“…place salt on the backside of the stone. Stay wary of the front. It is where all the power is drawn from. One touch there and you’ll be dust before you know it.”
“Charming,” Elise said sluggishly.
Once Martin’s lecture on the proper etiquette of val mortem crystals concluded, they divided into pairs and started in opposite directions. Martin and Quinn worked the northside of the ruins. Whereas, Billy and Elise began on the southside. They would need to take them all out as efficiently as possible. The moon’s blue tint was changing. Darker. The time was near.
“You’re a princess?” Billy repeated once more.
Elise was unchanged by the comment. “No time for that now. We need to focus.” They came to the first crystal. Elise grabbed a handful of salt and smeared it all over the back. Like a flickering light, the crystal died before it turned to an ordinary stone. “The next one,” she said, handing Billy the salt.
He ran to the second crystal and smeared the salt in his hands over its back. The front blew out like a bedside candle in a storm. Another one down. Billy had grown focused on rubbing salt on the backs of the val mortems that the figure escaped his mind. It was only when he heard an unsuspecting voice on the fourth crystal, that he paused what he was doing. “Abbott?” he questioned. His eyes made out the blond hair and emerald green eyes through the barrier. The beat in his chest skipped. It was like looking through a mirror back to Woolbury, except here he was on the other side of where they needed to be—fighting for his life.
He stood behind a piece of weathered stone for some time, planning his first move. The moon was still blue. He had time. But how much of it? Once the dragon was at bay, the first layer of defense was down. As the hot ring cooled, he crossed over and inched closer to his battle. Frostbite had done his job, now it was Quinn and Martin's turn. The crystals needed to be destroyed before he confronted Lilith. She’d be too powerful to fight. There would be no chance.
Inedal’s authority had returned. His courage escaped him. Each breath felt like it could be his very last. The entirety of the world was counting on him whether he liked it or not. Soren was counting on him. He needed to suck up whatever courage he could find. It was too late to turn back.
“Ver nadek malik. Ver nadek malik. Ver nadek malik,” the shadow woman chanted.
Like beacons in the darkness, one by one the circling val mortem crystals were extinguished. “Seven more,” Abbott said. He watched as figures crawled in the dark to each location. Then there were three more remaining, and then two. It was his move now. He lept from behind his cover and charged to the center, where the Archway was. “I won’t let you win!” he called as sweat filled his palms and cascaded down his brow.
The ritual ceased. Lilith smirked. “Perfect timing."
“It’s over,” he beckoned as he saw the last val mortem crystal flicker out. “Your power sources are gone.” The wound in her side inflicted by Quinn was gone. She’d healed herself somehow.
Lilith let out a menacing laugh, sending shivers down his bones. “You think I don’t already know? I’ve taken what I needed from them. They’re useless now. And I suspect you took my dragon away as well? No less. It seems the only thing of value I still require is what you’re carrying and your life. Would you hand them both over?”
Abbott did not hesitate. It was now or never. He dashed with Inedal over his head and struck at Lilith.
“So be it,” she sneered as she caught the blade. “Death will give me both.” She kicked Abbott over onto his back. “This will be far too easy for me.”
His grip proceeded to worsen as they went blow for blow. Lilith mocked him with each strike, only putting forth half-effort. Something about playing with her victims before the kill made the death that much sweeter. “A bit more practice would have sufficed. You swing like a boy who knows not what he is doing. You swing out of anger, out of hate. It will get you killed if you do not get your emotions in control.” She tossed a handful of black powder and a thick black curtain formed between them. “Let's see how you do in the dark.”
He could not see the moon’s shade now. The veil encased them both.
Abbott waded in the dark, prodding with the tip of his sword. His lungs burnt as if touched by ice. His arms were numb. He attempted to recall Quinn’s sword lesson but thinking about anything else other than staying alive did not seem wise.
