Defiance: The Umbra Chronicles Book 2

  Contents

  Defiance

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A Note from Grace

  EXCERPT

  About the Author

  Coming soon from Grace Martin

  Other works by Grace Martin

  Copyright Page

  Defiance

  The Umbra Chronicles

  Book 2

  Chapter One

  Lynnevet was sitting beside me when I came round, legs crossed, dark hair falling forward around her thin face as she examined my little silver wand.

  ‘Mine,’ I grunted, snatching it out of her hands. I rolled away, trying to get up some momentum to get to my feet, but it was harder than I’d expected.

  ‘You should show some gratitude, Emer!’ she retorted. ‘I saved your life. I healed you. I didn’t have to, you know. I should have just taken the wand and left you there!’

  ‘You wouldn’t do that,’ I said. I’d gained my feet, but it was mighty dizzy up there, so I sat back down again and found myself eye to eye with Lynnevet. ‘I may be five years older than you these days, but I’m still your twin sister.’

  She gave me a bland look.

  ‘Don’t do that,’ I muttered. I got to my knees and stayed there for a while. Maybe it would be easier if I got up slower. ‘Don’t give me that look.’

  She’d called me Emer. That was the name Maldwyn gave me the year we were thirteen and he was our Guardian. She didn’t call me Hawk, which was what my sister always called me. But then, to be fair, I’d called the girl next to me Lynnevet, not Sparrow.

  ‘How come you got so old anyway?’

  ‘I’m nineteen, not ninety,’ I snapped ‒ at least, I tried to snap. It’s hard to snap when you’re woozy.

  ‘Yeah, but I’m thirteen. Twin sisters are supposed to be the same age.’

  ‘Maybe you’ll think about that the next time you go through a Time Portal.’ God, my head! Although, I should be grateful. Not an hour before I’d gone through the Portal and dragged Lynnevet with me, I’d been savaged by a dragon. It was only thanks to Lynnevet’s magic that I was alive. My own magic had been fully depleted and I wouldn’t have any more until the next time I was under the light of the moon. Since I was the first person to try and manipulate the Time Portal in five hundred years, I wasn’t sure when we had come out. It could be anytime.

  I raised higher on my knees, testing the altitude. I closed my eyes. Maybe that would help the spinning go away.

  Nope.

  ‘Where did you get that wand, anyway? We don’t have that kind of money.’

  ‘A tramp gave it to me.’

  ‘Sure.’

  God, I’d forgotten how sarcastic we were at thirteen. I’m pretty sarcastic now, so that’s saying something. I let my head loll forward. It helped a bit. ‘I need to find out what year it is… Sparrow.’

  I looked around at the ruined Library around us. It had been built deep within a mountain and when the dragons attacked it ‒ five minutes ago for me, thirteen years ago for Lynnevet, and God knew how many years ago for the Library itself ‒ they had destroyed every part of it they could reach. Now the Library was a ruin and the city of Cairnagorn that had grown up around it was nothing more than an uninhabited pile of stones. It was probably too much to hope for to ask for a calendar.

  ‘I’ve got to get to Elisabeth,’ I groaned.

  ‘I’ve been thinking of calling myself Elisabeth when we get a new Guardian.’

  ‘I know.’ Every year, a new name, a new Guardian, a new home. The year we’d been Emer and Lynnevet had been the worst. That year’s creepyguardian had surpassed all other creepyguardians in creepiness. One day, as soon as I saved Sparrow, I was going to find him and pay him back for the evil he’d done to us.

  I opened my eyes briefly to look at Lynnevet. You can’t tell by looking to see if someone has been abused, but she didn’t look like the pale, broken girl she’d been at the end of our thirteenth year. I hoped to God that I’d found her before he put his hands on her. I could live with what he did to me, but he was going to die one day for what he’d done to my sister.

  ‘My sister was Elisabeth,’ I explained. ‘The one who was the same age as me. I have to get to her. The White Queen has her. I’ve got to save Elisabeth.’

