I had seen this dream before. Before even we came to Aldheim. As a child. Many times. It was the dream I had been happy in, carefree and with a purpose in my life. Except this dream was much more real. I glanced around at the surroundings, and the horse reacted to my sudden movements by taking a small step. I was in the middle of a snowy landscape. It was a harsh, primal landscape, and I should have been cold, but I was not, and I felt nothing. I stared at the land, wondering at the ancientness of it all and somehow knew this was the land my powers were born in. Niflheim? Euryale’s home. How could it be?
I placed a hand on my hip and noticed a magnificent sword. I was clutching it. It was as long as my foot; bright as a star, so bright it was hard to see the sword’s edges. I stared at the blade, it was reddened and glistening, the carved metal bloody. I furrowed my brow and pulled on the helmet clumsily, and the horse shuddered as I struggled.
I froze. In the periphery of my sight, I saw slight movement. I turned my head that way, lightning fast and saw there were wolves not far from me. They were white and gray, grizzled yet oddly clean, not the sort of animals you would see in the wild typically, but somehow pure and pristine and very calm, with a purpose. They were not threatening, and for some reason, I thought I knew them. Both of them.
‘Able?’ I said.
I froze. My voice was breaking. Something was wrong with it. It had sounded like a rasping crow, and I put a hand on my armored chest. The armor was rent. I was sure it was and I looked down. There was a ragged hole in my heart, and my finger flickered into it and came out bloody. I panicked and sobbed, but again my voice was strange.
I realized why. I was not breathing.
I woke up as Lex was shaking me.
I glanced around in panic, but I could breathe now. The snow was gone, so were the wolves, and instead, I saw the Ten Tears, some sitting listlessly in a new, round chamber. ‘You OK?’ Dana asked, concerned, gliding to sit next to me. ‘They said you are just exhausted. You spent a lot of power saving yourself.’ Her hand touched my hair, and I noticed some of it was dry and burnt. Most of it is still there.’
I tried to focus, concentrated on breathing.
We had been shown a different room in the Fanged Spire. I had been laid down on a fluffy bed and wore a dark, blissfully cumbersome and warm dark robe like the others did. I noticed there were no dead students staring down at us with their stone eyes. I looked around. The rest were huddled near each other, except for Able. He was seated near a door, unhappy as usual, holding his knees as his dead face stared at me. Then I noticed the sounds of misery and loss. Dmitri was weeping. Anja was holding him.
Alexei was dead.
I remembered that now. He had been speared and burnt, and I had seen it. I sobbed for my friend, holding my head as Dana stroked me. So many had died. The opposing team had had no chance. None. Thanks to Dana. She eyed me as I looked at her and smiled briefly as if she knew what I was thinking. She did, for she spoke. ‘You did well. None can deny that. Took out that Isabella.’
I was shaking my head.
I had killed.
She had died for me, brutally suffocating on her own blood. I jerked up, holding my head and face. Her name had been Isabella, she probably had family someplace wondering if she was happy, and now she was gone. We had all done things to change us forever. I sat up on a bed next to the door. Cherry dropped on the bed next to me, looking concerned. I wept and cursed, and she rubbed my shoulder. Dana was still hovering nearby and crouched next to me. ‘It is fine, Shann. Had to be done. And you did very well.’
‘She couldn’t breathe,’ I told her softly. ‘She was flapping there like a damned fish, dying and gurgling, and I had no choice.’
‘I know, Shann,’ Dana said. ‘But now we live on.’
‘For what?’ I hissed. ‘Anything they promise us is a cruel joke. There are neither words nor pacts they will ever keep. Euryale …’
‘Lex and Cherry, can you give us some room. Please?’ Dana asked and lifted an eyebrow as the two lingered. They left, reluctantly, but they did leave.
I grabbed her face and pulled her close so only she heard. ‘I think we should escape.’
‘There is some plan I know nothing of?’ she said, with some pity and spite. ‘A tunnel dug across the seafloor? Or perhaps a giant bird to lift us to a paradise island somewhere? You and I, we have a plan. Remember? And we have invested our souls in it.’
