Page 18 of The Crow Games

Nola chuckled. “Choke on that, Elke.”

When the quiet continued, I interrupted it with all the questions that had been whirling through my mind since my arrival. Finally, there was peace enough for me to take a breath and catch hold of some of them.

“When do the trials end and the ‘Crow Games’ start?” I asked.

Nola shrugged. “Your guess is as good as anyone’s.”

“According to Otherworld legend,” Ruchel said, testing the dampness of one of her violet scarves by rubbing it between her fingers, “the games will begin when the moon is finally full and the orb remains visible in the sky during the day, the seas drain, the desert fills with water, and blood rains from the clouds. Then the war for the throne begins.”

I scoffed. “Well, at least there’s no chance we’ll miss it.”

Nola chuckled, but Ruchel appeared pensive, shifting her weight against the stone step, her expression unsettled.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Ruchel shook her head. “Those same legends swear the gods feast every night with the damned so that they might choose their favored amongst them and shower them with treasures. It’s all nonsense.”

“We’ve been waiting for this war to start for months now,” Nola said. “It gets to you after a while—that sense of hurrying up to wait for what’s next. It starts to press you flat and test your mind.”

“I don’t look forward to it,” I said with a sigh. “And there are seven trials?”

Nola nodded. “Each trial takes place here in Wulfram but in a different district. The goal stays the same. We have to reach the center of the city and that clock tower before the train leaves. Every trial is terrible,” she warned. “But stick with us and we’ll see you through them. Eventually we’ll introduce you to our other allies. It’s our job to recruit more to our side. Soon it’ll be your job too.”

“Until the sky rains blood,” I said broodily.

I didn’t want to just wait around for the games to start, like another plaything for the gods. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past the divines that these Crow Games were a hoax of some sort. A means to make us all fight for their entertainment.

No, I wouldn’t be building a coven for war.

I would build a coven until we were powerful enough to escape the Otherworld together. I’d torn a hole in it once already. I could tear a way out of it, too. I just couldn’t do it alone.Then, once we were free, there was a guilty god to kill.

“Forget the gods and their games,” I told them. “I’m getting us out of here.”

Nola snorted.

“It’s a nice sentiment . . .” Ruchel started.

“It’s not an empty promise,” I said sternly. “I’m getting us out of the games. Out of the Otherworld.”

“Yes,” Nola said playfully. “Death can go suck an egg with Elke and her trees.”

She wasn’t being sincere, but that was all right. I’d prove myself capable just as soon as I had my bearings. Food and rest would go a long way to renew me. Then we could grow a coven so powerful, Death and his crows wouldn’t know what hit them.

They’d mentioned that sometimes the gods collected a gift at the end of the trials. If I could get my hands on another divine sigil, I could turn things around . . .

Our belongings were dry an hour later, and I was ready to travel again, renewed by the start of a plan formulating. A number of prisoners had entered the tower well ahead of us, but no one had interacted with us. We repacked our bags and headed for the archway. Inside, a stone tunnel lined in metal torches inclined steeply. The walls were decorated with engravings that depicted the gods in their animal and plant forms: Death’s crow, Nott’s black cat, Elke’s great linden tree . . .

In one startling image, the crow feasted on the stars in a vast night sky. According to a legend that reached even the Upper Realm, the Old One had devoured a sky full of stars before the god king Alrick had intervened, forcing him to the Otherworld.

My stomach chose then to rumble.

“Please tell me there will be food on the Schatten,” I begged.

“It won’t arrive for boarding until just before the thirteenth hour, but there will be food,” Ruchel promised.

Nola picked up the pace. “Excellent food! And the tracks are another safe place to wait for the train. Hel beasts are afraid of the Schatten and its reapers.”

The tunnel forked. Voices echoed up from the bottom of the incline. We slowed to a halt, leaving a yard between us and a coven of three huddled before a barrier of black stone.

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