CHAPTER SIXTEEN

With dawn still a few hours away, Shade led her companions down the mountain and to the edge of the Glass Fields. With her honor guard trailing her in silence, she stalked the black emptiness, every sense open to find the qaraz she’d only glimpsed. She clung to her hope as doubts assailed her. What if she had imagined it? The idea of reaching the Kindred lands beyond the mountains had possessed her for so long, she couldn’t imagine failing now. Had that fear driven her to imagine a way? Had her longing for Satine disguised itself as her vision? It wasn’t too late to go to the Nexus–

There. She knew the moment she stepped upon it. The familiar clean pulse of a qaraz. It was faint, but as she focused, a narrow, golden path of light snaked away from her and through the Fields. Good thing it was still dark. She didn’t want the others to see her trembling in relief.

“Stick close to me. I don’t want to lose anyone.”

“We’ll stick like burrs, lady witch,” promised Matteo. She could practically hear his grin. It heartened her. With a deep breath, she stepped forward.

They advanced into a strange, unsettling darkness, the path beneath their sandals a faint luminescence, and when the sun broke the edge of the Glass Fields in a blinding array of red and gold, all three breathed a small sigh of relief. Pitch black and empty, the Glass Fields had nevertheless been full of disturbing echoes and soft, unidentifiable cries and whispers.

The frigid black night gave way to a scintillating brightness stretching in all directions. The broken, malformed glass radiated a strange heat, promising a brutal day ahead, and even with the qaraz to guide them it was a halting, stumbling progress through piles and hummocks of razor-sharp fragments. Shade could feel the warped magics of the place pressing against the power of the qaraz with every step.

The qaraz took them on a twisting, meandering track. At times, it seemed they were making little progress. But they persisted. Disturbingly, the qaraz tended to vanish behind them. It was soon apparent that there would be no turning back. It was forward, or nowhere.

After an hour of daylight, Shade’s eyes ached from the glare. Eyes watering, she kept her gaze on the qaraz. She felt exposed in the vast emptiness, especially forced as she was to keep her head down. Her companions followed in her wake, Matteo keeping his hand on her pack and Angelo gripping his brother’s belt. Unfortunately, neither brother could see the qaraz. She was glad she’d warned them to stick close.

As the sun lifted above the horizon, the heat rose. Shade felt as if she’d fallen into an inferno. Would they bake alive in this place once the sun reached its apex? She drew a blade. A small cut on her wrist gave her enough magic to bend the air around them, manipulating water and wind to shield them from the worst of the heat. She heard Matteo’s relieved exhalation behind her, and Angelo muttered thanks to the Four Faces.

“They had nothing to do with it.” Shade sheathed her blade and concentrated on the path before her, a thin, twisting way barely wide enough to keep them from touching the shards on either side.

The deeper they moved into the Fields, the higher the “glass” rose. The land sloped steadily downward, and the shards began to tower over them. It became a dance of sorts to avoid the razor-sharp edges, bending and twisting and slipping sideways along the qaraz. At times, they were forced to crawl beneath great arcs like frozen waves of glittering ice.

Sweating, Shade emerged from one such tight squeeze, and she stumbled, nearly falling into a lovely tower of knife-edged crystal. Matteo’s quick hand on her arm steadied her. She blew out a breath, every limb shaking. The jagged glass would have sliced her to ribbons. And who knew what magic it would have called.

“Maybe we should rest,” Angelo suggested.

Shade nodded. She led them farther until the path widened, giving them just enough space for all of them to sit. Great waves of glittering glass arced overhead.

Angelo dropped to his knees, shrugging off his pack. On the ground, they were at least spared the worst of the sun, sheltered in the dubious shade of the ever-growing trees of broken shards. Shade eyed the “trees”. Had they formed this way? In the cataclysmic final blast? Or were they living somehow and still growing? Angelo dug in his pack a moment before pulling out a canvas-wrapped parcel of dried meat. He handed Shade and Matteo their portions, keeping a smaller piece for himself.

“I saw that,” Shade grumbled around a mouthful of tough meat. “You get a double-ration tonight, Angelo. There’ll be no martyrs on this trip. We all need to stay strong.”

He shrugged. “I’m not that hungry, that’s all.”

Matteo snorted, and grinned at her. “I once saw him eat an entire suckling pig on Feast day. He’s always hungry.”

Shade chuckled, trying to imagine the trim Angelo devouring a roast pig on his own. “When we get through this, I’ll roast you a whole boar, Angelo.”

