by Eric Asher
Edgar cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes. “And yet you’ve returned?”
The Titan turned her focus on Edgar. “I have long been true to my word. This rebirth does not change that fact.” Her forehead wrinkled and her fists curled tighter.
Vicky stepped forward. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel too much of what was done, child. The world burns at humanity’s feet, and the Fae bicker over such trivial things. They do not understand what’s dying. But I feel it. I feel the flames and the rivers that bring us water, choked with the sewage of humanity. Your kind has gone too far, and there will come a reckoning.”
“Your promise to Damian.” Edgar crossed his arms.
“Do not question my intentions,” Gaia snapped, and Edgar took a step back.
He exchanged a glance with Vicky and then stepped between her and Luna. Vicky didn’t miss Terrence’s hand flexing around his rifle. She made a placating gesture to the ghost, and he relaxed a fraction.
Edgar’s armor swirled with color, a golden beacon. “It’s now or never. He won’t last much longer. I could see that when I pulled Vicky and Terrence out.”
Gaia turned away from the sun god and focused on the colossus. She kneeled, only slightly taller than Edgar in that position, and placed her hand on the edge of the gravemakers. Golden light seeped out from her fingers and traced through the cracks between the flesh of the colossus.
“I told you this was not a safe place to be,” Gaia said, turning her gaze briefly to Vicky.
“We can’t leave him now!” Vicky couldn’t hide the pleading in her voice.
Gaia inclined her head. Runes ignited in a circle around her arm where Nudd’s compulsion had lived on the hand of glory. Gaia’s hair rose, a golden halo reflected by the light rising in her eyes. Vicky began to understand, or at least thought she did. Gaia hadn’t suddenly become hostile; she’d simply been reunited with the innkeeper; the part of her that had lived in the Abyss had been patient and kind, while the innkeeper was cunning, and quick to anger. But what would the third part of her being be? The one that had lain dormant beneath Rivercene for so many centuries?
The golden light, so slow-moving at first, lanced out through the colossus, until it ignited the eyes of the jackal.
Gaia turned her eyes to Edgar. “We need a safe space for his return.”
“Drop him on Falias. Only Nudd’s men are there. The Morrigan has pulled her forces back far enough that they’ll be safe.”
“Should he survive this, he’ll need your help. I have no idea what effects Nudd’s imprisonment have had on him. He may be too weak to defend himself.”
“You can’t just throw him into Falias by himself,” Vicky said. “That could kill him just as much as leaving him inside that colossus.”
The tiny hint of a smile crept across Gaia’s lips. “You’re a good soul, Vicky. But you must understand, once I give him my powers, we do not know what might happen. Remember the stories of how he first encountered the Burning Lands? Imagine a soulsword a mile long, cutting through one of the commoners’ cities.”
“Then drop him in the middle of nowhere.”
Gaia shook her head. “We need allies close in case things go poorly.” She said no more as she leaned down to the surging gravemakers and whispered to Damian. “It is up to you, child. Fight or fall. This is the end of your time.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was the spark. I felt the promise of fire, and it was the first thing to reach out in the shadows since I’d heard Zola’s voice, and then that light, Vicky’s light. But the spark grew into flame, into a molten beast that left no room for retreat.
The darkness moved around me, through me, cutting into flesh and being alike as my eyes opened. A gray silhouette rested in the golden shadows, a crushed horned helmet beside its head, and chains of blackened bark pinning its wrists.
It was me, but it was not. No, it was Hern.
I held out my fingers, staring at the deep gashes oozing blood. But there was something more, something different. A sliver of gold that swam through the blood.
The world twisted around me. I didn’t understand what was happening. It felt like walking through the Abyss with Gaia, only like it was turning me inside out instead of taking me to a new realm; as though my bones were bending and breaking only to be re-knit and reformed to break once more.
The shadow in the room spoke as the world settled around us, Hern’s voice filling the void. “This is the end of you, boy. Your soularts can’t save you now.”
Soularts? Hern thought this light was mine?
