Grym Prophet (Song of the Aura, Book Three) (23 page)

“It's me,” the prince replied, “and I think we're alive, somehow.”

“We are,” Gribly nodded. “This chamber is just like the one I used to enter the otherworld inside the Sea Demon.”

“Then was none of that real?” Lauro wondered. “Was it all a dream? I...” He trailed off, following Gribly's suddenly horrified gaze. His eyes rested on the third occupied stone bed, and his jaw dropped. “No... no...”

At first he had thought it was Elia, asleep in her Reethe-made clothes, but now he saw that it was the clothes
only
... the nymph girl was gone, and only a small, damp spot of blood on the front of her jacket told what had happened.

“It
did
happen,” Gribly murmured, “And the archdemon... the evil Aura... he took her!” His voice cracked at the end, and a single tear ran down one cheek.

“She gave her life... to save you,” Lauro said, surprised. “She saved
both
of us, and we couldn't protect her...” hot tears began to spill down his own cheeks, and he leaped off the stone bed angrily. “We couldn't stop her from dying!”

“No mortal can save another from death,” came a tired voice from the shadows in the corner. Traveller stepped out from the darkness, followed by Wanderwillow. “All will die in time, my young friends... But death is only the beginning... and though Elia has left us, she is not dead.”

“Not dead?” Gribly slipped off the stone, and Lauro saw a look of hope in his eyes that had not been there before. “How could that be?”

“Sheolus is one of our oldest foes,” Traveller explained, cocking his head as if listening to a voice no one else could hear. “His arrival was deeply troubling, all the more because it was not immediately apparent why he was here... or so Wanderwillow tells me. He has retreated within himself and will not speak much. But we know now.”

“What are you talking about? None of this makes sense,” Lauro interrupted blandly.

“Sheolus's dagger!” Gribly interjected, suddenly, then covered his mouth. “I don't know why I said that... it just...
came
to me.”

Traveller nodded grimly. “He wanted to stab you with it, Prophet. It is a weapon of the ancient world, and would have imprisoned your spirit within itself, making it so that your body disappeared and you seemed to have ceased existing. Elia took the blow upon herself, and so saved you. Now
she
is imprisoned... wounded gravely, but kept alive inside the blade along with any other victims.”

“How do we free her?” Gribly asked fiercely, eyes shining.

“Shatter the blade,” Traveller stated.

“Brilliant,” Lauro interjected, “But where has the bloody demon gone? And where in Vast are
we?”

“Below the
Swaying Willow
,” Traveller indicated. “This chamber is the source of the inn's power... every such chamber is the physical root a being from the otherworld uses to anchor themselves to the physical realm.”

“This is Wanderwillow's, isn't it?” Gribly asked. The brown Aura nodded without a word. Lauro grimaced wondering why Wanderwillow suddenly refused to speak.

“It is his,” Traveller confirmed. “I have one as well, though elsewhere... as does Sheolus.”

“The Sea Demon I killed had one... only smaller,” Gribly said.

“The more powerful a spirit,” Traveller explained, “The larger their chamber. The Aura are of the same essence as any spirit, though vastly different than a demon or fairy, such as you will find elsewhere, just as different species in mor-”

Wanderwillow raised a hand. That was all.

“We're running out of time,” Lauro muttered.

“I...” Traveller shuddered. “I have not been in the physical world for some time now. I apologize,” he finished, but his eyes were apologizing to Wanderwillow, not the boys.

The brown Aura looked even more tree-like by now. Stretching root-like fingers into the stone, he pulled open a passage through the wall behind him. Traveller beckoned Lauro and Gribly through, then the two Aura followed.

A flight of stairs and they were emerging into one of the inn's innermost rooms... or where the rooms had been.

Both lads and Traveller uttered a collective gasp. Wanderwillow simply shook his head.

The
Swaying Willow
had been blasted apart. The main building, where they were standing, was a charred heap of burnt wood and crumbled, fire-blackened ruins. Bodies lay everywhere in various positions of death and burning. Fire licked the air and smoke billowed so thickly it was almost impossible to see past into the sky beyond.

He distracted us,
Lauro realized with a shock.
There must have been another attack while the Aura battled in the otherworld!

Traveller put his head in his hands. “This is the beginning of the end...”

“Lauro,” Gribly said urgently, “clear this smoke. I have a very,
very
bad feeling about this.”

The prince felt too dazed to answer, and the thief's words made no sense.
Clear the smoke? How could I... oh. With wind.

Stepping back, Lauro bent his knees slightly, raising his arms and swaying with the wind. His hands lifted above his head, interweaving with each other as he gathered the power of the wind.

