“I need to find Morgana.”
“She’s gone,” Adius said. “We already went to find her. She wasn’t in her tower room, and no one’s seen her. Your mother, however, was let out, and she fled from the castle.”
Panic raced my heart to dangerous speeds.
“Many are using more magic than before,” Adius said. “The ones who are on your side are weakened against the other side who will use their staffs. Some are still trying to get to the river to see for themselves, and the figure who was responsible, we are told, is still there.”
I couldn’t have more of my people die, either by one side’s staffs or at the necromancer’s hand. There was only one way to end everything, but it would most likely kill me.
Florence interrupted my thoughts. “If it’s any help, we received word that King Blaise is on his way.”
I kept my next thought to myself. At least he would come in time to bury me. I was responsible for the necromancer being there, and it was my duty to save the kingdom, at any cost. It was my birthright, and suddenly the sacrifice of being queen was real. “Florence, bring me clothes I can maneuver in better. In Morgana’s tower room, there should be a Sword and Dagger… or one.” I wondered if she might have taken them, but just in case she hadn’t, I needed Florence to look. “Check there and bring them to me. We’re going to the forest.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
The Sword of Impervious remained in my scabbard on my belt, but the Dagger was missing. Morgana must’ve taken it. Florence had told me how the tower room was covered in pages torn from spell books with scrawled notes about tethers between realms, and the entire place looked as if it had been turned upside down. At first, I worried she’d been kidnapped, but when I learned the Dagger and her staff were missing, I figured she’d probably gone to try to get rid of our problem herself. It was a very Morgana thing to do.
Nissa, Florence, and Adius hurried with me under the cover of darkness. We emerged from the secret tunnel. I gripped a stone and it wobbled under my touch as I breathed in the crisp air. The crescent moon cast shadows under its pale-yellow glow.
“We’ve kept most of the population away from the forest,” Adius said. He’d been approached by my general before we left for the forest and the river within. They’d shared whispers, but I hadn’t heard what they’d said. “Most of the lords’ men who’d gone to protect the forest are dead. The blast from the man inside those trees killed them as well as others, according to General Killian.”
“There are bodies everywhere. I’m not sure how we will get close to the river if the others couldn’t.”
The stables came into view. Neighs and whinnies escaped the stalls. The smell of dung pinched my nostrils, watering my eyes. I glanced at Adius, who held the hilt of the sword he only used during battle. His eyes were focused, his stance poised to attack. His eyes flicked left to right as we walked. He remained one step behind Florence and me. Nissa moved up beside him, struggling to match our pace.
“We should head through here.” I pointed toward the entrance of the west point of the forest. It was known for the occasional anumi attack, but it would mean we’d get the jump on the necromancer if he was expecting people to keep going through the entrance, where the fences met with Keep Out signs to the sacred part of the forest. The bloodworms were another reason people avoided this part of the forest. The one square mile radius was ripe with them.
Nissa scoffed a laugh, pausing in front of the tree line. “I’m not going in there.”
Florence rolled her eyes. “The last anumi attack was, like, two years ago, Nissa. We’ll be fine. We have the same likeliness as coming across one as we do if we go the other way. At least this way we’ll be away from the rest of the lunas.”
Nissa clicked her tongue. “Thanks, Florence.” She exhaled an annoyed grunt. “I’m more concerned about the bloodworms.”
Florence’s eyebrows raised halfway up her forehead. “This is where they are?”
Nissa nodded, and I sighed exasperation. “I can go alone. This is the only way to stay hidden. You all don’t need to.”
Adius pulled his sword from his scabbard and held it pointed upward at his side. “I’m not letting you go in there alone, Your Majesty.”
Florence gulped. “I’m not leaving you.” She gripped his arm, tears in her eyes. “I’ll go in.”
“Winter’s right. We should go alone. You and Nissa can hold the fort back at the castle.” He brushed a lock of her blonde hair out of the way, landing a kiss on her forehead. “Be careful and always—”
“Watch your back,” she said. “I know. Be careful.” She looked at me, her violet eyes glossing. “If he dies for you…”
“He won’t.”
