“Of course,” Valasca replies in Noi with an incredulous twist to her smile. “I’m the head of the Queen’s Guard. A guard allied with the Noi Wyvernguard.” She pushes her spiky blue-streaked hair behind her pointed ear and turns the side of her head to me.
And there they are, the faint blue lines of a circular koi’lon rune, nestled inside the black lines of the runic tattoos that mark her skin.
Valasca grins. “But I’m part Noi and part Urisk. I speak both Noi and two Uriskal dialects even without the koi’lon.”
I marvel at them all, deeply impressed by their abilities with languages and language sorcery. But then, an uneasy thought comes to mind. “Is my koi’lon mark visible?”
Chi Nam shakes her head. “It’s been absorbed under the glamour spell. Completely hidden from view.”
Chi Nam slides the spent koi’lon stone back into her cloak and pulls out a flat, star-shaped stone that’s marked with whirring sapphire runes on its points, a larger rune rotating in its center.
“Hold still,” Chi Nam directs as she reaches up to grasp the back of my head. “This might hurt a bit.” She practically slams the star-stone against my forehead.
I arch backward against her hand and let out a rough gasp, a streak of painful energy shooting through me, straight through Lukas’s shield and through all of my lines, the pain quickly morphing into a rippling sting that pools just under my skin. I flinch as a flash of blue light rays out from me in all directions before disappearing along with the lingering sting.
“Vogel and the Vu Trin both will attempt to track you,” Chi Nam says as she withdraws the star-stone and briefly grips my shoulder. “I’ve strengthened the Mage-shield you two have so clearly been working on.” She peers appreciatively at Lukas as she takes back her rune staff from him. “Nicely done, Young One.”
Lukas’s mouth lifts, his hand coming to the small of my back, a trace of our fire power connecting at the point of contact in a warm rush.
I look up at Lukas. “Do I look very different?” I ask him in the Common Tongue, oddly reticent to hear his answer. Wanting Lukas to be able to recognize me as me.
Lukas gives me a crooked, knowing smile as his deep-green eyes flick over me. “Your features are mostly the same. Except for your ears. And you’d look lovely in any form, Elloren. Slate suits you.”
An appreciative warmth slides through me as my earth magery reaches for his and he responds in kind, our branches twining, the motion quickly turning into a mutual caress. Lukas’s head bobs in a silent laugh, his gaze on me briefly full of suggestion.
I glance down at my wand hand, turning it over and over.
Gray as a storm.
I fidget a bit, feeling refreshingly free in clothes I can really move in after spending so long in the restrictive, long-skirted Gardnerian attire.
“Mage Grey and I should check the periphery,” Chi Nam declares, leaning on her rune staff as she gives Lukas a measuring look.
“You’re drafting me into your service, then?” Lukas asks Chi Nam, seeming amused.
“That I am.” Chi Nam’s eyes glint with good humor as she starts for the line of woods and motions for Lukas to follow. “Come, Young Mage. We’ll send out a web of your magic combined with my sorcery and see if there’s anything stalking Elloren this eve.” Her words are lightly said, but there’s an ominous undercurrent to the look that passes between them.
“Stay close to Valasca,” Lukas directs as he caresses my arm, but there’s true warning in his tone, and I nod.
“Be careful,” I tell him, my branching affinity lines grasping tighter hold of his.
Emotion flickers in Lukas’s eyes. “I’ll be careful,” he assures me.
And then Lukas gently pushes my magic back as he and Chi Nam disappear into the darkness of the wilds.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SHADOW EYES
ELLOREN GREY
Sixth Month
Caledonian Forest, Gardneria
Valasca and I stare at each other, both of us washed in the portal’s flickering sapphire light, the only sound the insects chirring. Tiny lights flash in the cool night air as fireflies zip around and wink their beckoning glow.
“So,” Valasca says from where she leans against one of the clearing’s boulders, her stance casual, but her gaze weighted with steel. “You’re the Black Witch.”
