Link to Chapter 1 – Previous Chapter – Next Chapter
Unanswered questions ran rampant through Rain’s mind. As the darkness of night pressed in around her, she feared that she would forget the Goddess’ prophecy. She closed her eyes and concentrated, thinking of the first line, which she remembered. She said it aloud, and as soon as she did so, she recalled the second line. As she ran through each line in her head, she remembered the next one. Somehow, the Goddess must have etched the words into her mind so she would never forget them. What a great help that was, she thought irritably. She couldn’t understand a bit of it.
She looked above her into the moonlit sky. It appeared at least half the night had gone by. Did I really spend that much time here? She picked up her lantern and walked to the boat, then placed the lantern in the bottom and sat down. There wasn’t anything else she could do here. She pushed off from shore with the oars, taking one last long look at the summoning circle. As she rowed, she pondered the Goddess’ words. There had to be something she could understand from them, or coming here would have been a waste.
The magic is the cure. It couldn’t mean elemental magic. And when she healed Shea before with innate magic, the mental part of the Soulblight hadn’t disappeared. Perhaps it was worth trying again. Maybe that’s what it meant. She rowed faster at the thought.
She hadn’t asked for this all to happen to her. She sometimes thought she’d be happier back at home, even being an outsider. She was nearly an outsider here anyway, being the only moon elf left with innate powers. Shea was the first man near her age that hadn’t thought she was too strange to get close to. If she would try to heal one person first, it would be him. He could help her, but it wasn’t just that. She realized she really missed him.
Eventually the far shore came into view, and she stopped rowing and let the boat coast, listening for the sounds of the phantoms. She heard nothing.
Quickly, she rowed to shore and pulled the boat out of the water. Scanning the darkness with her lantern, she spotted Pan not too far away. He looked in one piece. She wanted to run and greet him with a hug, but she restrained herself. Shea or the phantoms could still be around any corner, trying to kill her.
She walked towards Pan quietly, scanning the outlying woods in the darkness. The nearby tree, she saw with relief, was the one the boat had been tied to. Her dagger stuck out of its trunk, the blade completely buried in the bark. She pulled it out, and as she walked towards Pan, she promptly stubbed her toe. It was the lantern pole. She hung the lantern on it and propped it against the tree.
Shea and Ahearn weren’t in sight. She approached Pan carefully, patting his neck, making sure he knew it was her. She quietly mounted and walked him to the tree, picking up the lantern. Where would she go now? She had to find Shea. She couldn’t heal him with beasts hunting her, smelling her magic, so she would have to take him somewhere safe. Once she found him. And if he wasn’t still trying to kill her.
She started by searching the perimeter of the lake. It was the easiest and safest place to look. She wasn’t happy about the idea of going back into the woods, where she was more likely to run into a phantom.
Pan stumbled a few times on outlying tree roots outside the lantern light’s reach. The only sound in the eerie place was the clomping of Pan’s hooves on the padded earth. After a while, she grew worried. What would the chances be that Shea stayed near the lake? What if those beasts had done something to him, like the goblins in the illusion?
She reached into the neck of her shirt and pulled out her aegis, clutching it for comfort. She couldn’t search the whole forest, and there was no sign of him yet. What if she had to go on without him? The thought made her throat tighten and she felt tears well up in her eyes. “Shea, come back to me,” she whispered, still holding her aegis tight.
A screech filled the air, followed by a second. The phantoms. But she hadn’t used magic! Had she? She let go of her aegis and grabbed the reins with her free hand. She would have to escape while holding the lantern. She increased Pan’s speed to a fast trot, and circled the lake in a few minutes. She saw the boat again and looked for the path leading away from the lake. She could come back to look for Shea, couldn’t she?
Dark, gnarled, leafless trees sped past her as she left the lake behind. The shrieks grew louder and more frequent behind her. The lantern swung on its pole, and she slid the pole a little lower in her grip and tried to keep it steady. She increased her speed to a canter, hoping it wouldn’t be a mistake.
Something burst out of the trees in front of her and Pan abruptly stopped moving, rearing up on his hind legs. She clung to the saddle, the reins, anything to keep from falling off, until he finally calmed down. She looked through the darkness to see a black horse with a rider. She started to back away, but then recognized his face.
