A Plague of Shadows (15 page)

“What do you mean, don’t all harbingers have the same powers?” Abagail asked. “Don’t they all work with wyrd?”

“Yes, but while they work with wyrd, all of them have different abilities. Some can influence the weather, some can work with elementals, and some can work darker wyrdings to deal with death. Those ones normally turn bad, but we give them all a fair chance, we’ve been surprised by harbingers before.”

“And you’ve never seen anyone that can cast light out of their hand?” Rorick asked.

“Doesn’t it strike you odd that it seems you’re channeling the Eyes of the All Father?” Celeste asked.

“I hadn’t thought of that before,” Abagail lied. The truth was she couldn’t help but notice how much the All Father seemed to notice her prayers or lend her help.

“But if the light of the Waking Eye kills darkling, then why does the power make the shadow creep further up Abbie’s arm?” Rorick asked.

Celeste shrugged. “I’m only speculating.” She said, pocketing the rest of her nuts. “We need to keep moving.”

Landanten wasn’t as mystical or wyrded as Abagail would have thought after seeing Celeste. She would have imagined a staggering city of towering crystal and painted glass that hummed with power. Instead she was greeted with structures much like the human settlements on O.

Huts lined Singer’s Trail, stretching several yards long. They were low buildings, only one level and with thatched roofs. They were made of rough wood, like the trees hadn’t been sanded before they were erected. It reminded her much of the upstairs of her home.

“This is an elf settlement?” Rorick asked, coming to a stop beside Abagail. His breath huffed out into the cold air and his golden hair looked dark in contrast to the dreary atmosphere. Snow was starting to fall now that they were in the clearing, large and soft flakes that Abagail so loved to watch on winter nights. They were sticking to her hair like feathers, and for a moment she stared up into the dark sky and just watched them fall out of the endless expanse above her.

“What did you expect?” Celeste’s voice was muted against the snow.

“I don’t know, something more . . . elf like?” Rorick said.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Celeste said. There was humor in her voice.

“Aren’t elves a wyrded race?” Leona asked.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we have to use wyrd in everything we do!”

Thunder hammered loudly through the clearing making Abagail jump. The darklings at the edge of the trail gathered closer, as if the thunder and the lightning was going to allow them entry of some fashion to the trail and their victims.

“That’s our cue,” Celeste said. “Hurry now, right into this one.” She indicated a hut on the right about halfway down the row. Daphne didn’t waste any time fluttering into the hut, and Leona scooted in quickly.

Celeste had her eyes cast to the sky, as if she could sense something there no one else could. Abagail didn’t dawdle, but instead slumped through the opening where a door should have been. When Celeste entered she pulled a sliding door shut, and they were left in the darkness of the cold hut with nothing but the sun scepter and the slight glow from Daphne to illuminate the inside.

“Is there a fireplace?” Rorick asked, dropping his hammer on a low cot.

“Should be one in the back,” Celeste said, slipping a curtain made of reeds out of the way of the window. She sat in a high back chair before the window and peered out at the coming storm.

Abagail peered around the hut. There were several cots, all small enough to appear less than comfortable, but at least that would be better than sleeping on the cold, hard ground. The floor was covered in straw to help insulate against the frozen earth. The coldness of the hut somehow made everything seem louder. Abagail could hear the rumbling thunder, now directly overhead, and she could hear the wind that was picking up. It made her shiver, even if the structure was sturdy and the wind went largely unfelt.

“Why did the elves leave this place?” Leona asked, going to sit beside Celeste.

Celeste kept looking up at the sky through the window as if she hadn’t heard what Leona said. Moments passed and when it seemed the question was going to go unanswered, Celeste started to speak.

“Landanten was thought to be haunted,” Celeste said.

“A ghost scared the elves away?” Abagail said, sitting on a cot nearest the fireplace that Rorick was blowing on, trying to encourage the flame he’d kindled to grow. “We saw you out there with the darkling, how is it that elves were worried about some ghost?”

Leona was looking out the window now as if she might catch sight of the ghost.

“It’s not so much that elves are scared of ghosts, but in our culture ghosts are an ill omen, a sign that the land is cursed. To stop that curse from spreading to the people, the elves moved.”

Rorick sat back on his heels as the fire crackled to life. As soon as she heard the fire, Abagail felt warmer. She eased closer on the bed, and Rorick sat on the floor near her feet.

Leona gave a glance behind her toward the fire, but when her eyes landed on Rorick beside Abagail’s feet, she sat up straighter and turned her attention to the scene outside.

Daphne fluttered out of the rafters and landed on Celeste’s shoulder. The elf sighed.

“What is it?” Leona asked her.

“I might as well tell you now, rather than having you find out on your own. There’s trouble among the elves. The darklings, it seems, aren’t sated with corrupting mankind, and corruption of a kind has moved to the elves and dwarves.”

“No way, dwarves?” Rorick asked. A smile spread across his face.

Abagail was unphased. After all, if there were elves and the Nine Worlds, why not dwarves too?

“So what does that mean?” Leona asked.

“Different people think it means different things. I’m not so sure what I think it means, only that the darkness is getting a firmer hold now than it ever has before. We need help, and the light needs to work fast.”

“I’ve heard stories of the end times,” Rorick said. He was looking at the wall opposite where Abagail and he sat as if there was something incredibly interesting there.

“Oh, come on,” Leona scoffed. “Father says everyone talks about the end times, and if it hasn’t happened yet, then it’s not going to.”

“There’s talk about the end times among the elves, too,” Celeste said as if Leona hadn’t interrupted.

