Crusade Across Worlds (9 page)

Of course Qippert is excited by all of this.
Next to Fychu Sampson, he’s as spiritual and in tune with the Way
as possible. Working alongside Blovid for so many years must have
helped. Or maybe he’s always been in tune with it. Either way, the
shorter, gray-haired companion to the remaining Arizal Leader
continues to perk up when anything to do with the Mother, the Gifts
or the Lost Princesses becomes the topic of conversation.

“Huh,” Pratt follows the blonde Rogue’s lead
and tears off another chuck of meat, “so it’s kind of a big
deal?”

I shrug. “Kind of.”

“You say you trained with the whip?” Walker
brings his melon-cup to his mouth. “I don’t really see how you need
any help in that area.”

“It’s about discipline. Learning when to
strike and when to wait.”

“What were you striking?”

“Horrops. Five of them.”

Reid chokes next to me and all eyes fly to
him. He pats himself on the chest and clears his throat.

Pratt leans closer. She glances briefly at
him, then back at me. “Really? One right after the other?”

“No…” I smile and then falter, aware of the
weight my next words will hold. But it’s going to have to come out
at some point. “Actually, at the same time. And… I was
blindfolded.”

Reid stiffens and Walker raises a brow. “Do
explain.”

I describe the concept behind the tests and
how every week I’d failed to complete it, always believing I’d be
trampled or stabbed to death. The entire room watches wide-eyed,
listening as they slow their ravenous consumption.

“Well how’d you pass it?” Pratt swallows.
“You said they wouldn’t let you leave if you didn’t? You might not
have come back!”

Reid tenses beside me.

“I think I was meant to pass the twelfth
time. I think I was supposed to be there for three months because
they knew it would take me that long to get it.”

“Get what?”

“How to defeat them.”

“And how
did
you defeat them?” Able
grins. “Come on—you got to spill the beans, bestie.”

As I look around the room, I find that
everyone shares the same intrigued expression. Pratt, Mae, the
Rogues, Walker, all the Dofinikes and Zingfinolds look at me with
the same burning curiosity. How
did
I defeat them?

“It was something I saw in one of my
visions,” I pick at my nail, my focus on the ground. “One of my
glimpses into the past.”

“What did you see?” Werzo asks.

“It may be against the Lost Princesses’
wishes for Fallon to divulge such sensitive information,” Sampson
looks at me with the tiniest hope that I might disagree.

“There are some things I can’t tell you,” I
think of the last piece of the Glass Chamber and how it projected
my future, a future where I kill Reuzkimpart. It’s a prophecy that
I’m meant to fulfill and even though I’m dying to tell everyone
that it’s me—that
I’m
the one who has to do it—I can’t.
Instead, I focus on the story that’s been circling my head for the
past week. “But I can tell you some things,” I look up. “I saw
Princess Nhazual.”

“What?” Able’s mouth drops. “For real? In
person?”

“No…” I stifle a chuckle. “She’s been dead
three thousand years. Remember?”

“Oh,” he nods with a smile to everyone,
“right.”

“So what’d you see?” Mae asks.

“Well…” I think of the best way to summarize
it. “I saw what happened to her. Her fate, I guess,” I take a deep
breath and go into the story. “She fell in love with a miyon who
betrayed her. She’d take Nhazual’s Pass and meet him on the other
side and they’d…” I wave my hand, implying the activity. “But he
was only using her to get the Floating Ruby. She must’ve told him
at some point because he came back with help.”

“Like an army?”

“Like a rag-tag team of miyons to dig it
up.”

“What happened?” Pratt asks.

“At one point she was surrounded,” I think
of the scene, her heartbreak still fresh in my mind. “They were
going to kill her. I thought she was dead but then…”

You have killed me.

“What?” Pratt asks again. “What
happened?”

“She killed them. All of them.”

“How?”

“With their own blades. They were charging
her so she waited until the last second and disappeared. They ended
up gutting themselves.”

“So you let the Horrops nearly crush you,”
Reid says quietly, “and disappeared at the last second?” I nod and
Reid closes his eyes.

“Fallon…” Sampson clears his throat, “I
wonder… you may not have noticed, but… could you decipher from the
vision where exactly the miyons were digging?”

