Page 25 of Power of Five
“Useful,” I mutter. “Are there many of these passage keys?”
“No.” River raises his voice to speak to the rest of the quint. “Remember that the key will only cover a ten-pace circle, so keep close and control the horses. Shade won’t be able to give us distance. Leralynn, take a deep breath.”
I don’t have a chance to ask what is about to happen before we take another step and the air ripples around us, settling again into the same forest. Except it isn’t the same forest. The great ash trees rising to the sky still stand, but the smaller branches are gone from sight. The greens, yellows, and reds of the autumn foliage are dull and gray; the sweet smell of sap is nothing but a thin shadow of itself. Even the sun somehow fails to shine onto the trail despite a clear sky.
“Why is everything so...” I search for the right word, “faded?” That is as close a description as I can think of, though it still falls short. Faded things still exist, and half of what should be here is somehow missing.
“We’ve stepped into the Gloom.” River’s voice ruffles my hair. His, but lacking some of its rich undertones. “The world hasn’t faded; you are simply seeing a shadow of it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Imagine the normal world—what we call the Light—as a cloak,” River explains patiently. “The Gloom is the cloak’s inside lining, moving and shifting along with the main cloth but separate from it as well. Some of the stitching, like the ash trees you see, penetrates all the way through. Other pieces are shallower, existing only in the Light without roots here.”
“Why are we here?” I ask, shivering. It’s cold. The kind of cold that a warm cloak won’t fix.
“Mystwood is warded. The key allows us to pass as long as we move through the Gloom, and it makes us invisible to the beings that dwell here. You are safe.” River’s voice is certain and calm, as if nothing like magic or nature would dare contradict him. “Distance changes here too. What would be a two-day ride in the Light will take us less than six hours here.”
Six hours. I bite my lip. “Does the Gloom exist in the mortal world?” I don’t say home. These past few days with the males have felt more like home than Zake’s estate ever did.
“Yes, but the barrier between Light and Gloom is impenetrable in the mortal lands,” says River, oblivious to the effect his deep, gravelly voice is having on me. “You will sometimes see shadows of things that dwell here, dark things that mortals explain away as odd tricks of light.”
Movement at the corners of my eyes catches my attention, and it’s all I can do not to shudder and curl myself into River’s body. “The Gloom seems an efficient way to travel,” I say, trying to make my voice light and failing.
“It isn’t. Most fae never step foot in the Gloom, and those who do just use the few shortcut passages they’ve forged. Without a key, it’s too dangerous here. Even without the local residents, the Gloom itself feeds on you. Stay too long or go too deep, and you may never leave. I called the Gloom a lining to the normal world, but it’s a living lining, with currents and depths and shallows like the ocean.”
My bravery chooses that moment to utterly fail, blood draining from my face as my hands tremble in their grip on the horse’s mane. Of course. Of course I’d shatter when it’s River sitting beside me—River, who probably feeds on fear like the bloody Gloom feeds on life. I can almost hear the commander’s thoughts.Weak, small, useless human.
River switches his reins to one hand, his other settling on my right shoulder. The large, heavy palm cups my entire joint. River says nothing, his silent breath even and steady against the top of my head. Despite the lack of words, strength from River’s sheer confidence drapes over me, a blanket of safety against the Gloom’s murmuring shadows.
“How do you know so much about the Gloom if most fae never step here?” I ask finally, as much to hear River speak as to assure myself that my own voice still functions.
River stays silent for several moments longer. “Because we are not most fae,” he says, his voice hard. Unyielding. “We are a quint, warriors of the Citadel. Our main duty is to protect Lunos from the things that dwell here.” He releases a breath. “We are not safe for you, Leralynn. We aren’t safe for any mortal.”
