Page 53

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

Liv

Maev thinks I don’t react properly to danger, and perhaps I don’t.

I figured Death would have come for me long ago.

But that was before I had hope—before I met the Guards and began a new life.

Now that I have discovered Brekt’s alive, I can save him.

Danger isn’t scary—hope is. It puts danger into a sharper perspective and shows you everything you could lose.

S creams.

A loud roar.

Someone shook me.

Terrible echoes bounced across the canyon walls until they reached where Maev and I slept, and it took me several long seconds of blinking away sleep before reality set in.

“It’s coming from all sides,” Maev said as she strapped on her pack, searching the far reaches of the pass we were trapped in. The look she sent me told me to smarten up and get moving.

The sun was up, the heat already reaching us in the overhang’s shadow, but my blood ran cold.

The bellows were getting closer now. There was a scream of death before silence, then another took its place as Maev and I moved out into the sun and stuck to the rock wall, continuing toward the crashed airship. My heart pounded with each step.

The canyon walls were high, and there weren’t many places to hide past the overhang.

“We need to move fast, get out of this passage and away from the voices,” Maev whispered behind me.

A dark shadow passed overhead, and we both threw ourselves against the rock wall and glanced up.

“Is it the Aspis?” Maev asked, a tremor in her voice.

“I … don’t know.” I felt the beast, but it was faint, as if it were far away. Had something dulled the pull?

The screaming stopped.

“This is worse than the nightmares.” I coughed as dry air hit my lungs, and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

“This place is like a death trap from a horror story,” Maev added. “All night, I thought the jagged rocks looked like teeth that would chomp and squish us.”

Dirt scuffed at the end of the passage in the direction we’d come from. My fingers trembled violently when I pressed a hand to my mouth.

A stranger’s voice echoed, “Run. This way. They’re close.”

Were they coming for us? Maev and I exchanged a terrified look before bolting for the other end of the passage.

“Run, Maev, don’t stop for anything.” My foot slid on dirt as I took off, and Maev cursed behind me as she followed. With the little strength we had, we vaulted over rock and dried bones. One snapped under my feet as I landed on it.

The shadow blocked out the sun again, and a loud scream tore from the sky.

“Liv, what is that? Is it the Aspis?” Maev panted. “Those screams are from people in the air.” A loud thud hit the ground behind us. “Don’t look!” Maev shouted as I turned.

There was screaming again, this time from around the bend, and we skidded to a halt. I grabbed Maev’s arm, pulling her towards a boulder to hide behind. “We are surrounded, Maev.”

We ducked down when more footsteps came around the corner.

Several Aethar in drab clothing and scarred skin raced past, heading in the direction we came from. They kept their attention on the sky as they ran. Blood soaked their clothes, as sweat poured down their marbled skin.

“He’s getting closer,” a gravelly voice warned the group. “He’s killing everything that moves.”

“Then we should stop moving.” It was a woman leading the group. She was climbing over a rock when a loud scream came from the distance. She paused before running again.

The others followed, leaving a trail of blood behind them.

“Enemies at our back, enemies in the sky. The Ikhor will be proud of what we survived when we reach him,” the gravelly-voiced man said before he disappeared.

So the Aethar coming from Rydavas didn’t know who the Ikhor was.

Maev and I wasted no time getting out of the small passage. Around the next bend was a round opening in the canyon, several paths leading off it, and we spun in a circle, each taking in the pathways until we faced each other.

Maev’s face was a mix of dirt and sweat, the lines and dashes of her skin were peeling from days in the sun. “What do we—” Another scream silenced her, and we looked back to the turn we had come from. “I’m scared, Livy.”

“I’ll use the magic if I have to.”

“And call the Aspis to us? If that’s what’s in the sky, let it focus on the Southlanders. We keep running.”

Footprints in the sand surrounded us, leading in every direction. I pointed to my right, where there were fewer steps. “Let’s try that way.”

Rock scuffled behind us, and we whirled around.

My blood went cold.

An Aethar, over six feet tall with blood dripping from his temple, stood behind us. “It seems I’ve found more little Guardians to play with.” He reached out a hand and wrapped it around my neck, squeezing. “You have seconds until you are dead.”

I batted at his hand to no effect, staring into his blood-red eyes.

“My lucky day. The Canyons are full of little tattooed pests scurrying about.” His voice choked around fluid in his mouth. Blood. He’d been in a recent fight.

The veins on the Aethar’s neck were swollen and pulsing, infected perhaps. The veins in his arm, the one holding me in place, had red lines running up and down that stood out in stark contrast to his marred skin. He was more than burned. He was turning rotten.

Behind him, two more Aethar crept in on silent feet, surrounding Maev and me. They looked the same. Red-eyed, sickly, panting like rabid, diseased animals. One of them reached out and grabbed Maev by the arms. She gave a weak cry of pain.

I grabbed the wrist of the monster holding me, trying to shake him off. It was useless. He was one of the largest men I had ever seen. A Sea-leg, too, I could tell from his neck.

He looked up above us. “Keep an eye on the sky, fellas. We don’t want any more visits.”

Blackness edged my vision, and I choked to get air.

It’s time I start playing the Ikhor, I guess. I gathered my courage.

I raised my hands to the air to call on my magic, and a biting cold gathered in my palms as I seized the Aethar’s arm that held me.