Shea!
Rain hurried Pan forward and saw Shea was holding his own aegis clutched in his fist. His eyes were normal, she saw, but he was staring straight ahead, lost in his cursed trance. She narrowed her eyebrows in worry and curiosity. He had never seen him take out his aegis, save when he was showing it to someone. And how did he find his way to her? She touched her own aegis, which was still hanging loose around her neck, and saw that even in his stupor, Shea tightened his grip on the stone. It apparently connected them. No doubt it was magic.
A gargling scream came from in front of them, and a tall, dark body shaped like an emaciated human burst out of the trees, ten paces away. She stuffed her own aegis back under her shirt in case it was the reason the beasts could sense her. When it let out its cry, she saw long, gleaming sharp teeth. In a moment of desperation, she thrust the lantern pole at Shea, and he took it. Something inside him was still conscious. She took the bow off her back and nocked an arrow. The phantom didn’t seem as ghostly as she thought it might be, so the arrow would probably wound it. Closer, she could see it had no eyes or ears, just a gaping, screaming mouth full of sharp teeth. She aimed at its face and let the arrow fly.
The arrow struck home, and the beast’s shriek was so piercing that when it was done thrashing in pain, her ears still rang loudly. She quickly put her bow back over her shoulder, took the lantern back from Shea, and pushed Pan over the body of the phantom into the trees, starting at a fast trot. She looked behind her and saw Ahearn following without Shea’s guidance and said a silent thank you.
Shrieks continued to come from all directions, and she dearly wanted to plug her ears to ward off the painful sounds. She clutched the swinging lantern in one hand and the reins in the other while dodging low, crooked branches. She didn’t worry about making too much noise, since the phantoms didn’t have ears. After a few minutes, the shrieks died down and finally stopped. She continued hearing their cries but knew it was from her ears getting used to the silence. She kept Pan at a fast pace until even the lingering cries were gone from her ears.
After an hour, the horses’ hooves clomped on the bone-littered path, and Rain knew they were safe. However, she didn’t slow Pan’s pace. The faster they returned to Belmaeron to deliver the information and begin the next part of the journey, the better. She had no idea how many had become afflicted with the Soulblight while they were gone, and she now had at least a clue to finding the cure.
Shea sat upon Ahearn’s back, expressionless. Rain occasionally looked behind her to make sure he was alright. She wished dearly that he could look back into her eyes and smile. The next time they decided to stop and rest, she promised herself she would try to heal him, and she earnestly hoped it would work.
***
In a short while, she walked through an invisible wall of mist, and knew they were approaching Edana’s house. She worried that something might have happened to her, from what Shea had said while being possessed. It was also possible that she was still alive, and was working for the enemy, and would be worth avoiding.
All thoughts she had of bypassing the house dissolved into shock when she got closer to the small cottage. The garden that had been so meticulously tended to had been destroyed, beautifully colored flowers uprooted and strewn about the clearing. Windows had been smashed in by stones, and shingles had been pulled off the roof. At the front of the house, the front door had a ragged hole, about two feet tall, near the bottom. There were small punctures everywhere on the wood, reminding her strangely of a woodpecker’s holes.
Rain slid off Pan’s back and slowly walked to the front door. The thought ran through her mind that this could be a trap, an illusion—but she knew this was still the safe path, the bone path, and she had to know what had happened here. Was Edana still alive? She placed her hand on the doorknob, turned it, and pushed.
The inside was just as destroyed as the outside. Torn book pages, furniture pieces, and broken statues and figurines of faeries and other forest folk littered the floor. She would have thought it was craetons, except for the lack of blood on the front door. Paintings on the wall had the same holes and indents as the front door. Some of them were askew on their hangers, and some of them were in piles of shattered glass on the floor. All the beauty she had seen here before was gone. She felt her hands begin to tremble as she walked through the rooms of the cottage.
She found the dining room, where she had sat with Edana. On the table, in the middle of the pool of spilled tea, were two shattered cups and a broken teapot, the same ones they had used before. This had happened soon after they’d left. Beside the broken chairs on the floor was a body. Rain didn’t look at it directly, or she knew she wouldn’t be able to stomach it. While staring at the shards of china on the table, through her peripheral vision, she could tell the body was broken and mutilated, by the same woodpecker-like weapon. There was no mistaking that it was Edana.
