Halbert met up with Rian and Eiva on the way out of the village early in the morning. The sun had barely finished rising. The sunlight didn’t have enough warmth to cut through the cold wind that had picked up. The elder had given Eiva and Rian cloaks before they left the village, insisting they would all need them. Now Rian was glad to have the cloak. There had been a layer of snow on the plains that morning.
Gray clouds drifted in overhead, threatening to add more snow. They reached the main city of Noantha just after sunset. It was snowing lightly, but thankfully the wind had gone. The three of them went straight to the archive. Halbert seemed to know where they were going. The three of them stopped when the archive was in sight. Rian knew which building it was because two people lay dead on the steps and a crowd had gathered.
No one stopped Rian, Eiva, and Halbert when they went up to the open door of the archive and inside. The inside of the archive building looked much the same as the one in Chayer. A book lay open on the desk at the center of the maze of shelves. No one was sitting behind the desk. Halbert looked through the book awhile, saying nothing. The book looked old, the leather cracked in places. Halbert closed it gently. Eiva stared at Halbert’s bony hand where it rested on the book’s cover.
“Did they find what they came for?” Rian asked.
“They did,” Halbert said. “The way to the Bone Garden is through the Grove of Thorns in Virida. The book was open to the page with the ritual to open the way, as well as a map of where the Grove of Thorns is.”
Eiva shook her head. “Then they’re really going to do this. We have to end them before they can do the ritual.” She glanced back the way they came. “We should go before any knights come in here. Someone will have called on them by now.”
“Maybe Arwel will see reason.” Rian didn’t like his uncertainty when he said it.
Eiva looked at him with pity. “This is his own choice, Rian. He chose to do these things.” Her gaze moved back to Halbert. “Can we stop them?”
“We have a chance of stopping the ritual before it starts,” Halbert said. “If we can stop Arwel and Norris from gathering the objects to begin with. Opening the way to the Bone Garden is difficult, requiring six objects blessed by the gods. The Bone Garden was sealed with Trivius and his army inside.”
“How did you know Trivius’s name?” Rian thought.
The voice didn’t answer.
“Who is Trivius?” Eiva asked.
“The old god Norris and Arwel want to wake up,” Halbert said. “The first thing they need is the skull of an ancient king, blessed by Dienia. It’s in the graveyard of Noantha. The skull must be gathered under moonlight. I doubt that detail is truly important, but Norris won’t risk not following the ritual exactly.”
“Then that’s where they’ll be going. They may be there already,” Eiva said.
The three of them left the archive without a word. There were now knights among the crowd outside, but thankfully they didn’t see Rian, Halbert, and Eiva leaving the archive. Rian and Eiva followed Halbert through Noantha until they were at the outer edge of the city. The graveyard had an iron fence and archway. There were several trees in the graveyard itself, the pine needles laden with snow.
Arwel and Norris were already there, standing next to a dug up grave. Eiva drew her sword, a warm glow clinging to the blade. Halbert’s spectral sword appeared in his hand.
Norris laughed. “Did you think I would remain sealed away?”
Halbert said nothing to that.
Arwel stared at Rian with those unfamiliar red eyes. “You don’t have to do this. The Sancta can’t stop you from walking away.”
“The Sancta didn’t send me,” Rian said. “I can’t let you free Trivius.”
“It’s for the good of Virida,” Arwel said.
The ground stirred and churned. Bony hands reached up from the dirt, skeletons pulling the rest of themselves out of the ground. The skeletons broke apart and fell to the ground as soon as they got close to Halbert, Eiva, and Rian, but more were coming out of the ground. Rian reached out with his magic, returning two of the dead to their rest at once. Eiva swung wildly with her sword.
Halbert charged past the dead, striking at Norris with his spectral blade. Norris brought forth a spectral sword of his own and blocked. Rian ran toward the dug up grave, putting the dead to rest on the way. The skull and half the ribs of a skeleton were uncovered in the grave. The skull wasn’t attached. Rian felt a deep discomfort at what he had to do, but he grabbed the skull.
“Run!” Eiva said, striking down several dead that came at Rian.
Rian, Halbert, and Eiva ran from the graveyard. The dead didn’t follow, but the three of them didn’t stop running until they were out the other side of Noantha. A deep weariness crashed down on Rian, but he kept walking. He felt bad about not being able to rebury the dead, but they had to keep the skull away from Norris and Arwel. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva hurried across the snowy plains.
The path was hardly visible in the dark and snow. Rian stumbled in the snow, almost falling. Halbert caught him. Rian forced himself to keep moving, hoping they could rest soon. He glanced at his right hand. The bones of most of the back of his hand, part of his wrist, and part of his palm were exposed. He wasn’t as bothered by it as he’d thought he would be. He had to do this, and there was no doing it partway.
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“What’s next?” Eiva asked.
“A stone from an old crown in Urvus, blessed by Amoris,” Halbert said. Urvus was the next country over.