“Alright guys,” Abagail said, worried that Leona’s outburst meant that they were scaring her sister. Again she caught the faint sight of something beside her sister, some figure or form bending low over her sister’s shoulder and whispering into her ear. Leona closed her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly.

“What does Skuld say about it, Leo?” Abagail asked her sister.

Leona gave a start and turned back to where Abagail was, all hostility toward her sister forgotten.

“You see her?” Leona asked her.

“I see
something
beside you, I can only assume that’s who it is. What does she say?”

Leona just shook her head. “She isn’t always right.”

“It’s not that she isn’t always right,” Celeste said. “Seeing the future is a funny thing. Any number of things between the scrying and the happening can change the foreseen future.”

“What do you mean?” Leona asked.

“You see something that happens a month from now, but there’s an entire month of events to happen before the future, and anything that happens within that time can alter what has been seen.”

“Oh,” Leona said. That seemed to help her a little.

“But still, some futures are rooted in fate, and therefore can’t be changed.” Celeste told her. “What did she tell you?”

With darklings running amok, Abagail didn’t like it so much that Leona was hearing things from some kind of specter, but she’d talked to this ghost all her life it seemed, and nothing bad had happened to her yet, only the telling of the future.

“She says there’s more truth to what people say about the end times than we are willing to admit.” Leona was watching the snow fall, and Abagail could sense some kind of detachment in her sister from the conversation at hand.

Celeste only nodded.

“This winter?” Rorick said. “That’s foretold. Brother fighting brother? That’s been happening since the darkling made an appearance so long ago.”

Again, Celeste nodded. Everyone fell silent, and though the hut was warming up considerably, Abagail felt another chill infusing her bones. She hadn’t really seen it before now, but now she could. Humans against humans, fighting one another as the shadow plague spread through their race. The scale was tipping in the favor of the darkness now.

She shook her head. “Honestly, anything could be seen as indicative of prophecy, couldn’t it?”

Rorick looked up at her.

“If you look hard enough for an answer to something, you’re likely to find it,” she told them. “To me this means nothing.” She held up her hand. “I haven’t once wanted to attack you, and if brother is fighting brother, then why does the shadow plague have to turn us into a darkling to make it happen?”

“She’s right,” Leona said. “At that point, you’re no longer human, you’re a darkling.”

“But that’s just a shadow of who you were,” Rorick argued.

“Alright,” Celeste said as Abagail took another breath to protest. “We could sit here all night arguing theology, but there
is
a reason I told you about a problem among the elves. Daphne has been telling me the last few nights that I need to go home, there’s an issue happening that concerns my family, and I’m needed there.”

“But that’s where we are headed, right?” Leona asked, fear creeping into her voice.

“We aren’t going fast enough. I will have to leave you for the time being,” Celeste said, and then sighed. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you will be fine, as long as you follow Daphne, and stay on the road.”

“When are you going?” Abagail asked, hugging her arms tighter around her chest. The world had seemed less scary with Celeste with them, even if she wasn’t a huge fan of the elf.

“I should be leaving soon,” Celeste stood and gathered the sun scepter from where she’d laid it on the table before the window. “I will try to come back as soon as possible, but remember, stay on the road, and follow Daphne.”

“Can I go with you?” Leona asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Celeste told her, and bent down to kiss her on the forehead. “I could take you along with me easily enough, but I don’t know what kind of danger I might face once I get there, and I’d hate to put you in harm’s way.”

Leona nodded, but wouldn’t meet Celeste’s eyes.

“Here is some rations to help you through the last day or so of your journey. I will be sure to let the harbingers of light know that you’re coming, that way they will be waiting to escort you to their settlement.” Celeste turned to the door.

“Thank you for all you’ve done,” Abagail told her.

“Don’t fret, I will try to come back as soon as possible,” she promised.

“Stay safe,” Rorick said.

Celeste nodded, pulled the door open and stepped out. She slid the door shut, and Abagail watched the elf step down off the porch. The snow was coming down harder now to the point Abagail could hardly see the huts across the trail. Celeste stepped to the center of the trail, raised the sun scepter up high. It gleamed in the whiteness. She thumped her finger against the staff, and it flared to life. When the light vanished, Celeste was also gone.

Leona gasped and sat up straighter, but she didn’t say anything to any of them.

Abagail sighed and closed her eyes. Now more than ever she felt alone. While the elf had been there it kept her mind off what was really happening in her life. But now she sat there, surrounded by the remnants of a life she used to know, and facing the horror of an unknown future. One plagued with shadows and strangers and no foreseeable way to get home.

Rorick went to the cot where he’d dropped his hammer and picked it up. Without the elf in the hut it seemed like their hope had vanished as well. Celeste might not have harmed the darklings, but she’d certainly been able to keep it at bay. How were they ever going to survive if something like that happened again?

Daphne fluttered to the hearth and perched on the side of it. Abagail had seen the pixie fight off the darkling before, but would that even help now?

Just follow Daphne, and stay on the road.
That shouldn’t be too hard,
she thought.

The door opened and drew her out of her thoughts. Leona stepped out of the house and started closing the door behind her.

“Where are you going?” Abagail asked her.

“Out,” she snipped, and closed the door behind her.

“What’s gotten into her?” Rorick asked.

“I really couldn’t say,” Abagail sighed. She took off the short sword and laid it beside the bed. She leaned back into the cot and pulled her cloak around herself tighter. Outside the snow was falling steadily, and she let her mind drift with it.

Abagail wasn’t sure how long she slept, but when she woke it was considerably darker outside. Rorick must have stoked the fire up, because it was blazing merrily as if she hadn’t slept at all. He sat on the bed on the other side of the fireplace, staring out the window.