A House of Mysteries Read online

  Vita

  [Grace and Lawrence’s daughter]

  We followed the Druid from the dining room, walking down the better-lit hallway till we came to the room where the Druid habitually sat in front of a roaring fire. To my astonishment, it was lit again, creating a sweltering room that was completely unnecessary considering the weather outside. Bijarki was standing by one of the windows, and he smiled broadly when he saw us, his gaze homing in on me and making me feel instantly uncomfortable. Well, more uncomfortable than I was feeling already. I was dreading the training session—the nausea of the visions, and the weakness I experienced after, but not only that. I was half worried I’d fail completely. That it would be like my fae abilities all over again, knowing that the power was in there somewhere, but not being able to access it properly. It would be humiliating, and there would be no Zerus to put my mind at ease.

  I ignored Bijarki as best I could, and stepped in line next to Serena, shielding myself from his approach as we all descended the staircase to the basement.

  It was cooler down here, and I was grateful for that, but it was also damp, and the smell was even more musty than in the rest of the house. The hospital beds were gone, which was a relief, but in their place were three metal tubs—dented and worn with age, and filled with water and ice.

  “What are these?” exclaimed Serena the moment she entered the room. “They look like some kind of psychiatric torture. Tell me it’s not for them?”

  The Druid, with a slight but perceptible tightening of his jaw, ignored Serena and turned to the three of us—me, Aida and Phoenix. He cleared his throat, and began his lesson.

  “The best way to bring about your visions is to get you into a semi-conscious state. The mind has a better chance of accessing itself if it’s not trying to attend to the rest of your body—freeing it up, in a way. Ideally, we want your bodies in ‘sleep’ mode, while your brain is still active.”

  From the conversation we’d just been having about Aida’s dreams, this made a lot of sense to me. I had also seen the Oracle when I was in a sort of semi-conscious state—my body bone tired, but my mind whirring with the events of the last few hours.

  “We’re going to replicate that state, using these.” The Druid gestured to the ice baths. “The water will shock your body into slowing down the heart rate and metabolic process. Your brain will survive, going into overdrive while the body is neglected.”

  You have got to be kidding me?

  I stared wide-eyed at the Druid. Was this some kind of joke? He wanted to deliberately put us into a state of severe hypothermia?

  “That seems a bit extreme, don’t you think?” Aida asked, her tone sarcastic—but her golden eyes betrayed her fear.

  “Perhaps,” the Druid replied. “But this water has also been infused with an herb—a highly oxidized plant that will ensure your respiratory system continues to function under the water.”

  “We’ll be able to breathe under the water?” I asked, confused. I’d never heard of an herb that could accomplish anything close to that.

  “Exactly.”

  “But that still doesn’t prevent them freezing to death, does it?” Jovi questioned the Druid. I could see his body growing tense, ready to argue, and get physical if need be.

  “I promise you, they will be able to withstand it,” the Druid replied. “The better question is whether you will be able to withstand it. I need you to hold them under till they reach a state of unconsciousness, and then drag them out when I ask you to. Can you handle that?” he asked Jovi, his expression intense—I felt like it was a challenge, rather than a request, and I knew Jovi wouldn’t let the Druid gain the upper hand.

  “I can handle it,” Jovi retorted. “I just don’t know if I trust you. This method is extreme—you’re basically asking me to drown my sister.”

  I looked down at the ice baths. I could only imagine what it was like to be submerged in them—painful beyond belief, and then later, much later, my body would heat itself as I went into hypothermic shock. I didn’t relish the idea one little bit—but if this was what it was going to take to get out of here, to get back home and see our families, then it was a small price to pay.

  “Jovi, it’s okay,” I muttered reluctantly. “We can do this.”

  “I hope you realize we’re placing our trust in you,” Aida bit out in the direction of the Druid. “Big time. And I hope for your sake nothing goes wrong.”

