Chapter Forty-Seven
Iexpect Eliaz to be lurking somewhere on the other side of the door, but as I am escorted down the red arched corridor, it becomes apparent that there are no possible places for him to hide himself away.
And I am yet to ask at what distance his powers work from.
As far as I am concerned, he does not know yet what I do.
Nearing the ballroom, I tell the emperor’s guard that I wish to tuck the book – my gift from the emperor, I remind him – safely away in my accommodation for the night. He shakes his head as though it is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard.
‘Please, Princess. Let me unburden you of the book so that you may not miss another moment of such a fine celebration.’
I stare down at the book I clutch to my chest, and then through the narrow passage to where chatter and music drift into my senses like a bad omen.
I had intended to steal away to my bedchamber for a quiet moment, to gather myself and my thoughts before finding the others, finding Eliaz, and sharing with them the gravity of what the emperor has divulged with me.
But the guard taps his foot, impatiently.
‘You will leave it in my chambers?’
The man nods, one greasy strand of his slicked back hair falling limp by his brow. ‘You have my word, Princess.’
I give a hesitant nod. He stares at me for a few beats until I realise that he is waiting for me to hand over the book.
‘Oh! Thank you, you are most kind.’
He takes the book from me and bows his head. ‘It is my duty, Princess.’
I do not make a move towards the ballroom until he disappears through the passageway and into the dim light.
I leave it another few seconds, half in expectance of Eliaz appearing out of nowhere, having heard my discussion with the emperor and knowing how desperately we need to go over our options moving forward. How desperately I need him.
He does not come. He does not show himself.
So, I must seek him out.
The din of the hall reverberates through my bones like a pulsing, coursing ache.
There are more bodies packed into the space now, the dancefloor crammed with people, rings of them all hand in hand.
They are dancing in swift synchronised movements, some with wide toothy grins, others expressionless. Empty. Unfamiliar.
I can’t see the others. Even if they are somewhere in the crowd, the chances of me spotting them are incredibly thin.
Oh, how I wish I were able to speak into Eliaz’s ears – his mind -as he can mine. Come to me, I would whisper. I seek you. I need you.
A dark-haired woman wearing a red bird mask grabs my arm, pulling me towards the hurricane of dancing bodies.
‘No, no thank you. I really must go. I do not wish to dance.’
The woman smiles widely beneath the crimson beak, her beady eyes glistening in the holes of her mask. She only tugs harder until I can no longer keep myself planted firmly in the ground, until I have no choice but to stumble with her in avoidance of cracking my skull on the stone floor.
‘Did you not hear me? Unhand me at once, I demand it.’
She giggles. The music screeches with the clacking beat of booted feet on the dance floor.
All my best efforts to break free from her do not prove useful.
Desperate, I search for my power from its fiery pit in my stomach, just enough to scald her fingers as they tighten on my wrist. Her skin sizzles, the smell of hot flesh filling the gap between us.
Her smile does not waver. Her grip does not loosen.
Horrified, I lose my hold on my power, and it slips into the deep recesses of me, as though in retreat from the woman who remains unfazed towards its effects. She pulls me into one of the outer rings of people, connecting her free hand with a grinning man to her right.
My left hand is snatched by another woman with caramel hair and eyes like ink. She too, smiles widely, in a way that does not feel entirely human, a way that seems like her grin will only grow wider and wider until the skin gives way and her face tears open.
‘Let me go!’ Salted tears stream into my mouth as I plea, my legs scrambling to keep up as I am pulled left and then right with the skipping bodies either side of me.
The inner circle of people do not face inwards towards the heart of the dancefloor as we do, but instead turn their backs upon it – and their eyes upon me. Mouths wide. Gaping.
I beg for Eliaz to find me, screaming for him in my head even though his power does not work in such a way. My inner voice will not reach him. And any outward screams will only be swallowed by the rising volume of the music, the hammering of feet, the sporadic eruptions of laughter.
I try to focus on the faces of those dancing before me, hoping to distract myself until the music comes to a stop, hoping that would be my chance for escape.
