Mickey was out of her mind.
Wasn’t she supposed to be some genius assassin type? Trained to read people? Read situations? If she was, then she wasn’t very good at it, because whenever Velanna had that look on her face whatever she had to say was going to make Meg angry. And the last thing they needed right now was for Meg and Velanna to be actually fighting each other, instead of pretending to fight and being passive aggressive like they usually did.
Didn’t Mickey know that by now? Sure she’d only been around them for a month or so, but some things you just needed to pick up on fast.
Like where he hid the gummy bears. Or how to slop the boars without getting speared. Or when ignoring the other females in the family was best for your peace of mind.
This was definitely one of those moments.
“Yes. I did stop it.” Velanna’s quiet declaration froze him in place.
Danny glanced toward the Celtican who had raised him and sat up, narrowing his eyes at her. No evasion. No subject change. No tidal wave of confusing words or lengthy history lessons.
Just a simple answer.
That’s new.
“How?”
Danny hid a smirk.
If Mickey kept pushing, Velanna was going to snap. Mickey didn’t know better. When Velanna didn’t want to talk about something, she wouldn’t do it. And the more you pushed, the angrier she would get until you pushed her into doling out a chore list longer than a castle turret.
But Velanna wasn’t getting angry, and that made Danny’s stomach do somersaults. He didn’t know what that meant. Velanna was always getting angry about something, even if she said she wasn’t. He’d learned to recognize Velanna’s anger long ago and to avoid her until she calmed down. It was never a good idea to confront her while she was angry.
For some reason, Meg hadn’t learned that yet. And neither had Jenny. But Jenny could get away with murder. Apparently, so could Mickey.
Velanna wrapped her fingers around the medallion hanging at her neck.
The key to Terran. That’s what Tolan had called that ugly piece of quartz Velanna wore. It could open a gateway between the worlds, piece a shimmering hole in the barrier itself.
It was weird enough to see Velanna wearing jewelry let alone watch her fidget with it. It was odd. Out of character.
“I stopped the shadow attacking Prism Castle the same way I stopped it three hundred years ago in the ruins of Celtica.” Velanna pinned Meg with her stare without blinking. “I stopped the Shadow with the Light.”
Dread crept over Danny’s skin at the pronouncement. It was the most straightforward he’d ever heard Velanna. Usually she couched everything she said in stories and weird fables from other cultures. Sometimes she liked to include vocabulary from other Andarian cultures just to throw them off whatever she didn’t want them knowing.
But she didn’t often just answer questions. That wasn’t like her.
“The Light?” Meg sat forward and crossed her legs. “Velanna, what are you talking about?”
Danny braced himself.
Now was Velanna’s chance to start the fight. Mickey had annoyed her enough that she’d opened the door. Meg walked through it. Now Velanna had full rein to load them down with more chores than they could finish in their lifetimes.
“Yes, Mother.” Tzaitel straightened where she sat near the fire, nose lifted and eyes narrowed. “I would hear your explanation.”
Well, this just kept getting better and better. Tzaitel was weighing in now? On Meg’s side? Danny had never expected to see that again. Sure, it would probably only be on this one issue, and as soon as Tzaitel got what she wanted, she’d retreat back behind her shield and resume throwing darts at Meg’s unprotected areas.
Tzaitel was just a good sport like that.
Velanna lowered her face and pressed her fingers into the sides of her head, for once looking every one of her 900 years.
Danny swallowed and leaned forward, scooting his scattergun out of the way as he adjusted his position on the ground.
This was going to be huge. If Velanna actually told them what was going on, he wasn’t sure how he would handle it. Velanna usually kept them at arm’s length with it came to explaining the reasons why the Centaurs did anything. He’d always known she understood them better than she claimed, but it wasn’t worth fighting over.
But this?
This was a whole different level.
The Centaurs had dragons. They had armies. And they had a magic shadow that tore your brain apart and made you see things that weren’t real.
Well, they were real, but they weren’t quite real. They were almost real. Things that had happened. Things that might happen. Words that people might have said, and when you came out of it, you were sure you’d actually lived what the Shadow showed you. But you hadn’t.
Danny shuddered.
He didn’t want to think about it.
He’d said goodbye to Tolan already. He didn’t want to keep seeing him in whatever shadow-induced scenario his brain kept trying to throw at him.
Slowly, Velanna released a long breath. “Very well.” She shut her eyes. “You all had best find a place to make yourselves comfortable. This story is long—and difficult.”
