Autumn Whispers

“Hurts like hell but forget about it.” I tried to remember how long it had taken for us to get to this area. “Damn it, I forgot we came through so many turns . . .” I paused. There was an opening to my left. “Stay here for a moment. Don’t move.”



I turned, still keeping my hand against the wall. I distinctly felt the floor begin to slope upward. It made sense. There had to be more than one hallway leading up to the main floor. Hesitating, I realized we would never find our way back using the labyrinth through which Trenyth had led us. We had to take the chance.



“I think we should go this way. Make a left, turn at the corner,” I called back.



“Done.” Another moment and Camille was behind me. We headed on, trudging up the incline that was steeper than the one we’d originally descended to reach the seers’ quarters. As we journeyed in silence, my thoughts ran to Shade. He’d be all right—I was sure of it. He could shift into the Ionyc Sea if necessary. But what about Trillian? And Chase and Sharah? Sharah was pregnant. What if she went into labor due to this, in the dark and the mayhem? And Menolly . . . well . . . not much could affect her unless a beam struck her through the heart. She could be hurt but she would heal.



“You’re thinking of them too, aren’t you?” Camille’s voice softly echoed through the darkness.



“Yeah. Do you think . . . Never mind.” I didn’t want to ask. I might not want to hear what she had to say.



“I know. Trust me, I know.”



It was hard to gauge time, but after a while, the floor began to shake. “Drop! We don’t want to be standing if there’s another big one.” I slid down the wall, keeping it to my left, and pressed against it. I could hear Camille’s breath coming in soft puffs, as if she were trying to control her fear. Neither one of us spoke as the rumbling started again, but this time it lasted only for a little while—probably twenty seconds. Too long, but less than the first two shocks. The moment it subsided, I pushed to my feet again.



“Let’s go. We’ve been lucky but who knows how much time that’s going to continue?” And on we went, Camille murmuring a soft prayer for protection as we worked our way through the darkness. I hit my toes several times, but my boots were thicker and better able to handle the damage than Camille’s sandals. Luckily I was able to warn her about the dangers.



And then, I seemed to see something like a light ahead. It was glowing brighter as we neared it. At first I thought it might be the moon, or a hanging chandelier that had been spared, but I suddenly found myself out of the hallway and in the middle of a large court, and I realized it was nothing of the sort. We were back to the main level of the palace. There were gaping holes in the roof—huge and yawning, but no moon shone down to light the way.



No, instead, the sky was lit up with red and orange streaks, like a ghastly aurora, as blue streaks of lightning forked through the night, illuminating against the crimson backdrop. Thunder rolled through the air like a wave of drumbeats, and fear stole into my heart as I watched the fiery display.



“The storm—it has broken.” Camille came up behind me, wrapping her arm around my waist. “This . . . this is what I felt. It’s a monster, a terrible, horrible beast.” She moved beneath one of the holes and I shouted for her to get back, but she wouldn’t listen. Her gaze was rapt, a blur of horror and awe, as she reached her arms into the sky and began to laugh.



“Camille—stop! Do not do this—you can’t touch the power without bringing it down to rain on you!” I raced forward, knocking her to the side as a bolt of lightning ripped through the hole, striking where she had just been standing. I smelled smoke. Smoke from the left, smoke from the right. Queen Asteria’s palace was on fire.



“Camille! Get up. The palace is on fire.”



Camille shook her head, dazed. “What the . . . Holy fuck, I can’t believe I almost did that. That . . . that . . . thing up there is alive. We have to get out of here now!” She scrambled to her feet as I glanced around, trying to find an opening to the street. And then I saw it, just ahead. We had to cross the courtyard, but off to the right, there were stone steps leading into one of the gardens.



“Come on—that way.” I grabbed her hand so we wouldn’t be separated, and we headed toward the opening. We were just clearing the archway when a huge aftershock railed the land. But this time, we could see what the hell was happening.



