Cornelius wiped the blood from the back of his hand as they grew closer to the lights. The dim glow of his magic vanished as the smeared blood obscured the cuts in his flesh. The path didn’t go much farther, and Beth could see that the lights were in another clearing.
She grabbed Cornelius’s arm and pulled him off the path to crouch beside one of the twisted trees.
“Look.” Beth gestured to the edge of the path. She could make out the structures now. She had little doubt the illumination was coming from inside squat stone buildings. But closer to where the two blood mages were, in the shadows just inside the clearing, waited a square hut with a flat roof.
Cornelius’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I didn’t even see that in the dark. It’s set far enough away from the rest of the village I want to check it. Perhaps we can learn something of the beings that built this place.”
“Not worried about the beings that built this place,” Beth said. “I’m worried about the beings that are living here right now. What the hell are we walking into?”
“Let’s find out.”
And with that, Cornelius led the way to the nearest building. The only opening on the side of the gray stone closest to them was a barred window. The rest of the structure looked very much like the stairs and the giant flat path stones they’d been walking on.
Cornelius studied the window as Beth touched the wall. It was perfectly smooth, as if it was polished marble or glass. But she was sure it was stone because there was no logic in building a house of glass.
“I can’t see anything.” Cornelius raised his hand as if he meant to summon another light, only to lower it again a moment later.
Beth circled to her left, where a blank slate wall waited for her. She traced the edge, every bit as smooth as the first surface, and followed it around to the far wall.
“Here,” she whispered. “It’s a door.”
Beth reached out and pushed her way into the stone building. The door resisted for a moment; whatever hinges it was mounted on made no sound. She blinked in the shadowy room, barely lit by the reddish light of the sky and stars above. Her eyes slowly adjusted as Cornelius joined her just inside the door. A rumbling snort caused every hair on the back of her neck to stand at attention.
She turned to the right and almost jumped out of her skin. There, reclined in what for all intents and purposes was a rocking chair, sat a man. In the dim light, the unnaturally gray color of his flesh nearly matched the cloak wrapped around him. Two lines of what looked like raw red flesh ran from his hairline, down across his eyelids, and followed through to the edges of his lips.
He could have been human if not for the odd texture on his skin and the two large pupils that greeted her, nearly hiding the grayish whites entirely, when his eyes flashed open.
Beth fumbled for the knife at her waist.
Cornelius slammed his hand down on her wrist, stilling her.
The slumbering creature’s face broke into a smile. “Visitors! Why, I don’t think we’ve had visitors in five cycles now.”
Confusion rolled over Beth. She could understand him. “You speak English?”
“English?” the man asked. His forehead scrunched up a moment later. “Ah, that must be a language in your realm.”
Beth exchanged a look with Cornelius. “You’re hearing this too, right?”
“Indeed, I am.” Cornelius turned back to the man. “We can understand you quite clearly.”
“Humans.” The man’s smile widened. “I assumed you were some sort of Fae. But humans? That is most unusual.” He reached out for Beth’s hand, and she let him look over the scars on her forearm. “You are blood mages.” There was no doubt in his voice—it was a simple statement of fact.
“How can you know that?” Beth asked.
“There are no other humans who communicate with our realm. To come through the gate that you did, on top of the mountain that once was, you must be from the realm of fairies. But you do not look like fairies.”
Cornelius frowned. “It could be a glamour.”
The man nodded. “Something a human would say. There is nothing hidden here. No magic can hide your face.”
Beth pulled her hand back and rubbed at her scars. The man’s gentle fingers had left a tingle behind, as though she’d been touched by magic. “Who are you?”
“My name is not one you could comprehend. But you may call me Sleeper. It seems everyone else here does.”
“Everyone else?”
“Come, I will introduce you to the village, and you may tell us of what brought you from the realm of fairies to the edge of all that is.”
Sleeper stood and led the way outside the stone hut.
“That wasn’t ominous at all,” Beth said under her breath.
Cornelius scowled at her. She knew he didn’t appreciate offhanded comments like that, but as Alexandra once told her, it was one of her fortes.
Sleeper stopped beside a wide piece of gray metal that looked like it might be a wok turned upside down. He picked up a curled branch that formed a complete circle and struck the metal object, which she now realized was a bell. The deep sound felt as though it rolled through her entire being, resonating into the ground beneath her feet.
Cornelius’s hand flashed to the dagger at his waist, but the old blood mage didn’t draw the weapon. So Beth didn’t react. Instead, she followed Sleeper toward the village and the lights that had been so distant.
The village came to life with the sound of that bell. Doorways opened, and a dozen more lights burst into life. More people, who looked so similar to Sleeper that Beth had a hard time telling them apart, shuffled out into the streets to see the newcomers.
“Are we in danger here?” Cornelius asked.
“All are in danger here,” Sleeper said. “But that is the reason we are here. We are the last realm, the final Seal between the great world of the Eldritch and the rest of this universe. You come to a place where nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is exactly as it seems.”
