“Well, actually—” I started to correct the misinformation, but stopped when she continued with a sharp look flung my way.
“If a stranger can come to Eris and dedicate herself to saving us, then how can you refuse to stand beside her?”
“She doesn’t look like a great warrior.” That voice was female and came from behind me. “Those marks on her head could be from a pox.”
“Aye, what proof do we have that this great savior of yours intends to help us?” another voice called, although the speaker remained within his house.
I sighed and tied Buttercup to a rail before getting onto the opposite side of the well. “I am Allegria, called Hopebringer, priestess of the goddess Kiriah, lightweaver, and once Bane of Eris. I may not be a great warrior, but I assure you that I have defeated Harborym in the past, and I will do so again.”
There were a few murmurs of disbelief, but evidently my appearance was different enough from the Shadowborn to lend credence to my words, for slowly, one by one, a dozen of them emerged from their houses. Mayam went to meet them while I returned to Buttercup.
A short while later, Mayam announced that we would ride to the next village. We had two new recruits, the nervous young man, who was named Peter, and his younger sister, Ella. To my eye, the girl looked too young to become a Banesman, but I figured I’d talk to both her and Deo before she made a final decision. “Mount up. Peter, you and Ella will have to walk until we can find you suitable horses. The nearest village is about an hour’s ride to the—”
A hoarse cry tore across her words, follow by shrieks. From behind one of the houses, four Harborym emerged, their skin, stained red by chaos power, glistening with oil as they charged forward, weapons held high.
I ran back to the well, leaping onto it even as I snatched my bow from Buttercup’s saddle, and pulled arrows from the quiver at my side. I had an arrow nocked and sent flying as soon my foot touched the lip of the well, shooting the foremost Harborym in the left eye. He snarled, and yanked the arrow out without pausing his charge forward, but the second arrow I fired caught him in the throat, and he dropped with a wet gurgle.
“Get to safety,” I yelled at Peter and Ella, who had frozen, clearly unsure of what they should be doing. Behind them, the dozen blood priests and Jena stood weaving spells, the air growing darker with chains of symbols that they’d drawn in the air. I emptied my quiver, taking down another Harborym before tossing away my bow and rushing forward with a sword in each hand.
Mayam was battling with one of the Harborym on her own, a two-handed sword in her hands, but she was in trouble. Three more Harborym emerged and spread out, clearly looking for villagers to snatch up, but seeing the two I had killed, and one that Jena’s priests had bound so tightly with blood spells that he simply collapsed onto the ground twitching, they turned and started for us.
Just as the Harborym fighting Mayam raised a massive axe that I had no doubt would cleave her in two, a black shape flashed over his head, dipping and swooping in a way that had me blinking in surprise before letting out a cheer. “Thorn! Go for his eyes!”
Thorn did as I ordered, flashing past the Harborym in question while I rushed him, slashing at his thick neck with both swords.
He lunged at me, but Thorn was quicker, and the monster stumbled forward, black blood spurting in a thick arc that stained the earth seconds before his body hit the ground. I leaped out of the way and dashed to the far end of the village where one of the Harborym was dragging Ella by her hair.
Peter had leaped onto the beast’s back in an attempt to free his sister, but with a twisting move—and a sickening sound of snapping bones—the Harborym jerked Peter forward, twisting his head in an unnatural position in the process. Ella screamed when Peter’s now lifeless body fell to the ground at the same time the Harborym dragged her away, one massive hand tangled in her hair.
“Thorn, distract him!” I yelled and desperately tried to summon a bit of light, but Kiriah would not hear my entreaties, leaving me with nothing but my swords to rescue the girl. Thorn dipped and whirled in front of the Harborym’s face at the same time I flung myself onto the creature’s back. Unlike Peter, however, I didn’t wait for the monster to grab me, but sliced off his hand, freeing Ella.
The Harborym roared, and flung himself to the side, his one remaining hand raised when Thorn attacked his face, which allowed me to stab my sword through his neck. He fell forward, his body twitching horribly for a few seconds before he went still, with me still on his back.
