Empyreal (The Earthborn Series Book 1)

by Spencer Helsel

  Your passion can be your strength, Mastema told her once. Do not let it control you. Control it.

  She opened her eyes. The fog curled backward. A tunnel formed through it.

  Caesar beamed. “I knew you could do it.”

  She climbed out of the river, soaked. “Let’s go.”

  “I’m so with you, sister.” Caesar took off.

  “You know I am not going to forget about you dumping me in a river.” Dani called after her.

  “Tell you what: you ever catch me and I’ll let you pay me back!”

  She started off through the fog again.

  ______________________

  Dani kept going. She wasn’t sure if any other Novices would make the same mistake of walking into that fog, but she didn’t want to stick around to find out. No cynocephali waited by the supports and the moment she crossed under them, the fog slid back. She was free.

  The river rushed through rapids below the bridge. Dani started at a jog again, sounds of a waterfall telling her she neared the bottom. The end was in sight.

  “See anything?” Dani asked Caesar.

  “Smooth sailing.”

  “How close are we?”

  “Pretty close. I can see Empyrean’s rim up ahead. The river rushes

  into a gate just ahead. Almost there, honey.”

  The rocks formed rapids. As she turned around another corner, she could see the eight-story gate. The river gushed through a large yawning, creating the falls down Empyrean’s cliffs. A large bell hung from one side. And beyond that, blue sky and clouds.

  “Almost to it, honey. And—” Caesar’s voice cut off.

  Dani looked up. Her friend was overhead one minute and the next, gone. “Caesar?” She couldn’t see her anywhere. Fear coiled inside her rib cage. “Caesar!”

  Caesar cried out. “Dani run!” and then her voice went silent again. Before she could react, a hand broke from the mud and grabbed her

  ankle. She shrieked and drew the knife, stabbing down into it, but the fist holding her wasn’t flesh. It was clay. A golem, a little smaller than the ones at the Hellfire Club, burst from the ground and pulled her off her feet.

  Dani landed hard as the clay creature emerged. It wasn’t as human - like as other golems. It resembled a man dripping with mud and dirt and rock. There were no eyes. A mouth, barely recognizable, opened and snarled.

  Two more broke from the river’s edge. Three of them blocked her path.

  Dani kicked. Her heel snapped off a part of the cheek, but it kept rising. She pulled the knife from its hand and slashed the face, cutting away more earth, but to no avail.

  She tried to pull free but the golem had a death-grip on her.

  “Let go!”

  She tried to summon Erthe, pushing the golem back under power over the ground. But unlike Aer, she wasn’t doing well.

  Free from the ground, the monster yanked her towards it. It balled up its other fist, morphing it into a large mallet of soil. It was going to beat her to death.

  Dani focused. When it swung, she hunched like a sit-up and pulled herself in, then exploded upward at it. The blow missed and she landed facefirst in the mud creature’s chest, slashing off hunks with her knife. She scrambled up and the golem let her go as she toppled it over onto its back.

  She leapt over onto the head, using both heels and her weight to tear away chunks. She kept stomping until finally, the head caved. Something fell clear and the body disintegrated into a pile of dirt.

  Lying amidst the debris was a scroll, rolled up and wrapped with twine; no longer than her finger. Dani snatched it up. The parchment was warm with magic.

  Golems weren’t living creatures. Someone created them by a spell- scroll. The spell-maker, Judah, placed the scroll in its mouth to bring the creature to life. Taking the scroll out destroyed it.

  Knife raised, she faced the remaining two. “Come on then.”

  They lumbered at her, footfalls shaking the ground as the two sixfoot-tall creations charged Dani. She charged, too. She spotted a rock and placed one foot on it, leveraging herself up and onto the first one.

  They collided, both pin-wheeling around. She stuck her hand into its mouth and with a yank, wrenched a scroll free. As they turned, they tumbled and the golem broke apart. A mountain of dirt toppled over her. She threw away the scroll as she landed.

