Page 3 of Return of the Darkness
“I’m really sick of gods withholding information from us.”
Sitara whirled to face her. “If I could simply tell you, do you not think I would?” Sitara spat. “It would be far easier, but instead, we must use riddles to show you what we can in any way we can.” Elisara frowned.What could possibly stop a goddess—the first goddess—from acting freely?Sitara scoffed. “Please tell me you understood enough from that.” Sitara’s eyes pierced Elisara as she impatiently tapped her crossed arms. Sighing, Elisara leaned forward to rub her temples.
“The Sword of Sonos is laced in poison, which kills the creatures.” Sitara simply nodded. “It is not imbued with power by the Wiccans?” Elisara asked, and Sitara shook her head. Frowning, she added, “Then what did Sadira imbue?” Sitara opened her mouth to answer but closed it with a frustrated sigh. Instead, Sitara tapped her chest, prompting Elisara to reach for the talisman around her neck. She recalled the onyx stone encased by the dull sword left on the Unsanctioned Isle, and the piece planted in her as an infant. “But what does it do? What does it mean?” Elisara asked. Sitara looked up at the sky, clenching her hands.She truly cannot tell me.
“The Sword of Souls.”The goddess’s voice rang through her mind before she crippled over with a groan. Elisara took a cautious step forward, but Sitara raised her hand before straightening.
“Remember, I cannot predict the future.” Sitara stepped towards Elisara until they stood toe to toe. “I can only see different threads.” Sitara clutched Elisara’s head until their foreheads touched. Different images of the Ashun Desert flicked through her mind, but one stood out. Elisara stood before Caligh, wielding all four elements, while the rulers stood behind her. She widened her eyes as she watched herself pull the sword from her back and pierce the ground. Darkness exploded from her.
Elisara stumbled but Sitara caught her, resting a hand on Elisara’s chest.
“Do you understand?” Sitara asked, and slowly, Elisara nodded.
“Will it defeat him? Is the power enough?”
“It is one of the threads.”
“How do I access it?” Elisara asked, and Sitara smiled gently.
“It has always been within you. Caligh will believe he unlocked it when he killed Kazaar, that your pain would bring it to the surface. But that is not true, child. I may have awoken it, but you control it, not your emotions.You.” Sitara cupped Elisara’s cheek. “I will be with you, though only briefly.”
“I…”
“You can do this without him, Elisara. Kazaar would believe in you,” Sitara murmured. “Avenge them for us.”
Chapter One
Sadira
While Sadira hoped the security of Caellum’s hand would uproot her fears, her questions were overgrowing. She was unprepared for another battle and needed to keep away from the action. The sand shifted below her feet as she swayed, gripping tighter to Caellum’s arms to hold herself steady. Sadira understood her skills, and hand-to-hand combat was not one of them. But one did not need to be physically strong to be a warrior, which was much easier to believe when she was stationed far from the battle atop the dunes, wielding her power to block the copper soldiers and protect her own from the swing of blades. Now, she was trapped between three armies.
Caligh’s army was still larger than Novisia’s and stretched across nearly half of the desert. Yet it was nowhere near as large now and no longer stretched as far back as Myara. The Novisian archers had successfully eliminated nearly all the creatures, bar the few that could transform. The remainder stood in grey leathers, scattered amongst the copper soldiers. But while the army was smaller than before, the soldiers were nowhere near as exhausted as Novisia’s. While Sadira was unsure of the army of shadows ready to shield them at Elisara’s command, she was grateful they had further protection. The addition of Elisara’s shadows balanced the playing field.
Caligh, the Historian, grinned, taking in the sight behind the rulers. The shadows differed little from his own, except from their adopted corporeal forms and a shimmer of light drifting through them at times as the shadows whirled. Sadira cringed athis expression. His eyes were greedy rather than intimidated as he assessed Elisara in the centre of those commanding the battle. The rulers, Farid, Alvan, Soren, and Sadira, stood at the top of a slight dune. From there, they peered down at Caligh, who stood several paces ahead of his army, with Osiris and Arik by his side, and Tajana in tow. Sadira shifted closer beside Caellum as she, too, turned to look at Vala’s Queen, who had successfully trapped the copper army in a moat rapidly filling with rain. Elisara’s dark eyes burned, reflecting the flames she had wielded down below, encasing twisting vines encircling around the copper army. Sadira was too numb to even shiver against her wet, green satin shirt. Leaning into Caellum’s embrace, the pair exchanged an uncertain look. Elisara had struggled to unlock any presumed power with Kazaar, and yet now, something had given her far more than any of them imagined. What could a mourning queen do with such a tool for destruction? Elisara stepped forward into the rain, her wet hair plastered to her face. The sword hummed as cracks of dull silver metal fell to the ground, revealing an onyx sword beneath. Sadira squinted. The inkiness shimmered. Swirling smoke and twists of silver within the stone matched Kazaar’s talisman hanging around Elisara’s neck. The two sung to one another, finally united. The origins of Kazaar’s talisman should have been questioned sooner. Unlike the others, the stone was larger and whole. Perhaps Sitara had somehow altered it. Elisara, channelling the power from the Goddess of Dusk, had delivered a message in Sitara’s voice. Sadira feared the weight of their connection, foreseeing a number of chaotic and destructive outcomes.
