Memory of Time

Bella Forrest

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The Unending's time has come...

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• Publié par: Distributed by eBookpartnership
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781650759463
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Copyright © 2019
Hot Pancakes Ltd
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SOFIA
“V alaine!” Corbin’s voice rumbled through the Nightmare Forest, cold and demanding.
Esme groaned in frustration. “He won’t stop.”
For the past twenty minutes, we’d been staring at the considerable army of Aeternae soldiers,
Crimson guards, Darklings, and Knight Ghouls that Corbin Crimson, Master of Darkness, had brought to the north gates of Orvis. The Darklings had occupied Dieffen as a ploy to draw our people there, so they could attack them and follow anyone who happened to survive the unexpected insurgence. Fortunately, the entire crew had returned alive, though Ridan was still nursing some of his Reaper scythe wounds. Unfortunately, the Darklings had been able to track them, thus reaching the protective shield that Lumi and Kailani had cast over Kalla’s village.
At almost the very same moment, Derek had broken the green bead, signaling he was ready for an extraction- whether that meant he was in immediate danger, we didn’t know. But the Darklings had blocked the entire area around Orvis with death magic, and our Reapers couldn’t teleport themselves out of here. We had no way of reaching Derek until we got out of the death magic’s range.
The protective shield itself was not capable of withstanding powerful Reaper spells-of which the Darklings had plenty-for long, and neither were any of us. Our only option was to evacuate, but even that was an awfully tricky scenario.
“He’s hoping to bring down my defenses, brick by brick,” Valaine murmured, unable to take her eyes off her father. The man she’d trusted her whole life, her protector, had turned out to be the very man leading the charge against her. In many ways, Valaine and Thayen shared a few crucial things in common-the young prince’s mother was a Darkling Whip, a sociopathic opportunist who was working hard to convince an entire empire that hers was the right way, no matter how bloody.
“You’re not going out there,” Tristan reminded her.
“If I do, you’ll all be safe,” Valaine replied.
Kalla scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Corbin will never let us walk out of here alive. If there’s one thing I know about the Darkling leadership, it’s that they’re all spiteful bastards. You know that, too. Your memories should serve you well at this point.”
“I want to believe that my father isn’t beyond salvation.”
“But he is,” I said. “We can’t trust him. We can’t trust a single word that comes out of his mouth. Right now his sole purpose is to kill you, Valaine, so he can reset the cycle and keep this whole nightmare going for another ten millennia.”
Kemi came back from a quick tour of the village’s border, joined by the Soul Crusher and Kelara. “It’s not looking good,” the Senior Aeternae said. “They have Darklings and Knight Ghouls positioned all around Orvis, and they have canons ready to fire if we try to take the shuttles.”
“We can’t use the shuttles,” Kailani replied. “We’ve already established that. Our only way out is through an underground tunnel. Lumi and I can open one up, but we’ll need help holding the structure’s integrity to prevent the whole thing from collapsing and burying us all.”
“The Seniors will gladly assist with that,” Mira said, keeping her voice low. We were only about fifty yards from the northern entrance where Corbin and some of his most trusted lieutenants stood, unable to see us. Not sure how impervious the Aeternae’s ears were to swamp witch magic in this case, we all assumed there was a possibility that they might still hear us. So we did our best to keep out of earshot.
“We’ll get the villagers out first,” Seeley said quietly. “Kalla can lead that group. The witches will stay at the front with some of the Seniors to open the tunnel farther out. The rest of us will follow right behind the people of Orvis.”
“Some of us should also take care of the village itself and the shuttles,” Ridan added with a grunt, holding his side. Amane had an arm around his waist, holding him close. “Once the Darklings break through the protective shield, they’ll be looking for us.”
Lumi nodded. “One of the Reapers will seal the tunnel once we’re all a safe distance away.”
“We’ll have to blow the shuttles up, too,” I said, though my heart felt heavy at the thought of losing such precious magi-tech. We had no way of getting the vessels out safely, since the Darklings had learned to look for air ripples-a sign of movement beneath the invisibility spell. It was the one fault of this kind of Word magic and not something we had the time or the energy to fix. Not with the enemy basically breathing down our necks. “Get everything we can carry out of the shuttles first, but everything else must be destroyed. The last thing we need is a Darkling with our technology.”
