“You’ve forgotten,” a voice whispered through her mind.
“You can talk?” It should have terrified her, but there was a strange comfort in it as if she were greeting an old friend. “What have I forgotten?”
“Look.” The stag’s voice seemed to ripple through her, reverberating, as it lowered its antlers down to a pool of water she hadn’t noticed before.
A starless sky reflected on the surface, though it was mid-day.Strange, she thought, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. Peaking over the edge, she didn’t see her reflection, but a black, endless void, and at its center, a pinpoint of light growing bigger and bigger. As it got closer, her back started to burn. She remembered this feeling from the first fever, overwhelming consuming heat. It felt as if her back would split apart and lay her broken in two pieces on the ground. She tried to look away but could not. The darkness had her, and it was pulling her down into oblivion.
12
“Hello? Is someone there?” a voice called out, and Erich drew his weapon. He’d thought he was alone.
He scanned the forest, thinking it was another one of Heinrich’s traps, until Princess Liane’s guard limped into view, a bloody gash torn into his thigh. One inch lower, and it would’ve severed an artery, and he’d have bled out. He still might if he didn’t see a healer soon. Erich jumped down from his saddle and offered him a shoulder to lean on as they hobbled together toward Erich’s horse.
“You’re fortunate I came by when I did. The rest of the hunters are chasing a boar.”
“I know; the boar is what tore into me. I’ve been shouting for help for a while, but no one came. Did Princess Liane send you to find me?” he asked.
“I haven’t seen her. We should get you a healer; you look pale.”
The man swayed a bit in his arms, like a drunkard, and his eyelids fluttered.
But suddenly, he snapped to attention. “Stars. I’d hoped she’d made it back; I lost sight of her when her horse spooked. I have to find her.” He tugged against Erich as if he’d stumble off into the woods himself and look for her.
Erich held him tight. “You’re no use to her in this condition. Do you think you can ride?”
“I think so.”
“Get on.” Erich helped him into the saddle, and the man winced when he put weight on his bad leg.
“Someone needs to alert the guards, and you need a healer. Go back, ring the alarm, and I’ll find the princess.”
The guard studied him for a moment, as if debating his willingness to trust him. Then with a nod, he dug his heels into the horse and rode off back toward camp, while Erich turned his attention to the forest. A shaman in Porroque taught him how to track, and he’d found he had a knack for it. With the dragon close to the surface, his senses were heightened more than usual. He could smell the pungent musk of boar and deer contrasted with the fainter scent of humans. The creek where the guard and Princess Liane had been attacked was close by, and from there, he spotted the trail of broken branches and trampled foliage and followed it.
Her horse was grazing alone in a meadow. He caught it and searched the surrounding area for signs of her, fearing he’d find her lying battered and unconscious in the tall grass. Instead, he detected the faint scent of magic on the wind. His skin prickled with it, and his stomach roiled. When Prince Consort Heinrich had said there were corrupted in the woods, he thought he was taunting him, but now he saw hints of them everywhere, marks on the trees from claws too big for a bear or wild cat. He had to find her before it was too late.
After catching her horse, he noticed a soft shoe print on the ground, surrounded by magic, leading deeper into an old grove forest. He’d found places like it before and never lingered long in them. Thin threads of magic coursed through the trees and soil, and their invisible tendrils tugged upon his bindings, threatening to unravel his control over the dragon. But his concern for Princess Liane urged him forward, following the path she’d taken through the old growth.
Eventually, it grew so thick, he had to leave the horse tied to a tree and continue on, fighting against the bramble which reached up to tear at his clothes. The forest didn’t want him here, or worse, it wanted him to stay forever. Hacking at the plants with his dagger, he cut his way through until the forest opened onto a grouping of moss-covered ruins.
He recognized the sleeping magic; it coated his tongue with a sweet and sour taste. Then he noticed the dead runes carved into stone, weathered to the point of obliteration.He thought the old temples were a myth, a legend passed on from The Corruption, but he knew what it was by the dual sun and moon carved into the archway. Many of the old places were forbidden because they seeped corruption magic. Already cursed, he didn’t want to risk becoming a chimera. But seeing the temple, he understood why it hunted in these old woods, why those thin strains of magic remained. Those that worshipped the Nameless Goddess might be gone, but the trees and earth remembered.
A faint, golden glow shined out from behind vine-covered pillars, and the pulse of magic grew stronger. Dagger held out in front of him; Erich came around the corner to discover Liane kneeling beside a pool of water, her eyes unfocused, as if in a trance.
“Princess Liane, are you hurt?” he asked, taking a step closer.
Then a stag stepped into his path. Unlike any animal he had seen before: split down the middle, one-half white, and one-half black. It fixed Erich with its ageless stare. Ancient magic older than time itself unfurled from it, tugging at the fibers of Erich’s being and eroding the chains which held the dragon back. Recoiling, Erich pulled the chains tighter, doubling them to keep the dragon in check, but the call of ancient magic couldn’t be denied, and he stepped closer.
“Will you protect her, or will you run?” the stag said inside his mind.
“I’m not fit to protect anyone,” Erich said with naked honesty, surprising even himself.
“And yet you came here, knowing the risks.”
He didn’t have a reply to give, and the stag didn’t seem to need one because it turned to stand over Liane once more at the water’s edge. Her skin glowed faintly, as if illuminated from within, the strongest light burning like a rod along her back. Behind her, the shadows shifted. He heard the twinge of a bow string seconds before it flew. Grabbing hold of Liane, he yanked her away from the pool’s edge and caught the arrow with his shoulder. The dragon roared as warm blood trickled down his shoulder blade and dripped into the water.
“You’ve made your choice then.” Then in a cloud of mist, magic fizzled in the air, and the stag disappeared.
Holding Liane, he scanned the ruins to look for the shooter. Someone ran through the brush, and he debated chasing after them, but her eyes fluttered open, glassy and unfocused.
