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ANTON
Anton studied the door leading out of the Bone Valley. The knocks had startled him, and he almost expected the tree’s gnarled limbs to move toward them.
He was a moment from asking Nahli and Roka to hide somewhere, when she said, “Answer it?” But it came out more of a question. She was unsure, the same way he was.
If it was Maryska behind the mystery door, he was certain she wouldn’t have knocked. Yet that didn’t make what was on the other side of the door any less deadly.
Whatever the threat was, Anton chose to face it. Clasping a dagger in his skeletal hand, he pulled open the door with the other, and revealed a forest of color, the world painted in warm shades of autumn. Not only that, but two figures covered in what looked like black mud. He raised his weapon higher.
The two guests leapt back and lifted their own swords high in the air.
Still gripping the dagger, Anton took a step onto the golden grass. It crunched beneath his feet. “Who are you?” His flames focused on a tall, shapely woman with pursed lips.
“You can talk?” the other person said. It was a male—a voice Anton immediately recognized.
His head angled to the boy, his brother, and he brought down his dagger. A sense of home washed over him. “Pav?”
The muddy texture cloaked his brother’s curly blond hair, making it appear more brown than gold. Dark clumps splattered his entire face, but it was undoubtedly him.
Pav’s sword lowered, his hand trembling. The woman shot his brother a dirty look, not yielding her weapon even an inch.
“Anton?” Pav asked in a shaky voice.
“Pav!” Anton yanked him in a fierce hug, overwhelmed, and not minding the dirt and grime in the least.
“I can’t squeeze you as hard—you’re all bones,” Pav gasped, but gripped Anton tightly.
He’d heard the smile in his brother’s playful tone. But a moment later, he released his brother and pushed back, as if he’d been bitten. If Pav was there, then that meant he was ... dead.
“Daryna?” Nahli’s shocked voice came from behind Anton.
As he started to turn, Nahli rushed out the door and knocked the sword from the woman’s hand, before slapping her hard across the face.
Nahli stood there, inhaling and exhaling heavily. Anton had never met Daryna, but even covered in mud, she appeared younger than he’d thought she would be.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Daryna gritted out, her lower lip quivering and eyes burning with fury.
“She has a right to do more than that,” Anton started, shifting closer to Nahli while focusing on Daryna. “You’re the one who had her killed.”
“I must apologize, but I don’t waste time in murdering skeletons. What purpose would that serve?” Daryna scowled.
“I wasn’t always a skeleton,” Nahli seethed. “It’s me, Nahli.”
Daryna’s nose wrinkled in confusion for a moment. As recognition set in, her eyes widened in disbelief. “Nahli?”
“That’s right. Look at me now.” She gestured up and down at her skeletal body.
“I didn’t send Boda to kill you,” Daryna said. “If I had wanted you dead, I would have stabbed you through the heart myself. I told her to retrieve my chicken and a new loaf of bread.” She paused, shaking her head. “And perhaps give you a couple slaps, one for each thing you stole from me.”
“Sorry, Daryna, your henchwoman didn’t hold up to your bargain,” Nahli ground out. Anton had never seen her so angry.
“I know.” Daryna sighed. “She’s dead now.”
“And I suppose that makes everything all right, then?” Nahli shrugged her thin shoulders.
Anton pulled away from the conversation and focused his attention on his brother. Pav was there, but should have been in Kedaf. He placed his hand on Pav’s shoulder and asked, “What happened? How did you die?”
Pav straightened and waved his hand. “No, no, I’m not dead. Daryna brought us here to find you and Maryska. We drank a magical brew to allow us entry, but it’s only temporary.”
“Before you become hostile, too, Anton,” Daryna said, “Maryska purchased the tea you drank from me, but she said it was for an abusive ex-lover.”
Maryska had purchased poisoned tea from Daryna? He could be angry about that if he chose, but that dormant release of emotion needed to be for Maryska. Besides, if Daryna hadn’t given the tea, Maryska would have gotten poison from elsewhere. However, she brought Pav to this horrid place, and he couldn’t be happy about that.
“You should have kept my brother home.”
“A bargain’s a bargain. It was his decision.” Daryna motioned to Pav. Strands of hair dangled from her bun, and she blew them away from her face.
“What bargain?” Anton demanded, glaring his flames at his brother.
“I’m to be her newest helper,” Pav said with a smile.
Anton rubbed the temple of his skull with the tip of the dagger handle, already finished with the conversation. He stared hard at Daryna. “Send him home.”
Pav couldn’t stay here. It was too unsafe.
“No can do.” Daryna tapped the ground with her sword. “It has to be two days, or he has to die here to return.”