I nod, holding her hardened look. “Are you tempted to kill me?”
Valasca spits out a laugh that doesn’t reach her eyes. “No.”
“Is it because I have this?” I reach down and pull the Wand from the side of my boot, peel away the top of its cloth wrapping, and hold it up. It has a subtle glow, often seeming like there’s an ethereal light trapped inside it. Like someone has encased starlight in the very center of a wand.
So beautiful and mysterious. Yet so powerless in the scheme of things, I mournfully consider.
Powerless compared to Vogel’s Shadow Wand.
Valasca studies the Wand reverentially for a moment. Her brow creases as she shakes her head. “I know you’re not with the Gardnerians, Elloren.”
My tone takes on a bitter cast. “So, you believe in the Wand but you don’t believe in the Prophecy?”
Valasca inhales and regards me squarely. “I think the Prophecy comes from the trees.” She glances at the night-blackened forest before setting her dark eyes back on mine. “And from what you’ve told us, it seems the trees are not inclined in your favor.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“All the divination tools the Seers use, Elloren...they all come from the trees. Your priests cast sticks etched with sacred symbols. The Noi scry from Black Ginkgo leaves. The Ishkartan cast wooden lots. I could go on and on.” She straightens and walks to me. “But the point is, it’s all wood. It’s all from the trees. So the trees must know about your power and fear you for it. Because of what your grandmother did and what the Gardnerians are currently doing to large swaths of the wilds.” She nods as if in agreement with herself and shoots me a smug look, as if she’s pleased with herself for figuring this all out. “I think the various takes on the Prophecy are based in truth, but I think they’re biased.”
“Are you saying,” I ask her, stunned, “that you think all these Prophecies are...prejudiced against me?”
“That’s exactly what I think.”
I blink at her, my mind cast into turmoil over the ramifications of that possibility. Different versions of the same, flawed Prophecy being upheld by practically every religion in both Realms.
“So, what do we do now?” I ask, deeply thrown. “With both Realms and the wilds set against me.”
Valasca flashes a rebellious grin. “We subvert the Prophecy. We get the Black Witch out of the Western Realm, and then we prove the trees and everyone else wrong.”
I think about the killing sea of fire that I can conjure. Ni Vin’s dead horse. The vision of the field of battle, countless people dead on it. “They might not be wrong,” I caution. “My power...it’s horrible, Valasca.”
She steps closer, her jawline firming. “And we’re going to need every bit of that horrible, awful, terrible power to crush Vogel.”
I shake my head emphatically. “You don’t understand. My power is worse than my grandmother’s. And the trees...” I glance at the night-darkened wilds. “They know it. So they’re actively fighting against it. I think that’s why they’re trying to bind my magic in some way.”
“So, we bring you somewhere far away from them.”
Back to the desert.
I rewrap the cloth around my Wand and slide it into my tunic’s pocket. When I meet Valasca’s gaze once more, she’s studying me with a probing look.
“I noticed your fastmarks have changed,” she says with some wariness. “You and Lukas...you’re lovers now?”
I nod, heat prickling along my neck i
n response to this admission.
“I’m assuming your Sealing was a mutual decision, based on how you’re acting around each other?”
I take a deep breath. “It was. I’ve grown to really care for him in a short amount of time. And you should know that he hasn’t been aligned with the Gardnerians for a while. I learned that he saved me from being fasted to Damion Bane.”
Valasca’s face tightens with shock.
“You know what Damion’s like, then?” I say.
“He’s a complete sadist,” she spits out. “All of the Banes are.”
“Well, Lukas stopped me from being fasted to him.”
She’s scrutinizing me again, her brow creasing as if in question.
“Lukas and I needed a diversion,” I explain, answering her unspoken query. “We had to seal the fasting to get away from Vogel.”
“So, you’re Elloren Grey now.”
I nod, acutely aware of the momentous shift that’s happened in my relationship with Lukas. “I am. I truly am.”
