Page 184 of Of Empires and Dust
The toweringtrees of the Darkwood loomed over Ella, white mist blowing as the wind swept through their branches. The woodland stretched into the distance on either side, no end in sight. Within its depths, Ella could feel the thumping of innumerable hearts, the beat almost deafening.
In the twilight of Níthianelle, the woodland didn’t seem as ominous, and yet there was something in the air that set her off-kilter, a heaviness, a pain.
“What is that?” Ella stared into the woodland as she asked the question, her gaze searching its depths as though the answer lay just out of reach.
“This place is… it holds memories.” Tamzin moved so she stood beside Ella. “There are creatures here older than the trees and rivers and rocks, creatures that exist both in this world and the mortal plane but belong in neither.”
“The Aldithmar.”
“I do not know that name, but if you have seen these creatures, you will know them. I have only ever encounteredthem in this world, never in the mortal plane.” After a moment of silence, Tamzin spoke again. “This is as far as I take you.”
Ella pulled her gaze from the woodland and stared at Tamzin. The woman’s eyes were brown again, her pupils human. “What do you mean this as far as you take me? I have no idea what to do once I find my body.” A flash of panic set into Ella. “I don’t even know how to find my body. I don’t know… I don’t know anything. What’s the point in bringing me this far and then leaving me?”
“It’s not really a choice.” Tamzin gestured towards five figures emerging from the woodland. Two took the shapes of enormous stags, white and gold smoke swirling around them as they moved, their antlers black as jet. Two more were the largest wolves Ella had ever seen – larger even than Faenir – golden eyes swirling and sparkling as though filled with the molten metal.
The last walked on two feet, its body covered in dark grey fur, its limbs moving in long, willowy sweeps.
“Aneera…” Relief filled every fibre of Ella’s being, her legs shaking beneath her, chest fluttering. The Angan’s face, her golden eyes. For the first time since finding herself in this place, Ella felt the tiniest sliver of safety brighten in the depths of her mind. She truly had made it back –theyhad made it back.
“I am not welcome here.” Tamzin folded her arms, looking from the approaching Angan to Ella. “That was made clear while you were sleeping.”
“While I was sleeping?”
“Amatkai will no longer be the one guiding you through the veil.” The half-smile that touched Tamzin’s lips was one born of frustration. “There is another now.” Tamzin drew a heavy breath, then pulled Ella into a hug she wasn’t expecting. “This will not be the last time we meet. I promise you that. Our kind are at the edge of a precipice, Ella. Fall, and we will becomeextinct. Fly, and we may yet be born anew.” The woman stepped back and inclined her head. “It has been a pleasure, sister. I hope you are standing at our side when it comes time to fly.”
Tamzin made to leave, but Ella grabbed her wrist. “I never thanked you for saving my life… for saving me.”
“No, you didn’t.” Tamzin gave Ella a wry smile.
“Thank you. I would never have made it here without you.”
“No,” Tamzin said again. “You wouldn’t. I will see you soon, Ella Bryer. Take care of yourself, and hold your keeper close. There are many hands at work here, many wars raging, many egos. And when it comes down to it, those who move the pieces on the board care little about whether you survive to see the new dawn. Remember that, and remember our journey. We are not enemies, I swear this to you.”
Tamzin turned and set off in the direction they had come. Ella watched her for a moment, then turned back to the approaching Angan. As the creatures reached her, the two stags, whom she knew to be Angan of the Clan Dvalin, circled around her while Aneera and the other Fenryr Angan stopped before her.
“Daughter of the Chainbreaker.” Aneera dropped to one knee, turning her gaze downward. “We never ceased searching.”
The two enormous wolves moved one paw forward and bowed their heads.
“Aneera.” Ella lifted Aneera from her kneeling position and wrapped her arms around the Angan, unable to keep her hands from trembling. It was all Ella could do to stop her knees from buckling and the tears from flowing. She hadn’t known Aneera long, but there was a part of her that had believed she would never make it back, that she would wander Níthianelle until her body withered and her soul was left to wander the Sea of Spirits. That she would become a wraith.
The Angan staggered back a step, caught off guard. But after a moment, Aneera returned Ella’s embrace. “It lightens my heart to see your soul safe.”
Ella pulled steadying breaths into her lungs as she released Aneera. “I would very much like to return to my body now.”
“Of course. He waits for you. Please follow us.”
The journeythrough the Darkwood was the longest walk of Ella’s life. Where earlier she had felt relief at the sight of Aneera, doubt had crept in with each step. What if it didn’t work? What if she couldn’t ‘retether’ herself? What if this was it – this was the end?
She pushed the thoughts down, instead focusing on the world around her. It wasn’t a hard thing to do. In this world, the Darkwood was a living, breathing thing. It was almost overwhelming. A thousand scents clung to the air, and a wall of sound washed over her: heartbeats, rustling leaves, snapping branches, flapping wings. She did as Tamzin had been teaching her, honing in on her own racing heart, her own breaths, so as to filter out the chaos around her.
Slowly, she let more in, allowing the thumping hearts of the five Angan around her to hammer in her ears, allowing their scents to flow through her.
The exercise calmed her. That was, until she felt something else in the air, something that raised her hackles, something that caused the wolf to rise in her blood.
She stopped in her tracks, the Angan following suit. No more than twenty feet to her right, a number of tall figures had taken shape. They weren’t the seven-foot monstrosities wrought from shattered bark that Ella knew as the Aldithmar from the battle, but itwasthem; she could feel it. They looked almost human, their eyes sharper, more angled, with pupils of vibrantorange. Their skin was a pale grey, ridges of bone adorning their brows and cheeks, flowing backwards into something that looked part hair, part horns. Their hands held only four fingers, long and slender, with pointed claws at the end. Black smoke shrouded them, drifting in all directions. The Aldithmar had no heartbeats, no smell. They were both hollow and yet full of pain and suffering. It wasn’t the look on their alien faces or something in their eyes that told her this, it was something more visceral, something more primal. These creatures weren’t just in pain, theywerepain.
“They will not approach,” Aneera said, following Ella’s gaze.
