Chapter 32

CHAPTER32

She would never forget the words when they came.

“Lore?” Zephyr had said, poking his head into her room. “They’ve agreed to fight.”

She had no idea what had brought about that swift change in opinion. Perhaps Zephyr had done an amazing job of convincing them. He was their rightful heir to the throne, and perhaps they thought there was some bit of control they could grasp. Or maybe it was the magician, famed and powerful, who had once ruled the kingdom at the side of Zander and Zander’s father. The man who now sat with Lore while watching all the mortals with disapproving eyes.

A magician who had been surprisingly kind throughout his stay here. He’d not even flinched when the Ashen Deep pressed grimdags to his throat and threatened him for the truth of why he was here.

Shockingly, he told them everything.

Lindon had never been a liar, he claimed. He’d told the king all that he wanted, and all that he planned on doing. Both of the kings he’d served under enjoyed his ideas and wanted to see him put this kingdom on its knees.

And when he’d explained why he’d done it, how the power had consumed the good man he once was and he was all too comfortable to bend to it, his eyes had watched Lore. As though he knew what the power could do to her. What she could feel underneath her skin every time she used it.

But Lore was not Lindon. She could feel the compulsion to take. How the frustration rolled in her belly and up into her heart because she knew she could end this at any time if she so wished. But this was not entirely her battle. It wasn’t a war meant to be fought by a goddess, who then took what she was owed.

And Lore would. She had no interest in giving up what she’d won for herself. Thus, the fight had to be battled by human and creature alike. They needed to work through their issues with each other, or this would never stop without the hard hand of a powerful goddess guiding them.

She did not want to remain here for long. They would not trap her in this position when she did not desire it.

Now, they needed a place to put everyone. At first, it had only been a few dwarves who showed up because Algor had requested their assistance. The Ashen Deep had very quickly told Lore that this was unacceptable. There would be no dwarves in their hallowed halls.

Then a handful of humans approached, also told to stay out in the cold forest because the deepmongers refused to provide any other suitable housing for them. This issue quickly grew out of hand.

Now, there were people pouring in from all areas of the kingdom. Zephyr and his people had attempted to build temporary housing, but the Ashen Deep refused to allow any tree to be cut. This meant they could only build with materials that the Ashen Deep had on hand, which were few and far between. Most materials were made of metal and stone.

Thankfully, the dwarves had some experience with this material. But the human builders wanted nothing to do with the dwarves, and now the arguing was giving Lore a headache.

Lindon stood next to her, his hands on the knotted pommel of a staff he’d brought with him and used like a cane. “How long are you going to let them struggle with this?”

“As long as I need to. They have made it very clear my intervention is not welcome.” Lore pointed at the gathering of humans, one of whom was the Baron with the loud voice and mistrustful eyes. “In fact, I believe I was told that dark magic has no place in human dwellings.”

“Dark magic,” he snorted. “Is that what they think your power is?”

“That is what they believe all magic to be. It is why there has been so much struggle for so many years now.” Lore shrugged. “If they want to waste their time and energy building tiny shacks for their people, which will certainly not be welcomed with smiles and thanks, then they can waste that time.”

“Or, you could stop this foolishness now and provide them with a safe place to hide.” Lindon arched his brow and met her surprised stare. “You don’t have to make everything difficult for them simply because they do not worship at your altar.”

“And they do not have to deny me as though I do not exist.” Lore wanted to argue more with him, but she also knew he was right. She could make this easier on all of them. She could keep them safe in the night and keep their family warm.

The worst part was that a man like this was telling her to do so. Lindon had committed worse crimes than her standing here and making them work before her. She hated that he was the one who called her to task for such a thing.

Huffing out an angry breath, she glared at him. “You are supposed to be evil.”

“Yes, I’m certain your dragon still thinks that, and he has good reason to.” Lindon squinted off into the distance as though he could see the sky from their shadowy position. “But not everyone with dark magic is evil, just as not everyone with light magic is good. Besides, aren’t we all old enough now to realize evil and good are just a matter of perspective?”

“Gah. Old man, go away from me.”

“Only if you agree to help those poor sods who are breaking their backs while dwarves laugh at them.” He pointed in the direction of the newest house, currently surrounded by swearing humans and snickering magical creatures. “You’ll lose your army before you even build it.”

“I don’t like it when you’re right,” she muttered. “It’s downright disheartening.”

“Helpful, you mean.”

“Disturbing.” She winked at him. “The last person I want to get advice from is a man who quite possibly destroyed an entire kingdom with magic he should not have had.”

“Magic that you now understand,” he murmured. A shadow crossed in front of his eyes. “And should you need to speak of it...”

His words trailed off, but she knew what he offered, and she was grateful. “I will find you, Lindon. Should it come to that.”

It wouldn’t. It couldn’t. She would never let this power corrupt her, even though it was a great amount of it. She could always feel it, whispering in her mind about how much she could do and change. But that wasn’t her place. She wasn’t actually a goddess of old, or if she had become one, then she was so new at all this. Lore didn’t know what was acceptable or fair or what was even right. This was not the first time she would make decisions for the whole of a kingdom.

Still, Lindon was correct that she needed to intervene. Her people, her soldiers, were taxing themselves with undo cause and damn the Baron, who already sneered at her as she drew closer.

“The goddess approaches,” he said, his voice little more than a rasp of hatred. “Are we too loud for you, m’lady?”

She’d had just about enough of him. “Silence, Baron, or I will weave your lips together permanently so that I no longer need to listen to your childish prattling.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

She lifted a hand and grinned as he flinched. So he was not entirely foolish. At least he thought she had the power to do it, even if he laughed in the face of that fear.