My ring of dancers begins to pulse in and out now, so that I am forced inches into the faces of the people who face me in the inner circle.
Dizziness threatens to fell me, blind me, as my vision begins to blur and distort.
The faces before me flitting between familiar and unfamiliar features.
Features of the people I have known, have loved and hated, have cared for, have lost.
Diarmid. Lillienne. Calli. Mother. Eliaz. Father. Cole. Ori.
None of them smiling. Their features pleading, desperate. Their mouths turned decidedly downwards. Their eyes wet, glistening with a thick layer of dripping blood.
They flicker between them, Ori to Cole, Lillienne to Eliaz, Diarmid to Calli, Mother to Father, until they all merge together into one.
One face that sums it all up.
All the suffering, all the betrayal, all the love and safety. Every last thread of my life stitched into a tapestry of a girl. Hair as dark as damp earth. Lips as red as freshly spilled blood.
Eira.
‘Eira!’ Someone calls out, their voice somehow clear and resounding over the chaos. ‘I cannot find you, Eira.’
Eliaz. I can’t bring myself to be thankful to the gods. They did not bring him to me. He found me all on his own.
Still being thrown around like a cloth doll, I crane my neck over my shoulder, in search of him. Just as I catch a glimpse of white hair, I am yanked to the right as the ring of people shifts direction.
‘Here!’ I scream out, hoping we are not moving too fast for him to catch my voice. Screaming through tears, I finally break my right arm free from the masked woman’s grip, the joint on my shoulder threatening, with sharp jolts down wards, to dislocate from the socket.
We shift direction once again. My chance to break loose. I twist my body, reaching an arm out for Eliaz, shouting out his name like it is the only thing that will save me, will break me free from this nightmare.
Time slows to a thick, sweltering sludge around me. The atmosphere unyielding to movement. My hand suspended there in anticipation, my fingers stretched out and reaching.
For him. For Eliaz.
His eyes are locked on mine, glistening orange like heated glass, grasping for me. His hand extended out, inches from mine.
The only sounds breaking through the silence are the blood pumping in my ears and one singular exhaled breath from Eliaz, like a whispered siren song lulling me closer.
Then everything flies into motion with one giant crack. His hand finally meets mine. And I am broken free from the hell of the dance floor. The masked woman cackles.
Eliaz’s hand still firmly in mine, I crumple into the floor, my legs suddenly too weak to hold my weight. Eliaz falls with me, my head crashing into his chest.
We are both on our knees, kneeling before each other like respective altars. My tears wet his shirt, and he holds me into him, thumb stroking my hair.
‘Shhh,’ he soothes. I am everywhere you seek me, Princess.
‘It’s much worse than we thought, Eliaz,’ I cry into him. ‘It’s all so much bigger than us. There’s no hope—’
‘There is nothing bigger than us.’
His words are heavy with certainty, and I am inclined to believe him.
Not only because of the conviction with which he says them, but because of how they sound curling into the air around us like dwindling smoke.
There is nothing bigger than us, because it all lies in our hands. The fate of Valtayre. The Relic.
Eliaz pulls back from me, taking my head in both hands, until we are eye to eye. He curtains my tear-wetted hair and tucks it behind my ears. ‘We will come up with a plan on the journey home. But for now, we must leave. The others are already waiting under the willow tree.’
I curl my fingers around his wrist, relief washing over my skin in a cool wave. I do not believe I would last another second in this red, clay hell.
I don’t bother questioning why the haste to leave. Staying here until morning would be sure to send me into madness, and I am barely hanging onto my sanity as it is.
I smile at him, grateful to have someone to save me, to keep me in touch with reality. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
His eyes crease in the corners as he smiles at me in return. ‘Together.’
‘Together.
‘Truman sent word that a storm is on its way. We’re at risk of being stranded here for the foreseeable if we don’t embark soon,’ Eliaz says as he leads me to the doors of dark, snaking vines. The very doors that lead out into the caves.
