XXIX

  Stirring Shadows

  Levi closed the door to his bedroom and slipped down the hallway. The time for his secret meeting had come. Something inside him tickled at the term as he was reminded of books he adored as a child, those teenage romances about nobles with secret lovers. He smiled. He’d wanted that too but never could. Fictional characters just had it easier—doors opened for them that never did in real life. Like how, for example, the guards would randomly be on the other side of the mansion or how there would be a gap in the patrols that allowed them to get out unnoticed.

  His story knew no such luck. Levi peeked around the corner and found the guards to his home sitting at a table in front of the entrance, playing a game of cards. They showed no sign of fatigue.

  Levi’s lips pursed. There were windows, but as far as he could see, they were locked—

  ‘Something the matter, Sir?’

  Levi whirled around, nearly jumping into the roof. A guard was standing behind him.

  ‘Uhm,’ he sputtered and coughed, thinking back to his novels for inspiration. ‘I was looking for the toilet and got lost.’

  As the words left his mouth, he thought: You goddamned idiot! That’s the oldest excuse in the book!

  The guard blinked. ‘The toilet is down the hall to the left. I would hurry, Sir. Lady Nerya doesn’t enjoy waiting.’

  ‘Ah, thanks?’

  Levi watched the guard leave and join the others at the table.

  Right, he chuckled to himself. She would’ve of course told the guards. He shook his head and feigned going to the bathroom before going to the exit and waving the guards goodbye. Once outside, he tucked his coat and prepared to find his way to the westside of Winterforge. He didn’t need to. Nerya was waiting for him outside.

  ‘Keep your voice low and your pace steady,’ she said. ‘We don’t want to standout.’

  ‘Don’t we standout enough as is?’ he asked.

  He followed her out onto one of the roads.

  ‘Not during this period,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s busy preparing for the Fest, so they’re hard at work.’

  And indeed, the roads, though not filled, were not deserted either. Golems made their way through the village on quiet steps, carrying items shrouded in the dark. Cloaked, humanoid figures beside them hauled items as well.

  ‘The Winter Fest?’ Levi said. ‘I’ve heard about it. It’s a festival to appease the spirits, right?’

  The Faith of Ruelle didn’t recognise the Fest as an official holiday, given that the spirits it appeased were pagan gods in the eyes of the temples. But neither did they condemn the Fest. Everyone was free to celebrate whatever they wanted.

  ‘Specifically,’ Nerya said, ‘Artic, the Sky Mother, and Grisha, the Earth Father.’

  Levi thought back to the two figures he’d seen on the pillars inside the main hall. So those were their names. He was about to continue the topic, but Nerya shook her head as they passed a particularly isolated home bigger than the others.

  ‘Quiet, or my mother may hear us. Her ears are sensitive beyond anything human.’

  So Levi kept his silence as they crept past and further west. They reached the edge of Winterforge, which meant they were in front of the crevasse separating the village from the mainland. Levi tilted his head, questioning if she was going to form another bridge, but Nerya stretched out her hand.

  ‘You will need to trust me for this part.’

  He eyed her open palm. ‘What do you mean trust you?’

  She smiled cheekily. ‘There’s a bridge that connects to the mainland, though you cannot see it.’

  Levi blinked. ‘What.’

  ‘Watch.’ Nerya stepped over the edge beyond which lay the abyss.

  Wait, what?!

  Levi lunged forward, trying to yank on her hood to safe her from falling down.

  His efforts were unnecessary.

  Nerya’s foot landed on solid ground, for that is what the thud sounded like to his ears. Her other leg followed, and then Nerya was standing on nothing but air.

  Levi’s mouth fell open and Nerya’s smile widened.

  ‘Light-absorbing stones. The path curves around the crevasses many times, so only those who know the path can cross safely to the other side.’

  Which is why he needed to “trust” her.

  ‘What happens if you misremember and miss a step?’ Levi said.

  ‘We fall horribly to our death,’ she shrugged. ‘But you are a priest, are you not? You will resurrect us should that come to pass.’

  Levi laughed, out of horror or delight, he didn’t know. But Nerya thrust out her arm once more, and he took it. The first moments on the invisible bridge were the most horrifying he had experienced in his life. He tried not to look down, but that meant he didn’t know where he was stepping, which made it worse. There were also times where Nerya stepped wrong and pulled them back, only for her to chuckle at the look on his face. She was doing it on purpose, and there was nothing Levi could do about it.

  When they finally reached the other side of the meandering path, Levi threw himself whole heartedly into the snow, praying to Ruelle for his life.

  ‘You’re being silly,’ Nerya said. ‘It wasn’t that bad. I used to do worse to Varrick.’

