I couldn’t be tied to that crazy ass Chaos god. No way, not ever. I would die first. I would let the curse rip me to shreds. Even Neutral Asshole was preferable to Rau.
“I owed him a favour,” Cyrus muttered. “We are now even.”
He said no more, choosing instead to study the crackling fire, which had at some point begun crackling again. Meanwhile, I was fuming that once again my life was spiralling out of control.
“You need to eat and drink, correct?”
His question took me by surprise, reminding me of another god who had said something similar. “Yes, I require food and water.” Weariness leaked into my murmured words. The fight was quickly draining out of me, especially if I wasn’t going to be able to escape. I was ready to just curl up into a ball and succumb to unconsciousness. “But I want nothing from you. I’ll just sleep until we can leave.”
Cyrus was on his feet, something crossed over those hard features as he stared down at me. “You can take my bed,” he finally said, waving his hand in that direction. “I do not require much rest.”
I pulled myself gracelessly to my feet. “Wake me when it’s time to leave.”
“What happened to your face? Who put those marks on you?”
I had been turning away when his questions froze me in place, my head swivelling back to see him. Reaching up, I let my hands drift across my lips and cheekbones.
“You’re almost healed,” Cyrus added, “but I can see the faint remnants.”
“It was Rau.” I dropped my hand. “He has a nasty temper when he doesn’t get his own way.”
Before Cyrus could comment again I turned again and entered the bedroom, wishing there was a door that I could shut between us. The room had been lit up when I entered, but that light dimmed as I crossed to the huge bed. It was the biggest bed I’d ever seen, at least five times the size of my rock mattress back at Blesswood. Kicking off my shoes, I crawled across and snuggled down under the covers.
It was so soft, so massive, so comfortable. But none of my Abcurses were there.
The ache in my chest kicked into gear, but this time it had nothing to do with the curse and everything to do with my heart. I missed my guys, and I knew they would be tearing Topia apart trying to find me. They would be punished for being here again, they would fight Rau, and it would all be my fault.
Probably they would—and should—just ditch me now that they realised they were free of me. Still, deep down, I hoped that wasn’t the case. I had come to think of them as family, as a family I couldn’t live without, and I was praying they felt the same way. Guess I was going to find out now. Now that Cyrus had screwed us all over.
I shouldn’t have felt comfortable enough to sleep, what with Neutral Asshole in the next room, but for some reason I still didn’t really fear him as much as I probably should have. So when I closed my eyes and tried to empty my mind, I had no trouble drifting off to sleep.
Sixteen
All too soon, consciousness filtered back in, and with it came the memories. My soul wasn’t living inside the Abcurses anymore—not that it had ever been in the first place, if Cyrus was to be believed. But I wasn’t connected to them anymore. I was stuck in Cyrus’s home.
And …
Rau!
I would not be linked to him; I refused to even consider it, which meant that I had to stop Cyrus before he took me to him. There was nothing around to judge time by, but I felt only semi-rested, which probably meant that I’d been asleep for six or so rotations. That still left a few rotations in the sun-cycle until we could leave.
Cyrus had said that there were securities, that no one could easily leave or enter, but maybe those securities were designed for gods. It would make sense, since they were the only beings who could be a threat to him. I wasn’t a god though—something which had been pointed out to me on more than one occasion. It was always said as an insult, but I didn’t think of it in that way. I didn’t want to be a god. The only benefit to godhood was being able to stay with the Abcurses after their punishment was lifted.
As silently as possible, I eased off the bed, dropping lightly to the stone floor. It felt cooler now, as though the fire had died off again. It was also dark, though thankfully there was still enough light for me to easily move about. I had a feeling that Cyrus was either resting, or he had disappeared.
Maybe he had decided to use his secret way out. Maybe I would use this time to try and escape myself. I left my shoes, since it was much quieter with bare feet, and tiptoed out of the bedroom and through the large living area. It was silent in the stone rooms: no movement and no sign of Neutral Asshole. I knew I couldn’t get too far from him, assuming the soul-link worked the same way with him as it had with the Abcurses … but if I could just get through his securities then maybe someone would find me.
Even without our link, the guys would never let Rau take me.
There was a narrow hallway leading from the living area, with several closed doors spaced along both sides. I didn’t bother to check inside any of them, deciding instead to simply follow the path all the way to the end. Unfortunately, when the end appeared, it was just a stone wall. There was a very good chance that we were deep underground, which was going to make my escape that much harder. As a last ditch hope, I felt along the wall, trying to find a latch or secret rock handle. Disguising a door to look like a dead-end wall was a brilliant plan; I’d have totally done that if I had a secret lair.
But apparently Cyrus wasn’t as smart as me, because the wall didn’t seem to have any secrets. Frustrated—and knowing that my time was running out—I kicked my foot out, forgetting that I had ditched the shoes, which meant that bare toe was about to be introduced to bare stone.
I waited for the crunch, but instead my foot passed right through the wall, which took me by surprise. I ended up tipping over and landing flat on my back. It took a few clicks—as I lay there stunned and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened—for me to realise that my foot had just passed through a solid wall. Pulling myself up, I ran my hands along it again. This time, however, going much lower than I had before.
