Jaevid stopped her with one look, his eyes flashing like the cold steel of a blade. The queen snapped her mouth shut, her chin still trembling with grief.
“I think you should wait outside,” he suggested, although his tone didn’t exactly invite anyone to disagree. “Enyo, please go and make sure no one else enters.”
The queen sucked in a sharp gasp. Rage flickered in her multihued eyes. She looked like a dragoness about to spit flame until her husband put a hand gently on her arm. King Jace guided her outside, whispering to her in a comforting tone until their voices faded beyond my front door.
Enyo followed behind them, her face the picture of petrified worry when she hesitated in the doorway and looked back at me. I could read the doubt in her face—the reluctance to leave my side. I didn’t quite understand what I’d ever done to earn that kind of devotion from her, but by all the gods I never wanted to mess it up.
I forced the best “I’ll be fine” smile I could muster.
Her shoulders drooped, but she turned to leave anyway. I suppose I should have known she wouldn’t buy that. She knew me too well.
Then it was just the three of us alone with nothing but the sound of the embers crackling in the hearth.
I cleared my throat. “Not to be an insensitive jerk, but you did say we were short on time. So let’s get on with this.”
“Did you really mean that?” Hecate flicked a quick glance in Jaevid’s direction. “That my condition is a gift and not something bad? It’s never brought my family anything but grief and suffering.”
“Those of us who have these divine powers learn that it’s more complicated than just being good or bad. Our power is a gift—a tool—and how we use it decides if it’s a curse or not.” Jaevid stood right in front of her, taking her small hands in his. “I’m going try to teach you how to use yours. It may frighten you, but I promise I won’t let any harm come to you.”
“I-I can’t,” she whimpered. “Every time I focus on it, the voices get so loud and—”
“Please,” he coaxed gently. “I won’t let them overwhelm you. I’ll be right here beside you. And once this is over, you will be able to silence them yourself. Will you be brave for me?”
She was shaking like a frightened child in her dainty royal gown. But she took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly bobbed her head. “I’ll try.”
“Very good.” He smiled warmly. “Now tell me, what do you hear?”
“T-There are so many.” Hecate took a frightened step closer to him, shivering and cringing with her eyes shut tight. “Who are they? What do they want?”
“Spirits,” Jaevid replied. “Some of those who have passed, some of those who have yet to be, and some who have been since the dawn of time. The Gods, the Fates, those who reside in the Vale, and beyond the Sivanth.”
A cold puff of wind, like the breath of a ghost, prickled at the back of my neck. Not an unfamiliar sensation to me, but somehow this was different.
“I need you to listen to them. Let the voices come. Hear their words, but don’t focus on them. Let them move past you like current in a stream. They can’t touch you, can’t affect you.” Jaevid slowly began moving away, letting his hands slide away from hers.
Hecate’s entire body froze. I couldn’t even tell that she was breathing anymore. Her gaze was fixed straight ahead, staring blankly at the middle of Jaevid’s chest as her irises began to glow. They shone like two rings of molten gold. Her lips parted, and the sultry female voice that left them wasn’t her own. “Come to me, my Harbinger.”
My stomach dropped. I knew that voice. The familiar sensation of cold chills surged up my spine like a bolt of lightning. Every muscle in my body tightened with a jolt. My heartbeat flourished. I bit down hard, resisting the pull of the shadows.
That is, until Jaevid turned his glare on me, his eyes glowing like two green lanterns. “You have to hold him back, Reigh.”
“You think I’m not trying?” I growled through clenched teeth.
“Try harder.”
Right. Easy for him to say.
I wheezed and strained against the weight—as though someone was standing on my chest. But the urge was too strong. I couldn’t resist it. Noh shot out of my subconscious and materialized before me like a rumbling black storm front. His laughter crackled in my mind as he swallowed up all the light in the room. My mind scrambled. All my thoughts became a flurry of chaos. I was being sucked down into a whirlpool of cold darkness. Air—I needed air. I was drowning. I thrashed in wild panic, trying to claw my way to a surface that didn’t exist.