  I’d been in the past for months. I’d spent most of that time trying to get back to Elisabeth, my Sparrow. I’d suffered losses I wasn’t even ready to think about yet. I had to get back to Sparrow.

  Lynnevet untwisted herself and rose to her feet. ‘Come on, then,’ she said. ‘There were some people outside when I went to find your wand. We can ask them what year it is.’

  ‘People?’ Cairnagorn was deserted. That was why Maldwyn had kept us there, the year we were thirteen, so no one would see what he was doing to us. People didn’t live in Cairnagorn, not since the dragons attacked. Most people thought it was haunted. And since it had been the seat of magical learning since the time of Umbra, people avoided it now, because being found to have magic was a great way to get yourself burned at the stake. ‘What people, Sparrow?’

  I drew in a deep breath. I could hold my head up now. I could feel Lynnevet’s magic coursing through me, continuing its task of healing me. Lynnevet had always been the more powerful healer. My magic was mostly good for smashing things.

  ‘Oh, lots of people,’ Lynnevet said. ‘Soldiers and dragons and a lady in a chariot flying around.’

  ‘A lady.’ In the Thousand Counties there were two Queens, twin sisters who had been at war since before I was born. The Dark Queen, Aine, of the Camiri, was in my debt. The White Queen, Aoife, wanted my guts for garters. ‘What colour was she wearing?’

  Sparrow and I had been chased into the Time Portal when the Queens brought their battle to Cairnagorn. I’d gone through the Portal, more or less safely into the past, but the White Queen caught Sparrow just as we went into the Portal and separated us. The Dark Queen had been there, but had she been victorious?

  ‘White,’ Lynnevet replied. Of course she did. ‘There was another person in the chariot with her who looks an awful lot like you.’ I caught her looking at me carefully. I’d forgotten that when we were Lynnevet’s age, we hadn’t actually seen either of the Queens in person. ‘The lady looks a lot like you, too,’ she said.

  She’s probably my mother, I thought, but didn’t say it because I wasn’t completely sure myself. A midwife, back in the past, had told me that Sparrow wasn’t really my sister. We were opposite in temperament, but identical in looks. That was easily explained. We were descendants of Umbra, the greatest mage who ever lived, and all her descendants were cursed to look alike. If Sparrow was Aine’s daughter and I was Aoife’s, we could still look like twins. The Order of the Guardians had tried everything to keep us hidden. Pretending we were sisters instead of cousins would be another layer of security.

  I stood up, steeling myself this time, ready for the wave of dizziness that threatened to swamp me. On the plus side, if the White Queen
was flying around in her chariot ‒ doing a victory lap above Cairnagorn by the sounds of it ‒ I knew what year it was. I’d come back to just the right time. Sparrow was in the chariot with her. I just had to get her back.

  I took one unsteady step towards the exit of the Library, then another. Lynnevet walked slowly beside me. I took her hand.

  ‘Stop it!’ she cried and yanked her hand away.

  ‘But I need your magic!’ I snapped. ‘Give it to me!’ I grabbed her hand again, but she pulled away, as slippery as a lie.

  ‘You got it all when I healed you!’ she retorted. I grabbed at her hand again, giving her a shove to pin her against the rough stone wall. I took her hand and tried to draw on her magic. ‘See? See?’ she cried.

  I let her hand go. It was true. There was nothing to draw from her. I gritted my teeth and started walking back to the entrance.

  ‘You’re terrible!’ she shouted, skipping along beside me. ‘My Emer would never do that.’

  ‘Your Emer was a baby.’

  ‘My Emer wasn’t a baby! My Emer was old enough to have a baby of her own.’

  I stopped short, snapping my head back and swung to face her. ‘Don’t you ever say that out loud again,’ I warned, waving a finger in her face. ‘Don’t you ever tell anyone about that, do you hear?’

  ‘Or what?’

  I went so still I stopped breathing for a minute. Or what, indeed? When I started breathing again, it was irregular. What had gotten into me? What was I thinking? I started walking again. ‘Or nothing,’ I said, swallowing hard. ‘You wouldn’t tell anyone about that, would you?’

