Chapter 42
Despite the late hour in Balae, summer heat hung heavy on the air, and Corinne wondered despairingly when she might be able to bathe next.
She leaned against the outside of a shop in the village with her arms crossed, keeping watch with Iliana and Aryel while Nik and Danai purchased supplies.
Aryel had readily handed over several rings alongside the small bit of coin Danai’s father had given them to purchase whatever they may need.
Villagers passed on the narrow street without offering them so much as a glance, headed into pubs or cafés for the evening.
She wished they could afford to sleep in the inn across the way for the night, but they were limited on both funds and time.
They’d been traveling since before dawn from Vytanos, and while they’d avoided any further confrontations since the city gates, they were all hot and exhausted by the time Balae came into view.
Keep it together, Corinne. Once they had their supplies, it was on to the Boundary.
“By the way,” Aryel said, leaning close. “This morning? That was the worst drunk acting I have ever seen.”
Corinne snorted. “Blame yourself, then. I just acted the way you did when we met.”
Aryel stared at her for a moment, eyebrows raised, and Corinne held his gaze. He broke first, looking back to the street with a chuckle. “Goddess, no wonder you couldn’t stand me.”
Corinne laughed softly, and he nudged her shoulder with his. Their laughter faded gently into the silence of the night.
“If my entire life had to fall apart,” he said, voice even lower, “I’m glad you’re here to help me carry the pieces.”
Corinne looked at him again, her chest blooming with some emotion she couldn’t name. “Ari…”
The door to the shop opened with a creak, and Danai’s laugh floated outside as they traded jokes with the shopkeeper. Iliana reached to help with the packs Danai and Nik carried.
“You could charm a brick, Danai,” Iliana said, heaving a pack over to Aryel and then one to Corinne.
It was significantly heavier now, but nothing she couldn’t handle.
“It’s a gift,” Danai said. “If we let you talk to strangers, we’d get run out of every town.”
Once they’d each shouldered their packs, they set off down the little road through the center of Balae again.
Corinne tensed every time someone passed, but the most reaction they received was a friendly nod or a raised eyebrow at Corinne’s waist. Carrying two swords around wasn’t exactly nonthreatening, she supposed.
At least no one noticed exactly what kind of swords they were.
She had the cover of nightfall to thank for that.
“How far to the Boundary from here?” Danai asked.
“About an hour east,” Corinne said, and though no one complained, she could feel everyone’s energy wilt around her.
Not that she blamed them; she was exhausted, too, but she had to keep her mind sharp. The only way they’d get through was if she could follow Toro’s instructions.
They looked like they’d been torn from a book, and Corinne had memorized the movements and words to go with them hours ago.
She’d been confused at first before realizing they were some strange, alternate version of the Lightguard’s Creed.
She chanted the words to herself as they left Balae, breathing easier the moment they were no longer surrounded by people.
The forest ahead brought welcome coolness as they stepped into the trees, and Corinne conjured a small orb in her palm to light their way.
“Goddess, it’s creepy in here,” Iliana said, shivering as they walked. “Can someone talk about something?”
“Too tired to talk,” Danai said, yawning.
“That’s a first.”
“Fuck off,” Danai said sweetly, then grimaced. “Sorry, Corinne.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, heaving a sigh.
She strode on with them in silence for a few more moments. The unsettled feeling Iliana had mentioned started to prickle along her spine now, too.
“Can you tell us another story, Corinne?” Nik asked, also yawning.
A deep ache formed in her chest at the thought of the stories she’d grown up hearing and sharing.
“I could sing something,” she said instead.
Nik offered her a smile, nodding, so she took a breath and started to sing.
Fear not, my dear one, the sun will still rise
My Light will greet you when you open your eyes
You won’t remember the shadows that fell
Hold tight in moonlight, and I’ll keep you well
Corinne wondered if she imagined Aryel’s breathing evening out and slowing beside her. She continued the second verse with crickets as her accompaniment.
Look not to futures that may not arise,
Keep faith and look for my star in the sky
You won’t be lost here, you’ve found a home—
Corinne’s voice nearly broke on that line. She took another breath and finished the song as the trees began to thin.
Wield now the sunlight wherever you roam.
“That was lovely, Corinne,” Nik said.
“Thank you,” she said past the sudden lump in her throat.
She didn’t have a home anymore, not really. And she was about to break through the very Light she’d always sworn to uphold and protect.
The second half of the hour passed quickly as Nik and Aryel traded knowledge about the speculated topography of the Shadowlands. It couldn’t be horribly different from Ashera, if Corinne thought about it logically, but the truth was, that knowledge had been lost to time.
A deeper silence took hold as they cleared the forest and entered a grassy field. In the distance, pinpricks of light were visible in towns perched in the mountains to the north and south. The orb of light in Corinne’s hand shimmered, and something pulled at her from the east.
A few yards ahead, it was nearly impossible to see, but every few seconds a faint iridescent ripple ran through the air toward the night sky, disrupting the view of trees beyond it.
The Boundary. Corinne had only seen it once before, watched as those Lightguards had placed their hands to the earth to reinforce and strengthen it.
The others lagged behind as they drew closer to it, allowing Corinne to lead the way. She pressed a hand to the parchment in her pocket that Toro had given her. When she was only a foot away, she lowered her other hand, letting her light go out and dropping her pack to the grass.
She could feel the power it radiated, the Light that had been created by Helaera and fortified for generations by Lightguards. Tentatively, she reached for it, only the tips of her fingers grazing it at first. Immense power and pressure flooded her hand, and she yanked it back.
