by E. M. Knight
Only my mind seems to be operating at the same speed as the demon.
It stops over the Queen’s unconscious form. Its tail swishes from side to side. Its heart continues to pound.
Thud, thud. Thud, thud. Thud, thud-thud-thud.
So much of the light has been stolen that I can barely see. And the darkness that comes in its place is impenetrable to my vampiric sight.
The Narwhark opens its great jaws and lowers its mouth over the Queen’s head.
For a second I think all is lost. For a second, I expect the maw to come crashing shut and sever the head from the body.
I expect nothing but death and destruction from such a beast.
But the Narwhark does not bite. Its tongue darts out and runs once over the Queen’s lips.
A finger on her left hand twitches.
And then the Narwhark pulls back. I watch, incapable of acting, as it clamps its teeth over the Queen’s shoulder, tight, but not tight enough to draw blood, and drags her body into the black mist.
They disappear, together as a pair, into the darkness. The next instant, the cloud dissipates. Time snaps back to its regular pace.
The remainder of the curse falls from my lips, but given all I’ve seen, it’s a poor indication for what I really feel.
“What...” Deanna begins. She hadn’t seen any of it, because she was facing the wrong way when it happened.
The cave starts to tremble.
All my senses go on high alert. I look around, searching for any trace of the Narwhark, or the Queen.
There is none.
“Carter—what’s happening?” Deanna asks.
The trembling increases in intensity. A loud, splintering crack sounds.
All of a sudden the floor is being split into two.
“Carter?” Deanna screams.
I grab her arm. “Run!”
I take off into the closest entrance, not caring where it leads, but knowing we have to get away. The Narwhark stole the energy of the room. Whatever force sustains the structure of the Paths was broken.
Crystal shards rain down from the ceiling behind us.
“Carter, Carter, the Queen!” Deanna screams. But I keep running, seeing no choice but to pull her with me.
A giant chunk of crystal falls from the roof, and the whole cavern floor shakes.
“Faster!” I urge her. My legs pump as rapidly as they can. “We need to get away!”
The destruction continues behind us. I don’t know what lies beneath the crystal floor. I am in no state to want to find out.
Deanna finally seems to realize the danger and starts running on her own. We’re at the head of a great landslide, an avalanche, an absolute collapse. I look back as we race blindly down the tunnels, and we see the falling crystals crashing to the ground, closing in on us, sealing us forever from finding our way back.
We run and run and run, racing for our lives. But as fast as we are, we only just manage to outpace the destruction behind us. One missed step, a single slip, and we’ll be crushed under the rubble.
Suddenly, the floor dips down. I stagger to a halt. We’re at the top of an enormous cliff. I cannot see its bottom.
I look behind us. The cave keeps crumbling.
“We jump,” I tell Deanna.
She looks at me as if I’m insane. “What?”
“JUMP!” I scream and grab her arm and hurl us both over the edge.
She yells as she falls. I try to right myself in the air, readying for the impact of landing. It won’t kill us, but this much of a drop will shatter every bone.
Deanna and I will be incapacitated at the bottom for as long it takes us to heal.
And the pain… Lord God, the pain is going to be immense.
We throttle through the air for what seems like eternity. The sounds of collapse behind us no longer reach my ears. All I can hear is the rush of air all around my body.
I misjudged things, I think frantically. This far of a drop could kill us.
But as we fall, instead of hitting the ground, we merely start to… slow.
It’s as if a force opposite of gravity is pushing us the other way.
We slow, and we start to float. The sensation is so alien, so unexpected, so utterly unusual that it disorients me.
I can no longer tell up from down.
Deanna drifts at my side. Her jaw has gone slack. Her eyes are wide and wondrous. “Where… are we?” she whispers.
I forget my own problems for a second and look around.
We’re hovering in some sort of dense mist. I cannot see very far past the droplets. But… they are cradling us as if we’re floating up in space.
“I… don’t know,” I answer honestly. “We must be very careful. Don’t move.”
“Hard to do when there’s nothing to anchor myself with,” she says.
I frown. She is right.
For a few more moments we just float like that. Are we still falling? Are we completely still? It’s impossible to know without the guiding sensations to give me a clue.
And then, the bottom of the mist parts, and we drop a short way down to solid ground.
Right away, I look up. The mist is like cloud cover above us. If I reach out with my hand, I’ll be able to reach it.
But I don’t want to experience that uncanny sensation of weightlessness again.
“Carter.” This time Deanna says my name firmly. “What the hell happened back there?”
“You did not see?” I ask. And then I remember: when the Narwhark came, Deanna had her head turned. She is clueless as to what transpired.
“No! All I know is the earth started shaking, and you grabbed me and made me run, and we left the Queen—the Queen!—behind. We left her behind, dammit, after all your posturing about her importance to us!”
“That doesn’t matter anymore,” I say, distracted. Because at that moment, I caught a glimmer of something shining in the distance.
“What! What do you mean, it doesn’t matter? Your whole plan depended on her, and now she’s gone, and who knows where the hell we are—”
“Deanna. Be quiet. Look.”
