30. Till Death Do Us Part
Gawyn gritted his teeth and dodged another attack.
His breath was ragged, and he was bleeding from several wounds already.
None of them was severe, but mixed with growing fatigue, they made him slower and more sluggish with every passing minute.
On the other hand, the monster didn't show any signs of weakness, even though he had already managed to spill his blood several times.
He knew he couldn't count on any help. His most trusted soldiers were already dead, and the Winged Cavalry and Aliyah had their hands full with the flying beasts. A few of the beautiful horses and their raiders already littered the cliff - an unmoving bloody mess.
The movement behind Elinora and her monstrous mount caught his attention, and his eyes went wide.
"Bloody hell!" he gasped and barely managed to jump out of the way of the charging head.
At the top of one of the canyon walls, Zephyr ran high over their heads, with Skylar clinging tightly to his back. He was almost at the edge and wasn't slowing down.
"Stop, you reckless fool!" Gawyn yelled, but it was already too late.
The gryphon jumped off the cliff edge with his wings spread wide.
He half soared, half dropped down, trying hard to keep at least a minimum control over his descent.
Which wasn't an easy task considering just one of his wings worked adequately.
With an almighty shriek, he dived straight at Elinora's monster.
They ended up in a thrashing heap of claws and fangs rolling along the outcrop, dangerously close to the edge, over even a steeper slope down the ravine, where the Winged Cavalry were hiding. Both Skylar and Elinora fell off, landing away from each other.
It took Gawyn whole five heartbeats to get to his wife's side. She looked terrible, covered in blood, scrapes, and bruises, but she was getting up with a painful groan.
"Skylar!" His arms were around her before he realised it, helping her get back to her feet.
She looked up at him and smiled, and it was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.
"Gawyn! I've made it on time!" She sighed and brushed his cheek with her bloody fingers.
But the serene moment was interrupted by Zephyr's painful howl. The monster managed to pin the gryphon down and was getting ready to snap his jaws around his neck.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Skylar yelled.
She stepped away from Gawyn and grabbed the gem at her neck.
Her body suddenly turned stiff, as if locked by some invisible power and the bright light filled her eyes.
The loud rumble shook the earth, and Gawyn swayed on his feet, trying to keep his balance.
For a moment, he thought the whole outcrop was breaking off the cliff, and they will all fall to their death.
But among all the tremors, Skylar stood unmoving, with light seeping from her wide-open eyes and her dark hair ruffled by the wind.
And then, with a terrible crack, the ground broke, and giant vines shot up.
They looked like the roots of some ancient tree.
Before Gawyn managed to snap his gaping mouth shut, the plants shot at Elinora's creature and wrapped tightly around it.
The monster howled in pain when the veins started squeezing tighter and tighter.
The beast thrashed wildly and tried to escape, but the grasp was merciless.
Zephyr managed to slip away from the fight and limped to Gawyn, looking at Skylar with a mixture of worry and fear. And just then, he realised that she was the one moving those vines. Even though she stood there, motionless, the air around her was crackling with power.
Gawyn has always been a sceptic. He always depended on logic and a rational approach to life.
But even he couldn't explain what he saw other than magic.
It wasn't something foul and repulsing, like what Elinora was doing.
It felt somehow beautiful, as if she had a connection with the world around them and worked in perfect harmony with it.
His reflection was interrupted by a sickening crack of breaking bones, and the last desperate howl, when the scaled monster dropped motionlessly to the ground.
"No!" Elinora protested, who was already back on her feet. A black dagger appeared in her hand once again, ready to bring to life more abominations.
"Yes," Skylar said. Gawyn felt his skin crawl.
The voice that came out of her mouth was hers and completely different at the same time.
As if several other voices were mixed. She raised her hand, and more vines shot out of the ground, binding and immobilising Elinora's hands.
The black dagger slipped from her fingers and hit the ground with a loud clunk.
Skylar moved toward the Queen slowly and stiffly, as if she had forgotten how to move her body correctly. She poked the blade with the tip of her boot, and it turned to dark smoke.
"Let go of me!" Elinora shrieked, struggling against the veins, but to no avail.
Skylar stopped a foot away from her and cocked her head. "You welcomed the darkness into your soul," she said in the disturbingly strange voice that wasn't hers. "I will purge it."
Before the Queen could protest, Skylar put the finger on her forehead.
The light in Skylar's eyes flashed brighter, and then Elinora screamed as if she were on fire.
After a few seconds, dark smoke flew out of her mouth and disappeared, blown away by the cold wind.
The winged monsters in the sky shrieked in unison and turned to smoke as well when the dark magic that created them evaporated.
The Queen hanged limply in her bonds, and when the veins retreated, she fell to the ground.
