Chapter 20
Sage
I followed Reef and Garridan out the infirmary’s side door into the bailey.
My gaze caught on the greenhouse with its enormous sheets of glass that still amazed me every time I saw them.
Before arriving in the Gray, I’d never seen a window that size before, and while it was cloudy like a lot of windows in the human realm, I knew from the clear enormous glass windows above the doors in the Black Tower’s great hall, that the glass didn’t have to be that way.
Near the stables, a fae guardsmen maneuvered a wheelbarrow full of manure toward the outer wall as if it didn’t weigh anything. Except I knew for a fact just how heavy the load had to be, and I was grateful I hadn’t been assigned stable duty again for my second rotation.
It had been days, and my body was just starting to feel normal again. Even without having been forced to run on the trail until I’d collapsed, I doubt I would have survived another full rotation hauling manure.
Payne fell into step beside me as we crossed toward the gatehouse. Ahead of us, Reef walked with his hand on the hilt of his sword, his posture more like a guardsman than a healer despite his pale blue doublet, while Garridan looked nervous.
I couldn’t blame the other novice. It had been made perfectly clear in our evening classes that while the practice yards and the running trail were protected by magical wards that prevented shadow monsters from attacking us, nowhere else — and that included the road to the fae ring — was protected.
We marched straight to the Tower’s gatehouse, a thick structure built from the same massive stone blocks as the rest of the fortification that framed the large arched entrance. The heavy wooden gates stood open just wide enough for a pair of riders or a wagon to ride through.
The two guardsmen manning the gate watched us approach with wary expressions, and one muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like a curse.
Yeah. Payne wasn’t the only one who thought taking two novices beyond the Tower’s walls was a bad idea.
We stepped through the enormous doors and onto the main road. The bricked path stretched out ahead of us before dipping down and curling around a large stone outcropping, and mist swirled around my feet. Overhead, the sky pressed low with gray clouds.
To my left, the massive Shadow Gate towered above the mist, ominous and threatening, the whole purpose for the Black Guard.
A shiver ran down my spine with a mix of fear that the seal keeping the gate shut would fail and the Gray would be overrun with shadow monsters, along with the terror that my envisioned death would come true.
I glanced at Payne beside me. The enormous fae looked powerful and strong as if he hadn’t been poisoned six days ago.
He was walking proof that I could change what I saw, that I had reached him in time and made a difference when all the other times I’d failed to protect the people I cared about.
I had to hold on to that hope. It was possible. I could survive.
As we walked down the slope and around the outcropping, the road began to climb, and I could finally see the fae ring at the top of the hill.
It was farther away than I’d expected. Of course, the only other time I’d been down this road was when I’d been slung over the front of Rider’s saddle like a sack of grain. It had been dark, and I hadn’t gotten a good look at anything.
Not that I’d wanted a better look at what I now knew were shadow hounds. The glimpses I’d gotten in the dark were more than enough.
We reached the fae ring at the top of the hill, which was also the end of the road.
The large silver and bronze circle sat partially buried in the ground with mist swirling around its bottom, and the same swirly fae writing found on all the rings traced up one side almost too high for someone as short as me to reach.
As we approached, some of the symbols lit up, and a moment later, a white light blossomed in the center, a small white flower that slowly unfurled and grew until the entire ring was filled with brilliant, shimmering magic.
Out of the light plodded a brown donkey, pulling a covered wagon with a canvas canopy tall enough that I could probably stand up inside it even if none of the other men could. A heavyset man with graying hair sat on the wagon’s bench, the reins held loosely in his weathered hands.
“Reef!” the heavyset man called out as the back of the wagon cleared the ring and the light went out. “I’m surprised to see they let you out of the infirmary.”
“I wanted to check the quality of the cleaning spirits. The potency of the last batch was low, Iztal, and there’s no point in hauling the barrels to the Tower if I’m just going to turn around and send them back,” Reef replied, not revealing that we were actually shorthanded and didn’t have the guardsmen to spare to escort the merchant to the Tower.
The man, Iztal, frowned. I guess Reef wanting to check the quality of whatever was being delivered right here at the ring was unusual. Or perhaps Iztal was insulted that Reef suspected the quality of his wares.
But the frown only lasted a moment and his smile returned.
