“Fine.” We moved back to him. I eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t trust you, and I still think you want to kill me, but the fate of Shadoewynne is more important. Where is this machine?”
His face turned sly for a moment before he said, “Free me and I’ll show you.”
I pressed my lips together. “That will not happen.” The ice melted around his legs, giving him just enough room to move them. “You should be able to walk now. Take us to the machine.”
“All right, it’s this way.” The easy capitulation made me even more dubious.
“Kait, your soldiers are following us and keeping the area around us clear, right?” Since I didn’t want to tip off Alarr, I spoke to Kait telepathically.
“As best they can. There are still a few shadow-beings left that they are fighting.”
I nodded without saying anything else. David and Travis flanked Alarr, preventing him from trying anything and keeping him on his feet. This was rough ground to traverse with no arms to counterbalance yourself, and we didn’t want him knocking himself out just yet.
He led us to a random tree, then kicked at a large looped root. The root moved backward with a loud click, then two large doors popped open from the ground next to it. They opened to either side, exposing a dark set of steps that led into the bowels of the earth. The leaves and other debris magically stayed right where they were, as if glued. I snorted and batted at a leaf, only to see it come loose and fall a few inches before sucking back up against the open door. A cold breeze came from the gaping maw, bringing with it the scent of death.
I coughed as Kait held up a hand with a flame burning over the palm. I guess we were doing this, then. Travis went with Alarr next, supporting his elbow to help him down the stairs. David and I followed. When we were low enough, the doors shut on their own, the creaking of the wood echoing down the earthen hallway weirdly, in a way that rough dirt walls should not. It sent chills down my spine. A low laugh reverberated around us, seeming to come from everywhere at once. David pressed closer to me, and I was thankful for it. The cold seeped into my exposed skin until I was shivering. Light bloomed in the hallway ahead of us, then a slamming door cut it off. Kait slowed until we were creeping forward. A door, very similar to the one that had blocked my magic from me, loomed out of the dark in front of us.
A low thrumming sound filled the surrounding air. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but once we stopped moving, our swishing legs and padding footfalls no longer hid the noise. After a few moments, I made an exasperated sound. As quietly as I could, I said, “Come on, Kait, just open the door. We have to stop that infernal noise.”
“I want to make sure there are no traps in the runes on the door. It would be very easy to set up, within his power, and it would be surprising if he didn’t.”
We all looked to Alarr, who had the grace, at least, to look repentant as he shrugged. “Avoid the tree of life by the handle and you will be fine.” The tree of life he mentioned was huge and surrounded the handle. Whoever opened the door would have to make sure not to even brush their knuckles against the wood if they didn’t want to touch it.
Kait scowled as he reached forward with one finger to pull open the door. It ended up being too heavy, and he had to wrap his whole hand cautiously around the brass handle while awkwardly pulling it open. We rushed inside and Kait let the door go before darting around it, desperate to make it inside without touching it, before it slammed shut.
Several technicians watched us enter in shocked silence. Travis clamped a hand over Alarr’s mouth before he could issue them any commands. He huffed against it while glaring at Travis.
“Out.” Kait’s hard voice made them jump before they all scurried for the exit. Once they were all gone, Travis removed his hand.
“That was unnecessary, and we need them to run the machine.” Alarr wasted no time berating us once his mouth was free.
David had walked over to the loudly humming machine and was examining it while being careful not to touch. Travis walked Alarr over to where David was pointing. David gesticulated wildly as he asked him questions, but he seemed to answer with only a single word at a time, until David lost his temper and walked away from them while muttering under his breath.
Travis continued to work with Alarr patiently. I sidled closer to hear what they were talking about. “What is this liquid?”
Alarr’s response was too quiet for me to hear.
Travis nodded, then pointed at another spot. “What is the purpose of this?”
