A red haze washed over Erich’s vision, but despite the rage and the dragon thrashing within him, he couldn’t move, even as Liane screamed his name, her voice growing distant as they took her away. The rune stones and enchanted nets had sapped his strength and destroyed his ability to heal. He was leaking blood from multiple wounds. Even if he was a monster on the inside, he was still mortal. Two guards stood over him, their faces shadowed as his vision went in and out of focus.
“Should we collect the body?” one guard asked another.
“We can’t spare the men. The elf is still out there and so is Ludwig, that traitor.” He spat on the ground. “Leave him and the women for the carrions.”
They mounted their horses and rode away. Without even the courtesy of a clean death. This was it. The end. And he didn’t even get to look up at the sky one last time. They’d left him face pressed into the dirt. The veiled face of the Trinity was reaching out to him with the promise of rest and peace in the endless night. He didn’t have to fight anymore. There would be no more strife, no more fearing each full moon. He would be free of his curse at last. But as he was slipping into unconsciousness, and what might have been oblivion, someone yanked on the arrows embedded in his shoulders and back, and he returned to consciousness screaming.
Then they rolled him over and leaned over him to tend to his wounds. Their head was haloed by the rising sun, and shadows obscured their features. But his pain-addled mind saw Liane, though she couldn’t be there with him. He’d watched her ride away.
“Liane, I’m sorry. I would have stayed with you forever.” He reached out to touch her, but she shook her head. He didn’t deserve forgiveness, not after leaving Ludwig to die and not being strong enough to protect her and her maid.
“You’ll have to wait and tell her that yourself.” Liane’s face melted away, and there was Fritz instead. “I’ve removed the rune stones. You should heal some before he comes to find you. I wish?—”
Fritz paused and looked into the distance. “I’ve searched for solutions a thousand different ways. And this is the only path that leads to your success. I know you’ll think me cruel and coldhearted to let them die. But—” His voice was thick with emotion. “It had to be this way. We’ll meet again soon, I promise. But there’s something I have to do first.”
And then he was gone, and the lightening sky above Erich and the slow healing dragged him inch by inch away from death. Time passed as he moved in and out of consciousness. Shadows moved around him, and he thought perhaps Fritz had come back because he remembered someone speaking to him, though he couldn’t remember what was said. Over and over, his thoughts were consumed by Liane, seeing her terrified face as she’d shrunk in the distance. The rage and the despair. He had to heal, as Fritz had demanded, and get her back.
When he woke, fully, it was to the smell of smoke and roasting meat. He was beyond ravenous. It felt as if his stomach were trying to eat itself. He jolted upright, lunging for one of the birds roasting over the fire, like a wild animal. He burnt his hand and pulled the skin around his freshly-closed wounds. But he didn’t care. Erich tore into the juicy meat, grease and juice dripping down his chin. He’d nearly picked the bones clean before he noticed the bandages on his torso and the figure sitting across the fire from him, offering up another roasted bird.
Erich snatched the bird from Ludwig, who said nothing but turned over a third bird roasting above the fire. There was a flask of wine next to him, and Erich drank until his stomach felt fit to burst.
His hunger and thirst sated, Erich looked at Ludwig at last.
“Were you the one who treated my wounds?” he asked.
“They were mostly healed by the time I arrived. I’m sorry I came too late,” he said, and his gaze trailed over two stone piles. He’d buried Luzie and the oracle while Erich had healed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t save Luzie,” Erich said.
Though he hadn’t been the direct cause of Luzie’s death, he still felt her blood on his hands.
“How did you get here?” Erich asked him.
“I walked. But I doubt that’s the answer you’re looking for.”
“No, it isn’t. When I left you in that tower, you had no means of escape. Either you’re the most impressive swordsman in the world, or there’s a secret you’ve been keeping.”
Ludwig sighed as he ran his hands through his sandy-blond hair. “The stardust awakened me. That’s what the Midnight Guard calls it, when the latent magic in your veins first starts to react with suppressed power. Most users die because it creates an imbalance within them. For me, it fed into me and made me... stronger. I thought that when I stopped taking it, when the cravings were gone, I would return to how I was, but I kept changing. I can move in the shadows, and I have strength no man should have. I told the Midnight Guard I’d awakened, but not what powers had manifested, and I was able to use that to my advantage to escape.” He looked up to meet Erich’s gaze as if he had the answers to this man’s problems.
Erich had heard rumors, legends of the warriors of old. Leonhard would know more, he suspected, with his library of books on strange creatures. But that didn’t matter right now. What Ludwig could do was more important. With the two of them working together, they might be able to get Liane out. Where they went after that was still a problem.
“Before we get Liane, we need an escape route, and I know someone who might be able to help,” Erich said. Leonhard had the resources and, perhaps, the motive to help them. The oracle had died, but she seemed to have foreseen her own death. Maybe Leonhard was on their side.
If he could just get to the coliseum and speak with Leonhard, maybe he’d have an idea of how they could get into the temple and save Liane. The dragon’s voice was quiet; perhaps the dragon was depleted by the trial of healing him. Without the dragon’s power, Erich knew he couldn’t have survived this ordeal. And he’d need that power to save Liane. Even if it sped up the consumption of his humanity, he’d use every last second to save her.
Erich stood and was glad to see he had enough strength for that. The birds he’d eaten and the wine he’d drunk had returned some of his strength, but not nearly enough. Not enough for a fight. And there was no way he was getting Liane out of the temple a second time without one.
Their journey there was slow and arduous, as his wounds hadn’t healed entirely. But around the time night fell, he was starting to feel stronger. Being beneath the waning moon seemed to improve his stamina as well.
His hopes of getting help from Leonhard were dashed when they arrived at the coliseum and found it ablaze. He didn’t have to see his town house to know it was in similar condition. They watched it burn from a hilltop several yards away. There were guards swarming it as they escorted Leonhard’s goons away. Whatever goodwill he’d had with the Avatheos had been shattered.
There was only one avenue left. They’d have to take the temple by force. And find their own getaway by partnering with Erich’s last resort. In all honesty, if his pride, his shame, and his fear, hadn’t gotten in the way, he would have given up and sailed back to Sundland.
Erich needed to find his uncle’s ship in the harbor and beg for him to help them escape once they’d rescued Liane. The cost would be returning to Sundland and facing the court he’d left behind, but whatever his uncle asked, Erich would give it up for her.
Getting into the city was a challenge in itself. There were no convenient secret tunnels to sneak into. So they had to go to the southern gate, which added another day to their travel. The going was slow, as he had to stop frequently to catch his breath. The healing and transformation had taken more out of him than he’d realized, and he needed the breaks to regain his footing. When they got to the city gates, Erich’s magical persuasion, coupled with Ludwig’s shadow power, got them through. But they had to keep a low profile on their way to the docks.
The city was buzzing with activity as the fall equinox was days away. By some miracle, they made it to the docks. Though by that time, Erich was swaying on his feet like a drunkard. How was he going to save Liane in this condition? He noticed the ship straight away. It was small and sleek, built for speed, reminiscent of the ones used in the raiding parties of his long-ago ancestors. The Trinity must favor him. It was the ideal vessel for a swift getaway when every other ship in the harbor was built for hauling cargo across the strait that separated the continent from Xi’an.
