Recognition shot through her at the sight of the massive skeleton resting on the lakebed. This was the lake she'd flown over with Sebastian on their way to the herd lands.
Noticing her distraction, Phillip looked back at her. "I see it too. Whatever that creature was, it's long dead."
Eva nodded, choosing not to point out that while the creature was dead whatever had killed it might not be. To say nothing of any descendants it might have had.
The journey passed excruciatingly slowly until finally Eva's feet touched the lakebed again.
They waded forward, the shore only a few dozen feet away when Phillip stopped.
Eva lifted her head to see what had caused the halt and felt a sense of dread swamp her as several horses bearing riders stepped out of the tree line.
"They were herding us the entire time," Phillip snarled.
Neil's horse carried him to the edge of the lake, the waves lapping at his horse’s hooves. There were no threats or recriminations as he stared at them with an enigmatic expression that was somehow terrifying.
Emotion was a defining characteristic of humans. It fueled every action, both good and bad.
Yet Eva saw no sign of anything in the other man. He was a blank canvas the Whisperer used for his own purposes.
"What is that?" Phillip whispered as a dark cloud rose from the trees.
Buzzing pierced Eva's defenses, making her flinch and raise her hands in a futile effort to block out the noise.
It wasn't a sound she was hearing but rather the voices of a thousand minds.
Pain split her temples even as she struggled to raise her barriers the way Polaris had taught her. The onslaught abated just a little.
"It's the swarm," she said, her eyes on the thousands of cicadas.
Bright red fur moving through the trees captured Eva's attention. She forgot about the swarm and the enemies in front of her as the fire fox trotted to the edge of the shoreline not far from the enemy horses.
The fire fox took a seat. There was a playful look on his face as he tilted his head, as if asking what she was waiting for.
Eva didn't know why she was able to understand what he wanted. Only that she did. It was as if the knowledge had always been there. Floating just out of reach, simply waiting for her to acknowledge it.
The fire fox's gaze was patient as he shot a meaningful look at her hand. The action made Eva conscious of the smooth metal clutched in her palm.
Its shape was familiar. The ring sphere from the Kyren's cave. The same ring she thought she felt when on the mountain top.
This moment took on an air of inevitability. As if everything that had been before was building to this time and place. Every step she'd taken. Every decision she'd made.
All so that she could stand in this spot.
Eva opened her palm; the gold seemed to wink at her.
There was a snick as the ring unfurled into a sphere, the metal almost liquid as the runes danced across its surface.
Eva lifted her head, somehow knowing what the fire fox expected.
The spot where he sat was empty, as if he'd never been there.
Still feeling as if the world was moving slowly around her, she glanced at Phillip's face, noting the tension. The calculation as he totaled their odds of escape. The anger as he realized there was none.
He shoved her back and stepped in front of her.
Her attention moved on, flitting to Neil's face and the conviction that lay there. He had won, and he knew it.
Eva inhaled, shutting her eyes and blocking out everything around her. She threw her senses wide.
A lake unlike the one they stood in appeared in front of her, its surface glassy and calm. A patch of darkness loomed over the lake's surface, threatening to engulf her in its depths.
Eva ignored it, concentrating on the light right in front of her. Phillip's presence unfurled; his soul untainted. Not even the smallest of specks of darkness present.
Her eyes opened. She knew what she had to do. A part of her had always known. She'd simply been too afraid of what she might become to accept it.
Feeling as if she was standing outside of herself, Eva threw the spherical ring into the air before her face.
She blinked, the movement seeming to happen at a crawl. Once. Then twice.
A door opened deep in her soul. Out of it boiled mist.
The sphere caught the mist, almost as if it was channeling it from that imaginary place into the real world.
Eva reached for Phillip's hand as her gaze lifted one last time to Neil's.
There was an avid look on his face that made Eva's blood run cold. His lips curved up right as a bank of the mist swept in front of her.
Time stuttered, then stopped as the mist enveloped them.
Phillip's breathing was the only sound in the silence. Slightly fast as he faced a phenomenon the Trateri had learned to respect.
In the distance, there was a disturbance in the mist as it sent ripples spreading outward.
Eva steeled herself as the mist receded, leaving them standing in the bowl Sebastian had brought her to a few days earlier.
Phillip let go of Eva, turning in a circle. "Where are we? What just happened?"
Eva's gaze was calm as she watched him. "This is the Kyren's home."
One of them at least.
Phillip's eyes were wide when he finally looked back at her. "Are you telling me you brought me to the Kyren's herd lands?"
Eva inclined her chin.
A sound had the two of them looking up as Orion walked toward her, his eyes containing a knowledge Eva was only now touching upon.
Caller.
Eva bowed her head. "Herd Lord."
You found your way.
"Yes." But now Eva almost wished she hadn't.
She could feel the Whisperer nearing. His presence growing large in her mind as he followed their path through the mist.
She'd led the creature to the very mythologicals she'd hoped to protect.
Orion's gaze followed hers to the seething mass of mist behind her. Your task isn't done.
"I know."
She needed to destroy the creature. End it so this couldn't happen again. The only problem was that Eva was at a loss on how to make that happen.
Killing the Whisperer's current host was one thing, but what was to say he wouldn't find another and begin again.
There was no shortage of Lowland and Highlanders angry at the Trateri. As long as the creature tapped into their desires, there would be no end. The Trateri would have to fight a constant battle.
Eventually, they would lose.
"I don't know how to stop the darkness," Eva confessed.
Phillip started, looking between Eva and Orion. "Is something coming?"
Yes, you do.
Not getting an answer, Phillip muttered a curse and drew his blade before facing the mist with a ready stance.
Orion's gaze was knowing as it held Eva's.
Slowly, she nodded. The ancestral lands.
Their call was growing deafening as they told her everything would be fine if she could lead the Whisperer there.
"I'll do it," she promised Orion.
Approval shone in his gaze.
Eva started for the mist then stopped. There was one last thing she had to do before she went off to do battle with an ancient entity.
"Protect them for me."
If she didn't come back, she wanted assurances that the people she left behind would be fine.
Orion bowed his head. Consider it done.