Chapter 128: The Umbrazin
The group stood at the threshold of the Dead Valley by nightfall, their silhouettes cut in silver by the cold moon above. The wind was unnaturally still. It was a place where even time seemed to hold its breath.
Jagged rocks framed the valley floor like broken teeth. Wisps of smoke curled upward from fissures in the ground, giving off the faint smell of sulfur and something darker, old blood, perhaps. Magic pulsed here, old and wild, the kind that didn’t care for the difference between light and dark.
Isla tightened her grip on Damian’s hand. Since Lucia had told them they were having a daughter, something in her had shifted. A thread of purpose had wound around her spine. She would not let this child be born into a world poisoned by Cassian’s fear.
Leo crept closer to a blackened boulder and crouched, drawing a symbol into the dirt with the tip of his dagger. “The map ends here,” he murmured, “but the Sombrosi spoke of a trial. Something that guards the Heart of the Valley.”
Lucia stepped forward. “The trial isn’t physical. It’s ancestral, spiritual even. The Veyra and the Sombrosi once built this place together, to bind something even worse. But when the alliance broke, the guardians stayed behind.”
Brienne’s brows furrowed. “You mean the ones that watch from beyond the Veil?”
“No,” said Alaine. “She means the ones that were buried to keep the Veil from tearing open completely and they’re waking up.”
A sudden tremor rippled beneath their feet. The earth groaned.
“We have to keep moving,” Rohen said. “If we hesitate, they’ll smell our uncertainty.”
Isla took the lead, pendant glowing faintly at her chest. As they crossed into the valley, the magic thickened. Shadows danced at the edge of vision. Voices whispered in a language no longer spoken. Damian stayed beside her, his hand never straying from his blade.
Then the path split.
Brienne pointed to the right. “The stone says those who carry the Veyra line must go alone.”
“No,” Damian growled.
“I’ll be fine,” Isla said, already stepping forward. “You have to trust me.”
Reluctantly, he let her go.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the air shifted. A high-pitched hum echoed through the rocks, and light exploded from the pendant around her neck, catching in the markings carved into the walls. Images flickered, thousands of spirits, beasts, and the ancient pact that once held the Sombrosi and Veyra together.
A figure formed from smoke and bone rose in front of her. Its voice was many, layered and strange. “You carry the blood of the covenant. The child you bear is foretold. But only one may pass.”
“I am not alone,” Isla said, lifting her chin. “My daughter walks with me.”
The spirit studied her, then stepped aside. “Then come. But you will not leave unchanged.”
She moved forward, and pain lanced through her belly, not danger, but awakening. A memory surged. But not her own.
Flashes of a temple, a priestess cloaked in stormlight, a pact sealed with blood and a baby… crying, golden-eyed. The first time the Veil had nearly broken.
Isla abruptly fell to her knees. The knock grazed her knees sharply and the pain dived through her like an electric shock. She should know by now that anything could happen.
On the other side, Damian clutched his chest, sensing her pain, but powerless to reach her. Alaine stepped closer, chanting softly, her voice threading with Brienne’s. Together, they held the edges of Isla’s spirit steady.
Inside the trial chamber, the spirit knelt before Isla. “The child is not just of your bloodline. She is the convergence.”
“The what?”
“The moment where Sombrosi and Veyra meet again,within her. The Umbrazin is the one that solidifies the other two. She is the one who will either seal the Veil forever… or tear it open.”
Isla’s heart thundered. “Then teach me. Prepare me to protect her.”
The spirit’s hands, made of mist and old bone, touched her brow.
Light burst around her. She screamed, not in pain, but in raw revelation. It was overwhelming. She wasn’t sure she could hold onto it.
Outside, the ground cracked. Marcus pulled Leo back as a crevice opened beneath them.
Then there was a creepy silence. It was creepy because there was nothing to be heard, no sound at all, as if all the sound had been pulled into a vacuum.
Isla emerged from the tunnel absolutely radiant and changed. Damian ran to her and caught her in his arms.
“I saw everything,” she whispered. “I know what we need to do. But it won’t be enough to kill Cassian nor get rid of Vincent. We need to reunite what was broken.”
Brienne looked at her. “The Sombrosi and the Veyra?”
“Yes, although we are not to forget the Umbrazin, the most mysterious of the three ancient bloodlines… and the child will be the bridge.”
Marcus nodded solemnly. “Then we guard her with everything we have. Until the end. My son has turned on us and I will never forgive myself for his sins. Corrupted.”
Above them, the moon turned blood-red. The war for the Veil had truly begun.