“Now, as soon as we reached the base of that mountain, the ghosts—in larger numbers than before—became aggressive, and could even hurt us… which is unnatural, while Taeral’s instincts here keep screaming for him to go back there, because that place is calling to him,” Riza continued, making me nod again. “Okay. So, we’d be dealing with aggressive Reapers and killer ghosts. I think we can focus on distracting them all while, say, Taeral and Lumi make it inside that place. We’ll keep the hostile elements busy while you two find Death.”
“We split up, then,” Herakles grumbled, not liking the idea.
I, on the other hand, saw the sense in Riza’s proposal. “Lumi, Eira, and I can go there. I’m not letting Eira out of my sight,” I said, drawing a surprised look from the Hermessi daughter. “She could also act as a sort of Hermessi representative, and she could state before Death herself that there are plenty of elementals who don’t want the ritual to go through.”
“Are you sure?” Eira asked me.
I smiled gently. “I’m positive. You’re not here just for me to protect you, Eira. You’re not some damsel in distress. You’re a Hermessi child, and I think it’s time you start using that position to its full potential.”
“Taeral makes a good point,” Lumi said. “And he’s more than equipped to be a spokesperson for GASP, as he’s half fae and there are five million of his people’s lives at risk before the ritual is even completed. Not to mention afterward.”
“That, plus the fact that he’s got the scythe,” Raphael replied with a cool grin.
“I appreciate the endorsement,” I said, giving Lumi a polite nod. “But I feel like you’re even more important in this endeavor. If the Word reacted against the Reapers, it might have something to say before Death, as well. That, along with your many years in this world, makes you an equally qualified spokesperson for GASP.”
Lumi laughed lightly. “Fine, we’ll share the credits.”
I couldn’t just teleport us all inside the castle because we didn’t know what might wait for us in there. We could easily get zapped into a potentially deadly trap, and Varga had been unable to see through the castle walls, regardless of the shrinking distance. We’d agreed on a calculated and cautious approach—weird spirits and cranky Reapers, we could handle, but we couldn’t risk pissing Death off before we even saw her.
“It sounds like a good plan,” Eva said. “Which means the rest of us will have to work out a good strategy to keep the Reapers and the ghosts distracted. Out here, I don’t see any spirits willing to attack us, which means the real work is closer to the castle.”
Looking down from the cliff, I was able to confirm her theory. “You’re right. I can see them. Fewer than before, though. And they’re not even watching us anymore. I bet we’ll have their full attention once we reach the palace again.”
“Okay. So how do we do this?” Varga asked. “We’ve got two swamp witches to work with, along with one jinni to zap us here and there. I think we need to calculate our resources carefully on this one, if we want Tae, Lumi, and Eira to make it inside.”
Baethal’s voice cut through the night like an unforgiving sword. “Or, and just hear me out here, you could all just turn around and get off Mortis before we have to take drastic measures against you.”
We all froze, our heads turning slowly to find Baethal, Wrik, and Theoth standing about fifty yards away from us, on the southern edge of the cliff’s peak. Their scythes were out, and they didn’t look like they’d come back to talk things through.
“Or I could give you another whiff of the Word for you all to understand that it really isn’t a good idea to piss off a swamp witch,” Lumi replied, her tone clipped.
Wrik grinned. “Our boss says we shouldn’t be scared of you. That a swamp witch is merely a conduit for the Word, and that the Word is quite capricious.”
“You’ve spoken to Death since the last time we met,” Lumi breathed, her eyes wide.
“Of course. We had to seek council,” Baethal replied. “Which is why I’m asking you one last time to leave, before I make you.”
That made us understand that Death didn’t want to see us. Then why did I still feel that strange pull coming from the palace? It didn’t make a lick of sense.
“We didn’t come all this way to be refused an audience,” I said.
“If we let anyone get near her, our necks will be on the line,” Theoth replied. “We really don’t want to do this, but if you insist, we will. And you know by now that one puny scythe won’t stop us.”
“Besides, our colleagues are here to reinforce the general message that you’re not welcome here,” Baethal added.
Surely enough, as soon as he spoke those words, we all saw about two dozen Reapers appear around us, each of them armed with a scythe. Their uniforms varied, though all were in shades of black and white. The one thing that was consistent about them was their clear order to keep us away from Death.
Despite the fear gathering in my throat like a ball of coarse yarn, I couldn’t bring myself to cave in, to turn around and leave, as they’d asked. We’d come too far, and we’d been through too much. Most importantly, our survival and our worlds depended on this one audience I wished to seek with Death.
The only challenge now was to get away from these Reapers, ideally unharmed, and find my way into Death’s palace, where I knew she was waiting for me. Why is she sending her agents and the ghosts after us, then? That was a question only she could answer. Regardless, I only had one option from this moment onward. Find Death and talk to her.
Harper
“You can’t hide that soul from us, Herbie!” Kill shouted as he lunged at us again.
Herbert managed to turn himself invisible and sneak out from the tight circle that the original ghouls had formed around us. He started running, his feet barely touching the thin layer of white moondust on the ground, as he moved faster and faster. After a few seconds, it felt more like flying at a low altitude.
Gripped by terror, I stayed quiet while using Herbert’s eyes to find the fastest way out of this mess. Sure, we’d gained extremely valuable intelligence just now, but it was worthless if I didn’t get back in one piece—and Herbert was bound to pay a deadly price for having made this detour. While I’d understood his decisions so far, I had to admit, this was a piss-poor way to end the whole trip.
“Don’t worry, I’m trying to get us to a high spot so I can jump off,” Herbert breathed as he glided across the barren field smattered with small craters. An asteroid shower had hit this moon a long time ago.
“You can run, but you can’t hide!” another ghoul hissed, not far to our right.
Kill whispered a word, something that sounded like, “Revellis,” but maybe I’d heard it wrong. He managed to touch Herbert—a mere slap on the shoulder—before Herbert dodged and moved away, the adrenaline pushing him to glide even faster. Whatever that word was, it had an unexpected effect. It made Herbert visible again.
What the hell? I thought, gripped by shock and fear.
It’s a trick he’s picked up from an ancient swamp witch. I’ll tell you about it when we get to safety, Herbert managed. He cursed under his breath and sped up. They were gaining on us, and they could see us now. This was some potent magic, to mess with a ghoul’s subtle form like that! I wondered if Ibrahim or Corrine or any of the other GASP witches were aware of it—from what I’d picked up, it was ancient, and I had not heard of it before.
Herbert dashed over the field and snuck through a cluster of stony hills. I could hear the ghouls’ steps just forty yards back—tap, tap, tap, tap. They were fast, and they seemed to be toying with us. They laughed as they directed each other to spread out.
The hills rose higher around us, then dropped, almost suddenly, and so did the ground level. It took Herbert by surprise. One of the original ghouls made it close enough to throw a leg out. It made Herbert trip—a downside to being stuck in his physical form. We fell and tumbled down into what looked like a steep ravine.
My field of vision changed rapidly—ground, stones, sky, then ground, stones, and sky again, over and over, until we came to a painful halt. Herbert grunted from the pain. His bony knees were scraped. His ankle was swelling rapidly. And the ghouls were getting closer.
I was helpless inside him. I didn’t have my abilities. I couldn’t use Telluris to reach out for help. My worthlessness was close to throwing me into a full state of panic, until I noticed a narrow crevice not far from us. “Herbert, look to your left,” I whispered.
He did and saw it. I could feel his hope blossoming, his dark blood pumping as he pulled himself up. He made a run for it, and Kill missed us with his claws by mere inches. The others came in from the sides and moved in on us. But Herbert bolted and slipped through the crevice.
