Chapter 37 Ikar
Ikar
We leave the haven of Lucentia’s Field of Tulips early, walking back into a world consumed by gloam.
It’s so thick that my abilities to sense gloam creatures are basically nonexistent.
It’s everywhere. All over me. So thick that I have no choice but to breathe it and taste its darkness on my tongue.
I pull lucent from the ever-running well of Vera’s magic and use it to increase the sensitivity of my hearing, and then I realize how used to having it so readily available I’ve gotten.
I don’t know anyone else who can offer lucent like she can, which makes it all the more incredible.
I’d offer to hire her as one of my royal originators, but I already know that offer would go up in flames.
I hear distant sounds, but they’re difficult to identify.
Large and small forest animals, low growls and weak twitters of birds, even the rush of the river ahead—nothing that seems too concerning.
I set a brisk pace, mindful that Vera’s stride is shorter than ours, but also driven to reach the border before we’re left to our own devices.
I don’t have time to add extra days to an already strenuous journey.
I need to find a Black Tulip, my Queen of the Night, now.
With the flower in my pack, hope has grown, and my drive is renewed.
Now if only my wayward magic and my feelings would quit longing for Vera.
The journey down the rock steps is much faster than the way up.
We jump off jagged edges and clamber around sharp outcroppings.
I almost turn to help Vera once, then pull my hand back when my magic reminds me how much it would like the contact, how aware I am of the flower I carry, and the future woman I need to bridge with.
Darvy reaches for her instead, his hands around her waist and hers on his shoulders as he lifts her down.
I swiftly turn and tromp down the rest of the hill, irritated.
Which makes me the first to see what’s ahead.
“What in the blazes?” I mutter to myself as the boat comes into view, surrounded by four looming figures that blend with the gloam almost seamlessly.
My stomach fills with dread. Odella warned about a formidable enemy…
is it them or some type of gloam creature I’ve never seen before?
And, to make matters worse, I spot three sets of deathstalker eyes through the gloamy mist that tempt me to gaze into their endless depths.
One deathstalker took out most of a patrol I rode just weeks ago; now here are four, along with the figures that stand so still they could merely be dark statues in the forest. The deathstalkers’ eyes are magnetizing, but Darvy, Rhosse, and I have enough experience to know that if they catch your gaze, you end up stunned, and stunned soldiers can’t fight.
“Don’t look in their eyes,” I warn Vera, who stands just behind me, a flustered Rupi bobbing her head as she worries a path back and forth across her shoulder.
I readjust my grip on my sword as the figures shift ahead of us.
It’s difficult to watch an enemy you can’t truly look at for fear of accidentally meeting its eyes.
Instead, I focus on the knife-sharp points that circle the round heads of the deathstalkers, the razor teeth and snakelike skin that covers their bodies, thick and tough.
They and the figures stand between us and the boat—our only way to make it back to the nymphs in time.
Darvy grabs his bow and an enchanted arrow, nocking it as Rhosse readies his battle axe.
Vera hovers just behind my right shoulder, and I feel the waves of lucent she’s already offering.
In moments our enchanted weapons glow brightly.
I take more lucent, testing how much Vera has to offer as my body fills with magic, my senses heighten, and my muscles fill with strength.
Rhosse’s shoulders remain tense, belying his worry about the odds of us winning this fight, even with Vera’s lucent—it’s not something I’ve seen very often. The odds are not good.
“I have a weapon from Jethonan…” I mutter beneath my breath.
Rhosse scoffs and whispers, “I think that might actually be more dangerous.”
Before I can reach for it, one of the figures mutters a command, and simultaneously they race forward when the deathstalkers lunge.
Faster than I can blink, Darvy sends a glowing lucent arrow flying with a whistle, and it hits one of the figures in the chest, but all I can see are the three deathstalkers still closing the distance between us.
I race forward to meet their attack, putting distance between them and Vera.
The moment they reach us is a rush of ear-piercing growls, chill gloam, and snapping jaws.
I throw my sword up to block the worst that comes from two that have targeted me, drawing more lucent from Vera to increase my speed in order to avoid their swiping claws and teeth that reach for my neck.