“Glad we cleared that up,” Beth muttered.
Cornelius hushed her and Beth bit down on her tongue. She tended to not engage her brain-to-mouth filter when she was feeling stressed. The idea that the creatures they’d seen in the sky were Eldritch things that could swallow their entire world set her teeth on edge.
Instead, Beth turned her attention to the gathering crowd. It wasn’t a large village, or at least Beth didn’t think it was, and only a dozen villagers came, though she could still see some shadows milling about in the windows and doorways in the distance.
“Travelers?” someone who Beth couldn’t see asked.
“Yes,” Sleeper said. “Humans from the realm of the fairies. They are the blood mages who call upon us and bring our two forms together as one.”
Beth exchanged another look with Cornelius. However she had thought this trip was going to go, this sure as hell hadn’t been it.
“Blood has been spilled this day,” another villager said. Her voice sounded old and scratchy, but she didn’t look very different from Sleeper himself.
Sleeper gave one sharp shake of his head. “There was no aggression here. It was merely to conjure a light for their weak eyes to see by.”
“Why have they come?” another voice asked, mumbled words echoing around the small gathering.
Sleeper turned to Cornelius and Beth in turn. “Why have you come?”
Cornelius hesitated, as if he was trying to pick his words carefully. The longer he waited, the more Sleeper’s lips slid into a frown.
Beth’s words came out in a hurried rush. “We’re looking for a cale. It would have been forged in the time of Titans, to bind their powers.”
Sleeper’s frown softened. “That was a very long time ago. We have many stories of that age, but you will not find many of us who remember it.”
Cornelius glanced at Beth. “Surely you have some knowledge of it? Your people stand as a bulwark against the Eldritch, yes? I can only imagine that kind of power would come with the knowledge of those who have gone before you.”
“To a degree,” Sleeper said. “But I do not know of the coin you seek. There is one among us, a sage, who may help. She is much like a person you and the fairies would call a king, but we are not so ostentatious here.”
Beth thought this sounded promising. If the sage knew of the cale, they might be able to direct them to it. “Can you take us to the sage?”
Sleeper’s face cracked into a smile. “All who survive the trials can speak with the sage.”
“Trials?” Beth asked, exchanging a glance with Cornelius.
“The trials of the titans. You’ll find no knowledge here until your worth has been proven.”
Cornelius bristled. “Until our worth is proven? Did we not step into your realm from our own? Are we not the blood mages of whom you so recently spoke?”
Sleeper stood up a little straighter. “I have little doubt. But the laws of the line of sages here are the only laws with weight. You’re free to leave this place, or you are free to participate in the trial. It matters little to our people. Whether you win and find what you seek, or die in the trial, or depart now in peace, our lives will not change. We will continue to be the watchers of the Eldritch, the edge of all that is, and the last Seal standing before the madness of gods.”
“Surely there’s another way?” Beth asked.
Sleeper shook his head. “Our realm was abandoned by all others long ago. Our laws protect us from outsiders, and though we know of you and your magicks, you are still an outsider.”
Beth glanced over her shoulder at Cornelius. She wasn’t sure if the old man was irritated or furious. Either way, it probably wasn’t a good idea to let him take over the conversation. So, she turned back to Sleeper. “Tell us about the trial.”
“You must fight. Use your magicks here as you would in the world you came from.”
“Fight who?”
Sleeper smiled. “It is not a who, so much as a what. Not all the Eldritch are trapped behind the skies. Some have slipped through, and some have been caught. A handful we have imprisoned, and they will be your trial.”
Beth’s heart hammered in her chest. Maybe it was a better idea just to leave. There was no way in hell she and Cornelius could take on one of the Eldritch. Not by themselves.
Cornelius stepped up beside her. “That is not a fight we can win. You must know that.”
Sleeper tilted his head and studied Cornelius. “You may call on any of your magicks in this place.”
Elizabeth frowned at Sleeper. The cryptic sentence played over in her mind, reminding her of something the Fae would say. The closest thing to Eldritch they’d fought was a harbinger of the dark-touched. But they’d had help from Aeros, and the only help they had here was each other.
Sleeper’s smile didn’t break.
An idea, a mad idea crawled into Beth’s brain. “Will you fight with us?” She locked her eyes on Sleeper, and he didn’t turn away.
“What?” Cornelius hissed.
Beth held her hand out in a gesture to silence him. She was grateful when the old blood mage didn’t say more. “Will you fight with us?”
“We have,” Sleeper said. “Every time you called to us. We are the guardians of the Seal, and only the Seal. But here, already, you can see the damage done through the millennia. You can see the shadows of the Eldritch above us, once barely visible to the keenest eye, now a looming reminder of the blade held to the throat of all worlds. Darker things will find their way here. Worse things will find their way into your world, and swallow your realm as though it had never been.”
“Then show us to your trial.”
Murmurs rose through the small crowd. Sleeper turned to the bell. He struck at a different angle and in a different pattern, sending a high-pitched ring across the clearing.
“Follow me.”