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Zelda knew there were many dimensions, alternate realities ruled by creatures that weren’t human or elven. There was Elwenhal, a dimension where the fae dwelled, holding an endless feast at the court of their fairy queen. There was a dimension where it was said the unicorns had disappeared to, having grown weary of hunters pursuing them for the medicinal use of their horns. There was a dimension to which the sorceress Anidrith had banished a tribe of giants after their attempted overthrow of Eriallon and all the realms. There was a dimension where it was said the dragons had retreated to sleep. And then there was Eido Loth.
Eido Loth was one of the darker dimensions, ruled by demons and cannibalistic creatures, that drank blood and sucked the flesh from bones while waiting for fresh prey. Sunlight was weak there and the sky always gray, the trees black, the earth barren and colorless and devoid of green life.
Why anyone would want to go there was beyond Zelda, who hadn’t even set out yet and was dreading it already. At Queen Cilia’s direction, she went to the study that had belonged to the old court mage, knowing she would find a portal there that would take her to Eido Loth.
And indeed, after wandering through a seemingly endless maze of curving bookshelves, Zelda had come to a dead-end, where the bookshelves curved around, encircling an ancient stone archway that swirled with light.
The light of the portal was moving so fast, it sent the hair whipping back from Zelda’s face. “Absolute madness!” she said in amazement, for no one in their right mind would have a portal to Eido Loth in their study. If some demon or monster came through from the other side, it could wreak havoc on the castle, massacring all within. That it had been brought inside the castle, let alone left activated, was insanity.
Queen Cilia had explained that Alarien had hoped to use the portal as an escape route in the event that she was exposed as a spy. She’d been working for an elven resistance and wished to use the portal to reach one of the old dimensions. Unfortunately, the only dimension she could attune the portal to had been Eido Loth.
Queen Cilia had further explained that her new court mage, Lythara, had entered the portal to explore Eido Loth and hadn’t returned in three weeks. Zelda thought it likely the woman was dead. She wondered what the queen would say if she returned with Lythara’s body in little pieces in a satchel. For it was likely Lythara had been torn apart, given the monsters that lurked in Eido Loth.
Zelda took a breath, tightened her grip on her white stave, and stepped through the light of the portal. Almost immediately, she was beset upon by a giant monster. The creature was shaped like a gorilla, moving down on its knuckles, with great yellow tusks growing from its bottom lip, and a tiny tuft of hair upon its head. It was shaggy and gray, as if to blend with the colorless world around it. Zelda knew it was called a morgath.
The morgath bellowed when it saw Zelda exit the portal, reared on its tiny hind legs to thump its broad chest, and charged the twenty feet between them, scattering bones and rocks as it came. Heart pounding, Zelda held out her hand, fingers spread, and her eyes glowed with power, until they were white spheres blazing in her face. The tip of her white stave also glowed with a sphere of white light.
The morgath halted in place, completely frozen and only able to move its beady eyes in shock. It was the same spell Zelda had used on Gweneth, only its power was magnified and required a great deal of concentration given how large the morgath was.
The creature was the size of a young dragon, perhaps thirty feet in length. Zelda calmly strolled past it as it stood there, frozen in the act of running, its beady eyes following her for as long as they could.
Zelda halted and glanced around, stave in hand, her golden curls spilling long behind her shoulders, and she seemed to be the only thing of color in that desolate world. Dry, cracked, gray earth spread as far as the eye could see in all directions, the monotony broken only by the occasional spiny black tree, pile of bones, or flock of horned black birds.
As she walked on, Zelda noticed the lights that trailed away ahead of her in a line. They were wisp-lights, slightly larger than average and quite bright, so bright that they were difficult to stare directly upon in the gray gloom of Eido Loth. Zelda recognized their function immediately: the lights had been left by a sorceress as breadcrumbs marking her path in case she lost her way.
The lights had obviously been left by Lythara, which meant Lythara wasn’t lost at all. She was either dead or – for some bizarre reason – had elected to vacation in Eido Loth for three weeks.
Perhaps Lythara was insane, Zelda told herself. For she could see no other reason to stay any length of time in such a horrible place. In just twenty minutes of walking, Zelda was attacked by bloodsucking bats, a two-headed snake, and three withered men, creatures that looked like human men but were draped in wrinkled gray skin, and in place of eyes, had black holes in their faces.
Withered men, like all the creatures of Eido Loth, ate flesh and craved blood. They shuffled toward Zelda, moaning and dragging their feet, reaching for her with long, mud-smeared fingers. But then something happened that made them halt. Zelda, without thinking, backed away from the withered men, passing through Lythara’s trail of light. When she did, the light sparked brighter, and the withered men cringed in horror, shielded their faces, and scrambled back into their holes.
Zelda watched with interest as the withered men retreated. They were terrified of the light. Lythara’s light in particular, for Zelda cast the same spell on the next dark creatures she encountered, to little avail.
Baffled, Zelda continued on, making certain to keep close to the trail of light Lythara had left in her wake. As a result, those dark creatures that sought to attack her quickly turned away, sometimes shrieking in terror as they fled.
What was it about Lythara’s light that was so powerful, the most horrible creatures in Eido Loth were loath to approach it? It was beginning to seem more and more likely that Lythara had survived after all.
But Zelda didn’t have time to wonder at Lythara’s power, for she soon came upon a square black building that loomed large in the middle of the gray wasteland. The building had no door, instead standing open with a very large, rectangular doorway that led into a black hall.
The light of Lythara was flowing inside the building, so Zelda followed it inside. Torches stood in brackets on the walls and were lit with green flame. The flames reminded Zelda of the secret passage to Melvalda’s lair. She knew the green fire was known as Wyre Light, for it shone eternally without end and had been created from the magick of the fae.
The hall flowed smoothly into an alley of bookshelves. It was just like the maze back in the court mage’s study, for the bookshelves soon began to twist and wind, leading Zelda deeper and deeper along a narrow path, through the smell of musty old paper and stale leather. Sometimes the path widened enough that a crowd of people could have filled it. Other times, the path was so narrow, Zelda could barely squeeze through. But she kept following the light of Lythara regardless, moving deeper and deeper into the endless library.
Zelda came to yet another fork in the path and continued following Lythara’s light by taking the path on the right. The path led her down a flight of stairs, on either side of which the walls were still lined in tattered old tomes.
Zelda was nearly at the bottom of the stair when one of the book titles caught her eye and she halted. She turned to face the book and couldn’t believe it. The title read: Zelda’s Memory Vol. LIII: Sian.
Zelda stood in shock and didn’t think she could move. How was it possible? How could someone have written a book about her and Sian?
She knew it was dangerous to interact with the strange things in other dimensions, but now that she had seen the book, Zelda couldn’t take her eyes from it. She reached out like one hypnotized and pulled the book off the shelf.
The book was so heavy, she leaned back and had to cradle it with both arms. The second it fell open, a white light spread from its pages, blinding her as she was pulled inside.