Again, his response was almost silent. I narrowed my eyes at him. What had caused the drastic changed in personality? When we walked in, he was loud and brashly ordering us around, and now he was almost timid. I reached out with my power. He practically glowed with the dark power.
I beckoned Kait over and explained what I felt. He was worse than David had been, and I didn’t want to risk killing him before we understood the machine’s intent.
“We can’t heal him yet, Kait.” He nodded.
“I agree.” He watched Travis and Alarr for a second. “I will go help him and see if I can get anything while we question him.” I grabbed his arm before he walked away.
“Be careful, Kait. You can’t let the darkness in.”
He kissed me quickly. “I will, I promise.” I trailed my hand along his arm, feeling my heart sinking as he walked away.
To distract myself, I went to David, who was studying the opposite side of the machine now.
“Find anything interesting?”
“Not yet. They didn’t label anything and he doesn’t really know a lot about its operation. We know what it's supposed to do. The point of it was to gather natural magic and make it into a tincture to increase the amount of magic available to those with a low innate reservoir of magic.”
“Why would he study that?”
“We don’t know. Remember, he started this seventy-five years ago. He refused to say why.”
“But, David, that doesn’t explain the dark power. What does the machine have to do with it?”
With a puzzled frown, he turned back to the others just as the machine’s pitch changed. It became deeper and vibrated the floor. Loose dirt skittered across the floor as the machine picked up speed until it felt like an earthquake and we struggled to stay on our feet. Alarr laughed insanely and darted off to the side. He didn’t make it far, though, as Kait had expected it, and had moved to block him instantly.
I put my hands over my ears as the humming became too loud to even think. Everything in me vibrated along with the noise. I think I screamed, but the roaring of the machine swallowed it. Alarr floated into the air, surrounded by a dark cloud that seemed to sink into his skin. Travis winced as he yanked a hand from his ear to throw a switch, then the machine shuddered as it cycled down. After a moment, even the low humming disappeared, and in its place was total silence.
Until Alarr began cackling again, that is. With spittle flying from his thin lips, and a manic look in his black-hole eyes, he threw his hands out, and an unseen force pushed us back. My feet left the floor, then I slammed into a sharp object. All I could manage was a gasp, then I couldn’t get any air. I gasped as I attempted to push myself off of whatever held my feet inches from the floor.
Blackness swum in my vision as pain radiated from my back. I managed a feeble kick against the wall behind me, but quickly stopped when whatever held me up sliced further into my back. Bright red blood sprayed as I coughed. I struggled to stay conscious and not make any noise as the guys fought Alarr. Their focus needed to be on stopping this monster, not on me. My magic slipped through my fingers as I attempted to heal myself.
The fight was over quickly. From what little I had followed, Kait easily had the upper hand and subdued him viciously. Once Alarr was unconscious on the floor, Kait turned to me. All color drained from his face as he rushed over.
“Princess!” I attempted to lift my head to look at him, but it was too heavy. Thick red blood dripped from my lips onto the dirt
floor. He put a finger under my chin and gently lifted my head so I could look him in the eyes. I could feel how badly he was trembling in that single digit. “I’m gonna get you down, then we will heal you. You’re going to be okay, but it will hurt.” I coughed and nodded as best I could, but it was only a feeble movement. He swallowed hard. “Are you ready for this?”
“I love you all. Please remember that.” I was proud that I wasn’t crying, and that I was able to speak without coughing, especially since it felt like I had no air in my lungs. A single tear escaped Kait’s eye and ran down his cheek as he reached for me.
“I love you, too.” Then, in one swift movement, he lifted and pulled. I screamed and succumbed to the darkness.
Chapter 25
A bright light surrounded me as I walked through nothingness. Everything around me was a bright grey. A small, childlike voice echoed through the surrounding fog, coming from everywhere.
“Why are you here?” I had already turned around several times, so I knew I was alone. I debated whether I should answer, but decided there was no point to antagonize whoever this was.