  Unfortunately, the weight of so much mud pinned her to the ground. The other golem leered over, big fists coming down and pinning her to the river’s edge. Dani couldn’t move.

  “Ugh!” she angled her blade towards the last one’s head and stabbed. The tip sliced in, but did no damage to the creature.

  The weight was too much. She could barely breathe! Withdrawing the dagger from the mud, she angled it a little more down. As she felt the air pressed out of her lungs, she knew if she didn’t do something soon it was going to kill her.

  She stabbed again; this time, down through the side of the jaw into the throat. She felt the clay give way to something buried there. The golem’s eyes widened. She didn’t know if they understood death, but this one certainly felt when her knife connected with the scroll. Dani twisted and pulled the papyrus paper out with a clump of dirt.

  The golem toppled over, lifeless.

  The weight was enormous. Dani sucked in a lungful of air as she pushed to free herself. Without the golem pressing down, at least she could breathe. She pushed her way semi-free, digging to remove the rest.

  She heard footsteps. Another Novice appeared at the top of the rapids. She didn’t know him, but she recognized the Crux insignia he wore.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “I’m fine.” She said.

  “Golems?”

  “Yep.” She shoveled more dirt off. “Mind helping me?”

  The Novice sauntered forward but, before reaching her, stopped. He glanced around, and then instead of coming to her aid, knelt and retrieved the two fallen golem scrolls on the ground.

  “I want to help. I do. But I’m the last one in my aerie.” He scooped away some dirt with his hand. “I need to get to the end.”

  “And? You’ll get to the end. It’s right there.”

  “But I don’t trust you—or need you, for that matter.” He placed one scroll into a hole and pushed the dirt over it. He did the same with the second scroll.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You could stand to be a little nicer.” He stood, wiping off his hands and walking around her.

  “Hey! Help me!”

  “Sorry.” He said, though he sounded very un-sorry. “I won’t.”

  Dani turned towards a noise and the two holes he dug began to form more earth around them. The piles quickly morphed into arms, then hands, then torsos. The golems began to re-form.

  “Hey! I didn’t do anything to you!” she yelled at his back.

  “So?” he asked callously. She could even see him smile. He ran. In almost no time, he was at the wall. He uncoiled his rope.

  Dani worriedly glanced back at the golems, now fully human and rising up off the ground. She dug at her legs to free them.

  The Novice swung his rope up and through a hole in bell’s large hammer. He looped the other end into a tie when it came back down, tightened it and then ringing it. The bell tolled. Once. Twice.

  The golems reformed. One of her legs broke free and she scrambled out. But even as she did, a large mud hand grabbed her and pulled her back.

  “No!” she grabbed for her knife, but another hand clamped down on her other arm, pinning it back. The second golem loomed over her.

  It came down, folding over her lower body, crushing her underneath. The air exploded from her lungs. She groaned, unable to move. And the second monster fell over her face.

  Blood rushed to her head. Air stopped coming. She reached with her only free hand for the last thing she had had: the vial of panacea. Praying it might help her, she unstoppered it and swallowed the contents.

  The golem fell, covering her in dar
kness. The bell tolled again.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Dani inhaled her first breath and nearly suffocated on air. She tried to sit up, but someone held her down, holding her to keep her from doubling over to vomit. Her head pounded with each heartbeat. She turned sideways, retching. Putrid water and mud vomited out into a bucket until she was allowed to lie back down, the headache subsiding enough to pass out again.

  Someone spoke over her. She couldn’t see them but could hear Mastema’s voice.

  “If she should die…I will return…”

  She closed her eyes and disappeared into oblivion.

  ______________________

  She wasn’t sure how long after she woke, but when she did a hand looped through hers. Through slits, she saw Nathaniel sleeping on a stool next to her bed and holding her hand. Large windows poured light down over stone slabs topped with mattresses. She was in the Ward, the infirmary nestled in a sheltered courtyard behind the Keep.

  Healers moved amongst the beds, a fourth of which were occupied by Novices. As her vision cleared, she saw Michael two beds down; his arm and head wrapped in panacea bandages. Her anger woke her from her coma.