Jim shifted into a more comfortable position on the other side of the fire, resting his long gangly arms on his knees. He hadn’t said much on the journey, though Danny suspected Jim didn’t talk a lot anyway. Unless it was about computers. At the moment, his face was bright, and his eyes were wide behind his wire-rimmed glasses. Probably excited at the prospect of getting to learn something.
He was such a nerd.
Velanna threaded her fingers together. “I hardly know where to begin. I feared the day would come when I would be forced to recount this tale, but now it is here—I am at a loss for words.”
Danny scowled. Speechless Velanna? Fearful Velanna? This wasn’t normal. This was—weird.
Mickey rested her elbows on her knees. “We’re listening, Velanna. Just start slow.”
Meg and Tzaitel had gone silent, eyes wide and staring.
“The Shadow,” Velanna began, “that attacked the castle and Chandan Village is called the Andhera.”
“Andhera.” Tzaitel narrowed her eyes. “The Darkness.”
“Yes.” Velanna lifted. “It is a weapon of great destructive force from a time before the Great War.”
“It is a Celtican weapon?” Tzaitel scowled, her smooth features wrinkling. “How did the Centaurs come to possess a Celtican weapon?”
“That is unknown,” Velanna said. “I thought the Andhera destroyed. I thought wrong.”
Danny leaned forward, watching Velanna’s face carefully. Velanna never said anything that didn’t matter. And she never lied. He knew that well enough. But he also knew that Velanna liked to leave out details when they would lead to questions she preferred to leave unanswered. He’d seen her do it as long as he had known her, and he and Tolan had even talked about it.
Tolan hadn’t made excuses for her. That wasn’t Tolan’s style. But he had always reminded Danny how old they were, how much life they had seen, and how much pain they had survived. And that sometimes Velanna didn’t want to dig up old stories because they hurt too much.
Well, Velanna had a shovel now, and she was digging deep.
“Many generations ago,” Velanna said, “a man named Maris made an extraordinary discovery. He found a mineral that—when it was exposed to a particular level of electromagnetic radiation—would generate energy so powerful it became tangible. The energy generated from this mineral, a crystal, manifested in the shape and color of a rainbow, and Maris called it the Kirana.”
Meg gasped.
Danny turned to her. Her face had gone ashen, and her eyes were wider than before. “Maris? And Kirana?”
Velanna’s expression turned to stone.
Tzaitel scowled too, though that was nothing new.
“Margaret,” Velanna said slowly, “you have heard these names?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Meg shifted, closing and opening her fists. “Tolan.”
Velanna shut her eyes.
Danny bit his lip. It wasn’t unusual for Tolan to tell stories. He told them stories all the time. But as much as he searched his memories, Danny couldn’t remember ever hearing a story like what Velanna had begun to tell.
Velanna cleared her throat forcefully. “What story did Tolan tell you, Margaret?” Her voice shook.
Meg couldn’t look at her. She kept her eyes focused on the carpet. “It was a story about a man named Maris. And one day, while he was walking, he met a woman. He called her Kirana.”
Velanna’s nostrils flared. “Continue.”
Glancing around the campfire, Meg straightened. “Maris had questions, and Kirana helped him answer a lot of them. But he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to make light.”
“Make light?” Jim asked.
“Yeah,” Meg said. “But he couldn’t do it himself. So he used Kirana. And whatever he did hurt her, so much that they never reconciled.”
“Mother, are you well?” The tension in Tzaitel’s voice drew Danny’s gaze back to Velanna.
The Celtican woman sat in her chair, shoulders square and body clenched. What was happening? What was going on here?
“Tolan told you this story?” Velanna whispered with eyes shut.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before we left,” Meg said. “Before we left to find Mickey.”
With a shaking hand, Velanna ran her fingers through her hair and pressed her face into her palms. “That man.”
The sorrow in her voice made Danny’s throat ache.
That man, indeed.
Tolan often had known what needed to be done for their family before anyone else did. It was like he could read minds. He knew just what to say and just when to say it, and apparently him telling Meg this story had been important, even if neither of them realized how important it was.
“Velanna.” Danny sat up. “What—what does this mean?”
Velanna rest her hands in her lap. “The story Tolan told Margaret was true.”
Meg stiffened. “It wasn’t just a story?”
“It was—more metaphorical than what I had intended to share,” Velanna said. “But effective all the same.” She lifted her eyes. “Maris Taksoom discovered a powerful weapon, which he called the Kirana because it could generate an immense band of light.”
