“What do you want from us?” Kull demanded.
The queen gave us a wan smile. “Want from you? We are friends, remember? Return the egg, and I will ask nothing more.”
“And if we refuse?”
I glanced at the gleaming basita weapons surrounding us. Was there any way for us to fight them? With my unstable magic, Kull’s sword, Heidel’s knife, and Maveryck’s weapon, it seemed we had a pretty slim chance. Still, we could try.
Maveryck walked forward. His fear had disappeared. Instead, he walked with an air of confidence.
“No,” he said. “We will not give it to you. You have no right to be in this place.”
The queen’s smile disappeared. “I have every right to be here.”
“No, you do not. This is a sacred chamber, and you are not welcome here.”
“You cannot make me leave.”
“Actually, I can.” He outstretched his hand, and a flash of brilliant silver light blinded us. I fell back as the magic hit me in the chest. The queen and her men also stumbled backward. Magic buzzed around us, filling the room with its energy.
But Maveryck had never been a powerful practitioner, and even if he were the last Madralorde brother and wielded more power than we realized, it must have been hundreds of years since he’d used it last.
Queen Euralysia reached out, and dark energy swirled around her fist. It grew into a large void and then snuffed out all of Maveryck’s power.
“Don’t toy with me,” she snapped. “I’ve enough power to bring down this castle if I wanted. Guards, shoot them all and bring me the egg.”
Bolts of lightning erupted from their weapons. I ducked and hid behind a coffin as the energy bursts filled the room. Kull and Heidel also managed to dodge the weapon fire and hide beside me, but Maveryck fell back with a scream, landing on his back, clutching a hand to his chest.
“Maveryck,” Heidel screamed, lunging for him, but Kull caught her arm and drew her back to us.
“Stop,” she yelled, “I have to go to him!”
The elves closed in on Maveryck and grabbed his arms, dragging him toward the altar where the egg had been. In horror, I watched as they searched his clothing, and then his bag, until they found the egg.
My heart thudded as the elves placed the vachonette egg back on the pedestal.
“We’ve got to get him back,” Heidel whispered.
I knew we only had a matter of seconds before the elves were no longer distracted by the egg and came for us, so I conjured a masking spell to hide us from view. It was a temporary solution, but as the magic left my body and enveloped us, I felt safer.
With the ease of using my magic, and Theht still not able to take control of me, my confidence was boosted. If my magic were cooperating, maybe we would have a fighting chance against the elves after all.
“Find the others,” the queen said, “and prepare the weapons for the sacrifice. We’ll use him.” She nudged Maveryck with her boot.
“Use him for what?” Heidel asked. “For the sacrifice?”
“I’m afraid so,” I answered. “They’ll need some sort of dark energy to fuel the spell. Maveryck’s death would be a good solution.” Having been nearly sacrificed once or twice, I felt I was becoming an expert on the subject.
“We won’t let it happen,” Kull said. “We’ll get him free.”
“How do you plan to stop them?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Kull answered.
Flames crackled around us as the elves stoked the large biers surrounding the coffins. A few elves emerged carrying weapons, one that I recognized—the staff of Zaladin. I counted six ancient-looking weapons that they placed around the egg.
“They still don’t have the sword,” I said. “This is not going to turn out well.”
They must have been planning to harness her power with only six weapons. If they failed, they would unleash Theht on the world, and if they succeeded, the elves would control the goddess. Either way looked bleak.
“Do you think Maveryck is really one of the Madralorde brothers?” Heidel asked.
“It’s possible,” I said. “It explains why he was acting so strangely as we traveled here. He must have been remembering this place.”
“But why didn’t he remember sooner? He said he had perfect memory.”
“He might have believed he had perfect memory. I suspect someone must have tampered with his long-term memory and created an alternate past for him, one that was similar to his real past, but different enough to make him forget his true identity.”
“But who would have tampered with his memories?” Kull asked.
I shook my head. “He said his brother gave him the potion, but he was remembering a false memory. It could have been anyone.”
We watched as the elves moved Maveryck’s limp body atop a long slab of stone. The heat from the fires enveloped the room, creating a dense fog of smoke that drifted up to the ceiling.
Beside me, Kull glanced up, and I followed his gaze.
“What would happen if we brought the castle down on us?”
“Are you serious?” Heidel asked.
“Olive, do you think you could manage it?”
Above us, I could only make out the faint X-shaped outline of the arching stones illuminated in the firelight. “Maybe. I couldn’t bring down the whole place, mind you, but I might be able to manage a wind spell and dislodge a few of the larger stones.”
“Good enough,” Kull said. “You stay here and wait for my signal. Heidel, come with me. We’re going to rescue your thief.”
“And then what?” I asked. “How do we escape? Leaving the way we came is out of the question. It would take too long, and by the time we made it to the top level, the elves would have caught up.”
“Could we use the portal the elves made?”
“Yes, we could use it, but there’s an entire squadron of armed elves on the other side. They’d capture us before we got a chance to escape.”
“Couldn’t you create a portal, Olive?” Heidel asked.
“Possibly, but creating portals requires much stronger magic than masking spells