I wait for the familiar burning heat of lucent in my veins with the amount I pull, but it doesn’t come—no time to think about it now.
I spot Rhosse battling the other deathstalker, and Darvy on his own against the three figures, darting between trees and boulders.
A quick glance at Vera shows that, so far, her orb keeps them away from her, but I can’t believe that a simple lucent orb will prevent the figures from attacking if the rest of us are defeated.
We’re horribly outnumbered, but I force myself to focus.
A deathstalker lunges toward me, and I jump to the left, moving faster with the lucent, before quickly ducking and stabbing it through the side.
Lucent pulses through its body until it explodes into bits of gloam that float away, but just as my sword is released, another attacks, ramming its head into my left arm.
I roar as the knives of its mane pierce the bracer on my forearm and sink into my skin.
I wrench my arm away and take advantage of the close proximity by swinging my sword up in an attempt to behead it, but it backs off too quickly, and the enchanted steel clangs off its mane again.
All around us are snarls and sounds of battle.
A burst of light comes from my left, and the deathstalker retreats farther, momentarily.
Vera. Another quick glance shows that she’s still standing, but how much lucent can one woman offer to three men in a forest void of lucent?
I fear she’ll end up dead if I continue pulling it at this rate, but she gives me a reassuring look and a nod, and I feel an even greater wave of lucent come toward me—more than I’ve ever felt. I don’t know how she’s doing it.
I look over my shoulder to search out my companions and find Darvy battling two figures.
The third has fallen to the ground. He’s holding his own, but for how long?
Rhosse takes a defensive stance as the deathstalker he battles prepares to jump.
I know I could beat all of these enemies…
if I had time. But we’re outnumbered, and I fear someone is going to end up dead. Jethonan’s weapon.
The next deathstalker eyes me, crouching low and aiming at my calves as it lunges forward as if intending to drag me to the ground.
I jump back in a flash and slice its shoulder, triggering a shrieking growl that leaves my ears ringing as it backs away.
I pull the vial from within my vest and yank the cork off with my teeth before dumping some in my hand, hoping it doesn’t burn a hole through my body or some such thing.
It doesn’t, but you never know when it comes to Jethonan.
I throw the powder at the deathstalker and take a step back as it implodes in a snarling mass of purple-and-black clouds.
Jethonan will be more than pleased to know his creation worked this time.
I sprint, pulling more lucent, hoping Vera can handle it without collapsing.
I catch sight of the last deathstalker charging toward Rhosse, head bent to impale him. Still running, I throw the powder in a cloud toward the deathstalker, and as with the last one, as soon as it makes contact, it disappears as if sucked into a black-and-purple portal. Gone.
Rhosse looks my way with surprise.
“Get Vera to the boat!” I call to him over my shoulder as I race to help Darvy with the last two enemies.
As I approach, I see the one that lies unmoving on the ground, gloam seeping from its dead form. Odd, but no time to consider it now.
I lift my sword to block a swing that aims to remove my head from my body.
The blade cuts into my armor, uncomfortably close to my neck, but I ignore it and offensively stab at the one to my left.
He grunts as if he’s a man—their menacing faces within their hoods appear to be men, their strength is that of men, but I saw the way gloam seeped from the dead one’s body.
These are no human men… at least, not any longer.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Rhosse and Vera working to slide the boat back into the river, but the gloam soldiers notice too.
Darvy’s sword slams against the larger sword of the one he battles with with a ring that vibrates in the air around us, but the gloam soldier uses his position and size to shove Darvy back, giving him time to turn and run after Rhosse and Vera.
Darvy falters against the jagged rocks beneath our feet with a curse.
He quickly gains his footing and sprints after the gloam soldier.
“Rhosse!” Darvy shouts in warning, but Rhosse is already aware.
The distraction works in my favor, the attention of the gloam soldier I’m fighting split, and with a well-timed stab, he falls to my sword.
I waste no time racing to the waiting boat, where Rhosse and Vera already wait, as Darvy holds off the last gloam soldier.
I jump in, and it rocks dangerously in the water.
“Darvy, now!” I shout.