Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,144
elephant stepped out of the way. A well-placed kick sent it flying into the wall.
“West!”
The elephant trumpeted in affirmation, then stomped a few more of the shadowy beasts into the ground. Ken fought his way out, sword swirling so brightly it was more light than blade. The shadows scrabbled to retreat, but many were not as lucky.
Then Nya, Cole, and Loki were there, fighting their way through the throng. Loki wasn’t cutting so much as hacking their way through the surges of black shapes, the staff leaving their hands of its own accord to impale as many shades as it was able. Zoe continued sending imps hurtling left and right with her whip, striking with deadly precision even as she gracefully spun her way through the mob. Nya, who had only brought practical weaponry, was somehow successfully fighting shades off with her broom. Cole was doing deadly work with the Gravekeeper, though most of the shadows were doing their best to avoid him.
“Where’s Alex?” Tala yelled over the din.
“No idea!” was the answer from Ken. “We saw him entering the castle!”
A cry of rage echoed from the other side of the room, coupled by the firebird’s sudden squawk of triumph; it had finally thawed the door behind the throne. Before Tala could react, it grabbed at her and dragged her backward. The door slammed shut.
“What are you doing? We need to help them!”
It shook its head and gestured urgently at a set of stairs now in their path.
“I’m not going anywhere without a—”
The firebird dashed away, cutting her off midsentence. Groaning, Tala pursued.
Another large room waited for them at the top, with a ceiling dozens of feet high to give the room a peculiar echo when she walked. The walls and floor were made of uneven granite stones, and armies of spiders scuttled out of everywhere to disappear into other hidden corners. The place was bare, save for nine tall stone monuments that hovered about two feet in the air, in a circle. Strange lights encircled the markers, glancing and sparking off each other like electric currents. Tala had a very bad feeling.
“What is this?” Slowly she moved from stone to stone, careful to stay out of the circle to avoid the odd fluttering lights. Even despite her caution, the lights around the monuments flickered when she moved past, as if her presence alone was enough to affect them.
There were words marked on each of the stones. Tala read them silently as she passed: Thoronoe, Thiten, Gliten, Mazoe, Gliton, Glitonea, Moronoe, Thiton. And Morgen; that was inscribed on the tallest of the stone monuments. Were they names, she wondered, or something else?
The stones looked like they were made of sculpted obsidian. Tala remembered the small stones the Ikpean priestess had given Zoe. They had the same texture.
“Are these glyphs?” she asked the firebird. “Are these giant-ass glyphs?”
It cooed.
“Yeah, thanks. You’re a big help.” No wonder her hair had been standing on end since she’d entered. The magic within the stones alone could blow up another Wonderland. Or an Avalon.
Something glinted at the corner of her eye from the farthest corner of the room, almost hidden in shadow. Despite her trepidation, she approached.
It was a large mirror. The ripples across its surface gave way to a clearing, a familiar cluster of trees.
“Oh no,” Tala said. “No. I didn’t go in the first time, and I’m not going in now.”
“There is no escape.”
Tala turned, focusing her agimat just in time. It caught the deluge of hailstones, melting before they could reach her, but a few escaped the barrier, cutting into her forearms. She jumped back, and an ice maiden drifted forward, her eyes bright with a vicious hunger. This was a different woman, likely the other one Ryker said had passed with him into Avalon. Another barrage slammed her against the wall, knocking the wind out of her.
“The Nine Maidens,” the ice maiden gloated, stepping carefully around the circle of monuments while Tala gasped for air. “The central spell powering Maidenkeep. I shall present Avalon’s heart to my queen, and only I will be honored above all others.”
“Real careless of you guys not to take it when you had the chance back then,” Tala wheezed, trying to edge her way back out the door. The firebird had soared up to the ceiling, and Tala could no longer see it.
But the ice maiden lifted her hand, and ice slowly grew over the entrance. “The castle was overwhelmed before we could claim its spells.”