Chapter 16
I woke with a jolt, still feeling the echoes of the magic thrumming through me.
I tried to sit up but my limbs still felt weak.
I rolled over and crawled onto my knees.
The landscape had changed utterly. The piles of ash had vanished, revealing fields of bronze grass that waved in a breeze that had only the faintest taste of sulphur.
The few trees within sight were still upended, but birds were already beginning to return to them, nesting in the mess of roots and singing out at the lapis-blue sky.
The bones of the shadowbitten had gone; in their place lay sleeping mortals.
I staggered up and looked around for Belis.
She lay flat on her back beside the stone slab. I rushed towards her, tripped over and crawled to her side. Her hair waved delicately in the wind, and she looked pale as death. I felt my heart almost stop beating. If this had killed her, how could I go on?
“Is she all right?” asked Rhiannon from behind me. The old queen sounded exhausted.
I frowned, sliding a hand under Belis’s chin, feeling for a heartbeat. For a long moment I couldn’t find it, only the smooth skin of her throat. Then, weak and unsteady but dogged, a pulse pushed through her veins. I sagged in relief, leaning over to press my forehead to hers.
“She’s alive,” I sighed.
The old queen grinned through her spiked teeth and closed her eyes in relief.
“Excellent. Good job.” She sat down on the ground and stretched her hands. “Not a drop of magic left in me. We’d better hope the journey home is uneventful. Your girl is stronger than I thought. The magic in her blood was very powerful indeed. She would have been a great witch given training.”
I felt Belis’s breath on my cheek and her eyes fluttered open. “Is it done?” she said sleepily. I smiled at her.
“It’s done. You did it. Rest now.”
She grinned and closed her eyes again. I lifted her head into my lap and released a long breath.
Rhiannon was staring out at the world around us.
One of the sleeping mortals twitched, then sat up.
I frowned at it and felt for my sword as the woman stood and began to walk towards us.
She paused a few strides away and looked down at Rhiannon.
“I dreamed I was a monster,” she said, her voice dry from lack of use. “Lady Seneschal, it was not a dream, was it?”
Rhiannon shook her head. “You have been lost here for some years, but we came to bring you home. Will you stay with us a while?”
The woman smiled. “I think not, I am ready now.” She glanced at me and I thought I recognised her, just one of the many souls I had brought to Annwn. Her face relaxed when she saw mine and then she was gone, leaving nothing but a ripple in the wind where she had been standing.
Rhiannon muttered a few words of prayer and I nodded.
A feeling of pride swept through me. I might not be the Nightshade any more but I had still helped this woman find peace.
That was a good feeling. I looked down at Belis.
Her eyes were closed. Perhaps that was something I could bring into whatever life I found next.
We rested for the whole day. Rhiannon brewed a potion to replenish some of Belis’s blood and made her drink the entire foul-tasting thing. She complained heartily but the colour came back into her cheeks almost at once and she insisted on standing up to see what we had done.
Rhiannon and I helped her to her feet and looked around us. More of the dead souls were standing now, wandering around and embracing each other. No others faded into the wind; these were smiling and talking, still full of energy.
“It looks as if hardly anything happened here,” Belis said, staring out at the plains
“Just as well. Those who were shadowbitten have been healed, they will forget their sickness as a bad dream. That is how they will go on until they are ready to pass.”
“I guess.” I bit my lip, trying to frame the emotions tangled up in my chest. “But if they forget about this then how will people know what we did?”
“They won’t,” said Belis. Rhiannon nodded.
“No songs will be sung, no stories whispered around bonfires. The three of us have saved the afterworld and all who reside in it. The old protections have been renewed and no one will ever know.”
I squirmed, uncomfortable with how this thought made me feel. It seemed incredibly selfish to say how much I had wanted to be a hero.
Rhiannon patted my arm.
“I’ll know, Mallt. And so will Arawn, and Belis here. Most importantly, you’ll know.” I found a weak smile and Rhiannon turned back to the east.
“We should leave. There’s a long walk ahead of us.”
Belis frowned. “Can’t you rush us? Now that this is all Annwn again?”
