Page 60 of Fallen: Darkness Ascending, Vol.1

“The moral judgment of a Sovereign lacking in her history always rings hollow.” The Ice Lord bared his teeth. “I will justify nothing to you, but I shall give you a warning. You and these parasites have a head start. Get out of my Desert before my legions come after you.”

“Legions,” Picsi scoffed.

Emmelil gripped his arm. “Crown!”

Uradri sensed her tremble as the Infernal’s snarl turned into a wicked smile.

“Unsurprising, the smart one notices. Hear me: If you stay on this world, my servants will harry you to the ends of these lands, across the waters, until you are too tired to play tag anymore. Then I will collect you. I shall make certain you never harm another child under my watch.”

“Ha!” Picsi barked back, resisting the chill trying to worm its way in. “Hypocrite. You’re why we’re here!”

“Maybe we…?” Emmi began.

Jois called out from an outcrop a full wing stroke away. “I found a door! Hurry!”

Indrath spun with the rest of them, the horrified surprise on his face reviving their courage.

“Go!” Picsi pushed Uradri. “Save Avel! We’ll distract him!”

“Oh, piss,” Emmi croaked in resignation before shifting to pure light. “Last chance, Uradri!”

Last chance, Avel.

“ADRI, NO?—”

“Surprise, nug-munch!”

Uradri fled the field to join Jois as a bright flash lit up the Desert, sending thousands of night creatures scurrying blind to the nearest shelter.

Must be quick.

Jois took her outstretched hand, slipping them through a little-used shortcut that the Handmaiden had created but left ill-defended.

It allowed the two Sovereign to pass through stone and through time together, landing in a tiny pocket of stale, underground air too small for a crouching web spinner.

Uradri struggled to get out of the pocket, withdrawing her wings but her hips nearly stuck. She scraped herself raw crawling into the corrupted passages of the prison, its walls reverberating with cries of torment.

“Hurry,” she breathed, helping a wingless Jois through next. “They’re close. Get ready to blind her with everything you have. I’ll free Avel and we’ll escape the same way.”

Jois nodded, darting ahead of her, his outline already blurring when they rounded the last corner .

“Get away from him!” he bellowed, turning the dark enclave white.

“ You!!” the spider demon shrieked. “ Eeeeee! ”

Uradri made out Avel’s long-struggling aura within the light—beautiful and tragic at once—and claimed his shackles, breaking them with her bare hands.

“I have you,” she whispered, pulling him off the altar into her arms. “You’re safe now.”

He moaned, his eyes still closed. She fled out of the room, trusting Jois to choose his moment to disengage.

Must get you out. Indrath surely wouldn’t drag you back once he saw you were free…

She tripped. Stumbled over something thin and blade-sharp. Metal snapped, whipping around until she and Avel got tangled up in it and collapsed. Landing on the floor, he screamed a terrible pitch which shook her to her core.

“Avel, are you alright?!”

Smokeless torches lit the corridor in a bath of cool blue light. She could see with her eyes how Avel’s blood appeared black, a warm and sticky flood from a gash in his thigh.

Oh, no!

Feet approached from her left while the Handmaiden screeched behind her. Lights flickered and flashed while the torches held steady. Suddenly, Uradri met eyes with Ishuna the Seer, panting in her gown of purple and gold.

Avel’s mother.

“What are you?!” Ishuna hissed. “What have you done to my son?!”

“Untangle us!” Uradri cried. “He will bleed out!”

His mother could see that. She cast a spell whose acrid taste made the Sovereign gag, but the razor webbing came loose from around the bua, at least, even if Ishuna only pulled him free and left Uradri to struggle by herself as the trap tightened up again, dimming her light.

At least it’s not cutting me…

Yet.

Ishuna cradled Avel on her lap, stark terror pasted to her face as her tawny eyes darted around in rapid thought, anywhere but on his face .

“I can heal him!” the Sovereign shouted.

“ You can’t ,” the Seer whispered, taking one of her own tonics from a pouch on her belt to put to his lips. “Drink. Oh, please, it’s not time yet. Drink!”

The bua sputtered, gulping part of it and choking on the rest. The wound on his thigh still gushed. Ishuna was frantic, tossing her gaze fearfully behind her as the scuffle in the altar room got louder and brighter.

Then, a bloodless head bounced off the floor, landing in front of Uradri.

She stared. Picsi.

Indrath crawled out of the tight escape hatch right after. With many details to take in and before he could speak, Ishuna set Avel down and launched to her feet in a rage.

“ You!! ”

“What in?—?”

Uradri watched in stupefied awe as the Seer summoned black flames to her fingertips and tried to scratch the Ice Lord’s face. He caught her wrists, raised her arms above her head, and tripped her with the talon of one wing. She grunted as she hit the floor.

“Give it back!” the Davrin mage wept. “ Now! Give it to me before it’s too late!”

Down the hall, Kadre started laughing maniacally. “Ohhh, Ishuuuuna! Do we ssssense a heartbeat stopping at lassst?”

Uradri witnessed the realization on her brother’s face, denial followed by fury.

“It’s not yours!” the Seer screeched at him. “I never traded it, you know it, and I know you stole it, you goat-fucking fiend!”

“ Hahahahaha! ”

Indrath looked up where the Handmaiden was skittering out of her lair, dragging the ragged corpse of Jois. He looked down, at Avel, helpless and dying, then at the broken mother grinding her teeth.

He looked at Uradri. Met her eyes.

“ What have you done? ” he whispered.

“Do something!” she retorted. “I’ll help you!”

Her brother shook his head, pulling a spider pendant out from behind his back. He lifted it where Ishuna could see, let it drop so she could catch it.

“You’re coming with me,” he hissed to his sister, seizing the wire webbing and dragging Uradri toward the escape.

The Sovereign watched in horror as Ishuna crawled to kneel beside her son, drawing a dagger from her boot.

“What are you doing?!”

The Seer forced the spider pedant into Avel’s mouth and closed it, holding his jaw as she chanted urgently with the spider demon barreling down on them, all eight eyes wide and fangs glistening.

“ No, don’t do it!! ” Uradri cried.

Raising the fisted blade high, Ishuna stabbed her bua through the chest with one strike, cracking his sternum. Her body spasmed along with his, and she wailed as violet light flashed around her arm holding his jaw shut.

“ Miiiiiine! ” Kadre screamed.

Ishuna yanked the pendant out of Avel’s mouth by the chain and threw herself out of the way as the demon landed on the corpse to devour it.

The last thing Uradri saw before Indrath got her out was Ishuna clutching the pendant to her heart and screaming at a sky forever blocked from her view.