Three,
he counted in his head,
Two... One...

With a shout, Lauro flung his arms down, forward, and around in an arc that ended with a double punch forwards at the thickest point in the smoke. Wind rushed around him so fiercely that it pulled his hair out of its topknot and flung it in his face.

His Wind Striding- no,
Sky
Striding- worked perfectly. A powerful gust of wind blew into the smoke, pushing it away easier than a child blowing out a candle. Every fire in the ruins of the inn blew out, and the smoke was gone in seconds. Lauro kept the flow of air constant for a few moments, more, but let it die when he beheld the sight that lay beyond what the smoke had formerly obscured.

From the
Willow
's ruins to the Grymslip river, a streak of fiery destruction had been drawn, and chugging quickly upstream were the culprits: the impossible metal ships he had originally come to warn Wanderwillow about. One was far ahead of the others: probably Sheolus's, or the blasted Pit Strider's.

“What in the Blazes are those?” Gribly swore, but Lauro didn't bother explaining- he was too furious.

“I
saw
those!” the prince cried out. “I was coming to
warn
you all! I could have
stopped
this!” He let out a wordless scream of rage, but Traveller shot him a look that made him cringe and fall silent.

“They haven't escaped yet, princeling,” the Aura said grimly, the hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. “We'll make them pay dearly for their freedom, but I'll need your help.
Both
of you.”

To Lauro's surprise, he felt the thrill of battle building in his veins again, energizing him despite his body's pain and exhaustion. Next to him, Gribly began to laugh eerily.

“Let's finish this,” the prophet grinned.

“It ends now,” Lauro vowed, but he didn't grin back.

~

Gramling stood on the metal gargoyle at the very rear of the ship, scanning the Grymclaw as the first light of dawn began to peek over the horizon behind him. The rasping, gurgling sounds of the ship's Pit Children crewmen disturbed him not a bit, and his entire focus was free to center on the upcoming chase. Only this time it would be him fleeing, not them. He bit down the anger that realization stirred in him and kept scanning the landscape.

“They're coming,” he whispered, watching the dark blotches of smoke miles off as they swept forward towards the river; a sure sign that someone was trying to hide their approach.

“No...”
hissed a voice beside him.
“It is only a distraction. The Aura will be on the first ships before their crews realize it.”
The Golden One was hooded and robed in shadow, but the disappointment in his voice belied his intimidating presence. Gramling knew himself too well to deny that he was shaken by what had happened; what
was
happening. His master had been defeated.

“As long as we can make it up the river and away,” he said, subtly attempting to assuage his master's frustration, “we can be assured that my brother the prophet will play into our hands.”

The Golden One turned his no-longer-golden face towards Gramling, with just the hint of a question in his fiery glance.
Lie to me, boy, and I will crush your soul like a wolf on a fowl,
his eyes seemed to say. The Pit Strider took a long gulp, then continued on confidently as if he had not noticed the look.

“I spent much time hunting these Striders, my Master. Both the Sea Strider and the Stone Strider have strong feelings for the... the girl you unin... you succeeded in capturing. The prophet's feelings are the stronger, and I have absolutely no doubt he will do anything and travel anywhere to rescue her... even if it means sacrificing his own life.”

“Weakling,”
the Golden One spat, fondling the sharp edge of his bone dagger.
Indeed,
Gramling wondered,
but who is weak now? Not they.
Quickly he suppressed such rebellious thoughts, but the Golden One didn't seem to notice.
“Let us depart,”
his master growled, and stomped past the black-skinned crew into the bowels of the ship.

Gramling said nothing. He just stared, and stayed where he was. Carnage was coming, and he wanted to see every second of it; he wanted to brand it into his mind, fuel for the fire of his hate.

We need you, brother of mine... but when we are done with you, I will tear out your heart. This I swear.

Chapter Nineteen: When Stone Met Sky

Gribly and Lauro ran towards the river, their speed augmented by the earth at Gribly's feet and the wind at Lauro's back. Traveller rode the skies somewhere above them, and Wanderwillow had taken to the earth as soon as he could.

“We have to catch that sixth ship!” Gribly yelled above the roaring wind and blowing dust cloud that surrounded them both. “I don't care what Traveller says- I'm not letting Elia go so easily!” The prince nodded, and they shifted their course to head farther upriver, towards the rapidly fleeing ship Gribly was sure carried Elia and Sheolus, and possibly the Pit Strider, too, if Lauro had seen right the night before. As they slowed to turn, the dust cloud fell away, and they were given a clearer view of their enemies.