Panting, I pushed my hair out of my face and leaped up to check Ella. “Are you harmed?” I asked.
“No, but Peter—” She choked, tears mingling with dust and black blood to form streaks on her face.
“Stay here,” I ordered, pressing her into the shadow of the nearest house. I didn’t have time for words of comfort. “Thorn, protect the girl.”
I spun on my heel and ran back to where Jena and his priests were wildly casting spells upon the remaining two Harborym. Just as I raised a sword to help, one of them dropped, revealing Mayam and one of the villagers struggling with the final Harborym.
Five minutes later the Harborym, strangled by blood magic, spewing oaths and curses, dissolved into a black puddle of viscous liquid, his flesh and bones melting away before our eyes.
Jena, panting loudly, his face covered in sweat, kicked a bit of dirt over the puddle, and turned to look at his sister. “Is that it? No more?”
Mayam shook her head. She was breathing so hard she had to double over for a moment, her hands on her knees as she filled her lungs.
The villagers were huddled around Peter’s body, several of them wailing, while the others stared with pale, ghostly faces, numbness the only expression in their eyes. I moved past them to where Ella had collapsed onto the ground, her face white against the coppery red of her hair. Thorn, perched on a bit of the cottage’s thatched roof, fluttered down, and flew a circle around me, clearly agitated.
“I’m sorry about your brother,” I said, ignoring Thorn for a moment to kneel down next to Ella. “He did a very brave thing, tackling that Harborym on his own. He must have loved you very much.”
She blinked rapidly for a few moments, but surprised me by getting to her feet, her eyes shiny, but not welling with tears. “He hated the monsters. He hated what they did to us, how every night, we would pray to Nezu to keep us safe from the blood thieves.”
“Harborym?” I asked, not having heard that name for them.
She nodded. “They are corrupted, taking the magic Nezu sent to give us ease and twisting it to their own purposes, just as they corrupted the priests. Peter wanted the villages to form together into an army to fight them, but my Nan said that we were not strong enough. No one was.” She eyed me curiously, her gaze softening a little as she reached out to wipe a splash of black blood off my face. “But Nan is wrong. You are strong enough. The others are strong enough. I want to help you. Will you show me how to fight like you?”
Something inside me felt an instant sense of kinship with this girl. I remembered all too well how I had yearned to be trained to fight, how once, as a child, I had begged Deo to convince his father to take me into his company. “The Harborym are not invincible, and if you truly wish to learn how to fight, I’m sure that Mayam and her people will see to it that you are taught.”
“Thank you,” she said with a relieved sigh, her gaze moving to where the villagers were carrying her brother’s body into one of the cottages. She turned away, her forehead wrinkling when Thorn, evidently tired of not being the center of attention, alighted upon my head. “That…that’s a…”
“It’s a wooden bird, yes,” I said with a little sigh. Thorn bobbed up in down. “It actually is the spirit of the Master of Kelos, a famous arcanist.” Thorn bounced up and down on my head a couple of times until I plucked him off and held him on the palm of my hand. I had no doubt just what he had
objected to. “Famous and very powerful. And he is the companion of Hallow, the current master. Thorn, have you come from Hallow?”
The bird tipped his head to look at me, but otherwise didn’t move. I took that to be a negative. “Did you come from Lord Israel?”
Thorn hopped up and down and flapped his wings.
“He’s here, then? In Eris? He got the last moonstone and opened a portal?”
Thorn took to the skies, circling around Ella, who watched with wide, unsure eyes.
“And you’re searching for Hallow?”
Thorn dove and rose, then dove again before landing on Ella’s shoulder.
“I don’t know where he is. We were separated,” I told the bird. “Can you feel his presence?”
Thorn remained still, his wooden eyes watching me without blinking. I knew that Thorn and Hallow were bound via arcany, and that somehow, Thorn sensed the magic that was particular to Hallow, guiding him to Hallow no matter where they were.
