A New Light by Everet Martins

Author:Everet Martins [Martins, Everet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The Elders

“I wait for Walter’s return. I feel him draw nearer, like a hollow in my stomach closing up, a deep longing.” -The Diaries of Nyset Camfield

Dismembered bodies littered the lake of blood. Ancient spears stood out from the ground, ringed in a series of browns and reds along their hafts. The rings on the spears were markers from times when the bloody lake had reached new heights during times of war, famine, and disease. There were days where men nearly scraped themselves clean from the map, days when the Shadow god’s pets greedily drank from their vessels.

A great hand stood out in the center of the lake, made up of strange red stones. Skulls, Walter remembered, watched them take on the shape of a man’s head. They were laughing at him, or maybe they were crying. They had no teeth. Where had they all gone?

Nyset’s hazel eyes stared down at him from the edge of the incredible hand, her face as emotionless as stone. She wore wine red armor, seeming to be painted over her skin. Her hips were sharp and stomach nearly concave. She was still as a corpse, watching him like he was a worm crawling through soil, like she was a hawk about to swoop down and snatch him up for a morning snack.

“Nyset?” Walter asked, bare feet crunching into the gravely bones. One of them cut his foot, but he didn’t care. “Nyset!” he screamed, but she only stared. “What’s wrong? Why? Why don’t you come down to me? Why aren’t you coming? Why?” he pleaded, felt his chest twisting with anxiety and want.

Nyset’s head tilted, almost imperceptibly. The blood-red moon shone from the side of her carapace like helmet.

Walter swallowed. “Wait. Where am I?” he whirled around, realizing the significance of this place. “No. I can’t be back. I-I didn’t die. Did I? Please, oh please no. But I won… I killed her. Didn’t I? You’re… the Shadow Princess.” He reached his stump up at her, muscles firing in a string of pain. He jerked his arm back, holding it to his chest. “What did you do?” he demanded.

Something shifted in the endless shadows. Demonic faces came into view. Snarling tongues, twisted legs, great pincers, and fat, hanging jowls appeared all around. “No,” his throat clamped down. “No!” he screamed, reaching for the Dragon’s fury, seeking peace in the Phoenix.

A demon with the face of an old crone grinned at him, chin studded with hairy warts. She had what could only be children’s arms and legs, hanging limp from a giant pouch worn over her belly. It was a soggy red at its bottom. “Had you come earlier, you might’ve saved the children,” the crone laughed and stroked the dead limbs like a pet. “Now they’re mine for the keepings. You failed them.”

He gave me no choice. You could have been something more, Alena’s crisp voice said in his head.

“This is where it ends for you,” his voice said, sounding like it was someone else’s.

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