Montague smiled at her. “I can’t even explain how happy I am to see you.”
Anna introduced Simon. Montague had heard much about the dark knight. He assumed that the rest of the Graleon knights were also here at Illyrium. It gave him hope. If the three kingdoms came together, there was a chance for success.
Then Burton approached his apprentice. “My friend,” he said.
The people in the oubliette were overjoyed to see Burton again. The light returned in his presence and the diamond and golden décor sparkled once again.
Montague hugged Burton and, without holding back, cried on his shoulder. After everything he’d learned about himself, he couldn’t help it. “Do angels cry?” he asked, looking at his sensei through tears. “I’ve never seen you cry.”
“We cry. I have cried many times before. I just prefer to be alone when I do,” said Burton. “I’ve missed you, old friend.”
“The trolls told me everything,” Montague said.
Burton looked ashamed. “I should have told you. I was only trying to protect you—”
“I understand.” Montague sniffed in and licked his tears from his lips. “Thank you.”
“Now, we must bring Rayne Volpi back into this world if we want to save it,” Burton said.
“But I failed. The spell didn’t work,” Montague said with diffidence.
“On the contrary, you did not fail. You did wonderfully. But to bring Rayne into the physical realm, we need Anna. She hears his voice. She is still connected to him.”
Both Burton and Montague looked at Anna.
“How?” she asked.
“We need privacy,” said Burton. He suggested they perform the ceremony in one of the back rooms, alone.
Simon looked uncomfortable. Hearing the word ‘spell’ must remind him of the enemy, Montague thought. He made sure not to speak too loud. “I assure you, young knight of Grale. Spells are relative to one’s intention. I too feared what I didn’t understand. But I’ve seen the grace of magic and what it can do. Trust us. The lady does.”
“Sir Simon, keep watch at the landing rocks,” said Anna.
Simon replied, “Yes, my lady,” then nodded at Montague and walked off to stand guard at the water’s edge.
As Burton led them to one of the back rooms, Montague was astonished at how the stone cavern turned into an extravagant fortress. The room was small, but sufficient.
“Please,” he said to Anna, dragging a wooden chair across the polished, stone floor. He placed it in the center of the room. “Sit, my dear.”
Anna sat.
Burton kneeled in front of her. “You’ve met your mother.”
“Yes,” said Anna. She smiled. “She agreed to help us.”
“She is a good woman. And she is very proud of you. The Merns are a powerful race.” Burton paused. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” said Anna.
“Now, close your eyes. Breathe deep and slow—relax. The key to this, my dear, is to remain without thoughts. Let Rayne come to you.”
Biting his nails as he watched, Montague had never seen his sensei try something of this magnitude. Although he was scared to practice magic himself, he loved watching Burton perform. Pulling an entity, who was trapped between the realm of the living and the dead, into the material world was the grandest form of magic Montague had ever read about. But this was not just a higher dimensional being they were conjuring. He was a boy who Montague had grown to love.
Burton circled Anna, whispering foreign words. He sprinkled a fine dust, sparkling down over the top of her head and tumbling along the folds of her golden curls. Her usual, awakened expression pressed into one of somnolence. Her eyes closed. “Now,” he said. “I want you to go to a place where the two of you made the best memories. Look around. What do you see?”
“I see a pond,” Anna said, “our pond.”
“Good,” said Burton. “What else do you see?”
“Just the grass, trees, birds, fish…wait…in the water…there’s a face.”
Burton looked at Montague.
“Rayne,” Anna said softly. Then suddenly she opened her eyes and started breathing heavily. “I saw him! It was him in the water!”
Burton placed his wand at the top of Anna’s head and shouted, in angelic language, an enchantment filled with seraphic tones and eloquent tongue rolling. His voice thundered. Then, as he brought the tip of his wand away, Burton pulled a string of light out of her head and shot it to the opposite corner of the room. The blast rumbled like a quake and its light, as hot as fire, nearly blinded them. A dense fog filled the room.
Anna passed out and fell off the chair, but Montague caught her before she hit the ground.
Montague squinted through the haze; he wanted to see again the boy he had raised. But as the smoke cleared, there was no boy. There was a cloaked figure, kneeling in the corner where Burton had shot the light. His body was steaming.
Burton began to approach, but Montague stopped him. He remembered what Demitri had said to him about Rayne; ‘he is certainly no angel.’ Was it possible that even Burton, an angel of heaven, had been deceived into thinking that another angel was descending? he wondered. “Be careful, Sensei.”
Burton held up his wand.
Through the fog, the figure looked up at them and slowly rose to his feet, unfurling his giant feathered wings that reached over twenty feet from tip to tip. His gray skin was unmistakable.
“Monte,” the man said.
Montague knew his voice. It was Rayne Volpi, the king of Men. And he had matured and grown even faster in two years than he had in the eight that Montague had known him. He was no longer a boy; not even just a man, but something more.
INDRID COLE could hear the echo of the spell caster’s voice in the cavern beneath the well. He was angry that he had let Anna go down there with them. How could he let the woman he loved go alone with Burton and Montague, who he believed to be mages? But since Anna was insistent, he didn’t want to challenge her
