30
Darkness is an Azpian’s home from cradle to grave.
Let not your guard down after sunset.
—E XCHARIAS, S YLVAN POET
C ASSIA WATCHED AS Z ERU FLEW DOWN FROM THE watchtower, using the rebound of his landing to slice off the head of one of the stick creatures. Another came at him, two branches reaching with thornlike fingers. As he severed the wooden arms, another vine lashed around his ankles. He leaped up to avoid its grasp, hacking another in the same motion. Four more scuccas emerged from the ground, covered in soil. With a quick circular motion, he cut branches and vines in a spray of green. After that, Cassia lost count. The creatures kept repairing themselves, and still more emerged from the ground. Selkolla’s creatures were attacking Dracu and Sylvan alike, which meant the Seer was defying her vow to the Dracu queen, as Veleda had said she might be able to do outside the Cryptlands. If she was able to do that, it called their whole plan into question. And they were all vulnerable. Including Zeru.
Cassia climbed the railing, poised to fly down to him.
“No!” Enora cried, grabbing her arm. “The Seer wants the ring. She wants you. You have to stay here, Cass!”
But she pulled against her sister’s grip. “I’m not going to stand by and watch.”
Enora’s grip tightened as she stared at the clash of swords and scuccas. “Thea’s already gone to throw herself into the fight. I need to be at her back. But I won’t leave you unless you agree to stay here.”
Cassia’s gut twisted as she watched the scuccas close in around Thea’s whirling body in the fray below. As Enora hesitated, she saw that Zeru had help, several Dracu soldiers around him. “Fine! I’ll stay.”
Enora gave her arm a squeeze before dashing to the ladder and disappearing from view.
Cassia watched the battle with an agonizing sense of helplessness. She had always felt separate from the rest of the Sylvan army, but it had never galled her as much as now. She could see everything and do nothing. Her hand twitched. She ripped off the glove to uncover the gemstone and saw that it was shining like a beacon, almost as if it wanted to be used. Something in her responded, an energy coiling inside her. But she’d get one good blast, and then the ring would be depleted. Not to mention the light might incapacitate their Dracu allies.
She ground her teeth together in frustration.
There was no pattern to where the scuccas appeared. They were like some evil crop that sprouted up no matter how many times they were culled. Several Dracu fought at Zeru’s side, splitting and hewing the creatures with ruthless efficiency. But after a few minutes, cuts opened on their arms, their blood dripping down. Zeru’s wings seemed to be in the way. He wasn’t used to them, had never fought with them in close combat. She put a hand to the railing. She hadn’t vowed to her sister that she’d stay up here. Surely Enora would understand—
Tibald’s distinctive voice boomed out, “Move! Clear the center! Make room for the king!”
Cassia’s head jerked up, her eyes finding her father as he strode into the yard, felling the creatures with his sword as he went. Her heart caught in her throat as the scuccas swarmed over him, hiding him from view. But several figures moved alongside him—Enora, Thea, and Zeru among them, along with Alof, Tibald, and Burke. Together, they cleared enough room for the king to raise his arms and speak words in some ancient tongue.
The earth shook and rippled, making the scuccas stagger. Soon, the whole area was obscured by a cloud of dust. There were sounds of choking, the tramp of feet as Dracu and Sylvans scrambled to safety at the edge of the yard, and the scuccas’ screeching as they fell into the opening in the earth.
When the dust cleared, a great, jagged scar ran from one end of the yard to the other. Fruit trees that once lined the garden paths were skewed, exposing their roots. The king and the small group of his defenders stood on the edge of a chasm.
Inside was Selkolla. He must have sensed her with the help of the trees.
Cassia gasped as she caught the glow from the Seer’s eyes, even brighter than she remembered. Those pale hands had held the knife that slid into her heart. For a second, Cassia couldn’t move. When she remembered to breathe, the Huntsmen were already moving toward the Seer.
Hope surged in her chest. Selkolla’s death would end this.
But a sudden gale blew the king back. The wind lifted leaves and branches into the air, twirling them before slamming them down. In the eye of this storm, Selkolla rose as if carried by the squall. A soil-darkened whirlwind curled beneath her, lifting her to the level of Scarhamm’s wall. Her dark robes whipped around her, her pale hair streaming into the sky like a ghostly, colorless flame. Her silver eyes caught the scant light of dusk. The archers fired a volley of arrows, but they bounced off the misty shield that curved around her.
Scuccas emerged from the chasm, pouring from the earth like ants.
The Sylvan king raised his hands, an expression of deep concentration on his face as he created his own wind to battle the Seer’s.
The hairs on the back of Cassia’s neck lifted as lightning came into the Seer’s hands in a flash of white. As the crackling bolts hit him, the king convulsed, staggering on the edge of the scar in the ground he had made. His palms angled outward, he made the fallen trees shake, their exposed roots growing longer, longer, reaching for the Seer. They wrapped around her, cupping her whirlwind like a hundred seeking fingers. A sharp crack echoed over the garden. Soon, more roots lashed over the others.
