Chapter 32 THE SHATTERED LEDGE
Chapter 32 THE SHATTERED LEDGE
Aeryn awoke to the taste of dust and blood.
Her head throbbed with a heavy, pounding ache, each pulse reminding her of the shockwave that had thrown them across the canyon. The world around her was dim dawn approaching but not yet strong enough to cut through the haze of smoke drifting over the Scorchfall Expanse.
She pushed herself up slowly.
Pain radiated through her ribs. Her palms stung where skin had scraped off. But she was alive.
Barely.
“Aeryn!”
The voice cracked with panic. Liora scrambled toward her from behind a boulder, her hair wild with dirt and ash. She dropped to her knees beside Aeryn.
“You’re awake,” she breathed, relief pouring out of her like water. “Thank the heavens. I thought”
Her voice broke.
Aeryn caught her wrist gently. “I’m fine.”
Liora’s brow tightened. “You’re lying terribly.”
A faint smile tugged the corner of Aeryn’s mouth. “Maybe.”
The moment didn’t last.
Boots crunched against shattered stone. Varos approached, his expression carved from stone but the tension in his jaw revealed the truth: he had feared for her too.
“How long was I unconscious?” Aeryn asked.
“Three hours,” Varos said. “Long enough for the Rift’s energy to settle. Long enough for the Hollowed to regroup.”
A flicker of dread tightened Aeryn’s spine. “Regroup?”
Varos nodded grimly. “They’re gathering at the southern ridge. Dozens. Maybe more.”
“And the Emberguard?” she asked.
“Scattered,” he admitted. “Some injured. A few missing.”
Aeryn’s stomach dropped. “Who?”
“Commander Sera and two scouts,” he replied. “We don’t know if they’re alive.”
Liora looked away, blinking hard.
Aeryn swallowed the rising guilt. She had led them into the canyon to confront a threat. Instead, she had woken whatever slept beneath the Rift.
Every breath she took felt heavier.
But she couldn’t afford to break.
Not now.
She staggered to her feet. Varos steadied her, but she brushed his support away. “I need to see the Rift.”
Liora grabbed her arm. “Aeryn, it’s too dangerous. The cliffs are still unstable.”
“Exactly why I need to see it.”
Varos studied her for a long moment, his ember-lit eyes assessing. Then he nodded. “We move carefully.”
They climbed the fractured ledge. Dust drifted in the air like ashes from an extinguished pyre. The ground still radiated faint warmth from the explosion that had nearly consumed them.
When they reached the overlook, Aeryn froze.
The Rift had changed.
It no longer lay dormant or sealed. Crimson light spiraled around it like flaming vines. The chasm had widened significantly jagged cracks branching outward like the fingers of a grasping hand.
Most disturbing of all…
A shape lingered deep within the haze. A vague silhouette, tall and broad-shouldered, formed from swirling ember-smoke.
Watching.
Waiting.
Aeryn’s blood turned to ice.
Varos followed her gaze. “It hasn’t receded since the eruption.”
“What is it?” Liora whispered.
Aeryn exhaled shakily. “A Sovereign… or what’s left of one.”
Liora’s hand flew to her mouth. “Another Sovereign? I thought you were the first in centuries.”
“I am,” Aeryn said. “Which means this is something else something older.”
Varos nodded. “The one imprisoned beneath the world.”
Aeryn couldn’t tear her eyes away from the silhouette.
“It spoke to me.”
Varos stiffened. “In the ember realm?”
“Yes.”
Liora blinked. “You went into the ember realm? You didn’t tell us that part!”
Aeryn looked down at her trembling hands. “I didn’t exactly choose to.”
“What did it say?” Varos pressed.
Aeryn hesitated.
“It wants the Crown.”
Varos’s expression darkened. “Of course. The Crown of Cinders carries the sealing glyphs. Whoever controls it… controls the world’s last barrier.”
Liora exhaled shakily. “So if it gets the Crown…”
Aeryn whispered the truth she had been trying not to acknowledge:
“It will break free.”
The canyon groaned beneath them as if agreeing.
A shout echoed from behind. “Your Majesty!”
Aeryn turned as two Emberguard climbed up the slope, one of them limping. Their armor was scratched, soot-covered, and dented.
Aeryn hurried toward them. “What happened? Where are the others?”
The uninjured guard knelt. “The southern ridge collapsed after the explosion. We found survivors, but Commander Sera is still missing.”
