The Skullstalker froze. Then he twisted, and Ivy gasped in sympathy as she saw his glowing purple eyes. One of them was swollen shut, a malblossom still burning his eyelid where it hung over his face. He also had one horn broken off.
“Brother,” said the small Skullstalker, so loud and joyous they both shushed him.
Ivy whispered, “You know him?”
“I have never spoken to him,” Vale said. “But he has spoken to Slate and our Anderfel brother. He was asking them for a wife.”
“Or a husband,” said the small Skullstalker eagerly. “I am not picky.”
Something shifted behind his back. Ivy was shocked to see a big fuzzy tail attempting to wiggle where it was bound to his back.
“I am Zax,” the small Skullstalker announced. “What are your names?”
“I am Vale,” Vale said quietly.
“Vale!” Zax repeated, seemingly more bothered with introductions than getting his burning restraints off him. “And who is this? Is this your wife? What is your wife’s name?”
“Her name is Ivy,” Vale said.
Ivy’s heart skipped a beat. Vale had offered to make her his queen; maybe she shouldn’t be so enthralled at the idea of him calling her his wife. Wait,wasshe his wife now? She was part of the void, but he would tell her if they were Skullstalker-married. Right?
“Ivy!” Zax whispered, his tail still attempting to wag despite the ropes. “Hello!”
“Hello,” said Ivy, reluctantly charmed.
Vale stepped closer to the cage, placing Ivy down on the ground. Ivy glanced over at the campfire, where her uncle was still riling up the Circle and paying no attention to the Skullstalker they had caught.
“If they’ve already caught a Skullstalker, why do they need to break into your void for you?” Ivy asked.
“For a bigger army,” Vale replied.
Ivy got down on her knees and crawled forward until she could touch the bars on the Skullstaker’s cage. “How did they capture you?”
“Nets,” Zax said. “Lots of them. Itreallyhurts.”
“I know, we’ll get you out of that soon.” Ivy winced at the smoke rising off Zax’s blue skin. “But what magic did they use to capture you?”
Vale bent down low behind her. “None. He is young. Small. They are easier to take down than older Skullstalkers. They will only need to prepare a spell to bind him to their commands when they send him to fight their battles.”
Ivy nodded. She pulled thoughtfully at the malblossom around the cage, then looked beseechingly up at Vale.
“I can get rid of the malblossom,” she whispered as her uncle droned on in the background about rights and destiny. “Can you lift the cage out of the ground?”
Vale flexed, his arm muscles straining his robes. “I can try.”
He looked dubious. Ivy wondered just how weak he felt right now. How the void fared without them around to care for it.
She turned back to the cage and started pulling malblossom away from the cage, making sure to be quiet every time she snapped a vine.
“They said they are going to use me in their battles,” Zax told them. “I like to hunt. When something runs from me, I chase it down and kill it. I might have joined their battle for fun. But not after they have done this. Now I will kill them all!”
“We will help,” Vale assured him.
Ivy kept plucking the malblossom off the cage bars. She wanted to protest, but she would save that for later. Right now, she had to focus on finding the antidote and getting it to the void.
Finally, she stripped enough malblossom for Vale to grip the cage bars. She stood back, tensing as Vale slowly started to pull.
One inch of the cage slid out of the ground. Then another. Vale’s face creased, growling quietly as he strained. Ivy waited for the group to turn around and notice, but they were too busy staring at her uncle, enraptured. Waiting.
