Blackbird Crowned (The Witch King's Crown #3) - Keri Arthur Page 0,23
locked in his cave?”
“Very possibly.”
I swore and rubbed my forehead. “If Max does attempt to break open multiple minor gates, what are we going to do?”
“What we’ve always done—fight.”
Such a simple answer to what would be a calamitous and world-changing event. “Meaning we do nothing except sit around and wait for the outpouring of evil? That doesn’t seem like a sensible option to me.”
“Because it isn’t, and you know damn well I didn’t mean that.” She gave me a stern look, though it was somewhat spoiled by the twinkle in her eyes. “Max will try to open the main gate—he has no other choice, because the minor gates are by their very nature restrictive—”
“Yes, but does that actually matter if he manages to bust them all open at the same time?”
“I personally doubt that’s possible, if only because Elysian herself was never designed for such a task. Besides, rebuilding the main gate destroyed one king and almost killed the other two. I’d imagine trying to open multiple minor gateways at the same time would have a similar outcome. And your brother is no Uhtric, no matter what he might believe.”
“The only thing Max believes is the fact that witch king rule needs to be reinstated—and that he, by right of blood, is the one destined to do it.”
“He always was an arrogant little sod—got that from his grandfather, I suspect.”
I glanced at her. “Really?”
She nodded, her expression briefly dissolving into sadness. “Not that I knew him personally—it’s just an impression I got from the many comments Fiona made over the years I helped her raise your father and uncle.”
As she’d raised Max and me when the car crash took the lives of both our parents. “So what will happen when he does attempt to open the main gate? Is the spell just an alarm? Because we’re a good flight away from the gate at the best of times.”
“If the spell does what it’s designed to do, it should ensnare him.”
“The one flaw being that he knows it’s there. What are the chances of him finding someone to dissolve your spell?”
“In this world? Unlikely.”
“And in the other?”
She hesitated. “A possibility. There are dark elves who hold the equivalent power of mages, and they’re more than capable of unpicking any spell we create—as evidenced by what happened at Mryddin’s cave. But the moment they make such an attempt, I’ll know.”
Knowing wasn’t stopping, and the latter was more important than anything else right now. But she was well aware of that—after all, she’d been around to witness all three Darkside assaults.
“How did they break the seal the other times? It’s not like they had the help of an heir then.”
“As I said, the dark elves are the magical equivalent of mages. But they’ve never been without help from our side, either, even if those they turned weren’t so intimately linked to the sword and the King’s line.” She grimaced. “There’ve always been humans and witches who are easily led astray by false promises of money and power.”
Max had always hungered for both. Even from a very young age, he’d planned ever grander and more complicated schemes to improve his position, be it in money or in standing. Those needs had no doubt been amplified by his relationship with Winter.
“That doesn’t explain how they broke open the gate, given Elysian is the key and only the king can wield her.”
“The main gate—like the minor—is not entirely stable, despite what many believe. The same forces that stretch and break the minor gates sometimes attack the major. It has never entirely shattered, but two of the three Darkside attacks happened when the main gate cracked under the stress of such an event.”
“And the third?”
“Was opened by a direct attack of dark elf magic.”
I frowned. “If they’ve done it successfully before, why haven’t they tried it again?”
“We believe the effort wiped out a good portion of their royal lines.” She shrugged. “Hard to be sure, of course, but it was certainly centuries before we saw them in any great numbers again.”
My gaze dropped to the items hidden under the wet bundle of clothes. “What are we going to do with Elysian and the crown? It’s not safe to take either home, and I don’t think we can risk taking them to the safe house.”
“We can’t risk hiding the sword out of easy reach, either. I think our best option would be the one the Blackbirds use on the soul blades.”