“I don’t have the energy left. I spent everything I had on the spell.”
I groaned. “So we have to walk all the way back?”
Rhiannon answered by setting off down the hill, into the waist-high grass that carpeted the slopes. Belis laughed.
“Come on, Mallt, I thought you enjoyed travelling! Or do you want me to carry you again?”
I wrinkled my nose and followed Rhiannon.
Belis padded after me, humming to herself and twirling her spear.
She seemed in an irritatingly good mood.
I could understand it. We had beaten impossible odds and had merely to collect Cati’s soul from Arawn and head back to mortal Britain.
I didn’t know why I was so on edge, why the sound of her singing grated on me.
I felt a little awkward. I wanted to speak to her in private, but I couldn’t think of a reason to send Rhiannon away.
It took half a day for us to reach the western side of the rift. The wind still howled through the gap in the land.
“So this place didn’t mend?” Belis said, wrinkling her nose.
“It appears not.” Rhiannon peered down one of the canyons.
“It was my magic that created it not the corruption so I suppose it makes sense it didn’t reform when I burned that out.
I shall have to come back later and try to push it back together, or perhaps Arawn can build some bridges.
In any case there doesn’t seem to be anything left down there; all the shadowbitten should have been healed. We should be on our guard, though.”
Belis spotted a footpath down into the gorge and we half climbed, half fell down it.
When we reached the bottom Rhiannon looked around, frowning.
Where the southern rift had been a single canyon, this was a labyrinth of alleyways and crevices.
The smell of sulphur was stronger here than up on the plains.
I leaned against a boulder, listening to Belis and Rhiannon debate the best way out. Belis wanted to climb straight up the cliffs, cutting handholds for us to follow. Rhiannon wanted to try to find a more leisurely route, arguing that we were no longer racing against time.
“I’m in a hurry, Rhiannon,” Belis said, testily. “My sister is still waiting for me. I am eager to take her soul and leave this place.”
Rhiannon flushed but stood her ground. Belis had escaped death only hours before. She was far too weak to be climbing another cliff.
“Very well,” Belis said, giving in. “We’ll split up and walk a mile or so in each direction, looking for a way out. After an hour we’ll come back here and regroup. If we don’t find anything in that time,” she paused to glare at Rhiannon, “we’ll come back and try climbing.”
“Agreed,” I said, keen to end the argument. “Belis, you should wait here and preserve your strength in case we have to climb.”
Rhiannon headed south, while I went north, leaving Belis sitting on the floor and rubbing her feet.
It was surprisingly interesting walking along the foot of the rift.
The rock layers had folded back on themselves like a coiling snake, alternating black and white.
I remembered having seen something similar on the south coast of Britain and my mind wandered back to the times I had spent travelling through the living world.
I paused here and there to look for an easier route to scramble up the cliffs.
The limestone layers protruded more than the mudstone, forming a makeshift ladder to the top of the canyon.
It was still steep enough to be almost vertical, though, so I kept walking.
After almost half an hour I was about to give up and turn back when I heard a rustling ahead of me.
Not good, I thought, unsheathing my sword.
I glanced around, wondering if I could run for it.
Now the sound was coming from behind me.
The warren of passageways could allow whatever it was to circle me completely unseen.
Breathe, I told myself, forcing deep gulps of air into my chest. The thrumming beat of my heart was pounding within me, almost drowning out any other sounds.
I dug my nails into the soft skin of my palm, levering the pain to try and focus.
I wished I could think of anything other than how to fall down.
A grinding sound came from my left and I turned.
I could see nothing but shadows. I raised my sword to hip height and waited.
I sniffed the air and winced. There was something sulphurous on the wind, rotting flesh.
Had one of the shadowbitten been trapped here rather than being drawn back, perhaps?
I dived to my right on instinct, rolling in the mud and filth.
Flame billowed forth, shooting straight as an arrow towards where I had been standing.
The fire licked at the ground, baking the wet mud into dry, cracking clay.
As the flames dissipated I stared back through the smoke.
The white dragon the messenger had warned us about was standing at the edge of the canyon.