Chapter 13
Aflash of scarlet whipped across my sight as a longsword formed from the droplets falling from Seth’s hands. My heart pulsed, watching the lifeblood spill from his palm, a twin echo to the Empty thrumming behind me.
The masked nobleman raised a hand in peace. “Two chthonics clashing so close to the Empty will bring nothing good. For either of us.”
The bloody long sword hovered by Seth’s side. “Agreed. You don’t make a move, and I won’t either.”
A hand wrapped around my elbow, yanking me back. Eleos stepped in front of me, shielding me. Whisper lowered himself to the ground, teeth bared, a snarl ripping from his snout.
Shadows moved in the woods as more people emerged, forming a line between us and the forest. I squinted, trying to make out their features and count their numbers.
Ten or so, each dressed in leather emblazoned with a goblet.
Though I couldn’t see the colors of its stitching, I had a feeling it would be gold.
Guild members.
Pulling arrows from their quivers, the Guild’s assassins knocked their bows and pointed them at us.
“How nice of you to bring company,” Seth said, his voice friendly. “I take it you attacked our con woman and arranged Percy’s mob?”
I glanced at Percy, who nodded stiffly.
The nobleman stalked forward, his red vines coiling around us like snakes. “There is a good reason I brought you here. So long as you drop your weapons, we will all walk away from this alive.”
“I’m not sure I believe you,” Seth said. “Normally, people get to know me before cornering me in the woods with hired thugs.”
“I would have invited you for dinner had we the time.” The nobleman sounded like he was smiling. “My only interest is in the lady, and not because I wish her harm.” He turned to me. “There is something here you need to see. And when you do, you will thank me for it.”
“What do you want me to see?” I asked.
Behind the mask, sage-green eyes swept over us, drinking in our every detail. “One of you will turn and walk into the Empty. And you will do so knowing you saved your allies’ lives.”
Seth scanned the woods, counting the enemies, one hand curling behind his back, fingernails digging into his palm. Spots of blood appeared on his skin.
Eleos squeezed my wrist and spoke in my head. “I think we can take them. Between the three of us, we can carve a path to the horses.”
“What if the Guild members are mages?”
“I doubt they are. They would have flaunted their advantage.”
The nobleman’s gaze darted to Eleos. He peered at us as though listening to our conversation. With a horrible gurgle, the blood vines surged upwards, wrapping around Eleos and me, a thorned tendril brushing against Eleos’ neck, drawing blood.
“If you have faith in the Maiden,” the nobleman said calmly. “There is no cause for fear.”
Eleos tensed, watching the vines scrape his skin. “I have no faith in the Maiden.” He said harshly.
The nobleman’s sage-green eyes landed on me. “What happens next depends on you.”
I flinched, touching my head. Had he spoken into my mind?
The hand Seth had curled behind his back flexed, and blood poured from his palm, gathering into a jagged blade. His eyes focused on the nobleman’s neck as his fingers grasped the blade’s handle.
Percy noticed Seth’s actions and shot to his feet. “I’ll walk into the Empty. It’s not like I haven’t spent enough time around it already.”
“Percy,” Seth hissed. “There’s no need. We can-”
“What? Start a fight and let the Empty spawn under our feet?” Percy snapped. “The moment one of you strikes, we’re all dead.”
“You don’t know that-”
“But I’m not willing to risk it.” Percy stared at the nobleman. “You said something good would come of it. Let’s see what, then.”
“Good lad.” The nobleman commended, nodding for him to go.
Brushing himself off, Percy stood and took a step toward the Empty. Both Seth and Eleos lunged for him, trying to pull him back.
Splintering sorrow like I’d never felt tore through my heart, and my world darkened as my vision saw only streaming tears and tearing agony. My knees hit the dirt as the will to continue on fled my body. Haunting music sang through the air, like the sound of a wailing mother turned to song.
Eleos and Seth crumpled under Percy’s spell.
Pressing my hands into the dirt, I tried to regain my mind, shaking off the music he’d forced upon me.
My vision steadied, and I raised my head.
The nobleman watched me intently. His vines parted, allowing a man wearing a white tunic to pass by, his colorful patchwork sash flapping in the breeze.
Percy walked toward the dark, towards an inevitable, instantaneous end.
