Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Sealed Door

The woman beneath the cathedral knew Toby's name.

But the voice warning him against her knew something far more terrifying.

It knew how his mother had died.

"Don't listen to her!" the second voice screamed from the darkness. "Your mother was murdered ten years ago!"

Toby stood motionless at the entrance to the underground staircase.

His fingers tightened around the Sunforged Blade.

For ten years, he had imagined meeting his mother. Sometimes he pictured a beautiful noblewoman arriving at the armory in a golden carriage. Other times, he imagined a poor servant who had abandoned him because she could not afford to feed him.

He had never allowed himself to imagine that she might be dead.

"That's a lie," he whispered.

No one answered.

The cold air rising from the staircase smelled of roses and damp stone.

Behind him, Bishop Aldren stared into the darkness, his silver key trembling between his fingers.

Commander Vane stepped closer.

"Your Grace, what is happening down there?"

"Something that should have remained buried."

Vane's expression hardened.

"You told me the chamber was empty."

"I believed it was."

The commander grabbed the bishop's arm.

"You assured me the last witness had been eliminated."

Toby heard the words clearly.

The last witness.

His heart began beating faster.

"Eliminated?" he repeated.

Vane released the bishop.

For one brief moment, neither man looked at him.

That frightened Toby more than any threat.

Vaelthar lowered his massive head beside the staircase.

Little master, step away from the entrance.

"Why?"

Because something beneath us has awakened.

"Is it dangerous?"

The dragon's amber eyes narrowed.

I do not know.

Toby turned toward him.

"You don't know?"

I have slept beneath a mountain for seven centuries. Whatever waits below has been hidden from even me.

Another sound echoed from the staircase.

A woman's soft laughter.

"Toby, sweetheart. Come down. I've waited so long."

The boy's throat tightened.

He wanted to believe her.

He wanted it so badly that it hurt.

Mira stepped in front of him.

"Don't."

Toby looked at her.

"You heard her."

"I heard someone calling your name."

"She said she's my mother."

"And another person said she isn't."

Toby's eyes burned.

"You don't understand."

Mira flinched.

He regretted the words immediately.

Mira had no family either. She had grown up in the kitchens after being brought to the monastery as a small child. They had shared stale bread, winter blankets, and whispered dreams of escaping Sunspire.

If anyone understood what it meant to be unwanted, it was her.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

Mira shook her head.

"Just don't disappear down there."

Before Toby could respond, Bishop Aldren raised his staff.

"Enough. The chamber is forbidden. Commander, seal the entrance."

Two knights approached the mechanism beneath the altar.

Toby moved between them and the staircase.

"No."

Vane gave a humorless smile.

"You seem to enjoy defying orders today."

"I want to know what happened to my mother."

"Your mother is irrelevant."

Toby felt something hot awaken beneath the mark on his wrist.

"Not to me."

The golden runes on the Sunforged Blade brightened.

Several knights retreated.

Vane noticed.

His expression changed.

For the first time, he seemed to consider that threatening the boy might no longer be useful.

"Very well," he said. "You want answers? Go down."

Bishop Aldren turned sharply.

"Commander!"

Vane ignored him.

"But the dragon stays here."

Vaelthar's enormous jaws opened, exposing rows of teeth longer than Toby's arms.

That is not a condition you are qualified to impose.

Vane stepped backward.

Toby looked at the staircase.

It was narrow.

Too narrow for a dragon.

"I'll be all right," he told Vaelthar.

You cannot know that.

"Then tell me what you do know."

The dragon remained silent.

Toby waited.

Finally, Vaelthar spoke inside his mind.

The First Crown did not belong to the royal family that rules Sunspire today.

Toby stared at him.

"What?"

Seven hundred years ago, the true royal bloodline was betrayed. The throne was stolen, the royal records burned, and every guardian bound to the old dynasty was hunted.

"By whom?"

Vaelthar looked toward Bishop Aldren.

By the ancestors of those who now call themselves your protectors.

Toby glanced at the bishop.

Aldren's face was unreadable.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

The dragon's gaze lowered to the mark on Toby's wrist.

That is what we must discover.

A sharp metallic sound interrupted them.

Mira had slipped past the altar.

She stood beside the hidden staircase, holding something small.

A copper pendant.

Toby immediately touched his neck.

His own pendant was still there.

