by Martha Carr
Cheyenne stared at her mom’s outline, silhouetted against the dim moonlight in the barn. The first time she’s left home in what, almost ten years? And it’s not even for a political function. Jesus.
Ember leaned over to her and muttered, “Is it just me, or does your mom look weirdly at home here?”
“Bianca looks weirdly at home everywhere she goes.” Cheyenne met her friend’s gaze and shrugged. “One of her superpowers.”
“I bet her clients hated it.”
“Yep. They stopped complaining about having to drive out to the estate.”
“All right.” Maleshi pointed at the far wall of the barn, and a flash of silver light illuminated a shimmering wall at the back. “There it is.”
Bianca studied the Border portal with nothing but curiosity. “Refracted light.”
“I’m sorry?”
Cheyenne’s mom turned to look at the general. “Like sunlight on a pool.”
“Ah. That’s temporary.” Maleshi nodded. “You’ll have to excuse me, Bianca. What you see right now isn’t truly me. I just want you to have fair warning. You understand.”
“Well, I’m trying.”
With a sympathetic smile, the nightstalker snapped her fingers. Her body shimmered silver, and her human illusion fell away to reveal the black fur, glowing silver eyes, and feline features of General Maleshi Hi’et, Ambar’ogúl’s Blade of the Untouched Eye.
Bianca’s only reaction was a slight widening of her eyes. “I see.”
Ember released her illusion too, and her hair regained the streaks that were the same color as her large, luminous purple eyes. A faint pink glow rose around her inhumanly pink skin, and she pulled the brown glass potion vial from her pocket to uncork it. “This is for you.”
“Ah.” The woman reached gingerly for the vial and gave it a hesitant sniff. “How unfortunate.”
“Mom?” Cheyenne studied her mom’s slight disappointment. “What’s wrong?”
“You know I’m not a fan of anise.” Without hesitation, she lifted the vial to her lips and tilted her head back, draining the whole thing in three seconds. Pursing her lips, she handed the vial back to Ember and delicately wiped the corner of her mouth. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected it to be pleasant.”
Ember pocketed the empty vial. “How do you feel?”
“No different, Ember. Thank you. Shall we?”
Cheyenne glanced at Maleshi, who returned her gaze with a small smile and a brief nod. This is so weird.
She slipped into her drow form and pulled the thick silver cuff from the pocket of her trenchcoat to slide it onto her wrist. Bianca gave her a quick once-over but didn’t say a word.
“The important thing to remember, Bianca,” Maleshi said, “is to always keep moving once we’re through. We’ll take care of the rest.”
“Well, that sounds simple enough.”
“Ember and I will go through first. You’ll follow. Cheyenne, Lumil, and Byrd will take the rear.”
“Ambar’ogúl will have its first human,” Lumil said with a nod. “That’s fucking weird.”
Byrd sniggered.
The general eyed the goblin woman for a moment, then gestured at the shimmering window of the Border portal. “Ready?”
“Lead the way, General.” Bianca lifted her chin and watched Maleshi and Ember disappear through the shimmering light. Pressing her lips together, she walked stiffly through after them and vanished.
Cheyenne gritted her teeth. Here goes nothing.
The sharp, burning pressure in her lungs hit her immediately when she stepped into the in-between. Doubling over, she waited for the sensation to pass and was almost knocked over by Lumil barreling into her from behind.
The goblin woman sucked in a wheezing breath and waved the drow off when Cheyenne glanced at her. “Sorry, kid. Just a sec.”
Byrd thumped a fist on his chest and cleared his throat. “Worst fucking part.”
Ember and Maleshi recovered quickly as well, and everyone looked at Bianca to gauge the woman’s reaction.
Cheyenne’s mom stood erect in the thick, soupy blackness of the in-between, which was now infected with the blight. She seemed more surprised by the magicals’ discomfort during the first stage of the crossing than by her new surroundings. “Did I miss something?”
“It’s a little rough, stepping through,” Cheyenne muttered. “It doesn’t last very long.”
“Hmm.”