He cleared his throat. “Forgive me, lady witch, but I can’t see you cooking a boar.”

“Why? I know how to cook.”

Angelo glanced at his brother, who stifled a snicker. “Uh, there’s a reason we’ve been doing all the cooking since you made breakfast that first day.”

Shade gnawed on her ration in disgruntled silence. You burn one pot of porridge and suddenly you can’t cook. She smirked and pointed at Matteo. “In that case, Matteo can roast it for you. I’ll just carve it.” And she patted one obsidian blade.

Their laughter echoed through the glass like the tinkling of a wind chime. It returned to the clearing strangely distorted. Two voices transformed into many, and none of them friendly. They fell silent, eyes wide in the gloom.

“Let’s get moving,” Shade said. “The faster we’re out of this place, the better.”

They continued, somewhat refreshed, in a growing forest of twisted crystal. Each step forward took them down. To where, Shade could only guess. Into the lowest hells? It made her grip the bone handles of her blades more tightly than ever. She had a strong desire to open her skin and blast a way through the glass forest, but she resisted the urge. Drawing enough blood to ease their way was one thing but calling real power in the midst of such distorted magical energy would end in disaster.

Power she couldn’t comprehend had created this place, and its residue kept it dangerous. Unpredictable. Though the Sicani had been victorious over the Unseen, the cost had been tremendous. For the first time in her life she had to wonder: Had it been worth it? Most of Malavita was a terrible wasteland continually ravaged by Blackstorms. The Veils held back the worst of the blight, sheltering enough land for many to thrive, but those with strong bloodmagic held dominion over those without. The Veils were prisons to some. It was a vicarious existence, growing ever-more unstable.

We need to finish what we started. Strong Veils raised over all the land until the blight is pushed into the sea.

Her Veil would be the first, but it wasn’t just the Veil she wanted. The Empire craved the gems it would provide, but so did Shade. She kneaded her knife hilts, seeing a future she’d only dared imagine: an army of bloodwizards bearing a lethal rainbow of blades – blades she would fashion for them – working together to cleanse the land of its blight. A blight of both supernatural and human sources. She’d told no one of this ambition, not even Dante Safire, but it drove her as much as her vision.

A shattering crash broke the stillness of the glass forest. They froze as one. Shade’s heart thudded at her breastbone like a caged bird. She’d drawn without even realizing it, but so had Matteo and Angelo. The green and pink of Matteo’s tourmaline blades, and the deep blue of Angelo’s topaz reflected a thousand times over in the diamonds. Shade’s blades were streaks of black within the shining forest.

The shattering grew closer, louder.

“Should we run?” Matteo asked breathlessly.

“And expose our backs to only the Faces know what?” Angelo shook his head. “Stand ready.”

“Do nothing until you see an enemy,” Shade warned as they faced the approaching sounds. “Strike at it, not the trees. The glass will disrupt our magic or twist it in unexpected ways.”

A shadow appeared among the shimmering glass, gigantic and lumbering. Shade swallowed, unsure as to what it could be. What could live out here? It was huge, she could see that much. A lupara? An ursus? Both were large, carnivorous predators of the Wastes. But this wasn’t the Wastes, not exactly.

A deafening roar battered their eardrums, louder than the shattering of the trees.

“Wait!” Shade shouted above the noise, though every instinct told her to unleash her magic. “Wait!”

The glass forest before them splintered, sending razor-sharp pieces flying. Shade felt the fractured stones slice her. Blood slid down her arms and legs, and magic raged beneath her skin. Ready to be released. But she didn’t dare until she had a target.

A creature, vaguely horse-shaped, barreled onto the qaraz a few feet ahead of them, missing Angelo by a hair’s breadth. Four-legged with a horn as long as Raiden’s sword, the beast bellowed, swinging a massive head in all directions, a head more skull than living flesh. Bones peeked through scraps of skin clinging to its frame. It looked like a half-rotted corpse. Its bulging eyes were milk white and it lifted its bony snout as if tasting the air.

“It’s blind,” Shade said.

She’d kept her voice low, but its head swung toward them, and with a bellow, it charged. They scattered. Angelo and Matteo dove off the qaraz and into the surrounding forest, Angelo giving a shout as he shoved Shade aside, drawing the creature after him. They vanished into the trees. The creature hit the gleaming structures, crashing after the two men.

