The western gate had barely risen when I stepped through it.
The forest was dark, but Abyssal Sense showed me the path beneath the ground. A pale blue line ran between the trees, crossed the road, and disappeared toward the north.
Something was moving along it.
Fast.
Kaelen followed, one hand pressed against his ribs.
Seris walked behind him, looking worse than she had a few minutes ago. Blood had dried across both of her wrists, and every few steps she stumbled before forcing herself forward again.
Odrik came last.
He had brought six soldiers.
The rest stayed behind with the wounded.
"Stop," Kaelen said.
No one stopped.
He tried again, louder.
"Stop."
I turned around.
He had one hand against a tree, his face pale from the pain.
"We’re not taking the whole fortress into the forest," he said.
"We’re not."
I pointed toward the road.
"You’re staying here."
Kaelen looked at me.
"I can still walk."
"You can barely stand."
"That has not stopped me before."
"It should have."
He pushed away from the tree and nearly fell. Seris caught his arm before he hit the ground.
Kaelen looked at her hand.
She released him.
"I don’t need help."
"You were falling," she said.
"I was adjusting my footing."
"You adjusted it toward the ground."
Kaelen ignored her and looked back at me.
"If that thing reaches the church, we lose the only trail we have."
"We already have the trail."
"You said it was moving fast."
"It is."
"Then stop wasting time."
I wanted to tell him that charging into a dark forest while injured was not a strategy.
Then a branch snapped somewhere ahead.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
A second branch broke.
This one was closer.
I lifted my sword.
"Stay behind me."
Kaelen gave me a tired look.
"I’m not staying behind you."
"Then stay beside me."
"That sounds better."
It was not.
The thing came through the trees.
Not the armored creature from the fortress.
This one was smaller.
A black shape moved between the trunks, low to the ground and fast enough to blur. Its body was thin, almost human, but its arms were too long and its hands ended in red claws.
One of the soldiers fired an arrow.
The creature twisted around it.
The arrow struck a tree.
The thing lunged.
I stepped into its path and swung.
My sword cut across its shoulder.
Black liquid splashed over the blade.
The creature did not stop. It struck me in the chest and threw me against a tree.
The impact knocked the air from my lungs.
Kaelen charged before it could reach me again.
His white sword struck the creature’s side.
The blade cut through the black armor covering its body, but the creature turned and slammed its elbow into Kaelen’s ribs.
He folded.
Seris raised her hand.
The blood on her wrists pulled free and formed a narrow blade.
She sent it through the creature’s leg.
The thing stumbled.
I pushed away from the tree and drove my sword into its back.
This time, the blade went through.
The creature froze.
Its red claws stopped inches from Kaelen’s face.
Then it twisted its head.
There was no face beneath the hood of black flesh.
Only a red mark.
The same mark carved into the dead church soldier’s chest.
The creature grabbed my sword.
Its fingers tightened around the blade.
The metal began to crack.
I pulled, but it held on.
Kaelen forced himself upright and struck the creature’s arm.
His white sword severed the hand.
The creature released my blade and stumbled backward.
"Again," Kaelen said.
I did not need to be told.
We attacked together.
My sword cut across its chest.
Kaelen’s blade pierced the red mark on its face.
The creature released a dry, broken sound.
Then its body collapsed.
It did not fall like a corpse.
It folded in on itself, black flesh turning into smoke.
The smoke gathered around the red mark and rushed toward the north.
Abyssal Sense followed it.
The blue path changed.
The mark had split into two.
One trail continued north.
The other stopped beneath the creature’s body.
I crouched and picked up the red symbol.
It was not flesh.
It was a small piece of black metal, warm against my fingers.
A red line moved across its surface.
The ring pulsed in response.
A screen appeared.
> Abyssal fragment detected.
>
> Function: Unknown.
>
> Connection: Active.
I turned the fragment over.
There was a thin groove across its center.
It looked like part of a key.
Kaelen lowered his sword.
"What is it?"
I closed my hand around it.
"I don’t know."
He looked at the black smoke disappearing between the trees.
"That answer is becoming less useful."
"I’m aware."
Seris came closer.
Her eyes fixed on the fragment.
"Put it away."
I looked at her.
"You know what it is."
"No."
"You knew the ring was a lock."
"I suspected."
"You knew the church was waiting for something."
"I knew they were waiting for the door."
"That is not the same thing."
"It is close enough."
She reached for the fragment.
I moved my hand away.
Seris stopped.
"The fragment is calling them," she said.
"Who?"
"The church."
An arrow flew from the trees.
It struck the ground between us.
The soldiers turned toward the forest.
More arrows followed.
One hit the soldier beside me in the throat.
He dropped without making a sound.
"Down!" Odrik shouted.