“Taksoom?” Tzaitel raised her eyebrows. “Mother, was that not your unamrried name?”
Velanna deflated slightly. “Well remembered, daughter.” She smiled sadly. “Yes. Maris Taksoom was my grandfather.” She clutched the medallion again and then held it up so that the firelight caught in the crystal. “This is the mineral my grandfather found. It is unlike any other mineral that exists in this dimension, so my grandfather had always assumed it came from elsewhere. Perhaps, not even this world.”
Yikes. That was a twist. Were they going to start talking about real aliens next?
Velanna let the crystal rest against her robe. “My grandfather was quite puzzled with it. He wasn’t sure where it had come from or what its purpose was until—he left it in the sunlight.”
“What did that do?” Meg asked.
“The sunlight triggered something within the crystal that allowed it to produce light.”
“Like a prism?” Mickey stretched her neck out to get a better look at the crystal.
“A prism reflects light,” Jim said. “You’re saying this crystal can produce light?” He straightened. “That’s—weird.”
“So it is like the aelon stones then.” Tzaitel pointed to the ceiling. “They produce light.”
“Not like this,” Velanna whispered. The haunted expression in her eyes deepened. “The light this crystal produced—it became tangible. Left in the light for long enough, the crystal could generate a wave of electromagnetic energy so strong it could physically move objects.”
Meg glanced at Jim, who sat with his mouth hanging open.
“What could it move?” Meg asked.
“Everything. It could uproot trees. It could cut through lines of enemy invaders.”
“It could tear down thick wooden doors?” Mickey asked pointedly. “Shatter solid stone?”
Velanna pressed her lips together and nodded.
Danny blinked. “Wow.” He stared at the crystal. “But—that thing—the Andhera is a shadow. It’s darkness. Not light.”
Velanna’s expression changed again, mournful and grieving as though she were hearing the news that someone else she loved had died. “They are one in the same.” She sat back, tears in her eyes. “My grandfather misused the power of the Kirana, and in doing so he created the Andhera.”
“In his quest to create life,” Meg said, drawing from Tolan’s story, “Maris created the Darkness, didn’t he?”
Velanna stiffened. But she nodded.
Danny scrubbed his hands over his face. This was getting intense. Someone needed to crack a joke or something, or he was going to need to get up and leave.
“So how did the Centaurs get it?” Mickey asked.
“I do not know,” Velanna said. “And ultimately, it does not truly matter.”
Meg sighed. “But the Kirana.” She pointed to the medallion. “It can stop the Andhera?”
“Yes.”
“But?” Danny asked.
Velanna turned to him.
“I’m sensing a but in there, Velanna.”
Her pale face softened, eyes sad. “Using the Kirana requires great strength and peace of mind. It absorbed more energy from me than I possessed. I fear I cannot wield it again and remain alive.”
Meg gasped. “You mean, using it again will kill you?”
Velanna didn’t answer.
Danny clenched his fists. No wonder Velanna had been acting strange. If the Kirana had nearly killed her and she was still moving forward as though she had to use it again, it explained why she had been distracted.
Velanna turned her eyes to Tzaitel. “However, I am not the only one who may wield it.”
Tzaitel, who had fallen terribly silent while Velanna spoke, took a steadying breath. “Mother, you said you believed the Andhera destroyed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
A muscle ticked at the back of Velanna’s jaw. “Because I destroyed it.” She leaned back on the log, exhausted and worn, weary as Danny had never seen her. “The Andhera began the Great War. It is through the power of the Andhera that my people were annihilated.”
The color drained from Tzaitel’s face.
“Mother.” Tzaitel’s voice shook. “You expect me to believe that my grandfather is to blame for the extinction of our people? His own people?”
Velanna didn’t lift her eyes. “Yes, Tzaitel. That is the truth. Our greatest triumph. Our greatest shame.”
Danny’s heart rate spiked. All his life he’d heard about the Great War of Celtica, but he’d never considered that Velanna might have actually participated in the war. It just didn’t seem like a very “Velanna-ish” thing to do.
“The Andhera began the war,” Mickey said. “Does that mean you ended it?”
Silence fell again, for a long time, until Velanna nodded. “Yes.”
Meg wrapped her arms around her chest, and Tzaitel sagged as though she’d just shouldered a crushing weight.
“I used the Kirana to destroy the Andhera,” Velanna said, “or so I thought. Tolan and I fled here. The Josharons took us in. I hid the Kirana and swore to never take it up again. I despised it.” She scoffed. “Tolan disagreed. He saw it as a gift, something to cherish and keep safe.”