  Jovi shook his head, muttering expletives under his breath. Neither Field nor Phoenix looked happy with the situation, but they had obviously come to the same conclusion as I had—that it would be worth it to get home.

  “And there’s not another way?” Serena asked, looking pleadingly at the Druid.

  “Nothing as effective,” he confirmed.

  “Have you done this before?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Many times with my father. Please just try to trust me. We’re wasting time. Believe me when I say this is the best way, and not nearly as dangerous as you think.”

  Serena looked skeptical but kept quiet. We all eyed the baths anxiously, until Aida, clearly tired of deliberating, took a step forward and placed her fingers in the tub closest to her. She drew them back out quickly, shaking the water off. I could tell by her expression that the water was colder than she’d initially thought it would be. From experiences of swimming in the sea in winter, I knew there was no point trying to ease ourselves in. We’d have to submerge ourselves fully in one go, or it would never happen.

  “Let’s get this done then,” I announced, sounding way braver than I actually felt. To the sharp intakes of breath and a shocked gasp from Serena, I stepped over the side of the tub as quickly as I could and completely submerged my body into the water—with only my head above it.

  Oh, my God!

  My mind instantly became hysterical as my body registered the freezing temperatures. My teeth started chattering loudly in my skull. All I could do not to leap back out again was to hold onto my own body, literally freezing myself into submission. Quickly, not wanting me to be in the water any longer than I had to, Phoenix and Aida followed suit.

  Phoenix gritted his teeth, exhaling his breath in a hiss as he sank into the tub. Aida wasn’t so stoic—she hurled a couple of lines of abuse at the Druid, at the water, at life itself, and then sat shivering like the rest of us.

  “Good. Now, the rest of you, hold them under. Their bodies will react, but you need to keep them still and completely submerged till the muscles release, and you feel them going limp.”

  I barely heard the instructions of the Druid, but the next moment I felt the pressure of Serena’s hands on my shoulders.

  “God, I’m so sorry, Vita,” she whispered with a tremor in her tone as she pushed me down—my mouth, my nose, my eyes slowly sinking into the sharp freeze of the water. I struggled, my body twitching uncontrollably and fighting to get free. She held me still, and I opened my eyes, seeing her agonized expression. I couldn’t hold my breath a moment longer, and my mouth yawned open in a scream, my lungs filling with water, cold cascades freezing my insides. Bubbles rose to the surface, and I thought that I was drowning.

  It’s gone wrong…this is all wrong!

  I struggled harder in her grip, trying to tell her that she needed to let me up, or else I was going to die. More bubbles rose to the surface, but rather than passing out or my vision darkening to complete blackness, I realized I was okay. Uncomfortable certainly. The water in my lungs was the strangest sensation—like they were filled with cold air, waiting for me to exhale…except when I did, the pressure didn’t release. I was breathing underwater.

  Or you’re dead and imagining it, I thought to myself.

  That was a possibility, but my mind felt strangely alert. I looked up again, focusing on Serena. Her blue eyes rippled and distorted over the water, her mouth set in an anxious line. She kept looking forward. I guessed she was listening to the Druid’s instructions. Her hands still held me firmly in their grip, but I kne
w she wouldn’t need to keep them there for much longer. I felt like a dead weight, sinking to the bottom of the tub.

  Tired, I let my eyes close, and a peaceful warmth radiated across my body.

  Vita

  [Grace and Lawrence’s daughter]

  When I opened my eyes again, the water had gone, along with the tub and the concerned expression of my friend. I was alone, standing in the middle of a valley. The ground was dry, the earth cracked and dusty, with small islands of dried-out moss turning yellow and brown in the sunlight. The valley was about three miles wide, and went on as far as I could see in both directions. High walls stood on both sides of me. From the pattern of the rock I imagined that a river must have run here once—but a long, long time ago. The sun was at its pinnacle in the sky, large and red, burning down on the earth, with a slight breeze that knocked dust up in my face, irritating my eyes with grit particles.

