grinned widely as she approached the safe and pressed her ear against the thick metal. Quietly she spun the lock’s dial, listening for the faint clicks of the three digit combination. She was still counting the seconds, she was down to two minutes just as the resounding snap echoed in her ears and a mechanism whirled within.

Excited, her blood rushing she quickly jerked at the handle as the large heavy door swung open with a whine.

Gazing down she saw a large object the size of her skull, covered in a brown cloth. Her fingers twitched with anticipation and thrill as she pinched the cloth, her hands trembling as she realized the magnets were being attracted to the metal rings Showl had mentioned.

Quickly she pulled doff her cloves and tucked them away, she wouldn’t be able to use her hands if the compass stayed stuck to them.

She reached for the cloth and quickly
unfurled the Compass of Coronders from its cocoon.

Vibrant light bathed the safe and room, the
Aeterna Vas was just as Showl described, an odd ellipsoid rather than round. The gem was a milky white with spiraling ribbons of color swirling in its heart, a dancing spectrum of light in the room. It was held by four rings of polished gold. The two center rings, one horizontal and the other vertical across its face held the crystal and had small ball joints that spun it around inside two outer flat rings and their triangular dial.

The outer ring had ten vials equally spaced apart, a small amount of thick glass showed blood within and in the old writing of the dragons above each small container of blood was a small description that stated which element the blood was attuned too.

The ring within that ring held ten small glowing crystals that aligned to the blood, each one was a different shade. From the top clockwise was a gem of blazing red, followed by one that was an intense shade of cream, the next was a blistering white and crackling blue, afterwards a multihued gem of browns, the next gem was like liquid mercury with strings of other shades of metal, the proceeding gem was crystal clear but swirled with the faintest of lines that the eye could not catch, the gem that proceeded was a rainbow of greens and other soft yet vibrant pastel colors, then was followed by a deep blue crystal with a dark heart, the next was just like the case of ice that had once held Ange’s Key, the last gem was the deepest black with only the smallest hints of the darkest colors swirling within.

Fire. Light. Electricity. Earth. Metal. Air. Nature. Water. Ice. Darkness... Just like the ring back at the Tower of
Ingled.
Ange realized surprised.

She gazed at the beautiful object for a moment, admiring its beauty. She pictured it as she once would have been, hoarding such a treasure in a heap of other objects she would have stolen as a thief. A trophy that would have been a part of her monument of rapacity.

Despite agreeing to let go of that part of herself after tonight, she allowed the one human quality that often brought out the worst in men to capture her for a moment so she could appreciate how far she had come, greed.

She touched the Compass with her right hand, savoring the texture under her fingertips just as a lancing energy seared through her veins and touched her mind, locking her in place as the Compass began to violently glow till her eyes could see nothing but a painful flashing of white.

A wail of agony slipped her throat as rushing darkness clawed through her brain and snuffed out the light. It grappled to her and dragged her down deep into her own subconscious, ripping at everything in her mind.

A horrified voice wailed to her just as all connections were severed with a swift and painful slash.

“Angeline!!!”

And then Showl’s voice was gone and so was his presence.

In that fleeting moment before she blacked out completely she realized just how much she had failed to appreciate the bond that had connected them since she had touched her Key.

Even in her sleep, in her worst nightmares, she had never been alone. Showl had been there to protect her even from the darkness of her own mind so she may always rest well and without fear.

Now he was gone.

She was alone, just like before, miserably alone and in the dark.

Without his light, she was lost.

As the darkness swallowed her for its own an
umbrageous figure formed as it broke free of her worst dreams, a shape that had not existed since Showl had been a part of her mind.

It was her darkness, and it laughed as she was lost to the shadows, it
pranced and danced around her with a wicked ululation, a horrid smile, and hungry soulless eyes as she unwillingly lost everything to it and the darkness.

Ange was lost and she was alone and for the first time in months, she felt truly
cold.