Lytira shoved past him, dagger in hand, and drove the blade right into the creature’s eye.
Lex dropped the darkness and felt it slip back into its box within him as he gaped at Lytira.
“That was not my father,” she said. “There was no need to hesitate.” She turned and walked toward the houses which held her people.
Lex stared after her, the courtyard suddenly quiet again.
Acarius came up behind him, patting him on the shoulder. “You did well,” he said. “I would have hesitated, too. He was their king. And your realization saved all those people.” He nodded toward the houses, where the Sephram still took cover.
“Stay inside,” he heard Lytira say to the people. “We don’t know yet why he pulled his forces, but he has to see you to change you. No one leaves the houses until we have a plan.”
Suddenly a child pushed out through the doorway, evading the grasp of the adults. “Mother!” she yelled, rushing toward the body of a fallen Sephram in the courtyard.
“No!” Lytira yelled, reaching for her.
The child screamed and dropped to her knees, already starting to change.
Lytira’s eyes filled with tears as she slid a dagger from her belt. “Gods forgive me,” she whispered.
“Wait!” Lex yelled. If it was dark energy that changed them, and he could absorb dark energy – and if she wasn’t all the way turned yet, there would be some of her normal energy left, so draining her might not kill her – yes, he could do this. He had to try. He closed his eyes, feeling out for the energy, not just within him but outwardly, too. Yes, he could feel it – the same dark presence he’d felt with the wrasseks and Aiacs outside the barn. Inside of him, his own thread of darkness shifted, as though drawn to the darkness outside. Why hadn’t he noticed this before? That dark thread inside him was like a magnet, both pulling and being pulled by the dark energy outside him. He felt for the threads of darkness coming from the girl and within him and forced his mind to grab both ends, slowly drawing them together.
The outward darkness resisted, like a line with a heavy fish on the end. He pulled it gently but steadily, careful not to break the connection, and after a moment it gave, sliding toward him.
Lytira gasped. “It’s working!” she said. “It’s working!”
Lex didn’t dare break his concentration to open his eyes. He clamped even tighter, continuing to pull.
The tension went slack and a stream of darkness tumbled in on him, detached from whatever had held it on the other side. Lex stumbled beneath the weight of it, staggering as the cool trickle of darkness turned hot inside him, beginning to churn.
He opened his eyes. Lytira crouched on the ground in front of him, her arms around the little girl… who was still a little girl, and crying into Lytira’s shoulder. “Shh,” Lytira soothed. “Hush, little one.” Lytira looked up at Lex, her face a mask of awe. “You reversed the change,” she said. “Sulanashum,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “Just like my mother said.”
Lex still felt the darkness churning inside him but he tried to ignore it, hoping it would subside as it had before. “I only wish I knew sooner I could do that,” he said, “Maybe I could have saved more.”
“We know not what we do not know,” Lytira said, still gazing up at him. “But when we know, we act. You did what you could. Thank you.”
“You did well,” Acarius agreed, joining them. “You did really well.”
A laugh rang out through the air, causing them all to look up. Nothing was visible in the canopy, but the voice boomed nonetheless. “That was impressive,” it echoed. “Now let’s see what you do about this.”
A group of wrasseks swept up onto the outer wall of the city, and Lex felt the change before he saw it. It was like someone had opened the floodgate on a river of dark energy, its cold surge rushing through the air above the city in all directions. The wrasseks on the wall began to tremble and change, their dark wings spreading, their round bodies growing, their fur dropping off, replaced by scales. Their batlike faces contorted and grew outward into toothed maws until what stood atop the wall was no longer a group of wrasseks, but crouching, grotesque dragons with wingspans as large as the houses.
“Go,” the voice commanded, and the creatures dove inward on the city, avoiding Lex and the others in the courtyard and instead tearing into the houses where the Sephram hid. The houses broke apart like kindling beneath their powerful, clawed feet, whole sections of roof coming off in one swipe. The creatures moved downward, smashing the houses floor by floor from the top toward the bottom.
