Page 52 of Curse of Darkness
But the choice was made long ago. “If I don’t return, then protect Amaya for me. Tell her…. Tell her I loved her more than anything. And so I must take this risk in order to protect her.”
And then, before my courage fails me, I plunge through the gate.
* * *
The darkness is so absoluteit chokes me.
But it’s the cold that gets to me. A cold that penetrates instantly, even though I’d thought myself numb to such feelings after entering Kato’s throne room.
I stagger forward, trying to find my feet with the loss of such a major sense such as sight. This is the hungry emptiness, the expanse that awaits beyond death.
All I can hear is my heart, beating so fast it sounds like a bell chiming.
And a rasp of scales slithering through the Darkness. Something large moving toward me.
The wyrm.
I clutch the knife, heart pounding. Dare I risk the light? It will lead the creature right toward me, but then, if it’s stalking me—which I think it might be—it already knows I’m here.
And if all it has known is this darkness, then its other senses will be incredibly attuned to me.
Maybe light doesn’t have to be a weakness.
Maybe it can be a weapon.
I stagger to the left as theshush-shushsound comes inexorably toward me, reaching inside my collar—
A single drop of sunshine, Orlagh said.
But the sun may as well rise as I lift the amulet out. Even prepared as I am—face turned away—the searing light obliterates my vision for a good three seconds.
An enormous shape rears away from me with a hiss. Armless. Legless. A pale body seemingly segmented into forever, the battle-hardened scales covering it scarred and ravaged. Its eyes are a pale, milky blue.
And beyond it….
A world within a void.
The Darkness beyond the stars.
And a city.
Or something that was once a city.
Spires soar into the velvety dark, and elegant arches form the barrier wall that circles the buildings. Empty windows gape within the towers of a castle, and the path leading toward the castle runs along the back of a ridge.
Pennants hang from the tallest towers. But they don’t move, for there is no wind.
Everything is still.
So still.
Except for the slithering coil of scales beneath the ledge I stand upon.
“Thiago!” I throw the psychic thought into the Darkness. He said he would be here. That he would wait for me.
But as the wyrm recovers, I don’t have the time to hover. I need cover.
Scrambling over the stones, I sprint along the spine of the broken wall, conjuring every scrap of focus Finn has ever taught me.
