Page 20 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Five dark-haired people—Yalvs, she guessed—reached toward a brilliant sphere in the sky that likely represented the sun.

Simple, but beautiful. It didn’t ring a bell as far as the Yalven legends and stories she knew, but as she’d discovered on her visit to Myrrai in the late autumn, what Jaydians knew about the Yalvs barely scratched the surface.

She edged closer, careful not to touch it. A flaw in the mural caught her eye: a divot in the heart of the sun, like a piece had fallen out.

She looked around as she drew out her sketchbook, but didn’t see anything that looked like it might fit inside.

“What are you doing?” Fely asked. She’d paused further down the hallway, Neils a few paces behind.

“Sketching a copy.” A rough one, but better than nothing. “Do you mind?”

When Fely shrugged, Hallie opened to a new page and jotted down a description of what she saw alongside a small, rough sketch. It was times like these she wished she had a flash portrait device. Her fingers were still clumsy, and drawing just felt wrong.

Fely stepped up beside her. “Many of our ancestors were quite gifted in the arts. The ability to create beauty out of the mundane was a prized quality in their culture.”

Hallie blinked. She, of course, knew that from being a Yalven scholar at the University, but she hadn’t expected it from Fely. “Were you also a scholar in the Isles?”

The woman shook her head. “Not formally, but my family has kept our traditions alive. We chose to stay in our ancestral home when many of our fellow countrymen fled to Tasava before the Passages closed.”

Excitement sparked. Hallie tightened her grip on her sketchbook. “ I didn ’ t realize there were many people on our side of the world who would … ”

The ground shook so hard that Hallie pitched forward into the wall. She turned just fast enough for her pack to catch the brunt of the impact, but her neck still strained with the quick motion.

It was over as quickly as it began. She rubbed her smarting neck as she turned to look at Niels; he was clutching his leg, but otherwise unscathed. “What was that?” he panted.

“I don’t know.” The fireball still floated like a ghost above them. It hadn’t been affected at all.

Fely was slowly pushing herself up from the ground. Blood trickled down her face from a vicious cut near her hairline; she swayed as soon as she found her feet, and Niels caught her with his good arm. He helped her sit back down, pain spiriting across his own features.

Now was her chance. She could leave Fely here, take Niels, and—

And they would probably run into Filip on the way out, and they’d lose the modicum of freedom he’d let them keep. All for nothing.

She hesitated only a bit longer before kneeling in front of Fely. “Let me see.”

Fely shakily wiped blood from her brow; even wounded, her features were striking. Some people had all the luck.

“It’s not deep,” Hallie observed. “Head wounds tend to bleed a lot regardless of the injury. But we should…” She looked to Niels. “Let’s wrap her head in that last roll of bandages.”

He slipped the pack off his shoulder and handed it off. Hallie fished out the roll tucked near the bottom and got to work.

Fely flinched, but allowed Hallie to help. “It’s nothing. We need to find the King.”

“That wasn’t a natural quake,” Niels said, eyes on the darkness beyond them. She didn’t ask how he knew.

“We had several near-misses on the way to Myrrai the first time,” Hallie said, unwrapping the bandage with swift fingers. “In retrospect, I think much of what we faced might have been set up by the Yalvs to discourage visitors.”

She reached the end of the long gauze…and something small and shiny fell out. She caught it on instinct, then opened her hand.

Nestled in her palm was a dainty metal ring.

She held it out to Niels. The band bore no engravings, and the sapphire in the middle was barely a chip. “What’s this?”

“Ma’s.” He grabbed it and held it between his index and thumb.

“Oh.”

She should have had more to say in memory of a woman she’d known most of her life.

Had anyone asked, she would have told them whenever a Rubikan trader brought cinnamon from the far islands, Mrs. Metzinger made a batch of fresh cinnamon rolls, and she never failed to share some with Hallie and Jack.

She would have told them she’d never heard Mrs. Metzinger say an unkind word about anyone, nor had she ever heard an unkind word said about her. She would have said…

Well, it didn’t matter what she would have said, because no one had asked. They didn’t have time for spontaneous eulogies, anyway.

Instead, Hallie made quick work of wrapping the woman’s head, then got to her feet. “Let’s keep moving.”

