Page 60 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow
The way he said it — so light. A joke. It clanged through me with equal parts irritation and terror. “What would happen if we were?”
He shrugged, leaning backward as he rowed. “I suppose our souls would be trapped here for eternity.”
An icy shiver rolled through me.
“That reality is enough of a deterrent for most,” he said. “The souls of those caught in the in-between are how the Watchman feeds his power, which is why most creatures avoid this place.”
I shook my head, squinting through the drizzle. “Who would choosethisfor immortality?”
Something dark flickered in Kaden’s expression, turning his already severe features to stone. “You might be surprised by what some are willing to trade for power.”
I shivered again, though not from the cold. Everything about this place felt . . . wrong. The clouds swirled too close to the sea. The thunder rumbled too fiercely. The waves that collided with the side of our boat seemed to cling to the hull, trying to claim us for their own.
As we drew closer to the rock jutting out from the mist, I realized it was less of a rock and more of an island. Another bolt of lightning slashed through the clouds, illuminating what looked like a tower and hundreds of spiky, broken things bobbing in the water.
At first, I could not tell what they were —trees ravaged by lightning, perhaps. More lightning streaked through the sky, and I saw what was unmistakably a mast sticking out of the water.
We were approaching a ship graveyard. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of them — all in various stages of decay. Masts jutted over the waves at odd angles. Some had been snapped in two. Rotten hulls bobbed restlessly along the shoreline, some of which had clearly been impaled on rocks.
Where had all these ships come from?
Kaden had said that the danger of having their souls trapped here deterred most from venturing to the in-between. What had these men sought, then, that they’d be willing to risk eternal imprisonment?
I didn’t have long to dwell on those questions or the horror of the wreckage before me. The oppressive mist had begun to clear.
A huge black fortress jutted toward the sky, built from the same dark rock as the island on which it stood. The first several feet of stone were slick with lichen, and the entire fortress looked as though it were being slowly reclaimed bythe sea. The rubble of one half-collapsed tower mixed with the rocks sliding down the cliffside, the rest of the structure spearing into the clouds.
Kaden slowed as we approached the rotten husks of ships that surrounded the place, his entire body stiff and alert. Everything about this island seemed to repel the living, and I wondered how on earth we were going to manage to claim Mankara’s text for our own if the men who’d sailed these ships had all failed.
I busied myself with checking my weapons as Kaden guided us to shore. As soon as we bumped against land, I clambered out and helped drag the dinghy up the short rocky slope that led to a break in the lower wall. Thick metal bars spanned the opening in the rock, but one stroke from Kaden, and they stretched and bent with a mighty groan to create a gap wide enough for us to walk through.
Kaden didn’t say a word as he went inside, and I automatically drew two daggers. The smell of rotten fish wafted from the narrow passageway, but it was the prospect of walking into that unnatural darkness that made me hesitate.
We were entering the enemy’s lair, and we had no idea what might be waiting for us inside.
As if he sensed my trepidation, Kaden summoned a ball of faelight, which illuminated the rough stone walls of the tunnel. The uneven bricks were fuzzy with mold, and the foot of murky water that filled the passageway told me this part of the fortress often flooded.
Slowly, I followed, my unease mounting with every step we took into the Watchman’s stronghold. It unnerved me that we hadn’t already been accosted, but perhaps our arrival had gone unnoticed.
The only sound besides our sloshing footsteps was thetrickle of water in the distance. The standing water rose higher the farther we waded, the entire place reeking of dead marine life.
The tunnel came to an abrupt T, and Kaden turned down another passageway as though he knew exactly where he was going. I followed at a careful distance, lamenting my waterlogged boots. I could already feel blisters beginning to form, and I winced at the thought of my open wounds coming into contact with this filthy water.
I paused to pass a dagger to my other hand so I could hike up my sagging socks, but then I heard a loud splash that hadn’t come from Kaden.
I froze, still half bent in the water, as my heart pounded in my throat. I sensed something just behind me but didn’t dare turn around.
Carefully moving my dagger back to my free hand, I reached out with my senses. I could feel . . .something, though it wasn’t any sort of magic I’d ever felt before.
Realizing I’d fallen behind, Kaden stopped and turned. He took one look at my frozen, wide-eyed expression and drew the sword from his back.
His gaze swept the tunnel behind me, his preternaturally good vision spearing through the shadows. I could tell from his face that he didn’t see anything, but perhaps he too sensed the presence of somethingother.
Several heartbeats passed with only the steady drip of water and the crash of distant waves to break the silence.
Slowly, I rose into a standing position, a dagger in each hand. Kaden turned and continued wading through the tunnel, though I could tell from the set of his broad shoulders that he hadn’t dropped his guard.
After a moment, I felt my body relax. The splash I’dheard had probably been an ordinary fish or some other sea creature.
