Chapter 55 Faces of the Dead
SERA
We returned with supplies. Blood. Restraints. Sedatives. Everything we needed to capture Arianna without killing her. The cave was empty. She had moved. Left bones and death and a message scratched into the stone: "Stop following. Let me die alone." "She knows we are tracking her," Kael said. "She is staying ahead.
Avoiding us deliberately." "Because she does not want to be saved. Does not think she deserves it." I touched the message. Felt the despair in every carved letter. "She is giving up." "Then we do not give up for her." He studied the cave. "Where would she go next? If you were her. If you were trying to disappear." I closed my eyes.
Felt the echo. The connection. "Somewhere populated enough to feed but isolated enough to hide. A city. Large. Anonymous." I opened my eyes. "Graymore. The provincial capital. She is heading there." "That is three days' ride. We can intercept if we move fast." We did not make it in time. Reached Graymore on the fourth day. Found chaos. Guards everywhere. Bodies in the streets. Sixteen dead. All drained. "She was here yesterday," a guard captain said. "Came into the market.
Seemed normal. Then the hunger took her. She killed six before we could react. Killed ten more trying to escape." He looked at me. Recognition in his eyes. "You are the Shadow Queen. The first one. You did the same thing in the eastern provinces." "Yes. I did." "Can you stop her? The new shadow? Before she kills more?"
"We are trying." "Try harder. My daughter was one of the sixteen." His voice was flat. Empty. "She was five years old. Buying bread with her mother. The shadow did not discriminate. Did not care. Just fed."
I was at a loss for words. There was nothing I could say to bring his daughter back.
Would ease his pain. Would matter at all. "I am sorry," I said. Inadequate. Meaningless. "I am so sorry." "Sorry does not help. Stopping her helps." He walked away. Back to his duties. Back to pretending he could function while his world was ash.
"We are getting close," Kael said. "She cannot stay ahead forever. Eventually the hunger will slow her. Trap her. We catch her then." "What if she kills more before we do? What if every day we chase her adds to the body count?" "Then we move faster."
"This is not your fault. You did not ask her to take the curse," he said, drawing me up close.
You did not ask to be saved." "But I am saved. And she is damned. That is my fault." "That is sacrifice. That is a choice. That is her decision."
My face was clasped by his palm. "You are not responsible for everyone's decisions.
Even the ones made for you." "Then whose fault is it when good people die because someone saved me?" "No one's. Everyone's. Fate's. Pick one." He kissed my forehead. "But not yours. Never yours."
I wanted to take him at his word and let go of the guilt. However, it felt like a stone in my chest.
Heavy. Permanent. Deserved. We tracked Arianna for another week. Through cities. Villages. Wilderness.
One step behind every time. Every time I arrived, I was met with anguish, bodies, and people who stared at me as if I were to blame.
Perhaps I was.
We got word on the ninth day. Arianna was in Hollow's End, a tiny village. Trapped. Cornered by villagers with pitchforks and torches.
About to be burned alive. We rode hard. Reached the village at sunset. Found Arianna in the town square. Surrounded. Bleeding from a dozen wounds.
The villagers were closing in. Ready to end her. "Stop!" I shouted. Dismounted. Ran between them and her. "Stop.
Do not kill her." "Move aside, Your Majesty," the village elder said. "This creature has killed twenty-three of our people in the last month. We are ending it." "She is not a creature. She is cursed. There is a difference."
"You were cursed too. You killed hundreds. Why should we trust either of you?" A woman in the crowd. Holding a child.
"Why should we let another monster live?" "Because she saved me. Because she took this curse to spare me from it. Because she deserves a chance like I got." "You got a chance because someone sacrificed for you.
Who sacrifices for her?" The elder stepped forward. "We are tired of sacrifices. Tired of monsters. Tired of death. This ends now." "Then it ends with me." I spread my arms. "You want to burn someone? Burn me. I am the original shadow.
The one who murdered 347 individuals. I was too weak to hold onto the curse, which is why she killed them.
This is my fault. Punish me." "Sera, what are you doing?" Kael hissed. "Giving them what they want. Justice. Punishment. Someone to blame." The crowd hesitated. Murmured. Uncertain. Then Arianna spoke. Voice broken. Hollow. "Do not defend me. I killed their people.
I deserve this. Let them burn me. Let it end." "No." I turned to her. "You took the curse to save me. I will not let that sacrifice be wasted by letting you die."
"Then what do you suggest? I cannot stop killing. Cannot control the hunger. Cannot be anything except this." She looked at the villagers. "They are right. I am a monster. Monsters should be put down." "You are not a monster.
You are suffering. There is a difference." I looked at the elder. "Give us one week. One week to find a solution. To help her. To stop the killing. If we fail, you can have us both."
"Your Majesty—" Kael started. "One week," I repeated. "Seven days. That is all I ask." The elder looked at his people. At Arianna. At me. Calculating. "One week. But she stays in chains. In a cell. Under guard.
And if she kills anyone in that week, we burn you both. Agreed?" "Agreed." They took Arianna. Chained her. Locked her in the village holding cell. Posted guards. Made sure she could not escape. Could not feed. Could not hurt anyone.
Kael took hold of my shoulders while we were by ourselves. "What are you thinking?
Offering yourself? Promising to find a solution in seven days when we have no solution?"
"I was thinking I could not watch another person burn for my sins." You are not guilty of these sins.
These are hers. She made the choice. She lives with the consequences." "She made the choice to save me. That makes them my responsibility." I pulled away. "We have seven days. Help me find an answer, or do not. But I am not abandoning her."
"I'm not asking that you leave her behind. I want you to be reasonable. We've been trying for weeks.
Months if you count your own curse. There is no cure. No fix. No way to break the shadow without another sacrifice."
"Then we find one.
We have seven days.
We use them."