Nyzaia stole a glance at Elisara; still, the Keres Queen gripped the Sword of Sonos, as though it had the power to do anything. How could they have been so wrong? Had the Wiccan purposefully given Sadira the wrong imbuement, knowing her attempts would fail? Elisara had not yet explained any further why the Sword of Sonos did not work, she only shared it was made of a special metal laced in poison. It could kill anything. So, what had Sadira’simbuement done to the other weapons? And whose side were the Wiccans on? Larelle reached for Elisara’s shoulder, as though someone may halt her from acting rashly, from throwing them all into chaos. When the queen moved her head in her direction, Alvan tugged her back.
“Kill them all.” Elisara had said with unwavering, deadly confidence before she stepped forward. Sadira stilled as Elisara took another step forward now, planting her feet apart and dragging her sword along the sands. When she finally raised it, it was like all sounds were pulled from the universe. Elisara’s arm rose slowly, lifting the sword over her head, like an extension of herself. Lightning struck the tip of the blade, and electricity sizzled around the sword and its wielder. Sadira glanced at the copper army, rigid and ready. They waited for Caligh’s command, unfazed by the display of power.
“This is for you, Kazaar,” Elisara murmured, lowering her sword to point directly at Caligh. Lightning struck before where he stood, and Soren flinched beside Sadira. Caligh simply grinned while backing away towards his army. A humming came from the shadow forms, like constant chatter behind the rulers before they lunged across the sands. While the flickering shadows revealed no facial features, Sadira imagined the soldiers’ stern and readied expressions. Sadira felt Caellum’s arms encase her, and she tucked her head into him, flinching as cold blurs rushed past them towards the copper warriors. Yet the eerie silence pulled her back when the metal swords hit nothing but darkness. Silently, the copper soldiers methodically swung at the approaching shadows. The former creatures, now dark-winged shadows, plucked the soldiers from the ground and dropped them from the sky, one by one, littering the moat with broken bodies. And still, they did not scream.
“They truly are servants,” Larelle said, further down the line. Standing side by side, the rulers watched Elisara’s army tear into the soldiers. All the while, Caligh did nothing but watch, too, tracking the moving shadows, and then Elisara, as if seeing whether shewould act on her own accord, rather than use the army for her bidding. He cast his arm to the side, batting away the shadowed soldiers creeping too close. He stood in the centre of the chaos, with Osiris and Arik behind him. Still, he held a chained Tajana, whose head peered around the soldiers, looking for something—or a certain someone.
“What do you mean?” Sadira asked Larelle, approaching the queen with Caellum. Soren remained still, watching the battle with a furrowed brow.
“He controls them all. All his soldiers do exactly as he wills. They lack any emotion or personality; they all move and act the same,” Larelle explained, watching the methodical movements of the soldiers.
“Osiris and Arik act differently,” Alvan commented, and Sadira’s gaze turned to the man and younger boy in the centre of the battle. Arik still wore dark grey fighting leathers while Osiris donned a velvet jacket embroidered with amber swirls and an unrecognisable flower. Their heads were close as they whispered together, glancing at Caligh’s back. They seemed unconcerned by the surrounding war. Osiris stopped talking and turned his head, locking eyes on Larelle.
“They are enslaved differently,” Larelle murmured, glancing at the sword in Elisara’s hand. Elisara ignored them all and watched her army. “The eyes always give it away. That’s what Caligh said when he spoke of Tajana and Talia.”
Soren finally turned from the battle to listen yet averted her eyes, but not before Sadira noticed the sad glint within them, a look she recognised from when they were children. Sadira frowned. “If Talia was a failed attempt, she would have no eyes, but Tajana’s transformation was successful. She can change at will. I assume if we get close enough, her eyes will be black.” Larelle became rushed as she spoke. Tajana remained slumped between Osiris and Arik, hanging her head. The tips of her leathery wings scraped the floor.
“What colour are Osiris’s eyes?” asked Caellum.
“Black,” Larelle said. “But with a golden ring around his irises, the same as Arik’s. When I was taken, Osiris said they owed a debt, and Arik said he did not want to be trapped again. The ring around their irises is a mark of the debt they owe Caligh for freeing them.” Sadira tried to follow Larelle’s train of thought.
“Freeing them from where, though?” Nyzaia finally asked, her eyes remained fixed on Tajana. Beyond, the shadows moved in body-like forms. Sadira’s imbued weapons trapped the souls of slain soldiers, and it was Elisara’s sword, the Sword of Souls, that brought them back in their shadowed forms. At the same moment Sadira pieced it together, Elisara turned to face them with black eyes. Sadira refrained from flinching at the emotionless look haunting Elisara’s expression.
