A Tide of War

by Bella Forrest

  We all followed his lead. I watched as the shadow crept over the cove, leaving the portal unwatched. This was our chance.

  “Ibrahim, Nuriya—try to go further around,” I commanded. “See if you can reach the portal while we distract the army.”

  They left, vanishing entirely from view. All we needed to do was provide enough of a distraction that their magic wouldn’t be noticed…we didn’t know if the shadow could see behind their spells or evasion tactics. Considering the team I had with me, distraction should be an easy enough task.

  Soon the gray, cloying blackness had surrounded us. I felt the strange sense of dread creep up my spine, the way it always did when the shadow was near—my theory was that the creatures tried to make us feel separate and alone, to instill a sense of hopelessness in their enemies before they struck. It was an effective strategy, unless you were facing a group of fighters who were family—or potential family, in the case of Tejus. My brother and I had seen too much together, fought side by side too many times through the centuries for us to ever feel that we didn’t have one another’s back. We knew we did, and we always would.

  Tejus was the first to make a direct hit on the encroaching shadow. The form of the soldier appeared, its ashen face twisted in pain and fury before it turned to smoke-like ashes.

  The battle had begun.

  I ripped my claws into the dark smoke. I wounded one of them, but he reached out and grabbed me around the neck, claws digging into me, his strength at odds with his shadowy appearance. I struggled against the vice he created, one hand prying off his grip, the other retrieving an immortal water-infused dagger from my belt. Before he became aware of what I was doing, I slashed the dagger upward along his chest. He bellowed—a sound that didn’t seem like it had just come from him, but the entire army. In the next moment he was ash, and another bit of shadow moved in to take his place.

  I swiftly glanced over at my son. He and Tejus were taking on groups at a time. Back to back, they spun swords at a rapid speed, their aim at neck height—the heads of the soldiers flying upward a split second before their bodies crumbled to nothing.

  They actually looked like they were enjoying themselves, and they weren’t the only ones. Lucas and Aiden seemed to be reveling in the attack, using claws (in Aiden’s case) and swords to cast fatal blows at the enemy. Lethe attacked from above, bellowing ice to freeze the shadow, swooping down to snap at shoulders and heads, then dropping them back onto the ground. It was an effective method of attack, but it still wasn’t enough. The shadow continued to grow; for each dead ashen soldier, another would appear in its place. I continued to slice through my fair share, conscious of keeping one eye on the portal, waiting for a sign that Ibrahim and Nuriya were making progress.

  The shadow wasn’t slowing down. Like the last battle, it didn’t seem to be getting much smaller in size no matter what we did.

  Once again, I contemplated calling for back-up, telling Lethe to fetch the others to help. Before I could, I heard the rumbling of an army moving toward us. It was coming from the direction of Hellswan.

  The entity and its queen were on their way.

  Ben

  I heard the rest of the army approaching along the path. Tejus tensed behind me, causing him to falter, a blow from his sword coming just a second too late. I could hear the sharp intake of his breath as the creature took a swipe at his arm before Tejus lashed out in fury, annihilating the soldier.

  I was facing the path that led to Hellswan. It was difficult with the mass of shadow in front of me, but I could see the glare of the flaming branches that the ghouls were carrying, and the strange, translucent blue glow their skin gave off under the moonlight.

  We were already surrounded by the shadow. If we had to stand and fight the rest of them, we were over. I kept battling, but my breathing had become uneven. I was starting to feel afraid. I didn’t want this to be my last moment. I wanted to see River, Grace and Field. I couldn’t leave my family; I’d promised River that I’d return.

  “What do we do?” I called to my dad, knowing he would have heard their approach too.

  “I’m thinking,” my dad roared, decapitating the head of another soldier. He tried to position himself so he could get a better look at the shoreline. I wasn’t able to see Ibrahim or Nuriya, or if they’d had any success yet in closing the portal.

  “The portal?” I asked, calling out to the whole team—Lethe had a better view than any of us.