Two feet off the ground I felt the change in texture: it was no longer bumpy stone, but smooth. It was a barrier. I pushed against it, my hand bouncing off. I tried again, this time with more force, but it repelled me again. A quick feel around told me that the barrier section was small, I would barely fit through it, but I was going to have a shot if I could figure out how to break the shield again.
Maybe it was the force with which I’d kicked out? Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself, I punched out this time, aiming for the small crawl space. I almost gave a shout when my hand pushed through, and then the rest of me easily followed. I tumbled out onto the other side, and stood up, dusting myself off, before taking off without another thought.
I didn’t stop or look at where I was. I just ran. Away from Cyrus and our stupid connection. Away from Rau and his creepy laugh. Hopefully away from Topia. I was running through a dark cave-like system that was eerily familiar to me. My sides were aching, my breathing was heavy and harsh, and my chest was screaming as I distanced myself from Cyrus’s hideout.
“Got to work on my running abilities,” I moaned out as my breathing grew even heavier. Even though I had said those words softly, they echoed around the space.
A familiar noise echoed back to me then, and it took some time, but I finally realised what the tunnels were reminding me of.
The banishment cave!
Somehow, Cyrus’s secret cave-home had been connected to the banishment cave, which meant that I had jumped out of the fire and into a lava pit. Almost as if my awareness of them triggered their awareness of me, the wraithlike figures came into focus. Ghostly vestiges of lives lost to the gods and the stupid hierarchy of our world. They circled around me, moving in closer.
I slowed, before stopping all movement besides breathing. The last time we had been inside the banishment cave, the guys had told me that the only
reason the wraiths weren’t attacking us was because we held the cup of Staviti. Which might have been a lie … they probably hadn’t attacked because the Abcurses were gods. Something they had been hiding from me at the time.
Either way, this time I was there with no cup and no gods. I was completely vulnerable to the wrath of the forgotten servers. No wonder Cyrus felt secure in his hideout. No one would ever think to look for his home at the end of the banishment cave. Only the dead slaves came here; gods would never lower themselves.
The air around me was cold, the ache in my chest nothing more than a slight annoyance compared to the very real possibility of death in front of me. The closer they drew, the more their features came into focus. One in particular looked familiar: one who still held a physical form, although I could see the decay had started in places.
“Jeffrey?” I murmured, and she stilled. Blank eyes locked onto me. “Can you understand me?” I asked, this time taking in more of them as they paused, no longer closing in on me, but still remaining in a tight circle. I was completely surrounded now; there was no way I could fight against this many—even if I had possessed the faintest idea of how to fight them.
It felt as though I would cry again as I found myself staring back at Jeffrey. “I’m so sorry, I know somehow it’s my fault that you ended up here. I took your clothing. It’s not fair.” My voice broke at the end, and the wraiths and figures started shifting around again, but it felt less malevolent this time. The energy surrounding them was changing.
“I want to help you all. You shouldn’t have to suffer down here just because the gods threw you away like trash.”
Emotions didn’t register on their pale faces, but I felt it in their energy. My words were reaching them; I just had to figure out how to follow through.
“Tell me how to help you?”
They started to move and I freaked out for a moment, thinking that they were over our little bonding moment and were about to attack again, but they didn’t make any aggressive moves. Instead, they drifted away and Jeffrey waved me on. They wanted me to follow them. Deciding it was better than being ripped to shreds—and since I really did want to help them—I silently padded after them. I only winced as rocks cut into my feet, otherwise I remained focussed on the countless beings. Why were there so many? Did the gods get new servers every sun-cycle? Had they all been dwellers once? Or were they the creations of Staviti?
I had a lot of questions and someone was going to give me answers soon. As we travelled deeper through the cave systems, I could tell that we were not going towards any of the cave entrances. The last time it had gotten warmer and lighter as we got closer, but here it was getting darker and colder than I’d ever felt before. I was freezing, icy particles clinging to my lashes as I shivered. This was no place for those with a living body, but I wasn’t going to give up yet. I wasn’t going to let them down.
Famous last words of course, because by the time they finally came to a halt, I was shivering so badly that my teeth felt like they were about to chatter out of my head, and my chest was aching with a sharp pulse. The connection with Cyrus was not as strong as the one I’d had with my guys; this distance between us was painful, but not as bad as it had been with the Abcurses. Truth be told, I would have given anything to have that old pain back.
I was distracted from my discomfort when the wraiths spread out before me, forming a divider on either side so that I could travel along the centre of them. Right up to a wall. Unlike the other walls in there, that one was not made of stone. Instead, it seemed to be a shiny and smooth material, stretching high to the roof of the cave. In the dim light of the spectres, I could see etchings across it.
I reached out to touch it, hesitating at the last moment as I let my hand hover over it. When no one made any crazy moves to stop me I guessed it wouldn’t kill me, so I dropped my hand onto the etchings.
