Immortal

by Nicole Conway

  The rest of us mounted up, trying to balance on the backs of the twitchy, anxious creatures that yipped and chirped to one another like they were complaining or telling jokes about us that we couldn’t understand.

  I grabbed a meaningful fistful of my mount’s scruff. He could badmouth me all he wanted to his buddies, but I wasn’t about to let him drop me. It was a good idea, too, because the way they maneuvered through the jungle wasn’t anything like a dragon flew. It didn’t even compare to a shrike, really. They flew like a flock of owls, completely silent except for the eerie yipping sounds they made to one another. They leapt from branch to branch, using their wings to flutter and soar between the gaps.

  Okay, I sort of liked it. It was smooth, fast, and graceful. I could feel the power emanating from the creature—a being that was probably older than all the mortal kingdoms in the world. Its strange, feathery pelt was as soft as silk between my fingers.

  The jungle awoke with the rising of dawn, but we didn’t stop to marvel at it. We raced through a living labyrinth of green, riding hard all day without stopping. We passed twisting rivers, hidden cliffs, waterfalls, lagoons, canyons, flowers as big as carriages, and groves of trees covered in weird-looking spiky fruit. Everything was more wildly beautiful than I’d ever imagined. Being a dragonrider, I’d always imagined this place would be dark, swampy, and filled with terrors with jagged teeth. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

  The road appeared out of nowhere. It was a path made of mismatched, pearlescent white stones. They began sparsely, but the nearer we got to the temple grounds, the more they came together to form an overgrown avenue. We burst through a line of trees that had been planted close together to form a sort of fence. And there it was—the temple. We’d reached it in what seemed like mere hours. It should have been impossible. But then again, I’d witnessed a lot of unbelievable things lately.

  The foundling spirits landed before it. They huddled close together, their feathers bristling and their eyes glinting with anxiousness. I remembered what Jace had told me about being near this place. The closer we got with the god stone, the more intense the madness would be amongst the animals. Maybe the foundlings weren’t affected by it, but it definitely seemed like they could sense it. It had them on edge.

  I could sympathize. I felt it now, for the first time. It was like a weight on my chest, or an intense, thick heat that made it difficult to breathe. I glanced at Jaevid. He was already looking at me. When our eyes met, he nodded across the empty, crumbling courtyard, away from the temple, to an enormous pit.

  “Let’s get this done.” I climbed down from the fox spirit’s back.

  Jae did the same.

  Together, we started for the pit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him holding onto that roundish lump under his robes—the god stone. It was almost over, I kept telling myself over and over. We were here. We had time.

  And then, all of a sudden, we didn’t.

  They came from every side, bursting through the trees. Wood splinters showered everywhere. It was an onslaught of shrikes from the air, giant elk-looking beasts and boars charging at us across the ground, along with all manner of jungle monsters I’d never heard of. Some were as big as bears and resembled tusked, stony-skinned gorillas. Others were giant lizards with color-changing scales, long, whipping tails, and snapping, toothy jaws.

  We were outnumbered, surrounded, and at a serious disadvantage. I saw Jae’s expression twist into a look of rage. His eyes gleamed brighter. His teeth became pointed and he ripped his scimitar from its sheath. I rushed to stand back-to-back with him, with my sword already drawn.

  “Never a dull moment with you, eh?” I smirked as one of the lizards lunged at me. I drove my sword through its neck with one swing.

  “I aim to please,” Jae snarled back. He was squaring off with a shrike. It struck first and he reared back, bashing it over the head with the blunt end of his scimitar. Once it was down, a flourish of his hand summoned vines that burst from the ground, wrapped around it, and held it down while he sliced through its chest.

  One of those giant, scaly gorilla beasts charged straight for us, bellowing and swinging its fists.

  “Head’s up,” I yelled, as I ducked into an evasive roll.

  Jae did the same, skidding off to the opposite side. We came up at the same time, our blades moving in unison, and took out the beast’s stumpy hind legs as it barreled past us.

