Citadel of Fire (The Ronin Saga Book 2) (11 page)

Darius breathed a sigh, unaware, but Ayva felt it too. She gripped her small, but brilliant dagger, turning in all directions.

Then, a small black dot appeared on the horizon. Gray watched. Slowly, it grew. Then faster, becoming a thin black mass stretching across like a blanket of darkness—as if night was a tangible thing. And it was coming.

Nearby, Darius choked. “That can’t be real…” the rogue whispered. “Can it?”

Gray grabbed Faye’s arm. “Can we outrun it?”

She shrugged off his hand. “Not unless you’re faster than the wind.”

The words made Gray hesitate, but at last he shook his head. “What is it? And how do we defeat it?”

“They are an evil from an ancient time…” Faye answered without turning. “They feed off of the magic of this land. But unlike other creatures, they feed and never stop. They cannot be satiated. They seek safe havens like that Node that was here, hoping to devour it and all its magical inhabitants.”

“Are you saying we can’t defeat it?” he asked.

“No. A flux of Darkwalkers cannot be stopped.”

“Well if we can’t outrun it, and we can’t defeat it, what in the blasted seven hells do we do?” Darius shouted.

Fayed smiled darkly. “Die with honor.”

Darius swallowed. Ayva closed her eyes, uttering a prayer. The darkness was getting closer. Faye gripped her sword and dagger tighter, watching the dark host grow with each passing second.

“No, this can’t be it…” Gray voiced.
Think, Gray!
He yelled, forcing his mind to work. What would Kail do?

The ground shuddered with their approach, his teeth chattering.

Abandon us,
Kirin voiced calmly.

And it hit him. Fear and uncertainty pounded in his veins as he decided. “I have an idea…” he said loudly. “Everyone gather close.”

Darius’ eyes widened. “Dice, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking? And why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

“What are you running on about?” Faye asked sharply.

“I will attempt to move us,” he proclaimed.

Ayva touched his arm fearfully. “All of us? Is it possible?”

“How on earth…” mumbled Faye curiously.

Beyond, the dark swarm was beginning to resolve itself—Gray saw individual black beasts and he thought he could see wings and claws. “Quick!” he shouted, motioning the others to his side. Ayva grabbed his arm. Darius grabbed the reins of the three scared cormacs—Gray was glad they were Elvin steeds, for horses would have run long ago.
The rogue’s fingers dug into Gray’s shoulder.

Gray delved into his mind, finding the nexus. It pulsed, a beacon of light and wind. But it was not nearly as strong as he’d hoped. He tried not to think about his rising dread and how the ground heaved. He pulled upon his power, remembering the threads Kail had woven upon the Gate in order to
shift
. It was not easy, like trying to dredge up the memories of a dream long forgotten, but, slowly, it came. One thread wove on top of another, until the complex tapestry formed a whole. He opened his eyes and terror filled him.

Wind swirled around him, rising higher and higher.

But beyond, the dark mass was nearly upon them. Distance was tough to tell, closer and farther were often arbitrary in this land, but he estimated less than sixty breaths away.

Faye eyed him, and he read her eyes. Fear and mistrust, and a burning curiosity… Clearly she feared him and the power of wind, and he knew she feared little. He extended the ki, and touched Faye’s body with it. He ran into a wall as dense as steel. Emotions. They flooded him—strength, certainty, uncertainty, chaos, hate, anger, fear and, finally, sorrow. So many emotions, he thought. His eyes snapped open, and he made his decision. Gray reached out his hand, white eddies flowing over his arm.

“Gray? No! What are you doing?” Darius shouted. “She’s evil!”

Faye looked at him, confused. Her pretty face held an innocence he had not seen before.
An innocence like Vera’s?
Kirin asked. He silenced Kirin. “Why?” she asked.

“Call it mercy, or call it empathy.”

“Are you a fool? I just tried to kill you and steal your friend for ransom.”

His hand extended further, wind curling around it.

She backed away, closer to the dark horde. “No, I don’t trust you.”

“You have no choice,” he said calmly, voice cutting through the din.

The darkness was getting closer.

“Leave her, Gray,” Darius yelled. “Let’s go, they are getting closer!”

Ayva grabbed his arm, eyes burning. “She’s
not
worth it, Gray.”

The ground rumbled louder and louder. The black line was a tidal wave, rushing towards them.

He looked to Ayva. “Did I not already tell you about empathy?”

“And would she have done the same for you?” Ayva asked, voice trembling from the sound of the rising rumble that rolled like thunder.

“Tell me the truth or abandon me now!” Faye yelled. “Why?”

Using threads of wind, Gray’s voice cut through the noise like a dagger. “The truth is simple. I have questions and you have answers. That’s all. I will call a peace for now if you promise to answer them. Your reward is your life.”

She gritted her teeth. “Peace then.” She made the word sound like a foul curse.

He gripped her leather-clad forearm, pulling her close. Faye whistled and her horse galloped to them. “Hold on tight,” he yelled. Plugging their steed’s ears and shielding their eyes with wind to keep them calm, he pulled upon the nexus and his power. The dark tide neared. So close.
More power,
a voice yelled. He felt it rip at him, pulling at his bones and deeper, sucking the life from his very core, and he poured everything he had into the threads. Still, it was not enough.
It’s not going to work.
Fear and panic flashed inside him, and sweat popped from his pores.

“We’re not doing anything, Gray! Nothing’s happening!”

The darkness was nearly upon them. He made out terrifying, inhuman faces, dark wings, and thousands of fast moving long-legged limbs, as the evil crawled, galloped, and dashed across the plains like abominations.

