8. Chapter 8
eight
“I knew you’d come,” the Seer said. “It’s time, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” I murmured. “I think so.”
Seer Goddard sighed a huge sigh, like he wished the moment hadn’t come. Frankly, so had I, but the Darkest Lord wasn’t giving me many options.
“I thought you’d left,” I said.
“I never said I was leaving. I only said goodbye.”
“Okay.” I sat on the ground before the Seer. “I need to reach the spirits in the underworld.”
The Seer sighed again. “I know.”
The inside of the hut was as rudimentary as I’d expected. The remains of a fire sat in the middle of the room. A makeshift bed along one side. Rudimentary cooking supplies neatly arranged near it.
“I didn’t know you were a dreamwalker,” I said. “Truthfully, I don’t even know what a dreamwalker is.”
“You haven’t asked much about me.”
“Would you have answered if I did?”
The Seer’s lips turned up in the slightest of smiles.
It was a moment that felt almost like we’d graduated from a teacher-student relationship to a peer-peer relationship.
I basked in the grudging, unspoken camaraderie.
How much things had changed in mere months. How far I’d come. We’d come—all of us.
“Do you believe this is the only way?” Seer Goddard asked. “Entering the underworld?”
“I don’t know that it’s the only way. What I know is that we’re crunched for time and the threats keep coming, harder and faster, and I don’t have any other ideas.
” I raised my hands. “The basic wards that fell into place when I destroyed the old crystals aren’t enough, and I don’t have the skills or the know-how to perfect them.
We’ve tried manufacturing replacements to enhance the natural Fae magic, but I don’t think it’s coming along fast enough. ”
Seer Goddard nodded along. “Little Liza told you about me?”
“Do you know her well?”
“I don’t know her at all,” Seer Goddard said. “But I’ve been in her dreams. She’s powerful, that little one. Keep her close to you.”
“I will. Not because she’s powerful but because...” I almost said because she needed me. But in reality, I didn’t know that was true. More honestly, I needed her. Not for her skills or magic, but because of our bond, her friendship. It was mutual.
Seer Goddard nodded in understanding. “She recognized me from her dreams.”
“Ah.” Suddenly, it all made a lot more sense.
The vagueness, that sensation that Liza knew more than she was saying but wasn’t exactly able to put her finger on it.
The certainty with which Liza knew Seer Goddard was a dreamwalker—because she’d witnessed him doing it. “What is a dreamwalker, exactly?”
“Some people are born with the skill; others develop it over years and years of training.”
“Which are you?”
“The latter.”
“Is that part of your Seer magic?” I asked. “I’ve never really found out what sort of magic you have. Or really anything about your history.”
“And you don’t think that’s on purpose?”
His question dodged mine, but I didn’t pry. Seer Goddard, I’d learned, doled out information as it was needed. It had worked for us so far, and I didn’t doubt every move he made was calculated.
“I have a natural inclination to the spirit world due to my Seer nature,” he eventually explained.
“But it took many, many years of difficult training to become a dreamwalker. I am unlike Liza. Such a small child with such immense, natural powers pertaining to the spirit world. She will be greater than I could ever dream of becoming in my lifetime.”
I’d always known Liza was special on multiple levels, but to hear praise like this from Seer Goddard especially—he wasn’t exactly the type to wax poetic about a person for no reason at all.
“I believe that Liza and I, together, can guide your spirit into the underworld,” Seer Goddard said. “What you do there, we have no control over.”
“I want to convince the spirits there to come through the same sort of portal I opened for the Procession of Spirits. Give them the opportunity to escape from the Darkest Lord’s clutches in return for peace.” I paused. “Do you think it will work?”
He studied me closely. “Do you?”
“I think I need to try.... but there’s one hold-up when it comes to my plan. Something I hope you can give me some insight on.”
“What is it?”
“These souls in the underworld, I’ve heard they’re lost souls. By releasing them, am I setting loose something dangerous into a peaceful environment?” I asked. “I don’t understand the different spirit worlds, what they mean, how they work, if there’s a hierarchy.”
“Ah.”
“I just helped a bunch of souls in the Procession of Spirits. If I release these spirits from the underworld, am I unleashing something dangerous in the process?”
