Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
Ibacked away, the echoes of the Great Elm’s weighted power resounding through the air, drawing my heartbeat in time with its melancholy rhythm.
The forest was healing, the spirits surging out through the trees, racing to accomplish the tasks they’d almost forgotten were theirs.
But my connection to them remained, like thirteen ties to my soul, each of them tugging in different directions just enough to leave the link between us in place.
I stumbled a step as I concentrated on that sensation, closing my eyes and envisioning thirteen golden chords trailing away from my heart and out into the world.
I felt as though I could reach out and pluck any one to summon them back to me, our bond deepening without the amulets instead of fading away.
My right hand and arm were marked with the spirits’ runes and still my hair hung in silver strands around my face.
I’d been branded by this place and forced to acknowledge what I was within it.
It seemed the truth of those changes in me weren’t going to be taken away with the ending of the curse.
‘Spirit singer’ the Dragon had called me.
I could feel the melody of their music in the chorus of my soul as though it had always been playing for me and I’d simply never looked in the right place for it before.
I took in a shuddering breath, fixing my eyes on my sister who was watching me with a new brightness to her silver gaze.
“Rissa?” I panted, reaching out to her, meaning to take her hand and lead her from this place which had stolen her childhood from us.
But my sister didn’t take my hand. Her eyes weren’t fixed on me or the Great Elm or the spirits or even the Lost Children who had begun to creep from the trees, their songs now silenced, their gazes curious and cunning.
No, Rissa had eyes only for one thing in the heart of the forest and that was the Fae I had so foolishly bared my soul to in this game of treachery and betrayal.
I didn’t want to face him. My heart was raw with the truth of what I’d claimed alongside Rissa’s freedom because I couldn’t relinquish the ache in my chest now that I’d accomplished what I’d come here to do.
I’d always known there would be a high price to pay if I were to stand a chance at winning the Great Hunt.
But I’d never considered that I wouldn’t be the one forced to pay it.
“Rissa,” I insisted, urging her to come to me but instead her lip curled back from her teeth like a beast snarling at its prey.
“Do you feel the ache in the air?” she growled. “Can you still taste the taint on every inhale?”
I stepped closer to her, catching her arm and shaking it hard enough to force her eyes onto me.
“We need to go,” I hissed.
But as I tried to draw Rissa towards the labyrinth, meaning to run from this place and the devastation I felt at leaving Bane here, the Necromancer let out a low, warning growl and I stilled.
“This isn’t freedom,” Rissa breathed, the air seeming to sigh in agreement at her words, the branches of the Great Elm rustling as if they too had been thinking the same thing. “Rathian’s cage is simply harder to see now.”
“What madness are you whispering to the wind, sister? This isn’t the moment for it.”
Silver eyes snapped to mine and something in Rissa’s gaze made me step back, dropping her arm suddenly while my pulse spiked in alarm.
“Do you know what Rathian means in the old language?” Rissa asked me. “The language of the first spirits?”
I shook my head, caught between panic and terror as heavy footsteps prowled towards us at my back.
Bane was closing in on me, I could feel the thick weight of his magic as it crept towards my heels, the ground withering beneath his footfalls, the trees wailing as they died in the grasp of his magic.
The only living thing that seemed unaffected by his power was the small tree that had wound itself onto his arm, its branches locked tight.
The Great Elm bristled, her branches writhing across the sky as if battered by an oncoming storm.
“It means ‘homeland’,” Rissa went on, her fingers curling like talons at her sides, her body tensing like a cornered animal trapped against a wall. “Not their homeland, Ferris. Ours.”
“Where do you think you’re going now, butcher of souls?” Bane growled and I jerked around, placing myself between him and my sister, intending to shield her from him – though some small part of me wondered if I ought to be doing the opposite.
“I didn’t want this at the cost of your family,” I breathed as he stepped closer to me and I forced myself to meet his ruined gaze, fearing the hatred I knew I would find there in place of all else now.
Bane’s eyes were dark with shadows and his foul power was spilling from him so potently that the ground the trees parted, inching away from his ruinous touch.
