Felice nodded and led me out of the fortress, where just about everyone else had assembled. Ness was there, and so was Fate. They were standing close to each other, watching the door I’d emerged from for signs of movement. Fate lit up when she saw me and rushed over to embrace me. Ferrum, on the other hand, scowled; his upper lip curling like he’d just smelled something rotten.
I gathered with my friends and waited for Aaryn and whoever was left from the upper echelons of the Order as they secured the fortress… and collected bodies. It was a long, slow process, one that required lights to be set up as the sun began to set. Provided we didn’t drift out of the fortress’ protective field, though, we were safe; and we could all do with a bit of that right now.
The chefs brought food to us outside. Ness, incredibly, had sculpted chairs and a table from out of the soil itself. Knotted, gnarly roots rose up from the ground at her command, weaving and tangling into each other to create a comfortable space for the four of us to sit together. We ate in silence, drank in silence, and when there was no food left, we allowed the silence to continue for a time in honor of the dead.
“I’m glad we’re all okay,” Ness said. She’d been the first of us to speak for a long time. “I mean, it was really scary in there.”
“It was…” I admitted. I still had the stone with me, though it seemed quiet, now. No one else had brought it up, which meant no one else could hear it sing. I stuffed the stone into my pocket. “Weird thing is, I don’t think this was the longest day of my life. Pretty strange considering everything that’s happened.”
“Those are probably hidden memories coming up… you should dive more into that, see if it jerks anything loose.”
I waved my hand at her. “Not tonight. No more tonight. I just wanna get out of these clothes, have a shower, and maybe a drink before bed.”
“You really think you’re gonna get any sleep after this?” Felice asked, her tone dry and sarcastic.
“No,” I said, “I really don’t think so.”
It occurred to me then that none of them knew the real reason why this was all happening. The last time I had seen Felice before now, she had set off sprinting into the forest to get away from some beast that had been thrown at her. Fate and Ness, I hadn’t seen since last night. They had all at least heard Valoel speaking, though.
I was glad no one brought him up.
As I glanced over at Fate, it was clear I had questions for her. Many questions. She’d been keeping her whole life separate from me to spare my feelings. I could’ve gotten mad about that, but then hadn’t I also been keeping secrets from her? Many secrets. I decided to approach the topic carefully, though maybe tomorrow. I doubted if anyone would want a bit of chit-chat after what had just happened.
Sometime later, we were all rounded up and asked to go back into the fortress. The halls smelled… wrong. Clean. Too clean. Like they’d been bleached, or something. They were also deathly quiet. Not a single prospect said a word as they returned to their dorms, like a silent congregation returning to their dorms after prayer.
Out in the courtyard, pieces of the Aevian statue were floating in the air, jerking and twisting under Siren’s thoughtful observation. Stone fingers slid back into the hand they’d come from, cracks in the Aevian’s body began to glow as they fused shut again. I watched the torso lift itself from the ground and settle as the upper half of the statue once again, making the piece whole. Soft, green light shimmered along its surface as the rest of it mended.
I parted ways with Fate and Felice at the end of the hall. With Ness by my side, I turned and headed up to my room, again, not talking. This was probably a strange experience for Ness, who was used to talking, and talking, and talking. There happened to be someone else who enjoyed the sound of his own voice, someone who I hadn’t seen in some time and had a few questions I needed answering.
The small, furry form of a certain silver tabby came into view. He was sitting on a window at the end of a small hallway.
“You go ahead,” I said to Ness, “I have to take care of something.”
“Are you okay?” Ness asked, curiously examining me.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Go ahead.”
She nodded, then continued toward our bedroom, giving me one last glance before slipping inside. I turned my eyes on the cat. He had one leg over his head and was sitting, pleasantly grooming himself. I marched toward him, scanning the hallway for signs of prospects but finding none.
“You,” I snarled, “Do you care to tell me where the hell you’ve been?”
Rey looked up at me, his legs splayed, his little pink tongue caught between his lips. “Not that I have to answer to you,” he said, “But if you must know, I’ve been laying low. Unless you hadn’t noticed, there’s been one hell of a ruckus going on all day and I haven’t had the energy for it.”
“Energy?” I hissed. “People are dead!”
He sat upright, licked his lips, and stretched its back. “Yes, I’m aware,” Rey said, sitting down and curling his tail around his front paws. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
“It’s a sad thing when people die. Unavoidable for many, but sad nonetheless.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. You could’ve helped today.”
“Could I? And how do you know that for sure?”
“I don’t know. You get in and out of the castle just fine, you call yourself a dream wizard. You have powers you could’ve used.”
“You’re right about that. I do have powers. Vast powers. More than your little mind can comprehend. There are also rules that bind my actions, however. Rules even I can’t break, as much as it ruffles my fur.”
I paused and stared at him. “What rules?”
Rey rolled his eyes. “I knew you would ask me that question. Can’t you just let things be the way they are? I did what I could. I warned you about Draven’s trial and what would happen if you took it—”
“—I did go on Draven’s trial anyway, and I almost got killed.”
