Black Heart

5. Deities Protect Me

         

***

I BEGAN TO SENSE a dull ache as a rough, jagged texture dug on my backside the moment awareness slowly came to me. There was an uncomfortable dampness below me, the stark, pungent smell of decaying wood and moss and wet earth, an icy mist that that hovered in the air—most of all, the familiar prickly sensation that twisted its way to my spine, one accompanied by fear and dread: the presence of a vedraza.

My eyes flew open.

Small, drops of snow descended from the sky. Though Izarde should be expecting at least a few months of summer, there was only one place that was cold enough for snowflakes to fall. Tall, hulking naked trees stood close to each other, countless in number that they completely blacked out the sky, and what little light that could penetrate their cover were trapped through the branches. The wind's unsettling howl sounded so similar to a woman's scream. The branches were multiple claws reaching out to me, draped with spidery tangles of vines.

And underneath the shroud of the forest, a low snarl reverberated, a paranormal presence sending warning signs to my body.

This was the demon's woods.

My heart thudded against my chest so loudly I could hear it in my ears. Instinctively, I edged closer to the trunk of the tree where the men left my unconscious body slumped. My eyes scanned the surroundings. The forest was quiet but the creatures were close. Though I see nothing, I felt them nearby, watching me, waiting. They were biding their time. The halo of light around me, the only remnants of the sun that managed to pierce through the veil of the trees, was what kept them at bay. When the sun sets, I would die.

I swallowed. My fingers were frozen and it had nothing to do with the snow. Beady eyes stared at me, hidden somewhere but their presence unmistakable. The sheer number of vedraza concentrated on one spot overwhelmed my awareness. The thread of connection between me and them overflowed with malicious intent; with so much darkness it suffocated me.

I haven't seen someone die of a vedraza attack but I have heard enough stories from Valentina, stories told by Izarri soldiers who completed their mandatory service for Eluvia. The vedraza were like beasts—vicious and mindless. They invoked unadulterated terror that the descriptions of their appearance were hazy—sharp claws that could tear a man, razor teeth that could cut through bones, a body bigger than a lion, a deafening revolting cry... the accounts of what they looked like were several and inconsistent but one thing was clear: the vedraza never died. Their existence was unnatural—their torn bodies could be put together, their shredded skin pieced back. Not even alchemy or spellblades could kill them—only the spellfire conjured by Mages can render them permanently lifeless.

If I was my mother, I had a chance to survive but being a Mage didn't come with heredity.

Before I knew it, warm tears cascaded from my eyes down to my cold cheeks. I touched it dazedly; it shone in my fingertips. The mark of death. I was going to die here.

I closed my eyes and clasped my hands in prayers to the deities. I sobbed wretchedly, utterly frustrated at my powerlessness. All my life, Grandmother had made me feel that it would be better if I did not survive my infancy but still, I feared death and I was certain that this is where I will die. I had no means to defend myself. The men took my dagger and my pendant. My survival depended on the whim of the divine. When Terishna was desperate to save her child, the deities chose to protect her. Would they give the same mercy to me? Can they sense my desperation? Did it rival my mother's to warrant divine protection?

Heaven's light and earth's heart danced.

An unnatural silence took over the already quiet forest, an unnerving stillness that felt as though the woods itself held its breath.