“What does it say?” I murmured, leaning closer to try and see it better. It was written in no language I had ever seen before. I couldn’t read it, but it felt important somehow.
Jeffrey emerged from the crowd, stepping to my side. I dropped my chin to see her. “Is this part of what traps you here?” I asked, my eyes getting hot at her slack features.
She nodded once, pointing her finger toward the engraved symbols. “Is this the language of the gods?” I asked.
She shook her head, and I tried again. “Is it a spell?”
I got neither a nod or shake then, which probably meant she didn’t know or it was sort of one. I had one more question. “Can I break this and free you all?”
Jeffrey nodded and this movement was soon followed by all the rest of the wraiths. The cold increased as they closed in on me again, and I turned away from the wall and faced them. “I’m going to figure out how to help you, I promise. The gods can’t keep doing this! I have powerful friends now, they’ll know a way.”
When you make big promises, you might as well go all-out.
Whatever I said must have worked, because they parted ways so that I could walk back through them. Jeffrey remained at my side, and I realised after some way—when it was just me and her—that she was leading me toward the exit. I recognised the end of the cave now, and a burst of warmth and gratitude rocked me so hard that I almost fell flat on my face.
I managed to keep it together, opening and closing my mouth as I fought for the right thing to say. Something which could possibly explain the depth of my heartache at what had happened to her … but there were no words. Nothing could make it better. I just had to try and save their spirits from an eternity of being trapped in the cave.
When we reached the edge of the cave, the light shining brightly across us, Minatsol visible on the other side, she gave me a wave and disappeared before I could even splutter out some more promises, or a few I’m-sorry-about-screwing-your-afterlife platitudes. I tried to track her movements, to see where she went, but it was like she was there one click, and gone the next. They were all gone. I was alone at the edge of the cave, trying to figure out how my life had ended up that way.
Was it only a few moon-cycles ago that I was in the seventh ring, in my little village, accidentally tarring teachers’ heads, and breaking into the leader’s hut? How did I end up part of the world of gods? Making promises I would probably never live to keep?
“I told you we’d find her here,” a voice announced, drawing my attention to the cover of trees right beyond the entrance to the cave.
A sound escaped my throat, and it might have been a scream. That was Siret’s voice. I ran toward them, and unlike last time, there was no resistance as I crossed the threshold of the cave into the outside world. Which made sense once I got a clear look at the outside world. Jeffrey had led me to the Topian end of the cave. I had no idea how she knew which end I needed to go to, but she was right. I couldn’t go back to Minatsol. The Abcurses were in Topia searching for me, and I was tied to Cyrus now. It would probably kill me.
Before I could think any longer, arms were wrapped tightly around me. My body was spinning around, but then it couldn’t spin anymore, because there was another body at my back. There was so much warmth in my chest I could barely breathe through it. Cyrus had succeeded in breaking our soul-link, but there was a deeper connection between us. One that wasn’t born of magic. One that couldn’t be broken. I had my arms hooked around a neck, and it wasn’t until someone tore me away that I realised it had been Siret. They passed me between them, each hugging me for as long as the others would allow, before I found my feet again with them forming a circle around me.
“You have about one click to tell us everything that happened,” Rome demanded, drawing my eyes to his. His expression had turned to stone, the green in his eyes swirling turbulently.
I quickly opened my mouth, quickly divulged everything, and very quickly skipped over the part where Cyrus had transported us directly onto his bed, before finishing up with a description of the writing on the cave wall and my plea to help the server-wraiths.
By the time I finished, each of them wore a distinctly uncomfortable expression.
“They’re safer in there, Willa,” Coen said slowly, as though afraid of my reaction. “Do you know what that binding spell is on the cave wall?”
“Binding spell?” I asked.
“That would be a no,” Yael answered for me. “It’s binding their souls to the cave, allowing them to draw life-force from the magic of Topia to sustain themselves, as long as they stay in there. They think that they’ll be free if they leave, but that’s not how it works.”
“What the hell is it with you gods and binding souls to things?” I groused. “Why won’t it work if they leave? Are they linked to the cave the same way I was linked to you? Can the cave hear their thoughts?”
“They’re linked to Topia. To the land, and bound to the cave. In a way, I suppose Topia can hear their thoughts, but I don’t think Topia cares …” Yael trailed off when Rome snorted.
“Listen …” Hands landed on my shoulders, spinning me around. Aros. His golden eyes were so close all of a sudden, and for a moment, I was lost. I stepped forward, and accidently hugged him.
I swear it was an accident.
He made a grunting sound, the same sound that Rome had just made, but with less amusement. He pulled me back, slightly, just enough to see my face.
“If those souls leave the cave, their link will be broken, and they’ll die—”
“They’re barely alive!” I gestured back to the cave, even though we couldn’t actually see any of them.
“They look like that because they’re not feeding from Staviti’s power anymore, they’re simply feeding from Topia. It’s obviously not as strong … but they’re still alive. Until they leave that cave.”
“Why can’t they just go back to feeding from Staviti?” I asked, finally breaking away from Aros.
Persuasion (Curse of the Gods Book 2) Page 22
