The orb sat there. Waiting.
"We can't leave it here," Eris rasped. His throat still burned as he forced himself upright. The silver power in his body responded to the sphere, pulling his attention toward it. He took one step forward and reached for it.
"Don't," Dara barked, shoving him back with her forearm.
Eris stopped. The Voice's final words still occupied his thoughts. He didn't know what the orb was, who had left it, or why it had spoken to him. He only knew something inside him wanted to take it.
Barik, still recovering from the Gate's influence, watched the exchange. "What? No…"
Barny looked at Barik, shifting his ears. The mule snorted, stepping away from the warrior's sudden mumbling.
Dara stepped past Eris. If the orb was dangerous, leaving it behind wasn't an option. She reached down.
Her glove had barely touched the orb when a sharp hiss cut through the cavern. She extended her gloved hand toward the dark, glazed surface.
Smoke burst from beneath her palm. Dara jerked the injured hand away. Grey vapor curled from the leather. The glove had begun to smolder.
Eris gave her a questioning look, his slitted silver eyes tracking her retreat. Dara didn't explain. She set her jaw, maintaining her posture as the leader in the cavern.
"What…" Barik stammered from the floor, his eyes darting between the smoking stone and the group. "What is that thing?"
Dara ignored him. The Voice had spoken to her, too. She hadn't understood its meaning, but she had understood the challenge.
The orb had rejected her.
Before anyone could say more, Kaylah darted between Eris and the threshold. Her bare hand clamped directly around the glass surface of the sphere.
There was no smoke. No hiss. The orb remained perfectly still in her palm.
Kaylah gasped, shoving the cold sphere deep into her tunic pocket. The proximity to the object made her spine go rigid. A sharp heat flared at her nape, but she ignored it.
Eris shifted his gaze to her, trying to process the two different reactions.
"Kaylah!" Dara snapped, her sword tip dropping as she lunged forward to grab her shoulder. Her voice carried a trace of internal strain. "Why did you take that thing?"
"I… I don't know," Kaylah stammered, her knuckles white as she clutched her clothes tightly against her chest. "I just did. My hands just moved on their own."
"If the creepy eyeball likes her better, I say we don't argue with it," Barik grunted, his voice rough as he shifted his weight. He cast a wary glance at the dark void of the Gate, then at the smoking patch of stone.
"Fine," Dara spat. She lowered her blade but kept her hand on the hilt. "Keep it sealed. If it so much as hums, throw it into the ravine. Move!"
"We can't go back," Barik's rough voice cut through the dark from the front of the draft team. The iron chains of the harness rattled as he shifted his weight. "Behind us is Ful's army, there's the Gate at the front, and the Brier is crawling over the exit. If we stay here...."
"Move the horses," Dara felt for the nearest bridle. "We clear the bottleneck first. Get the cart into the wider passage."
The group moved the cart fifty paces back.
"Eris, lead the way. We have to move from this archway before it changes its mind."
Kaylah pressed her hand firmly over her tunic pocket, locking eyes with Eris through the dimness. Her expression was clear: the threshold was dead, the object was secured, and they needed to move.
Eris understood. He stepped to the front of the line, his thoughts clear. He did not hesitate.
Open, he commanded. Take us out. Far from the Gate. Out of this forest.
The Brier reacted.
Thick vines withdrew. Roots pulled away from stone. The walls parted with a long, grinding creak. A passage opened ahead, sloping up. It did not lead back toward the Gate.
The Brier continued to move, clearing the way as the path stretched deeper into the forest. The walls formed a tight tunnel around them, leaving enough room for the cart and the draft horses to pass.
Before the group took their first step, Jag let out a low, heavy whine that rattled through the cavern. The alpha wolf lowered her hackles, but she was not watching the dark tunnels. She looked back at the Gate, tilted her head before turning her attention to the group. Yellow eyes moved between Eris, Kaylah, and the pocket where the sphere was hidden.
As Barik snapped the reins and the stallion threw its weight into the harness, the Gate gave its final farewell. A sound drifted through the cavern. Bright laughter of a child mixed with a soft melody. It did not echo off stone. It vibrated inside the skulls of the children huddled under the canvas. Within half a breath, the melody put them all to sleep, forcing them to forget what had just happened.
The melody faded behind them.
No one spoke.
They did not look back. The path remained dark; the light that had emerged before was an illusion to guide them toward the Gate.
Eris did not rush forward. He walked at the front of the group, his shoulders tense. Both of his pupils narrowed into silver vertical slits. The Serpent's Eye strained through the darkness ahead, checking the layers of thorn, root, stone, and shadow. He saw the layers clearly, including the spaces between and underneath them. Every gap looked like a threat.
Behind him, the cart rolled over the uneven ground. The draft horses kept their heads low as they pulled. Barny followed with his ears turned toward every sound.
The passage twisted.
Eris slowed.
A mass of roots blocked part of the path. He studied them through the Serpent's Eye.
They were dead.
He moved on; turned left and right where live roots and vines could be shifted.