The small bones of dead creatures rose from the dirt, collecting around him as they reformed, his terrible power calling them back towards the verges of life.
Fear came for me and I stepped away, trying to urge Rissa toward the entrance to the labyrinth. But she stood firm as I knocked against her, her chin landing on my shoulder as she peered past me to the Fae who had damned a thousand souls to wander everlasting in his army.
Bane lifted a hand in demand, his gaze hard and the festering power which rolled from him making my stomach knot with fear.
His intention was clear, he meant for me to go with him now as the Great Elm had instructed.
But I had no desire to become a pawn in another game of spirits and fates which were painted out before me regardless of my own desires.
“Let me take her home,” I begged, my voice small. “At least allow me that much.”
Would I go with him then? Once I’d seen her safely into the arms of our parents, would I let the master of death lead me away? Would I follow the wants of the Great Elm and hunt with him for Providence? It seemed impossible to even consider it but did I really have any choice in the matter?
“And what, pretty lightwing, did you allow me when I knelt before you and begged for your mercy?” he hissed, a sapling wilting as he knocked it aside, its leaves shrivelling and turning brown before tumbling to the dirt to be crushed beneath his boot.
The branches of the Great Elm rustled at Bane’s back as he snarled at me, the spirit unnerved by his magic and lashing at the Necromancer with power of its own.
I shook my head, pushing against Rissa who only hissed like a snake in my ear.
“You see the contempt he holds for this sacred place?” she spat. “You see what he does in the garden of our mother?”
Her words clapped like thunder in my ears and I rounded on her in spite of the terrifying male who was closing in on me as though I were his prey to devour.
“Our mother is at home, broken and grieving over your loss – and mine too no doubt,” I said, shock scarring my words, hurt at the way she so easily gave that term to a damn tree when it had been our mother who had carried us in her womb, who had nursed us as babes and loved us with all her heart.
“That human never tried to find me,” Rissa exclaimed, hurt flashing through her bright eyes.
“And you know what we are – I showed you the truth of it. We were never really a part of that woman. We’re spirit-born, Ferris.
We’re like the ancient ones whose homeland this was long before the Fae and the humans and even the Hags roamed this place.
We are among the creatures who are worthy of the bounty this land offers.
They are nothing but usurpers who seek their own gains, bargaining and sacrificing to earn the favour of the spirits.
And now one of them has gone further, they’ve taken Providence and twisted him to their own designs. ”
“You don’t know that, not for sure.”
The Great Elm cried out above us and I clapped my hands over my ears as the terrible sound of her rage washed over me, around me, through me.
When the echoes of her fury finally subsided, I found myself staring at Rissa and finally seeing what I’d been so wilfully blinded to until now.
The Lost Children, though freed from the shackles of the forest, were not running from this place in delight but instead were creeping closer to my sister, bounding around her with gazes full of admiration and devotion so emphatic that it unsettled the deepest parts of my soul.
I’d freed them with thoughts of saving them but there they stood, surrounding Rissa as though she were their home and always had been.
My heart leapt in alarm as strong hands closed around my shoulders and Bane’s rough growl sounded against my ear.
“If you try to run from me, you will regret it,” he warned and a shiver of pure terror ran through my limbs as everything coating the ground beneath me withered and died, his power pulsing out in every direction, falling just short of consuming me.
I was in his thrall, utterly at his mercy and the blazing fury in Rissa’s eyes told me she’d realised it too.
“This is over, Bane,” I breathed, my voice rough with a fear I wished hadn’t betrayed me.
“Over?” he growled, his tone a spill of ice down my spine. “Oh no, my lightwing. This isn’t even close to over. You took your chance to claim your boon. And now it appears that you’re the only hope I have of claiming mine.”
I turned my head to meet his gaze despite my better judgement, needing to see what I feared I’d find lurking in his green eyes.
Terror took hold of me as I found nothing but bitter resolution and rioting hatred in his expression and I jerked out of his hold so suddenly that he lost his grip on me.
Rissa tugged at my hand, hissing at me that we needed to leave while a blur of tears made it impossible for me to see anything at all.