Chapter 16 #2
A shiver runs down Lowri’s spine. ‘Meaning all powerful?’
He nods. ‘They swept through three territories before we beat them back here in Fallow, ending the war. But, as you have seen, the scars of that time remain. Shadow looms over every town and city. They bled the light magic from the world. And then they worked out how to open a portal and moved on to yours.’
‘Could you tell us how their magic works?’ Eli asks.
‘It works much like yours or mine,’ Hellius says with a crooked smile.
‘But amplify that by three. They somehow found a way to combine their shadow magic and to consume light magic, making everything they do much more powerful. It took all of us to defeat them. At the height of their power, they could blot out a sky, create portals within our world, travel vast distances with a finger snap. And their shadows had substance. They were working on creating a shadow army before we won and forced them from our world.’
‘A shadow army?’ Lowri asks faintly.
He nods. ‘A whole body of creatures, created by them, that they could direct at will. Almost unstoppable.’
‘Skies,’ Lowri utters. ‘And how long ago did they cross over to our world?’
‘Over a hundred years ago.’
Eli frowns. ‘Surely they would be dead by now?’
Hellius wags his finger. ‘Not with the light magic they consumed. Left alone, they could live several lifetimes. I’m afraid that if you don’t deal with them soon your world could end up like ours. You may not have long.’
‘What do you mean?’ Lowri asks.
‘Well, think of the fog like a sponge. It absorbs any light magic, but never enough for it to dissipate completely. You’re a walking source of light. But to create a portal—’
‘I need light as well as shadow,’ Eli says quietly. ‘Is that why my father … why he never came back?’
‘He tried. For many years. But in the end he exhausted himself trying to create a portal to get back to you and your mother. It took him to an early grave.’
Eli sits back, staring down at his hands, and Lowri senses the brooding disquiet clouding his mind.
‘A witch can command light and shadow magic, or so Isaiah believed,’ Hellius says, accepting a drink as he avoids their eyes. ‘Would you say that’s true?’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ Lowri says with a tight smile, thoughts lingering on her cousin and what he has just learned. How it will torment him, if he allows it to do so. She leans close to Ethlet and murmurs, ‘As soon as we’ve answered their questions, I think it’s time to leave.’
‘Talk to me,’ Lowri murmurs as they step out of the Society building, the sound of those tinkling bells ringing in her ears.
The Society had so many questions for her and Eli about their world.
About the geography, creatures and about witches.
Lowri found herself answering more and more, while Eli slumped in his seat, shrinking in on himself.
Eli sighs, gesturing to the Society building. ‘They have such a grasp of the science of magic in this world, the individual strands of light and dark, the research … Think of the advancements we could make if I could just have more time here. But if what Hellius says of light magic is true …’
‘Then we have to leave right away,’ Lowri says.
‘Or we may be stuck here like my father,’ Eli agrees as Ethlet leads them through the streets of Fallow. ‘I want a couple of hours in my father’s study in case he made any notes, in case Hellius did not have the full information, but be ready.’
They leave Fallow after dinner, heading for the graveyard.
Ethlet chatters in a ceaseless stream to fill the heavy silence.
Eli has several of his father’s journals stashed in his jacket, and that will have to be enough.
They’re not sure if he’ll be able to step between worlds with any more of them, in case they too are suffused with shadow, soaking up light magic like the fog above, or simply too heavy a weight to carry between worlds, like an anchor, dragging them back.
Travelling between worlds is so new to him and, as Lowri points out, if it works, then perhaps he will be able to return for the rest of them in time.
When they reach the graveyard, he places a hand on his father’s gravestone, turning his face from them.
Lowri’s heart twists as Eli says a quiet goodbye to the man he never had the chance to meet.
Then he steps away, eyes leaden, and takes Lowri’s hand.
Ethlet hangs back after they say their goodbyes. Then Eli murmurs quietly and a doorway appears. Lowri sighs in relief as somewhere else begins to take form beyond, a place other than the graveyard coming into focus. A room becomes visible on the other side of the doorway.
‘Strange,’ says Eli. ‘I thought of Mira, focused on walking to her, but that doesn’t look like her room in Ennor Castle. Nor anywhere else on Ennor.’
Lowri steps closer, examining the space: a sparsely furnished room with a small window looking out on to blue sky.
Then Mira appears. Exhaustion marks her features, her hair is tied back in a messy plait, fighting leathers encasing her body.
Lowri holds her breath as Eli reaches out for Mira and she looks up, her eyes flaring wide.
She forms his name with her lips, leaping across the room … only to slam into the doorway.
‘No … what?’ Eli says, placing his hands on the doorway, muttering curses as he tries to push his way through.
But it’s as though there is a physical barrier between them and Mira.
Lowri covers her mouth with her hands as Mira places her palms against Eli’s, crying now in earnest. Eli grows frantic, banging on the doorway, calling her name.
But they can’t hear Mira. And it slowly dawns on Lowri that Mira can’t hear Eli either.
Eli stills, placing a palm flat on the barrier between them as Mira places hers on her side, aligned with his.
They stare at each other, desperation and longing so keen, so raw, it nearly rips Lowri’s heart out.
Then guards flood Mira’s room.
Wearing scarlet jackets, just like the watch, they grab Mira’s arms, pulling her away.
She opens her mouth wide in a roar, tackling one to the ground, kicking away another, straining to get back to the doorway Eli created.
But more take hold of her, trying to yank her away.
Eli slams into the portal, over and over, bellowing, shouting …
‘Mira! Mira, fight them! You have to fight back!’
But smoke and shadow coils, blotting the room out completely as the doorway fades, leaving only her eyes, full of fear, her mouth shaping the words, I love you, before she disappears completely.
Eli tries summoning a portal again. Then again.
He pulls the books, his father’s notebooks from his pockets, throwing them on the ground that focuses once more.
Lowri watches, heart in her mouth as he braces his fists against the swirl of smoke, the only thing he can conjure.
Eventually he stops trying, his shoulders shaking as he stares at the space where the portal was.
‘Mira’s in danger. They’ve captured her.
And I can’t do anything. I couldn’t help her.
I … This has never happened before. I don’t understand. I don’t …’
Fear grips Lowri in an unyielding fist as Eli turns slowly towards her. ‘I can’t form a portal, Lowri. I can’t get us back.’