“Yes, almost. Had you gone with Draven’s original trial, we wouldn’t be talking right now. All I did was give you a fighting chance at survival by urging you to do something to change his plans. If I’d been able to do, or say, more, I probably would’ve. Or maybe not. It’s fun to watch people squirm sometimes.”
I shook my head. “You and me are gonna have to talk about these rules of yours, as well as a few other things.”
“Don’t keep me in suspense. Like what?”
I walked a little closer to him. “You know what’s going to happen next, don’t you?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“How else would you have been able to warn me about today if you hadn’t somehow seen the future?”
“I don’t see the future. I read the lines of fate and I see where they might cross. Before this all started, the lines of Fate were telling me something was wrong with the labyrinth, so I did a little sleuthing and found the worm at its heart. Then I knew for certain you’d die if you went back into the labyrinth for your second silver final, and I was probably right about that too.”
“Alright, but how can you possibly know all of this?”
“Again, I’m bound by certain rules, and to explain too much to you before you’re ready—”
“—before I’m ready?”
He rolled his eyes again and hopped off the window. “I’ve already said too much, and it’s getting late. Get some sleep, Seline.”
“You walk away from me and you’re so not welcome in my bed anymore.”
“I bet I’m not the first man you’ve thrown that empty threat at.”
I really wished I had something to throw at him, but I didn’t. I balled my palms into fists and rushed into my bedroom. Ness was already asleep by the time I snuck in. Deciding I was too tired to shower, I let myself fall into bed and surrendered to sleep at the first opportunity I got.
We held a fu
neral service the following day, for all those we’d lost. I’d never been to a funeral before. I never had any family to bury, or any friend I’d gotten close enough to who may have wanted me at a funeral for one of their relatives. All I had was Fate, and luckily, she was standing right next to me.
Including Greyson and the five prospects who had lost their lives during the first part of the silver trial, twenty-three of the Obsidian Order’s people were dead. I almost couldn’t wrap my brain around that number. Twenty-three people, many who I’d probably bumped into in the hallways, or had seen hanging out at the galley, or in the courtyard.
They were gone. Snuffed out by the labyrinth.
No, by the stone’s power.
We never should’ve brought it to the fortress, but we also couldn’t have left it where it was for someone else to snatch up. The irony was, we were safer in the fortress now that Valoel had taken the stone with him, but we also couldn’t let him keep it. There was no telling what he’d be able to do with that kind of power.
I was starting to realize now that Abvat had been a test, a precursor to the real thing. If Rey was right about fate playing such a huge part in our lives, then everything that had happened from the moment I’d been picked up that night had been leading to this. It had been leading to Valoel, to the stones, to the rifts.
I didn’t know how it all came together yet, I couldn’t see the whole picture, but I would soon.
Aaryn presided over the funeral, speaking as someone who was familiar with everyone that passed through the Order’s doors. She had nothing but good words for the brave souls who were now six feet underground, in a quiet plot of land behind the fortress itself.
The graveyard had been built around a large tree that I was told was flush with leaves all year round. Rey was sitting in the tree, watching us from above. A gothic, wrought iron fence had been constructed along the perimeter. The tombstones were all black marble that sparkled with the evening light. There were no paths, only grass and flowers of all colors blooming all around.
Fate held my hand and squeezed, and I squeezed it in return. It could’ve been either of us being buried right now, or both of us. When Aaryn was done talking about the prospects who were now sleeping beneath our feet, it became time for Draven to step up and speak.
At first, I didn’t think he would. Aaryn had walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, but he hadn’t moved. His head was low, he had his hands clasped at his stomach. A soft murmur moved through the massive crowd of attendees, a horde of prospects and members of the Order all clad in black and spread around the graveyard.
Finally, Draven turned his head up, took a deep breath, and walked to where Crag and Greyson had been laid to rest. They were side by side, their tombstones shining proudly. Draven reached into the pocket of his coat and produced two pairs of black sunglasses. He set one down on Greyson’s tombstone, the other on Crag’s.
I could remember a time not long ago when I’d found the sunglasses thing worthy of an eye-roll; right now, it made me choke up a little.
“I am sorry,” Draven said, turning his black eyes up to the crowd arranged around him. “I have failed these people today, I have failed you all. I allowed my judgment to be compromised, I allowed a snake into our garden, and others have paid for my mistakes. It should be me underground right now, and not them.”
A brief pause passed. A breeze pushed through the graveyard, rustling the leaves on the trees.
“Many of you have questions about what’s happened,” Draven continued, “I can assure you, those questions will be answered; at least, what questions we can. For some time now you have all come to learn that the Obsidian Order has been at war. A war against other Orders, and a war against fiends. Yesterday I learned some of our enemies have joined forces against us, they may even be preparing an attack against us as we speak. It is important that all of us be ready. Aaryn and I will be running battle drills for all prospects. The fortress’ defenses will be doubled. We will be asking for volunteers to take shifts watching for signs of attack. All of that will come. For today, at least, we mourn. Dismissed.”
The crowd of prospects and members of the Order gathered around me began to silently turn around and head back toward the fortress. I pulled Fate along with me, then Felice and Ness fell into step beside us.