Whispers echoed in the shadows. Voices I’d not heard in what felt like years. Souls lost in Nudd’s gambit.
We’ll run.
Escape.
We’re getting out of here.
More cried out, their words lost to a rumble and crack of thunder.
“We?” the Hern shadow said. “Oh no, boy. This is where you’ll stay. When the seas rise and the world falls, I will be standing on these cliffs.”
But we were not standing anymore, we were falling, and in that fall, between the slivers of Gaia’s light, broke the sun. I watched in awful fascination as Hern’s visage blackened and cracked, vanishing into the gravemakers as his final words were lost.
The well of souls screamed inside my head.
CHAPTER EIGHT
For a brief moment, the merest instant, Vicky saw the golden shadow of Gaia’s form as she’d known it in the Abyss. It curled around the colossus, embracing it, golden light racing through the cracks of the gravemakers, and then they were gone.
Edgar gestured to the group. “Come on. All three of you get as close to me as you can.” He summoned a sphere of fire once more, blinding in the darkness of the Abyss. Vicky huddled against Luna and Terrence, and the heat felt as though they’d all melt at any moment.
She didn’t miss the lines in Edgar’s forehead, and she hadn’t forgotten his words. His power wasn’t consistent here. He cursed when the fires started to fade, snapped his fingers, and the ball of fire finally swallowed them all.
This time was worse. So much worse. She felt her skin blister, felt the flesh blacken and peel away, only to have it lay back down again as if time itself flowed in reverse. All the world was darkness and heat and pain, and then it became light and cold and hard as they slammed face-first into a grassy plain.
“Fuck!” Luna spat, holding her nose and rolling over. She shivered, and Vicky had little doubt the death bat still felt as on fire as she did. Vicky looked down more than once as she climbed to her feet to make sure she wasn’t actually on fire.
Terrence glowed like the white-hot blade of a sword pulled from a forge.
“Are you okay?” Vicky asked.
The ghost nodded. “I think so.”
“Residual power,” Edgar muttered, rubbing at his neck. “Koda’s talked about it a few times. Apparently, I’m not the only mage solis to try to set a ghost on fire. But that’s …” He trailed off, focusing on something behind them.
Vicky turned with Luna, and watched in fascinated horror as the golden stars of the Abyss tore into the walls of Falias. They flickered, like an old television with a bad connection. Not static, just lines she couldn’t fully make out.
Slowly, those snapping arcs of power and waves of color lessened, combined, until at last a towering shadow lit by gold stood on the field once more. Gaia seemed to shrink as she stumbled away from the colossus. She locked onto Vicky and the group in seconds, and sprinted across the field.
A few steps away, she froze and looked to the west, her voice hurried and low. “Rivercene.” It was the only word she spoke, and then the Titan vanished in the blink of an eye.
“What’s happening to him?” Vicky tried to keep her voice even, to mask the panic as she watched the colossus step toward the walls of Falias, and then crumble. Gaia’s disappearance concerned her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the colossus.
Edgar grabbed Vicky’s shoulder. �
��You three stay here and keep an eye on this. I’m heading to Morrigan’s camp. She needs to know what’s been dropped on her doorstep.”
“Like she doesn’t know already?” Vicky asked, gesturing uselessly to the colossus as it crashed through the already ruined wall of Falias.
Edgar hesitated. He squeezed Vicky’s shoulder and then took to the skies.
CHAPTER NINE
There was a brief moment, a calm, when Ashley thought Dirge had struck down all their enemies. She hurried over to Beth, inspecting the wounds as much as the blood mage would allow her.
“Ashley.” Beth’s voice was more than a little on edge. “I’m fine. You know I’m fine.”
Logically, Ashley knew Beth had suffered through much worse. She’d inflicted worse on herself, for that matter. But there was an energy around Rivercene, something different and wild, and it made the priestess nervous.
Ashley grabbed either side of Beth’s head and planted a kiss on her forehead. “If I’m ever not fussing, you’ll know I’m dead.” She returned Beth’s dagger, now clean of the dirt from where Ashley had stabbed it into the soil.
