“The River Eater is a story,” Aliah said, paying attention even as her eyes were opaque, her magic trained on the enemy. Lethal, that aether—so deadly it made her as dangerous as Varidian, as my deathfyre.
“Haven’t you heard?” I replied, sweeping another wave of dark magic into our enemy, cutting a hole in the front line. “All the stories are true.”
CHAPTER 40
AMEIRAH
The Wahasha Lake was named after the beast that, according to legend, had existed in its waters since the dawn of time. Its grey waters stretched from the dense trees of northern Woodsurn to the jagged mountains that now stood alone between Ithanys and Kalder.
The river, no longer hidden by the Wall of Hydaran, was visible between the mountains, winking its dark, glittering waters like an invitation or a threat. Flowing right to this lake. It seemed foolish to not wonder why the beast was called theRiverEater, in hindsight.
An electric charge hung in the air, the taste of lightning and rainstorms coating my tongue as we flew hard from the destroyed site of Fallow Gate, winding through the mountain range to evade the swarm on our tail.
My plan had worked a little too well. Varidian struck in the middle of their horde, lightning fracturing apart to hit multiple wyverns, and every creature roared at the sight of it.But it was the riders whose harrowing shrieks haunted me, throbbing in my ears. There was nothing mortal in that sound, nothing remotely familiar. The original Zalaam warriors were araethawn, but these had been fae, and nothing fae remained in their black eyes, cruel faces, or those shrieks.
It took half an hour for the lake to come into view, and we only slowed our frantic progress at the last minute to assess the area. The Elani brothers peeled away from Silverstorm’s formation to fly over the forest and mountains, scouring for threats lying in wait, while Varidian sent another bolt of white-hot power into the wyvern swarm pursuing us. Again, those screams made my ears throb, made my heart clatter in an uneven rhythm, as if my very being warned against going near those riders.
Unwinged, I couldn’t help but notice. Commanders, Xiaoyu’s journal had called them. But where were the others? Where were their winged soldiers? And worse, where was the queen?
“Hit the water,” I shouted to Varidian, daring a glance back to see how close the aerial army was. My stomach knotted when I could pick out the veins in wyvern wings, the light catching on their sharp talons. I faced forward again and pulled up more magic, ignoring the twinge in my muscles.
When we flew over the grey lake, Varidian tore light and power from the dark clouds above, and lightning split the sky, turning the mountains, the trees, and Raheema to pure white.
I’ve never fought a river monster,she said casually.
And you’re not going to now. This is a trap for the wyverns, not for you.
She huffed, but allowed me to lead her in a circle, until we faced the enemy wyverns with the mountains to our backs, the Elani brothers rejoining us and giving the all-clear. No threats waited in the shadows, only the army before us.
My breath turned light when I saw the scale of it, like an enormous shadow cast over Woodsurn and disappearing into the distance, so vast I had to wonder ifthousandshad been an underestimation of their numbers.
It seemed so foolish to have left the other legions behind in the Red Star. We’d have still been vastly outnumbered, but thirty wyverns were better than fourteen.
Varidian struck the water again, light fracturing over the surface before it speared into the depths. Strokes lashed out across the lake and snared eleven wyverns from the front of the formation. Before the light had even faded, Varidian drew down another spike of light.
Hairs rose on my arms as pressure built around us, a tremor in the air that screamed at me to flee. But I gritted my teeth and kept Raheema in place, allowing the thump of old, old magic to flow over me, through me.
Varidian sent another spear of lightning into the lake, that ancient magic reborn, so powerful that people lost their minds with fear. Evil, the lightning soul had been called. Corruption that would send the user mad. But Varidian had shown no signs of madness, and I was beginning to think all those fearmongering tales had been spread by the queen and her warriors.
How much of what we’d been told was true? Because as I watched Varidian call magic from the heavens and pour it into a lake from myth itself, all I felt was pride. No revulsion, no fear, no unease.
At least not until that old, old magic thumped another pulse through the air, and Raheema’s head darted forward, her jaws parted to bare her teeth.
I expected a snake,she said, tracking something through the water.But it looks like…
I saw it then, saw the shadow rise from the depths of the lake, enormous and far bigger than I dared to expect. The stories had called it a wyrm, and like Raheema I’d expected something sleek and long. I’d foolishly imagined a worm with a thousand teeth, but details of those old stories came back to me now.
Fanged and many-toothed, it was called. And with skin impossibly thick, unable to penetrate. An unholy light was said to issue from its jaws, vast enough to obliterate a whole town.
Ice ripped down my spine, shuddered down my arms. A wyvern—it was a wyvern.
“Get into the mountains!” I screamed, dragging deathfyre from the depths of my core, panting through the cramp in my back. Fury had allowed me to blast the wyverns from Red Manniston’s sky and kill King Bakshi. It was a risk to pour those dark flames into myself, but I held onto my rage and ordered the magic to amplify my voice. I needed my warning to be heard, or we would all be dead.“Get into the mountains! Retreat!”
It wasn’t as impressive as Kamaal’s, but my legion heard and yelled the warning to the others. My throat tingled, burned, but I couldn’t do anything to ease it now as the air shook, pressure built, and that shadow grew larger—enough to see the mouth it had parted, the rows of teeth.
“Do as she commands,” Varidian boomed as Mak whipped around, his eyes connecting with Raheema’s, then mine. Even though fear had a hold of me, the ice inside me warmed a little at his quick check in.
The retreat was a scramble, and wings collided, warnings barked at our allies, embers spat into the air. But when Raheema wheeled around to face the mountains and the desperate shelter they might provide, the legions were right behind us.