My feet cement in place and my body stiffens when I realise that is the only way out. The screams. The other me. The other him. His warnings. The body in my arms. The horror of it coaxes bile up my throat.
‘I can’t.’
Eliaz laces his fingers through mine. ‘You can. I am here with you.’
‘You were there last time. And I was still driven mad. I saw things, things that I will have a hard time forgetting.’
The threat of death. You picked the wrong side and now you must face the consequences.
Eliaz closes the gap between us, leaning into me. ‘I can be of assistance, if you would like me to,’ he whispers into my ear. ‘I can make you see something different, to stop you going back to that place that haunts you.’
I take a step back to look at him, to make sure that this is the genuine, real version of him. To search for that new-found softness in those swirling amber eyes. His cheeks ball, all rosy and sun-kissed, as a smile commands his whole face.
I nod, squeezing his hand so tight I can almost feel his bones crunch. ‘Only if you promise that I remember it all. And nothing frightening. I don’t wish to replace one nightmare with another.’
‘I have something in mind, Princess. Don’t you worry.’
‘That doesn’t sound like a promise to me.’
Eliaz laughs, letting go of my hand before making his way over to the doors. They open with a resounding groan, like a beast prematurely awakened from a deep slumber. He gestures at me to enter first, and I roll my eyes at his lame display of chivalry as I walk past him.
‘See you in your dreams, Princess.’
I shake my head, turning back to him. ‘How long have you been waiting to use that line?’
He smiles smugly. ‘Too long, Princess. Way too long.’
Already feeling eased, I take one last deep breath in before stepping across the threshold and into the cave. Only, I am not met with the spiked red rocks, or the spiral descent into the unrelenting void below.
Instead, my dress snags on long, thick blades of grass. Luscious spring trees way gently in the warm breeze that rustles through my hair.
Birds whistle their songs around me, calling each other from their places way up high in the branches.
The sun’s rays fall through the gaps in the trees, shining a golden spotlight onto the wildflowers that scatter the forest floor.
I inhale the scent of pollen, of soil and leaves as I walk further into the wood, one hand skimming the tips of the grass.
There, where the dip of the cavern should be, is the teetering edge of a cliff that looks out onto a vast expanse of hills and valleys.
Nestled into the base of the hills, is a small village, barely close enough for me to recognise if not for the fact that I have stood in this spot many times before.
Algran. I would run up here, to escape Mrs Knitt, to get a taste of freedom.
Fallen twigs snap underfoot as Eliaz creeps up behind me. ‘Everything to your liking?’
‘How do you know about this place? I used to come here often growing up.’
He smiles, looking out to the village. ‘I have my ways, Princess. Are you to deprive me of all my mystery?’
I tilt my head at him, the man I know everything and nothing about. ‘You are made of mystery, Eliaz.’
He turns to meet my eye, blinking at me slowly.
‘I couldn’t hear you in there, when you were with the emperor. There was some sort of seal across the door that even my power couldn’t penetrate. I thought he’d done something to you.’
‘He did not physically wound me, but Eliaz, you should know, we have to destroy everything in order to right it all. This is more than just the Divide. It’s the Relic, I think we have angered the gods into withdrawing its power from us. The emperor said, we have to—’
‘Wait and tell me with the others.’ He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. ‘I want to take this moment just to appreciate everything before it is all ruined. To appreciate you in this moment before we are changed by it all.’
‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything,’ Cole’s voice echoes from behind us, a reminder that this – the woods, the village, the birdsong – is all an illusion. Nothing more. Eliaz does not break his eyes from mine, the muscles in his jaw clenching and releasing.
‘I see you decided to finally join us, Cole. What impeccable timing, my friend.’
‘Lavish balls have never been my thing.’ The raven-haired man shrugs, before confusion tugs at his brows. ‘Wait, were you guys just going to leave without me?’
‘I wouldn’t have been against that,’ I mumble.
Eliaz laughs, leaving me to wrap an arm around his friend. ‘I had every bit of faith that you’d catch up with us. Feel free to mope about it all you want, but for now – we must leave.’