“I don’t know. I think maybe I died.” My voice caught on the last word. I wasn’t ready to leave the guys, but it didn’t seem I had a choice.
“It’s not your time. You shouldn’t be here!” The anger clear in the voice surprised me. Shouldn’t I be the one that was angry?
“It’s not like I chose this! I don’t want to be here! Where is here, anyway?”
A burning heat began in my chest, making me gasp for air again. The suffocating pain drove me to my knees as I clutched at my chest. Blackness pulsed around the edges of my vision as I struggled to stay conscious. The burning spread to my whole body, and I lost the battle, sinking once again into oblivion.
Chapter 26
Kait
I knew as soon as I saw her hanging a foot off the ground with blood dripping from her lips that she wasn’t going to survive. The many years I had spent as a soldier in countless wars made it easy to recognize a mortal wound when I saw it. It was a struggle to keep the emotions from my face and voice as I went to her, but I thought I managed. Until she spoke. She knew she would not survive.
I couldn’t help the tear that escaped but I swallowed the sob. The scream as I pulled her from the jagged iron that had pierced her back tore into my soul.
David and Travis stayed behind me but I could hear them both losing it. Mercifully, she passed out quickly. That I was causing her unbearable pain was almost unendurable, but if we had the slightest chance to save her, she had to be off that spike. Iron would prohibit the healing magic as well as prevent the wound from closing.
I laid her on the ground as quickly as I could and blanketed her in my magic. She was barely breathing, each breath hardly moving her chest. They came slower and slower until a final one whistled out and then her chest was still.
Chapter 27
Travis
Kait’s hands shook as he pulled Evalia off the wall. There was no way she was surviving this. I could tell by the look in Kait’s eye and the sheer volume of blood on the ground under her. How had we allowed this to happen?
My mind froze as I watched her slowly die.
When her chest settled with her last breath, I bellowed my grief to the world. David’s knees gave out and he plopped onto the ground next to her like a broken puppet. I turned to Alarr with only vengeance on my mind.
“YOU! You did this to her!” I jumped on his prone body and began taking my anguish out on his face. When Kait pulled me off him a few moments later, he was unrecognizable.
I had to strain to hear Kait’s broken voice. “That won’t bring her back, boy. Nothing will.”
“Well, he can rot in hell.” David spoke up from the floor.
“Yes, but not before he tells us how to stop the darkness. Evalia,” Kait had to stop to clear his throat before he could continue. “Evalia said that Alarr is full of the dark power. I think it is a separate entity and it is using him.”
As he spoke, the darkness swirled around Alarr’s body again. It seeped from his pores until it formed a man-like shape above Alarr’s prone form. A voice spoke into our minds. “You are correct, Kaitsja. I was using him. However, my power has grown enough that I no longer need him. You cannot stop me from siphoning all the magic in Shadoewynne.”
The immense power coming off this thing in front of me was like a pressure in my head. I had never met a being with such strength. It was a struggle to stay on my feet with the power beating at me. It laughed as it moved around the room, gathering objects into its formless shadow. Kait squared his shoulders, then hissed, “You two, take Evalia and get out of here. I doubt I can stop him, but I’m gonna try.”
“Kait, we can’t lose you, too. If this is a hopeless fight, we need to retreat.” My voice broke as I spoke. All this for nothing. Evalia died for nothing if we can’t stop him.
“You’re right, Travis, if we don’t stop him, she died for no reason. We have to fight.” David joined Kait as he spoke, touching shoulders with him and blocking the darkness from Evalia.
“At the very least, we will join her, right?” I stepped up to them and set myself to attack. How we would fight a fog, I had no idea, but we had to try.
The magic glowed in Kait and David’s eyes. When Kait saw me looking at him, he nodded. He agreed with what I was thinking, so I prepared myself. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the air from around the room to form a funnel around the being. It laughed as it dissipated, only to form outside the swirling vortex.