It was still dark and snowy when they reached a village. They risked stopping at the inn so that Eiva and Rian could rest. The group went straight up to their room, eating from the bag Eiva had with her. They didn’t want to risk being downstairs if Arwel and Norris came looking for them there. Maybe the two would think Rian, Eiva, and Halbert hadn’t stopped. Hopefully Arwel and Norris wouldn’t even enter the village.
“I will need to rest on burial ground soon,” Halbert said.
There was no bed in the room. The four of them sat on the floor.
“And Rian?” Eiva asked.
“It would help, but sleep should help as well for now.” Halbert looked at Rian. “You did well.”
Rian nodded. He was too tired to think about all of it now, and he didn’t much want to talk about it at the moment. Was there really no chance of bringing his brother back from this? He knew Arwel had made his choice, that he really had chosen this, but Rian still felt like he would be giving up on Arwel if he didn’t try to bring him back.
“How did you come to join the Sancta?” Halbert asked Eiva. “You must have to hide your magic from them, and that can’t be easy if you cannot control it.”
Eiva looked away, frowning hard. She sighed. “I joined the Sancta several years ago. I believe what they teach, that magic is evil unless it’s from the gods. If I serve the gods for long enough, maybe my strange, wild magic will leave me.”
“It won’t,” Halbert said.
Eiva didn’t look at him.
That night was the first time Rian listened to the voices of the dead. He woke up in that dark place with the whispers, but this time he didn’t close his eyes. This time they didn’t grab at him.
“He made the right decision,” a woman with a dry, raspy voice said.
“But he is still afraid,” a man said.
The next voice was that of a young girl. “That’s reasonable.”
An older man. “It will be his doom.”
Soon the voices were arguing all around him, arguing about him like he wasn’t there.
The raspy woman spoke again. “His fear may yet be his doom.”
Whispers of agreement followed that. Rian didn’t quite dare interrupt the voices. Did they know he was there this time? If they didn’t, he didn’t want them to.
“He won’t go all the way,” the older man said. “His fear will stop him when certainty matters most. He isn’t even close to fully undead yet.”
Rian hoped the man was wrong. He wasn’t uncertain of what he must become anymore, but he was uncertain of why. He didn’t want to fight Arwel. Rian closed his eyes, letting the voices fade into whispers he couldn’t understand. When he finally woke up, the sun was rising. He didn’t feel as rested as he’d hoped he would.
While Rian and Eiva had breakfast in the common room of the inn, Halbert restocked their supplies. The three of them continued across the plains. Arwel and Norris hadn’t been seen passing through the village, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t come near it.
“Maybe we should destroy the skull before they can take it,” Eiva said. The skull was now in the bag across her shoulders, the only bag they had.
Halbert looked at Eiva sharply. “Absolutely not. That would be desecration.”
Eiva sighed, not saying anything more.
Halbert had stopped by the graveyard while Eiva and Rian were eating breakfast, but he was still walking slower than usual. He hadn’t properly rested on burial ground in a while, and he’d used magic in Noantha. Rian wasn’t fully sure what resting on burial ground entailed. Did Halbert sleep when he was in a graveyard, or just sit there and draw energy from it? A raven swooped in, landing on Eiva’s shoulder. Eiva stopped walking, tense all over. The raven chirped at her before flying away.
Eiva sighed. “Arwel and Norris are waiting to ambush us in the forest.”
“The raven told you that?” Rian asked.
“Yes,” Eiva said, her face turning red. “Ravens have warned me of danger before. And they come when I’m in danger, whether I want them to or not.”
“I’ve heard of ancient magic such as this,” Halbert said. “I hadn’t thought anyone still had that kind of magic.”
Eiva looked away. “I know, my magic is weird even among mages. Most mages have elemental magic.” She started walking again and said nothing more.
The three of them stayed silent through the day. At night they were passing through the forest between Haren and Urvus. It had gotten warmer, with no snow left on the forest floor. Skeletal birds flew at Rian and the others. Rian ducked, the bony talons barely missing him. Halbert brought forth his spectral sword and struck at Norris, but Norris dodged the blade. Arwel had a spectral sword of his own and struck at Halbert.
Eiva was backing away, frowning hard. Her sword was drawn, but something had her distracted. Ravens called out overhead, but Rian couldn’t see them through the leaves of the trees. Norris grabbed Rian by the shoulders, shoving him against the tree behind him roughly. Skeletal birds flew at Rian’s face, but his magic put them to rest before they could reach him. Norris snarled wordlessly, the hood of his cloak keeping his face hidden.
The ravens called out again, then they swooped at Norris with outstretched talons. Norris let go of Rian, swatting at the birds. The birds went after Arwel too. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva ran. Eiva was breathing hard and sweating a lot.
“Are you alright?” Rian asked.
“I’ll be fine,” Eiva said, not looking at him.
They had just slowed to walking when they reached the plains of Urvus. There was a village not far off. The group stopped at the inn, not wanting to risk staying out on the plains. Even at this inn, Rian heard talk of the two wild mages trying to bring back a supposed old god. Most seemed to think the two were lunatics, that the old god couldn’t possibly be real.
“Arwel and Norris won’t be far behind,” Eiva said.
“The skull?” Halbert asked,
“Still with me,” Eiva said.