Chapter Thirty Eight
“Check the doors. See if any of them open, we’ll pick a direction from there and work our way through until we find the head mage.” I try the door in front of me but it doesn’t give. Not even when I try to blast it with a hit of magic. Lame.
Mort, Charlie, Jaak and Dina check the other four doors and I almost think we’re going to have to sit here and wait for the ceremony when Jaak’s door opens with a creak.
We all head to Jaak’s door. A wail sounds from inside and a gust of frigid air blows out and hits us in the face.
I grab onto Jaak’s arm. The wail sounds inhuman, but I know it.
I’ve heard it before in my dreams. Whatever is in there is a nightmare come to life.
“That doesn’t seem ominous or like a trap at all,” I mutter and swallow hard.
The door opens into a hallway lit by torches and wide enough for two of us to walk side-bye-side.
I look at the others who look pale in the face.
The reality of what we’re here to do is finally setting in and I get it, but even with how scary this is, not a single one of them looks for an escape.
I’m so proud to be here with them.
“I’ll go first. The rest of you follow behind.” I move to go first but Jaak stops me.
“No, I will go first. You’re right, this is a trap and I cannot let you walk into it. Whatever is there will have to get through me if it wants you.”
I put my hand on his. “Jaak…I don’t think it's me that it wants. I’ll go first.”
“My heart, you-”
I squeeze his hand. “If I’m to be your anchor, your soul-bonded, then I am your equal. I can’t hide behind you when things get tough and that means I go first. I need you to understand me, trust me now, please.”
Jaak holds my gaze for a moment before he nods and steps aside. “I will be a step behind you, Meadow.”
“I know. Thank you for trusting me.” I rise up on my tiptoes and press a kiss to his cheek. “It will make sense soon, I promise.”
The second I connect with Jaak to fight, he’ll see what I’ve been thinking.
Why I want to go first, so I don’t explain it here.
It would only waste precious time. I step into the dark stone hallway and one by one we file in.
I know the second we’re all in because the door slams shut behind us with a resounding boom.
“Definitely a trap,” I mutter and pull my swords out just in case the fun is about to start but nothing happens.
We continue forward, the torches lighting the way and I listen hard for any sign that something is coming while I ponder on the thought that’s slowly begun to take shape since Jaak said this was a World Eater Temple.
“The World Eater. I thought I had left such a being behind. It seems my life’s path is never to be free of them.”
“I have served one.”
What are the odds that I would free Jaak on the eve of a World Eater consuming this world? Why did fate wait until now to bring us together? I grip my swords tighter. Up ahead I see light. We’re almost there.
If the World Eater is rare then how is it here now at the same time Jaak is?
He said that he only served one in name, that it had been a long time since he’d seen his master Eri.
Time moves differently to him, a long time isn’t a few years or even a decade, it’s hundreds and thousands of years, more time maybe than when he was trapped in rock jail.
And that makes me feel more certain about what I’m thinking. I don’t think it’s the world the World Eater is hungry for. I don’t believe all of this is for Charlie’s book, or even in some weird way, me. Nothing that ancient or powerful would care about any of us, except for one of us.
Jaak.
I look over at him. He’s as beautiful as ever. The armor he wears and the battle axe in his hands looks so natural on him. He looks every bit the agent of chaos and strife the mages said he was. The perfect servant of a World Eater.
I think it’s my husband the World Eater wants.
But why did they take Clyde? I don’t understand that part but I know enough to know that sometimes gods and demons don’t make sense.
They’re just as capricious as people. Maybe there is nothing to make sense of.
I hope there’s nothing logical about it all, but my gut tells me I’m wrong.
I move closer to Jaak and scan the room for threats.
It’s different from the last room. This one is smaller with rows and rows of wooden pews lined up to make two aisles. Heavy drapes hang from the ceiling to the floor and block out the windows. There’s a mezzanine level that I don’t like the look of.
“What do you think of that?” I ask Jaak.
He follows my gaze towards the mezzanine and shakes his head. “Not good. We better get someone up there. My vote is Mort and the gamemaster.”
“I’m with you,” I tell him and motion for Charlie and Mort to come closer to me. “You think you two can find a way up there?” I ask, pointing to the second level.
“We’re on it.” Charlie gives me a thumbs up and grabs Mort. “Come on, buddy. We’ve got a job to do.”
Dina, Jaak, and I walk up the length of the aisles. There’s a small podium with a book on top of it. “What is this?” Dina asks, looking at the book. “A bible?”
“Um, maybe?” I have no idea what a bible is. They were banned in town as heresy so I’ve never seen one. Why would the World Eater have a bible though? I approach the book to get a closer look and freeze when I’m in front of it. “I know what this is. It’s a copy of Charlie’s book.”
“When I use the book it’s like… I don’t know, it’s like I’m making a call…Now there’s someone else there, there’s static on the line and everything is hard to hear through them.”
I put a hand on it and jerk it back the second I do. The power that I felt from Charlie’s book is here in full force but it doesn’t feel like anything Charlie would use.
“The static on the line, this is it!”
“What is?” Jaak looks confused and so does Dina.
I know I’m not making sense to them. “This book is a copy of Charlie’s.
Earlier when Charlie and I went to make sure his book was there, something happened to him.
It was like he short-circuited and he saw into the World Eater’s mind.
This is how they’re connected, they’re siphoning the book’s power and Charlie’s the conduit, but I don’t understand why. ”
A door behind us swings open and there’s a slow clap. “About time you all got here. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Who are you?” I ask the tall man with a hooded robe on. He strides into the room like he owns the place, which, okay, he probably does.
“I should be the one asking questions considering you’re in my temple, don’t you think?
” he asks and flicks his wrist. Invisible hands shove us away from the podium and I fly through the air and land on my back.
I stagger to my feet and see Dina flipping over the top of a pew while Jaak falls to one knee.
The man darts forward and snatches the book off the podium and I square up with him.
“You defile our temple! Today is a hallowed day, you treacherous beings! Our god shall make you pay!!” He raises the book over his head and the whole room starts to rumble.
“That’s enough of that!”
“You cannot stop us. We are infinite and-”
I kick him so hard he flies backwards and his book lands where he was standing. The man slams into the wall and falls to the ground with a groan. He tries to get up but doesn’t quite manage it and instead falls facedown on the floor.
I tilt my head and consider the blacked out mage on the ground. “For a head mage, I somehow expected more,” I say.
“Yeah, how do you like it, jerk!” Dina yells as she pops up from behind the pew.
“Well done, my heart.” Jaak rises to his feet and shoulders his axe.
“Thanks.” I pick up the book and flinch when I feel the dark magic in it rise up.
I don’t know if it’s the World Eater or not, but I’m not going to let it in.
“I’m going to get this to Charlie. Maybe he knows how to use it,” I tell Jaak, but when I turn to call out to Charlie another door opens and more mages start to flood into the room.
“Orrrrr, I can stay right here.”