“Melted bones,” he said. “And we have to cross it. She lives on the island.”
“How do we get to her?” Coolidge asked. “We weren’t prepared for this.”
Robert jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Nicole and her friends glanced that way and saw several bones that had been tied together to form a raft.
Coolidge, Austin, and Robert grabbed the raft and dragged it toward the edge of the liquid ash. While the men were pulling the craft, Nicole and Lizzie gathered a bunch of very long bones that could work as poles to push with. Nicole hoped they’d be strong enough to get her and the others to the island and back safely.
Once everyone was on the small raft, Robert and Austin pushed off from the shore while Coolidge, Nicole, and Lizzie used their poles to guide the craft toward the island.
As Nicole expected, the raft moved slowly through the sludge. She glanced into it, unable to see anything inside whatsoever. “What’s keeping this stuff from melting the boat?”
Robert looked at her, his expression serious. “Nothing.”
Oh, great.
“But it should hold us until we talk to Helen and return.”
Coolidge looked at his friend. “It should hold us?” he asked, an incredulous expression on his face.
“That’s the plan,” Robert said. “It’s the best I could do—there isn’t exactly an unlimited supply of wood or metal here.”
“I suggest we go as fast as we can,” Austin said.
If Nicole didn’t feel so uneasy about their situation, she would’ve chuckled at the obviousness of Austin’s statement. Instead of responding, though, she and Lizzie took on one side of the craft with Austin while Coolidge and Robert manned the other side. With long pushes, they slowly moved through the murky waters.
As they approached the island’s shore, Nicole could see a lone figure standing straight and very still, facing away from them. She dropped her voice and whispered, “Is that her?”
Robert’s yes barely reached her ears, and the already quiet group grew even quieter as they pushed toward the shore.
Helen was dressed in tattered, light-gray robes. A dark shawl covered her head. She appeared to be unmoving, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, her head slightly bowed. What was she doing? Nicole’s sense of unease increased as they approached. With a slight splatter of the liquid they floated on, they got the craft up onto the shore and laid their long poles on the bone-covered ground before huddling into a group to discuss who should approach Helen first.
“I vote I go,” Robert said. “I’m the only one she can’t really harm.”
No one argued with him, and the others watched as he approached Helen cautiously. Before he’d even reached her, her shoulders began trembling slightly, and the sound of wailing drifted across the air. Was she crying? It seemed so. It wasn’t surprising, given her history.
The cloud-covered sky seemed to darken, and Nicole found herself wishing for fire. She didn’t dare ask Lizzie to light one, though. Not this close to a mentally unstable person who was so magically powerful. Especially not knowing Helen’s current frame of mind.
Helen startled as Robert approached. She didn’t turn around, but the wailing grew in volume, and Nicole met Lizzie’s gaze. She prayed things would turn out okay for them. The woman’s shoulders shook as she visibly sobbed, her back to the group.
The crying got even louder as Robert continued trying to converse with her. She didn’t respond to him—didn’t even acknowledge his presence, other than crying harder. Giving up, Robert joined the group, shrugging.
“Austin and I’ll try now,” Coolidge said.
The two men approached the woman, and with a sinking heart, Nicole realized something. The chances of any of them being able to convince Helen were slim. She wasn’t normal—her mind wasn’t in a place where she’d understand why they needed her help.
The moment Austin and Coolidge were close enough for Helen to sense them, her wailing increased in volume even more. Nicole felt a sudden pulse of magic growing, giving only a slight warning before it blasted them, knocking them all to the ground.
Helen finally turned, and Nicole gasped at the expression on her face, barely visible from where she’d fallen. It wasn’t just anger and torment that caught Nicole off guard, but also the woman’s eyes themselves. They were depthless—hollow.
Her soul was already gone.
Chapter Five
The ground beneath them vibrated, and Nicole and the others jumped, glancing around. What was happening?
“Wave!” Robert shouted, pointing beyond Helen.
Nicole looked in that direction. A smudge on the horizon appeared near the opposite edge of the island. It grew larger and larger. Robert was correct—it was a massive wall of sludge heading straight toward them. Coolidge and Austin froze before managing to jump to their feet just in time. Combining their magic, not even needing to talk to each other to know what the other was doing, they pushed forward with their hands. The wave parted as it reached Helen and Nicole’s group. The sludge raged overhead and on either side.
Coolidge and Austin called out to Helen, trying to reassure her that they were friends and not enemies, telling her they wanted to help with her situation with Keitus. Nicole barely caught every other word.
The sound of the liquid became deafening as more and more of it waved over them, and Nicole could no longer hear anything the men were saying. From the looks of it, they weren’t having any success. Helen was still shrieking, her mouth wide open in a continual scream and her eyes narrow with hatred.
Helen grew frustrated when she realized her efforts weren’t stopping the people trying to talk to her. The woman increased the amount of magic she was flooding toward them, and Nicole realized with shock that she, being completely unhinged as an Arete, didn’t have a limit on the amount of power she could expand. She’d already gone completely insane—expelling too much magic wouldn’t cause any more damage than she’d already experienced.
