The Last Enchanter (27 page)

“What is it?” asked Lael.

Marcus brushed his fingers over the top page. He silently read the first few lines.

“It's a letter to my father,” he said, “from my mother.”

“Ivanore? What's a letter from her doing here in Voltana?”

Lael's question echoed Marcus's thoughts. At one time, Krak and Zyll must have known each other well enough for their chests to share the same key. Had Zyll given Krak the letter for safekeeping? Or had Ivanore given it to Krak herself? Marcus untied the ribbon and leafed through the sheets that had grown brittle with age.

“What are you doing?” Lael asked.

“Looking for answers,” replied Marcus. He tried to read the rest of the top page, but the light was too dim. “Bring the torch here.”

Lael did as he asked, holding it just over Marcus's shoulder. They read the first page together:

My Dearest Jayson
,

More than a year has passed since you left me standing alone on the cliffs of Dokur. I still can see your face, taste the salt of your tears on my lips as the soldiers tore you from my arms. My heart was torn from me that day as well, carried with you on a ship to a faraway land.

I have waited for your return these many months, but as each day passes with no word from you, I fear that you are injured or dead, for I know that nothing save death would keep you away from me. In my mind, I see you in
shackles, your skin bruised and bleeding, and somehow I know it is because of me that you suffer.

If this vision be true, then you cannot come to me. Therefore, I must come to you. Our sons will be safe with your father. He has promised to look after them and has sworn to keep their identities hidden to protect them from those who wish to do them harm.

I had almost forgotten that you know of only one child. I never had the chance to tell you of the second, but no matter. We will all soon be reunited. I leave only this letter behind in the event that you return before I have found you. Should that happen, please wait for me. I also leave with this letter documents I have gathered as evidence against my father's enemies. It is enough to finally loosen the hold they have on the throne of Dokur. With this evidence, Dokur and our children will finally live in peace.

Take care, my love, and protect these pages with your life if necessary. There are those who will go to great measures to see them destroyed. Now I go. I pray to the gods that I will be successful in my quest and that soon I will be in your arms once again.

Your beloved
,

Ivanore

Marcus turned to the second page and looked it over as Lael read along with him. They did the same with the next page and the next.

“Those first pages look like legal documents of some kind,” said Lael. “A treaty? Contracts, maybe.”

“These others are different,” noted Marcus, glancing through several other pages. “Look at this one. It goes on and on for six pages.”

“What is
Vatéz
? It's in the document's title and appears several times on every page.”

“I think it's pronounced ‘va-teez,' though I'm not sure what it means. Maybe it has something to do with this list of names.”

Lael took the documents from Marcus and read over them while he looked at the final page, which was not a document at all, but a map. From the shape of the land and its markings, it was clearly not of Imaness but seemed to be of the mainland. Of Hestoria. But the locations and other writings on it were in a language unfamiliar to Marcus. He recalled the time magic had helped him translate some text outside the library in Noam during his quest. He might be able to translate this, as well, but it would have to wait until he had time to examine it more closely.

He turned his attention back to the chest and wondered if it would be worthwhile to take it with him. It wasn't too large to carry, after all, and with nothing inside, it wouldn't be heavy. He glanced inside, imagining how much of Krak's jewelry might fit in it, when he noticed the bottom seemed loose.

He pulled back the velvet lining and found that the wooden bottom had cracked with age. He lifted off the broken section and discovered that this wasn't the bottom
of the chest at all. Rather, it had been laid over a shallow space, creating a false bottom. Marcus removed the remaining sheet of wood. There, atop several leaves of blank parchment, was a polished medallion crafted solely of Celestine.

Seventy-three

M
arcus stared at the medallion for several moments. He had seen only one like this before, and the two were nearly identical. The other had once belonged to Ivanore and now belonged to Kelvin. Marcus remembered how Hyer, the leader of the grocs, had spoken of such a stone. He had dismissed the possibility of it being Ivanore's seal since hers had been broken into pieces. But here was a second seal intact! It must have been the very same stone Ivanore had shown to Hyer.

Marcus glanced at Lael. She was focused on the pages. He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt that this seal was meant for his eyes only. He quickly slipped the medallion into his pouch. Just then, Lael called to him.

“Marcus, you need to read this part of the ‘Vatéz' document,” she said, handing him the pages. Marcus took them and read the passage Lael had pointed out. Then he read it again.

“Is it possible?” asked Lael in alarm. “Could these documents be real?”

“Why wouldn't they be?”

“Because if what these papers claim is true, then Kelvin and Jayson are in real danger.”

Marcus nodded. “We have to get back to Dokur right away.”

The candles flickered with a sudden whoosh of air. Xerxes flew into Krak's shop, landing clumsily on the table beside the chest.

“They're coming! They're coming!”

Marcus did not need an explanation. He understood immediately that the Pey Weys had likely heard the racket he had made with the chains and were on their way to inspect the cause. Marcus tucked Ivanore's pages into his satchel. Then, using magic, he extinguished the torch.

“Xerxes, tell Rylan and Bryn to meet us outside the village!” he said hastily.

Xerxes hopped onto his shoulder. “They've already gone,” he said. “They're out of danger. But you two have got to get out of here now!”

Xerxes leapt from Marcus's shoulder and swooped out the door into the night. Marcus hurried to the door and glanced out. Six Pey Wey guards marched toward them, torches and lances held at ready.

“We can't go that way,” Marcus said, slipping back into the room. “Is there another door?”

