The Prestige
CONFLICTING EMOTIONS weighed down my heart as I left the library. I was thrilled that Tanoki had found information about Meriwa and the runes. But losing the librarian was a terrible blow that left me confused and worried about what lay ahead. His parting words about some allies leaving the stage to make way for others made me wonder who he’d meant.
And what had Maps, if that’s who’d spoken to me through Tanoki, meant by the threads of fate getting tangled? I forced myself to put my worries aside and get on with the quest. The final piece of the puzzle was in my hands. This was no time for cold feet.
It didn’t take me long to track down my friends. They were all in their rooms, packing up for trips home for winter break. I hoped they wouldn’t be too angry with me when they had to cancel those plans. I led them all back to my room and waved the manila envelope in the air.
“This is what we have about the runes and Meriwa,” I announced. “Let’s dig in.”
The librarian’s gift to me was a packet that contained fifteen numbered sheets of thick paper lined with his meticulous handwriting. His style was dense and full of seven complicated words for every simple one, and it took me forever to get through the first page. I handed what I’d read to Clem, and she passed it on to Eric, who then passed it to Abi.
It took me most of an hour to get through Tanoki’s notes. His meticulous research revealed that the runes were the initials of five important cultivators: Saito, Wallovik, Ingracio, Verisoka, and, of course, Meriwa. The first four were all powerful men and women who had taken up the quest to find the Heart of Eternity. They’d agreed to help each other where they could, and had formed the so-called Alliance of Kings, though Tanoki was certain they all intended to betray their allies at the first opportunity.
They were lovely people. It was no wonder the dragons didn’t think humans were worthy of the Flame’s trust.
Meriwa, though, made the first four look like cub scouts. She was known as the Thorn of Heaven, and had pulled together the Inuit people through a combination of raw charisma and a penchant for cruel punishment. She’d also personally slaughtered more than a few dragons and demons and was a real terror on the battlefield.
When she got wind of the Heart, she’d dispatched her agents to tell the Alliance of Kings that she wanted in. They’d refused to help her, and Meriwa had not been pleased by that.
At all.
And that was the point where Tanoki’s neat, precise writing changed. It looked like someone else had taken the pen out of his hand mid-page, then started telling a very different story.
“This is where the history books end,” the spidery writing said, “but these final pages are the truth known to those who have passed on from this mortal coil. In these dark times, even the dead have a stake in what will come. Heed our words, Chaos Core, and choose your path wisely.”
The last three pages were filled with the end of Meriwa’s story.
The Alliance of Kings finally found the Heart of Eternity when they were all old and nearing the end of their natural span. They planned to use it to confer immortality on themselves.
Meriwa, though, had other ideas.
On the night the ritual was to take place, she attacked the alliance with a force of giants bound to her will by spirits of frost. A battle between the four kings and the forces from the north raged for five days and six nights. When the sun rose on the sixth day, Ingracio and Verisoka lay dead under a carpet of frost, their cores claimed by the Thorn of Heaven.
Saito and Wallovik had split the Heart in half, and each had stolen away in the night. The new narrator of the document in my hands claimed they’d planned to meet in the future to complete the ritual, but they each blamed the other for Meriwa’s attack and were never able to trust one another again.
Meanwhile, Meriwa hunted the pair without mercy. The dark queen of the north finally caught up with each of the aging cultivators when they were nearing their final days. No one, not even the new writer, had any idea what happened then, but Meriwa had left a warning promise to other cultivators.
“No mortal shall know eternity without the treasures of four kings,” she’d proclaimed. “Bring them to the place of my passing to claim the power of these fallen if you are worthy.”
“The giants took their dead and dreadful queen to the Angakkuq Tomb,” I read. “Meriwa, the Thorn of Heaven, was laid to rest at last in the House of Endless Night, by the shores of the great North Sea.”
Tanoki had left a small parenthetical note at the end of that line in his own handwriting, explaining that he’d translated the location from the Xiongnu word Běihǎi. The librarian was one hundred percent positive this referred to the modern-day Lake Baikal.
If he was right, then we’d just found the clue that would lead us to the four kings to summon the spark. We already knew the four minds had opened the map. The Heart of Eternity covered the four elements. That just left the four winds to find the path.
We were so close.
“I guess it’s a good thing I canceled my vacation plans,” Eric said through a grin when he’d finished reading the last page. “Though you guys owe me big. My parents were taking me on a ski trip in the Alps.”
Clem punched Eric in the arm, then did it again for good measure.
“When this is over, you can ski all you want.” She snorted. “You’re not the only one who gave up
