Chapter 14 Time #2
“No, Ryder and Caemorn may need your help and we need to keep the wall protected,” Grayson said. “If nothing else, Fiona and I can just keep leading it around until we find a solution.”
Neither looked happy about this and he understood. He was their leader’s lover and their friend. He was also very human right now. Seeing the burning glow of those blue-white eyes aiming towards him, he felt weak as water.
“We need to go. We’ll figure this out,” Grayson assured them.
The two of them nodded, but slowly. They didn’t move until he and Fiona teleported yet another hundred feet away. The creature changed course towards them, ignoring Siban and Demos just as it had ignored Eiji and the others. That was the one good thing about it.
Balthazar, does anyone have any idea what could imprint like this on me? Any ideas at all? Grayson asked.
I believe it might be a Marrowstalker, Christian’s voice was crystal clear in his mind.
Marrow–that sounds horrible, Grayson admitted.
It is. They got their name from the fact that they would rip off enemy limbs to get to their bones and the marrow inside. That’s all they would eat, sometimes while the person was still alive, Christian explained.
Fiona had teleported them again to a bridge that spanned a river.
It was the Bridge of Passing, if he remembered rightly.
The black water rushed beneath them like liquid silk.
He thought he saw something bob briefly above the surface, like gray rocks, but rocks didn’t move.
Grayson knew that there were creatures beneath that surface just as dire as the Marrowstalker.
His human blood was likely going to excite a great many creatures that would have otherwise ignored a Vampire. He gritted his teeth.
How did a Marrowstalker end up in a box in the Helm basement? Grayson asked.
“The last time I was at this bridge was with Christian and Caemorn,” Fiona said with a faint laugh. “We were walking into trouble back then, too. Going to the Well of All Souls. Glad that thing’s gone.”
“It’s gone?”
She nodded. “Yes, though I wish I had Faithkeeper here with me now.”
“Your old bow?”
“You remember!” She grinned at him. “I didn’t. I just picked it up in the armory at the Spire. Could have killed me if I hadn’t been worthy of it.”
“Of course, you were worthy of it!”
“Back then I was someone else,” she told him. “Someone just out for themselves. Trying to keep my head down while moving up the ranks of the Order. I’m getting better now. Less guarded. More open to others.”
Grayson’s forehead furrowed. “But, Fiona, as Wyvern you were the one that was keeping us all together.”
She blinked and looked at him, putting a hand to her chest. “Me?”
“Of course! You’d travel between our cities, urging us to get together. Keeping us up with each other’s news. It was yeoman’s work, but you did it with a smile, though you must have been frustrated at times,” he said.
She looked down. “I can’t imagine that. Being the one to bring people together. I’ve always seen my gift as letting me get away.”
“Only if you don’t realize that you can be with anyone you want with a thought. Sure, you can have solitude, but you were the one to establish bonds with all of us,” Grayson told her.
She tugged on one of her braids. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to use that to stop the War.”
“I think you kept it from happening for a long time,” Grayson admitted. “You were telling me of unrest with Kaly. But I… I was distracted with other things.”
“You were in love.” She smiled.
“Love shouldn’t blind you to everything else that matters. It should make you more aware of others rather than less.” He grimaced.
She put a hand on his shoulder. “It does. Just not in the first flush of it. But afterwards, it gives you the headspace to be more open to others.”
“Maybe that’s how it is for you with Arcius, but–”
“Oh, don’t think we haven’t escaped to be together often,” she said. “But his idea of service is rubbing off on me. Serving the king, serving others, I admit I do like it. But I hide behind him when I need to talk to new people.”
“I admit I do the same with Ryder.” He shrugged. “They’re the extrovert side of the couple.”
“I am missing Arcius now,” she admitted and there was a faint crease between her brows. “I would have expected to hear from him by now. With everything happening in the world, silence is not good.”
“No, it isn’t. We should look into that, I think,” he said.
They both glanced over at the location of the creature then. The Marrowstalker’s body was caught between the red moon and him.
“I think we need to take care of this first,” she said dryly.
“Yeah, time to move again?”
“In a minute.”
If the Marrowstalker was physical, Grayson could have ripped its wings off or crushed it until it was no bigger than the size of a Coke can. Maybe he should do that now. But he hesitated. Something told him to hold off.
They were often used to bind other spirits to weapons, Christian explained.
So you’re saying that the Marrowstalker isn’t the soul that will be bound to a weapon, but that I–I will be? Grayson’s eyebrows rose.
That did not sound good, but that had to be it. It sounded as cruel and cold as Kaly could be against their enemies.
Yes, rather like it's the glue that will bind you to the metal. That’s my best guess anyways. Caemorn agrees with me, Christian added.
Then it is likely right. It sounds horrible so it's definitely right. Okay, how do we stop it? Grayson asked. Can I just rip it apart?
That would be unwise. It may look like a flesh and blood creature, but it–
Is not, Grayson guessed.
Even touching it with your gift may allow it to bind with you, Grayson, Christian advised. Caemorn believes that if you are bound to a weapon, getting you out again may be… very difficult.
If Caemorn is saying that then it is likely almost impossible, Fiona said. Hold on. We’ve got to move again.
Fiona, once again, teleported them from the bridge with the rushing water to the beach of the Gray Tides.
The sand looked bone white under the moons.
It glittered as if there were crushed diamonds in it.
The midnight water was not calm. Waves crashed down onto the beach.
White foam seethed over the sand. The smell of salt and seaweed washed over him and something else. Something unearthly.
The Call of the Gray Tides. The desire to find out what is on the other side. Always.
He wrenched his gaze from it. The sky was clear. The Marrowstalker was just a dot in the sky aiming towards him. So they had time. A little time.
What if I teleport Grayson to Earth, Balthazar? The Marrowstalker could not go there, Fiona offered. That would give us more time to figure this out.
Caemorn says that’s not a good idea. The way your power works is that you cause Earth and the Ever Dark to touch–just like the gates–and the Marrowstalker will be able to immediately be there, Christian advised. It’s more complicated than that, but–
We get it. No teleporting or using gates to Earth, Grayson said. Watching as the speck of the Marrowstalker grew bigger, Grayson added, What weapon do you suppose Roan wants me bound to?
Let’s not even joke about that, Balthazar said.
Oh, c’mon, you joke about everything. It’s part of your charm, Grayson reminded him. What’s the plan, guys? We need a plan. How can we stop it?
Working on that, Christian said tensely.
“Fiona, can you really teleport forever?” Grayson asked.
“Nearly,” she told him. “That thing’s not getting you.”
Grayson checked its location again. It wasn’t much bigger than it had been last time. That was good. Maybe it was tiring. If only it was tiring. Grayson began to pace. Sand puffed up beneath his feet.
“I’m trying to remember everything I used to know about the weapons, but my memories aren’t cooperating,” Grayson admitted.
“I know that I had many of them fashioned to my own specifications for certain wars. I remember that Kaly, of course, was a wizard at creating them, second only to Daemon. I remember…” He paused and looked up at the Marrowstalker.
Still quite a ways away. It really must be tiring because it appeared to have hardly moved. “I remember… nothing else.”
“Would one of the weapons that’s already created be able to destroy the Marrowstalker?” Fiona asked as she too paced. “Or what about a Kaly Vampire in general? Couldn’t they just suck the creature into a soul gem or–”
Grayson didn’t get a chance to hear what she said next, because the voice in his head was so much louder, Found you.
And there the Marrowstalker was. Not in the sky hundreds of feet away from him. Not a distant speck on the horizon.
But instead right there.
Right in front of him.
Within touching distance.