Dark World (Book I in the Dark World Trilogy) (29 page)

From the legends she’d learned of the
scrolls, they were spread from one end of Dark World to the other.
Hidden within the cities of the five races—one in a secret
location. With three missing from their guardian cities, the most
logical thing to do was locate the other three. Wasn’t
it?

Ever took in a steadying breath.
“Father,” she began, catching his attention. “Why don’t we fly to
Necrosia and see about obtaining their scroll? If we explain to
them about the thefts and that we wish to keep their scroll safe,
maybe…” her voice trailed off with a shrug of her shoulders,
glancing to the north where the great wall snaked through the land,
enclosing Necrosia.

He exhaled sharply, pondering her idea.
Nodding, he responded, “Yes. But first, we will fly back to
Legion.”

“
Legion? Why?”

His eyes settled on her. “To drop you
off.”

She stood, hands clenched. “No! I’m not
going back! I’m going with you—to help you!”

He shook his head, calm and steadfast.
“Ever, you have to understand, please, it’s not safe for you out
here.” His blue eyes pleaded with her.

“
I don’t care,” she
insisted, her lower lip threatening to tremble, “I won’t be a
prisoner anymore.”

He stood and walked to her, setting his
large hands on her shoulders. “If your grandmother ever found out
about you,” he started, “Ever, you can’t imagine the horrible
things she could do to you. And to all of us.”

She pulled away, turning her back to
him. A defiant tear slid from her eye and she quickly whisked it
away.

“
I know it’s not fair,” he
said, his voice sad. “Do you think this is the way I wanted my only
daughter to live? In hiding? Don’t you think I want to show my
beautiful girl to the world?”

A lump rose in her throat, wrapping her
arms around herself.

He paused, taking a few deep breaths,
then continued, “Ever, she will take over you. Do you understand?
She’ll possess your body—push your soul aside, putting your essence
to sleep for eternity. You won’t…exist. Is that what you want?
Don’t you care?”

Ever spun around. “Of course I care!”
she cried. “But I can’t live like a hostage anymore! Why does Malus
get to be free when she’s the one who’s done wrong? We should face
her, father, bring her down!”

“
Don’t you think I know
this?” he growled, his temper flaring. “She has ten thousand shades
loyal to her, and I, I have five thousand demons who do not respect
me because I’m not…” He stopped, choking on his words, then
surrendered quietly, “…my father.”

Ever felt his pain, a dark aura of loss
blanketed him. She’d never seen her father in this low light, his
sorrow palpable. In that moment she understood. She knew why he’d
tried to keep her existence a secret. Not just because he didn’t
want Malus to have her, not just for her own safety, but for his
own sanity. He couldn’t lose anyone else he loved. It would destroy
what fragile fragments were left of him.

She let her warm, pale hand rest on her
father’s ebony shoulder, her eyes shifting to the sleeping dragon
beside her. How she wished she could tell her father this secret.
Would it even help him? Or would it make his bitterness grow even
more?

She couldn’t tell him anyways, she’d
promised never to tell.

If only he knew the truth.

Magic

“
We’ll rest here for the
night,” Vale announced, setting his pack down.

Fate took in her surroundings, once
again astonished at the beauty such a dark world could
hold.

A field of pure white rocks lay before
them, opalescent and shimmering, some stout and round while others
towered.

“
What is this place?” she
inquired, a touch of awe dancing with her words.

“
The Opal Meadows,” he
responded. “Pretty, huh?”

She scoffed his description. Pretty
didn’t do it justice, nor beautiful. Frankly, she wasn’t sure any
label would suffice. It simply couldn’t be described with
words.

Near the center of the field sat a
circular array of the large opaque white stones. Obviously arranged
by sentient hands, the rocks were formed into a pattern that
reminded Fate of something she’d seen on the Surface.

Stonehenge?

She wandered closer, sliding a hand
over the cool, milky rocks. It did indeed mirror the images she
recalled of the monument.

Why would it be down
here?

This place confused her more and more
with each passing day. How could it harbor such beauty yet possess
unimaginable horrors and barbarity? She shrugged, realizing that
the Surface wasn’t very different. Up there, the world was filled
with indescribable acts of violence, unspeakable sadness and
injustice, but too, was lush with riveting splendor. This
underworld was parallel to the land overhead, just different
residents, animals, and setting.

Her thoughts drifted to her last moments
on the Surface. Up until that time, her life had been full. Serene.
Loved by family, friends—then ended with brutality, taken from her
world because of selfishness and greed. Then here, she’d been
attacked by mythical creatures, nearly destroyed by vindictive
wraiths, and as far as she knew, was still being pursued by a
tyrannical Devil-Queen.

Fate shook her head. Was nowhere safe?
Did utopia exist? Heaven? If this place existed, was there another
above the Surface? Somewhere kind and peaceful to call
home?

“
The necromancers use this
place to pray,” Vale’s reverent voice broke through Fate’s
thoughts.

“
Pray?” Fate frowned. “To a
god?” It seemed unlikely that the residents of Dark World would
give homage to a Surface god. Or would they? She was
intrigued.

He placed his hands onto the face of a
large stone acting as a pillar for another set lengthwise overhead.
Closing his eyes, he answered quietly, as though in a church, “They
don’t pray to a god, they pray to energy.”

“
Energy?”

“
Yes, the force that creates
the magic we use,” he explained with the patience of a sensei.
“It’s like…” He searched for the word. “Chi.”

Fate remembered Chi. Asian power
conjured from within by the use of chakras and sheer will. A cosmic
energy, invisible, yet powerful. “Why would they need to pray for
it? Isn’t it just
there?”
She held up her hands, pretending to hold a transparent
ball of power.

