“AndIdon’t discern why the Maker does what He does. I only act upon His command, trusting that He sees further than I do.” A corner of his mouth lifted. “Also, you are weak and fearful. You need a weapon if you wish to be of any consequence here.”
Well, then.
Color rose to my face as I accepted the blade, lifting it gingerly. Cool to the touch and thrumming with power, it felt no heavier than a small broomstick.
Somnus dipped his head in a small bow. “May it protect and guide you.”
“How is it meant to be used?”
“As any other weapon is used. Be merely its bearer, and it will destroy you. Meld with it, and you will conquer.” He parted his hair, and a curved sword emerged, its blade much like the fang of some enormous beast. “It can also be hidden on your person when not in use. Do you have a preference as to where?”
I thought for a moment, remembering how the Shadow Bringer had pulled his blade from his left palm. An easy spot to access and as useful a spot as any.
“The palm of my hand,” I declared.
Somnus nodded, approval in his serpentine eyes. “Place the blade here”—he positioned the sword above the center of my left palm, its point nearly piercing the flesh—“and use your will to command it under your skin.”
I did as he specified, taking hold of the hilt and balancing it above my palm. I lowered the sword slowly, carefully, imagining that it wasn’t a sword at all but a delicate breeze or a wisp of smoke. But I hesitated. So instead of passing through me like smoke, it passed through very much as a physical sword would.
“Maker’s light,” I hissed, stanching the shadow-tinged blood with my sleeve. If Somnus noticed the abnormality in my blood, he didn’t say. “How is it even possible to bleed here? None of this is—”
“Real?” Somnus asked, sheathing his blade back into his hair. “There are different parts of the Realm. Some are more physical in nature than others. Try again.”
“I—”I don’t know if I want to try again, I almost said. But Somnus gave me a withering look so filled with expectation and mild disappointment that I changed my mind. “Fine.”
I took a full breath, centering my focus back on the sword. It seemed to mock me, gleaming as it was, wondering whyIof all people was to be its master. Closing my eyes, I again imagined that the blade was nothingbut a shadow. I envisioned a creeping, sword-eating darkness coiling up its length, rendering it entirely into mist. Slowly, I let the weight of the mist pull itself down, focusing on what it felt like to have the substance pool in my hands. Then, my right fist fell empty against the palm of my left, and I opened my eyes.
The sword was gone.
I flexed my hand open and shut, marveling at the sensation of the sword within. My palm ached, thrumming with cold and heat and the sensation that something within it wantedout.
“You need to test it,” Somnus advised.
“Yes,” I agreed, surprised at the new sense of purpose that pooled within me. The sword was a vein of power, a weapon both familiar and new. “But against what?”
Somnus beckoned me to follow him. “Something that will prepare you to face all the darkened souls that fled from here.”
We walked through the castle, silent save for the sweeping of Somnus’s hair upon the stone. He moved as if he knew the castle intimately, never hesitating about which staircase to descend or hallway to follow. Candelabras ignited beside him, glowing from orbs that spun out from under his hands, and the castle slowly melted into life as we ventured through. The light slid over paintings taller than trees in the Visstill, over waterfalls crawling like honey from statues of lions and serpents.
But the farther we walked, the more we saw decay, rot, and ruin.
Dry, snakelike branches, rattling as they burst from the ground, clawed against paintings, ripping them. Arched ceilings adorned with whorls of silver and draped in star-specked gossamer crumbled as we passed underneath, showering the air with dust and revealing the sky above. Then there was damage the demons had left behind. Each room held impossibly high claw marks and teeth left scattered in piles of rubble and cloth.
The main vestibule, the lavish entryway where I’d first met the Shadow Bringer, was a mess of broken furniture and dust; it looked—and smelled—as though it hadn’t seen light, fresh air, or humanity inyears. What I remembered as vibrant shades of emerald, plum, and wine were now pale and lifeless, and the array of golden mirrors and candelabras were reduced to shards upon the floor.
“Decay can settle so quickly,” Somnus remarked. “This castle is merely a husk without its ruler. It is simply mesmerizing.”
Mesmerizing?
With all the rubble and lingering shadows, it felt as though a demon would appear at any moment. There wasn’t anything mesmerizing about that. Somnus beckoned to a passageway below the vestibule; it coiled down in a steep descent, veiled in a haze of shadow. From it, a familiar smell emanated. Something damp and cave-like.
“Come, dreamer. We are nearly there,” said Somnus.
I struggled to keep up as we descended, worrying that my feet would tangle in Somnus’s hair. It was a sleek, beautiful curtain, trailing behind him like a cape, but it was far too long for someone to safely follow. The more I studied his hair, the more I wondered if it possessed a mind of its own. And maybe it did. Whenever my footsteps trailed too close, it would shift away just in time.
I thought I heard Somnus chuckle once or twice. Likely mocking my skittishness. But I couldn’t be sure.
We ended up in the Bringer’s water cavern, its wet stone and twilight greenery a mangled smear of what it used to be. The candelabras were extinguished and tangled over by vines, causing the space to be cast over by a strange, pervasive darkness. Even the central pool, its waters previously lit by starlight, seemed empty and dead.
