Gods, I missed him.
Collapsed in the middle of the freight elevator of Northwatch tower, I listened to the ominous symphony of battle all around as the wooden platform creaked in slow descent. The metal mechanics and gears groaned. Iron chains rattled. The wooden frame creaked. All of it nearly drowned out the distant shouts of the Tibran soldiers, who were now thoroughly aware of our presence in the fortress. The call to arms was blaring in the night. They’d be waiting for me at the bottom of this elevator, ready to cut me down as soon as I showed my face.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make them work for it.
Besides, somewhere in this abyss, Aubren was still waiting for a rescue. I wouldn’t fail him. Even if that meant he was the only one who got to walk away. He was my brother. I would save him.
I stumbled and staggered as I got to my feet, my head swimming and my vision spotting. I’d already used too much of my power. Jaevid hadn’t been exaggerating when he said that valestepping would drain me. I was on the brink, clinging to consciousness and control. Losing either would be costly.
My mind raced, scraping together a plan. I had to keep it small, make my hits count, and string out my last bit of strength until I could reach Aubren.
Then I’d unleash hell—otherwise known as Noh. I’d go down, and I’d take as many of these Tibran thugs with me as possible to carve a clear path so Aubren could escape.
As the elevator clattered and shook toward the bottom of the shaft, I took in a deep breath. My lungs burned. My body screamed in pain, like someone was splitting my head open, as I called more power to my command. I could feel it rising—a deep chill that quivered through every part of me—as though I were being slowly immersed in freezing water.
Darkness gathered around my open hands, swirling and taking the shape of two long scimitars. I closed my fists around the hilts, gritting my teeth and opening my eyes as the elevator came to a shuddering halt.
There wasn’t time to count them. But at first glance, I figured there were about thirty angry Tibran soldiers standing between the hall to the left and me. That was where our ally, Lamb, had advised me Aubren was being held in the solitary confinement cells.
Right. Time to get started.
A Tibran commander shoved his way to the front of the ranks, shouting the order for the archers to open fire. The twang of a dozen bowstrings filled the air with iron-tipped arrows all aimed straight at me.
I dropped into a crouch, gritting my teeth against the sharp pain in my throbbing brain as my blades flickered in my hands, their jagged tips giving off a lingering trail of streaking black smoke that hung like dark ribbons in the air. I spun, dancing through maneuvers and feeling the hum of every arrow in the air as though it were a part of myself. Two to the right. One dead center. Six more straight for my head. I cut them right out of the air, bringing my blades down in perfect synchronization as my pulse roared in my ears.
My body hummed with dark energy. My nerves blazed. Every movement, every second, brought me closer to the edge.
But there was no stopping now.
“Noh,” I whispered. Just the mention of his name sent another wave of chills through my body. “I’m going to need some backup.”
“At your command, master.” His voice hissed in my mind an instant before I saw him materialize next to me, taking his favorite shape as a black, shadowy canine with tall pointed ears, eyes like red bog fires, and a wide, toothy maw. “Let us teach them what becomes of those who stand in the way of the Harbinger.”
His smile was as wicked as it was disturbing, and the sight of him made the front ranks of the Tibran soldiers hesitate. Some of them stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes wide as though considering an immediate retreat.
“No way.” My mouth twisted into a menacing grin that probably looked a lot like Noh’s. “We’re just getting started.”
* * *
It was a mad sprint. I had minutes left, maybe less. I couldn’t feel my feet as I ran, hurtling headlong down the narrow corridors and torch lit halls of the tower’s solitary confinement cellblock. Every step sent a surge of fresh agony up my spine. My vision swerved in and out of focus, sometimes dimming until I couldn’t see at all.
“Aubren!” I wheezed and gasped, barely about to croak out his name. “Aubren, you better answer me!”
I blitzed past cell after cell, the shouts of prisoners calling to me with haunting, desperate voices through the tiny barred windows on the doors. Sometimes I caught a glimpse of their eyes catching in the dim light, or their fingers reaching out desperately.
I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t save them all.
“Noh, find him!” I rasped.
His voice whispered in my brain. “Of course, master. Right this way.” He materialized like a phantom right ahead, trotting along ahead of me and then vanishing. He appeared again, further down the corridor, taking a sharp right.
The sudden strain of his pull on my power again made both my legs go numb. I fell, barely catching myself before my head cracked off the cold stone floor. My head swam as I lay, listening to my own ragged breaths and the sound of Tibran soldiers in hot pursuit. They weren’t far behind me.
I set my jaw and willed my legs to work, dragging them into place when they tingled and threatened to buckle again.
“They are coming.”
I looked up into Noh’s flickering red eyes, burning like hot coals in the dark. “Thanks. I had no idea.” I rolled my eyes.
“We must hurry.”
“On it,” I growled as I heaved myself up again. “How far is he?”
Noh’s shaped blurred, the edges of his gaunt, canine body wavering like flame. “Not very. But his life is waning. He may not be able to flee on his own.”