Danny leaned back and spread his hands on the tent floor.
That’s why she didn’t want us to take it. His heart thudded. That’s why she didn’t want us to use it to go back to Terran.
So Velanna had a weapon that could stop the Shadow—the Andhera, but using it meant she would probably die.
Figures.
With a deep, slow breath, Velanna stood. She walked around the fire and knelt in front of Tzaitel.
“Hear me, daughter.”
Danny narrowed his eyes at the cold expression on Tzaitel’s face. Was Velanna doing what he thought she was doing?
Velanna pulled the medallion off her neck and handed it to Tzaitel, and when Tzaitel wouldn’t take it she formed her daughter’s hands around the crystal.
“You are my blood,” Velanna said. “You are my kin. You are the one who may wield the Kirana against the Andhera and lead us to victory once more.”
Tzaitel didn’t move, her eyes sparkling with anger. Her jaw was so tight Danny swore he could hear her molars creaking from where he sat.
“The Centaur Lord Tiron must be stopped.” Velanna set her hands on Tzaitel’s shoulders. “Only the Kirana can stop him, and only you are able to wield the Kirana.”
“Tell me, Mother.” Tzaitel’s voice cracked like a whip. “What part of our history have you shared tonight that could possible coerce me to wield this nightmare?” She opened her hand and let the medallion fall to the tent floor.
Velanna scowled at her. “Speak plainly, Tzaitel.”
“You tell me now that my grandfather is the one responsible for the annihilation of our people. You hand me the weapon that he used to accomplish this horror and bid me use it as well?” Tzaitel sounded scandalized. “Have you lost your senses?”
Danny gawked.
Tzaitel never spoke to Velanna like that.
But then, Velanna had never admitted what actually happened to the Celtican people, so maybe Tzaitel was justified in being a little upset.
Velanna settled to the floor on her knees. “Tzaitel, I spared you the knowledge of our history because there as no reason for you to carry its weight, but now—”
“But now that it is convenient for you,” Tzaitel interrupted her, “I must accept my birthright and its subsequent genocide?”
“Tzaitel—”
Tzaitel stood suddenly and pointed to the medallion at her feet. “It is evil. Better you had left it to be forgotten in the ruins of Celtica than to shame our family further by taking it up yourself.”
“There was more at stake than you know, Tzaitel.” Velanna’s voice trembled.
“How would I know, Mother? You have seen fit to withhold the history of my people from me.” Tzaitel tucked her saber back into her robes. “I will not wield it. I will never wield it. And if you choose to do so again and it claims your life, perhaps it is what you deserve.”
“Tzaitel!” Meg gasped. “You don’t mean that.”
“Without it, Daughter, we will all die,” Velanna said evenly.
“Then perhaps that is what we all deserve,” Tzaitel said. “What good thing have we done to merit otherwise? Your grandfather destroyed his people. You destroyed our family. And I did nothing to stop you.”
Danny looked down and clenched his fists.
Here she went again.
Tzaitel had been on this tangent before, and all it accomplished was turning Meg inside out. Maybe that’s what she was trying to do. Danny didn’t think that Tzaitel hated them as much as it sounded like she did, but the way she’d been acting since Tolan died certainly told a different story.
“I will hear no more of this.” Tzaitel turned on her heel and strode out of the tent into the pounding rain.
No one went after her.
Trembling, Velanna picked up the medallion and cradled it to her chest. Meg shifted closer to her and touched her arm.
“Velanna?”
Velanna shook her head, and Meg sat back.
“Geez,” Mickey muttered under her breath.
Danny stifled a scoff and drew his knees up to his chest. He knew how Mickey felt. This was exactly why he tried to stay out of discussions between Velanna and the other members of the family. Things just got so complicated when she was involved. But even he had to admit, Velanna had been sitting on something she should have shared with them sooner.
She should have said something when Chandan Village was attacked.
Not that it would have made any difference, but maybe they could have come up with a better plan than attack back and hope Velanna doesn’t die. That sounded like a plan he would make. Not Velanna.
The firelight caught in the crystal as Velanna held it.
As Danny stared at it, he couldn’t help but feel chills up and down his arms. To think that something so small could do so much damage. But then, he’d seen the chaos the Andhera had caused. Maybe they were lucky that the Kirana seemed to be able to chase the Andhera off, but at what cost?
Velanna might be willing to give her life, but after they’d already lost Tolan, Danny wasn’t sure their family could survive losing her too.