"Anything?" Dara asked from behind.
"Nothing," Eris said.
Further back, Barik let out a tired breath. "That is not the answer I wanted."
Eris looked back over his shoulder. His body looked relaxed even though it was dark. "What answer did you want?"
"I wanted you to say nothing is waiting for us," Barik said. He sounded worried.
The corridor was quiet for a moment.
Eris looked ahead at the trail again, his tone completely flat. "Nothing is waiting for us."
"Really?" Barik asked. He sounded a little hopeful.
"No."
"What I really want to hear is something else."
"Something else," Eris said immediately.
"Idiot," Dara said. She felt a little better. Beside her, Kaylah smiled. Barny huffed, sounding amused.
Barik sighed and snapped the reins.
Eris continued walking. "Follow my boots."
"Why?"
"I'm the only one who can see where we're going," Eris retorted.
The forest had already shown them it could lie.
He would not trust another path simply because it appeared before him.
The cart creaked behind Eris, its rhythm matching the sound of his boots. The group watched the vines with wary eyes.
Barny appeared unimpressed. He plodded behind the cart, his ears shifting from side to side. Every few steps, he stopped to sniff the ground.
Barik looked over his shoulder. "Keep moving."
Barny stared at him, sniffed, and resumed his steady walk.
For several minutes, no one spoke. The farther they traveled, the weaker the Gate's presence became in Eris's senses. Slowly, the pressure in his palm faded, and the phantom pull in his Frost-Lace weakened until it was a dull sensation beneath his skin.
They fled through the tunnel, the heavy clatter of iron horseshoes against stone the only sound overriding the children's rhythmic humming.
Then, a sudden sound cut through the march.
Kaylah took two more uncoordinated steps before her knees buckled. Her body struck the gravel. She remained on the ground, breathing hard, her arms shaking beneath her weight. The orb in her pocket had broken her endurance. Her breath came in short hitches as she remained pinned to the stone, unable to lift herself.
The heat had begun at the nape of her neck—a small, sharp sensation at first. Now it had spread across the mark, reaching toward her shoulders.
Kaylah clenched her teeth, trying to mask the agony.
Up ahead, Eris caught the sudden shift in their rhythm and stopped, turning his slitted gaze toward them. "Kaylah? Dara? What happened?"
The group nearly walked into him as he turned.
"Keep moving, Eris," Kaylah called out, forcing her head up. "It's nothing."
Dara moved back by touch alone in the dark corridor. "What's wrong?" she asked quickly.
"Nothing."
Dara didn't believe her. They were still kneeling when the cart nearly bumped into them.
"Hey, why did you stop?" Barik asked, surprised.
"A minute." Guided by the sound of Kaylah's ragged breathing, Dara knelt and reached out until her fingers found the girl's shoulder. She slid her hand up to the back of Kaylah's neck to help her up, but as her fingers slipped beneath the collar of the tunic, Dara froze. Even through the leather of her glove, the skin at the nape of Kaylah's neck felt hot enough to scald.
"It was the torch. 'Touched my skin when I lit it," Kaylah lied. "We can look once we're out."
"Can you stand?" Dara asked, her voice dropping into a harsh whisper. She forced her shock down, quickly pulling Kaylah's collar back up. "Get into the cart. Now."
"I can walk. The cart shouldn't take any more load," Kaylah muttered weakly. She forced herself upright with Dara's assistance.
"Kaylah…" Eris called back, unable to move backward in the narrow path.
"Keep pushing, Eris," Dara shouted ahead. "We just tripped here." She lied to keep Eris from worrying.
Kaylah pushed herself up. Her legs trembled.
Dara caught her arm before she fell again. "Lean on me."
Kaylah nodded.
Eris was worried, not just for Kaylah but for all of them. He was not sure how long he could maintain the Serpent's Eye. And the Brier. The control was slowly fading. When the two walked again, he turned back to the trail and immediately pressed on.
"Stay close."
The forest grew quieter. The black vines no longer pressed against the corridor. They had withdrawn several paces from the path, leaving a clear stretch of stone between them and the convoy.
Even so, Eris knew they were there. He felt every movement. The Brier was aware of him, and he was aware of the Brier.
He did not lower his guard. The Brier had opened the path for them.
That did not mean it had released them.
They had left the Gate behind, but none of them knew how far they had traveled from it.
The Brier had enclosed the path in darkness. No sunlight reached through the dense canopy of black vines. There was no sky to follow, no familiar landmark, and no way to judge how much time had passed.
Barik glanced back.
The corridor behind them had already disappeared into the dark.
"How far do you think we've gone?" he asked.
Dara did not answer immediately.
"Far enough," she said at last. "Keep moving."
It was not an answer.
"Eris?" Barik called out.
Eris said nothing.
The forest stole their sense of direction. Eris could only navigate with his silver, vertical pupils, but the shadows ahead always ended in a wall of blackness.
Determined to find a way out, he forced his gaze deeper, straining until the veins in his temples throbbed.
