Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I’m worried about Bayne’s fixation on his growing power.
—Journal of Isla Jasira
As we ran, I began to dig. I shoveled my way down, deep beneath the chasm of darkness that had so easily, so quickly filled my entire being when the Obscura had taken over.
Isla’s warning echoed in my ears months later.
No one can handle this much power. But I dug deeper anyway, elbowing my way past that darkness and listening for that quiet tune that always shrank beneath the shadows.
The warmth of Bayne’s amplifier bounced on my chest beneath my tunic as we hurried through the snowy woods.
Shouts of terror ripped through the night as sounds of battle echoed through the icy air.
Swords clashed with the armor of the Bone Warriors, and I caught sight of silver suits in the distance as Nivis soldiers sprang from their hiding places and attacked the village.
Wild screams rang from the east as a thunderous herd of ashen plowed through the trees. Vulcan closed in to my left, and I reeled in the darkness that pounded against my palms.
I had to try.
A small group of ashen broke free from the herd as they trampled saplings in their wake and veered toward us, their elongated nails and teeth slashing at anything within arm’s reach.
Quiet. It was so quiet in my mind as I strained to hear the Transcindiel. I latched myself to the amplifier on my chest, thinking of Tiberius, as I commanded the darkness to silence itself. A blade rang beside me, followed by a soft warning from Vulcan as we ran toward the onslaught.
Where are you? I whispered into my mind.
“Lyvia!”
Vulcan’s shout pulled me from my trance, and I skidded to a halt as an ashen pulled ahead and reached for me. I ducked low, letting the hard, cold body of the ashen trip over me in time for Vulcan to take off its head.
“Now isn’t the time to experiment!” he shouted.
Xenelpha’s words from the Maadon ceremony crouched in my mind. To change, to truly transform, takes sacrifice…. that our essence may be nudged, one sacrificial bit at a time, before evolution takes place.
One sacrificial bit at a time. I’d been forcing too much change into the ashen. I’d been focused on its body, the physical change.
Marian’s words from months ago on board the Evecta whispered in my mind like a chilling clue. We’d been in her room below deck, examining Oslo’s severed hand.
Perhaps, she had signed, the part that makes them human or elf has died…
But it wasn’t dead. The soul, whatever remained behind, had merely been changed. It had been nudged toward corruption, the body following its vile intention. I needed to focus the power on that single, critical part of what made us human and elf.
The soul.
Remember who you are.
The haunted faces of Kayj watched from my memories as I shouted the furious demand into my inner self.
A tiny, barely perceptible string of notes flitted up from the chasm my powers called home.
I reached for it as I held on to the warmth of the amplifier on my chest, linking the two and throwing my palms to the next set of milky white hands reaching for me, directing it to that crumpled, corrupted bit of soul sitting at its center.
A blast of beautiful, glittering golden light lit up the night as the Transcindiel shot toward the face of nightmares.
Wild, snapping jaws went slack as the golden rays spun, encasing the creature in a glittering web.
Its pale eyes widened before it fell a mere foot from me, its limp body slumping to the ground.
My knees barked in pain, hitting the icy ground as the expenditure of power gripped me with claws of exhaustion.
My lungs burned as shaky breath tried to escape. I was utterly spent. To change, to truly transform, takes sacrifice. The amplifier burned against my chest like a living flame as my eyes scanned the dark-skinned body in front of me. Her back softly rose and fell.
It worked.
Despite my fatigue, a newfound determination emerged, fueled by the glimmer of hope. The Transcindiel sang within me, elated by the chance to undo the corruption commanded by Dark King Daimos.
Vulcan leaped over the body and into the onslaught of ashen that followed. I moved to kneel next to the body when the zing of an airborne spear flew past my head, finding its mark in the face of an ashen reaching for my neck.
Xenelpha’s snarl followed as her amatohk leaped, its massive, clawed paws landing on another ashen’s chest as she ripped the spear from its face.
“You can’t save them all tonight!” she called from beneath her mask. “Decide now. Save a few of the damned or hundreds of my people.”
My jaw went slack as I processed her words.
