But as she pondered, one from their company, an orphan girl of no more than twelve years, came to her.
“Do you truly hide the moon in your cloak?” the girl asked, her eyes bright.
“I do not hide it,” Layla said, and she took the moon from her robes and placed it in the girl’s hands.
The girl gazed on it in wonder, and she looked to Layla with awe in her eyes. Others gathered near and passed the moon between them. Layla sent forth the stars to dance among them, and her heart was cheered again when she saw how her lights brought them joy. For Layla felt the truth of Aeric’s words—that though the world had not yet changed, she had, and her lonely tower would no longer be a haven to her. Her path led only onward, to the great mountain and whatever lay within the darkness.
The road grew steeper and narrower as they traveled onward. Where trees and vines had once shaded their path, now brambles put out spindly branches that scratched their skin and grabbed at the edges of their cloaks. Then even the brambles died away. Icy wind howled about them without ceasing, and ice stung their skin and caught in their lungs with each breath. The frozen ground was covered in snow that reached their ankles, then their knees, but still they trod onward, keeping the shadowy peak always in their sights.
At every turn, Aeric and Layla gave occasion for those of their company to leave the quest and return to safer lands, but those with them were determined that a slim hope of victory was better than endless days filled with fear. They walked close together up the rough mountain trails, singing and laughing to fend off the bitter wind and the weariness in their limbs. While the sun shone, Aeric passed it among the company that they might take of its warmth, and when the moon was bright, they huddled close around it and slept safely in its light.
It seemed that every fiend in the lands came forth to meet them as they climbed toward Coroc’s domain. At first they stayed far from the light of the sun and moon, but the shadowfiends grew bolder. By the time they reached the foot of Coroc’s mountain, the company was assailed on every side.
Aeric and Layla were loathe that those with them should face Coroc, for no mortal had ever challenged the chief of the shadowfiends and lived. But the company swore eagerly to fight the lesser fiends so that Aeric and Layla might face Coroc unhindered. Layla brought all the stars from her cloak and, placing them in the hands of the company, she bade all who were willing to wield their light against the fiends.
In the hour of dusk, when both the sun and moon gave their light, they set foot on Coroc’s mountain. Cheered by the sight of the sun and moon and feeling victory was certain while such bright lights shone among them, one of their company began to sing. The song was taken up by all until the peaks rang with its strains and the fiends shook with rage at their boldness. The fiends descended upon them like a sudden storm, but the company stood ready, and the slopes of the mountain turned to a blur of starlight and shadow as battle raged.
Aeric and Layla pressed onward, calling loudly that Coroc should come forth and answer for his cruelty to the lands. The chief of the fiends raised his head and looked upon them with eyes that raged with black fire. He was as vast as the mountain itself, his body like a great snake that curled around the rocky slopes, and when he spread his wings all the lands were covered in a shadow like the deepest night.
Wherever the shadow fell, it carried with it fear and despair. The company had gained the upper hand against the fiends, but the light of the stars they carried was not enough to endure against Coroc’s darkness. The loyal company quailed before the great fiend and took flight, mad with fear and hardly aware of their actions.
For Coroc was ancient and cunning among the fiends, and he saw before him the thing he had desired most through the ages of his life: the great lights of the world brought to him, ready to be devoured. He summoned all his shadows and poured them out upon Aeric and Layla, delighting to awaken their fears.
Aeric and Layla stood their ground before Coroc, but when they saw the company had fled they felt the first stabs of despair. They raised their lights toward the fiend and bid them shine brightly, but the rays of the sun and moon flickered weakly against the shadows of the great fiend. A multitude of doubts and fears rose in their hearts as they gazed upon Coroc, and they recalled the harsh words of the people in the cities. They were fools, they thought bitterly, to think that even their lights would prevail against the most ancient foe. Aeric reached for Layla’s hand, but darkness swept around them and stole them even from each other.
“You fool,” Coroc hissed as Aeric brandished the fading sun, “your company has deserted you and your light dies. Night swore she would face me at your side, but where is she now? You have disturbed me upon my mountain, and now you shall see the devastation of the lands as payment for your insolence.”
The darkness pressed in on all sides until Aeric saw nothing but shadows and felt as if the world would never again hold light or joy. For of all things, he dreaded being forsaken the most and it seemed to him that all the world had turned their backs on him. Coroc descended upon Aeric and snatched the sun in his claws. His eyes flashed in triumph as he held it aloft. With a terrible roar of laughter he swallowed the light.
“You can help no one now, and none will ever love you again now that you have led the people into disaster,” said the great fiend.
Then Coroc spread his wings and rose into the fathomless night, leaving Aeric alone. Aeric stumbled through a darkness more dreadful than death with Coroc’s mocking laugh ringing in his ears. Long he walked the barren slopes with no aim and no hope, calling for Layla and for anyone who would hear him, but none could find him within the shadows cast by the great fiend. Bitterly he wished that Coroc had killed him rather than leaving him to this fate, but the fiend rejoiced in his despair.