Although evidently that was not so on Eris. Worry gripped my heart, and I asked in a voice that sounded foreign to me, “Is it…do you feel no arcany at all, or just not Hallow’s magic?”
Thorn bobbed his head.
“No arcany at all?”
He bobbed again. Relief filled me, giving me hope that Hallow was well and unharmed. “You must go find him. I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but it’s important that you do. Make sure he’s safe and well and not worried about me.”
Thorn flapped his wings and would have leaped into the air to take flight but I caught him up, and said softly, “And when you find him, tell him…tell him I miss him. Greatly.”
Thorn gave my wrist a little rub with the side of his beak. I pressed a kiss to his head and tossed him into the air.
He flew two fast circles around me in what I assumed was a promise he would do as I asked and disappeared into the dim horizon.
In the end, another of the villagers succumbed to the Harborym attack in addition to Peter. Two of Jena’s blood priests deserted the company while we were burying the dead, leaving Jena to rant to Mayam about the circumstance.
“We don’t need them,” Mayam told her brother. “We need only those who are willing to do whatever it takes to bring an end to our torment.”
“With me, we have ten, Mayam. Ten. And a girl and the Fireborn. She may have impressed the villagers by taking down two of the Harborym, but unless she is holding back some immense power, we do not have enough force to do more than tackle wandering bands. Small wandering bands.”
“You have always looked only at the negative—” Mayam started to say, but I decided to intervene.
“Actually, about this I think Jena is right,” I said, coming up with Buttercup, who I noticed had black blood on her hooves, indicating she had done her part to take down one of the Harborym. “We aren’t strong enough with such a small company.”
“Others will join us. We will continue to go to the villages and soon, our numbers will swell,” Mayam told me, then turned away as if she was going to leave.
I stopped her by moving around to block her path. “Oh? Villages like this, you mean?” I gestured toward the people who were still clustered together. “According to what they said, all the able-bodied adults have been taken. Who do you expect to find left but the old, the infirm, and the young?”
Her jaw worked. Anger lit her eyes, but I had seen too much death today to be concerned about either her welfare or mine. I put a hand on her arm, saying softly, “Mayam, there is no army to raise. The Harborym have taken all those who could fight. The children like Ella who are left are not soldiers. They can be trained, but it will take time, and that is something we do not have.”
I thought she was going to brush past me with a sharp word, but to my surprise her shoulders slumped. “What, then, would you have me do? Give up and return to my lord like a dog slinking home with its tail between its legs?”
“Return to Deo, yes. But not like a slinking dog. You have tried to do what he asked, but it’s not possible. Deo will understand. He saw the devastation the Harborym wreaked upon the Starborn, and that was in thirty years. How long have they been on Eris?”
“Centuries,” she said tiredly, her gaze slipping from mine. “Corrupting our land. Crushing it…crushing us.”
“Let us rejoin Deo. Our forces combined with his—and once I find him, Hallow—will accomplish far more than we can, combing the country for volunteers.”
It took her a few minutes, but at last she nodded. “What you say makes sense. If the Harborym are taking children now, it must mean there are no adults left. Jena! Tell the men to mount. We ride to rejoin Lord Deo.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve said today that makes any sense,” Jena called back and went to organize the mounts.
“Do you know where he is?” I asked Mayam.
“Lord Deo?” She glanced upward at the sky. I could discern no difference in the perpetual gloom, but evidently the Shadowborn could read the different shades of clouds to determine time. “Aye. He is to the north, following the road to Skystead.”
We set out shortly thereafter, Ella riding double with one of the smaller priests. I sent up a few fervent prayers to Kiriah to not only look after Hallow, but to help Thorn as well. We rode through the night, only stopping when it was necessary to let the horses rest, and by the following morning, my spirits were as dark as the woods through which we were riding. With the shadows cast by the tall, straight pines, it felt as if we were moving through a morass of blackness and might never see light again.
