The Obsidian Pillar

Chapter Fifty-two

I pulled the tattered, royal blue shawl tightly around my shoulders as the sky grew dark above us, despite it being midday. I fingered its frayed edges, remembering the regret and anguish in the queen's eyes on the night that she had given me her lost son's shawl. Why couldn't she be brave? She was a queen. It was her throne that Edrik sat upon. It was her son that was suffering because of him.

'Valla, come here,' Varellna called from where she sat, leaning against the remains of a small stone cottage in Hollowdell, her face drawn and pale. She was still tired from the battle at the Fold.

I trudged over the craggy, dislodged rocks to where Varellna rested. I knelt at her side and pulled back her black hair from her damp face.

'For you.' She patted the brown satchel that lay on the dusty ground next to her. I grasped it and lifted it over Varellna's legs, into my own lap. 'Open it.'

'What is it?' I asked, retrieving the silver pin she pointed to from within the bag, staring at it in awe. A crow sat upon a branch, its beady eye staring back at me.

'Our insignia. I think you understand. You have this habit of behaving as though you don't understand anything, but the truth is, Valla, you have nothing to learn. Everything is already inside of you.' Varellna's words stung me slightly, but I wasted no time in pinning it to my robes.

'Your necklace,' she nodded to my chest where the pendant sat, 'That's strong magic. Clever too. It might just save your life.'

'It doesn't seem strong,' I queried, looking down at it. The four elements flickered from within.

'They are protected by magic. It will hold,' she concluded irritably. 'Should the time come when you need to use magic and your thoughts are scrambled, your words have left you and you have very little energy, you may need that pendant. I believe that each element affects you differently and you aren't always close to what you need. I've never seen him care so much before...'

I nodded gravely, swallowing a knot in my throat. 'Where is everyone, Varellna?' We had ported to Hollowdell, beneath the shadow of the beast's tower.

'They have gone to war. Hollowdell is likely to never house the Kralken soldiers again. I have no doubt that Edrik will be victorious, and when that happens, villages so close to his lands will be the first to be taken.'

I surveyed the scorched fields and empty, dilapidated buildings. 'Why did they burn everything?'

'Their enemies cannot take what has been destroyed,' she muttered in her fatigue.

'Waincroft told me very little of what happened up there,' I pressed, wary of sparking her temper.

'The details are not important, not right now at least. We have something much more frightening to deal with.'

'Was it Vice?'

Varellna shifted uncomfortably and winced in pain. 'I said it was not important. We sorted it, Waincroft and I, and now I rely on you.'

'We should be with them on the battlefield, Varellna. We should be fighting alongside them.'

'No,' she snapped angrily. 'I'm not strong enough yet.'

'You have me here. I can help. We can port to the battle.'

'Are you serious, Valla?' She gestured to her bruised body before sighing heavily. 'I know that you are worried for your friends and for Sebastien, but this is so much more than that. Mauden will find a way to intervene and end it her way.'

'What does she want?'

'I don't know, but she didn't orchestrate all of this for nothing. She was always dramatic...I used to love that about her...' Varellna's breath caught with the memory, her eyes glazing over, fixed on a crumbled house in the distance. 'Dramatic and careless.' The resolve had returned.

'Then we stop her.' I got to my feet and hauled the satchel over my shoulder.

'Valla,' Varellna attempted a chuckle, but winced in agony, clutching her ribs gently. 'You can't stop her. No one can now. She's been up there for years, waiting and waiting for her moment. She is possessed by the lure of vengeance and you can't stop it.'

A bloodcurdling shriek echoed across the darkening sky. I snapped my head up towards the tower in the distance, recognising the beast's cry. Varellna struggled to her feet and rested her weight onto my shoulder.

'It would appear that we are already too late.'