  Am I having a vision?

  It didn’t feel like the last one, where the images had felt like they were appearing in my mind and I could watch them like I would a TV. This was completely different. I was part of this, feeling the sunshine and everything else as if it was real. I stepped forward, knocking a small rock with my foot. It moved, and I could feel the crumbling earth beneath the soles of my feet.

  I looked around. What was it that I was meant to be seeing? The place was completely silent, to the extent that I felt like I was the only person on the planet. Not knowing what else to do, I kept walking. The ground hurt my feet, while the sun burnt my bare arms and the top of my head. I idly wondered if I could actually get sunburned, whether I’d come out of the semi-conscious state in the basement with a peeling nose and a killer headache.

  “Hello?” I called out. The sound of my own voice was strange, and it echoed across the valley, a lone, weak voice that went unanswered. I was starting to become afraid, wary of my own lengthening shadow on the ground, and the oppressive silence that blanketed everything. It reminded me of the journey from the portal to Sherus’s fire star in the In-Between, those moments of deafening silence that made you think you were going half-mad, that you would lose your mind completely if it didn’t come to an end soon.

  Shielding my eyes from the sun’s glare, I took another look around. It was difficult to see—the heat created a hazy fuzz that rippled in the distance, but there did seem to be a figure up ahead. Whatever it was, it wasn’t moving, which suggested it was more likely a tree or rock, but I called out anyway.

  “Hello? Can you hear me? Anyone?”

  The figure might have moved—I couldn’t really tell—but no one returned my call. I started to pick up my pace, stumbling over the rocks and gritting my teeth as stones bit into my feet.

  I could feel perspiration running down my back, my hair sticking to my temples and neck. It was almost enough to make me long for the ice-cold bath that was waiting for me back in the basement. Ahead of me, the figure was starting to become clearer, and I decided that it was definitely human, or human-shaped, at least.

  Please be someone I know.

  “Jovi?” I called out hopefully, knowing the moment that his name left my lips it was a dumb conclusion. Jovi would have answered back, and come toward me. Still, maybe in a vision that stuff was different. The figure was about the right height for Jovi, and had the same dark hair, though as I got closer, I realized that there was a lot less hair than Jovi had. He stood with his back facing me, not moving.

  I reached about a yard away before I realized who it was, and I came to a standstill.

  Bijarki?

  He was the last person I expected to see. What was he doing in my vision? He was wearing different clothes to the ones I had previously seen him in, a loose white shirt that fluttered in the breeze and khaki-colored cotton trousers. They must have come from the plantation house, as they were certainly of that period, and I couldn’t imagine that he would have gotten clothes like that anywhere else.

  “Bijarki?” I called out his name. This time he turned and faced me, his face splitting into a smile.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “For what?”

  I took a step backward, unnerved by his gaze. It looked so intimate, like he knew me somehow, not just as one of the Oracles that the Druid was looking after, but as a friend or a…Don’t go there.

  “Vita, we need to hurry,” he admonished. “We don’t have time to mess around.”

  He held out his hand toward me, palm open, waiting for me to take it. I stared at the taut muscle of his forearm, how his skin had a slight silver sheen to it, like his bones were made of metal. For some unaccountable reason, I felt a strong urge to take his hand, to discover what it would feel like to have my palm against his. I looked up, into his eyes, seeing an urgency reflected there, an impatience because I wouldn’t do as he asked.

  “Vita, please,” he begged.

  I placed my hand in his, and the vision vanished.

  Without time enough to blink, I was somewhere else—this time standing in the corner of a large room. At one end, there was a large door, guarded by two vile Destroyers. They sat atop their winged horses, their tails wrapped tightly around the middle of their horses’ bellies, holding them upright. Each of them held a pointed spear, the tips of the wood seeping with a bright purple liquid I recognized from the jungle. Their black eyes stared unseeingly ahead, and the only movement they made was the occasional flare of their nostrils, as if they were constantly sniffing out scents in the room. I didn’t know if I was visible to them or not, but I tried to remain perfectly still, not wanting to take any chances.