Not only that, but she was dead, and Nicole and most of those accompanying her were alive. This woman had nothing to lose, but they did.
Nicole had to do something. The men were struggling, failing. Their magic was running out, bringing them to dangerous thresholds. She quickly sent her own magic, forcing the wave to continue flowing around them, using her ability to control air to envelop everyone and keep them in a pocket, safe from Helen’s attacks. Then she jumped forward, passing the men. She stopped five feet away from Helen and tried to yell loud enough for the woman to hear her.
Helen was sobbing frantically, tears pouring down her face, her whole body shaking. Nicole raised her hands in a comforting “I bring peace” gesture. “Helen, please let us help you.”
She wished she knew what to say—wished she knew what trigger words would get the woman to listen to her.
“You don’t have to do this!”
Helen didn’t respond. Her empty eyes stared somewhere beyond Nicole, her screams and sobs still undying.
After two more attempts, Nicole knew just how fruitless their efforts were—how doomed they’d been from the start. Helen was completely insane. She wasn’t there anymore. She no longer had the ability to recognize friends or foes.
How had Keitus reached her when no one else could?
With a sick feeling, Nicole saw the answer. He’d promised Helen something she’d never get back again. And for a moment, Nicole actually understood the woman’s motivations. Keitus promised to reunite her with her lover—he must have. All it would take was her body. And she would obviously be willing to give that up, since she’d lost it long ago when she’d fallen to her death.
Nicole sensed as her magic began to diminish. Grabbing Lizzie’s arm—she hadn’t even heard her friend screaming next to her—they ran back toward the men who were struggling to stay on their feet.
The massive wave gained power as they all ran away from Helen. Nicole pressed forward with her shield, commanding it to envelop the craft, forcing t
he gunk off the craft’s surface and the poles. Only three of the poles remained. The men grabbed them, and everyone jumped onto the raft. Nicole felt helpless, watching as the men did all the heavy lifting, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to use her magic and push them forward through the thick liquid.
Kneeling on the craft, lowering her head to her hands, Nicole concentrated as hard as she could on her task of protecting them until they reached the other side. She sensed as Lizzie and Robert’s magical pulses joined hers, strengthening her, giving her the ability to continue when she didn’t have anything left to draw upon.
They finally reached the shore just as Nicole’s powers gave out. Obviously sensing her struggle, Robert took up the bubble she had created and continued protecting them from the mountain of sludge that still crashed around them.
Knowing that Robert was a Fire Arete and wouldn’t be able to control Air for very long, Nicole hoped her powers would recharge themselves quickly.
The five raced back through the canyons and around hills, still trying to outrun Helen’s wave. That woman was powerful.
The wave finally began subsiding as they neared the door Jacob would Key them through. Whether Helen sensed they’d finally left her alone or because her power really did have limits, Nicole didn’t know. She was simply grateful that the wave couldn’t seem to reach the building itself.
Everyone dropped in exhaustion on the bones near the door. Jacob came through the link a split second later, a panicked expression on his face.
“That was really close,” he said. “I was worried you wouldn’t make it back.”
“So were we . . . Jacob,” Nicole gasped. “So were we.”
Chapter Six
Right before everyone followed Jacob through the link back to earth, Austin grabbed Nicole’s arm, holding her back. “Nicole, I’ve been patient, but I can’t wait any longer. Before you left to fight the Fire Pulser, I asked an important question, and I’ve been—”
Nicole’s heart had begun warming while Austin spoke, her toes and fingers tingling. He hadn’t been regretting his proposal. But then the warmth in her heart grew more intense and she coughed, hitting her chest, realizing the heat wasn’t entirely originating from her emotions.
A vision popped into her mind and she stumbled, knocking into Austin, feeling as his hand kept her steady. She saw the inside of the library, specifically the room tucked into the corner of the fifth floor. The current Shonlin guardian was there, his eyes open, watching her.
“Shonlin guardians,” he said, “Onyev is calling. You will have a brief moment to finish what you are doing before the magic of our realm pulls you away. Please emotionally prepare yourselves for a journey to the ancient Makalo city.”
The vision ended, and Nicole’s sight returned to the bone dimension and Austin. He was staring at her with concern. She coughed again, grateful that the heat was fading, and said, “I think the council for Lasia is about to take place. I just received a notice that Onyev is calling me and the other guardians back to the ancient Makalo city.”
“How much time do you have?” Austin asked. If he was disappointed, he didn’t show it.
“Not much. We’ll talk when I get back, if that’s okay.”
She could already feel herself being pulled away. She panicked for a moment, trying to hold on to him harder. But with a deep breath, she forced herself to relax and let go.
Nicole appeared on the outskirts of a massive forest with trees that were similar to the ones in Gratitude City but bigger, broader, if that was even possible. They were dead and old. Most of them, even though huge, were withered and twisted. The landscape on the outskirts of the forest was desolate, the sky bleak.
Evidence that people once lived in this forest speckled the area—little wooden huts here and there, broken glass sparkled on the path near her feet, and some of the trees had cuts in them that obviously hadn’t been made by nature. Above and beyond that, the feeling that permeated the air was one that she’d only ever sensed from ghost towns and ancient ruins. Someone—probably many someones—had called this place home.
