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Owen gave me a sly look, turning his voice to the wind as he said, “By the Light even a dead man can get laid.”
I walloped Abdiel over the head when he snorted.
“Damn it, Gwyn!” he shouted, dropping a platelet of his armor he was refastening. “Owen said it, not me.”
“You laughed.”
Kalen walked around the three of us, smirking at the Astralites. “Not a dead man yet, Owen,” he chimed.
Weakly, but still impressively, Kalen lifted his middle finger to his forehead, then pushed out, refracting the Light into the glassof a lantern in the crow’s nest of our ship. The Light broke into a thousand beams, shimmering against fog in the air until the wood and sails that held steady in the sky slipped away into grey nothingness.
For just a moment, we were invisible on the Alto.
Kalen let out a breath, sounding like the wind had been knocked from him, and the Light around us dropped. His hands fell flat to his knees, doubling over in exhaustion. I clenched my fists at my sides and stalked to the side of our ship.
Behind me, Owen whistled. “No, not a dead man yet, Preserver. But there’s still time.”
Some anger stirred in me at the Astralite’s ominous tone, but I pushed it aside and tucked it away for when I would need it later against the Shadow Sage. I found myself walking to the edge of the ship, leaning over the railing to look at the miles of water behind us. Though we were nearly a two-day trip from the faction, a cloud of Shadow and mist had appeared high over the horizon line. I looked out at Aegedonia, which was now just a speck in the distance, and my mind rushed and reeled with too many questions. Too many fears and they all felt senseless.
The Sea barely moved, the water only sloshed forward, a nearly lifeless thing that had stopped pushing us across the Alto by dawn. Abdiel and Owen had been using their shields to force wave after wave through portals of the Astral Plane just to keep us moving. The bloated carcasses of dead fish and sea beasts burbled to the surface, turning a usually crystalline stretch of gulf into a stinking, regurgitating bog.
We approached the island in silence. Much like I had imagined, Sythe was indeed a barren shore. The beach was a cold grey, truly the antithesis of the shining faction we’d left, where everything was bright and warm and colorful. There were no Faders to welcome us, they’d all been sent to raze Aegedonia. She was not waiting for us either, but I was not surprised.The Astralites stilled our ship and briefly gathered what little belongings we had; namely, their long swords, before tossing Kalen and me two stolen bone daggers.
In the Preserver’s hand looked to be the jagged remnants of a sternum, plated with Silverwood, of course. I twirled my weapon through from my thumb to the other side of my wrist, testing it and myself. It was a karambit, curved awkwardly but still lethally sharpened, its smooth face indicative of the fact that it was most likely made from a human skull. I shivered slightly and tucked the blade gently into the insets of my leathers as a portal ripped open in front of us. Owen stepped in first, barely visible in the pit of the Plane, his hair thrashing around in the windless ether.
We projected into the shallows surrounding the island, wading through cold waters before trudging onto the beach, our breath heavy and nervous. Like when we breached the High Mer’s Palace, I felt the protective glamour break around us, turning the empty island wilderness into a bustling port town. Well, I imagine it bustled once. There was no one there. The wind howled around us, and I tried to ignore the cold as it shivered down my back.
“Is this the city?” I turned to Owen, whose eyes flitted smoothly about our new surroundings with a lethal determination
“Was.” The reply was curt, and he didn’t elaborate until a few moments later when, seemingly, he’d finished taking an inventory of potential threats to our location. “Sythe has been evacuated since your return. Even the Faders were ordered to the mainland.”
“And the Shadow Queen? She’s just been here…by herself this entire time?”
“Waiting,” Abdiel added, crossing his hands at his wrists before breaking them across his chest. Another portal rippedout in front of us. “Only taking an audience with her sister and brothers.”
“Has Gabriel been here?” Kalen asked, but he was met with a look of obvious annoyance from both Astralites. Kalen shrugged. “Worth a try.”
“What in mortal hell could it mean that she cleared the entire island?’ I asked, less because I was looking for an answer, and more because I needed someone to confirm my worst fear.
“It means that when the two of you meet, no one on the Continent is safe. Let alone this island.”
Fear was already burrowing into every facet of my core, and I doubted the feeling could run any deeper. But if it could, Abdiel’s words wouldn’t have helped. I’d been told many times that this day would be dangerous. I knew I could die, I knew we all could, but seeing the preparations so plainly laid out before me, made it real. Heavy. Devastating.
To my right, Kalen took my hand in his.
“Come,” Abdiel said, noting the weariness on my face with a concerned crunch of his brows. I couldn’t tell if that solid way he spoke was a foothold for me to balance on or a sign of the warrior’s impeccable training. Hopefully, it was both.
We projected, falling through the streets of Sythe until the four of us landed in a dark corridor, my fingers planting themselves in the wet grooves of mortared walls. I jerked my hand away instantly, wiping them on my leathers as Owen conjured a purple ring of light.
“Where are we?” I whispered, hoping this hadn’t been Gabriel’s plan all along. Gain my trust with his oversized, friendly, magic-wielding companions and then trap me underneath the ground in enemy territory. These desolate, run-down halls weren’t screamingroyal decadenceto me.
Kalen gave me a funny look, then assured me, “We are in the catacombs under Sythe. The island terrain doesn’t allow formuch burial space, so any Faders that served their faction are buried here, in the heart of the castle.”
I grimaced, wiping my hands against my pants again.
“The center hall leads to the throne room. The more time we have before she senses our arrival, the better,” Abdiel explained, turning to me with kind eyes and steady encouragement. His overall expression was still grim, but the blood slowed in my ears.The four of us rounded a sharp corner and a misty white glow flooded the next hall. My heart pounded against my chest, my palms sweating like they’d never left the wet stone in the corridor behind us. Muddled voices crept into our earshot, barely discernible through the thick walls. In only a few strides, we were at the threshold. I kept walking, not seeing the need to wait, but Abdiel stopped me, throwing his arm across my chest and giving me a wary look.
A male voice said, “Abdiel. Come.”
