Page 104 of Blood of Ancients

Corym gasped and gritted his teeth. “Spirit-tethering.”

I opened my mouth, confused by the phrase.Lady Elayina?Inhaling sharply, I nodded, even though I didn’t understand him. “Elayina’s sanctuary.”

“What’s going on, you two?” Magnus asked, flustered. “It’s like you’re talking to each other in your minds.”

Is that what’s happening? Did Alfheim awaken something inside us?It was a crazy thought. I didn’t harp on it for long, because that pull from the west—the direction of the Niflbog where the ancient seer Elayina resided—was growing stronger and more insistent.

I looked at Magnus, Grim, Arne, Sven. “We have to take a detour, guys.”

“As long as you tell us what’s going on, little sneak,” Grim said.

“On the way. I get the sense we don’t have much time—whatever’s happening.”

I looked to Kelvar last, his arms crossed under his cloak in his customary stance that made him look like a plague doctor. “You can return to the academy if you’d like, Hersir. We’ve retrieved Magnus. We’ll be back soon, I promise.”

The Whisperer scoffed, shaking his head. “And let you hellions out of my sight? No. I’ll see this through, cadet.”

My eyes narrowed. “To report everything you’ve seen to the Gothi, no doubt.”

His cold eyes flared, a twitch of anger rippling his chin. “I am a Hersir of Vikingrune Academy, and that is my duty. But make no mistake, Ravinica Lindeen. My allegiance is to no man. It is to the academy itself.”

I blinked at him, shocked.Lindeen. He called me by my true surname.I didn’t know what to make of it.

“Come on then,” Corym said. “There’s no time.”

He was right. Something was wrong out west. We were as close to Lady Elayina’s cave-tree as we were going to get, being near the elf encampment. It made sense to check on her while we were nearby.

Besides . . . what was the worst that could happen?

Chapter 29

Ravinica

WE MADE A MAD DASHfor the Niflbog, our stealthy shuffling thrown aside for churning legs. The pain torturing my insides slowly subsided as we grew closer to the cave in the swamp, or else I simply got used to it. It was difficult to tell.

We only took one swift break as we ran for over an hour, to chew down some bread and drink from a chilly river that had thawed.

Our pace was similar to how Corym and I had left Lady Elayina’s home last time we were there, when we spotted fire-smoke on the horizon, only to wander into the Huscarl attack on his elven encampment. I felt the same sense of dread now, though I couldn’t explain why it bothered me so much. Or why Corym and I felt it at all.

As we ran, no one speaking, only panting, a flash of words over the past few days rolled through my mind.

Magnus:“Darker than the white of the snow. They moved like blurs.”

Arne:“Darkness itself.”

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