Chapter Sixteen
Aidan wanted to sleep in a tower for a century. He never used so much magic in his life and felt like an empty, cracked bottle.
The desperation of the demon ravaged his soul. Invisible claws pulled him at him, demanding to be released. He buried the pain. If he let go of the beast, they were dead.
"It shan't last," Carys said, her voice raw and hollow. "Curse Creatures are no different than men."
Aidan exhaled. "How do you mean?"
She paused for a moment. "Just like men, once they realize there is no escape, they surrender to the inevitable."
Her answer gave no comfort, but he didn't attempt a moral argument. Barely conscious, pale as the dead, she seemed in worse condition than him.
He frowned. "You won't be able to make it back to Ghost Tower."
"Marking the obvious, are you?" Even feebleness couldn't lessen her choleric nature. "But we cannot tarry. My brother will worry if we're gone too long. You don't want to see him angry."
He didn't want to see Meical at all, but she was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. "Then how do you suppose we'll get back? I haven't the energy to carry you."
Gil's condition wasn't much better. The blast had knocked him out and his leg caught some of the cursed magic attack. He wouldn't show the damage, insisting he could remedy it when they reached Ghost Tower. But he walked with a pronounced limp, shifting forms as if it somehow helped the pain.
Carys grimaced. "We've one choice."
Aidan followed her gaze. "No, no, that's a terrible choice."
She shivered, hugging herself. "It will make the journey home faster."
He stepped back, wondering if the magic drove her mad. "You want to ride that three-headed monstrosity?"
"Of course I don't want to ride it!" she said crossly. "But I can scarce stand and you're injured..."
He touched his arm, still bloody and raw from falling on a jagged rock. "Well, it's not like I have a blade here."
She sighed, as if burdened by listening to his nonsense. "We are no match for anything out there and prey for any mage who comes upon the valley."
It was true, but Aidan's stomach tightened at the Curse Creature's malevolence. The middle head rushed for him, mouth opening wide. Darkness veiled his vision and sharp teeth sunk into his neck, tearing his head off.
He blinked and rubbed his neck. It hadn't happened. Just an image in his mind.
But it ran through his mind again and again, solidifying his certainty that he was experiencing the beast's desire. And weakening his own desire to ride atop the beast.
Fear tingled as his hand brushed against the ebony spiked demon.
Pain nagged at his injured arm, making climbing a difficult prospect.
Gil turned into a brawny, massive man to give Aidan a boost. Climbing up the rough back was akin to scaling a mountain.
His hands were rubbed raw by the time he reached the top.
Settling down on its back wasn't any more comfortable since dozens of spikes protruded from the rocky flesh.
Aidan took a deep breath as he peered down at the hard, gray ground. "Won't we fall to our deaths if we fly upon this beast?"
Gil hoisted the frail Carys up, and Aidan grabbed her clammy hand. "The enchantment of the creature will keep us attached to it," she said, breathless and face flushed with exertion. "It shan't have any choice now that we command it."
Aidan finished lifting her, and they both fell back, just missing the spikes. Her body was so close that he felt her heart pounding. Sweat soaked her wild hair and she let out a slight wheeze.
Not that any of them looked good at that moment. Twisted joy shot through Aidan at Gil's pained face. Not because he hated him, but because the shapeshifter had assumed Meical's form. Then guilt stung Aidan. He shouldn't find any pleasure in Gil's pain, even if he just imagined that it was Meical.
He hated how the Curselands brought out such ugliness.
Gil made his way to the top, using the spikes as handgrips.
Once there, worry replaced his pained grimace.
The genuine concern seemed incongruous on the Curselord's face.
"Are you certain on this course, Carys?" he asked, Meical's voice threaded with an unusual gentleness.
"You've used so much magic without making the proper sacrifices.
It might cause damage to command the beast when you're so exhausted. "
"I'll be fine." Carys said with an edge to her tone.
Aidan clenched his sore hands. "What if I'm the one to do it?"
"I can do it!" Her nostrils flared. "I am not as weak as maidens in the Starlands."
Gil shook his head at Aidan, but the hint was unnecessary. He needed to find an alternative way to convince her.
"And if we're attacked?" Aidan folded his arms. "We would need your magic. I wouldn't feel comfortable using magical attacks in midair, and shapeshifting wouldn't be much of a help."
