by Sam Ryder
She breathed out. “I only did it to see if you wanted to be abducted.”
The logic was kind of funny, but I thought I understood what she meant. “So if I told you I wanted to go back to camp right now, you would let me.”
“Of course. I’m not your jailor.” I nodded, considering.
“I don’t want to go back to camp,” I said. “Not yet, anyway.” I needed answers, and she was the most experienced person I knew on this planet. Well, except for Eve and the Three, and the foursome of women weren’t exactly forthcoming with information.
“Sam,” Vrill said, settling across from me on a hammock of vines. “I know it’s a lot to process. But what are you thinking?”
“I think there’s something you need to know too.” She listened while I told her about the Warriors who had died since I arrived on this planet. I also told her about those who’d survived, and my encounters with Persepheus and Minertha. She gritted her teeth when I explained what Eve had been saying and doing. And then I told her about the missing demon corpses, how they hadn’t gone up in smoke during the daylight and how they’d been dragged away. I didn’t say what we thought had taken them, and I didn’t need to. Vrill had been here far longer than any of us, save Eve and the Three.
“The Morgoss,” she said.
I nodded. “That’s what Eve thinks.”
“You speak her name as if she’s a goddess herself,” Vrill spat. “As if she didn’t bring you here to die.”
“She’s trying to help.”
“Yes, she is. Herself. And the Three. Everyone else is expendable. They didn’t even care when Darcy was killed. They moved on like it was nothing, replacing her without thought. They leveled up the prior Protector and voted on a new one. And I was supposed to just move on and work with the new Seeker?”
“I know why you’re angry,” I said. “But I’m not brainwashed, like you think. Beat and I…we almost left. We talked about it a lot. I thought about everything that you told me. But what if they do care?” I remembered Minertha’s mournful cry after Dravon’s death. Even if the Three were physically missing their hearts, they weren’t as completely heartless as Vrill seemed to think.
Vrill opened her mouth to speak, likely to contradict me, but I cut her off. “What if death has become so commonplace to them it’s lost its meaning? Why would they get close to anyone if they could die in the next Black, or the one after that?”
I thought Vrill might snap at me again, but she didn’t. Her expression morphed into one of sadness. “Is that how you want to live? Black to Black?”
“I didn’t say that, but after so many years of death and failure…I don’t know how I would be.”
“I know what the monster corpses are being used for,” Vrill said, changing the subject so swiftly it took my breath away.
“What? You do?”
She nodded, biting her lip. She paused, as if trying to decide whether to tell me.
“Vrill, please,” I said. “What you know could determine the fate of Tor.”
She nodded. “The fate of this planet is already determined. But I will tell you. The Blacks are getting longer.”
SEVENTEEN
SEPARATION
Vrill explained how she knew. “While all you Warriors were running around fighting monsters, I was timing the Blacks.”
“Why would you even think to do that?”
“Because I noticed the monster corpses being dragged away before Eve did. There was a big battle a couple of weeks ago. One of the smaller tribes of Outcasts was taking on a horde of demons they had no chance against. The demons lost many, but when the dust settled the tribe was decimated.” I knew little about these tribes of Outcasts, those ex-Warriors that had left Eve and the goddesses to fend for themselves. Still, it made me sad to hear about this horrible tragedy. “When the Black was over, the bodies of the dead monsters should have turned to smoke.”
“But they didn’t.”
“No, because they were already gone. Something had taken them all. There must’ve been fifty dead Maluk’ori.”
“Jesus.”
“Your human savior isn’t here.”
“Okay, so why did you think the missing stiffs had something to do with the length of the Black?”
“Stiffs?”
I guess Darcy hadn’t covered that human term. “Corpses. Bodies. The dead.”
“I didn’t think that, at first. But something felt off. I felt like there was less time between the Blacks. Or more time during them. So I counted. One Black, I counted. And then the next. My count reached a higher number the second time. It was a small difference, but enough to be concerning.”
“There are no clocks here,” I said. “Counting is hardly a scientific way of measuring time.”
“You think I don’t know that? I repeated the test Black after Black after Black. That’s what I’ve been doing while you were watching your friends die. They are getting longer. My counts are not off. At first it was only fifty or sixty of your human ‘seconds,’ but now it’s hundreds of them. Minutes, as you call them. Next it will be an hour, almost double the time of the normal length of the Black.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. Some kind of magic that requires a lot of dead monsters. The Morgoss are powerful. They are preparing.”
“For what?” I asked, though I already knew.
“War.”
“I have to go back,” I said.
“I know.” Vrill couldn’t hide the sadness in her voice.
“Come with me. We need you. I need you.” Vrill was the most capable person I’d ever met. She could make a huge difference in whatever was to come. Especially because she was a Seeker. The Three’s hearts needed to be found. Who better than her? However, even as I asked her, I knew what her answer would be.
“I’m sorry, Sam. I cannot.”
We left it at that.
~~~
The walk back to the warded canyon wasn’t as far as I expected. I’d never seen the ancient forest because it was hidden by the boulder field where I’d originally met Vrill. Five miles as the gargat flies, maybe six.
