“Olive,” he said quietly. “Why have you done this? You’ve betrayed not only me, but also my people as well. We will die because of your actions.”
“We… never meant to hurt you.”
“Then why have you done this?” Rage burned in his eyes.
“Because… we need the sword to save my people. That’s the only weapon capable of stopping Theht.” I gasped. “We’ll die without it.”
He flexed his jaw, anger burning in his crimson eyes. Dracon’s sword, its blade dark with his blood, lay only inches away from me. He reached for the sword and picked it up. I didn’t like the malevolent look he gave me as he held the sword over my heart.
“Please,” I whispered, pleading. “Don’t kill me.”
“Killing you is not my intention. You’ve said this is the only weapon to destroy Theht. In truth, it is the goddess who has doomed us. Not you. When she left us, she abandoned us to die. She has killed us all to enter your world. Take the sword. Kill the goddess. Avenge us. That is all I ask.”
The magic surrounding him diminished. I realized I could move again. “Take it?” I asked, confused.
“Take it and leave us to die, Olive. There never was another ending for us. A cursed death to wander the world as Regaymor is the only fate we’ve got left.”
He lay the sword beside me before standing. As he loomed over me, I saw sadness wash over him as he accepted his own mortality. Without another word, he walked toward the screams of the dying and left us alone in the hallway.
I got to my hands and knees, clutching the sword to my chest as I crawled toward Kull. He blinked several times as I approached him, as if he were coming out of a trance.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I said.
He only nodded.
“Can you stand?”
“Yes,” he breathed. “Give me a moment.”
That magic must’ve packed quite a punch if he was asking me to give him a moment. I’d only experienced a portion of the spell, and I still felt my muscles cramping. When Kull got to his feet, a loud crash boomed behind us.
A wall at the opposite end of the hallway collapsed as the fire consumed it. Thick smoke poured from the opening, filling the hallway. Several Regaymor escaped from the ruined wall, gliding soundlessly on the current of overheated air.
Kull and I ran for the doors and flung them open. As we raced outside, I glanced over my shoulder. The creatures hadn’t noticed us yet, but it wouldn’t take them long before they did. Soon, they would infiltrate the entire city.
We sprinted through the courtyard, our footsteps muffled by the ash-packed streets as our feet pounded the cobblestones, and then we ran through the open gate. The city loomed before us. Thick fog obscured the sky, and only pools of hazy orange light glowed from torches burning along the streets. The chill air made my arms prickle with goose bumps, and the scent of smoke was carried from the chimneys rising above the buildings.
“I don’t remember which way to go,” I said.
“I think I do.”
I attempted to run with Kull through the streets, but my muscles burned from the aftereffects of Jeven’s spell, making it difficult to move. Kull took my arm, and we raced away from Jeven’s tower.
A few people milled about, pushing carts over the cobbled paths or walking aimlessly. As we passed them, they looked at us with surprised glances.
“Get inside,” Kull shouted. “The Regaymor have broken free.”
A few people did as he said, although some remained outside. I was sure they must have thought we were crazy. It wouldn’t take them long to realize we weren’t.
When we’d made it halfway to the city’s wall, a wail came from behind us. Several more howls followed.
And then the screams began.
Chapter 13
Chaos erupted on the streets of Slavom as the Regaymor descended out of Jeven’s tower. Screams echoed behind Kull and I as we raced from one street to the next. The howls of the Regaymor were getting closer, and we still hadn’t found the gates leading outside.
People darted frantically in our path. Some were screaming. Others stood outside their homes, looking stoically up at Jeven’s tower, as if they’d known this day would come and accepted their fate.
Kull and I scrambled around an overturned food stall, only to be blocked by a wall of flames. We had to backtrack to another street. The raging fires crackled around us, and heavy smoke filled the streets. The pungent scent of burning wood pervaded the air, making me cough and tears spring to my eyes.
Kull held Dracon’s sword as we rushed from one lane to the next. Wrapped in magic, the blade glowed faintly, helping to penetrate through the haze. I’d lost track of where we were. None of the streets looked familiar, but Kull led us without hesitation.
“Up ahead,” Kull called.
I looked where he pointed and found the gate overshadowed by an ornate archway, but instead of running toward it, Kull glanced over his shoulder.
Behind us, the city burned. Smoke billowed and embers rose into the sky, casting the single spire of Jeven’s tower in a glow of orange firelight. Wispy shapes glided through the smoke as screams echoed from below. I imagined hell couldn’t look much worse than this place.
“Do you think my sister and Maveryck made it out?” Kull asked.
“No way to know for sure, but if I know Heidel, she’ll have made it out before us, and she’ll give you endless amounts of grief about it.”
“Yes, I hope you’re right.”
Kull hesitated a second longer. I knew he must’ve been debating whether to return for his sister, but he knew there was little chance of finding her. Either she made it out on her own or she didn’t, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Groups of people rushed past us and ran through the open gateway. We followed, but as we