  The monster went down with a boom. Immediately, Jae brought his hand up in a sharp gesture, summoning more vines from the ground. They burst straight through the ugly beast.

  “Got any more of those rock dragons up your sleeve?” I asked, as I ran back to get in formation beside him. “We can’t keep this up forever.”

  The foundling spirits were helping. To their credit, they were keeping the biggest and baddest of the monsters away from us. If not for them, we would have been completely overrun.

  Even so, if Jace was right, the entire jungle was focused squarely on us right now. We were standing in the eye of the storm, and eventually that gray elf princess was going to run out of arrows.

  We were only yards away from the edge of the pit. I could see Jae’s eyes focus there with intent. That was our destination. I just had to get him there.

  “Go! I’ve got your back!” I shouted over the roar of battle.

  “We all do,” Araxie chimed in. She darted past me and planted a well-aimed arrow right between the eyes of another lizard.

  Jaevid didn’t question us. He took off, and I ran after him. He deflected the creatures attacking from the front, and I did my best to fend off the ones that were chasing us toward the pit. When we got to the edge and I caught a glimpse at the spiraling staircase that went round and round the edge of it, I yelled a curse. It would take us forever to get to the bottom.

  If we went down like normal, completely sane people, that is.

  Jaevid grabbed me and jumped out into the open air. I didn’t have time to react or brace myself. I couldn’t even scream, because as soon as I got a good breath, we were caught out of midair. One of the foundling spirits had swooped in out of nowhere, caught him by the back of his clothes, and was carrying us down into the deep darkness.

  We went down … down … down—until I was sure we had to be getting close to the bottom.

  My feet hit first. Jae let go of me then and I lost my balance, landing on my rear at the bottom of the pit. Overhead, the opening was so far away it looked like a small circle of light the size of a full moon. I heard sounds of commotion echoing from above, the occasional shriek and cry of the jungle animals, and the shouts of our friends.

  A hand appeared in my face. “We don’t have much time,” Jae said, as he hauled me up to my feet again.

  With a flourish of his wrist, Jae brewed up a bit more of his magic to light the way. Before, I’d seen him use an orb of light that hovered over his palm. This time, however, he summoned some sort of creeping plant that grew in long tendrils along the floor and then climbed the walls. It had tiny blooms on it and when they opened, they glowed with a soft light that reminded me of stars. Those shining flowers led the way to a gaping tunnel.

  I shivered. Something about it gave me a creepy feeling. It was almost as though I’d been here before, somehow—although I knew I definitely hadn’t.

  The foundling spirit started following us. It wasn’t until I got a better look at it by the light of Jae’s magic, glowing flowers that I realized it was the same spirit I’d ridden here.

  “She feels bad about Nova,” Jae said quietly.

  I glanced at the spirit again, watching it creep along behind me on four birdlike legs. It looked like some sort of fox-griffin, although instead of being mixed with an eagle it was mixed with a parrot. Unique, pretty, but totally weird.

  “So it’s a she?”

  Jae dipped his head. “Her name is Pasci.”

  “Pasci, huh?” I eyed the foundling spirit, watching
the way she was sniffing at me with her long snout twitching and her tall ears perked up at the sound of my voice. “Well, tell her I’m not exactly emotionally available for another relationship yet. I only just lost Nova.”

  “If it’s any consolation, she didn’t suffer.”

  I stared at the back of my best friend’s head. I felt the urge to hit him for talking about that right now. Of course, it was a little comforting to know that. I just … wasn’t ready to feel anything about it yet.

  Just like I wasn’t ready for us to reach the end of that tunnel, either. Because a better part of me, a smarter part, knew something bad was going to happen there. You didn’t find anything happy in a damp, dark cave like this. This place had a powerful silence that made my skin prickle.

  In the center of a round, empty chamber, I saw the same altar made of a single slab of milky, white stone that I’d seen in my dream. I saw the bones laid out on it, and my heart started to pound against my ribs. The heat of the curse was so alive in the air I could feel it like the crackling heat off a furnace.

