Aleira Brightleaf's Arc

Chapter 4 of 18

Aleira held her ground before the throne. Behind her, the pizza spider tore at the fallen stone. Each scrape loosened another chunk. She had minutes, maybe less. And she still didn't know what the pale stranger with the skull staff wanted. Ally or enemy. Guess wrong, and Morwenna's minions might turn on her. "You said more of your kind are coming," Aleira said. "So you're a necromancer." Morwenna nodded fast. "Yes. Yes. And they'll take the throne. They'll take everything." Her hands white-knuckled the staff. "I don't want them here. I don't want anyone here. I just needed somewhere the living couldn't reach me." Aleira watched her. The girl flinched at every scrape of the creature's legs. This was no warlord. This was someone hiding. "Then help me," Aleira said. "That thing gets free, it kills us both." "I can't fight it." Morwenna's voice cracked. "I can't. I'm not brave. My minions are brave. I'm not." "Where are they?" "Gathering reagents. Out there." Morwenna's white eyes darted to the tower mouth. "Too far." The stone split. The spider dragged one leg loose and shrieked. Its cheesy body twisted toward them, mouth gaping. Hazel scrambled up beside Aleira, crooked wand shaking. "I can try again," she whispered. "But you know how I aim." Aleira did know. Hazel's magic missed every mark. But her misses had power. Aleira looked at the staff in Morwenna's grip, the green skull glowing at its top. "Morwenna," Aleira said. "You raise dead things. Can you hold that creature? Just for a moment?" "Hold it?" Morwenna trembled. "I've never touched anything so big." "You don't have to fight. Just slow it. Then Hazel finishes it." Morwenna stared at the thrashing beast. Then at Aleira. Something shifted in her frightened face. Not courage. A choice. "If I do this," she said, "you don't call them. My kind. You don't tell them I'm here." "Deal," Aleira said. Morwenna stepped from behind the throne. She raised the staff. The skull flared. Green light poured over the pizza spider's freed leg and wrapped it tight. The creature jerked, stuck fast. Morwenna screamed from the strain but held. "Now, Hazel!" Aleira shouted. Hazel jabbed her wand. The spark curved wild, struck the ceiling above the beast. Stone rained down. A slab crushed the spider's head flat against the floor. It went still. Silence. Only breathing. Morwenna dropped the staff and sank to her knees, shaking. Aleira knelt beside her. "You held it," Aleira said. "I hated every second." Morwenna wiped her face. "But I held it." Aleira looked at the throne, hers at last. Then at the tower mouth, dark and open. Morwenna had kept her word. So Aleira would keep hers. But she still owed the girl safety from the necromancers coming. And they were coming soon.