When Sophie arrived at Havenfield, she was greeted by the frowning faces of Bo, Sandor, and Grady. Plopping down on the couch, she sank into the cushions, wishing she could manifest as a Vanisher.
"Miss Foster, that was an extremely irresponsible thing to do!" yelled Sandor. "You explicitly disobeyed me! For all we know, there's quintessence in that scroll! It could be a plot to kill us all!" He glared at Sophie.
"I saw an opportunity and I took it," declared Sophie. "Isn't that how we're going to win this thing? By being spontaneous and unpredictable?" she argued.
Grady paced back and forth and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "There's a difference between spontaneous and dangerous," he told her. "This was a risk that could've easily been avoided, had you consulted with an adult first!"
"I'm not sure about that," Sophie disagreed. "By the time I would've gotten permission, she might've been gone!"
Grady took her hands in his and crouched down so they were on the same eye level. "This wasn't worth risking your safety for, kiddo," he told her. "Keeping you safe is the most important thing right now – not that." He pointed to the scroll that was still tightly clutched in her right hand.
Sophie wished she could agree, but she kept on thinking back to the pledge she'd made when she swore fealty to the Black Swan. I will do everything in my power to help my world. And didn't that mean that it didn't matter who went down trying – only that their world was safe?
Grady could tell that he wasn't getting through to her, and he stood back up. With a sigh, he gestured for her to come with him. She followed him to the center of the room, watching as he pulled a leaping crystal out of a pocket in his cape. It was light blue – the kind that leapt to the Forbidden Cities.
"Where are we going?" questioned Sophie.
"Since you went through all that trouble to get that scroll, we might as well find out what's in it," answered Grady.
Sandor, Bo, and Flori joined hands with Sophie, and she grabbed Grady's hand as he held up the crystal and pulled them into the light.
They arrived in a damp forest, the floor thickly covered in shamrocks. Grady led the way through the thick groundcover toward a small, squat tree, branches stretched out over the undergrowth like long, grasping fingers.
"What is this place?" asked Sophie.
"This is Shimrin Forest," Grady told her.
"Wait… so Shimrin Forest grows shamrocks?" Sophie asked, forgetting to pay attention to the thick undergrowth and tripping over a tree root.
Grady nodded. "Shimrin Forest is actually where the humans got the name 'shamrock,'" he explained. "Now they call this place something else, but the name originally came from the elves."
They began to shove their way through the low-hanging branches of the small tree. Branches grabbed at Sophie. Her cloak kept on getting caught in the branches and she ripped it pulling it out. She tripped again and would've faceplanted if Bo hadn't caught her.
"Thanks," she said, tugging leaves out of her hair. She caught up with Grady, who was standing at the trunk of the tree, squinting at it.
"Flori, would you please move these branches?" Grady requested.
The little gnome appeared next to Sophie and began to sing in a high, clear voice, causing the branches to wrap around the trunk in the opposite direction.
"Why couldn't we have done that before?" Sophie grumbled to no one in particular.
Grady ran his hands down the bark. "Aha!" he said, scraping dead leaves off the trunk, revealing a small DNA sensor embedded in the trunk. He licked it and grimaced. "Ugh. Tastes like something died in there."
There was a grating noise and Sophie jumped back as part of the tree swung away, revealing a spiral staircase that went down, down, down into gloom and darkness.
Sophie swallowed. It reminded her of Exile. Images swam through her mind: Fintan sitting strapped to a chair, looking at nothing; Alden laying on the floor, unconscious. She shuddered. She never wanted to see that place again.
Grady turned, and, sensing her unease, offered her his hand. She took it, grateful for something to hold on to as she, Grady, Flori, Sandor, and Bo all descended into the depths of the earth.
It seemed to take forever to reach the bottom. When Sophie's feet finally found solid ground again, she looked up and realized that they were in a natural cavern that sat below the forest like a huge air bubble in the earth.
Grady pulled out a balefire pendant and shined it on the floor as he walked along, squinting while he looked for who-knows-what. Sophie and the bodyguards followed him.
After about fifteen minutes of looking, Grady stopped in front of a circle that had been etched into the stone floor. He studied it for a moment, then carefully lifted his foot up as if he were stepping onto stairs. His foot seemed to find solid ground in midair. He then lifted his other foot up and stood on air. Sophie gasped, and Grady grinned. "From now on, don't say anything you don't want someone else to hear," he advised.
Sandor, Bo, and Flori spread out around the rim of the circle, standing guard. Grady held his hand out to Sophie, and she took it, taking a tentative step toward him. He grabbed her shoulders and lifted her up onto the invisible step.
Try as she might, Sophie couldn't see anything beneath her feet, though she could feel a solid, smooth surface. Grady held her hand tightly and yelled, "Three hundred and fifty-sixth floor!"
