The Sunset Lands Beyond (The Complete Series, Books 1-3): An epic portal fantasy boxed set

by Sarah Ashwood

  Merelda smiled, but it was now a hideous, grotesque sight.

  “Why, nothing,” she replied sweetly, despite her voice having grown rough and scratchy. “You need only look into my mirror. Afterwards, I shall permit you to use it as you wish. Only look, dear girl. Look again.”

  “Look, look, look...”

  The others took up their chant, but their voices were now as grating as their leader’s, and this time it had no power over me.

  “I won’t look into your mirror,” I told the cat-woman firmly. “What else do you want?”

  Merelda’s features twisted into a furious scowl. “Nothing! Nothing, for I will have your blood before you use my mirror,” she growled.

  “My blood? You want it?”

  She licked her lips greedily. “I could drink it all and thirst for more.”

  “Then take it!” I challenged. “I’ll make you a deal. Fight with me… I’ll even fight on your side if you want, providing you give me your word that your maidens won’t try anything. If you kill me, then you’ve won and you can drink my blood. If I win, your maidens have to allow The Hunter and me safe use of your mirror. Do you agree?”

  She studied me warily. “You would fight on my side?”

  “I will, if you give me your word—”

  “Oh, I give you my word. Stand back!” she hissed at her maidens. On silent feet, they slunk backwards, lining up along the cave wall where they hunkered down, surrounding their mistress. Watching. Waiting.

  Turning to me, Merelda smiled triumphantly. “This one is mine. Come! Let us fight.”

  “No, lass,” The Hunter’s voice rang out. “Stop—think what you’re doing!”

  “I am. And I think this is the only way. Keep me covered,” I nodded towards his crossbow. “Watch out for her maidens. Shoot if you have to. And”—I drew a deep breath—“wait for me.”

  Not giving him a chance to try dissuading me further, I took a flying leap across the mirror. Sword at the ready, I waited for my opponent’s charge.

  It didn’t take long.

  She rushed me with teeth bared, claws extended, and hands swiping madly. Even though I held a sword and she had no weapons but those given her by nature, I quickly discovered this wouldn’t be an easy battle. She was lightning quick and utterly fearless. My skill with the sword, when I wasn’t Become with it, was minimal at best. I had Ilgard to thank that I knew anything at all of swordplay: he was the one who’d insisted I practice solo, as it were, without using my magic.

  For a few blurry minutes, we fought up and down the length of her side of the mirror. Although her maidens hissed and spat like angry kittens when I ventured too close, they stayed put and made no attempts to harm me. I was using every bit of my limited skill simply to stay alive and expending all of my energy to stay on my feet. Fortunately, the length of my blade was keeping Merelda at bay, and neither of us was getting close enough to harm the other. Unluckily, the long ordeal of my Underworld journey began to tell pretty quickly. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer.

  Something’s got to be done…

  Just like that, without further thought or deliberation, that secret place inside my soul opened and power flooded my limbs. Instantly, I was one with my sword—I was my sword—and I was harrying Merelda instead of the other way around. Realizing her danger, she ducked to claim a hidden dagger held by one of her maidens, using it to continue the fight. I laughed. Being made of cold steel, I knew no fear, I simply pressed her harder.

  I couldn’t expect my advantage to last, however. Not in the Underworld. It didn’t. The unleashing of my power must have been a siren song to every dark creature in the vicinity. Over the sounds of our scuffle, I heard the roar of a mighty, rushing wind combined with the garbled cries of a furious approaching multitude.

  The Hunter cried out a warning. “They come, lass! Make haste—finish her now!”

  I wondered why he sounded so frightened. In this state I was invincible; I could take on the Dark Powers themselves and emerge the victor. Still, a tiny part of me that remained human heard The Hunter’s counsel and feared the evil that was coming.

  Kill her now! it ordered.