“No!” Shade screamed, and the creature turned toward her, roaring. “Come and get me, you bastard!”

With an enemy clear in her sights, Shade called her magic. She slashed at her belly with one blade and her thigh with the other, unleashing fire and wind and earth. The obsidian took her offering, followed her will, and gleamed white-hot.

The creature took the brunt of her attack. But it shook off the fire like sand, scrambled across the pit she’d opened at its feet, and ignored the spray of earth she’d blasted at its face.

“Shit.” She said it like a prayer and flung herself out of its path. Its rotted coat brushed against her as it passed; the force of its passage sent her spinning.

Her feet left the qaraz. She knew the moment it happened. The earth beneath her no longer hummed with welcome but set up a violent discord. It throbbed through her soles, up her legs, a deep vibration that made her teeth rattle and her bones ache. She hadn’t fallen into the glass forest, yet, but it loomed too close for comfort.

The beast had barreled into the trees on the other side of the qaraz but seemed none the worse for it. The shattered crystals cascaded off it, leaving only a few scratches. Shade stumbled back onto the qaraz and felt immediate relief shudder through her body. She shrugged off her pack and tossed it to the side, the map cases and cooking utensils within landing in a clatter. The beast snorted at the ruckus, its long ears swiveling and its massive head swinging toward the noise. Shade readied her blades, holding herself rock-still.

With a trumpeting bray, the beast charged again. Toward her pack. Thank the Faces! She held her blades over the skin of her forearms, poised to strike, though she doubted it would do any good. The creature had shrugged off her magic like a ratty cloak.

It reached her pack and skidded to a stop, its head lowered to the earth, snorting and sniffling at the canvas bag, tearing it asunder, spilling travel rations – ground meal and meat and dried fruit – across the earth. It squealed furiously, raising its head, searching for a victim.

Shade inched away from the creature, her blood rushing in her ears and her heart thudding painfully, expecting it to turn on her at any moment. Her feet crunched over shattered glass and she winced at the noise. How sensitive was its hear–

Its massive head swung toward her. She froze. A deafening bellow blasted from it, a noise that reverberated through her bones. Behind her, she could hear glass crashing to the ground. She risked a glance over her shoulder – there was a path opening in the trees, a shadowy space in the glistening forest. Could she lose it among the trees? Matteo and Angelo had disappeared so thoroughly.

I’ll find them.

Shade stepped to the left, choosing to stay on the qaraz rather than risk the forest, but the beast tracked her unerringly. It pawed at the ground, readying for a charge. She had one choice left to her. Heart hammering, she turned and dashed into the forest. The creature’s enraged blaring followed her then abruptly ceased as the shadows closed around her.

Right. Shade stopped on the path which had so conveniently appeared for her. The dissonance of the place had lessened somewhat, but it was still there. Lurking.

“Matteo,” she called, and her voice echoed back. She tried again. “Angelo!”

Her words were swallowed by the impenetrable jungle of twisted crystals. She blinked sweat from her eyes. How would she ever find her friends in this alien place? There was no horizon, no way to see the sun. She didn’t even know in what direction she was traveling. And even if she found her companions, how would they ever find the qaraz again? Would they be lost in this place, doomed to wander until they died of hunger or thirst? Frustrated, and not a little frightened, she held herself still and listened.

Silence. She heard nothing but her own stampeding heart. And then – a faint cry. Shade spun toward the sound.

“Angelo?” she whispered. She folded her lips closed and listened.

A scream, so feeble it was a puff of air against her eardrums. She turned toward the sound and broke into a slow jog. The forest opened before her – drawing her in – and ahead of her a shadow appeared among the bright and shining crystals. She slowed. What if it was another misbegotten illusion of a creature? No. This shadow was shaped like a man.

The forest widened around a massive crystal column. Its surface was smooth, and the man-shadow lay within it. Tall, broad-shouldered with a narrow waist. Matteo. Shade stopped, eyes widening. He was inside the crystal, his eyes closed, and his arms crossed over his chest, tourmaline blades in his hands, shining brightly.

“Matteo,” she breathed, reaching to touch the crystal encasing him. It was hard and slick, completely solid. The bright gleam of his blades grew more intense. She squinted against the brightness, trying to see his face. Her eyes watered, and she looked aside, blinking away spots.

