The hunt had not come to kill, it had come to test. And before the night ended, Kael would learn what price the Vale demanded for his mother's blood.
The fight raged on for what seemed like eternity, Kael and Rayne, exhausted struggling with each strike they received. With backs pressed against each other Rayne called once again on the old flames, latching them to Veindrinker. And in that instant the fighting stopped. With voices that sounded more like shrieks the riders exclaimed:
"Blood of the Hollow... heir of the Ashen... the bond will rule."
The riders dissolved back into the mist as suddenly as they had come, leaving only scorched earth and the echo of horns fading into the night. Kael staggered back from the altar, Veindrinker still hot in his hand, his chest burning where the mark on his collarbone still pulsed like a second heartbeat.
Rayne lowered her hands slowly, fire dying along her fingertips. she was pale, her cloak scorched but her eyes were steady. "They didn't finish the Hunt."
"Why stop?" Kael asked as he wiped the blood from his blade.
"Because the Vale is not done with you."
The wind shifted, carrying with it whispers that seemed to bleed out from the stones themselves. Not a language at first, just a sound like breath through hollow bone. Then the words took shape.
Ashen blood, betrayed and bound... the throne will break, the bond will bind.
Kael froze, the voice was not the same as the one that haunted his dreams but it carried the same cold weight.
Rayne's eyes darted to him. "You heard it too."
He gave a short nod and asked, "what does it mean?"
She turned her gaze back to the altar, the split crown carved deep into its surface. "It means your mother carried more than a crown. And whatever she left behind, the Vale wants you to claim it."
Another whisper cut through the night, this time closer, curling around Kael's ear like a secret meant for only him.
The Hollow Queen waits where the roots bleed red.
The trees shivered as the whispers faded.
Rayne's voice was tight now. "We have to move. If the Vale is stirring the Ashen, then every oathbound creature in this forest will be looking for us,"
Kael glanced once more at the altar before following her deeper into the shadows, but the words would not leave him.
The Hollow Queen waits...
They left the altar behind, the whispers still threading through the air like cobwebs. The path narrowed once again to a jagged ravine where roots hung like ropes over frozen stone.
Rayne moved quickly, the light from her torch bouncing of slick walls. "The Ashen Court once ruled here, their power bled into the soil. That's why the Vale remembers," she said. Her voice hushed as though she was afraid the stones might hear her.
Kael followed close, Veindrinker drawn. "You sound like you've been here before."
Her shoulder tensed. "Once. Long ago when I was a child."
The air grew colder as they descended. Black moss glistened against rocks, pulsing faintly like veins beneath skin. The deeper they went, the stronger the burn at Kael's collarbone became until each breath came shallow and tight.
The ravine opened suddenly into a cavern. Inside, broken thrones carved from bone circled a hollow pit. Some were shattered, others scarred by claw marks as if beast had once torn at their stone. Runes crawled along the floor glowing faint red.
Kael stopped at the edge. "This was a court."
Rayne nodded. "The Ashen Court. Their whispers still haunt this place."
As if summoned by her words, the pit stirred. Cold wind burst upward, carrying fragments of voices overlapping and sharp.
"Oath breaker, Crown thief, Child of Hollow blood..."
Kael staggered as the words cut into him, the mark on his chest flared like molten iron.
Rayne grabbed his arm, steadying him. "The Vale is pulling at your bloodline, don't listen too long else it will break you."
Kael clenched his jaw forcing the pain down. "That's if I don't break it first."
Rayne's eyes flickered towards the pit. "Don't be so sure."
Because something inside the hollow was waking. The wind from the pit grew stronger carrying the stench of ash and something older. It reeked of iron, blood and rot.
Kael braced himself against the edge, Veindrinker humming faintly in his grip as the runes on the cavern floor flared brighter, pulsing in rhythm with the mark across his collarbone. Rayne stepped back, her daggers already drawn with blue fire dancing along its blade.
"It's not just whispers anymore, something is rising."
The pit cracked open. Roots tore apart as a figure clawed its way upward, tall, skeletal, its body wrapped in tatters of royal robes. Its crown was broken, its face hidden behind a mask of bone, hollow eyes burned with red flame.
Rayne's breath caught. "One of the Ashen Kings."
The creature lifted its head slowly. When it spoke, its voice was a chorus of echoes, each one dripping with venom:
"Blood of my blood. You dare walk my hall?"
Kael's pulse thundered. His knuckles whitened around Veindrinker's hilt. "I walk where I must."
The Ashen King's hollow laughter shook the cavern walls.
"Then you walk towards chains you cannot break"
The floor split as more skeletal thrones groaned, cracks crawling through the stones like veins. The entire chamber seemed ready to collapse under the weight of what stirred beneath it.
Rayne's hand tightened around his arm. "Kael, we can't fight this. Not here!!"
But the Ashen King was already stepping free of the pit, each stride crackling the earth, each word making the air tremble.
"The Vale remembers... and now, so will you."
The cavern doors slammed shut behind them. There would be no escape.