Ember swallowed and took a deep breath to compose herself. “You didn’t feel that?”
“I’m not sure what I should have felt, Ember.” Bianca gazed around the in-between at the thick, sludgy black smoke moving like soup through the unnatural air. “This is certainly different.”
“Let’s move.” Maleshi waved them all forward, then turned to lead the way, studying the slow-swimming shadows as she stepped through the black ooze covering the ground none of them could see. “Stay sharp.”
They moved single file through the gray non-light of the in-between, and Cheyenne found herself searching every moving shadow and trailing wisp of syrupy black smoke with more caution than any other time she’d made the crossing. If she keeps it together like this when the monsters show up, I’ll know she’s officially lost her mind.
“Just let the bastards try to take us,” Lumil muttered. “I’ll send ‘em right back where they belong.”
“You mean here?” Byrd frowned at the goblin woman and shook his head. “Where else are they gonna go?”
“It’s a figure of speech, moron. Shut up.”
Cheyenne flexed her hands as they moved, and a slight wind whistled through the nothingness around them. She swept her gaze across the blackness, pausing briefly to look at her mom’s rigid back in front of her. A cloud of particularly thick black smoke glided toward them, and she gritted her teeth. “Just keep moving, Mom. No matter what, okay?”
“I heard the warning the first time, Cheyenne.” Bianca turned to look over her shoulder and gestured ahead of her, and her hand floated through the thick cloud passing in front of her. “It’s hardly a complicated directive.”
The second the woman’s hand entered the cloud, the black smoke burst aside and filtered out into nothing, moving swiftly away from her.
What the hell?
“Maleshi.” Cheyenne nodded at her mom when the general turned. “Do you see this?”
“You’ll have to be a little more specific, kid.”
“Mom, do that again. Wave your hand.”
“Cheyenne, this hardly seems like the time.”
“Hold on.” Maleshi’s silver eyes widened when she saw the next thick puff of black smoke redirect itself away from Bianca at the last second. “Everyone keep moving. Bianca, come up here with me if you would.”
“All right.” Bianca stepped quickly toward the general, and puffs of disintegrating black sludge cleared away from her footsteps, leaving a trail of clear gray space behind her. When Maleshi’s eyes narrowed, Bianca raised her eyebrows and kept walking. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about, honestly.”
“Is she for real?” Byrd asked.
“Man, look at that.” Lumil thrust a hand at the smoke clearing in a widening circle around Bianca. “Like fucking oil and water. What the hell is this?”
Maleshi didn’t say anything when Bianca stepped past her and kept walking. “I think we’ll follow her.”
The other magicals exchanged confused glances and quickly stepped through the trail of cleared space after Cheyenne’s mom.
No way this would happen for every human.
Cheyenne frowned at her mom, who picked up the pace in a direct line through the hazy darkness.
Bianca hardly moved her head as she walked, lifting her arm now and then to gingerly wave aside a thick cloud of darkness. The roiling sludge spewed away from her feet to reveal perfectly gray ground beneath her. Shadows rose and fell on either side of their party, but the dark creatures that called the in-between home stayed well away from the hum
an woman leading a group of magicals across the Border.
Ember looked over her shoulder at the drow and raised her eyebrows. “You think it’s the potion?”
“I hope so, Em.” If it’s not, then it’s Bianca Summerlin’s presence. This is insane.
They walked for what felt like another five minutes until Bianca pointed ahead. “That light up there?”
“Yes, that’s where we’re headed.” Maleshi nodded, staring with wide eyes not at the opposite doorway but at Bianca. “Just head that way.”
“I was under the impression that this was a dangerous undertaking, General.”
“Well, we’re not through yet.” Maleshi shot Cheyenne another surprised look and shook her head.
Yeah, I’m right there with you.
The slowly flickering tendrils of in-between blackness shuddered and withdrew when Bianca approached the doorway, shrinking into themselves and disappearing around the rectangle of light. “And we step through this one just like the last?”
“That’s right.” Maleshi scanned the thickening shadows around them with a deep frown. “Just keep going.”