Even if killing Pav would send his brother home, Anton couldn’t harm him. And who knew if Daryna was telling the truth or not? He hardly knew anything about her besides his father stealing goods to sell to her, or the rumors of her being a witch, which he supposed were true after all.
Pav attempted to brush his way around Anton, as though he wasn’t traipsing around a place where the dead come after death. “May we go inside and discuss things? Standing next to a lake filled with heads with no faces doesn’t seem like the best of options.”
Right before he set a foot inside the Bone Valley, Anton dragged Pav back by the collar. “Do. Not. Walk through that door. Unless you want to become a skeleton.”
If Pav and Daryna went inside the Bone Valley, Anton wasn’t sure if their skin would vanish or not since they weren’t really dead. But he remembered the crystallized flowers buried underground and what had happened to their color once they touched the air above.
“What do you mean?” Daryna asked, peering over Anton’s shoulder.
“There’s a chance that if you walk into the Bone Valley,” Nahli began, “both of you will end up like us. Walking skeletons.”
“Also,” Anton said, “the Bone Valley doesn’t lead to anywhere, only loops in a circle. We’re going to the Lake of Flesh.”
“Lake of Flesh?” Pav appeared taken aback.
“It’s the place where Maryska hid our bodies,” Anton said.
“Then we’re going to find her,” Nahli added.
He didn’t want Nahli to go near Maryska again after what had happened to her, not if what little life he had depended on it. But she was determined, and he would help her.
“So, Maryska is here.” Daryna drawled.
Nahli nodded. “She’s the ruler here.”
A deadly calm surrounded Daryna at Nahli’s answer, while Pav absorbed everything and caressed the handle of his sword.
Anton scanned the dead grass, the tree and its fall leaves, not seeing Roka anywhere. “Where’s Roka?”
Nahli searched beside her feet until Roka finally answered, “I am still in here, waiting for you all to finish.”
“What in all of Kedaf is that?” Daryna spat.
Pav’s gaze fell to the meerkat skeleton. “It’s sort of cute. It reminds me of old times. Remember when you brought us that chicken, Nahli?”
“What chicken?” Daryna blew out a harsh breath and stepped toward Nahli.
“I um ... gave his family the chicken.” Nahli cringed.
“You what!” Daryna growled, bringing her sword up.
“Enough of this!” Anton whisper-shouted, pressing a finger to his teeth. Everyone needed to keep their voices down.
Quiet enveloped them all.
“Yes, your chicken is with Pav, Daryna.” Anton said. “Perhaps he can give it back to you later.”
Pav held up a finger. “Except her name is now Juju and she belongs to Tasha.” He spun to Daryna with his widest Pav smile. “My younger sister.”
“Enough chicken talk,” Anton said slowly. “Maryska wanted me as her king. I said no, so she stripped away my skin, muscles, and organs, adding them to the Lake of Flesh, which contains all the layers from other people too. Then she brought me here, to a place called the Bone Valley, where I built Nahli. Somehow, I awoke her and then she awoke Roka, who yes, is a meerkat that talks. Now, let’s go.” Anton held open the door as Roka scampered out then closed it.
Roka perched on his haunches, tilting his head up to the four of them. “Well done. I could not have said...” He stopped talking as if under a spell and continued to stare at Daryna. “Kezia?” he murmured.
Daryna’s brow furrowed. “No, as stated earlier, my name is Daryna.”
Roka’s head angled to Anton, motioning to the door. “Open it, I need to go inside and think. Now.”
There wasn’t time to pace around back in the Bone Valley. “Not now.”
Nahli let go of the handle. “It’s locked. What’s going on? You look spooked.”
Instead of holding his head high in his usual proud manner, it bowed to the ground. “I remember. I remember everything.” Roka seemed to dig somewhere inside himself as he lifted his chin, and Anton thought Daryna looked on the verge of panic for a moment as her gaze drifted to the dark lake before coming back to them. “I’m the true king here. Maryska is my wife, my queen. She altered her appearance to pretend she was my betrothed, her sister, Kezia—you.” Melancholy sewed through Roka’s words as his gaze shifted to Daryna.
Anton couldn’t bring himself to comprehend what Roka had confessed. How? Why?
Daryna curled her lip in disgust. “I’m sorry? What? I, in no way shape or form, would have been betrothed to an animal.”
Nahli knelt and held out a bone hand, jabbing a finger at Roka. “I think we have time for this explanation. And you better know a way to defeat Maryska.”
Anton studied the meerkat, unable to see him as a king, not when the first thing he’d done was hide from Maryska when he’d discovered her. Roka could be mistaken, but then he began his story.
