Page 88 of Memory of Ashes

He was dead.

She approached Casyl cautiously. Silver light burned in his irises, but the rest of him seemed broken.

It really was him.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure. Had it been real? Would he be happy to see her, or blame her for his father’s death?

She tensed. It had become a reflex. She didn’t want to fear him. She knew the man in the mine who had attacked her had not been Casyl, but her body did not understand the difference.

He stopped before her.

She forced herself to take a step forward and meet him halfway. They sank beside Tiryn’s lifeless body, and after Casyl’s broken apology, she closed her hand around his trembling fingers. “I can try.” She would try to forgive him. That did not mean she could trust him all at once. She could not forget.

Casyl stood, offering her his hand. She hesitated, then took it as he drew her briefly into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder, shaking.

They strode back through the rift to where the battle still raged at the base of the mountain, leaving the fallen king where he lay.

Casyl raised the conch and blew the signal to retreat, but he made no effort to move, remaining still, watching in silence as his men scrambled away, fighting to escape the muddy battleground.

He turned to look at her. He needed no words.

His gaze became distant, and suddenly he tensed.

“Gods and curses!” he said, his voice shaking.

She stared at the terror that had formed on his face. He gaped at the mountain. She turned around and froze.

Out of the rift, a monster emerged. A creature of the forest had found its way through.

“Ruven! Tharos! Beware!” Casyl yelled. Both men turned towards him, then followed his stare to where the creature stood.

It was the same as the one that had chased her from the forest. She recognised its long, sinewy limbs and deer-like head.

The army stood still, waiting, unsure of what was about to happen, and then from its skeletal face, the creature screamed into the sky, exposing its hideous mouth of razor-sharp teeth. It was a creature of nightmares. The ground shook and snow cascaded down the mountain.

“Leshies,” Casyl said. “There’s another!”

A second creature emerged from the rift, as though summoned by the first.

The army sprang into action. Archers fired arrows at the two monsters as the creatures rushed down the hill towards them. They swung their enormous limbs, knocking soldiers into the air.

Amelia and Casyl ran towards his horse and mounted it before it bolted in terror.

“Run!” Casyl yelled at the men. “Run! Get away!”

The army scrambled in all directions away from the creatures.

Amelia looked back. She couldn’t tear her eyes away as some of the fae tried to fight them, their swords powerless. The Leshies seized one of the fae soldiers and pulverised him, his ashes scattering in the wind towards the rift.

“Did you see that?”

The fae were immortal here and couldn’t kill each other, but those creatures could?

Some men had run back through the rift, taking their chances in the ancient forest instead of this foreign land.

Once they were a safe distance away, Casyl brought his horse to a halt and turned to watch as the beasts ran free into the world, chasing those that had run towards the city.

“We need to get them back through the rift and close it before anything else comes through,” he said.