  Jaevid was strangely calm. He walked toward the altar, brushing back the cowl of his cloak. His hand went to that round, stone-shaped lump under his robes. I could hear him muttering, whispering under his breath as though he were talking to someone. Then he stopped, turned, and gazed back at me.

  I could see it from a mile away—the look he gave me whenever he was about to do something reckless, stupid, and potentially life-threatening.

  His hand moved and he took out the stone. Out of pure reflex, I turned away and shielded my eyes. He’d told me not to look at it—not even for a second. I cringed and braced myself, waiting for something to happen.

  I heard a horrible cracking sound.

  Someone screamed.

  Jace and Araxie were running toward me through the tunnel. Araxie was shouting in protest, her face pale with horror.

  I dared to look back at Jae, just in time to see him rear back and smash the stone against the edge of the altar.

  Crack!

  Araxie was still screaming for him to stop, with Jace struggling to hold her back.

  Crack!

  Next to me, my foundling spirit friend, Pasci, was shrieking and yelping, spinning in circles. She began to cower with her ears pinned back and her hide shivering.

  Crack!

  The god stone shattered into a million tiny pieces.

  “What have you done?” Araxie was hysterical. Jace fought to keep her at bay.

  Pasci howled. Somewhere beyond the cave, I heard a mismatched chorus of similar panicked sounds coming from the other foundling spirits.

  Jaevid collapsed to the floor, barely catching himself against the edge of the altar. I dropped my sword and ran to him. The pieces of the god stone crunched under my boots as I grabbed his shoulders and tried to hold him up. He was limp. When he looked up at me, I could see that he’d lost all the color in his face.

  “No. No, Jaevid. Not here. Not like this,” I smacked his cheek to try and revive him.

  His head lolled to rest against me. “It’s okay, Felix. It’s done. It’s over now.”

  “What are you talking about? Nothing’s done. You just broke the stone, you moron!”

  “No. Look.” He raised a hand and pointed shakily to the altar.

  The bones were melting away. The white skeleton of that animal was slowly dissolving into a fine, white mist that shimmered in the light as it faded away.

  “It’s going to be okay now,” Jae rasped. He reached into his vambrace and pulled out a dirty, rumpled piece of cloth. It was a handkerchief with two dragons stitched on it. He handed it to me. Then he grabbed the pendant around his neck—the one he always wore—and with a swift jerk broke the resin string. He laid it carefully in my hand, too.

  “I’ll be wanting these back. You’ll keep them for me, won’t you?” He asked with a strange, distant smile. All the while, his skin was turning whiter by the second. Only, it wasn’t just his skin. His clothes were beginning to turn white, too.

  “Jaevid, what’s happening?”

  “There has to be a stone. Paligno’s essence has to walk the earth to keep the balance and to keep things living and growing. His mortal body perished here, but his essence was contained within the god stone. Now … it will be contained within me. There will be no more lapiloques, and no more god stone. From now on, it will only be me.”

  Araxie had gone silent. She stood next to Jace, tears streaming down her face and smearing the war paint under her eyes. Next to her, Jace was scowling. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was open, but he didn’t say anything.

  “This isn’t goodbye.” Jae closed my hand around his belongings.

  I bit down hard. “It better not be.”

  He tried to stand. I had to basically carry him to get him up on the altar. He sat there a moment, looking at his own hands as though amazed. Second by second, they were turning the same milky hue as the stone he was sitting on. Shaking his head, he muttered under his breath as he turned and shakily lay down on his back.

  His eyes traveled slowly around the cave before finally staring back at me. “It’s so quiet now. I wish you could hear it the way I can.”

  “Way overdue, isn’t it?”

  “You have no idea. I’m so tired, Felix,”

  I took his hand and gripped it fiercely. “Rest, then. I’ll be here when you wake up, ready to do something else amazing and dangerous.”

  He squeezed my hand back. His legs had turned to solid, white stone. “Take care of yourself, brother. Watch over our friends—our family. And please … tell Mavrik this wasn’t his fault. Tell him to have a good life. Tell him I said ‘thank you.’”

