“Fairies view us as a fairly immediate threat,” Slynn said. “You, on the other hand, were expected. Otherwise, I’m sure you would’ve been met with violence.”
“That’s stupid, too.” Gen turned back toward the pavilion.
“Why you sitting all the way back here?” Herron asked. “You can go sit on the lawn and listen.”
Gen’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “No, I can’t go down there.”
Slynn nodded. “I understand. Come on, Herron. Let’s give the Keeper some space.”
“No, I wasn’t saying --”
Slynn bowed to her. “Nonsense. I apologize for intruding. Don’t feel guilty about needing a little time when nobody bothers you. Nothing Void-shattering happened. Naturally, they were incapable of making any decision. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
Gen grinned at him. “Thanks. Hey, Herron?”
“Yeah, Gen?”
“You remember that thing I taught you?”
Herron smirked and put his hand up. Gen high-fived him and laughed. “Yeah!”
“Good night, Gen.”
“Good night.”
Herron and Slynn flew the rest of the way to the Keeper House and sat at one of the tables on the terrace.
“I don’t know how you could stand it,” Slynn laughed. “The Sky is so pretentious. How long have you lived there, again?”
“All my life. I arrived in The Sky.”
Slynn shook his head, still smiling. “I hope I don’t offend you by saying I hope I never have to return. And that ridiculous council… I can’t understand how anything gets done.”
“In The Void, you only had The Void Master. He was sort of a dictator.”
“I suppose so. But you can’t deny that means things never get held up in committee.”
Herron frowned and crossed his arms. “Look, I’m not saying it’s the best solution. But it’s the solution we have, and mostly it tries to make sure that nobody gets completely screwed.”
“How could they? That would involve making a decision.”
Herron sighed.
“Are you ready to go back into The Void? To bring back The Meadows?” Slynn asked.
“They said to hold off until they made a decision.”
“You know Gen isn’t going to listen to them.”
Herron shrugged. “Yeah. I guess I do.”
-
Herron, Slynn, Shae, Hope, and Gen sat around the table the morning for breakfast.
“I’m not really surprised,” Hope said. “There were a couple times when The Winter Kingdom approached the Sky Council for something or other, and nothing was ever resolved. The request was never actually denied. They simply debated it until we went away.”
“This is exactly what I said would happen!” Shae said.
“That’s not exactly what you said,” Herron argued.
“Sure it is.” She turned to Hope. “Yeah, here you go!” She slid the butter dish down the table to Hope.
Hope looked at her curiously, then the food was brought out to them. A large, steaming basket of bread was placed down in front of Hope. Hope broke a piece of bread off of the loaf, and asked, “Can you pass the – Oh.”
Shae winked at her, then shoved a butter knife down the table just as Hope started looking around in front of her for one. She smiled and shook her head, then buttered her bread.
Slynn looked at Herron. “Is it always like this with her?”
Herron rolled his eyes and helped himself to bread.
“We only have two weeks before the new moon. Before the Chamber opens,” Gen said.
“It’s only about six hours to the Chamber from here,” Herron said.
“Yeah. If The Meadows is actually in the same place when we pass through this time.” Gen scowled. She glanced at Slynn. “Well?”
He shook his head. “No. If you pass through the border, you’ll end up at The Dread Isles. We’ll have two or three more provinces to get through before we get to The Meadows.”
“Why was The Marsh in the same spot, then?” Shae asked.
“I don’t know. The geography is different between the Realms and The Void. I don’t know why.”
“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Gen said.
They all turned to look at her.
“Because,” she continued, “we had to have already broken the deal. If Slynn told us that Jeegan wanted us to honor the deal if we just left, there might be a chance we might have taken it. He had to wait until we’d already done one. I think he moved the borders around.”
“Can he do that?” Shae asked. “Change the borders?”
Slynn shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably. I wouldn’t put anything past him. He’s powerful. He’s been the Void Master for hundreds of years. They say it was complete chaos before he came and put things in order. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that he could move you around after you came through. I don’t think he actually changed the borders. I think he just got you lost between them.”
“How long will it take to cross those provinces and get to The Meadows?” Herron asked.
“If everything goes well? Four or five days, probably.”
“Does everything ever go well?” Hope asked.
Gen and Shae both laughed. Herron didn’t say anything. He ate quietly, thinking.
“We’d best leave soon, then,” Slynn smiled.
-
Rommy was much more gracious this time around when Gen put him in charge. They were going to save The Meadows, and he was finally happy.
They stood at the border and gazed into the gray.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Slynn asked.
“What are you talking about?” Shae asked. “It’s just gray!”
Slynn raised an eyebrow and looked at Shae. “Really?”
Shae nodded at him like he was the dumbest guy she knew.
“You don’t see the moon and the stars?”
Shae shook her head. Slynn looked at Herron. Herron shook his head and shrugged.
“Can’t see anything,” he said.
“Shae mentioned that you couldn’t see the moons when you were in The Void. Is that right?” Slynn asked.
“Yeah,” Gen said. “Just a solid gray nothingness in the sky across the entire horizon.”
“But you see the moons here?”
