by Ben Alderson
Rivers ran down the smooth surface, but even I could hear the slosh of contents that was inside.
“Petal, look at me.” Hadrian’s voice was a slur as he shouted for my attention. “Do not look anywhere but me.”
But I couldn’t listen. My eyes searched Nyah’s body for movement, for the raise of her chest but even the light would not let me see that. I strained my back, trying to break free.
I caught movement out the corner of my eye then Illera was suddenly by Nyah’s side.
“Don’t touch her,” I screamed, but Illera ignored me. Illera took Nyah under her arms and pulled her away from Gordex and towards Emaline. My neck screamed as I tried to follow Nyah as she was taken away from my line of sight.
“Look at me!” Hadrian shouted again. I pinched my eyes closed and shook my head, opening them with burning hate for Gordex.
“You try to blind side me even after I keep you alive longer than I needed,” Gordex said. “Again, I prove that your attempts are futile and wasted. You cannot stop me. I have your Heart Magick, I have your blood, and I will have your bodies. Do you have any other secrets hidden that you would like to share, or will you force me to kill another to get what I need?”
I hissed with each breath. The sadness and panic for Nyah buried by intense anger. I couldn’t reply to him; I had no words that would do justice to the thoughts in my mind.
Nyah. My Nyah. My friend.
I spared a look to Illera who was pushing her hands onto Nyah’s stomach and pressing her mouth onto her lips.
Slithers of the shadow figure came together once more, standing beside Gordex. A series of sounds came out of its mouthless face and Gordex nodded.
What I would have given to have understood their language and speak it in return, to tell both the shadow and Gordex what passed through my mind with lightning intensity.
“Apologies,” Gordex mumbled, looking up and down at the shadow as if he was too frightened to look for too long.
The shadow replied, causing the hairs on my arm to stand.
Gordex lifted the bowl back to his lips and tipped the blood into his mouth. The lump in his throat bobbed as he devoured our gore, showing no sign of repulsion.
Once he finished, he lowered the lip of the bowl and flashed his stained mouth, now a smile. His yellowed teeth now looked black. A dribble of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth and down to his chin, yet he did not wipe it away.
“Blood of the hosts,” Gordex said, eyes rolling into his head. “It is time.”
The shadow figure split into four. No longer did it seem transparent, its outline became clearer and features flexed into existence. Gordex dropped the bowl to the ground, his hands spilling more shadow as his lips whispered a string of words. The shadows he conjured fed into the four figures.
One of the figures moved for Marthil, leaving footprints in the sand. It bent down, regarded the body and slipped into Marthil’s slack mouth. As if Marthil took a hulking breath, the shadow disappeared within her.
Then, as if it was a trick of the light, her chest rose.
“One down, only three to go. I am sorry, but this is as far as I can let you watch. It is time to gift your bodies as the hosts for those who need them more.” Gordex stepped forward slowly, his eyes looked heavy and empty. He lifted his cloak and pulled a curved blade from a hidden sheath at his waist and pointed it to me. “You… you will be my next”—Gordex cleared his throat, brows turned down in confusion as he battled something within his mind—“next to die.”
Marthil’s body began convulsing on the ground, her skin shook and her limbs jerked wildly. The three remaining shadows followed him as he walked for me, blade raised. One step he almost missed, his feet clumsy and legs weak.
I clamped my mouth closed and looked to Hadrian. He was smiling at me, a knowing smile full of sadness and love.
“Be strong, we will see each other soon,” Hadrian said, looking right at me.
I broke into messy sobs. “I’m scared. What if you can’t find me?”
It didn’t matter who watched us, in the moment all I could see was Hadrian.
“I shall always find you, Petal, always.”
Gordex clapped his hand on the back of his other. “I want you to watch as I take your… your life. There is something beautiful when seeing life seep from one’s eyes. I do not want to miss it this time.”
I could see my terrified reflection in the blade’s steel body.
