Chapter 9
The journey back through the Gallery should have been smooth.
We'd navigated the route before, knew the currents and the safe passages.
But nothing about Nytheris was willing to let us go easily.
We were three days out from the realm, making good time through relatively calm currents, when the ship's alarm crystals began shrieking.
I bolted from my cabin to find the deck in chaos. The crew raced to their stations while Cypher stood at the helm, his expression thunderous. "What's happening?" I shouted over the noise.
"Storm!" Zoya called from the navigation station. "A big one. And it's moving directly into our path."
I felt it then, the disturbance in the Gallery's fabric. This was worse than the storm we'd encountered on the way to Nytheris. This was a hurricane where that had been a squall.
"Can we go around?" Kora asked, appearing at my side.
"Not without adding several weeks to our journey," Cypher said. "And our supplies won't last that long. We burned through too much."
"So we go through it," Jask said, sounding as horrified as I felt about that prospect.
"That's suicide. This storm is at least three times the size of the last one we encountered." Cypher's hands were white-knuckled on the helm. "But we don't have a choice. Everyone to your stations. Secure everything. This is going to be rough."
We scrambled to obey. I helped Knives secure the cargo below deck, double-checking the straps holding our precious Last Lights. The codex was in Cypher's cabin, locked in a magically reinforced chest with the crown.
"Are you ready for this?" Knives asked as we finished the last of the tie-downs.
"Not even remotely."
She grinned. "Me neither. But we've survived everything Nytheris threw at us. What's one more storm?"
Famous last words.
The storm hit us like a wall. One moment we were sailing with full control, the next we were in the middle of a maelstrom. The ship bucked and rolled, throwing me against the bulkhead. Knives grabbed my arm and hauled me toward the stairs.
"Get to the deck! Cypher needs you for navigation!"
We fought our way up through passages as the ship pitched.
When we finally emerged onto the deck, the sight stole my breath.
The storm was magnificent and terrifying.
Energy crackled through the darkness like lightning, and the currents were visible as swirling rivers of different-colored light.
The ship's wings strained against the chaos, and I could hear the hull groaning with stress.
Cypher stood at the helm with Jask, both fighting to keep the ship on course. When he saw me, relief flashed across his face. "I need you to navigate. Find us a safe path through."
I made my way to him, using the rail for support as the deck tried to throw me overboard. When I reached his side, he wrapped one arm around my waist, anchoring me to him.
"Can you sense a way through?" he asked, his mouth close to my ear to be heard over the roar of the storm.
I opened myself to my rift senses, and the storm's full fury slammed into my awareness. It was chaos. Currents were colliding and fragmenting, energy building and releasing in random patterns. But there, threading through the worst of it, I sensed a channel of relative calm.
"There!" I pointed. "Bearing thirty degrees port, descending angle. It's a channel, trust me!"
He hesitated before nodding curtly. "Jask, new heading! Thirty degrees port, descend!"
The ship angled suddenly, and my stomach lurched. We dove deeper into the storm, and the chaos intensified. Lightning arced across the deck, leaving scorch marks on the wood. The temperature plummeted, and ice began forming on the rigging.
"Stay with it!" Cypher shouted. “Scavenger, keep calling out adjustments!"
I did, my voice hoarse from shouting. "Five degrees starboard... hold steady... climb ten degrees... now port again..."
Time lost meaning. A massive surge of energy, bigger than anything we'd encountered, slammed into the ship's port side.
I felt the impact through my bones. I heard the shriek of tearing metal.
The ship listed violently, and Cypher's arm was torn from around my waist. I tumbled across the deck, fetching up hard against the starboard rail.
Around me, I heard screams, shouts, the sound of things breaking.
"Juno!" Cypher's voice.
I tried to respond, but my head was spinning from the impact.
I tasted blood. I'd bitten my tongue. Another surge hit, and this time I couldn't catch myself.
I felt it, the very distinct sensation of a hand, grabbing the back of my void mantle.
Before I could react, I was tugged over the rail and into the open Gallery.
I screamed and screamed, reaching back toward the ship.
Not again… This can't happen again…
Three long days, I'd spend lost in the Gallery, floating through nothing while echoes whispered to me. I couldn't go through it again. I wouldn't survive it.
