Chapter 16

I remembered that phrase.The worm in the wood.

Over the last month, when we were preparing to come here, we had not only trained. I hadn't, at least. After I'd first seen this land, I was enthralled by it. Any opportunity to learn something interesting, something new, enthralled me. Since Graham was from this land, I asked him to teach me about the culture. The history, and the war, and the lore, and everything I could possibly think to ask.

He had insisted that to learn anything about the Fae, you needed to start with the gods. Since Véa and Nix had written their story a few hundred thousand years ago, all I had to do was read it. It was written in Elvan, so I had only read as far as Graham had read aloud to me. I couldn't say that I had absorbed every second, but I retained a good portion of it.

It was a journal of sorts, beginning with Véa's coronation. At the ceremony, her land was invaded by maalaichte cnihme. They were the original soul eaters. They came, they killed, and they absorbed the life force of everyone they could.

When we were told that the enemy we were working to dismantle here were life eaters, I assumed they weren't much different from the soul eaters. After all, they worked the same way. They came, they killed, and they absorbed the life force of everyone they could.

Once we were in flight again, traveling back to camp, I said as much. "But aren't the life eaters and the soul eaters the same thing?"

Fastening his emerald cloak around his shoulders, Graham used it as a shield against the wind. "No, not at all. Even the life eaters reject themaalaichte cnihme. They are the ultimate enemies of our people. More than the Angels are, if you can believe it."

"But I don't understand." Rain spun to face us, using her back to shield most of the wind. "You said they were traitors. They turned on the Fae."

"They are, and they did," Graham said, rubbing his eyes and down the bridge of his nose. "Look, the life eaters are sort of the bogeyman here. One we know is real, but disorganized. Stupid. They are animals. A nuisance, and evil, aye, but no one ever suspected they were working with maalaichte cnihme. The maalaichte cnihme aren't here. They don't even know this world exists."

"But that's not what they said." Rain gestured to Laila and Jeremy flying on a neighboring dragon. "I thought the story was, they came to this world because there wasn't enough room on their home planet to raise the souls they created. And I thought they got this planet from the maalaichte cnihme."

Letting out another shaking breath, Graham rubbed his eyes. "Yes, kind of. But it's complicated. You guys are asking me to sum up hundreds of thousands of years of history. It's not that simple. So many things happened. This was why I told you to finish reading the book before we came here."

"Well, they're really big books," Warren said under his breath.

"What do you mean by kind of?" I asked. "I'm sorry. I'm sure it's not easy to explain all of this, but we're listening."

"The maalaichte cnihme destroyed worlds, aye? You understand that?" Graham looked between us all. "That's what they do. They came, they killed, and they took all the power they can. That leaves an empty canvas. Just a world."

"Right," I murmured.

"We're on the same page about that," Rain said. "That's why they made a deal with the gods. They had a viable planet, and the gods had a bunch of souls that they had accidentally created. They needed a world for them to live on."

"Yes," Graham agreed. "But then, they created this place." He gestured to the snowcapped mountains in the distance on the left, the ocean on the right, and the villages below. "Véa, Nix, and Luci created the Land of Light, also known as the Fae Realm, as a space specifically for us. A new home for the Fae folk. Véa had stopped writing at that point, so I don't know much about why or how. I only know that she did."

"Like Luci created Hell," Rain murmured.

"Aye," Graham said. "Do you see the issue now?"

"This dimension was a secret," I said slowly, a hint of question at the edge of my voice.

Again, he said, "Aye. And any evidence of them here is extremely concerning. It doesn't necessarily mean that they know about this place. It's possible that the air an tagadh simply found an old spell. But it's the fact the spell shouldn't be here. Some royals have access to that old magic.

"An Elvan queen in the north, she's known for using a particular spell from themaalaichte cnihme. Had a falling out with Iliantha because of it, in fact. And I have personal opinions about her myself, but I know she wouldn't have given magic like this to the life eaters. She's more responsible than that, no matter what I think of her personally.

"It shouldn't ever have ended up in the hands of commoners. No life eaters, ever. There's no need for them to possess maalaichte cnihme magic. I can't remember one time they managed to breach a palace or castle. They're not sophisticated enough for that. But somehow, they got their hands on dangerous magic far beyond their capabilities."

"And Laila got so worried about it because that could mean that the maalaichte cnihme know about this place," Rain said.

"Or that they gave the life eaters the magic," Warren said. "We thought they were working for the Angels, but they could be working for an even worse enemy. That's the concern, right?"

A slow, shaking breath. "Right."

I didn't know if it was the wind or the conversation, but chills crept over every inch of my skin. "This could be bad."

"Very bad," Graham agreed.

"I could use a drink," Warren said under his breath. "Oh, why do they call them that? The worm in the wood?"

"Véa, or Laila, is the tree of life, no?" Graham asked.

"Yeah…"

"And the tree of life gifts eternal life."

Warren nodded slowly.

"Well, the maalaichte cnihme found a way around that. A virus, or parasite, or bacteria of some kind that, once an eternal is infected with, eats them from the inside out. Quite literally, you can see the worms crawling around beneath your skin if you've been infected. And it doesn't just eat their body. It doesn't just kill them. Somehow, those worms transmit their power to themaalaichte cnihme. They are an invisible, silent killer of everything the tree of life allows to grow."

