ALDER

by Melody Robinette

  “How are we going to do this?” Autumn called ahead to him. “I thought you said you couldn’t control the Shadows.”

  “I can’t anymore, it seems. Since Thorn informed me of their behavior, I’ve been trying to contact them, to bring them back to the Island, but I’ve received no response. I no longer have control. But that doesn’t mean I can’t destroy them. It will just take more power than I’m used to using if it’s possible.”

  “What do you mean if it’s possible?” Autumn said uncertainly as they made it to the base of the staircase and moved towards the exit.

  “When Vyra created them, she made it so another one would regenerate elsewhere when they are killed. So, Shadows are virtually indestructible.”

  Autumn laughed humorlessly. “Well, that was nifty of her.”

  “But maybe, if we fight fast and hard enough, we can eliminate them,” Victor said as he shouldered the outside door open.

  The sight before Autumn caused her to halt her progress. The island that had once been filled with Shadows lurking in the darkness was nearly vacant. And the surrounding waters were now full of thousands, maybe more, of the creatures making their way to the shore where—to Autumn’s astonishment and awe—teams of fighters from every magical race were battling tirelessly.

  Victor cursed under his breath before turning to Autumn. “I’m going to cast a spell over the two of us so, if we get split up—which we most likely will—we can still communicate through our thoughts.”

  “Okay,” Autumn agreed. “Make us invisible too.”

  “You want to be invisible?” Victor asked in surprise.

  “If they see you, they’ll try to kill you. And if they see me, they’ll either pass out or try to save me. Neither of which will help our cause. So, yes, I want us to be invisible.”

  “As you wish,” Victor said with the ghost of a smirk on his lips as he waved a hand through the air, causing it to ripple as if it were a malleable substance.

  Am I invisible now? Autumn wondered silently.

  Yes, Victor’s voice answered in her head.

  She looked up at him with wide eyes. Okay, that’s slightly creepy.

  Don’t worry, he thought with an amused grin. I can only hear the thoughts you want me to hear.

  “Should we go now?” Autumn asked aloud then, not sure how she felt about their silent form of communication just yet.

  “One second,” Victor answered, turning to face the undulating sea. Suddenly a monstrous, un-crashing wave surged from the shore and pushed the Shadows backward. Autumn couldn’t make out the individual faces of the fighting creatures—though the giants were relatively discernable—but she could see that they had paused momentarily to look at the random wave that had come seemingly out of nowhere.

  Victor created another larger wave, pushing the Shadows back even further before grabbing Autumn’s hand and effortlessly transporting them across the sea to the shore. She hadn’t been expecting that and took a second to regain her balance before thinking, Can’t you just keep doing that with the wave until you push them back onto the island?

  No…they were made to find ways around things like that.

  And, as Victor thought this, Autumn could see several Shadows sinking into the water, disappearing until they were no longer visible in the waves.

  Hey, it worked! Autumn thought brightly.

  I don’t think—

  Victor’s thoughts were interrupted by shrieks coming from all over the shore as mounds of sand appeared out of nowhere, and Shadows began to burrow their way out of the ground—revealing a horde of sand zombies.

  45

  Dino-Damage

  LUKE watched in horror from the top of the rock as hundreds of holes opened up in the sand, revealing Shadows that had burrowed from the seabed to the shore.

  “Zombies,” he whispered half in awe, half in horror.

  “What?” Crystal called from beside him.

  “Nothing. EVERYONE RETREAT TO THE FOREST!” he ordered as loudly as possible, which didn’t do a whole lot because so many people were shouting and screaming in shock and alarm as the ground beneath them crumbled to uncover the horned head of a Shadow.

  He figured the best thing to do was lead by example. Flinging Crystal over his shoulder, ignoring her complaints, Luke ran towards the tree line, pulling out the sword Destry had given him and driving it downwards into each Shadow’s skull he came across along the way.

  The others caught on and began receding into the forest, the Shadows—now covered in a layer of sand—followed. Luke released Crystal from his back and continued to run beside her until they’d reached a non-Shadow-infested area, turning around to face the onslaught.

  “We’ve been fighting for hours, and we’re losing ground!” Jastin shouted to Luke as he shot a row of arrows at five Shadows.

  Luke didn’t answer, partly because he was busy beheading three Shadows at once with his new sword, and partly because he didn’t know what to say. He was aware that they could only last so long.

  * * *

  AVERY ran through the foliage, dodging branches and leaping over tree roots as he slashed through every Shadow he came in contact with. The fact that they were no closer to Autumn than they had been a few hours ago was beyond maddening. The dark creatures just kept coming, popping out of the sand like enormous, evil groundhogs, pushing the fighters further and further into the woods. Eventually, he knew, they would push them all the way back to Arbor Falls, and they would have the third deadly battle on their home turf in a handful of months.

  No.

  He couldn’t just be another meaningless fighter losing friends and allies as quickly as they were losing ground. As he killed his hundredth Shadow, Avery turned around and ran back towards the shore.

  “Avery!” Kyndel said as he passed her and Ember who were fighting ten Shadows back to back. “Where are you going?”