  It woke Nathaniel too. He opened his eye s. “Dani!” He threw his arms around her.

  “Hey, hey, I’m fine.” She assured him, pulling him off. There was a pink scar over his left eye, bisecting his eyebrow. “What happened to you?”

  He waved it off. “My own Trial didn’t go so well. My aerie didn’t make it to the bell.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s morning,” he told her, “two days after your Trial.”

  “Two days?” I was out two days? She sat up. A dull ache throbbed in her chest. Her ribs felt like someone played them like a demented xylophone with sledgehammers.

  “Careful. The golems broke three of your ribs and bruised a lung.”

  “How the hell did I survive that?”

  “They had to use a lot of healing compounds on you.” He paused, not wanting to tell her. “I thought you wouldn’t make it.”

  “But I did.”

  “The Trials were awful. Crux won yours. One of their Novices rung the bell.” He avoided her gaze as if afraid. “Dani, if you didn’t take that panacea you might have died. The Elders weren’t quick to come to you. The elixir kept you alive.”

  Dani didn’t doubt it. “What about Corona? I had to deal with a few of them.”

  “Well, whatever you did,” he glanced over his shoulder, “some of them are still here. One guy looks like you dropped him off the roof of a building.”

  She grinned.

  “Michael’s shoulder is sliced to the bone. They’re keeping him under while he heals. Dani,” he turned back, “there’s been a lot of talk. Corona has the most people injured. They’re blaming you.”

  “What else is new?” Wanting to change subjects, she asked, “How come you didn’t win?”

  He shook his head. “We got past the centaurs, but most of us hit that fog and couldn’t go any farther.”

  “Fellbloom elixir.”

  He nodded. “The other aerie didn’t get by it either. Crux, Coronach, Gylph and Aerial were the only ones. And,” he bowed his head, “someone from my aerie died. A centaur arrow knocked him off a boulder and he fell into the river and drown.”

  “Oh God, who?” she felt her chest tighten, thinking about Dink or Bouden.

  “His name was Damien. It upset a lot of people, me included.”

  “I’m sorry Nathaniel.” She squeezed his hand. “So what happened?”

  “The centaurs swear it wasn’t them, but they’re charging one of them: Nessus. Do you remember the centaur we met last time in the Vale?”

  Dani couldn’t believe it. Nessus? “I don’t believe it. I know him.”

  “That’s part of what people are saying: you know him.”

  “They’re blaming me?”

  “They don’t believe it was an accident.”

  “I never met Damien! I don’t know the sarding guy from Adam!” She saw his face flinch. “Sorry.”

  “Some accuse Nessus of playing favorites; intentionally going after us instead of Glyph. That’s what Andreas is claiming, anyway.”

  “Andreas?”

  Nathaniel shrugged. “He was there. He says Nessus ignored closer Glyph Novices and came after them, even though centaurs aren’t supposed to endanger the lives of Novices.” He shook his head. “I never thought the Trials could actually be deadly. I joked about them.” He sounded disgusted. “This is all messed up.”

  Dani’s heart broke for Nathaniel. She stroked his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”

  He looked up at her and his eyes held not just sadness, but something else; something deeper. He squeezed her hand. “I’m just glad you’re alive. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

  She felt afraid; not of Nathaniel, but of that statement. She saw the looks he gave her, especially when she was with Ethan. And now, his hand in hers, the other arm moving around to hold her, it was too much.

  She withdrew her hand, patting him kindly. “You’re a great friend.”

  His eyes flashed with hurt for a second, but they were interrupted. Elder Aleister, the Head Healer, appeared. He wore his usual white robes, with satchels of different medicines in leather holds, and deep-set frown. And he had a visitor with him.

  “Dani,” Judah’s voice warmed with concern. The big man’s rosy cheeks were blotchy from tears. He wore jeans and a flannel shirt, looking like the world’s largest lumberjack. “I am beyond words with joy to see you alive and well.”

  “Hi Judah.”