A strong hand suddenly seized my wrist and pulled. I couldn’t see who it was, and I didn’t care. I latched on to that hand with all my strength. When my head broke the surface, I took a frantic gulp of air.
“You’re all right. That’s it. Breathe.” Someone dragged me, coughing and sputtering, out onto solid ground. I was too busy blinking water from my eyes to see who it was.
I collapsed onto the grassy bank and wheezed.
“You always did have a flair for the dramatic.” He chuckled over me. Raising my head, I looked straight into the eyes of a face I knew all too well.
Noh crouched before me, his elbows resting on his knees. When he smirked, every hair on my body stood on end. Once again, he looked human. Only this time, he looked … normal. He looked exactly like me. Well, except that he was dressed differently. Rather than my scout’s attire, Noh wore baggy robes made of silk as black as pitch. The big bell sleeves were stitched with flecks of silver like stars, and there was a wide black belt around his torso. He wasn’t wearing any weaponry in plain view—he didn’t even have shoes on. And yet, somehow, he managed to look menacing.
I raked my soggy bangs away from my face. “W-What’s going on? Where am I?”
“It has many names in the mortal realm. The in-between. The world between worlds. The silver shores. The valley of spirits.” Noh grinned impishly. “But we call it ‘the Vale.’”
Shambling to my feet, I tried to make some sense of that as I looked around. Gray stone buildings, salt and pepper colored grass, and a bleak colorless sky didn’t offer me much hope. It was as though all the color had been drained away from this place and left it every bit as dreary as it was disturbing. In fact, the only thing that had any color at all was Noh and myself. The pool of water I’d just been dragged out of looked like a well of ink—so dark you couldn’t tell the depth. Despite the whirling current that had nearly drowned me, the surface looked strangely calm.
“How do I get back?” I swallowed hard. Part of me already knew the answer, but I was hoping for an alternative to going for another swim.
“You only just got here.” I could hear that wry, slightly sinister smirk in the tone of his voice without ever having to look at him. “Not curious about your kingdom at all?”
“My … kingdom?”
“Of course.” Noh gave an exaggerated, flourishing bow. “Everything from the Well of Souls to the Sivanth is our territory.
“I, uh, I don’t know what any of that means.”
His eyes twinkled with delight. “Then it’s long past time you learned.”
Gesturing for me to follow, Noh began strolling away down the white cobblestone path that led between the drab stone structures. Everything about this place was so bland and featureless; it put me on edge. There was no source of light. No sun or moon. Just a blank gray sky without clouds or stars. There were no plants, no trees, no birds—nothing.
“Not much to look at, is it?” Noh chuckled, as though he could read my mind.
I stopped to turn in a slow circle as we passed through a small courtyard. There was a fountain in the center, but it had no water running through it. “I guess redecorating is out of the question.”
“The spirits wouldn’t notice if you did,” he replied.
I opened my mouth to ask who that was exactly. And then I saw them—a group of three people standing in the courtyard direc
tly in front of us. They looked human and normal enough. Well, except that their bodies were completely translucent and just as colorless as the rest of this place. They stopped talking and stared at us as we went past. One of the men bowed his head.
“Ghosts?” I guessed.
Noh shrugged. “They come and go. It was never intended for any of them to stay here for very long. Once they pass through one of the Wells, they can either decide to cross the Sivanth and face the Fates or remain here until their essence fades.”
“The Sivanth? What does that mean?”
“It is the gateway—the place of judgment where the two Fates decide the eternal reward of every soul. If a soul is found to be pure and unmarked by misdeeds, it is allowed to enter Pareilos, the Kingdom of the Gods. But if the soul is tainted by many sins, then it is banished to Desmiol to burn for eternity as one of the stars.” He shot me a dubious glance. “No one has ever told you this before?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to process all that. It was a lot to absorb. “No. I guess the gray elves are a little superstitious when it comes to the gods.”