Beth grinned at Ashley. “Thanks. Cornelius’s has a bit more bite than I prefer. Kind of catches on the skin. I don’t know how the old man got used to that.”
“Do not drop your guard.” Whip’s words drew the attention of everyone behind Rivercene.
Sam stepped forward, Jasper seated on her shoulder. “What is it?” But even as she asked, the furball changed, compressing and leaping into the air before crashing to the ground in the form of the dragon.
Jasper focused on the field to the east, and Ashley followed his gaze to a shimmer that looked something like a rainbow cascading from nothing. A wall of colors that should not be, before they split wide into a creature that could not be.
“Lamprey!” Dirge shouted as the snakelike creatures poured into the field. Ashley knew the stories of these things, Abyss creatures of a terrible violence. But no one had ever spoken of them being so large, or formed of so many of the snakelike lampreys.
It did not hesitate as it splashed onto the ground, surging across the field to meet Dirge and Whip as they charged at the thing. The Abyss creature attacked. A cylinder-like mass of lampreys exploded from the ground, cutting through Dirge’s branches, sending leaves and bark up into the air as the forest god stumbled.
But Dirge was no newcomer to combat. He used the inertia of his fall as he raised his arms and formed those mace-like weapons with his hands. His strike crushed dozens of the lampreys beneath its power, and the cylinder collapsed around him.
Whip waded into the remnants, her branches like a ballet of destruction. Every lamprey that dared to come at her was met with a savage and precise blow.
But even as Ashley sprinted after the green men, she could see what was happening. She could see the lampreys circling them at the edge of the woods. The beast was sacrificing part of itself, letting itself be torn apart by Dirge and Whip. But while they were so focused, they didn’t see what was coming from behind.
“Behind you!” Ashley shouted.
One of the green men she didn’t know turned just in time to see a cylinder of the lamprey explode out of the woods. It took the green man’s head off, ripping away bark and wood in a shower of debris.
Ashley cursed under her breath when she saw another line of lampreys flowing toward the front of the mansion. Jasper didn’t miss his cue, wheeling about and heading straight for the southern line of the Abyss creatures.
Hellish blue fire erupted from the dragon, scorching vegetation and lampreys alike as more of the green men focused on what was coming. Perhaps, if the evergreens had been on the side of Gaia, their combined forces would have been enough to stop it, but the lampreys in the north regrouped and redoubled their efforts as they surged to surround Dirge.
The nine tails came into Ashley’s hand. It was second nature now to toss the dragon scale, to focus her aim, or risk her allies being cut down in the same strike as her enemies.
The blades cut through the two dragon scales Ashley had flipped into the air. Channels of flame as wide as a barrel shot forward, punching holes through the lines of lampreys as they tried to reform into their two-legged self.
But as fast as Ashley could attack, the lampreys reformed and slithered just out of range. As many as she was able to burn away, two more seemed to replace each kill. The churning mass of lampreys spun up off the ground, crashing into the edge of Whip’s branches and sending her reeling.
Dirge pulled Whip out of the line of fire and then slammed his fists down onto the lampreys, mulching hundreds with one strike. Stump launched an evergreen corpse into the lampreys, knocking the spiraling tornado of teeth to the earth.
“Get back!” The voice was old, with a heavy Cajun accent, and Ashley caught a glimpse of Zola from the corner of her eye. The necromancer’s robe was torn. Blood seeped across one of her shoulders and Ashley had no idea if it was Zola’s or not.
But beyond that, to the south, where Beth was turned away, Ashley saw the shadowy titan summoned by the cuts on Beth’s forearm. The giant from the Shadowed Lands ripped and tore into a leviathan she hadn’t realized was there.
Zola’s cry pulled her attention back to the lampreys. Jasper wheeled away from the cluster of lampreys he’d engaged, and the instant Stump and Dirge were clear, Zola Adannaya unleashed hell.