The chaos of the attack seemed to slow as the truth in them hit me like a punch to the gut.
I couldn’t save them all tonight. How many could I save before my power guttered out completely?
Until I used up the entire amplifier Bayne had so carefully crafted for me?
I could feel it already, singeing the undershirt beneath my tunic.
It took too much energy to lift my gaze to the matron who continued her butchering.
The amalgamation of events that occurred over the past several weeks spun through my mind. Choices… Changes… Who will I be?
My hands fell to my side as I realized she was right.
The irony of the two powers was not lost on me.
Why the two had such a difficult time coexisting within one body.
A power to destroy and a power to create.
Transcindiel didn’t just transform. It could create, could save.
And it was forced to exist, side by side with shadows of pure death.
That beautiful, golden flicker of hope that had sparked within the chasm of darkness trembled against the choice Xenelpha so clearly laid out.
Her words from a week ago echoed in the emptiness filling my chest, the void that had begun to spread in my soul all those months ago when I began my slaughter.
Choices shape us.
Decide who you want to be.
A child’s scream ripped through the night, mingling with the chorus of snarls that rose from the village, followed by the answering roar of amatohks and the warriors they carried.
“Decide, Lyvia!” Vulcan screamed at me. His wild, hazel eyes found mine as his dagger plunged into the neck of an ashen flying through the trees.
My soul was the sacrifice.
My heart stilled at the realization. To do what needed to be done, to save the Realm of Vael. These choices would hover, haunting my existence until my last breath.
“Take me to the horde,” I shouted to Xenelpha, the words suffocating the little flame of hope that had burst into life mere moments before. I would make this choice, and I understood… I accepted the damage it would do to my soul if it meant saving the others.
She reached a bone-covered glove to me and hauled me atop her amatohk. Vulcan ripped through two ashen before he leaped onto the back of the dune runner and squeezed in behind me, careful not to rub against the sharp, spine-like scales.
“Take me as far from the village as you can,” I said into Xenelpha’s neck as we flew through the village.
The words caught in my throat at the danger I’d be putting the rest of them in.
The blood that still coated my hands after that fateful day in Odessa and the damning piece of steel that stuck out of the field of ash… Oslo…
“Find Nerissa,” I said to Vulcan, his body shifting as he nodded in response.
A growing pressure of shadows built beneath my skin as an air-splitting screech echoed through to the west, followed by a blast of the whitest light.
I sent a silent prayer up to Aelius for Nerissa as his power flowed through her on the battlefield.
Vulcan leaped off the dune runner mid-stride in search of my fellow Bellator.
Xenelpha cursed as a silver arrow bounced off the shining scales of her amatohk.
I ducked, making myself as small as possible without slicing my chest and face on the scales.
The dune runner snarled in response, and we broke free of the forest where hundreds of ashen crossed our abandoned camp across the frozen lake.
The amatohk’s stride lengthened as he stretched his massive paws over the ice and let himself glide in between steps, quickening our flight. We neared the edge of the lake when a huge white form hurtled toward us from the side, echoing a booming roar across the distance it quickly closed.
Silver, fortissa chains wrapped around the bear’s monstrous chest as he slammed into the side of the amatohk.
A small whimper escaped its reptilian-like maw, and Xenelpha’s scream of fury reverberated off the ice.
My head slammed into the bank of the lake, scraping against the icy snow.
Warm liquid pooled down the side of my cheek as I struggled to stand.
The bear bellowed as he stood on his hind legs before hurtling himself at Xenelpha and her mount. It ripped into the amatohk’s ice-like hide, slicing through it with massive claws.
Xenelpha’s magic erupted from her as she called the wind, throwing large chunks of ice and slamming them into the bear’s head.
“Go!” she snarled at me.
I winced as I stood, slipping on the wet ice. Gods, I was so tired. My limbs dragged as if moving through tar. I risked a glance behind me as I let the Obscura race to my palms, the only thing about me that felt normal, aiming them ahead of me toward the oncoming ashen.
