The Trials of Ildarwood: Spectres of the Fall Read online

  “So what’d they do this time?” Tannus asked upon arrival, staring down into the well with his best friend.

  “They asked if I ever planned on comin’ back,” Dustane replied.

  “Oh . . . well, you think they might actually want you to?”

  “Nope. They made sure I knew how much happier they’d be if I didn’t.”

  “Wow. That’s cold, even for them. Are you sure you don’t just wanna move in with me and Gram? I mean, we don’t have much, but at this point, anywhere’s gotta be better than livin’ with them.”

  “It’s just one more week,” Dustane said, his attention shifting to the Ildarglass coin that he always carried with him. With the Mother of Selyria imprinted on one side and eight small stars on the other, it was filled with shimmering Sil-Verilium–or “Silver,” as most called it–the lifeblood of the soul. Yet unlike most other coins that Tannus had encountered throughout his short lifetime, Dustane’s had somehow taken on a fairly haunting shade of blue.

  “Plannin’ on makin’ a wish?” Tannus asked.

  “How many Starlings do you think I’d have to throw in before someone brought me a new family?”

  “Honestly, if you just save enough Silver and give it to someone, they’ll probably just let you join theirs. I know I would.”

  “What would you wish for, then?” Dustane asked, avoiding eye contact.

  “That’s easy–more Silver. I’d love to know why no one ever thinks of that.”

  Finally managing a weak smile, Dustane looked over at his friend and asked, “How much do you and your gram have left?”

  Then Tannus pulled a small purse from his pocket and jingled it gently to reveal its meager contents. “I have no idea what I’m gonna do,” he confessed. “Gram’s almost out of Starlings, and I really don’t want her to have to start sellin’ stuff just to survive while I’m gone, especially since she wouldn’t even be in this whole mess if I’d just stayed back in Silvermarsh.”

  “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have been there to take care of her all those times she got sick,” Dustane reminded him. “If it weren’t for you, she probably would’ve died. I know I would’ve.”

  Thinking back on that fateful night in the Ildarwood when they had first met, Tannus removed a single Starling from his pouch, then held it in his hand as he contemplated his options.

  “You actually gonna make a wish for once?” Dustane asked.

  “You know I don’t believe in that kind of stuff. Besides, I couldn’t afford to waste the Silver even if I did.”

  Shrugging, Dustane held out his own coin and said, “Use mine, then. It brought me luck once, so now, maybe, it’ll do the same for you.”

  Hesitating for a moment, Tannus dared not even consider Dustane’s proposal. Yet the longer he stared at the strange blue coin, the more he wondered if it truly did possess any luck. “I just wish someone would take care of Gram for me while I’m gone,” he said, leaning forward toward the coin. Then, with a smile, Dustane dropped his lucky Starling down into the well, and together they watched as its soft blue glow disappeared down into the darkness.

  “You wanna get some practice in before you go?” Dustane asked before pushing himself away from the well and brushing the hair out of his eyes.

  “Sure, might as well,” Tannus answered. “You need all the practice you can get.”

  From Wisher’s Well, the two moved north along the southwestern hills of the Ildarwood until they reached an abandoned schoolhouse, charred and collapsing, which stood upon a cliff at the edge of a long-forgotten settlement. Around it on all sides, a staggered row of Ildarwood signs warned would-be explorers that their lives would be in danger should they enter–not that Tannus or Dustane had any concerns.

  Walking past the signs without a second thought, Tannus glanced up at the narrow, tilted bell tower high atop the school. It was known to ring on its own from time to time, and more than once he had heard folks in town claim that the place was haunted–the final resting place of some poor and tortured soul who had perished in the blaze. That reason alone was enough for most Ildarbound to keep their distance, although the long and arduous hike just to reach it was another.

  Kneeling beside the school’s blackened foundations, Tannus removed just a few loose stones before reaching in to retrieve a pair of hidden parcels. Once unwrapped, each revealed a short, crude sword composed of a jagged Ildarglass blade and a crooked Silverwood handle.

