Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire #1)

Inside the room and to the right of the door lay Raithe’s old shield. The same one she’d used when fighting the wolves. Persephone picked it up and, just as before, used both hands to thrust the bottom edge at The Brown’s snout. The animal wailed and growled. She hit the beast again and again, as hard as she could. The bear’s face turned bloody.

The Brown jerked backward. In a panic to escape the blows, the bear withdrew the paw that had clutched the edge of the door. With its removal, the stone slab resumed its left-to-right march, closing once again. The gap remained too small for the bear to pull its head out. Trapped, The Brown twisted and jerked violently, but the door continued to close, pinching around its neck. Again Persephone bashed at the animal’s face in the vain hope of somehow forcing it out. The bear wailed in desperation, fear, and anger.

As the door slid the bear’s roar became a whimper.

Tighter and tighter the stone inched, squeezing the animal’s throat. The Brown jerked harshly, still struggling to wrench its head free. Then the animal succumbed to panic. Ignoring all pain, it bucked and twitched, shrieking in such terror that Persephone took a step back.

Slowly, very slowly, the bear lost its strength. Persephone watched its face, its bloodied nostrils and eyes, as The Brown grew silent and still. Persephone continued to stand before it, holding the shield and rocking with the pounding of her heart.

After several minutes with no movement from the bear’s head, she finally allowed herself to sit down. She sat right before the door, in front of the massive head of the bear, whose eyes remained open. Two small black globes like polished pebbles reflected the green light. Persephone felt her breathing hitch. She still held tight to the shield, and wrapping her arms around it, she began to cry.

At first, the tears came from the aftermath of fear—the sort of mortal terror she hadn’t known before—which left her exhausted and stripped of dignity and pride. Yet that was only the beginning. In her weakened, exposed state, the dam burst. She relived the deaths of Mahn and Reglan, followed by her two younger children. She thought about Aria and her mangled son, Gifford, who somehow had survived against all odds. She imagined the deaths of Raithe and Malcolm, Maeve and Suri. She cried for all of them and for the innocents of Nadak and Dureya. Crouching on the floor in the eerie green light, she wept until she had no more tears. Then she lay down with her cheek against the stone. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember how to breathe, how to think, and how to live. Somewhere in that process, exhaustion overtook her, and she fell asleep.

—

They found her in the rol covered in blood, holding Raithe’s old shield.

The dead bear was in the door, Konniger’s remains just outside. They identified him by the copper boss of the shield floating in the pool. Konniger’s spear was there, too, lost in the fall. He hadn’t expected to fight a bear.

Raithe was the first one into the rol, with Malcolm, Suri, and Nyphron close behind.

He stood over Persephone, feeling his strength run out. He knew they would be too late the moment Suri told them about the bear’s intentions. Dureyans weren’t used to happy endings. That was one of the reasons he’d always enjoyed his sister’s tales. They gave him hope—but they were just stories; reality always turned out differently. He stood over Persephone’s crumpled body, vainly clutching the shield he’d left, and found himself wishing that he’d been her Shield. That he could have been there even if it meant dying alongside her.

Strange how I never appreciate anything until after it’s gone: my family, my father, Dureya…her.

Slowly, gently, he bent down. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he said, and kissed her on the forehead, surprised at how warm she still felt. Usually, the—

She woke with a jerk and pulled back, disoriented and frightened, until she saw them.

“Raithe?” Persephone said groggily.

Raithe sucked in a sharp, stunned breath. “Are you—are you all right?” he asked, shocked. An immense and uncontrollable grin stretched across his face.

Persephone hesitated and looked out at the bear still lying in the open doorway. Slowly she nodded. “Yes…yes, I think so. And you’re all right, too.” Her eyes brightened, then she hugged him. Arms tight around his neck, she squeezed, but only briefly. “Konniger said—but I guess he lied.” Spotting Suri, she pulled back and exclaimed, “You’re alive!”

“You have black hair,” the mystic replied, then looked at the dead bear. “But I’m not in the mood for games just now.”

“I wasn’t playing. I—” Persephone stopped and looked around the rol. “What about Maeve? Where is she?”

Faces darkened, Suri’s most of all. “Maeve died…Grin…” Suri continued to stare at the body of the bear lying outside the open door. “I don’t think Grin was a demon; she was just a bear. Maeve fought The Brown—fought the bear for me, I think.”

“Maeve fought The Brown?” Persephone asked, stunned.

“With Tura’s staff.” Suri held up the stick. “She was fierce.” Suri petted the wolf. “So was Minna.”

“How long have you known of this place?” Nyphron asked as the other Galantians filed into the rol and walked around the stone pillars, looking at the walls in fascination.

“We just learned of it,” Persephone said. “Suri showed us.”

The Galantian leader turned to eye the mystic. “The tattooed one?” he asked.

“Is this it?” Sebek asked him, pointing at the runes that circled the walls.

“Stryker,” Nyphron called, and the goblin entered from where he had waited in the crevice. “Vok on hess?” Nyphron asked, in an unpleasant language that sounded as if he were coughing up something to spit.

Stryker drew back his hood, revealing a monstrous face and head. He gazed up at the writing. The creature, which was how Raithe thought of Stryker for he was too repulsive to be thought of as a person, shambled slowly around the room. The goblin raised a hand at the runes and pointed with its claws.

“Et om ha,” the goblin replied to Nyphron, and nodded. The Fhrey smiled.

Raithe extended his hand to Persephone. “It’s nearly morning. I think it’s time we took you home.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


When Gods Collide




I could not move, not my arms, my legs, or even my head. I was forced to watch, and I was not even allowed to scream.

—THE BOOK OF BRIN





They exited the forest in a solemn procession by the first light of dawn. Persephone, Raithe, Malcolm, and Suri followed behind the Fhrey, who carried the shattered bones of Maeve.

Hours before, Persephone had found the Black Spear of Math right where she’d dropped it, within sight of the glade battlefield. The weapon lay among the men’s bodies. She was grateful Raithe and Malcolm were safe but couldn’t find any cheer in her heart for the victory. Many of the dead had lived in Rhen all their lives. She knew their parents, families, and friends, and not even her own safety could lighten that weight.

Persephone’s feet and skirt were soaked with morning dew as she struggled to march through the tall grass. An overwhelming exhaustion extended beyond muscle and bone, even beyond the aftermath of the battle with a giant bear. She felt empty, truly empty, to the point of being erased. With the death of Konniger and the bear, a portion of her life had reached a conclusion. Her memory of Reglan remained mortally wounded. Discovering that he’d had a child with Maeve was a shock, but his order to kill a baby and hide the affair for years was beyond her ability to forgive. Persephone had drawn strength from Reglan when he was alive and from his memory after his death. That morning she could no longer lean on him, and she wasn’t certain where she found the strength to keep walking.

Suri matched her in expression as she stared out at the rising sun. She held something tightly in her hand and repeatedly looked at it with increasing concern.

“What’s that you’ve got?” Persephone asked.

“A bone,” Suri said.

A month ago such a reply might have surprised Persephone, but that morning Suri could have admitted to holding the beating heart of the Tetlin Witch and Persephone wouldn’t have blinked.

“Grin was coming to kill everyone.”