The red streak on the horizon had become a deep burgundy, and the black roiling clouds had become peppered with lightning. Aria followed the jagged lines of light, and jumped at the bursts of light behind the clouds. She lost herself in the symphony of light until the land beneath her sizzled and the Ferryman cleared his throat. She dared a glance at him, her mouth open in awe, the familiar blade singing along her form at his penetrating gaze. For a long time she stood there staring at him while he stared at her, not brave enough to speak. Without a word he stretched his skeletal hand towards her palm up. His face was concealed by the large hood but Aria didn’t need to see his eyes to know the expectation in them.
She didn’t bring a coin.
She opened her mouth to speak but it was like a swarm of bees attacked her tongue and she gagged, desperately trying to clear the stinging from her mouth. The Ferryman said nothing until she gained control over herself and shot him a sheepish smile. She definitely wanted less weird things to happen to her when he was around, but she couldn’t help the curiosity. “You’ll need to come ashore to collect. I left all the coins at the cairn in the forest.” She purposefully glanced over her shoulder at the glowing orange and violet petals, marking their way through the woods.
The skeletal hand paused, pulling back involuntarily as if she had shocked him. He seemed to flinch despite his cool composure and she winced. She didn’t mean to scare him. “I cannot step foot on land.”
Aria narrowed her eyes to slits. “That’s a very sad thing.”
“My master wills it. I am to return with a coin, nothing more.”
Aria crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “And if I refuse you?”
The Ferryman seemed to smirk and chuckle under the expanse of his cloak. “You can face my master if you wish, but be warned, he is not kind.”
Aria dug her toe into the ground, entirely determined to see his face, even if it was nothing but bone. “Then we’ve come to a stalemate. I cannot pay you lest you come ashore, and you cannot leave without being paid.”
The Ferryman huffed and pulled his skeletal hands into the ragged folds of his dark cloak. Aria fixed her gaze on him no matter how strong the urge to burst into a shower of flames was. After a long time he nodded and braced himself on the bow as he stepped out of the boat. The transformation was instantaneous. The moment his foot touched the grass the land sizzled, the cloak cocooning him in its tight folds as he changed. Shin-high boots covered his feet, while flesh covered his limbs as though he were dipped in bronze. Golden brown hands emerged from the sleeves of the cloak, while the rest of the transformation remained trapped underneath the heavy folds of fabric. Tattered shreds became polished edges fitted with embroidery. A golden clasp in the shape of a snake held the cloak together, showing off a beige tunic and black breeches below it. Aria stumbled backwards, almost falling over herself as he pushed the wide hood onto his shoulders. The Ferryman had long brown hair, straight as a line, deep black eyebrows, and mismatched eyes framed by long lashes. Aria couldn’t take her eyes off him, the smooth jaw line, golden brown skin, puckered lips. Her eyes gravitated to his, one hazel and one a bright golden yellow. He abashedly averted his gaze when he caught her amethyst enflamed eyes and stalked towards the break in the trees.
“Come, we mustn’t waste time,” he said. Aria’s heart trilled at the cadence of his voice, like water over smooth rocks. She tried to find her footing but the land tilted, and she may as well have been upside down she was so disoriented. She staggered towards him, trying to keep her balance, trying not to crash into him. He took the lead through the path wide enough for one and she followed; all the giddiness in her rising in a steady, disenchanting crescendo.
“Do you have a name, Ferryman?” Aria wasn’t used to being bold, but she had to do something to distract her from the many moans in the trees, and the steady thumping in her heart. If she didn’t know better, she’d say it was a stampede.
He glanced back at her, his gold eye glowing in the dim moonlit night. “It’s very long, and hard to pronounce.”