Looking around, she caught the eye of the Matriarch and called out, “Do you mind if I borrow a bit of your forest for a time? I’ll make certain that it’s returned to its previous state once we all leave.”

“Please.” The Matriarch’s hand went to her temple, a subtle nod that even she was growing tired of the sounds of hammering and men arguing.

Good.

Lore lifted her hands and drew them together in complicated patterns that lifted the stones and metal all together. They rolled toward her, shaping into a new form, squishing and stretching until a small stone hut stood before her with a metal roof. Moss grew on the top and twigs poked out from the single window, looking very much like a completely and utterly abandoned building.

The Baron snorted. “This is what you provide us? The great Lady of Starlight, the Fallen Star the dwarves keep prattling on about? A hut?”

She gave him an unimpressed look before Algor suddenly popped up beside her.

“It ought to be fine enough for the likes of you,” the dwarf grumbled. “I’ve seen your human homes before and the states of them. This is better than what some of you live in.”

“I live in a manor, you little—”

Lore stepped in between them, her hand raised in something like a claw. “What did I say about your words, Baron? If I need to pluck out your tongue on top of sewing your mouth shut, I will.”

He silenced himself, though his ugly face turned red with the effort.

Turning around on her heel, she tried to split her face into a believing smile as she gestured at the hut for Algor. “Would you like to inspect it first, honored guest and king of the dwarves?”

Algor inclined his head, though there was a question in his eyes as he straightened. “Is it safe?”

“Safe?” The Baron choked, but then he ground his teeth so hard Lore could hear them.

At least he was still quiet.

“Yes,” Lore replied. “It’s quite safe, and I believe there will be enough for everyone.”

“Everyone?”

She grinned at the curiosity that burned in his eyes. He hadn’t seen much of her magic just yet, and Lore had enjoyed using it freely as of late. “Everyone. The dwarves. The humans. All the creatures that will surely come and join us because the guilt will gnaw at them and they will miss their neighbors. Even the mortals that we will save from Margaret’s camps. They will all come here until we are ready to fight.”

With a bushy, red brow lifted, Algor walked through the thin leather curtain that served as a front door and then... silence. Nothing.

Lore waited with her arms crossed over her chest, amused as the whispers started up among the dwarves. Where had he gone? What had the Fallen Star created? Surely it did not take such a long time to inspect a little hut?

Even the humans started to get a little nervous, their whispers floating through the air. Had she killed him? Did she think there wasn’t any more use for the dwarves? Was this a warning for them all to work harder, quicker, better?

And then Algor burst out of the door. His loud voice rose into laughter as he wheezed. Sweat streaked his brow and true joy filled his being near to bursting.

“My king?” A dwarf stepped forward and allowed Algor to lean against him. “Are you well?”

“Well?” Algor clapped his hands hard on the other dwarf’s shoulders and shook him. “Well? How could I not be? You must see what she has done! I’ve never seen the likes of it before, brother. This is... is... remarkable!”

The dwarves were quick to move then. They all darted toward the hut as one, their trust in her intertwining with a curiosity that always lived in their kind. And she saw Goliath in them. She saw her dearest friend who always leapt head first into adventure, no matter how dangerous it was.

As expected, the humans still eyed her with suspicion. Until she gestured for them to walk through as well, and that was enough.

Beauty’s father was the first to walk through the doors, then the Baron, who straightened his shoulders as though going to battle. More and more people until the clearing was no one but her, Beauty, Zephyr, and Lindon. Standing and staring at the hut.

Lore kept her arms crossed over her chest, a pleased expression on her face as her friends tried to figure out what she’d done.

“Is it...” Beauty cleared her throat. “A portal?”

“No.”

Zephyr leaned against her, his breathing rapid just from standing. “Is it larger on the inside? Like a magic tent?”

“No,” she said with a smile.

It was Lindon who hissed out an impressed breath. “You created a new world, didn’t you?”

“Hm.” She lifted a hand and pinched her fingers together. “Not quite a world. Just a bubble, if you will. It’s enough space for us all to hide while Margaret tries to figure out what happened to her humans and all the rest of the people who will come to fight with us.”

“What makes you so certain they will come?” Zephyr asked.

Lore wrapped an arm around him and tugged him even closer to her side. “Because the people of Umbra are good, at their very core. And they will know to come to us because it is what is right.”

She did not look back at Lindon, who trailed along behind them, fear radiating through his entire form. She knew what she had done was not usually accepted in magic. Creating a new world, even the smallest one, was a dangerous practice indeed. If she could create one, then she could create many hidden pockets all over the realm where she could hide forever.

Such dangerous games were bound to make anyone nervous. Anyone who knew what that power could do.

Keeping her eyes away from even the Matriarch, she walked through the door and into the sunlight.

Beyond the hut was a giant beach. With cliffs on the right side, hidden caverns there perfect for the dwarves. She’d built their homes into the sides of the cliff, making sure there were all the amenities and comforts she remembered from her time there. The humans had small cabins to the left that rose on emerald hills, stretching on for as long as the eye could see.

Some people had already started to explore, but Algor, Beauty’s father, and the Baron stood waiting for her. They all watched her with no small amount of awe as she released her hold on Zephyr’s shoulders and approached them.

“Well?” she asked. “Will this suffice?”

The Baron grumbled under his breath, but it was Algor who bowed low and deep. “We are lucky to have a goddess on our side, Fallen Star. Thank you for our new and temporary homes while we prepare to save the humans who have been enslaved by the dark and dangerous woman who sits on the Umbral Throne.”

Lore grinned at him, and then nodded. “Shall we plan for that, then? I believe there’s enough room for everyone now. And I would like to steal back what Margaret has taken.”