  “You ready?” Tannus asked, steadying himself as Dustane took a few practice swings with his sword.

  Nodding confidently in response, Dustane smiled at his opponent and easily deflected the first lunge. “I’m gonna win this time,” he announced.

  “Not even if you wished for it.”

  On most days when they practiced, the two were evenly matched, and that day was no exception. Although Tannus had always been the stronger of the two, Dustane was far nimbler, and in the year since they had first met, Dustane had learned to anticipate how his best friend would respond to each method of attack.

  Realizing what Dustane was attempting to do, however, Tannus decided to give him the precise opportunity he had been waiting for. Intentionally dropping his guard for an instant, he watched as Dustane rushed to exploit it. Then, just as soon as Tannus began to counter, Dustane spun around at the last moment and grazed Tannus’s arm with his blade.

  As both paused to inspect the damage, Tannus winced at the sting of the subtle spectral wound. Although the injury did not bleed or even show damage to his skin–as one might expect from some common steel sword–it gave off a faint glow and began to drip Silver.

  Still facing each other, the two boys watched as each drop fell to the ground before evaporating entirely into a fine and shimmering mist. After a moment, the mist drifted swiftly through the air until at last it reached Dustane’s outstretched palm–his reward for the soul-slashing strike.

  “Give up yet?” Dustane asked with a grin as the Silver ignited a fire deep within him, but Tannus was not at all amused by his own mistake. With more determination than before, he lunged at Dustane, intent on evening the score.

  This time, they fought with far more intensity than before, but despite Tannus’s desperate desire to prevail, time and again, his strikes just could not hit their mark.

  With each victory Dustane claimed, the fury inside Tannus grew ever more intense, but it was not until Dustane saw his best friend’s eyes shift to gold that he realized just how much danger he had truly gotten himself into. After that, he could only manage a quick “Uh-oh” before Tannus began his next volley of swings.

  “Maybe . . . we . . . should . . . stop . . . sparrin’ . . . just . . . for . . . today,” Dustane desperately implored as he struggled to deflect the merciless strikes.

  “Not . . . until . . . I . . . win!” Tannus shouted before swinging his sword with so much ferocity that it shattered Dustane’s and slashed the side of his face in the process.

  For several moments thereafter, Dustane stomped about wildly while clutching his cheek and shrieking from the pain. Then the two watched with exhaustion as the Silver on Dustane’s hand and face evaporated into the air and drifted directly toward Tannus.

  “I really hope you’re happy!” Dustane shouted, attempting to numb his wound with one hand while gathering the shards of his broken sword with the other.

  “I’m wicked sorry, Dustie! I didn’t mean to!”

  “Yes, you did, Tannus! You do this every time I start winnin’! You always get mad and end up hurtin’ me!”

  “I can’t help it! You know how much I hate it when I lose!”

  But Dustane had heard enough. After casting a frigid stare at Tannus, Dustane took what was left of his blade and wrapped it up in cloth once more. “Yeah, well, I really hope winnin’ was worth it,” Dustane said before placing the bundle back under the schoolhouse. Then he stormed pa
st Tannus and disappeared into the forest by himself.

  “Sorry!” Tannus called out one last time, but by then, there was nobody left to hear him.

  It did not take Tannus long to reach the marketplace after that, so close was the center of Ranewood to the hills of Miner’s Reach. Emerging from the forest only once he was certain no one would notice, Tannus jogged out onto the main road and marched north just over a half mile to reach the nearest of the stores. From there, simple shops and stone buildings lined the entire roadway, all the way up a hill until it reached the white steel fence surrounding the most impressive structure in all of Ranewood–the town’s mighty Astercourt. The grand building had been made with large slabs of solid white Ildarstone, and its greatest feature was the massive, silver-domed Asterport above its central core. Inside burned an enormous shimmering Ildarstar–nearly as large as his gram’s whole cottage, though still barely half the size of the one that had once burned above the Astercourt back in Silvermarsh, where he had grown up. Whenever he visited the Ranewood market, Tannus always found himself mesmerized by the beauty and grandeur of the magnificent citadel-like structure, but the thought of venturing inside for the start of his Trials one day soon left him with a sense of dread so deep it was not easily shaken, even as he shopped.

