“Your mam was probably a meddling harpy just like you.”
The girl gave the woman a wide smile. “She was a meddler. Learned e’erything I know from her. I’ve always said better to meddle than let hags ruin the world.” She snapped her fingers, and the bluebird appeared on her shoulder. “But I saw little Azric’sdrawings, and I liked them. You should tell ‘im that I think he’d do better as a drawer than a little soldier boy. Nobody cares about the soldier boys when the battles are done, after all.”
Then she was gone, and the woman snarled before disappearing as well.
It was several hours before Azric Cyrus came into his chambers. He could feel the fury that still lingered there, could still make out the barely visible bloody footprints on the rug in the center of the room.
And he saw the blue feather. He picked it up without saying a word, but then he began to examine everything in his room. It took him several hours to notice the little white mark on the ermine pouch.
He knew, unlike most people in the world, just what that little mark meant. He didn’t speak a word, didn’t let his emotions draw anyone’s attention. Instead, he simply washed it with a wet rag and put it back where it went.
There was no doubt in his mind that something important would happen because of that pouch. What it was, he didn’t know. Why it would happen was even more of a puzzle, but he would pay attention. When gods are willing to risk Lysara’s wrath, there’s usually a very good reason.
Chapter 11
Shadows are Nyxthos’s domain, but they are only a piece. Understanding the secrets one hides from oneself, as well as from others, is just as powerful. All his Mages were given the power to turn shadows into demons, but only Echo Vael could see within the heart. And she is the fiercest warrior, save the Prince of Bones, because of it.
~Cedric Penrose, A Treatise on the Gods and Their Powers
Fiona
Just as Nyxthos said, when the clock struck midnight, the room around me disappeared, and everything changed. I appear on a stone bench made of sparkling quartz in a clearing of duskthorn trees. Nyxthos’s favored tree, it only appeared after he claimed the Kingdom of Dunloch as his. The smooth wood of the tree is prized for its dark appearance and strength. Silver leaves reflect the starlight like tiny diamonds. The white and silver flowers thatcling desperately to it curl like lilies. By morning, they all will have wilted and fallen to the ground.
Well, they would have if this was any place in Nyth. I feel very certain it isn’t, though. From one branch, a lantern hangs and glows with a light that is decidedly not from a fire. It illuminates a stone path barely wider than a hallway. Cobblestones and mortar glow in the moonlight.
“You have a single task in your first trial, Fiona Thorne.” The voice comes from everywhere and nowhere at once. “Find the end of the Shadow Road by the time the moon finishes its journey or stay here. Forever.”
The first rays of moonlight pass over a horizon that I can’t even make out in the distance. “Well, that seems simple enough. I guess the full-day runs that Bram made me do when I was twelve will pay off.”
I stand up and take a deep breath before setting off at a brisk jog. “No different from running the road from Stormhaven to River’s End. It’s just night is all.”
There are a thousand ways humans are weaker than the god’s creatures. Long-distance running isn’t one of them. Sure, they can cross a room faster than us, but in the course of a day, I can run just as far as most of them.
The minutes turn into hours, and my lungs ache. My feet hurt. My lower back is tired. When I was twelve, I could have run at this pace for nearly eight hours, but I’m not twelve any longer. It’s been a long time since I ran more than a few miles.
But I can push through muscle pain. Bram would never let me live it down if I failed a trial because I couldn’t jog long enough. I try to take my mind off the aches of my body to have that conversation with him in my mind.You lost a fight to a road? I thought you were a Priest, not some decrepit old woman. You were willing to fight monsters to the death, but a moonlit stroll through the forest did you in?
And it’s like my thoughts have become real as I hear Bram’s voice. “Fi! Help!”
I stop suddenly and hear Cedric’s voice echoing him. “Please!” His voice turns into a scream, and my body moves before I’ve had a chance to think.
Then I get control over myself, and I stop, one toe over the edge of the path. Cedric’s words return to me.Nyxthos is the God of Secrets and Darkness, but his weapons are illusions and your greatest fears.
Even more, Azric’s words come back to me.Stay secret and safe, little Priestess, and don’t leave the road laid out before you in the dark of night.A shiver rolls through me. He knew what this trial would be, didn’t he? What would happen if I stepped off this path?
Then I notice the barely visible wisps of mist along the ground that stop as if they’ve hit a wall when they come to glowing cobblestones. I pull my foot back fully onto the Shadow Road. Another cry rings out—Bram again. I’ve never heard him sound like this, and I’ve fought him a thousand times, many of which ended with my blade cutting through his flesh.
The moon clears the trees then, and suddenly, the space on either side of the road is visible. Against the duskthorns, two people have been bound with their hands above their heads. Demons made of shadow rip into them. Cedric screams as a demon tears at his stomach. His body squirms against its bondage, and I hear something I didn’t think was possible. My tutor begins sobbing.
“Just kill us. Please, Fi. Kill us and end it,” he begs. “Let us die.”
I can’t help the tear that rolls down my cheek even though I know this is an illusion.It has to be an illusion. Nyxthos can’t get Cedric and Bram. They’re safe in Stormhaven.They have to be.
But what if they’re not?How am I to know if Nyxthos could capture them and bring them here? I can’t leave them as the demons torment them. I can’t save them, either.
Another demon latches itself onto Bram’s leg, and he screams. “Fucking kill us, Fi! Let us fucking die!”
Those two men are as close to family as I have other than my father. They raised me. They were always there for me. My foot moves to the edge of the path, but I stop. Neither of them would want me to leave the path to save them.