  “To save Autumn,” he answered, finally feeling as though he was doing something that actually mattered in this battle.

  * * *

  AUTUMN had trouble fighting the Shadows at first because she was temporarily paralyzed with awe as she watched Victor take his creations down in an almost artistic fashion. Waving his hand through the air, pushing spells and whatever other powers he possessed into them and at them causing the creatures to crumple to the ground in surges. None of the fighters seemed to take any notice due to the disproportionate ratio of Shadow to magical creature.

  Once Autumn snapped out of her wonderstruck paralysis, she bounded into the action, slicing as many Shadows as she possibly could with as many different weapons as she could manage. She was almost glad the other creatures were distracted because she assumed it would probably look pretty disconcerting to see a Shadow’s head come flying off seemingly of its own accord.

  Even with Victor’s Ellock powers taking out dozens of Shadows at a time, there seemed to be just as many Shadows coming up through the sand. The two of them stabbed and sliced and beheaded and dismembered and covered themselves in blood. All this to move even further into the forest so that no more fighting was occurring on the shore and, second by second, they were inching their way back towards Arbor Falls where the innocent and unsuspecting people waited anxiously for their family members to return safely home.

  They were returning home all right. But they were bringing unwanted guests with them.

  * * *

  AVERY made it to the shore only to realize that he had no way of crossing the sea, especially now that it was polluted with Shadows. Running his hands through his hair in frustration, he paused, turning in a circle to spot a solution. And then he found it—in the form of Willow, who was currently morphed into a massive dragon.

  “Willow!” Avery shouted, running up to her, dodging a stream of her fire. “Hey, Willow!”

  Dragon Willow paused and turned to look at Avery, completely oblivious to the Shadows attempting to climb up her and impale her thick armored hide with their horns. She tilted her head to t
he side in question.

  “I need you to take me to Alder Island. I’m going to look for Autumn,” he explained, fixing her with pleading eyes.

  She blew another jet of flames at a line of Shadows before kneeling down for Avery to climb onto her back and leaped upwards, her leathery wings pumping at the air. Avery knew it had probably been a bad idea to travel to Alder Island without knowing precisely where Victor was in relation to Autumn. Was he standing guard over her? Or watching the ongoing battle, smiling happily to himself as one by one the magical creatures perished at the hands of his precious Shadows? Or perhaps both?

  He didn’t have much time to consider this as Willow circled the rocky cliff that served as Victor’s Lair. “Just land there,” Avery called to her, pointing at a broad, flat ledge that looked to lead to a cave he assumed contained a door to the inside.

  Willow obliged and landed clumsily on the ledge, dislodging several rocks that tumbled over the side of the cliff, their lack of noise as they hit the ground communicating just how high up they truly were. Willow transformed into her elf form then and peered over the side of the outcrop of rock.

  “Well, at least there aren’t any Shadows up here,” she said.

  “No, but there are probably Atrum guards crawling all over the place,” Avery said, moving along the side of the cliff until he made it to the hole in the rock, which—as he’d predicted—led to a door. “I’d be surprised if they didn’t see us as well.”

  “Sorry. I’ve been working on my dragonish figure, but I can’t seem to find the motivation to exercise.”

  Avery ignored her joke and approached the iron door, which was of course locked. “Can you transform into a rhinoceros or something and knock it down?”

  “I can do one better,” she said before closing her eyes and morphing into none-other than a massive triceratops.

  “Are you kidding me?” Avery said in wonder. “You can morph into extinct animals too? Why didn’t you tell us?”

  Triceratops Willow looked at him with half-lidded eyes as if to say, You know I can’t talk now, right?

  “Okay, just knock the door down,” Avery said, taking several steps back.

  Willow retreated to the edge of the cliff, dislodging several more rocks before she charged at full speed towards the iron door, ramming the top of her horned head into the metal. It didn’t give way the first time, or the second, but the third time it collapsed inwards, creating a crashing noise that was much too loud for Avery’s comfort.

  “You okay?” he asked Willow when she’d transformed, once again, back into her elf form.

  She rubbed at the spot above each of her temples with the heel of her hands. “Got a bit of a headache, but otherwise, I’m good.”

  “Why have you never changed into a dinosaur in front of us before?” Avery asked her now that she was able to answer.

  Willow shrugged. “I figured everyone would make too big a deal of it and ask me to do it all the time. And dragons are just as good, if not better, fighting-wise. Fire, thick hides, wings. Perfect fighting form.”

  The two of them fell silent then as they slipped into the once dark corridor that had now been infiltrated by outside light. It was eerily quiet, which Avery thought was extremely suspicious. Willow slamming into and busting down the door had just made too much noise for them to be completely undetected.

  “Where do you think she is?” Willow asked in a quiet voice.

  “Last time, Vyra put her in a high tower, but I’m sure Victor realized that it wasn’t exactly protected. I’m guessing she will be deeper inside the cliff.”

  “Well, Victor didn’t plan for dinosaurs,” Willow whispered, and Avery chuckled.

  They walked for what seemed like hours, all the while fully expecting to see an Atrum around every corner, but there were none.

  Not one.

