To my utter shock, the misty shaped formed into a shining white horse. No, I realized as I squinted to get a closer look, not a horse. A unicorn, so white it casted light through the dark woods, tossed its mane.
I pointed. My jaw dropped, unable to believe my own eyes.
Zephyra followed my finger to the where the unicorn watched us. Her eyes went huge as she breathed, “Antarus.” She slowly tip-toed closer to the mystical being.
I’d heard the legends of Celestia’s unicorn, Antarus. It was said she’d sent it to our world to help one of her first elementals. I worried this was a trap though. We didn’t know if Antarus was real. I tried to tell Zephyra as much but she was already half-way to the magnificent beast. I jogged after her to catch up.
Almost to the unicorn, she reached out to touch its nose, but it shifted away.
“Zephyra,” I reached for her wrist. “We don’t know if it’s Antarus. This could be a trap.”
She didn’t seem to hear me as she slowly stepped closer to the shimmering white unicorn, cooing gently to it. Completely enthralled, she reached out a hand again to touch it.
But then it vanished.
Sorrow and confusion crossed Zephyra’s face right before a pair of hands reached out and pulled her into a cavern opening that had been hidden by dead branches and rocks.
Chapter 25
I couldn’t waste time returning to Chel for help. Whoever, or whatever, lived inside the cavern could have killed Zephyra by then. I had no choice but to enter the dark cavern of packed earth and stone that the unicorn had led us to. Zephyra’s muffled cries came from further down the narrow cavern as I jumped down through the hole. The fall wasn’t far. I could only imagine what held onto her. The hands I’d caught a glimpse of appeared to be human, but it could’ve been an illusion. Surely a demon as horrendous as the ones who’d previously attacked us had taken her.
I thanked the goddess when torchlight revealed the faces of two human women trying to calm Zephyra down. Once my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the cavern, I realized I recognized them. They were the witches I’d ordered to stop using magic, the older mother and her full grown daughter who’d strove to become with child. They’d escaped the kingdom alive.
“You!” the older woman with webs of wrinkles spreading out from the corners of each eye accused. “You forbade us from using magic. How are we to defend ourselves against such darkness?”
I held both hands up in surrender as the women waited for my answer. “I come in peace. I didn’t know such darkness threatened our kingdom when I warned you to stop. I was only following our king’s orders.”
“We’re worse off because of you,” the daughter spat. Her tangled mousy brown hair reminded me of a bird’s nest. “You destroyed potions that could’ve helped us against these demons.”
“Again,” I reiterated. “I’m sorry.”
“No use for apologies,” the older woman said with a note of defeat. “Help us with this man if you wish to do something right. We found him injured nearly a fortnight ago, but his healing’s been slow.”
Zephyra had been quiet up until that point. She broke her silence by saying, “Take us to him.”
The witches wasted no time. They led us farther into the cavern, toward the sound of trickling water. I didn’t believe it possible until I saw it, but there it was, a slow but steady stream of water running beneath the dying forest. And off to its side, in a bed of cushiony moss, lay the wounded man. The man’s head had been shaved, his dark hair only beginning to grow back. A dark beard covered half of his face, and I wouldn’t have recognized Percifal lying there in tattered clothing, which had been ripped away from his wounds, if not for Zephyra’s stifled cry. “Percifal!” She dropped to her knees beside him and inspected the wounds that had been covered with a thick, colourless salve.
“You know this man?” the older witch questioned.
“Yes.” Tears gleamed in her emerald eyes as Zephyra looked up at her. “He’s the love of my life, and we’ve been searching for him. Oh, thank Celestia! I knew it was Antarus. She sent him here to guide us.”
I couldn’t quite believe it. Yet, neither could I deny it. We had seen a horse with a gold horn. And it’d led us to this cavern. Maybe Celestia was aiding us.
Zephyra wiped Percifal’s forehead with a piece of material one of the witches had dipped in the cool stream. “Percifal, can you hear me? It’s Phyra.”
