15. Chapter Fifteen #2
“You already know.” She started walking again, a clear sign that our conversation was complete.
“Where are we going?” I rushed to catch up with her.
She looked down at me. “The final test.” My eyes widened as she placed her hand on my shoulder.
Suddenly, everything sped past us in streaks of color before leaving us standing at the base of a small mountain. I bent over and hurled the contents of my stomach onto the grass.
“What was that?” I coughed before spitting out the remnants of vomit from my mouth.
“Traveling,” Kleio said with a shrug.
She turned her attention up the slope of the mountain.
My gaze followed, and I noticed a large, flat section of rock about halfway up the side of it, shimmering with light.
I had never seen rock like that. The section was at least thirty paces high and spanned the length of Morah.
Before it was a flat expanse of stone, like a dais.
“The Galadynia.” She raised her chin toward the flat stone. “A Test of Fate. The Galadynia will pass judgment, your fate will be sealed, and you will have completed the Trial of the Gods.”
My fate. So uncertain.
“And Kya.” She turned her head toward me. “Save the bloodline from peril.”
I stepped onto the flat stone after climbing up the mountain. After Kleio had informed me of my task, she vanished. Leaving me to complete the final test. It dawned on me then. I was alone.
Where are the other contestants? Am I the only one?
I glanced behind me down to the open slopes of the mountain. No one was around. I turned back to the flat rock, only to realize it wasn’t rock at all. It was made entirely of glass, and reflected the landscape in front of it. A mirror.
I slowly approached the Galadynia. It was built into the side of the mountain—no, part of the mountain.
The edges of the mirror blended seamlessly with the surrounding rock.
I stood before it and saw gentle swirls of light and darkness within it, like thick black smoke fighting against the rays of the sun. It was enchanting and captivating.
Once I approached, only myself was reflected, nothing of the landscape around me.
My clothes were torn, burned, and covered with dirt and blood.
My hair was a tangled mess and nearly unbound from the tie I had around it.
Dark circles outlined my green eyes, and my face was more hollow than I remembered. I barely recognized myself.
I leaned closer and pressed the wounded palm of my hand, free of pain in this wondrous place, against the mirror—the wound I had forgotten about.
The swirls inside the mirror slowed and seemed to part as images of people appeared.
I turned around, no one was there. It was coming from inside the glass.
I squinted at the figures and realized that I knew them as they came into focus.
Nikan and Malina were standing between rows of books in Morah.
It looked like they were having a heated discussion, but I couldn’t hear anything.
Nikan was holding up a piece of parchment.
I could barely make out the words I had written a few days ago.
‘Dear Nik,
By the time you…’
“What is this?” I whispered.
In the blink of an eye, another image appeared.
A small village of beautifully crafted homes that I would always recognize.
My home in Atara before it was destroyed by the Glaev.
The house to the left was mine. It had been twenty years since I had seen my house but I could still feel the cracks in the foundation beneath my feet, the smell of dinner cooking on the kitchen stove, the sound of laughter within the walls.
In the mirror, a horse-drawn cart on the street next to my house toppled to the side when the wheel fell off.
Before it happened, I knew that children would rush up to it to gather the tarts that had fallen from it—Malina and I amongst them.
I remembered. I knew who was about to come out my front door to hurry off the children from the baker’s cart.
A tear escaped down my cheek and my lip quivered.
This is a memory .
It was gone in an instant and replaced with another image.
“Wait! Let me see them!” My voice was hoarse as tears streamed down my cheeks and I banged on the glass with my fist.
Eamon was sitting in his study, hunched over books on his desk. But it seemed wrong. His hair was white, and he looked frail with wrinkles etched over his usually smooth face. That wasn’t a memory.
“This hasn’t happened yet,” I gasped a sob.
More images flashed from the mirror. Memories from my past, vague and obscure visions of my future, streaked across the glass.
The people I had killed, wars that I had no memory of, flashes of my childhood, a male in the shadows, previous lovers, hooded cobalt eyes, beings I didn’t understand.
Darkness, love, pain. My enemies, my worst past nightmares and ones that had yet to come, every mistake I had ever made stared back at me.
It was too much, and it was terrifying. Tears blurred my vision and I wanted to look away but I knew I shouldn’t.
The Galadynia was measuring me. This was the test.
A Test of Fate .
The mirror was judging my past, present, and future.
After what felt like a lifetime, the images, familiar and unfamiliar, finally stopped.
The swirls didn’t return and the Galadynia remained blank, not even reflecting me.
I was emotionally drained. And I was pissed too.
Of all the memories that it showed me, it wouldn’t give me the satisfaction of seeing my mother and father again.
I glared at the mirror as another image came into view after a few moments.