The forest came alive.
Church soldiers appeared between the trees, wearing dark armor with red cloth tied around their arms.
There were too many.
At least twenty.
A woman stepped out from behind a tree. She wore a silver mask over the left side of her face and carried a long spear.
Her eyes moved from the dead creature to the fragment in my hand.
"Give it to me."
No one moved.
The woman raised her spear.
"Now."
Kaelen shifted his stance despite the pain in his ribs.
"You’re with the church."
She ignored him.
Her gaze stayed on me.
"That piece does not belong to you."
"Most things people say that about end up belonging to me."
The words came out before I could stop them.
Kaelen glanced at me.
Seris did not.
The masked woman pointed her spear toward my chest.
"You opened the door."
"I closed it."
"You delayed it."
Her soldiers spread through the trees.
Odrik moved his men into a line behind us.
The wounded were not here.
That was something.
The masked woman continued.
"The fortress will fall before sunrise. Every road around Draeven March is already under church control. Give me the fragment, and your soldiers may leave."
Odrik looked toward me.
I could see the question on his face.
He did not ask it.
He waited.
The woman had offered us an exit.
That meant she did not want to fight for the fragment.
Which meant it mattered.
I tightened my hand around the metal piece.
"No."
The masked woman sighed.
"Then kill them."
The church soldiers charged.
The first man reached Odrik.
Their swords struck, and Odrik blocked the attack before pushing him into a tree.
Two more soldiers rushed toward Seris.
She was too tired to raise her hands properly.
Kaelen moved in front of her.
His white sword cut one attacker across the chest. The second swung at his injured side.
Kaelen blocked too late.
The sword grazed his ribs.
He stumbled.
I crossed the distance and cut the soldier down.
The masked woman came for me.
Her spear moved faster than I expected.
I blocked the first thrust.
The second passed beneath my guard and cut across my thigh.
Pain burned through my leg.
She turned the spear and struck again.
I stepped back.
Her movements were controlled and practiced. She did not waste motion, and she did not give me time to recover.
The ring grew cold.
Abyssal Sense activated.
Blue lines appeared beneath the forest floor.
One ran beneath the masked woman’s feet.
Another connected her spear to the fragment in my hand.
The weapon was reacting to it.
I blocked another thrust and let the spear slide along my sword.
The masked woman twisted her wrist.
The spear hooked around my blade.
She pulled.
I lost my balance.
Her knee struck my chest.
I fell backward.
She reached for my hand.
Seris’s blood blade cut between us.
The masked woman pulled away before it reached her throat.
Seris stood behind me, shaking.
"Move," she said.
I pushed myself up.
The masked woman looked at Seris.
"You should be dead."
Seris wiped blood from her mouth.
"I’ve heard that before."
The masked woman’s gaze shifted to the blood on Seris’s hands.
Then she understood.
"You’re the witch from the southern archive."
Seris did not answer.
The woman smiled beneath her mask.
"The church has been searching for you for three years."
"Then you should have searched faster."
The woman attacked her.
Seris raised both hands.
Blood burst from the wounds on her wrists and formed a shield. The spear struck it, breaking through halfway.
Seris cried out.
The masked woman pushed harder.
I moved behind her and struck the shaft of the spear.
The wood split.
The woman released it and spun toward me.
Her hand held a short silver blade.
She drove it at my stomach.
I turned.
The blade cut into my side instead.
I caught her wrist.
She tried to pull away.
I slammed my forehead into her mask.
The metal cracked.
She staggered.
I kicked her knee.
She dropped to one leg.
The red mark on the fragment in my hand brightened.
The masked woman looked at it.
Not at me.
At the fragment.
Abyssal Sense showed me the connection between them.
The same command ran through her spear, her armor, and the black metal in my hand.
The church was not simply hunting the fragment.
They were using it to track the door.
I pressed my thumb against the groove.
The fragment opened.
A thin black needle emerged from its center.
The masked woman’s face changed.
"Don’t."
I pulled the needle free.
The connection broke.
Every church soldier in the forest stopped.
The masked woman screamed.
The black symbol burned across her armor.
The soldiers began collapsing one after another.
Some dropped their weapons.
Others clutched their chests.
Red light spread through the trees.
The masked woman grabbed her throat.
"What did you do?"
"I broke something."
The soldiers nearest her fell.
The ones farther away turned and ran.
Odrik’s men chased two of them, but I stopped him.
"Let them go."
Odrik turned.
"Why?"
"They’ll carry the message."
The masked woman glared at me through the cracked mask.
"You think this changes anything?"
She reached toward the fragment.
I stepped on her wrist.
"It changed tonight."
She looked past me, toward the north.
"The prince will arrive before morning."
