Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Iwas in the company of not one, but two others as my pretty human bore the brunt of my weight and worked to guide me back to the castle.
Ferris was the only visible member of our trio, the third being Death herself.
Drawn close to me once more, fingers grasping, ready to steal me away and boast of her prize.
What a trophy I would be to her. She would parade me before the dead souls and offer me up to the ruling spirit of the underworld.
The dreaded Hawk of Woe. He would sink his talons into me and see me torn apart before scattering my pieces into countless sanctums of torment.
I would burn and freeze and break all at once until my soul was dust and I became nothing.
How long I suffered would be decided by the mighty spirit of woe, and the stories described him as a merciless being that made Death herself quake in his presence.
Considering my misgivings, I doubted I would be fortunate enough to be handed oblivion quickly.
Still, death would certainly make a change from this wearisome thing I called life.
But even with blood slicking my chest and my vision growing hazy at the edges, her hand never touched mine.
I couldn’t leave this world without seizing the boon of the forest, and she knew I’d go through a thousand plagues to see my task done.
She knew me better than any, actually. But her presence told of her doubt in me.
“Just a little further,” Ferris grunted, struggling with the effort of holding up my considerable bulk.
We had somehow made it through the cave system and out of the valley, but we still had to traverse the forest for spirits knew how long.
I couldn’t tell how far we were from the castle, but I had the feeling Ferris’s words were in aid of bolstering her own confidence in making it there.
The sun was already descending. It was taking too long. And if night fell, it was game over.
“You have to move faster,” I growled, gritting my teeth through a wave of agony.
Every step jolted my injuries, and I was losing enough blood to make my movements particularly clumsy.
Between each hazy blink, I caught a glimpse of Death, just there on the periphery, her Falcon’s head angled towards me, her long, ebony cloak trailing over the moss and those beady eyes ever watching me. Waiting for her moment.
“I’m moving as fast as I can, considering I’m carrying the two of us. You’re the one who weighs as much as a damn tavern.”
I chuckled through a pool of blood in my mouth, my wounds invoking my mania. I should have been furious knowing the human had stolen the Dragon right out from under me, but the way my head was spinning made it seem pretty amusing instead.
Look at her, with her pearlescent silver hair, gleaming with hints of teal when the dying sunlight hit it just so.
Why had she been marked like this, I did not know.
But it suited her somehow, the way it flowed around her shoulders and gave her a magical quality.
I’d never seen a human possess any such thing. Her fragility was mirrored by power.
She had no idea what strength she now held and perhaps it was better not to let her know. With the Dragon answering her whims, she wasn’t just a match for me, she was a match for every Champion between these trees.
So that meant…
Yes, I knew what I had to do now.
I laughed harder, the sound a wicked, foolish thing.
Oh what a turn in fate. How the weak had risen among our ranks of grand warriors.
She held the greatest gift here, even those with multiple spirits to their name would struggle to counter her now.
But only if we could make it to shelter before night enveloped us.
I called on what little energy I had left and gritted my teeth through the pain, releasing some of my weight from Ferris’s shoulders, but my fingers dug tighter into her arm.
The Dragon may not have been mine, but the human was. And I would defend her with everything I had left.
“We won’t make it, weakling,” I growled, knowing it would rile up a storm in her. “Not with your feeble legs trying to move us.”
“Shut your mouth,” she hissed and put on a spurt of energy.
A smile toyed at the edge of my lips at the response I’d gotten from her.
Once again, the forest seemed to bend and twist to allow her an easier passage, though it was unclear if she noticed the aid it offered.
What was it about this human which had the cursed trees so enraptured?
Did they find amusement in aiding the weakest Champion to have entered their domain? Was it a taunt for my benefit?
“We’re so damn close,” she exhaled to herself. “Come on, come on.”
The light was trickling away between the leaves above, the dark growing thicker and the magic around us stirring to life. The forest was so very hungry, and at night, its power was more malignant.
I could feel the forest’s roaring fury in the air, so palpable it was like blades swinging through the space before us. It wanted us to fail, it wanted to feast on us. And by the spirits, it looked like it might just have its wishes fulfilled.
“There,” Ferris gasped, and I looked up from my stumbling feet to find the castle looming between the trees ahead. Our sanctuary just a hundred yards away.
My foot hit a root and I staggered, knees hitting the ground before I could catch myself, and Ferris was almost dragged down with me.
“Get up,” she gasped in horror, the fading light a promise of our certain demise.
She tugged on my arm, trying to heave me to my feet, but I found I had no strength to summon.
My head hit the moss and above the alluring face of my human, I saw a giant, writhing snake slithering through the trees above.
The Serpent. The most cunning of the spirits, the one who could outwit even the Dragon.
My desire to seize the forest’s boon drove my movements as I reared to my feet with a surge of agonised effort and somehow managed to unsheathe my sword.
I swung for the branch, but the movement made my injuries scream in protest and my knees crashed to the forest floor once again. But I couldn’t give up.
“Hendrix!” Ferris barked at me, catching my free arm and trying to pull me toward the castle.
“I must have it,” I snarled through my teeth, resisting the tug of her hands despite the roaring pain ripping through me.
“The sun is setting!” Ferris cried.
The forest was alive around us, creatures of the night screeching as they sensed the true malevolence of the trees awakening.
I staggered upright again, raising my sword, but the Serpent slithered up and away to evade me, its silken scales like woven gold, threaded with shining minerals and hardened rock.
It was the foundation of this earth the forest stood upon, a forger of the ground.
It could cause quakes, shift the stone and mud to cause utter devastation if it wanted to.
I could feel the ground tremoring beneath me now, the spirit’s ire invoked.
But I was coming to claim it between roiling tides or falling skies. It could not escape me.
Ferris tugged me on again but I snatched my arm away, pain the only presence in my flesh as I focused on the Serpent.
Ferris released a yell, but I couldn’t turn to look at her, stumbling forward to brace myself against the tree’s trunk. Wooziness clouded my thoughts. My arms were leaden. My sword would not swing.
I blinked up at the Serpent as it slithered away into the canopy, knowing if I was healed, I could scale this tree and hunt it well.
My fingers clawed at the bark, the thought igniting determination in my soul. Everything depended on me returning the amulets to the Great Elm.
But the sun had fallen.
And Ferris was screaming.
I dragged my eyes from the Serpent, finding Ferris on the ground, a tangle of vines trying to drag her toward a hole beneath a fallen tree. That gaping mouth of darkness was about to consume her, bury her in the earth and steal her from me for good.
She grabbed a sharp flint from the forest floor and hacked at the vines, but every one she broke was replaced by another.
The Serpent hissed once more, drawing my attention to it again. So close. I could bury my sword in it if I could get a little closer.
Ferris’s scream cut through me again, and then I was moving without even knowing when I had made the decision. I abandoned the spirit and heaved my sword above my head, swinging it down with the very last of my energy and severing every vine that had hold of my human.
Ferris scrambled to her feet just as I lurched into her, nearly crashing to the floor once more.
But she had me. An arm looping around my waist, a strength and determination in her violet eyes which made it into the roots of my own soul.
Then, somehow, we moved. And we kept moving until the forest was howling at our backs and we were falling through the castle door.
Ferris kicked it shut as we slumped into a heap on the flagstones, her arm crushed beneath me and my own resting on her lower back.
I drew her close as the scent of my own blood tainted the air between us.
I could see her mouth painting my name, but I could no longer hear the word.
Because darkness was coming for me and there was no escaping it.
It stole me away and I was left at the mercy of a human, knowing my life depended on her and only her.