"What?" Gil transformed into a bewitching beauty. "My fair face isn't enough of a weapon?"
Carys sighed, her whole body shaking. "Perhaps my magic would be necessary. But now we've the beast to fight for us."
Aidan shuddered at the invasive image of it chucking them to the ground. "I would feel better if we could rely on both you and this creature."
She held up her hands in surrender. "Commanding it shan't be easy for someone unaccustomed to Curse Magic. Star Magic works with nature, but this power subverts nature. You must impose your will on it. Do you feel it trying to get away from us? Push back and order it to fly."
He nodded. "All right... fly."
Nothing happened. One head tilted slightly, but the beast remained stationary.
Carys rubbed her forehead. "No, no, no. You stay silent while commanding the creature to move.
The way you direct your magic... or even think of it as when you decide to sit or stand.
You don't say it aloud, you just sit. This sort of thing isn't that different from Star Magic.
Don't you know anything about using magic? "
Aidan flushed. It felt silly to order the beast to fly while staying silent. His face scrunched up as he attempted to force his will upon it. Carys huffed as they went nowhere.
Everything swayed, and he worried he was losing consciousness.
But it was the demon moving. Its massive wings began flapping, and the surroundings started shifting.
His heart leaped as the beast shot forward, lifting high over the Curse Trees, leaving the ground a distant enemy.
The force and speed should have thrown them, but the magic secured their bodies as if they stood on solid earth.
A peculiar queasiness coursed through Aidan as they soared higher. It should be cooler up in the sky, but the same tepid atmosphere surrounded them.
Gil shook his head, long auburn hair flying back. "You did it!" he said in a soft female voice.
Aidan gripped a spike so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Did you think I wouldn't?"
"I thought you would fail," Gil said with a merry laugh.
Aidan tried to smile as he leaned forward to see the landscape. Strangely shaped landmarks and dark mountains lined the distance. For the first time, the lack of civilization struck him. No towns, no homes, no travelers. Small twisted beasts roamed, but nothing else.
A knowing expression crossed Gil's delicate new face. "Not much to look at, eh?"
"Is that blood?" Aidan pointed at the liquid crimson ribbon threading the stony ground.
Gil shrugged. "No one knows. All anyone agrees is that it isn't safe to drink."
"But there is untainted water here?"
"No." The shapeshifter shook his head. "This isn't a land for the living."
"But I've had water! I had to pick out a few bugs, but it certainly wasn't blood."
"We have alchemists here." Gil shifted into a dark-haired man. "They purify it. I wouldn't know the specifics. Alchemy was never my speciality."
It started dawning on Aidan how little he knew of the Curselands. "What of food? How does anything grow here?"
Gil raised a thick eyebrow. "It doesn't. At least not anything you'd want to eat. Again, we rely on alchemy. Curse Creatures are hunted for meat. If an alchemist purifies it, the meat's safe to consume."
"I've eaten meat!"
Gil nodded. "Don't think about it too much."
Aidan swallowed his urge to vomit. "How can anyone live this way?"
"Did you forget?" Carys lifted her head slowly, as if it was a great struggle. "We're not people, we're the damned."
Aidan fell silent as they sped by scarlet and sable scenery. Bones littered the ground, and he realized they circled in the direction of the sealing stone.
"This is the wrong way," Carys said.
He gritted his teeth. "I know. I beg your pardon, this is my first time enslaving a Curse Creature."
She hugged her knees, an odd vulnerability swathing her. "I don't even know how you managed to come up with a plan to lure the beast. It seems far too complicated for a prince of thoughtless righteousness."
He grunted. "You don't know? Pretending to be a lamb when really a wolf? That's what you did to me. I'd the greatest example of treachery and tricks to inspire me."
Her head slumped in exhaustion. "Just picture Ghost Tower and force the beast to go there. That is all that it needs. Unlike some people, this creature has a measure of intelligence."
His anger flared up, only to be doused by her weariness. He pictured the imposing fortress, commanding the creature to travel there. The Curse Dragon shifted course, but he couldn't tell if it was going the right way. He didn't ask Carys since he was tired of her foul attitude.
Not because he cared about her tired appearance.
Desperate to distract himself from a difficult beast and a confusing girl, he took in the desolate landscape. Something new showed in the mounds of endless bones. A churning black mass that resembled water.