Suddenly, a hand snatched him by his shoulder. Abbott turned, ready to strike another blow until he saw it was not Lilith. It was someone entirely unexpected. “Billy?” he said. “What are you doing here?” His sword lowered. Of all the people he’d thought of at this moment, he was the last on the list. They’d left on bad terms with a lie. And now here he was in the flesh.
“Saving you. Like always,” he said with a chipper voice. He had nothing more than a knife in his hands the length of a twig.
“And what do you intend on doing with that?”
“Better than nothing.”
“How’d you get here? What happened back home? And Violet ?” inquired Abbott intently.
Billy let out a laugh. “I don’t think we have time right now, mate.”
The black smoke cleared. Abbott could see overhead. The moon was pink. He’d have to get the Guardian from Lilith before it turned red to return home.
They went back to back so they could not be surprised. The Archway had a thin layer of fabric woven inside it. The worlds were being stitched together under a new manner of laws. The ancient rules of the past were fading away. The old magic was dying as new and more sinister magic replaced it.
An aroma wandered through the stone columns of the Archway straight into Billy and Abbott’s heartstrings. Oak trees. Black Tea. Gloomy rain. The smells of their home. Woolbury.
Abbott grew homesick as the scents made their way through his nose. They represented a better time in his past, but loss now. And it would never exist again if he did not put an end to Lilith.
Another veil of smoke arose.
Lilith bounded through at Abbott with her weapon pulled back behind her head. He caught the blade on the hilt of his sword. “Give it to me now!” she demanded.
“Ara!” Quinn cried, stepping into the inner ruins with her father and Elise by her side. “Can you help us out?”
The soldiers at the foothill of the Spine Mountains took up their shields and marched forward towards the platform.
“On it!” The tabby barn owl swooped down from circling the skies and dove headfirst towards Lilith, but she turned in time to catch the owl by her talons. She tossed her away furiously.
“Enough of these tricks. I will kill you all when I get my throne. Time won’t remember you. No one will even know your names!” she spat. “I’ll usher in a new rule. People will bow down to me and beg for mercy!” Lilith motioned with her and the necks of her army snapped in obedience. “Fytr camit logvine,” she continued. Kill them slowly. One by one her men marched, closing off every possible escape route. They were cornered. Pinned in like wild animals being hunted for sport. “There’s no way you escape this now. Hand over the sword.”
Lilith’s men bound the wrists of everyone but Abbott. Martin did not take too keenly to the involuntary imprisonment, but his part was finished. This was out of his hands. Quinn fought and fought but made no headway.
"Get your hand off me!" Elise kicked and screamed.
Lilith took no higher joy in observing the fight.
When they were all tethered, Lilith had her men line them up. They stood hopeless and defeated as a sea of men trapped them in. “So be it,” she said. “They will die traitors, and I will pry the sword from your dead grip.”
“No, you won’t,” Elise said, spitting at her feet.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Quinn smirked.
Ara tore at the pocket of Lilith’s clothing and removed the precious black stone. The barn owl swirled from the sky, avoiding Lilith’s long arms, dropping the stone happily in Abbott’s hands.
Without a second to think, he pressed the stone into Inedal’s hilt. One after another the runes running the length of the blade started to glow. The cold iron was wrapped in blue light and dripped from the blade into the wielder’s arms.
Abbott fell to his knees as the power of the blade seeped into his weak arms. He felt strength tenfold to his own. The Guardian and Inedal were united. He looked up into the skies and the moon was blood red. All he needed to do was cast the sword into the doorway, but Lilith stood in his way. Her eyes burnt bright with fury as Inedal swung to strike her.
The blade’s glow was too overpowering even for her. Lilith gritted her teeth angrily as her chances slowly began to slip away.
Strike. Parry. Strike. Parry. Abbott’s skill matched her own, breaking the weapon in her hand broke into a thousand pieces. Billy tore free of his imprisonment as Frostbite cut through the skies accompanied by a scaly guest. The dragon landed on a stone column next to Frostbite and growled from the depths of its beastly stomach.
Lilith’s amethyst eyes swelled as she saw the beast was no longer under her dominance. Her men all stepped back in fear as the beast huffed a fiery warning into the air.
