Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
The pain in my joints was unbearable, far worse than any I’d endured before now. Somehow I’d found myself as the leader of our ramshackle group of escapees and that only added to the burden of our flight from the Cascadians.
We’d been beneath the ground for hours, the lack of light a trickster which had us all disagreeing on the time, or how long we’d been running for.
We hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten, hadn’t dared rest for more than a few moments at a time.
I’d bound my legs with vines and was using earth magic to propel myself along more than my own muscles because the stars knew I’d have never been able to keep up without doing so.
“A little further,” I urged, my mind half occupied with the tale one of the warriors was telling me.
He was recounting his training in the use of a bow in great detail so that I could study his instructions.
I was the only one among us able to regenerate my magic in our current situation thanks to my Order form.
As a Sphynx I needed to gain knowledge to recharge my power. Usually I made use of books to do so but I could do it while listening too. So long as I was learning, I was producing power.
Which meant that I was the only reason we were able to keep tunnelling our way to freedom beneath the ground. And I was the only thing keeping us alive.
“Avanis is too far to reach on foot,” Tessa gasped, her hand pressed to the wound at her side which still hadn’t fully stopped bleeding. She wouldn’t complain of the pain she was in but I knew she was struggling to keep going.
She needed medical attention. We all did.
“We aren’t headed for Avanis,” I admitted, finally giving up the secret I’d been keeping from them all.
“What?” Tyrese bellowed, whirling on me angrily. “Then where the fuck are we going?”
“Back to Cinder Vale,” I said, raising my chin. “Our army was decimated in the fighting there. I’ve deduced that it is more than likely that some underbeasts will have been abandoned in the tunnels we forged beneath the city. I plan to find one so that we can use it to return home.”
“And if there isn’t one to find?” Tyrese demanded, fury sparking in his eyes, an angry moo following his words and betraying his Minotaur nature.
“Then we are as dead as we would have been if we’d tried to walk the whole way back home regardless. It wasn’t ever going to be possible for us to make it on foot,” I said firmly.
“But you swore you could get us home!”
“I did. And I am. There will be an underbeast waiting for us to use. I bet my life upon it.”
Tyrese spat at my feet and whirled away, the rebellious mutters of the other warriors joining with him as they gathered close together.
I knew they weren’t glad to have me in charge of them. But I was the highest-ranking member of the court among us and the only one able to recharge my power. Besides, no matter their doubts, I knew my plan was the only one which gave us any hope of ever making it home.
“It’s not much further,” I assured Tessa, the only one to have stayed close to me following my revelation.
“Then lead on, my lady. I trust you.”
That made one at least.
I nodded firmly, sending out a quick prayer to Taurus in hopes that my stubborn resolution to stick to this plan would work in our favour then continued the work of burrowing our way north.
It took another hour for us to reach our destination and I had Tessa to thank for her faith in me as she’d stoically walked alongside me and recited the history of her family’s mining business back home to keep my magic replenished.
I felt the shape of the underbeast in the ground ahead of us a few minutes before I managed to unveil it with my magic and a sob broke from my chest.
“It’s there!” I cried, throwing my power out to draw the dirt and rocks away from the machine which had brought our warriors to this foreign land and receiving a cheer from the survivors as they spotted it too.
We all forgot our quarrelling as we hurried to clamber into the magically-powered transporter and Tyrese even took my arm to help heave me on board.
“We need magic to power this up,” Amari called as she started inspecting the controls.
I moved closer to her, frowning at the series of levers and knobs which sat before the driver’s seat, my mind whirring with all I knew about runes and their use in powering this kind of technology.
It wasn’t something I’d ever studied in great detail but I did understand the basics of it.
“The runes should already be holding the magic the underbeast needs,” I said, reaching out hesitantly towards the closest lever, my rudimentary understanding of the runes making me believe it was the one we needed.
As my hand curled around the metal, I felt a surge of energy awaken beneath my palm and with the slightest spark of my own magic, to urge it along, the underbeast growled itself to life.
Faelights flickered on overhead, a low rumbling sounding as the drills began to turn.
“Now what?” I asked, glancing at the others, hoping against hope that one of them might know something about how to drive one of these things. But all I got in reply were shrugs and blank looks.
“Now you get us home,” Tessa said hopefully as she sagged against the wall, still clutching at her bleeding wound and the others murmured their agreement.
“Right,” I breathed, my cheeks flaming as the weight of their belief in me settled like a blanket around my shoulders. It felt good. But it would have felt a whole lot better if I actually knew what I was doing.
