Several robed men caught her as she rushed for the altar. “Stop, stop!” she screamed.
The man with the knife paid no attention. Silver blade glinting in the firelight, he thrust it for the newborn’s—for my—chest.
An enormous whooshing came from the mouth of the cave. A behemoth of golden scales flew inside and snatched the baby away, cradling it gently in its massive claws. I watched him fly away, out over the Brimlake with me in his grasp.
“Thank you,” my mother whispered before she collapsed.
The scene disappeared. A sharp light came into focus. I recognized the tree. I lay on the ground. Its broad branches swayed gently overhead. I heard the chimes once again, the chimes I’d heard that first day I’d gone to live with my mother.
“She had sworn to sacrifice you.” Ulizet’s voice came from somewhere. I focused and found her standing beside the tree’s trunk. “Your mother first visited Faythander almost thirty years ago. She made a home with the elves. She fell in love. But she learned the truth of the goblins and pitied them. When she joined the resistance, she was five months pregnant.”
I slowly sat up. My heart still raced. I pulled my knees to my chest, wishing I could forget the images playing over and over again in my memory.
“The goblins determined that the only way to defeat the elves was by summoning Theht. Your mother and her unborn child were part of their plan, but the goblins weren’t the only faction interested in Theht’s powers.”
I tried to process her words. “The Gravidorum,” I whispered.
“Yes. Their spies joined the goblins for a brief time in order to harness Theht’s powers for their own. The goblins never knew of these spies. Before your mother gave birth, it was her intention to sacrifice you. But she underestimated the love a parent has for her child.”
“She couldn’t go through with it.” I wished I would’ve just let the tears come out. Holding them in was so painful. “She’d wanted me dead, but she couldn’t go through with it.”
“Your father was one of the Gravidorum spies. He is responsible for summoning the sky king. He, like your mother, could not watch you die.”
I crossed my arms, feeling a sudden chill. “Why didn’t my parents tell me?”
Ulizet looked on with an emotionless expression. “Your mother’s mind became unstable once she crossed back into Earth Kingdom, and your father knew the only way for you to be safe was to live under the constant guardianship of the sky king. Telling you the truth of your past would have harmed you.” Ulizet’s voice softened. “And he felt immeasurably guilty.”
Something glinted near my feet, and I focused on the tiny sachet filled with pure magic. I picked it up with careful fingers and stuffed it in my pocket. “What’s the second vision?” I tried to speak with resoluteness, but it came out as a weak whisper.
“Soon you will see,” Ulizet said. “Soon.” Once again, her voice seemed to come from a million miles away as I felt my dreamsoul being transported. I no longer sat under the tree. Its glowing warmth left me, replaced with a chill that burrowed deep inside my soul.
I stood in Mog’s Keep—the goblin tower. Wispy figures flitted in and out of focus. That blinding, pulsing light I remembered was visible here. Sounds of whimpering came from somewhere. My head spun with dizziness as I tried to focus. The room tipped from one end to the other as if I stood on the deck of ship during a squall. The more I focused, the more the spinning room settled. The pulsing light, however, never stopped. Its intensity was like a mallet pounding inside my brain.
Choking coughs came from the opposite end of the room. I focused on the sound.
My godson lay on a pallet of white sheets. His eyes were rolled up into his head so that I saw only the whites of his eyes. Tubes came from his mouth, his nose. They ran the length of his body and were attached to metal prongs on the floor and walls, like some sort of twisted lightning rods. Other children lay beside him. They surrounded the edges of the circular room, all situated in the same way as my godson.
Once again, I found I couldn’t move. My stomach turned at the sight of the imprisoned children. This was evil. Any person who participated in the torture of innocent children didn’t deserve to be called human.
The wispy figures I’d seen earlier began to take a cohesive shape. My heart sped up. I’d seen them before. It seemed like light years ago when I had first seen the figure in the caves. There were at least a dozen of the figures flitting from one child to the next.
I watched one stop next to my godson. Gooseflesh prickled my skin as I watched a translucent, skeletal hand touch his forehead. Jeremiah grimaced at the creature’s touch, though his body remained motionless. The fingers sank into my godson’s forehead. The pulsating light grew brighter.
I looked up and saw a catwalk overhead. A huge strobe-type light sat at the top. As the creature’s fingers dug deeper into my godson’s forehead, the light increased in intensity.
The beacon was to call Theht.
A wail came from behind me, and I spun around. A little girl lay on the ground. Blood oozed from the tubes stuck down her throat and nose. She choked, though her body stayed unresponsive.
The robed figures moved in. As if one collective mind, they surrounded her, and each stuck a finger inside her head. Her whimpers turned to screams. Through the mass of hooded figures, I saw her eyes open. Blood replaced her tears. She screamed for another minute, though it felt as though she cried for hours before her eyes finally shut. Her rigid body grew limp.
A clammy sweat broke out across my skin.
I couldn’t imagine a more