A dark silhouette of a soldier loomed above the massive bear. A rider. Xenelpha stilled for a moment before she began to quake, drawing in as much power as she could.
I snapped my attention back to the danger ahead of me as I summoned the darkness, doing everything I could to hold my arms out in front of me and let it fly.
A wave of euphoria accompanied the release as the Obscura ripped free.
My breathing slowed as I obliterated the undead army tens at a time, a small amount of horror seeping into my chest.
Yet a sickening sense of satisfaction formed as the white-blue plains, illuminated by Renova on the horizon, turned black with ash. Despite my exhaustion, I had no need of the amplifier for this. This darkness was more a part of me than the power of transformation. And what did that say about me?
My thoughts drifted as their numbers dwindled, but I kept hold of my mind this time. The darkness yanked at the reins like an unruly stallion, but I held firm, my control never faltering. Never again would I take a life I didn’t intend to take.
Nerissa appeared as the numbers died down.
I closed off my fists, halting the flow of the darkness, and it rumbled slowly back into that chasm.
A small remaining horde rushed toward us, and a brilliant white light shot free from Nerissa, the white fire catching them as they slowed, still staggering, swiftly burning alive.
She gave me a slight nod. Swords clashed in the distant village. My eyes snagged on a small, unmoving form. Xenelpha.
A smudge of violet spread across the frozen lake as Ganmira rose in the west. I scanned the snowy plains and the dark trees in the distance. No sign of the massive bear or its rider.
I shivered against the cool breeze floating over the plains as I knelt in the dark, wet snow next to Xenelpha.
Little gasps of air escaped her chest in hollow, shaky breaths.
I reached for the bone-covered hand that rested on a spear protruding from her chest. Dark eyes found mine from the shadows of her large mask as her fingers curled around mine.
I reached to remove the spear when the mask shook side to side.
“No,” she gurgled, her voice wet against the blood coating her throat.
I slumped to the ground next to her as I gently removed the skull from her face.
“Thank you,” she rasped. “For making the choice. This will not be the hardest one to make, Shadow Shifter.”
The dried blood on my temple cracked as my brows pinched.
“You must take it now,” she continued. “I know you planned to. Kai will not let you leave with it. He’d rather see it destroyed.”
“I don’t understand,” I croaked, my voice coming out harsher, drier than I’d expected.
“Faron was cunning, wise. I hoped you’d figure it out before they came.”
Before they came… “What do you—”
“Take it. Unlock it. You’ll need this,” she breathed, holding up her left fist in the darkness, allowing her eyes to close.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the darkness.
Nerissa appeared by my side.
“Whatever for?” A soft smile formed on Xenelpha’s lips that sent a familiar burning sensation to my eyes.
Nerissa’s boots scraped against the icy bank. Her form lowered, kneeling on the other side of the dying matron.
“It was an honor to have known you both, as briefly as I did,” Xenelpha murmured. “Life. Death. Change and rebirth. Powers reforged with new masters.”
“Xenelpha,” I whispered. “Who is the Impostor?”
Fear flashed in her eyes before they hardened into disgust. “He… It… is a world walker. It watches through silver eyes, jumping between bodies. A spy… The Messenger for the Ehp’uch, the Embodied…”
The blood in my veins stilled as the word hovered in the air above Xenelpha’s lips. An eerie sense of awareness swept through me as the Transcindiel and Obscura wrapped around each other.
“The caeluma are the key. They didn’t expect them… They will find you…”
I opened my mouth to ask more when Xenelpha’s cough became shallow, her breathing more ragged as her eyes drifted to the blue-black night sky. The Obscura, despite having settled deep within that chasm, uncoiled and turned its attention to the woman lying before me.
Death beckoned, I realized, and I placed a cold hand on her eyes, pulling the lids down. As I did so, a whisper of darkness escaped my fingers. I slid it into her being and laid a calming hand on her life force as it flickered out.
Nerissa’s indrawn breath pulled me from the hollowness that remained, and I found her gazing at me, a tender curiosity written across her face. I took Xenelpha’s cold fist and pried her fingers open to take what she’d freely given.
The key to the burial chamber.