Rian, Halbert, and Eiva stopped at the edge of a busy alleyway of Isley. Rian didn’t see Davena, but he noticed a group of five knights roaming the crowd. The knights stopped and looked right at Rian, Halbert, and Eiva, then started moving through the crowd toward them.
“Davena may have tipped them off,” Eiva said.
The three of them ran back along the alleyway. Rian heard the knights shouting and glanced back. All five were running after them. The three of them turned another corner, the gate up ahead. Five more knights stood at the gate. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva stopped. There were knights behind and ahead of them. Eiva was sweating and breathing hard.
“Eiva,” Halbert said.
Eiva didn’t look at him. She glanced at the sky, her brows furrowed. She shook her head. The sound of ravens filled the air. “No…” she said. “No.”
Ravens swooped at the knights in front and behind them. Halbert ran for the gate, pulling Eiva along by the hand, with Rian close behind. The three of them ran across the plains. Eiva was running on her own now. The sound of ravens in the distance faded away.
“I hope none of the knights were hurt,” Eiva said. “I tried to call off the ravens, but they wouldn’t go. I don’t want to become like Korva.”
“It may be enough that you don’t want to,” Halbert said. “Focus on that.”
Eiva nodded, but still looked terrified.
The three of them didn’t stop until they reached Wels. It looked to be around midday, but dark clouds were moving in overhead. The three of them went to the inn. Eiva looked about to collapse. The tables were mostly full, even at this time of day. They found a table near the back. They hadn’t been there long before someone wearing a black cloak with the hood up joined them.
“I’m sorry...” Andred’s voice shook. “Everything went wrong.”
“What happened?” Halbert asked. “Is the trial over?”
Andred didn’t look up from the table, his hood hiding his face. It was a long moment before he spoke again. “The Sancta is not the face they show the world. I knew that before, but this... The trial was concluded.” His voice sounded hollow. “Dow was executed. Mae, Frida, and I were to be executed as well. When the Sancta realized we wouldn’t go quietly, they ordered us executed right then. The knights killed Dow, Frida, and Mae.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. Rian didn’t want them to, but that didn’t change things.
His father still didn’t look up from the table as he continued. “I...” His voice shook. “I killed one of the knights and brought him back. I tried to stop them.” His shoulders shook. “I’m sorry. I wanted so desperately to save them, but I couldn’t.”
“This isn’t your fault,” Halbert said. “It’s not too late-”
“It is too late,” Andred said, lowering the hood of his cloak. His eyes were grayish red, glowing faintly. “I fed off the living. I saw the three of you come in here and wanted you to know what happened. The Sancta will be looking for you.” He raised his hood again. “I can’t stay, not with so many people here.”
“We’ll find a way to undo it,” Rian said. “There has to be a way.”
Andred shook his head. “I’m sorry, Rian, for all of this.” He stood and walked away, leaving the inn.
Rian moved to follow, but Halbert stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“You know how hard it is to resist the thirst,” Halbert said. “It is best to let him go, away from people.”
Rian sank back into his chair, feeling hollowed out, scrapped raw inside and out. He should be crying, but that wasn’t something he could do anymore. Eiva’s warm hand on his other shoulder brought him back from his thoughts.
“We need to find Davena,” Eiva said quietly.
Rian nodded, but what would they do if they found Davena? What could they do about whoever enchanted those daggers? Andred was right, the Sancta would be after them too. The Sancta was too caught up in their trial and lost in Mortua’s lies to be paying attention to the cults anymore. Had Ransey found out who enchanted the daggers? Was he still looking?
“If we discovered Davena’s involvement, Ransey may as well,” Halbert said. “I don’t know if he knows as much as Eiva, but he does know about herbs.”
Eiva stood. “Then let’s go.”
The three of them left the inn, stopping just outside of Wels. Rian didn’t see his father in the village or on the open plains.
“Can he come back?” Rian asked, his voice strained. “Can my father come back from...”
“I don’t know,” Halbert said. “Arwel and Norris didn’t want to come back. I believed feeding on the living meant one cannot go back, but lately much of what I know seems to be wrong.”
“The Sancta is supposed to protect people,” Eiva said, tense all over as she stared out at the plains. When she looked at Rian and Halbert, her eyes were yellow with no white. The pupil almost blocked out the yellow.
“Eiva.” Halbert took a step closer. “This isn’t what you want. Don’t let the Sancta destroy you as well.”
Eiva looked down, closing her eyes and not moving for a long moment, then she relaxed. When she opened her eyes, they were back to normal. “What now?” she asked quietly.
Rian thought of what the voices of the dead had said. “Maybe we should go to the Sanctum—”
“No,” Halbert said. “If we do, we’ll find another way.”
Eiva looked at him questioningly.
“The voices of the dead told Rian he could open the way with their help,” Halbert said. “He would have to call on the magic that almost destroyed him in the Bone Garden.”
“We’ll find another way,” Eiva said, but she didn’t sound convinced.
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“We shouldn’t stay here,” Halbert said. “We’ll figure out our next move once we’re less out in the open. For now, there’s no knowing where Davena could have gone. We’ll head for the forest at the border of Acra and Virida.”
“The Ectu village?” Eiva asked.
Halbert shook his head. “They’ve already had enough trouble with the Sancta.”
The three of them set off across the plains. When the sun went down, they stopped for a moment for Eiva to rest. They were just about to continue when Rian felt it, what he had in the Bone Garden. The dead that spoke to him forced their way into him again.
“Rian?” Eiva took a step closer. “Are you alright?”
“Open the way,” the raspy woman said in his mind. “What you seek is in Mortua’s Sanctum.”
