Page 43 of Raven's Dawn
“We’re on the same page about that,” Rain said. “That’s why they made a deal with the gods. They had a viable planet, and the gods had a bunch of souls that they had accidentally created. They needed a world for them to live on.”
“Yes,” Graham agreed. “But then, they created this place.” He gestured to the snowcapped mountains in the distance on the left, the ocean on the right, and the villages below. “Véa, Nix, and Luci created the Land of Light, also known as the Fae Realm, as a space specifically for us. A new home for the Fae folk. Véa had stopped writing at that point, so I don’t know much about why or how. I only know that she did.”
“Like Luci created Hell,” Rain murmured.
“Aye,” Graham said. “Do you see the issue now?”
“This dimension was a secret,” I said slowly, a hint of question at the edge of my voice.
Again, he said, “Aye. And any evidence of them here is extremely concerning. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they know about this place. It’s possible that the air an tagadh simply found an old spell. But it’s the fact the spell shouldn’t be here. Some royals have access to that old magic.
“An Elvan queen in the north, she’s known for using a particular spell from the maalaichte cnihme. Had a falling out with Iliantha because of it, in fact. And I have personal opinions about her myself, but I know she wouldn’t have given magic like this to the life eaters. She’s more responsible than that, no matter what I think of her personally.
“It shouldn’t ever have ended up in the hands of commoners. No life eaters, ever. There’s no need for them to possess maalaichte cnihme magic. I can’t remember one time they managed to breach a palace or castle. They’re not sophisticated enough for that. But somehow, they got their hands on dangerous magic far beyond their capabilities.”
“And Laila got so worried about it because that could mean that the maalaichte cnihme know about this place,” Rain said.
“Or that they gave the life eaters the magic,” Warren said. “We thought they were working for the Angels, but they could be working for an even worse enemy. That’s the concern, right?”
A slow, shaking breath. “Right.”
I didn’t know if it was the wind or the conversation, but chills crept over every inch of my skin. “This could be bad.”
“Very bad,” Graham agreed.
“I could use a drink,” Warren said under his breath. “Oh, why do they call them that? The worm in the wood?”
“Véa, or Laila, is the tree of life, no?” Graham asked.
“Yeah…”
“And the tree of life gifts eternal life.”
Warren nodded slowly.
“Well, the maalaichte cnihme found a way around that. A virus, or parasite, or bacteria of some kind that, once an eternal is infected with, eats them from the inside out. Quite literally, you can see the worms crawling around beneath your skin if you’ve been infected. And it doesn’t just eat their body. It doesn’t just kill them. Somehow, those worms transmit their power to the maalaichte cnihme. They are an invisible, silent killer of everything the tree of life allows to grow.”
When we arrived back at camp, Laila told Rain she wanted a spell done on each of us. One that would disguise our power so we weren’t beacons for the life eaters. So they wouldn’t be able to track us by our power, then hunt us down as they had last night. She still wanted us to be able to sense each other, which made the spell a bit more complicated, as Rain had to connect it to our entire group, but with Luci’s help, it was done within the hour.
By the time she was done with it, the soldiers had already packed up all of our belongings. Ramona and Luci had even resurrected the girl who’d gone down in the battle. There was nothing left to do, it seemed; I thought we would continue on immediately.
Instead, we were all instructed to stay put. Jeremy, Laila, Connor, Naomi, and Luci went off into the woods together. Supposed they had to brief the others on what we had discovered.
The four of us waited in silence. There wasn’t much to be said. We sat on the log, looked at the blood on the ground, and waited.
This didn’t feel like the last war I fought. It was… easier. Less emotionally draining.
Today hadn’t been a victory. Not really. We were attacked in our sleep by unknown assailants who so happened to be cannibals. Even after Graham’s explanation on the flight here, I couldn’t say that I was more afraid now than on the battlefields of France during the world war.
Perhaps because, when I looked around, I had no doubts. The blood on the ground did not belong to my friends. It was spilled righteously. And those people who were dead… I felt no sympathy for them.
It was an odd thing, because a month ago, when Warren had killed hundreds of people to practice his necromancy, I’d been torn. When Jeremy asked for my opinion on it, as a doctor, it was hard for me to fathom killing by the dozens without mercy. Death for experimentation.
But this was different. Our enemies were not people. Not really. And I understood the dangers of a sentiment like that. I knew how dangerous it was to dehumanize an enemy, but I wasn’t doing that. They had done it to themselves.
I couldn’t even say that it was about cannibalism. Cannibalism was not always morally wrong. In many cultures, it was righteous. Some people consumed their dead loved ones to honor them. Although it may not have been my custom, I could respect cultures different from my own.
What I couldn’t respect, what I refused to dignify, was a selfish reason. These people were inarguably evil. Until now, I had never believed in infinite good and infinite bad. Life, in my eyes, was a million hues of gray. Even when someone did something horrible, even when they worked for a horrible organization, I could rationalize it. I could rationalize that people were often forced into situations they didn’t want to be in.