When at last he reached the foot of the mountains, Aeric saw before him the company of lords and warriors who had come to witness their defeat. He fell on his knees before them and begged their mercy and help, though he had not prevailed. Fury marked the faces of all who beheld him, for Coroc’s shadows had reached them too and spoken despair so that all thoughts of mercy were strange to them. They saw only that their lands were swallowed up by shadows with no hope of light returning, and they turned all their rage on Aeric.
“Where is the sun you promised to shine upon us? Where is Night, with her moon and stars, whom you trusted to completely?” they demanded. “You are worthless to us now.” And the company fell upon him with their weapons and left him for dead on the snowy ground.
As he lay bleeding with all hope gone, a faint light flickered in the folds of his cloak. With the last of his strength, he pulled forth the last star Layla had given him at her tower so many days before, its light undimmed though no other stars remained. He closed his fingers around it, and with her name on his lips he closed his eyes and waited for death to claim him.
Layla too was swept into Coroc’s shadows, and it seemed to her that they came alive and took the forms of many warriors. Cruel and leering they approached her, brandishing weapons she knew from old nightmares. She called for Aeric, but the darkness swallowed her voice and she knew with terror that none could reach her. Stroke for stroke, Coroc called forth the memory of long ago, when the world turned against her and sought to kill her for giving them the night. Layla cried out and fell beneath the blows, and the moon fell from her grasp. Coroc caught the glowing orb in his claws and held it beyond Layla’s reach.
“You too are a fool,” he said, dashing her to the ground with one sweep of his wing, “for you expected the world to change when you know full well the darkness in the hearts of the people. You will never now convince them of your innocence when they wish to see you as a monster. And where is Aeric, who promised to stand by your side?” And though Layla pleaded, he swallowed the moon, and all fell into darkness.
The people who had followed them fled the mountains and sought refuge in their cities. The fiends chased after them, their hunger so roused by their chieftain�
�s victory that they sought to consume every pitiful light and fearful soul that remained in the land. When the people reached the City of Rivers they found it the domain of Coroc’s minions. The shadowfiends laid waste to the proud towers and walls of the city and consumed the flame of every lamp that lit the wide cobblestone streets. The people scattered, despairing, and sought refuge in the wastelands and the marshes, not daring even to light a candle or strike a flint. Still the fiends hunted them, eager to destroy the people now that the sun and moon could not save them.
For a long time Layla lay on the dark slopes of the mountain, the old wounds on her body seeping fresh blood. She watched in a daze as the small lights of the world were snuffed out one by one, and the shade of Coroc’s wings fell across the land until none escaped his cloud of despair. Layla wept, for she was wounded and without her magic, and there was nothing she could do for the cities as the fiends descended upon them. Her only hope was for sunrise, that she might know that Aeric had fared better and the world was not completely lost to the fiends.
But the sunrise did not come. She watched the sky, counting seconds and minutes and hours, but the inky blackness did not lift. Then she feared for Aeric, and she rose, not heeding the pain of her wounds or the heaviness of her heart. She had no moonlight left in her cloak, and the stars too were gone, but as she stood a glint of gold shone from the pocket of her dress. She took from it the ray of sun that Aeric had given her before they had departed from her tower, and she held it like a great treasure.
She searched the slopes, calling his name, and it was as if the sunlight in her hand shone upon the path she must take. She found him in the blood-stained snow, frozen and near death, with the light of the sun gone from him. Sorrowing, she held him in her arms and spread her cloak over them both.
It was then that she learned not all of the magic of night had deserted her. For though the light of the stars was gone from her cloak, she could still wield the sweetness of sleep and the healing of rest. Aeric’s wounds began to mend, and at long last he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he smiled.
“You did not leave me after all,” he said. “Coroc is a liar.”
Layla took the ray of sun from her pocket and held it out to him. “Here is the last light in the world. Take it, so that you at least may have light and warmth again.”
“Please keep it, for I have my own light and warmth,” he replied. He opened his hand to reveal the last shining star.
Then she kissed him, and they rested in each other’s arms beneath the cloak. And though all the world was in darkness and chaos, they wondered if hope had not deserted them so completely.
They slept, and awakened on a carpet of soft grass. Flowers gleamed around them and the thin shoots of new trees rose about them in a circle, all the petals and leaves shining with a memory of Layla’s starlight. Between them rose the slender stalks of sunflowers. They opened glittering buds, their light mingling with the silver and casting all in a peaceful glow. Beyond lay the snow and the darkness and the hunting fiends, but Aeric and Layla hid in the shelter of the new-sprung garden, not questioning how or why the remnants of their old magic had brought the place into being. They bound each other’s wounds and restored joy to each other’s eyes, and they spoke against Coroc’s lies until the fear of the great fiend ebbed away.