“No,” Rian thought. “We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way,” the young girl said.
“This is the only way,” the raspy woman said through Rian.
“Let go of him!” Halbert said. “That magic is too strong—”
Rian felt magic gathering in the air around him, so dense he could almost see it as a red haze. Halbert pulled Eiva away from Rian quickly. Red light flared to life all over Rian again, a burning he felt down through the core of his bones, which began to crack. The magic in the air became only stronger, the voices of the dead adding their will to it. Rian thought the magic flowing through him might tear him apart, but he couldn’t stop it.
The magic tore at the air between him and Halbert and Eiva. A jagged hole opened up, red light burning at the edges, darkness within. Trivius forced Rian closer. Rian tried to turn away from it, but he couldn’t even look away. He stepped into the darkness. The darkness was there and gone swiftly, leaving him standing in a stone hallway. The stones were pale and smoky. They didn’t look solid, but he couldn’t see through them.
The red burning light faded out, leaving him not as exhausted as the first time, but still deeply weary. The cracks in his bones hurt as much as before. When he looked back, there was no hole, but Eiva and Halbert were there. The voices of the dead and Trivius had let go of Rian again for the moment.
“I’m sorry,” Rian said. “I couldn’t stop them.”
“Did they let go?” Halbert asked.
“For now,” Rian said.
“We might as well find Beth while we’re here,” Eiva said.
The three of them walked along the corridor, their boots not making any sound on the ghostly stones. Rian looked back and saw only more gray corridor behind them, stretching on forever how it did in front of them. How would they get back out?
“Do you think Mortua knows we’re here?” Eiva asked quietly.
“I think she would have come for us if she did,” Halbert said. “If she notices us, she may try to bind our souls here. Rian and I might be able to stop that from happening.”
Rian wasn’t sure he could fight off Mortua right then.
They walked a long while, but the corridor had no end and no doors. Halbert stopped, then a door opened soundlessly further along the left wall. Rian was certain there hadn’t been a door there before.
“We have to focus on who we’re looking for,” Halbert said, heading for the door.
The door looked sort of like wood, but it had the same ghostly grayness as the stones. The room on the other side was small. A woman sat against the far wall, her knees pulled in close. She was as ghostly as their surroundings, with smoky chains wrapped around her wrists and ankles and attached to the wall behind her. Her hair was long and red. She looked up at them with fear in her light gray eyes. She wore a white nightgown.
Halbert hurried to her side. “Beth.”
The woman frowned. “Halbert?”
Halbert kept the hood of his cloak up. “I’ll get you out of here.”
Beth looked only more worried. “Mortua will take you too if she finds you here.”
Halbert touched the chains on Beth’s wrists and they faded away. The same happened when he touched the ones around her feet.
Beth became more transparent, fading away. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Be careful.” She faded away entirely.
Their gray surroundings shook violently. Rian felt Mortua’s presence, a crushing pressure. He could feel her reaching for their souls. A barrier of magic surrounded their souls, stopping Mortua from getting to them. The red light burned like embers in Rian’s cracked bones. Was he doing this? He could feel it further draining his energy.
“I don’t know how long I can hold her off,” Rian said, his voice shaking.
“Then we’ll have to hurry,” Halbert said, getting to his feet.
The three of them went back out into the corridor. The door closed behind them, becoming part of the stone wall again. Rian couldn’t help but think of his mother, Frida, and Dow. Were they here too? More energy drained from him as Mortua fought against his magic, fought to get at their souls. Three doors opened along the hall, two on the left and one on the right. Eiva headed for the one on the right first, the closest. This room was just like the one where they found Beth. Frida sat chained against the wall, wearing her usual uniform of a Sancta Knight.
Frida frowned at them. “How are you here? Did Mortua take you too?”
“Not yet,” Halbert said. “She might if we don’t hurry.” He glanced at Rian.
The red light was getting fainter.
Eiva pulled at the chains on Frida, but they didn’t disappear. “Halbert, how did you do this?”
Halbert touched the chains and they faded away. “With magic.”
Eiva’s magic likely wouldn’t work on the chains how necromancy did. When Frida’s chains were gone, she faded away how Beth had. Rian hoped their souls were safe, out of Mortua’s reach. The three of them crossed the hall to the next room, where they found Dow.
“I’m sorry,” Dow said. “There was no reasoning with them.”
“You did all you could,” Halbert said. “We’re here to get you out.” He touched the chains and they faded away, along with Dow.
They found Mae in the next room. Rian had known that was who they would find in that last room, but he hadn’t realized how not ready he was to see her there, her soul bound to Mortua’s Sanctum. Rian’s mother looked at them, deep sadness in her eyes.
“We’ll find Andred,” Halbert said. “We’ll do everything we can to help him.”
Mae nodded. She looked at Rian. “Don’t let the Sancta find you.”
Halbert touched the chains, freeing Mae’s soul. She faded away, not looking away from Rian until she was completely gone. The red light was getting brighter now, burning in Rian’s bones.
“Rian,” Halbert said. “We need to get out of here.”
Rian tried to push away the anger, the deep rage at Mortua. The three of them went back out into the hall, the three doors closing and disappearing. Rian didn’t doubt there were countless other souls there, trapped by Mortua. Mortua’s presence pulled back, no longer trying to get past his barrier of magic. It was almost as though she had recoiled from him. The red light flared brighter and hotter, then doors opened all along the hall.
Mortua screamed, the sound one of fury, not anguish. Rian felt his magic touching all the chains, freeing all the souls. The burning of the red light was all he could feel, blocking out everything else. The way out opened before him, then he saw only darkness.