"Gil?" Fear almost stole his voice. "Is that a portal?"
"What?" Gil looked down. "Ah. A Jumping Portal. You know of them. They show up in the Starlands."
"I've never seen one," Aidan said quietly. "I know Curse Mages summon them to send beasts to attack innocent people. They just can't keep them open for long or control where they appear."
Gil tapped a spike. "It's harder to summon them than is believed. Using Curse Magic in the Starlands is supposed to rip open portals. Some sort of consequence for invoking dark magic in a pure place. My sister understands the theory better than me."
"Then why do they show up in the Starlands?" Aidan asked. "No one uses Curse Magic anymore."
"Some mages who experiment with portals," he said, avoiding Aidan's question.
"Curselord Kieran is obsessed with them.
But, in truth, they are more of a wild plague upon the Curselands.
I've heard tales of portals opening up beneath someone's feet, forcing them to fall through into the Starlands.
If they can't return through the portal in time, they die. Also..."
He halted, glancing at Carys. The temperamental witch had fallen asleep.
"Also?" Aidan prompted.
Carys' sleeping encouraged Gil to keep speaking. "Some of the Jumping Portals are just vortexes that lead nowhere. Curselord Meical often punishes the bad ones with a one-way trip."
There were too many questions that Aidan wanted to ask. He settled on one. "The bad ones? Isn't everyone here a bad one? Oh, no... I only meant..."
He trailed off, realizing the question was insulting. But Gil didn't take offense, simply shifting into a beautiful woman with sunlight hair. "There are worse ones," he said in a far too sultry voice. "Vile ones. People who were bad before coming here, made worse by their time in damnation."
Aidan bit his lip, struggling not to say anything else that was insulting.
Gil's golden locks flew as they zoomed along.
"You think you've met the most vile? See this woman?
" He gestured at the voluptuous body. "She was known as Mila the Damned.
A normal enough Curse Mage before being forced down here.
She delved deep into the dark arcane to find a way out of this damnation.
Many believed she would be their deliverance.
But when people visited her, they never returned. "
The shapeshifter's tone held an ominous quality, but Aidan needed to know. "What happened?"
"Well, it didn't take long to work out who was responsible for people going missing. Now Curselord Meical will do anything to get out of here, but she took it too far."
"I don't think anything is too far for him," Aidan said, anger burning his heart. "He put his own sister into peril just to further his plans to hurt the Starlands."
Gil shrugged his lovely shoulders. "It was Carys' choice."
"If he cared about her, he would've stopped her."
Gil tilted his beautiful face back, as if he didn't want to argue. "Anyway, Meical decided to see what Mila was doing. What we found... I suppose she was doing it to find a way out. Trying to look for a method in her madness is quite pointless. She was using the people as food."
Aidan recoiled.
A predatory light was cast on Gil's loveliness.
"She said something about absorbing their magic as she absorbed their flesh.
" He laced his elegant fingers together and rested his chin on them.
"I think she was lost to the madness. I heard she even bathed in the blood of virgins.
I wouldn't know. All I saw was her home.
.. full of bones. Meical had her thrown in a Jumping Portal. "
The gut-churning tale left Aidan numb. "I knew it was bad here. But this is..."
"Unspeakable?" Gil supplied. "Why do you suppose everyone is so desperate to get out of here?
Mark me, it's not just for sunshine and clear water.
Mila was likely on her way to turning into a Curse Creature.
I wish she had been a beast." He ran his finger down the cannibal's cheeks. "Her human face was worse."
Aidan ducked his head, focusing on his filthy boots. "Can you... not be her?"
"Meical has his reasons for wanting to flee the Curselands," Gil said in Meical's cutting voice. "But I warn you now to never break one of his laws. He can make you wish you were dead."
That horrific tale of the Curselands ended Aidan's curiosity. He stared at the stark surroundings until the dark shape of Ghost Tower came into view.
Aidan frowned. "I thought Curse Creatures couldn't pass the barrier."
"The beast is under our control. Part of us," Carys' drowsy voice said. "So its free to enter, as we do."
"Where will we keep him?" He waved his hands around the massive spiked creature. "He certainly won't fit in my room."
Carys' head popped up. "You are not to tell Meical that you've any control over this beast."
"Why? Afraid that needing my help would make you look weak?" Aidan teased.