I spared Emaline and Illera a smile, seeing Nyah and knowing I would join her. Perhaps she waited on the other side?
“Do it,” I said, biting down into my bottom lip.
Gordex didn’t respond with words. Instead, he raised the curved blade with both hands and blinked heavily. I noticed the twitch of his face as he fought something off.
His mouth opened, but his eyes closed, face relaxing as the monstrous yawn took over his body.
The shadows seemed to click and scream as if panicked by something, then Gordex lowered the blade slowly and rocked back, eyes wide.
“What… What have you…”
YET ANOTHER YAWN broke Gordex’s face. His entire body seemed to sag, then he dropped, his legs no longer working for him.
Straight to the ground he fell in a heap, eyes closed and chest rising slowly.
Marthil’s body stopped shaking and the shadow of the druids flickered in and out of existence. They twisted and jolted, horrific screams cutting across me.
I looked around for answers as to what had happened. The sky was full of unnatural noises as the shadows were forced to leave. But why?
Everything happened so quickly. Illera moved with speed and threw herself over Gordex who showed no sign that he knew what was happening as he slept beneath her. His mouth ajar, breathing shallow and heavy.
With all her might Illera cried and thrust the same knife he had used to kill Marthil and Nyah and brought it down into his chest.
Once, twice, three times Illera brought the weapon down. By the fifth time, the shadows disappeared entirely, the frozen white flames returned to their natural orange and reds. The wind sang, the ocean calmed in the distance and the ground was still, unmoving.
Illera was bent over Gordex, his chest no longer moving. She pressed her forehead to his body and sobbed loudly. A warmth filled my body and moved down to my stomach. It spread across my limbs, neck and spun around my mind with such speed that I became dizzy.
My head pounded as the world returned to its normal state. No longer did the shadows watch above. The air was empty of their presence.
In beats of my heart, we were surrounded by Niraen soldiers, faces I recognized from our fight. Some pulled at my arms, slamming hilts of weapons and boots onto my constraints until they cracked as if they were as weak as a shell. No longer fueled by magick. Like the dead vines in the temple in Eldnol. They crumbled to dust.
It seemed that every time I blinked, I missed something. The world was in perfect chaos. Someone lifted me from the ground. My wrists were wrapped in damp, cool cloth to still the dull ache left from the rubbing of rough stone. I turned around in circles, watching all the survivors block out my view. I looked to Nyah who was huddled over by countless others.
I ran for her, trying to push everyone out of my way. Faces blurred before my eyes.
“She is in safe hands,” a warm voice said from behind. “Shh, leave her with them.”
I spun on Hadrian, turning to face him as he stood feet away from me. He looked weak, tried, but alive. Then he wrapped me in his arms and held me tight.
“What is going on?” I questioned, my mind clogged with fog and confusion. Everything around me was happening so quickly that I couldn’t grasp onto anything. Only moments before Gordex was going to sacrifice me. Now I stood free as his dead body was laid on the ground near me.
“It is done,” Hadrian. “Gordex is dead. It is over.”
Dead. Gordex is dead.
Looking over Hadrian’s shoulder, I saw the Druid’s bod
y on the ground, chest covered in open wounds. Illera was not near him, but I could see that he was unmoving. I could almost feel his lack of power in the air, in me.
“How?” I breathed.
“I do not know what has happened yet, but it does not matter now. Just hold me and do not let go.”
And hold him I did.
I squeezed onto Hadrian, ignoring the pain in my body and mind. I relaxed in his hold, giving into his welcoming presence as the world moved around us. Soldiers and warriors ran around, helping others. Leaving us uninterrupted.
AS NIGHT LEFT us for early morning, the sky tinted with beautiful pastels I could see the full extent of what happened. Shadowbeings littered the ground around us, a circle of dead no longer in need and full of power. Puppets without a string, for their master was no more.
