Another woof of agreement as storm clouds gathered on the eldritch’s face.
No, I tried to object. We couldn’t leave without Inara and Lowen.
But my mouth refused to form the words as the air around the eldritch creature brightened.
I didn’t get to see what happened as one of Alches’s tentacles wrapped around my bicep, another around my calf and thigh.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him restrain Baran in the same manner.
The glare around the eldritch creature reached supernova levels. Nothing but light and pain remained.
Then I couldn’t see anything. The shadows had claimed us.
seventeen
Half blind, I purgedmy stomach, kneeling in place and heaving until there was nothing left except for bile. Even then, I kept going.
It wasn’t until the world came back into focus that I stopped.
Weak and slightly shaky, I slumped onto my haunches. “God, I hate throwing up.”
It was the worst feeling in the world. My mouth tasted like a sewer. Probably smelled like one too.
A soft huff came from my right.
Alches regarded me with judgmental eyes. The tentacles around his jowls waved, twining in and around themselves with something I might have labeled unease.
“Thanks for the save,” I told him, my voice still raw from all the puking I’d just done.
Alches whined, pressing his nose and forehead against my shoulder. I rubbed his head and ears, taking comfort. And giving it.
“How did you find me anyway?”
Well, me and Baran since Alches had stolen the Fae away with me. He now lay unconscious on the ground by my feet.
Alches didn’t answer. Then again, I wasn’t really expecting him to.
It was surprising enough that Alches had been able to come to my rescue. As Noctessa’s realm guardian, he had an affinity for the deepest shadows that hid in the night. During the height of day, in the heart of enemy territory, it would have cost him greatly to whisk me away as he had.
I had an idea of what that oak and its meadow actually were. It wasn’t a harmless grove. I could tell that much. It had given me the same feeling I’d had the last time I stood before Noctessa’s creator. A deep pool of magic emanating from its core. The likes of which could support an entire realm. One that acted like a battery. Without that source, the realm would fall. Like Noctessa had.
Unless something—or someone—could replace it.
I was betting the meadow—or more likely its guardian— was why all the weirdness had been happening to me since arriving in the barrow. Something had lured me to that place. Guided and manipulated me until I fell onto the desired path.
Baran just happened to get caught up in everything.
I felt a little guilty about that actually.
Gears rumbled from somewhere out of sight.
The floor started to move.
I shielded my eyes as I squinted up at the sudden beam of bright light now pouring through a hole that had just opened in the ceiling. Like the aperture of a camera, it opened wide as we started to ascend.
“Where are you going?” I called after Alches as he padded away. Cheering spilled from above as the realm guardian disappeared between one step and the next. “The least you coulddo is take me with you,” I grumbled, looking up at the ceiling in dismay as a tiny stream of sand fell into the room.
A crowd going wild. Sand trickling down. A platform ascending.