Seer Goddard considered me thoughtfully.
“The souls in the underworld are neither good nor bad, they just are. Most of them have been collected by the Darkest Lord himself, nothing to do with how they’ve lived their life here on earth.
Some have been held hostage there for years or centuries through no fault of their own.
Here on earth, on The Isle, on the mainland, isn’t it a sliding scale between good and evil? ”
“Sure.”
“It’s no different in the underworld.” Seer Goddard squinted into the horizon, then continued. “In fact, the underworld itself isn’t a bad place by nature. It’s merely a spirit realm that’s been under the control of the Darkest Lord for so long that it’s become synonymous with evil.”
“Why has no one taken control of it from him, then?”
“The Darkest Lord is a formidable opponent. Moreover, it is difficult for someone with a beating heart to enter the spirit realms safely, as you’ve been warned many times.
It’s the length of his rule, the way he’s drained that place of any sense of humanity or joy, that’s made it the dismal, awful place of legends.
He’s rarely challenged at this point, and the challengers he’s had, he has obliterated. ”
“I see. But theoretically, under different rule…?”
“Under different rule, it could be a very different place.” Seer Goddard met my gaze.
“And to answer your original question, no, you wouldn’t be doing anyone a disservice by releasing the souls trapped under the Darkest Lord’s rule.
Giving those lost spirits a chance to find peace and contentment in a different realm would be a welcome escape. ”
“In that case,” I said, nerves rattling my voice, “how do I need to enter the spirit realm?”
“You need a guide, which must be Liza. And you will need me to coach you through the dreamwalker’s experience.”
“No.” I shook my head vehemently. “I don’t want Liza involved any more than she’s already involved.”
“She’s fully invested.”
“She’s just a child.”
“In age, yes. In skills, in wisdom, in spirit... Does she seem like a child to you?”
I sat soundless before him. The answer was an obvious, a resounding no. But that fact didn’t displace the way I’d felt as she’d slipped a shaky hand in mine. “It’s my job to protect her.”
“Is it your job to make choices for her?”
“Yes. Because she’s a child.”
“I choose to be here.” The voice echoed from the doorway. “You can’t do it without me.”
I looked up as Liza entered the hut, still in her nightgown. She must have slipped away from the castle.
“I told Millie I would be spending the day with the Forest Dwellers. It’s not her fault,” she said. “You must know that when I sent you here, I would be present too. I can’t let you do this alone.”
“But Liza—”
“I might be young, but I can make my own decisions. And, Queen Alessia, what choice do you really have? Without me, you are stuck here—very much on the mortal plane.”
I turned to Seer Goddard and implored, “What can she do that you can’t?”
“Lots,” he said simply.
I licked my lips, shook my head. But at the same time, a little bubble with the word Yes in it popped in my chest. I just couldn’t say it aloud.
Everyone seemed to understand, and with that, Liza made her way into the hut and sat.
The three of us made an odd little gang, all sitting in a circle, contemplating how to defeat the Darkest Lord.
“So,” I began slowly. “How do we go about freeing the spirit army?”
It was hours later before we were ready. The Seer had busied himself gathering several ingredients for a potion he seemed to have already mostly prepared, like he knew I’d be coming to him with this request.
Liza had assisted him, the two speaking occasionally in hushed tones. I followed instructions when they were given. When they were not, I alternated in a state of meditation, in practicing with my powers, and in reviewing the Fae manuscripts that I’d retrieved earlier in the day.
The writings on the underworld were few and far between, more cautionary than helpful.
I was able to read the words more, which gave me a boost in confidence that indeed the flow of magic between myself and my ancestors was increasing by the day.
The more I practiced, the easier it came.
The Fae language no longer felt so foreign on my tongue, like sticky marshmallows cobbled together in my mouth, but a sensical language.
I stumbled across a page with a chariot and a hooded figure midway through the morning. The title was the Harbinger of the Underworld. A cautionary figure that when spotted in the mortal realm meant death was near.
I shuddered, thinking I’d seen this figure multiple times. It felt distinctly like I was toying with death, almost chasing it right into the underworld. But maybe attacking by blitz was the only method that would save so many lives I cared so desperately about.