Uli closed her eyes.
I shook her shoulders. She couldn’t die. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. “Uli, please! Stay with me!”
“I will always be with you,” she said, her eyes still closed. Her light faded. She drew her last breath and tried speaking, but her voice was so quiet I barely heard her. Leaning closer, chills prickled my skin as she uttered her last words.
“I will never leave you, Deathbringer.”
Chapter 5
My mind tried to grasp the truth but failed. Uli couldn’t be dead. Only a moment ago she had been fine. Any minute now, I was sure she would sit up and start speaking gibberish like she always did. It was too sudden, too final, and the pain of it tried to overwhelm me.
Kull knelt beside me. His warm arms encircled my shoulders as tears dampened my eyes.
“We must leave.” His calm voice came as if from far away. “Geth still has my sister. Our quest is not over, for now we must also find Mochazon and the flower. And I can think of only one person who can help us. We will travel to the dragon lands and find the sky king—only he will have the answers we seek.”
He was right. We had to leave this place, but how?
I realized I was still holding Uli’s hands in mine. Her flesh had already started to cool, so I pried my fingers away and gently arranged her hands atop her chest. She wouldn’t get a burial, and quietly placing her hands atop her heart with a prayer that her soul would find peace in the life to come was the best I could do to remember her noble sacrifice.
Kull turned to me. “She gave her life in battle for a gallant purpose. There is no greater death.”
Unable to speak, I only nodded. Standing, I stepped away from her, wishing more than anything that I could have saved her. But her death was not on my hands—that guilt belonged to someone else.
“Geth,” I said, my voice coming out quieter than I’d intended. “We have to find him.”
Kull stood and outstretched his hand.
I hesitated before taking it, instead glancing at Uli’s body. I knew that our quest had to continue. But how could I leave her body behind?
A tremor rumbled through the ground, accompanied by the sound of deep, rolling thunder.
“She will not be forgotten,” Kull said, as if speaking to my thoughts. “This place will be a proper sight for her burial. Of all the places in Faythander, this is where she belongs.”
“But… how can I just leave her here?”
Wake up, Uli. Wake up! Somehow, I expected her to just stand up. Death didn’t make any sense to me. I hated it. I hated its finality and the way it made me feel—that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if life would never be the same again.
The rumbling grew louder, and a crack split the ground. Small pebbles rained down around us. The tremors seemed to come from the center of the planet, as if the loss of magic were ripping the world apart.
I finally took Kull’s hand. Staring at Uli’s body, I realized this would be the last time I saw her. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I pushed them back.
Be strong. For her.
A seam in the floor opened up, and then the crack traveled up the walls, across the ceiling, and split the cavern apart. Sunlight streamed inside as the world crumbled around us. How could sunlight penetrate this far underground? Now that the tree was gone, it seemed as if the whole planet was in an upheaval, as if Faythander were trying to expel the tree from its core.
The Wult warriors rallied behind us, and together, we climbed a narrow path leading to the ground above, pushing forward as rocks and debris crashed around us. A large boulder smashed dangerously close to our group. Warriors yelled behind us, their cries intermingling with the booming of the chamber’s collapse. Quickly climbing over piles of broken rocks, we made our way to the split in the wall, our booted feet crunching over stray pebbles as we climbed out. Trading rocks for grass, we ran for cover away from the collapsing cavern. Deep underground, the last of the chamber gave way, and dark soil sprayed into the air as the falling earth destroyed everything in its path.
We sprinted with the sound of thunder in our ears until the air was squeezed from our lungs and our last reserves of adrenaline were gone. Finally, the ground stopped its intense shaking, and as we reached a grove of trees, the last tremors died away. My heart thudded in my chest as I tried to catch my breath and come to terms with our situation.
The ancient Everblossom was gone, and Uli was dead. There was no way to bring her back. I felt guilty for leaving her body behind, but those were irrational thoughts. There was no way I could have saved her, and if I’d carried her body with us, I would have been crushed to death. But still, she’d deserved better.
The warriors stood under the trees. Like me, they labored to catch their breath, and their eyes were unfocused and fearful, as if trying to come to terms with our newfound situation. Not far from us was an immense, gaping hole that looked as if it sank all the way to the center of Faythander.
In the distance loomed the enormous Ever Root, a dark mass of curving petrified roots that rose into the air and seemed to touch the clouds as it blocked out the retreating sun. Tiny baubles of light sparkled from the tree. I suspected the pixies would soon find out what had happened to their pure-magic tree.
I rubbed my eyes, feeling the weariness beginning to catch up with me. After finally catching my breath, I turned away from the pixies’ tree and my fallen