  “Do you think, maybe, Victor abandoned this place and relocated somewhere else?” Willow asked, sounding worried and confirming Avery’s suspicions. “Maybe the Shadows were just a distraction so they—”

  Willow’s words were cut off by Avery’s hand clapping over her mouth. Because, for the first time since they’d arrived, they heard voices.

  “I’m sure they will be fine, you guys,” an airy female voice said. “Don’t worry so much.”

  “You don’t understand, Eris. We lost half of our people last time there was a Shadow attack,” another answered.

  At this voice, Willow and Avery stopped dead in their tracks, eyes wide. They stopped because they recognized the voice and because they knew the owner of the voice to be dead. Ignoring Avery’s protests, Willow ran forward and pulled the oversized iron door open, peered inside for a moment…and then collapsed.

  Avery rushed to her side and took in the strange scene before him. For a moment he was concerned for his own sanity because in the hospital-like room sat two ghosts and what was clearly an Atrum.

  “Willow!” Forrest called out, craning his neck to look at her. “Is she okay?”

  “Avery?” Rion said. “What are you two doing here?”

  Avery stood staring at ghost Forrest and ghost Rion and the Atrum girl, who were all three looking at him in surprise.

  “I—”

  Willow came to then and started muttering things Avery couldn’t understand. Without taking his eyes off of Forrest, he bent to help her to her feet. Willow clutched at Avery and her chest rapidly rose and fell, unable to take her eyes off of the boyfriend she thought was dead.

  “Um, I think we have a lot to talk about,” Forrest said with an amused smile, before patting the bed and saying, “But you two should probably sit down first.”

  46

  Acts of Altruism

  LUKE stumbled backward on a tree root and Crystal hurried to help him up before a trio of Shadows could pounce on him. Looking over his shoulder, Luke’s stomach dropped. They had been pushed all the way back to the edge of Arbor Falls.

  “Crys,” he said, breathing heavily as he shot an arrow through the heart of another Shadow. “Go alert the people of the town to take cover. They aren’t prepared for this.”

  “But—” Crystal protested, clearly not wanting to leave him.

  “Go! I’ll be fine!”

  She kissed him quickly on the cheek and rushed off down the path that led from the shimmering waterfall, which was now only a handful of feet away. The fighters were growing clumsier by the minute, their muscles weakening and failing after hours of using them to the max. The Shadows were still going strong.

  He heard a shriek coming from somewhere to his left, his head whipping around too late to see Eden being crushed by three Shadows that had pinned her against a tree, the light fading from her eyes.

  Luke cursed out loud. He didn’t know how much longer they could take this. And then they broke past the waterfall and into Arbor Falls, the Shadows forgetting about their current fighting match and pushing past them into the town below, seeking out fresh bodies.

  * * *

  AUTUMN and Victor watched in surprise as the Shadows stopped fighting momentarily and began charging past the fighters.

  Where are they going? Autumn thought.

  Arbor Falls, Victor answered darkly.

  Why would they just stop fighting like that?

  Because their most recent orders by Vyra were to destroy the elves of Arbor Falls and, now they’ve seen their chance.

  Oh, no. Come on. Hurry! Autumn thought as she charged forward, trying to avoid any of the other fighters who were also running after the Shadows, only pausing when she came across the bodies of people she knew. She passed by a handful of warlocks she recognized and felt a stab of pain at the sight of Wyx laying among them, her bright blue eyes staring unseeingly ahead. Autumn stopped to slide her eyelids closed, making Wyx seem less dead somehow.

  Then she saw the elves. Boone, Olivia, and Eden, three Tetras that had become her close friends had been crushed by the massive amount of Shadows that cornered each of them in just the right way to mak
e it impossible to get away. Autumn would never forget how much Olivia had done to save Crystal’s life during the last battle. And Eden had lost the love of her life, Lucian, in the Battle of City Circle not long ago. Maybe they were together now. Autumn desperately hoped they were.

  She recognized several other Warriors from the older rotations and couldn’t help but think of how many more trees were going to be cut down in the Warrior Burial Grounds.

  Autumn heard Victor’s thoughts repeating, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

  Why are you sorry? You didn’t do this.

  Yes, I did.

  The Shadows did. You aren’t a Shadow.

  They’re made from my blood, Autumn. I might as well be.

  Hush. Come on. We’re wasting time.

  They finally reached the waterfall overlooking the town below, and Autumn felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu wash over her. This was the third time Arbor Falls had been attacked this year. The third time. But this time, they would win. Once and for all. They had to.

  Empowered with positive thoughts, Autumn ran forward to disappear down the path looking over her shoulder to see if Victor was following after her. When she saw that he wasn’t, she paused. He stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the terror-stricken town with a drawn face.

  You coming? Autumn thought.

  I’m going to fight from here. I can see more this way.

  Okay.

  You go on, though.

  Okay.

  Autumn turned on her heel and trampled down the path to town, leaving Victor behind to literally work his magic.

  * * *

  LUKE threw all of his energy into killing every last mother-effing Shadow he came across. He was mad now. They had infiltrated his kingdom for the third time. On his watch. Surely Olympus wouldn’t have let something like this happen.