I take her by the shoulders and turn her around.
And she sees, in the distance, exactly what I see.
The faintest outline of a glowing city, encrusted with gems.
Chapter Thirty
ELEIRA
THE PATHS
“It’s this way,” I say, guiding my group in the proper direction. “Yes, definitely here.”
I start down the curving tunnel, walking at a snail’s pace.
I itch to run. I know we need speed and haste.
And I am very much aware of Phillip’s silent, brooding disagreement with my need to go slow.
But it is the only way I can track the Queen.
I did not know the connection between our minds still existed. I thought it wiped out long ago. But that protective spell she cast over me to prevent any outside attempts of possession (I shudder—that’s still ghastly to think about) has left a certain residue.
It was much too faint to feel, or even be cognizant of, in the real world. But in a place of magic—in the Paths—everything to do with the Elemental Forces is enhanced.
Frankly, it’s the only shot we have of finding Morgan.
But the frustration of my party is on the verge of boiling over. We’ve been inside the Paths for hours. We’ve yet to see any sign of Deanna or Carter or the Queen.
No sign that they’ve passed this way, either.
The only way we have of following them is doing what we’re doing now. But—and I hate this—I can almost feel the doubt, the distrust, radiating from Phillip. He hasn’t said anything, but I’m not sure he’s convinced I’m actually capable of tracking Morgan.
He coughs behind me, and I look back.
“We’re taking too long,” he growls under his breath.
Raul shoots him a sharp look, then gives me a reassuring smile.
At least, it’s meant to be reas
suring. Under current circumstances, it looks nothing if not strained.
I simply ignore Phillip’s remark and continue walking, focusing on the thin tendril of Morgan that I feel.
After a few minutes, Raul comes to my side. He looks straight ahead, not at me, as he speaks.
I know what he’s going to say, I know why he’s going to say it, but I wish, with all my heart, that he wouldn’t.
“You need to rest.” His voice is the barest whisper.
His concern for me is sweet, but at this time, totally inappropriate.
“I don’t know how you’re still going. I see how much unveiling the door took out of you.”
“I can’t afford to rest,” I say through gritted teeth.
In truth, the tiredness I feel through my body is like nothing I’ve experienced as a vampire. The only comparison I have is when I spent two frantic, sleepless weeks crafting my undergrad admission essays right before the deadline. I must have gotten a total of forty hours rest at the end of the fourteen-day marathon.
That’s less than three hours a night.
Thank God for Modafinil.
“And we can’t afford you leading us head-first off the edge of a cliff,” he continues. “Which you’re prone to do, operating at your current capacity.”
My eyebrows go up. That’s a new tactic for him.
I turn my head and fix my gaze on him.
Raul grunts. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean that. Not really. But dammit if you’re not stubborn enough to listen to reason any other way!”
He runs a hand through his dark, flame-red hair. I wish, actually, that I could do it for him.
It seems an age since he and I have had any time alone, even if it happened scarcely a day ago. But so much has gone on since then…
I give a start. My mind is wandering.
Maybe Raul is right.
“We can’t just stand still, Raul,” I tell him. “My body will recover. I’m a vampire, remember? Nothing can hurt me.”
“That’s not true,” he says. “Lots of things can hurt you. Fire, the sun, magic, the Narwhark...” he trails off. “Morose thoughts.”
“Fits our current situation,” I say.
“Hey. If you two lovebirds are done conspiring up there…?” Phillip asks. “I’d like to get a move on. Please.”
“See what I mean?” I ask Raul.
“No.” He stops and puts his arm out, blocking our way. “Eleira needs rest. She’s done too much for us already.”
“Raul, quit it,” I hiss. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” he stresses. “You’re anything but fine. Look at you. You’re exhausted!”
“I can manage,” I repeat. “Don’t make a scene.”
Geordam steps up. “I think the Prince is right,” he says. He looks at Phillip. “Given what we will face when we catch up to them, it is strategically better to take time to recover first. It’ll give us a chance to confer. We still don’t have a plan.”
“How much of a plan do we need?” Phillip grumbles. He looks at his brother. “I say we take a page from your book. We just rush headlong into the fray. See what happens.” He shrugs. “It’s not like proper planning has gotten us anywhere before.”
I can barely believe those are the words coming from the mouth of the Captain Commander.
He looks around. For a second there’s this awkward silence.
“A joke, people!” he exclaims. “Kill me for trying to lighten the mood.” He nods at his brother. “Raul, you’re probably right. Eleira, you do need to rest. If we had some blood, we would feed you, but…” he spreads his hands.
“Blood won’t help,” I tell him. All of a sudden a yawn comes up. I try to hide it and fail.
“That settles it,” Raul says. “We’re stopping here.”
“Guys, look, I’m not that weak,” I begin.
“Nobody thinks you’re weak.” Raul takes both my shoulders and guides me to sit on a rock. “In fact, we all admire your strength.”
I scoff to make sure he knows what I think of that.