Gen looked at him dubiously. “The moons? We see the moon at night.”
“The moon? Like only one?” Slynn’s tone was incredulous.
“I think you’re messing with us.”
Slynn looked Gen in the eye and shook his head. “There are two moons in the sky here at night. Just like there are two moons in the sky in The Void.”
Hope took Gen’s hand. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Holding hands, Gen and Hope entered The Void again.
Slynn, Herron, and Shae followed them in. Almost immediately, this time, the blanket of gray nothingness lifted almost immediately. They stood on a rocky beach. Murky water lapped at the rocks. The water was nearly black. As far as the eye could see, there were small islands and rocks that poked through the surface of the water.
“Listen,” Shae whispered. “Can you hear them?”
Hope listened. “Hear what?”
“It sounds just like those turtles.”
Slynn nodded. “They live here, too.”
“They were amazing!” Shae clasped her hands over her heart. “Their songs were so beautiful.”
“Most pixies can’t hear them,” Slynn said. “I’m impressed that you could.”
Herron shot a look at Slynn. Slynn didn’t seem to notice.
“Come on,” Slynn said. “We’d best get moving.”
They flew over the black water, avoiding most of the islands. Every so often, Hope would slow to look at some wildlife that she spotted on some of the islands. Slynn would explain what they were. Hope would ask what was edible and skinnable. Shae’s favorite creature that she spotted was a large
brown bear-like creature with tremendous watery eyes.
“It’s just so cute!” Shae giggled with excitement.
“Cute, sure,” Slynn explained, “but those things can spit venom that’ll dissolve your face off. I’d keep your distance.”
Shae quietly flew a little farther away from the island. “Why is everything in The Void so incredibly terrible? Everything is either slimy and disgusting or it’s going to dissolve your face off! What about, like, pretty flowers and cute bunnies?”
Slynn took a breath to answer her but Shae kept talking.
“Oh,” Shae went on, “let me guess. The flowers are carnivorous and they’ll chomp their huge jaws around you and the cute bunnies have spikes under their fur and they breathe fire! Well, it’s terrible!” She paused for a second. “Yeah! I know! But they don’t spit venom at you!”
“I was going to say,” Slynn said slowly and deliberately, “That there are threats in the Realms, too, just as dangerous as what we’ll run into here. But, no, most of them probably don’t spit venom at you.”
“Actually,” Gen said, “there are venom-spitting creatures in the Realms. The sandrunners in The Desert spit a paralyzing venom, don’t they, Herron?”
“That’s right, they paralyze their prey and swallow it whole. How did you know that?”
“You warned Ivy about them - those and the vipers - before you left The Rainforest.”
“That’s right,” Herron remembered. “I did.”
Slynn laughed and then looked to his right. “The village is that way. Something’s odd here.”
Hope nodded. “No smoke,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Shae asked.
“If that’s the village, why is there no smoke? No fires? No forge? We’d be able to see signs of pixies being active and doing whatever they do.”
“I think we should probably go and check it out,” Gen said.
“They might not react very positively toward you,” Slynn said.
“No, they might not. But if they need help and we can help them… And the pixies in your settlement didn’t seem overly hostile towards us.”
“All right,” Slynn said. “Let’s go.”
They flew over the water and skirted around a dozen small, wooded isles before they reached the village. It was reasonable sized, Gen figured it was slightly bigger than the village in The Marsh. It was eerily silent.
“Where is everyone?” Gen asked.
Slynn frowned. “I don’t know. Jeegan summoned the fighters from my province. He didn’t summon everyone.”
“Is it possible,” Herron asked, “that everyone in The Dread Isles was a fighter?”
“Maybe.”
“Let’s look around,” Gen said. “But let’s stick together.”
They looked into a few buildings.
“Doesn’t look like they left in a big hurry.” Herron pointed at the table in the house they were standing in. “No food left out. Dishes all put away. No piles of clothes or supplies. Pictures all still on the walls. This wasn’t an evacuation. And if they were conscripted, there wasn’t pressure to get the soldiers moving immediately.”
“We had plenty of notice. We had a schedule. Right up until the end, anyway, and even then, we had a day for everyone to get things in order. Here, look at the–” Slynn froze in place and listened. “Did you hear that?”
Hope nodded and readied her bow. “Let’s go see.”
“I didn’t hear anything!” Shae said.
“Shh,” Gen shushed. “I heard it, too. There was a crash over there.” She pointed outside and led the group out the front door of the house.
They took to the air and quietly flew over town in the direction the sound came from and they heard another crashing noise.
“Oh!” Shae whispered. “I heard it that time!”
Gen glared at her. “Ssh!”
“Sorry.”
They flew over the market square and saw that one of the bear-like creatures had tipped over a cart and was rummaging through whatever trinkets had fallen to the ground. It stopped and stood on its hind legs, then it sniffed the air. It looked upward and its huge, black, shiny eyes pouted up at them.
“Aw, the little guy’s los– Look out!” Shae bobbed to the left and the others dodged upwards. A moment later, the creature coughed a glob of yellow-green slime where Herron had been hovering. It missed him and sailed behind them, landing with a hiss on the roof of one of the other buildings.