  At the other end of the room, there was a giant rock. It was black, like volcanic stone, and sprawled out, filling the entire width of the room on either side. In the center of the rock sat another Destroyer. He was no larger than the other two who stood guard, but his presence seemed to fill the room entirely. He had long, dark hair, spilling down to his waist, and a thick beard that was braided at the end, ending in a perfect point between the well-defined pectorals on his chest.

  He was such an all-consuming sight that I’d almost failed to notice the small figure standing in front of him, looking slight and waif-like in comparison. I blinked a few times, opening my mouth in a gasp of surprise as I recognized the figure as myself.

  When neither of the guards so much as turned their heads at my sharp intake of breath, I started to move forward, testing my theory that they couldn’t see me. Relieved when they still didn’t notice me, and neither did the Destroyer on the throne, I got closer, wanting to hear the exchange between my ‘other’ self and the creature on the throne.

  “You are mine now,” he hissed. “And you will be mine for an eternity. It will be up to you how it is spent—in my good graces, receiving all the gifts you could possibly imagine, or in disfavor, a lonely life floating in a bowl, seeing a world that you will never be part of again.”

  “Then I choose disfavor,” the ‘other’ me spat back. My hands were held in fists at my sides, with two bright spots on either cheek. “I would rather die of loneliness than spend a second in your company!”

  The Destroyer, who I was now convinced was Azazel himself, leaned back on his throne and laughed.

  “Does he mean that little to you?” he asked, languorously stroking his beard. I watched as my face blanched and my entire body started to tremble. Who was he referring to? It had obviously caused me to have a visceral reaction, so the person he was threatening—besides me—was obviously important—it could have been any one of my friends, but the mention of a ‘he’ automatically made me think of some romantic attachment…but perhaps that was a misleading assumption.

  Before any more of the vision could unfold, the scene vanished again—this time, very much against my will.

  The next vision was upon me before I could recover from the last. I felt like I was still trying to hold on to the throne room, desperately wanting to know what had happened, what my decision had been, but I was already somewhere else, standin
g beneath a star-studded sky, the lights so bright that they felt like they were near enough to reach out and touch.

  My heart felt like it had stopped beating in my chest as I greedily tried to take in my surroundings. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the most beautiful, awe-inspiring sight I had ever witnessed.

  I was standing on a mountain, and must have been so high up I was practically touching the heavens. I could see galaxies unfurling in the distance—pink, purple and blue hues glowing in the night’s sky, as if the entire cosmos was laid out in front of me. Its beauty made my throat tighten, keeping down a well of emotion that was building up inside of me.

  My vision started to blur, and I hastily wiped at my eyes. Refocusing on where I was standing, I realized I was on the edge of a cliff, perilously close to the edge. Crouching down, ignoring the biting cold of the wind that whipped around me, I crawled forward, trying to see what lay over the side.

  Directly beneath me was another cliff edge, and beyond that, nothing but darkness. I turned my attention back to the second ledge, where there was a bright light coming from beneath a large slab of stone. From my vantage point, I couldn’t understand what the construction was, but the light was enough that I could see a small path leading down to the second level. Shuffling backward from the edge, I turned toward the left, where I could see the start of the path. As I moved off the rock, I felt soft grass beneath my feet, wet with dew. I moved slowly along the path, suddenly in no hurry to get where I was going, still entranced by the sky and its glinting stars, enjoying the cool of the night.

  As I approached the light, I realized that the slab of stone I’d seen from above was supported by columns, and in the middle of the structure was a large glass sphere where the light was emanating from. The grass of the pathway ended, and I was back walking on rock, making my way toward the sphere. I started to hurry as I saw a figure floating inside it.