Outside, to the right of where we were headed, a lightning bolt seared down through the night, striking the ground with a force that must have far exceeded the trillion watts of the average bolt. It slammed into the soil, raping it deep, and the ground split where the fork burrowed in. And then, the steps buckled as the ground rolled.



That’s what was causing the quakes—they weren’t all aftershocks. The storm was attacking the city. And, according to Camille, the storm was an entity. I jumped off the steps, dragging her with me. We went down hard on the walkway in front of the palace, but I didn’t stop to see if anything was broken. My alarms were ringing full tilt, and I grabbed Camille’s wrist and yanked her to her feet. We took off through the grass, but she stopped me for a second to kick off her shoes. Then we were running again, putting as much distance between the palace and us as we could manage.



Behind us, a horrible rending split the night. Camille and I stopped, frozen in our tracks, as we turned to witness what was happening. The storm roiled over the palace—the entire city it seemed, but the central whirlpool centered over the Court. And then, out of the storm’s core, a huge-assed lightning bolt appeared—this one as big as a vortex, as big as a tornado, slicing through the air with a piercing shriek. I stared, tears running down my cheeks as the point of the bolt struck the center of the palace. With a thunderous crash, the lightning split the marble dome, and the columns supporting Queen Asteria’s court began to crumble. As they crumbled, the walls and roof disintegrated, and the entire structure imploded in a massive wall of dust.



Camille let out a strangled cry. “Menolly . . . Trillian!”



She started to run forward but I grabbed her, holding her back. “You can’t go. There’s too much danger. We have to trust that they’ll get out of there.”



“Chase, Sharah—you know they can’t survive something like that.” She was sobbing now, screaming at me. The anger in her voice was almost as frightening as the storm, but I knew she wasn’t aiming it at me. But her magic, if she unleashed it . . .



And then, she reached for the horn. She thrust it into the air and looked up at the storm. “You fucker! You can’t have them!”



“No! You can’t use the horn—even the power of the Black Unicorn can’t fight against whatever the hell this is! Camille, use your common sense. You’ll only get us both killed.” I wasn’t getting through. The fury was rising in her eyes and I knew we only had seconds before she let loose with the full force of whatever power remained in the horn. And if she did that, she’d turn the eye of the storm on us.



“I don’t want to do this!” I grimaced as I backhanded her a good one. My hand landed against her cheek with a resounding crack, startling her long enough that I was able to grab the horn from her. She raised her fingers to touch where I’d hit her—she’d have a nasty bruise, that’s for sure—and then burst into tears, collapsing on the grass beside me.



As I knelt down, tucking the horn securely back in the pocket of her skirt, she gazed up at the sky, a horrified look on her face.



“What are we going to do? What the fuck are we going to do?”



I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know. But we have to get out of the open. We have to get away from the city. Because I have a nasty feeling this is only the precursor to something far worse.”



“You’re right.” The familiar voice washed over me like warm rain, soothing and clear. We looked up, and there, standing over us, was Trenyth. He leaned down to help Camille to her feet. “Come. I know some place we can hide.” His face was strained, and he looked like he’d aged a century over the course of the evening.



Mutely, we followed him as he plunged into a side garden. Hell had broken loose, and we were missing loved ones, but the danger was too great. We had to regroup and sort out what this nightmare was.



Trenyth glanced at us as we entered a back rose garden. “Girls, war has come to Elqaneve. The sorcerers are here. And Telazhar is at the helm. We’re under siege.”



And with that, he paused by a trellis thick with branches, and pressed a hidden latch. The trellis opened, and he pushed us through into a hidden passage. Once again, we were on the run.



Chapter 11



The passage was straight, thank gods, with none of the twists and turns we’d encountered in the palace. Trenyth rushed us along. Both Camille and I were hurt—bruised and bleeding, skinned elbows and knees, and Camille was running barefoot, but we ignored the discomfort, ignored the ache, because there was a monster outside rampaging at the gates, and we could feel the storm’s breath on our heels.