  Of course, having so few Starlings to spend on food and supplies did little to raise his spirits. After all, nothing bothered Tannus more than spending his gram’s Starlings, even on bare essentials. He knew all too well how hard she and his grampy had worked to save for old age, and though his gram had never imagined living quite so long, she had always known for certain that her husband would go first–if not by chance, then by her own two hands. In all the years that Tannus had known her, in fact, she had never actually told him which of those two had finally taken him, though from all the stories he had heard, Tannus would have bet ten Starlings on the latter.

  So to save as much money as possible, Tannus was always looking for ways to cut corners. During warmer months, that meant spending all his free time growing food in his gram’s gardens, and during winter months, when the icebox ran bare, that meant resisting his most desperate urges to splurge on something from Miss Simplesnack’s Baked Goods and Confections. Never was he more tempted to give in, though, than when he finally smelled the sweet, intoxicating aroma of the shop’s delectable delights.

  Rushing past the main door to avoid any impulsive decisions, Tannus found himself ensnared by an altogether different aroma several doors down–the soothing scent of fresh-cut flowers as he approached Signora Fiori’s famous shop. Standing outside with a near-empty purse in hand, Tannus wished he had even a little spare change to buy his gram a single rose. It had been so many weeks since the cottage had last been adorned with flowers, after all, and they always seemed to raise his gram’s low spirits.

  Milk and bread were all he could afford that day, though, so with a heavy heart and a grumbling stomach, he continued his march along the road with nothing but the general store one door down in his sights. And he had almost made it there without further distraction when a soft, sweet voice called out to him from behind.

  “Tannus?” asked a brown-haired girl who stood smiling in Fiori’s doorway.

  “Oh! Hey, Bree,” Tannus managed with a grin.

  “You here with your mom and dad again?” Briyal asked, looking around.

  “Um, yeah. I keep losin’ ’em,” Tannus stammered. “You haven’t seen ’em around have you?”

  “I still haven’t even met ’em yet. Remember?” she answered with amusement.

  “Oh, right. Yeah. They were just lookin’ for some clothes or somethin’, so . . . they’re probably around here somewhere.”

  “Well, when you see ’em, please tell ’em I said hi, okay?”

  “I will,” Tannus managed, his crooked grin growing wider.

  “Oh, who is this, Briyal?” a woman asked suddenly, emerging from the shop with an effervescent smile. Madame Leiliana Legarde was a tall and lovely woman with a warm tan complexion and sparkling silver eyes. Her long chestnut hair was always styled in some large, creative fashion, and she never left the house without a dress and accessories that were as bold and overstated as she was herself.

  “Sorry, Mom. This is Tannus. He lives down near the South Ranewood River.”

  “Oh,” Leiliana replied. “Near the old Ildarglass forge?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tannus replied, his smile fading. He knew what she was really asking, after all, for it was no secret that the poorest families in Ranewood lived in the lowlands, either by the North Ranewood River, on the borders of Silvermarsh, or beside the South Ranewood River and the forests of Riverport. Only the wealthiest families in town, or those who were desperate to be among them, could ever afford to live in the highlands to the west. And to make matters worse, it was in the area surrounding the old Ildarglass forge in particular that families fleeing violence and poverty in Silvermarsh most often settled, having too few Starlings for anywhere less prone to flooding.

  “Have you ever gone inside?” Leiliana asked unexpectedly, causing Briyal and Tannus both to stare at her with bewilderment. “When I was Briyal’s age, we used to sneak in there at night to try and find ghosts. People always swore it was haunted, but we never actually saw anything scary happen. Well, there was that one time, but I’m pretty sure that was just the Hemberton brothers playin’ tricks on us.”