Aeryn clenched her fists. Sera had been one of the first to pledge loyalty to her even when others doubted. The thought of losing her twisted a knife in Aeryn’s chest.
“We’ll find her,” Aeryn said. “She may be trapped, not killed.”
The limping guard nodded gratefully. “Thank you, Sovereign.”
Varos crossed his arms. “We have two priorities: recovering our people and securing a safe position before the Hollowed swarm us.”
Liora looked between them. “And the third priority?”
Aeryn met her gaze.
“The Rift.”
Liora’s face paled. “I hoped you wouldn’t say that.”
Varos stepped toward Aeryn. “What exactly do you intend to do?”
“Study it. Understand what broke the seal. And figure out how to reinforce it before that thing gains a physical form.”
Varos stared at her with an intensity that would have once made her flinch. “You nearly died entering its influence last night. It flung you across a canyon like a ragdoll.”
Aeryn steadied her voice. “And if we don’t stop it, every person in the Emberlands dies. So yes, I plan to go near it again.”
Varos exhaled sharply, frustration burning in his eyes. “You are too willing to die.”
Aeryn held his gaze. “I am willing to do my duty.”
They stared at one another heat meeting heat until Liora cleared her throat loudly.
“Not the time,” she muttered. “We have an army of Hollowed forming, a missing commander, and a Sovereign silhouette glaring at us from inside a world-ending crack. Maybe don’t argue about martyrdom right now.”
Aeryn sighed. “She has a point.”
Varos muttered something in an ancient tongue that sounded suspiciously like a curse.
They regrouped with the remaining Emberguard at a temporary camp set between two rocky outcrops. Tents fluttered weakly in the rising wind. Several warriors had been wounded burns, fractures, concussions. But their eyes still turned toward Aeryn with unwavering trust.
Trust she didn’t deserve.
“Your Majesty,” one guard said, bowing deeply. “We await your command.”
Aeryn scanned the camp, noting every missing face.
“We search for Commander Sera and the others first,” she said. “Then we reinforce this camp. No one goes near the Rift unless I order it.”
The guard nodded. “Yes, Sovereign.”
Aeryn motioned for Varos and Liora to follow her aside. When they were out of earshot, she lowered her voice.
“The thing in the Rift is growing stronger.”
Liora rubbed her arms. “I could feel it, even from here. It’s like… like something pressing against the edges of reality.”
Varos frowned. “The seal is unraveling faster than expected. The Crown alone won’t hold it.”
Aeryn inhaled. “Then we need something more.”
Varos lifted an eyebrow. “Such as?”
She drew a slow, shaky breath. “The Sovereign Codex.”
Liora blanched. “Aeryn, that’s a myth.”
“No,” Aeryn said. “It’s real. My mother mentioned it in her private journals a record of the ancient Sovereigns’ binding rituals. If anything explains how they sealed this thing the first time, it’s the Codex.”
Varos crossed his arms. “And let me guess it is hidden somewhere impossible.”
Aeryn met his gaze, guilt flashing behind her eyes. “Not impossible.”
“Where?” Liora asked.
Aeryn hesitated before answering.
“In the Ashen Vaults.”
Liora choked. “The Ashen Vaults? Aeryn, those are in the capital! Days away from here!”
“And heavily guarded,” Varos added. “Since you stole the Crown, the High Council has not exactly welcomed your existence.”
“I didn’t steal it,” Aeryn muttered. “I claimed it.”
“Semantics,” Varos replied dryly.
Aeryn turned back toward the Rift, watching it pulse like a waiting beast.
“If we stay here without answers, we die,” she said. “If we leave without reinforcing the seal, the world dies.”
Liora rubbed her temples. “So the plan is: find Sera, fortify the camp, then race to the capital, break into the most secure vault in the realm, and retrieve a mythical book that might explain how to stop a world-ending entity?”
Aeryn nodded. “That’s the plan.”
Liora threw her hands up. “Wonderful. Completely normal.”
Varos looked at Aeryn. “And the entity?”
“It wants the Crown,” she said. “And it wants me.”
Varos stepped closer, his voice dropping to a low rumble. “Then we do not let it reach you.”
Aeryn swallowed, heat gathering unbidden in her chest not from power, but from something far m
ore dangerous.
She turned away. “We prepare for nightfall. And we find Sera before the Hollowed do.”
Before the world split open again.
Before the creature in the Rift stepped fully into the world.
Before its hunger reached her.