“It’s in here,” I said.
Kull and the princess stood close. We searched for an entrance into the tower, but found nothing but thick stone held together with crumbling mortar.
Kull unsheathed his sword. “Bloodbane will make quick work of this,” he said, smiling.
It had been a while since I’d seen him smile. This journey had him more wound up than I’d realized, and I suspected I must’ve looked just as apprehensive as he did.
He jammed his blade between the stones where the mortar was broken. The sounds of scraping and crumbling echoed through the crater as Kull dislodged the stones. After removing a portion of the mortar, he placed his sword aside and stuck his fingers through the opening. Straining against the stone, he leveraged it back and away from the tower.
I sidestepped the large stone to stare inside the cracked, domed room, where I found the crushed and almost indistinguishable remains of the final silvergate.
Chapter 34
“What do we do now?” I asked, my voice bouncing around the tower.
Kull and the princess stood beside me as we inspected the ruined silvergate. The rounded ball portion had been cracked in several places. Large chunks had come loose and fallen to the sand-covered ground around it. The opening on top had also cracked in half. This gate had what appeared to be a sun-shaped piece that would have fit on top, but now, it was warped and blackened, making it impossible to place the princess’s crystal inside the silvergate’s opening.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Princess Euralysia spoke with a soft voice. “It shouldn’t have been possible. The silvergates were made to last centuries—until the end of time. This can’t be possible.”
“Surely there’s something we can do,” I said. “Isn’t there some way to repair it?”
“Repairing it is not possible,” she said, swallowing hard to keep from crying. “The gates were created with the five magics of Faythander, and also with Earth magic. To repair it, one would need all five magics, and with the magic so weakened, that would be impossible.”
She sank onto the ground. Leaning against the broken stone, she closed her eyes. To me, she looked older. Her delicate, pointed ears and silvery-white hair spoke of her magical heritage, but her skin was so pale it made her looked sickly.
To me, she represented all of Faythander—the fairies, the pixies, the dragons, and my stepfather. They all were suffering, and the only way to end their misery had been made impossible with the destruction of the gate. Even the Everblossom’s magic wouldn’t be able to replace the gate.
But we’d come too far to fail now. This couldn’t be the end. I refused to let this be the end.
I walked to the stone. We had to be missing something. Surely we’d overlooked some vital clue.
Holding out my hand, I inspected every inch of the stone. The amber magic looked patchy in places and stronger in others. At the stone’s center, I found the source of the dark magic.
When I moved closer, the dark magic intensified, and my queasy stomach turned to all-out heaving nausea. Sweating and gasping for air, I stumbled back. Kull caught me under the arms.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ugh,” was all I managed before staggering outside. Taking deep breaths was the only thing that seemed to help lessen the nausea. What was making me feel sick? Magic didn’t usually have that effect on me, so was something else making me feel ill?
Kull stood behind me. After regaining my composure, I turned to him.
“Something’s wrong with that magic. It’s like there’s something, I don’t know… ”
“Something other than magic?”
“Yes, perhaps so.”
“I found this near the gate.” He held out his hand. In his palm sat a small blue jug decorated with a gold rope that looped around the top. The dwindling sunrays sparkled off the colored glass.
“What is it?”
“The princess thinks it may be a goblin object.”
I stepped closer. It resembled a lantern or canteen with its lid removed. Glancing inside, I saw a droplet of green liquid.
“It’s a goblin potion.”
“Indeed.”
“But I’ve only seen goblin potions in small vials.”
“That is true,” Kull said. “Goblins only need small amounts of potion to physically transform.”
“This container must have held triple the amount found in the smaller vials. Why would anyone need so much potion?”
“I suspect they meant to hide something much larger than a person.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“That is what we are trying to discover. Do you have any ideas?”
“We’ve been plagued by apparitions since we arrived on these islands. My father saw my mother. I saw Uli in the caves. You’ve seen your grandfather. We know that not all is what it appears in this place.” Carefully, I took the bauble from him. The glass seemed familiar, and then I remembered why.
“This was in the ship,” I said. “It was in the hidden cupboard where I kept the bloom. But how did it get here?” I looked up at Kull.
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out. Do you think you can examine the gate one more time?”
I held my hands to my stomach. My insides were torn up, and the nausea was still making me sick, but I’d handled worse. “I’ll do my best.”
Following Kull inside the tower, I found the princess kneeling by the ruined silvergate. Sunrays streamed across her pallid face. With her eyes closed and hands clutched to her chest, I felt as if I shouldn’t disturb her while I examined the gate.
When I got closer, I felt the nausea increase, so I kept my distance and stood on the far side of the tower. Staring at the gate, I tried to find some solution to our problem. Fixing the gate was out of the question, but I refused to give up.
I felt as if the solution was so close that all I had to do was reach out and I would find it.
The light flickered over the princess’s face. I stood up straight. What had caused the light to flicker? Through
