Eiva and Halbert were still rowing when night came. Rian had slept through part of the day. He hadn’t slept much, but at least he hadn’t heard the voices of the dead. He had enough doubts without hearing theirs. Five days later, they reached the shore of the small island at night. They were running low on supplies by then.

There was another boat pulled up on the rocky shore, likely Arwel and Norris’s. The rocky shore didn’t go far before reaching the edge of the forest. After a while of walking, Rian and the others reached what was left of a village. The forest had mostly taken it back, leaving hardly anything recognizable as a village.

Rian caught sight of something a little further among the trees. A stone pedestal, like the one in Mortua’s shrine in Acra. Voices came from among the trees near the shrine. Rian, Eiva, and Halbert moved closer.

“We’ll search Chayer,” Norris said. “The object has to have been taken somewhere.” He and Arwel stopped talking when they saw Rian and the others.

The stone pedestal was empty. The object wasn’t there. Rian knew it was too much to hope for that it had been lost or destroyed. Arwel and Norris brought forth spectral swords, and so did Halbert. Eiva drew her sword, which still had no light. Maybe Vitir didn’t approve of her questioning the Sancta.

Rian felt bones beneath the ground in the village. Lots of them. The dirt of the village stirred, bony hands reaching up through the ground. Too many dead to count pulled themselves out of the dirt. The dead came at Rian, Eiva, and Halbert. Rian put to rest as many as he could, but there were too many. Arwel and Norris were backing away.

“There’s too many!” Halbert said. He cut down several dead with his spectral sword, but the bones only put themselves back together.

Eiva grabbed Rian’s right hand, pulling him along back toward the shore. Halbert was close behind. Rian looked back at the forest, but didn’t see anyone. The three of them got in the boat, sailing toward Chayer. Rian and Halbert were rowing. Most of Rian’s left hand had decayed, along with most of his wrist. His arms and hands shook with each movement of the oars. He needed burial ground. Eiva gently took the oars from him and took over rowing.

“Arwel and Norris will go to Chayer,” Eiva said.

Halbert nodded. “At least this time we have a head start.”

Rian closed his eyes, waking to the dark place with the whispers of the dead all around him.

“You did well,” the raspy woman said. “You called on your magic and returned the dead to their rest.”

“He still may be too late to stop Norris and Arwel,” a younger woman said.

Rian feared that too as the dead resumed their arguing. Arwel and Norris had almost everything they needed to open the way to the Bone Garden.

“Focus on stopping Norris,” the voice said in Rian’s mind. “He is up to something. He isn’t from Virida, so why would he want to help free them from the Sancta?”

Rian had been worrying about that as well. Would Norris turn against Arwel somehow and hurt him? What was Norris truly after? Rian woke up to the sun rising.

“Did the dead speak to you?” Halbert asked.

“They always disagree with each other,” Rian said, then he hesitated. “Norris isn’t from Virida. Why would he want to free them from the Sancta?”

Eiva frowned, but said nothing.

Halbert sighed. “I wonder that as well. I suspect Norris is up to something.”

Rian looked back the way they came, but he saw only the vast sea in every direction. Even if they weren’t in sight yet, Norris and Arwel wouldn’t be far behind. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva reached Chayer at night and went to the graveyard. They all sat on the ground near the back, past the graves.

“Who would know where Unris’s object was taken?” Eiva asked. “The Sancta wouldn’t want anything to do with an object blessed by her.”

“True,” Halbert said.

“The archive?” Rian asked.

Eiva nodded. “Maybe… It’s worth a try.”

The three of them left the graveyard, making their way through the alleyways of Chayer. The city felt strangely empty this late at night. When they reached the archive, the doors were closed but not locked. The three of them went inside. The candles were barely still lit. Their light was enough to see the archivist lying on the floor behind his desk. He was breathing hard, a hand pressed to a wound in his side.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Eiva knelt beside him. “How deep is it?” She and the archivist talked quietly for a moment.

Eiva took some bandages from a drawer in the desk, then tended to the archivist’s wound. She helped him into the chair behind his desk.

“Arwel and Norris were already here,” Eiva said to Rian and Halbert. “The object blessed by Unris was taken to Derwen a long time ago, to the All-Keeper’s shrine.”