She rolled her eyes. "No. But if he knows, he'll slay the beast."
"Why?"
"These creatures are dangerous weapons." She ran a gentle hand over a spike. "Its death would be unbearable for the two of us. With our connection to it... you cannot imagine a worse pain. It's dying, even if your own body never dies."
Aidan touched one of the fearsome protrusions. "Then why connect yourself to this beast? Is the power really worth that risk?"
"Everything in the Curselands is a risk." She caressed its stony back. "Anyway, this beast was wild and any powerful Curse Mage could claim it. Would you feel safe with it at the bidding of another?"
Her hand neared his own, only for her to halt and pull away. He sensed something through their connection to the beast, a spark of human feeling beneath her icy surface. But that flicker of understanding extinguished, and Carys was again as unknowable as the night.
He lowered his head. "I don't understand you. You know people down here can't be trusted, but you still wish to set them upon my land. I thought you wanted to leave the Curselands? Is it worth it if the wicked and the beasts overrun the Starlands?"
Nothing but silence. An uncomfortable tug alerted him that Carys ordered the beast to land. As they descended, his heart sank. Meical awaited them. Aidan hadn't faced the Curselord since his first day in the Curselands.
Carys started climbing down, but lost her grip. She slid down far too fast, but her brother caught her before she hit the ground. He swung her around, congratulating her for capturing a great beast.
Gil followed her, transforming into someone agile enough to land on his feet. That left Aidan to struggle down on his own, his sore hands slipping at the halfway point. He fell facedown in the mud, pain tearing through his nose. Unpleasant laughter surrounded him, like alcohol stinging his wounds.
"Was he actually a knight in the Starlands?" Cal's awful voice needled Aidan's injuries. "If this is the quality of knights, we needn't worry."
No one spoke in his defense. Not a single soul offered to help him. Taunting faces greeted him as he picked himself up. At least Meical, busy praising his sister for her great accomplishment, didn't notice. Gil, the closest person Aidan had to a friend, wouldn't even look at him.
But the sensation of being watched pierced him. He raised his gaze to find the demonic dragon focused on him with its sapphire eyes. Then he realized another head focused with intensity on someone else.
Cal.
The unnatural connection left Aidan with a sense of the beast's feelings, and it seemed the connection went both ways. Because of Aidan, the creature saw Cal as a threat.
It wanted to hurt Cal.
Aidan was overwhelmed by images of teeth tearing into Cal, ripping his body apart. The strong desire for Cal's death disconcerted him. He didn't know if it came from him or the creature. All he had to do was order it to kill Cal. It would be so easy.
"Aidan!" Carys' sharp voice broke through his fog. "You've no need to tarry here. Return to your room."
He turned away from the beast to face the beastly girl. Her murky black eyes stared into his soul. She knew. Did she feel his desire?
Or had he been close to issuing a command?
"He's scared of it!" Cal jeered, only catching Aidan's nervous glances at the beast and Carys. "We ought to make him tend to the beasts."
"Enough." Boredom painted Meical's face. "Carys, I understand why you needed to take the prince with you. But be more prudent in the future. I don't want him dying before I can make use of him."
Without looking, Aidan knew one of the beastly heads was fixed on Meical. The desire to devour Curselord filled him. All he had to do was issue a single command. Meical enslaved monsters and brought monstrous people together. If he were gone, the monsters would eat each other alive.
An icy, heavy sensation, akin to a frozen boulder, smacked Aidan and knocked him off his feet. As he lifted his head, he saw Carys wobbling from using magic to knock him down. Blinding rage flared, but doused at the sight of her wan face.
The attack hadn't been for petty reasons.
"Carys?" Meical's voice held no emotion. "After capturing such a beast, it is unwise to be wasteful with magic."
"I-I had to..." Carys seemed to be forcing her head up. "He needed..."
Meical's icy stare followed Aidan as he picked himself up. "You think he needed some knocking down, Nightshade? You ought to have said something. I would have done it myself."
Then, good as his word, a burning mystical force tore into Aidan's soul, slamming him down to the ground.
Aidan pushed his anger down as he pulled himself up again. He took a half-step in Meical's direction before changing course to head for his room. Disregarding the laughter that followed and the black and blue eyes watching him.
Once in his room, he sank down to his bedding. He fought his thoughts about what he almost did.
What he could still do.