“Of course, of course.” The merchant hopped off the bench and sauntered to the back of his wagon.
Payne shifted beside me, his gaze darting over the rocky terrain. He still looked calm, like a warrior just doing his job, but I couldn’t ignore the tension building inside me.
Just because Reef thought everything would be fine didn’t mean it would be. Sure, the shadow hounds had attacked me at night when shadow monsters were supposed to be more active, but I’d also been attacked by a shadow dragon in the middle of the day. Nowhere in the Gray was safe.
“We should probably do this in the bailey, not out in the open,” Payne said.
But Reef waved him off like he was being ridiculous and followed Iztal to the back.
“Come on, Garridan. The barrels are heavy.” Reef shot me a disgusted look. “And that one won’t be any help.”
The merchant unhooked and dropped the tailboard, revealing wooden barrels packed on either side, leaving a narrow passage between them up to the bench at the front of the wagon.
Garridan grabbed one side of the closest barrel, Iztal grabbed the other, and they hauled it out and set it on the bricked road.
The barrel came up to my waist, was dark wood, bound with iron bands around it, and a brass handle set into the lid. Reef grabbed the handle, twisted it, and opened the barrel.
Inside, bright blue shimmering liquid gave off the same sharp sour smell as the water from the infirmary’s cleaning room. Only this liquid was brighter and had a stronger scent.
Reef dipped a finger into the liquid and closed his eyes.
The shimmer in the water intensified. He had to be using his magic to test it, but I didn’t know how healing magic could be used that way.
Perhaps the same ability that helped him examine a body to determine where someone was injured let him determine the qualities of the liquid.
And guessing was as close to the truth as I was going to get, since I doubted Reef would tell me anything even if I asked.
“Good,” he said as he opened his eyes and wiped his fingers on his pantleg. “It’s high potency.”
“All the barrels are from the same batch,” Iztal assured him.
Payne’s hands dropped to the hilts of his paired large swords. “Great, now let’s get moving.”
“Fine, fine,” Reef huffed and jerked his chin at the barrel indicating Garridan and the merchant should load it back onto the wagon.
Behind Reef, just out of the corner of my eye, something moved among the uneven landscape… or had that just been the fog undulating with the breeze?
I squinted at a scrubby bush maybe fifty feet away pressed against a rocky outcropping.
The bush shivered as if struck by a sudden gust of wind, but I didn’t feel the rush of air on my skin and the fog didn’t swirl faster. Which meant—
My pulse lurched. “Look out!”
With a bone-chilling screech, a shadow monster bounded out of the bush, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye.
It was a hound, the same kind of monster that had attacked me the last time I was at the fae ring. But unlike before, now it was daytime and I could see it in full, horrific detail.
Smoke swirled around its mottled white and gray body, bleeding from the spikes jutting from its misshapen form, and black saliva dripped from its open maw. A maw filled with far too many sharp teeth.
It dove right past Reef and latched onto Iztal’s thigh, snarling and wrenching its head to tear through the man’s clothing and flesh.
Blood sprayed across the barrel and the front of Garridan’s pants, and Iztal screamed.
He fell, dropping his side of the barrel and sending it crashing onto the bricked road.
The wood cracked and the shimmering blue liquid flooded around him, our feet, and mixed with the growing pool of the man’s blood.
“Fuck!” Payne drew his sword and sliced through the creature’s neck in a powerful stroke. “Get him in the wagon.”
Garridan stood frozen, his wide-eyed gaze locked on the blood pouring from Iztal’s leg.
More hounds bounded toward us, moving fast. One leaped straight at Garridan, but his focus was entirely on Iztal, his face pale and his breaths short and shallow.
I slashed at the monster, my blade cutting deep into its side making it bleed viscous black blood instead of just slicing off a few spikes like I’d done the last time.
With a snarl, it jerked away, and one of Payne’s massive swords swept down and decapitated the hound before it could strike again.
Before I could even think to say thank you, Payne turned and killed another hound, this one large and all black.
Reef’s sword flashed through the air, killing one that was almost all white, but for every creature they killed, two more appeared, and they were at a disadvantage trying to defend themselves while also trying to protect me, Garridan, and the merchant.
We— or at least me, Garridan, and Iztal needed to get into a more defensible position. And Iztal needed medical assistance or he was going to bleed out on the road.