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“A portent? I still don’t know. But he works here, Keegan, close. This, like the waterfall in the valley. Those are keys to him. This, the seat of power. And the valley, where my father was conceived, where I was born. Where you were born. He’s started here.”
“I don’t see a shadow. I look every time I come east, and see nothing.”
“I feel it, like I feel him. He needs this… position? And more,this, like the waterfall, is direct. He doesn’t have to go through other worlds, other portals to reach those two. An ocean of blood, you said,” she murmured. “He’d use every drop to open this again.”
“All right. We’ll prepare for that. I need you to do the same on the portal to the Dark World. I see, and feel, nothing of this there.”
“But you feel?” she said as he began to lead her.
“I feel the despair, the fury, the bitter, the thirst for blood. And the hate. What’s bound there has nothing else.”
And yet the woods held such beauty, such promise. The sharp scent of pine, the buds on branches not yet formed, still sleeping. Light and shadow danced together here, and a hawk—red-tailed and swift—flew through both on a hunt.
When they came to the portal and the stone that marked it, she shuddered. The cool air went frigid and sharp; the light dimmed so shadows swirled.
And in them she felt all Keegan had said, and more.
“Step back. In here.” He pressed a hand to her heart. “You can’t take their pain. And know, any one of them would slit your throat for a chance to escape.”
“How many?”
“One is too many, and more than one. Step back,mo bandia.”
“They kill each other when they can. For sport.”
“I know it.”
“They’ll never know the light again.” She stepped back. “He knows that, too. All of it. He feeds on their rage and fears. The weaker minds, so many, he uses. Whispering threats, promises in equal measure. Worship me, bow to me, and I will one day grant you your vengeance.”
“Breen.”
Because her eyes, her voice, had deepened, Keegan started to pull her back. She shook him off.
“He rules there, in his way. Distant in his high castle. Reveling in the suffering, preening as so many still take the knee for him. Only him. Whispers and threats. Whispers and promises during their fitful sleep or raging wakefulness. Kill the next you see and paint the rocks with their blood. I will lead the worthy out come the day, andyou will rape and burn through all the worlds. You will know my glory and bathe in blood.
“Say my name!” She shouted it. “For I am Odran, god of all.”
She fell to her knees, with Bollocks shivering as he pressed against her. Breathless, she pointed up. “The shadow. It’s there.”
“Come away now.”
“I’m all right. He rules in the dark, Keegan. Don’t open it again. He wants you to. It widens when you do. The ones you found, and sent there after Judgment, not failures for him. Because he used the ritual to widen the crack.”
“Then I won’t.” Kneeling with her, he put his hands on her face. “You’re like ice. Come away now.”
“I need to…” She looked back at the stone. “They’re damned there. Some go mad, others just exist on their fury. But none, not one, repents. Is that the word? Not one. Don’t open it again, not while Odran exists. He’ll use it and them.”
“My word on it. Now, for gods’ sake, come away.”
He dragged her to her feet, half carried her out of the clearing.
“He can’t hear me over them. I think. Or it’s more… Their screams and curses are like music to him. Slow down, I’m okay. It was just so cold there, and so wretched. I’m okay. We’re okay.”
She stopped to rub her hands over Bollocks, to warm and soothe. And looked up at Keegan. “Banishments are rare—I know you’ve had more than your share in the last weeks, but over history, they’re rare.”
“They are.”
“And still, every one is a moment of great joy to him. I think Marco’s right. He’s insane. But he’s evil with it, and the evil of others is candy for him. Both portals in these woods lead to the dark, and both are more his than ours.”