  I listened, thrusting with my blade. Merelda brought her knife across to deflect the blow. Mid-action, I changed course, swiveling my blade over and around hers then thrusting it upwards into the underside of her chin. Warm blood spewed across my face, effectively breaking my connection with The Hunter’s sword. I wakened as if from a trance, staring in horror at the grisly sight before my eyes. The cat-woman’s body twitched violently, swaying forward then back. I gave my sword a sharp tug, and the corpse slid off, crumpling in a bleeding heap on the cavern floor.

  All around me, her maidens came alive, leaping up to charge. At the same instant, a horde of monstrous figures rounded the bend, howling their bloodlust with chilling cries. The fierce, wicked wind rushed through the chamber, encircling my body, trying to pull me towards them…

  But The Hunter was my salvation. He dove for me, wrapping a powerful arm about my waist. His strength ripped me from the wind’s clutches, and the momentum of his body as it fell carried both of us down into the mirror. I caught a terrifying glimpse of swollen black bodies, hungry mouths dripping noxious saliva, blood-red eyes, and a long, forked tongue just as, by the narrowest of margins, we escaped the wrath of Merelda’s maidens, a dark wind, and the outstretched talons, claws, and fingers of Underworld monsters.

  We hit the mirror, plunging through a blazing pool of liquid light into a dark passageway that dropped steeply. We tumbled downwards, rolling its length until we hit another silver mirror. This we plummeted through as well, screaming at the sucking pain but falling from it into the glorious freedom of Aerisia’s Upperworld.

  Part Two

  Treachery

  Betrayals, Confessions

  “Hannah? Child, wake up. I must see if you are well.”

  The voice was insistent, yet ethereal. Had to be one of the fairies. Braisley or Aureeyah? I struggled to open my eyes so I could find out.

  “My lady?”

  A second voice, much deeper this time, a voice that sent a shiver down my spine. That voice I knew without having to look. Relief washed over me, and I opened my eyes to meet his deep, deep black ones. I started to smile, to stretch out my hand to him…

  Then remembrance hit of what the Interpreter had told me, of how they’d all deceived me and Ilgard, too. Dropping my hand, I pushed myself up on the mattress instead.

  “Get out,” I demanded harshly against a sudden tightness in my throat. “All of you, get out. I won’t have you in this room.”

  “My lady?”

  The Simathe wasn’t the only one taken aback by the rancor in my voice. From the looks on their faces, everyone there was surprised. They were even more surprised when Ilgard dared to lean down and place a hand on my shoulder, as if to calm or comfort me, and I shook it off wildly.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  Realizing I meant it, he let me go and stepped back. Free, I tossed aside the blankets and scrambled quickly across the bed. Away from his hold. Away from him.

  Braisley was there, staring at me wide-eyed, unmasked confusion in her face and tone. “Why, Hannah, whatever is the matter? You are not hurt, surely?”

  “Hurt? I’m not hurt?” I laughed almost hysterically, retreating against the wall. “How dare you ask me that? How dare you stand there, and—and—”

  “And what, my child? Of what do you speak?”

  This time it was Risean who dared approach, holding his hands in plain view as if to signal he meant no harm. It was the posture of somebody approaching an unknown animal, or a crazy person. Was that what I was? Crazy? Should I not be feeling so much pain that these people I’d considered my friends—and in some cases had just learned were my family—had conspired again and again to withhold information from me, namely the biggest, most horrible secret of all?

  “I learned—I learned the truth in the Underwo
rld,” I gasped, fighting back sobs. “How could you? How could you?”

  Most of them were there, gathered in a loose circle around my bed: Braisley, Ilgard, Risean and Rittean, Elisia, Lord Ri, The Hunter. And except for Ilgard and The Hunter, their faces bore identical expressions of stunned anxiety. The Hunter, of course, knew what I was talking about, while a Simathe showed nothing he didn’t want to show.

  Risean tried again. “My daughter, if you would only calm yourself and tell us what troubles you…”

  “What troubles me?” Another hysterical laugh bubbled up. “What’s troubling me is that you all deceived me! If not by outright lying then by keeping silent.”

  I looked directly at Ilgard, separated from me by both the bed and the lies between us. “I could have forgiven the other times you kept silent, but this, Ilgard? This? How could you do this to me?”

