Chapter 18 #2
“Foolish boy,” Donavon sighed then looked back at me in anger. “Do not play tricks on my nephew. He is a good boy. Do not slip poison in his ear.”
“I didn’t,” I growled, anger raising the hairs on the back of my neck. “I know what I saw. And if we do nothing, that monster will destroy us all.”
Donavon shook his head several times, backing up again. “You may be the Void, and by the stars, I respect your position in this war. But I pray for you and your soul that you may beg for forgiveness from the heavens for your lies.”
“I am not lying!” I argued. “If you would only listen, I can tell you what I saw in detail. There is no denying it.”
“Enough!” Donavan’s hand trembled as he pointed at me. “That is enough of this. Do not bother me again with this drivel. I will not speak a word of this to anyone, and be thankful of that Miss Everest. But you best hold your tongue.”
I hissed like a cat as he hurried past me and lurched for the door to escape me, disappearing down the corridor and leaving me there with Galomp.
“I will talk to him,” Galomp said. “Do not worry, Miss Everest.”
“Don’t put yourself at risk,” I said, but Galomp lumbered out too and it seemed there was no stopping him. “Kaské,” I cursed.
I stood between the mahogany bookshelves with a heavy breath falling from my lungs, my shoulders dropping and a stone falling into the pit of my stomach.
I’d been waiting on this moment for so long, I’d never considered he would turn me away. The devastation of that reality caught me in its hold and I couldn’t break free.
The words of that terrible monster reverberated through my mind as I recalled leaping into the abyss where it lurked.
“Soon, I will step between the boundaries of this place and that. Then your world will know me in the splintering of the earth, in the spitting of every fire, in the strike of the howling wind and in the flooding of the four lands.”
I shuddered at the way that dreaded voice had sliced through my skin and spoken through my bones.
I’d been so wrapped up in being the Void, I’d convinced myself the Magistrine would handle the monster headed our way.
But now that possibility had shattered before my eyes and I was faced with the fact that the terrible being was coming and no one was stepping forward to stop it.
“Poor, poor lonely gal,” a familiar voice crooned out from between the bookshelves and I tensed in horror. “I didn’t have to hear those words falling from ya lips to know that conversation didn’t go so well.”
“Mavus?” I snarled, disbanding the silencing shield around me and stalking towards his voice.
“Lemme guess what ya said to him…” he purred from behind a bookshelf to my right but when I sprinted around it, there was no one there.
“You want someone to help ya with ya little problems. You thought the Magistrine was the answer. That they’d listen to the revered Void and answer your every request.” His voice came from the left this time and I raced in that direction, hunting the gaps between the bookshelves in fury.
“Come out!” I commanded. “Come and face me for what you did.”
“What I did?” he asked sweetly, his voice now sounding from far across the library. “I only did what I always do, lass. I made a living out of dealing with secrets. It’s my finest trade, truth be told. There was no choice in it for me.”
“No choice?” I spat. “You sold me out. I could have been killed!”
“Killed?” he laughed, the wildness of it carrying from my left again.
I ran that way, a growl in my throat as I hunted for the bastard of a trader.
“You’re the great and wondrous Void, Everest Arcadia.
People would trade more than a pretty penny to keep you alive.
Nah, I didn’t try to kill ya. I freed ya.
I cast ya into fame and glory, just as you always told me you wanted.
Now, how can you go punishing me for that? ”
“Show yourself!” I yelled, sick of chasing shadows.
“I saw ya speaking rather passionately with that Magistrine fella. I bet you were tryin’ to convince him that those Reapers ain’t the pious, good Fae they preach to be, weren’t ya?”
My answer was nothing more than a growl. How could he possibly know that? Was I really so readable?
“Ah, so I was right,” he said with a smile in his tone, his voice now coming from behind me instead of in front. I spun on my heel, certain he was using magic to throw his voice around this library, but my flesh was too fuelled with adrenaline to give up.
I turned to the shelf beside me and blasted it with a shot of ice that punctured it and the subsequent five shelves next to it, sending books scattering into the aisles.
Mavus darted into view three shelves away, leaning down to look at me through the hole, his green eyes sparkling. “This rage is poorly aimed, lass.”
