A Soul For Atonement (The Soulbearer Series Book 4) (13 page)

Time was running out to save him.

She had reached one of those low moments during the second day crossing the plain when she spotted a spark of silver from the shadowy mass on the horizon. “The orchard.”

Callix looked in the direction she pointed. “Maybe a few hours away?”

“I suppose.” For the first time in days, her heart beat with excitement instead of fear. “But we still need to hurry if we want to make it back to the gate in time to save Dev.” That is, if they weren’t too late already. She squeezed her pendant and wished she could reach Dev from this plane, if only to reassure herself that he was still alive.

“Agreed.” He picked up the pace to a brisk walk. “Let’s go, Soulbearer. The sooner we find that relic, the sooner we’ll be free of this place.”

Another muffled snicker came from the far recesses of her consciousness. Loku was still aware of their progress and no doubt had something in store for them when they reached the trees. She wouldn’t put it past him to have led them on a wild goose chase, to have moved the Blood of Lireal to a different location.

“
Is it still there?
” she asked him, releasing him from his confines enough to allow him to answer.

“
Yes,
” he hissed, and her guard went up. He wouldn’t be confirming its location unless he had something else in store for them.

“
That’s all I need to know
.” She cast another confinement spell and raced to catch up with Callix.

They were both breathing hard when they reached the orchard, but that didn’t stop Callix from breaking his stride as he entered the orchard.

The snapping trees did.

He cursed and drew his sword, backing away from the snarling branches.

“Oh, yeah, forgot to warn you.” Arden eased his sword down. “They bite.”

“Now you tell me.”

“But there is a trick to taming them.” She dodged the lunging leaves until she came to the trunk. After a few seconds of stroking, the tree calmed and made what sounded like a purring noise.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing this.” He lowered his sword until the tip of the blade rested in the dirt. “Are we going to have to do that to every tree we pass?”

“Only the ones you don’t want attacking you.” She waved him forward. “Stay close.”

It became a game to dodge the attacking branches, but thankfully, years of avoiding pinches while serving customers at the tavern in Wallus worked to her advantage. A slide, a twist, a duck. All part of a choreographed dance that got her safely to the next trunk.

Callix, however, wasn’t as lucky. He got bopped, swatted, and nipped as he tried to mimic her motions and finally resorted to hacking his way through. “I hate this place,” he muttered after fighting another snarling tree.

“I told you to stay close.”

“I’m trying.” He didn’t even bother to look to his left before hacking the tip off a tree branch that was trying to pounce on him. “I think I failed the lesson on tree taming.”

“There’s nothing tame about anything in Chaos.” She rubbed another trunk until the branches sagged like Cinder did when she scratched behind his ears. “We’re just appeasing them long enough to get by.”

“And speaking of appeasing, I have a feeling Loku won’t be letting us leave with the relic without throwing something at us.”

“I suspect you’re right.” Arden sidestepped her way to the next trunk. “I’ve confined him with every spell I can, but we’re still in his territory.”

“So you’re expecting him to pull a few more dirty tricks before we’re out of here.”

The earlier snicker replayed in her mind. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Good to know,” Callix replied with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

It was much slower getting to the center of the orchard than before, but then, she didn’t have the ruler of the realm at her side to order submission from the trees. Just when she was beginning to wonder if they were going in circles, she saw a flash of silver. Her pulse quickened as she rushed toward it. “It’s this tree.”

Callix came up behind her and peered into the dense foliage. “Are you certain it’s this one?”

“Do you see any other trees like it?”

“No.” A brief moment of awe flickered across his face. “If it wasn’t trying to bite my head off, I might consider it beautiful.”

“Just keep stroking the trunk like this.” She guided his hand to the trunk and demonstrated once more on the now-docile tree. “Now, if you have that under control, I’m going to retrieve that relic.”

Another small blessing from her days in Wallus was that she learned to climb trees with speed and ease. When Hal was angry at her for accidentally setting fire to something, a tall tree provided a great hiding place until he calmed down.

Her muscles responded to the memory with little direction from her. She jumped up to grab a branch and swing her body onto it. A few branches later, she was standing in the heart of the tree.

Hundreds of ruby red apples lay among the silver-tipped leaves, all trying to conceal the Blood of Lireal. She inspected each one before moving up to the next level. About halfway up, the tree pitched to the side and threw her off balance. She crashed into one branch before grabbing another. The rough bark cut into her palms, and her heart fluttered in her chest like a swarm of frightened birds.

“Sorry,” Callix called from below. “I rubbed it the wrong way.”

She muttered a few curses under her breath and climbed back to where she was before.

It wasn’t until she reached the frail branches at top that she found the relic. She grabbed it and held it in her hands, admiring the warm fire that seemed to glow from inside. It was heavier than she imagined, and she took care to secure it before hopping from branch to branch on the way down. “Got it.”

“Are you certain it’s not a decoy?” Callix took it and peered into the facet of the stone, turning it from side to side. A stream of magic flowed from his fingers, only to earn a zap from the relic. He yelped and tossed it back to her. “Yep, it’s the real thing.”

“Then let’s go.” She paused long enough to gather a few apples for the journey back before giving the center tree one final rub and moving to calm the next one.

Only this time, the tree refused to be tamed.

The branches tangled together above their heads, blocking out all light. A low growl echoed through the orchard, and in every direction they turned, a tree moved up to fill the gap. Callix drew his sword and cast an illumination spell, but it only confirmed what she’d feared.

They were trapped.

Laughter shook the remote corner of her mind where she’d confined him.

