Chapter 32
32
A fter breakfast, it was time to leave. I changed into a clean set of riding clothes, braiding my blonde hair into a plait that hung down my back. I took a small bag of leftover food with me, and headed out of my room to go and pack it in the saddlebags of Callum’s horse.
I walked through the cavernous halls. Priestesses in blue robes drifted in-between the tall pillars, placing fresh flowers in vases or giggling in pairs as they passed by prisoners. They looked so pious, so innocent today—it was as if the previous trial and the… distraction they had become was all a far-off memory. Not to mention the horrific sight I had witnessed in Cassandra’s study the previous night.
“You could stay here,” a female voice said, and I turned.
The High Sorceress Cassandra Wraithborn leaned against a pillar, her arms crossed over her chest, and her shiny brown hair curled over her shoulders like a waterfall of maple syrup.
“I have no interest in that,” I said.
One of Cassandra’s eyebrows raised. “My priestesses learn how to harness their power here.”
I turned to keep walking. “I have no interest in harnessing that kind of power.”
Suddenly, Cassandra appeared in front of me in a blink, and I yelped, stepping back.
“Oh?” Cassandra breathed, taking a step toward me. I stepped back on reflex. “Is that because you have powers of your own the King doesn’t know about?”
Dangerous . “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to school my face into neutrality.
“Really?” Cassandra said, and she began circling me like a shark. “I find it hard to believe that you’ve made it through so many trials as a powerless hollow .”
“Believe whatever you want. I’ll still win.”
Cassandra threw back her head and laughed. “That’s cute. You know, my offer still stands. You can stay here at my temple and the island will forget you’re even supposed to be competing in the trials. Why should you fight in these nasty trials? Why not just train in whatever way you please here? I could use someone as… unique as you are.”
She reached out to run her fingertips across my arm, but I recoiled from her touch.
“She said no,” a cool voice of darkness said.
Cassandra’s eyes narrowed and she stepped away from me as Tristen emerged from a shadow in the cavernous hallway. “You again,” Cassandra said with a frown.
“Get away from her,” Tristen said.
Cassandra looked toward me and smiled sweetly. “Can’t wait to see how you survive the rest of the trials, Saffron.” She turned and swept away, her ice blue robes whispering across the marble floor.
I let out a breath, relieved. I turned to thank Tristen—but the words froze on my tongue as my bitter rage crested once more.
“Glad to see you survived the night,” Tristen said, his gaze dropping to the bandages peeking out from under my shirt.
“Is that really what you’re concerned with, Your Majesty ?”
Tristen’s eyes hardened. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, please. I’m tired of your lies. I know you’re the heir to the Stormgard throne—not just some legendary assassin. I met your wife, Melisandre—turns out she was trying to cut a deal with Cassandra to help ensure your victory. But I was the one who answered her stupid call through the mirror, so I got the pleasure of her presence instead.”
“You don’t know the whole story,” Tristen said, trying to contain some sort of bitter anger that coated his voice.
“Then are you going to enlighten me?”
“I can’t. You know I can’t.”
I shoved him, and he stumbled backward a step. “I know you’re a lying bastard who stole everything I held dear. I can’t wait to see you die in these trials, and if you cross me again, it will be at my hand.”
Something in Tristen’s expression crumbled at my words, and even in my rage, I bit back an instinct to apologize. But he just bowed his head.
“Safe travels back to Ashguard,” Tristen said, and he adjusted his dark riding cloak and walked out to the courtyard, leaving me alone in the hallway with my writhing thoughts.
The priestesses had lined up outside of the Temple of Orsi once more to bid us farewell, but this time their pious smiles looked much more sinister.
Callum helped me onto his white mare, and we led the pack of prisoners over the precarious drawbridge and back up the mountain toward The Foggy Forest.
“Don’t get off the horse this time,” Callum chided as our horse started to whinny at the encroaching fog.
“I won’t,” I said, a bit indignant. “Especially now that I know its tricks.”
