The Crimson Vault (The Traveler's Gate Trilogy) (55 page)

“I’ve been watching you,” she said. “I know what you did.”

Alin sighed, stepping past her on his way to the bed. His armor was so uncomfortable that it would surely keep him awake if he tried to lie down in it, otherwise he would just collapse with the suit still on.

“I killed the King, and practically won your war single-handedly,” Alin said. “At least one Incarnation is free, and now I’m sure Damasca will be too busy fighting their own prisoners to send any armies against you. You’re free, and you’re welcome.”

With the light of the hallway to her back, Grandmaster Naraka was little more than a dark silhouette with blood-red lenses over her eyes.

“Did you give your sisters the seed?” she asked. “Or do you still have it?”

A ball of ice formed in the pit of his stomach.

“What are you talking about?” Alin asked.

“Come now, boy. You told me yourself. Where is the seed to the Hanging Tree?”

“Hidden,” he responded.

She shook her head sadly. “The Incarnations will hunt for that seed. Other than another Ragnarus Traveler or their own foolishness, it’s one of the only things that can send them back to their prison. You should give it to me, and I will destroy it.”

“Or what?” he asked.

She met his eyes, her voice level. “Even now, the Incarnation of Naraka is on his way to Myria.”

Fear and fury rose up in him in equal measures as he marched across his floor, seizing the old woman with both hands and lifting her off the ground.

“What have you done?
”

“I can contact the denizens of Naraka with my mind,” Grandmaster Naraka said. “It would be child’s play to let the Incarnation know that I have the seed, and that there is no more need to destroy your hometown.”

“Do it
now!”
Alin roared.

“The seed,” she said. “Give me the seed, and this can all go away.”

Rage blurred Alin’s vision, and his grip was so tight that he wouldn’t be surprised to hear one of her bones snap. For a moment, he considered killing her, as he had killed the King.

But her death wouldn’t stop the Incarnation. It wouldn’t save his sisters.

He dropped her to the floor and released her shoulders.

“All right,” he said. “You win. Call it off, and I’ll retrieve the seed.”

“A wise decision, Eliadel.”

Her calm demeanor did nothing but stoke his anger hotter. “Do not speak to me. If anything happens to my sisters, I will make sure you suffer the same fate as Overlord Malachi.”

Grandmaster Naraka executed an ironic bow, then reached out her marked hand. She waved it slightly as she concentrated.

Alin watched her for a moment.

At first, she looked peaceful. Then a frown grew on her face. Finally, her whole face tightened into a rictus of pain and concentration. A trickle of blood ran from her nose.

Finally she jerked forward, her glasses flying off her face and shattering on the floor. “I can’t,” she panted. “It’s too much. He won’t listen.”

Alin’s stomach churned.

“What are you saying?” he asked. Dread hung heavy in his voice.

She didn’t seem triumphant. If anything, she seemed lost and confused. “The Incarnation. I can’t stop him. He’s heading into Myria.”

Alin stared at her a moment. Then he thrust his hands out in front of him, reaching through space into Elysia.

“I’ll take you through Naraka,” the Grandmaster said. She mopped her forehead as though to wipe away sweat. “The sun is setting. I know it’s easier to open a Gate to Elysia at midday.”

Ignoring her, Alin tore even harder at the barrier between this world and his Territory. The air shimmered and shook, fighting him, putting up a futile resistance as a golden tear formed above the ground.

“I did not intend this,” Grandmaster Naraka said, “but you should not miss the lesson. No matter what the Incarnation does, it would not have happened if you had just given me the seed.”

She sounded resolved, but Alin knew her better than that. She was trying to convince herself.

Alin shouted, pulling his hands apart as though ripping a curtain in half.

In response to his desperate will alone, a ragged Elysian Gate opened, hanging in midair waiting for him.

Before he walked through, he took an instant to speak to the Grandmaster.

“When I come back,” he said, “I’m going to kill you.”

Then he ran into the City of Light, letting the portal close behind him.