Rain let her eyes finally drift to the body, and she stood in shock, breathless. It all finally made sense.
All around the body were jet black feathers.
Raven feathers.
The evil birds had ripped the flowers out of her garden, thrown stones at her windows, shattered her belongings, and pecked away at everything else. Why? She finally tore her eyes away from the horrific sight. When she remembered to breathe, she noticed a strange stench in the air, and it made her stomach churn. She felt an urge to get far away from here. She hurried over the wreckage to the front door and then broke into a run.
She leaped onto Pan’s back and got him moving at no less than a gallop. She looked back once to make sure Ahearn was following, and then strictly kept her face forward. The bone-littered path continued past the house and she followed it, soon passing through the wall of mist. She focused on the foggy path, trying to forget the horrible images that flashed through her head. If she stopped to think about them…
She felt herself break down, and tears began to stream from her eyes. She slowed Pan to a walk and bent down, hugging his neck as she cried. Why did such a kind woman have to be tortured like that? If she had indeed been working for the Myrna, she had backed out of her mission at the last minute because of Rain. Out of some kindness she’d found in her heart. It didn’t seem fair. Rain thought it was a pity she didn’t have the stomach or the will to give Edana a proper burial.
When all her tears were shed, the weight of sleep pressed upon her. She felt it would be morning soon, and that meant she’d spent almost a full day without sleep. The gnarled, dead trees surrounded them like guardians of the meadow that lay just beyond them. Together with the eerie silence, it was not a comfortable place to sleep, so she decided she’d stop when they left the Dark Wood.
After a while, she felt her eyes droop, and she struggled to keep them open. Her head nodded briefly, and when she managed to open her eyes again, the mist around her was gone, and the familiar trees of Ellwood surrounded her like long lost friends. She sighed with relief.
She found a clearing when the faintest light of morning showed in the sky. When she dismounted, weariness erased her thoughts of hunger, and she decided to do the bare minimum of preparation before she slipped off to sleep. She’d heal Shea when she woke up. He was still staring straight ahead, sitting on Ahearn’s back. He must have been tired, too, but she wasn’t sure how much movement he was capable of in his current state. She walked up to Ahearn and looked at Shea.
“Shea? You can come down now. You can sleep.” She realized if they both slept that they wouldn’t have any way to keep watch, but she was so tired that she brushed the thought away. They were out of the Dark Wood, there hadn’t been any signs of being followed, and she felt they’d be alright until they woke up.
Shea slowly seemed to hear her, and he dismounted. He sat at the base of a thick tree, putting his head back against the trunk. His eyelids fluttered, and she knew he needed sleep just as much as she did.
After unsaddling the horses and feeding them, she unrolled her blanket and wrapped it around her, placing her saddlebags on the ground as a pillow. She curled up on the cool, hard earth and fell asleep within seconds.
***
Rain ran through the forest at full speed. She had to get there before it was too late. Exactly where she had to be, she wasn’t sure. But it was straight ahead through the giant trees.
Finally, before her was the curving white staircase that wound around a tree, and she knew she had made it. When she got to the staircase, she looked up to see Belmaeron in all its glory. Twilight seeped in through the canopy high above, and the little floating lights began winking on in and around the buildings. She smiled in wonder at the platforms, arches, and detailed architecture, and felt she could never get used to such elegance and beauty.
A faint, steady thudding noise sounded from behind her. She whipped around, suddenly alert. Clinking noises joined it, and as it grew louder, she recognized the sound. It sent ripples of fear down her body.
The sounds of marching craetons.
She scrambled up the staircase, thinking she should warn the Council members, or at least a guard. When she got to the first level of the city, she ran straight for the main circular walkway where Rowena’s bakery was. It was closest, and she would know what to do.
A few dwarves and elves milled around, completely unaware of the danger that she knew wasn’t far off. She couldn’t hold in her warning any longer.
She ran up to the nearest dwarf, who had just left the tavern. “Excuse me, sir! Please, warn everyone you can, Craetons are approaching!” she was so anxious that at the end, she was yelling.