“I’m her royal advisor and was her general.” He gave Florence a look. “It’s my duty to protect her.”
She looked back at him. “Come back to me.”
He smiled a sweet, genuine smile. “Always.”
She and Nissa watched us disappear under the thick black canopy. The smell of dung gave way to damp soil and decaying leaves. The ground moved as we walked. A shiver twisted up my spine, and bile bit at my throat. Short, thick worms rippled the mossy ground. I scrunched my nose, seeing a half-eaten carcass of a rabbit swarmed by bloodworms. As each second ticked into the other, more of the rabbit’s flesh eroded into their mouths. The putrid smell of death followed us as we hurried, crushing them under our boots.
“We can’t stop, not even for a moment,” Adius warned, but I’d already had enough experience with bloodworms to know. If we stopped, they’d have enough time to latch to our boots and travel up our legs, eating holes through our skin. The last time it happened, a lady and servant boy had snuck into the forest to go somewhere private to have relations. That same evening, they were found mostly eaten, surrounded by the smell of rotting flesh. Since then, no one went in there, except Morgana, who’d had to collect some on occasion for a rare potion here and there. She was the one who’d explained to me how to surpass them if needed. Just keep moving.
Every so often, I checked my boots and black pants, sweeping them down just in case. We moved quickly under the contorted shadows of low-hanging branches and web trapped between them.
“Hell no.” Adius flicked one from the side of his boot which had managed to latch on, despite our speed. His pause stopped me, and they swarmed my boots.
“Adius.” My eyes widened as I kicked my boots.
Adius pulled out his staff and pointed it at my feet. A blast of white light shot from it, and the worms on my boots shriveled and died. He did the same to his, then motioned for me to keep walking.
“I thought you weren’t going to use it anymore?” I glanced at his knotted ash-wood staff. “Not that I’m not grateful, because without it, we’d have been worm food.”
“It makes me worry how we’ll manage in such a volatile world without it.”
My heart panged. “I’ll miss magic too, but we can’t, Adius.”
“I know.” He scanned the area around us, then beckoned me east.
“We did use spirit magic before the spirit realm. It just wasn’t as strong. It required practice and focus. I’ve read all about it.” I smiled, thinking about the books I’d read that Morgana and Blaise had left me. I closed my eyes for only a second, pushing on ahead, and continued to check my boots every thirty seconds. Paranoia clung to my anxiety, and in this scenario, it was finally a good thing. Adrenaline kept me moving fast, and the worry meant I was extra vigilant against stray worms. I could feel my senses heighten, listening to every sound. A distant howl erupted the night. A flock of birds took off the from trees nearby, and a slither and rustle of leaves told me a snake was nearby.
“There is elemental magic too,” Adius said, and my eyebrows shot upward.
“I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
“Me either, but we need to replace ancestral magic with something. We can’t be left without it, not with anumi in our trees.”
“Fo
r now, I just want to stop Magaelor from tearing itself apart.” My stomach swirled as I stepped over an overgrown root knotting up through the ground. “Those who don’t believe me are using magic more now, and those who do can’t fight back because they won’t use their staffs.” I rubbed my temple as a headache threatened to break through.
“How are you going to stop it? I haven’t questioned your motives because I trust you, but I must ask, now that we are alone, what your plan is.”
He did deserve to be in on the know, at the very least be told a condensed version of it. “The man who killed our people is a centuries-old necromancer. He came back from the dead, and I’m going to kill him with this.” I pointed at the Sword. “The Sword of Impervius. It’s why I had Florence wear gloves when fetching them and why I am wearing them now. It burns anyone who touches the handle. It can kill them.”
He paused for a moment, but I pushed him forward. “Don’t stop.”
He shook his head as if to scatter his thoughts. “A necromancer?” His eyes bulged. “They’re things of myths.”
“This one is very real.”
“How is it here?”
I swallowed thickly. “It’s a complicated and long story, one I am sure one day I can explain, but for now, just know I have a way to kill him.”