The three of them left Chayer that night. There wasn’t time to stop for the night. In the morning, they reached a village on the plains of Caerulis. They stopped to rest in the graveyard. They couldn’t stop for long, but Rian and Halbert would need energy. Rian dug his hands down into the dirt, the energy of burial ground flowing into him. Eiva was sitting on the ground with Rian and Halbert.

“I’m considering leaving the Sancta when all of this is over,” Eiva said suddenly. “I want to find out what my magic is, where it came from.”

“You won’t find that with the Sancta,” Halbert said.

Eiva shook her head.

The three of them continued across the plains, reaching the forest between Caerulis and Virida at night. They stopped to rest briefly again. Rian reminded himself that they needed to rest to have any hope of fighting Norris and Arwel, even if the two were getting further ahead. Arwel and Norris would have to stop and rest as well, or to feed in a village. That last thought made Rian feel even worse.

The next night, they reached a village on the plains of Virida. On the way through the small village, they heard talk of Arwel and Norris having passed through earlier that day. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva continued across the plains through the night. It was a warm night, with no wind stirring the grass. They were at the gate of Derwen in the morning when it opened. The three of them went straight to the castle.

Rian and Eiva waited outside while Halbert reported to a member of the court. Halbert came back with word that Arwel and Norris hadn’t been seen yet. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva were to wait in the shrine to the All-Keeper, in the castle. Arwel and Norris could be waiting for the cover of night. The shrine looked much the same as the one to Mortua in Acra, only slightly bigger and with different objects on the pedestal at the far end. The crescent shaped stone was among the objects.

Rian didn’t have the feeling he wasn’t welcome there, how he had at the shrine to Mortua. The day dragged on. Rian and the others traded between sitting on a bench and standing before the pedestal and watching the doors. There were several knights in the shrine with them.

“Derwen hasn’t changed,” the voice said in Rian’s head.

“Are you from here?” Rian thought. There was no answer.

The man’s voice always spoke separately from the voices of the dead, and he never talked to the other voices. What was this voice? It had always been with Rian, but so had the others. The sun went down, moonlight pouring in through the shrine windows. The crescent stone on the pedestal glowed faintly, a blueish color much like the moonlight. Norris and Arwel flung the shrine doors open.

“You will not stop us,” Norris said. He sounded entirely certain of it.

Arwel was staring at Rian. “Please, this is your last chance. Join us and you won’t have to suffer. We won’t have to hurt you.”

Rian didn’t hesitate. “No.”

Arwel looked away, then he and Norris brought forth spectral swords. So did Halbert. Eiva and the knights drew their swords. Rian stayed back, by the pedestal where the final object lay. Norris pulled away from the fight, Arwel standing his own against the knights, Halbert, and Eiva. Norris rushed at Rian, grabbed him by the shoulders, and tossed him aside like it took no effort. Rian got to his feet as quickly as he could.

Norris and Halbert both had a hand on the crescent stone, struggling against each other. Norris pulled the stone free of Halbert’s bony hand, running for the doors out of the shrine. Rian tried to run after him, but Arwel moved in front of him. Arwel frowned hard, then he ran after Norris. Several knights lay dead, others wounded. Eiva had a few shallow scrapes but was otherwise alright.

“You alright?” Eiva asked Halbert. “Arwel hit you pretty hard.”

“Nothing is broken,” Halbert said. “They’ll be going to the Grove of Thorns to open the way to the Bone Garden.”

“It’s in Virida?” Rian asked. The moment he’d dreaded had come. Norris and Arwel had everything they needed.

Halbert nodded. “Opening the way won’t be easy. That could give us time.”

There wasn’t time to rest, no matter how exhausted Rian, Halbert, and Eiva were. The three of them left for the Grove of Thorns. They reached a small village in the morning, but they didn’t stop. Soon they were in another forest. This forest was thicker than the ones they had gone through before.

“We must stop Arwel and Norris from even opening the way, if we can,” Halbert said to Rian. “Trivius must remain bound. If he is freed he must be bound again, which is something only the Speaker of the Dead can do.”

“Can the Speaker of the Dead keep the way shut?” Eiva asked.

“No,” Halbert said, “but he could open the way without the ritual. Only he can, but he has to be willing. Arwel and Norris cannot use him to open the way. And he would have to become fully undead.”

Rian wasn’t afraid of becoming fully undead anymore, only that he might not be able to stop Arwel without hurting him.

“Focus on thwarting their plan,” Halbert said, looking at Rian. “If they fail, we’ll have a better chance of stopping Arwel.”