He stared at the object in Mira's hand.

It looked almost identical.

Except hers was marked with a tiny silver star.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

Mira's face went pale.

"I've always had it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She hesitated.

"Because I was told never to show anyone."

"Who told you?"

Before she could answer, Bishop Aldren shouted.

"Give that to me!"

The force of his voice startled everyone.

Mira stumbled backward.

The bishop hurried toward her, his composure shattered.

"Child, you do not understand what you are holding!"

Mira closed her fist around the pendant.

"Then explain it."

Aldren stopped.

His eyes moved from Mira to Toby.

And suddenly, Toby understood something.

The bishop wasn't merely frightened of the dragon.

He was frightened of both children.

A distant rumble passed beneath the floor.

Dust drifted from the ceiling.

Then the woman's voice returned.

"Two pendants," she whispered. "So they both survived."

Mira stiffened.

Toby felt the cold air crawling beneath his clothes.

"What does that mean?" he demanded.

The voice below did not answer.

Instead, a low mechanical grinding rose from the staircase.

Blue flames ignited along the walls, one after another, illuminating the passage down into the mountain.

A hidden door had opened somewhere beneath them.

Vaelthar suddenly reared back.

That magic...

"What is it?" Toby asked.

The dragon's chest began glowing like a furnace.

Blood magic.

Bishop Aldren raised his staff again.

"Everyone away from the entrance!"

But Toby had already taken the first step.

He could not explain why.

Some part of him knew that whatever waited below held the answers he had sought his entire life.

Mira hurried after him.

"Toby!"

He turned.

"You don't have to come."

She lifted her pendant.

"I think I do."

Together, they descended.

The staircase stretched far beneath the cathedral.

Their footsteps echoed through the narrow passage, accompanied by the distant dripping of water.

Blue flames burned in iron sconces shaped like dragon claws.

Toby had never seen fire without warmth before.

He reached toward one.

The flame bent toward his fingers.

Mira grabbed his wrist.

"Don't touch it."

"I'm not going to."

"You were."

Toby almost laughed.

Even now, surrounded by ancient magic and the possibility of death, she sounded exactly like the girl who scolded him for stealing apples before washing them.

They continued downward.

After several minutes, they reached a circular chamber.

Its walls were covered with portraits.

Men and women wearing silver crowns.

Warriors standing beside dragons.

Children holding swords almost as tall as themselves.

And above the central doorway hung a massive painted banner.

A black dragon curled around a golden crown.

The same symbol on Toby's wrist.

Mira slowly approached one of the paintings.

"Toby..."

He followed her gaze.

The portrait showed a woman with long dark hair, pale skin, and striking hazel eyes.

She wore a white gown embroidered with golden roses.

Around her neck hung a copper pendant.

Toby's pendant.

His knees suddenly felt weak.

"That's her."

Mira looked at him.

"How do you know?"

He touched the copper charm beneath his tunic.

"I don't know. I just..."

A memory flashed through his mind.

A woman singing beside a cradle.

Soft hands brushing hair from his forehead.

Golden light spilling across a wooden floor.

Then fire.

Screaming.

The memory vanished.

Toby staggered against the wall.

Mira caught him.

"What happened?"

"I remembered something."

"What?"

He looked at the portrait.

"Fire."

A voice spoke behind them.

"Yes. There was a great deal of fire that night."

They spun around.

An elderly man stood inside the doorway.

He wore a torn gray robe, and heavy chains hung from his wrists. His beard was white, his face hollow, and one of his eyes had been covered by a black cloth.

Yet he stood straight.

Like a soldier.

Or a king.

Toby raised his sword.

"Who are you?"

The old man looked at the blade.

His expression softened with unmistakable grief.

"The Sunforged Blade," he whispered. "After all these years."

"Answer me."

The man slowly knelt.

Not before the weapon.

Before Toby.

"My name is Edrin."

He bowed his head.

"I was once captain of your mother's personal guard."

Toby forgot to breathe.

"You knew her?"

Edrin looked up.

"I held you the night you were born."

Mira stepped closer to Toby.

"Then tell him what happened."

The old man's expression darkened.

"Your mother was Queen Elara of the First Bloodline. And ten years ago, Commander Vane received an order to murder her."

The words struck Toby like a physical blow.

"No."

"I was there."