He pursed his lips. “A healthy fear can be good, but in excess it breeds ignorance.”
Noh’s pace quickened as he led the way deeper into the eerie city, and he kept looking back, as though to make sure I wasn’t falling behind. I tried not to stare as we passed more and more spirits. There were hundreds of them—humans, elves, and races I’d never seen before. Some talked quietly together, others simply stood in silence, but every one of them looked at us as we went by.
“Why are these people here, then? Shouldn’t they be going to the Sivanth to be judged?”
“Some are waiting for loved ones to join them. Some are afraid to face the Fates.” Noh glanced back at me again. “They have their reasons. But staying here forever is not an option. If they linger for too long, they will disappear and become nothing.”
“Well, that’s depressing.”
He chuckled. “Death usually is.”
“So … what are you doing here?” I may not have been the brightest guy, but I could put together that he wasn’t just another deceased soul loitering around here.
“I’m here because of you.”
I stopped.
It took Noh a few seconds to realize I wasn’t following him anymore. When he did, he turned back around and stopped before me. Facing him was like standing in front of a mirror. I couldn’t decide how to feel about it. It was creepy, yes, but it was also sort of … incredible.
“You’re not a demon, are you?” I asked.
“No.”
“Or a dark spirit?”
One corner of his mouth twitched. “That’s a matter of opinion, really.”
I squeezed my hands into fists. “Who are you? Tell me the truth.”
He tilted his head to the side slightly, studying me. “I’m you, and you are me. We are one and the same. Two souls, one body.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only answer.” He took a step closer, reaching out a hand toward me like he wanted me to touch my palm to his. “Allow me to show you.”
I drew back. This was already a lot to take in, and frankly none of it made sense to me. Everything I’d seen from Noh so far pointed to one conclusion: I couldn’t trust him. Why start now? I didn’t know what he was, what he wanted from me, or if he had some plan to kill me and possess my body. Letting him do anything to me was an invitation to disaster.
“Our minds are not yet synced. They won’t be until the ritual is complete. But I can show you things this way. It’s a way of sharing memories,” he explained, his eyes narrowing and mouth curling into a cold smile. “And I have quite a lot to share with you, brother.”
SIXTEEN
My eyes flew open just as I managed to suck in a desperate breath of air. My body shuddered, shaking and thrashing out of control until I realized I wasn’t submerged anymore. Okay, the whole drowning in the Well of Souls thing was beginning to get extremely old. There had to be an easier way to move between those realms. That was a problem for another time, though.
“Thank the gods!” Enyo screamed and threw her arms around me, knocking me back onto the floor again.
I wheezed and panted, trying to loosen her grip so I could get another breath. “Y-You’re … choking … m-me!”
She stammered back with tears streaming down her face. “We thought you were dead. You weren’t moving. And Jaevid couldn’t bring you back!”
Behind her, the rest of my captive audience was gaping down at me with pasty expressions. Even Jaevid looked rattled, although he was the next to come and crouch down beside me. “What happened?”
My frazzled brain struggled to make sense of it. It was hard to remember at first. Then the floodgates opened. Memories and flashes blurred through my brain, assaulting my senses and making my stomach roll. I doubled over and buried my face in my hands.
“Reigh? What’s wrong?” Enyo was still hysterical.
“I-It’s nothing. I’m fine.” I forced myself to lie. “I just overdid it again.”
That answer seemed to appease everyone—except Jaevid. He stared down at me, his expression sharp. When our eyes met, I knew he was onto me. Maybe he could feel that something was different now. I was different.
I knew what I was, and what I had to do.
“Will you be able to travel?” he asked.
I took a few more deep, steadying breaths and nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
The look Enyo gave me was nothing short of fractured. She squeezed my hand, desperation still flickering in her beautiful multicolored eyes. “How can you go now? Please, at least rest a few minutes.”