I lowered myself into the seat intended for the driver while the other escapees took hold of rails and straps which hung from the ceiling.
There were no plush seats in this contraption as there had been in the one I’d arrived at Cinder Vale in.
This underbeast was meant for transporting our army, with as many bodies packed into it as possible.
My eyes roamed over the unfamiliar controls, my pulse thumping harder and harder with each passing second. But as panic threatened to rise up and devour me, I forced myself to close my eyes and focus.
The magic imbued within the rune which now glowed beneath my fist was potent and hungry, eager to…
I sucked in a sharp breath as I realised that the magic within it had already been cast with its purpose in mind. All I had to do was concentrate on it and I could feel the tug of its desire. This lever powered the drills…so that meant…
My hands flew from lever to knob, my magic connecting to the power held dormant within the controls as I untangled the mystery of their purposes one by one, instructions forming in my mind, understanding dawning on me piece by piece until finally–
A smile pulled my lips tight as I took hold of the lever which powered the drills and pressed it down firmly.
The underbeast snarled as it followed my command and we dove into the dirt with one destination firmly in mind.
We burst from the ground at the foothills beneath Stone Castle and a sob tore from my throat as I took in the sea of endless greenery which was our homeland.
Every piece of my body ached, my wounds burning anew as if I’d put off feeling the pain of them until I could be certain we were safe.
I stumbled after the others as we clambered out of the underbeast, Tyrese carrying Tessa who was growing weaker and weaker from blood loss.
Warriors surged around us, hailing our return as a miracle, praising Taurus for our determination, Virgo for our fortune, Capricorn for our discipline.
We were bundled into carriages forged of vines and transported at speed back to the Stone Castle to make our reports and receive whatever medical attention we required.
It felt like a dream, my aching body a secondary consideration beyond the lightness of my heart.
“He’s coming,” one of the guards said to me, leaning close to make sure I caught his words. “He heard of your return.”
My heart pounded at those words, anticipation filling me as I forced myself to sit up, hunting the path ahead of us for any sign of him, though it seemed like folly to do so. Would he really come so eagerly to see me? Had he been concerned for my fate? Was he–
“Alestro!” the guard called as we reached the huge, stone doors which barred our entrance to the castle. “Here she is!”
My heart sank at the use of my husband’s name, reality crashing in on me as I realised who the guard had been referring to.
Of course he’d meant Alestro. I was a fool to have thought he meant anyone else.
Of course our Earl wouldn’t have come rushing to greet me at the gate.
I was no one. Just a voice in his court, a body to fill a seat.
I may have earned my place at his table but he wouldn’t have any greater care for me than any other member of his court.
The vines which had been cast to transport me parted and I stumbled out, my ankle failing me and causing me to stumble.
Alestro caught my wrist before I could hit the floor, hauling me upright with a jerk that made my shoulder bark in pain too.
“What happened to your face?” he hissed, frowning at the bloody wound which had scabbed over down the right side of my cheek.
I blinked at him, my own words stalling as I took in the pustules which coated his own face, the marks of the curse upon him plain for all to see.
“I got my wounds in battle, husband. Which is more than can be said for yours.”
Alestro’s face twisted with anger but before he could respond to my barb, the stone doors crashed open and our group of gathered escapees and relieved guards turned to look as our Earl strode out.
My lips parted as I took in his huge frame, his powerful body half exposed where he was shirtless, bandages of moss and healing poultices coating a savage-looking wound on his chest.
His dark hair was pushed away from his face, his green eyes piercing as they locked on me and he shoved through the crowd to approach.
“You’re alive,” he breathed, reaching out to cup the right side of my face in his hand, his thumb tracing a line just shy of the wound which had been carved into my flesh.
“Who did this? Tell me now so that I might hunt him down.” His voice was a dark and threatening thing, the violence in it casting a spell over me which should have had me retreating instead of shifting closer.
I lifted my hand to place it over his, holding him there in case he might have been thinking to release me.
“We were taken captive by Abraham Rake,” I told him. “He tortured and killed many of our people. But then one of his own turned against him and freed us.”
My Earl’s face tightened with confusion, his other hand reaching out to brush my waist as though he meant to pull me closer then thought better of it.
“Who?”
“His daughter,” I breathed, my eyes locked on his, my husband utterly forgotten beside us. “She killed him and set us free.”
“Which daughter?” Earl Tarlord asked, his body tense and aura threatening, but not to me, only to those who might seek to wrong me.
“Everest Arcadia,” I told him plainly. “She killed him and ran. The Void has betrayed Cascada. The war is no longer theirs to claim.”