  ‘I know now Evil’s name and face,’ Levi said. ‘My prayer’s are with your brother.’

  Nerya rolled her eyes. ‘Come. The quarry isn’t far from here.’

  It wasn’t at all, Levi admitted. Even in the low light, the quarry was visible when they had barely walked a few minutes.

  Plumes of fog hung over the layered plateau. The stone had been excavated in a way that the layers appeared like stands or seats, and the centre of the plateau like the stage for a battle arena. Black stone shimmered underneath the current of fog despite the density of the mist.

  ‘It’s—’

  A shudder passed through the ground that lasted a dozen seconds.

  Levi turned to Nerya.

  ‘Tunnel-like vents run through the quarry that expel gasses built up underground,’ she explained. ‘They say it’s a good sign when a tremor happens on someone’s first visit.’

  Interesting, Levi thought. He hoped it didn’t happen again.

  The two ascended the staircase until they reached a higher elevation that placed them above the fog and offered an interrupted view of both the quarry and Winterforge.

  Levi breathed out. The village had been a sight on its own, but here, surrounded by black stones shining like pearls, the region was mystical. Dreamlike.

  ‘Welcome to Winterforge,’ Nerya said, taking a seat on the rocks. ‘Truly, this time.’

  Her eyes reflected the shimmering of the quarry, and the pride Levi found there was no surprise to him.

  ‘I wouldn’t mind never leaving if it was a place as pretty as this,’ he said.

  Most temples, while holy, weren’t built with decoration in mind. Their most promising features came from sculptures and paintings, but the environment itself, the material it was built from? Those were lacking. The sole exception was the House of Light.

  However, though the scene was breathtaking, Levi couldn’t help but feel there was something sombre about it. He closed his eyes…and listened. The wind was silent tonight, yet Levi thought he heard a faint cry rolling over the valley. His eyes opened and he rubbed a naked hand over the earth. The cold clashed with the heat and radiance inside him, a battle the frost couldn’t possibly win. But even during the battle, he heard it—the wail.

  ‘You hear it too?’ Nerya’s voice dragged him out of his reverie.

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  ‘So I’m not crazy?’ he said. ‘What is it? Another earthly phenomenon?’

  She shook her head. ‘The spirits are crying.’

  ‘Crying?’ he repeated.

  ‘They’re upset,’ she explained. ‘Though I’m not certain why. It’s why our crops…’ she trailed off.

  He waited but she didn’t continue.

  Levi returned his sights to the beauty of the quarry and Winterforge. But the sensations the sight evoked in him were muted now. ‘Will the Winter Fest appease the land?’

  ‘That’s what we believe.’ She pointed at the sky. ‘See that star? It appears slightly bigger and brighter than the rest.’

  Though he followed her finger, he required some time to find the star she was pointing out. It was indeed bigger than the others.

  Nerya showed him more stars in the vicinity, and soon he began to see a picture: that of a crouching, hulking, hexagonal shape.

  ‘Father Grisha,’ Nerya said. Her digit went further up and pointed out another constellation. This one looked like a bird with wings that spanned nearly half the sky. ‘Mother Artic. Winter Fest takes place when the two constellations are nearest to each other.’

  ‘They seem to be glaring at one another,’ he commented.

  ‘The two battled for dominion over Erst long ago,’ she said. ‘The mountains are the scars left from Father Grisha’s eruptions, while the storms we suffer are the remnants of Mother Artic’s cries. The Fest appeases the spirits of both, brokering peace and thus keeping our land intact.’

  ‘Huh,’ Levi said, appreciating the constellations more. He never knew the Fest had such a history.

  It was quiet for a moment. Levi turned to his side—Nerya was looking at him, her face a strange mask of emotions.

  ‘I thought you’d be more sceptical as a priest,’ she said. ‘And as an outsider.’

  A soft smile crossed his lips. ‘Though not generally adopted, some have accepted the idea that endemic spirits or “Deities” such as yours are part of Ruelle’s pantheon.’

  ‘You’re one of those people?’

  ‘No. I believe Ruelle has many forms. Whichever you serve, as long as you are righteous and pious, you are a rightful servant of the Faith.’

  Levi didn’t think the Ruelle he had seen in his vision was the Ruelle. It was solely the form he was most familiar with that revealed Itself to him.

  A moment of silence, again.

  ‘Father always spoke badly of outsiders,’ Nerya said. ‘You’re not half as bad.’

  ‘I’m glad I could shift your perspective.’

  The two spent more time stargazing and speaking of the outside world. Then, almost too soon, Levi thought, they made their way back home.

  ‘Thank you for the invitation, Lady Nerya,’ Levi said.