Shit. Even from a mile away, I could see the wrongness of the place I’d called home for the last couple weeks. The ward shields were generally invisible, except when disturbed by a powerful force—like a punch by a troll. Now, however, I could see a portion of the shield. Edges of what appeared to be spidery cracks shimmered in the bronze sunlight.
The monsters had finally done real damage to our greatest form of protection. Vrill was right—the wards would fall, and soon. What if she was right about everything else too?
I pushed the thought away and soldiered on, eventually reaching an uncracked portion of the shield. I preferred to go through the invisible part, just in case passing through the damaged portion would make things worse.
I barely noticed the familiar sucking sensation as I strode through, my eyes trained on the edge of the camp, where forms were rising and turning in my direction.
I released a deep breath. There were three figures silhouetted by the sun that had already started its descent. They were only shadows, by I’d recognize them anywhere. Beat’s sturdy, muscular form. Lace’s confident stance, her thin, curling tail flicking out at her side. And Millania, standing a head above them both, tall and wispy and alive.
The only one missing was Eve, but I assumed she was with the Three, where she normally spent most of her time. They’d survived the Black without me. Which was something to celebrate, even if the wards had sustained irreparable damage.
I walked on, watching as one of the three figures separated from the others to meet me.
When we came together in the middle, not far from the slither pit, Beat picked me up and squeezed the shit out of me. It was the first true bear hug I’d ever experienced. She set me down, gasping. “I’m glad you’re alive. Where the fuck have you been?”
~~~
I told the other Warriors my story about Vrill.
About what she told me.
When I finished, I expected at least one of them to reject Vrill’s theory, to deny it and say that she was just trying to stir up trouble. None of them did.
Instead, Beat said, “More time in the Black? Bring it on.”
It was classic Beat, breaking the tension with a joke. We laughed, even Millania, her gills flaring. When the rare moment of amusement was over, I asked, “What happened in the Black?”
Beat thumped a heavy fist into her palm. “We kicked some monster ass. What else?”
Though she said it with the bravado and certainty of someone who’d just won a schoolyard brawl, I’d spent enough time in her company over the last few weeks to know when it was only a half-truth. “What are you not telling me? I saw the damaged wards.”
Millania, who rarely spoke, said, “We almost died.” There was no sadness in her tone—just fact. Grass is green. The sky is blue. We almost died.
“How?”
Beat glanced at Lace who looked away. Then cleared her throat. When she spoke, all her previous bravado had leeched from her voice. “It was a suicide attack.”
“What?” I was frowning so hard my head was beginning to hurt. Or it could’ve been lingering pain from Vrill’s hammer tackle.
“They had a…weapon,” Beat explained. “An explosive device. Dark magic. It looked like a stone, but it was glowing and heavy-looking. It took three demons to carry it. They tried to hide it from sight as we attacked them, but Eve spotted the bomb. She warned us. She saved all our lives.”
Lace picked up where Beat left off. “The explosion killed all of our enemies and damaged the ward shield. Beat almost lost her foot but we got her to the ooze just in time to fully heal her.”
That’s why something was off in Beat’s tone a moment ago. “Jesus, Beatrice,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Who’s Beatrice?” she asked, deadpan.
I wanted to chuckle—I really did—but the thought of the best friend I had in this place with a mangled, bleeding foot while I was nowhere to be found…it bothered me. I know I hadn’t made the choice to go with Vrill—she’d basically abducted me—but still. I should’ve been there when my friend needed me. I could tell Beat didn’t want to talk about what happened, at least not seriously, so I changed the subject. “Where’s Eve? I should tell her what I told you.”
Lace frowned, one of her fangs protruding over the edge of her lips. “She’s gone,” she said. “Off to Find more Warriors.”
Of course she was. We had a bare bones crew as it was. If she could add even a single Warrior to our number it would make a huge difference. “I should at least tell the Three. Or Two. Or however many are conscious and will listen.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lace said. “The goddesses don’t like it when you show up if they haven’t summoned you. Or so I’ve heard.” Though she qualified her initial statement, it sounded like she spoke from experience.
“Well, tough luck. I’m going. If they expect us to defend them with our lives, they can sit and listen while I tell them what the Morgoss are up to.”
Lace raised an eyebrow. “Do you want us to bury or burn your body?” she asked. “Or…” She raised a single claw in the air. “…I can eat you. It would be an honor to devour your flesh.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking, but I managed a grim smile. “All three,” I said, turning and striding up the hill before the cat-woman could offer any further “encouragement.”
I made swift work of the vines, landing in the shadowy area between the cliffs. Though it was still daylight, the sun was at such an angle that little of its light found its way into the gully. The glowing vines provided some illumination, but only enough for me to see the outlines of the rocks, the shimmering edge of the crystalline pool, and—
My breath caught. Persepheus was atop her mossy boulder, sitting cross-legged. Her lithe form wasn’t more than a silhouette, which made it look like she was staring right at me. I frowned, trying to judge which direction she was facing but was confounded by the shifting shadows. I took a few cautious steps forward trying to be as quiet as possible, which wasn’t too difficult with bare feet. Until I stubbed my toe on a stone and cursed under my breath. So much for stealth.
