Chapter 15 #3
Nova alternated between riding with me and riding on Phantom, who shifted between a larger version of his canine self and a beast that resembled the stallions the rest of us rode.
We traveled at night because it allowed us to remain largely unnoticed as we passed through the clusters of Rivenholt’s reviving population—although an unsettling number of this population still called out, still tried to get Nova’s attention, even when I attempted to hide her.
“It feels strange to just ride by them without speaking,” she said, miserably, as we passed the last of the revived strongholds.
I tightened the arm I had around her waist. “You’ll be back to them soon enough. One battle at a time. If we stopped for them all, we’d never get anywhere.”
She settled back against me, disgruntled but silent.
As planned, we came to a stop just beyond the edge of that last site of revival. We attempted to rest. To eat. Nobody spoke much. Wandering shades skulked at the edges of our camp, a few of which seemed unusually sentient and far more watchful than I liked.
But they kept their distance, thankfully.
The day proved largely uneventful, and when night fell again, we wasted no time saddling up and pressing onward into the dark.
Nova had spent much of our break studying and trying to communicate with the shades—instead of sleeping—so I wasn’t surprised when exhaustion quickly overtook her once we were moving again.
She slept against me while we rode. I navigated the uneven terrain as smoothly as I could, trying not to wake her.
Even though most of the magic from Nerithys hadn’t reached this far out, there were signs of life trying to find its way into the bleak landscape: occasional, pulsing veins of pale blue; glimmers of wayward light; the scent of crisp water and something floral breaking through the more prevalent stench of dirt and decay.
After hours spent making our way through twisted paths and ridges cloaked in darkness—a darkness that lingered, even after what should have been dawn—we finally came to the access point of the Nocturnus Road.
Its energy rolled toward us in a wave, growing more intense with every step we took toward it, as if waking to our presence.
As a particularly violent wave washed over us, Nova sat upright with a gasp. She took only a moment to orient herself, and then she was jumping from my arms and striding toward the road.
Phantom followed her while the rest of us dismounted. Thalia started to remove her stallion’s riding gear, wrapping it in protective cloths, as planned; we would stow our equipment in the safest spot we could find, and the half-feral beasts would roam this area until we returned.
“Hate to part ways, now,” Zayn said as he removed his mount’s gear. “He was finally starting to warm up to me, I think.”
“Was he, though?” said Thalia, offhandedly. “They don’t usually take kindly to beings without any trace of necromantic magic.” Raising a brow, she added, “Although, I suppose it’s a small miracle he hasn’t ripped any of your limbs off.”
As if to prove her point, Zayn’s stallion bared its teeth and gave an ominous snort.
Zayn merely patted its nose, earning himself a snap, which he narrowly avoided. “I’ll miss you too, friend.”
“You’re sure they’ll be okay on their own?” Nova asked, circling back to us.
“Uldrin is smart enough to keep them safe and together until we get back,” Thalia said, referring to her own trusted steed.
“He knows the way home, too, should we take longer than planned. They’ll probably enjoy racing freely in the meantime; this darkness is nothing to them. They probably prefer it, actually.”
While they continued to discuss the wellbeing of the beasts, I found myself wandering closer to Nocturnus.
The road was covered in a tumbling mass of energies—lingering residue from all the spells used to cross it in the past, as well as the restless memories and powerful emotions left behind by the spellcasters.
I wasn’t as skilled at seeing these things as Nova was, but they were obvious enough here that they were hard to miss.
My eye caught a particularly bold streak of golden light, brighter than anything we’d seen on our journey thus far. It made me think of the brighter realm we’d soon be stepping into.
Soltaris is so close.
An odd pang struck me at the thought. Not exactly homesickness—how could it be, when I had absolutely no desire to return to the place I’d once called home? Yet, there was a hook in my chest pulling me toward it. An instinct I couldn’t ignore.
Without thinking, I reached my hand out, as if to grab hold of that golden current of light.
Though I didn’t touch it, it twisted with the same motions as my wrist. Subtle movements whipped it into a frenzy, brightening it to an eye-watering intensity.
Its intensity chased away some of the competing energies on the road and absorbed others.
Then the radiance gathered into a spherical shape, floating in my direction, hovering before me like my own personal sun.
Another odd feeling rippled through me as I stared at it.
A violent, unsettling feeling.
I took a deep breath and extinguished the sphere of energy with a mere clench of my fist, leaving behind nothing but a dusty, barren road stretching into the distance, reaching toward a faintly pulsing portal.
The portal that would take us back to the Above.
Somewhere far behind me, I heard Nova gasp. The conversation between her and the others abruptly ended. I could sense the questions firing through her head, though I couldn’t make out any distinct words.
“…Even I have to admit, that’s helpful,” Thalia finally said, cautiously stepping closer.
“I do what I can,” I said with a shrug.
But now the crawling in my skin had returned, more insistent than ever. It focused toward my hands, as if it wanted to control them. As if it wanted—needed—to grab more energy from somewhere and destroy that, too.
All around us, an odd, echoing stillness was spreading.
In my mind, visions of destruction bloomed.
Of an explosion of light spreading outward, flooding the world in beauty and ruin alike…
only to collapse in on itself, creating a void that swallowed all sound and color.
I started to sink into the possibility. Could feel the heat blistering beneath my palms, could smell the hints of ash and burning dust, could see the darkness overtaking it and leaving behind a brutal, empty cold.
Light and Dark. Dark and Light. Both seemed equally dangerous, both were—
A hand came to rest on my arm.
Nova’s voice was in my mind a moment later.
Aleks. Look at me.
She could have spoken out loud.
I was glad she hadn’t. I don’t think I would have heard her. And it was more comforting to feel her voice falling over the images of destruction, extinguishing them like a cool rain over a building wildfire.
If she had seen or heard any of my disturbing thoughts, she said nothing about them as I glanced her way; she only tightened her grip on my arm and asked, “Ready?”
“Yes,” I replied. Even though every part of me was fighting to keep the memory of her brother’s words from my mind—trying to keep her from hearing what he’d said to me at the training grounds the other morning.
It’s a dangerous thing, to not know who you are.