The power flowed through him like a torrent, taking his breath. He couldn’t breathe. He ignored the suffocating feeling in his lungs as they were wrung of air like a wet rag. Still, more. More was required. There were too many to move, he knew.
You can have more. No, you must have more,
Kirin voiced,
but you must lose control.
Maris’ voice echoed distantly:
Pulling more than you can handle will drive you insane or burn you to a crisp.
He ignored that too and let the power fill him completely. It obeyed, and then took control, seeping and filling every nook in his body until he could contain it no longer.
No more,
he pleaded, agony wracking his body, but still it came… It burst from him as if splitting the seams of his soul. He fell to his knees. Words and screams sounded distant and muted.
Please…
he begged, in a daze, limbs weak and numb. But Kirin was louder, stronger.
More!

Too much.

He opened his eyes.

Through the gauzy haze of white, he saw black creatures reaching through the torrent of wind. Something clawed at his arm, screeching, and he cried out in pain. Then, everything vanished, winking out of existence.

Still, the power grew.

The threads bolstered themselves like white steel cords, growing and going far beyond his limits. He saw fire in his mind. It burned at the nexus, and he felt his mind ripping in two. Dread filled him. The power, his very core, was being eaten alive. In a rush, he let it all go. The wind died, as if he were being burnt alive and leapt into a body of water. Distantly, he felt something soft between his fingers. His eyes opened and closed, slowly.

He saw green blades, and then it was all gone…

* * *

Gray’s world formed slowly. Nearby, a man lay on a marble floor. His white robes were ripped to shreds, pulled to his waist to expose a horrid sight. The man’s face was hidden in shadows, but what he could see was an abomination.

His tan skin laid flayed open, and where it wasn’t, it was crisp and blackened from searing fire… Diseased vines crawled over his body, thorns puncturing and oozing blood, pressing deeper with each passing second…

The man cried out in agony—one long endless cry.

Gray wanted to run, to flee this awful nightmare. But he couldn’t. Instead he pressed closer, hoping to save the man, and just as he almost resolved the face…

His eyes snapped open, breathing hard—seeing a green canopy overhead. 

Alive,
 he thought.

But his thoughts were filled with only the dream. Who in the seven hells was that man? And why did Gray feel such a strange and powerful urge to know? As if he was being guided, 
pressed
 to remember. But it was just a dream, Gray told himself. Wasn’t it?

He pushed the dream aside, and noticed for the first time that he lay on a bed of grass and curling vines,
 
vines just like the ones that had wrapped around Faye’s limbs, trapping her after Darius had…

“Darius…”
he whispered, remembering the rogue and his power.

“Yes?” Darius shot up. Gray hadn’t seen him lounging against a gnarled tree. He seemed to blend into the forest as if one with it.

“Where am I? What happened?” he questioned, feeling groggy. His head throbbed as if bludgeoned by a cudgel. Repeatedly. He looked around, taking in his surroundings.

They sat in a flat, grassy dell, hemmed by towering trees. A faint trickle of water announced a stream, and he saw it flowed down a nearby slope feeding into a small, translucent pond where birds and more butterflies flitted. Even from here, he saw brightly colored fish swimming beneath the surface. Beside the pond sat a huge batch of dark green mushrooms, at which several deer-like creatures nibbled.

“Faye says we’re in another smaller Node, a forest just a week from Farbs,” Darius explained. “We’ve jumped ahead considerably. You nearly got us to our destination with that little stunt of yours.”

“My little stunt…” Gray repeated, and sudden fear gripped his body.
The nexus…
He reached into his mind. The swirling ball of air was there, sitting extraordinarily quiet. For a moment, something felt different about it, but it passed. It was still there, and that was all that mattered. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief, slumping back down upon his strange bed of vines. When had he grown so attached to his power? He held onto it, not wanting to let it go. “It nearly cost us everything,” he said, trying to sit up, and groaned. He hurt everywhere.
Is this the repercussion for drawing upon my power like that?
It must be, for he knew he’d threaded too much. He was only glad it wasn’t worse. At his side, he saw Morrowil. He grabbed the blade, holding it to his chest, drawing comfort from its presence.

“Ah, but it worked! My ma’ used to say that sometimes a foolish man is great, and a great man is a fool, but one can never tell which is which if both have success.”

“What’s that mean exactly? I’m too tired for sayings.”

Darius scratched his head of unruly brown hair. He’d combed it once, Gray thought he remembered, at Karil’s camp, but it was growing more and more unkempt in the past few weeks. “Not sure, but you’re a foolishly great man in my book.”

Gray smiled. “Thanks, Darius.” He eyed his arm and saw a thin bandage. “What’s this?”

“Faye’s doing,” Darius remarked. “When you got us here, one of those things got through. Before I could turn around, she’d killed it and it disappeared in a bout of flame. After that, she insisted on your rest and set us up in this glade.” He shook his head, “Dice, I hate to admit it, but somehow she’s gone from villain to friend.” Though the rogue didn’t sound entirely convinced himself.

“She promised peace, for now,” Gray said, feeling suddenly weary.
So much power.
It was Kirin’s voice, not his. It sounded dangerously similar to Vera, and he silenced Kirin, shutting him out of his thoughts forcefully.

“What do you remember?” Darius asked.

“The last thing I saw was wind and… a black limb, and then it was all gone.”

“Yes, that wicked thing…” The rogue shivered and looked to a nearby tree, pointing to a cloth-wrapped bundle.

Gray whispered, “Is… that it?”

“It is. Faye wanted to keep it. Said no one had ever separated a limb from its body. Usually the things just burn like tinder to a flame if killed, or so she says,” Darius admitted.

Suddenly, he remembered those vines that had held Faye. That power. “Darius… Back in the other Node, when Faye tried to kill you and you grabbed her, how did you do that?”