Chapter 9 #4
There was something unreadable in his face and I wasn’t sure he was going to answer. But eventually he did, with one quiet word.
“Years.”
We continued on, pausing whenever something in the market caught my fancy. I was browsing textiles when I felt his touch on my back. Looking over my shoulder, I saw him grin. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him smile this much before.
“I want to show you something.” He led me over to one of the towers and gestured for me to precede him.
Feeling rejuvenated, I scampered up the spiral staircase, Griff following closely behind, and emerged on the top of the wall that surrounded the city.
I took a few steps to let Griff exit the staircase and we walked along the wall.
The stone was similar to that of Valdris and just as weathered, but that was where the similarities ended.
The ramparts of Valdris were massive, built for the population of a capital city.
This wall was barely large enough for us to walk side by side, and we constantly brushed into one another.
He didn’t move, though, and neither did I.
The wall widened slightly, opening into a small platform.
Spread out in front of us was the forest we had been in earlier that morning, although the waterfall was hidden from our view.
As the angle of the sun shifted, the trees glowed.
The beauty of it captured something in my soul.
As we watched the golden light, it started darkening—fast. I glanced up at the sky to confirm the sun was still there. But across that golden forest, it was like night had fallen instantly.
Griff swore behind me, and then his arms wrapped around my waist, carrying me backward.
“What is it?”
“The dorchas—shadows formed from the darkness,” he spat out as he pulled me back.
“Wait!” I stretched out a hand toward it. “Shouldn’t I try to stop it?”
He smacked my hand down. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it registered that he was still carrying me, but with one arm. How strong was he?
“No,” he whispered in my ear. “It’s searching. We need to get to cover now.”
“But the people!”
“They know what to do.”
I looked down into the town and saw that he was right. The bustling market had completely disappeared, everyone now inside.
I stopped fighting and ran with him instead, toward the end of the wall, where a bit of an overhang extended over the path.
The rose, the one I had coaxed to bloom, the one that shouldn’t exist, that Griff had tucked behind my ear, fell to the ground, the splash of red vibrant against the dim gray stone and overcast sky.
I tore my eyes from it as Griff urged me to go faster, but the image was burned into my mind, the color unerringly that of spilled blood.
He pushed me down, and I curled into a little ball as he covered my body with his—a human shield.
We hunkered under the edge of the wall. I threw up a hastily constructed ward, using everything Deirdre had taught me, with my own twist—I pulled up all seven channels for good measure, weaving them into the barrier.
Not a moment too soon.
All light disappeared. The air grew sticky.
Something slithered over the ward protecting us, but Erde must have been with me today.
Even as I felt it shift and push, the ward held strong.
I couldn’t imagine what that feeling would be like without the ward, oozing over our bodies.
I held myself still, willing the trembling to stay internal, huddled under Griff until it had fully passed and the sun came out again.
He waited a moment more before releasing me, and I unwove the ward.
“What was that?” I asked him, my voice wavering slightly. I was actually proud of how steady it was, all things considered.
He ran a hand over his chin. “We think it’s basically a search party, searching for some power, some thing, that’s destined to appear. You’ve read the prophecy.”
He said it as a statement, but I nodded anyway.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about the prophecy, a lot I’m convinced will only become clear after the events transpire. But I think it’s referencing something that the darkness wants. That it’s ever searching for. Finn agrees with me, but we’ve been unable to get anyone else to listen.”
His words struck something deep inside me, ringing true, chilling me to the bone.
“Is it what’s causing the holes in the Veil?”
“We don’t know. Could it be that it exists here, inside the Veil, and opens them from the inside? Or is it something outside the Veil that is able to swoop in once a hole has opened? There are too many questions and very few answers.”
“And everyone knows to go inside when it appears? What happens if they get caught outside?”
Griff gave me a sideways glance that told me I didn’t want to know the answer. My heart fell. Just like a hufen, this darkness could infect someone too.
“But it can’t get inside buildings?”
“Not yet,” was the ominous reply.
“My ward held against it,” I mused.
“It did. I was surprised by that, honestly. Most wards don’t hold.”
I turned to him. “I don’t think I have enough strength or control to ward the entire town. But maybe a few places.”
He nodded, understanding where my mind was going. “I know the chieftain. I’ll take you to him.”
Griff led the way back down to ground-level and to a large building that functioned as the town hall, where he found the chieftain.
Letting Griff do the talking, I pulled power from the earth.
It rose up, eagerly filling my reserves.
Instead of the more typical dome-like ward I had practiced with Finn, I wove this one differently, as I had done with Deirdre.
It was the exact shape and size of the building, including the ground.
When it settled, it fell like a blanket over the structure.
I sagged against Griff, and his arm came around me like I knew it would, keeping me upright. I meant to push away as soon as I caught my breath, but there was something steadying about how he took my weight as though it was nothing, his hand splayed across my ribs.
“Are you alright?”
I shook myself off and stood, putting distance between us once more. “What’s the next biggest space?”
He gave me a look like he could see through me, but led me to the next place.
I was able to ward three buildings before I started to lose my balance and had to stop. Griff had been pacing since the second building, and I knew if I didn’t finish with the third, he would decide for me.