Kaelen heard her.
He had one hand pressed against his ribs, but he was standing.
"What prince?"
The masked woman smiled.
"Prince Alric. He has already been ordered to take Draeven March."
Odrik froze.
His soldiers looked at one another.
The woman continued.
"The king has declared House Draven responsible for the disaster. By sunrise, your fortress will belong to the crown."
I looked toward the road.
The blue trail continued north.
The escaped fragment was moving toward Blackmere.
Prince Alric’s army was moving toward Draeven March.
Two problems.
One was running.
The other was coming for us.
Kaelen stepped closer.
"Why would the church tell us this?"
The masked woman laughed once.
"Because you won’t survive long enough to use it."
Seris walked toward her.
The masked woman tried to reach for the silver knife.
Seris placed two blood-covered fingers against her throat.
"Who sent you?"
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
"I already told you."
Seris pressed harder.
"Who sent you?"
The woman did not answer.
Seris’s blood tightened around her neck.
The woman’s face turned red.
I caught Seris’s wrist.
"Enough."
Seris looked at me.
"She knows where the fragment is going."
"I know."
"Then let her speak."
The masked woman coughed when Seris released her.
She looked at me with hatred.
"Blackmere."
The word was quiet.
"The fragment is going to Blackmere."
Kaelen looked toward the north.
"What’s in Blackmere?"
The woman laughed again, but this time there was no strength in it.
"Your first king built the city around the old cathedral."
Seris went still.
I turned toward her.
She knew.
The masked woman saw that and smiled.
"The door beneath Draeven March was only one entrance."
Kaelen raised his sword.
"You said this was the only door."
"I said nothing of the sort."
Seris stared at the forest.
"What is under Blackmere?"
The woman leaned against the tree.
"The place where the church found the heart."
The fragment in my hand pulsed.
Once.
Then again.
The blue path beneath the ground changed direction.
It no longer led toward the north.
It led toward Blackmere.
A second path appeared behind us.
It led back to Draeven March.
A third began beneath the masked woman.
It disappeared under her body.
She had been connected to all three.
I looked at the fragment.
Then at Kaelen.
"We’re going to Blackmere."
Kaelen held his ribs and looked at the fortress behind us.
"Before the prince arrives?"
"Yes."
"And the church?"
"They’ll follow."
Seris picked up the broken spear.
"Then we shouldn’t use the road."
I looked at her.
She pointed toward the trees.
"Blackmere has an old supply route through the marsh. The church stopped using it after the cathedral collapsed."
"You know the way?"
"I know enough."
Kaelen glanced at her.
"That usually means we’re going somewhere terrible."
Seris started walking.
"It means I don’t want to explain it twice."
Odrik approached us.
"My lord, I’m coming."
"You’re returning to the fortress."
He shook his head.
"The prince is coming for it. If I return, I’ll be arrested with everyone else."
"You have soldiers."
"I have six tired men."
He looked back at the road.
"They will need someone to tell them what happened."
I wanted to refuse.
Then the forest behind us filled with distant horns.
The prince’s forces were already moving.
Odrik heard them too.
His expression changed.
"If the king believes your house opened the door, he won’t stop at taking the fortress."
"I know."
"He’ll execute every Draven servant still inside."
I looked toward the western gate.
The soldiers who had followed us were watching.
They had heard every word.
None of them asked what we would do.
They already knew.
We could not go back.
Not yet.
I closed my hand around the fragment.
The black needle inside it pointed toward Blackmere.
"Take the soldiers back through the southern road," I told Odrik. "Avoid the main path. If the prince reaches the fortress first, don’t fight him."
Odrik’s jaw tightened.
"What should we do?"
"Survive."
He did not like the order.
He accepted it anyway.
Kaelen stepped beside me.
"You’re leaving the fortress to the crown?"
"For a few hours."
"And then?"
I looked at the blue path disappearing into the forest.
"Then we take it back."
The horns sounded again.
This time, they were closer.
The masked woman moved suddenly.
She grabbed the broken piece of her spear and drove it into her own chest.
Seris cursed and lunged toward her, but she was too late.
The woman’s body burst into red light.
The mark on her armor opened like an eye.
A voice came through it.
Not hers.
A man’s voice.
Calm.
Young.
Amused.
"Veyr Draven."
Everyone in the forest went still.
The voice continued.
"You should have stayed dead."
The red light vanished.
The masked woman collapsed.
The forest fell silent again.
Kaelen looked at me.
"You know him?"
I stared at the dead woman.
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
Seris noticed.
She said nothing.
The black fragment pulsed in my hand.
The blue path to Blackmere brightened.
Somewhere beneath the northern city, another door had begun to open.
And this time, someone was waiting for me on the other side.