“Oh. Is there a name you like to be called?” Her fascination with names hadn’t waned since the momentary outbursts with Cassareece and Tor. She was a death bringing songbird girl, and a Flame. All things she had trouble understanding, and yet if she didn’t think about it, she embodied it perfectly. Life was peculiar like that, being who she was, was easier than understanding what she was. She didn’t like the way Tor treated the other Flames, but she didn’t feel like he wanted to hurt them. The battle and the people were important to him. Whatever Cassareece and the rest of them were, she didn’t want them to exist much longer either.
She realized the Ferryman hadn’t answered her question. Because the idea of touching him sent waves of nausea through her, she tried to step in line with him, even though the path was cramped and her feet moved through flowers. She hoped he didn’t notice, the way her feet sunk into the land, and she hoped he wouldn’t call her an unnatural thing. It hurt knowing she’d killed Afton by poisoning her with pretty flowers. “You can recite the full name if you wish.”
Tension seemed to coil his shoulders. “You wouldn’t remember my name if I told it to you.”
“Why?” Aria spoke the question aloud but only because another part of her was working so hard on memorizing every detail of him, from the lines of his face, down to the way the corner of his mouth tightened whenever she opened her mouth. If it were up to her, she’d never forget a single thing about him.
“You ask too many questions, youngling.”
“Aria…my name is Aria.”
The Ferryman huffed, putting his hands into the opposite sleeves of his cloak and folding them across his torso. He changed direction at a fork in the road, and Aria wondered how he knew where the cairn was. “Kallow.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Kallow is the name I prefer.”
“And the long name?”
“Krishani Mekallow Mekelle Tavesin,” he rattled off, slurring the words together so, to Aria, they didn’t make a lot of sense.
She let out a sigh. “I like Kallow.”
“It means hero.”
She hadn’t expected him to anticipate her next question, but she was obviously out of her league with Kallow. She swallowed hard, and glanced up, trying to feel for the cairn. She was worried with all of the tramping through the forest directionlessly, that they had gotten lost.
“The cairn is seven minutes away.”
Aria blushed a deep shade of amethyst, and twisted her hands together, not sure what to do with herself. An awkward ache in her stomach kept her attention, while the loud moans from the ghosts kept her mind alert. “Where do you take the ghosts?”
Kallow stopped. He whirled and faced her, fire and sorrow in his eyes. “I’m surprised you know so little,” he began, his eyes combing over her, the intensity making Aria breathless. “The Valtanyana like the wars, it gives them much entertainment. Of course, there are consequences. Spill too much blood and the land fills with…” he glanced at the trees and Aria suddenly realized why he was so quiet the whole time. She didn’t realize that the moans weren’t for her, they were for Kallow. They wanted him to untangle them and take them with him. She hadn’t even realized what she was asking when she asked him to come ashore and travel to the cairn. In an instant she felt sorry for the grave task he had to perform.
Aria locked eyes with him. “They want to destroy everything.” A wan smile crossed Kallow’s lips and Aria felt the urge to touch him, deepen. She remained stalk straight, waiting for him to continue.
“They want what they can’t have.”
Aria frowned, she didn’t understand.
“Emotion. They don’t know fear, anger, jealousy, remorse, sadness…love.”
Aria’s mouth went dry on the word love. She didn’t know the first thing about love either, she was created to fight, and Tor was elusive, if not rude at times. “Where do you take them?”
“To Hades of course. He gi
ves some new lives and others he torments.”
“Why?” Aria couldn’t fathom being forced to fight in a war and die, only to be tortured in an endless after life. It didn’t seem fair.
Kallow shrugged. “For their pleasure. We’re all pawns to the Valtanyana.”
Aria blinked rapidly, trying to gain herself. Anger gathered deep inside her, and she fought to keep it under control. She understood why Tor refused them, why Tor created her and the others, and why he was willing to put them in danger to stand against the Valtanyana. Kallow dropped his gaze and continued walking. Aria followed until he rounded the large stone cairn and found the opening on the northwest side.