“Out!” Lytira yelled, and the people obeyed, shifting back into their animal forms as they rushed out into the courtyard.
“Can you stop it if he turns them?” Acarius asked, seeing the people once again exposed.
“I’m not sure,” Lex said. “I’ll try.”
The Sephram huddled the children together, taking up formation around them.
“Where are the king’s lions?” Lex asked, suddenly realizing their absence. He hadn’t seen them since the people had rushed to the houses.
Acarius glanced around. “I don’t know,” he said. “For that matter, where’s Mare? I haven’t seen her in a while.” He looked suddenly worried.
But then Lytira cried out and doubled over, and Acarius had something entirely new to worry about. He rushed toward her. “What is it?” he asked.
Lex clamped on the darkness inside him, ready to use it if Lytira was beginning to change.
“Ah!” Lytira cried out again, and when she looked up at Acarius, her face was pale. She pulled her hand away from her stomach and it was covered in blood. “I–“ she said, then collapsed to the ground.
Some of the animals shifted back to Sephram form, rushing toward her.
“Take her inside!” Acarius commanded. He looked around. “Where are the healers?”
A wolf rushed forward, shifting into an old woman as it ran. “I think I’m the only one left,” she said as someone grabbed the blanket off the dead king and handed it to her to cover herself.
“Help her,” Acarius said. “Please.”
The woman nodded once and rushed inside.
Lex glanced up at the sky. The dragons had vanished. The wrasseks were gone. No more Aiacs were appearing. What was Malleck up to? Lex looked back toward Acarius and froze as something on the ground caught his eye. It was a dark fog, almost like black smoke, creeping inward from the walls in all directions. It was moving toward the clearing. “Acarius,” Lex called out, his voice trembling, “what is that?”
Acarius looked down. “I don’t know,” he said, a phrase he’d said more times in the past hour than Lex had heard him say the entire time he’d known him.
Lex closed his eyes and probed outward toward the fog. His eyes sprang open. “It’s dark energy,” he said. “It feels like an entire ocean of it.” And it was moving in on them.
As the fog moved inward it began to take shape, sloping upward into upright, almost human-shaped forms, like dark-cloaked sorcerers floating toward them. Lex probed again. There was no life to them; they weren’t creatures – they were pure, dark energy personified.
The energy within him throbbed in response, aching to burst outward. He clamped down on it but it thrashed and boiled, as though the fog were calling to it.
“Acarius?” Lex called. “Something is“ – he had to stop for a breath as the rush of darkness surged up inside him, forcing him to clamp down on it even harder – “wrong.”
The Sephram in the courtyard pressed in against the children, shielding them as the shapes moved inward, but then the fog turned, all the cloaked forms spinning in unison and heading directly for the nearest house – the one where the guards had taken Lytira.
“Protect your queen!” Acarius yelled, and for a moment no one moved.
Do the people not recognize Lytira as queen, even though her father is dead? Lex wondered. Did they still consider her banishe
d?
But then the Sephram shifted into motion, half of the animals herding the children toward a house on the other side of the courtyard while the other half raced to defend their queen from the fog.
It proved futile. The fog split, part of it cutting off the group with the children before they even reached the houses. As the other group leapt into attack toward the other part of the fog, they simply crashed right through it. The fog dissipated, then reformed a few feet over.
Maybe it’s just an illusion, Lex thought, but his guess was quickly shattered as the Sephram who had leapt through the fog dropped to the ground, convulsing. Dark liquid spilled from their eyes as they thrashed, then fell still… dead.
The other group rushed the children away from the fog and back into the center of the courtyard, regrouping their now-much-smaller force around them. The children’s eyes darted wildly around the clearing, terrified, as they huddled within their protective circle of animals.
The fog shifted again and crept toward the house which held Lytira – and also Acarius, who now stood like a lone soldier in the doorway, holding his drawn sword.