The Sylvan king was making a cage around Selkolla.
But almost as soon as it had formed, the roots flew apart, raining wooden shards all over the garden. The air crackled as another bolt of lightning slammed into the Sylvan king, this time with a thunderous explosion. The light was blinding, lasting for several seconds before it faded. When Cassia could see again, her father was on his knees.
Her sisters and Zeru were regrouping from the moment of sightlessness, fighting the scuccas, which were still coming.
Cassia looked at the glow of her ring. Step three of her plan was the most uncertain of all. It involved using the light from her ring on the scuccas, giving everything she had. Her theory was that it would harm the scuccas. If she was fortunate, it could destroy them all at once. Or it might only incapacitate them briefly. Worst case, it might do no damage at all. Then their last defense was gone, and they would have to try to survive until morning and regroup. There was no certainty that they could. It was both risky and a long shot. Still, she had to use it. Now.
But before she could act, the Dracu queen appeared on one of the balconies overlooking the garden, her voice carrying over the yard. “Selkolla, I invoke the blood contract! All creatures here, both Dracu and Sylvan, have sworn fealty to me. By the power of your oath, you cannot harm them. Your own blood binds you.”
Red light appeared in glowing circles around Selkolla’s wrists—mystical shackles binding her to her promise. Selkolla fought them, her eyes glowing with rage.
The Sylvan king was still on his knees, but his voice rose strong. “I cede Scarhamm and its subjects to the Dracu queen of the Cryptlands until sunrise.”
The shackles that bound Selkolla brightened, growing thicker and stronger. Zeru looked up, meeting Cassia’s eyes, his own eyes shining. The magic was working. The scuccas seemed confused, fighting with less vigor.
Selkolla kept fighting the binding. The red shackles flashed brighter again, and the wind around her weakened and died.
Her shield was gone.
The archers took advantage, loosing a barrage of arrows. Selkolla screamed as blood spread over her gray robes like red ink blotches on parchment. Then she fell into the darkness below her.
A moment of hushed silence followed. The scuccas were disappearing back into the earth. In seconds, only a few sticks and leaves remained to show that they had been there. Did that mean the Seer was dead?
The Sylvan king was the first to rise and move toward the place where Selkolla had been. Zeru, Enora, and Thea followed. Cassia’s throat closed, fear and hope warring for space in her chest.
“Silvanus!” Selkolla’s voice pierced the quiet. “This isn’t over!”
Wind swirled, pulling the king and his daughters to the edge of the opening. Enora’s foot slipped. Cassia jumped onto the railing—
But it wasn’t Enora who went into the dark. It was a Dracu with wings who hauled Enora back as the Seer’s wind caught him, pulling him in. Zeru used his wings to slow his descent, his sword slashing out, but the earth closed over him with a rumble like a slamming door.
Only smooth ground remained where Zeru had been.
Cassia’s body jerked as if she’d been hit by one of Selkolla’s lightning bolts. Leaping, she flew down from the watchtower, her wings barely slowing her as she crashed onto hard, unforgiving earth. She slammed a fist into the ground, trying to punch her way through.
She turned to her father, who stood with her sisters a few feet away.
“Open the ground!” she cried, her voice breaking. “Let me go after him! Now!”
He stared at her. Did he not recognize her? Though she’d discarded the fake horns long since, she still had powder around her eyes.
“I’m Cassia!” she shouted, so furious at him her voice shook. “Your daughter! The one you banished!”
As some of the creatures gasped, Cassia’s eyes were drawn to the Dracu queen as she stood on the balcony, her face a mask of rage. It was clear the queen hadn’t guessed that the Azpian of unknown variety from a lower realm was really the Sylvan king’s daughter.
“I know who you are,” the Sylvan king intoned, drawing her shocked gaze to him. “I knew you in my war room and dressed as you are now. I will always know you.”
As she stared into his eyes, a memory came to her, one she must have suppressed with all the others when she had gone into hiding. Her father staring down at her in her new winged form when she hadn’t even known her own name. He had said it. Cassia. Perhaps, some part of her had known. Had wanted this confrontation, craved it. But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was Zeru.
“Then help me!” Cassia screamed. “Either kill me or help me! Decide!”
“Please, Father,” Enora said.
“Her plan may have saved us all,” Thea added.
He merely showed his empty palms as if he could give her nothing.
Cassia screamed, the sound echoing against Scarhamm’s walls and through the trees. Something in the air changed, a question floating on the wind.
Need need need? the trees of Thirstwood asked.
She turned toward their voices in her mind. The roots felt the passage of the Seer through the soil, a path traced through the woods. Open the ground! Make me a path to Zeru! Please!
The roots responded, slowly, slowly at first, and the ground trembled. Then they pulled the earth apart, and Cassia fell, scrambling and grasping, into darkness.