“Why is it here?” he asked, the question so obvious but one I had overlooked in the overwhelm of events.
It was strange. Why would the necromancer come to Magaelor’s forest? What did he want with the river, the veil between realms? He’d just escaped from the other realm. Unless… “He wants to use the energy from the spirit realm.” The truth knocked my senses out of whack. It was the only possibility that made sense. I almost toppled over on one foot, but I caught myself and pushed on, checking my boots again. I was growing breathless, whereas Adius hadn’t even broken a sweat, but he did train for hours every day. I often saw him practicing weapon training in the early hours of the morning on the grounds with a group of his men.
“What does that mean?”
My heart pounded. “It means he plans on completing a ritual to bring… whoever it is he wants to bring back, back. Whoever it is isn’t just simply dead. That’s all I know. I think they’re like broken, scattered… Their soul, I mean.”
Adius’s eyebrows pinched together. “He’s a necromancer. Can’t he bring anyone back from the dead?”
“Not this particular person. I imagine it’s someone he once loved.”
“What makes you think that?”
I cast my eyes to the ground. “Only love could push a man to this, beyond the bounds of humanity and more.”
The trees narrowed, the trunks thinning as we ventured forward. The ground wriggled less, until nothing moved. Once we crossed over, I breathed a sigh of relief. “We made it through.”
“In one piece.” He kept his sword out anyway. “We still need to be careful.” He stopped, smirking. “It’s nice to be on solid ground again.” He pressed his hands against his knees, catching his breath.
Shock rooted me to the spot. I parted my lips, frozen as I watched the beast snarl in the trees about fifteen feet behind Adius. Saliva dripped from its long canines. They couldn’t see well, but their hearing was excellent. It sniffed the vicinity. Every instinct begged me not to make a sound, but Adius didn’t know it was there, and it would have already heard us. It just couldn’t make out where we were. Its matte-black fur consumed every drop of light the moon gave it. It pawed the ground as it sniffed through its long snout. Many would mistake it for a wolf, if not for its red eyes and larger size.
Carefully, I placed my gloved hand on the hilt of the Sword. I recalled when one had chased me off the cliff on Inferis years before, putting me on the path that led me to here. I’d almost died that night and had run, but not this time.
Adius stood. “Let’s move.”
The sound snapped the beast toward us. It leapt through the path between the trees, bouncing off the bottoms of trunks as it picked up speed.
“Move!” I screamed at Adius and lunged past him and to the anumi.
I pushed forward with all my might. My next breath caught in my throat when it reached me. Its sharp teeth glistened with saliva under the moonlight seeping through, its crimson eyes aligned, focusing on me.
Swinging the Sword through the air, I screamed as I twirled to the side, before it could snap its teeth onto my arm, and brought the blade down on its neck. I lifted the sword again, pulling it from flesh and bone with a wrench. I stabbed it through the beast’s stomach for good measure. Its blood covered me, and a chunk of fur caught on the hilt, tangling against my finger.
I fell backward, and the Sword touched my bare arm. I hissed, moving myself from under it, letting out the breath I’d been holding. Tears streamed thick as my body shook violently. Streaks of cold shuddered me further.
“It’s adrenaline. Try to take slow, deep breaths,” Adius said, his wild eyes darting between me and the dead anumi. “I’m proud of you.” He ran his arm under mine and wrapped it around me, then helped me stand.
I draped mine over his shoulders, steadying myself as I blew out a long exhale.
“But I should have protected you. I am so sorry.”
My teeth chattered, and my heart raced. I looked over the blood-soaked anumi. I’d never seen so much of it in my life. The blood darkened as it pumped slower. The creature had already left this world, its red, unseeing eyes reflecting on the sword.
“It was hidden in darkness, Adius. It was so quiet.”
“I should have been more vigilant.”
I scowled. “Don’t beat yourself up over this.” I leaned down and grabbed the sword. “We survived. That’s what matters.”
“Thank you, Majesty.”