But I still felt Callum hug me tighter to him as that suffocating fog swept over us. I tried not to hold my breath, tried not to let the nothingness consume me.
As our horse clopped along the trail through the white void, I tried to find comfort in Callum’s arms. But something was still nagging at me. I couldn’t get Tristen’s look of devastation out of my head when I had confronted him with what the Oracle had told me.
The Oracle didn’t tell you everything.
Was I expecting Tristen to fill in the gaps when he was so tight-lipped about what he knew about my past?
I was brought back to the present as the whispering fog tried to call out to me. I pressed my hands over my ears, and Callum held me close as we got through the fog and reached the trail on the other side.
I sighed in relief as our horse descended into a flat forest clearing, dead grass around us and the fog at our backs. Ahead of us stretched a path that led into a forest without any additional fog. Maybe our journey would be uneventful after all.
The moment the thought echoed in my mind, there was a flash.
Our horse reared, whinnying as it came to a halt?—
—in front of a flickering Ajax, who had appeared in front of us.
“Going somewhere?” he asked with a grin.
Callum threw up his shield around us, but Ajax raised his hand, and blasted us off the horse.
I cried as I hit the ground, my bruised body tumbling a few steps away from Callum.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Callum asked Ajax, who suddenly blinked out of view?—
—and then blinked back in front of us. But it wasn’t just Ajax standing in front of us—it was him and three copies of him.
He was multiplying.
Ajax and his doubles all laughed in unison. Then, the Ajax at the center raised his sword—glowing a horrible red color.
“The Mirror Realm calls. It wants sacrifice for the lives you took,” Ajax announced. “You took my subjects, and for that you will pay.”
“We’re not going back there,” I said. “Your stupid Mirror Realm will have to deal with what happened.”
Callum lowered his shield and unsheathed his own sword, settling in a fighting stance as he sized up the three copies of Ajax in front of him. “I’d be happy to introduce you to the underworld where you belong, though.”
Then, without warning, Callum whirled out to strike a blow at one of Ajax’s doubles. He got a clean swipe, and the double went screaming to its death—black blood draining from it as it collapsed to its knees and fell over.
“Bravo,” Ajax said, clapping. He then nodded to his other copy. “Now you.”
Again, Callum struck out with his sword, but this other double was faster. Swords clanged in the forest clearing, the warrior and Ajax’s double parrying and thrusting so fast.
Callum blocked another blow and stepped backward, catching his breath as the double started circling him, Callum’s eyes watching him, analyzing for weakness.
Ajax turned to me. “You think your hero is strong enough? Do you think he’s worthy of fighting for your life?”
Callum roared and struck hard at Ajax’s double—throwing him off guard and tossing him to the ground. With a fierce blow, Callum had Ajax’s double pinned on the ground underneath his boot, and jammed his sword through his heart.
Callum yanked his sword out, still dripping that black blood. He turned his wild eyes to Ajax, who was cooly observing the warrior.
“You’re next,” Callum promised, death in his gaze.
But Ajax just smiled. A strange, toothy smile. “I admire your confidence, Commander . But it is misplaced, as you soon shall see.”
Then the entire forest grew quiet. The birds stopped chirping. The wind froze.
Callum looked around, hearing the new quiet just as I did. He shifted his gaze back to Ajax, zeroing in on his target…
…until a crack in the woods beyond us had all of us turning…
…to see skinless humanoid creatures with mouths stitched closed emerging toward us. There were a dozen of them coming from the forest, and as they crept closer on halting, uneven steps, I saw that they had huge dark hollows where their eyes should be.
“What are those?” I asked, my mouth dry.
“Void Stalkers,” Callum breathed, and his grim expression told me this wasn’t good. “Stay out of the shadows, Saffron. They have to fully materialize to attack—and they disappear in direct sunlight.”
I stepped out from the long-reaching shadows of the trees around us, but the sun was being threatened by clouds. The sunny patches of the dead meadow were few and far between.
