Aren’s hands curled.
“Did you?”
“No.”
That surprised everyone.
Aldric continued.
“I couldn’t.”
Aren barely breathed.
“Where is she?”
The King looked toward the palace.
Aren’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“No.”
“She lived?”
Aldric’s voice broke.
“For a time.”
Hope became pain again.
“What happened?”
“Elara entered the Heart Vault.”
“Why?”
“To stop my father.”
The Shadow Beneath had already begun corrupting King Merek.
Elara carried baby Aren into the Vault.
She rewrote the Covenant using her blood.
Then gave Aren to Oren before returning below to seal the Shadow.
“She never came out.”
Aren stared at the palace.
“She could still be there.”
Oren said gently, “Aren.”
“Twelve years.”
“Aren.”
“Stone Giants sleep a thousand.”
Humans do not.
He knew.
But knowing and accepting were different.
A tremor interrupted them.
The palace split further.
A red-eyed giant stepped into the city.
Gaelor charged.
Their collision sounded like thunder.
Aren looked at Aldric.
“How do we close the Vault?”
The King hesitated.
Aren shouted.
“HOW?”
Aldric looked toward the sword chamber.
“The Key.”
The Kingmaker Sword.
Aren understood.
He ran.
Corvin joined him.
So did Oren.
Aldric followed.
The palace hall was nearly empty when they reached it.
The ancient sword still stood in the cracked altar.
Aren grabbed the hilt.
Golden light returned.
The floor opened.
Stairs descended beneath the throne.
Aldric stopped at the edge.
“I have never gone farther.”
Corvin stared.
“You ruled above it for twenty years.”
“Yes.”
“And never went down?”
“I was afraid.”
Corvin looked disgusted.
Aren did not.
Fear, at least, he understood.
They descended.
Aldric.
Aren.
Corvin.
Oren.
Four generations of secrets walking beneath a palace.
The stairs ended at a chamber vast enough to contain a cathedral.
At its center stood a throne carved from living black stone.
Chains of golden light stretched from it into the walls.
Most were broken.
Behind the throne opened an abyss.
Something breathed inside.
Aren heard the voice.
At last.
The Shadow rose.
No body.
Only darkness forming shapes.
A face.
Hundreds of faces.
Then one.