He shook his head, glowing white eyes
filled with a wisdom she hadn’t yet seen in him. “Not exactly, each
of us in Dark World has a small amount of magic in us, but nothing
like what we could have if we harnessed it properly.”

Small amount of magic!
She marveled. Since
she’d arrived, she’d seen more magic in five minutes than she’d
seen on the Surface. It was preposterous to imagine anything
stronger.

“
So,” she started, trying to
understand, “the necromancers, they are very powerful because
they…pray?”

Vale chuckled. “Sort of, when you
respect the energy as they do, you are rewarded with
more.”

“
Can everyone here do this
or is it just the necromancers?”

“
Everyone can,” he stated,
“but they do appear to harness it better.”

“
Why is that?” Fate asked
settling onto one of the squatter ashen boulders.

He shrugged. “Don’t know for sure, but
I suspect it’s because they are more spiritual.”

Another word she didn’t expect to have
precedence here. “Spiritual?”

Pulling something from his pack and
kneeling, Vale poured what looked like silver soil onto the ground.
He then set several medium sized opal stones overtop the strange
pile of dirt.

“
Spiritual,” he began,
taking two flint rocks and clacking them together over his
creation, “means ‘consisting of spirit’. It doesn’t have anything
to do with religion.”

She felt her shoulders
sag.
I guess
that means I’m not spiritual at all.
Being that she didn’t have her soul
anymore, how should she be ‘consisting of spirit’ without a
soul?

Shaking off her self-pity, she became
fascinated with Vale banging the rocks together. Occasionally
sparks would ignite, sail towards the target, but fizzle before it
reached its destination.

Clack
.

Spark.

Clack
.

Spark.

Suddenly, one of the sparks flew into
the middle of his circle of stones, landing directly onto the pile
of silver dirt.

Ignition. Hot, white light exploded
from the strange soil. Almost too bright to look at, the sun-like
blaze ripped a hole of brightness through the dark
backdrop.

“
Magnesium,” Vale explained
as he stood, then seating himself across from her. “Keeps most of
the beasties away.”

Fate could do nothing but stare as the
opal rocks shimmered with white light. She felt the urge to hold
her hands out, above the unusual fire, as it was reminiscent of a
campfire on the Surface. For a moment she even craved hot dogs and
marshmallows.

“
What are you thinking
about?” Vale probed, searching her face.

“
The Surface,” she admitted
freely. “I was thinking about the time I went camping with my
family.”

He nodded. “You’re lucky to remember so
much.”

She gave him a quizzical look. “You
don’t?”

Vale shook his head. “Nope, I remember
the days leading up to my death, my sister, and vague details of
what the Surface looks like, but that’s about it.”

“
Why do you think that is?
That I remember so much and you don’t?”

He shrugged. “Not sure, maybe because
you’re female.”

“
Female?” she repeated, but
then remembered him telling her of the vast differences in
abilities between male and female shades, hence why she was number
one on Malus’s most wanted list.

It was odd that she didn’t appear to
have any unique or super-impressive powers. There was that weird
lightning ball she’d somehow manifested, then flattened Kane to the
ground with it. And then she’d healed him, but other than that, she
couldn’t take credit for anything cool.

“
Who knows,” Vale said with
an exhale, “maybe you’re just unique because of the
prophecy.”

“
What is this
prophecy?”

He leaned back on his large slab of opal
stone. “It’s the second page of the Devil’s Bible,” he stated
matter-of-fact, then recited,

“
There can be only one, upon the
throne of blood.

A ruler amongst fiends, a leader
over beasts and sub-creatures.

Old will expire, new will
succeed, but only one is meant to be, meant to reign, meant to
rule.

The
Devil’s heir.”

Fate pondered the quote, rolling the
words around in her thoughts, then asked, “Why does it have to be a
shade? Why couldn’t it be…a demon?” Her thoughts shifted to Ever,
the biological heir to Malus’s throne. Fate made a note to seal her
lips against speaking of the sweet princess, in case Vale couldn’t
be trusted.

His brows lowered in consideration.
“Yes, but it would have to be a female descendent of Malus, and
since she doesn’t have any…” his voice trailed off.

“
She can’t possess a male
demon?”

“
Yes and no,” he
stated.

Fate gave him a confused
look.

“
The powers are
incompatible. Unbalanced. Ying and Yang, if you will. The male body
would recognize the foreign female spirit and there would be a
fight for power inside the body,” he explained.

“
Couldn’t a female soul
fight as well?”

“
Yes, I suppose,” he said
with a half-hearted nod, “but because the body—the host—is familiar
with the female essence, it doesn’t recognize it as a threat. The
original soul is just…put to sleep, never knowing what is happening
to the body.

“
How do you know all of
this?”

“
My master,” Vale replied.
“He’ll teach you all this, and more.”

Fate’s spirits lifted. It was nice to
have a friend again. A momentary tug at her heart left her
wondering about her other friends. The princess. Kane. Were they
worried about her? Were they upset at her for leaving?

Fleetingly, she hoped they hadn’t tried
to follow her. Guilt enveloped her. Maybe she shouldn’t have been
so hasty. Maybe she should have let Kane’s cold remark slide. He’d
spared her life, even saved it, when his instincts were obviously
to destroy her.

Hopefully they’d just forget about her.
Keep themselves from harm.

If only she could forget
them.

The geysers were lessening in the
distance, their waters retreating as they signaled the return of
daytime.

Kane’s eyes lingered on his daughter’s
sleeping figure just a few feet away. How could he keep her safe
out here? She’d made it clear that she did not want to return to
the underground palace, and for whatever reason, he couldn’t bring
himself to force her. She’d been pent up long enough, a prisoner of
a war she had not started.