A glow appeared on the ground beneath Matteo’s crystal tomb; it grew into a pathway, cutting straight through the forest. It was broad and smooth, practically a road. Bright sunlight shone at the end of it, in a sky of deep blue over distant mountain peaks. It was the other side of the Razor Ridge mountains.

The way out…

Stunned, Shade took a step toward the path. It was a qaraz. Strong and pure. It would be so simple to leave. To be free of this place. Torn, she wrenched her gaze back to Matteo. The glow from his blades seemed to be fading; she could see his angular face clearly. The color had drained from him. As she watched in horror, his lips turned blue, and dark circles appeared beneath his eyes. He was dying…

And as he died, the path grew firmer, brighter.

“No,” Shade said. She slammed the butt end of her blade against the crystal tomb. “I won’t leave him! Faces turn from you, let him go!”

Shade beat against the crystal until her fists grew swollen. Not a mark marred the smooth surface. She was wheezing, sobbing through clenched teeth. Her tears mingled with the sweat dripping down her cheeks and stained her lips with salt. Matteo had grown cadaverous during her useless tirade, his blades dimming. The path pulsed enticingly.

“Damn you,” she muttered and fell back from her friend’s prison. She raised her blades, no longer caring if her magic might kill her in this deathtrap. This twisted place was letting her through, granting her safe passage, and the price was Matteo’s life, most likely Angelo’s, too. The magic in their blood was what sustained this field of glass that wasn’t glass. Like some giant sea anemone feeding on the fish that wandered into its grasp, this place fed on random travelers. The Brazen Monk had fed his companions to it in order to cross unmolested. So simple, so cruel.

“Fucking trees!” she screamed, her blades flashing as she drew blood from arms and legs and torso. The obsidian gleamed like twin suns, eclipsing the qaraz, turning the crystal trees into black, shifting shadows. She called all Four Faces, combining wind and water, fire and earth; she called the Hidden, the Fifth Face, spirit in its purest form.

A maelstrom rose around her, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough. The glass would take her magic and twist it. She would most likely only succeed in killing herself. But she couldn’t let Matteo die.

In desperation, she reached for the Wild Power.

Thunder rumbled through the clear sky; the earth shook beneath her feet. A geyser of violence rose in her blood like the hot, liquid magma of a volcano, seeking a crack, a way to break free. The world would bend before such power. Time itself paused in anticipation. To go forward, to go backwards, to go nowhere

“Stop.”

The simple command doused the power flaring within her. Like a bucket of cold water dropped over her head. Suddenly, Shade stood in a sphere of calm, Matteo before her, free from his crystal prison. He was pale, but he was always pale. Silence and stillness surrounded them, sheltered them. From the trees, four strangers in hooded robes appeared. They approached slowly, and Shade tensed, her heart thundering.

“I told you she wouldn’t sacrifice my brother,” Angelo said, appearing from behind a tall person in a green robe and looking both anxious and relieved.

They stood within a clearing; the trees had retreated. Soft, dense grass covered the ground. Life teemed in the soil beneath her feet. What was this place? Were they still in the Glass Fields? Her hands tightened on her blade hilts. Had she even called her magic? Or had everything been an illusion?

Angelo reached his brother and grasped his arms. “Are you alright?” he asked, scanning him for injuries.

“I’m fine. Stop, Angie. What the hells is happening?” He shrugged away his brother’s hands and moved nearer Shade. “Who are these people?” he asked her, keeping his eyes on the hooded strangers and his hands on his hilts. “Are they the Kindred?”

“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly, feeling strangely hollow. She’d called enough magic to level half of Sicaria and it had vanished as if it had never been. The Kindred were an ancient tribe of Golondrina, strong in their healing and qaraz-tending, but not in bloodmagic. They would not have been able to stop her so easily. And what was the purpose of this subterfuge? Confusion gave way to anger.

“Do you control this cursed place?” she demanded. “Who are you? What are you?”

“We are the guardians of this ‘cursed place’,” one of them said, a tall, slim man wearing a blue cloak. He lifted hands spotted with age, and dropped his hood, revealing a narrow face lined with wrinkles. A long, drooping mustache as white as chalk nearly hid his pursed lips. “One of our tasks is to watch the Glass Fields and repel the unworthy. It is a sacred task we do not take lightly. Those who attempt to enter our sanctuary are often misguided in their motives. They must be dealt with harshly to discourage others.”

“Harshly?” Matteo sputtered. “Did you send that beast to force us from the qaraz? Would we have proved unworthy if it had torn our guts out or trampled us into paste?”