“This isn’t funny, Loku.”

But the laughter continued until she finally released him. The ghostly image of the god of chaos passed through the wall of trees into the small space where she stood with Callix. “It’s not fun being confined, is it, my little Soulbearer?”

“Ha ha,” she replied without an ounce of humor. “Point made. Now let us go.”

“And spoil all my fun?” He circled them, his bright yellow-green eyes never leaving her, despite Callix’s efforts to shield her from the chaos god. “I played along. You found what you were looking for. But you never thought past that point, did you?”

Arden clutched the Blood of Lireal to her chest and wondered if the foreign goddess would answer a prayer for help. Maybe in another realm she would, but not here. Loku had proven once again that he controlled everything in Chaos.

“I’d first thought I could kill him and inhabit his body long enough to find my ashes,” Loku continued, pointing to Callix, “but it seems his soul is bound to his body, so I can’t even do that. So he’s completely useless to me now.”

“Sorry to have thrown a stitch in your plans,” Callix replied, his blade fixed on Loku as he moved to shield her from the chaos god.

“But you, Arden.” Loku gave her a grin that chilled her blood. “You are still of some use to me.”

Her mind whirled to find a way to outfox the king of deception. She tightened her hold on the gem and stalled for time as she hid behind Callix. “How so?”

“Ransom.” His grin widened, highlighting the madness in his eyes. “I’ll free you in exchange for my ashes. But until then, you are mine.”

Chapter 15

“They’ll never agree to that,” Callix replied, wishing for once that the chaos god had a body so he could run his sword through him.

Arden distracted his anger with a gentle touch on his back and the solid tug of something heavy being dropped into his pack.

“You’ll need to send a messenger with your demands.” She spoke quickly as though she was hoping to get Loku to agree to her plan before he spotted some loophole. “If I’m stuck here with you, how will you let them know what you want?”

“Good point.” He turned to Callix. “I suppose I do have a use for you after all.”

“But wait.” Arden came out from behind him and moved between the two men, holding a bundle wrapped in her cloak close to her chest. “They’ll demand some evidence that you have me, some proof that I’m not lying dead in some hidden location.”

“And what do you have in mind?”

“A message that only my father will understand.”

Loku’s lips thinned, and he studied her through narrowed eyes.

She kept her face blank.

At last, he nodded. “You have one minute.”

Callix didn’t trust his mouth to speak. If he did, there was a good chance he’d disclose the added weight in his pack.

She turned to Callix, still holding the balled-up fabric close to her chest. “Please deliver his demands. Tell my father the brightest star won’t forget to shine when the world seems dark.” She paused and dropped her voice, lifting back the fabric enough for him to see the apples she’d gathered moments before. “And please don’t fail me.”

He nodded, understanding her message far better than she realized. The Blood of Lireal was in his pack, and she was willing to sacrifice herself to Chaos in order to save Dev. Part of him protested at the idea of leaving her behind, but it was her choice.

And it wouldn’t stop him from coming back to get her as soon as he fulfilled her mission.

She adjusted her cloak and took a step back, pretending the balled-up fabric in her hands was the relic. “You can send him back now, but only through the same gate we entered from. That’s the fastest way to get your demands to the right people.”

“You’re quite amenable to this, aren’t you?” Loku said behind her, suspicion seeping into his words.

“And possibly insane,” Callix murmured.

“I’ve learned my lesson, Loku. I should know better than to go up against a god. At this point, I’ve decided it’s better to give in to your demands than to fight them.” She squeezed the bundle against her chest, and for the first time since they’d entered Chaos, he saw fear in her eyes. “Please, Callix, just do this one thing for me, and your debt will be repaid.”

She was entrusting the lives of both the man she loved and her own with the biggest coward in the empire, a man who’d run away from his responsibility a century ago. But now was a chance to redeem himself. His throat tightened, turning his words into a choked vow. “I promise.”

“Your time’s up,” Loku said with glee.

A blast of magic rushed past Arden and hit Callix squarely in the chest, driving the air from his lungs and lifting him off the ground. He flew backward, retracing almost a week’s journey in a few blurred seconds. His hair flew in his face, and the cold wind stung the back of his neck and the tips of his ears.

He didn’t slow down once he hit the portal. His chest burned, and every minuscule motion required maximum strength. Colors zoomed around him, and he lost sight of any landmark to ground his location. He fell from what seemed like the tallest mountain, only to land with a nauseating grunt.

When his vision sharpened, he saw a dark shadow looming over him and a single black feather balanced on the tip of his nose. A wet nose sniffed his ear, followed by the mournful whine of a fire wolf.

“Where is the Soulbearer?” Sazi demanded.

I’m back
.

He would’ve jumped to his feet and danced a jig of joy if it weren’t for the pounding in his head. Instead, he struggled to sit up and pressed his hand to his temple. “He still has her.”

“You left her behind?”

“No.” He winced from the volume of his protest and lowered his voice. “She sent me back.”

“Why?”

“To make sure you got this.” He reached around to his pack and offered a silent prayer to Ivis that the relic had survived the trip. His hand closed around the hard stone that throbbed with magic like a beating heart, and he released the breath he’d been holding.

“You found it?” Sazi’s eyes widened to reveal a full rim of white around the dark centers.

“Arden did.” He placed the Blood of Lireal in Sazi’s hands. “Her only request was that we made sure this got to your king in time to save Dev. If we’re not too late, that is.”

Sazi’s brows drew together as she turned her attention from the relic to him. “How long do you think you were gone?”