“Magnus Ignatto!”
The lampreys may have formed a whirlwind of teeth and gray flesh, but Zola set a hurricane of fire upon them. Ashley squinted into the furnace as it churned across the field. White flames erupted from the necromancer’s staff, and death came to everything it touched.
The lamprey creature reformed, stumbling backward as the fires consumed it. But there was no escape for the Abyss creature, no reprieve from that torrent of death. Lightning crackled at the edges of Zola’s fiery hurricane, and the lampreys died screaming.
Zola sagged. It was only a moment, and if Ashley hadn’t known her as well as she did, she might not have caught it. But the old Cajun straightened and turned to the others with steel in her eyes.
“Get to the river. Leviathans and other things are upon us.”
As if in response, a tower of blue flame erupted from the sky, scouring something Ashley couldn’t make out. Jasper wheeled over the house and back toward the river before he let out another gout of fire.
The green men were injured, some of them already dead, and even Dirge, a forest god, showed wounds from the lamprey creature. If there were more things than the lampreys and the leviathans, Ashley wasn’t sure how they were getting out this time.
CHAPTER TEN
Edgar didn’t slow as he approached Morrigan’s tent. He’d almost run face-first into the shield around the encampment. It was a rare day when something shattered his concentration, but the endgame with Damian and Nudd was enough to do it.
One of the guards outside bowed to him slightly, an unusual sign of respect that he didn’t often receive from the Fae. The sight that waited for him behind the pale canvas of the tent was a surprise in itself.
Morrigan leaned over what appeared to be a wooden map of Falias. But even as he watched, the pieces changed and moved, parts of the wall vanishing as small figures made their way across the terrain.
Aeros stood next to her, towering over the old crone. Beside him, Foster and Aideen strode across the top of the map, pointing out various weaknesses in the wall. A part of Edgar was relieved to see them, but another part feared how they would react if things did not go well with Damian.
Then again, things hadn’t been going well with Damian for days.
“Edgar?” Morrigan asked, drawing every eyeball in the room to him.
“Damian’s back. They freed Gaia, and she brought him here.”
Morrigan looked to the map and traced the ridges of the falling wall. “Then that is what Drake will find. We thought it might be another of Nudd’s Abyss creatures.”
“He’s still trappe
d in the colossus?” Foster asked.
Edgar grimaced and nodded.
Aideen cursed. “I thought the whole point of this was Gaia was going to get him out of the mantle. Strip him out of that thing.”
Morrigan tapped on the table. “It is not so simple as that. He is inexorably tied to that mantle. Gaia may have gifted him her power, but he must break away from Nudd’s corruption.”
Edgar leaned over the table. “I wish the boy the best, but you know what’s going to happen. Nudd is going to come for him, to reclaim his weapon. We can’t let that happen.”
“Edgar. I won’t sacrifice my forces simply to buy Damian time. If we go out onto that field, we make to strike him down. He may have been out of Nudd’s grasp inside the Abyss, but what now?”
Foster exploded into his full height, boots slamming onto the tabletop. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Morrigan narrowed her eyes at the fairy. She flicked two of her fingers forward, and an arc of power leapt toward Foster. But a stone hand appeared in front of it, the fist of an Old God, that sizzled as the electric blue light crashed against it.
“Do not strike down your allies.” Aeros’s eyelights pulsed.
“It wouldn’t have killed him,” Morrigan muttered.
The Old God’s hand curled into a fist. “You risk making enemies of your allies, and that is the shortest path to defeat.”
Edgar didn’t miss Aideen slowly uncurling her fingers from around the hilt of her sword. She was as much a warrior as her husband, and Edgar thought Morrigan rather insane for threatening either of them. But the old crone had always been unpredictable. It was both an advantage and a weakness on the battlefield.
Morrigan met Aeros’s gaze and then leaned away from the table. “Fine. Fine! Leave this place with my apologies. We wait for Nudd to make his move. Damian’s fate will be his own, unless Nudd intervenes.”