I wondered if this was the purpose of flesh-weaving. I asked the hooded figure, but she didn’t know.
“I am not familiar with the term,” she said. “We have forsaken living bodies down here. Which is why you’ll not be able to return to yours.”
I didn’t want to argue with her, so I simply didn’t. I just nodded.
“You don’t know who is responsible, aside from the Darkest Lord? Do you know where I could find the Harbinger?”
The head-shaking grew faster, stronger. “No, no. The castle, but you mustn’t go. You will not fit in; he will pick you out before you approach and squash you like an ant. You will not have spirit enough left to join us here. His wrath is not to be toyed with, not without consequence.”
“What if I showed you the way out?” I asked. “What if I opened a portal and let you pass through? Would you be able to spread the word.”
“You cannot, simply, you cannot.”
“If I could.”
She paused, thin, skeleton-like hands appearing out of the ends of her long sleeves for a brief moment of time. “Then yes, I could.”
I debated for a long, hard moment, then nodded. “The river. Is there a private cove around here?”
“Not too far away, yes. I will show you.”
Apparently I’d piqued her curiosity enough for her to let this play out. I followed her quickly, wracking my mind for the best way to open the portal. I no longer had access to ley lines or my castle or even my own body at this point.
What I did have access to was water, and even on another plane, it was still one of the elements I could control as the Triune Queen. I also had the power of my sisters. I could feel it, the channel still open between us. I couldn’t feel Liza, and I was certain our bond had been severed. But my sisters were still able to help.
When the hunched woman showed me to the location of a private cove, hidden beneath a small waterfall at a bend in the river, shielded by a thick grove of smoky, skeletal trees, I stepped my feet into the water.
The water here was so cold it stole my breath. It was liquid ice, and not just in temperature. As I looked down, I could see the faces. Just occasionally, as one flowed past. More spirits.
I couldn’t use the moonlight’s reflection, as there was no moon here, but I could create a portal if I could tap into the ley lines here. Surely there were ley lines running through the realm. If magic existed, so did ley lines, even if they were weaker than the ones on The Isle.
Sure enough, as I closed my eyes and murmured the words I’d used for the Procession of Spirits, I could feel it. My affinity for water hadn’t let me down. Despite the frigid nature of the stream, there was something life-giving about the water,something that reassured and connected me to my magic in a way I hadn’t felt since I’d arrived.
As I began to feel the magic course through me, I realized my error. The ley lines started to glow. A dead giveaway of my presence. I wasn’t afraid of the Darkest Lord, per se, but I was afraid that giving myself away too early would compromise my plan.
“We’ll take care of it,” a now-familiar voice murmured against my ear, “open the portal.”
My sisters would help me. They would meter the flow of magic or disguise it from the Darkest Lord. After repeating the incantation a few times, I was able to peel off a portion of the ley lines, lassoing it into a wreath until it connected in a complete circle. The portal was complete. It began to glow, and there was nothing even my Fae Queen ancestors could do about that.
When I glanced over at the woman waiting on the bank of the river, I could see her eyes, and in them, the reflection of the portal. She was mesmerized.
“You may pass through,” I said. “You’ll find peace in the spirit realm. Not the underworld.”
She held up one knobby, shaking finger. She scurried away, disappearing into a cluster of trees. When she returned, she came to me. Clutched my arms in her cool grip that was nothing more than a whisper of wind against my skin.
“Thank you, my child,” she hissed. “I have alerted the others.”
Then before I could say another word, she stepped into the portal, sank into the water. I saw the look in her eyes, one of tiredness and contentment, as she blinked out of the underworld and into the next.
The spirits came swiftly then. Word was traveling, just as the woman had promised. Several were wary at first, but after witnessing others passing through, a sense of eagerness grew,and the line grew longer and more restless. A throng of spirits crowded at the outer edges.
I lost count of how many spirits passed through, and while I was glad to be helping others, I needed to find the army. It was those spirits, the dangerous ones planning to destroy our world that needed this escape more than anyone else.
I was relieved to see a spirit on a horselike being wander by, descend curiously. He was clearly one of the army. He glanced behind him, then swiftly galloped through the portal. My only regret was that I hadn’t been fast enough to ask him to alert the others.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d managed to keep the portal open when I felt something, or someone, squeezing it shut. I resisted, holding it open as long as I could, before something snapped. The ley lines broke apart, and the portal closed. A collective groan, a shriek, a lamenting wave passed through the crowd as spirits failed to exit the underworld through the portal they’d glimpsed.
“You shall not fool me,” a voice rumbled. “Stealing spirits. A move from my very own playbook. Alas, I can claim spirits faster than you can free them. But for the ones already lost, you shall pay the price.”
