Spilling Across the Floor

Chadstone could only stare in horror as the Others melted into the shadows, their laughter trailing after them. A moment later, magical ricochet lashed the edges of his world, and he had to clutch the edges of the scrying bowl to stop the precious water - and the vision with it - from spilling across the floor.

Minka screamed as she was dragged into the darkness by eager hands gnarled and twisted with evil and age.

Dakshana shrieked and fought fiercely as the trees came alive, vines snaking out to take her. The Others laughed, gleeful in victory. Chadstone wanted to weep.

Just You

But Dakshana had known, somewhere in the back of her mind, always known. The night Ashoken vanished, he’d been seeking magic. But he’d failed - and she’d survived the ritual.

These creatures must have taken him and given her the magic instead.

And now they wanted payment.

“I don’t have anything you want,” she said.

That drew laughter, the sound skating across Dakshana’s skin like the softest fur.

“Every human has something that every shadow wants,” the voice said, and those eyes glittered with something deeper and crueller than amusement.

“You won’t get it from us,” Dakshana said.

“Just you, child.”

Exchange

Chadstone felt magic swirl dangerously around the scrying bowl, and he turned. Behind him, the portal glimmered to life, but this he had to see - what were the Others doing? Something else was going on, something he hadn’t planned and didn’t understand.

Dakshana and Minka stood back to back, staring at the hundreds and thousands of pairs of eyes that glittered in the shadows like unholy fallen stars.

“You do have magic, beautiful child, for we gave you magic - in exchange for saving your life,” the Ancient said.

Dakshana shook her head. “No - I have no magic! You’re a liar!”

Game for All

“Watch? Why?” Dakshana asked. Maybe she could distract the thing and buy some time for herself and Minka. Could they escape? Fight?

“You mortals are so...entertaining,” the voice said. “So innocent and weak, and yet so spirited - you fight even when it’s futile, and you squirm so prettily.”

Dakshana swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat.

“I thought this game was Chadstone’s - and you’re not Chadstone,” Minka said.

“I am just like him. I am a Shadow, same as he - but I am older. Wiser. And stronger.”

“This is a game to all of you?” Dakshana demanded.

Edge of Your Light

Fury sparked in Chadstone’s veins. He was on his feet and across his chamber, slashing his fingertips to scrawl runes across the wall. But the portal never opened. Chadstone snarled and slammed his fist against the stone wall - one of the Others must have put a binding rune on the edge of his plane.

Chadstone reached up and wrenched his name-charm up over his head and began carving an ink supply up the inside of one arm.

Voices floated from the scrying bowl, taunting him.

“We are the shadows who linger at the edges of your light - and watch.”

Everything and Much More

“Oh, but you do, you sweet morsel of a mortal.”

The voice was beautiful, musical, like the deepest wind chimes carved of bone.

Dakshana spun around, bringing her fists up to strike. But there was no one there. Just eyes. A single pair of eyes, golden and bright like the eyes of the giant black cats that roamed the forests. Dakshana wondered if the face that belonged to the eyes was feline or human, hideous - or beautiful.

Just like Chadstone.

“What are you?” Minka demanded.

Laughter like song. “I am everything your mother told you I was - and much more.”

Rebuilding

“Always said what?” Dakshana demanded.

Chadstone felt a smile curve his lips. As much as these games forced people to confront themselves and left him with the raw, unpolished soul, they forced people to confront each other as well. Once the friendship was completely torn apart, his prize would be waiting, vulnerable and open to any affection he might offer.

The rebuilding was about to begin.

“My mother always said you had magic,” Minka said. Her voice was small, timid. “Your parents had magic too, and it was why - why the shamans were afraid of you.”

“I don’t have magic.”

Mother Said

Dakshana felt her pulse speed up.

Minka said, “You have magic. Don’t you? Before, in the hallway - with the magical fire. That was you, right?”

Dakshana shook her head quickly and began walking faster. “No - I have no magic. I’m ordinary, the same as you and Srina. Less than you and Srina, really, since I have no marketable skill that makes me a good wife.”

