by Rena Barron
“Maya, this may be your worst landing yet,” Eli said, spitting out mud.
“Ugh,” I said, my head still spinning. I squinted at the gateway, which was already closing, and pressed my palm against the edge. The sparks shrank faster and disappeared.
“The mud is the least of our concerns.” Frankie glanced at a campsite, no more than a dozen feet away, and the darkbringers heading for it. We weren’t in their direct path, but too close for comfort.
The lights from the camp cast moving shadows on the field. I bit my lip, hoping they wouldn’t see us. Two dogs with glowing red eyes led the group. They growled in our direction as they yanked against their leashes.
I cursed under my breath. I hadn’t meant to put us so close to danger—another one of my mistakes. I dug out my staff from the mud, and the symbols glowed, although I could barely see them beneath the murk.
“Wait,” Eli said. He stretched out his arms to touch both Frankie and me, then his magic, low and humming, spread across us. It brushed against my skin as light as a feather. Our bodies shimmered until we faded out of sight. Scratch that. We could see each other and see through each other. I would never get used to Eli’s ability to turn us into ghosts at his command. It was the coolest trick ever.
The dogs pulled away from the darkbringers and ran straight for us. The last time we were in the Dark and Eli used his magic, the darkbringers had been able to track us by our scent. We didn’t have a chance against these dogs, which more than likely had a heightened sense of smell to start. No different from the dogs in our world.
“Eli,” I whispered, “they can smell us.”
“Wait, I think I can mask our scents,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut. Something shifted in his magic, and it tingled across my skin.
“I have an idea,” Frankie said. Sparks danced on her fingertips, and her eyes started to glow. That was a new thing—and even though she had mud smudged on her glasses, she looked fierce. “Just in case.”
Frankie’s magic wove into a pulsing net with a ghostly glow. She’d somehow joined her force field with Eli’s magic so that it could be invisible, too. With Papa sick, I hadn’t thought a lot about how our magic had changed over the summer. My staff had turned into wings, and I flew. I wasn’t lightning-fast like the cranky twins, but I was getting the hang of this godling thing.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” I said.
“Neither did we,” Frankie confessed as she and Eli stared at each other in shock.
The dogs turned out to be not dogs. Instead of fur, green scales covered their bodies, and they had a row of sharp spikes across their backs. What was it with the Dark and its deadly animals? The last time we were here, we had to fight off large birds with needle-like spines on their underbellies. I was starting to think that everything we encountered in the Dark would either kill or eat us. Maybe both.
We held our breaths as the creatures trotted right by us, and two darkbringers ran behind them. I eased out a sigh of relief as the rest of the darkbringers continued toward the camp. There was a total of seven of them—six taller ones surrounding a smaller one in chains. Two of them pushed him forward, and he kept tripping over his feet. He had cuffs on his wrists and ankles.
Frankie grimaced at me, and I shook my head. I wondered what the darkbringer had done to be in chains. I remembered how Commander Nulan killed one of her soldiers for going against her orders. Another darkbringer said that she’d sawed off someone’s horns for giving her stink eye. It seemed like it didn’t take much for a darkbringer to find themselves in a lot of trouble. I didn’t get why any of them would serve the Lord of Shadows if this was how he treated them.
“You know what we do to deserters?” snarled one of the darkbringers, shoving the prisoner in his back again. He tripped over his chains and hit the ground. They were in the light now, and I could see the prisoner’s chest heaving up and down. His head hung between his shoulders, and his hair fell in clumps, covering his face. He was so small compared to the soldiers around him. “You’re going to the stocks. It’ll be hard labor for the rest of your life, boy.”
He couldn’t have been more than our age, twelve or thirteen at most. I already knew that the darkbringers had no problem with recruiting kids into their war. From the sound of it, this darkbringer had run away from the army. A chill crawled up my arms. The darkbringers were our enemies, but I hated the way the soldiers were bullying the boy. It wasn’t right to put anyone in chains like that or make them fight when they didn’t want to.
Another darkbringer hauled the prisoner to his feet by the back of his neck like he was nothing but a rag doll. I bit the inside of my cheek so hard that I tasted blood. The Lord of Shadows’ ribbons had picked up Papa like that and almost killed him. I couldn’t forget the reason why we were here.
The boy spat on the ground, but he didn’t say anything as the others pushed him toward the camp. It wasn’t until they were almost there that the two darkbringers with their hounds came back. One of them halfway dragged both hounds toward camp. The second darkbringer slowed when he neared the swamp. He wore all black against his cobalt blue skin.
“Don’t know what has them all worked up,” the one with the hounds said as he wrestled to get them under control.
The second darkbringer turned in a slow circle and peered in our direction. My heart slammed against my chest. “Something doesn’t feel right,” he said under his breath.
“Stop wasting time,” the darkbringer with the hounds said.
The second darkbringer lingered a little longer, then he backed away. It was a good five minutes before we had the nerve to climb out of the mud. It was too risky to conjure some water to wash up so we wiped our faces and hunkered down a little farther from camp.
“Tell me there’s a reason we’re this close to a camp full of darkbringers?” Eli asked, cleaning mud from his phone screen.