  “Nothing’s happening,” the ice dragon called back.

  Dammit.

  If the entity and the rest of the army were heading this way, then we’d failed on all counts.

  The screeching of the ghouls grew louder.

  “Tejus! Ben!” my dad bellowed in our direction. “If things get…tricky, head back to the palace. I mean it—just get the hell out of here, okay?”

  I agreed with him, and so did Tejus. But I knew that neither of us would leave. I wasn’t blind—I could see, even from the limited time we’d spent with the sentries, that Tejus was crazy about my niece, but he was also a warrior. One who wouldn’t leave his men behind.

  I guess this is it, then.

  The rest of the army kept drawing closer. In a few minutes, I would see them come into full view on the path, and then they would be upon us—a force that we couldn’t even hope to destroy.

  “Lethe.” My dad caught the dragon’s attention. “Go and get backup. We need the rest of the army—”

  The dragon roared in shock before my father could finish his order. I looked up to see his talons gripped around the head of one of the soldiers, a large and vicious-looking rip in his wing.

  “Lethe!” I yelled, rushing forward as swiftly as I could to slice away the shadow that was rearing upward to drag the dragon down. Tejus joined me, and together we slashed at the darkness as Lethe disposed of the soldier in his grip.

  He landed back on the ground, breathing ice and snapping at the shadow.

  “Can you still fly?” I yelled.

  “Not sure,” he replied. “I need to give it a few moments.” He fought on, just as deadly on the ground as he was in the air. My father turned to Sherus.

  “Go and tell the others, we need back up, now!”

  The fae king vanished instantly, while the rest of us fought on.

  “If we’re not going to make it,” Tejus growled, “then I want to take as many of these down with me as I can. Are you with me?”

  “I’m in,” I replied.

  In the next moment, the ghouls were upon us. They dodged through the shadow, screaming, claws out and mouths open. They were easy to kill in comparison, but their sheer number made fighting both species at once nearly impossible.

  I heard the laughter of the entity in my head once again.

  My children will finish you off, while I finish the worlds you hold so dear.

  I spun around to try to see if I could find Jenus, maybe to end this once and for all. Instead, the shadow thickened around me and a strong force—like one of the sentries’ barriers—blew me backwards. I went flying into Tejus. Both of us were knocked to the floor. My head slammed into the earth, my sight spinning while I urged my body to get up. The force of the blow affected my hearing. I crawled to my knees, the ground spinning beneath me, but all I could hear was silence.

  “Tejus? Dad?” I tried to call out, but I couldn’t hear myself. I looked over to see Tejus scrambling toward his sword, looking as disorientated as I did.

  The shadow backed away, and I saw the rest of our group, all struggling to stand, looking around in confusion and anger.

  The shadow moved down between the narrow path to the cove. My first thought was of Ibrahim and Nuriya, down by the portal. I staggered forward, using my hands to clamber over to the edge of the cliff.

  Nuriya and Ibrahim were trying to make the shadow and the ghouls back off by surrounding themselves with ice fire. It was working on the ghouls—they screeched around the edges, burning themselves when they tried to get clo
se. It wasn’t as effective on the shadow, and they kept having to vanish and reappear to keep the black mass from consuming them.

  Jenus and the ghoul queen were fast approaching the portal, and I tried to call out a warning.

  I was too late.

  Ibrahim and Nuriya were sent scattering by a barrier expelled by Jenus. From this vantage point I could see what was happening more clearly. We too had been hit by a strange force-field, nothing like the translucent glows that the sentries created as barriers, but something stronger, darker. The edges of it burned red, and rather than being transparent, it was the same graying tones as the shadow.

  They were knocked unconscious.

  I called out in rage, frustrated by my own helplessness. Jenus and his queen stepped toward the yawning portal, and then they were gone—the ghouls and the shadow following close behind.

  We had failed.

  The entity had just been released out into the world.

