Chapter 2: The Night the Dead Walked
1864 Words
Elyan ran until his lungs burned.
He didn't know where he was going.
There was nowhere left to go.
Briar Glen had always been his home. The only home he had ever known. Every road, every house, every field had been familiar to him since childhood.
Now the village looked like a place he had never seen before.
Smoke rolled between the houses.
The moon above was completely black.
And beneath his feet, something enormous moved underground.
Elyan stumbled through the square and nearly fell.
He caught himself against the wall of the old bakery.
A tremor passed through the ground.
Dust fell from the roof.
Then came another.
Stronger.
The bakery windows shattered.
Elyan covered his head.
"What is happening?"
A scream came from somewhere near the western side of the village.
Someone was alive.
Elyan immediately ran toward the sound.
He passed three burning houses before seeing a figure standing in the street.
For one terrible second, he thought it was one of the creatures.
Then the figure turned.
It was Mara Venn, the village healer.
She was covered in dirt and holding a small iron knife.
"Elyan!"
He ran toward her.
"Mara! Where is everyone?"
She grabbed his shoulders.
"Where were you?"
"The forest."
Her eyes widened.
"You went into the forest?"
"I heard something."
"You heard what?"
Elyan hesitated.
"The moon."
Mara's expression changed.
She looked toward the black sky.
"Oh, gods."
"What is happening?"
"There's no time."
"Where is everyone?"
"Some escaped. Others..."
She stopped.
Elyan understood.
His voice became quiet.
"Where is my house?"
Mara didn't answer.
Elyan turned.
His house stood at the northern edge of the village.
Or what remained of it.
The roof had collapsed.
Flames climbed through the windows.
His mother's old wooden chair was lying in the road.
Elyan stared at it.
For six years, he had kept that chair exactly where his mother had left it.
He had never allowed anyone to move it.
Now it was broken.
Something inside him went numb.
Mara stepped closer.
"Elyan..."
"Is there anyone inside?"
She looked away.
"Your house was empty."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"I checked."
Elyan's heart stopped.
"You checked?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Mara didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she reached inside her coat and pulled out a small object.
A necklace.
Silver.
A crescent moon surrounded by seven circles.
Elyan stared at it.
It was his mother's.
"Where did you get that?"
"Your mother gave it to me."
"When?"
Mara looked toward the forest.
"The night she disappeared."
Elyan's mind raced.
"You knew?"
Mara sighed.
"More than you should have."
"You knew my mother was alive?"
"No."
"You knew something about her."
"Yes."
"What?"
Before Mara could answer, a deep roar shook the village.
Both of them looked toward the eastern road.
Something was coming.
Mara grabbed Elyan's arm.
"Run."
They barely made it ten steps.
A creature emerged from the smoke.
It was much larger than the ones Elyan had seen in the forest.
Its body was covered in black armor-like plates.
Its head was shaped almost like a wolf's, except it had no eyes.
A vertical slit opened across its face.
Mara pushed Elyan behind her.
"Don't move."
The creature sniffed the air.
Its head turned toward Elyan.
Mara raised her knife.
"Come any closer and I'll—"
The creature roared.
Mara was thrown backward.
She struck the side of a house.
"Mara!"
Elyan ran toward her.
The creature charged.
Elyan turned.
Silver fire exploded from his hands.
The creature slammed into the flames and was thrown sideways.
It rolled across the street.
Elyan stared at his hands.
The silver fire returned.
This time it didn't disappear.
It crawled across his fingers like living light.
Mara struggled to stand.
"Elyan!"
He looked at her.
"How am I doing this?"
"You're not doing it."
"What?"
"The Moonfire is."
"What is Moonfire?"
"We need to leave."
The creature stood.
Mara grabbed Elyan's arm.
"Now."
They ran.
They escaped through a narrow path behind the village church.
Elyan glanced over his shoulder.
More creatures were entering the village.
Some crawled on four legs.
Others walked like men.
Some had wings.
All of them were moving toward the center of Briar Glen.
Toward the cracks in the ground.
Mara pulled him toward the forest.
"No."
Elyan stopped.
"The forest is where this started."
"The forest is safer than the village."
"How?"
"Because they are not looking for you there."
Elyan stared at her.
"They are literally following me."
Mara turned.
"They aren't hunting you."
"Then what are they doing?"
She looked at the silver mark on his arm.
"They're protecting you."
Elyan stared at her.
"From what?"
Mara's face became pale.
"The thing beneath us."
The ground shook again.
This time, the tremor was powerful enough to knock them both down.
A sound came from beneath the earth.
It sounded like a gigantic heartbeat.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Elyan felt each pulse beneath his feet.
Mara whispered:
"He's waking."
"Who?"
"The Moon King."
They reached a small stone cottage hidden among the trees.
Mara unlocked the door.
Inside was a single room filled with books, herbs, candles, and strange objects.
Elyan had visited the cottage many times as a child.
He had always thought it was simply the home of an old healer.
Now he noticed the symbols carved into the walls.
The same symbols from the stone in the forest.
"You knew."
Mara closed the door.
"I knew enough."
"Tell me everything."
She hesitated.
"Elyan—"
"Tell me!"
His voice echoed through the room.
He immediately regretted shouting.
But he was tired of being lied to.
His mother had hidden things.
Mara had hidden things.
Everyone seemed to know something about him except him.
Mara sat down.