“Of course there’s a reason,” Frankie said, looking expectantly at me.
“I concentrated on opening a gateway close to my father’s soul, but something pushed me away,” I explained. “I think the Lord of Shadows must have my father’s soul warded against magic. When that didn’t work, I directed the gateway to open somewhere that could help us find it instead.”
“Maybe you can try again now that we’re in the Dark?” Frankie suggested.
I squeezed the staff. The symbols glowed, and the wood melted into a puddle in my hand. It reshaped itself into a silver compass. The top flipped open, showing two hands, one silver and one gold. “Take us to where the Lord of Shadows is keeping my father’s soul?”
The two hands on the compass trembled like they wanted to move but couldn’t. To prove my theory, I asked another question. “Can you take us to the city in the Dark that’s in the same exact spot as our Chicago?” The compass glowed bright, and the hands turned due north.
“So Dark Chicago is north of here, but where are we exactly?” Eli asked.
“If the Dark parallels our world, then we should see some similarities to help us figure that out.” Frankie glanced around, wrinkling her nose. “There.” She pointed at a tree. “See that moss.”
“Looks more like a nest of wriggling worms,” Eli said, and I agreed.
“Moss usually grows in swamps and savannas where it’s hot,” Frankie explained. “I would guess we’re far south of Dark Chicago. We could be anywhere from the Dark version of Texas to Mississippi, even in South America.”
“I think that’s beside the point, Frankie,” I said, looking toward the darkbringer camp. She was missing the big picture. The staff had brought us here for a reason.
Eli brushed the mud off his shoulders like he was the coolest kid who ever fell face first in a swamp. “Time to go invisible again?”
I nodded as I stared at the darkbringer camp. “The key to finding my father is in there.”
SIXTEEN
Get in and get out
With Eli’s magic making us invisible, we snuck into the camp once mos
t of the lights had gone out. First, we circled the perimeter to see how many darkbringers we’d be up against if things went south. Frankie counted twenty on guard duty. I spotted another seventy-five or so darkbringers inside the camp, but it was hard to keep track. They weren’t exactly lining up to let me count them.
I wondered why the darkbringers were out here in the first place. They were alert, but they didn’t seem particularly nervous about an attack. They had to be guarding the camp for a reason.
The hairs stood up on my forearms. There was something wrong with this whole thing. The Lord of Shadows had known the last times we entered the Dark, so where were he and crony Commander Nulan now? I supposed he was too busy ripping tears into the veil and figuring out how to send his ribbons to the human world.
The camp quieted down once the darkbringers climbed into their tents for the night. “What’s that?” I pointed to the lone flickering light at the center of the camp.
Frankie adjusted her glasses. “I don’t know, but I can feel the energy coming from it.”
“It must be important,” I said. “Let’s start there.”
We walked in a straight line with me leading the way. Eli kept one hand on my shoulder, and Frankie trailed him with one hand on his shoulder. For Eli’s magic to work, he needed to be in contact with the people and objects he wanted to make invisible.
We passed between two tents through a gap where there was no guard on patrol. Wisps of smoke floated up from the smoldering campfires. It was silent except for the occasional soft snores coming from some of the tents.
Thankfully none of us stepped on anything that cracked or broke underfoot. I’d never forgotten that a twig had gotten us caught last time we were in the Dark. Now that we were closer to the light, my heartbeat sped up. It was the darkbringer boy—the one we’d seen in chains earlier.
The boy sat in the middle of a cage with his eyes closed, but there was no way anyone could sleep in that position. The contraption was cruel, and I wouldn’t have wished that on my worst enemy. Well, when my worst enemies were Winston, Candace, and Tay, that would be true. Not so much for the Lord of Shadows and Commander Nulan.
“Maya, don’t get too close,” Frankie whispered. “He might be dangerous.”
“He might help us,” I said, keeping my voice steady.
“What makes you think that?” Eli asked. “He can’t even help himself.”
I spotted an abandoned blanket near one of the snuffed-out campfires and got an idea. “Wait here but stay hidden,” I said. “I’m going to talk to him.”
Neither of them protested as I pulled away from Eli, and his magic faded from my skin. I was solid again, whole and in the flesh. I darted across the space and grabbed the blanket, which I threw over my head and shoulders. I approached the darkbringer.
Magic burned through the air as electricity crackled between the bars in the cage. He sat with his knees tucked against his chest, his wings tight against his back, and his face buried in his elbow. He didn’t look hurt, but I wouldn’t have put it past these soldiers if they were anything like Commander Nulan.
I glanced around to make sure no one had headed in our direction and whispered, “I can get you out.”
The boy didn’t raise his head or open his eyes. He didn’t move an inch. I got a distinct feeling that he was ignoring me. “Hey, are you awake?” I asked.
The boy fanned his hand like he was shooing away an annoying bug.
I frowned, flabbergasted. Did he just wave me off? “Are you being rude on purpose?”
“Yes,” the boy grumbled as he finally lifted his head. He had large dark eyes that sparkled in the half-light of the crackling electricity. “Who are you?”
