Page 59 of An Invocation of Monsters

This was not even close to the fear of the cliff; this was the next level of terror, the wind whipping through my hair and bringing tears to my eyes, the knowledge that there was absolutely nothing between me and a several-hundred-foot drop to the trees below.

From up here, the pine trees looked like spears jutting from the earth, waiting to skewer me. I tightened my arms, letting out a small sound of fear, and Toth squeezed me.

“Do we need to discuss the making and keeping of promises, Elle?” he growled, and I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut again. “I told you I would not drop you.”

“I know you won’t, but my stomach believes otherwise.” It was tossing like I was seasick, and nothing would ruin my burgeoning friendship with Toth faster than puking on him.

“We’re crossing into the Void now.” I felt the tiniest shift in his muscles as he flew, the rigidity as he held them out to glide through a dark mirror in the air. There was the popping sensation of crossing over, and then the dizzying sight of the swirling sky just above us.

Toth circled slowly, reducing our height in increments, which I appreciated. It was much easier than dropping like rocks and coming to a screaming halt.

And then I discovered that, strangely, flying in the Void was much less terrifying than on Earth. There weren’t sharp, pointy pines below us, but the massive, fluffy-crowned trees that seemed as soft as clouds, glowing with their own internal violet light.

I was mesmerized enough that I hardly noticed when Toth descended onto the cliffs mirrored in this world, but the sight of the temple made me gasp.

‘Temple’ was the only word I had for it, although it followed no form seen on my planet. Columns made with an inhuman geometry were broken and fallen around it, the white stone gleaming with iridescence.

The first flowers I’d seen in the Void grew in the black grass around it, sending brilliant blue creepers over everything they could reach. The petals looked like they were made of glass, shining and so thin the light showed through them like paper-thin porcelain.

They covered the temple, their glow bathing everything.

He lowered me to the ground, but kept a grip on my hand. There was a shyness to him as he glanced sidelong at me. “This is where I come to be alone.”

“What sort of place is this?” I reached out and touched a pale broken column, and when I took my fingers away, my fingerprints gleamed bright green on it. The luminescence slowly faded.

“It was not built by my kind,” he said. “But I believe it was once a holy place for another sort of traveler.”

A gentle wind blew, warm and smelling of deep forest, and when the flowers bobbed and touched each other, they chimed softly.

“I see why you’d come here.” I looked out over the lake, at the stars circling endlessly towards the abyss in the sky. “It’s very peaceful.”

Toth hesitated, then stroked my arm.

“Sometimes I fear there is no peace left in the world. I feared the growing evil here, the blight on the Void, and I wondered if you would become part of it. The Void responds to your presence, calling out a welcome for you with every atom of its creation. Can you feel it?”

He pressed his fingertips into my arm lightly, gazing at me.

I did feel it. I’d felt it since the first time I’d entered the Void, like a cosmic tuning fork had been struck and the subaudible hum was trapped inside my body.

I nodded, feeling that sensation now.

“I feared you would use that welcome against us all. But Drazan and Kiraxis are right, and I was wrong. I saw you as an ill omen, not as a gift sent to us. Will you forgive me?”

I frowned, wrapping my hand around his wrist. “Toth, there’s nothing to forgive. I know I’m a stranger here. I know there’s a lot more to this place than meets the eye. And I absolutely am not siding with the Wendigo Society. I think…” I paused, glancing out across the lake, half-expecting the Lodge to suddenly appear there. “I think they’re lying about everything they’ve told me.”

I couldn’t put my suspicions into words; they hadn’t fully crystallized. I didn’t know enough about the Void to even fully begin to decide what they were lying about, I just knew it to be true.

“Their world is built on lies,” Toth said darkly. “But when I felt the Void sing out for you, I should not have treated you with such hostility. The Klee and the Mlul’dra, they are less interested in the humans here. I think that keeps their thoughts more clear, more pure. I have become warped by my suspicions and hatred.”

“Toth.” I made a decision then, and took his face in my hands, stroking my thumbs across his high cheekbones. To my relief, he didn’t pull away. “You’re not warped because you’re worried about your world. You’re acting as its guardian against invaders.”

When the word ‘guardian’ left my mouth, his eyes flared brightly. “I am only Zizhatl. The V’uthli act as guardians. It is not for me.”

He sounded defiant, almost sad.

How ridiculous to decide that a Zizhatl couldn’t do it. He was the one being hounded by the Hunter; all he wanted was for them to stay away.

‘Only’ a Zizhatl, my ass.

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