Suddenly, the earth beneath his feet became his blood and bone. He couldn’t shape it as Kezari did, but he could become it—if he dared. A spasm passed through his body. Caves were torment and despair. Why would he join with that? But this place was not the same location where he’d been held. The present and the future could not be judged so strongly by the past.
He let the stone speak to him. Through him. The rift in the energy field caused hurt. Each pulse a threat to a long, endless life. Minerals disturbed, water flow altered. Strangers traveling through, their bodies killing the living rock where they passed. Heedless.
Come. Please come.
Aris had crouched on his hands and knees before he realized it. He closed his eyes and crawled, shivering until the tunnel closed around him with pleased warmth. With each scuffle forward, the cave sent its welcome through him. He let it. As he followed the glow of a mage light partially blocked by Kai, some of the tension eased from his gut. He was not so broken, after all.
They emerged into a tiny chamber bristling with rock formations. Aris held out a hand for Selia and helped her to her feet. At her questioning look, he smiled. “Seems you were right.”
But the crease between her brows didn’t ease. “You haven’t seen the next part.”
Connected to Kezari as he was, he sensed her decision to shift before the others did. When the dragon’s energy increased, Selia’s focus transferred to Kezari. Thankfully. Aris hated seeing the worry in his wife’s eyes, especially since it was warranted. He didn’t know if the earth’s comfort would overcome his aversion to a crevice worse than what he’d just crawled through.
In moments, Kezari stood before them in her elven form. Naked, predictably, but Aris didn’t bother to mention it. Kai kept his gaze respectfully averted, no sign of discomfort on his face, and Selia let out a soft chuckle that the dragon either ignored or didn’t notice. Kezari was too busy studying a narrow gap in the floor.
Without warning, bile rushed up Aris’s throat and coated his tongue. That fissure looked like… The chain shouldn’t have reached the crevice, but it did. Aris’s arms burned from their extended position, and the walls closed around him until he was certain there was no air. He panted. Thrashed. His back grew wet with his own blood. “Told you that you shouldn’t have hit me,” lilted down from above, a cheerful contrast to pure evil.
Aris doubled over, resting his hands on his knees as he pulled in lungfuls of air. He wasn’t there. He knew he wasn’t there. Thanks to the healer, he could untangle himself from the memory. But nothing on Earth was going to get him through that gap without risking madness, not even the steady comfort of the cave still humming within him.
Then he heard a long, thin cry echoing from below—followed by a yelp of pain.
For one long moment, Aris’s breath seized. “That sounds like Iren.”
He and the others rushed toward the gap, and he plunged his senses down the tunnel.
Nothing.
But despite what his scan told him, whispers and sniffles echoed upward. With a wave, Selia sent the mage light into the darkness, but all Aris could see was the floor a couple of body lengths down.
To his right, Selia groaned. “The cloak.”
Aris’s brows twisted with confusion, but Kai cursed. “The one you based on Kien’s design?”
Selia nodded, her lips thinning into a pale line. “Show yourself now, Iren,” she called down into the tunnel.
After a bit of rustling, Iren’s body wavered into view as the hood of his cloak dropped to his shoulders. Aris’s heart lurched at the sight of the tears streaming down his son’s pinched face, but an equal amount of anger surged alongside his fear. “What were you thinking?” he found himself demanding.
Not the most pressing question, unlike Are you hurt? and How did you get here? but it was all his lips seemed willing to form.
Selia fared better, thankfully. “Are you injured?”
“I hit my knee when I fell,” Iren answered, his voice quivering with fear. “And my ankle hurts. And there’s blood. It’s not that I wasn’t thinking. I just…”
Aris went cold at the sight of the dark stain blooming on the leg of Iren’s pants, and his earlier question fled his mind. Tunnel or no, he had to get down there. “We’ll talk about the rest later. I’m coming down.”
“Allow me, skizik,” Kezari said. “I can widen the gap after I see to your spawn.”