They might have stayed forever. The trees rose quickly and unfurled branches laden with fruit, and a clear spring rose to give them water, and no fiends dared to pass into the circle of the garden’s magic. But the magic could not block out the cries that came from the city or the flash of the shadowfiends’ eyes as they hunted their quarries. Though they owed the lands no aid, they could find no peace within the garden while terrors still lurked outside, and they could not enjoy the light of the last star and sun ray while those outside had no lights left at all.
Though Layla sorrowed to leave the garden, she gathered her courage and turned her face toward the City of Rivers. “I once locked myself in a haven of my own making, but it became a cage, and I turned my back on many who needed me. I will not do the same now.”
“Then we will go,” Aeric agreed, “For our lights were given to us for the sake of the lands, and it would be wrong to hoard even the last of their glory.” And though he knew they likely walked to their doom, it did not seem such a terrible fate to them now, if they could stand before Coroc again and not flee.
They did not ponder how they would defeat Coroc without the sun and moon. They did not plan speeches to persuade the people to restore their favor. All times of favor and victory seemed past. Still, they had set out on a quest and they could not rightly turn aside from it even now. They kissed once more, then rose hand in hand and put the garden behind them. With Aeric carrying the last star and Layla carrying the last ray of sunlight, they set forth into the gloom.
The world was thick with Coroc’s shadows, but this time fear did not whisper so easily in their minds, for they knew their enemy’s tricks. When despair threatened to consume them, they spoke aloud into the darkness, encouraging each other in their quest. The people who saw them shouted curses at them, but they walked on and paid the words no mind. The love of those in the lands might be fickle, but Layla and Aeric’s love need not be so. They had nothing left but each other and no desire but to stand together and see how far back they could push the darkness before it finished them.
At last they came to the City of Rivers, and they found Coroc coiled about the high towers of the lord’s palace. When he saw them, his laughter carried across the lands and struck greater fear into the hearts of all who heard.
But Aeric and Layla stood before him and brandished their feeble lights. No shadows now fell upon their hearts, for Coroc’s lies were already known to them and this time they knew better than to believe them. Though the great fiend hurled down every threat and taunt upon them, they advanced on the palace with determined strides.
“These people will never bear you love again,” Coroc hissed. “And yet you have come trade your lives for theirs?”
“Let them hate us if they wish to,” Aeric said, brushing aside the shadows that swirled around him. “We bear love for them, and that is enough.”
“Fools! You could not stand before me with the sun and moon shining in your hands,” said the fiend, laughing. “And now you will defeat me with these candle flames?”
“It does not matter whether we stand against you in power or in weakness,” said Layla, raising her head high and glaring at the fiend. “Perhaps all will end in shadow, but that does not does not excuse us from wielding what light we have been given.”
“You will die!” Coroc roared, but he saw that they no longer feared him, and his own fear began to turn back upon him. The great serpentine coils of his body grew smaller, and the shadows over the city lessened. “You are greater fools than even I thought. You might have had a life of peace in each other’s arms, but instead—”
“Be silent!” said Layla. She held aloft the ray of sunlight. Aeric held forth the star, and he took Layla’s hand in his own so that the lights mingled together.
A great flash burst from the joined lights, and a flare lit the sky. Coroc reared back with a scream as silver and gold shone bright around them. The light of the tiny star and sunbeam burst forth together, twining into a great shining light that pierced through the hideous monster like a lance. With a last cry, the fiend burst into smoke and vanished, and all his darkness and despair lifted from the land and hearts of the people.
The light shot upward and separated, forming into a sphere of gold upon one horizon and a sphere of silver upon the other. Stars scattered the pale dawn sky between, brighter and more beautiful than ever before. The new sun and moon shone upon all the lands, and their light pierced every fiend that remained, until no trace of them was left.
The people came out from their hiding places, the lords opened the doors of their palaces and cities, and all marveled at what they saw. The lord of the City of Rivers fell to his knees before A
eric and Layla and begged their forgiveness, and they did not withhold it. The people sang again their joyous songs and the streets were filled with dancing.
With the rays of the new sun Aeric made the barren ground spring with shining flowers, and from the beams of the moon Layla drew streams of sparking water that ran through the wild places of the lands. All the world became a garden, and those who dwelled there sang with joy in the light of the sun and slept in peace when the moon shone.
Hand in hand, Aeric and Layla walked the paths of the lands, guiding the great lights in their dance across the sky and healing the damage done by the fiends. If people greeted them with joy, they welcomed it, and if people turned them away from their doors, they paid no heed to it. For the shadows of fear were gone from their hearts.
The world was made new around them, and they were not alone.
THE END
Thank you for reading this story! If you enjoyed Shadow Light, please leave a review! I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Check out my website for story extras and news of upcoming releases:
https://sarahdelenawhite.com/
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If you’re looking for more epic reads, check out my other books:
Windswept: A Short Fairy Tale
Halayda (Star-Fae Trilogy Book 1)
Rothana (Star-Fae Trilogy Book 2)
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, thanks to the Creator, the true giver of light.
Huge thanks to Janeen Ippolito, my awesome editor. You rock!
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