Page 66 of A Touch of Stars and Stones (Kirrian #1)

thirty-eight

. . .

Ever

R aiden leads us on, further away from the river, which winds this way and that as if toying with the ground and earth around it, unable to make up its mind as to which way through the trees it wants to travel.

We stray away from it and pause at a spot that looks no different to many we’ve already passed, but apparently, this one is what Raiden was looking for.

She nods to Capella, and then, together, one hand connected, they seem to still themselves and place their free hands on the ground, sinking their fingertips into the soil and mossy surface.

Slowly, green vines and other plants begin to grow, sprouting and taking shape. They weave together, forming a barrier between the spot they chose and the surrounding trees.

The foliage continues to thread together, shielding us from anyone coming from the east—the direction we’re assuming the others will attack from.

We can’t have trekked more than an hour or two, maybe a little more, so we should be safe, but if they do reach us, it won’t take much for them to sprint for their victory.

That’s the other option—defend against them reaching their finish line.

My eyes snap to one of the vines, which is trailing and wrapping around the trunk of a tree, reaching further up into the branches. It’s spiralling around and webbing through the tree to create a soft platform way up in the leaves, far, far off the ground.

A defensible position. Raiden said we needed height, and she created it.

I can’t help but marvel at their magic and what they can do.

“Right.” Raiden brings my attention back to her. “Now. Let’s see what we can do.” She and Capella stand before me. “Ravi, Micah, keep watch.”

“What… what if it does the reverse? Like, instead of growing things, we?—”

“Then we can use it to reinforce this position. We need to try,” she interrupts, leaving no room for doubt. She’s right. I know that, but the idea of death won’t leave my mind.

Capella smiles and encourages me towards them.

They place one of their hands atop the other and rest them just above the ground.

I mirror them and add my hand to theirs before we lower them to the earth.

Breathing in deeply, my mind slips to the water, the sound of the river trickling past. It calls to the still lake in my chest like it wants to be joined, pulling the power from both.

The flow and the energy rush, gathering speed, and it races through me, under my skin and down into the ground through where our hands meet.

There’s a collective gasp, but my eyes are shut, concentrating on the feeling. It’s vast and old, as if the ground is a gateway to a whole other world. One that’s cold and creeping and restless.

Dormant.

I don’t like it. The energy is different. Not the heat and flare when I touch Ten or some of the others. Even with Capella, with Calix or others, this isn’t the same. I shift to pull back…

“Don’t. Not yet. We need to see,” Raiden warns, and I open my eyes to see her watching me.

No. Not me.

The things around me.

Plants, flowers, small animals and insects, all in varying states of decay and rot, rise from the ground around us.

“Er, guys?” Micah calls.

I try to pull my hand away, needing to stop this, but Raiden slams hers over the top, keeping it there.

“No. Wait. Hold,” she commands, and I consider her mad.

“Please. No, I don’t want this. I don’t want to be responsible—” I beg.

“We are all doing this, Ever. Don’t think it’s just you,” Capella offers, her other hand resting on Raiden’s, ensuring I don’t break the connection.

Panic pounds at my heart and wars with the well of power that seems to flow unchecked now. The air turns putrid, thick with death and decay, and I keep my eyes on Capella, not daring to look at what’s emerging from the ground.

“Ever, did you know your eyes turn dark when you use magic?” Raiden asks.

Now? She asks this now?

“Please. This is wrong.” I try again, ignoring her question.

“Guys, whatever the fuck you’re doing, stop. Right fucking now!” Ravi’s panic rings in the air, and we all look at him, staggering backwards towards us.

Something is dragging itself after him.

“Wh-What is that?” I ask.

Raiden and Capella snatch their hands away, dropping the connection, but unlike in class, nothing stops. Nothing changes. It doesn’t die back into the earth, and we all stand and survey the small clearing we’ve created. Whatever is coming for Ravi is still moving, and death is all around us.

Corpses of dead animals and birds lie on the ground, as if raised through the earth with mulch, rotting wood, and tree branches. Stars, it looked like a deathly bog, oozing and smelling.

And something horrid and gnawed and dead still comes for us.

“We need to go. Now. Micah!” I scream for him. “Ravi, hurry up.” They both run towards us, but the thing follows. I’m stuck, unable to move as if death has risen and wrapped its fingers around my boots, and my eyes don’t leave the animal hauling itself towards me.

“Holy shit, Ever. That’s a Jarkoreth. A pretty dead-looking one, but it looks like it might be.