“I could go,” Kai offered.
Selia wrapped her fingers around Aris’s wrist as though she wanted to hold him back. “Or I. Though I may not have much of the healing gift, I can—”
“No.” The sick taste of fear filled his mouth once more, but Aris shook his head. “I can seal the wound.”
Kai made an impatient gesture. “As can I.”
Aris swung his legs into the hole and pinned Kai with a level look. “No.”
He might never have descended the chasm for himself or even for Earth. But by the gods, he would help his own son. Carefully, he eased down the vertical tunnel bit by bit. Memories threatened, hovering at the edges of his consciousness no matter how hard he beat them back, and his breathing came fast and shallow. Aris closed his eyes and tried to pretend he was anywhere else.
Not even the earth’s comfort could ease this.
After an eternity, his feet touched solid ground. Elation weakened his muscles, but he couldn’t savor it. Iren needed him, and he would not fail.
Aris had barely shifted their son out of the way before Selia dropped down beside him at the base of the fissure. Her hands shook as she rushed to the wide spot in the tunnel where Aris bent over Iren’s leg. Darting around him, she sank down at her son’s other side and gripped Iren’s face in her palms.
“Iren—”
“I know, I know,” her son said in a rush. “I wanted to prove myself. And Eri said it was important.”
That explained far too much. “Where is she?” Selia asked, trying to keep her tone level.
“Here,” a small voice said as the hood of another cloak was lowered.
The child’s face was milk-white, but Selia couldn’t summon much sympathy at the moment. “You have gone too far, Eri.”
“He wasn’t supposed to get hurt!” Eri’s hands twisted together. “I’m not sure what happened. There was no future strand for that.”
All of Selia’s worry left her mouth in a rush. “I can’t believe you stole these cloaks from my room to cross worlds into certain danger. It seems I will have to separate you two, at least for the foreseeable future. That’s my future strand,” she snapped.
“Onaiala…” Iren pleaded.
“How am I supposed to keep you safe with all of the life energy your father is about to unleash?” Selia dropped her hands before she could squeeze his cheeks too hard. “Didn’t you think of that? You can’t justify this.”
Eri lifted her little chin. “It was important for us to be here. I Saw it.”
“And your father didn’t?” Selia asked, eyebrow lifting.
“Lady Megelien—”
“Is not known to work through children at the expense of their safety.” Selia studied the child’s guilty expression. “I suspect there is more to this than I need to know. I’ll leave that to your father.”
Eri ducked her head. “Thank you, Lady Selia.”
“I sealed the gash,” Aris said, catching her attention. “But I can’t heal the cracked bone in his ankle.”
Kai crowded into the small tunnel, and Selia scooted out of his way. “If it is a small break, I can knit it a little. My healing gift is limited. Can you not do that with life magic?”
Aris shrugged. “I’m not certain. I can shift and adapt bodies, but I must have intimate knowledge of them. Unfortunately, I’ve never put that much study into anatomy. I’d far rather explore than modify or heal.”
“Adapt bodies?” Iren asked, his eyes going round. Probably with excitement more than fear, if she knew her son. And she did. “I’ll be able to do that?”
Aris’s mouth tightened. “We’ll see. Right now, we need to fix your ankle and then figure out how to protect you during what is to come.”
“You won’t need to,” Eri whispered.
Usually, Selia loved the little girl, and in truth, she still did. But she wasn’t particularly fond of her at the moment. One day, her overconfidence was going to get her in more trouble than she could handle. It certainly had Iren.
Here’s hoping that trouble doesn’t arrive today.
Chapter 26
Selia half-expected to see the god Loki standing in front of the rift again, but the cavern was empty of all but the glowing red fissure when she and Kai led the way inside. Iren and Eri followed them in, and Selia directed the children to wait beside the tunnel opening as Aris and Kezari rounded the corner.
The dragon uttered a choked hiss and froze in her tracks, pain stark on her face as she studied the wound to Earth’s energy field. “The Unseelie was a fool to consider sealing it up like this,” she whispered.
