“I don’t,” I said, snuggling back against his chest, reveling in the warmth of his arm around me. I’d never in my life felt so secure, and yet we were on the verge of what might well be our destruction. “But despite all that, I am still afraid, Hallow. If the chaos magic doesn’t respond to the rifts ... if the Harborym start coming through before we get there ...”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” he said sleepily. “We’ll face whatever the goddesses bring to us.”
“Then there’s Deo,” I continued, stroking the soft hairs on his chest. “I hate to say this, but I don’t think he’s wholly sane any longer. The Deo I knew would never put his own purposes above others, and if you hadn’t stopped him, he would have gone off to exact revenge even though he knew Alba needed him. All that time alone with nothing but goats ... I don’t know how he survived the first time he was exiled there, but to be returned there a second time must have been intolerable. At least I saw Sandor, and had some news of the world. It’s no surprise if Deo’s mind isn’t quite right. Will we be able to count on him when we need to? Will the chaos magic sense the weakness, and use it to its own end? Will he become more of a hindrance than the help we so desperately need?”
A light snore ruffled my hair. I sighed to myself, worried despite the warmer emotions that Hallow stirred in me.
If only I knew the chaos magic was still alive in me.
If only I knew Deo could be relied upon.
If only I knew I could face the Harborym without losing control again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Well, here we are again, fighting the forces of the Harborym. Allegria, to your left! No, your other left.” Hallow jumped off the horse he’d rented in the port town of Siren’s Lament, and sent a bolt of pure arcane power into the lumbering soul taker that was almost upon her.
The monstrous being, the approximate size of a large dog, but resembling a beetle more than anything else, gave out a screech and flipped over onto its shell-like back.
“Thank you,” Allegria said, giving Hallow a grateful look. “I didn’t even notice it because it blended in with the shadows. What ... er ... what exactly does it do?”
“Steals your will to live,” Hallow said. “And if you’re lucky, when it has all of your life force, kills you.”
Would you like me to scout around? Thorn asked eagerly, his wooden body quivering with excitement. I will look around and determine the location of any other soul takers. Don’t kill any Harborym without me.
“Scout to your heart’s content,” Hallow told the bird, and turned back to the rift that lay before them. “Prudence says that we should remain here and destroy anything that comes through the rift, at least until the first of the armies finds us.”
“That will be days,” Deo said, tying his horse to a tree branch, and stalking forward with a heavy gait.
Hallow glanced at him, a bit of Allegria’s worry beginning to prick at his mind. Deo normally moved as silent as an owl, a feat considering his size. But now he moved awkwardly, as if he was struggling with his own body.
His runes were glowing a bright red, which confirmed Hallow’s suspicions. He would have liked to offer his help in controlling the sentience that spoke inside Deo’s head, but knew his offer would be useless. Deo wasn’t the sort of man who accepted help unless there was no other choice.
“Lady Idril said she would have the Tribe of Jalas move the minute she reached Abet. They are three days’ ride from here, but only half a day if they sailed as soon as they received her note.” Hallow rubbed his chin and looked back to the rift. It was a mass of black and green, slightly taller than a man, twisting and turning upon itself in a never-ending action that raised the hairs on the back of Hallow’s neck.
There was something wrong with that rift just hanging in the middle of nothing. That and the fact that it seemed to leech life from the very air.
“They will be too long. We will close the rift now,” Deo said, his words slightly muffled.
“He’s clenching his teeth,” Allegria said, having examined the dead soul taker and moved over to Hallow’s side. “I’m not sure about this. He seems to be struggling quite a bit.”
“I agree, but I don’t see any way we could convince him that it might be safer for him to remove himself from the presence of the rift.”
“What are you whispering about?” Deo demanded to know, stomping over to them. “You were talking about me, weren’t you? I can see you were. You think I’m mad. Well, I am mad, utterly and irrevocably, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see this rift closed. Allegria, you go around to the back of it. Hallow, you take the left side. I’ll do the right. When I give the word, blast it back from whence it came.”
