Chapter 48
HEMMING
I opened my eyes to find nothing but endless darkness.
No moon to shed its eerie light.
No sun to guide me.
For a moment, I thought I was surely dead. But when I attempted to roll to my side, the stabbing pain in my abdomen assured me that I was not—at least not yet. Weak from blood loss, I lay there as my eyes tried desperately to acclimate to the black surroundings.
I needed to find a way out.
I had to get to Ariel.
“It seems you do not have much time,” a low, gravelly voice called from the dark abyss.
I forced myself to my feet on uneven ground as I tried to see the enemy approaching from the eternal night. I wondered if it was death coming to claim me. “Who are you?” I shouted at the darkness, the wound in my gut burning for my efforts.
“Who are you ?” was the only response.
“I am Hemming, warrior of the Nychterides and bastard son of Kaplyn Corvallym, Neráida lord of the Midlands. Now tell me who you are: ally or enemy?”
The sound of a blade dragging along the stony floor echoed around me. “I am both. I am neither. I am all…but that isn’t what you really want to know, is it, boy?”
The androgynous voice grew closer, and I raised my arm over my shoulder for the hilt of my sword, only to remember I was unarmed. “Show yourself!” I demanded, feigning strength I did not possess.
“The answer you truly seek is whether you will live to save her or die here alone.” From somewhere deep in the darkness, two pale green eyes gleamed. “The irony of your fate is that it’s entirely up to you…”
My knees buckled as blood continued to flow from my wounds, and I crashed down to the stone once more. “How?” I asked, clutching my side in vain. “How do I get to her?”
Bright, white teeth sharper than daggers met my request with a smile unlike anything I’d ever seen. “You survive this.” Those massive teeth separated just in time to unleash an inferno upon me, engulfing me in roaring flames, searing pain, and the absolute knowledge that death had indeed come.