At first he didn’t stir, but then a moan escaped his throat. His eyes opened a crack. “Zephyra?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’ve found you.” She pushed him back down as he tried to sit up. “No, stay down. You’re weak.”
“I—I don’t know how you found me, but thank goddess you’re here.”
Zephyra glanced up at me then. “I had a little help. But tell me, what happened? How did you end up like this? Did you see King Zaeden?”
Percifal winced as he adjusted himself on the bed of moss. “I spotted King Zaeden leaving Terra. He didn’t see me. I followed him, but then these… I don’t know what they were—demons I suppose—they attacked me. I thought I was dead.” He glanced down at a red gash in his ribs, now cleaned and covered in salve. It would leave a nasty scar. There were more, shallower, wounds on his arms and legs. “I was nearly dead when the witches found me,” he finished.
“I’m surprised the demons didn’t eat you,” I commented. Zephyra shot me a disapproving look. “What? The ones we fought seemed like they wanted to have us for dinner.” I tilted my chin down to stare at Percifal. “What did the demons look like?”
“They were nothing of this world, more like shadows with claws like knives. Once they’re upon you, there’s nothing solid to fight. I found myself engulfed in a black fog, slashed at from every direction. I went down, and the demons slipped away. I passed out and woke to these witches dragging me down here. If not for them, I would be dead.”
Zephyra rose, dusting the dirt from her hands, and walked right up to the older witch and threw her arms around her. “Thank you,” she said into the witch’s greying hair.
Taken aback at first, the older witch stiffened, but she patted Zephyra’s back lightly. “We couldn’t leave him out there to die.”
“We need to get him out of this forest,” I said to them, and then to Percifal, “Think you can walk?”
Pain was written on his face, but he nodded anyway. “With help, yes.”
It took the four of us to get him off the ground. Once he was on his feet, Zephyra and I were able to hold him up enough that he could walk—slowly.
“Take this with you.” The older witch held out a jar filled with the salve she’d dressed his wounds with. “It’ll help hasten the healing and alleviate the pain.”
Zephyra accepted the jar. “What about you?”
“We’ve got enough jarred food to last us a few more fortnights,” the older witch answered. She set her gaze on her daughter. “There are others trapped like us. If we can find them, we may have a chance at out-smarting those demons.”
Her daughter’s jaw tightened as she looked away.
“You could come with us,” Zephyra offered, adjusting Percifal’s arm over her shoulders. I wished she’d get on with it.
“No,” the older woman shook her head. “But thank you for the offer.”
“She wants to wait for other witches,” her daughter put in, throwing her arms up. “It’s foolish if you ask me, but I can’t make her change her mind.”
“Mind your tongue,” her mother reprimanded. “I won’t abandon my sisters.”
“At least tell us your names so we may remember you when this is all over,” Zephyra said.
I scoffed, but she ignored me. Percifal was already having a tough time staying up right, and we still had a ways to go.
“It’s Lucile, and my daughter is Emeline.”
Zephyra gave the old witch a nod. “I’m Zephyra. Percifal and I thank you both. May Celestia be with you.”
“And you,” Lucile replied, a gen
uine smile stretching out her thinning lips.
Finally, we started down the cavern back toward the entrance. If we ran into anymore demons, I doubted we would’ve all made it out of that forest. For the first time since I could remember, I sent a silent prayer to Celestia. She did send Antarus to help us, so maybe she’d listen to my plea.
“Where’s my sister?” Percifal managed to get out, dragging his feet as the opening of the cavern came into view.
“We had to leave her with the horses,” Zephyra explained, wiping sweat from her brow. “They refused to come further in these woods.”
I used a vine to carry the three of us up out of the cavern. Dragging Percifal up would’ve been nearly impossible without harming him and possibly us.
“Ah, mine did too,” Percifal huffed when we once again stood on solid ground. “He threw me from his back when I tried to push him. “Took off and left me on my own.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Can’t say I blame him.”
“Me neither,” Percifal admitted.