I was taking a huge risk by doing this, but I figured that if I wanted the darkbringer to take me seriously, I had to show him. I pushed back the blanket to reveal my face. His eyes went wide. “You’re a godling?” he asked as if the word tasted like dirt. “How did you get here?”
“That’s not important,” I said. “I could get you out for a price. You help me, and I’ll help you. Deal?”
The boy rolled his eyes. He seemed to decide that I wasn’t worth his time until he saw my staff. “Those are the celestials’ symbols.” He turned his head and spat against the cage. His saliva sizzled on the bars. “Leave before you get yourself killed. In case you don’t know, the Lord of Shadows wants your kind dead.”
“Okay, I’ll leave.” I crossed my arms. “I’ll go find someone who’s got some sense and wants their freedom.”
“Look around, godling. I’m the only one in a cage here,” he said, glaring at me. “Maybe I should call for my guards, and they’ll let me go for turning you over to them.”
“You go ahead and do that.” I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll tell them that I was helping you escape, then we’ll both be in big trouble.” I was trying and failing not to sound desperate. My staff brought me here for a reason, and I needed to find out why. “What’s the punishment for being a deserter?” I asked, remembering what the soldiers had said to him earlier. “I doubt turning me in will be enough to get you out of trouble.”
The darkbringer studied his fingernails like I was boring him to tears. “What do you want?”
My stomach twisted in knots as I worked up the nerve to ask. The boy could still call out for the guards, but it was a risk I had to take. “Where is the Lord of Shadows keeping Elegguá’s soul?”
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?” The boy smiled, and the look in his eyes cut right through me. He had something to bargain with now. “The one they say broke into the Dark and rescued him. The girl who got Commander Nulan demoted.” His smile faded. “I thought you’d be—”
“Be what?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know, taller,” the boy said, grimacing. “More imposing.”
I sucked in a deep breath to keep my temper under control. This boy was as infuriating as Winston, Tay, and Candace combined. But I didn’t mind that part about Nulan getting demoted. Served her right for being so awful.
“You’re a fool for coming back,” he said, clucking his tongue like I was some little kid. “You were lucky to escape with your life the first time. I doubt you’ll be so lucky again.”
“I guess this fool is wasting her time.” I backed away from him. “I’ll find someone else to help while you rot in your cage.”
“Wait,” the darkbringer groaned. “I guess I have nothing else to lose.” He moved his face closer to the bars, and the light reflected against his deep purple skin. He almost looked human, which caught me off-guard. “I overheard some of the soldiers saying that the Lord of Shadows is at the Crystal Palace. He has many fortresses, but the Crystal Palace is the most secure place in the Dark. It’s almost impossible to reach it. I bet he’d have your father’s soul locked away there.”
“Why is it almost impossible to reach?” I asked, leaning closer to the bars.
“Watch out!” the boy said. “There’s a reason no one can escape this cage. The bars kill on contact.”
“How do I find this Crystal Palace?” I pressed.
“The location is warded against magic. There are only a few people with a map that can get you there, and you happened upon a camp with one of them.” The boy eyed a tent with the lights still on, and I made a quick mental note of which one. “I’m sure you already knew that, or you wouldn’t be here.”
I narrowed my eyes, not knowing whether to trust him. I couldn’t get my hopes up, but I didn’t think we’d landed here for no reason. “Why did you desert?”
The darkbringer flinched and glanced away from me. He squeezed his knees tighter to his chest. “It doesn’t matter why. I just did, okay? I never wanted to join Command and leave my family behind. It wasn’t my choice.”
“They made you join?” I asked. Things like this happened in the human world, too, and no one stopped it. The orishas left humans to evolve on their own while the Lord of Shadows had total control of this world. In
both worlds, kids were fighting when they should’ve been home with their parents or in school. It wasn’t right.
“Are you going to let me out or not?” the boy demanded.
“I’ll let you out once we get the map,” I said. “It’s only fair.”
He perked up. “We? Are there other godlings here with you?”
“That’s none of your business.” I winced, annoyed at myself for that slip. “I’ll be back if I get the map and find it useful.”
“No, you won’t,” he said. “I may not agree with everything the Lord of Shadows does, but I don’t trust you. Godlings and humans are nothing more than the celestials’ little pets. You’d take over our world too if given a chance.”
“That’s not true.” He was really starting to get on my last nerve. “You’re the ones who came into our world first.”
“The world was ours before your father created the veil that killed millions,” he shot back.
“That was an accident,” I said, choking on my words.
He dropped his head to his knees again. “Whatever you say, godling.”
I stepped behind a tent so he couldn’t see me. I felt a tap on my shoulder and Eli’s magic again. My friends faded into ghostly form before my eyes.
Eli shook his head. “I don’t trust him.”
“I agree,” Frankie said. “What if he’s making up this whole map thing?”
I didn’t know what to believe. The gateway opened close to the camp for a reason, and I wasn’t going to leave until I found out why. “We stick to the plan, get in and get out, but we can’t leave until we see if the map is real.” I pointed to the largest tent in the camp. The darkbringer had looked dead at it when he mentioned the map. “I have an idea where it might be.”
SEVENTEEN
Is one map worth the trouble?