“I see you know of my pets,” Ajax said. “Let’s get you better acquainted.”
One of the Void Stalkers disappeared and reappeared right in front of Callum, in a shadow that had formed next to Ajax. The creature screamed—a horrible, high-pitch keening sound—and it ripped its stitches on its mouth free in a bloody gesture as it unhinged its jaw, as if going to swallow Callum whole. But he stepped backward, dropping low. Callum sliced the thing at its knees and it dropped. Callum wasted no time beheading it, and then immediately lunged toward Ajax?—
—who disappeared and reappeared several steps away.
Ajax clicked his tongue. “Them first.”
Suddenly, four Void Stalkers jumped in front of Callum, their keening wails so ear piercing as they swiped at him with their long claws at the end of their bony fingers.
I watched, helpless without much of a weapon. I had to do something. Had to come up with a way to help?—
Then, out of The Foggy Forest, a black mare galloped out of the fog.
Tristen.
All of us turned—even the Void Stalkers froze as the Shadowfire Assassin dismounted, rage in his eyes. He shifted to me, seeing that I was safely separated from the fray, and then turned to Ajax.
“No more of this,” Tristen said with a cold fury. With a flick of his hand, Tristen unleashed his power.
It hit me in that moment as lightning and shadows fell from the sky, striking all of the Void Stalkers and reducing them to piles of ash.
I had not known The Shadowfire Assassin and his true power. Not like this. Even as more Void Stalkers came sprinting out of the forest edges, Tristen kept a look of icy fury on his gaze as a mere shrug of his power struck them dead. Again and again—as waves of the undead rushed at us, Tristen reduced them to nothing .
The power rippling off him was so intense, it sent me to my knees.
Tristen was all darkness and shadows, his obsidian eyes glowing as he approached Ajax. “We’re done here,” Tristen said.
But Ajax just smiled. “Are we?”
And then Ajax multiplied again, flexing that power from the dimension of the second trial with such ease. But he didn’t just replicate himself two or three times—but a hundred times.
Callum brought up another shield around he and I as the clearing was suddenly flooded with Ajax’s replicates.
Tristen wielded his shadowfire now, sending blasts of fireballs through dozens of Ajax’s replicates at once, cutting down rows of them where they stood.
But Ajax kept replicating them, flooding Tristen in a sea of the doubles.
Tristen’s power looked endless—so much so that the ripples of it left me breathless, even as I was protected from the blasts of the fight within Callum’s shield.
However, there was something different about Tristen now. As he fought the endless stream of Ajax’s army, I saw that his body was beginning to darken. His shadows were not only lashing out at Ajax, they were crawling up his own body, obscuring his limbs in darkness.
Magic has a cost.
And Tristen was using so, so much of it. Ajax was laughing, enjoying this. Enjoying wearing Tristen down even as Tristen dug deeper into his well of power.
I couldn’t stand by to see what the cost was of using this much power. Even though Tristen was my sworn enemy, he was once again in this clearing, fighting for me.
That was enough to shock me out of my trance and I started moving. I darted away from the grasping hands of the Void Stalkers, bobbing and weaving through the chaos as I locked eyes on the sole Ajax I cared about. The original double who had crossed over instead of the real Ajax during that second trial.
He whirled, realized I was sprinting for him, but he was too late.
I flung my hands out for him, snatching his bare neck and heaving him backward. He fell on me, his doubles running to me now, a blast of shadowfire keeping them and their blades at bay. Ajax struggled as I tightened my hands around his neck.
But I wasn’t trying to kill him. I was trying to disable him, and with my hands on his bare skin…
…I reached within that loop of his power, and hooked mine around it. And pulled .
I gasped as his dark magic flooded into me, my skin crawling and burning with the sensation. I needed more—his replicas were still in this clearing.
I pulled again, and screamed at the feeling of the burning underneath my skin. It was like lava erupting, his dark power threatening to burn me from the inside.
