“If I go through this, you’ll let me and my friends leave?”
Brees nodded.
“As simple as that?”
Brees’s gaze shifted back to the chamber. “It’s that simple. Yes.”
“How long will it take?”
“Moments. No time at all.”
“I shouldn’t trust you. Not after what you’ve done, but if it sets me free, then so be it.”
Brees’s expression tightened. The shaman walked ahead and stopped near the chamber’s entrance. “I’ll meet you on the other side.”
Her mind screamed at her to turn away, but she ignored her instinct and stepped inside the silver archway.
The world shifted into a mass of silver and red light.
Her head spun. She stretched her arms outward and stepped forward. “Brees?”
“Keep going,” Brees’s voice said as if from a million miles away.
Wind howled around her and Brees’s voice faded away. The silver light dimmed and a pungent mixture of sweat and fear left her gasping for breath.
She blinked and a glowing gateway appeared in the distance.
Shouts came from all around her mixed with the rustling of cicadas on a hot summer day.
A young girl’s crying and a woman’s screams of desperation came from beside her.
She spun toward the cries and found herself among a throng of humans pressed together like a herd of sheep.
A half-naked girl wearing little more than rags clung to a young dark haired woman. Dirt and soot marred the woman’s face. Tears streaked the woman's cheeks turning the dirt into a smear of black grease. Like the young girl, rags hung from the woman’s exposed body.
The girl’s mother she guessed. A hand shoved her lower back. She stumbled forward running into the back of a shaggy blond-haired man.
“Don’t let them see you stop,” a woman’s hissing voice said from behind.
She whirled to find the speaker and a twelve-wide sea of people stretched behind her to the horizon.
A high-pitched chittering came from her left and she spun again searching for the source.
A creature unlike anything she’d encountered loomed overhead. A jet-black bug, twelve feet long, buzzed a few feet overhead. Razor-sharp spikes lined its forelimbs. The insect’s wings sent the rancid stench of rotting meat and decay rolling in waves over the crowd.
A knot formed in her stomach and she gagged stifling a scream.
The creature hissed displaying a row of jagged black teeth that glistened with a clear sticky gel.
She ducked and reached inside for her guardian’s magic. It came to her but in a trickle. She pulled harder on the thread of power but it refused to yield more than a faint trickle. Not enough to control the beast.
“Look away,” the young mother said in a desperate whisper.
She averted her gaze and shuffled forward with the still moving throng.
Rags, like those of the other refugees, did little to cover her exposed body. “Where are they leading us?” She said without turning her head.
The young mother’s shoulders sagged and the little girl trembled.
She gazed ahead.
The silver gate stood less than a dozen yards away. Standing atop a twin set of high hills, dozens of the giant insects perched like carrion.
Chills rippled along her spine and curled her toes. “What in the world are they?” A gentle push came from behind.
“You have to keep moving,” a young man said from behind.
She shuffled forward toward the gate. “What do they want?” She said over her shoulder.
“Stop talking and walk,” the man said. “Less pain that way.”
Insects buzzed near the gate and the humans ahead of her disappeared through the mouth.
For the first time, she dared a peek through the gate.
An orange sky dominated a bleak landscape draped in twilight’s shadows. The silhouettes of strange creatures dotted the sky.
A loud chittering came from her right and she spun.
Wings buzzing, a pair of the gargantuan insects hovered beside the portal. Chitinous armor adorned with spikes covered their abdomens.
Beside her, the mother and daughter entered the portal. Silver light encased the pair before they stepped through and the glow vanished.
She paused outside the portal and peered upward.
Silver light swirled around the gate’s rim. A triangular apparatus surrounded the gate. Three unblemished steel struts connected three sockets. In each socket, a black and silver orb spun. None of the symbols she’d seen in Sir Alcott’s mural or in the Brotherhood’s temple appeared.
A high-pitched whine came from an insect guarding the portal. The creature swooped and opened its lower jaw.
Her stomach dropped. She lurched forward stumbling through the gate’s entrance. Silver light flashed leaving her blinded. A slight tingle, like sinking into cool bathwater, buzzed across her skin. Overwhelming heat left her gasping for breath.
The sharp stench of death clung to the air.
Her stomach churned and she gagged forcing breath through her throat. The low buzz of insects, thousands strong, droned and she stumbled forward. The blinding glare receded and she wiped tears from her eyes.
Ahead, the refugees plodded forward toward a gaping hole built into a dirt mound. One by one, the refugees disappeared inside the entrance, to a fate she couldn’t imagine.
Was she dreaming? It all felt so real. A greasy film settled over her exposed flesh. She drug her fingers along her arm and a yellowish oil coated her fingertips. She shuttled forward with the flowing crowd.
More armored insects joined in and buzzed the plodding human cattle. From the cave entrance, a whining chittering sound echoed. A moment later, a woman screamed.
A presence buzzed around her consciousness. Familiar yet alien. A sensation she hadn’t experienced since she last walked the Heartwood. A whiff of cinnamon drifted past her nose and she jerked her head upward scanning the dry dirt mounds.
A sapling, bare of any leaves and on the verge of death, lay on its side, uprooted.
