Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Afton grumbled as they walked over fallen and broken furniture.
Erinna divided her attention between the precious flame nestled in its metal home and Raye’s flickering spirit.
Still strong, but she could swear it was dimmer than before.
Raye walked ahead of her and hummed. The sound of an old song on a breeze that brought Erinna a bit of comfort. When he stopped, so did she.
“We’re walking around in circles,” Kane muttered.
“It’s safer this way,” said Raye.
“It’s safer this way,” Erinna repeated.
They had nearly reached the end of the hallway, the westernmost part of the fort walls greeted them as they neared.
The faded painting of an old king and queen hung loosely from its frame.
The center ripped and frayed. Erinna squinted at the old family portrait.
She didn’t know how old it was, but it dated back a few generations at least. The young girl, one of the few queens to take the throne, sported dark blonde curls with a few freckles across the bridge of her nose.
King Mycelar himself had dark, raven tresses, as his father before him.
“Through the armory, down the cellar, then up,” Raye repeated the directions every time he glanced at the enchanted flame. Should it be extinguished, at least Erinna would have something to guide her.
“We’re here.” Raye paused by a small wooden door that stood barely taller than Erinna.
The metal knob caked in dust, wiggled in her hands but eventually gave. The door opened with a jarring screech as the hinges worked for the first time in several decades. They all winced at the sound.
Weapons of all kinds adorned the walls or rested in cases.
Well-crafted steel and iron were caked in layers of dust. Witchlights flickered on at their approach, glinting off jeweled hilts.
Erinna’s mind went immediately to Lila. If she hadn’t been warned earlier, she may have considered plucking one of the ornamental daggers from their home and attempting to curry a bit more favor with the weapon master.
It was the least she could do after ruining her silver shifter knife.
Movement caught her attention, and she turned in time to see Kane standing beneath a mounted long sword, hand raised to snatch it. Erinna lurched, Afton lunged, and Raye flickered violently.
“Don’t take that!” they all cried in unison.
Kane flinched and turned to them with a sheepish grin. “I just wanted a better look.”
Afton wedged himself between Kane and the weapons. Pushing him to the center of the room. Where they could all keep a watchful eye on him. “Everything here is attuned to Iprix,” Afton explained.
“So it will all just sit and rot when we leave?”
“Yes, or Haru will attune them to herself once she’s officially named Chancellor.” There was a coldness in his voice when he spoke of his fellow apprentice.
“What’s she like?” Erinna heard about the two mages from Damien but wondered what someone who’d spent the most time with her would say. She hoped it was something different than the rumors. For Tarth’s sake.
Afton stared at Erinna from the corner of his eye. “She’d kill you for the mark on your arm.”
Dread planted Erinna’s feet to the floor. “All of us?” She thought of her father, alone and trapped in a coffin of his own making. Kenneth’s magic was strong, but not a match for an Apprentice’s abilities.
“No, just you. She’s not very patient with dangerous-seeming anomalies.”
Erinna didn’t know whether to feel relieved or frightened. She decided both would work and followed after her companions into the next room.
Screams.
Cacophonous, pain-drenched screams pierced the silence.
It was so loud. Erinna keeled over at the onslaught.
The suffering of souls trapped within the four walls of this room.
Their wails, an ocean of suffering. Only she could hear it.
Feel the fragments of their unrestful souls clawing through the Realm Beyond.
“Don’t focus on them, gravewitch.” Raye’s voice was clear but did not mute the others. Erinna stumbled, kicking up dust as she steadied herself against the wall.
“You okay?” Kane moved closer, brows knit in worry.
“Yes. Just need a second.” Please be quiet. Erinna pleaded as Talent bloomed beneath her skin. Power iced through her veins. She couldn’t see the spirits, couldn’t feel their presence, but their suffering still remained.
“Quiet. Please,” she groaned, rubbing her temple with one hand to ease the splitting headache.
“We’re not—” Afton started, but a glare from Kane silenced him.
“Take my hand,” Kane offered, but Erinna tried to weakly swat off the assistance. She just needed to get this under control. Maybe take a seat and wait for her power to subside and for the voices to fade away. There must have been a lot of them, all shouting for someone to hear.
Her voice was weak. “I just need—”
Kane’s hand closed around hers, firm and warm. Heat flooded her fingertips, thawing the power coiled there. The tension at her temples loosened. The voices faded to whispers, then nothing.
Erinna took in a long, dragging breath. “Thanks.”
They stood in a damp, hollow room, with peeling paint and a row of old beds in different states of disrepair. Rusted and crumbled instruments littered the floor. It looked to be a place they took their sick or wounded. A sick and twisted infirmary.
Erinna shot Raye a look. The ghost shrugged. “It wasn’t an infirmary in my time. It must have been repurposed when we were all gone.”
Erinna shivered. What could Iprix possibly be doing with a place like this? “I thought Iprix was the only person who came to the island after the colony failed.”
Afton went rigid. “He was.”
A palpable tension settled. An unspoken horror descended on him. Erinna didn’t understand what it meant, but knew Afton would refuse to press the matter further.
They continued in silence. The type that made Erinna’s skin crawl, but at least she no longer heard the suffering of spirits. Afton remained in the lead, listening to Erinna’s direction, though the journey was simple but long.
Occasionally, Erinna would direct them through another side hallway or attached room. It felt the closer they moved to the library they would end up taking one step away or beside it.
“You said the map was in the groundskeeper’s place?” Afton asked as they made their way into the cellar.
“Yes.”
“I can believe that part of your story. Iprix once said he built the tower on top of the old keep and that the scholars preferred to use the old routes rather than the halls he built and kept.”
