Page 114 of Destroyer

She heard them asking questions as they dismounted and followed, offering theories, but their voices were muffled and distant — her own thoughts were far too loud. Calculation after calculation tumbled through her brain, one after another, none of them answering the simple question:How? A projection of a destroyed city, in the middle of the night…

Fen was here. And so was the artifact. But where had this vision come from?

As they continued toward the city, Ru felt the artifact’s touch, its tether growing brighter, stronger by the minute. The connection was still weaker than it had been in the past, a background noise, a sound she had to focus on to hear. Yet the certainty of its presence inside that unearthly city was foremost in Ru’s mind, driving her forward.

And wherever the artifact was, Fen would be.

They made their way slowly through the city, as if in a dream. They passed through a great arched gateway, along roads, through markets, and past shopfronts, all perfectly realized, all as ephemeral as a cloud or a warm exhale in cold air. They passed churches and fine houses, parks and gardens, all as empty and silent and ghostly as the last. No one spoke as they walked.

Ru’s blood ran cold with dread.

Eventually, they came to what seemed to be the center of the city, where a great palace — no, a stronghold — rose up before them. A central square led to the palace entrance, perfectly symmetrical.

And in the center of the square knelt a man.

CHAPTER40

The man was dressed all in black, a cloak flowing out from his shoulders and spreading around him on the flagstones. He was pale, his face gaunt, his long black hair falling lank over his shoulders. And then, just like the city all around them, the figure’s image wavered slightly, and the illusion was broken.

The man was part of the projection. As they watched, dumbstruck, the figure pressed his palms to the ground where he knelt. He seemed to mutter something, and as he spoke, a writhing darkness began to rise from his body. Ru had seen something like it before.

It was the same darkness, impenetrable and impossible, that had seeped from the artifact when she first touched it.

She held her breath, watching, enraptured.

And then, like a silent thunderclap, the darkness burst outward from the kneeling figure like an explosion, filling their eyes and noses and mouths with night.

Ru felt panic bubbling up in her and clasped Gwyneth’s hand. “Gwyn,” she breathed. “Arch?”

But before either of them could reply, the darkness was gone. They were still in the ghostly city, standing in that bizarrely waving square, and… just as before, there knelt the pale black-clad figure.

“It’s looping,” murmured Ru.Taryel, she thought. The figure, the darkness spreading outward from him…

“What is?” said Archie.

“The projection,” said Gwyneth, impatient. “But where did it come from? How long has it been doing this?”

“Two days,” said a voice behind them, and they all whirled.

It was Fen. Unshaven and more visibly exhausted than Ru had ever seen him. His eyes, usually so clear and bright, were glazed and edged with red, heavy dark circles hung beneath them.

He held the artifact in his bare hands, casually, as if it was nothing. A simple stone.

“Two days I’ve been watching it,” he went on, taking advantage of their stunned silence. “Over and over. I didn’t foresee you coming here, I’ll admit. I thought certainly you would stay at the Tower, alert the regent, perhaps send out a regiment of King's Guards to seek me out and apprehend me. But you three? Here, in two days?” He shook his head. “If it helps you any, the projection is useless. I’ve discovered nothing.”

Ru stared, refusing to believe what she now suspected, what she knew in her heart to be true. “Is it yours?” she managed. It took everything in her not to turn tail and bolt.

“The projection?” Fen said. “Yes. It’s mine.”

Gwyneth spluttered. “Yours? Is this more magic, then? Why didn’t you justtellus you could… could…” she waved a hand.

Fen looked at her in the way a teacher looks at a pupil who is so close to understanding a concept but not quite there yet. “Because I would have been on the table right alongside this thing,” he said, holding up the artifact.

Goosebumps formed on Ru’s skin, and a chill ran up her spine.

“So what’s going on here, then?” Archie demanded, finding his voice at last. “You stole the artifact, brought it to this hell hole, just to sit in the middle of a spectrous city and watch a loop of this… whatever this is?”

Just then, the blackness exploded over them again, oppressive, and just as quickly it was gone. Again, the figure knelt in the center of the square.

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