by S A Edwards
Hanrel didn’t look convinced. “How do I know he won’t scratch me? Or worse. He’s a lot bigger now.”
I glanced at Chimera. He wasn’t looking our way, but I didn’t want to risk Hanrel getting hurt by touching him. “Just keep your distance. If you can gain his trust, you’ll be safe. I think.”
“Comforting.”
“Siren is right though. Our journey is dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Have you figured out how to save your Charlie?” he asked.
Siren cast me an unsure look. Suspicion cut through my trust. Siren’s emotions?
“Yes,” I said.
“Then, I will come with you. It’s better to have a practised Healer.” He raised a hand to Siren. “At least until you master it yourself. Clara might need one.”
Siren got to his feet. “Let’s get started, then.”
“Shouldn’t we rest some more?” I asked.
He shook his head, gaze flashing to Hanrel. “We’ve had plenty for now.” Judging by the fatigue that tugged on my mind, he was lying.
“You can’t go yet, anyway,” Hanrel said. “You were stabbed by a Mortal Blade. It supresses your gift.”
Siren’s hands balled. “Of course. I forgot. For how long?”
“Several hours. We’ll journey when they return.”
Siren murmured a response, but I paid no attention. A building ball of power tugged at my mind, dark and menacing like the magic of the Gates. It reached toward me, growing larger each moment, and filled my mind with fear.
The woodland blurred.
Something grasped my arm.
I pulled away, retreating from the approaching power, but its speed increased.
It caught me, clenched my chest like a whirlwind and expanded, billowing out through the air.
A break in the magic grated through my body.
I sank to my knees.
“Clara?” Siren’s voice broke through my heavy breathing.
The forest swam back into view.
Chimera crouched near, his large eyes fixed on me. White claws peeked from beneath his paws, and a wrinkle creased his nose.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Hanrel took my shoulder and furrowed his brow. “You’re not hurt. What was that?”
“It felt like a Gate. A failing one. But,” – I peered at Siren – “are we near a Gate?”
“No. Not for several eona.”
I shivered. “That was strange.” It felt like a Gate lay right beside me. Was the effect of me being here growing stronger?
A shadow shifted behind Chimera, and my gaze locked with Charlie. He flashed me a little smile, and my heart broke into a sprint.
Hanrel turned toward him. “What are you looking at?”
“He’s here,” Siren said, though he hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
“You can see him?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I can feel your joy, your longing, your despair.” He tugged me to my feet. “Go on. We’ll wait.”
“What are you talking about?” Hanrel asked.
I ignored him and approached Charlie.
He appeared weaker than our last encounter. His face was pale, his muscles smaller, and he no longer towered above me.
I frowned at the sight of him. “You look different.”
He nodded. “Things are changing down here.” His voice shook.
I peeked over my shoulder at Siren and Hanrel, but they were busy conversing and didn’t look at me. “You’re growing evil,” I whispered.
Charlie blinked, and his face turned whiter. “How do you –”
“I saw you in the Underworld. I watched you kill a Hellion. Or Zantos killed it. And you both spoke to each other.” My hands trembled.
Tears welled in his eyes.
I longed to reach out to him, to take him in my arms and comfort him, but I wasn’t sure my words would help.
“It’s becoming harder to fight.” His voice shook, and the extent of his terror slipped through. “I know it’s wrong. Or I used to. Only now, I’m not so sure. Things are starting to make sense, and I can’t help thinking maybe he’s right.”
“That’s the corruption talking, Charlie. You have to keep fighting. I’m coming for you. I’m not far off, so just hold on a little longer, okay?”
“See, I know that. This part of me.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “But the other part, the bit of me that’s still down there, I feel it, like a different person. I’m getting weaker here. It’s getting harder to see you. Like every time the evil grows, this side of me disappears.” His voice cracked. “I’m afraid I’m going to lose myself.”
“I won’t let that happen.” My words tumbled out in a rush. “The corruption nearly got me, remember? You helped me. You’re good, Charlie. You can overcome this. I have a way to force Zantos out. I’m going to save you, Charlie. I’m coming.”
“I hope so, because I don’t think I have long left.” A tear trailed his cheek.
“Just stay strong. I believe in you.”
He gasped and glanced behind him.
Then, he vanished.
30
Istared at the place Charlie had stood. How much longer did he have? If he became lost to the corruption, would I be able to save him? I had to. Surely, he couldn’t be gone for good.
A hand touched my shoulder, and warmth spread down my side.
“Siren,” I whispered.
“I feel your pain,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Everything. Yet, I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t risk him trying to stop me from rescuing Charlie.
“I feel your fear, too,” he said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing. He’s in the Underworld. Things are bad. We’ve got to hurry.” I shrugged away from him and grabbed my pack from the ground.
He followed. “That’s not it. There’s more. Something you’re hiding.”
“What could I possibly be hiding?”
“If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be avoiding my eyes.”
I forced my gaze to meet his.
“I’ve sensed something wrong since the whisperleaf tree,” he said. “What did the spirit tell you?”
