Chapter 155 The Altar of the Peaks
A mother's heart is the only thing stronger than a thousand years of silver.
The fire was a roar. It formed a perfect circle, the flames licking the low-hanging clouds of the storm. Inside the ring, time felt like it was slowing down. The heat was a physical weight, pressing against my skin, but it didn't burn. It felt like an invitation.
My father stood on the other side of the flames, his face a mask of cold triumph. The white wolf, the Guardian of the Peak, stood before me, his eyes reflecting the orange glow.
"The Board wants the blood to build an empire of machines," the wolf said, his voice a vibration in my marrow. "We want the New King to lead the wild. Both paths require the mother to vanish."
"Why?" I asked, clutching the locket. My knuckles were white. "Why can't he just be a boy? Why can't he just have a life?"
"Because he is the bridge, Cassia," Evan said. He moved to my side, his shoulder touching mine. He was still weak, but his eyes were clear. "The Board and the wolves are two halves of a broken world. Our son is the only thing that can knit them back together."
"The Altar is ready," the white wolf said. He stepped toward the center of the ring. "If you place him there, the Board’s fire cannot touch him. But the price is the bond. You will never see him again. He will grow in the high peaks, far from the reach of men."
"And if I don't?" I looked at my father.
"If you don't," Henry Marlowe called out over the wind, "I will level this mountain. I have a hundred men with silver-tipped rounds. They don't care about prophecies. They care about the dividend."
Suddenly, a blur of motion hit the edge of the fire ring.
Sarah, Mrs. Higgins, burst through the flames. Her hair was singed, and her face was covered in soot. She held a heavy iron canister in her hands.
"The Board's soldiers are ten minutes away!" she shouted. "Henry, stop this! The child is your own blood!"
"Blood is just data, Sarah," my father replied. "I thought I taught you that."
He raised his hand. "Last chance, Cassia. Give the boy to the Board, and I will let Thorne live. Give him to the wolves, and I kill everyone in this clearing."
Evan looked at me. He didn't look afraid. He looked at the locket in my hand.
"The music, Cass," he whispered. "The song our mother left in the silver. It’s not just a lullaby. It’s a frequency."
"I don't understand," I said.
"The fire," Evan said, pointing to the flames. "It’s being controlled by the remote in his hand. But the silver in that locket can jam the signal. If you can get close enough to the Altar, you can create a dead zone. A place where neither the Board nor the wolves can touch him."
"But I’d be trapped inside," I realized.
"We both would," Evan said. He took my hand. His grip was steady. "A life in the silence. But he would be free."
The white wolf growled. "The Altar is for the King. Not for the parents."
"The King is a baby!" I snapped. "And he needs his mother more than he needs a throne!"
I didn't wait. I ran toward the center of the clearing, where a flat, grey stone sat beneath the rain.
The white wolf lunged. He was a blur of silver fur and teeth. I felt the heat in my blood surge. I didn't shift into a wolf, but I felt the power of the Peaks. I dodged his bite, my feet moving with a speed that felt like flight.
"Sarah! Now!" I screamed.
My sister threw the canister. It exploded mid-air, releasing a cloud of the violet gas. It wasn't the Board’s gas this time. It was the raw, unrefined marrow from the well. It blinded the wolves and the guards alike.
I reached the Altar. I placed the locket on the stone.
"Evan, the violin!"
Evan pulled the silver violin from its case. He didn't look at the fire or the men. He looked at me. He began to play.
It wasn't a song. It was a scream of silver and wood. The sound waves hit the violet gas, turning it into a shimmering shield.
The fire ring began to flicker and die. My father frantically pressed the buttons on his remote, but the locket on the Altar was pulsing with a light that made the remote smoke in his hand.
"No!" Henry screamed. "The asset!"
The white wolf recovered, his eyes red with fury. He ignored the gas and the fire. He saw only the child. He prepared to spring.
"Cassia, the choice!" Sarah yelled, fighting off two guards at the edge of the clearing. "The gate is opening! You have to step through now or it closes forever!"
I looked at the stone. A portal of white light was forming above the locket. Beyond it, I could see a valley of green grass and warm sun. The Silent Valley. The real one.
I looked at Evan.
"We go together?" I asked.
"Always," he said.
We stepped toward the light. But as my foot touched the edge of the portal, I felt a sharp, cold pain in my back.
I looked down. A silver blade was sticking out of my chest.
I turned my head. My father was standing behind me, his eyes wide and crazed. He hadn't used the remote. He had used a knife.
"If I can't have the masterpiece," he hissed, "no one can."
I felt the world tilting. The white light of the portal began to dim. I felt the baby in my arms begin to cry.
"Cassia!" Evan’s voice was a roar of agony.
I fell toward the stone. I felt the cold surface against my cheek. I looked at the locket. It was covered in my blood.
The white wolf stopped. He looked at the blood on the silver. His anger vanished, replaced by a look of ancient horror.
"The blood of the mother..." the wolf whispered. "The sacrifice has been made."
The portal didn't close. It turned red.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. A sound like a thousand voices came from the mountains. It wasn't a song. It was a judgment.
"What have you done?" Sarah screamed at our father.
"I’ve finished the experiment," Henry Marlowe said. But his voice was shaking.
From the red light of the portal, a figure began to emerge. It wasn't a baby. It wasn't a wolf. It was a woman with violet eyes and a crown of thorns. She looked exactly like the photo in the locket.
My mother.
She looked at my father. She looked at the knife in his hand.
"Henry," she said. Her voice was like the turning of a mountain. "The thousand years are up."
She reached out a hand, and the world began to dissolve into white.
Did my mother just save us, or has her return triggered the end of the world as we know it? And can Evan save me before the silver blade finishes what my father started?