“You wouldn’t kill me. You’re weak.” She muttered words under her breath. Her eyes shifted hues, and Billy was pulled towards her grip. “Hand it over or he dies.” Billy gulped as her dagger opened a sliver in his throat. A drip cascaded down his freckled neck. “HAND OVER THE SWORD!” she demanded, cracks of light crashed from the lands above. “I will not ask twice.” Lilith’s eyes were engulfed. This was her last chance.
The dragon hissed in protest, curling its pink tongue.
Checkmate. He could not part with Inedal. If he did, Lilith would win. If he didn’t, Billy would die. The only trace from the world beyond those stone pillars would be gone. The stone in the hilt shinned like a beacon and its power proceeded to surge through his body. He could not open his fingers. Inedal possessed a will of its own. It went against Lilith’s command. Protecting itself from evil intentions.
“Don’t do it, Abbott!” Billy said from beneath the blade.
“SHUT UP!” Lilith’s burnt fist brushed the freckled cheeks of her prisoner, leaving a mouthful of blood. “What will it be? The sword or his death on your hands? You’ve already lost your father’s life, will he too be slain?” Her hands twitched as the veil started to dim.
The moon’s bloody tint faded. His only opportunity to return home disappeared with it. His sadness was trapped deep inside. He knew what he’d have to say— what he’d have to do and what he’d lost in the process. Did he have the courage to do what was right?
Against every bone, the blade fell gloomily from his hands. The power retreating from him. He kicked it to Lilith’s side.
“What’re doing?” said Billy. “You can’t let her—“
But it was done. The moon’s luminous surface returned to a pale blue.
Lilith grinned nefariously as she picked up Inedal. In suspended motion, the sword broke to her will. What remained of her pale skin renewed itself. Her beauty, restored. The wounds of her struggles vanished and left her the person intended to be. The darkness was hidden deep within her. Her vile eyes no longer burnt with flames but with shades of authority from the royalty found deep within her bloodline. The throne was hers for the taking. “Dispose of them,” she commanded with her dagger still pressed into Billy’s neck.
“And what of him?” the meek whisper of her men said.
“I have plans for him,” she sneered with her dagger. “It seems like repayment for your trickery is in order.” Lilith drove the end of her dagger into the flesh of his thigh. Billy screamed as the iron went deeper and deeper. A pool of crimson began to form as it poured from his leg. “That is only the beginning.”
“You’ve hurt enough people!” Abbott said, pounding his foot on the stone. “You think you’ve won? Do you think you’ll be able to do what you please? But you’re a coward, requesting others to do your dirty work. I finally understand you. I finally after all this time pity you. You’re afraid— afraid of death that you hide from it when you feel its presence creeping closer. You have no problem dealing it out to others, but the mere thought of it consumes you. I can see it on your face. You’ve seen your death more times than you can count, and you still try to run from it. I know this isn’t how things end. I’ve heard the truth. A far better truth than you could imagine.”
Lilith gritted her teeth. “We will see how true this is when you meet death.”
He outstretched his hand. He closed his eyes. And spoke to the voice deep within his soul. “A far better truth,” he said one more as Inedal whipped back into his hands and his eyes opened full of courage.
Lilith gasped as the hilt ripped away from her grip. Beauty stripped from her skin, the old returned, her face crackled like an aged oil painting. Weak, she fell to her knees. Crawling on her belly like the snake she was.
Golden light shone down with such force the likes of which none had seen before. The lands above pierced down in glory, striking out the embers of fire and evil.
“It’s over,” he said.
“But how? H-how have you—“
“Inedal never calls to evil.”
“B-b-but—“
“This is the end.”
Lilith was blinded. How had she not seen this? What had she missed?
Abbott approached the Archway eagerly. He took his time examining the sword that caused so much destruction. The runes were bright blue. He wondered what they meant, but there was no time to discover them. In parting with Inedal, there came a final goodbye to the life he’d known. Casting the sword into the arch would seal it for good. Woolbury would only be a memory.