“Deo, wait—” Allegria said at the same time Hallow took hold of Deo by the sleeve and said, “Hold on, Deo. Let us consider what’s best to be done. We have several options, since there appears to be little activity here.”
The miasma spun upon itself, and ejected two soul takers.
“Except for those, of course,” he said, and gathered a handful of arcane power.
“Aiee!” Allegria yelled, and pulled out the swords that Hallow had returned to her, attacking the first soul sucker. Deo started for the second, but checked himself, his runes glowing red for a second before they suddenly turned black.
“That’s not good,” Hallow muttered to himself, and leaped forward to blast the second soul taker even while Allegria was wiping her swords clean of innards.
“At least these are easy to kill,” she told him, her smile lighting up his insides in a way he knew he’d be grateful for until the day he breathed his last. “It’s nice having the swords back. Thank you for rescuing them.”
“You’re more than welcome. Now, as I was saying before those blasted monstrosities ruined my nice speech, we have many choices as to the best action needed. If the Tribe of Jalas is here tomorrow, that would give us a sizable force to back us up should something happen.”
“I don’t know that a bunch of soldiers are going to be able to take that down,” Allegria said, nodding toward the rift.
“They won’t,” Deo said, moving alongside them. Hallow slid a glance his way, but he seemed as normal as he ever was.
“I’m not so sure, but that question aside, I did call up the arcanists. There are three who were in the area, and who should heed the call I sent out when we landed at Siren’s Lament. I expect them in the next few days, or perhaps less.”
“That seems like a better idea—Deo, no!”
“All this talk is a waste of time. We are the three most powerful people in Alba. If we can’t close a single rift, then our world is doomed,” Deo said, striding up to the rift. The runes glowed with a black light that gave Hallow a very bad feeling.
“He has a point,” Allegria said, glancing upward. The sun was beginning to emerge from a thick gray covering of clouds. She lifted her hands to the sky, wordlessly intoning a prayer.
“Yes, but I’d be more comfortable if a few other arcanists were here as backup,” Hallow said, worriedly dividing his attention between Deo and the rift.
“I understand, but look! Kiriah has blessed me again!” Her smile was almost as brilliant as the sun itself. Her arms glowed with the golden light of Kiriah, but it was the silver bands at her wrists and ankles that he looked at.
They, too, were now black.
His gaze moved to the rift. He had a very bad feeling. “I think, after due consideration of the situation, that we should wait until the arcanists or the Tribe of—”
Allegria had finished communing with Kiriah while he was speaking, and with a joyous smile moved toward the rift. Deo stood next to it, his head bowed, the muscles in his neck and arms tight, as if he was fighting something. Just as Allegria approached the rift, a little tendril of black power snaked out and grabbed her, jerking her forward until she almost toppled into it. She shrieked, losing her golden glow while a black miasma crept over her.
Hallow didn’t wait to decide wh
at the best action would be—he ran forward, pulling arcane power from the ground, from the skies, from the living things around him, from anywhere he could, and slammed it into the rift at the same time he grabbed Allegria’s arm.
She screamed again, her body covered in a veil of blackness as she was pulled inward until half of her was swallowed up by the rift.
“Deo!” he yelled, throwing all his weight into pulling her free, while at the same time summoning up another blast of arcany. “For the love of the goddesses, do something! It’s taking her!”
Deo swayed, roaring an oath, but his body remained locked in a battle against itself.
Hallow dug in his feet, trying desperately to pull Allegria back, but it was hopeless. The rift had a hold of her, and there was nothing physical strength could do to change that.
“Then I will use another method,” he ground through his teeth, holding tight to keep her from being sucked in farther.
“Hallow, please!” Allegria said, her voice muffled and faint. “Blessed Kiriah, the chaos is alive! It’s starting to consume me!”
Hallow summoned all his strength to hold her, while his right hand drew the spell in the air, his mouth moving silently while he spoke the ancient words. For a moment, he allowed his being to become one with the light of the stars and moon, its pure light morphing as it flowed through him into a physical interpretation of his intention.
