Brandt wondered how applicable a two-hundred-year-old decree should be, considering the weight of the consequences. But he didn’t question Hanns. It clearly hadn’t done Regar any good.
The emperor stood up suddenly, surprising everyone. “Follow me. Prince Regar, you may leave now.”
Regar left, leaving an angry wake behind him.
“I apologize,” Hanns said. “He means well, but he doesn’t understand how important it is we obey the laws Anders set for his line.”
Brandt quickly finished the last of his tea, unwilling to waste a single precious drop. Then he hurried after Hanns. They returned to the palace hallway where they were surrounded by guards. Brandt noted their movement and training. The guards remained far enough away so as not to be bothersome, but effectively blocked both directions of the hall as they moved. No one would get close to the emperor and his retinue without permission.
Hanns walked with a determined stride, taking the myriad turns of the palace with confidence inspired by a lifetime within its walls. Though Brandt considered himself an expert navigator, he soon found himself lost among the twists and turns. Another defensive feature designed to confuse invaders.
They came to a room with a single door. They waited for Hanns’ guards to sweep the room for threats before entering, then they stepped into an orderly study.
Hanns went to a shelf of scrolls and books. Reaching into a crack between books he pulled on a lever and a concealed door swung open on silent hinges. An eerie but familiar blue glow emanated from a stone hallway. Hanns looked back at them. “Ready to see one of the greatest secrets of the empire?”
Brandt and Ana nodded, and Hanns led the way below.
The narrow stone corridor led them steadily down. The steps were wide and gentle, but the path snaked as it descended. The blue light reflected in an unnatural manner off the walls, nearly glowing, though they seemed no closer to the source of the light.
At first, Brandt’s attention was focused on the blue light, memories flooding through him. The last time he’d seen that light he had been certain he was going to die. He found the memories alone were enough to twist his stomach into knots.
But as they descended and Brandt mastered his reaction, he began to notice the walls of the corridor. They were unnaturally smooth. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see a mark of a chisel anywhere. The connection snapped together in his thoughts.
“This tunnel was built by the same people who built the tunnels under the mountain outside of Landow.”
“Astute observation,” the emperor confirmed.
They passed entrances to other tunnels. Brandt noted one had smooth walls but another’s were rougher, similar to more that he’d been in.
“You’ve dug your own access, haven’t you?”
“Not me, but Anders III,” Hanns said. “He worried that in an emergency he wouldn’t be able to reach the chamber in time.”
“Did those that come before build the palace, too?”
Hanns shook his head. “No. As near as I can tell, most of the foundation was left by them, but the palace was built by Anders. The actual Anders.”
Brandt nodded. More and more, it seemed that history seemed to revolve around the emperor who had founded their empire over two hundred years ago.
Eventually they reached the chamber Brandt had known they would.
Hanns stopped in the center of the room and gestured. “The gate that founded our empire. The gate that Anders discovered.”
Like the gate near Landow, this one was a stone arch, carved by diamonds lit by a mysterious blue glow. This close to it, Brandt could feel its power thrumming through his bones. He hadn’t visited Landow’s gate since he’d left the area years ago, but he would swear this gate had a different feel to it.
The light from the gate flickered then, almost as though it had been snuffed for a moment. The light recovered quickly enough, but Brandt didn’t remember the other gate doing that in the short time it had been active. “What was that?”
The emperor looked as though the weight of the answer would crush him. “Better you feel it for yourself. Touch it and funnel a bit of air affinity into it.”
Brandt looked at the emperor skeptically, who gave a halfhearted smile. “It will be a very different experience from before. It’s under my control. There’s nothing to fear.”
Brandt wasn’t sure he agreed. Touching the first gate he had encountered had filled him with a power that had nearly torn him limb from limb. But he trusted Hanns.
So he did as he was asked.
Sensations blasted him the moment he opened his affinity to the gate. He remembered to ride the power, the way Alena had once shown him. The torrent of power became manageable and Brandt sensed a pattern underneath it all.
Almost as soon as he found his bearings, they were torn away. A force of massive power tore into the pattern, seeking to rip it and tear it apart. The pattern of power bent and folded, but snapped back when the assault vanished.
Brandt broke contact with the gate, gasping for air. He had felt that dark power before.
“She’s attacking the gate.”
Hanns nodded. “It’s actually worse than that.”
“How?”
Hanns exhaled deeply, the weight of the confession seeming to hang about his neck.
“I believe she’s attacking all the gates at once.”
6
“Show me again,” Jace asked.
Alena smiled and made one of the affirmative gestures the Etari used. Jace’s eyes missed little, but his attempt looked stiff. Beside her, Ligt watched on with amusement.
Jace noticed. “It’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“A little.”
“He looks like a fish trying to swim on land,” Ligt said in Etari.
“He’s trying,” Alena replied in the same language.
Jace frowned. “What?”
“Ligt is applauding your efforts,” Alena said sweetly.
“That’s not what it sounded like.”
Alena smiled. They were nearing the Etari border, and Jace had spent the entirety of the trip learning as much about Etari language and customs as he could.
She found her brother remarkable.
Back in Landow, he, more than her parents, had struggled with the years she’d