  She went quiet and I sneaked a peek at her, still walking alongside me. ‘No,’ she said softly. ‘I know it made you sad.’

  Sad. Sad? It was a wonder the lump in my throat didn’t trip me. Sad!

  I motioned Lynnevet to be quiet when we approached the edge of the cave, and we sidled along behind a fallen piece of rubble half the size of a dragon. What was I going to do? The Dark Queen was long gone. The White Queen flew above us, and when I looked up, I could see that she held Sparrow, pale, but alive, beside her, a soldier standing close behind them both.

  I had no magic left. Lynnevet had no magic left. I drew my wand out of my hair. This wand held the power of Umbra, the great hero. It was insanely powerful, as I was myself when my insides weren’t as dark as a moonless night. Lynnevet had drawn all she could from Umbra, but Umbra always gave me everything she had. I still had Umbra’s power and Umbra was the most powerful wand in the world.

  I drew in some deep breaths to steady myself. I turned to Lynnevet, who was crouching down behind the rock, even though it was a good ten feet tall. She looked up at me, her face paler than it had been when we arrived through the Portal.

  ‘Don’t leave me,’ she whispered.

  ‘I’ve got to do this,’ I replied. She was my sister when she was thirteen, but she wasn’t my Sparrow now. This was Lynnevet, and if saving Sparrow meant leaving Lynnevet behind, then so be it.

  I stepped out from behind the rock, not bothering to hide myself. I threw my head back and screamed into the sky, ‘Come and fight me, you coward!’

  The White Queen heard. I caught the smile on her face. She turned her chariot to fly over my head. I stood without moving, daring her to strike first. She wouldn’t do that. She loved to accuse me of grandstanding, but if she was my mother then I’d come by it honestly.

  ‘Emer!’ she cried.

  ‘Emer,’ Sparrow whispered, held by the soldier in the White Queen’s chariot. I focused on her. All I could think about was Sparrow. All thought of my sore head, my shoulder where the dragon had ripped it open and Lynnevet hadn’t been able to heal it properly, the bruised chest where Aoife had kicked me in the ribs ‒ twenty years ago for her and twenty minutes ago for me ‒ they all faded away.

  All I could see was Sparrow. I shifted my gaze deliberately to Aoife.

  ‘I’m going to kill you this time,’ I warned.

  She laughed, a warm, rich sound. ‘Sure you are,’ she replied. She raised her wand and cast a blast of fire towards me. I shielded myself, raising Umbra almost instinctively. If I’d had any magic of my own left, I could have just used my hand to make a shield, but I had nothing left. All I had was Umbra’s power, but that would be enough.

  The effort of repulsing her made me take a small step back and I despised myself for it, because I knew she’d see it and treasure it. As soon as the fire stopped spitting from her wand, I cast a return blast at her.

  She hadn’t expected that I would still be so strong ‒ I saw the surprise on her face and that was my own treasure.

  ‘Didn’t expect that, did you?’ I asked. ‘Had you forgotten that I have Umbra?’ I waved the wand in the air. Twenty years ago, Umbra had been lost. I’d found her because she loved me, even though her soul was trapped in an amethyst crystal on the tip of a silver wand. Umbra had created the Time Portal. She had gone into the past, five hundred years into the past, and had been one of the greatest magi who ever lived. And I had her in my wand.

  But I’d been a damned fool to mention her name because she was the greatest treasure in the Thousand Counties.

  ‘Umbra?’ Aoife asked. The next thing I knew, she’d grabbed Sparrow from the floor of the chariot. ‘Give it to me!’ Aoife shouted. ‘I swear I will kill your sister; you know I will.’

  I knew she would. Aoife had killed her own mother. She had killed Caradoc, my beloved. She would kill Elisabeth. At once, I directed the wand away from her.

  ‘Give me Elisabeth!’ I shouted.

  ‘Give me Umbra!’ she shouted back. She still held her wand in her hand. She brought it up to stick it hard under Sparrow’s jaw. I saw Sparrow’s head go back. I saw the fear in her eyes. But if I gave Aoife the wand, she would kill her anyway.