“Why?”

The Fychu hesitates, then starts again. “It
appears we have come to a road-block in our plans. The idea, as you
remember, is to relocate the Gifts so we may trap the Vermix in
their attempt at stealing them. We have made good on delivering
this information to the spies we have currently been monitoring,
and I am highly convinced Reuzkimpart will bring his forces in two
weeks when we have admitted we’ll be moving them. The problem we’re
having…” Sampson glances around the others once more, “is that we
don’t actually
know
where the Gifts are.”

I turn to King Hozfin.

“It is not,” Sampson stops me before I can
ask, “for lack of questioning, please believe me. Even with Thias
not convinced of the idea, we have sought this information since
you left three months ago. It would not matter if he was well
situated with our plan,” he sighs heavily, “as he simply does not
know. Nor does King Hozfin. The location of the Gift has been
unknown for centuries. Maybe longer.”

“You’re kidding,” I survey the defeated
faces around me. “I thought it was just well hidden?”

Clarence nods. “So well hidden no one knows
where.”

“But—”

“No one on Nerwolix knows where the Floating
Ruby is hidden and Queen Ravan is refusing to tell us the location
of the Shadow Bag. At this point, we have an invasion to steal the
Gifts without any Gifts to steal.”

“Okay… well … maybe this is a good thing. Do
we really need to move them? Why can’t we just pretend to—”

Sampson shakes his head. “Reuzkimpart will
only attack once he receives confirmation that the Gifts have been
spotted. He will plan for the invasion, but unless there is
indisputable proof that we have them, he will not send his forces
in. Maybe on some level he knows it’s a trap. But I know he won’t
come if the Gifts are not seen. And if that’s the case, he will try
again randomly, attacking when we’re not prepared. We need to
control this invasion, make it work for us instead of the other way
around.”

I turn to Tucker. “What about Ariana? Would
she know where the Shadow Bag is?”

“She knows, and she wants to help, but she
can’t. Her mother forbade it.”

“Yeah but—”

“She won’t go against her mother,” he
mutters.

“Unless Queen Ravan decides to disclose the
location, we won’t have it. And the Floating Ruby is lost. Right
now,” Sampson sighs, “we’re at a stand-still.”

“And it’s two weeks away,” Reid grazes his
fingers over mine.

“So, Fallon,” Sampson keeps his voice soft,
“perhaps you remember some detail? Anything, really, would
help.”

“I can try,” I straighten my back like I do
when mediating. Closing my eyes, I summon the vision that’s been
haunting me for the past week. Her face comes into view and my
chest constricts, an intense urge to cry suddenly overwhelming me.
But I concentrate on the task. Find the miyons. Find where they’re
digging. Another deep breath and I look past Nhazual, focusing on
the miyons at the edge of the valley. But I can’t see anything.
It’s like staring into the distorted image after a pebble skips
across water. There’s just nothing recognizable.

I open my eyes. “I don’t think it’s
there.”

“Where?” Blovid asks.

“Wherever they were—around the edge of the
valley.”

Clarence leans in. “Why don’t you think it’s
there?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t… feel right. I
don’t think the vision is about where it is… but where it was.”

“So you think it’s been moved?”

“If the king at the time knew its location
and it’s since been lost… then yeah, I think it was moved. And
whoever did it kept their mouth shut.”

“And the Lost Princesses didn’t tell you
anything?” Sampson tries. “No hints or clues you may not have
understood at the time?”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll try to
remember.”

“Please do. Anything could help at this
point.”

“So what’s the plan, then?” I reach for a
red melon. “Are we still pushing forward with luring the
Vermix?”

“The plan,” Clarence clears his voice, “is
to carry on as normal. We intend to make one final trip to
Mybyncia… see if we can’t get it out of Her Highness.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

Taking a bite out of my fruit, I keep it
close to my mouth. “Who’s going?”

“All of us,” Clarence gestures to the rest
of the Dofinikes and humans. “Walker’s never been to the planet so
he’d like to accompany. King Hozfin has already granted his and
Tucker’s temporary leave.”

“You?” I turn to Reid.

“Of course,” he wipes a piece of melon from
the corner of my mouth.

“So we’ll go tomorrow. Maybe Ariana can
help… sway her mom a little.”