My glare fell as I curiously stared into the eyes of a magnificent black horse. It tilted its head and I could have sworn that it was studying me, judging me. Like it was seeing right into me with its charcoal-colored eyes.
It reared its massive head and my reflection came back into view below it.
In front of it. Gods, it was enormous in comparison.
It snorted, and my heart dropped when I felt its hot breath on the back of my head.
This wasn’t part of my future projected through the mirror… the horse was standing behind me.
Slowly, I turned around and came face to face with the biggest horse I had ever seen—except it wasn’t just a horse. It was a Spirit. An actual Spirit was standing before me. I had never seen one.
Its body was as black as the night itself, its forelock and mane long and wavy.
Its hooves, each the size of my head, were covered in the same hair and supported long muscular legs.
At the back of its hindquarters, a thick wavy tail brushed the stone beneath it.
The Spirit horse’s withers were well above my head.
And just behind the shoulders were two tremendous wings.
Covered in black feathers, they were folded and tucked to the sides of its body.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything other than gape and marvel at the remarkable being before me.
After a moment, it stretched its neck and extended its muzzle until it touched my chest. An electric shock tore through me and I winced at the sensation. The Spirit pinned its ears back and flared out its wings before it reared up off its front hooves slightly and slammed back down.
I shrieked and ducked, covering my head with my arms. The entire mountain shook when its front hooves landed.
The rumble filled my ears and I felt it in my bones, my soul.
I gasped when I felt a pulsing flare in my chest. I looked at the winged horse when it took a step back and bobbed its head for me to stand.
We stood there for several moments staring at each other. When nothing else happened, I broke the silence.
“H-Hi. I’m Kya.”
“ I know who you are ,” a low deep voice sounded, coming from no particular direction. I glanced around, searching for the source.
“ What are you looking for? ”
I slowly returned my gaze back to the Spirit.
“ Kya, I am Odarum. A Spirit of this realm. A Spirit now bound to you, and you to me. ” His mouth didn’t move. My eyebrows rose and my mouth fell open.
He can talk!
“You can…speak?”
“ I can communicate with you, and you me, through our bond. ”
“You can understand what I’m saying and speak back to me in my mind?”
“ You may speak to me through the bond as well. Feel for it within you. ”
I could already feel it. That pang in my chest was like a tether to him.
I closed my eyes and reached for it in my mind but was met with a thick haze.
It was like soft mist, soothing yet unbound.
I tried to grapple for it, to push it back together but to no avail.
There, through the haze I saw it, the thread. It was like a beam of light.
I held on to it and attempted to send a thought, “ Hello, Odarum .”
“ Hello, again. ”
I opened my eyes. “I don’t understand.” I spoke out loud. Speaking through the bond would take some getting used to. “Why are we bonded? What does that mean?” I knew that the third task was getting a Spirit animal, but I had never heard of them being bonded to the Worthy.
“ Those that are deemed Worthy by the Gods are gifted by them. But the Trial is not just for the Gods. It is also for the Spirits. The Worthy are gifted with a bond of one of the Spirits from this realm. The third task of the Trial is being judged by your fate, and a Spirit choosing you. They bind themselves to you for the remainder of your life. ”
“Why have I never heard of this? It isn’t written anywhere.” I ran my hands over my hair and blew out a sharp breath.
“ It is forbidden to speak of the Spirit bond. Only the Worthy know of it. Not even your Sages. ” His tail swished behind him.
“Why? What does it matter if anyone knows?”
Odarum snorted. “ We do not wish it to be known. We have our reasons. ”
I nodded, still in disbelief that Spirits have been roaming the world bonded with the Worthy all this time and no one knew.
“Okay. So what now? How do I, or we, get back?”
“ I can take us back to the Temple of Odes. ”
“Will you be with me all of the time?” I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t necessarily like the idea of a Spirit being around me constantly. It would feel like I was being watched.
“ Not all of the time. But a lot of it, yes. Especially until the bond is complete.” His wings flared out slightly before tucking back in. I felt a little relief at that but only a little.
“What does that mean, ‘until the bond is complete’?” I leaned my back against the mirror behind me, my legs tiring from standing still for so long.
“ We are connected in more ways than one, Kya. We are a part of each other. You will need time to adjust to the magic you have gained from me. ”
I pushed off the glass. “You share magic with me? I thought only the Gods did that. What magic?” The pitch of my voice raised an octave.
“ They will manifest as our bond strengthens. You will need to train with it, and me.”
I let out a long exhale. “Alright.”
Odarum dipped his head. “ It is time to return.”
Before I could say anything, he touched my chest with his muzzle and stomped his heavy hoof against the stone. Everything went black and cold, as we left the Spirit realm of Hylithria.