“Let me go first,” Aria whispered, wanting to make sure Tor wasn’t hard at work. He said he wouldn’t be back until morning but she didn’t trust him not to show up when he needed to. She peeked inside the cairn, finding the lantern on the edge of the table, glowing and dimming like it was breathing. She winked at Tiki and silently begged her to act normal for a change. Tiki’s Flame shifted until she was a solid glow and Aria emerged from the cairn, finding Kallow staring at a puff of cotton in the trees.
“Come, the cairn is empty.”
Kallow turned, pointing at the tree. “Do you know him?”
Aria smiled. “I have spoken to him many times. He calls himself wise, but if he were wise, he wouldn’t have gotten stuck in that tree.”
Kallow laughed, following her inside. “If you pay his way, I will show you how to release him.”
Aria turned, wanting desperately to keep Kallow on land, and away from the Valtanyana and their wars. She tossed a spark into the fire pit and it snaked through it, lighting the cairn in shades of orange. “I apologize if this seems barbaric…” she levitated the remaining armor from the corner and guided it to the fire pit. It sizzled as it melted, and before Kallow could speak she plunged her hands into the fire and broke off two pieces of gold, forming them into the coins Skeld held.
Aria commanded the pieces of gold out, letting them cool on the stone bench. They’d be mushy unless she could find something like Cassareece’s frozen hands to cool them.
“You cannot create them that easily you know.”
Aria didn’t know what to say. Kallow stood by the table, looking over the parchment papers Tor always wrote on. He had one in his hand, and Aria could see something etched into the bark. “I don’t know another way to make coins.”
Kallow smirked. “It’s not the making them, it’s the enchanting them that’s the difficult part. Do you know a shaman?”
Aria laughed. From what Tor had said about her and her kind, she didn’t need a shaman to instill an item with magic. “Please tell me what you need the coin to do and I will have it done.”
Kallow looked at her, a challenge in his eyes like he didn’t believe she could do it. He crossed his arms. “It needs to pass between worlds, so it’s physical in mine, and non-physical in yours.”
Aria wanted to smirk but she remembered Skeld and the way Tor had made the coin from his hand turn to smoke, and appear in Skeld’s hand. She nodded, taking the two coins in her hand and tried to replicate what Tor had done. It wasn’t as easy as she originally imagined. For one, she didn’t exist in the same world as the coins, so touching them was impossible. She focused harder, trying to make them turn to smoke and reform but the logistics were beyond her. She lost her focus and they fell through her hands, landing on the floor. Kallow saw everything and his eyes widened.
“Forgive me…” Aria gulped, knowing she wouldn’t be able to pay him, knowing he would return to his master empty handed, and she didn’t want to think about what his master would sentence him to because of her treachery. Kali Elle: the girl who brings death. The name pounded in the back of her mind and she felt faint until something pinched her brow and she glanced at the table. The obsidian crystal on the scythe was glowing, creating a momentary dark spot on the canvas. She pushed past Kallow, who was still holding the parchment and whipped back part of the canvas. She ran her hand over the scythe and a low note escaped the crystal before it exploded into the cairn, black dust swirling into the air, until a silhouette encompassed the cairn.
“Impossible,” Kallow exclaimed as he backed towards the stone bench and fell on it, his hands trailing over the crown.
Aria didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want Kallow to know what she was anymore than she wanted the Obsidian Flame to awaken in the middle of her meeting with the Ferryman. Her heart triturated wildly, and she fought to keep the urge to explode from overcoming her.
“Aria,” the Obsidian Flame said.
Aria couldn’t believe it, he could speak. She looked at the coins and without needing to say a thing the Obsidian Flame took them and as quickly as they had become tiny round pieces of gold they became smoke, then solid again, landing in the Ferryman’s lap.
“You will call me Klavotesi and you will send me to work with the Ferrymen when this is over.”
Aria couldn’t speak. She nodded, half afraid, half amazed. Klavotesi lost his form, crumbling into dust before the crystal on the scythe sucked him inside its prison. Aria couldn’t look at Kallow, the storms in her stomach were too great for her to face him. He would think of her as an unnatural thing and she couldn’t face his hatred for her.
