Evelayn finally gave up arguing and lay down on the bedroll she’d already spread out. Besides being gloomier, it was also colder at night in Dorjhalon than in éadrolan, even in summer, and she couldn’t help but shiver as the blanket of darkness wiped the last smudge of light from the sky above them.
“Here,” Tanvir murmured and gently laid his bedroll on top of her, blocking out some of the chill.
“Thank you,” she whispered, but he didn’t respond.
Even though she had been the one pressing to keep going, a bone-deep exhaustion washed over her, quickly pulling her down into the oblivion of sleep.
She dreamt of being caught in a massive web, of spiders crawling all over her skin—in her hair, her ears, even beneath her clothes. She screamed and thrashed but only grew more entangled, trapped in the nearly unbreakable threads of the spider’s silk. When she reached for her power to blast her way free, there was nothing there. She was completely empty. And that’s when she realized her chest was cold, so very, very cold. Something was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong.
“She knows the queen is coming.” A deep, unfamiliar voice came from somewhere near the web, a whisper that felt like a shout. “All is prepared.”
What? What is prepared? Evelayn tried to speak, but no words came out of her mouth.
“And you guarantee she will succeed.” Another voice, from the other side of the web. This one strangely familiar, but as was often the case in dreams, the name escaped her.
One of you help me!
Again the words remained stuck in her throat. And the spiders kept multiplying, covering her body, covering her face.
“She will succeed,” the first voice promised, but it sounded farther away than before.
No! Come back! Help me!
But somehow she knew he was gone. Evelayn redoubled her efforts to escape. And finally—finally—the threads snapped. She fell out of the web, the spiders sluicing off her skin like water, as the wind whipped past her … but she never hit the ground. Instead she just continued to plummet, falling through an endless pit of darkness, the only sound the echo of her screams—
Evelayn jerked awake to see Tanvir still sitting beside her, staring out into the dark forest, Kel lying on his side, snoring softly.
Shaking off the lingering terror of the nightmare, Evelayn rolled over beneath the warmth of Tanvir’s bedroll and closed her eyes once more.
EVELAYN GLANCED BELOW, BUT SHE COULD BARELY SEE Tanvir or Kel a ways down the treacherous, narrow path. They’d followed her along the first half, but after that she’d forced them to let her go alone. She wasn’t sure at what point they could be in danger from Máthair Damhán, and she didn’t dare risk it. However, the farther away they got and the closer she was to reaching the cave of the Ancient’s lair, the more she wished they were still by her side. Her blood pounded a beat of fear at the base of her throat.
Stop it, she scolded herself, turning back to the rocky, slippery trail that snaked up the albino mountainside. You are a queen. Act like one.
The lair was partway up the north face of the White Peak, the largest of the Sliabán Mountains. The entire mountain was white—hence its name—and barren of any vegetation other than the Immortal Tree, which lived deep within its bowels. Evelayn had never been to the Tree before, but she felt the well of power beneath her feet. It pulsed through the very ground, flickered in the air all around her. It was sacred ground she trod upon, ground that Máthair Damhán supposedly helped protect.
The Sliabán Mountains stretched across both éadrolan and Dorjhalon, creating a point where both kingdoms met—as well as the Undead Forest that constituted the eastern border of the Draíolon kingdoms. The White Peak was near the center of both éadrolan and Dorjhalon, and it was considered neutral ground, the seat of power for both Light and Dark Draíolon. But the fastest way to reach the Ancient’s lair was through Dorjhalon. Evelayn couldn’t quell the sense of apprehension that coiled in her belly and sent a trickle of sweat slipping down her spine.
Her steps slowed as she neared the ledge that marked the opening to Máthair Damhán’s cave. She’d heard stories and read accounts of the Ancient—what she looked like and what she did to her prey. But no one had ever been to see Máthair Damhán and lived to tell of it, at least not in Evelayn’s lifetime, or her mother’s before her.
Evelayn’s hands were slick with sweat when she grabbed the ledge and hoisted herself up onto the large rocky expanse smoothed into a flat sheet by thousands of years of rain and snow. The mouth of the cave gaped before her, a giant, dark maw that threatened to swallow her up and never again let her see the light of day.
Evelayn clenched her teeth against the terror that threatened to overwhelm her, and took off her knapsack to pull out the offering. She glanced down at Tanvir and Kel one last time and then turned to the cave and walked out of the sunlight into the darkness.
The temperature immediately dropped at least ten degrees. Evelayn shivered but cautiously continued forward. At first the cave looked and smelled like she expected a normal cave would—craggy stone walls, a musty quality to the air, rich with the scent of dirt and rock. But as she slowly moved forward, the walls grew smoother, almost glistening in the darkness.
Evelayn decided to risk summoning a small handful of Light. The instant the thought entered her mind, the conduit stone in her breastbone flared hot and the cavern exploded with light, nearly blinding her. She swallowed her scream and pulled back the power as quickly as possible, until she held just enough to see the space directly around herself more clearly. In the brief instant when the entire cave had been illuminated she’d glimpsed walls coated in slime and webbing, entrapping dozens of carcasses and even some skeletons. Not Máthair Damhán’s spider silk, which Evelayn had come to bargain for, but the webs of her kin. The small insects that lived throughout their world. Although, based on the size of some of the carcasses and skeletons trapped in the webs, the spiders who lived here were not small at all.
Evelayn shuddered but forced herself to continue forward, to the tunnel she’d noticed at the back of the cavern. All around her she sensed the same pulsing power that flowed through the mountain, which she’d detected before; but now it was even stronger. Being this close to the source of her magic obviously strengthened her, based on what had happened with the Light Power moments earlier. She could barely even feel the constant ebb and flow of the draw from her people; the sense of the Immortal Tree being so close was all-consuming. But still, Evelayn could scarcely keep her hands from trembling as she cupped the Light with her left and clutched the offering with her right.