Niels nodded, tucking the ring into his pocket; Fely stood up again, and this time stayed standing. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Hallie gave her a hesitant smile. “Are you okay to keep going?”

“I will be fine.” The words were confident; the way Fely leaned into the wall as she walked, not so much. She was still faster than Niels, but not by much.

If the library was still standing after being laid waste by Ben Reiss and the dragon he’d brought through the Gate, she’d try and find something more about the mural.

For now, she forced herself to leave it behind, though dread pooled in her stomach the further they walked up the corridor.

What they’d find at the end, she could only imagine.

Judging by the subtle burn in her calves, the incline had begun to subtly increase.

She hadn’t thoroughly explored the Gate Temple on her first visit, so that didn’t mean they weren’t somewhere in the mountain, but the caverns and the distant dripping noises made her think they were somewhere below ground.

Between Niels and Fely, they traveled much more slowly than Hallie would have liked; the fireball floated along with them, casting just enough light to see their next couple steps by.

They found no sign of Filip, or anything that might have kept him from coming back.

The corridors snaked like a cat’s tail, unpredictable and sudden.

“You probably think I’m silly for keeping Ma’s ring,” Niels murmured, breaking the silence.

“I kept Jack’s pocket watch.” Hallie stopped in front of another mural—this one depicting the Gate chamber, though it looked different than she remembered it.

She didn’t think she’d seen yawning cathedral windows with elaborate swirled traceries in the chamber.

A mystery to be solved another day. “I don’t think it’s silly at all. ”

Niels’ lips quirked into a lopsided smile. “He loved that thing.” He adjusted his sling. “Always trying to tinker with it and make it work.”

A small laugh bubbled up in Hallie’s throat. It almost choked out her reply. “Yeah.”

Losing that watch for the second time had felt like mourning him all over again. And knowing that loss might keep her from ever mastering this power of hers only made it worse.

Fely played with the chain holding the locket around her neck, eyes on the mural. “Having a little piece of someone we love with us when they can’t be makes us feel human again.”

Hallie clutched Kase’s goggles tightly, anchoring herself.

The memory of their last kiss replayed in her head, and for a moment, she nearly threw caution to the wind and raced back to the portal brick.

If Niels could have kept up, or if she’d known Correa wasn’t waiting on the other side, she might have done it.

“Is your Relic…is the locket special to you?”

Fely’s gaze chilled. She turned away from the mural. “If we don’t find any trace soon, we’ll turn back and see if Filip has returned. Maybe he found a different way."

Hallie risked a small glance with Niels before taking the lead again.

They wound their way onward, climbing up around the corner where the stone walls bled into Zuprium bricks. A wave of heat billowed over them like a rolling sea.

Hallie clutched the wall, preparing for another quake, but it never came.

“What in the blazes was that?” Niels asked.

Nausea crept up her throat, but she couldn’t explain why. Something just felt...off.

She looked back at Fely. The woman’s face was too pale, but Hallie didn’t know if it was due to the blood loss or something else.

“Niels, do you still have your electropistol?” Hallie asked, keeping one hand on the wall just in case.

“No,” Niels said at the same time Fely reminded her, “The King took it with him.”

Hallie moved away a couple paces. She only had a theory, no concrete guess, but…

“Hallie,” Niels prompted, “I know that look. What was that?”

It’d been too long for him to still know her that well. She fought not to scowl as she pointed to the bricks breaking up the monotonous stone, blending in and multiplying further down the corridor. “It’s the Zuprium.”

Niels frowned. “I don’t think I understand.”

Neither did she. All she knew was that the Yalvs had done something to make sure that those with ‘sparking magic’ couldn’t harm them. Clearly, they hadn’t planned for their own magic to be turned against them with the Cerls and Ben. It was the only explanation Hallie could conjure.

“When the First Earthers landed, all their fancy technology went dark,” Hallie explained.

“Yeah, it was a new planet. They didn’t realize the laws of nature would be different here.” Niels’ breathing was still labored.

That was the story some believed. Hallie knew better.

“Not exactly,” Fely said, clearly following the same train of thought.

Hallie squinted up ahead, trying to make out anything waiting for them in the darkness.

Dim light sifted through and reflected dully off the Zuprium bricks ahead, and it had to be coming from somewhere—maybe a gap in the stone.