He screamed, letting go, and I choked on the fresh wave of dry, sandy air scraping its way down my throat.

I stumbled toward Maev, slamming my hand into the face of the one holding her.

We scrambled away, putting ourselves back-to-back, moving in a circle together so I could keep them away from Maev.

I held out my palm to the shocked faces of the Aethar. We had to run—but which way was the right path?

The big Sea-leg was kneeling on the ground, holding blackened arms to his chest. The cold had burned him. I had seen the effects before, in the Lost Lands. There was no repairing damage like that. His breathing laboured as he looked up at me, his face lit with joy. “What do we have here?”

Maev and I stumbled back, putting more distance between us and them. At least we would have a running chance before they tried to grab us again.

The big Sea-leg on the ground spoke again, his liquid voice making me cringe. “These are no Guardians. We have found the Ikhor. Look at my arms.” He raised his frostbitten arms proudly, shocking the other Aethar, and all three turned their attention back to me.

I kept my attention on the Sea-leg, who eyed my black clothing.

Another Aethar spoke, revealing herself to be female, her face red and peeling from where I had frozen her. “Are you certain? Look at them. They reek of Guardians.”

“I am who he says.” I lifted my palms, shimmering with frost. I didn’t mention it was them who reeked after days of travel in this heat.

The Aethar stayed silent as uncertainty settled on the group.

The man on his knees gave a curdled laugh. “We will deliver the Ikhor to Veydes. We will take their lands.”

“We need to run, Liv.” Maev’s voice was surprisingly steady as she inched away from the Aethar. “Ice them all. We need to run.”

“Show us your magic,” one of the Aethar demanded. “Show us the truth.”

A sliver of hope—I could convince them not to attack.

I took a deep breath, and looked down at my palms, dripping water, no longer frosted. What was I feeling at that moment? Scared, angry, and hopeful that I wouldn’t die.

I had no idea what would happen next as I raised my palms, sensing what magic I could pull from the earth. I was hot and cold at once—flame and ice battling to form.

Neither did.

Shit.

Everyone flinched when the light above us winked out, and we all turned to the sky as it brightened—empty.

“It comes. We must go now.” The Sea-leg on the ground stood.

The other Aethar reached for weapons—bows strapped to their back, and I strained harder for my magic, the wind whistling through the canyon.

“Hurry it up, Liv. Once they’ve taken you, I am dead.”

“You’re already dead, Aethar,” came a deep voice from behind us—one so familiar it should be soothing, instead, it sent chills down my spine.

I twisted as an arrow flew past my head, nearly missing Nuo as he stared me down.

The Canyon disappeared. The Aethar meant nothing.

All of my focus narrowed to that searing hatred set deep into his honey-brown eyes. He nearly blended into the pathway’s shadows behind him. He had come on silent footsteps, following his prey.

“The Guards! They lied to us! She is not the Ikhor,” shouted the Aethar behind us. “Kill them all!”

That explained all the footsteps in the sand. They had been cornering the Aethar, herding them like cattle. The screams had been the Guards taking down their enemy, and the shadow was the Aspis overhead.

Bastane and Kazhi appeared silently behind Nuo, the light of the sun beating down on the flat rock and shining off their swords.

Guards at our front, Aethars at our back.

Maev fled for the canyon wall as I stayed frozen, paralyzed in fear.

My magic. I needed to use my magic!

Nuo’s attention flickered toward the Aethar behind me. I think he was deciding whether he had time to kill me before they reached him. His mouth drew a hard line, and his posture shifted. He shot forward, aiming for me, Bastane and Kazhi closing in behind.

Falizha was nowhere in sight.

More arrows shot past my head. “Shit.” I had no time.

Nowhere to go. Maev was running away, disappearing down a path, and I was standing in the middle of a fight, unsure what side to take on.

Once again, my cowardice reared its pathetic head, and I ducked, holding myself to the ground as ice surrounded me, blocking everything out.

The wall stopped Nuo in his tracks. He slammed his fists against it, the crystallized vibration echoing. Boom boom boom . His distorted form stilled, turning.

I followed his line of sight.

Shame hit me—I had protected myself and left Maev out in the open.

“No!” I screamed.

I watched with horror as Nuo disappeared down the same path Maev had just fled. I scrambled for my swords, remembering the trick I had used before to break the ice, but it shattered before I could get my swords in my hands.

The Aethar had reached me first. A gnarled hand wrapped around my arm, pulling me into the open, and I swore. Pain shot down my shoulder where the Aspis had severed my arm as the big Sea-leg’s scarred face filled my vision.

A knife embedded itself in the Aethar’s neck, spraying blood.

He made a face before he collapsed, taking me to the ground with him. I hit my side hard, eating dirt. I stared into his blank face—eyes empty, soul gone. Blood pooled, and I scrambled away from the river of red that cut through the dirt toward me.

A shadow blocked out the sun, and I jerked away when I found Kazhi overtop me.

“Go after your friend,” she said in a low voice. “Nuo is the biggest danger to you two now. Nothing else. He wants blood.”

I groaned as I stood. My entire side would be bruised.

Kazhi’s smile was wicked as she turned back to the attacking Aethar.

I flew past her as she took on the last ones standing, not stopping to question her motives. I didn’t see Bastane. I only ran.

“Please, Nuo,” I cried to the canyons before me. “Don’t kill her.”