Her heart soared and adrenaline surged like a roaring river across her body. On rubbery legs she gaped at the tiny tree and probed with a trickle of her warden’s power.
Like a shipwrecked survivor lost at sea, the sapling clung onto her probing mind. The tiny tree wailed through the link begging for help.
Tears flowed from her eyes thickening the oily substance on her face. She loosed a short laugh of joy. Her eyes tracked right and left.
Two more trees, smaller than the first, lay on their sides careening for help. Flat, broad leaves clung to a tether of life on tiny branches.
Unlike the tree beneath Zen, these trees didn’t probe her mind. They didn’t try to take control of her body and drain her of power. Like lost puppies, they wanted help. Nothing more.
These trees were like those in the Heartwood. What should she make of the tree in Trace's workshop? Was that tree related to these? Was it a different breed?
She probed outward stretching the power granted her to its extreme but found nothing more.
A loud buzzing came from her right and a shadow fell across her body blocking the trees from view.
She slid beneath the lip of the great mound and into the cavern.
A black oily resin lined a sloping tunnel that disappeared ahead. The resin glowed a dull orange providing light for those ahead to descend the sloped path.
The heartwood tree’s cinnamon scent faded replaced by the stench of death and fetid meat.
She followed the crowd lower taking care not to slip on the resin squishing between her bare toes.
To her left, movement came through the glowing resin. An insect, half-formed, moved in a chamber like that of a honeycomb. Beside the larva, another chamber and another insect writhed in its cocoon.
She scanned the walls overhead and to her right.
More insects, in varying degrees of formation, nestled in
a series of never ending combs. A hive unlike anything imaginable.
Her stomach lurched and she gagged. Bile sprayed her throat and she doubled over spitting out a mixture of saliva and stomach acids.
“Come now,” a man’s gentle voice prodded from beside her. “It’s almost over.” The man took hold of her elbow and guided her forward.
She recalled Brees’s conversation. Brees said these creatures bred and consumed human beings for food.
“Thank you.” She met the man’s steady gaze. In another time and place, she would’ve considered the man handsome. A wasted life. Her gaze drifted past the man to the steady flow of souls marching past. So many wasted lives.
“We can’t linger here,” the man said.
She faced the downslope leading further into the hive. “Does it matter?” She turned and met the man’s gaze and regretted the words.
Profound sadness settled in the man’s eyes. “If I let them take my hope, what have I left?”
Hope. Despite a certain death, the man hadn’t given up. A line of heat spread along the base of her neck and she dropped her gaze. “Of course.”
The man guided her forward. “Let’s go. They won’t let you stop here.”
She muddled forward following the crowd deeper into the hive.
A dozen yards ahead the passageway divided into two paths. At the intersection, a pair of armored insects towered over the crowd. Down one passageway, the creatures directed men and boys. Women and girls followed the opposite passageway.
A woman's shrill scream came from where the passageway split.
A child cried out. “Mama. Please mama. Please.” A blond-haired boy pleaded for his mother. An insect with hook-like appendages pulled the boy around the waste.
“No.” A woman strained against the insects guarding the intersection.
She reached for the nature energy at her core and came back with a mere sliver of power. Not enough. Not nearly enough.
An insects chittering preceded a push from the woman behind her. Screams echoed across the passageway. The insects pressed from behind. Women stumbled along the narrowing passageway.
The resin thickened forcing her to pull her feet from ankle-deep muck leaving her stuck like a fly in a trap.
Ahead, the drone of insects intensified overpowering the loudest of screams.
Her instincts screamed at her to run, but she had nowhere to go.
The passageway split again. Women to the right, and girls to the left.
Would they at least spare the children? A sharp prod jabbed her lower back and she screamed glancing over her shoulder.
An insect towered over her. Bulging black eyes held hers. The creature’s mouth opened and it displayed a sharp row of teeth. A second jaw extended revealing a chitinous tongue caked with orange resin.
She screamed and pressed against the woman ahead of her. She recognized the woman. The young mother she'd met earlier.
The woman’s face registered a kind of horror she'd never seen. The insects had taken the woman’s child.
The buzzing grew louder and the passageway opened ahead.
The young mother stepped into a broad room.
A sharp jab came at her ribs and the insect behind her moved closer.
An orange glowing ooze drizzled from the creature’s fangs. The insect lowered its mouth to the nape of her neck.
She lunged forward stepping into the chamber and screamed.
Dozens of insects buzzed in a chamber thirty yards wide and again as tall. At the room’s center a mouth bearing hundreds of fangs appeared built into the floor itself.
Piles of human limbs, heads, and torsos sat in a heap beside the open mouth.
A pair of insects appeared on each side of the young mother. With a butcher's consideration the insects yanked.
The woman loosed a blood-curdling screech.
The insects twisted each appendage. With a sickening crack the woman’s arm came free and blood sprayed from the stumps left behind.
A third insect buzzed lower hooking a wiry limb around the woman’s throat and pulled.
She closed her eyes and screamed a scream born from the depths of her soul. A scream born of primal instinct, natural and raw.
She screamed and screamed unable to stop.
