Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 16, Part B

"I'm fine now," Domi said with a shudder as he remembered the howling voices and the unrelenting pressure of an alien mind. "But that was awful."

"Sit down, Alumna," Valens said. It took Domi a moment to realize his aedificans wasn't speaking to him but Daedalus, shaking his head with sternly narrowed eyes.

Domi's twin frowned but did as he was told. "I merely wished to check on him."

"I know, and I don't care. We face a hard journey. Rest until we're ready to leave."

"Leave?" Daedalus cast a doubtful glance at the land sprawled ahead of them.

Domi didn't blame him. Pulse racing as he looked out at the heart of the Blightlands, he gulped. A broken expanse of ice, obsidian and great whirlwinds of rogue promenia stretched to the horizon. Reflecting the Eyes' crimson light on their polished surfaces, colossal shards of black glass hung suspended like bloodied thorns beneath smaller writhing golden eddies. Below, the icy expanse shifted like the sea where thousands of clivias stalked between the sleds and the Restoration Tower. A shadow against the starry sky, the spire tilted sideways at a precarious angle.

"But what about the dogs?" Daedalus went on, patting one of the huskies with his good arm. "The glass will shred their paws, and the clivias--"

"The dogs will remain here to hunt while we fly, Basiluculus," Aix said. He chewed a shoot and extended the jar of white sprigs to Valens, then began unharnessing the huskies.

Daedalus frowned as Valens took a shoot and passed another to Domi. "Fly? We cannot hope to make it. Clivias surround the tower. Reus and I were forced to turn back, and there are now far more than when I was last here."

"Reus?" Domi asked.

"The man who saved me," Daedalus said, dark eyes intent on Domi's throat as the warmth seeped into the younger twin's bones. His laurel must be returning, judging by his brother's longing expression. Domi hoped Aix was right that Dae would rekindle soon. "After Trellis Descent, we tried to return to the camp at the base of the Restoration Tower, but watched clivia overrun it."

"Forgive me, Basiluculus," Aix said, returning to Daedalus's sled and patting the older twin's shoulder before beginning to free the dogs there as well. "But you and Reus are not Valens. And I am no slouch myself."

"Flying will be the easy part," Valens said, giving Domi an assessing glance before reaching into their pack. He pulled out a familiar object, only the crystalline consecturum's amethyst leaves were black-specked instead of solid purple. He passed it to Domi, amber eyes meeting the boy's gaze. "Keeping the rogue particles from corrupting the promenia we use to fly will be the tricky part." He carried another of Radix's prototypes over to Daedalus.

The older twin took it in his good hand with a clumsy grip and smiled apologetically from Valens to Aix. "I do not mean to besmirch your skill. But I was the highest ranked worldholder on the planet. If such was a challenge for me..."

"You were the highest ranked because you held the Trellis," Aix pointed out gently. "But your aedificans is the most skilled worldholder aedilis on Aquarius. I trained him and many others, and he far exceeds me. You have never seen such power, I am sure."

"I know what an aedilis can do," Daedalus said, his brow furrowing. "It was my responsibility to know what all my worldholders are capable of. Still..."

"You know it in theory," Aix said as Valens returned to Domi's side and reached down to help him from the sled. "Now watch it in practice."

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"There!" Valens snapped. He jerked one arm to the side. With the other, he gripped his alumna about the middle to keep the boy from slipping and plummeting from the air.