“Eleira,” Phillip draws my attention. “You say you can sense Morgan.” I stiffen, thinking he’s about to call me out…
Instead, he surprises me with the question, “What else?”
“What else what?”
“What else can you sense?” he asks. His keen eyes focus in on me. “Do you feel… any sort of disturbance, or shift in magical energy, or anything else?”
I know what he’s getting at. I shake my head. “If the Narwhark was close by I’d say something instantly.”
Phillip nods, and falls silent, dead in thought.
Geordam sits with the other two guards. They talk in hushed tones.
Raul touches my knee. I look at him. “What?”
He almost flinches. “I just wanted to say how beautiful I think you are.”
I want to roll my eyes, but I can’t. He says it because he means it, not because he expects something from me.
“You’re sweet,” I say. I put my hand over his. “But this really isn’t the right time.”
“We’re never going to find the right time,” he tells me. “Not until all of this is over. Before that?” He grins suddenly. “I’m taking every chance to let you know what a treasure you are.”
I smile back. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” I say.
“No,” he cuts me off. “You’ve got it all mixed up. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
Again, I smile.
The moment is broken by a very faint rumbling, far in the distance.
All six of us shoot up.
“What was that?” Phillip asks.
“Don’t know,” I say. “But—”
The words are lost on my tongue as I feel a great sweep of dark energy pulse through the cavern.
All sorts of horrid images fill my mind:
The forest burning. Vampires being nailed to silver stakes. Beatrice’s crooked hybrids running wild through screaming masses of humans, in the cities, under the sun, feeding on them and ripping them apart as if they were nothing—
I see the Narwhark for a second in its true form. It is a massive beast, towering head and shoulder over the largest vampire. I see the darkness pooling beyond it, see it feeding on the light. It opens its jaws and spouts jets of flame, almost like a dragon, except these jets are fused with a twisting, roiling blue, a blue that’s been tainted and warped to wreak destruction upon the world…
And I see her. The Black Sorceress, standing on a saddle fitted atop the Narwhark’s back, laughing with madness as she directs its flames at thousands of innocents below—
The images stop. I give a gasp. The visions were terrifying, and those were just the ones to make it to the top. Thousands, tens of thousands more, rushed beneath the surface.
But is it a vision of the Narwhark’s, or the witch’s?
“Eleira?” Raul takes my arm. “Eleira, what is it? What happened? What did you see?”
“She’s begun to stir,” I say, my words coming as if from under a trance. “And she wants to bring Morgan to her side.”
Chapter Thirty-One
CARTER
THE PATHS
As we approach the distant city, I discover its size to be little more than an illusion.
When I first glimpsed it, I thought it massive. And I thought it was far, far away.
But as we get closer, I see the truth of things. The “city” is a miniature. A model for something else. None of the structures, which looked so grand from far away, stand higher than my waist.
It’s like marching through a sprawling toy train set.
“Carter?” Deanna asks. “What is this, I don’t understand?”
I shoot her a scathing look that shuts her up. Something here doesn’t add up.
Why would there be such a thing in the Paths—why was it made, who was it made for?
What was the mist that sheltered us?
We walk slowly through the model ci
ty. Thankfully, the streets, if you could call them that, are very wide. They give us enough space to move.
The structures extend outward as far as the eye can see. I feel like a giant in their midst. It’s disorienting and uncanny.
After another five minutes, Deanna speaks again.
“Where are we going, why can’t you tell me?” she whines. “It’s because you don’t know, isn’t it? It’s because we’re lost, down here, amidst all this… all this rubbish!”
As if to emphasize her point, she aims a kick at the nearest structure.
“No!” I start, but it’s too late.
Her foot makes contact with the spiraling tower’s side. It crumbles as if made from sand.
I fly at her. “You idiot!” I hiss. “Haven’t you realized how dangerous this place is? What if you disturbed something, what if you triggered—”
I’m cut off as an enormous groan sounds from far away. It’s followed by a horrendous crashing noise.
I spin in that direction. I cannot see anything past the edge of that pervasive mist.
I glare at Deanna wordlessly. She stares back, defiant.
“That was coincidence,” she says. “It was not me.”
I grumble under my breath for having picked such a lackluster companion.
“Don’t do it again,” I warn.
She rolls her eyes.
We keep going. The towers and spires start to cluster closer together and increase in density. I can feel Deanna’s impatience as she trails after me, and I wonder how she can remain so unimpressed.
Because this city—whatever its purpose, whatever its point—is fascinating. In and of itself, it’s absolutely fascinating, if for no other reason than being so absolutely unique.
Maybe that’s the scholar in me talking.
Finally, we reach the epicenter. There’s an enormous tower standing in the middle. Well—enormous relative to everything else. This one stretches up as high as my jaw.
The tower is made of spiraling, twisting glass. Something about it looks so very pure. It looks like something pulled straight out of a fantasy book.
I walk around it, examining it from all sides. It’s not glass but crystal. Yet the crystal is altogether different from the crystal of the Paths. It’s gleaming white and wondrous. It seems rarer, somehow. More precious.