Chapter 39
It couldn’t be right.
But there was the frost forming in strange whorls upon the rounded walls. There was the groove and the fire and the ice-coated cobwebs that hung in the furthest edges. The feel of the wind was the same. The cold was ancient and alive.
It was her labyrinth, indeed.
But this one was five times the size. Enormous tunnels stretched high over her head, large enough for any size army to pass through.
Large enough for a raphon.
Ezer backed away, shaking her head. ‘It can’t be.’
‘Can’t be what?’ Kinlear asked.
‘I’ve dreamt of this,’ she whispered, as her breath formed before her in a white cloud. There was no use hiding it now.
Kinlear gave her a strange look, and for a moment she thought he might say something. But then he coughed again, and he had to reach for his second vial.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Ezer asked. ‘We can still go back. We can find another way.’
‘No,’ he growled and wiped his mouth. ‘This is my fate. I have to see it through.’
More blood marked his sleeve. His lungs were giving out on him. He needed to go back home, where Alaris could heal him as best she could, strengthen him with runes and give him more time. The Long Day would give them plenty of time, now that they knew where to find the Door.
But what if it changed places? What if you could only find it once, or …
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear said, as if he sensed her hesitation. ‘We can’t turn back now.’
She was to wait here, to be his exit plan … should he succeed. But … now there was no way in hell she’d let Kinlear go inside without her. He needed her help and this was her fate too.
‘I’m going with you,’ Ezer said.
Kinlear whirled to face her. ‘What?’
‘You’re not going alone.’
He opened his mouth, like he was going to protest. ‘Ezer, it’s too—’
‘Dangerous?’ she finished for him.
His lips snapped together, and he nodded.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘I think we’ve established I belong in dangerous places, Prince. Or have you forgotten all I’ve done to make it here? I’m not the shivering thing you met months ago. Or would you tell me to stay behind, safe and hidden, the way others have done to you?’
‘I would never hold you back,’ Kinlear said. His eyes were on fire. ‘I would never stop you from doing anything you wanted to do, Ezer.’
He released a breath.
For a moment, they stared at each other, chests rising and falling.
She wanted to kiss him again.
She wanted to …
He held out a hand. ‘After you.’
At that, she lifted a dark brow. ‘We’ve a raphon for a reason, Kinlear Laroux.’
It was like walking inside her own dreams, but this time she wasn’t alone.
This time, she had a prince and a raphon, and they were both hers, in their own way. They walked silently down the tunnel, Six’s paws so quiet it was like she was born for this. For stalking her way into shadowed places, seeking prey.
The tunnel spat them out into a main corridor.
It was exactly as it was in her dreams. A wide entrance, the mouth that connected countless other tunnels. Her waiting room, where she found herself most nights when she opened her eyes.
She turned Six in a circle and looked at every arched entry, every shadowed tunnel waiting to swallow them whole.
To go straight, in her dreams, would have been to enter the place of her mother’s memories.
To take a left would lead deeper into the labyrinth, until she came to the door of the old cottage where she’d last seen Styerra. Where she’d first called upon the ravens as a baby, desperate to be saved.
Mother, Ezer thought. Help me. Where do we go?
The icy wind sighed past them, ruffling Six’s feathers, but Ezer heard no whisper. Perhaps Styerra had well and truly let go.
‘Which way?’ Kinlear breathed into Ezer’s ear.
It was too quiet, too calm, too utterly empty inside.
But then Six lifted her beak, sniffing the air. And before Ezer could stop her, she took them into one of many tunnels to their right. Kinlear dipped his torch into the groove, and it burst into life, the purple tongue of fire stretching down into the depths.
Ezer took a step back.
It was lined with doors.
The very same as in her mind. But as they crept closer, she noticed that every door was ajar. And like the rest of this space, there was not a darksoul in sight.
It was like everyone had picked up and left at a moment’s notice.
‘It’s true then,’ Ezer whispered. ‘They must be at the ritual.’
She swallowed the knot in her throat. It was all falling into place, this plan. And soon …
They would discover the Acolyte.
They would see his face.
They passed door after door, peering inside with breaths held, as if they’d find darksouls waiting there to attack. Signs of life were everywhere, and it was so utterly strange to discover that it looked like a soldier’s barracks, instead of a lair for monsters.
There were cots and worn blankets, a room with a large table for dining. Some of the beds were rumpled, while others were made perfectly, the blankets smoothed, the pillows fluffed.
Like the darksouls were still human inside, capable of setting things up the way they pleased.
But that wasn’t possible.
Every story told about the darksouls was that once they bowed to the Acolyte … they traded their spot in the Ehver. They lost their humanity and became as good as shadow wolves, hungry for blood and death.
And beyond that … where were the shadow wolves?
She hadn’t seen a mark of them, hadn’t heard a single howl.
‘This feels wrong,’ Ezer whispered. ‘It feels …’
‘Like the Citadel,’ Kinlear breathed. ‘But they all deserted.’
They passed into another tunnel and found a small library of sorts. One that was lined with symbols and books, an old stone table in the center with parchment and pen and ink. Ezer itched to open the pages and discover what lay inside, but there was no time.
Another room was stacked to the brim with worn black cloaks woven in a fabric she’d never seen before. ‘We should change,’ Kinlear whispered. ‘Blend in.’
