Chapter 36 #2
Zya snorted, causing me to look up at them. I allowed a tired smile to grace my lips as I glanced down at the black armor, black sword, and black horse below me.
“If it’s any consolation, I wasn’t offered a choice,” I informed him. “Hot pink is more my speed.”
He barked a laugh at that and I couldn’t help my grin. It was good to hear Kane laugh again. I didn’t think I had since what happened in the forest. But Kane must have been thinking the same thing because the laughter died, his smile faltered, and he turned away.
He didn't laugh again for the rest of the journey.
We saw the wall on the evening of the fifth day.
It rose high above the desert before it, casting us all in its shadow long before we'd made it to the gate.
Zya, Kane, and I couldn't help but gape and, I noticed, many of Gryfon's warriors did as well.
The towering behemoth wasn't only imposing against the fading sun.
There was also a power to it. A thrilling hum that buzzed through the air and vibrated beneath my skin like an invitation.
Come, it seemed to say, see.
Once I'd been lifted from my horse, yet again, by the annoyingly powerful arms of the general, I did just that, taking a step toward the perimeter of the human city. Gryfon's hand shot out and gripped my arm, holding me back.
"Where do you think you're going?" he growled under his breath.
"I—" I started, unable to look away from the strange wall. "You don't feel that?"
His grip loosened and I wrenched out of it, resuming my walk to the wall.
Soldiers peered down from on top of it, now huddled together and muttering to themselves as if deciding what to do about the lone woman approaching their precious wall.
They had bows and arrows and weapons that glinted in the sunset but I didn't fear them.
Not with the power rushing through my veins, pushing me onward.
Gryfon followed. He didn't say another word, didn't try to convince me to stop or warn me that the guards would shoot me if I got too close. He just followed, silent and brooding as always.
My fingertips began to tingle as I approached the wall.
It wasn't like the burning, itching sensation I'd experienced in my palms when I'd met the Oath Stone.
This was different. It was a cold twitching, a whisper of power against my flesh, a gentle beckoning.
It was a suggestion, not a demand. An invitation, not an order. And it felt familiar.
The wall was a solid piece of stone with little rivulets of jade running through it. I could only see the green when I got close. Something about the color felt familiar as well but the thought vanished when my hands began to shake.
I reached up and pressed my palm against the stone.
A deep thrumming started in my chest, a low energetic hum that grew louder and louder until it shot through my arm and into the stone and turned into a sound of a low horn.
The guards above started shouting to one another, scrambling back away from the wall's edge.
Dust rained down, shaken loose in the vibration connecting us.
I closed my eyes and breathed.
Flashes of living color flew through my mind.
A woman with red hair staring into the horizon.
Another with a dark complexion shuffling through busy streets with her hood drawn up.
A man who walks through bone dust. A princess in a palace overlooking an obsidian sea.
Burning fire, dripping blood, white mist.
"Gods," someone cursed.
I opened my eyes and turned.
Behind me were dozens of Zver, without saddles, without riders, sitting back on their haunches and watching me.
Wild Zver, come from the caves and crevices of this desert, sat waiting with red eyes glinting in the light of the dying sun.
Green venom dripped from their maws, a familiar shade. I turned to the wall at my back.
"This was made from you," I said then, realizing. "From your kind. They extracted your venom and encased it in stone. That's what keeps the Geist away, isn't it? That's what kills their magic when they get too close."
The animals obviously didn't answer but I could have sworn the one nearest me, an especially large male with an old scar running along his left flank, inclined his head slightly.
Beside me, Gryfon blew out a breath.
I turned back to the wall and gazed up at it once more.
All of those visions, what were they? They'd felt so real and yet I'd never seen an obsidian sea so large, or even heard of one from the others in the camp.
I didn't know of any king that sat upon a throne of bone.
I was sure I'd never met any of those people before and yet I felt I had.
I felt as though I'd known them all my life and they, perhaps, knew me as well.
"Phantom is anxious," another voice said suddenly and I turned to find Ksenia approaching us now, her captain and Dante in tow. "What did you do?"
I turned back to the wild Zver surrounding us.
The big one, the one with the scar, stepped forward.
Phantom prowled forward as well, striding to Ksenia's side and watching the wild Zver with a gaze that seemed to indicate suspicion.
I could have sworn Phantom's red eyes narrowed as the scarred Zver approached us.
It hesitated beside Gryfon, gazing up at the general with a snort.
Then a low growl emanated from the back of its throat.
Gryfon's hand flinched beside his weapon and I began calculating a way to stop this massive beast if it suddenly decided to tear into the general's throat. But then Phantom prowled forward once more. He put himself between the scarred Zver and the general and growled right back.
Ksenia's lips fell open in shock and horror as she stared between the beasts, wide-eyed.
The enormous scarred beast looked from Phantom to Gryfon and back again before snorting and turning away.
Then he approached me. I stood completely still, keeping my chin raised and faking a confidence I didn't feel as the beast circled me, sizing me up.
I hardly dared to breathe as those red eyes bore into me, white cobbled skin glimmering in the twilight.
I wasn't sure what was happening but I knew I shouldn't move a single muscle, not while the creature inspected me.
"Is he about to—" the Captain started, wonder in his voice.
"Shh," Ksenia hushed him harshly.
