They stripped the corpses to the bone and she knew she had to redirect them before they turned to her and her people for more nourishment.
“Go to the castle,” she ordered them. “There are more you may feed on there.”
They would, she knew, find the last of Gubba’s band stubbornly trying to knock down the castle doors. Where the groundmites could not gain entry, the Sleepers would. Dark or not, they knew the castle and its workings. The Sleepers would take care of the problem of the others. The rest was up to God. Grandmother had accomplished what she set out to do: the Sleepers were awake.
She took in the devastation around her, the roiling fog where once great trees stood. She could not believe she had survived that, but when she reached her people, she discovered that Sarat and Deglin had not. They’d been crushed by a tree limb that narrowly missed the others.
God’s work required sacrifices, she thought, and He had received them.
THE SHADOW OF LIGHT
Laurelyn’s accusation reverberated up into the heights of the tower. Grant bolted, but the Eletians were quicker and grabbed him. He fought, hitting, biting, kicking, and it took Telagioth, Solan, Lhean, and Lynx to subdue him.
You must . . . Laurelyn began.
Grant howled, an inhuman blood curdling sound. Karigan clamped her hands over her ears. Grant brushed off his captors like they were nothing and staggered forward. He ripped the sleeve from the arm he’d been favoring for so long and Karigan stepped back, resisting the urge to retch.
The flesh of his arm was stark white, bloodless. Angry, bloated veins flowed into blackened pustules the size of eggs. They twitched like something writhed inside them.
“My nythlings,” Grant crooned, his expression rapturous.
They all stared at him in horrified fascination.
Grant howled again, a rending cry of pain. The pustules burst and Karigan did retch. Black glistening creatures, like armored reptiles, clawed their way out of Grant’s flesh, fluid sacs splattering to the floor. The creatures shook out membranous wings.
Behind Grant, Telagioth drew his sword.
“My nythlings!” Grant exulted.
The tip of Telagioth’s sword emerged through Grant’s chest. Grant wailed, then slid off the blade and to the floor. Telagioth stood there with blooded sword, a grim expression on his face.
“Kill the creatures!” Ealdaen sprang to and Karigan made to follow. If only they could have helped Grant before it came to this.
Wait, Laurelyn commanded her.
Karigan hesitated. A couple of the creatures dipped their sharp beaks into Grant’s corpse and fed. The others stretched their wings and launched into the air, flocking around her companions.
It is time, Laurelyn said. You must help the Sleepers.
“But—” At that moment, Karigan felt something change, something in the atmosphere, a rending of the air; she felt the castle brace itself.
The light of Laurelyn flickered and her back arched, arms flung out. She opened her mouth in a silent scream.
No . . . Laurelyn whispered.
“What is it?” A creature darted at Karigan and she whacked it away with her staff.
Laurelyn shone again, but darkness blurred her edges.
Another power in the grove has awakened the Sleepers.
Karigan was confused. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
No, child. Laurelyn’s eyes were wild. The forest has blackened their hearts as they slept. They have awakened as dark, vile creatures that hate the light.
“Then why did you want me to rescue them?” Karigan batted another of the nythlings with a satisfying crack. It hit one of the statues and fell to the floor into a crumpled heap.
Stand on the moon. Laurelyn’s image fluctuated again. Stand on the moon and I will show you. Hurry! They will soon be upon us.
Lynx cried out as one of the nythlings dove and attacked. Lhean leaped to aid him.
“I can’t abandon my friends.”
If you hesitate, that which has awakened will swarm out of Blackveil and into your country, a terrible, savage enemy. Do you wish this?
“No, but . . .” She glanced at her friends hacking at the flying creatures. Telagioth cut one out of the air.
Stand on the moon, child. We haven’t the time to debate!
Ealdaen ran toward Karigan, grabbed her arm and dragged her to the very center of the chamber to stand directly on the crystalline moon.
“Do as she says, Galadheon,” he hissed, “or else all is lost. We will protect you as well as we can.”
Sleepers poured from the corridor into the chamber like a dark wave, thin and ragged and wild, but unmistakably Eletian. Ealdaen did not pause, but pivoted and dashed back to face them. Karigan screamed when they started to tear Solan apart.
Child! cried Laurelyn. Your moonstone.
Karigan turned her back on the savagery to face Laurelyn’s dim form. “I want to help my friends.”
No. You’d be lost alongside them. You still have time to help others beyond Blackveil, and it may be, that by doing as I ask, you will change the outcome for your friends.
Karigan’s heart leaped with that kernel of hope and she removed the moonstone from her pocket. Unwavering light flared up around her. The nythlings flew away from it, the Sleepers did not cross it.
I need you to stand just so, for you will be the gnomon. The moonstone will cast your shadow on the correct phase.
Karigan tried to block the cries and screams of her companions while obeying Laurelyn’s instructions, stretching one arm straight out in front of her and adjusting her stance.