"Is she..." Gawyn started taking a hesitant step toward women.
"She's still alive," Skylar replied. "And I believe my work here is done."
The light in her eyes went out. Her legs buckled as if she was a puppet, and someone cut all the strings at once.
"Sky!" Gawyn caught her before she hit the ground. Underneath all the dried blood, her skin was deathly pale, and her lips turned blue. Her chest was not moving.
She wasn't breathing.
"Sky!" He tried to wake her, but he knew it was pointless. Whatever happened to her, it was already done.
He gritted his teeth and grabbed the gem hanging at her neck.
He was not going to let her go. Not after all they've been through.
"What have you done to her?!" he roared, his voice hoarse with rage and desperation.
The small sphere of light appeared in front of his eyes, pulsing in a slow rhythm. "I didn't do anything," said a quiet voice, and he was pretty sure it sounded inside his mind. "She knew the price of using this power."
"What price?"
"Her life. Magic is not meant for people. It burns through your soul too quickly. Even if you shine so very brightly, it's only for a short moment."
"I don't understand."
"She was my beacon. I needed a human soul to focus my magic. To protect this land from the Dark Ones. But every time we used it, her soul was losing its attachment to her body. In other words, it was freed from her shell. Now, there's not enough of it left to keep her mortal body going."
The Spirit paused as if it was considering something and, after a moment, added, "She chose not to tell you."
"Of course, she did," Gawyn said, his voice barely audible through the bile in his throat. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't stand the sight of Skylar's limp body in his arms.
My stupid, reckless wife, he thought. It was so her to go off and sacrifice herself to save us all. But I will be damned if I let her do that.
"Gawyn?" he heard a gentle voice behind him. He raised his hand, signalling Aliyah to stay back.
He looked up, straight into the floating light, his face determined. "If there's not enough soul in her body to keep her going, take mine."
"What?"
"How much does she need? Can you even measure the human soul?" Gawyn asked, his mind whirling and looking for possible solutions.
"I am not sure," the Spirit replied after a moment. "Nothing like this was ever attempted. I do not know if it will work."
"She just came here, so I assume you did whatever you needed to stop the Blighted Lands' army. So, after that, she had still enough soul in her to go on."
"Yes, that is correct."
"So, it should be possible to get her back. Take half of my soul and give it to her."
"But I do not know if it will work,"the Spirit said reluctantly. "I do not know if you will survive something like that. And I do not know if we could pull her back, even if you offer her your soul."
"It's a gamble I'm willing to make," Gawyn said, clenching his fists. "She survived all this just to come back to me. I will too."
"I also cannot guarantee you will live for long. I have no idea what consequences living with only half of the soul would have. You can live many years still, or you could both die tomorrow. Or there could be other outcomes none of us could think of. Are you certain you want this?"
"There is no doubt in my mind. We swore to be together till death do us part. I will not accept her going first. As long as we stay together, I don't care if we die a week from now or tomorrow. I am not ready to let her go. Not like this."
"Then it shall be done," the spirit said, and it exploded with a bright flash.
The searing pain deep in his chest was unlike anything Gawyn had felt before. He screamed when he felt something inside him tear and come apart. And then, after a few seconds, everything was over. He took a shaking breath and looked up. The light sphere was gone.
The body in his arms moved. He looked at Skylar the moment she opened her eyes.
Skylar was floating on the winds flying high above the world.
There was no time here. She felt calm and at peace.
She had a very faint thought that something important had happened, but her mind was sluggish.
Her attention was snaping from one place to another, admiring a thousand different visions at once.
How could anyone ever want more? The world was beautiful, and she was a part of it, finally returned to the elements that built it and made it whole.
But her tranquillity was disturbed by an insistent tug. She tried to ignore it, but the nagging grew more insistent with every passing moment. Something was drawing her back to one place, like a vortex. No matter how hard she tried to float away, she was pulled back faster and faster.
"Skylar." She heard. Words didn't have meaning here, but this one was familiar, though she didn't remember why. She didn't know what it meant. But it reverberated through her whole being, calling to her again and again.
Louder and louder every time.
And finally, she remembered.
It was her name.
Her consciousness was getting back slowly. First was the pain of countless wounds, bruises, and scratches that covered her body. Then she felt the hard cold ground underneath. But there was also something warm.
She took one ragged breath.
And then another.
As if she was learning how to do it all over again.
When she felt confident her body would keep pumping air to her lungs without a conscious effort, she finally opened her eyes.
Her vision was blurry. The bright sunlight stung her eyes. But slowly, the sight cleared, and one thing came to focus. A handsome face, dirty and bruised, but with the brightest smile she'd ever seen, and with fire with the grey eyes.
"Welcome back, Sky."