Kneel.
I blinked, my eyes shooting to Dante for the briefest second as the voice entered my mind.
For a moment, I thought it was him. Conditioned to expect him there, lurking in the corners of my subconscious, the only one to have ever spoken to me there while I was awake.
But it wasn't his voice. Deep, gruff, and ancient, it was rough in a way that only came from time and weathered from a life of battle.
I turned to the Zver.
Kneel, he repeated.
Shocked, I fell to one knee, letting my arms drop to my sides as I met his red eyes.
"Gods," someone else swore. Dante this time.
The beast sat back on its haunches and watched me with an expression I couldn't identify.
You wield the Dark, he said. It wasn't a question but I nodded in answer anyway.
I do, I replied. Speaking like this again, communicating within my own mind, was a memory more painful than I cared to admit but I forged on.
We are connected. I am Shadow, leader of the free Zver. You are of Sanctuary.
I am.
Why have you left your refuge?
I was—I am one of the Fallen. My partner betrayed me. I couldn't accept my place in the Underground so I shattered the wards and escaped.
The ones who call themselves gods are after you.
They are.
You have evaded them thus far. What do you seek, young one? Why have you come to the wall?
I didn't know about the wall before we arrived. We're here to request aid from the humans in this war against the Geist.
They have never helped the Fallen before. They have never helped the people of Archi.
Whose side are you on?
He blinked at me, red eyes fading and brightening with the movement. Then he cocked his head to the side again.
There are no sides, he finally answered. War is a human concern. The true gods care not for it. Nor do we. To us, there are only those who kill us and those who do not.
The Geist want to kill you, I said. Because you have the Corruption as well, don't you?
The Dark is no corruption. The Dark is the balance. We are made of the Dark and the wall is made of us. We are meant to be the balance.
I nodded, understanding dawning upon me. I might be the only Verdunn to wield the Dark in this capacity but I wasn't the only one capable of it. The Zver were made of it. The wall was made of it. Perhaps we had more weapons in this war than I thought.
You gave of yourselves to help the humans make the wall? I asked, still trying to understand.
Long ago, the humans saved us from the ones you call Geist. In exchange, we built protections for them. Then we parted. Some of us chose to return.
He cast a glare in Phantom's direction.
You don't agree with the choice? I asked.
We are not meant to be ridden, he snarled. We are no pack animals. We are not mindless horses plodding from place to place at the whim of a human. But the allure of the bond is too great for some, so the choice was made.
The bond? I choked on that. He couldn't possibly mean what I thought he did.
Fate weaves her webs and ties beings together.
There are many bonds. The one between a human and a Zver is great but costly as well.
To bond is to gain a connection more freeing than anything one has ever known.
It is to be in perfect sync with another being, to know a love deeper than almost any other.
Only a mating bond is greater and one rarely has any choice in that.
You said it was costly?
To give the bond is to give one's life. Phantom made the choice. If his human dies, he will live forever in exile, the strings of his fate cut, forever alone.
My gaze whipped to Phantom who stood watching as though he could hear every word we were saying.
That's horrible, I whispered.
Indeed.
My gaze flicked up to Ksenia who stared at us with wide eyes and, beyond her, the Captain who looked to be frozen in pure shock, ignoring Dante as he whispered questions about what was happening in his ear. Gryfon watched as well, eyes narrowed and lips set in a grim line.
Is that what they think is happening? I asked. They think you're offering the bond?
He snorted.
Likely, he admitted. My kind never speak with those we are not bonded to.
My gaze whipped back to him.
Then why are you speaking to me now? I asked because it was clear, from his disdain of the bond, that was not what he was offering.
You are of the Dark, he said. As we are. As the wall is. We are one.
At his words, every Zver around bowed their heads as if in welcome.
Even Phantom, who Ksenia stared down at in awe.
It was overwhelming. Suddenly I, a girl who was so far from home and fighting with everything she had to get back, felt a little more at home out here in this vast desert further from my family and friends than I'd ever been.
I reached out and stroked Shadow's neck, smiling as a tear slipped down my cheek.
Thank you, I whispered mentally. I will not forget this gift.
He let me stroke him for a moment before leaning in. He pressed his leathery forehead to mine and we rested there for a moment, connected. Power thrummed through my veins in recognition of this creature and I breathed in a feeling of belonging stronger than I'd ever known.
We will not follow you beyond the wall, he warned as he separated from me, red eyes burning brighter as the evening began. But should you need us, call, Child of the Dark, and we shall come.
I pressed my hand to his snout once more and nodded.
Then I rose to my feet and he backed away.
With a few beats of his powerful wings, he took to the skies, soaring off in the opposite direction of the city.
The rest of the wild Zver followed, momentarily blotting out the rising moon as they filled the sky.
Phantom watched them go with a strange look in his eyes and I approached him before I could think better of it.
He turned when I got close but I didn't give him time to react before I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around his massive neck. He froze, stunned, but I reached out with the power that connected us, unsure if this would even work.
I understand your sacrifice, I told him. You are braver than the others.
He stiffened and, for a moment, I was alone on that mental bridge, unsure if the creature had even heard me at all.
Then came the answer, in a male voice that seemed so much younger than I'd imagined.
For her. I am brave for her.