“Something’s wrong,” Heidel said. “What does he see?”
Maveryck stayed by the coffin, unmoving.
“Can you see what’s inside that coffin?” Heidel asked me.
Elven eyesight wasn’t nearly as effective as hearing, but still, it gave me a slight advantage. I scanned the coffin but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “I can’t see anything,” I said. “Maybe he found a spell or something that’s trapped him.”
“Kull, we’ve got to get down there,” Heidel said.
“Wait. If he needs help, he’ll let us know.”
Heidel growled but remained where she was. Maveryck glanced up, his eyes locked with ours, and he motioned us down to him.
“Very well,” Kull finally conceded. “We’ll go down. But stay alert. Olive, lead the way and keep a lookout for enchantments.”
I nodded and walked toward the staircase with Kull and Heidel following behind. Keeping my hand open with my fingers outstretched, I let the magic flow into my palm as I searched for foreign spells. Down below, I sensed the spell on the landing where Maveryck had leapt over the edge and climbed down.
“We’ll have to avoid the stairs here,” I said as we reached the landing. Kull, Heidel, and I each took turns climbing to the floor. When I reached the bottom, I turned and stared out over the enchanted floor.
Everything looked so much larger from this perspective, making me remember that I stood in Tremulac castle, a place of enormous power and ancient magic.
Although my skin tingled with the magic, I was able to keep the overwhelming feelings of its sheer power at bay, but I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up. I focused instead on Maveryck, who stood hunched near one of the coffins.
As we approached, I saw the terror in his eyes.
He backed away as we neared him.
“Maveryck, what’s the matter?” I asked.
He looked from me to the other coffins surrounding him. “Help me get these lids off,” he said.
“Get the lids off?” Heidel asked. “We can’t! We’ve got to get out of here.”
Kull unsheathed his sword as we approached the first coffin—the one that had frightened Maveryck. As we neared it, I saw that the lid was missing, leaving its contents open. What had Maveryck seen that had scared him so badly?
In a place this old, I didn’t expect anything to exist except a mummified corpse. Instead, I found an elven man with long, ornate robes lying in the tomb. His body and clothing were untouched by decay. Except for his skin, which was gray, he looked as if he slept. The man had to have been one of the Madralorde brothers, but what had kept his body so preserved? Was it a spell? I stretched my hand over the tomb, searching for the spell, when a wave of power hit me, making me stumble back. I slammed my mind closed against the magic just in time. Kull steadied me as I pushed the magic away, taking deep breaths and finally closing it off completely.
A loud crash came from one of the other tombs. I rounded and found Maveryck standing in a cloud of dust, the coffin’s lid at his feet. He gasped and drew back as he looked inside the tomb.
“It can’t be,” he mumbled. “It’s not possible.”
Heidel went to his side and took his hand, but he shrugged her off and rushed to another tomb. Maveryck strained against the lid until it slid off and crashed to the ground. I glanced around the room, wondering if he had already alerted the elves to our presence with the noise.
“We’ve got to stop him and get out of here,” Kull said.
“I agree, but what’s gotten him so stirred up?”
“I don’t know.”
We stepped onto the raised dais and approached Maveryck. Heidel stood near him with her hands balled into fists, her silver arm guards gleaming in the firelight.
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” I asked.
“He’s gone mad,” she answered as another crash echoed through the room.
Kull hefted his sword as he approached the thief. Heidel and I followed behind Kull. I glanced into another open tomb, finding a corpse similar to the first, this one with crimson robes.
“Come away from there,” Kull said to Maveryck. “We’ve got to get out of here with the egg. We don’t have time for this.”
“No! I won’t leave. Look what’s inside.”
“It’s a body. What else did you expect?”
“Look again. Look inside this one!”
We approached the tomb he stood beside and glanced into its depths. Inside, the tomb was empty.
My heart pounded as realization struck me. Was it possible?
Maveryck rubbed his temples as he paced the length of the coffin. “The potion didn’t restore me, it altered me. It changed my memories, and now I know who I am. Who I really am.”
“Who are you?” Kull asked.
From behind us, a familiar, musical, yet bone-chilling voice answered, “He is Dracon. The last of the Madralorde brothers.”
We rounded to find Queen Euralysia emerging from a portal, along with several other elves wearing long robes and dark cowls. Was it true? Could Maveryck really be the last Madralorde brother?
The portal closed as the elves surrounded us. Kull cursed under his breath and gripped his sword.
Queen Euralysia approached us, her footsteps ringing out against the stone. She wore an unadorned black gown, and the color was gone from her cheeks, leaving her skin chalky and white. She wore her hair pulled back in a severe, straight ponytail. It seemed the only color on her body was the red rimming her eyes.
But it wasn’t her appearance that made me shudder. The magic she held felt tainted and impure, the way magic became when exposed to death.
Ice ran through my veins as I backed away from the queen, but I knew it would do no good. With Theht’s presence attempting to take control of my own magic, I wasn’t sure I trusted my powers.
The elves removed their basita weapons as they surrounded