He took a deep breath.
“If you do that, you will never be able to return to your homeworld!” Lilith bellowed. Her appearance was ugly, wicked, and unnatural.
He paused as Inedal’s blade was pressed against the veil. Sparks shot all over his face. This was it. There was no turning back. If he throws the sword in, the Archway would crumble. He could never get to see Violet's sweetened face again or any of the people in Woolbury. There was an indefinite force pushing on him to go either way. It was like being stuck beneath a frozen lake. Through the polished ice, he could see what his entire life might be but from this side, he was filled with agony. Lilith would never stop trying to come through. In all her days, she would waste her last breath until it became a reality or die.
He peered into the eyes once haunting him. They were the eyes that’d slain his father— the eyes with no ounce of humanity behind them. Into her purple eyes, he mouthed the words. “No, not if it means more suffering.”
Lilith’s fractured eyes lessoned in skepticism.
“I’m through with running from you. I’m meant to be here. I’m meant to stop you. I’m meant to be with them.” Abbott’s bloodshot eyes glanced back at Quinn standing next to her father and Billy who stood with his arm hung around Elise “They’re my true home.” He turned to the skies overhead, where he believed his father’s star would be, and smirked. “Evinar is my true home. It always has been. I just never knew it.”
And with all the strength in his spirit, Abbott drove the cold-edge of Inedal within the arch splitting it in two. As the veil dissipated between the stone columns and the skies returned, the ruins began to shake. Both of the stone pillars cracked in half and collapsed. The runes on Inedal disappeared as it left his hands. The remaining fragments of the val mortem crystals exploded in a flurry of colors. Abbott could see the tint of them all blossom from the gloss of his enemies’ eye.
Frostbite streamed overhead accompanied by the dragon he’d set free with flames of orange and blue, building a wall of fire between Lilith and her army. When they made for a second pass, the entirety of the legion lowered their shields and weapons in surrender and headed for the hills to escape.
Bright rays of victory broke through the impenetrable skies as Lilith pounded the ground in anger. “Y
ou’re all fools, fools I tell you! Do you have any idea what you’ve done? When word of this reaches the lands beyond these shores, they will send armies in my place! Where one snake's head vanishes, three more shall appear. Mark my words, all of you!”
“And we will be ready for them,” Quinn said in reassurance, “whatever happens.”
“Simple minded and stubborn. It will be the end of you all.”
Abbott watched as Lilith crawled helplessly on her stomach towards what remained of the Archway and the powerless blade. The Guardian was destroyed. Her spell ceased to be completed. Her window of opportunity evaded her. He looked upon on her with pity. She would have done anything to rule both worlds, would have killed anyone who stood in her way. He grew remorse for the kind of person who she had to be to do such foul things. There was no love. No friendships. And no honor. He looked at her for the first time as a weak enemy—lost and alone.
“Please, please, I beg of you— kill me. Grant me a noble death.”
Every fiber in Abbott wanted to serve justice to his father’s killer and put an end to her corruption. But how would he be any different than the evil before him? He thought of his father’s life. Desperately he wanted to exact his revenge— to make things balanced. It would be too easy to let her go. She’d return to her old ways no matter the promises she made. She’d plot against others as long as she was alive. He was certain, but the judgment was not his to pass. Judgment shall not be served at the hands of men.
“I’m not you,” he said. “Your death will not be at my hands. But banishment will. I think you’d be wise to never show your face in Evinar again. I cannot promise those around will show you the same kindness. Your very men have abandoned you. What things will they tell when they scatter throughout the dark places of this land.”
The fragments of the stone blew away like dust out into the sea’s water. Ara did a passing sweep overhead accompanied by Frostbite. His tail flicked happily in the draft as he saw the purple dragonfly away with its freedom. In all the time spent hiding, Frostbite felt for once he’d done something for the greater good.
The Shadow of Our Stars: The Tales of Evinar Page 31