Aris circled the pulsing rift, the red light painting him an eerie color. Selia tilted her head and examined it as well. More black threaded through, blocking the light, and she didn’t have to be an earth mage to detect the sick hint of poison. If this was sealed within the energy field, it would sicken all who tried to use energy here, if not immediately then certainly over time.
Kien had used his death as a catalyst to turn his poison into something far deadlier than its original form. Before, he’d scattered nodes around the world, creating a framework of sickness that could be broken, if not easily. But this… This was a bomb. An explosion of this much tainted energy would kill many.
Lovely.
“Together, we can eliminate the poison,” Kezari said to Aris. “But the walled off energy is going to break free. The damage is too extensive. Can you channel it while healing? Even hearing the Earth’s cry, I did not expect it to be like this.”
Aris frowned up at the rift. “I’ll do my best. Perhaps if I channel it to Selia?”
Selia couldn’t help but snort. “There aren’t enough energy crystals in any world to hold this much power, and I have no ability to direct it into the living earth.”
“Then I’ll have to—”
“I can help,” Iren blurted. He straightened from where he was leaning against the stone wall, resting his sore foot, and shoved his shoulders back. “Eri said we needed to be here, and I think this is why. I don’t really know how to use the energy, but I can act as a conduit.”
“No,” Selia and Aris said in unison.
But Kezari peered at Iren with hope. “Your spawn might be an asset.”
Aris spun to face the dragon. “Even you must admit that young should be guarded.”
“What do you think will happen to him if you fail and this explodes?” Kezari asked.
A reasonable question, unfortunately. Still, Selia didn’t want to concede the point. Perhaps she and Kai could escort the children to the portal first. It would cost a bit of her own reserves, but it would be worth the risk of draining herself to see Iren and Eri safe.
Before she could make the suggestion, a sputtering sound filled the cavern, and the red glow brightened—then flickered. Selia’s scalp prickled and her arm hairs stood on end at the building power, erratic and strong. The waves were getting worse. Clechtan. She couldn’t spare the time it would take to take the children back.
“Perhaps you could test whether Iren can handle a thread of your power,” Selia said to Aris before she could change her mind.
His brows rose. “You jest.”
“Not about this.” She swallowed hard as the rift’s light flickered. “This is growing unstable. We need to fix this now if we’re going to do it at all. Surely you can feel the danger.”
Aris’s gaze flicked briefly to the crack and then to Iren. “I would rather see the end of this world than either of you.”
“If we don’t act, I fear you’ll see the end of all three.”
Another surge swept over them, and this close to the rift, Selia strengthened her shields. The other adults appeared to do the same, but the children cried out. As the power ebbed, Iren leaned against the wall next to a frighteningly pale Eri. Selia rushed over to examine them both. Her son looked more shaken than anything, but the little girl rubbed at her head as though it hurt.
“Eri?”
“It’s a lot like the other poison,” the girl whispered. “The one that almost killed me before my dad took me from Earth to Moranaia a few months ago. But not quite the same.”
Selia’s heartbeat drummed in her ears at the solemn expression on the child’s face. “You risked your life to bring Iren here.”
“I probably won’t die.” Eri summoned a slight smile. “But I don’t want to be seriously hurt, either.”
Well, that was a fine choice. Put Iren in danger or risk death for little Eri, a princess of Moranaia who was likely to be the greatest seer of her generation. Maybe any generation. Iren met Selia’s apprehensive gaze without flinching, more like his father than he knew, but for a moment, all she could see was the baby the healer had first placed on her chest. She brushed an errant hair off his forehead and ran her fingers down his face to tweak his chin as she had when he was younger.
“Onaiala,” he said with a groan.
“You’re still a child, Iren,” Selia said. Then she took a deep breath. “But I believe you can do this. You are a clever, fast learner. My caution with you has always been your heedlessness, not your ability. Promise to follow your father’s commands, even if you don’t want to.”
