Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
Stone Castle was a lot greener than I’d expected. The Stonebreakers had done a good job of camouflaging the sprawling building where it nestled between two mountains, taking up the entire space which must have once been a valley.
Windows were shrouded by leaves and the turrets of the castle towers were not built in a unform shape but some were larger than others and all were coated in greenery. No doubt they could have passed for just another piece of the forest when looked at from a distance.
“Do you know what you’re all doing?” I asked, not bothering to look at my rag-tag squadron. They did not follow orders in the way my Sinfair Legion did, with haste and without argument and I was already growing frustrated with the amount of questions I received.
“You know you’re not actually the one giving orders here, don’t you?” North sniped.
“Actually, I am,” I replied. “Because I’m the only one of us who this mission cannot be completed without. I am the one who must kill Cayde and I am the one who must seek out and repair the keystone. Bitch about it all you want, mutt, but you’re just the pretty distraction.”
“Pretty? Did you all hear that? She said I’m pretty.”
“It wasn’t a compliment,” Bastian replied.
“How wasn’t it? Pretty is only ever a compliment, isn’t it Kai?”
I glanced at the Fury as he considered that question.
“Pretty is one of the words which is usually used as a compliment, but her tone and delivery suggests it was intended as an insult. If I were to guess I would say that she is implying you are only good to look at – but not in a way that infers sexual attractiveness, as in this situation she means more that you will make for appealing prey to draw the focus of the Stonebreakers. A bit like a partridge or a duck.”
“A duck?” North spluttered. “You did not just call me a duck!”
“He did,” Everest said with a snort of amusement. “And I agree. You make a fine duck to tempt the hunters from their caves.”
“The Fury is correct in his interpretation,” I said and Bastian laughed in amusement.
“I can’t believe you would call me a duck, Kai,” North hissed.
“Vesper called you a duck. I just helped you decipher her meaning.”
“You can’t just start calling the fucking Sky Witch ‘Vesper’, Kai – we’ve spoken about this,” North said angrily. “Don’t let her fool you into forgetting her witchy nature. She’s not a person. She’s a…a…”
“Careful now,” Bastian warned.
North huffed irritably and the corners of my lips lifted in amusement. “Looks like the big, bad Wolf is afraid of the Dragon,” I taunted.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” North growled.
“Apart from snakes,” Kaiser said. “And quicksand. And drowning. And commitment. And–”
“You shut your damn mouth, Kai, those were secrets I told you in confidence.”
“You never told me they were secrets.”
“It was implied.”
“Oh.”
“So are we gonna storm the castle then?” Everest asked with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
“As much as I’d enjoy watching them all shit themselves at the sight of the Void, I have to believe our party of five probably isn’t sufficient to take out their entire stronghold.”
“I guess,” she sighed and I had to admire her bravery.
“Can you make us a back door, Bastian?” I asked.
“I’d say so.”
“And the Flamebringers can go light some fires to distract the watchmen,” I said, pointing across the valley in a clear command.
North growled angrily. “But you can’t tell us what to–”
“Let’s go,” Kaiser caught his arm and hauled him up, shoving him into the bushes to our left where his grumbling faded away.
The Fury paused before he followed, taking the little blue Sayer Dragon from his pocket and placing it on Everest’s shoulder.
“If you need me, he’ll summon me to your side,” he said before turning to stride away.
“Kaiser–” Everest said quickly, causing him to turn back. “I…won’t need you.” She flicked her gaze back towards the castle and I arched a brow as I felt the warring mixture of desires coming from her.
Kaiser hesitated another moment then turned and strode off after North to focus on the task I’d set them.
“Don’t,” Everest warned me, her finger swinging up to point in my face. “Do not say a single word or I will Void you while you’re flying through the air and laugh as you go splat on a pointy rock.”
I scoffed lightly. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Liar,” she muttered.
“Come on,” I said.
Bastian moved ahead of us as we crept towards our destination, anticipation building within me as the weight of what I was about to finally achieve coiled around my heart.
I took the vial of blood in my fist and squeezed. “I’ll make it hurt,” I swore to my lost sisters and for a moment I could have sworn I heard their dark laughter echoing between the trees.
A tear slipped down my cheek but I ignored it, letting it fall to the dirt while focusing on our destination.