In the distance, I heard water running. Downstream, the river turned into something that more resembled a swamp, proving its unworldliness. We walked along a muddy bank, looking down into green, thick, slow currents. A putrescent smell of rotten eggs wafted from it, and we both pinched our noses.
Adius spoke semi-nasally. “This is the sacred river, the veil between the living and dead?”
“It’s a lot nicer farther up. It’s as if something dark is in the waters here.” I glared down, wondering why it looked so awful. “Upstream, the waters are so crystal clear and felt so enriching to stand in. “I wonder.” I tilted my head, watching as the river paled the more we walked. Everything needed a tether. Could it be what was keeping the spirit realm tied to ours was making the water like that?
I pressed my arm across to stop Adius, hushing him. “The necromancer,” I whispered. He stood in the middle of the beautiful part of the river. On the bank was Licia and a girl I didn’t recognize. Next to them, Neoma was caged, crying.
“We need to help her.” Adius straightened, gripping his sword.
“The only thing that can kill him is this.” I motioned at the Sword of Impervius. “I need you to do something for me, Adius, if we have a chance at killing him.”
“Anything.”
I think he half expected me to hand the Sword over, holding his hand out. I shook my head and whispered, “I need you to go and get the girl away.” I pointed at Neoma’s cage. “Get her out while I take care of the necromancer.”
“He killed hundreds of people with one blast. What makes you think you can get close to him?”
“Because.” I blew out a shaky breath. “While you’re trying to get Neoma free, it’ll distract him enough. When he turns to you, I’ll strike before he can reach you. The Objects of Kai are a blind spot with foresight, and for him. He won’t know I’m coming. If he sees me trying to free her instead, he won’t hesitate. He’ll disappear. He knows Morgana and I hold objects that can kill him. He’ll think she’s with me. If he sees you, he will think a soldier has come to help the poor girl in the cage. He won’t suspect my being there,” I said before he could push for him to do the deed instead of me, again. “I need to end this. Today.”
THIRTY-NINE
Adius snuck around to the cage, surprisingly stealthy for his tall, muscular figure. Neoma gripped the bars, hushing her tears as Adius placed a finger to his lips. I hid in a collection of large fawns, behind a patch of purple wildflowers. They smelled beautiful when mixed with the pine hanging in the air. The smell was familiar, bringing me back to a memory or something I couldn’t place my finger on.
The necromancer’s dark eyes moved to where Adius picked the padlock. His back was turned to me, water dripping down the black robes he’d acquired to his bare feet. His thin lips whispered unintelligible words, and snakes emerged from the bushes and rivers, slithering toward Adius. The orange-and-red ones were the fastest, sliding along the mud and rocks with ease. A dark-green one rattled out from behind me, but it wasn’t focused on me. It moved past as if I were a tree or one of the fronds and slithered through the underbrush toward Adius.
He pulled his staff and cast a spell to shield himself and Neoma. The necromancer stepped to the cage, pushing footprints into the sloshy mud. He didn’t care when a jagged rock slit into his skin, leaving behind a trickle of blood.
Licia was entranced with the golden-haired girl. She couldn’t have been older than fifteen, but the way he doted on her, it wasn’t like a lover; she must have been his daughter. I gasped, realizing she was who he’d wanted to bring back to life.
As silently as possible, I crept out from the fronds, ignoring the snakes that set my anxiety on edge. I hurried up behind him and lifted the Sword. This time, I would not fail.
A whoosh of cold coated me, and the Sword tumbled from my grip. The necromancer turned, shaking his head, his sadistic grin curling up more as he looked me up and down.
“I was wondering when you would come for me.” His words dried, seeming to suck the hope from the world.
Gritting my teeth, I tried to grab the Sword, but he kicked it from my grasp and picked it up. The metal burned his flesh, and to my horror, he let it. He didn’t even wince as it melted from his bones, then healed and melted again. Over and over. I willed back the vomit threatening to erupt from my mouth.
The Fate of Crowns: The Complete Trilogy: A YA Epic Fantasy Boxset Page 83