They weren’t runed, but they were warm to the touch, and they shimmered with a sort of living shadow. Ezer and Kinlear quickly removed their own robes and dressed in darksoul ones, with hoods deep enough to hide their faces.
This is all wrong, Ezer thought.
For it was utterly silent. As still as death.
An army of thousands was supposed to be here, and they’d walked right in. And not a single soul had come to stop them.
Six carried on into the twisting tunnels. Every so often, Kinlear coughed as silently as he could, the sound echoing just enough to alert any guards.
But no one came for them.
‘Where are they?’ Kinlear growled. She could sense the frustration rising in him. He’d made it here, and yet … it felt like they were too late. ‘I have to do it, Ezer. I have to find the Acolyte. I have to be the one to kill him.’
‘I know,’ she whispered. ‘You will be.’
The tunnel forked three ways, frost curling up the walls, some places so thick with ice she didn’t think Six would be able to pass. Their breath became clouds before them, morphing the way the walls looked, but Six kept going like she was certain of the path.
Like some part of her knew the way.
They saw what looked like cages for shadow wolves, filthy and reeking of death. There were bones piled up in corners, and whips leaning against walls. They passed a training room for magic, enormous and domed and full of blackened burn marks on the walls and floors.
And at some point, Ezer was beginning to wonder if perhaps the Acolyte and his followers had gone elsewhere to another mountain inside the Sawteeth.
Maybe they moved constantly to keep themselves hidden in the event that someone made it through the shadows and the strange, intoxicating mind trap the door gave off.
Maybe Realmbreak would end … and they’d fail simply by running out of time.
But just as soon as she was about to tell Six to turn back, fearing that they’d get lost, and end up stuck in here forever … light came from up ahead.
And the reek of dead things, and the sound of voices.
They came into another massive entryway, and Six stopped. And slowly, so slowly, crept forward just enough that they could peer around the corner, Ezer’s scarred eye seeing despite the shadows.
A spike of fear stabbed Ezer’s heart.
Darksouls.
There were hundreds of them. Enough to fill the cavern as they filed through an enormous set of black doors.
They looked human at first glance, all of them standing in a line. Each one wore the same cloak as Ezer and Kinlear, with hoods pulled low.
But it was their hands that struck fear in Ezer’s heart. Their terrible, clawed hands, capable of rending flesh and bone in one swipe.
They watched for a few moments, utterly silent. The wind seemed to sigh towards them, instead of away. Like it had changed course to hide their scent.
She couldn’t look away from those claws, long as daggers, utterly black.
What would cause a person to want to give up their humanity in such a way? To become a monster?
Kinlear hid another cough, and the wind blew a bit harder. Taking the sound elsewhere, and Ezer knew her mother was with her still.
But she doubted Styerra’s spirit would be here much longer. She couldn’t rely on her to save them should things go south. If only she knew how to call upon that raw magic, as Styerra claimed. If only she knew how to wield. But there would be no birds, here. Not this far beneath the earth.
And as Ezer watched how many darksouls there were …
She knew there would be no hope of leaving this place alive.
Not if Kinlear didn’t strike true.
And what about after? Would the entire army fall? What if they were wrong about that part too?
Her stomach turned. She could run, take Kinlear and Six and retreat to the other side.
But this was her calling. Her fate, impossible to ignore. She’d never convince Kinlear to leave now. And to abandon him …
It would break her heart.
So she stayed, because of fear, because of morbid curiosity … because some part of her still needed to see the Acolyte’s face. To realize her mother and father’s dream for them and discover the truth.
One by one, the darksouls entered through the doors. Like a war meeting or a worship session, for each one bowed their heads as they entered, and made their way down a set of crude stone steps just inside.
‘We’ll slip in with them,’ Kinlear said. ‘It’s our best chance.’
A boom rumbled the mountain around them.
The doors stayed open, enough that she could suddenly see something moving within. A pillar of darkness in the middle of the enormous room.
A pillar made of living shadows.
They snaked upwards, spiraling high into the ceiling.
And she could see … before more darksouls obstructed her vision … a figure on a raised dais in the center, clad in black.
Arms raised to the sky, as shadows shot upwards and away from their body. Like they were feeding the dark cloud that hung over the Sawteeth, far, far above.
It was pure power, horrifying. Beautiful and deadlier than she ever could have guessed.
‘The Acolyte,’ Ezer whispered.
The darksouls began chanting and roaring, loud enough to make Ezer’s blood go cold, loud enough to rumble the cave around them.
Dust rained down from the walls as another burst of shadows erupted into the sky.
‘It’s time,’ Kinlear whispered. The line of darksouls was shortening. The doors began to creak as they started to close.
She nodded, but fear was filling her veins with ice now.
They slid down from Six’s back.
‘Stay,’ Ezer thought and pressed a kiss to the raphon’s beak. She sent a vision to her. Six, settling into her life with the raphons here.
Six, wild and free.
She could have sworn Six whimpered as the vision reached her.
‘I love you,’ Ezer whispered, as she wrapped her arms around the raphon’s neck.
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear whispered. ‘The door’s going to shut. We have to go now.’
A dark wing wrapped over her back.
And Six’s tail thumped once in goodbye.
Ezer felt like she left a part of herself behind as she turned and took Kinlear’s hand.
Together, they stepped out of the safety of the tunnel.
And joined the darksouls inside, just before the doors slammed shut.