  Benedict

  It was dawn when we finally sent Zerus off with Field. Julian had woken me in the night, telling me what the sentry had been trying to say all along, that Jenus was the brother who had been communicating with him all this time.

  I was furious with myself for missing that vital piece of information, and I could tell Julian was too. We woke the jinn and Yelena, and then called for the Hawk boys and Ridan. They had been keeping watch over us from the trees above, and were ready to take him then and there, but Zerus, in his befuddled state, suddenly became terrified of returning to Tejus and the ministers. It took forever to calm him down. He refused all help from the jinn, seemingly more terrified by their strange appearance this morning than he was last night. He was in a bad way. Yelena was the most helpful—she spoke to him for a while, both of them sitting by the re-lit fire, murmuring to one another, while we all paced in agitation, wondering if Aisha or Horatio should get Tejus here instead.

  Eventually, whatever Yelena had been telling him worked. Reluctantly he let Field carry him—they would fly back to Memenion’s palace and tell Tejus what was going on.

  The rest of us got moving. Now we had no guide to take us to the base of the mountain, we relied heavily on Sky, Fly and Ridan to guide us. As we got closer and could see the structure of the mountain range more clearly, the jinn seemed hopeful that we would find some of their kind hiding out in the small caves that dotted the multiple rock faces. We sent the Hawk boys and the dragon on ahead, hoping their keen eyesight would locate anything that looked out of place. They hovered over the face of the mountain – slowly tracking across its surface so they didn’t miss anything.

  As we began to climb, finding pathways as best we could, Julian slipped on a loose stone and swore.

  “Look,” he said once he’d regained his balance, “this is so stupid. Let’s just wait here, there’s no point killing ourselves. If Ridan and the Hawks find anything, they can come and get us.”

  “I agree with Julian,” Yelena called out behind me, before I could say anything. “I don’t see why we need to walk the whole way. Their eyesight is much better than ours, I don’t see how we can be of that much help.”

  “Aisha, Horatio, what do you think?” I asked, remembering my grandfather’s advice about a good leader always listening to the rest of his team.

  Aisha looked up at the mountain, hands on her hips as she studied it. “It’s easier for Horatio and me – we can travel much faster than you can. If the Hawks and Ridan could point out areas of interest to us, it might make this faster.”

  “Don’t worry, Benedict,” Horatio added, seeing my downcast expression, “we’ll cover the mountain—we’ll make sure we find them. We won’t come back to GASP empty-handed.”

  “All right,” I agreed. “We’ll wait for you, Ridan and the Hawks then.”

  I sat down on the nearest rock, annoyed to be out of action but realizing it was probably for the best.

  “I hope we find them quickly.” Yelena broke the silence, chewing on her bottom lip and looking worriedly out across the forest. I didn’t reply. I had started thinking about what might be happening back at the castle and the cove – how much danger my family and the other members of GASP were in. I really hoped that the discovery of Zerus and Jenus’s communication would help them.

  I jumped slightly when Aisha appeared beside me.

  “We’ve found something, quick!” she said, and in an instant we’d vanished off the face of the rock. I blinked once, and suddenly we were standing at the top of the mountain – the whole of Nevertide at our feet.

  At the apex of the final rock formation, there was a small opening, its interior cast in gloom. Next to it grew a single tree, low and small, with gnarled and twisted roots that had been battered down by wind. Hanging from one of its four branches was what looked like an old tin lantern.

  Sky, Fly, Horatio and Ridan had waited for us. We all fell silent as we approached the opening, each on our guard as we prepared to face what might lie within. Before we could get within a few feet of our destination, a voice echoed from within the cave.

  “I saw that you were coming. But you are a little late, I’m afraid.”

  We glanced at one another in surprise. The voice was frail—female, and quite wispy—almost as if we were hearing the sounds of a ghost or some other disembodied creature.

  I stepped closer to the cave, wondering if we’d found what we were looking for, or if it was another bewildered sentry hermit.