For a moment, his vision pierced the dark. He glimpsed the sharp contours of distant boulders and the deep bends of the path ahead. Then pain spiked behind his brow. His eyes watered, and the strain blurred his vision with dark spots. He dropped his gaze to the dirt.
Unable to see the turns ahead, he relied on the heavy, shifting pressure in his veins, steering the convoy toward where the mountain's weight felt lightest. His left palm remained numb from the energy he had taken from the Brier, and the orb in Kaylah's pocket continued to pull at his blood.
He focused on the trail, waiting for his vision to clear. Some paths led to dead ends, forcing him to command the black roots to uncoil.
After winding through the path, his sight finally settled. A change appeared in the darkness ahead. He sharpened his gaze, looking past the thorny vines and the boulders obstructing their way.
Ten paces. Twenty. A few more to the right. The forest can't lie this time.
"I see the exit," Eris called out.
"Where?" Barik craned his neck to look at the path ahead. Nothing. "Eris, I'm too tired for your lousy jokes."
"I thought you'd be happy to hear the good news. It's right ahead."
"Is it real?" Dara interjected.
"A few paces more, and we're out."
The group walked faster when they realized it was true.
Even Barny understood. The mule gave a cautious, nasal bray.
Barik looked back at him.
Barny let out a low neigh, too close. Spit nearly hit Barik's head.
Barik wiped it and muttered, "Great! And it's raining outside."
"What?" Dara asked, puzzled.
It took only a few more breaths before the Brier gave a final crack and parted the last wall of vines.
A sharp line of daylight cut through the darkness ahead. A rush of cold wind swept through the tunnel, washing away the sour stench of the rotting valley. With the wind came a familiar scent that made Eris's muscles relax.
"It's the flowers," Kaylah said behind him.
A dense field of blue nightblooms swayed in the mountain breeze, clustered thick at the mouth of the forest. A living barrier. The Brier stopped where they started.
The black stallion lunged forward, pulling the cart clear of the mouth.
For the first time in hours, they could breathe. Eris exhaled as the burn in his eyes faded to a dull ache.
Barik pushed past him. "Out of the way."
"Look at that grass," he breathed, wiping grime from his face. "After that tunnel, this is bliss."
Eris and Kaylah stepped aside. Barik stared at the sky, confusion widening his eyes.
Dara came out next, turning in a slow circle to study the slopes.
"Eris," she said, jaw tightening. "How long were we in there?"
Eris's brows furrowed. When they had entered the Brier, the sun had been pinned directly overhead. With the long trek inside, he had expected to walk out into afternoon.
Barik stared at the midday sky, then let out a short, quiet laugh. It was a rough, uncoordinated sound born from sheer confusion. The others followed.
"Wait, wasn't it raining earlier?" Barik asked, more confused about the weather than the shift in time.
Eris stayed near the exit until everyone had cleared the tunnel. Jag stood beside him, while the hounds followed the wolf pack out into the open.
Behind them, the Brier wall where they had exited was already sealed. No crack. No seam. As if it had never opened.
In Kaylah's pocket, the orb went cold. Not warm. Cold. Like it didn't want to be seen.
Barny let out a long, shuddering bray and shook out his heavy coat. Then he saw the grass.
Fresh. Green. Alive.
He broke into a clumsy run toward the valley. The moment his hooves crossed the blue-flower boundary, he stopped.
He let out a wheezing grunt and collapsed. He didn't sit. He splayed all four legs flat against the ground.
Chin in the lush grass. Eyes closed.
The sudden stop jerked the harness chains and jolted the cart. The stallion lurched. The children under the canvas pulled back the blankets and peeked out. Confusion turned to relief when they saw they were no longer inside the forest.
Barik nearly tripped over the hitch, his face flushing.
He stomped to the side of the splayed mule, boot hovering.
"Get up, you miserable sack of grain!" he growled. He had always sworn the beast ridiculed him when his back was turned. This felt personal.
Barny didn't blink. He let out a slow sigh and ignored him.
The children stared. One began to laugh. The sound spread until Kaylah covered her mouth.
"Hold your foot, Barik," Dara ordered, stepping between them. She didn't look at him. Her vanguard gaze fixed on the mule, on the overly deliberate angle of his ears. Every instinct told her this was not standard beast behavior.
"The beast isn't moving," Dara said loudly, playing along. "Unhitch him. Push him back into the Brier and leave him there."
The mood changed instantly. Barny scrambled to his feet, stood straight, and walked briskly toward the trail as if nothing had happened.
Barik rubbed the bridge of his nose hard. "Something is wrong with this mule."
Before the standoff could continue, Jag stiffened.
The alpha wolf let out a low, vibrating growl. Fur stood straight up along her spine as she turned toward the rocky defile ahead. She stepped between the pups' scent and the ridge. Guarding.
Eris's pupils snapped to slits. His eye pulsed, still raw from the silver command.
"Where are we?" Dara asked, hand on her dagger, seeing him freeze. "What is it?"
"People," Eris murmured, voice dropping. "Ahead. Just over the ridge."
***