Tainted roots
Chapter 35

In the distance ahead of us were the stupid fucking cliffs. I carefully listened, ready to plug my ears at the first sign of singing, but all was quiet. The only sounds came from us and the occasional gentle breeze.

We planned on each group taking a boat to our designated destinations before the ferry neared the region.

Ander and Harmony complained it would’ve been nice to know about the boats the first time around. Wyatt’s response was to lean over the railing and peer at the boats, not saying a word. When Alora pulled up the projection again to see how close we were, he said, “Looks pretty damn close to the one I made.”

I snorted and Gemini scoffed. Like I said, unsexy tension.

We climbed into the boats and each pulled away from the ferry. Once we came around the bend, Alora’s boat took off down the new river branch, going against the current. The rest of us continued along the river, with the cliffs to our left. I kept glancing in their direction, making sure they remained empty. If any bird bitches show up, I’d be the first to know.

Every so often, I’d glance to my right at the necromancer’s region. Nighttime shrouded their land, without a moon or a single star in the sky. At least we could rule out werewolves being here.

There were lights in the distance, but they were so far away and dim, they did nothing to help me figure out what awaited us. The fact that the land was too dark to see anything didn’t go against what I pictured their lands to look like. I kept picturing a Victorian England type of vibe. With cobblestone roads, gas lamps, and maybe a guillotine in the town square. An area for hanging to occur at least once a day. Maybe some blood running down the streets, pooling between the cobblestone. Normal things.

Our boat pulled over onto the sandy shores, while Ari’s kept speeding along the river. Luckily for us, Alora had used the projector at the front of the ferry to program the destinations of the boats, that way we wouldn’t accidentally miss our stop.

Before leaving the boat, I took several deep steadying breaths, trying to slow down my racing heart. Adrenaline flooded my body and my wolf pressed close, trying to infuse more energy into me. I held her at bay, planning on only summoning more energy from her as a last resort.

Wyatt pulled out the map Alora had roughly sketched. Rough being the key term, she had no business using a pencil. She’d written directions like; turn left at the statue of Io, turn right at the blacksmith, if you've reached the brothel, you’ve gone too far. I would’ve complained about the lack of street signs, but we didn’t label our pathways either. The area she marked off for us to meet was near the center of the land. In the asshole’s house, where he kept all his treasures.

Now that we were in the region instead of looking in, it wasn’t near as dark. The sand on the shores wasn’t pale like normal, but black like ash or soot. The sand led from the beach and formed a wide path.

Damn, I was hoping for some cobblestones.

I’d been picturing this region to have dead trees similar to the dark forest, but they weren’t. The white bark of the trees was healthy, and the branches were full of leaves. They were bigger than normal leaves, the oval shape longer than my forearm. I squinted up at the leaves, wondering if it was the darkness or if that was the actual color. Rather than green, or even autumn colors, they were black.

As we continued on the path I discovered the leaves and sand weren’t the only black things. The fucking grass was too. It was like we stepped into a monochromatic world.

The benefit of the white bark of the trees was it made them easy to avoid them when I accidentally wandered off the path. With the sand and the grass being the same fucking color, it was hard for me to stay on the path. I ended up listening to different sounds the sand and grass made under my feet to keep myself on the path. It worked better than staring down at the ground trying to see the difference in the darkness. Koa must’ve noticed my struggle because he linked his fingers through mine.

Eventually, the trees began being replaced by square buildings made out of the same bleached wood as the trees. No light shined through the windows. Other than our quiet footsteps, there were no other sounds.

It wasn’t a normal quiet, but the eerie kind that spoke of danger hiding around the next bend.

I held one of my throwing knives in my hand, just in case. Behind me, Ander had his sword unsheathed. As long as we weren’t swarmed by creatures or necromancers, we’d be okay.

The buildings changed from wood to gray and black stone as we moved deeper into their territory. Each of the buildings were short and square. So far the tallest building was two stories.

Lamps hung in front of their doors, but all of them were shut off, making the path even more haunting. I was more than a little disappointed that it looked nothing as I pictured, and instead, they kept up the monochromatic theme. Seriously, would it kill them to throw in a splash of color?

A statue stood at the steps of the tallest building so far, standing at three stories. She was at least seven feet tall and made out of white stone. Her features were indistinct, and if not for Alora’s map, I wouldn’t have been able to say which female deity it was.

As instructed, we took the path to the left of the building. I’ve never been through a town and not run across anyone, no matter how early or late it was. It was still eerily silent, with not a single sound coming from the buildings, and I had a suspicion it wasn’t due to a sound barrier spell.

Something wasn’t right.

Despite how weird her directions were, they were surprisingly helpful. So far, we’d already passed five deity statues, and they weren’t all necromancer ones. Io was a sorceress, Phoenix was a summoner, and weirdly enough his animal wasn’t associated with a bird. Why did they have statues of other races of deities? We only had a mixture of deity statues in our neutral territories.

Wyatt stopped at another forked path and scanned the area around us. “I don’t like this, I haven’t been able to sense anyone.” He placed his hands on his hips as he bit his lip.

Ander looked at his wristband, a frown creasing his brows. “We’ve been here for over an hour and we have yet to come across a single necromancer or creature. Something’s not right, this is too easy. Either they know we’re here and are waiting to ambush us, or they’re elsewhere.” He pushed his hand through his hair as he watched the buildings.

“What, like they’re having a meeting, all five thousand of them?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

“Possibly.”

I shifted from foot to foot, eyeing the shadows around us suspiciously. “Well, that’s just fucking great.”

Things only went from bad to worse, when a few minutes late I felt a frantic pulse in the ball of energy in my chest connected to Rowan. A stab of panic entered my chest and without thought, I summoned Rowan to me. She appeared in a ripple of energy and immediately fell over as soon as she appeared. A long gash marred her side, and shimmering red blood matted her fur. Her eyes fluttered open when I dropped to my knees next to her and inspected her wound.

A sigh of relief escaped me when I saw it wasn’t too deep, and with her healing, she’d be fine. Animal spirit familiars had fast healing, especially when they were near their bonded. Physical contact between the two sped up the process, so I continued stroking her fur.

“What happened?” Koa demanded, not bothering to hide his worry or anger.

‘Every building we passed was empty. We knew there was something wrong, but we didn’t know what until we were ambushed by creatures and necromancers. They overpowered us. It’s like they knew we were coming. They took them.’