“Oh,” Minka said in a small voice. She lowered her gaze, and Dakshana felt suspicion flash through her.

“What makes you think I have magic?”

Minka sucked in a deep breath. “My mother always said --”

What Magic?

Chadstone was absurdly pleased to see Dakshana see through the first, and most powerful stage of this chapter of the illusion.

Dakshana caught Minka’s hand - and Chadstone had to suppress a flash of jealousy - and began to march straight through the trees. Her expression was battle-fierce, and for a moment Chadstone could imagine her shining, in armor, wielding a sword and carrying a shield and cutting down men too dazzled by her beauty to defend themselves.

“Where can we hide?” Minka asked.

“It’s no good climbing any of trees,” Dakshana said.

“What about your magic?” Minka asked.

“What magic?”

Third Chamber: Nightmare Forest

Minka curled her fingers through Dakshana’s, and Dakshana gave her hand a squeeze. She had to close her eyes and bite her lip to keep from screaming when the magic flared. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the forest - she was free. Her first instinct was to turn and head for the village, but when she turned, the sky was - wrong. The sunset filtering through the trees slanted in the wrong direction, and she couldn’t see the village hill.

Minka’s eyes lit up. “Dakshana, we’re free! We broke the spell --”

“No. Your nightmare was in the forest.”

Down to the Last Detail

Chadstone leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand, staring into the depths of the scrying pool. As much as he sometimes yearned with every shard of his being to be human, he was Shadow enough to enjoy the beauty of his own game.

The girls shivered as the illusion of the Place of Names wavered, vanished, reformed - into a forest. The same forest Dakshana had played in as a child, had danced through for the midsummer festival. It was perfect down to the last detail - a fallen leaf, a gnarled branch.

And the eyes, glittering in the branches.

Vanish

Dakshana took a deep breath. It didn’t seem like much of a nightmare, but given how the magic in this place worked, it could easily become something deadly.

“Did your mother say what the eyes do?” Or who they belong to?

Minka shook her head. “No. She just said that I shouldn’t let them see me.”

“What happens if they do see you?”

“You vanish.”

Like Dakshana, Minka, and Srina had vanished into Chadstone’s ice-and-stone world. Dakshana squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.

“We’ll fight if they see us,” she said. She reached out. “Take my hand.”

Instinct, Well-founded

Chadstone felt the corner of his mouth curl up in a mirthless smile. The things mortals knew but refused to admit to themselves - there were eyes in the shadows, watching the mortals, but they watched all the time. Mortals only sensed the presence of the shadow-born when they were alone. Minka’s deep-seeded fear, passed on from her mother but borne to fruition with instinct, was well-founded. Mortals were too right to fear the eyes in the shadows, because those eyes belonged to the Ancients, and every moment the Ancients weren’t watching, they were planning.

Planning someone’s demise.

Eyes in the Shadows

Minka swallowed hard. Dakshana glanced at her and hoped that she’d been right in saving Srina, that Minka would be able to keep a level head in the coming challenge.

“Tell me,” she said softly, “and we can defeat it together.”

“You know how my mother always said to never go into the forest alone at night?”

Dakshana nodded even though she’d never heard Minka’s mother say a thing, never had her own mother there to offer such a warning, but being anywhere alone at night was - exhilarating. To Dakshana. Unless --

“It’s because eyes. In the shadows. Can see you.”

Flesh and Stone

Chadstone emerged in the one small space he could call his own, a weaving between worlds, a dimension that gave him a certain illusion of freedom from the Ancients. He knew he was never truly free from them, that they were watching him as well as the girls with a scrying spell. Alone, in this chamber, he could almost pretend he wasn’t - he could pretend he was human.

That he was flesh and blood, he’d been born with a soul instead of carved into being in a slab of stone, and he was himself instead of a rune-carved shard.

Dancing In Her Mind

“I think it’s one of mine,” Minka said. “We didn’t really defeat my last one, did we? We just sort of --”


“What is it?” Dakshana refused to talk about her own stupidity.