The dwarf kept walking, ignoring her.
“Please, sir!” she said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, to get his attention.
Her hand went straight through his arm.
The dwarf’s body changed, darkening, thinning out, until it was a mass of black with two red eyes. A dreamwalker. It had no mouth, but it still felt like it wore a malicious grin. It made no move to approach her; it seemed to want her to watch what was happening to the city.
Thunder rumbled overhead, and she saw a bright flash. A jagged bolt of lightning reached down from the heavens and struck—it hit a tree with such force that the entire length of it burst into flames. A Wingmaster was here, too. As the fire spread, she heard screams and yelling from the guard training areas below them. The craetons had arrived. She had been too late.
***
Rain awoke and sat bolt upright, breathing hard, feeling her heart beat fiercely in her chest. She looked around wildly, searching for smoke and flames coming from the treetops. They had slept until midday, she saw, and nothing was out of the ordinary. No smoke, no craetons. But it had felt so real. And if seeing a dreamwalker meant part of the dream might be real…
If she was going to heal Shea, it had to be quick.
Shea woke when Rain lightly shook his shoulder. He looked up at her in silence, face devoid of emotion. She sat beside him and placed her hand on his forehead. He didn’t move or make a sound. The healing yellow energy filled her when she willed it to, and she imagined the old Shea. Smiling, joking, light in his eyes.
“Feel any different?” she said after a minute.
Shea just stared at her blankly.
Rain tried for a few more minutes, and after a while, it was clear that it wasn’t helping. She didn’t know what else to try. She let her hand drop from his forehead and released her magic reluctantly. Somehow she knew more time wouldn’t work. Her magic wasn’t cut out to heal this way. She pushed away the looming fear that Shea as she knew him was gone and focused on the task ahead.
***
The rest of the week back to Belmaeron, the dream haunted her every night. None of the dreams included the dreamwalker or were as vivid as the first dream, but it grew harder to keep anxious, worried thoughts out of her head.
A few of the dreams included a flock of ravens. Other than the images of a burning city, the memory of what had happened at Edana’s house replayed through her head again and again. She continually looked over her shoulder, wondering if the flock of ravens was still out there, searching for her instead.
They rode during the day and slept at night. A few nights, she was so anxious that she stayed up to watch for any trouble, but exhaustion caught up with her. Shea didn’t show signs of getting better, but he didn’t become possessed either.
Occasionally she wondered what he was thinking. Edana said some part of him knew what was going on, but for some reason he couldn’t express his emotions, or speak. She wondered if he ever wanted to speak but couldn’t, and hoped he wasn’t in pain.
After they found the path that wound around the Hollow, they rode for a few more days and found the turn off for Belmaeron. When they were just a day away, she was so worried that she might not get there in time that she kept traveling into the night, pushing the horses on in a canter.
“Who goes there?” An elvish voice sounded from the trees.
She pulled in the reins, stopping Pan. “Rain,” she said, unsure if the guard would recognize her name. “I’m—”
The elf seemed to materialize from behind a tree and looked at her in surprise. “Sister Rain? They told all the guards to look out for your return. Come with me.” He jogged along the dark path toward the city, and she followed him on horseback, riding Pan at a fast walk.
***
“They’re waiting for you in your rooms on the third level,” the guard said. They stood at the base of one of the winding white staircases on the ground level. Glowing white orbs floated along the staircase railing and filled the city with light up above. Rain held her saddlebags, and Shea held his, mutely. After Rain gave Pan a parting pat on the nose, two stable hands began to lead Pan and Ahearn to the stables.
“Did something happen?” she asked, though she knew by now that her dream hadn’t come true—yet.
The guard began climbing the staircase quickly, and Rain and Shea followed. “All I know is they asked us guards to keep a lookout for you two. Things have been getting tough in the city, with the Soulblight spreading like wildfire and animals attacking the city guards. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He shook his head.
“What kinds of animals?” Rain asked worriedly.
The guard turned to look at her curiously. “Funny you should ask. You don’t see these sorts of things around here very often. So far we’ve had reports of wolves, ravens, and a couple bears.” Rain felt her heartbeat quicken. They had no time to lose.