Page 21 of The Iron Vow

The city had literally sunk into the earth. As if tunnels or a giant termite nest had run underneath the streets, and all had collapsed in one massive, catastrophic event that swallowed buildings and toppled structures. Tops of stone towers poked out of the ground like broken teeth, and though grass and moss had grown over everything, the destruction the earthquake or whatever catastrophe had caused it was massive and devastating. The city was enormous, with miles of sunken stone buildings and crumbled roads carving jagged scars through the stone and rock.

Nightmares were everywhere.

From high above, I could see huge forms, lumbering and terrifying, moving through the broken streets. The ground wasn’t swarming with them, exactly, but there were more Nightmares here than I had ever seen before. Some were gigantic, like the king’s horrific Elder Nightmares, some were long and snaky, some more skeletal or insect-like. But they were all grotesque, bizarre, terrifying. Anira had been right; trying to navigate the city from the ground would have been very difficult. At the very least, every Nightmare we ran into would have slowed us down, and time was ticking away.

As we soared over the buildings, I saw what had to be the entrance to Hollownest.

In the center of the city, where multiple roads converged into an enormous square, a massive cathedral stood. Or, the ruins of a massive cathedral, anyway. It reminded me a little of Notre-Dame, with towering stone walls, soaring turrets, and leering gargoyles perched on corners and hanging off ledges. Fully half of the walls had crumbled, however, with towers and turrets lying shattered in the roads, spilling rubble everywhere. As we soared over the ruined structure, the cause of its collapse became inherently clear. An enormous sinkhole had opened in the very center of the cathedral, plunging into absolute darkness.

As I gazed down into that pit of nothing, my crow stomach contracted. Somewhere below these ruined streets lay another city, even larger and more sprawling than this one. An underground society of fey who burrowed through the earth like insects, who had a whole civilization living in a place that never saw the sun.

Actually, the entire realm of Evenfall never saw the sun—as far as I knew, it was a world of perpetual night—but the thought of being trapped underground in a city that ran for miles made me feel very claustrophobic.

All right, I thought as we circled the cathedral, gliding between the pointed towers. Even collapsed and broken, the giant structure was still impressive.We found the entrance to Hollownest. So, how are we going in? Can I perch on a tower, I wonder? How does landing work?

Aiming for the top of a tower, I tried coming in for a landing. Again, my crow brain seemed to know exactly what to do. My legs extended, talons opening, wings beating backwards to slow my descent. I landed atop a stone block with barely a jolt, feeling a momentary stab of relief and pride that it had been so easy.

Ash and Keirran dropped beside me, wings fluttering as they landed before folding them to their backs. Talons clicking on the stone, I walked to the edge of the tower and peered down into the gaping hole, which looked like the mouth of some gigantic beast.

I shivered, and the feathers on the back of my neck rose. I didn’t know why, but it felt like Iwasstaring down the gullet of some massive creature lurking just below the pit with its jaws open. I took a step back from the edge and nearly ran into Ash, who cocked his head at me in a very birdlike manner.

Opening his beak, he let out a guttural caw.

Can you understand me?

I straightened.Yes,I answered, though what came out of my beak was another raspy cry.Does that mean we can talk to each other like this?

Seems that way.

With a defiant caw, Puck swooped down and landed on the very edge of the tower, shaking himself in a cloud of feathers and dust. He seemed to be fully enjoying himself, fluffing his feathers and giving us a sideways look.

See? I told you, this is the best. But man, you guys make terrible crows.Ow!Nyx landed gracefully beside him and pecked him in the side with a sharp beak.Present company excluded, of course, geez.

Nyx ruffled her feathers.I take it this is the cathedral Anira was talking about, she said, cocking her head at the huge stone ruins.I don’t remember an entrance to Hollownest right here, but I suppose that sinkhole will take us into the underground.

Keirran’s talons clicked against the stone as he stepped to the edge of the platform and peered down.Do you think we can just fly down into the hole?he wondered.

One way to find out.Puck hopped to the edge of the stones, spread his wings, and grinned back at us.Race you to the bottom!And he dove straight down, toward the gaping abyss.

Puck! Hold on!

I dove after him, hearing Ash and the others take flight behind me. The five of us easily soared through the air, wind rushing through my wingtips, heading straight for the opening to the underground city.

As we swooped towards the towers, the feathers on the back of my neck rose again. Instinctively, I veered away, pulling out of my plunging dive, and saw something large and black hurtle past me before wheeling around as well.

I felt a stab of fear through my crow heart. A bird hovered in the sky overhead, beating ragged black wings that shed feathers with every flap. It was humanoid, like Anira, but its body was emaciated and skeletal, thin bones standing out through dark feathers. Scaly hands ended in black talons a foot long, and the head was a bleached bird skull. In baleful silence, it stared at me through hollow eye sockets before opening its beak in a silent scream and lunging down again.

I veered aside, swooping out of the way, and saw a mass of black bodies flying at us from the cathedral. They swarmed from the towers, wings beating as they soared upward, talons and beaks open to rend and tear.

Puck and the others scattered, veering away from the cathedral and dodging the Nightmare birds as they came in. I caught an air current and glided upward, feeling the hooked claws of one of the monsters graze my tail as it swiped at me. Flapping my wings, I headed for one of the towers, feeling two of the Nightmares give chase. A narrow window slit loomed before me in the wall of stone; folding my wings, I dove through the opening, my wings brushing the sides as I swept through. The two Nightmare birds didn’t crash headfirst into the stone wall, but they did swerve aside at the last moment and slow down, giving me the chance to flap back toward the others. I saw my friends wheeling through the air to stay ahead of the Nightmare birds, diving and swooping to avoid the claws swiping at them.

We can’t fight these things in the air,I realized.We’re going to have to land to have any chance of surviving this.

I shot forward with a defiant caw, causing several of the Nightmare birds to turn and fly toward me, dark eye sockets blank and staring. Folding my wings again, I plunged toward the open floor that fell away into the sinkhole. As the ground rushed at me, I hoped I had timed this correctly. If I ran into the stones at full speed, not only would that really hurt, but Puck would never let me hear the end of it.

Let’s hope this works. I am done being a bird.

The magic responded almost instantly, flaring through my body. I felt myself grow larger, wings, talons, and feathers disappearing as my own form took their place. I hit the ground on my feet, stumbled forward a few steps, then whirled and drew my blade. The steel edge struck the center of a Nightmare bird as it swooped in, and a jolt raced up my arms as I sheared the spindly monster in half. The second one behind it slashed me, talons clawing at my face, and I drove the point of my sword through its chest. The momentum impaled the monster halfway down the blade, and it exploded in a swirl of black feathers and tiny bird skulls.

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