Page 42 of Raven's Dawn
“Aye,” I murmured.
“Aye,” Jeremy repeated in the same melancholy tone.
Should we say that too? Rain’s voice sounded in my mind.
Bringing Ezra and Warren into the chain of thought, I said, It’d be respectful if you did. It’s a part of our death ceremony.
So, in unison, the three of them said, “Aye.”
“Warren, Ezra,” Laila said, turning her gaze on them. “I need you to carry him.”
“Sure,” Ezra said.
“Of course,” Warren agreed. “But I… Are you going to explain?”
“There isn’t much to explain. I don’t know what I’m seeing, Warren.” There was an edge to her voice as she stood. “I just know it isn’t good.”
“But you know something, don’t you?” His voice was much more passive than I was used to from Warren. “Those symbols, that language, it means something to you.”
“It does. And I don’t understand why it’s here, or what it means, or what the fuck we’re going to do about it.” She started past the others toward the exit of the cave. “Be careful with him. If we can figure out who he is, I’d like to return him to his family for burial.”
“Of course,” Ezra said. “But could you at least give us a vague idea why you’re worried?”
Approaching the spot we’d come in from, she halted. A deep breath echoed through the cave. Once again, a bleakness overtook her bubbly personality, and she turned our way with an expressionless face. “The worm in the wood.” Her eyes settled on me. “You can explain to them what that means.”
16
EZRA
I remembered that phrase. The worm in the wood.
Over the last month, when we were preparing to come here, we had not only trained. I hadn’t, at least. After I’d first seen this land, I was enthralled by it. Any opportunity to learn something interesting, something new, enthralled me. Since Graham was from this land, I asked him to teach me about the culture. The history, and the war, and the lore, and everything I could possibly think to ask.
He had insisted that to learn anything about the Fae, you needed to start with the gods. Since Véa and Nix had written their story a few hundred thousand years ago, all I had to do was read it. It was written in Elvan, so I had only read as far as Graham had read aloud to me. I couldn’t say that I had absorbed every second, but I retained a good portion of it.
It was a journal of sorts, beginning with Véa’s coronation. At the ceremony, her land was invaded by maalaichte cnihme. They were the original soul eaters. They came, they killed, and they absorbed the life force of everyone they could.
When we were told that the enemy we were working to dismantle here were life eaters, I assumed they weren’t much different from the soul eaters. After all, they worked the same way. They came, they killed, and they absorbed the life force of everyone they could.
Once we were in flight again, traveling back to camp, I said as much. “But aren’t the life eaters and the soul eaters the same thing?”
Fastening his emerald cloak around his shoulders, Graham used it as a shield against the wind. “No, not at all. Even the life eaters reject the maalaichte cnihme. They are the ultimate enemies of our people. More than the Angels are, if you can believe it.”
“But I don’t understand.” Rain spun to face us, using her back to shield most of the wind. “You said they were traitors. They turned on the Fae.”
“They are, and they did,” Graham said, rubbing his eyes and down the bridge of his nose. “Look, the life eaters are sort of the bogeyman here. One we know is real, but disorganized. Stupid. They are animals. A nuisance, and evil, aye, but no one ever suspected they were working with maalaichte cnihme. The maalaichte cnihme aren’t here. They don’t even know this world exists.”
“But that’s not what they said.” Rain gestured to Laila and Jeremy flying on a neighboring dragon. “I thought the story was, they came to this world because there wasn’t enough room on their home planet to raise the souls they created. And I thought they got this planet from the maalaichte cnihme.”
Letting out another shaking breath, Graham rubbed his eyes. “Yes, kind of. But it’s complicated. You guys are asking me to sum up hundreds of thousands of years of history. It’s not that simple. So many things happened. This was why I told you to finish reading the book before we came here.”
“Well, they’re really big books,” Warren said under his breath.
“What do you mean by kind of?” I asked. “I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s not easy to explain all of this, but we’re listening.”
“The maalaichte cnihme destroyed worlds, aye? You understand that?” Graham looked between us all. “That’s what they do. They came, they killed, and they took all the power they can. That leaves an empty canvas. Just a world.”
“Right,” I murmured.