“The place of names was my worst nightmare as a child,” Minka said. “So...my next worst nightmare is --” She swallowed hard.

The ice-blue lights flickered. Dakshana flinched and stepped closer to Minka.

“Tell me what it is and I’ll figure out how to defeat it.” She could see them, dancing in her mind - the symbols painted on the wall in the place of names. Runes. Magic.

Chilling Immortal Truth

Chadstone watched them enter the third chamber, the new phase for a nightmare, and reflected on the chilling, immortal truth of the girl’s words. She had no idea the knowledge she possessed, the danger in words and names. He reached up, curled a fist around his name stone, and wished, for a single moment, that the word had never been uttered.

Chadstone.

Youngest of the shadows.


What a game he played, what a web he wove, what strings he danced on for the other shadows’ entertainment. He set his jaw grimly and faded back through outer layers of the spell.

What's Your Nightmare?

Dakshana and Minka watched Chadstone vanish again.

“He’s right,” Dakshana said grimly. “We should carry on and be glad we never fully knew your nightmare.”

“What power there must be in words, that the destruction of a word’s image can bring a soul’s death,” Minka said. She held out her hand. “You all right?”

Dakshana pressed a hand to her mouth and felt the ghost of a kiss. “I’m fine. Let’s keep moving. We’ll make it to the center - he can’t keep us.”

As the words passed her lips, the stone hallway melted away.

Dakshana said, “Whose nightmare is next?”

But Keep You

Chadstone set his jaw tightly. Minka didn’t know how right she was. But he lifted his chin, eyes lit with challenge, and said, “I imagine it won’t be so difficult to steal her second kiss, will it?”

Dakshana leapt at him.

He side-stepped neatly, winced when she stumbled into the wall on the other side of the hallway.

“That won’t help,” he said. “You’ve made it through two nightmares. I guarantee there are more before you reach the center. If you cannot survive the rest, you’ll never reach the door, and then what can I do but keep you?”

Arrogance and Elegance

“Asked? Is that what you call it? You didn’t ask me, you tricked me!”

Minka curled an arm around her shoulders protectively, and that was all that kept Dakshana from lunging at Chadstone and attempting to claw his throat out.

His smile was arrogant and elegant. “Why are you so surprised about that? It’s not as if I lured you into my world through my excellent powers of persuasion.” Then his voice dropped, became low and husky and sent shudders down Dakshana’s spine. “Not that my powers of persuasion aren’t...formidable.”

“You stole her first kiss!” Minka cried. “You monster!”

Promise Complete

Chadstone allowed himself to coalesce into being, because he had to see the reaction in person. He leaned against the wall, against the cheap facsimile of living name-runes created by the illusion spell, and smiled for the two girls to see. Everything he was lay behind that smile, the ruthlessness, avarice, capriciousness, and shadow that made him what he was.

“It only cost her the keeping of a promise,” he said.

Minka’s eyes narrowed. “She made no promise with you.”

“Her promise was complete as soon as she did what I asked,” he said.

Fury burned in Dakshana’s eyes.

Magic Tells

Dakshana backed up, tossing her head wildly. She knew she was standing on the stone floor of the mountain hall, but she was also standing on - coolness. Water. On truth. She could feel it thrumming in her veins like magic, and maybe it was the magic telling her, but what she was seeing was real.


Srina was alive.

Minka knelt, pressed a hand to the coolness. “She’s safe. She really escaped, didn’t she?”

Dakshana nodded.

Minka’s head came up sharply; Dakshana saw the knowing in her eyes before there was a chance to deny it.

“What did that cost you?”

Last Bastion

The image was wavering but smooth, cool, as if Dakshana stood on the surface of a serene lake. Chadstone allowed himself a faint smile at the awe that settled over her features, because that was precisely what she was standing on, a larger version of a scrying bowl. The magic, though it would sting her, would tell the truth, that what she saw was real. What she saw was Srina, lying on the ground in that cave, the last bastion of the mortal realm on which the girls had stood. Then Srina was awake and running toward trees, toward home.