“She’s tried,” Tucker exhales. “Believe me.
She’s dying to tell us but she can’t.”

“I remember the queen forbade something
else,” Jace snickers to himself, “and we did it anyway.”

I look at Sampson. “The Lost Princesses told
me the Gifts are the most important things—that you choose them
over everything. Love. Life, even. Wouldn’t taking them, even to
tempt Reuzkimpart, be considered blasphemous?”

“But we are not taking them to use them,”
Blovid reminds. “Merely to keep them safe while he is captured, and
this war, ended.”

“But what if they fall into the wrong
hands?”

“They will not. Every amount of security
will be placed on the Gifts,” he boasts, then falters a little, as
if remembering something important, “…once we have them.”

“What kind of protection?”

“Zingfinold protection,” King Hozfin’s deep
voice rumbles. “Nerwolix protection. Mybyncian, Dofinike and human
protection. All in trees and on beach. Watching, waiting. Is
impossible to steal.”

“So they’re just going to be out in the
open?” I glance around with confusion. “And where do they think
we’re relocating them?”

“The moons,” Clarence says. “Larupip and
Arosin.”

“Both?”

“We’ll have some Nerwos situated at
predetermined locations. The plan is that they’ll only be there in
case something goes wrong and we actually have to move the Gifts.
The idea is to take down Reuzkimpart here, on Nerwolix. It’s better
camouflage and the Zingfinolds are able to move through it
easier.”

“You say in case.”

“Fallon,” Sampson starts, “we sincerely hope
all goes as planned—assuming we are able to obtain the Gifts—but
things can go wrong. It happens. Having Nerwos stationed on Larupip
and Arosin is just the contingency plan.”

“So if the Nerwos have agreed to this, then
does that mean King Thias has—”

“He has not agreed to the usage of the Gift;
merely the entrapment of the Vermix. Since we are without the
Floating Ruby, he has made no objection so far.”

“But sending Nerwos to the moons sounds like
there might be a chance we could find it.”

“I think it a mere gesture of goodwill
toward the Zingfinolds and Mybyncians.”

“Are they helping?”

Sampson nods. “While Queen Ravan will not
assist with the location of the Shadow Bag, she has guaranteed at
least twice the number that came ashore last time.”

“And when will they be arriving?”

“A week and a half. Two or three days before
Reuzkimpart is set to arrive.”

I nod, absorbing all the information
exchanged. From what I can tell, we’re screwed. We have an army of
Vermix coming our way in two weeks to try and steal the Gifts that
we haven’t secured ourselves, only to gamble that we can keep them
safe while winning this war. And oh yeah, I’m supposed to kill
Reuzkimpart at some point.

“You look doubtful,” Clarence chuckles.

“No,” I shake my head, dismissing that last
thought. “I guess you’re right. We need to make a visit to the
queen. I think we should go tomorrow. The sooner we can try for the
Shadow Bag, the sooner we can start searching for the Floating
Ruby. But Sampson,” I bite my lip, the obvious question burning,
“what happens if we don’t find them?”

A deep sigh. “Then Reuzkimpart won’t come.
And the Zingfinolds, Nerwos and Mybyncians will press forward with
a unified attack on Dellapalania.”

“What?”

“No one likes the idea of relocating the
Gifts. No one even likes the idea of this war, but they understand
that if we can tempt the Vermix here, it will be the greatest
chance we have to defeat them. If they don’t come, though, there is
nothing keeping the others from attacking Dellapalania. I have
asked that they wait,” he glances at King Hozfin, “that we try to
capture Reuzkimpart one last time. All have agreed. If he doesn’t
come… then the war shall be brought to him.”

I turn to Reid. He’s focused on the floor,
lost in thought.

“So we’re leaving tomorrow, bright and
early,” Pratt announces. “Heading back to Mybyncia for one last
go.”

“It’ll be interesting to return,” Mae
comments, her soft voice wavering slightly. It’s no secret that she
never did settle into the water planet’s environment well. “Have we
decided how long we’ll be staying?”

It’s a question I want answered as well.
Mybyncia means separate sleeping spaces, and just getting back from
three months away, the last thing I want to do is be separated from
Reid again.