“Simple enough.” Just as Bianca reached the doorway, her body pulsed with orange light. The runes etched into her skin illuminated all at once, the orange light showing through her clothing. With a gasp, she threw her head back and faltered before her next step.
“Mom?”
The runes pulsed brighter, and Bianca screamed.
She crumpled to the ground, sending up sprays of disintegrating black smoke. The screaming didn’t stop.
“Shit.” Cheyenne raced to her mom, gritting her teeth against the earsplitting screams and the howling wind kicking up around them. “Mom! Hey, I’m here. Can you hear me?”
She reached out to touch Bianca’s shoulder, and the woman flinched away from her with a shriek.
“Move.” Maleshi’s hands crackled with silver light as she scanned the dark shadows closing in on them.
“Fuck. Mom, I’m sorry.”
“Now, Cheyenne!” Maleshi snarled as a huge black tentacle wove toward them.
Cheyenne scooped her mom up in her arms, gritting her teeth against the ache in her shoulders, and carried Bianca through the doorway. The woman continued to scream, writhing and flailing in her daughter’s arms. The rest of their group darted through the doorway after her, and Cheyenne sucked in a sharp breath when Bianca’s hand smacked her face.
They stood outside the fellfire pits where the Sorren Gán had created the portal. Hangivol’s lights filled the darkness in front of them, and Bianca wouldn’t stop screaming.
“What’s wrong with her?” Lumil tossed her hair out of her eyes.
“Mom. Mom, it’s okay.” Cheyenne struggled to keep her hold of Bianca’s jerking body, which was growing hotter in her arms by the second.
“What happened?” Maleshi asked.
“I don’t know.” Cheyenne crouched and tightened her hold on her mom before the woman could throw herself to the ground. “Shit. Ember, grab my activator.”
“Pocket?”
“Yeah. This one. On the right!”
Ember floated over to her and shoved a hand into Cheyenne’s pocket. Her head jerked sideways when Bianca’s flailing hand caught her in the temple, but she finally wrenched out the activator and had to brush Bianca’s arms aside to stick the thing behind Cheyenne’s ear.
The drow’s eyelids fluttered, and she almost dropped Bianca again before the activator synced with her magic.
“Cheyenne, she needs to—”
“Don’t tell me what she needs,” Cheyenne growled. She brushed past Maleshi and stormed across the fellfire pits, which sent an occasional plume of green flames into the night sky.
Bianca bucked and flailed in her arms, letting out shriek after agonized shriek, but Cheyenne moved swiftly up the tunnel to the walkway around the city’s outer wall. I need to move faster.
Chapter Seventy-Three
“Cheyenne, wait!” Ember called, racing after her friend through the tunnel. “We’re coming with you.”
Cheyenne barely heard the fae’s shout, focused only on not dropping Bianca as she scanned the scrolling lines of code racing along the metal of Hangivol’s walls and the walkway beneath her feet. She’s not gonna make it.
Her activator pulled up prompts she barely acknowledged, but her magic and urgency worked for her automatically. Line after line of code in the walls lit up in her vision without her having to choose or even read them. She didn’t need to find a programmed door in the city’s walls. All she had to do was keep walking, and Hangivol responded to the true O’gúl Crown without hesitation.
The wall opened in front of her, metal segments sliding back and folding in on themselves. Cheyenne picked up the pace, moving steadily as Bianca screamed and flailed. The drow hardly felt her mother’s uncontrolled slaps to her face and neck or the growing heat of the woman’s body.
The city groaned around her and came to life, moving and rearranging in anticipation of where Cheyenne wanted to go even before she knew. A staircase materialized in front of her, and when she stepped onto the first stair, the metal lifted her and rearranged again.
She could see through the city walls now, the multiple layers of Hangivol’s district levels racing through her vision like the entire world was written in two-dimensional code. I need to be in the Heart. I have to get her there.
Without thinking about it, she stepped forward, and the lines of code racing across the O’gúl capital exploded. She carried her mom through them like they were smoke on the wind, the walls racing past her and shrinking, melting away. Two steps later, she was in the Heart, starlight spilling through the central courtyard from the open ceiling.