I brushed a hand over her soft, warm cheek. It wasn’t fair. One look like that from her was like smashing my heart into jelly. I hated this—disappointing her. Worrying her. Making her upset. I didn’t deserve her affection. “I’ll be fine,” I murmured, leaning in closer to touch my forehead to hers. “Wait for me, okay? And look after this place. I’m counting on you.”
She sniffled and bobbed her head.
“All right.” I cleared my throat as I got to my feet, trying to shake off the way my head was still spinning. “Ready when you are.”
“Good.” Jaevid stood, too, and turned to the royal family. “Hecate, you’ll keep practicing on your own, won’t you? We’re going to need you to be ready when I send word.”
“I’ll do my best—I swear it.” She smiled weakly.
“Then it’s time for us to go.”
We gathered our belongings, our travel bags and weapons, and set out into the city alone. The night was calm. Mau Kakuri was sleeping peacefully. And yet every step I took made my heart pound faster and faster. Images from the Vale swept through my brain. Noh’s words, the things he’d revealed to me, made my blood run like icy slush in my veins. Glancing sideways at Jaevid’s somber, focused expression, I had to wonder if he truly knew what I was. Sure, Paligno had probably told him some things about me—maybe even about Clysiros as well—but did he really know? Would he even want my help if he did?
“Something on your mind?” His glacier-hued eyes flicked in my direction.
I cringed. “No.”
He frowned but didn’t push the issue.
It wasn’t like we didn’t have enough other stuff to worry about anyway. Imagining what lay ahead was the only thing worse than knowing what I was leaving behind. Enyo, the clinic, my home—everything I’d ever known. I was turning my back on it again. That realization turned my stomach sour.
When I’d left to join Aubren in the war against the Tibrans, I had expected Maldobar to change how I felt about Luntharda. And it had—just not in the way I’d expected. Instead of replacing Luntharda as my home, going to Maldobar had just confirmed that I belonged here. Maldobar was a different world, and not one I was sure I’d ever feel at home in.
A small company of scouts greeted us when we reached
the main gate. King Jace had arranged for us to take shrikes from the city perimeter. It would be a long flight to the border, and every second we wasted was one second longer Aubren and Jenna spent in Tibran custody. That realization settled over me like a cold rain. We’d lost valuable time because of my inability to keep my power in check, and now there was still a solid three-day ride between the border and us.
“This won’t be necessary,” Jaevid said as he ran a hand over one of the shrike’s glistening scaly sides.
“But, Lapiloque, it is a very long journey through the jungle to reach the boundary,” one of the scouts protested. “Shrikes are the fastest way to travel there.”
His mouth quirked into a half-smile. “Is that so?”
If that was a joke, I didn’t get it. I stood back with the other scouts, watching as Jaevid took a few confident strides toward the gate. He stopped, facing the dark expanse of the jungle beyond with his sharp eyes panning like an eagle searching for prey.
A prickle of unease made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Jaevid drew back the sleeve of his tunic, quickly unfastening his vambrace to expose the mark on his skin hidden beneath it. That mark, according to Enyo, had been put there by the foundling spirits when Jaevid had made some sort of deal with them. Raising his arm so that the mark faced toward the jungle, Jaevid curled his hand into a fist.
Instantly, the ambient noise of jungle went completely silent. The frogs and insects stopped singing. The night birds hushed. The cold chill on my neck spread, making me shudder. I took a big step back, and the rest of the scouts did the same. Nearby, the shrikes began to screech in panic, bucking at their tethers and clawing to get away.
Then I heard a voice, Jaevid’s voice, muttering quietly. He was biting words through clenched teeth. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but as he spoke, the mark on his arm sparked to life. It burned with a brilliant green light, flashing like lightning in the night. It crackled and sizzled along his arm, spreading over his entire body before it burst into the air, sending out a shockwave of power that knocked me onto my heels. It doused the braziers burning by the gate and sent the shrikes into another panic.
Harbinger Page 13