  ‘You’re welcome. I’ll try speaking with my father—perhaps I can get him to offer you more leeway in the village. Our family’s library is quite extensive.’

  That delighted Levi more than anything, and he went to bed looking forward to tomorrow, never noticing the shadow that had been watching them.

  The night they returned from discovering the chamber, Leah stalked through the hallway outside her bedroom draped in a thick cloak that swallowed all light. She had a frown on her face. See if you can dig one up and investigate. Leah rolled her eyes. Did the wench think she could do everything? It’s always Leah do this, Leah do that. She continued cursing Sepharin under her breath, covering the ears of the pouch holding the single crystal she was offered as if that would help.

  The dark silenced her steps as she made her way to the exit, another benefit of the cloak. Arriving at the entrance, muffled voices reached her from around the corner. She peeked and saw two guards playing cards. I guess Arnok doesn’t want us leaving without his notice. She didn’t buy for a second that the guards were there to protect them. It’s probably also why the chief was so quick to assign his son as their guide.

  I’ll have to go around. She may be invisible, but they would still notice the door opening. Some searching later, she found an open window on the first floor. Her boots sunk into the snow, and Leah exhaled.

  She hated the cold, so better make this quick. Problem was there were people out and about.

  On a different day, she would’ve commended the villagers on their dedication. Today they only irritated her more. She must’ve spent twenty minutes before she was confident in choosing a rune that lay somewhere off the trail. It was buried underground at the rear side of a home near a stretch of farmland.

  Leah took her staff in hand and placed the tip against the ground. The rune flared up to her senses as a star in the night sky. She hummed. Strange. The material for the rune had been sourced straight from the local quarry, which was no surprise. What did surprise Leah was the craftsmanship. Though she downplayed the achievements before, runecrafting was a difficult, precise job. Too much mana and the rune broke. Too little and it would remain bare rock. Therefore, it wasn’t a lucrative business. Many artisans lacked the expertise to make a living off of it. But contrary to that, the few artisans who did were severely wanted. There was an old story about Blackhammer the Crafter, a short, stout man of unknown origin who made a name for himself in the then reigning empire of the Albunaurics. It was calculated that, back then, about ninety percent of all high-classed runes were his work. That percentage was even higher in opposing kingdoms. Simply put, skilled smiths made the rounds.

  So then what, Leah questioned, were the odds of discovering two separate runesmiths that could both hide their mana signature from her in such quick succession?

  Pretty low. But not low enough. Though the signature was disguised, the disguise itself could also be treated as a signature. After all, it was the same person who disguised both. After comparing it to the concealment on the portal rune, Leah concluded the runes the Ebonfrosts used were not the same.

  Well, that settled that. Time to go home and sleep. Her retreat was cut short, though. As she passed the exit of the farm house, the front door burst open. For a second, Leah thought she had been discovered, somehow, but the cloaked figure that exited didn’t look in her direction once. Instead they cursed, softly shut the entrance, and made their way towards the centre of the village.

  Leah’s gaze narrowed. She thought she recognised the face underneath the hood, so she decided to follow. Her guess turned out right when the cloaked figure turned in the direction of their sleeping quarters and removed her hood. It was Nerya. She stood outside the compound and just waited, making Leah frown. Was someone coming out to meet her this late at night? Who would be so crazy?

  The crazy person turned out to be none other than Levi. The two had a quick conversation, then walked off under the cover of night.

  Wow, Leah thought to herself. Was Levi that much of a playboy? She had noticed him staring at her a second too long on multiple occasions, and, yes, he’d never acted on it so he wasn’t beholden to anything, but she assumed he had more class than this.

  She shook her head. Whatever. She turned around to head to bed—

  When she spotted a haze passing where Levi and Nerya had just been. Someone was following them.

  Leah followed them in turn.

  The pair of secret lovers—seriously, how had Levi achieved that in so little time?—travelled across Winterforge, dodging patrolling guards where needed. The haze followed them, and so did Leah. They were headed in the direction of the home where Leah had inspected the rune.

  Levi and Nerya walked past it, and the shade stopped in place, bringing Leah up short.

  Oh, they were abandoning their chase? Had they noticed her? Doubtful. Xun had made the cloak she was wearing. Not a single person in Winterforge would be able to see through it.

  As Leah thought, the haze abandoned the pair and steered towards the entrance of the house, none the wiser of the person following them.

  Leah hurried behind them.

  Malakai was sitting at a table in the manor home of the fishing hamlet, Rider at his side. Both had a tankard in their hands, which they feigned to drink from as they silently watched the bandits party and play games.

  ‘How’d ya enjoy the work, newbies?’ A blond bandit said. His cheeks were red from the booze.