Allegria was suddenly flung backward twenty yards, the protective transportation bubble taking her out of the reach of the rift and its insidious power.
The blackness that had enveloped her evaporated into nothing, leaving her stunned, floating about a yard off the ground, her face frozen in an expression of horror.
“Thorn!” Hallow bellowed. “We close this rift now!”
“Hallow, no, not by yourself!” Allegria called, struggling to get free of the bubble. “It’s too dangerous on your own!”
“I’m not alone,” he growled, and held the staff aloft, his gaze focused on the rift as once again, he called on Bellias Starsong to grant him her blessing. Power pulsed along his flesh, little blue-white crests rising like floodwaters, snapping and growling to itself.
“Deo!” Allegria called. “Do something!”
Deo charged, roaring in anger, his hands thrust forward as he slammed chaos power into the rift. It shuddered, but didn’t stop moving. Deo stumbled forward two steps and fell to his knees, his arms wrapped around himself as the black mist began to cover him, too.
Hallow had no time to think of Deo; he had to destroy the rift before it consumed them all. “Now, Thorn, now!” he yelled, and, sending the arcane magic into the staff, slammed it to the ground at the same time the bird landed atop it, joining his power to Hallow’s. A concussive wave blasted outward, focused by the bird into a cone before them, hitting the rift with wave after wave of pure starlight.
For one horrible moment, the rift absorbed it all, its pattern of twisting unfazed, and Hallow feared his magic wasn’t going to be enough.
But then the twisting seemed to stutter, freezing for a moment, then turning back on itself in the opposite direction before stopping again. The edges of it crumpled inward, compressing until all that remained was a fist-sized ball, and then with a deafening blast that sent Hallow flying backward, it imploded onto itself.
He was up on his feet in a second, dashing toward Allegria. Thorn darted ahead, chattering madly in his head.
I haven’t seen a blast like that since the Ancient Ones stirred and came out from under the mountains. Did you see how I focused the magic? I used a spell that I learned from my master’s master, before he turned himself into a dragonfly and was eaten by a frog. He didn’t plan that, just in case you think he did. That’s why I chose this form. Still, that blast was excellent. That fool Exodius would be proud, although I’m sure you didn’t learn such skills under him. Why do you say nothing? The woman is all right, although she looks angry.
“My heart, are you hurt?” Hallow lifted Allegria from where the bubble dropped her onto the ground, quickly checking her for signs of injury. “Did the blast from the rift closing—”
“I’m fine—it didn’t hurt me.” She did look angry, he reflected. No, she looked downright furious. “I am so going to have a thing or two to say to Kiriah, though. Did you see what she did? She withdrew her blessing from me the second that chaos power started to consume me. I won’t have it, do you hear me? If I am to be blessed, that blessing should stay no matter what else is happening to me!”
Hallow held her to him, laughing with the sheer joy of her. “Only you, my love, only you would rail at a goddess while you were being eaten alive by death magic. Can you stand? Walk?”
“Of course I can stand and walk.” She pushed out of his embrace, clearly annoyed. “I’m not hurt at all, although I will say that I’ve changed my mind, and I’m now glad that you know how to pop people out of bad situations, because it certainly came in handy.”
Deo staggered to his feet. “You did it,” he said, staring at Hallow as if he were a three-headed ghost. “I don’t believe it. You closed it with arcane magic. That makes no sense. The rift is born of Harborym. They draw power from death. Your starlight should not have destroyed it, and yet it did.”
I helped! Tell him I helped! Point out that it was my contribution that allowed the magic to focus, Thorn demanded. You did it all, my shiny pink arse. I was clearly the most important part of the job. Oh, to be a real bird! I would befoul his head as it had never before been befouled!
“What is starlight if not the light of a thousand stars’ birth?” Hallow asked, feeling a little smug in his satisfaction. Allegria was safe, the rift was closed, and Deo saw that although Hallow might not be a Bane of Eris, there was value in being an arcanist. It was just about a perfect moment.