‘Just surviving is not enough for me,’ I whispered urgently, ‘I doubt they will ever let us escape this place. Why should they? They think us maggots. They cheer and holler happily as we die and dispense of our lives carelessly like they would the remains of an unappetizing dinner. And if we do get out of here with their blessing? We will be monsters. Let us try to get our friends out.’ I nodded at Anja and the weeping Dmitri.
She scoffed. ‘We have no friends, and I shall have to remind you again there is only you and me, sister,’ she said somewhat desperately. ‘We will forget all of this. Trust me. One day it will be a distant memory. Like home is. Earth. We have not betrayed these people. They have their destiny, and we have helped them survive this day. Did we not? You and I. We did it. Not they. Do not betray me, sister, I beg of you,’ she said resolutely and hugged me. Then she got up to stalk the chamber.
I disagreed with her. She wished to run down a road I feared and distrusted, and I thought she was wrong. Alexei was dead. He was gone. It was my fault. Perhaps it was. Yet, Dana’s will was so strong, she was so confident and overpowering that I actually nodded, blushed with anger. The old Shannon did. She eyed me carefully, her beautiful face motionless, and she was wondering about my thoughts. To hide my turmoil, I glanced at Cherry and smiled at her encouragingly, gesturing for her to come over, grabbing her arm.
‘She saved my life,’ I told them and hugged Lex as he sat next to me. ‘Happy you made it as well.’
‘It was kind of wild,’ he said morosely, wiping his face. ‘I killed someone, I think. In the large room. There was a shadow; someone running, and I set someone ablaze. He fell into a hole. It is better to die like that, I guess. I mean with fire. When you use the spell of Fury at a person, I suppose it's cleaner than a knife in the gut, perhaps. I am sorry you had to …’ he hesitated, and then rubbed his face again, more aggressively, whimpering to himself. ‘They were damned kids. Many of them younger than us. Like Albine.’
I took a deep breath and gently stroked his shoulder. ‘Grandmother said we were old enough. I wonder if this is why she did not wish to send us here earlier. So we could be stronger and wiser and could weather this place. She didn’t know anything about it, but she had seen the summoning before and thought nothing benevolent was waiting for us here.’
‘I feel pretty lost, girl,’ Lex said, his eyes haunted. ‘This will not end well. I am losing hope.’
‘I am too,’ I said. Dana was still staring at me as she walked around, gauging my reactions as Lex cursed, got up, and he leaned over and kissed me. I saw Cherry’s eyes pop out and then she grinned, fidgeted and blushed, looking very bothered. She got up, walked over to the other wall and dragged a bed next to me, and Lex was still kissing me until she poked him. I smiled at her and shrugged at Lex, who scowled.
‘She meaning to guard you?’ he asked self-consciously as Dana was also staring at him with an unreadable face.
‘I think she is. She did already,’ I told him and got up. I searched and found Albine and walked over to her, sat next to her and pulled her to me. She let me, and she sobbed there, Able hovering nearby. ‘You OK?’ I asked the kid.
She shook her head. ‘It was dark, so dark. I released the spell I tried to use the day we arrived. Did you see? It was horrible.’
‘I know, I saw it,’ I told her. ‘Did you hope they would kill you?’
‘What?’ she asked.
‘When you ran off. Did you hope they would …’
‘Perhaps,’ she allowed, leaning on me. ‘I just thought it might be for the best.’
&nbs
p; ‘Tell her she is an idiot,’ Able said.
‘I won’t tell you what Able said, but he did not agree with your plan,’ I said and stared at Anja.
Anja lifted her face toward me as if expecting my look.
Was it my fault? Anja’s face did not say that. There was no anger there; only deep loss, and I wondered what she thought about. Had I said yes the night before, agreed to try to escape that very night, Alexei might not be dead. Likely, they would all be dead, and I a prisoner, but perhaps not. We could have built a raft, perhaps. I shook my head at the absurd notion and then looked at Able. I thought of Dana, I thought of myself, and the new Shannon took over.
I nodded at Anja, and she looked away, but there was a look of understanding on her face.