  “I’m sure he’d rather hear all that from you,” I replied.

  “I had to shut him out of my mind. Otherwise … he’d try to come here and find me. I couldn’t let him take that risk. I couldn’t lose him, too.”

  “Fine,” I agreed as I clenched my teeth. “But only if you tell Beckah hello for me.”

  Jaevid smiled weakly. He let go of my hand just as his fingertips started turning to stone. I watched him grow stiff. I watched his eyes glaze and become fixed. His chest rose and fell slowly, one last time.

  “When you need me, I will return.” His voice didn’t come from his lips. His body had already turned into solid stone. Instead, the sound came from everywhere. From the air around us, from inside my own mind.

  In an instant, Paligno’s curse broke over us. I could feel it—the sudden rush of freedom, of relief, of cool serenity. Peace that surpassed anything I’d ever felt flooded that place. It filled every corner of my soul and brought tears to my eyes.

  It was finished.

  We were free.

  I stood nearby, watching as the gray elf princess pressed her lips to the cold, stone surface of Jaevid’s forehead. Between her broken sobs, I heard her speak to him in her native language, brushing her fingers over his face. Jace lingered next to me, still solemn and silent. His forehead was creased with concern and his arms were folded over his chest as he gazed down at all that remained of his student, my friend, and our last hope.

  The curse was broken. The stone had been officially taken out of play. But that didn’t mean the war was over. Jaevid had left the last task in my hands. He’d seemed so sure that I was capable of it. I told myself that I could trust him; I’d always been able to trust him. He wasn’t a liar, and even if I screwed everything up, he would be back. This wasn’t goodbye.

  It still hurt, though.

  Araxie was still trying to pull herself together as we walked back through the tunnel. Jace was holding her hand, which definitely betrayed that they were together. She’d just let her head fall onto his shoulder, leaning against him some as we left the tomb in silence … when the earth began to shudder violently under our feet.

  Jace and I exchanged an alarmed glance. Time to go.

  We sprinted for the exit, dodging fall
ing rocks shaken free from the tunnel’s ceiling. Suddenly, what looked like giant roots burst through the walls of the tunnel. One whooshed right past me, narrowly missing the end of my nose. We dodged them, ducked down, and wove our way out to the pit where a lifetime’s worth of steps stood between the surface and us.

  Not good.

  Something huge erupted from the ground beneath our feet, catching all three of us entirely off guard. I heard Araxie shriek and Jace yell. We were tossed with incredible force through the air like ragdolls. I tried to grab onto something, anything, but I was tumbling end over end.

  A pair of big, strong talons closed around my arms, catching me under the shoulders. In the blink of an eye, Pasci had me. She yipped triumphantly and zipped through the air with me dangling under her. She sped out of the pit and into the open sky, just in time as an enormous tree exploded out of the pit behind us.

  I saw Jace and Araxie running toward me, covered in dirt with equally panicked expressions on their faces as the tree grew bigger and bigger, dwarfing all the others in the jungle—which were already giant by anyone’s standards. But this one was a behemoth.

  It swelled, sprouting more limbs, breaking through the canopy and unfurling leaves the size of houses. The trunk completely covered the pit, as well as most of the courtyard around it. The roots fanned out, snaking across the ground to wrap around the various structures on the temple grounds. Nothing was crushed, or destroyed, but the tree’s roots seemed to wrap it all in a protective embrace.

  And as abruptly as it had begun, everything became still again.

  Jace, Araxie, and I stood gaping up at the tree. No one said a word. The trunk had to be at least two hundred feet in diameter. It towered over the jungle, disappearing above the canopy and out of sight.

  “That’s one way to make sure no one goes down there, I suppose.” Jace muttered.

  I scowled. “But … how is he supposed to come back with that thing in the way?”

  I expected Araxie to offer some expert opinion. Being the resident gray elf royal, she might have had a better idea than the rest of us. She was a little distracted, though.