  “Pépé and Mémé used to let you go all the way out there at night?” Briyal asked with disbelief.

  “Well, it’s not like I told them,” Leiliana confessed with a chuckle.

  “You won’t even let us play out back in the woods!”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say, Bree. Ranewood was a lot safer back then. Plus, my parents didn’t really care what we were up to. And I was tryin’ to impress your father.”

  “Wait, what? I didn’t know you knew him back then.”

  “Oh, your father was always gettin’ us into trouble. You see, he lived near the river too, and your pépé and mémé hated him. They were convinced he was gonna be a bad influence on me, but he always looked out for me during our Trials. Besides, it wasn’t like it was his fault that his family lived somewhere that my family considered to be ‘the wrong part of town,’ so it was never something I ever held against him. All that ever mattered to me was that he was a good person with a caring soul.”

  In response, Tannus could not help but smile. It was, after all, the very first time he had felt as if there might actually be some hope for him yet.

  “My parents came around eventually,” Leiliana continued, “right after I turned eighteen, actually. Of course, they didn’t really have a choice, what with your father getting me–um, married.” Then she stopped abruptly and carefully studied the children’s faces. Only once she realized that all the little cogs inside their heads had begun to spin, however, did she conclude the conversation with “Oh, wow, it really is getting late. You know, we should probably go figure out where your father wound up. It was very nice to meet you, Tannus. Now, come along, Bree.”

  “Nice to meet you too,” Tannus replied before adding, “See you later, Bree.” Yet even as Madame Legarde pulled her daughter toward the shop across the street, Briyal still appeared completely and utterly perplexed.

  The sun had nearly peaked by the time Tannus arrived on the edge of the Ildarwood, a loaf of bread in one hand and a canister of milk in the other. Being careful not to be seen, Tannus waited until all the Ildarhorses on the main road had passed by and all the people walking to or from the marketplace were out of sight before even attempting to take his shortcut home.

  Down the road from the Ildarwood forest, Tannus could see large swaths of untamed land that had not been farmed in years. Collapsing fieldstone walls and wild greenwood trees surrounded the property for miles, and even the sole carriageway onto the property had become overgrown with weeds and b
rush. Though Tannus did not know for how long the property had been abandoned, the massive tree that grew up out of the carriageway by the road was at least two hundred years old, based upon its remarkable width. Even the countless strands of ivy that twisted and climbed along its branches and trunk had grown thick and heavy with age.

  Yet it was only while staring at the farm with passing curiosity that Tannus happened to notice a young albino boy, who was staring back at him from the road beside the farm. His was a face Tannus had seen more than once since moving to Ranewood, and each time, it left him chilled right to the bone. “Not again,” Tannus whispered with remorse, and an instant later, the boy turned and ran toward the farm, prompting Tannus to drop everything he carried to chase after him.

  Sprinting down the road, Tannus followed the ghostly figure up the farm’s neglected carriageway toward the dilapidated house hundreds of yards up ahead. Hearing the telltale echo of a screen door slamming shut, Tannus knew the boy had gone inside to hide, though Tannus was not entirely certain he would be brave enough to follow.

  Though it had clearly been beautiful to behold at some distant point in history, time had not at all been gentle to the proud but aging farmhouse. Its front porch–once a spot for friends and family to shade themselves from the scorching midday sun–had begun to collapse at both ends. Its gardens had turned against its onetime keepers and begun pulling panels from the side of their house. Even the roof seemed to stand in open rebellion, growing saplings and grasses despite all the damage they were causing to the structures below.

  And yet, in spite of his overwhelming fear of whatever hidden dangers might await him there within, Tannus could not resist the urge to follow the strange boy. He needed only a single moment more to calm his nerves. Then Tannus removed the meager Ildarglass sword he had hidden from beneath his heavy winter cloak, and with utmost caution, he entered through the crooked screen door on the south side of the house.