Page 32 of Kingdom of Spirits
The scent of steel and rain wafted through the air, and Vodolija’s head whipped to the side. Tahlia unsheathed her dagger, her heartbeat speeding up. Past a bush heavy with faeberries, a shimmering golden light blurred and wavered.
“What was that?” Fara tightened her hold around Tahlia's waist.
Grunting, Tahlia gripped her dagger and leaned forward in the saddle, squinting to see the anomaly better, but it was only a smear of inconsistent light. Vodolija growled, the sound vibrating through Tahlia.
“Hold, darling. Wait.”
The light went out. The scent of metal and ozone immediately disappeared.
Vodolija shook like she wanted to rid herself of the whole experience, then she launched into the sky before Tahlia could order her not to. Fara let out one shriek as they flew into the starlight, the dark below like an ocean teeming with monsters.
“We have to go back home,” Fara shouted over the wind.
“We can’t. You made your decision to come. I’m not leaving Marius.”
“He’s very big. Whatever in the hells that was, well, he can handle it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Do you have any guesses on what made that noise?”
“Ghosts?”
“Please. Let’s just go back and you can get all your fellow riders and return and save the day.”
“I wish, but that’s not how it would go. We left without permission. We would get kicked out if we were lucky, and Marius would be punished as well. Plus, there’s a murderous commander in charge now and she isn’t exactly my best friend.”
Fara let out various agonized noises and set her head against Tahlia’s back. “We are going to die.”
“No, we aren’t. You will be able to tell your grandchildren about this grand adventure.”
“Don’t wish children on me! Can you even imagine how worried and protective I’d be about them?”
Tahlia snorted. “They would have no lives at all.”
“That’s the truth. But they would be alive.”
Tahlia chuckled despite the cold fear spreading through her bones.
Whatever had made that noise wanted to be heard. But why? To draw Tahlia, Fara, and Vodolija closer to inspect? To ask for help? They would never know if they didn’t land.
“Let’s go down, Vodolija,” Tahlia said, knowing somehow that the dragon could hear over the wind and understand her. “We have to face this.”
The dragon dove and Fara argued the whole way down.
Chapter 14
Tahlia
“Ithink Vodolija is unhappy. You’re asking her to go back to the creepy ghosts,” Fara said into Tahlia’s ear. “She’s diving. Showing aggression. Maybe she wants us off her back so she can go home. I should have stayed home with all that bread. Why am I even here?”
“I might need your fists; plus, who else will make sure I pay attention to every little problem?” Tahlia teased.
If the sound had been a ghost, or ghosts, why had it alerted them like that? Was it curious? Was it even cognizant of its actions? Had it once been a person or was it a creature made of forgotten magic?
There was nothing like this in the rest of the Realm of Lights, certainly. No stories of such spirits except those that came from this broken kingdom, and those tales were sparse and lacking any real information. At least the thing hadn’t attacked or injured them. That was a relief.
Perhaps none of the spirits were able to affect the living or had no motivation to do so. But if that were true, then why did border folk often find the bodies of travelers who had ventured too close to this land? The corpses found were described ashaving skin turned to gold with boils going up and down their arms and not a drop of blood in their bodies. The look of the dead had many proposing the idea that whatever evil had befallen the kingdom had something to do with Mistgold Fae—the families who had ridden dragons for centuries and who had that golden sheen in their blood.