Chapter 30 #3
None of them spoke. The only sound around them coming from Enid’s muffled sobs as she cried against Anelize’s shoulder.
Gabriel got to his feet, limping over to where Henry held his son.
“Henry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for—”
“You did what you had to do,” Henry breathed out, still running his hand through Wellyn’s hair and wiping away the blood across his once freckled cheeks. “He would not have wanted to become a monster.”
Gabriel turned with a solemn nod and walked over to Anelize and Enid.
“Are you all right, Anya?”
She nodded, her voice thick. “Yes, but how is it that you’re both here?”
“A few of the rebels did significant damage to one of the outer walls of the castle. Granted us an opening big enough for a few of us to break through.”
“But that wasn’t part of the plan. Aeric—”
“Aeric asked us to create a diversion long enough for you to get into the tunnels and to free the prisoners being kept in the dungeons. We managed to get them out through the forest past the gate, it was Aeric’s plan all along,” Gabriel said before glancing to Enid.
“I’d say it was a saint’s damned good plan. ”
Anelize’s arms pulled Enid closer to her side.
Aeric had planned all of this and he hadn’t told her? Was it because he’d done so after their confrontation in the chapel?
Her heart ached to see him. Tell him all the things that she’d held back out of fear. Thank him for working to save her sister so that they may be reunited.
Henry laid his son onto the ground as he rose, his face stained with tears as he picked up his sword and said sternly, “Now you must do your part, Anya. So that no loss will go in vain beyond this point. Do you understand?”
Determination filled her as she looked at Wellyn, then to Enid and Henry. He was right, their pain and suffering could not go in vain. Nor would she allow it.
Anelize kept Enid close as they followed the two men down the tunnel where she sensed no heartbeats. Finding bodies upon bodies of Watchmen that had been slain hours before they arrived, she suspected. Their blood streaking the walls.
Steering them away from the black tendrils she suspected belonged to the rest of the prisoners used for the Loom, they relied on her guidance alone from this point forward.
When Enid stumbled, Anelize tightened her hold on her. “Are you all right? Need to rest?”
Enid shook her head, breathing somewhat heavily. “No, I just want to leave this place. The sooner the better.”
Anelize nodded in agreement.
“I still think I’m dreaming,” Enid murmured as they continued down the tunnel, her tired brown eyes taking in the blue lights around them. “I fear I may wake up and find that you aren’t really here.”
Anelize rested her head atop hers. “I’m here.”
“In many ways, I wish it was,” her sister admitted. “Then Wellyn would still be…”
“I know.”
On and on they went until they reached another network of tunnels.
“Endless, isn’t it?” Gabriel muttered to himself.
“Which way?” Henry asked, his voice hoarse. He turned to glance between her and Enid, as if they were his sole source of strength now. Anelize didn’t want to think about Zara and the devastation she would be forced to feel upon knowing that her son was now dead.
Anelize reached for her letter opener once more and cut along her palm this time, needing the conjuring to last the rest of the way until they found the book. She pushed herself further than she ever had before, passing more black tendrils of pulsing light, and further beyond until she felt it.
A faint hum rang out in a dissonance as the sounds overlapped and stumbled over each other. It was a familiar, yet strange hum that called to her. As if it whispered “I’m here, right here. Come find me.”
Anelize opened her eyes and looked straight ahead. “That way.”
They were met by a brighter cluster of lights, all speckling the ceiling above them, illuminating the rubble on the ground, and beyond them was another wooden door carved into the stone wall before them.
“Is it here?” Henry asked as he came up to the door, tightening his grip on the sword in his hand.
When she nodded, he placed his hand against the door and gave it one great push.
The door must have been heavy for it opened slowly, the hinges whining loudly until they saw a room with circular steps around a small platform in the center.
The hum became louder, calling her forward, as if pulling her into its whispering song.
“Anya?” Enid murmured, frightened. “This doesn’t feel right. This place feels wrong.”
“I know. I feel it, too. Stay close to me.”
The song she heard went silent, save for low dancing whispers that welcomed her as they stepped into the room. The power emanating was indescribable as it swept over her suddenly and without warning. Lulling her into a sense of longing she had never felt before.
When Enid staggered, Anelize steadied her. Her sister smiled wearily as she took to leaning against one of the pillars. “I need a moment.”
“I’ll stay with her, Anya,” Gabriel reassured as he placed a hand on Enid’s shoulder.
Anelize hesitated but nodded as Henry called her name, urging her to step forward. As eager to end all of this as she was, no doubt; if not more so.
The book was laying wide open upon a stone pillar, its pages covered in splatters of blood and runes much like the one’s she’d seen in the Weaver’s cottage. A coaxing voice, that was neither man nor woman nor child, but an amalgamation of all, whispered, “I’m here, I’m here! Come closer!”
Anelize felt drawn to it as she stepped up the short steps and onto the platform. Staring at the strange markings that had been made in blood that appeared far older than the ones splattered upon the pages.
“This was how the Weaver made her book. Sacrificing the blood of her people to create her dark magic.” Henry practically spat the word out as she came up to join him.
A small hopeful smile graced his lips as he looked to Anelize.
“None will ever achieve power the way we will. Such is the order of things. Now we can end this facade, once and for all. Now it will be over.”
“Finally.” Gabriel sighed.
Anelize glanced over her shoulder at his unusual tone. And watched as he pulled out a dagger from his belt, and in passing, ran the sharp edge across Enid’s throat.