Strong fingers wrapping around mine. I looked up to see Cypher. We'd been pulled off the ship together, because the idiot had jumped overboard after me.
In the blink of an eye, I was tugged backwards again. Suddenly, we weren't in the Gallery anymore. We slammed into solid ground, rolling and tumbling before coming to a stop in a tangle of limbs. I lay there gasping.
I couldn't see anything. The darkness pressed in, and all sound seemed muffled, like I was underwater. My heart thundered as I tried to get my bearings, but there was nothing to orient myself with, just darkness.
Then, streaks of purple light shot across what I assumed was the sky, briefly illuminating dark fog that swirled around us in thick, choking clouds. The light was gone as quickly as it had appeared, plunging us back into darkness.
"Juno!" Cypher's voice sounded distant. "Juno, where are you?"
I tried to call back but words caught in my throat. Another flash of purple light, and I saw his silhouette moving through the fog.
"Here," I finally managed, barely above a whisper.
He found me in the next flash, materializing out of the darkness like a ghost. His hands were warm when they found mine, and he helped me to my feet. "Are you hurt?" he asked, his face briefly illuminated by another streak of light.
Before I could answer, I heard them. Whispers, dozens, maybe hundreds of them, all around us. They were soft at first, almost imperceptible beneath the strange muffled quality of this place. But they grew, multiplied, pushed from all sides.
'Come stay... come join... never alone again...'
A sinking pit formed in my stomach. I knew these whispers. I'd heard them before, during those three nightmarish days lost in the Gallery, waiting to either die or be rescued. The voices had kept me company then, growing louder each day, more insistent.
"No," I gasped, backing up. "No, not again."
My breathing quickened, and soon I couldn't get enough air. The fog seemed to thicken around me, and the whispers became more urgent, more demanding.
'Stay with us...'
“Listen to me." Cypher grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "They're only echoes. They can't hurt you."
"I know what they are," I said, trembling. I knew they couldn't physically harm me, but that didn't make their presence less terrifying.
They pressed closer, the fog swirling more violently around us. I felt them reaching for me, trying to entice me to join them, to stay with them. The pendant at my neck burned cold, responding to their presence.
"Where are we?" I asked, struggling to keep my panic under control. "This isn't the normal Gallery. It's different."
Cypher was silent, his eyes scanning the darkness. There was an odd look on his face. He knew this place. He knew exactly where we were, but he wasn't saying.
"Cypher," I insisted, grabbing his arm. "Where are we?"
He opened his mouth to respond, but more whispers joined the chorus, drowning out his words. I could almost make out individual voices now, begging me to stay, promising peace, belonging, and an end to the constant struggle.
My panic reached a breaking point. The whispers were inside my head now, behind my eyes, under my skin. My chest felt too tight, my heart beating too fast. I couldn't breathe.
Something cold brushed against my arm and I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat. Suddenly, we were being tugged again, pulled by another current. The darkness blurred around us, the whispers fading as we were yanked away.
Then, we slammed hard onto the wooden deck of The Night-Piercer, as if we'd never left.
I lay there gasping, the solid feel of the ship beneath me the most welcome sensation I'd ever experienced.
Above us, the storm still raged, but it was just a normal void storm now, dangerous, but manageable.
Not like the place we'd just escaped. Cypher recovered first, rolling to his feet.
"Captain!" Jask shouted, eyes wide with shock. "How—where did you—"
"No time!" Cypher yelled back. "Get us out of this storm! Bearing one-eighty, full speed!"
The crew scrambled to obey, though I saw the confused glances they exchanged. One moment we'd been pulled overboard, the next we were back on deck. None of them had seen where we'd gone.
Cypher helped me to my feet. "Are you alright?"
I nodded shakily, though "alright" was far from how I felt. "What was that place? And don't tell me you don't know."
He glanced around to ensure no one was close enough to hear, then leaned in. "We can talk about it later. When we're safe."
I grabbed his arm. "Now, Cypher."
Cypher's expression was strange as he said, "The place that exists beyond the Gallery."
My blood ran cold. "What are you saying…"
"You know already," he whispered, eyes hard. "The First Dark pulled you in, and somehow you got us out again."