” Wonder glimmers in Capella’s words, and I look again to check if I see the same thing as her.

A humped back dwarfs the rest of its body, lined with veins, no, vines, like ivy.

It has elongated forelimbs, long and spindly, and three sharp claws in place of hands.

It’s grey and sickly, and I can’t tell if that’s because it’s dead or its true colouring.

For a moment, I imagine that in life, its form might have reflected the vibrancy of the forest.

Yes, yes, she sees…

That voice on the breeze answers my silent musing, sending another shiver through me.

And then the Jarkoreth lifts its head towards me.

Half of its face is missing, rotting off, the flesh half clinging to its bones, but one eye still shines with silvery moonlight as if the power of Aslendrix still lingers.

Its overly large maw is needed to contain the jagged razors for teeth that are not hidden behind lips.

If this is what protects the forest, no wonder nobody came here.

It tilts its head to me, swinging forth an arm to dig in and pull its body closer, and still, I cannot move, although the sense of menace has lessened, replaced with pure terror.

“Can you command it?” Raiden asked.

“What!”

“You raised it. Speak to it,” she says.

“Are you crazy?” My voice shrills. But my eyes don’t leave the Jarkoreth. The thought of the leaf brooch surfaces, along with what Capella said earlier.

It might look ghastly and like death incarnate, but it’s wounded, mortally so, dredged back from death by whatever gift I have.

It was at rest, and I took that from it.

Something inside of me eases, making way for a moment of guilt. This is my doing, and I need to fix it. I grapple to leash my courage and stand straighter, pretending I have all the power I need at my fingertips.

To step forward. Towards it.

“I… I’m sorry,” I start. “I didn’t mean to wake you. We won’t hurt you or the forest. I promise.”

It lunges with the same arm, swinging the claws into the ground to heave it forward, dragging the rest of its body with it as if it’s only regained the ability to move parts of itself.

Ravi and Micah both stand behind me now, Raiden and Capella flanking me.

“We’ll leave you in peace. We won’t harm you or the forest,” I repeat.

“Ever, what are you doing?” Capella whisper-hisses from my side.

“Raiden told me to speak to it. I’m reasoning with it.”

“You what!”

“You are familiar but unknown here.” A guttural voice gurgles and wheezes at us.

“We see all. Remember all. But you are new.” The sound echoes around the forest as if it commands the very air to press down and trap us.

Yet the teeth moving in the Jarkoreth’s mouth tell me the voice is from it, the vision sparking an image of flesh and bone being chewed through like nothing.

“Tell me you all heard that?” I ask, closing my eyes and begging Aslendrix that they did.

“We heard.” Raiden’s voice is so level, so unflinching, that I wish I had her strength.

“I… I have a Variscite leaf. It is precious to me. Is that what you recognise?”

The creature shifts its one eye to me, the moonlight flowing like silver over the surface.

“Yes, yes,” it drawls. “That is what I sense. Hold out your hand to me, Fifth. If you truly intend no harm, then let me sense you properly.”

Every muscle in my body constricts as if railing against the idea. My head whips to Raiden and Capella, and fear thunders through me, my hand already shaking at my side.

You must, you must... the wind breezes past, bringing a fresh scent tinged with salt. It brushes over my skin, my palm, as if guiding me forward.

“Ever,” Micah warns.

“I’ll be fine.” I’m just walking up to pet a half-decaying, half-dead fairy tale monster that’s likely going to eat me, but what else am I going to do? Stars, I’m going to die.

The Jarkoreth stays still as if sensing my unease as I take a step towards it. My breathing is shaky and makes it hard for me to stop the trembling, but I move forward again, shoving all my fear down to the bottom of the well of darkness, for that’s what my control feels like now: darkness.

My eyes don’t look at the mouth full of razor teeth. Its gaze stays locked on me with the one working eye, and as soon as I’m three paces closer, I raise my right arm, the hand that I’ve often held the brooch in—the one it might be sensing.

“Closer. Closer.” It beckons, but fear singes every nerve and muscle, making it harder and harder for my body to obey my mind.

The image of me bleeding in the snow, with Ten standing over me, pierces my memory, jolting me. However, with it comes a strange sense of confidence because I’ve seen how I die, and it’s not by being eaten by this beast.

It won’t kill me.

Three more steps with my arm outstretched.

“Ahh, yes. Kalan. Kalan, I know. You have his mark.”