  Three of them, other newbies, whose name Malakai hadn’t bothered to learn, joined their table.

  ‘We survived,’ Rider said, raising his drink.

  ‘Good,’ one, a ginger, said, ‘cuz tomorrow morning ya can start shovelling shit again!’

  The entire room burst into laughter.

  Malakai shook his head and surveyed the makeshift tavern, reducing the merriment to background noise in his head.

  ‘I haven’t seen the women all day,’ Malakai said. ‘Did they leave?’

  The bandit who hadn’t spoken yet, an older man, scoffed. ‘Ya fiance in there, son?’

  ‘As if! Ya seen his face?!’ the blond cried, slapping his knee.

  Rider chuckled, drawing a side-eye from Malakai, and the frostguard shrugged innocently.

  ‘Just curious,’ Malakai said. ‘A foreign woman took them from our caravan in the afternoon.’

  ‘That’ll be Radi,’ the older bandit supplied. ‘She’s climbing the rankings quickly, from what I heard.’

  That drew a laugh from the blond. ‘She’s a foreigner, Bud. She’s not climbing shit.’

  The older bandit raised his shoulders. ‘Maybe. But best stay away from her. She’s dangerous.’

  ‘Dangerous how?’ the ginger went, more serious now that the higher rungs were being mentioned.

  The older bandit leaned forwards, glancing side-to-side, and whispered: ‘They say she’s a faraway descendant of the Suhai line.’

  ‘Suhai line?’ Rider said, also becoming more invested. ‘That empire to the west?’

  ‘The one and only. The Suhai’s are less than a shade of what they used to be, yet their reputation remains.’

  By now the entire table was clinging to the man’s words, and the older bandit eyed all of them, relishing in the attention. ‘They’re magicians,’ he said. ‘Practitioners of a dark magic named Zoeria.’

  ‘Is it powerful?’ This was Malakai’s first time ever hearing of it.

  ‘Powerful enough to have her rising through the ranks,’ the bandit said.

  The two newer bandits no longer had the stomach for making fun of Malakai and Rider after that and quickly found an excuse to join another table.

  ‘They’re probably asleep,’ Rider said after the older bandit had also excused himself.

  ‘Maybe,’ Malakai said.

  But he had a duty to keep those women safe, especially since they had the opportunity to take them home but chose not to.

  ‘Why don’t you check on them if you’re so worried?’ Rider said.

  ‘I don’t know where they went,’ Malakai said.

  He’d thought to find out after returning from his grunt work, but the bandits had piled menial task after menial task on him. Afterwards, it had been like Radi had vanished from the face of the earth.

  ‘Gerald may know,’ Rider said, nodding to the bandit.

  Gerald was sitting alone at a table, gazing into his tankard. His entire crew, what remained of it, was bedridden, and Malakai remembered the man’s sole request.

  ‘No, it’s fine,’ Malakai said.

  Radi may practise black magic, but would she really do something to the women with all of them here?

  …he couldn’t deny the possibility.

  The bandit festivities continued well into the night, so it must’ve been somewhere around two in the morning when Malakai and Rider could finally run to their sleeping cots without drawing the ire of the veteran bandits.

  ‘You want to set up a watch?’ Rider said.

  They had their own room, and though he didn’t think Gerald would, it was always possible the caravan captain had snitched.

  Malakai reached into his pouch and summoned one of the orcs. ‘He’ll keep watch for us.’

  And so the two frostguards went to sleep.

  At least, Rider did. Though he was tired, the darkness remained out of reach of Malakai. He kept thinking of the women. Were they alright? Should he order Wraith to search the hamlet? That would have its drawbacks. If anyone discovered the orc and a dead body turned up or someone went missing, the hamlet would be on high alert, further increasing the difficulty of their mission. These and other worries sped through the front of his mind like racing horses.

  Malakai sighed and got out of bed. Some fresh air would help. He needed to go to the toilet anyways.

  The privy was a street removed from his home. The wooden shed was cramped, which would’ve been bearable if the small space didn’t concentrate the stink so the foul stench burned through his nose. Malakai held his breath, begging his Johnson to pee faster. It was when the lack of air was ballooning his head that he thought he heard something. The stream from his manhood quit, and Malakai perked his ears, taking a calming breath, not worried a bit about the stink.

  Look, there it was again. A sharp whistle coming from far away.

  Malakai opened the door to the privy a crack. The warm, decomposed air of the stall rushed past him and outside. It was quiet. Until he heard the whistle again. He frowned as he deciphered the noise. That wasn’t a whistle—that was a scream. A woman’s scream, haunting, agonising, and almost inhuman in nature.

  The guard captain of House Vrost reached for his hip. His blade was there. And so he set out.