“Well, felicitations, then.” Valasca cocks one black brow as she eyes me with evident interest. Her mouth tilts into a half smile as she lowers her voice to a more private register. “So. How was he?”
I stare at her, perplexed. And then my cheeks warm. Valasca’s offhanded way of asking about intimate matters that Gardnerians just do not speak of catches me off guard.
Overwhelming. Incredible. And we took each other again last night. “Practiced,” I say obliquely, my blush heating to a burn.
Valasca gives a short laugh and grins, her eyes lighting with mischief. And as mortified as I am by her blunt ways, I’m also bolstered by her tendency to fall back into humor, even in dire circumstances, much like my brother Rafe. A pang of longing cuts through me, the desire to see my brothers again an ever-present yearning.
I glance at my pale gray hand, the Sealing marks hidden under the glamour. “Lukas has been a good friend to me,” I tell Valasca, my voice catching as I remember the last conversation she and I had about love. About both Lukas and Yvan.
The grief that’s always waiting for me in shallow waters sweeps in.
Valasca seems to note my change of mood, her eyes taking on a look of concern. “Elloren,” she says, her voice pitching lower with compassion. “I heard about what happened to Yvan Guriel. And...I know what he was. And what he was to you. I’m sorry.”
I nod, tears welling in my eyes and threatening to spill over. And all of a sudden, the full force of the grief I’ve been suppressing rushes in and I’m being choked by it.
I shake my head as my throat tightens, making it impossible to speak for a moment.
“I loved him,” I finally force out in a rasp. “I loved him with all my heart.” I pause again, overcome as tears glaze my eyes and my lips tremble with emotion, and I’m only half able to voice my heart. “I lost something really important.” The words break off as tears fall.
After a moment, Valasca comes to me and takes gentle hold of my arms. “Elloren,” she says, her voice both serious and kind, “look at me.”
I meet her gaze, my face tense with agony.
She gives me a fiercely significant look. “You will lose important things.” She says this emphatically, her words hard and raw. And terrible in their finality. She stands spear straight as she keeps her gaze locked on mine, as if willing me to really look at her, to really listen to what she’s telling me. “You will lose and lose and lose one thing after another. Do you understand? That’s what this war is. That’s what it means to fight something like Vogel.”
I nod as tears streak down my face and she holds on tight to me.
“You will likely lose every last thing that’s precious to you. And so will I. And so will Lukas Grey. And so will Chi Nam. And so will everyone who really commits to this fight. But you’ll do it so that others won’t lose these things.”
I nod again, my face rigid with misery as I recognize the awful truth of her words. I think of how she’s lost Ni Vin already, choosing the protection of her people over going East.
“Listen to me, Elloren,” she says, firming her grip on me. “My people, they need to get out of this Realm. I need to get all of them to the Eastern Realm. And once they’re there, I need you to use your power to protect them. Now, you’ve met my people. You’ve seen the children. The mothers. The old women. You saw them with your own eyes.”
I think of all the Amaz I met, the women laughing and singing, the little girls and their pet deer. The babies. And my beloved friend Wynter being sheltered in their lands.
Valasca’s expression turns starkly ominous. “Now tell me what you think Vogel and his allies want to do to them.”
I don’t need to. I hold her level stare as I swallow back my tears.
“I believe in you,” she states adamantly. “That’s why I’m here by your side. So, I need you to let go of everything that’s precious to you for something much greater than all of it. Do you understand what I’m asking of you?”
I hold her fierce stare, fear of my own magic welling up. “I can’t control my power.”
“You’re going to learn to. You need to keep the faith. The time in your life for weakness of any sort is over. We’re going to need you.”
Her passionately insistent tone rocks me to the core, and the chance she’s taking on me fully sinks in—the chance Lukas and Chi Nam are taking too.
“You know,” I tell her, bitterness rising even as resolve gains ground, “this would all be a whole lot easier if the side I’ve chosen to fight for wasn’t trying to kill me.”
Valasca spits out a laugh. “Take heart, Elloren. Just because the good side is trying to destroy you doesn’t mean we don’t need you.”
