Soulwoven

Chapter Fifty-Nine

~59~

Litnig Jin’s heart raced. The sick, acid tang of fear filled his mouth.

He ran as fast as his long legs would carry him.

But the cavern slope was steep. By the time he burst from the cave’s mouth and started down the steps that lay beyond it, his head was spinning. His chest burned. His breath had grown ragged. He careened from side to side as he moved.

He couldn’t see the others. He didn’t know if they were in front of him or behind him, or if they were lost or safe.

And he couldn’t bring himself to stop and find out.

The stairs were uneven and difficult, and Litnig’s legs wouldn’t move like he wanted them to. One of his feet came down sideways. His ankle rolled. His knee locked. His body twisted and tumbled, and then he ducked his head and bounced and somersaulted down the stairway.

His shoulder smashed against the corner of a step. His arm drifted away from the side of his head. His skull slammed into stone.

The impact jarred his teeth, his jaw, his nose, his cheekbones.

Litnig’s eyes snapped shut.

When he looked out at the world again, he was back in the dream.

The disc felt quiet and tremulous, like the plains when the green-gray clouds of a storm were massing overhead.

Litnig picked himself up on unsteady feet. He held a hand to his aching head. He listened to his heart pound above him, and he turned in a slow circle.

The light walkers had returned to the disc.

Each of them stood in front of one of the three pillars, pressing its darker counterpart against the stone. Dull chains were appearing next to them link by link out of the gray light. The chains slipped slowly around the squirming torsos of the dark walkers.

Beyond the walkers, great thunderheads of darkness towered above the disc. Tendrils of smoke and fog snaked out from them and crawled over its edge.

The little fingers of darkness were creeping toward Litnig.

Send them back, said a rich voice behind him.

Litnig recognized it. He’d heard its words in Eldan City and the White Forest. It didn’t belong to the walkers.

Send them back and we will help, said a second voice.

Send them back and we will teach, added a third.

The light walkers turned and stared at Litnig. They looked relieved to see him.

The black clouds drew closer to the center of the disc. They reminded Litnig of the abyss in Sherduan’s eyes.

And Litnig knew why he hadn’t seen the dragon in his mind.

He didn’t need to be visited by it.

It was there, in his dream, surrounding the disc.

It had always been there.

Bile crept into the back of his throat.

Send them back, the voices behind him urged again.

So he did.

All it took to send the light walkers back into the darkness was the desire to do so. They left the pillars and walked into the clouds. Sherduan’s black fingers retreated before them.

The dark walkers struggled against the half-realized chains on their stone prisons.

Good, said the second voice behind Litnig. Now you must restrain your darkness.