When we arrived backat camp, Laila told Rain she wanted a spell done on each of us. One that would disguise our power so we weren't beacons for the life eaters. So they wouldn't be able to track us by our power, then hunt us down as they had last night. She still wanted us to be able to sense each other, which made the spell a bit more complicated, as Rain had to connect it to our entire group, but with Luci's help, it was done within the hour.

By the time she was done with it, the soldiers had already packed up all of our belongings. Ramona and Luci had even resurrected the girl who'd gone down in the battle. There was nothing left to do, it seemed; I thought we would continue on immediately.

Instead, we were all instructed to stay put. Jeremy, Laila, Connor, Naomi, and Luci went off into the woods together. Supposed they had to brief the others on what we had discovered.

The four of us waited in silence. There wasn't much to be said. We sat on the log, looked at the blood on the ground, and waited.

This didn't feel like the last war I fought. It was… easier. Less emotionally draining.

Today hadn't been a victory. Not really. We were attacked in our sleep by unknown assailants who so happened to be cannibals. Even after Graham's explanation on the flight here, I couldn't say that I was more afraid now than on the battlefields of France during the world war.

Perhaps because, when I looked around, I had no doubts. The blood on the ground did not belong to my friends. It was spilled righteously. And those people who were dead… I felt no sympathy for them.

It was an odd thing, because a month ago, when Warren had killed hundreds of people to practice his necromancy, I'd been torn. When Jeremy asked for my opinion on it, as a doctor, it was hard for me to fathom killing by the dozens without mercy. Death for experimentation.

But this was different. Our enemies were not people. Not really. And I understood the dangers of a sentiment like that. I knew how dangerous it was to dehumanize an enemy, but I wasn't doing that. They had done it to themselves.

I couldn't even say that it was about cannibalism. Cannibalism was not always morally wrong. In many cultures, it was righteous. Some people consumed their dead loved ones to honor them. Although it may not have been my custom, I could respect cultures different from my own.

What I couldn't respect, what I refused to dignify, was a selfish reason. These people were inarguably evil. Until now, I had never believed in infinite good and infinite bad. Life, in my eyes, was a million hues of gray. Even when someone did something horrible, even when they worked for a horrible organization, I could rationalize it. I could rationalize that people were often forced into situations they didn't want to be in.

But that wasn't the case here. It wasn't like the war I had fought before, where many of the soldiers I saw die were teenage boys, unaware of what their leader was even doing, conditioned by years of radical nationalism.

These people didn't age. Even if the ones I'd seen looked like they were in their thirties, they were probably several hundred years old. They had enough lived experience to develop good morals, and they chose not to. They chose to stand with an enemy, whether that enemy was the Angels or the air an tagadh.

They made the decision to be evil.

How could I sympathize with that?

Then suddenly, in the midst of my philosophizing, they appeared. Jeremy, Laila, Connor, and Naomi appeared.

I jolted two feet backwards.

After all these years, I should have been used to teleporters, but I was not.

"Alright, everyone," Naomi called. "Gather around. We're going to go over the plan."

Good thing, too, because I had questions.

The soldiers began filing in, forming a circle around their gods. We stayed sitting.

"We're getting a later start than I'd hoped," Laila said. "We'll still make it by nightfall, but our next stop isn't somewhere I particularly want to be after dark."

"Where is our next stop?" Graham asked. "You just said up north."

Jeremy pressed his lips together. "Makora."

Graham harrumphed. "Which is why you only told me up north."

In Graham's mind, I asked, What's Makora?

He waved me off.

"We know how they feel about us, so we know how you feel about them," Laila said. "But Caeda knows more about the life eaters than we do. And after what we discovered today, I think you'll agree. We need to talk to her."

Did that mean that Makora was a person? Or was Caeda the person?

"Caeda and I aren't very close," Iliantha said, "but we were once. That's why I've joined you all. Once I make the introductions, unless you all need me, I will return home. I do hope that she will give us the information we need about the life eaters, but if she does not, there could be a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Warren asked. "Like, another battle?"

"One we won't win," Jeremy said. "Makora is an Elvan city. Caeda is their queen. She's over a hundred years old, she is Elvan, and she uses the same magic the maalaichte cnihme do to retain her youth. Meaning she has the power of dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of people inside her. I imagine much of her army does, too."

"And she's not a threat." Laila's eyes glowed brighter than usual. A sort of mothering, don't argue with me expression took over, though it was blissfully not pointed at us. Only the soldiers that surrounded us. "I have a vague understanding of the history here. I know the Fae and the Elves don't get along like they used to. But we are not going there to wage war. We are asking for help. If she refuses to give it, then we will leave. We'll find our answers elsewhere. But no one, I repeat no one, draws a blade in her presence."

"Caeda is… a bit of an eccentric," Iliantha said. "She has a flair for drama. Even if something looks dangerous, I cannot see her genuinely hurting any of us. Even if when we arrive, a blade is put to mine or Laila's throat, you keep yours holstered. We don't hate one another. We are not here to start a war. But they will stand their ground, and we are their guests. We will behave as such."

A glance around proved the soldiers' disapproval. Most of their eyes were glowing, all of their jaws were clenched. Some of them were even cursing to themselves.

"And I don't want to hear any lip about it," Laila added. "Deal with it, or go home. I don't have time to argue."

"Mount your dragons," Connor said. He looked for Naomi to give the order.

"We leave in five."