Page 12 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

We cover many miles in a matter of minutes, but we have a long way to go, and the horses are already tiring. Sarielle glances over at me from where she rides at my side. Her golden eyes are wide with fear. I would give anything to keep her safe, but it’s not going to be enough. I will forfeit my life tonight, and the monster will claim hers, too.

Another mile passes, then another. When I glance over my shoulder this time, the flames held aloft by Avonia’s army, or whatever mercenary force she’s hired, are definitely closer. Which means the dark thing following us is even more so.

We crest a small rise, and I see it in the distance, the dark, looming structure that once was the Court of Bone. A high wall around the perimeter, four tall towers at each corner, and a central keep with several of its own towers. The moonlight fractures off dozens of mirror-like surfaces surrounding it, small lakes and tributaries that dot the plains here. We have an advantage—a small one, but an advantage nonetheless. I know the way through the bodies of water, and those that seek us do not.

I know where the water is deep and where the land looks solid but is marshy beneath, a trap for the unaware rider. I know the quickest path to the castle, and which paths lead to dead-ends. I also know where there used to be traps set for occasions just like this, perilous devices hidden in water or beneath soft mud.

I gesture to Sarielle, but she’s already slowing her horse, having seen the maze of waterways before us. The horses are about to give out as it is, they wouldn’t have lasted galloping hard the final few miles to the gates of the castle. “Follow mefrom here on,” I call. “Travel only on the exact path I travel, do not stray from my horse’s hoofprints.”

She nods, her lips set in a grim line.

I slow to a trot and guide my horse down the hill toward the first tributary. The smell of salt air hits forcefully; we’re only a couple miles from the ocean. I can feel the dark magic growing behind us, drawing ever closer, but I dare not look back this time. It’s been many years since I’ve visited the Court of Bone, and with nothing but the light of the moon to guide me, the entrance to the path across the marshes is even more perilous.

That’s the reason this castle has never fallen to an attack from the outside. When Avonia murdered Sarielle’s family, she did it as an invited guest.

It takes me what feels an eternity to find the start of the path. But then I see it, the narrow stone bridge next to the rock shaped like a dragon. A bridge that can only be seen if you know what you’re looking for because it’s submerged beneath several inches of brackish water. It’s nearly invisible to the naked eye, such that when my gelding approaches it, he shies and backs away as I urge him onto it.

“I can feel it now,” Sarielle says from behind me, her voice trembling. “What is it that hunts us?”

I glance over my shoulder and meet her gaze for the barest of moments. “Something ancient.” Then I reach back and slap my horse on the hindquarters to get him to move.

He snorts and takes a tentative step forward, tensing as his hooves hit the hard surface beneath the water. I give him an encouraging pat on the neck, despite the speed with which my blood races through my veins, adrenaline telling me to go, go,go. Another step, then another, and he settles as we walk slowly across. Sarielle’s horse seems more concerned with being left behind, so gives her no fuss as he follows mine across the narrowbridge. We move slowly, the stone slippery from time. I pray that neither of the horses fall, and that the bridge holds steady.

Thankfully, the first tributary is narrow, and I breathe a sigh of relief when first my horse and then Sarielle’s make it across. I turn sharply down a finger of land and begin weaving back and forth between the waterways. The bridge we crossed is the only one, the hidden entrance to the path across. What remains ahead is a maze that will result in wasted time at best, and a watery grave at worst, for any who do not know the correct path. A maze through the areas where the water is shallow enough to pass through, or where the land is firm enough to support the weight of a horse.

The castle draws closer, a looming presence in the darkness, still and utterly quiet. Only the wind creates sound, whistling around the towers and turrets. We are about halfway across the marshes when I feel a prickle at the back of my neck, a ghosting up my spine. I turn and look over my shoulder, and I see it: a dark mass at the top of the ridge, a black hole in the night that seems to consume everything around it. Sarielle turns, too, her gaze sweeping the path behind us.

“Will the water slow it down?”

I unclench my jaw long enough to speak. “Not enough to make a difference.”

We’re a half mile from the castle now, and the nightmare is less than two miles from us. We have minutes left. Minutes to determine where we will make our final stand, whether that be stuck here in the middle of the salty wetlands, or in the shadow of the castle. If we can reach the castle, then maybe, just maybe… I shake my head. The path is all I can focus on, lest we lose our way. And I won’t let false hope stir in my heart.

We splash through two more shallow tributaries, and then reach the final stretch of solid land before the castle walls. I let out a yell and kick my horse into a gallop, Sarielle’s horsealongside. We fly, pushing the horses for everything they have. My existence becomes the oaken gate rising before us, the rush of the night in my ears, the pounding of my horse’s hooves, the crescendo of dark magic coming up behind us. The pall of magic is shadow falling over us, a feeling, a pressure, an inescapable dread.

And then we are there, the castle gates soaring above us. Just as I rein in my horse, they slowly begin to rotate inward.

Chapter Nine

Sarielle

Ihave arrived atmy ancestral home, only to have moments to absorb the enormity of it. I can tell from Zyren’s grim composure that we won’t survive the next few minutes. He may be my guardian, but he is only one man, and the thing behind us is not a man at all.

I had known from the moment Zyren jerked away from me at the river, the look of utter horror on his face. Then, as we fled through the night, I’d felt what he felt, the dark presence of the creature that followed us. A feeling like falling into an endless black pit, my stomach climbing into my throat, my world tilting on its side. A feeling of time, time to an extent I’ve never conceived of, ancient and eternal. Time, and sorrow, and cold, cold rage.

We gallop for the gate of the castle, and I prepare to wheel my horse around and defend myself. I will not go quietly, I will not simply surrender to this nightmare, no matter how futile a battle seems. No matter how helpless I feel. The wind blows in, swirling around me, lifting my cloak. I smell the salt of the ocean, somehow clean and earthy simultaneously. At least I havethis, before I die: I saw the ocean, and I tasted it on my tongue. And I saw my home, even if only for a few heartbeats.

But then, to my shock, the gates of the castle begin to move inward.

My eyes widen and my heart thrums even faster in my chest. In the moonlight, I see two figures standing there, a man and a woman. They both look fairly young, the woman more so, but I know fae can be centuries old and not show it. Both are dressed in simple garb as we are. I see no visible weapons, but the man radiates with a palpable aura of magic.

“Quickly!” he commands, gesturing for us to come into the courtyard.

We kick the horses past the castle gates, which shut behind us again. I catch glimpses of the courtyard in flashes as I spin my horse around. Blackened rock, charred by fire, with bright green moss growing in the cracks between stones. One of the central towers, rising overhead like a sentinel, far into the sky. A large pile of rubble from a collapsed wall on the far side, the mangled pieces of a huge door trapped within.

There is a moment of intense stillness, in which even the wind dies down. Zyren is staring at the closed gate, jaw clenched. The two strangers are backing slowly away from it. If they don’t move faster, they’re going to get plowed down when the monster crashes through it. The stars overhead seem overly bright, burning my eyes, each bang of my heart against my ribs loud and painful.

And then, the moment is broken by an enormous crash as the thing that hunts us collides with the gate.

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