This time he didn’t approach the gates of the city with his normal reverence. He didn’t check for traps, and he didn’t stop to talk to any of the citizens as usual.

He ran.

He slammed open the gates and rushed down the streets, pushing people aside if they even came close to blocking his way. This being the Gold District, they would likely all want to fight him later, but that didn’t matter at all. Nothing mattered, if he couldn’t reach his sisters in time.

Alin kicked open the door to the heart of Elysia—it wasn’t strictly necessary, but it made him feel as though he were moving faster.

Rhalia stood inside, hovering so close to the floor that her white dress brushed the floor tiles. Her blond hair fluttered in a nonexistent breeze, and her golden eyes shone.

“You look terrible,” she said frankly.

“I need to get back to my village,” Alin said. He gestured at the doors all around him. “Which of these will let me fly?”

She hesitated. “Alin—”

“You said one of these gives me the power of flight.
Which one?
”

“Tell me what’s wrong, Alin.”

Alin took a step forward, his hands clenching into fists. “My sisters are going to die. There’s a Naraka Incarnation headed for them. But if I get there first, I can stop it!”

Rhalia flinched, her ever-present smile fading away entirely. “I’m sorry to hear that. Believe me, I understand how you feel. More than you know. But you will regret this.”

Alin was prepared to regret this until his dying day, if it kept even one of his sisters alive.

He looked straight into Rhalia’s golden eyes. “Which door?”

Rhalia pointed at the door to the Orange District.

Without hesitation, Alin pushed it open.

***

Under other circumstances, flying would probably have been the most exciting experience of Alin’s life.

He hurtled through the air in the direction of Myria, waves of orange light pushing out from his back like a set of sunset-colored wings. Orange light also wrapped the rest of his body in a kind of pale aura, so that he hurtled through the air like a flame-colored meteor.

He had never moved with such speed. In only a matter of minutes, he went from Enosh to just outside of Myria. He recognized the lay of the land; his family’s property wasn’t far from here.

Flying this fast…surely he would make it in time.

Then, for the second time in his life, he caught sight of flames rising from the village of Myria.

When the Damascans had raided the village for sacrifices, the setting of fires had been almost accidental. Bonfires had spread out of control thanks to terrified villagers, a few soldiers had set fires for distraction or intimidation, and an Endross Traveler had attacked with too much enthusiasm. While the smoke had seemed awful, relatively little of the village had actually burned down.

This time, flames rose from every building in the village.

Alin shot over the rooftops like a falling star, aiming straight for his sisters’ house, where he had left them only the night before.

He landed outside the doorway, and immediately a hulking four-armed lizard with black skin leaped out of the nearby flames, ambushing him the second he landed.

He blasted it back with a quick and overwhelming dose of golden light. He didn’t have time for this.

Alin kicked the door open, but no one was in the house.

Then where were they?

A thud sounded behind him, as though someone was playing the earth itself as a drum.

He spun around.

The Naraka Incarnation crouched across from his house, though it hadn’t been there before. Alin would have noticed this creature, as it was ten feet of ashen skin and blazing hair. It thumped its enormous lizard-tail, waving a burning hammer the size of an oak tree.

The Incarnation spilled Ilana to the ground, where her body flopped like a rag doll. She didn’t move.

It raised its other fist, which tightened around Tamara. With all her strength, she struggled to break free. Alin’s stomach tightened.

The Incarnation leaned his hammer against his own shoulder, freeing his hand to reach down for Tamara’s travel-bag.

“I smell Ragnarus,” the Incarnation grumbled, in a voice like a mountain’s. “Is this your doing, Elysian Traveler?”

Tamara screamed his name, shouting for him to run away.

Alin called all the golden power of Elysia, ignoring his exhaustion, summoning from his Territory until his brain felt ready to tear itself apart.

Run away?
She should know him better than that.

With orange light, Alin launched himself in the air, streaking for the Incarnation’s face. He slammed into the creature with the force of a catapult stone, halting his momentum by shielding himself with the green at the last second.