Jacob once told her that Makalos used to live separate from each other in a city made of trees—one Makalo per tree. They were unhappy that way, so they left. Was this that city? And if so, why had she been brought to it? Perhaps Shonlin brought her to the place where Onyev lived when he’d created it.
If this place had once been beautiful, it definitely wasn’t now. It felt as if it had been frozen in time right after the mass exodus that had caused the trees to die. Nicole was alone. Where were the other guardians? And why had she been transported here and not to the meeting place?
Perhaps the city had a block on it that prevented magic from happening within it. If that was the case, she’d probably appeared as close to the meeting place as possible.
Nicole decided to enter the forest. She stepped forward cautiously, carefully, her feet falling on damp leaves that covered the path. The place was quiet—not even the sound of animals reached her ears. She had no desire to break the near reverence.
As she walked around the trees, following the narrow path, Nicole couldn’t help but stare at their trunks. Right at the place where branches would normally begin, there were shallow holes about a foot wide, with several small tree branches webbing together to create the back and sides. What could those be for? From what she could see, all of the largest branches connected to that hole in some way. The farther she went, the larger the trees and their holes got.
She glanced into the next whole and shrieked. It had someone in it. She froze, her hand over her heart, and stared at the Makalo. He didn’t move. His arms and legs were stretched out, his hands and feet disappearing into the branches. His hair was long, entwined in twigs. His eyes were open, staring ahead.
Nicole stepped to the side. The eyes didn’t follow. They were glazed over, unseeing.
Nicole couldn’t help it. She took a step closer. What happened to him? Did he die when the forest died, frozen in place, his body unable to rot away? Why didn’t the other Makalos help him when they left? Or was he already dead by then?
An expression of sadness was on the creature’s face, and she wondered if he’d chosen to stay behind, if he’d chosen not to follow Onyev’s counsel.
One odd thing—there wasn’t a stench accompanying him. Actually, nothing in the forest smelled. No rotted wood, no dirt, nothing. It was almost like the place was sterile.
Nicole rubbed the back of her neck, glancing one last time at the Makalo before continuing deeper into the forest. She saw a couple more bodies, but mostly the holes were empty. She was grateful for that.
Soft voices ahead finally reached her ears, filtering through the trees. For a time, the forest had been getting darker as the trees grew closer together. But now, a light gleamed through those trees, reaching her, warming her. Nicole increased her pace, eager to get out of the gloomy and creepy forest and to see someone alive.
She entered a large clearing and gasped. Onyev was stuck to a tree in the center, his hands, feet, hair, and beard entwining with the branches that surrounded the hole. Sadness was on his face. Why was he there? Was this where he created Shonlin?
The Makalo patriarch looked up and saw Nicole, sending her a tired smile before motioning to an empty spot on the ground.
Nicole was shocked that he could pull his hand away from the branches, but perhaps she shouldn’t have been. She already knew the Makalos left of their own free will.
For the first time, she noticed that the clearing was full. She looked at the surrounding creatures as they looked at her. Even a Molg was there. Azuriah wasn’t present—she guessed that was due to the fact that he was a future guardian, and only past or present ones were in attendance.
Nicole tried to calculate how many guardians there were, but gave up as she surveyed the variety of species present. How was it possible that all of these people had interacted with the Great Ones at some point during their lives? How many years had passed s
ince Onyev had created Shonlin, anyway?
She didn’t have much opportunity to think over her questions because moments after she sat down, Onyev called everyone to order, then asked for Lasia to be brought out.
Chapter Seven
A handful of humans brought a kicking and screaming Lasia into the clearing. Her arms were tied up with the same kind of cord that Keitus had used to attach her to the orb. How ironic. Why wasn’t she pulsing flames? Nicole could sense the power coming from her, so why wasn’t she using it? Did the magical block here allow Lasia to maintain her magic, but not use it?
The humans held Lasia a few paces away from Onyev. He flicked his hand, and roots shot from the ground, snaking up her legs before covering her almost entirely. Lasia shrieked, staring down, panicking. When the roots stopped moving, only her face was visible.
The clearing filled with murmuring and mumbling as the guardians watched Lasia with disappointment and anger. Nicole jumped when the current guardian appeared next to her, taking a seat.
He glanced at her, his eyes open. “The vines won’t allow her to tell a lie while she’s held by them. She’ll be destroyed if she tries.”
Onyev raised a hand, and silence fell across the group. “Lasia, you know the purpose of the roots that hold you in place. Do you understand what will happen if you try to lie?”
Lasia nodded. “Yes.”
Onyev sighed, the lines of sadness on his face deepening. “Please tell us what you have done.”
Lasia glared at him. “I agreed to grant Keitus access to Shonlin through me, thereby giving him the talismans.”
“Why would you do this?”
Lasia flushed. “He made promises to me.”
Onyev nodded, obviously expecting that. “What sort of promises?”
Lasia struggled to answer, and the vines tightened around her. She finally blurted out, “Family. He would grant me children of my own.”
Withhold Page 3
