The Blade of Highwind by Sarah Hawke

Author:Sarah Hawke [Hawke, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-22T05:00:00+00:00

5

Fractured

Mirek

The first bit of good news was that I managed to climb down without embarrassing myself, which I had no choice but to credit to my father’s insistence that his sons maintain their bodies as well as their minds. Too many of the students at the Aetherium were pampered, pallid aristocrats who treated even the most minimal physical labor like torture. They were as dependent on their slaves as they were their magic. Taras and I had always found them pathetic.

The second bit of good news was that the door wasn’t locked or barred from the other side. It was jammed, however—the wood had swelled and warped thanks to years of exposure to the elements. But with the aid of her Dal’Rethi markings, Shayera used raw strength to tear it off its hinges, and I prepared a spell to muffle the loud, violent crunch when the wood ripped apart. I couldn’t nullify the sound altogether, but I was able to change the pitch of the echo. Anyone in the keep would hear the much more natural sound of wind moaning through the tower.

Our third and final bit of good news was that the dark passage directly on the other side was indeed intact and led into the keep. Wonder of wonders, my spur-of-the-moment plan had worked out, a fact that probably shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did. Though ultimately, sentries and soldiers wouldn’t have been our initial biggest obstacle anyway.

At least, not compared to the smell.

“Maiden’s mercy,” Shayera breathed, covering her mouth with her free hand. “What in the bloody…?”

“Corpses,” I whispered. “Many, many corpses.”

The sight before us was so vile that I wished she could have damped the glow from her tattoos just to spare us the horror. We found ourselves standing upon an elevated stone walkway looming above a large chamber—probably an old armory or storeroom for the soldiers. In the here and now, however, the center of the room was piled with dozens and dozens of rotting bodies, many of which appeared to have been recently exhumed.

I found myself regretting that I had never studied fire magic, if only so that I could have set the entire mound ablaze and cremated the corpses before any demons could use them as a host.

“Guardian guide their souls,” she rasped. “This is…”

“A big problem,” I said, struggling not to retch. “There were a lot more bodies in here at one point—look how high the walls are stained.”

Her face had paled at least three shades, and I wondered if the ghoulish sight would break her nerve. I almost wished that it would, if only to give me an excuse to turn and leave this awful place along with her. But to her credit, Shayera once again steeled herself.

“You said that there are fractures here,” she murmured. “That means some of the bodies have already become hosts.”

I nodded grimly. “And it’s probably only a matter of time before more demons wander in here to possess the rest. We need to keep moving.

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