Javaun Helios's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

Inside, the music was louder. Servants rushed past with trays. Javaun pulled Ilandra into a side hall, thinking fast. Her face alone would not be enough. The crown had granted Velrithian his title for a rare gift kept in the cellars. If Javaun could show that gift, he could show the fraud behind it. Words could be called lies. A stolen treasure could not. "The cellar," he said. "We take what he traded for." They slipped down the servants' stair. Ilandra knew the way. At the bottom, the cellar doors stood without a single sentry. Javaun frowned. Guards had watched that door day and night. Now no one stood there. Ilandra tried her old key. The lock held. She pressed her ear to the wood. "He changed it," she whispered. Around the corner, a lone elf sentry slumped against the wall, asleep, keys on his belt. Javaun crept close. His hands were quick from years of training. He lifted the ring free without a sound and backed away. The third key turned the lock. Beyond the door, the floor was a trap. Thin wires crossed the stones. Steel spikes lined a narrow gap. A blade swung on a chain from the ceiling. Javaun went first, testing each step. He timed the swinging blade and ducked under it. He guided Ilandra over the wires, her gown gathered high in her fists. At the far end, on a slim iron stand, sat a glowing orb. Pale light curled inside it like smoke, and a dark shape stirred within. This was the rare gift. This was the proof. Javaun grabbed the orb. Alarms did not sound, but he did not wait. "Run," he said. They raced back over the wires and under the blade. Up the stair. Toward the music. The great hall doors loomed ahead, carved and tall. Inside, a priest was speaking. Javaun heard the words through the wood. "If any here objects to this union, speak now." His heart slammed. He shoved the doors wide. "We object!" Javaun shouted. Ilandra screamed it beside him. "I object!" The hall went silent. Hundreds of faces turned. At the front stood Prince Diamond in blue, and beside him, Velrithian in black. Two princesses could not both be real. Every eye moved from the woman at Velrithian's side to the woman in the doorway. Javaun raised the glowing orb high. "This is what bought his title. Ask him how he earned it." Velrithian's calm face cracked. The humble mask fell away. His red eyes fixed on the orb, then on Javaun. He lifted one hand. Outside the tall windows, the sky went black in an instant. The candles guttered. Gasps rippled through the crowd. "You should not have touched that," Velrithian said, his voice low and cold. Javaun held the proof aloft. The lie was broken before the whole court. But he had woken something far worse.