“I do,” Wells answered as he grabbed it out of his pocket. It was the first time I was able to look at it. Tezya mentioned it to me a few weeks ago, saying that he was working with Wells to figure it out, but I never actually saw it in person before.
It was beautiful. The width was wide, made to fit a male’s fingers. It was a perfect mix of gold and black. The colors spiraled and swirled up the band of the ring, blending and mixing seamlessly together. It reminded me of the colors of our markings. I couldn’t deny the symbolism of it.
“Have you figured out what it does yet?” Dravenburg asked.
“No,” Wells said, his voice lowering. “Not fully.”
“Have you had any visions of it?” Brock asked Dovelyn.
She shook her head. “I haven’t. I don’t know its significance yet, but I think Arcane might.”
Dravenburg sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why?”
“Because he’s always been fascinated with artifacts. He hates all other aspects of Advenian history, but if there’s a chance any magic is infused with it, he’ll be able to tell us.”
“No,” Wells snapped. “I can do it alone. I don’t need him. I already figured out there isn’t any Alluse infused in it. Tezya can still use his powers when he wears it. All I need is more time to figure out the rest.”
Tezya ran his hand over his face. “I agree,” he said slowly, “with Dovelyn.” A penetrating silence filled the air. The meetings seemed to be getting more and more tense, and I half wondered if we really were fit to rule over everyone if we cameout on top after the war. We rarely agreed on anything. The anger and angst amongst us was palpable on a good day and a living breathing entity of its own on a bad one.
“Why?” Wells’ voice held a glimmer of hurt, but he tried to hide it.
“We would be stupid not to utilize everything in our arsenal. My brother can help.”
“It’s settled then,” Dravenburg said. “Arcane will assist with the ring. He’ll be let out of his cell, but he must be kept in chains. I want at least five Alluse users surrounding him at all times while he’s out. I want—”
He was cut off by Savannah sprinting into the war tent. Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing ragged, her eyes wild. She held clippings of gray and black paper in her hand that Dravenburg narrowed his eyes on.
“I think the King is taking mortals into Lux,” she panted.
FIFTY-NINE
TEZYA
“Why do you say that?”Dovelyn asked, her voice cracking. Savannah ran toward the table, spreading the papers she held across the wood for us to see.
“There are weird phenomenons happening in the mortal world that aren’t adding up,” she said in between breathless pants. “See look here, this island was hit by a hurricane, and it destroyed everything. Three hundred humans went missing.”
“So?” Dovelyn pressed. “We all know the planet is unrelenting. It’s not abnormal for—”
“Itisabnormal,” Savannah breathed, her eyes wide and pleading for us to grasp what she was seeing. “One, we still have a couple months before hurricane season starts. Two, most people don’t just go missing during one, nonetheless hundreds. And three, there wasn’t much of a warning. This storm came out of the blue. Normally, we have days before we know one is coming. The meteorologist tracks it and states whether it has picked up speed and what category it is. But this one came fast. There wasn’t a warning.”
“You think it was because of Advenians? That air and water users mimicked one to take humans?” I asked, scanning thepapers. She had ten of them. All unexplained weather related events with hundreds of people missing.
“Where did you get these newspapers from?” Dravenburg asked.
“From Ichi—”
“I told you not to visit him anymore. It’s not safe.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I did because we wouldn’t have known this was happening,” she snapped.
“Do you even know how far his restaurant is from here? We aren’t at our old camp anymore, Sav. His place is not a short walk…”
“I’m aware,” she replied, not looking up from the papers. “It took me two hours and thirteen minutes to get there.”
“Why on earth did you walk that far?”
She finally met her father’s gaze, shrugged, then looked back down at the papers. “I was bored and craving ramen.”