Oh no. Sophie felt her stomach drop with dread as she realized that she was on a vortinator. Vortinators were basically the spinning staircases of doom. And this one was invisible. Sophie opened her mouth to ask if there was a different way to get where they were going, but the words were ripped out of her mouth as the vortinator started spinning. Her stomach lurched and her head spun. The only thing that kept her from falling off was Grady's firm grip on her hand.
The world spun and spun until Sophie was convinced that projectile vomiting was inevitable. Then the vortinator suddenly stopped. Grady released her hand. Sophie lurched and, grasping her stomach, fell into space.
Sophie was freefalling from 356 floors up. Then she crashed into a hard surface, which was, of course, invisible. The breath was knocked from her lungs and she lay gasping like a fish out of water, staring down at the cavern floor. She didn't dare move a muscle for fear she would fall.
Grady jumped off the vortinator and ran over to her. "You okay, Sophie?" he asked, gently turning her over and inspecting her for injuries.
"Not really," Sophie groaned.
Grady helped her up and dusted her off. Sophie felt her nose and winced. It was swollen and bleeding. Grady pulled a silk handkerchief out of a pocket in his cape and handed it to her, and she pressed it to her nose. Grady took her hand and led her partway across the invisible floor. He then stopped and turned an invisible doorknob. With a creak, an invisible door opened.
On the other side of the door was a round room with a comfortable-looking lounge area. Across the room a large oak desk was piled with paperwork. Behind the desk sat Mr. Forkle.
Mr. Forkle rose and walked over to them. There was a crease between his eyebrows and he looked tense. "Hello Miss Foster; Mr. Ruewen." He nodded to Grady, then turned to Sophie. "Now, let's see what's in that scroll of yours, shall we?"
Sophie handed the scroll to him and sat on a couch, nervously tugging at her eyelashes. Mr. Forkle paced back and forth, studying the seal on the scroll. The silence seemed to go on forever. Eventually Sophie couldn't stand it anymore.
"So…do you recognize the seal?" Sophie asked nervously.
Mr. Forkle ran his hand over his face. "I do indeed. It belongs to a certain noble called Sir Coralin," he began.
"I figured," Sophie interrupted.
Mr. Forkle's eyebrows almost shot off his forehead.
"That girl we met said that she was there 'on behalf of Sir Coralin,'" Sophie explained.
Mr. Forkle frowned. "That…changes things." He sat down next to her on the couch and looked her in the eyes very seriously. "Sophie, do not trust what she says. The fact that she revealed this information is proof that she is untrustworthy. Do you understand?" He waited for her to respond, but Sophie was a million miles away.
Facts were piecing themselves together in her mind. So… Mr. Forkle looked really upset, and he was acting like that strange elf girl had revealed some really secret information, and Sir Coralin was male… the final piece clicked into place, and Sophie gasped. "Is…is Sir Coralin my biological father?" she stammered, watching Mr. Forkle carefully. His grim face told her everything she needed to know. "I knew it!" she yelled, jumping to her feet.
"Miss Foster, no one can know!" commanded Mr. Forkle, rising off the couch.
"Why not? It's my choice!" Sophie retorted.
"Because he would be exiled for treason were that information made public," he informed her.
Sophie was tempted to say, "So be it," but she knew Mr. Forkle was right. She couldn't let her anger at Sir Coralin ruin his life. So…she wouldn't be making their connection public knowledge. Ever. And with that decision, her heart sank with a realization. She'd be unmatchable forever. She wanted to scream, or kick something. It wasn't fair! Why had she been the one to get her genetics tweaked and five abilities and freaky brown eyes and enhanced concentration and parents that were hidden from her?! But with that rush of anger came the realization that if it hadn't been her, it would've had to have been someone else. And she didn't want anyone else to have to endure what she was dealing with. So she swallowed her anger and self-pity and said in a shaky voice, "I…won't be telling anyone other than the group, then."
Mr. Forkle nodded, then held up the scroll. "I think that after the revelations of the day, we'd best save this for another time."
"No," Sophie said. She wasn't going to let her personal drama distract them from what they'd come there to do. "We came all this way, and I am not ever going on that ride of death again, so this might be the last chance we have before something else comes up." She crossed her arms and waited for his response.
Mr. Forkle studied her for a moment, then nodded slowly and handed her the scroll.
Sophie sat back down on the couch and tore off the boobrie seal. Dropping it on the floor, she hastily unrolled the parchment. POOF!Glitter exploded from the scroll, covering Sophie from head to toe. She coughed and dropped the scroll, spitting sparkles out of her mouth.
"That thing must have been rigged!" complained Sophie, hacking.
As she bent over to pick up the scroll, a beam of light from the chandelier overhead fell across her, and Mr. Forkle realized too late what the glitter was for.
"Sophie, step back!" he yelled. "That's from a leaping crystal!"
But he was too late; and he and Grady could only watch helplessly as Sophie glittered away…