Eden waited, her ear pressed close as she listened. When all was quiet, she lifted the trapdoor and crawled through before reaching down to assist me. When I followed her out into the round tower, she carefully closed the trapdoor in the black-stained floor.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Eden held her finger to her lips and whispered, “We’re in the sorcerer’s rooms. That’s why it took me so long to find you. I spent days searching the palace.”
“Days?” I said in surprise.
“Mmm,” she murmured. “I’ve been working as a servant in the kitchen, a maid, and a soldier. Finally it was a young man in robes who led me here.”
Stepping back, I could see the dark-stained floor and the symbols painted in white, the sacrificial symbols for power. My heart raced in horror as I saw the extra chains strategically placed around the symbol on the floor. The reason for the dark color was because the floor was stained with blood. Allemar was supplementing his power with human lives, and blood was the key. I felt sick to my stomach at the death weighing heavily in the room, being very careful to not touch any of the dried blood for I feared I would go crazy with their deaths. It must have been hundreds, or thousands.
My mouth filled with bile, and I dared not share my discovery with Eden. She was too pure to deal with the darkness that was Allemar.
A quick glance around the room showed shelves of books, plus jars of dried bat wings, chicken feet, and what looked like decanters of blood. All ingredients for the dark arts. I shivered, then rushed over to look among the paperwork and books, searching for the spell to release my bonds. “Help me, Eden.”
The two of us ruffled through his papers and pulled every book off his shelf, looking for hidden compartments or anything that seemed like a spell. Gobbersnot also helped—running through the shelves, he opened each bottle and ate all of the contents, even the bat wings and slugs.
“I’m not finding anything,” Eden cried out.
Discouragement poured down on me, and I knew the answer couldn’t be found here.
“You need the counterspell,” a dry voice said from above.
We turned toward the stairs, and who should be coming down from the upper level but my brother, wearing blue apprentice robes. Which meant he hadn’t fully completed his studies. The more levels he passed, the darker the robes he could wear. It also signaled his power level, and I knew without a doubt that I was stronger than him. My mother didn’t believe in the dark arts, despite what the world viewed us as, but we knew among ourselves where we stood.
“Give it to me, Aspen,” I said, moving away from Eden to the center of the room. If it came down to a physical fight, I was stronger than my sister, though I wasn’t sure if I could hold him off for long.
“No,” he said smugly, moving to stand a few feet in front of me. He had also gained his height from our father, and though he was younger, he was still a few inches taller than me. I decided to test my theory and took a confident step toward him, watching as he subconsciously backed up.
I grinned. He was scared of me, which I could use to my advantage.
“Why not?” I taunted. “Because otherwise you wouldn’t be stronger than me. You can only beat me if my powers are bound.”
“That’s not true!”
“It is. I’m more powerful than your master. He couldn’t even kill the queen or princess of Baist. Two measly women. No, wait.” I pointed to myself. “Make that three.”
“You’re wrong. Allemar is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the known kingdoms. He said I could be just as strong or even surpass him one day, even you.”
“If that’s true, then why hide behind his magic? Remove my bonds and show me what you’ve learned, little brother. Show me how powerful you really are.”
The gauntlet was thrown; there was nothing else I could do but hope he took the bait.
He watched me warily. Based on my bare feet and my soiled and torn dress—my hair probably didn’t fare much better—if ever I looked like I was downtrodden and weak, it was now.
He swore under his breath and held up his hands. Silently, his fingers began to weave in the air, what I assumed was the counterspell, and my nimble eyes followed it like a hawk, memorizing