It couldn’t be coming from their fireball; the light playing on the bricks shone the color of gray mist, whereas the light from their orb was a soft gold.

With careful feet and a hand along the wall, she walked toward it.

“What do you mean, not exactly?” Niels asked as both he and Fely’s footsteps scuffled along behind her.

Hallie blew a strand of hair out of her face.

“To the Yalvs, our technology was destructive. They used Zuprium to subdue the electricity…or, as they called it, ‘sparking magic.’ The slow disappearance of the Yalvs from our side of the world reduced the potency of their wards. However, on Tasava, the wards are still intact.”

Niels was silent for a beat, save for the clop of his boots on the metal floor. “And you learned this all from a book?”

“No.”

Another few beats of silence. “So…you learned it in a lecture?”

Hallie didn’t like thinking back to the Eudora Jayde mission. Every time she did, she felt the pain in her hand all over again, saw Ebba crumple, heard Kase’s unhinged pounding on the Gate Temple door.

“We must turn around,” Fely insisted from behind.

“I think we’re almost out of here,” Hallie said, putting as much confidence in her voice as she could.

The light was growing brighter, the gray of a murky dawn.

She didn’t know if the Passage somehow manipulated time, but she was surprised she hadn’t fallen over from exhaustion if she had indeed been up the entire night. Adrenaline was a funny thing.

“Hallie…” Niels prompted.

“Not now. We’re so—”

“Hallie.”

Hallie chanced a quick glare over her shoulder; instead of Niels, she found Fely. The woman’s breathing was labored, and sweat beaded on her brow.

Niels wasn’t trying to stop her; he was telling her to wait. Hallie slowed. “Sorry.”

Fely took deep breaths and lowered herself to the floor. “Something is wrong. I just don’t—” She cut herself off with a gasp. “We have to go back .”

Hallie doubled back and knelt beside her. The bandage was spotted with browning blood, but it wasn’t soaked. “Does anything hurt? Is it your head?”

Fely shook her head, grimacing. “No.”

She didn’t really know what else to ask. Jack had been the one who knew all that stuff. She looked at Niels. “Stay with her. I’ll check ahead, and then we’ll turn back.”

She didn’t even believe herself that time.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Niels demanded.

She couldn’t, even if she’d wanted to. Fely might have a concussion, but she claimed the pain hadn’t worsened. She seemed pale, but the bleeding had mostly stopped.

Something in her gut told her it was much worse than a concussion; that it had something to do with Fely’s power.

Like most things lately, it was just a guess. But the longer the thought weighed on her mind, the more sure of it she became.

They had to be in Myrrai. The Zupirum bricks and the wave of warmth confirmed it.

Niels grabbed her arm. Hallie jumped. He’d gone pale, too, bathed in the pre-morning light coming from around the corner. She still couldn’t tell if it was a window or door. “Don’t.”

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I’ll just be a moment.”

“We don’t know what’s up there.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Hallie…”

Irritation crawled up her throat. She clenched her teeth to keep it contained. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Niels looked back down at Fely. Her eyes had closed, her head tipped back against the wall. He strode past Hallie, jaw clenched, gait unsteady. “I’m coming with you.”

She scrambled after him, checking to make sure Fely wasn’t stirring; she had a Cerl pistol, after all, and the Zuprium wouldn’t affect it the way it did electropistols.

Luckily, Fely didn’t stir.

“I can take care of myself,” Hallie hissed as she caught up with him.

“Then tell me what’s going on.” Niels caught her arm again. “And tell me why we aren’t trying to run now that she’s out!”

Hallie’s nails bit into her palms. “Now isn’t the time.”

“Now’s the only time!”

Heat pulsed within her core, the frustration building up like bricks. She wasn’t even sure what they were arguing about. “I don’t know what you’re asking me. We’re going to run, I just have to see—”

“Would you tell Kase if he was here?”

Well yes, she thought, but Kase wouldn’t have to ask in the first place. He’d just know. “What is this actually about, Niels?”

Niels hesitated before running a hand along his jaw. “Nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Giving him a look, she turned the corner, Niels a wall of silence behind her. A doorway glowing with the early light of morning waited beyond…

And just on the other side, a body crowned in golden hair lay prone under a pile of rock and metal.

“Oh, stars,” Hallie breathed.