Aris stepped up beside her, the conflict evident on his face. “Selia, I’m not certain about this.”
“I’m not, either.” She forced a tremulous smile. “But you saw what that surge did. Loki said my task was to protect. I’ll monitor the energy and step in if necessary. I can funnel it away from Iren.”
They both knew she didn’t have the same capacity for life magic that Aris or even Iren had, and this would be far beyond what she’d channeled for her husband in the past. Since she wouldn’t be able to direct it straight into the earth, it would build within her until she burned out like an overfilled crystal. The best she’d be able to do was force it away from them before she died.
But she would do it for Iren.
“He doesn’t need to know,” she sent to her husband.
Aris’s jaw hardened. “I will always know. But you are right.”
Then he focused on their son and began to describe the basics of being a conduit.
Aris settled between Kezari’s shoulder blades, no saddle between him and her scales. She’d widened one end of the chamber, unwilling to take on the task ahead without being in her full natural form, and shifted while he worked with Iren. Pride swelled in Aris’s chest at the memory. His son was clever, indeed. He’d almost lost control several times as he struggled to channel the life energy he was fed, but he’d picked up the skill far faster than Aris had as a child. Selia had taught him well. If they survived this, Aris could train Iren to actually use the magic instead of merely directing it back into the natural world.
To the left of the rift, Kai sat, legs crossed and eyes closed as he fumbled with his power. If Aris scanned with his own abilities, he could see a few tendrils of something whipping around the other man, but it wasn’t like the earth energy he knew. Kai had nodded when asked if he was ready, so they’d just have to trust that he’d figured it out.
They’d have to trust in a lot of things.
To the right, Selia stood behind Iren, ready to take on his burden if he faltered. If any of them faltered. Aris jerked his gaze away and caught sight of Eri, still leaning against the wall on the other side of the energy rift. For a moment, he could have sworn her eyes gleamed as she returned his stare, but she blinked, and the effect was gone.
A flicker of red captured his attention. Was it his imagination, or did the lightning-like cracks hovering in the air appear…longer? Deeper? The Unseel
ie and the dragons had been reckless to try to wall off this much energy. How had they not considered the possibility of a breech?
Kezari shifted beneath him. “It would have succeeded had our peoples not grown complacent. We stopped actively maintaining the wall, so it is not as strong as it once was.”
“People?” he asked, poking at her in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“This language has no better word for a civilization comprised of sentient, non-bipedal entities,” Kezari answered primly. Then she relented. “Except perhaps ‘civilizations.’”
Aris chuckled softly and patted her neck. “We’ll work on it.”
She twisted her head to look at him, and the spines around her eyes shifted in a motion he’d come to associate with raised eyebrows. “Are we waiting on something?”
“I’m not sure,” he confessed. “I feel like there’s…”
Eri straightened, catching his attention once more. She pulled back her shoulders and nodded her head sharply. This time there was no mistaking the gleam.
“How about now?” he asked.
Kezari bared her teeth in a dragon’s grin and faced the sputtering fissure. Aris closed his eyes and let himself settle into his power. The heartbeats that had fluttered at the back of his consciousness crescendoed like the pounding of drums at a winter solstice celebration, but the creatures here weren’t ceremoniously summoning the sun back to life. They were fighting to fix their world the only way they could—by lending him their strength.
Fluttering and skittering sounds filled the cave as bats shifted their wings high above and insects darted around in their holes, just out of sight. There were rats and spiders, salamanders…all manner of creatures that generally fled before any people could find them. Even as they connected with Aris, they remained out of sight, wary of so many bodies. Particularly the dragon.
He fell deeper into himself. His dryad grandmother’s blood flowed strong through his veins, and he tapped into the power held within. If he strained, he could count the strand of every root tunneling over their heads. Each tiny plant and bit of moss that grew where a hint of light reached now synched with the beat of his heart.
Abyss Page 25