Slipping once more to her feet before her nerve failed her, Diana crept across the floor, keeping her weight balanced on the balls of her feet until she arrived at the door. It didn’t look like anything particularly special to her. It even had what appeared to be a perfectly normal—if somewhat old-fashioned—handle. Nothing looked especially dangerous or otherworldly about it.
Her stomach dropped, and instinct backpedaled in warning as she reached for the handle, but the part of her that insisted it was just a normal door was louder than the human instinct that had been tamed by modern civilization before everything fell apart. Her fingertips brushed through the air just above the handle when a blue light flared over the door. The power swelled and bulged out before releasing a boom that sent her reeling back several feet. A painful zap of energy licked through her.
Diana spun away and stalked back to the bed. She should have just stayed in the damned thing. With a few more shaky steps, she was able to sprawl haphazardly across the mattress. Her entire body ached from the blast of energy that came off the door. Maybe she would just lie there, rest while she could, and wait for her captor to return.
Chapter 7
Silvas descended the long stone steps leading deep beneath the floors of Arx. The damp air betrayed just how near he was coming to the spring that dwelt at the heart of the Eternal Forest. After a time, he was able to hear it bubbling over the rocks of the spring. It grew louder the closer as he approached, and along with it came the echoes of soft sighing sounds.
“Selvans,” a voice whispered, emerging from the gurgles of the water before disappearing again.
He frowned as he descended the last few steps into the cavernous gallery, his eyes landing on the foam of the spring broken through the rock, feeding into a deep blue. “You know I have not gone by the name for a millennium. I am Silvas now, as I keep telling you.”
The feminine voiced chuckled, disregarding him. “I knew you would come.”
“Is that so?” he murmured, his eyes searching through the gloom. “Did you foresee it?”
Laughter echoed around him from all directions, and Silvas’s jaw tightened with frustration.
“I did,” the oracle hissed, drawing out the vowel in a long singing fashion. “I knew that eventually you would seek my council, golden lucomo of the wood.”
“Then why do you hide yourself from me now?” he demanded.
“For what cause do I have to help you?” the voice sneered. “You who trapped me in the darkness.”
“To protect your power.”
“You lie,” she breathed slowly as if savoring the accusation. The fountain surged, water spraying as spout widened, allowing a sinewy body to slip through into the pool.
He saw little more than a flash of pale locks of hair, white arms, and pearly blue scales of a serpentine tail before she became a coiled black shadow within the heart of the water. The top of her head surfaced, revealing her crimson eyes. Gray locks of hair floated around her shoulders as she regarded him.
“Dorinda, come forth and speak with me,” he growled impatiently as he prowled back and forth at the side of the pool.
Her raspy laugh filled the cave as she pulled herself up the rocky slope of her fountainhead, her long serpentine tail looping around it possessively. Her eyes narrowed on him as she sneered.
“You cannot command me, Selvans, lucomo of all silvani. Our power is equal, though I am the one trapped within a cavernous prison.” A thoughtful look crossed her face before it was replaced by a hard smile. “I was tempted to ignore your summons, but I had to see for myself your desperation. You are desperate, are you not, brother?”
Silvas narrowed his eyes on the oracle and grit his teeth. Now she acknowledged their relationship? The water-born daughter of Turan did not fool him. Due to their shared mother, he was familiar with the cunning wiles she would employ. Dorinda had felt nothing but anger toward him since he seeded Arx over her cavern. Though it had not been intentional on his part, once he became aware of it, he built his palace up further to protect the entrance into his sister’s abode from those who might stray into the Eternal Forest. He hid her well so that none would torment her. And this was how she thanked him!