Lex reached inward for the darkness, but he didn’t have to reach far. It was right there, on the surface, pushing to burst out of him. He wrapped his mind tight around it, holding it in place as he sent part of his attention outward, seeking a hold on the dark fog.
The dark fog responded to his touch, warming the darkness within him and tugging at it, enticing it outward. Lex clamped down on the darkness inside him again, despite it starting to feel like a boiling pool of lava within him, its pressure building, and reached outward further. He could feel the edges of the fog, could grasp them if he could reach just far enough to shift his grip on it, but – what would happen if he did? He was full to the brim with darkness already, and the sea of dark energy that formed the fog was massive. There was no way he could contain it.
He forced his eyes open, the darkness in him still raging and lurching outward, trying to break free. The fog was almost to Acarius.
“Lex?” Acarius asked, looking down at the fog and then back up at him. “What do I do?” His eyes betrayed his fear, and Lex wanted to tell him to run, but knew he’d never leave Lytira.
Lex clamped his eyes shut, wrapped his mind around the fog, and yanked inward as hard as he could.
CHAPTER 19
The darkness rushed in at him.
Lex suddenly felt like he was drowning, pressed beneath the weight of the dark sea.
He opened his mouth to cry for help, but no sound would come. He couldn’t breathe. He forced his eyes open, and saw that his efforts were working – the dark fog was retreating from Acarius...from everywhere, actually. But despite that victory, Lex’s heart raced with fear. The fog was retreating, yes, but it was all funneling straight into him. He would never be able to hold it all.
He shifted his grip on the darkness inside him, loosening it a bit. The churning mass within him poured out through the gap he’d given it, colliding with the dark sea pushing inward.
Lex felt a small release of pressure. That little shift had done something to the way the darkness moved, taking some of the weight off him. He could breathe again. The darkness continued to press inward but now it felt propped up a bit, as if held by an invisible tentpole. He was in a small pocket within the darkness, safe... for now.
The dark fog was already a few feet back from Acarius, and was slipping away from the Sephram and the children, all rushing toward Lex. I can do this, he thought. I can take it. He continued to pull the darkness inward, watching it slide toward him across the courtyard like an inky ocean in which someone had just pulled a drainplug.
Leeeexxxxxxxxxx, a voice hissed in his mind.
He jumped, nearly losing his grip on the darkness. His heart raced. What was that? He shook his head and refocused.
Lexxxxxx, the voice hissed again, and Lex went suddenly cold.
He knew that voice. His mind flew back to a dark, cavernous room where he knelt, head bent, knees aching from the cold stone floor. Mistress. His mind said it, almost against his will.
The voice responded, carrying the sound of a smile. There you are, my pet, it cooed. I’ve missed you.
Lex’s heart lurched, trying to escape his chest. He knew that voice. He knew that person. He finally remembered who Mistress was. Ardis. And somehow, when he used the darkness, she could see him.
The voice let out a cold laugh.
Lex lost his hold on the darkness.
It collapsed inward, crushing him. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. In his panic he glanced around the courtyard, expecting the darkness to be escaping his grip, but it wasn’t – it was only pouring in on him more quickly.
Acarius stared at him with wide eyes. “No. No! Not again!” he yelled, rushing toward Lex.
Stop stop stop please stop, Lex tried to cry out, not wanting Acarius anywhere near him when it happened, but he couldn’t form the words.
And then one, simple thought overwhelmed all others: Amelia. Lex’s gaze flicked toward the house in which she probably still slept, unconscious, unaware of any of this… and completely vulnerable. Malleck Dross had wanted Amelia, too. Lex wished he could go to her, to make sure she was okay. He felt like a dam holding back the rush of darkness. When he finally gave way, would Acarius make sure Amelia was safe? Would any of them even survive it? The world swam, inky ocean spilling into the corners of Lex’s vision.