  Everyone glanced at him, at each other. Why were they still pretending? Did they think feigning ignorance would get them excused?

  The fairy of Cleyton stretched out a delicate hand, palm up. “My lady, if you take my hand, I trow I can calm you.”

  “Are you insane? Calm me? I don’t want to be calmed. I don’t want anything from you. From any of you. I—I…”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. My body felt flushed, as if the whole room had heated several degrees. My head was spinning. The faces of my former friends seemed to swirl around me. I had to get out of there, which was exactly what I did, pushing Braisley aside and lurching past the rest.

  “Get out of my way,” I ordered, thrusting blindly with both hands at any figures who happened to be in my path. “Just get out of my way, let me go.”

  Amazingly, they did, and I stumbled out of my bedroom and down the hall. A dim part of my mind wondered where The Hunter and I had fallen to once we passed through Merelda’s mirror, and figured it must have been in or near Laytrii, since I’d awakened in my suite at the palace.

  “Lady Hannah?”

  A voice called my name, piercing the mental fog. I thought it was Cole, but I didn’t want to face him any more than the rest. Ignoring him, I continued running blindly toward I didn’t know where. All I knew was I had to get away. I had to be alone to process the pain and my reaction to seeing my former friends. I needed space to breathe, to think, to calm down and decide what to do next.

  The sound of rain attracted my attention, and I ducked into a dim, deserted bedchamber. Following the sound of the rain, I maneuvered past the furniture, draped like ghosts with white sheets, swept aside the heavy curtains guarding the breezeway, and passed out onto the balcony beyond. Cold rain fell from heavy, lowering clouds that shrouded the mountaintops and darkened the world. Winter in this part of Aerisia had been mild and brief. Early spring was already upon us, bringing with it many days of long, steady rains like this.

  I knew it would be cold, I knew I’d been drenched, but I didn’t care. Impervious, I stepped out onto the balcony, so miserable it really didn’t matter. In fact, I honestly don’t think I felt the chill or the dampness for the grief lancing my chest.

  How can facing him be this hard?

  Clinging to the balcony railing, I lifted my face to the sky, allowing the tears to leak from my eyes and be washed away. No one was around to see, so what did it matter?

  He can feel it…

  I don’t care. Let him. He knows I want to be left alone.

  He knew, but would that make him stay away? I could only hope this time he’d do what I wanted, because I was not up to dealing with him right now. Not when this incident was forcing me to face an inescapable truth.

  You’re in love with him.

  “No, I can’t be,” I protested out loud, shaking my head.

  But if I wasn’t, why did the pain of his betrayal outweigh that of everyone else’s?

  Why couldn’t I block him from my mind, even when all I wanted to do was clamp down on my feelings, turn my thoughts inward, and figure out what to do? Why had I left him here in Laytrii, when allowing him to accompany me to the Underworld would’ve been much safer? Why had I longed for his presence in the Underworld—only him and no one else?

  He’d been there since the onset of this crazy adventure, my rock even when I hadn’t liked him at all. Back at the entrance of the Myriad Passages, I’d come close to admitting what was in my heart and had even planned to tell him once I knew for certain. No way, now, could I tell him. In fact, were it in my power I would arrange it so I’d never have to see him again, just like I’d never get to see my family again, either…

  “My lady?”

  The universe was against me. Why couldn’t somebody else have come to track me down? Why did it have to be him?

  “Hannah?”

  And why did he have to use my given name, saying it that way with gentleness and concern? A thousand memories washed over me at that sound, culminating in the garden scene with our hands intertwined, his deep Simathe eyes absorbing the moonlight, and him speaking my name like a vocal caress. Such agony flared that I thought I couldn’t hurt worse, but when his warm, callused hands closed on my upper arms, his mere touch proved that a lie.

  “What troubles you, lass?”

  I shook my head, refusing to respond. As if he didn’t know.

  His palms slid down my arms to just above my elbows, and he drew me backward, stopping shy of actually pulling me against his chest. One hand reached up to sweep the wet hair off the side of my neck, gently smoothing it behind my shoulders.