“I say set fire to the village, as well.” Kalla sighed, then continued. “Let them find nothing but flames and ashes in our wake.”
“We’ll do what we can to keep them off our tracks.” Lumi took my hand. “As soon as we are safely away from Orvis, Sidyan and I will get Derek. It’s killing me that we’re not able to go immediately.”
“The Darklings are a huge pain in our asses right now.” I heard my voice tremble ever so slightly. “Derek has Maya with him. All I can do is hope she’s able to keep him safe.”
The one other thing that gave me a semblance of comfort was the fact that we weren’t alone anymore. It wasn’t just our GASP team. We had Reapers and a few ghouls left. The Seniors and all the young fighters of Orvis were on our side. We had Valaine and Kalon, Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore. We even had Thayen, the brokenhearted crown prince I’d sworn to keep safe and as far away from his depraved mother as possible. We had Trev Blayne, too… and Word magic.
“One question remains,” Mira said, her gaze occasionally darting back to a remarkably calm Corbin. “In which direction should the tunnel lead?”
“West,” Kalon interjected. “We head west, toward the rocky shores.”
Mira’s eyes lit up. “I think I know the perfect place. We’ll end up eight hundred miles north of the imperial palace.”
“The Nightmare Forest stretches far west,” Kalla agreed. “We’ll have to be quiet as we leave Orvis, but also as we move through the tunnel. We cannot risk the Darklings tracking us by sound. Corbin will almost certainly realize what we’re doing.” She paused, glancing back at her people-all of them gathered around the dark tower, quivering and silently waiting for her reassurance. There wasn’t much of that left, but I trusted Kalla to be able to guide her people in the right direction. “I’ll get them organized.”
Lumi moved next to Kailani. “The two of us will head to the westernmost point of the village. We’ll open the tunnel there.”
“And we will join you,” Mira declared. “I did not come all the way out here after two million years on an isolated island to have to deal with Corbin and his Darkling ilk. Our strength is of better use by your side, helping to hold the tunnel up.”
“We have enough building experience from our time on the island,” Kemi added with a proud smile. “Count on us.”
I watched them leave, unaware of how fast I was breathing. Every time I heard Corbin calling out Valaine’s name, my anxiety peaked to new levels. I knew he wasn’t just standing there waiting for his daughter, the Unending, to come out. No, he had a plan, and his Darklings were probably already implementing it. They’d figured out the protective shield’s limits and dimensions. Whatever death magic they had, they could use it to bring the swamp witch spell down. Time was definitely not on our side.
My stomach churned as I thought of Derek, and I prayed to all the possible and impossible deities that he’d be okay. That Lumi and Sidyan would get to him in time, once we were all safely removed from this nebulous mess.
The villagers responded quickly to Kalla’s instructions. They scattered to their homes and gathered their most precious belongings-only things they could carry through the tunnel. Every single blood reserve was bottled in wooden flasks and handed over to the Seniors, who would hold on to them in order to ease the villagers’ passage to the west coast. We all needed supplies, and we wouldn’t be able to risk returning to the surface along the way.
“How long do you think we’ll be in the tunnels?” Thayen asked me.
“I’m not sure. A few hours at least.”
“Then why are we taking the food with us?” he replied.
Rose had an answer for that. “We don’t know what kind of conditions we’ll find once we reach our destination. The less we have to travel for sustenance, the better.” She looked at me, and I could see the concern drawing a deep frown between her delicate eyebrows. “We’re going to get through this,” she said, and I found her attempt to comfort me endearing. I knew she was anxious and angry-just as I was-that we had no way of reaching Derek anytime soon.
“And I’ll be coming with you,” Thayen sighed.
“You don’t want that?” I asked.
He nodded. “I do. I was worried you might leave me behind, since you’ll be getting Derek back soon.”
Kneeling before him, I gripped his bony shoulders and smiled gently. I had to make things as clear for the boy as I possibly could. “Thayen, I’m not returning you to your mother unless it is truly what you want,” I told him. “Not only because I am deeply fond of you, but also because I cannot bear the thought of you becoming infected by Danika’s malice. She has done enough harm already. I want you to stay with us if you’re willing… do you understand me?”
“I do.” Thayen sighed, nodding slowly. “Thank you, Sofia.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re nowhere near the finish line.” I got back up and took his hand in mine.
Rose shot me a grin. “You’re really good to him, Mom.”
“I