Page 95 of Oath of Betrayal
‘Ormond, stop her!’ Vahin shouted. I felt a hand on my cheek, turning my face away from the Barrier, and I looked into the deep emerald eyes I knew so well. Eyes that had recently been filled with the dancing yellow flames of wild magic. Calm and ironclad control filled the bond, helping me to see I’d drifted too far and letting me emerge from the addictive pull of the aether.
‘There you are, Nivale. Come back to me, I can feel how hard it is, but you are the strongest woman I know,’ hemuttered, stroking my face. The tether to his soul pulled at my core, demanding attention, and slowly, I closed myself to the immense power.
I vaguely noted several riders cheering, their dragons roaring in triumph. A few more spectrae came from behind the Barrier, but the dragons hunted them down and I was astonished to find that my intervention had turned the deadly experience into a playful game. From the distance, it almost seemed as if the dragons and their riders were frolicking in the air.
‘Never scare me like that again,’ Orm whispered in my ear before kissing the bare skin on the back of my neck. ‘You saved a lot of good men today, but we need to work on your control. There will be more spectrae for you to battle, more monsters to kill. You can’t burn yourself out like this each time,’ he added, and I turned my eyes back to the Rift.
‘Can we fly there?’ I asked, pointing to the ugly scar in the Barrier. It didn’t matter that I was exhausted; while I was immersed in the raw aether, I had felt the wrongness radiating from the place and knew I had to check it out.
Orm nodded, ‘If you wish. Tomma can deal with the rest here. We should see what the spectrae were guarding so fiercely.’
Vahin grunted in agreement, and soon we were gliding down towards the Rift. The closer we got, the worse it looked. I hadn’t returned since Tal and Arno’s untimely demise, and even feeling Orm’s embrace, I couldn’t shake off the deep, aching sadness.
‘I’d like to land, please,’ I said, but Orm objected. ‘We’re too close to the Rift. The foul magic has made the soil unstable, so landing will be dangerous; besides, you are tired. If you want a ground expedition, we can come back another time.’ I huffed with frustration.
‘Please, I need this,’ I insisted. Orm finally nodded, his eyes stormy.
‘Fine. Vahin, find a place to land. You, my insistent rebel, stay by my side. I haven’t been on the ground here for weeks and don’t know what dangers await us.’
‘So you’d better stay close to me,’ I ribbed, preparing a shielding spell glyph.
As soon as we’d dismounted, I set off to investigate. The dirt was loose and felt like the sand dunes near the sea. We trudged towards the chasm, and I was glad that instead of a dress I was wearing riding leathers as my boots kept sinking into the ground.
Just as I’d noticed earlier, the place was devoid of life; only rough dirt and mountain rocks with scattered, gnarled remains of dead vegetation surrounded us. The closer to the crevasse we were, the more I felt the pressure of condensed aether on my body. Finally, it grew so oppressive that I stopped and turned towards Orm.
‘Something is terribly wrong here. This place feels like a void … and it’s filled with foul magic. I just—I can’t identify the source.’ I whispered a revealing spell. The area lit up with purple magic, and as I suspected, most of it came from the chasm itself, but not all. The entire field around us was soaked in swirling aether, almost as if we stood in the middle of a gigantic vortex of energy. I knelt down, digging my hands into the dirt while Orm stood beside me.
‘Can you tell me what you feel, Annika?’
I closed my eyes, letting my senses drift into the soil. Part of my training had been in detection and identification. I could use the elements to determine the unique signature of the creature I was about to hunt, but what I felt here didn’t make sense.
The place wasemptybut filled with so much corrupted aether and signatures of monsters that I thought tiredness was affecting my magic. The only other explanation was an unseen danger under our feet.
‘I think there’s something underground. I don’t know what exactly, but it feels similar to the olgoi we fought in the forest.’ I frowned as an idea formed in my mind. ‘I need to go to the fissure. If I’m right, the danger is greater than we thought.’
Orm started laughing—until he realised I wasn’t joking, and his face hardened into that emotionless mask.
‘No, that’s out of the question, Annika. Are youtryingto turn my hair grey? You just destroyed a massive swarm, and don’t think I’ve missed how much you’re trembling after that—now you want to go to the Rift? No one’s ever returned from there. No, I’m not sending the woman I love to her death.’
I didn’t know if Orm realised he’d just told me he loved me, but I felt warmth spread through my chest. I stood up, brushing the dirt off my hands before reaching for him. When I stroked his cheek, my fingers left a smudge of dirt on his face.
‘I’m not asking for permission, but for your help,’ I said, and he frowned, grasping my hand and holding it to his chest. ‘I’ve dealt with the spectrae, and I appreciate you’re worry for me, but we need to know what is tainting the soil. This is my job. You command the army—I use my magic to help you in whatever way I’m needed.’
‘No! You are right, and we will go there; but you need to rest first, and I need to organise your protection. Going alone is suicide.’
‘The more people we bring, the greater the chance we’ll disturb whatever’s down there. I have a better chance of sneaking in undetected if I go in alone. We have an envoy coming from the king and the gods only know what problems he’ll bring with him. We may not be able to return here for days, and then we’ll have to repeat today’sfunwith the spectrae all over again. Just wait for me here. I should return shortly.’
‘The fuck I’m letting you go alone,’ he swore, giving me a quelling look, daring me to argue. It was inconvenient, as Iwanted someone outside in case something went wrong, but I couldn’t command him any more than he could command me.
With a deep sigh, I shrugged. ‘Fine, I concede. Just make sure to follow my lead.’
The trek was slow and perilous, the rocks and soil loose and unsteady. We spent half the journey sliding down near vertical slopes on our rear ends, desperately trying to slow our descent, not knowing what dangers awaited us.
Before long, I was panting, out of breath, and covered in a thick layer of dirt, which left me looking like one of the mythical golems. When we were almost halfway down the mountain, I noticed a tunnel to my right that seemed to pulsate with foul magic, so I changed direction, gesturing for Orm to follow. A few moments later, we were in a large, ominously smooth passage, its walls glistening with moisture.
‘Remind me to bring rope next time,’ I said when I finally caught my breath.
‘A rope? I want climbing gear, a squad or two of soldiers and a unit of dragons. And what’s this aboutnexttime?’ Orm sneezed, then almost gagged. ‘What thefuckis that smell?’ he gasped, pinching his nose. The tunnel stank like a rotting corpse floating face down in a sewer.