“You have not been summoned, Sam Ryder,” the sea goddess said. I was close enough now to tell that she was facing away, toward the pool. Her arms rested on her knees, her hands open as if she’d been meditating. From behind, her color-changing skin accentuated the curve of her hips. She was at such an angle that I could just make out the swell of her breast on one side. She was breathtaking. Then again, I was pretty sure she could be standing on her head eating nachos and she would be breathtaking. The benefits of being a goddess…, I thought, before remembering what Vrill had told me about their hearts being taken from them by the Morgoss.
“I know,” I said. “But I have something to tell you.”
“No.” The answer was simple and unambiguous.
But I was feeling bold. After everything that had happened, I was unintimidated. If I’d come across this beautiful woman on Earth, I’d have been tongue-tied. It wasn’t the ripped body that made me bold, but the numerous near-death experiences I’d had since arriving on Tor. Things like that changed a person. Gave perspective. What the hell did I have to lose? “I’m going to tell you anyway,” I said.
Persepheus turned. I must admit, I flinched. Because her godsdamn eyes were glowing. They were bright blue, but swiftly changed to green, alternating between the two colors. “I’m not in the mood, Sam Ryder,” she said. She didn’t raise her voice, which smoldered like the embers of a dying fire. “The Three are not powerless—not yet. We can still crush bones and melt skin.”
That didn’t sound like much fun. Then again, they needed me, right? I hoped calling her bluff wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of my life. “The Morgoss are performing a dark spell,” I blurted out.
Persepheus’s glowing eyes brightened further and she moved.
Actually, moved does zero justice to what she did. All I knew was one moment she was on her boulder a fair distance away from me, and the next she was right in front of me, those eyes burning into me, her cold fingers clamped around my jaw. “I’m only going to say this once more,” she said. “Leave. And never speak of the Morgoss again.”
With that, she flung me to the ground with such power I heard a slapping sound as my skin hit the hard gully floor. For a few moments I couldn’t breathe, the air knocked right out of me. When I finally got my breath back, I said, “No wonder no one wants to help you.”
I expected another attack, so I raised my arms to defend myself even though I knew it wouldn’t make a difference against a powerful being like her.
When nothing hit me, I peered through my fingers. Persepheus wasn’t standing there with glowing eyes anymore. She was back on her rock, hunched over. Nothing glowed. Her head lolled from side to side, as if she was about to pass out.
Shit, I thought. I shouldn’t have done that. The Three were weak enough as it was, and I pushed her into using some of her little energy, her goddess powers, on a fool like me. No, I had not deserved such a reaction considering I was only trying to help, but still. She was dying. I needed to have a little more respect.
I was about to go apologize, but another voice, low and gravelly, stopped me. “Come here, little human.” Despite the unapologetic way in which Minertha summoned me, like calling a dog to fetch a treat, I knew I couldn’t reject her. And it wasn’t like Persepheus would appreciate my apology anyway. Plus, I still had information to impart. Maybe the earth goddess would listen where the sea goddess would not.
I approached the reddish-brown stone where Minertha usually slumbered, remembering the last time she’d summoned me. What she’d asked of me and how I’d rejected her.
I wasn’t sure I could do it again if I needed to.
I clambered up and around the boulder. She lay on her side, one hard, stone arm p
ropping up her head while the other rested on her hip. She was every bit as gorgeous as Persepheus, but in a totally different way. Thankfully, her feminine bits seemed to be ‘clothed,’ by rougher, thicker clusters of stones in the shape of a short, red, sleeveless dress.
Still, I stopped well short of her. “Listen, Minertha, about before…”
“Thank you,” she said, surprising the hell out of me.
“You’re welcome?”
She laughed. “I know it wasn’t easy—what you did before. Saying no to me. Stronger men than you have been unable to do so. But you were right. I wasn’t in a good place. I’m still not…”
It was strange to hear an immortal goddess show her weakness like that. I was certain Persepheus would never do the same. Minertha acted more human than her sister. She wore her heart—of at least the specter of her stolen heart—on her…rock arm. “It’s okay,” I said. “I liked Dravon. He was a good Warrior. He was welcoming when I arrived. I miss him too.”
“I loved him,” she admitted. “There have been others who I gave a piece of my”—she hesitated—“soul to, but he was different. Special.”
I nodded. “I’m very sorry I couldn’t protect him.”
“Thank you,” she said again. “And don’t listen to my temperamental fishy sister, she’s been angry ever since her heart was ripped out of her chest. Not that I can blame her.” She raised her voice at the last part. I glanced at Persepheus, and though she didn’t respond, I could tell she had stiffened at the comment.
“I…heard about that.”
Minertha laughed, though it felt forced. “Yes. It wasn’t our best day. We underestimated the Morgoss and—”
“Don’t speak that name,” Persepheus interjected. Her voice sounded weak.
“Why not? It doesn’t mean anything. Morgoss. Morgoss!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Though they were goddesses, they fought like any other sisters. “Listen, Min, I—”
“Min?”
I froze. Had I really just nicknamed the goddess of the earth? “Uh, sorry, I just, well, on Earth we like to…”