  Quietly, he said, “Tell me, Hannah.”

  It was a very intimate gesture coming from him. The irony of our Joining meant that we shared an absurd level of intimacy, and yet truly intimate moments between us had been few and far between. I can’t deny that part of me wanted to surrender, wanted to close my eyes and relax against him, letting him be my support. For a moment I stood still, pretending that I was safe in the arms of the man I loved, and everything was all right between us. Sadly, all wasn’t well, and I couldn’t run away from that fact. Pushing away, I turned to face him.

  “You lied to me,” I whispered brokenly, feeling the raindrops slide down my face like tears. “All of you. How could you do that to me?”

  “Lied?”

  “Yes, lied. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you honestly think you could keep me here for… for however long it takes, and I wouldn’t find out? Or was keeping it quiet the way you ensured I had to stay and couldn’t ever go back? Was that it, Ilgard? Was that it?”

  “I fail to understand.”

  “Don’t pretend like you don’t know!” I practically shouted, feeling my fury rise. “You’re in it as much as the rest of them!”

  “Lass, whatever you think, I have never betrayed you.”

  His hand reached out in a pleading gesture to cup my arm. I tried angrily to twist away, but this time he held fast and wouldn’t release me.

  “Let me go!” I cried furiously. “I told you not to touch me!”

  “First, calm yourself. Explain your meaning.”

  His voice was firm, and rather than give quarter his left hand took my other arm in a secure grip. No matter how much I jerked and squirmed, it was to no avail. I couldn’t free myself. That sent me over the edge.

  “How could you be so cruel?” I burst out in a bitter sob. “You never told—never told me that time moves d-differently between our worlds. That it sometimes p-passes slower, sometimes faster here in Aerisa than—than it does on Earth.”

  “My family is dead!” I raged on, slamming my fists against his chest. “Do you hear me? Dead! The clocks, the coffins in my dream? Since I came here, time has sped up, it’s gone by! They’re dead, all of them! I can never go back now. Never! And I never even got the chance to tell them goodbye. You didn’t even give me that chance.”

  Understanding dawned in his eyes. “You did not know.”

  “No, I didn’t know!” I screamed. “They’re dead, and I’ll never see them again. Not even if I cleared things up here could I go back!
My former life is gone, like it never existed: like I never existed. I knew there was never much of a chance of returning, but now whatever tiny hope I had has been ripped away. And what’s even worse is that every single one of you knew and nobody bothered to say a thing about it. How could you not warn me?”

  Anger gave way to hot, desperate, scalding tears. All the fight drained out of me then, and there was only the grief of a permanent farewell and the pain of crushed hope. I stood there, my head hanging, and cried out the sorrow, sorrow that I hadn’t been able to vent in the Underworld. For his part, the warrior-lord remained with me, not running from my pain, not fighting it, and not offering any futile words of comfort. He didn’t attempt to pull me close, which would’ve made me angry, but his strong, sure hands did rub gently up and down the length of my upper arms, in a gesture that I couldn’t help but appreciate as meaning he was giving me my space without going anywhere.

  The tears didn’t last long. Right now I was fully aware I had a challenging situation on my hands and some tough decisions to make. Like it or not, and betrayal aside, I was still the Artan. An entire world was depending on me. I couldn’t write these people off completely, despite that being my first instinct.

  Finally, the sobs reduced to sniffling. I scrubbed under my eyes with the heels of my hands and half-turned to go back inside.

  “I have to go,” I murmured. “I’m soaked, and so are you.”

  I shoved the curtains aside and passed under the doorframe, where we were at least shielded from the rain. Here he caught me, turning me about to face him.

  “My lady, you should understand…”

  “Understand what? What is there to understand? You haven’t bothered to deny anything, so—”

  “Deny? I cannot deny you weren’t told, but I deny any part in it.”

  My shoulders rose and fell in a weak shrug. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s done, over with.”

  “It does matter,” he contradicted. “Perhaps I’ve withheld things from you, but had I known Council failed to tell you this, I would have done so myself.”