Page 107 of Path of the Dark
36
Back to the Dark Places
RYANA STIRRED AND opened her eyes. She’d collapsed on Elias’s chest. Pushing herself up, she checked his pulse; it fluttered under her fingertips. He still breathed too, albeit shallowly.
What just happened?
One look at the carnage and devastation around her brought it all back. Piles of broken bodies surrounded them, illuminated by the fires that still burned on the walls.
For the first time in her life, Ryana had fainted.
How long was I out?
She supposed it hadn’t been long, for at the perimeters of the square, Fen Hounds and Dusk Imps feasted upon their victims—some of whom still fought them.
The ripping sound of flesh and muscle, the crack of sinew, and the crunch of bones filled the air. Nausea crept up Ryana’s throat. The shadow creatures had turned the tide in Rithmar’s favor, but to see them eat men who weren’t even dead yet sickened her. She sat up and raised a shaking hand to her mouth.
Someone had to stop them.
Around her the mist and smoke drew back, and a small figure dressed in black limped into the middle of the square. Ninia’s round face was chalk-white. Blood trickled down her cheek from a shallow cut to her brow. One arm of her robe was completely singed off, although her jaw was set in determination.
Relief filtered through Ryana at the sight of her; she’d thought Ninia dead. After the girl’s spectacular attack on the gates, she expected Ninia to leave a path of destruction through the city—but Gael and his enchanters had anticipated that. They’d hemmed her in, stopped her from unleashing her full force.
Watching Ninia move confidently past where two Dusk Imps snarled at each other over an Anthor enchanter’s corpse, Ryana’s breathing hitched.
The skin on her forearms prickled as realization dawned.Ninia brought the shadow creatures to Veldoras.
The young woman approached Ryana and Elias, stopping before them.
“How?” Ryana whispered.
Ninia’s mouth stretched into a tight smile. “The shadow creatures made me their queen,” she replied, her voice hoarse. “Before we left The Forest of the Fallen, their general promised me … that should I ever need their aid, I could call upon them.”
Ryana’s breathing caught. “So you did?”
Ninia ran a hand over her face. “I didn’t want to … but I knew things would go against us during the siege.” She cast Ryana a rueful look then. “I’m strong, not invincible … and I suspected that I couldn’t beat a company of enchanters who’d all taken Stynix.”
“Now what?” Ryana motioned to the nearby Dusk Imps, who were scrapping over a severed leg. “You can’t just let them … feed.” She swallowed hard as a contented growl drifted across the eerily still square behind her.
Ninia’s hazel eyes clouded. She then inhaled deeply. “Darg,” she called out, her voice ringing out across the Great Square. “Come forth.”
A heavy hush settled. Even the shadow creatures gorging at the margins of the square went silent. A gentle mist rolled in, and with it, a tall cloaked figure.
Ryana’s mouth went dry, and her breathing quickened. Darg, Lord of the Thracken and general of these shadow creatures, approached.
The wight drifted across the square, the hem of its robes dragging through blood and gore, before it came to a halt a few feet from Ninia. The empty cowl dipped, and a cold, hard voice whispered. “You called, My Queen.”
Ninia lifted her chin as she faced him. “Thank you for bringing the shadow creatures here,” she greeted him, her own voice confident and calm. “You have all done well.”
“We exist to serve you, My Queen.”
“And you have … but now is the time for you all to leave Veldoras.”
The Thracken released a low outraged breath. “So soon?”
“The city has been liberated. Anthor no longer has control of Veldoras … but I won’t have those of their army who’ve survived tortured and eaten. Call off the others and depart.” Ninia paused here, her eyes narrowing. “I command it.”
A long pause followed. Ryana caught her breath. Maybe Ninia didn’t have the control over these creatures that she thought she did.