“Did he ever take you here?”
“Once, but he took us directly to the library, and only the observatory. It was the day Haru and I were chosen as his apprentices.”
Erinna nodded, not knowing how to respond.
Raye flickered more, his spirit a bit dimmer, the flame in her lantern a bit smaller.
The cellar was still stocked with various wines and ales, and much colder than the previous rooms. She moved closer to Kane, unconsciously, taking in the warmth from the fire that danced in his other hand.
“Afton, grab two from your left,” he called.
With no hesitation, the mage paused to pluck two bottles of aged wine from the shelf. Dust flew and danced from the disturbance. He wiped off the glass and quickly tucked them into his bag with a grunt. “You’re carrying these on the way out,” he said, and Kane chuckled.
Hot embarrassment rose to Erinna’s cheeks as she remembered her hand still clasped with his. It was hard to deny the comfort.
“Sorry,” she whispered and pulled her hand from his, only to be met with the growing buzz of whispers. Her heart raced, expecting the sound to crescendo once again, but Kane’s hand went around hers once more. “Perhaps, wait until after we’re in the library.”
She nodded and hoped he couldn’t sense her discomfort.
“What…exactly are you doing?” Erinna tried to keep her voice low enough so that Afton couldn’t hear.
Kane raised an eyebrow and gave her a smirk. “Making sure things remain quiet, for you.”
“Do you…” The words died on her tongue as they approached the last step of their journey. It was just a door, an unassuming part of the fortress, but even Erinna could feel the vibrant hum of enchantment from the old, knotted wood.
Afton pressed his hand to the door and gave it a soothing pat. “You were right.”
He set his bag on the ground and rifled through spell books and documents. His green eyes barely contained the spark of excitement as he finally neared the end of the journey, or at least the end of the first part. Erinna hoped the walk back would not be as long or arduous.
Raye flickered beside the Minor Apprentice, peering at the tools he pulled from the pack with a nod of approval. Eventually, the spirit turned his attention once more to her.
“I’m afraid this is the end of my journey.” The flame was steady but much dimmer than before, the oil nearly dried. Erinna gave Raye a look, asking for more, but the spirit simply nodded.
“Even if you could make that flame burn forever, I cannot stay much longer.” He flickered in emphasis; his strength was waning, and there was nothing more Erinna could do.
She took in a breath, and Kane strengthened his hold slightly.
“We’ll be fine,” she murmured. “Thank you.”
Raye bowed his head with one last look at the ribbon around her wrist. “Thank you. Your kindness cannot be repaid, gravewitch. Remember, there is a book in the far back on the second floor that should be titled On the Domains of Witches and Wickedry. Take it, read it, and use the information well.”
With that, Raye vanished, and Erinna let out a sigh. The light in her lantern flickered out, and her knees buckled with fatigue. If it weren’t for Kane’s reflexes, Erinna would have crumpled to the floor in exhaustion.
“Let us know when you’ve opened the door, Afton,” said Kane as he led Erinna to the closest piece of furniture that would not crumple beneath her.
Erinna wanted to find an excuse—some way to thwart his suspicions, but she feared everything was becoming much too obvious. She settled into a rickety chair that wobbled as she sat.
Erinna rubbed the bridge of her nose to ease the oncoming headache.
She thought the flame was the tether, though perhaps it was something closer to a focus.
If she had enough energy, she would have cursed herself for not learning about the Talent sooner.
She had tried once. But it was far too dangerous to request information, and her father was not one to keep arcane instructions in the house.
“So, is it safe to say my secret is out?” Erinna sighed, dropping her head into her hands, crouched beneath fatigue. A warm hand patted her shoulder.
“My job is to find secrets that others bury. At least yours is interesting.”
She let silence fall, unsure how to respond.
“I don’t exactly know what that Talent of yours does. But I can make a few educated guesses. The first is that perhaps it is not Talent at all,” Kane continued.
“Grace,” she whispered.
The pirate nodded. “Something, perhaps, closer in nature to my own.”
Erinna shook her head furiously. “No, I…I’m not—”
His laugh interrupted her stuttering. “No, I know you’re not a half-demon. I just mean, it might not be whatever Tarth categorizes as a Talent.”
A momentary silence settled between them as Kane absentmindedly brushed the pad of his thumb across the back of her hand.
Erinna swallowed. “How are you doing that?”
“Hmm?” Kane raised a brow.
“Keeping things quiet for me?”
He leaned in close and whispered, “Spirits don’t typically like to be in the company of the infernal. At least, not the weak spirits.”
Erinna felt equal parts nauseous and grateful. He was the only person outside of her closest friends and family to know what she’d been hiding, at least most of it.
Afton muttered curses under his breath, shuffling around with his face buried in a book as usual. The sound was oddly comforting—it cut through the fog in her mind and brought her back to what mattered.
“I don’t make it a habit of sharing others’ secrets,” Kane offered, giving her a quick, reassuring squeeze before dropping her hand.
Erinna took in a long sigh. “Thank you.”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t care what kind of power you have. None of us will prosecute you for it.”
Erinna’s heart pounded in her chest. It was an acceptance she yearned for at home—given to her readily by a pirate. The ability to live life without the fear of a death sentence for what lurked within her veins.
“So a cursed shipwright and a half-demon pirate. Perhaps Mistress Fate has taken a special interest in us,” Erinna said after a moment.
Kane let out a genuine laugh. “Perhaps.”
Erinna’s hand went instinctively to the bracelet. It was a reminder not to succumb to silly dreams. The ones who loved her were back on Tarth.
A loud click and groan sounded from the door. “We’re in!” Afton didn’t bother to wait before walking through the door.