Page 107 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“It’s not about Keldori or Skalterra,” I admitted.
“Oh, Miss Warrender, I already know you aren’t here to be a hero. Every Nightmare is an idealized version of themselves. I imagine it’s addicting, getting to exist as something better than yourself. But this isn’tyou.” He paused and pushed his goggles up to stare at me with fierce gray eyes that caught the silver light of his staff. “Skalterra isn’t your home. The Wren Warrender asleep in Keldori is who you are. You are here to help because I’ve called you here, and after we reach the Second Sentinel, you won’t be coming back.”
“This Wren kills rotsbane!” I smacked my chest armor as I said it. “This Wren doesn’t mess everything up.”
“Then you better not die anymore so you can enjoy your last two weeks of being ‘This Wren’.”
“Why not remove the curse?” I held my hand at the wrist, as if to offer the scars up to Galahad. His bushy eyebrows softened. “I’m not going to run anymore.”
“Maybe it would be a mercy for you to die in Skalterra rather than never return to this version of yourself. Perhaps I simply don’t like you much. Or, Wren Warrender, it isn’t a curse that can be reversed, and if I could I would, but I can’t.”
“You…” I trailed off, letting the weight of Galahad’s words settle in my gut. “You can’t.”
“Two weeks, Wren Warrender,” he said again. “It’s funny. If you hadn’t proven yourself so useful, I might’ve stopped calling you back before now.”
A low laugh in the back of my head made my cheeks burn. This was not a conversation I wanted Ciarán to overhear, but it was far too late for that.
I closed my fingers over the scars on my hand and bit my tongue. Whatever sharp words I wanted to throw at the Grimguard for eavesdropping would have to wait. If Galahad knew Ciarán was listening in, he’d be sure to expend my final two lives himself.
Ciarán didn’t give any more indication that he was lurking in my mind, and the night’s march brought us to smaller trees and heavier undergrowth. As the trees closed in around us, I took comfort in my friends around me. These woods weren’t nearly as dense as the birch forest from a few nights prior. I would be okay.
The terrain became steep and rocky to the point of having to climb in some areas. Clusters of tiny white flowers broke through cracks in the rocks. Their delicate petals emitted a soft light, and while I helped the others set up a humble camp before daybreak, Fana played with the glowing flowers and wove them into her curls.
After Galahad released me for the night, I woke up at home well-rested despite all the walking and climbing. Then I remembered that there would surely be more comments on Linsey’s video of Mom and my phone interview with Von Leer was in two days, and I wished I could be back in Skalterra.
Liam’s return to work only made me feel worse. He did his best to smile, but he looked absolutely miserable scooping ice-cream for the few families that trickled in throughout the day. I wondered vaguely if his aunt and her white lilies had won the battle over memorial flower arrangements but thought better than to ask.
It was a relief when the day finally ended, and I could crawl back to my room after an early dinner with Gams in the kitchen. I breathed a sigh as my bedroom ceiling morphed into a darkening sky over the Wisting Wilds.
The terrain was steep and rocky enough to force us to stay together, and more than once we had to set up a system of ropes to ascend cliff faces. I paused on one of these ascensions, tethered between Ferrin and Orla, to look out over the forest we’d traveled through the night before. I could see the Umberdust Plains beyond the trees, and more forests and rivers beyond that.
“You should see it during the day.” Ferrin caught me staring out at the landscape. He clung to the rocks with one hand and used the other to push sweat-soaked hair away from his forehead.
“You should bring me by sometime,” I laughed.
“I thought you said you have a life back in Keldori.” Ferrin grunted as he hoisted himself farther up the cliff.
“Only most days.” I scaled the next few feet. Climbing was easy for me in my Nightmare form, and I had to be careful not to move too quickly for Ferrin and Orla. “If I can convince my grandma to let me sleep all day, I’m yours.”
“Tomorrow?” Orla asked hopefully. “Or maybe the next?”
“Not the next.” A bit of loose rock crumbled under my hand and fell away. Tiernan yelled something up at me, but I ignored him. “I have a big phone call that day.”
“Phone call?” Orla asked through a curious smile. She was handling the climb much better than Ferrin with her long limbs.
“It’s like a meeting,” I explained. “This one is very important. And it’s in the morning, so Galahad better not keep me too long tomorrow night.”
“We’ll be safe in Tulyr by then,” Ferrin said through gritted teeth. The bottles at his belt, which were mostly empty now, grated against the cliff face as he used his legs to propel himself up another two feet. “I’m sure Galahad will agree to let you go a little early, especially since we haven’t seen the Grimguard since we left him in Orla’s bed.”
Ciarán, who had stayed silent until now, gave a low chuckle in my mind, and I pressed my forehead against the rock face.
“Maybe he decided not to hunt us anymore,” Orla suggested. “Since we helped him.”
“Perhaps.” Ferrin’s eyes met mine under his lifted arm, and I looked away before he could somehow see that the Grimguard was hiding in my head.
The rest of the night passed with more climbing, one run-in with a mountain lion that Tiernan was able to lead away, and setting up camp in a shallow cave that overlooked the Skalterran landscape. The rising sun had just started to dye the distant hills a dusty orange when Galahad sent me home.
However, when Gams greeted me downstairs with a reminder that my phone interview with Von Leer admissions was the next morning, I wished I was sitting in the Skalterran cave with my friends, even if it meant Ciarán was listening to everything I said.