“I already told you.”
“But not all of it.”
“Yes, all of it.” I looked away. Technically, I learned of Charlie’s darkness through the vision, not the spirit, so I wasn’t lying to him. The thought gave me little comfort.
“Let me help you,” he said. “Don’t keep this to yourself.”
“We haven’t got time for this, Siren. Charlie needs me. Chimera, you coming?”
The creature stood and shook his head, ears flapping against his cheeks.
Siren didn’t argue further and scooped up his own pack. He took the lead in silence.
I wondered if he was annoyed with me, but I didn’t want to connect to his emotions in case he could feel it, too. I sighed. As though keeping this horror to myself wasn’t hard enough without his prying.
We stopped to eat briefly around midmorning, but each passing moment increased my urgency to reach Charlie.
It occurred to me that Siren may help if he knew the truth. He felt my desperation, my desire to free Charlie, to atone for banishing him through the Void. This was my fault. He was here because of me, and it was my duty to get him out.
But if Siren became aware of his corruption, once he knew the risk it posed to the people of this world, how could he agree to help?
I could do with another whisperleaf. If the one I carried could force Zantos out, another might draw out the evil. I wished the tree had agreed to give me a second. Though, maybe if Zantos left willingly after being freed from the Underworld, I could use the leaf on the darkness within Charlie instead. Even so, the danger Zantos posed still played on my mind, despite the dismissal of the tree. Would a Mortal Blade work on him? If I could get close enough….
Footstep
s broke through my thoughts, and Chimera let out a warning snarl.
My attention turned to his line of sight.
Rickson rounded a wrinkled trunk, his pack flailing, his cheeks red. He staggered to a halt when he saw Chimera. “Don’t let it eat me. I … look, here.” He circled his wrist and pink fluff appeared in his palm. He threw it to Chimera.
“Chimera, don’t,” I warned.
Chimera sniffed it once, snorted, and then growled at him with sudden fierceness.
Of course, he was smarter than me. Who knew how far his knowledge extended? After all, he could carry all the knowledge from the book.
“What are you doing here, Rickson?” I asked.
“I need your help. Kyne, he’s taken a family of Mortals captive. He’s going to sacrifice one every hour to a Hellion if you don’t meet him at the Olive Folds.”
“He what?” A growl rumbled in my throat. Why wouldn’t Kyne let this go? How many people needed to die or suffer by his hand?
“A few have spoken out,” Rickson said, “but he threatened to send them in, too. Please. We need your help.”
“Please. The only reason you’re here is to be Kyne’s errand boy.”
He retreated a step, hurt in his eyes. “Is that what you think of me? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends don’t make friends addicted to their power.” His pink fluff caused me two days of pain and suffering, not to mention the delay it caused to trying to help Charlie.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Like you don’t know.”
Silence fell, and he ground his foot against the dirt. “Look, we don’t have time for this. Will you help the Mortals or not?”
I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. I’m so sorry, Charlie. I’ll come as soon as I can. I promise. Just hold on.
I glared at Rickson. “Take me to him.”
“Clara, no,” Siren said.
“I have to. He’ll kill them all and just go and find more.”
Siren stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I’ll show Prudens. He can send others to stop him.”
“Have your gifts returned?” I asked.
His lips tightened.
“Exactly. There’s no telling how long that’ll take.” Especially as an Ancient. It might work differently on him. “We can’t wait for them, and …” And I didn’t want him to get hurt.
“I can’t protect you like this. Without my powers,” he said.
“I’ll have Chimera.”
“He might be killed, and then you’ll be vulnerable.”
“I have my own gifts.”
“And if that doesn’t work? Clara, you have no idea what it will do to me if you die.”
“I’ll be fine.” He barely knew me. It couldn’t affect him that much.
“What about the Gate?” he asked.
“What about it?”
“You know what will happen if you go near it.”
“I’ll keep my distance. I think I can sense them now, anyway. I’ll stay away.”
“He’s right.” Hanrel fiddled with his flask. “Kyne can’t be trusted. He wants you to make the Gates fail.”
“What would you have me do?” I asked. “Sit back and let him kill more innocents?”
“Of course, not. But if another Gate fails, you know the damage it could do, the people the Hellion will hurt.”
Siren shook his head. “Please don’t do this.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “Kyne won’t keep me there. I won’t let him. Chimera won’t let him. But I have to help. Tell me you understand that?”
Siren huffed. “I feel what you do, remember? Of course, I understand.”
“Good. I’ll be back soon.” I swung my pack before his feet, determined not to let Kyne get hold of the book. I longed to know what he knew about it, if anything, but couldn’t risk it falling into his hands.
Siren grabbed my arm. “I’m coming with you.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking.”
Irritation set my teeth on edge. “Neither am I.” I wouldn’t be responsible for his death, and with Kyne, that might well happen. Ice poured from my hands, solidifying around him and Hanrel in a solid wall.
A burst of fatigue tugged on my muscles. How much longer could I stay awake? Already, slight nausea churned my stomach, and an ache plagued my head.
