The Tree of Black and White (The Shadowdancer Chronicles, Book Two)

Chapter Eight

Panthosi sand was no different than that of Ovum, but no one could have told me that when my feet found purchase atop the land of my people. The sea had taken back much of the Sunken City, its name proving to be more than just a clever title, but enough still remained that one could gather just how important Tilry had truly been before its fall. Most of the ports were completely submerged, with little but rotted wood protruding from the murky water as a reminder of their existence. Moss hung from the wooden rafters of partially collapsed buildings. The entire city was quiet. It was a morose city, a dead city.

            Our moods had improved drastically since arriving, a welcome reminder of how absolutely precious life on land can be. Alyssa moved forward, curiosity fueling her. She ran her fingertips over the rotted wood, across the splintered panels that made up what was left of shops or houses. We followed her, Red and I, enthralled by the images that surrounded us. Despite what I saw, I never took my eyes off of her.

            “Is this entire city...dead?” Alyssa lifted her head and closed her eyes, as if the city might speak to her; as if she would discover that the world around her was simply in hiding, not seemingly departed.

            “Tilry was hit hard during the Cleanse. My mother spoke of it, though not often. The king could not leave his enemies greatest port under the control of the Isles.”

            We were deep into the city at that point. Shadows danced around us as they welcomed the coming night. The alleys were narrow and unpredictable, much like those in Osprey. In fact, the Sunken City could have been Osprey had it been a different time; had the Silent King not destroyed it along with the rest of the country.

            Alyssa shook her head. Red only stared, eyes full of a deep and unnerving something—despair, perhaps, but I could not be certain. We found cover in a building that was collapsing slightly less than the rest of the city. The small building gave little in terms of comfort, but I found mine nestled against Alyssa on the cold stone floor.

            We did not start a fire for fear of scavengers, not that we were entirely defenseless. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that Red might not have been able to handle another massacre. Death, it seemed, had a powerful sway on the young Pyre. For that reason, I spent the greater part of my days praying that the gods would spare him the inevitability of killing, but the truth remained; death was the only thing that I knew, the only thing that was constant, unwavering.

            I knew I would never be free of its grasp.

            “What do you think it will be like?” Alyssa’s voice broke the night’s silence. “The north,” she finished.

            I shrugged and did my best to move closer to her. “I suppose it will be colder.”

            “Colder, yes,” she agreed.

        “They say they are the civilized ones, that the rest of the world does not know honor.” She turned to me as I spoke. “They are the savages, I say. My cousin can attribute to that, and the legacy of Lord Narris is a standing testament to just how uncivilized the northerners truly are.”

            “They are not uncivilized,” Red interjected, “just fearful.”

           We both cocked our eyebrows. He only shrugged, laying his head back on the burlap sack he had fashioned into a pillow. “The Silent King feared the south, feared Panthos. All of the northern kings of old had. Some would say that they were right to fear Panthos.” He closed his eyes, as if his wisdom was simply commonplace. “Some would say that two civilizations with such vast differences should not share a continent together. Regardless of what they might say, however, the fact remains that the king feared you, or at least the idea of you. He still does, I think.”

          Alyssa glanced up at me, her head lying on my chest. “Did you hear that? The great King of the Vint fears my young prince.”

          “He fears him enough to kill us all thrice over,” Red added, his face serious.

          I sighed. “The king killed my people because he did not like their way of life, their beliefs. He is a coward, a craven with a crown, not fit to rule. The King of the Vint finds solace in his bannermen, in the Warden Lords that slaughtered my people as they sought refuge from a war they knew nothing about. He cannot hide behind his banners forever. He cannot hide from me forever.”

          “What will you do?” Alyssa asked. “Take on the empire with but the three of us?”

         “If I have to,” I replied, “he took everything from me, from my family; from my people. I will not stop until he rots in an unmarked grave, forgotten to the world.”

       The night was cool but I slept little. Even with Alyssa at my side, I found no solace in the darkness. It was an odd experience for me, especially considering the fact that I had lived in relative obscurity for near two years of my life. But there was something there, something lurking in the shadows. I could not identify it, could not make sense of it.

           It gripped me in an icy embrace.

          When morning came I welcomed the light, however unfamiliar it was. We were under the cover of a building, but I still watched the sun rise through a broken window. It was magnificent, salient; resolute in a way that I could not explain.

          Alyssa stirred from the warmth on her face. An eye opened, followed by the other. She smiled at me, kissed me.

           These were the peaceful times, the times I think about when I remember her.

           “Did you sleep?” she asked me as she brushed the sleep away.

           “Enough,” I lied. “We should get moving.”

           She nodded. Red lifted his head from across the room and glanced at us through tired eyes.

           “Is it morning?”

         “It is. We need to move, and quickly. There is something here, something…unsavory. I am afraid we are not alone in this city.” It was true. I knew it like nothing I had known before.

           Red wiped the sleep from his face and sat up. “You feel it too?”

           I only nodded in response.

         “Then it is true. I am not simply imagining it.” He stared past us, deeply, his eyes seeing nothing and everything at the same time. “I thought that perhaps the oscura were haunting me. Or some other dark force. Maybe it is merely something here in this ruin of a city.”

           Alyssa frowned. “What do you mean?”

           Red paused, stoic, unsettled. “Nothing…nothing, just a feeling. We should go,” he agreed.

       Reading Red’s emotions was, to say the least, impossible. He was still Red, but he was different, guarded. He would look over his shoulder occasionally; at what, I could not say—an apparition? Perhaps something was stalking him. There was no way to tell if my anxiety was warranted or if he was simply producing it based on our recent events.

            No, no—something was out there. Something powerful, something sinister.

            Something real; I could feel it in my very bones.

          “If there is someone there,” Alyssa stated as she stood up and moved towards a hole in the wall that had once been a window, “then they should fear the Prince of Panthos and his companions, not the other way around.”

'          Warmth emanated from her smile, the type of warmth that only she could give off. I glanced at Red then and got the feeling that he felt as foolish as I. It seemed there was no limit to her clarity.

          And then, as if a dark cloak had been pulled over our eyes, the world around us went black, enveloping us in a darkness that even I knew I could not navigate.