We didn’t speak the rest of the way, saving the rest of our strength to get Percifal out of those woods. I’d strapped his sword to my back. His other supplies the horse had taken off with. The leather scabbard bit into my back with Percifal’s weight on it.
In its unnatural state, I didn’t recognize the forest I’d once known so well. I worried we’d become lost, but the smoky sky eventually gave way to a deep shade of blue, and the wilting trees thinned. Celestia must have heard my prayer because we didn’t run into anymore demons wishing to eat us for dinner.
We came across the tracks we’d left in the dirt and followed them out of the woods.
We saw the two horses first, and then Chel. She sat against a tree, her cobalt hair ruffled, and her gown dirty and torn. A dark storm brewed in her eyes, but she took one look at her brother and all the anger drained from her face. She jumped up and rushed to him. “You’re alive,” she choked out, pushing me aside so she could inspect him herself. She froze when she saw the wound on his ribs. “We need to get him to an inn so he can heal.”
“What happened to you?” Percifal rasped, indicating his sister’s dishevelled state.
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I ran into some sort of flying creature not from this world. My water was slow to come through the dying earth. It got me with its claws before I could drown it, is all.”
“You shouldn’t have been left alone,” Percifal made sure Zephyra and I both heard him loud and clear.
“I’m fine,” Chel repeated.
I untied Zephyra’s horse, not bothering to argue with Percifal, and said to the other two, “Help me get him up.”
The women brought him up beside the horse, and Zephyra helped him lift his leg and placed his foot in the stirrup. Percifal grabbed a hold of the saddle and pulled himself, letting out a cry of pain while the rest of us helped push him on. Zephyra swung up behind him.
Chel scrunched up her face as I climbed up behind her in our own saddle. “You reek of decay.”
The smell of the rotting forest stuck to our hair and clothes, but without a bath and change of attire, there was nothing we could do. “Then hold your breath,” I said, taking up the reins to move the horse forward behind Zephyra and Percifal.
She shifted away from my chest as much as she could without falling off.
Once we were well away from the forest surrounding Terra, Chel asked, “How did you find him?” I knew she meant Percifal.
A puff of air escaped from between my lips. “Don’t laugh… a unicorn led us to the cavern he’d been taken to by two witches. They saved him.”
“A unicorn…” Chel began.
Having heard our conversation, Zephyra twisted in her saddle, careful not to wake a dozing Percifal. “Antarus. Celestia sent him to us.” She was convinced we’d seen Celestia’s warrior unicorn.
Chel stayed quiet for a moment, contemplative. “Either you’re both trying to fool me, or you truly did see Antarus,” she replied.
“If mermaids and demons are real, is it really so shocking unicorns are too?” Zephyra pointed out, turning her head back to steer her horse.
“I suppose not,” Chel admitted.
“You said your water was slow to come to you?” I asked Chel.
“Yes, the land is drying up, making the water hard to call… a disadvantage of my power.” When I didn’t say anything else, she peered over her shoulder at me. “Why?”
I didn’t meet her eyes. “Because my vine didn’t live long once it touched the demon I’d fought. Actually, if it weren’t for Zephyra, I could be dead right now. Seems her power is the most reliable against Mnyama’s demons.”
“You’re welcome,” Zephyra said over her shoulder.
“It was spectacular, the way you shaped your flames,” I admired.
“Is that a compliment?” Chel asked, utterly shocked.
“I suppose it is.”
Zephyra spoke up, adjusting herself in the saddle, her skirts draped like a blanket over the horse. “I’ve never done that with my flames before. I acted on instinct. Even I was surprised by the way they formed around the demon.”
“You’re gaining more control,” Chel said to her. “The more we use our powers, the more control over them we’ll all have.”
“Fire seems to be the only useful power in the dark world,” I pointed out again.
“That’s because fire is part of the dark world,” Chel said. “I doubt it will be effective on its own against Vesirus himself. We’ll need all four to beat him back to Mnyama.”