“Clara!” Siren’s hands, blurry through the glittering surface, pressed against it. “Clara, let us out.”
“No. You’ll be safe there. I’ll come for you when I’m finished.” Unless his gifts returned by then. I wondered if the flames of an Ancient could break through a Preserver’s magic. At this point, nothing surprised me anymore.
“You should rest,” I added, sure he felt as tired as me. I nodded to Rickson. “Let’s go.”
He raced back through the woodland with me close behind.
Chimera’s light breath sounded behind me. He had no trouble keeping up. He probably thought we were too slow.
Rickson cast worried glances over his shoulder at Chimera from time to time, but my protector didn’t stray from my flank. Despite his danger to others, his presence comforted me.
It wasn’t long before a stitch began in my side, but I pushed through it, determined to reach Kyne before anyone else got hurt. Rickson moved with apparent ease, leaping over upturned roots and shrubs like nothing more than pebbles.
The absence of Siren tugged within me, and a desire to be with him weighed on my mind. I shook the thought off. What was that about? The weird pull that drew me to him made no sense, and I refused to believe it was due to our companionship. I couldn’t even be honest with him. What kind of companionship held a barrier like that?
Rickson wound the way around the thickening trunks, past a flowing stream with fresh Riparians waving in a breeze, and through a thicket of bushes.
Thorns scratched at my arms and bit into my skin.
Chimera shoved through after me, seemingly unaffected by the sharp spikes.
“You came all this way to find me?” I asked.
Rickson paused and peered over his shoulder. “Yeah. So?”
“How did you know where to go?” We’d travelled quite some way since our meeting with Kyne.
“Filligie. He has this gift of knowing where people are.”
“He’s a Seeker?” The purple stone set in my staff gleamed in the gloom.
“No, no, nothing like that.” Rickson said.
“But does he have a staff?”
“Huh?”
“A stick with a purple stone. Like this.” I held up my own.
“Not that I know of.”
“Oh.” Then what did that make him? A different sort of Seeker? A weaker sort?
Rickson nodded toward a clump of tangled bushes. “They’re through there.”
“After you.”
He flashed an amused smile and slipped through.
A stab of power confirmed his words. Dark and strong like the other Gates felt, it pulsed in the front of my mind with a surge of evil. A Dark Gate, but not too near. I could go a little closer.
I pushed through the bushes.
Kyne stood beside a stone arch, the surface smooth and polished to a silver gleam. Budding roses grew from overhanging branches, perfect in every sense, and jade olives hung between the blossoms. The Olive Folds. At least the name made sense.
“Celeste. I’m glad you came,” Kyne said.
I searched the gathered Mage but saw no Mortals. “I was under the impression I had no choice.” I cast a warning glance at Rickson. “Prisoners, as I recall,” I said. “If you’ve lied to me, I might just set Chimera on you for wasting my time.”
Rickson’s eyes betrayed a flicker of fear.
I braced, prepared to race back through the bush if Kyne made a move. Reaching out with my Healer gift, I noted the position of the Mage in his group, their tiredness, their aching feet. None were hiding behind me.
Kyne raised his
eyebrows at the large cat beside me and smiled.
“Something funny?” I asked.
“Only that you think I’ll buy your tough act. You always were too soft to do what was needed.”
“What do you mean?”
He nodded at another Mage, her hair gleaming in a ray of sunlight. She clicked her fingers, and five people appeared.
A man, woman, and three children cowered beneath the watchful gaze of guarding Mage. Each wore the tattered clothing of land workers, and dirt clung to their cheeks.
I gaped. “You hid them?”
She shrugged. “I do that.”
“Why?”
Kyne chuckled. “We didn’t want you trying to rescue them before we had a chance to talk now, did we?” He grabbed the woman and hauled her away from her family. The man protested, but a flash of black through Kyne’s eyes silenced him. The children sobbed.
“Let them go,” I said.
Kyne ran his hand over her black, earthy hair, seemingly enjoying her cringe. “You know, just this once, I will, if you agree to my terms.”
“Your terms,” I scoffed. “What do you want, Kyne?”
“I want to go home.”
“By destroying this world.”
“If there was another way, don’t you think I would take it?”
“No, not really.”
He frowned. “If the Keepers would open the Void, none of this would be needed. As it is –”
“Hang on.” I pressed my forefingers against my temples. Kyne couldn’t be trusted, that much was clear, but with the assistance of his group, it would increase my chances. Charlie’s chances. This just might work. If I continued to fight against him, he would be a constant distraction from reaching Charlie in time. Yet, if I were to work with him or take advantage of him and his followers, Charlie could be saved, along with the innocent Mortals he would otherwise target.
I took a breath. This was risky, but it needed to be done. “I can open the Void.”
31
K
yne blinked. “You can open the Void?”
“Well, no. The Keepers can.” Revealing that I was a Keeper to the one determined to make all the Gates fail wasn’t the best idea.
He scowled. “The Keepers refused when I petitioned them. You know this.”
“They won’t refuse me.”