Hope launched a half dozen arrows at the thing before the others reached the ground. It roared fearsomely when her first arrow sank into its torso, then whined and stumbled backwards as the other arrows hit it. Herron flew in front of it and Slynn landed behind, then each of them swung savagely at the beast. Herron opened a large gash in its midsection and Slynn’s slash sliced into its back. The creature roared once again and brought its head back.
“It’s going to spit again!” Shae cried from above.
Gen dived at it and plunged her sword, blade pointing downwards, into the base of its skull, severing its spine. The creature toppled over and fell, maybe dead, maybe paralyzed. Gen wasn’t sure which.
“Gen! Duck!” Shae called.
Gen immediately rolled to the ground and another glob of acid sailed over her head. She spun around and saw another creature the size of the one she’d just brought down and two more at least twice as big.
“It’s mama and papa bear!” She yelled. “Let’s get out of here!”
Hope sent a rain of arrows down on the three creatures. Herron leaped into the air with Gen close behind him. They flew higher before Gen realized Slynn was missing. “Where’s Slynn?”
“There!” Herron pointed at the ground where they’d just stood. Slynn was writhing on the ground. “They must have gotten him!” He started down towards the pixie but Gen yelled.
“No! Better let me do it!” She dived to the ground, afraid that Slynn had been splashed with the acidic venom. But he didn’t seem to be injured. He seemed to be having some sort of seizure.
“Herron!” She yelled, “I’ll lead them off! You come and get him.”
She flew straight at the three bear-like creatures and took a wild slice at the little one with her sword. The largest one roared and chased after her. The other two followed. Gen led them through an alley and down the next street, away from Slynn. She heard a hacking sound behind her and then her left wing exploded into agony. She spun and crashed to the ground with a scream. Panicked, she looked back and saw that her wing was covered in thick ichor. The brilliant black and orange of her wing was dripping away, melting into an oily puddle on the gray dirt road. She screamed in pain and rolled onto her back to face the three creatures.
The biggest one leaped through the air, far more graceful than she’d thought possible based on its size and its clumsy gait, and was on her in an instant, biting and clawing. The smallest one joined and sank its teeth into Gen’s other wing. It pierced the membrane and ripped the scales roughly out of her wing as the creature roughly jerked its head back and forth. The last one set upon her, gripping her leg with its sharp claws and biting deeply into her thigh. She cried out.
Hope and Shae flew above her. Hope fired arrow after arrow at the creatures. One of the big ones stood erect and hacked a huge glob of its acid spit at her. She ducked out of the way but it glanced over the tip of her bow. It dissolved through the bowstring and without the tension of the string it snapped straight. Hope dropped it and it clattered to the street below. Shae reached up and yanked Hope out of the way as another ball of venom flew through the air at her.
“Hope!” Herron called from back in the market square. “I need help!”
Hope looked back at Gen, still being attacked by the creatures.
“Go! Slynn needs your help!” Shae yelled.
“Gen needs my help!”
“Just go!”
Hope set off at full speed to join Heron. Shae flew even higher and hovered at what she figured was a safe distance,
out of spitting range, and watched the struggle below her.
Gen was consumed by burning, blinding agony. Her body was slick with blood and mucus, and the mucus was eating away at her flesh. She writhed in pain and tried to get herself into a position that would allow her to strike back at the monsters. The big one roared at her once again and took a deep bite into her shoulder. She kicked her legs free and brought her knees up in front of her, then shoved as hard as she could with her feet. She managed to just get the bear creature high enough to bring the point of her sword up, then she let her legs collapse under its weight. It sank down onto the blade of her sword and thrashed, then was still. She kicked up again and tried to roll the body off of her, but she was too weak and injured to manage it.
The smallest one was still gnawing on her wing, now biting savagely at the thick veins that supported the membranes of her wing. The other big one snapped its jaws at her arm. She pulled her arm out of the way the first time, but the second bite caught her. The creature’s fangs pierced her bicep and ripped free a large chunk of her flesh and muscle. She shrieked in a wordless howl of pain.
She struggled again to get the big, heavy corpse off of her and she turned to look at the big creature that was still attacking her. Gen’s eyes were heavy and wet with tears, stinging from sweat and the vapor of the acid. She had a hard time focusing on the creature and she saw a sweeping wave of blackness rolling at her from the direction of the street. In a moment, everything went black and it overtook her completely.
She was shocked to realize she hadn’t lost consciousness. Her skin felt prickly, like a thousand tiny needles were stabbing her all over. She opened her mouth to catch her breath and something tickled the roof of her mouth. She shuddered and spat out a Void roach. She violently shook her head from side to side and the roaches covering her face fell away. The two remaining bear creatures stood on their hind legs and backed away from her, swatting at any Void roaches that crawled on them. They turned, settled down onto all fours again, and ran away.
Gen had no idea how long it took before the roaches dispersed, leaving only a pile of clean, white bones resting on her body. She rolled to her side, shoving the bones off of her. They clattered to the ground. She got her knees under her and staggered to her feet. She leaned against one of the buildings nearby and caught her breath. Her entire body was in horrible pain.
Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3) Page 3