That is how the soldiers had come to break us free. Once Gordex was killed, they were no longer kept from us with the barrier of dead.
“The blood he drank was tainted,” Emaline said, scratching her head. Unlike Hadrian, she was not covered in bandages. The Forbian was so fresh in her blood, all marks of war had healed. Mine had worked to an extent, healing the grazes and cuts on my wrists, but I still needed assistance once Paytric helped set up what he could of a camp for us.
“Forbian has a different effect on non-shifters,” Emaline said. “And that devil just drank more than enough of a dosage to knock him clean out.”
I found it hard to fully listen to everything I was being told, not with Nyah on my mind.
“Like the first night in Olderim when Gordex as King Dalior polluted the food and drink to weed the shifters out, all the mundane fell asleep. That is the affect the herb has on anyone else,” Illera explained.
My mind whirled, shocked by the turn of events. Something I never expected to happen.
“Our blood, Emaline, mine and Marthil. We each had taken a dosage of Forbian recently. The concentration must have been pungent in our system.” I could still see Gordex’s face twist in confusion as he began slurring over his words and yawning. How his body could not control the sudden, overwhelming tiredness that took over him. “His own plan backfired on him in the end.”
“And that is what this is,” Hadrian said. “The end. It is done.”
Even though I knew Hadrian was right, that Gordex could never come around for the wounds Illera gifted him, I still could not find happiness. Not after everything we had lost. Even the things that still hung in the balance. I kept looking towards the flaps of the tent, expecting them to come and give us news on her. I hadn’t seen Nyah since a group of Niraen and Morthi picked her from the ground and rushed her into the first erected tent.
“What comes next?” Emaline asked, dropping into a seat.
“That is a good question,” Hadrian replied. “I suppose we return to our lives before, rebuild them, start new ones. Gordex may be dead, but I can speak for myself and say the damage left behind in his wake will take a long time to fix. He has left cities as wastelands, towns in ruins and separated many from their loved ones. That will take time to heal.”
“I want nothing more than to return home,” Emaline said. “To see my family, if they have survived.”
Illera raised a glass of water before her. “Home.”
Home. It was a hard word to wrap my mind around. After staring into Gordex’s eyes as he raised the blade I truly believed I would never return to Horith. I’d never see my parents let alone hold them again.
But I was fortunate. I could make the choice as to where I went now. Whereas Gordex had stopped so many from ever returning to their families. Instead he left bodies, in which where being prepared for the long or short journeys to their homes outside, would all they would get. Empty vessels of shadowbeings being separated into Niraen, Morthi and Alorian to ensure they are taken to the right soil for families to claim them.
“I’m finding it hard to feel relief,” I blurted out to our group.
“Me too,” Emaline agreed. “Doesn’t seem right, the way this has all ended. It is hard to believe it.”
Kell and Vianne walked through the door, both stripped of their ruined, bloody uniforms for mundane slacks and loose tunics supplied from Vcaros.
“We have both watched Gordex’s body burn to nothing but ashes. I truly believe he will not be returning after this. His power was great, but not great enough to survive what he controlled, death.” Kell pulled a stool and took a seat. “As requested his ashes will be separated between all three continents.”
That last comment was pinned to Hadrian for it was his idea.
“Any word?” I asked, almost shouted. My nails had been chewed down to stumps as we waited.
“I’ve supplied the very best healers I could muster from my city. Paytric has also offered up help.”
I noticed nothing wrong with what Kell said, but Hadrian did.
“Your city?” he questioned. “Would it not belong to your King?”
Vianne spared a knowing look to Kell, who scrunched her nose and replied, “No, my city. I said it correctly.”
“You don’t have a King, do you?” Hadrian rubbed his hand across his sharp chin.
Kell just shrugged her shoulders. “Surprise?”
“Surprise indeed.” Emaline straightened in her seat.
“Care to explain?” Hadrian waved a hand, although his expression suggested he had already worked it out.