“I hope you’re right. I hope we can send him back to his forsaken world,” I replied, steering our horse between two boulders.
We came to a small village with a lake. In the distance behind, the northern mountains stood proud. Those mountains were the beginning of our trek up to the cold peeks of never-ending winter, to the kingdom of air. We couldn’t make the journey north until Percifal had healed well enough.
We found a cozy inn just off the lake with a cramped tavern on the bottom floor.
“Two rooms for seven sunrises please,” Zephyra told the innkeeper, handing him the right amount of coin. “We may need to stay longer,” she added. “We’ll give you more coin if needed.”
The short, chubby man, whose cheeks were red and shiny, set down the book he’d been reading and accepted her coin. “Uh-huh.”
“Two rooms?” Chel questioned her as we followed the innkeeper upstairs.
“Yes,” Zephyra confirmed, helping Percifal along. “One for me and Percifal, one for the two of you. We can’t afford to be wasting our coin just so you can both have your own room.”
Chel grumbled something inaudible, and I reminded her, “You didn’t mind when you were drunk in Solis.”
She gave me a rude gesture.
“It’s late,” the innkeeper said as he scratched behind his ear, reminding me of a cat. “I’ll get the maid to bring you some food.”
“Thank you, good sir,” Zephyra smiled at him and disappeared with Percifal into the room he’d unlocked for them.
The innkeeper moved on to a door further down the hall, with me and Chel in tow. He opened the door and let us inside. “Eve will be up with some stew soon.”
We thanked the aloof little man. He waved us off, waddling back down the stairs to return to his book.
The room had seen better days, but it would do. An old mattress laid to the far side against a faded blue wall. A chunk had been broken off the corner of the table beside it, and the window was covered in a layer of dust.
The mattress beneath the yellowed blankets sank as Chel lowered herself down onto the edge and started unlacing her corset from the front. I turned the other way as she shrugged out of her worn gown. “Don’t worry about me,” she stated. “I haven’t a shy bone in me. Gwon saw to that.”
“Gwon?” I turned to frown at her. She still wore her undergarments, but the lines of her body showed beneath the thin fabric. “What in Mnyama were you d
oing there?”
She shrugged one shoulder and sat back further on the bed, curling her legs underneath her. “It’s a long story. One I’d rather not get into right now.”
Someone knocked on the door. I opened it and found a quaint, little maid holding a tray with two bowls of soup, two buns and a pitcher of water with two empty cups. I let her inside and thanked her once she’d set the tray down on the old worn table.
Keeping her eyes averted, she rushed back out the door and squeaked, “G’night.”
I joined Chel on the bed, as there were no chairs, and placed the tray between us. I dipped a stale bun into the thin stew and bit into it… bland, but edible.
We ate our meal in silence and washed it down with cool water.
Chel placed the tray back on the table and went to her saddle bag. She fumbled around until she found what she’d been searching for. “There you are,” she said, dangling the metallic flask between two fingers. She settled back down on the bed, pulled the lid off the flask and took a swig.
“Where’d you get that?” My eyes followed the flask in her hand as she held it out for me.
“It was in that drunkard’s saddlebag we stole the horse from.”
I grimaced.
“Don’t worry, I washed it off,” she assured me.
I sighed. “Why not? Just one sip.” Her lips curled up playfully as I accepted the flask. I sipped slowly, cautiously swallowing. As soon as the liquid hit the back of my throat, I sputtered and coughed. “Strong stuff,” I said when I was able to speak again.
“Whiskey usually is,” she eyed me, taking the flask back and recapping it. “Why do you think you deserve to die?” she asked frankly, surprising me with the turn of conversation. At my blank stare, she clarified, “In Solis, you told me you deserve to die before you walked out of the bedchamber.”
Ah, that. I leaned back on my arms on the mattress, taking a moment to think of the best way to answer her. “Because my heart is dark, and I’ve done terrible things to all sorts of people.”
The Elemental Diaries - Complete Series Page 68