I would do what I wished to do, not what Dana hoped for. I would decide later what to do with Ulrich. Would I let Dana handle him? Or try to help her? I looked at a large shape sitting all the way across from us, in the shadows of the room, staring at Anja and Dmitri. Ulrich. His eyes met mine, cold and brutal, and there was not an emotion there I could possibly read. In the battle, he had seemed like a friend. Then he had abandoned me. I nodded at myself. He would face Dana one day. Anja expected me to let them fight it out. I felt a demon whispering in my ear, a devil tugging at my heart. He would pay. Anyone who betrays me should pay for it. From now on.
‘Can you help us?’ I asked.
‘Huh?’ Albine said, drowsy.
‘I asked your brother,’ I said softly. ‘I asked him if he could help us. For we have to escape and to do so, we have to be rid of the Bone Fetters.’
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You agree with Anja, then?’ Albine said, her voice full of hope.
I stared at the dead boy looking in my eyes, scared. ‘We have to be rid of the shackles. Or find ways out of here …’
I thought of the magnificent mirror in Euryale’s study. That was the way. I knew the spells. I had heard them, and I had felt them from the day we arrived. I had not attempted any of them, for I had had no chance, but I remembered the spell Euryale had used to open it, and then I stiffened.
She had said something to it. There was more to it than the spell. Gods, it was not easy to escape the hellhole.
I took a hard breath and whispered. ‘Able, listen up.’
‘Yes?’
‘You wish to help your sister?’
‘I would like to help the lot of you. I’m happy you do as well. Though perhaps you should have tried to leave yesterday.’
‘Shut up,’ I told him impatiently and softened my tone. ‘And thank you. There are books in her study. There was a glowing one. Perhaps others.’
‘I am dead. Only you can touch me,’ he said with incredulity.
I nodded. ‘There are thousands of books there in her room. She collects them. Try to find something that looks promising. Anything that might offer a chance to do something about this situation. Attempt to find a clue to the Fetters. Something that might help us escape. Find this one book. It is glowing, as I said. Can’t miss it unless there is a library of such things somewhere.’
‘That will take forever! Perhaps longer!’ he complained.
‘You have forever. You don’t actually sleep, dolt, so …’
‘Do it, Able,’ Albine said irascibly and then smiled. ‘God, like old times.’
‘He called you a turd,’ I said while scowling at Able.
‘Tell him, I’ll switch his rear if I die,’ she said with a giggle.
‘It’s dark and scary out there,’ he complained. ‘But I think I can, yes. I’ve been dreaming.’
‘Dreaming? Of our death again?’
‘He dreams?’ Albine asked.
‘He saw a dragon eating …’
Able shrugged. ‘Yes, I saw that. Strange dreams. I have seen a beast in the dreams. A dangerous one, but not a gorgon. I think it was a dragon. Thinking about it makes me nervous. I … I shall look around. Hopefully, they won't grab me.’
‘They cannot see you,’ I hissed so loud the others stared at me. I shrugged apologetically.
‘And if I do find something? This book?’ he complained. ‘And you cannot get to it?
‘I have a plan,’ I said. He looked skeptical, but finally Able got up and went. He walked through the door, and I begged the gods to grant him luck.
I would meet Euryale soon. That much I was sure of. And I had something of a plan.
Sort of.
CHAPTER 16
We went to bed and waited. There was a small window high up on the wall of this room, and we all stared at it, seeing the golden light replaced by the Two Wolves, the red and white moons. We had had no food, again, and so it took time to fall asleep.
‘Think Nox is lost or just drunk? Or tasted his own lard and died?’ Lex complained, and I tittered though the mood was still somber. I waited, and soon the others were asleep, in troubled, nightmare-filled slumber full of burning students and lost friends, but sleep nonetheless, save perhaps for the devious Anja, who was an insomniac. Deep in the night, I felt the familiar call in the shadows and got up, my hair standing up at its ends. I nearly fell on my face, for Cherry was curled at the end of my bed, anchoring the blanket, sleeping with her mouth open. I glanced around, hugging myself, and I noticed Dana’s eye was half open. I shook my head at her and went to the door where the shadows were deepest. Then, a tingling and dizzying touch of wind and tumbling ice, and a portal opened, and I was grasped. I fell in the shades and shadows, feeling slightly nauseous and stumbled painfully on my knees onto a carpet. Euryale stood in front of me, regally gazing down at me, her face swathed with a scarf, the light of her eyes barely showing through the cracks. I bowed. ‘Mistress.’