Buttercup clumped along, sleepily bobbing her head while following the priest’s horse in front of us, unconcerned despite the fact that we had rear guard. Suddenly, the train of tired horses jerked to a ragged stop. I looked up from where I had been half dozing in the saddle, horrified that I was almost asleep when I should have been alert. I listened for a moment, recognizing the meaning of the screams and deep, grating cries.
“Harborym.” I swore and slapped a hand on Buttercup’s neck to wake her up. She leaped forward when I shouted the warning, my heels pressed into her sides.
Mayam was just in front of me when we broke through the trees. I tucked the reins under one knee and pulled forward my bow and a couple of arrows, nocking one even as Buttercup galloped after Mayam. Ahead of us, a solitary stone building stood, with people streaming out of its doors and glassless windows.
Beyond them, I could see at least a dozen Harborym, all of whom were fighting with men wearing familiar-looking rusty black tunics bearing red hands.
“—temple of Mudwallow—” Snatches of words carried to me when Mayam turned her head. I assumed she meant the temple was dedicated to blood priests, which gave me a spurt of hope.
That hope blossomed into a full-fledged whoop of joy when we grew close enough for me to recognize a figure almost as big as the Harborym he handily decapitated.
“Deo!” I screamed and pulled Buttercup to a fast stop, hastily apologizing under my breath before planting three arrows into the nearest Harborym.
Deo had turned at my call, but immediately turned back when two more Harborym rushed him. Behind Deo, to my left, a semicircle of priests in rusty tunics stood with heads down, their hands dancing in the air as they wove spells. I ignored them to rush forward into the battle, quickly exhausting my arrows and switching to my swords, fighting my way toward Deo. Just as I was about to reach his side, a word floated across the screams and oaths, causing me to stop and turn back toward the priests.
“Allegria? My heart!”
“Hallow!” I bellowed at the full capacity of my lungs. Ignoring the Harborym I’d been fighting, I dashed toward him. Above his head, Thorn flew before making a dive at the nearest monster.
“You’re alive!” I shouted, throwing myself onto Hallow, kissing every inch of his face I could reach. “I knew you would
be, but I’m so happy you are. Blessed Kiriah for keeping you safe.”
“My love, you must stop—” Hallow’s voice, rich with laughter breathed in my ear. “We are in the middle of taking down this company of Harborym.”
“I know, but I’m just so happy to see you safe. I feared the worst.”
“As did I, until Thorn found me and told me you were well. As, evidently, are Idril and Quinn, who are with the queen.”
“Idril made it to the queen safely, then? Thank the goddesses for that.” I pulled back, my eyes dewy with tears of happiness, about to ask him a hundred more questions when I noticed two things.
The first was that Hallow was clad in the same rusty black tunic as the other priests…and the second was that his eyes were no longer a glittering, pure blue. Now they shimmered a brilliant violet.
“What…what—” I stammered.
“No time now,” he said, giving me a quick, hard kiss before moving me aside. “It takes all my concentration to be able to cast links in the chain. Evidently my Starborn half helps me control the blood magic, but it’s so different from arcany…”
I stared for three seconds, my brain painfully slow in processing what he was saying, but as soon as it finally chugged through the fact that somehow, Hallow had become learned in blood magic, it pointed out that there was still a heated battle going on, and I needed to help destroy the Harborym.
With a shout, I ran past the line of priests and threw myself at the monster attacking Mayam. Jena and his priests had bound the Harborym with magic, but he was still able to swing a sword, and was coming dangerously close to Mayam.
Madness seemed to reign. Now that my heart was easy about Hallow’s well-being, I could focus on fighting the large force that must have come upon Deo while he was camped at the temple. I slashed and hacked my way from Harborym to Harborym, knowing Deo was able to cope on his own. Mayam was beginning to flag, and I kept an eye on her to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed. Ella was at Jena’s side, I was happy to note, as the priest wielded a short staff in between drawing spells in the air. I was behind the building, helping a small group of priests take down two Harborym, when I heard a faint shout from the front. It took some time before I could work my way around to the other side, but when I had hacked off the arms of the last Harborym, I dashed past the wounded and dead, wondering if more of the enemy had arrived.
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