This was it. This was the end of it. Help me! Lex pleaded to whatever being, whatever god or goddess, whatever force existed which had chosen him, sent him, selected him for this. I’ve failed again. He squeezed his eyes shut as the last of the darkness outside him rushed inward, coalesced with the darkness within him – and exploded.
But just as Lex felt himself fragmenting outward, something caught him, and pressed him back in.
Lex felt the darkness retreating inside him, quivering almost as though it were in pain. A warm, bright presence spread through Lex’s chest, and Lex realized the dark sea within him was shrinking, evaporating in the heat. Gradually the weight of darkness lessened enough that Lex could breathe again, and the inky pressure eased back from his head. He could still feel the dark lake churning inside him, but it was manageable now, and getting lighter by the moment.
Lex opened his eyes and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening. Amelia stood on the balcony of the second floor of the healers’ house, arms reached toward him, body shaking, blazing like a torch. Even her eyes were on fire. Her gaze was focused intently on Lex, the air between them crackling with a stream of white-hot light like a solid tube of lightning. Lex looked down and gasped as he saw he was aflame, too, the lightning pouring into his chest and through his body, turning him into a living beam of light.
Lex turned his arm in front of his face in awe. He could feel the warmth of Amelia’s power on him, but it didn’t burn. It wasn’t painful. It felt like standing in a warm shaft of sunlight, and the cool, dark pool inside him continued to evaporate until was just a thread again, content to lie in wait within him until he called it. All the extra darkness he’d taken in was gone.
Amelia’s light surged, a blinding pulse which filled the city with its searing hum.
A piercing howl cut through the sky above them for one long moment, the sound of something dying. It carried Malleck’s voice.
Then the light snapped back into itself like a flash of lightning, and vanished. The courtyard went quiet.
Amelia dropped her arms and sagged against the balcony rail.
Lex rushed toward the house, looking up at her. The relief inside him was overwhelming, the freedom of no longer being crushed by the dark sea. “How did you…?” he asked, his voice filled with awe. But he stopped, suddenly slapped by a memory – himself, standing amid the enemy, drowning in darkness; and Jana, sending out light toward him but it fizzling, weak. She had tried to save him, too, to save Marcus, but her powers had been
different. She hadn’t carried Amelia’s energy.
Amelia had succeeded where Jana had failed.
This time, they had survived.
Acarius rushed toward Lex. “What did you – that was – how did you – are you okay?” He shouted, peering into Lex’s face. His eyes were wide, and his body was trembling – with fear or excitement, Lex couldn’t tell.
Suddenly Acarius threw his arms around Lex. “You lived,” he whispered, crushing Lex in a tight hug before pulling backward. “Thank the heavens alive, you lived. The last time I saw you do that, you–” He stopped, but he didn’t need to finish. The look on his face made it clear.
The gates of the city burst open, and Baram and a group of others tumbled in. Baram was in Sephram form, a pendant around his neck like Acarius’ but with different symbols. Lex noted this to ask about later. Behind Baram stood an assortment of Sephram and Alomman in various states of dress – or undress, in the Sephram’s sake – battered, dirty, and some bleeding.
“Are they gone from here, too?” Baram asked, his eyes still wild from battle. “We’ve been trying to fight our way through to the gate for the past hour, then they all just vanished.”
“What?” Lex asked, turning toward him.
“They all vanished,” Baram said again. “Aiacs, wrasseks, even the dark fog. Something in the sky let out a howl, there was a bright flash of light, then the whole army just dissolved right in front of us. We were in the middle of fighting, and suddenly we were the only ones there.”
Acarius moved toward him. “You were unharmed by the blast? How is that possible?” he said. “A blast like that should have destroyed everything in its wake.” He paused. “Shouldn’t it?”
Baram shook his head. “I don’t know. It was different this time. I had just gotten my people over the hills the last time we fought Malleck, so I can’t be sure, but from where we stood last time it looked like the blast was dark energy. This time it was bright, like being in the sun itself.”
The Edge of Nothing_The Lex Chronicles_Book 1 Page 30