  ‘Put Elisabeth on the ground and I’ll give you Umbra!’ I shouted.

  Aoife’s chariot landed but she didn’t get out. ‘Put Umbra on the ground and walk away,’ she ordered.

  Heart pounding, eyes fixed on Sparrow, I did what she said. I had nothing now. I had no magic at all left. I didn’t even have a weapon. I didn’t even have a hair pin and my hair whipped around me, blown by the winds that are a side effect of magic.

  ‘Let Elisabeth go!’ I screamed.

  Aoife directed the soldier in her chariot to pick up the wand. The soldier did, the light in the little crystal suddenly winking out as she registered an unwelcome hand. Umbra was always a great judge of character. The soldier got into the chariot. Aoife cast him what she probably thought was an adoring look. She turned back to me.

  ‘I’ll release Elisabeth from all her suffering,’ Aoife said. The wand was already at Sparrow’s jaw. There was only the smallest flash of light as the lightning spat from it. Sparrow stiffened, then went limp. Aoife dropped her and reached for Umbra.

  I was screaming, screaming, and still screaming, but now I had nothing to lose. I raised my hand. I had no magic, but Umbra still had her own magic. Umbra loved me. Umbra would come to me anywhere if she could see me. If we were parted, she would sing for me, light up when I came close. She wouldn’t stay with Aoife willingly and I had just this one moment to call her before Aoife held her too tight.

  I held out my hand to Umbra. She shot out of Aoife’s hand and into mine. Aoife cried out as the little silver stick sped through the air towards me. I flipped the wand in my fingers and cast the strongest lightning Umbra had towards the chariot.

  Aoife screamed but she managed to shield just in time. I kept casting lightning at her, walking towards her while she cowered in fear. The air was full of thunder and wind and I advanced on her like inexorable justice.

  ‘Go! Go!’ Aoife cried, her voice barely audible between rolls of thunder. She shielded the chariot while the soldier brought it up into the air. As she flew away, she screamed a thousand threats at me. There was no point. Sparrow lay dead on the floor of the chariot and there was nothing left anymore.

  I fell to my k
nees, all the pain and exhaustion flooding back to engulf me. Sparrow was dead. It couldn’t be true, but I’d seen it happen myself. I was so engrossed in my grief, I didn’t notice the pain at first. I still held the little wand in my hand. When the pain in my forehead became nearly unbearable, it overpowered my grief. I cried out. When I opened my eyes again, the little crystal was gone from the end of the wand. Another sharp pain lanced through my head.

  I put my hand up to my brow. I could feel it there, under the skin, and even as my fingers probed, the crystal got smaller and smaller until I couldn’t feel it anymore. Umbra had left the wand. She was now a part of me. I hadn’t done it. Umbra had done it. She’d made sure that no one was ever going to take her from me again.

  I had Umbra, but I didn’t have Sparrow. I could never be parted from Umbra, but I would never see my Sparrow again. I lowered my head and sobbed. The thunder passed; the wind calmed. Lynnevet approached me tentatively and still I wept. She put her arm around me and I cried.

  We stayed there all night, curled up on the soft moss that had overgrown the ruins of Cairnagorn. It was a full moon. I lay there, unable to sleep, listening to Lynnevet’s soft breathing, and I plotted revenge.

  I wasn’t going to cry any more. You don’t cry when you’re dead. I started thinking of myself as a ghost. One thing ghosts do is exact vengeance from the living.

  Chapter Two

  In the morning, Lynnevet woke up and found me pacing in a circle around her. She startled a little, and I suppose I can’t blame her. I can’t have looked very welcoming. I wasn’t in a very welcoming mood. I’d spent most of the night letting the hate grow inside me like an infection.

  Aoife had always hated me, but I hadn’t cared much about her one way or the other. She hadn’t mattered at all in my life. I don’t know if we ever exchanged more than a dozen words in the whole time I’d known her. Now that she thought she’d had her revenge ‒ well, she had no idea what she’d unleashed. I had a lot of anger inside me, and it was going to be very, very convenient to use her for a target.