The pain of my wounds vanished. A newfound strength surged through my limbs, and I stumbled to my feet, taking two uncertain steps before finding my stride. I paid no mind to where the nobleman’s deadly vines blocked my way, not caring if they tore me open.
But they receded in my wake, shrinking away to allow me past. So little space separated us from the Empty. Merely a few strides. I reached for Percy, but I was too late.
One step separated Percy from the bounds of the Empty. He glanced over his shoulder at me as he took his final step.
Aching nostalgia filled my breast, like a siren song calling me home.
“Percy!” I shouted, throwing myself across the distance between him. My fingers caught on his shirt as I clumsily tackled him.
The surprise of my weight threw him to the ground. He landed on his back noiselessly, and I collapsed atop him, fingers ripping through fabric.
The sensation in my breast ceased. Air fled my lungs, and sound could not reach my ears. Raising my head, I stared into the great void, the endless canyon that dove miles below the earth into a still sea.
A sea that rested quietly below me, so still it appeared like glass. Glass that did not reflect anything above it, a stagnant pool that could have been boundless as the ocean or thin as a sheet. Only a thin red halo, shining around the Empty’s borders, pierced the fathomless dark.
Percy sat upright, grabbing my arm, eyes widened in shock.
Nothing separated us from the fall into death. The edge of the Empty’s canyon was behind us, a steep tumble unto death, but we did not fall. Something held our weight, barely visible, like a film of transparent thread. It looked like we simply floated in a great void, leagues above the sea.
We were inside the Empty.
My head pounded. Everything hurt. I felt like the twine that made up my bones was coming unwound, and my skin was being torn off, piece by piece. Writhing in agony, I doubled over, fingernails digging into my palms.
Percy’s dull gray eyes brightened. Staggering to his feet, he wrapped his arms around my waist and threw us both back toward the cliff.
Everything flooded back in an instant. Sound, breath, life. I gasped as I struck dirt and heard the heavy thud as Percy landed beside me.
“Aethra!” Eleos’ voice rang sharply in my mind.
Bloody thorns still surrounded the men, though they’d found their feet. Seth’s intense gaze caught my eye first; he gaped at me with abject horror, a stark contrast to the euphoria I could feel radiating from the masked nobleman’s eyes.
“Move!” Eleos’ voice scraped across my mind.
As though the Empty were an ocean, keres emerged from its bounds like swimmers breaking the water’s surface. Ragged clothing clung to their sallow limbs, torn by their long claws. Their hollow eyes fixed on Percy and me.
The Guild members pointed their bows at the creatures.
An arrow sailed over my head and struck the keres behind me, steel sinking into its chest. The creature staggered, its head thrown back by the force of the impact.
The sinewy neck snapped back into place a moment later, and the keres trudged on, undeterred.
Percy grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. Instincts kicked in, and I fled toward safety, ignoring the pounding pain in my chest.
Whirling around, Seth grabbed the long sword that had been hovering beside him and threw the dagger he’d clutched in secret. It soared through the air toward the nobleman’s throat while he cut through the bloody vines with his chthonic blade.
Ducking out of the way of the dagger, the nobleman drew a rapier from his belt and cut his hand. Thorned vines burst from his palm, wrapping him in a protective embrace as the bloody dagger arced past him and swung around mid-air, circling back to slam into his back.
It connected with the vines, blood merging into blood before the two separated, and the knife whirled back to Seth’s hand.
Steel rang across the forest as several Guild members drew their blades, and arrows arced through the air.
Shit shit shit! I cursed in my head, turning back to look at the Empty worriedly. The edges of its border pulsed, unstable, drawn to the violence. Nostalgia and unease burst to life in my heart.
A keres charged me, slamming into my back and knocking me to the ground. Covering my face with my arms to shield myself from its claws, I tried desperately to summon whatever cursed magic I possessed, but nothing answered my call.
A flare burst through the night sky, searing the land with a red glow. The keres’ sunken eyes lifted from my face to stare toward the battle raging behind us. Taking advantage of its distraction, I shoved it off me and crawled away.
Pounding hooves alerted me to a charging horse: a black mare bolted toward me.
Shrieking, I pressed my head to the ground and shielded myself, but the mare leaped over me.
