“Whatever you do,” Rhain said as we neared the top, “please don’t get yourself killed. I’m sure Nyktos wants the honor for himself.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I told him.
“He’s not going to kill her,” Ector said from ahead. “Not when she carries the ember.”
Rhain sighed behind me, and it struck me then that Ector was right. Nyktos wouldn’t. Not until he figured out what it meant for me to carry the ember besides returning life to the dead. And if that were it? Would he kill me? Possibly sentence the mortal realm to a quicker death if Aios was right? Or keep me locked away, safe from those who meant me harm and those he believed I could harm?
My stomach took another tumble as I walked along the wide roof. In the distance, there was nothing but rocky hills and flat ground. I didn’t see Nyktos or any of the guards. I followed the curve of the wall, my pace picking up as I looked both ways, seeing that we were now entering some part of the city—a district of low, squat buildings that reminded me of the warehouses in Carsodonia. I kept on, my gaze tracking the nondescript buildings until I finally saw the city within the Shadowlands for the first time.
My breath caught as I stared out. It was larger than I expected.
As far as the eye could see, starlight glistened off tiled roofs, most homes and businesses stacked one upon another with tight, winding alleys between them, reminding me very much of Croft’s Cross. Specks of illumination from either candles or gas lamps shone along the streets and from windows. There were no Temples in the sprawling city, none that I could see, anyway, and there was a rather large portion that had been cut into the slope of a hill where buildings were staggered all the way down.
“How many people live here?” I asked as Ector strode ahead.
“Hundred thousand.” Rhain edged around me. “Or close to it.”
Good gods, I had no idea. Were they mostly gods or mortals? How many of them were Chosen—?
A sound like thunder came from the ground below. From the streets, shouts grew louder, mingling with screams. Pressure clamped down on my chest, and I moved to the nearest parapet, just as Rhain and Ector had. Placing my hands on the rough stone, I leaned out, squinting into the murky gloom.
A mass of people barreled through the narrow streets, some on foot and others on horseback or in carriages. Horror seized me as they pressed forward, pushing and falling, clamoring overtop one another as they ran—
“They’re running from the area of the harbor,” Ector shouted, peeling out of the parapet. “Shit. I thought the area was emptied.”
“They were in the process of doing that.” Rhain hurried along the wall, looking ahead. “What the fuck is in the water?”
I heard guards shouting orders, trying to calm the people and restore some semblance of order, but their yells were swallowed in the panic. The cries of pain were sharp, and I flinched as I backed away from the disaster unfolding below. People were getting hurt in that crush. They would die in their desperation to reach the safety of the castle grounds.
I forced myself to turn away and leave the parapet, the skirt of my gown whipping around my legs. I couldn’t afford for this ember to seize control again. Guards scrambled along the eastern wall as I hurried behind Ector and Rhain, reaching the section that overlooked the bay. None of the other guards paid me any attention, either completely unaware or simply not caring, too fixated on what was happening down below. I walked out onto another parapet, passing unused shields, quivers, and curved bows. The stale wind reached inside the hood, lifting the strands of my hair and tossing them over my face as the glistening surface of the bay loomed ahead.
What I saw brought forth a decade-old memory of the day a ship carrying oil had run abroad, hitting another. Ezra and I had climbed out onto the bluffs to watch the men King Ernald had sent out to stop the spill. The ship sank, and the oil spilled into the waters, enraging Phanos, the Primal God of the Skies and Seas. He had erupted from the sea in a terrifying cyclone, his roar of fury creating a shockwave that caused our ears to bleed. Within seconds, he’d obliterated every ship in the port. Hundreds had died, either drowned, flung into the buildings below, or they simply ceased to exist, along with the dozens of ships.
The waters had been free of pollutants ever since.
But there was no Phanos in the water, as far as I knew. And still, what I saw stopped my heart. In the bay, a supply ship had been ripped in two, across the center, sinking beneath the surface of the violently churning waters.
Another ship rocked unsteadily as men struggled with the vessel’s rigging, shouting at one another. Wooden dinghies, from those who must’ve gone out to help those on the fallen ship now floated overturned in the rough waters. I saw no person swimming or treading water, and I thought of what Nyktos and I had sensed at the gate.
Death.
Something was in that water. The guards lining the wall had their arrows nocked and pointed.
“Holy fuck.” Rhain drew up short in front of me.
I saw them then as they broke the dark, glimmering surface of the bay.
My lips parted. Good gods, they were the size of horses, climbing up the sides of the ships, their heavily muscled bodies glistening like midnight oil. The ships docked in the harbor trembled as if they were saplings. Wood cracked and splintered under their grips. Their feet punched holes through the decks.
I had never seen one outside of sketches in the heavy tomes that dealt with Iliseeum, but I knew they were dakkais—a race of vicious, flesh-eating creatures, rumored to have been birthed from bottomless pits located somewhere in Iliseeum.
Featureless except for gaping mouths full of jagged teeth, they were rumored to be one of the most vicious creatures that existed in Iliseeum.
“Why are they here?” I looked over at Rhain.
“They are like trained bloodhounds, able to sense eather. They’re drawn to it.” The god’s luminous gaze landed on me. “Whoever sent them, sent them here for you.”
I turned back to the docks. A sickening horror settled in my stomach. The dakkias would reach the city in no time, and there was nothing between them and the homes on that hill, where many still desperately tried to gain higher ground. They came for me, and innocent people could die—
A flash of sudden, bright light streaked through the sky, blinding me. I stumbled back against stone as a whooping cry went up from the guards. They leapt onto the ledge of the wall, kneeling as they took aim with bows and arrows.
The shrill pitch of a scream spun me back to the harbor just in time to see an arrow strike a dakkai in the head. It fell back, exploding into nothing, just as the Hunters had. Another arrow struck a second dakkai as it reached the top of the bluff—the bluff, where there was no protection. The arrows were coming from there. I twisted, and my legs almost gave out on me.
Five massive black steeds erupted from the mist, their hooves shattering rock as they sped down the bluff. Nyktos. He and the other four rose onto the backs of their horses, kneeling in a crouch as they fired arrows at the dakkais. The one cloaked, who had joined them as they left the gates, stood completely upright, the force of the steep descent lifting the hood, revealing a thick braid the color of the darkest hour of night. It was a female who fired the next arrow, standing astride her horse.
“Fucking Bele,” Rhain muttered with a grin as he leapt onto a nearby ledge, drawing an arrow tight. “Is there ever a time when she doesn’t like to show off?”
That was Bele?