A pair of soft hands grabbed hold of her shoulders.
Brees’s voice came next. “It’s over Danielle. I promise, it’s over.”
With wild-eyed desperation, she clung to Brees. Her breaths came in shallow ragged pulls and sweat soaked her dress.
“Now you know.” Compassion filled the shaman's voice. “Now you understand.”
A profound ache took root inside her and tears welled in her eyes. She wept without holding back. The tears turned into a wail, and she shook unable to control her emotion.
Brees knelt at the chamber’s exit and wrapped her in an embrace. “I’m sorry Danielle. I’m so sorry.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Soul Burn
Blackness, complete and total, surrounded Ronan. Neither sound nor smell touched his senses. No breeze stirred the room’s perfect temperature. Was he dead? The pain that wracked his body moments ago vanished. He moved his fingers and toes without effort or pain. Hadn’t he broken his legs during the fall? He reached for Elan’s magic and found a void, like a hollow gourd, resting at his center. He squeezed his fists tight fighting off a rising wave of panic. “I’ve really done it this time.” The sound of his voice, deep and raw, startled him.
“It’s not as bad as all that,” a voice answered from the darkness.
He recognized the voice and his body surged with adrenaline. “Master Tyrell?” He said voice trembling. He had died.
“Stand up Ronan,” Master Tyrell said.
He pushed himself to his feet and turned in a slow circle.
Darkness left his surroundings shrouded in a field of black.
He blinked and raised his hand an inch from his face. Blackness. “Am I dead?”
“Not yet,” Master Tyrell said. “Not entirely anyway.”
“I don’t understand,” he said. “How can a person be half-dead?”
“You’re between worlds,” Master Tyrell said. “You’re stuck.”
“How can that be?”
“Because of who you are,” Master Tyrell said. “The creature who controls this place tried and failed to take your soul.”
“Where are you?” He said. “How did you end up here?”
“I’m here. I’m trapped the same as you.”
“Why can’t I see you?”
“You’re not trying hard enough,” Tyrell said.
Not trying? He'd traveled around the world searching for answers. “How do I get out of here? I need to leave. I need to save Rika. Without me —”
“Why are you here?” Tyrell’s voice said.
“I came looking for help. I’d hoped the spirit that lives here could remove the sickness keeping me from Elan’s magic.”
“How’s that working out for you?” Tyrell said.
Heat flushed his cheeks and he glared into the darkness. “This may be funny to you, but I can —”
“Relax,” Tyrell said. “You don’t belong here Ronan.”
“How do I leave?”
“If I had the answer, I would’ve moved on long ago. I might ask you the same question.”
“I’m trapped here? Forever?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Up to me? How is any of this up to me?”
“From what I’ve learned, this place acts like a fly trap.”
He sighed. “Please Master Tyrell, I need answers not more questions.”
“I’m trying. Bear with me,” Tyrell said. “The creature who rules this place collects souls. I believe it feeds on them. I’ve seen the dead pass through.”
“What about you? How did you end up here?”
“I don’t know how, but for whatever reason, the creature cannot entirely consume me. I should be grateful.”
> “Are there any others here? Trapped souls, I mean.”
“No,” Tyrell said. “None who I’ve encountered.”
“Master Tyrell, you said I was different. That I didn’t belong. Why?”
“Your soul light,” Tyrell said. “It burns with a vividness and clarity I’ve never seen.”
His stomach fluttered and he stepped forward not daring to hope. “You can see soul threads?”
“Yes,” Tyrell said. “Well... I can here.”
He swallowed unsure if he should ask the next question. “And mine? What color is my thread?”
“Your soul shines with a silver so bright as to blind a man,” Tyrell said. “I’m surprised the creature let you get so far. Of course, the temptation must be great. To feed off a soul such as yours would give the spirit tremendous power.”
“How many souls has the spirit trapped here?” He said.
“I’ve no way of knowing,” Tyrell said. “I see them pass through and disappear. The spirit seems to have a far reach.”
“Why is the spirit allowing us to exist here? I mean in whatever temporary place this is.”
“I don’t believe it holds power on this plane,” Tyrell said. “At least, that’s my theory. If the creature could destroy, it most certainly would.”
“I’m sorry Master Tyrell.” His voice trembled. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”
“Sorry? Don’t be. My sacrifice saved you and the others. It was my choice Ronan. A choice I would make again.”
“I've lost Elan's magic Master Tyrell. I think it's gone forever. I hoped the spirit would remove the sickness infecting my power, but it stole Elan’s magic instead. I have nothing.”
“I see,” Tyrell said. “Then your mission was a success.”
He couldn’t imagine a scenario that would place this outcome in the win column. "I'm not sure I follow."
“The blockage is gone. You’re free.”
“Free for what? I can’t do what I did before. I don’t know how.”
“Don't know how?" Tyrell paused a long moment before speaking. "Ronan, I taught you better than that. Open your eyes and look around you.”
He clenched his jaw and glared into the darkness. “I’ve searched for every answer. Turned over every rock. I’ve nowhere left to go. Souls fuel my magic and nothing living is within a hundred miles of here.”
Maylin's Gate (Book 3) Page 35