‘Yes, it is your mistress, and you did well, indeed,’ she said and ran her long, cold fingers through my hair. ‘Brilliantly, in fact. Could not have done it much better myself. I think you might have a chance to dance with the ghoul.’
‘I killed, mistress. I am not happy about it and cannot share the joy of it,’ I told her dully. ‘And we are starving.’ I stared around her study. I noticed the mirror was uncovered so she had likely been using it not too long ago. Her eyes sought mine and saw what I had been looking at.
‘Indeed. I traveled to the elven lands to set up a deal,’ she said. ‘We will be ready for the Feast of Fates.’
‘With the elf whose wife you hurt?’ I asked her.
‘Don’t worry about these plans,’ she said with her singing voice, her hands tugging at my hair savagely. ‘And change your tone.’
‘I worry, for I know nothing of elven manners, my mistress,’ I told her with a wince and then brightened as I spied Able amongst the furniture on the far wall. His dead eyes were scourging Euryale as the beast held onto my hair. Euryale’s eyes sneaked that way, but she saw nothing and turned back to me. ‘If I could learn some more of it, instead of suffering Cosia and Bilac, it would be for the best, no? Mistress? Perhaps seated right here, studying about the people and the places, it might be beneficial to our cause?’
‘I doubt the Regent minds if you can curtsy like a human should to an elf since his lovely wife is afflicted,’ she said suspiciously while thrumming her fingers on the desk. She let go of my hair.
‘I would know of the world, mistress. I will deal with other elves than his highness and do not wish to die swiftly simply for omitting a gracious word or a humble bow. Especially to a southern elf? To a ma tarish?’ I said carefully, for it was a dangerous game to manipulate her.
She smiled like a ghost, no emotion, and the twitch of her lips fleeting and cold. ‘I see. And you would learn, no? Curious, curious,’ she breathed, turning to the covered mirror. ‘No doubt you would like its name as well, no? The mirror. Just because you are curious no doubt. However, I find knowledge dangerous. You were in Trad for five minutes and nearly forgot your sister in that time.’
‘I shall not do that again. In addition, if we gain our freedom, one of us has to know the ways of the land,’ I told her.
/> She snickered. ‘Go to Himinborg or any city of the House Vautan. Especially Trad. These two cities and their Houses give humans rights. Do not go to the south, or the north. You know this already.’
‘Won’t I still be the Hand of Life, even after I rescue Hel’s Eye? And be welcome in the north?’
She grinned and hesitated. ‘That depends on my plans and how they will work out. And as I said, you need not worry about my plans, Shannon. No. Nevertheless, you will be free, perhaps, even if there is no more Regent and things will be different in Aldheim. There will be changes. The gods will return, won’t they?’
I stayed silent, trying to decide if I should push her more, for she hinted at her plans. She was planning for something big. Perhaps to get her due from the gods. Perhaps something more. Or something else. She seemed in a dangerous, ferocious, and fey mood, and there was emotion in her eyes I had not seen before. It was anticipation, murderous anticipation. She was swallowing and grinning to herself, and I knew she had waited a long time for me. ‘I see, mistress,’ I told her. ‘But I do wish to learn. And you are the most learned creature one might humbly learn from, older than men and ancient elves.’
She smiled with pleasure.
My gods, I thought. She was susceptible to flattery.
‘Yes, I am,’ she agreed and walked around me. I stayed still as she leaned to gaze at my neck, then my shoulder. ‘It has advanced. I feel it. But I will be able to remove it, shortly after the Feast of Fates.’
‘I thank you for reminding me,’ I said hollowly. The Rot. I had forgotten it. I would die if I betrayed her. A terrible, horrible death. Would it matter if the others lived?
Yes.
I was afraid to die. Gods be cursed, as I did not wish to go to Hel.
She walked around me. I shuddered in fear as she drew a finger across my cheek. ‘My pleasure.’ She stopped before me. ‘You fought like a battle maiden of Dark Waters, kept your calm and did very well indeed. You even killed. It will get easier, and so I think you grew into a more useful, less innocent creature yesterday. Perhaps I should reward you with this request. For I sense you love such stories as can be found in my library.’
The Dark Levy: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 1) Page 27