“Great.” I leaned against the wall of the corridor for a moment and stamped my feet, trying to bring some feeling back to my calves. “Any more good news?”
“The dragonriders have come. I feel their presence. They are descending upon the roof.”
Jaevid. That had to be his doing. “Evacuating?” I guessed.
Noh’s pointed snout dipped in a nod. “They’ll soon be clear of the tower.”
“Well that’s no good. Who’s going to stand in captivated horror and awe when we raze it to the ground?” I pushed away from the wall and started limping forward again.
Noh’s laughter crackled in my head. “The thousands of Tibran soldiers encamped outside, perhaps?”
I smirked. “Good enough for me.” At the very least, maybe they’d give it a second thought before they challenged the force of Maldobar again.
The further I ran, the less frequent the torches lighting the hallways became. It was nearly total darkness, and all I could see of Noh were his glowing eyes lighting my path in the gloom. Behind us, the sound of the soldiers grew louder and louder. They were gaining on us.
“H-how much further is—?”
“Here!” Noh stopped so suddenly, I nearly limped right past him.
I approached the solid iron door of a cell. It was on the opposite side of the hall than all the others. I could only guess it was an extra special, deluxe solitary suite especially for royal guests. Pfft. Yeah, right.
“Aubren,” I shouted and beat my fist on the door. “It’s Reigh. Can you hear me?”
No answer.
“You better not be dead in there! So help me, I will drag you back through the Vale if I have to.”
Still nothing.
My body burned with a surge of adrenaline and panic. How bad off was he? Would he be able to get out of here, even if I carved a path for him?
Bringing the door down with my power wasn’t the problem—it was what came after. I’d be a breath away from losing it, or dying, or collapsing. None of those were good, especially if Aubren couldn’t walk out by himself.
Help. I needed help.
This called for a change of plan.
Whirling around, I went to the
cell door directly across the hall and banged on that door. “Anyone home in there?”
A pair of shimmering, vivid eyes appeared in the tiny window. They stared at me, wild, desperate, and strange. They had rings of golden yellow around the outside of the irises that faded gradually into an electric shade of green. I’d never seen anything like that.
“Who are you?” a feminine voice asked. It was a soft, breathy sort of voice twanged with an accent I didn’t recognize. Someone from outside Maldobar and Luntharda?
“Someone who can get you out of here. But only if you do something for me in exchange.”
I stood, staring in silence as those strange eyes studied me for a moment. Something about them gave me a swirling, nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach. Or maybe that was Noh sucking away more of my soul again. Who could tell? It was hard to concentrate on anything when I was nodding in and out of consciousness.
“Okay,” the voice answered at last. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to open the doors to your cell and the one across from you. The man inside there is extremely important. You have to help him get out of this tower—even if that means leaving me behind. I will make a path for you, so the soldiers don’t follow. But he must survive. Understand?”
“But where will we go? There must be Tibrans everywhere.”
Good point. “I’ll send you as far away from here as I can. You head north, toward the jungle of Luntharda. Once you get there, climb the first tree you can and wait. Gray elf scouts will find you—they’re running frequent patrols and will probably be watching you long before you even reach the jungle. They’ll take you somewhere safe.”
“They won’t try to kill me?”
I shook my head. “Any enemy of the Tibrans is a friend of theirs. Just tell them Reigh sent you. You’ll be fine.”
“Very well, Reigh,” she answered faintly. “I will do what I can.”
That would have to do.
“Step back from the door,” I commanded as I hobbled to the middle of the hall.
“Master, the Tibran soldiers will be here in minutes,” Noh warned.
It didn’t matter. I only needed one to get this done.
Widening my stance, I set my jaw and spread my arms wide, a hand aimed at both doors on either side of me. One quick burst. That’s all I needed. The mere touch of my power would turn the iron to brittle heaps of rust and ash—the same way I’d freed Jenna from her cell. Then Aubren would be free, too. I could get him out of here. Then I could die knowing I’d at least saved my family.
Jaevid would just have to find a way to save the rest of the kingdom without me.
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my will out into both my hands. The pull was instant, like someone had snatched me under the surface of that freezing water so suddenly I didn’t even have time to scream or take a breath. The temperature dropped. The shadows swelled and filled the air with whispering voices. Then again, those might have been just in my head. I couldn’t tell. And as my vision tunneled, my lungs constricting like someone with icy cold hands were squeezing the air out of them, it didn’t matter.
I was out before I even hit the ground.
TWO
“Reigh!”
The sound of Kiran’s voice jolted me awake. I blinked, squinting up into the brilliant rays of sunlight breaking through the vast green canopy overhead. I breathed in deeply, filling my lungs with the sweet, humid air that smelled of moist soil and the faint aroma of wild jungle flowers.
Home—I was home.
“Reigh, you’re all right.” Kiran’s face appeared over me, drawn into a look of pasty concern. He seemed … younger, somehow. It didn’t make any sense. “Just lie still,” he said in the calm, deep tone he used whenever he was dealing with a frantic patient. His hands shook as he started poking at me, searching my chest and arms for signs of broken bones. “Can you feel this?”