“Are you all right?” Danai called.
Corinne turned to face her companions, several feet behind her now, as she cradled her hand. She nodded once and turned back to the Boundary.
Corinne summoned her light and began to speak.
“Light by Light and stone by stone—”
She crossed her arms with her palms facing her shoulders, a slight modification of the Lightguards’ greeting, and her magic flared.
“Through this world I will atone—”
Her arms caught fire, and the Boundary shimmered.
“This I vow, to guide the land—”
Corinne centered her hands vertically, right above left, each palm facing the opposite direction, fingers pointed toward the Boundary. Pressure built in her chest the way it had in her hand in the gardens. She gritted her teeth.
“And sunder walls that I have sown.”
Corinne thrust her arms forward toward the Boundary.
It shuddered, and light burst out where Corinne’s hands broke through it, nearly blinding her.
The energy within the Boundary began to pulse, and a heavy wind picked up, but she held fast, twisting her hands around to grip onto it.
With a cry, she braced her legs and began to pull apart with all her strength.
Her hair whipped around her as her magic flared ever higher.
She’d never felt so much power concentrated in one place, in herself.
The Boundary began to tear upward, golden light at the split.
It pulsed again, and Corinne gasped at the answering flare of magic she felt in response.
Emotions that weren’t her own flooded her mind—panic, disbelief, fear, awe, anger.
Lightguards. Some were close by, and they knew where she was now. Corinne pulled harder, her magic blazing as she forced herself to focus.
“Come on!” she called beneath one of her arms.
The opening wasn’t large enough for anyone to get through yet, but they needed to be ready.
Aryel’s face appeared beside her, his hair wild in the wake of the outpouring of power. “Corinne, are you—?”
“Lightguards coming,” she managed. “Be ready to move.”
Just a few more inches. A few more. Another few moments, she told herself.
Her arms began to tremble with the effort. The Boundary was both feeding and sapping her power, an endless cycle of energy pouring into and out of her. She sensed more Lightguards now, more rage. Corinne forced it open wider.
“Go!” she shouted.
Iliana dove through first, shortly followed by Nik, then Danai. Aryel put a hand on her shoulder, and her flames danced along his fingers but did not burn him.
“I’m not going through without you,” Aryel said.
“I have to go last,” Corinne growled. “Go before I force you through, Ari.”
“Corinne—”
“I’m right behind you. I promise.”
Another half second of hesitation, and Aryel ducked through it, never taking his eyes off her. Corinne’s relief nearly made her lose her grip.
The blast of magic that hit her back, however, did make her lose her grip.
The opening started to reseal itself as Corinne whirled around to face her assailants. Another arc of light flung her backward into the Boundary. She fell to the grass, then drew both her swords as two Lightguards began attacking her with the full force of their strength.
The Boundary’s energy still flared within her, though, and she sent a wall of flame raging toward one of them, blocking their ability to get to her.
The other let out a scream of rage, forcing Corinne to dance away from their flurry of attacks.
Corinne knew she was short on time; she wasn’t sure she had the energy to reopen the Boundary if it fully sealed itself shut again.
When the woman attacking her sent a powerful vertical blow toward Corinne’s head with her sword, she moved just in time and took the opening to strike, bringing the Lightguard to the ground with her and pinning her there.
“Defector!” she spat. “You’re no Lightguard!”
“You’re right,” Corinne said, her magic starting to flare higher again as she disarmed the woman. “I’m more than that.”
She drove the woman’s sword into her shoulder, and the Lightguard screamed.
It wasn’t enough to kill her, or even subdue her for long, and Corinne leapt off her, grabbing her pack from the ground and tossing it through the now-smaller opening before sheathing her swords again.
She gripped the torn edges of the Boundary and nearly collapsed at the sudden influx of power. The flames on her arms grew higher.
There was movement behind her, then an angry cry, just before she threw herself through the opening.
The pressure reached a peak and then eased all at once. She slammed to the ground, palms grasping at leaves on a forest floor. She blinked a few times before realizing it wasn’t as dark outside as it had been moments ago, appearing much closer to dusk.
A pair of hands helped her up, and Aryel pulled her into an embrace. Behind them, the Boundary was still intact, the tear resealed, the grassy field and the Lightguards nowhere in sight. Danai, Nik, and Iliana stood several feet away, brushing leaves and dirt from their clothes.
“You scared me for a moment,” Aryel said into her hair.
Corinne patted his back. “I promised, didn’t I?”
Aryel leaned back to look at her, the light from Corinne’s markings dancing in his eyes. She breathed deeply, shuddering a bit as the remnants of the Boundary’s power faded.
Danai, Nik, and Iliana’s conversation cut off abruptly, and a moment later the thudding of hooves reached Corinne’s ears.
Aryel gripped her arm as the others closed ranks behind them.
Five, no, six figures mounted on horses appeared in the forest clearing, circling them before coming to a halt.
Even in the shadowy light of dusk, it was clear they each held weapons, blades at their sides and bows in their hands.
An icy breeze washed over Corinne from directly in front of them, and between two of the riders, a figure appeared.
A tall, slender woman with ivory skin and eyes as dark as her short, raven-black hair stepped forward, dressed in fighting leathers with three silver stars embroidered on the chest. Darkness crept up her arms in gentle wisps above geometric markings on her skin, as dynamic as the night sky.
Corinne had never seen anyone like her, but she knew in her bones what this woman was.
Nightrender.
“Hello there, sun walkers,” she said, her voice low and melodious. “Welcome to Zovalos.”
To be continued