“This prophecy is incomplete,” he said after a long pause.
Aria forced herself to look at him and he seemed pensive, staring at the parchment with intent while running his thumb along the headband of the crown she made. “I didn’t know Tor was writing prophecies.”
Kallow shot her a quirky smile. “He’s writing them about you.” He held up the parchment and Aria stepped forward to get a better look. She leaned closer to Kallow, and felt his eyes on her. Sure enough the crown she created was on her head. Symbols dotted the sides of the parchment but she didn’t understand them. The only other thing on the parchment besides her was the sun, with streaks of light extending from it. One of the streaks of light held a key at her mouth. She didn’t understand the significance in the least, but a shiver ran through her. She pulled away as he stood, the crown in one hand, the parchment in the other. He placed the parchment on the table exactly where Tor had left it and turned to Aria, bracing the crown with both hands.
He neared her and a million sensations shocked her body. He placed the crown on her head and it stayed. She half expected him to put his hands on her shoulders and she tilted her head towards him, wanting to touch him, taste him, inhale the intoxicating scent of him, but he pulled his hands back and stepped away, heading towards the opening in the cairn.
“I got what I came for … if you don’t mind….”
Aria snapped out of it and twisted her hands together. “I can escort you to the shores if you wish.”
Kallow smiled. “I would like that very much.”
The way back seemed to go by faster than the way there. Kallow kept a steady pace and Aria trailed behind him, unsure why she decided to go with him in the first place. Maybe it was all the moaning souls, or the tempting poisonous flowers, or her company. She highly doubted it was the latter, she wasn’t someone to fall in love with, she was someone to be feared, loathed, cautioned about.
Kallow stopped in his tracks and bent down, snatching something from the ground. Aria almost collided with him but changed directions and floated ahead of him, slowing to a gradual stop. She turned only to see him holding a small green garden snake, only it was becoming petrified by his touch, one end turning solid. “Quickly, give me your wrist,” he said as the petrification reached the midpoint of the snake. Aria thrust her right arm forward not quite sure what he wanted. Kallow twisted the snake around her wrist, doubling it until the petrification reached the mouth and Kallow made the snake eat its own tail.
Aria stared at the trinket in awe, the bracelet now fused to her wrist. It felt heavy and she expected it to go right through her, but like the crown, it was instilled with some form of magic and it stayed clamped onto her like the mark Ca
ssareece etched onto her soul.
“What does it mean?”
Kallow smiled. “It symbolizes the cycle of life and death. We call it the ouroboros.”
Aria wanted to be happy that he had given her a gift, but like everything else she had been given it brought her back to death. “I don’t know if I like it.”
Kallow didn’t seem afflicted by her words. “Where I’m from, it means anything that dies will come back to life. It’s a very good omen.”
Aria smiled, joy replacing the sorrow in her heart so fully that she felt like it might color the night sky in violet tinged stars. “Then it is the best gift anyone has ever given me.” She met his eyes and held them for a long time before he shifted his gaze and passed her.
“Come, the shores are near.”
She didn’t want him to go, but she couldn’t make him stay. She trudged along behind him until she smelled sea salt and her chest constricted. Want and need fought a battle inside her and her voice was caught between. She reached out to steady herself and caught hold of his cloak, the first time she dared to touch him since he stepped off the boat. He glanced at her with an expression that could cut glass; but she gripped him tighter.
“We forgot the wise man.” Inside she beamed, thinking he would have to come back with her to show her how to release him from the tree, but Kallow winked at her, and went to step into the boat.
“I know.”
She frowned. “Why would you do that?”
Kallow smirked. “You’re a very peculiar girl, Aria.”
Aria gulped, afraid he would step onto the boat and take off into the mists and she’d never see him again. She glared at the snake bracelet and tried to control the sparks of fire ready to burst. “I need to know, tell me why you left him.”
Villains Page 6
