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The lord’s mouth tightened. “It is not just Sinaria, princess.”
Dread filled my mate. She had feared that. So had I.
“For several weeks now, we’ve had reports of attacks at night by forces unseen. Shepherds and farmers found dead in the fields, drained of blood with barely a mark on them. Messages received from other parts of Aneira suggested we were not the only province with this strange issue. I ordered a curfew and sent word to the capital requesting aid in addressing whatever was threatening my people, and for a time, this seemed to stem the tide of the issue.
“But the response I received from Lumilia meant things were worse than I imagined. Reports from the lords at the capital said it appeared an army was approaching from the north, but one unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The forces were, for lack of a better term… not human.”
Uneasy looks passed between several of my friends.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the lords asked all the provinces to send their soldiers to stop what they assumed was the source of the attacks we’d suffered. Preliminary efforts to destabilize Aneira ahead of an invasion and all that. And while we hoped the Warden Wall would stop their main force, given the attacks on the populace and the fact these enemies were not like ones we’d faced before, the lords could not be sure the creatures hadn’t found a way to breach the wall already. Thus, every able-bodied soldier was needed.”
Lord Thomas sighed. “Of course, Sinaria complied. I sent my soldiers north with great haste, and I fully intended to join them after putting precautions in place to protect my people while I was gone. It seemed the best plan to end what may well have been the origin of these strange attacks. But then the wall fell.”
Valeria made a small movement beside him, like a repressed shudder at the words.
“Word of the destruction of the wall was followed shortly by tales of some new threat. People weren’t simply being drained of blood anymore. Now they were vanishing entirely with only piles of dust and crumbling bones left where they’d stood, if anything remained at all. Soon after that, even stranger reports reached me. Farmers and shepherds were returning to their villages changed. Colder. Crueler. They would walk back to their homes without a word to anyone, and then the screams would begin. Villagers who escaped said those people would emerge from their homes covered in blood, sometimes with all their family dead behind them, sometimes with only a few killed. But whoever they spared within their homes had become like them—cold and strange and every bit as vicious. And then the killing would spread.”
Lord Thomas shook his head, clearly disturbed even to recount the stories. “No one knows what creature or infection is causing this. Some speak of a magical curse. Others fear that the queen herself might be infected because she hasn’t come forward to stop it. I cannot even be certain any longer that the messengers I send to the lords at Lumilia or our own soldiers are making it through without being killed. To make matters worse, the stories we’ve received from survivors are jumbled and confusing. Some tell of seeing an eerie glow in the attackers’ eyes, as if they were taken over by magic. Others say they saw a shifting shadow pass over the attackers’ skin when they would touch someone, and then that next person would become like them, as if whatever had been inside the first person now possessed another as well. But among the few survivors, a handful brought us a tale of fleeing through a market, chased by the possessed, and witnessing them recoil from a scattered cart of garlic as if burned.”
He chuckled humorlessly. “It seemed absurd, to be honest, but to comfort the populace, I ordered inspections. And to my great shock, it worked. A pair of travelers came to us two days later, and the moment the inspectors approached, the man changed. His eyes glowed as bright yellow as a bumblebee. His body convulsed as if something within him was trying to escape.” A grim look crossed the lord’s face. “He killed two of my people before he was put down. The guards swear they heard something unnatural in his screams as he died.”
“Like metal in your brain,” Valeria murmured, speaking up for the first time. A sickened look tinged her reserved expression.
Lord Thomas nodded. “Whatever poison or curse has been inflicted upon our land, it is allowing the infected to spread it to anyone they touch—if they don’t just kill you outright. This is why you saw people in the fields running from you. This is why every person within the city walls is armed to defend themselves.” The grim look on his face deepened. “I’m sorry, princess, but no one you might encounter beyond these walls is safe now.”
17
GWYNEIRA
Istared at Lord Thomas, my mind racing as I tried to figure out what to say. This was the Voidborn. It had to be. Even if I didn’t know what the glowing eyes meant, the shadows on people’s skin were too similar to those creatures’ presences in this world to be mere coincidence.
But how could I tell him that and not give away everything else that was too dangerous for him to know?
Like what I was now.
What my men were.
“Holy shit,” Clay whispered.
Murmurs of agreement passed through my men.
I couldn’t bring myself to make a sound. Not telling Lord Thomas about the Voidborn was dangerous too. In the absence of information, people were infinitely more likely to create explanations of their own. Every sentient being used stories to make sense of the world. Even at times when we didn’t have all the information, we’d still make up a story of our own to explain the situation we found ourselves in.
My stepmother knew that. To explain away murdering my mother, she’d crafted a story about Erenlian assassins. To prevent me from learning magic, she’d concocted a story to claim how proximity to it would drive me insane.
We clung to stories. And without knowledge of the Voidborn, how long would it take Lord Thomas’s people to seek out some other story, one that would ultimately only pin an innocent party with the blame?
“The enemy you face is called the Voidborn,” I said.
Lord Thomas gave me an alarmed look. At his side, Valeria appeared equally startled. He’d called her a bodyguard, but for some reason, I suspected she was more. I didn’t miss the way her body turned slightly toward him with her reaction, as if she was seeking to comfort him as much as protect him.
“They come from a place known as the empty realms,” I continued. “It is a region that lies beyond this or any other reality, and their sole goal is to destroy reality itself.”
“How do you know this?” Lord Thomas asked.
I tensed, but the only way around the answer was to lie, and that would only cause more problems.
But I couldn’t yet trust that he would continue offering me sanctuary if I told him too many impossible things. That I hadn’t killed my father was one thing.