In midair, he turned, summoning his golden sword to slice off the Naraka Incarnation’s hand at the wrist.

The Incarnation howled its misery in a terrible voice, every Naraka creature in town howling along with it, but its hand tumbled to the ground. With a last-second effort of will, Alin managed to catch Tamara in a cushion of orange light before she hit the ground.

Alin landed gently beside her, beginning to summon rose-pink light for her injuries. At least he had managed to save one of his family members today.

Tamara looked behind him and her eyes widened.

“Watch—” she began.

Then the Incarnation’s flame-headed hammer caught her in the ribs.

It had swung one-handed, missing Alin by inches, but hitting Tamara square in the gut. She flew backwards, tumbling head over heels, before smacking into the walls of a brick house fifteen paces away.

Her neck was twisted almost all the way around.

No,
Alin thought.
Wait. That’s not right. That’s not supposed to happen.

I got here in time.

He looked from Tamara’s body to Ilana’s. Where was Shai? Surely she should be around here somewhere, unless…

…unless there was no body. Unless a monster had eaten her whole, because there was no one around to defend her.

The Naraka Incarnation loomed over him, its orange eyes glowing the color of embers. Its severed hand dissolved into ash, blowing on the wind in a solid cloud that drifted up to the end of its stump, grafting itself back on. In seconds, it had two hands again.

“I smell guilt on you, Elysian Traveler,” the Incarnation rumbled. “I smell death, and arrogance like a river. Let me punish you. There can be no justice without recompense.”

Alin just stared up at the hideous monster, unable to speak.

Why did it feel like his eyes were burning?

“So be it,” the Incarnation said. It took its hammer in a two-handed grip and swung down onto Alin’s head.

Alin raised one hand and caught it.

His hand blazed green, in an interlocking swirl of green plates ten layers thick.
 

He glanced down at his body, surprised to see blood-red light swirling around all his limbs, filling his body with power. He hadn’t opened the door to the Red District.
 

The ground around his feet cracked under the impact of the Incarnation’s blow, but he barely felt anything.

Lights and colors swarmed his mind, where his Elysian power normally rested, as though a dozen dams had burst within him at once. So much that had once eluded him became clear. Simple. He had the answer to all the world’s problems, and he had to share them.

No, he didn’t have the answer. He
was
the answer.

Alin shouted, releasing a torrent of power.

Behind him, a Gate to Elysia opened. Not just the usual Gate—six feet tall, barely wide enough to walk through—but an enormous portal the length and breadth of the City of Light itself.

The Gate glowed gold, bringing with it light like a sunrise.

The creatures of Elysia heard his call, and they came.

By the thousands, they came.

Armies of white and gold marched from the Gold District, wielding blades the color of sunlight and spears like frozen lightning.

Across the village, far beyond the reach of Alin’s eyes, another Gate opened. The Green District poured out: emerald titans, shield-backed turtles the size of horses, armored figures carrying hammers and shields. There was no way Alin should be able to see them coming, not from so far away, but for some reason he could picture each detail with absolute clarity, as though part of his mind drifted freely through the city.

From the Blue District came lizards with three tails, scampering along the ground. Ethereal fish drifted through the air, and nameless tentacled creatures lurched down the streets. They latched on to the nearest Naraka monster with their sticky, twisting arms, draining life and heat from their victims. Narakan corpses fell to the ground, cold and empty.

On and on, the City of Light hurled its residents forth in a fury of power. They clashed with the burning creatures of Naraka in a dozen different armies, their battles echoing in bursts of flame throughout the village of Myria.

Alin’s senses expanded, drifting out on winds of silver light. He had been confused when Rhalia had first described silver light to him—how could light be the color of silver? But now he could see it, he could feel it drifting in the air around him. It looked like shards of metal drifting on the wind, each shard just a spark of the Silver District’s light.

The particles blew out, touching every corner of the city, searching according to his will.

In seconds, he knew that Shai wasn’t in the village at all. There was no living person of Shai’s description in range, or his silver light would have detected her. He had lost her after all—the silver light could only find the living.