  I heard a rustling noise, and a woman appeared, stepping out from the shadows into the morning light. Her body was stooped, but straightened up as she left the low ceiling of the cave. I stepped back. Not because she seemed threatening, but I was startled by her appearance. I half felt like I should have bowed down or something…She looked so mystical, like a princess or something. Despite her height, she was very frail-looking, her body like a reed in the wind, and her skin so pale it seemed to glow.

  Her eyes fixed on mine, and I stopped breathing. Her irises were blue but so pale they were almost white, and she seemed to look past me, like I was a phantom. Her hair was long, almost touching the ground, and as white as snow. She wore a white dress too—a plain sheath of material that wrapped around her shapeless body, making it almost impossible to tell how old she was. The weirdest thing about her was her skin. Aside from it being so pale, black shapes or symbols moved across it, flickering in and out of view like shadows. I became transfixed by their movement, but she didn’t seem to mind or notice that she was being stared at.

  “W-what do you mean we’re late?” Yelena asked eventually, her voice slightly trembling.

  “You are late finding me.” She sighed. “But it doesn’t matter…time is turning as it wills, and the pieces of the story are falling where they should.”

  “I don’t understand,” I replied, hoping that I wouldn’t offend her.

  She smiled hesitantly—as if she wasn’t really used to doing it. I wondered how long she’d been up here by herself…or even if she was alone.

  “I am what you’ve been seeking. The creator of the stones, the one who banished the entity.”

  “We were under the impression that you were a jinni, and that there would be more of you,” Aisha interrupted, frowning at the woman. She seemed less than impressed by her appearance—the only one of us who was.

  The woman shook her head. “There is just me.”

  “What are you?” I asked.

  “I am half jinn, on my mother’s side, and half-Ancient, on my father’s side,” she replied, her voice lilting with pleasure.

  “A-An Ancient?” Aisha gasped.

  “Yes,” the woman replied, apparently surprised at the jinni’s tone.

  “And you’re an Oracle,” Aisha asserted furiously. “I recognize those symbols from the dead Oracle twins, but… you can’t possibly be the lovechild of an Ancient and a jinni—even regular witches and jinn are sworn enemies and practically never mingle, not to speak of Ancients and the jinn of old. They would have attacked each othe
r on sight! You’re lying to us.”

  The woman instantly looked troubled, and hurt. I balled my hands into fists, my chest tightening. Suddenly I wasn’t so convinced by her innocent and harmless appearance—I’d heard all about the Ancients, of course. They were an evil group of witches that used to rule The Sanctuary more than a thousand years ago. One of them who’d managed to survive, Lilith, had been the bane of my family’s existence, particularly my mother’s and Uncle Ben’s, for a significant amount of time—the evil old hag had wanted their blood. It was Kiev we had to thank for eventually ending her, after an extremely difficult struggle. I couldn’t imagine how powerful this creature might be… I had never heard of an Ancient conceiving an Oracle.

  “We don’t mean to offend you,” Yelena mumbled, not understanding what was going on. She obviously felt sorry for the woman and glared at me, waiting for me to say something that might make her feel more at ease.

  “I am an Oracle,” the woman replied. “I see the past, the future and the present.”

  “Oh, I thought you were blind,” Yelena burst out before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth in horror before continuing, “I’m so sorry—it’s just there was a girl at my school—and she had eyes like you, and she was blind—and I thought that…”

  “I am blind,” the woman interrupted her gently, “but it doesn’t mean that I can’t see.”

  Yelena nodded her head slowly, still very confused.

  “So, if you’re an Oracle and part Ancient and Jinni, what are you doing in Nevertide? How did you even get here?” Aisha demanded.

  “This is my home,” she replied softly. “I have lived nowhere else. I watch the worlds from my mountain—it’s peaceful here.”

  I was starting to get a bit angry…or, actually, furious. If she had been here all this time—watching everything like she claimed—why hadn’t she done anything?