  “Two months have certainly changed you.” He came to her bedside, taking a seat opposite Nathaniel. “Both of you. You are much more warriors than when we last met.”

  “It’s been two months?” That would make it, what? October? “It’s good to see you too. You brought the golems?”

  “Simple ones, yes.” He nodded. “I’m more of an expert than the Numen; an independent contractor you could say.” He chuckled softly, but it didn’t have the strength of his usual laughter. “I cannot express how sorry I am for what happened. Once made, I cannot control my creatures to every minute detail. When I heard it was you they buried alive, I said to myself, ‘Judah, if that young lady perishes because of you, I swear upon the life of my mother—a very gentle woman, I might add—that I shall rip you apart from the inside.’ And I tell you, I took myself very seriously. I would even perchance to say—.”

  “Judah!” Dani startled him out of his rant. “You’re rambling. It’s fine. I’m fine. We’re fine.”

  He blushed happily. “Thank you. You are a darling. If I were a poet, I’d immortalize you in song.”

  Dani shook her head. “You’re strange.”

  “And that is why you are so fond of me.”

  She was. Judah was the most wonderful person she encountered yet. “Thank you for coming to see me.”

  He rose to his feet, dwarfing everyone in the room. “And I shall see you again at the end of these Trials, I’m sure. It is tradition.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Vespertide, m’lady.” He said cryptically. “I am sure you’ve heard of it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Until we meet again, then. I need to check on my creatures and I perchance may be able to see Tigey.”

  “Tigey? You mean the Tigris?”

  “He is my little schnookums.”

  Nathaniel pointed out, as if it were not obvious, “It’s a twenty-foot tall lion, Judah.”

  “And he loves it when I scratch behind his ears.”

  And with that, the sorcerer-bar owner left, whistling a tune.

  Nathaniel shook his head. “He is all kinds of bonkers.”

  Elder Aleister cleared his throat. “It is good to see you awake Novice Daniella. And you, Novice Nathaniel. I believe you’ve been here every day since her admittance.”

  She squirmed uncomfortably. Ev
ery day?

  “Well, you were wise to take the panacea before the golems buried you.” Aleister told her. “It gave us the critical time to get to you.”

  “Thanks for coming so quickly.” She tried not to be sarcastic. “Has anyone else come to visit me while I was out?”

  “Quite a few, actually; Elders, a few gifted admirers—one in particular, a Shea I believe—and a number of Novices from the Aether aerie. One of its Guardians did, too. Ethan.”

  She brightened a little but tried to keep it out of her voice. “Really?”

  “Yes. Why does that surprise you?”

  She noticed Nathaniel’s scowl. “No reason. What about my Guardian? Mastema?”

  Aleister flustered a little. “I have not seen him since the first day.”

  “Great. My own Guardian didn’t visit.”

  “He’s probably busy.” Nathaniel assured her.

  “Doing what? His only job is to help me.” She crossed her arms.

  “I’m sure Mastema cares.” Nathaniel said. “He’s probably very concerned.”

  ______________________

  “I was not concerned.” Mastema told her. “I did not feel the need to see you.”

  Dani stared at him, so angry she wanted to chuck him over the side of the cliff. When Vespers came, she was released and Nathaniel walked her back to the Arn. She still ached, but the elixir healed her ribs and lungs. Mastema waited for her. He even had the guts to be angry it took her so long.

  “I almost died you pinche idiota!” she screamed.

  “But you did not.”

  “And that makes it better how?”

  He closed his eyes, sitting cross-legged in the pavilion. Dani groaned, stomping her foot and nearly shattering the plank under her. “Could you at least pretend to care?”

  “By spending valuable time with you when there was nothing I could do?” he didn’t open his eyes from meditation. “The healers were caring for you. There was nothing to be gained by my presence.”

  “That is not why friends visit people in the hospital!”

  “We are not friends.”

  “I get that now!”

  Silence. She wanted to smack him across the face, but she’d never get the chance. She would get about two steps before he stopped her.