Even here, I could feel the tingles of the storm attacking the city. Camille’s hair was wisping out, almost like it was standing at attention. My arms were a map of goose bumps, and it felt like ants were marching across my skin.



Trenyth kept us at pace through the narrow corridor. It seemed to be entirely formed of hedgerows, even the ceiling, but as I squinted, I could see the faint outline of branches through the roof. They were so tightly woven that little light filtered through, but the brilliant colors of the storm were unmistakable. Trenyth led us with a pale light that sat on his shoulder, and I had no idea what it was—not an eye catcher, that I knew, but there was no time now for questions. No time for anything but running.



Finally, we came to a door at the end of the tunnel, and wasting no time, Trenyth touched the surface with his hand and it flew open, slamming back. He pushed through and we followed. We weren’t near the palace, that much I could tell, but where we were, I had no idea.



As we entered what appeared to be a low-ceilinged room, Trenyth shut the door again and muttered a charm, and a faint blue glow raced around the edges. I had the feeling he had just sealed us in. The glow extended to fill the room, and we were bathed in the light, cool and sterile and neon. The room was square, with a door at the other end, and in the center of the room was a table and chairs. Cabinets lined one wall, and what looked like a well was in the corner.



Trenyth turned. “Sit down. Check your wounds.”



We obeyed without question. Camille examined her feet and grimaced, but then yanked out what appeared to be a smallish thorn. She lifted her skirts. Both of her knees were covered with abrasions and her calves were bruised. Her elbows were bleeding from where she’d hit the ground a couple of times.



I hadn’t fared much better. My arms were scraped, and I had a nasty bruise on my back where I’d tripped over some piece of debris. I realized that blood was dripping down my face, but the cut was small, near my left cheek. I wiped away the drops and settled into one of the chairs, grateful for the chance to rest.



We had been there no more than a moment or two when the ground echoed again, and began to roll. But Trenyth seemed unconcerned as Camille and I jumped for cover beneath the table. The rolling went on and on, but nothing in the room seemed to shake loose or even fall. A moment later, we crawled out after the shock dissipated. Trenyth motioned to the chairs.



“While we can feel the quaking in here, the fires and the damage cannot enter. This is a protected space. It was built to give the Queen refuge during a war.” A veiled look clouded his eyes and his voice grew harsh.



I let out my breath, realizing what he was implying. “She’s not here, is she?”



A pause. Then, a shake of the head. “No, I could not find her. I was headed back to look again, when I saw the two of you. And then . . . the palace went down.” He pressed his lips together and the gentle nature that I’d always appreciated seemed to vanish. For one of the first times, I grew afraid of him. Trenyth grew in stature, rising up. Oh, he might be the same height he always was, but it was as if he had removed a cloak, and we were seeing the power that had been hidden beneath.



“Do you know what that thing is? That storm?” Camille turned a bleak face to him. She huddled beneath her capelet, which was now covered in dust and ripped into tatters from catching on debris.



Trenyth slowly shook his head. “I don’t. Not for certain. But I know that Telazhar brought it with him, and the sorcerers conjured it. The storm is alive. You are right in that. And you felt it coming when our own seers could not. Had we only asked you over earlier, you might have been able to save us from this destruction.”



Camille let out a little cry and I realized what was going through her mind.



“It isn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known. Trenyth, how could you say such a thing?” I turned on him, furious that he would lay such a burden on her shoulders.



But he simply shrugged and gave me a cool look. “I did not imply that she should have sensed it, nor that this is, in any way, her doing. I simply stated that I wish we’d thought to bring her over earlier.”



“If wishes were pennies . . .” I pushed out of my chair, pacing the room. “What other resources do we have here? I see we have water.”



“We have plenty of food. And there are sleeping quarters through that door, and a magical laboratory with spell components. There is a hidden exit through a storeroom. It is not large but we kept it well stocked, even through all the years of peace.” He pinched his nose between his eyes and leaned on the table. “I have a headache beyond any I’ve ever had. This night . . . there will be so much death that comes from this.”