“Anyone here?” she shouted. “Help! I need help!”
Bianca kept screaming, and one of her flailing legs hit Cheyenne’s wounded hip. The drow cried out in pain and dropped to one knee.
“Anybody!” She gently lowered her mom to the white stone of the Heart’s floor beside the gnarled, twisted trunk of the last Nimlothar. Bianca bucked and squirmed, seizing on the ground as the glowing runes burning through her skin lit the courtyard with a blazing orange glow. “Help!”
Two windows of dark light opened in front of her. Maleshi and Corian raced through their portals at the same time and hurried to Bianca.
“What happened?” Corian growled, his silver eyes blazing.
“I don’t know. We made the crossing, and she just—” Bianca’s knee came up into Cheyenne’s stomach and she grunted, doubling over. “Help her. I don’t know what to do.”
“Be careful with her,” Maleshi warned as Corian dropped to one knee on the other side of Bianca and reached toward the woman.
The general’s voice and Bianca’s screams faded to nothing as purple light raced up the Nimlothar’s trunk and illuminated every branch and the few leaves still clinging to their perches.
Now, Cheyenne.
“What?” She turned to the tree, breathing heavily and supporting herself with a hand on the stone floor.
Purple and black light raced up and down the tree’s trunk, glowing brighter.
Now you may fulfill your promise. It must be now.
Cheyenne was vaguely aware of Corian lifting Bianca into his arms. Maleshi shouted something at him as she opened another portal out of the Heart, but no sound emerged. Cheyenne couldn’t take her gaze away from the glowing Nimlothar the nightstalkers didn’t seem to notice.
“I can’t do anything yet,” she muttered.
The tree flashed again, and all the strength seeped out of the drow. She fell forward, her jaw striking the stones with a muted crack, and she couldn’t move, but she felt herself rising from the floor again, pulled by the force of the Nimlothar’s magic. She looked down at her body, still lying sprawled on the white stone, and although the sight sent a brief panic racing through her, she couldn’t control any of it.
What is this? What the fuck’s happening?
You
promised, Cheyenne. Now you have everything you need to finish what you started.
She gasped at the visions bombarding her mind as she rose. She saw the deadened Nimlothar forest in the mountains, every not-quite-dead tree ablaze, not with the black fire she’d seen in the last warning vision, but with green flames. A burst of healing energy raced through her and the forest and every tree tied to drow magic. The lifeforce of Ambar’ogúl seemed to squeeze into Cheyenne’s body, not the one lying on the ground but the one floating above the stone of the Heart’s courtyard.
Cheyenne screamed.
No sound emerged.
The vessel is here. You must use it to heal us all. While the Black Flame reigns, the vessel will undo what has been made to rot.
The vessel. Cheyenne could hardly hear herself think when another vision burst through her head of Bianca standing in a dark room, the runes on her skin glowing bright without the pain that had incapacitated her. She saw herself beside her mom, her body flickering with green and black flames like the rest of the world.
I thought I was the one who had to fix everything.
You cannot do it alone. The tree pulsed with purple and black light again as Cheyenne floated over to it. We need you both.
Her translucent hand reached out to the shimmering bark of the last Nimlothar standing to deliver the messages no one else could hear.
The second her finger brushed the withered tree, Cheyenne was shoved back down into her body. A weight unlike anything she’d ever felt pressed against her, crushing her, and she couldn’t move. Everything went dark. She tried to move, but it was impossible.
Do it now.
Her lungs burned, but she couldn’t breathe. Then the need for air was gone. All Cheyenne could feel was a weightless nothingness, and she joined it.
Cheyenne’s body jerked on the stone floor, and she drew in a raw, gasping breath. A fit of coughing overtook her, dust and small flecks of stone being blown away from her as she fought to pull more air into her searing lungs.
“Oh, my God. Cheyenne.” Ember knelt on the ground beside her friend and reached out to help the drow up off the ground. Her luminous violet eyes shone even brighter with brimming tears. “Are you okay?”