I bobbed my head.
He let out a shaking breath of relief.
I wanted to ask what happened. How could I possibly be back home? Was this some strange manifestation of the Vale? Or was this the paradise that awaited me after death?
“Your leg is going to feel strange. It will hurt. But you need to sit up for me, all right?” Kiran’s expression faltered, flickering between panic and relief. With one hand under my back and the other supporting my neck, he helped me sit up.
That’s when I realized … I was smaller. Too small. Something wasn’t right. It was as though my body had shrunk. Glancing down at my leg, which was lying limply on the ground, I realized why he was so upset. I had a compound fracture in my fibula. The bone was sticking through the skin of my shin, pearly white against all the blood.
The sight made my body flush and my pulse launch into overdrive. But I didn’t even feel it. It didn’t hurt at all. How was that possible?
“You fell a long way. Your leg is broken. I can fix it, but right now we have to get you back home,” he said as he slid his arms under my body and lifted me easily off the jungle floor. “Does anything else hurt? Your neck? Your back?”
“N-no, Kiran.” My voice came out small and childish, muffled by sobs.
Suddenly, I released. No—I remembered. This wasn’t paradise or a trick of the Vale. It was a memory. I’d fallen out of a tree when I was little, broken my leg, and once again dodged an early death. After lying helpless on the jungle floor for hours, Kiran had finally found me.
The instant I remembered, the world around me seemed to get clearer. I could hear the calls of the birds and feel the coolness of my own tears against my flushed cheeks. The familiar scent of medicinal herbs—Kiran’s smell—was so close. It brought all my pain, grief, and shame exploding to the surface again. I wanted to scream, to put my arms around him, to apologize.
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t say anything.
“I was so worried, Reigh. You know better than to go off climbing on your own. You’re not ready yet. You keep pushing yourself too far, and eventually you’re going to fall. You’re going to get hurt.” Kiran started in on a lecture even with his face still blanched with worry as he jogged past trees heavily laden with moss and flowering vines. “What if a tigrex had found you first? Or what if you had broken your back? You keep pushing yourself too far and someday you might break what I cannot fix.”
“I just wanted to see it again,” I whimpered against his shoulder.
“What?”
“The lapiloque’s tree. I thought I could get to the top.”
Kiran blinked in surprise. “Why didn’t you just ask me to take you?”
“You were busy with the scouts. You said you would take me climbing again. You promised. But you never did. You went to train them instead.”
“Oh, Reigh,” Kiran sighed, the tired lines around his eyes seeming to deepen.
“Do you like them better?” I asked. “Because they’re elves, too?”
He jogged to a halt, staring at me in bewilderment. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“That’s what Lurin said. He said you only took me in because you wanted a human pet. He said I’m too stupid and slow to be a scout and that’s why you won’t let me train with them.”
Kiran’s multihued eyes seemed to spark and smolder with anger as he started jogging again, faster than ever. “None of that is true. Lurin is an idiot. I will handle him.”
“Can I tell him that?”
“What?”
“That you said he’s an idiot.”
I nearly missed it. Kiran turned his face away, probably so I wouldn’t see. But the instant before, one corner of his mouth twitched upward into a smile. “No. I’ll tell him myself,” he replied. “And if he doesn’t listen, then life will eventually teach him that the hard way.”
We continued in silence as he carried me through the jungle. All I could do—all I wanted to do—was lie there and stare at him. I wanted to memorize every feature, every detail.
“Kiran?” My tiny, childish voice spoke again.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry I went climbing alone,” I mumbled.
He smiled again, looking down at me with warmth and parental affection I’d almost forgotten. Gods, it had been years since he smiled at me like that. Not that I’d given him much reason to, but it had almost seemed like the older I got, the colder he became. I wondered if that had something to do with Noh, if he’d somehow known what was in store for me.
“It’s all right, Reigh. You’re safe now,” he replied. “Just promise me you won’t do it again. You’re always so eager to prove yourself. But a scout must always be careful. He must always remember Luntharda is not forgiving to the naïve and unprepared—nor is the rest of the world, for that matter. There are dangerous things out there, things that will want to kill or hurt you.”
“Animals? Like the tigrex?”
“Yes, some are animals,” he answered quietly. “But some are men, who are often far worse than any hungry tigrex. They are cruel only for the sake of cruelty.”
The memory began to fade, crumbling around me as Kiran turned to look back at the road ahead.
“You cannot be like that, Reigh. If you must be cruel, if you must kill, let it be for a good reason. Let it be for something good.” His voice was fading fast, growing more distant as his image wavered. “Let it be for something you love more than yourself.”
Little by little, it all dissolved away—back into darkness.
Back into hell.
* * *
A warm, rough-palmed hand patted my cheek, almost comfortingly. It felt nice. Comforting, even. Right up until it gave me a hard smack. My cheek stung and immediately my eyes flew open, staring up into the eerie yellow-green gaze of a young woman stooping over me. “Wake up, boy! You cannot die yet. You promised to get me out of here.”
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