“The creatures which inhabit this place are more shadow than substance. You were never in any real danger,” added another of them quickly. This one wore a rich scarlet cloak. His voice was deep, melodic. Kind. He seemed mildly embarrassed by his companion’s comments. “But we had to make sure. We had to test your resolve. Finding the qaraz proved you were strong, but not whether you were worthy.”

Matteo took a step toward the robed man, his muscles bunching. “I couldn’t breathe, you bastard!”

“I am sorry for that,” the man in red said. He drew back his hood, revealing a portly face only slightly younger than his companion’s. A full, white beard hid his wrinkles, but for the ones crinkling the corners of his bright green eyes. “It seems not that long ago when we were on the same path as you. The tests we faced were… difficult. But in the end, we proved ourselves worthy and found our purpose.”

“And now you judge the worth of others?” Shade scoffed. She could sense power from these strangers, but she was stronger. All of them carried blades but for the one in white who held back from the others. She kneaded her blade hilts. Somehow, they had tricked her. Clouded her mind. They were not Kindred. But they were in her way. “We came to find the way to Kindred lands, not prove ourselves to the likes of you. My worth is not yours to judge. Only the Four and the Hidden can weigh my soul.”

“You are as arrogant as I expected, obsidian wielder.” The tall man wearing green pulled back his hood. Towering above the others, his shoulders broad and his body perfectly balanced, he was clearly a warrior. His face was stern and relatively unlined beneath a thatch of short-cropped black hair shot with silver. He scowled at her. “We should never have let you enter the Fields.”

“As if we could have stopped her,” the last of them said in a low murmur, the one in white. Shade narrowed her eyes, trying to see inside the woman’s concealing hood. Hair as black as a raven’s wing spilled from beneath it to lie on the snow-white robe. There was something familiar about the odd lilt in her silky-smooth voice.

“She saw the way,” the woman continued. “She found the qaraz. What right did we have to stop her? No one stopped you, Brother Elias.”

The man in the scarlet robe chuckled softly. “True, Lady Diamond. But my boldness came with a price, did it not?”

“Yes. A badly-woven tale,” the green warrior said, grimacing. “At least you survived it to reach a so-called ‘treasure’, brother. The rest of us met rather ignominious ends.”

“At least you died in dignified resignation,” the blue-robed man added petulantly. “I went kicking and screaming.”

“It was my idea to cross the Fields in the first place,” Brother Elias said. “Of course, I was the hero. And you two had to die. It was a cautionary tale, after all. A warning to those who might follow in our footsteps.”

“Wait. Are you claiming to be the Brazen Monk?” Matteo exclaimed, agog, his eyes leaping from one of them to the other. “And his doomed companions? Alive? After all this time?”

“Ah, good.” Brother Elias clapped his hands, pleased. “You know the tale!”

“Know it?” He exchanged a look with his equally astonished brother. “I think we just lived it,” he added faintly.

Shade stared at the old man, shocked. It was impossible. The tale was over a hundred years old. This had to be another trick. But she recalled the characters from the tale: a fallen monk, a disgraced nobleman and a forsworn knight. The Glass Fields was a place of strange and unpredictable magics. And yet…

“I don’t believe you,” Shade said, frowning. “And I’ve had enough of your trickery. If you’re trying to confuse me, well done, but it doesn’t dissuade me from my goal. I am meant to be here. Meant to find my way beyond the mountains. Try and stop me at your own peril!”

Brother Elias snorted, his thick white eyebrows drooping over his eyes like fuzzy caterpillars. He shook his head. “You cannot force your way into the Last Bastion, young woman.”

She bared her teeth in a smile. “Why don’t we find out, good brother?”

“I see you haven’t changed, Shade Nox,” the woman said, her voice still teasingly familiar.

Shade glared at her. “Do I know you?” she demanded, frowning, a strange sensation crawling across her skin. Her breath quickened and sweat dampened her brow, cold and clammy. That voice…

“Of course, you do, my dear.” Lady Diamond threw back her hood, at last, revealing a face both young and beautiful. She was smiling wryly, a twist of pink, perfect lips that were oh, so familiar. “I see you finally crawled over the Glass Fields to find me.”

Shade’s knees buckled, and she landed on the soft, moist earth, the blood draining from her face, leaving her skin chilled. The world swam in her gaze. She feared she might faint. Light-headed, stunned, she managed one, strangled word, “Satine.”