“The keystone is close,” I said while trying to ignore the rampant cries of the ether.
“Good,” Everest replied but Bastian cut me a dark look.
“It will be fine,” I told him.
“It won’t,” he disagreed. “But I’ll be there with you.”
We crept closer to the castle with Bastian using his earth magic to seek out the perfect spot for our entrance.
The wild greenery of this place was disconcerting in its beauty. The forest surrounded us on all sides, its density intimidating. A girl could get lost in a place like this. And wouldn’t that be its own kind of wonderful?
“Here,” Bastian announced and I focussed on him as he dropped to one knee and pressed his hand to the ground. “Ready?”
“Always,” I replied.
“For what?” Everest asked.
The ground opened up beneath our feet and we plummeted down into it at speed.
I let us fall freely for several seconds, enjoying the panicked yell which burst from Everest’s throat before I caught us in a net of air and lowered us more slowly.
The light was snatched away as Bastian closed the hole over again above our heads, concealing any sign of our passage, and a few moments later we dropped down into a dimly lit chamber beneath the dirt.
“Vesper, Vesper, Vesper!” the ether was chanting my name on repeat but I forced the sound of it from my ears. I would answer its call. But not yet. I had something to finish first.
“A bit of warning would have been nice,” Everest muttered.
“Next time,” I promised, painting a cross over my heart but she just rolled her eyes at me, knowing I revelled in the carnage too much to ever give warning of its arrival.
Bastian sealed the stone roof above our heads and we all looked around at the small room we found ourselves in with interest. Luckily it was unoccupied, a bedchamber, presumably for a low-ranking member of Earl Tarlord’s court.
I moved to the door, reaching out to see if I could taste the desires of anyone beyond it but there was no one there.
“Come on,” I said.
“How exactly do you expect to find Cayde in this place?” Everest asked as we slipped through the door.
“Why? Are you offering?” I took a dagger from my belt and held it out to her but she scrunched her nose in refusal.
“No.”
“Spoilsport.”
I took a scrap of parchment and a sprig of mugwort from my pocket then cut the tip of my finger with the blade and gave myself to the ether.
I focused on Cayde’s hateful features and painted the runes Ansuz for insight and Kanaz for learning in blood.
If he was here then I should be close enough for this to work.
“Find him,” I breathed before crushing the herbs and parchment in my fist and letting it all fall to the floor.
“I don’t like it when she does that,” Everest muttered to Bastian.
“Really?” he mused. “I find it utterly captivating.”
“Yeah, captivating…and creepy. You have to admit it’s creepy.”
“Come on,” I said, my voice rough with the dark magic that was rolling through me.
“That’s not the word I’d use,” Bastian replied to Everest.
The balled-up parchment tumbled across the floor ahead of us, leading the way on and we took chase.
We were dressed like Stonebreakers but I wasn’t certain if we’d be recognised as strangers by anyone we passed or not.
Stone Castle was vast and housed hundreds of people so I was hoping we would be able to slip through unchallenged.
But I kept my hand close to my daggers just in case and my hair was now dyed an inky black.
Our first test came as we reached a wide staircase and two Fae passed us on their way down it.
They neither spared us a glance nor noticed the little piece of parchment which tumbled up the steps ahead of us, the two of them focused on the conversation they were having.
“Flamebringers?” one of them gasped. “How did they make it so deep into the valley?”
“They’ll be dead soon enough and perhaps we’ll get that answer,” the other replied.
Everest paused in her ascent, looking back after the two Fae as they disappeared out of sight.
“Everest?” I said, drawing her focus back to me. “You can run off out there if you’re worried? I…won’t need you,” I teased, repeating the words she’d spoken to Kaiser as they parted and her jaw tightened.
“I don’t need him so that was an accurate statement. And I have no interest in heading out there, so let’s just get this over with.”
Calcifiend chirped from his spot on her shoulder like he was taunting her too.
“Very accurate,” I agreed.
“Sometimes I forget how irritating you can be,” Everest accused.
“Glad to offer up the reminder,” I replied.
“The parchment has moved out of sight,” Bastian commented and I muttered a curse before hurrying up the stairs to catch it.
The ether was screaming my name so loudly that it was hard to focus on bending it to the task of hunting Cayde but as we made it up to the next floor, the scrap of parchment fluttered out of the staircase and down a wide corridor.