“Let go!” a male voice called—from so far away—but I couldn’t. I couldn’t see anything but blackness. My body was eating itself from the inside, the smell of the power so putrid I felt my physical body roll to the side and vomit.
“LET GO, SAFFRON!” Tristen’s voice roared.
And I did. My physical body dropped my hands from Ajax’s neck, and my vision came flooding back as I rolled out from underneath him.
The clearing was empty.
I had done it. I had drained Ajax’s powers, nullifying him.
But his power was now trapped within me, and it was fighting to get loose. My breathing was too erratic, my heartbeat struggling to hold the sheer weight of that terrible power.
I felt Tristen’s hands grip my shoulders. “You have to let it out. Now .”
A strangled scream left me. I was going to die. I had absorbed all of his power, and it would destroy me from the inside.
“ Now ,” Tristen growled out, low and commanding.
I lifted my eyes to him, his dark obsidian eyes commanding me to do it .
So I did. And suddenly, the clearing was dotted with… me . But not me. Versions of me. Half-wild, bloody, beaten versions of me.
They all stood, silent. As if waiting for orders. I gave them none.
Tristen looked up at them. “Finally, magic put to good use,” he remarked, and I could hear the relief in his voice.
I exhaled, and all of my doubles disappeared.
“You made it,” Tristen said, and he helped me to my feet as I stood on unsteady legs.
“Let go of her,” Callum said, advancing toward us. I was too weak to do anything as Callum hauled me away from Tristen, pulling me into his arms instead. “Stay away from us.”
Tristen went still. “Haven’t you been keeping track, Callum? Of how often I have saved her when you could not?”
“It was Saffron who saved you ,” Callum shot back.
Tristen grinned, but his smile was warm. Proud. “She did.”
I slumped in Callum’s arms, unable to hold myself up any longer. I felt myself nearing complete burnout, blackness creeping in on the edges of my vision, when a rumbling shook the ground.
Tunnels barreled through the ground, opening up vertically as people started emerging from them as if the island itself had granted them passage and parted the soil for them. Not just any people—King West, his court, the royal guards, and Cassandra herself.
By now, the other prisoners had just started emerging from the fog behind us, converging on the meadow and coming to a stop as King West and his court arrived.
Ajax, his face pale, started to sit up.
I had drained him, but we were both alive. A slow grin spread across his face, and Callum pieced it together just as I had.
Ajax had seen me. Seen what I could do, in an undeniable form.
Callum ran at Ajax with his sword, but Tristen had already speared out his power, sending a blaze of his shadowfire directly at Ajax?—
—freezing him where he stood, and crumbling him to ash in front of our eyes.
King West looked down at the pile of dust where Ajax had just been standing. I let a small sigh of relief leave my lungs—my secret was safe.
“Pity. It feels like that particular contestant might have seen something rather… interesting. Would anyone else like to enlighten us about what may have occurred here?” King West said.
A young boy walked out from one of the trees beside us. I recognized him from earlier in the trials—Issac. He was still alive? He was easily the youngest prisoner here.
Had he been watching us fight this whole time?
If he had, he had seen everything .
Callum took a step toward Issac, and I saw the intent to kill in his face, even as he seemed conflicted. Was Callum really going to kill the boy?
“No,” I said, grabbing Callum’s arm. “We can’t cross that line.”
“He saw,” Callum cautioned, but I shook my head.
“He’s just a boy.”
Tristen was watching Issac as he stepped to the King.
“Careful now,” Tristen warned. Issac’s wide eyes swung to Tristen and then back to the King like a pendulum.
“I was waiting here like you told me to, Cassandra,” Issac said, and my heart sunk.
This wasn’t some random attack.
This was a trap. And I had just waltzed into it.
Cassandra smiled at the boy. “What did you see?”
Then, Issac slowly turned to me, and raised a shaking finger.
“It’s her. She’s the Siphon.”