Chains of Fate

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

My first glance at Eremith revealed that it was made of glass. My second glance revealed that it was, in fact, not made of glass, but of a gleaming see-through material that reflected the rays of the sun. The entire city sat within a deep valley. A clear wall ran along the top of the valley encircling Eremith. Watch posts dotted the wall, and I saw small moving specks bustling between the posts.

An arch covered in runes rose high above us. In the center of Eremith, a glass tower reached above everything else in the city. There were smaller houses and structures around this tower, confirming my suspicion that this was the main building of Eremith.

“What is this?” Hadrian walked forward, his mouth agape as he studied the city before us. “I never knew such a place existed.”

Ayacinth’s mouth was set in a firm line, her jaw tense and her eyebrows taut. “Most humans don’t,” she said in that smooth way of hers. She almost reminded me of a snake—or a weasel. “This is Eremith. It is where the forest got its name.”

“They sure are creative,” I murmured, examining the bridge beneath our feet. Intricate lines of gold intermixed with the clear material. The dirt under the path seemed to move with the bridge itself. This entire city shifted, I realized. It wasn’t the sun because no light touched the bridge. It was as if the glass of the city rippled. Something was inside of it.

Hadrian stepped forward. “Magic is what fuels this city, correct?”

The girl nodded. Her long black hair moved around the many feathers entwined with it. “Magic is what gives it the illusion of glass,” she said. “Come now. The queen…” She narrowed her almond eyes and pursed her lips, as if she were forcing herself to say the words. “…is in the tower, most likely.”

She led us down the clear path, and I couldn’t help but stare below. The bridge rose nearly six feet off the green grass, so I could see the magnificent plants that speckled the valley. Blue flowers that seemed to be made of glass rose up from dirt to bloom and absorb the sun. If this is how they looked in the daytime, what would they look like at night?

Color started to appear once we hit the city streets. Normal stone houses that were sheltered by roofs made of the magic glass dotted the streets. I expected the glass streets to be slippery, but they felt exactly like cobblestone—firm, with a few periodic bumps. This glass must have been an illusion.

Nymphs of every shape and size shuffled into their houses as we passed. A fuzzy blue nymph looked at me curiously from her window, but her head disappeared when I glanced too long at her. They were all female because male nymphs couldn’t exist. Mayra told me that nymphs were born female from the magic of the forest—for what reason, no one knew.

Mayra…

I sighed. With all that happened, I had forgotten about the others. Since our initial mission was to go to Eremith, there was a possibility that Titus, Mayra, Clarice, and Lucan were already here. Maybe they decided to search for me in Eremith. Though I doubted it.

The clopping of hooves startled me, and I blinked when I saw a creature with the lower torso of a goat and the upper body of a man. Mother had called them satyrs, and she said she had only seen them once. The satyr blinked his blue eyes at me once, then turned down an alley, clopping away to some unknown destination. Now that I could identify what it was, I could hear the faint sound of hooves clopping throughout Eremith.

“This way.” Ayacinth’s voice was low, almost as if in reverence. I knew it wasn’t toward us. Was it toward her people? A long time ago, Mother told me that nymphs and other creatures serving Queen Astera valued respect above all things. The loyalty they had for their monarch was incomparable to any ruling human in existence.