"Your mother belonged to an ancient order."
"The Moonbound."
"Yes."
"What were they?"
"Guardians."
"Guardians of what?"
"The boundary between worlds."
Elyan frowned.
"Worlds?"
Mara nodded.
"There are places in this world where magic is thin. Places where the physical world touches something older."
"What is on the other side?"
"Something humans were never meant to see."
Elyan remembered the vision from the stone.
The burning city.
The silver-eyed man.
The seven rulers.
"What is Nymor?"
Mara became completely still.
"Where did you hear that name?"
"The stone showed it to me."
She stood.
"You touched the stone?"
"Yes."
Mara closed her eyes.
"Then it's already too late."
"What does that mean?"
"The stone was a seal."
Elyan looked at his arm.
"The Moonfire woke it."
"No."
Mara shook her head.
"You woke the Moonfire."
Silence.
Elyan sat down.
"Why me?"
Mara stared at him.
"Because your mother was a Moonbound."
"You said that."
"She wasn't just a Moonbound."
Mara walked toward an old wooden chest.
She unlocked it.
Inside were dozens of documents.
Maps.
Letters.
Photographs painted on thin sheets of enchanted paper.
Mara pulled out one image.
Elyan took it.
It showed a young woman standing beside a man.
His mother.
And beside her was another person.
A man with silver eyes.
Elyan's breath caught.
"Who is he?"
Mara didn't answer.
"You know him."
She nodded.
"His name was Aethron."
"The Moon King?"
"Yes."
Elyan looked at the image again.
His mother wasn't standing before him as an enemy.
She was standing beside him.
They looked like allies.
Almost friends.
"Why was my mother with him?"
Mara's voice was barely audible.
"Because she believed he was innocent."
Elyan looked up.
"What?"
Mara turned away.
"The history you were taught is wrong."
Before Elyan could ask another question, something struck the cottage door.
Boom.
The entire building shook.
Mara extinguished the candles.
"Stay here."
Another impact.
The door cracked.
Elyan stood.
"How many?"
"Too many."
She picked up a long wooden staff.
"I need you to listen to me."
"What?"
"If the door breaks, do not use the Moonfire."
"Why?"
"Because they will feel it."
"Who?"
"The ones beneath the village."
Elyan looked toward the door.
A claw pierced through the wood.
Mara whispered:
"They're coming for you."
The door exploded inward.
Three creatures entered.
Mara raised her staff.
A circle of blue light appeared around her.
The creatures stopped.
Elyan stared.
"You can use magic."
"I can do many things."
The creatures attacked.
Mara swung her staff.
The blue circle expanded.
The creatures were thrown backward.
But more appeared outside.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty.
Mara looked at Elyan.
"There's another way out."
"Where?"
She pointed toward the floor.
Elyan stared.
A symbol was carved into the wooden boards.
A crescent moon.
Mara pressed her hand against it.
The floor opened.
A staircase descended into darkness.
"Go."
"What about you?"
"I'll follow."
Another creature entered.
Mara raised her staff.
"Go!"
Elyan descended.
The staircase seemed impossibly long.
The deeper Elyan went, the colder it became.
He could hear fighting above.
Then silence.
"Mara?"
No response.
"Mara!"
Still nothing.
Elyan continued downward.
The staircase eventually ended in a stone corridor.
Ancient symbols covered the walls.
He walked forward.
Then he heard something.
Water.
A river was flowing beneath the earth.
Elyan followed the sound until the corridor opened into an enormous underground chamber.
A black river crossed the cavern.
On the opposite side stood a massive stone gate.
It was covered in seven circles.
Elyan approached.
The silver mark on his arm began glowing.
The gate responded.
One of the seven circles lit up.
Then another.
Then another.
Elyan stepped backward.
"No."
Six circles illuminated.
Only one remained dark.
A voice came from behind him.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Elyan turned.
A girl stood in the shadows.
She appeared to be around his age.
Long dark hair.
Green eyes.
A black cloak covered her shoulders.
A silver dagger hung at her waist.
She looked at the gate.
Then at Elyan.
Then at the mark on his arm.
Her expression changed.
"You're him."
Elyan tightened his fists.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Lyra Ashborne."
"How do you know me?"
"I've been looking for you."
"Why?"
Lyra glanced toward the gate.
"Because if you opened that gate..."
She paused.
"...the world would end."
A deep sound echoed through the cavern.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The final circle on the gate began glowing.
Lyra's eyes widened.
"No."
Elyan looked at the gate.
"What?"
She stepped backward.
"The seal is breaking."
The stone gate began to move.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Something enormous breathed on the other side.
Elyan whispered:
"What is behind it?"
Lyra looked at him.
"An entire kingdom."
The gate opened another inch.
A cold wind swept through the cavern.
And from somewhere beyond the darkness came a voice.
A man's voice.
The same voice Elyan had heard beneath the black moon.
"Moonbound..."
The gate opened wider.
"...I have been waiting for you."
Elyan stared into the darkness.
Lyra grabbed his arm.
"We have to go."
But Elyan couldn't move.
Because somewhere beyond the gate, beneath a thousand years of darkness, he heard another voice.
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Familiar.
His mother's voice.
"Elyan."
His heart stopped.
"Please..."
The voice trembled.
"...don't let him out."
The gate continued opening.
And for the first time in a thousand years, the kingdom of Nymor began to breathe.
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