“Birth? It’s the light of a thousand stars’ death. It could have just as easily given it power and allowed it to consume us all,” Deo said succinctly, and limped toward his horse.
Fool, Thorn said.
Hallow sighed, and addressed the staff. “Why don’t you fly on to Sanmael? You can check for soul takers along the way.”
An excellent idea. I’m glad to see that you, at least, understand my value. With an injured sniff, the bird broke himself free from the staff and headed to the west.
“Was he causing problems?” Allegria asked, shading her eyes to watch Thorn fly off.
“Not yet, but he would be if he spent any more time with Deo.” Hallow shared an exasperated look with Allegria. “I don’t expect a thank-you from him, or even an expression of gratitude, but you’d think he could tone down his disbelief that arcane magic managed to close the rift.”
“With any other man, yes. But Deo never was happy when someone could do something he couldn’t master. He told me once that as a child, he was furious when he found out that only women give birth. He thought that since men were stronger than women, they should be the ones to have the babies in order to produce the strongest offspring.” She gave him a wry smile. “Expecting him to be happy about the fact that you, a Fireborn, can master arcane magic when he can’t, despite having a Starborn mother, is like expecting Kiriah and Bellias to settle their differences. It will never happen.”
Hallow pursed his lips briefly. “About that—”
“Are we leaving, or are you two going to dawdle here all day?” Deo bellowed, causing his horse, a huge black charger, to dance nervously. “If we change horses along the way, we can ride all night and be to Sanmael in two days’ time. We’ll have that rift closed before my father’s men can drag themselves out of their comfortable beds.”
He wheeled his horse around and let the animal have his head.
“Do you think we should let his horse tire out before we tell him he’s headed in the wrong direction?” Hallow asked as he mounted. “Or try to catch him now?”
Allegria laughed and, putting her fingers to her lips, let loose with a piercing whistle that had Deo swinging his horse in a wid
e circle when she pointed in the direction behind them.
“Do you want to talk about what happened with the chaos magic?” he asked when they urged their horses into a brisk trot to follow Deo, now traveling on the correct road.
She slid him a look from the corner of her eye. He kept his expression neutral, not wanting to make her talk about the experience if it gave her too much displeasure, but feeling that it was important to ascertain just what had happened. If she was now at risk just by being near any of the Harborym or their rifts, then he would have to convince her to step back.
And he knew in his bones that she’d never back down from a fight, not so long as there was breath in her body. Her tenacity—even in the face of self-destruction—was one of the things he admired most in her.
As if reading his thoughts, she said lightly, “What doesn’t kill me had best run, remember? Hallow, you don’t have to dance delicately around me like I’m going to break into hundreds of pieces. I know something went wrong, very wrong back there.”
“You were covered in a black haze,” he said slowly, digging through his mental library for any reference to a similar happening. “You said the chaos magic was alive and consuming you. Are you certain that it was that magic, and not something within the rift itself?”
She was silent for a few minutes, the muted thump of the horses’ hooves on the dirt track the only sound. There was a dull, oppressive sense that lay heavily upon the land, making Hallow feel like he was swimming through something cloying and stifling, like endless bales of sun-warmed cotton. “It’s hard to explain. It didn’t help that at that moment Kiriah Sunbringer withdrew her grace, leaving me utterly powerless, but it felt to me as if the chaos magic within me was trying to absorb me, and make me part of it.”
“Your runes turned black,” Hallow told her. “As did Deo’s.”
She glanced at her wrists. The runes on them now were a dulled pale gold, almost invisible. “The chaos power ... when Deo first told me it was alive, I thought that was odd. Then when I underwent the change, I thought that Kiriah’s blessing had kept it from affecting me the way it did the others. My runes weren’t the same as theirs, and I was marked whereas they were not.” She touched her forehead before continuing. “I could feel the chaos power in me, but it never controlled me. It struggled to be free, but never fought against my wishes. The only time I really felt it at all were those times when we ran into groups of Shades and Harborym, and after closing the rift. And then when I went ... when I lost myself.”
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