Fire streaked across my vision as a scythe of burning radiance spun through the air and cleaved the keres’ head from its shoulders.
A bright red braid swung behind the woman on the horse, a scythe made of blood and flame clutched in one hand, a shimmering red stone in the other. Seraphim. Hope flared in my heart for a fleeting moment before I noticed a shadow closing in on me.
Gods, why hadn’t I taken sword lessons? Bolting to my feet, I found myself face to face with a Guild member, his blade arcing for my head.
Back-stepping, I avoided his first swing and managed to block his second with my gold bracer.
The jewelry wasn’t meant to be armor. It dented and pain racked through my wrist.
The black mare charged between us, forcing the Guild member back. It kicked, hooves connected with the man’s chest, sending him flying backwards. He struck the bounds of the Empty and disappeared into a sea of dust.
I’d seen someone touch the Empty before, but the experience did not spare me from the shock and horror.
Life, extinguished, leaving nothing behind.
“Stay down!” Seraphim shouted. An arrow flew past her head, soaring into the Empty and crumbling. Hooves pounded past me as she rode back towards the remaining enemies.
Heeding her order, I ducked, trying to take stock of the chaos. Seraphim’s flames burnt a path through the trees, and I could faintly see Seth’s bloody blades whipping through the air, but the night and the Empty made it impossible to keep track.
My attention was drawn to a white coat and a blue scarf. Eleos. He stood where he’d been before, gaze locked with the masked nobleman.
What were they doing? The nobleman didn’t move either, rapier clutched in a frozen grip.
Keeping low, I hurried toward him, intending to push him down to better avoid flying arrows, if nothing else. The masked nobleman’s head jerked in my direction, and his voice sang in my mind.
“We will meet again. And you will understand everything, then.”
Eleos pressed a hand to his head and staggered to a knee. The nobleman stepped back, a little unsteady, but found his footing and quickly turned, disappearing into the trees. Running to Eleos’ side, I put a hand on his back.
“Are you alright?”
Shaking off whatever had stunned him, he wrapped his arms around me, shielding me with his body as he pushed me back towards the horses. An arrow whizzed past, scraping a gash across his cheek.
The sound of our horses, frightened and distressed, guided us to where we’d tied them up. Sliding behind the trees, Eleos grabbed one of the mare’s snouts, trying to calm her. “Cut her loose.” He snapped.
Fumbling with the rope, I managed to unfasten them. Fire blazed through the woods as Seraphim rode toward us, strands of red hair clinging to her face. Yanking the reins, she halted beside us.
“They’re retreating.” She said, “Ride to safety. I’ll catch up.” Kicking her heels into her horse, she turned around and bolted back into the chaos, grabbing Percy by the neck and hauling him onto her steed.
Eleos wrapped an arm around my waist, picked me up, and threw me onto the red mare’s back. He climbed up behind me, tugging the reins to turn the horse around.
“Wait.” I gasped, reaching for the other steed’s lead. “Seth!”
Teeth gritted, Eleos looked as though he was going to suggest abandoning the assassin, but he closed his eyes and sighed before turning the horse around. We bolted across the fields, across pools of blood left behind in the chthonics wake.
A flash of crimson streaked through the night ahead as Seth disarmed a Guild member and drove his sword through the man’s gut. Yanking the blood blade out, he turned toward us, ready to strike, but lowered his weapon when he recognized us.
I dropped the other mare’s lead as we reached him. Seth grabbed the horse’s saddle as it ran past, managing to climb onto its back mid-stride. Whisper ran after him, clinging to the horse’s hind legs.
The Empty pulsed behind us, the depths of its void slowly marching forward.
“Seas.” Eleos cursed, staring daggers at Seth. “Are you asking for death? Why did you attack?”
“You’re going to scold me now?” Seth yelled. “Save it.”
Writhing emotions spun in my chest. Doubling over, I grabbed at my breast, unable to tear my eyes from the void and its still sea as it slowly consumed the world where we’d been fighting only moments before.
I saw the corpse of the man Seth had killed be consumed, turned to unceremonious nothingness as his existence was swept away.
And then it stopped. The bounds of the Empty halted and quickly fell out of view as we galloped into the trees.