“Are you alright?” I asked Fate.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m fine,” she said, “Guess I just got a little emotional.” Maybe it was the way the light was hitting her, but she was looking a little pale, and weaker than usual.
“Yeah… me too. I wasn’t expecting that. I guess Crag was a good guy. He made me laugh a couple of times.”
Fate smiled. “Remember when he spoiled that cooking show for us?”
Her smile infected me. The corners of my mouth lifted. “I could see it in my mind, this big, tough earth Elemental wearing an apron, frosting cupcakes on a counter.”
She was laughing, now. “Almost makes you forget he basically kidnapped us, and we developed a little Stockholm syndrome toward this place.”
“He wasn’t a bad guy.” I looked over at her as we walked. “I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to talk since yesterday.”
“Don’t be. I was too tired to talk.”
“Yeah… I really do want you to tell me more about you, though. I feel like… I don’t know, like you’re almost becoming someone else entirely, and I don’t want to lose track of you.”
She shook her head. “You won’t. Trust me.” Fate tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “I know why I’m sick all the time.”
“Really? Why?”
“It’s because of what I am.”
“An Aevian? But I’m not sick…”
“That’s because you’re not from my House; the House of Mist. My people are called phantoms and ghosts, we separated ourselves from the Principality after it collapsed and decided not to take part in the war. I guess someone made a pact with the God of Mists and we… we kinda became mist.”
“I… don’t get it.”
“Our physical bodies became something else. Something not totally physical, but also not totally ghostlike. It’s hard to get all the details straight, but as far as I can tell, it’s the glamor that makes me sick.”
“Wait, the thing that makes you look human makes you sick?”
She shrugged. “I’m not supposed to have a physical body. Not like yours, anyway. Unless someone has a better explanation, that’s the only one I have.”
The House of Mist. A fifth House. I was starting to realize our kind had a huge, rich cultural history I knew nothing about. “Are there any more of your kind in the fortress?” I asked.
“Only one… he’s kinda the guy I’m sleeping with.”
I nodded, understanding. “That’s why you’ve never let me meet him…”
“You’d figure out he was like me the moment he started looking a little pale. Yeah.”
I stopped and looked at her. “I wanna meet him… I don’t want you to leave me out of the stuff that goes on in your life. Okay?”
She nodded. Smiled. “Okay. I’m gonna go catch up to him if that’s alright.”
“Yeah, go ahead. Not that you need my permission.”
Fate hopped off, pushing through the group of prospects ahead of us and linking arms with a guy whose face I didn’t quite get a good look at. It was comforting to know that she could’ve spent the funeral with him, but she’d chosen to stand by my side. To think I was worried she was gonna forget about me and leave me behind.
“She’s a good kid,” Felice said. I’d almost forgotten she and Ness had been walking behind us.
“Yeah,” I said, “She’s alright.”
“She reminds me a lot of me,” Ness said, “Minus all the talking, I guess… also she’s way thinner.”
“Fate has always been a twig,” I said. I sighed. “We should probably get inside… you guys wanna hang out? Drink to the dead…”
“I’
m down for that,” Felice said.
“I’m kinda craving chocolate cake,” Ness said, “Think I could get one from the chefs?”
I shrugged. “Worth a shot. A drink and a bit of cake sounds pretty good right now.”
Nodding, Ness slipped away from Felice and me, leaving us standing at the door to the fortress. “Think they’ll make us run the trial again?” Felice asked, staring across the way to where Draven and Aaryn were standing. They were following the somber group of marching prospects, chatting quietly amongst themselves.
I pursed my lips. “I don’t know… I hope not. I don’t think I could deal with that right now.”
“Never know with Draven… and now that Crag’s gone, he’ll probably have twice the slack to pick up. If he’s the type to like watching people squirm, he’ll make us run it again.”
“The labyrinth is gone, now, so if they want us to run another trial, it’ll have to be something else. I doubt it’ll be anytime soon.”
“One can only hope.” Felice walked into the fortress, then stopped and watched me from the door. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Go and grab the bottle of booze you keep under your bed.”
“What bottle?”
“Don’t play coy. Just grab it and go to my room; I’ll be there in a sec.”
Rolling her eyes, Felice disappeared beyond the black doors and into the fortress’ halls. I waited for Draven and Aaryn to arrive, stepping aside to let the prospects pass. I was about to call out to Draven when he turned his eyes up on me and abruptly ended his conversation with Aaryn.
“I’d like to speak to you,” he said, beating me to the request.
“Oh… uh, yeah—okay. When?”
“Now.” He nodded at Aaryn, who walked past him and into the fortress without saying another word. Draven gestured with his hand for me to step inside and I did as I was told, waiting for him to get ahead of me so he could lead me to wherever we were going to be having our conversation.
He took me to the vault. More specifically, he took me to the room where the golden singing stone was being kept. I approached it carefully, watching it as it spun around itself like a planet. Occasionally it would reflect the light around it, the surface of the stone glimmering like a precious gem.
The Obsidian Order Boxed Set Page 39