"You're lying."

"I wish I were."

Toby's hands shook so violently that the sword's tip scraped against the stone floor.

Vane.

The man who had beaten him for dropping coal.

The man who had threatened to cut off his hands.

The man who had forced him to approach the sacred sword as a cruel joke.

Had he known who Toby was all along?

Edrin watched his face.

"He knows you survived."

"Then why didn't he kill me?"

"Because he was waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"For you to awaken the dragon."

Toby stared at him.

Edrin looked toward the Sunforged Blade.

"Only the blood of the First Crown can summon Vaelthar. Vane could never force the dragon to obey him, but he believed he could use you to release it."

Toby remembered the cruel wager.

The laughter.

The command to pull the sword.

It had not been a joke.

It had been a test.

"Then why threaten to cut off my hands?"

"Because fear makes people act before they think. He needed you desperate enough to try."

Toby's stomach twisted.

He had spent five years believing he was worthless.

Now every humiliation felt calculated.

Mira squeezed his arm.

"There's something else, isn't there?"

Edrin looked at her.

His single visible eye widened.

"That pendant."

Mira instinctively stepped backward.

Edrin rose so quickly his chains rattled.

"Where did you get it?"

"Someone left it with me when I was little."

"Who?"

"I don't remember."

Edrin covered his mouth.

"By the ancient oath..."

Toby stepped between them.

"What's wrong?"

The old man stared at Mira as if seeing her for the first time.

"Your face. Your eyes. I should have recognized you."

Mira's voice trembled.

"Recognized me as who?"

Edrin looked toward a second portrait half-hidden behind a torn curtain.

A young girl stood beside Queen Elara.

She had dark hair.

A narrow face.

And a silver star embroidered above her heart.

The resemblance to Mira was unmistakable.

"Her name was Princess Seraphine," Edrin whispered.

Toby stared at the painting.

"Princess?"

Mira shook her head.

"No. That's impossible."

Edrin lowered his head.

"She was taken from the palace the same night your mother died."

Mira backed away.

"No."

"She was presumed dead."

"Stop."

"But if you carry that pendant..."

"I said stop!"

Her scream echoed through the chamber.

The blue flames flickered.

Toby reached for her hand.

"Mira—"

She pulled away.

For the first time in their friendship, he saw genuine anger in her eyes.

"You knew nothing about your family yesterday," she said. "Now everyone says you're some lost prince, and I'm supposed to believe I'm a princess too?"

"I didn't ask for any of this."

"Neither did I!"

Her voice broke.

Toby fell silent.

He had spent years thinking they were two abandoned children against the world.

Now it seemed their entire friendship might have begun with a secret neither of them understood.

Edrin suddenly looked toward the staircase.

"We have very little time."

A distant clang echoed above them.

Then another.

Armored boots.

Someone was descending.

Vane.

Edrin grabbed Toby's shoulder.

"Listen carefully. Your mother did not die because she possessed the crown."

Toby looked up.

"Then why?"

"Because she discovered what was sleeping beneath the kingdom."

The chamber shook.

A crack opened across the floor.

From somewhere beyond the sealed doorway came a woman's soft voice.

"Edrin?"

The old man's face drained of color.

"Elara?"

The voice answered.

"You kept your promise."

Toby turned toward the door.

The fragrance of roses grew stronger.

Edrin released him and staggered backward.

"No," he whispered. "I watched you die."

A golden line appeared down the center of the sealed stone.

The two halves slowly separated.

Beyond them stood a woman in a white gown.

Long dark hair fell over her shoulders.

Her hazel eyes filled with tears when she saw Toby.

She looked exactly like the queen in the portrait.

"My son," she whispered.

Toby took an involuntary step forward.

"Mother?"

The woman smiled through her tears.

Then Edrin drew a rusted dagger from beneath his robe.

"Get away from her!"

Toby turned in shock.

The old captain was trembling.

"That is not Queen Elara."

The woman stopped smiling.

Edrin pointed his dagger toward her chest.

"I buried the queen myself. I saw her body burn."

The woman tilted her head.

"Poor Edrin. You still don't understand."

Her eyes shifted from hazel to molten gold.

"You buried the wrong woman."

Behind Toby, the chamber doors slammed shut.

And the woman whispered:

"Now, my children, tell me which one of you carries the king's heart."