I tried again and again, and each time it easily evaded the tornado. David grew vines to latch onto it, but they just went right through. Occasionally, they would snag something it had picked up and pull it from its body but it wasn’t slowing it down at all.
Then it came for us. A dark tendril whipped out, hitting Kait in the chest and throwing him toward the wall. He used his magic to stop himself before he suffered the same fate as Evalia, but when the appendage hit David, he wasn’t so lucky. He flew through the air, head bashing his head against the machine before landing with a thud on the floor. I couldn’t stare too long, but it didn’t look like he moved again.
It came for me next, and I dodged the first one, but the second one hit the wall of solid air I threw up in front of me. In a fit of inspiration, I threw up another wall behind and around it, cutting a portion off the main body. It swirled inside the box I had made, seeking an exit, but not finding one. After that, I cut bits and pieces off, but the main body never seemed to shrink.
Kait roared as he launched himself toward the being, only to be batted from the air again. This time, the darkness poured over his body from above, pinning him to the floor as he struggled. His eyes found mine, but they were being taken over by the darkness. A quick glance toward where David fell showed him still unmoving on the floor.
We are losing. The world will end, but ours already had anyway. Without Evalia, there is no point in living. As I sobbed, a tendril of darkness shot toward my open mouth, forcing it open as it invaded my body. Dark whispers violated my mind, promising Evalia back, the baby back, and a beautiful world for the child to grow up in. In a moment of weakness, I succumbed and gave in to the darkness seeping into my soul.
Chapter 28
David
I couldn’t watch Kait pull her off the wall. I knew she was doomed. Our lives were over.
I jumped when Travis bellowed toward the sky. My knees gave out and I plopped onto the ground next to her. How were we supposed to live without her light?
“YOU! You did this to her!” Travis’s scream startled me as he jumped on Alarr’s prone body and started beating his face into pulp.
After Kait had pulled Travis off of him, his broken voice helped fuel the rage in my soul. “That won’t bring her back, boy. Nothing will.”
“Well, he can rot in hell.” I couldn’t bring myself to get up but I had to make my feelings known. We should allow Travis to kill him.
“Y
es, but not before he tells us how to stop the darkness. Evalia,” Kait had to stop to clear his throat before he could continue. “Evalia said that Alarr is full of the dark power. I think it is a separate entity, and it is using him.”
As he spoke, the darkness swirled around Alarr’s body again. It seeped from his pores until it formed a man-like shape above Alarr’s prone form. A voice spoke into our minds. “You are correct, Kaitsja. I was using him. However, my power has grown enough that I no longer need him. You cannot stop me from siphoning all the magic in Shadoewynne.”
As the thing’s power beat into me, a vision formed of the monster taking over a dark world. Bright magic flowed from its fingers as it subjugated the shadow creatures in the vision. A feeling that the vision was just and right coalesced in my mind but I shook it off. It wanted to kill the whole dimension of Shadoewynne to take petty revenge on the world that had spurned it.
Kait squared his shoulders, then hissed, “You two, take Evalia and get out of here. I doubt I can stop him, but I’m gonna try.”
“Kait, we can’t lose you, too. If this is a hopeless fight, we need to retreat.” Travis’s voice broke.
I had to help Kait. Travis’s thoughts ate at my brain. Fighting this bastard was the only way to make any of this worth anything. “You’re right, Travis, if we don’t stop him, she died for no reason. We have to fight.” I joined Kait as he spoke, touching shoulders with him and blocking the darkness from Evalia.
“At the very least, we will join her, right?” Travis’s fatalistic attitude had a small-half grin on my face. He is right, we will see her in the afterlife. Might as well go out with a bang.
I pulled my magic to me, calling all the plants around to grow and attack as best they could. Travis formed a tornado around it, but it easily slipped through the rushing wind. The vines pulled objects from the center of the being but that didn’t slow it down.
The Darkness of Shadoewynne: Book 3 of the Shadoewynne series Page 21