39. Irina

Chapter 39

Irina

T he mist flowed faster, glowed brighter.

I stepped toward the Well, then froze, my head tilted to the side.

The chamber fell silent as the world paused.

Then the mountain trembled.

The pulsing of light inside the crystalline cavern seethed as crystals began falling from the ceiling. A scraping sound wailed from somewhere deep beneath the Well.

Tremors grew as the mountain woke.

I stood before the Well and stared into its angry waters, ignoring the chaos erupting around me. I muttered rapidly, a whisper that grew into a cacophonous shout, my head bent backward as I screamed the final words of my incantation.

My spell complete, the rending sound grew to a roar so loud I had to cover my ears. It sounded as if the whole world were being broken apart. I stared down in wonder and fear as a fracture appeared in the floor, a tiny crack at first that grew and splintered and spread.

Mist seeped through the rend.

Starting at the base of the Well, it clawed its way across to the far entrance of the cavern, dividing the room in two and allowing the river of power to swell and spill onto its unmarred surface.

Everywhere the currents touched, mist sizzled and snapped, a poisonous acid devouring everything it touched.

In its wake, plumes of dark vapor clawed against the pure blue fog, infecting it with malice, turning glowing life into something dark and foul.

Near panic gripped me as I watched the brilliant cavern descend into darkness, yet I managed to calm myself enough to picture home in my mind: my small house in the Kingdom where my father and mother had raised me, had loved me— and where they had died .

The last I saw before Traveling was an aged man in blue Mages’ robes appearing in the entrance to the cavern.