Lael was already frantically searching the back wall for an exit. She turned to Marcus, shaking her head.

“If they catch us in here, we're finished,” said Marcus.

“Then we'll have to fight them.”

“All six of them? I'd really like to survive long enough to get home. Look for another way out.”

“I did look. That door is the only way in or out of here.”

Marcus had only a moment to decide what to do. He hurried to the back wall. “Well, it worked in the groc's cave,” he said, pressing his hands against it.

The wall shuddered just as the first guard stepped through the doorway. “Intruders!” he shouted and darted toward Marcus.

Acting on instinct, Lael reached for Marcus's dagger. She swung it forward, its blade clashing with the tip of the guard's lance. The guard lost his balance and stumbled forward.

As the other guards filed in, the walls vibrated again, more violently this time. A sharp, popping sound rang through the shop, and a deep crack appeared in the wall just above Marcus's hands, snaking up toward the ceiling.

“It's coming down!” shouted one of the guards, and they all turned, scrambling to get back outside. The crack widened, and the ceiling opened. Marcus let go of the wall and grabbed Lael by the arm. He pulled her close to him and shoved the broken wall. Marcus and Lael pushed
through, falling in a heap on the ground as the building collapsed in a pile of rubble behind them.

“Not again!” Lael pushed Marcus off her.

“Sorry,” said Marcus, standing to brush the dust from his clothes.

“Uh, Marcus?” said Lael.

“What?”

“We've got company!”

Seventy-four

T
he five guards not caught in the shop's collapse stood on the other side of the pile of rubble, shouting angry threats. Marcus went for his dagger but found it missing. He turned to Lael, who held up her empty hands.

“I dropped it coming through the wall,” she said apologetically. “It must be buried under all this.”

Marcus didn't have time to lament the loss of his knife. He glanced around, trying to decide what to do next. Gather the rubble into a barrier of some kind? Send a gush of wind to throw the guards back? Before he could do anything, however, one of the guards let out a loud
humph!
and then fell to the ground unconscious. Marcus looked behind him. Lael stood with her sling spinning
above her head. She let loose a second stone. The next guard grabbed his shoulder and screamed out in pain but kept coming.

Lael snatched another stone from the ground to load her sling as three guards charged forward. Marcus swept his palms forward. A wave of gravel and rocks rose from the ground, pummeling the guard in front. But it was only enough to keep them back for a few seconds.

The last two guards were too close now for the sling. Lael ran back, trying to lengthen the distance between them. Marcus flung another shower of stones, harder this time, and managed to bring one guard to his knees. But before he could repeat his attack, the last guard was on him. The guard kicked Marcus in the chest. Marcus fell backward onto the ground. The guard then lifted his lance with both hands and prepared to plunge it into Marcus.

“Lael! Shoot him!”

“He's too close!”

“Just do it!”

Lael obeyed. As the stone shot forward, Marcus followed its brief trajectory with an intense gaze. Just as it reached the soldier's face, it exploded with such force that the sound of it sent shockwaves through the air. The guard screamed in pain and, grabbing his face with both hands, dropped his weapon to the ground.

Lael's sling spun again. But then suddenly, it was snatched from her hand. One of the injured guards had somehow sneaked up behind her and taken her by surprise. In the next moment, he held her tight against him,
a stone blade pressed to her throat. Several of the other guards slowly got to their feet, staggering from pain but still ready to fight.

Marcus froze. What could he do to the guard that would not hurt Lael, too? He had to think fast.

Then, in the sky just beyond the mountains, a dark form appeared. It grew steadily as it soared toward them. Marcus stared, momentarily distracted from the immediate threat of the guard, who also gaped in amazement. The shape approached with such tremendous speed that Marcus had barely taken his third breath before it reached them.

The guard holding Lael dropped his lance and screamed, “Rok!” He turned and ran but not fast enough. The gryphon swooped down, snatched the guard in its mighty talon, and soared straight up as the guard screeched in terror. When the gryphon had reached enough height, it released its prisoner. The guard plummeted to the earth, only to be snatched up again just before hitting the ground. The gryphon took the guard in its beak and flung him. The guard flew more than thirty feet before colliding with an outcropping of porous stone.

The gryphon alighted on the ground between Lael and Marcus and let out a deafening shriek. The remaining guards turned tail and ran. Marcus laughed as he watched them go. “I don't think they'll be coming back,” he said.

Lael stood, gaping in awe at the creature that had saved them. “Where did you come from all of a sudden?” she asked.

Marcus approached the gryphon and stroked its neck. “The Pey Weys had it chained up. I let it go, so I guess it thought it owed me one.”

“It's a
she
,” Lael said, correcting him. “And how did she know you were in trouble?”

“I don't know,” said Marcus. He reached up and touched the pendant and thought once more of the words the seller had told him. The gryphon is the guardian of the Seer. Could it be that this gryphon was to be
his
protector?

Xerxes, who had been circling overhead, swooped down and crash-landed on the rocky soil. “Bryn and Rylan are waiting for you,” he said breathlessly.

“Good,” said Marcus. “Please tell them we're safe and on our way to meet them.”

Xerxes immediately flew off to deliver the message.

“We need to get back to Dokur,” Marcus told Lael. “We've been gone too long. We don't have much time before Kaië's trial.”

The gryphon blinked her eyes, large circles of black. Marcus rubbed her beak. “I think she likes me,” he said. The gryphon bowed her head and nudged Marcus from behind.

“What is she doing?” asked Lael.