I sent another blast of ice tearing through the holes and Mavus darted away. I didn’t run to him this time, changing tack and raising myself up on a pillar of water to hunt him from above.
“You and me both know the truth of this place,” his voice called from further into the library and I willed the water to carry me that way. “Who else shares that sentiment with ya? Who else are you gonna turn to?”
I launched myself forward, eyes locking on him at last, his blonde curls hanging about his shoulders, his handsome face wearing a smirk.
I used the water beneath my feet to propel me down and I slammed into him, knocking him to the floor and casting an ice blade in my grip which I pressed firmly to his throat.
Rage rippled through my skin for what he’d done, but something held me back as I stared into his eyes.
“You’re hesitating,” he rasped, his hand landing on my side with the promise of a counterattack.
“I wouldn’t bother trying anything,” I hissed. “The Void won’t allow it.”
He frowned in intrigue as he noticed the power ebbing from me, its roiling magnitude spilling into his flesh and rendering his magic useless. His throat bobbed, a flash of something in his eyes telling me that he had not expected to end up at my mercy.
But I still didn’t slit his throat. I’d held so much anger since he’d sold my name to the ears of my enemies. But now he was here beneath me, giving me that relaxed look of his that said he feared nothing, and I was conflicted.
“You’re all alone again, doll. No friends.
Not one. But I never stopped being ya ally in all this.
I only gave up your secret to elevate ya to greatness.
And it worked, didn’t it? I even tipped off your papa about your situation with the Flamebringers and got the whole of Cascada sent out to rescue ya. ”
“You can’t have known what would happen once you shared that information,” I growled, but I had to admit he was making a strange kind of sense.
Especially for a man like him who never acted predictably.
It was easy to picture Mavus coming up with such a far-fetched plan and truly believing it would work, but that didn’t make it right even if it was the truth.
“Okay, okay, maybe I went about it a little cock-handedly...”
“A little cock-handedly?” I snarled. “You went rogue. And I get the feeling that’s you through and through. Always ready to sell your so-called allies for a few coins.”
His gaze darkened and his mouth pulled down in a savage sneer.
“Nah, that ain’t the cut of me, lass. You’re wrong there.
I make moves that ripple through these here Waning Lands.
I may not belong to one of the four territories, and a nomad I surely am, wandering here and there, but it all plays its part in this great war.
I matter in it, see? I am crucial to it in ways not you nor anyone has yet to notice.
But that’s exactly where I like to be. In plain sight, yet never truly seen. ”
“I should kill you.”
“That you should. But I got a feelin’ fate ain’t done with you and I yet. You owe me, when you think about it. For this golden life of yours.”
I pursed my lips. “Yeah, well this golden life isn’t so golden after all.”
“No?”
I shoved off of him, falling onto my ass at his side and pressing the tip of the ice blade to my finger in irritation. Maybe I was just a sucker for his bullshit, or maybe my anger had never truly belonged to Mavus, but either way, I didn’t find I wanted his death now that it was offered to me.
“No. What are you doing here anyway?” I clipped, refusing to drop my ire despite the fact that it was obvious I’d decided not to kill him.
“Well ya might just be glad ya didn’t kill me before you found out.” He reached into his crimson coat pocket and took a letter from it, offering it to me.
I accepted it curiously, finding the seal already broken as I unfolded it and stared at the words on the page.
Dear Ever,
Firstly, I’m sorry. With all my heart and with everything I am, I owe you the greatest of apologies.
I should never have tried to force your hand in coming with me on that battlefield.
You were right about everything. Your fears were well founded and I see that now, so I desperately wish to right my wrongs.
I don’t know who else to turn to and I hope this burden isn’t too great to bear, but I’ve discovered a secret that will lead to the certain destruction of The Waning Lands if action isn’t taken.
The monster we both witnessed at Never Keep is being brought into this world upon the blood moon in a ceremony led by the Reapers.
I’ve been stealing the tomes they’ve been studying to prepare, reading as much as I can through hours of the night before returning them.
It seems the blood moon’s magic will allow the beast to pass from its world into ours.
There are even prophesies that speak of it.
One named the Luna Portas described the great summoning power of such a moon allowing ‘reverent gateways to open’ and ‘otherworldly summons’ to occur.