Man Unmade

“You liar!” Dakshana felt power thrum in her body, up through her fingertips, and she knew that if she could read runes, if she’d learned them, she’d have unmade Chadstone with her bare hands. “You killed her!”

His voice, low and musical, echoed around them, as if were everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Minka’s face streamed with tears, but she looked angry, just as angry as Dakshana.

“She’s very much alive. See for yourself.”

Dakshana shook her head. For all she knew, it was a lie. But she cried out when the floor vanished, and she saw...Srina.

Game Design

Chadstone wouldn’t have expected such a reaction out of Minka, for she’d seemed cool and level-headed. He smirked to himself. His game was designed to bring out the worst in people, to make the strong weak and make the weak arrogant. Only one would survive to the end, and if she’d made it through his refiner’s fire intact, she would live at his side forever.

“She’s gone! They took her! Her name is gone!”

Minka gestured wildly. When Dakshana stepped back, she studied the wall, studied the pulsing runes in sickly white, and she spun around. Screamed in fury.

Srina Gone

Dakshana came to when she hit the ground. Someone screamed her name. Minka. Had Dakshana died? No. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, let MInka bring her to her feet. That wasn’t death lingering at the edges of her being, but magic, potent magic, old and strong and much, much worse than anything Ashoken had ever done in her dreams.

“What happened?” Minka asked. “One moment I was dying, the next --” She spun away from Dakshana, causing her to lurch against the wall for support.


The wall thrummed beneath her, alive with power, and she recoiled.

Minka screamed.

Dripping Shadows

Chadstone glanced up and caught Dakshana’s gaze. She glared for a moment before stubbornly looking away. That was precisely what he needed. He reached up to the necklace at his throat, at the shard of crystal carved with Living Runes, and loosened the cord. It was long enough he could use it now, and after a glance to make sure Dakshana was still looking away, he stabbed the shard downward. Blue-black liquid, like dripping shadows, welled at his fingertip, and he drew with the liquid before his healing kicked in.

The circle thrummed to life. Dakshana fainted. Srina vanished.

Seeming Human

Dakshana scrubbed a hand across the back of her mouth. What had she done? She’d let him kiss her, let him touch her. And kiss her he had. Dakshana closed her eyes and swallowed hard. When he’d kissed her, for one moment, he had seemed - human. But then she opened her eyes and saw his insufferable smirk and she wanted to slap him again.

“Srina. Let Srina go,” she said.

Chadstone smiled and then knelt. He drew on the ground, the motions ponderous, graceful. Dakshana felt the thrum build in her veins and knew the magic.

“So Srina shall go.”

Indestructible, Brittle

Chadstone pressed closer, desperate for her warmth. He wanted to feel her heartbeat, to revel in her living, breathing, being - and he came up short. Something pained him, pressed against his chest, cold and hard and --

The stone. The single shard of crystal carved with runes.

His name.

His existence.

The moment shattered.

Dakshana jerked back. Her golden eyes were wide with shock and fear - and anger. She brought a hand across his face, loud, the sound percussive with force, and he let her.

“How dare you!”

He stepped back, smirked, and felt indestructible and brittle. “Who will you save?”

Surrender

Dakshana’s eyes slipped closed, and she felt a tug in her chest, a tightening that seemed to drag her forward. An arm slipped around her waist, light, gentle, as if afraid of hurting her, and she realized, He could hurt me - he’s not human, he’s stronger than me. But the fingers sliding through her hair were tentative, almost frightened, as if she would vanish at the slightest touch.

And something told her she should vanish, she should pull back and run, but then lips met hers, cool and soft and oh so gentle, and she surrendered herself to the shadows.

All That Mattered

Cold fire and starlight flared in his chest. This was it, this was acquiescence. It wasn’t success, not by a long shot, but it would be a sweet reward for so well-planned a spell.

Her eyes fluttered closed, eyelashes forming a black crescent against her cheek, and she shifted closer. The warmth of her was a quiet thrill as she fell into his arms. He lowered his head, one arm around her waist to keep her steady.

When they kissed, time stood still.

The world around them was frozen, but the world didn’t matter - they were all that mattered.