“I’m sorry I have not told you before, but I thought it best to keep this knowledge to myself for a time. Vcaros has not had a King for years, in fact he gave rule down to his daughter before he passed. I am surprised Paytric did not tell you, for he attended my father’s burial.”
It all made sense. Why Kell had so much say over her warriors, how she was protected in a circle of them during the fight.
“And you chose not to tell us because?” Hadrian questioned.
“It would make no difference if you knew or not. Part of protecting the queen is keeping her identity secret from strangers. Think of it as collateral. Enemies would never know who to strike.”
“Then who is…” Emaline began to ask, but I answered for her.
“You are Queen,” I said. It was a statement, not a question.
Kell raised her hands in defeat. “You’ve caught me.”
I should have known. We all should have. Kell’s ability to communicate and control. Her strong delegation and command. It was all signs that she was not only the voice for Vcaros, but its very mouth piece.
“And Paytric knew about this all along?”
Vianne sniggered into her hand.
“And you did?” Hadrian looked to Vianne, eyes wide.
“It was not for me to say,” Vianne replied, one brow raised in humor. “A woman’s secret is as sacred as the being keeping it.”
“Here, here,” Emaline said.
We spoke more on Kell and her control over Vcaros. For a moment, I felt my mind being occupied with other thoughts than Nyah and her state.
“I actually have come to say goodbye,” Vianne said to everyone. “It has been discussed that I should return home as soon as I can. I worry for Queen Kathine and my aunt. What state has the city of Lilioira has been left in? So many questions rush around my mind which I am anxious to get answers for.”
“We understand,” Hadrian said. “And my father? Will you send word when you return?”
“It will be one of my first tasks to find him. I can assure you word will be sent to you the moment we know of his condition.”
Emaline stood, Illera hand in hers. “Then I will join you on the journey. I am as anxious to return home. And I think it is safe to say that I am no longer needed here.”
Knowing Emaline would be leaving pained my heart. Saying goodbye was not something I wanted to do, yet I knew it was impossible to ignore it.
Gordex had only just died, and everyone was ready to pack up and leave. I didn’t know what I should have expected after this was all over. In truth, I never thought we would all
make it through. But here we were on the other side, preparing to leave for the next chapter of our lives. A chapter not riddled with the Druid and his threat.
Illera was looking everywhere but me. And I knew why.
“You are going with her, aren’t you, Illera?”
“I am. If I returned home I am giving myself back to a family who will belittle me, treated me without kindness. I can’t stand the thought of leaving all this behind. I hope you understand, but Emaline is my home now. It is my choice to stay with her.”
“I understand,” I said. “You both deserve to enter this new era of calm with each other.”
Emaline and Illera linked hands and smiled my way.
“Shall I tell your parents of your decision?” I asked Illera.
She shook her head. “Unless they come asking for me, they do not need to know. Never have they worried about me thus far, so I do not see why they would start now.”
Although I felt a burning desire to share my own word with them. For what they had put Illera through.
“And with my help we may reach Lilioira faster,” Emaline said. “Although without the Heart Magick…”
I looked up at her, and so did Hadrian.
I hadn’t thought of it. My mind has been such a blur that I had not noticed the return of normality to the pit of my stomach. Reaching for my power, I knew it was true. No longer did the darkness threaten me like a lurking predator every time I reached for my magick. My power was no longer overwhelming by any means.
“The Heart Magick is gone,” I said. “I can’t say I am sad.”
“So it is,” Hadrian said. “Now that is something I will not find difficult saying goodbye too. But Emaline is right, with your skills you could help return back to Eldnol sooner and with it means answers would soon follow.”
“What of the small child? The Elementalist?” Vianne said. “There will be room to take him with us?”
Hadrian looked to me, but before I could open my mouth to reply, two red-headed twins poked their noses through the tent. Their freckled faces looked tired and gaunt from the dark shadows beneath their eyes and which were rimmed red.