I shoot her a sardonic look. “That is no comfort whatsoever.”
She grins warmly. “If you’re in this fight for the accolades, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”
“I’d settle for just a little less outright hostility.”
Valasca’s head suddenly lifts as if she’s heard something that’s caught her attention. Her gaze flicks toward the forest as the fireflies blink and the insects softly chirr.
Her face tenses in confusion as she cocks her head to the side, as if listening to the air. “The horses... I can sense them in the distance. They’re picking up something,” she says distractedly. “Something wrong...”
Brush rustles behind us and we both turn, Valasca releasing me as the sound of Lukas’s deep voice and Chi Nam’s scratchy tone become audible from the woods, the two of them engaged in hushed conversation in the Noi language.
My abdomen starts to prickle with a swirling sting.
Panic floods me as my hands fly up to clutch at my stomach. “The rune...” My head whips toward Lukas and Chi Nam just as they step into our clearing, my gaze snagging on something moving behind them. It’s barely visible, save for the rune light glinting off it—a black angular thing, tight on their tail, scuttling predatorily through the trees with terrifying speed. And it’s tall...monstrously tall.
“Behind you!” I cry, pointing sharply at the thing.
Glittering, insectile eyes emerge from the shadows, way above Lukas’s head, a twitching, monstrous jaw and cretinous, segmented body below.
It all happens in a horrific blur.
Lukas and Chi Nam leap sideways and swing around just as the horrific thing bursts from the forest, like some giant, grotesque mantis-scorpion hybrid that’s bizarrely stretched out. It has a black chitinous body and powerful forelimbs. And its head—its horrible, terrifying head. Shovel-like, with large, gleaming black compound eyes and smaller swirling gray eyes spread out around its main eyes, as if it has a sickness. As if its eyes are multiplying. Smaller eyes dot the thing’s neck, and the sides of its body are covered in a combination of deep-green runes and runes made of undulating gray shadow.
; The thing’s powerful, serrated forelimb slashes down toward Lukas, who ducks and slides out of the thing’s reach as he yanks off his cloak and draws his sword.
Valasca whips out a rune blade and Chi Nam lifts her rune staff.
“Don’t throw sorcery!” Lukas yells at Valasca and Chi Nam as the thing lets out a piercing, horrific shriek and Lukas dodges to the side once more to avoid another powerful swipe of the beast’s massive forelimb. “It’s got a deflection rune on it!”
Lukas slides into a berserker rage that’s stunning to witness. He leaps forward and slashes at the thing with savage intensity, deftly darting away from the beast’s swiping blows like he’s locked in a violent dance with it as I grab up a sharp-edged rock in my fist and back up to the rune-marked wall.
Valasca throws off her own cloak and hoists her rune blade, seeming coiled for an entry point. And that’s when I notice the stinger at the tips of the mantis thing’s scorpion-like tail, the gleaming black barb quivering above its head.
“Watch the stinger!” I cry out to them as I hurl my rock at it and hit it right in the center of its head.
Stunned that my aim was true, I take another step back as the thing sets all of its malignant eyes on me.
A dark tree blasts into the back of my mind, Shadow rising from its limbs like steam, the feel of Vogel’s malefic void rushing in, like a million spiders scuttling along my shielded lines.
The mantis thing leaps toward me and I dodge, a scream loosening from my throat as I lose my footing and fall onto hard stone. Lukas lunges forward and swipes his sword, teeth gritted as he growls and hacks off two of the thing’s back legs in one arcing cut.
The mantis comes crashing down sideways with a rasping shriek as black ichor spurts out its mutilated body. Lukas keeps slashing until he’s cut off the top of the thing’s lashing, venomous tail and half of the foreclaw closest to him.
The thing keeps its eyes on me as the taloned edge of its remaining forelimb crashes down and relentlessly drags its shredded body toward me, its chitinous form scraping the ground as Lukas pulls back his arm and slices the sword through the thing’s neck in a powerful blow.
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