A Plague of Shadows (7 page)

“You must be strong against it. You have to learn the ways to control this sickness. It can be a great blessing in times of trouble,” Dolan said. “If only you can learn to control it. If you use it too often without control, it will consume you.”

It was almost more than she could bear to hear. So much all at once. Her head was spinning, and she thought she might be sick at any moment.

“I don’t understand,” Abagail said.

“What don’t you understand, sweetheart?” her father asked, coming to sit in the chair before her once more. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of his smoke.

“All of it. I thought the other worlds were just myth, I thought the shadows couldn’t be fought back, I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought. Everything just seems so different these last couple days.”

“I know, and you have every right to be confused. But you were right about one thing, the shadows
can’t
be beaten back. The shadow will mar your skin for the rest of your life, there’s no way to be rid of it once you have it, but you can learn to control it.”

“You said it would allow you to do things?” Abagail asked. “What kinds of things?”

“Sorcery,” Dolan said. “It will allow you to wield the power of wyrd.”

Wyrd,
Abagail thought. She’d heard that word before, but never in the context which her father was using it now. Wyrd was fate, it was so many things. Wyrd was the coming of what was to be, and the telling of what had already happened. Wyrd was a tool of the Gods, not of humans. Now it also meant sorcery?

“I can tell I’m not helping you,” Dolan said, and then sighed. “I’ve never been very good at this,” he confessed.

“It’s your first time,” Abagail said. She was starting to feel slightly better now that she knew the shadow didn’t have to control her life. But she knew what her father meant also. “I think I’m understanding.”

“Alright,” Dolan encouraged.

“Before, there was a darkling upstairs, trying to get into your mirror.” Abagail forgot until she saw her father’s face scrunch up that she hadn’t told him she’d gone into the room before. “I came into the house, and I heard something upstairs, when I went to see what it was, there was a darkling before the mirror. When I stopped it, it felt like my hand opened up, and out of it came this light, like fire from the Waking Eye.”

“And that’s why it spread like that?” Leona asked, motioning toward the veins of darkness running across her sister’s hand.

“Yes,” Abagail said.

There was a long moment of silence in which she waited for her father to speak, but he kept silent, staring at his daughters.

“You destroyed a darkling?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered, looking at the floor between her feet.

“With the darkness?” Dolan asked again.

She only nodded because she had already told him all of this and didn’t think he was asking her questions so much as trying to confirm in his mind what he’d heard.

“Is that not normal?” Abagail asked.

“You’re just so young.” Dolan muttered.

“Skuld wants to know how you know all of this,” Leona asked.

“Skuld would already know the answer to that.” Dolan stood and went back to the fireplace. “I’m afraid you will have to go live with your aunt until you get this under control.”

“Aunt?” Abagail asked. “What aunt? Where?”

“My sister, Mattelyn and my brother Fortarian.”

“I’ve never heard of them, have you?” Leona asked Abagail.

“No.”

“It’s because they don’t live on this world. My family is from another world, where the shadow has already taken control.”

Abagail leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “Alright, when is this night going to be over?”

“I’m sorry?” Dolan asked, turning to look at her.

“When is all of this oddity going to end? The other worlds are just supposed to be myth! The shadows don’t grant sorcerous powers, they only spell your doom. What is happening here?”

“Abagail, the nine worlds exist, maybe they’ve only been myth to you, but I’m from Agaranth originally. The two of you were
born
there. When the shadow came to that world it chose my sister quickly. She learned how to work with the shadow, how to control it when so many people were falling to its power. I didn’t think it was safe there, so I took the two of you and brought you here, across the rainbow bridge, and to O, where the shadow hadn’t come yet.”

“Is that when mother left?” Leona asked.

“Your mother left long before that,” Dolan said, but wouldn’t speak further of their mother.

“So how am I to get to this mysterious aunt?” Abagail asked.

“Agaranth is dangerous,” Dolan warned.

“You told us, darklings rule there,” Abagail said.

“No, the darkling only consume, they don’t rule. Many creatures have been taken over by the shadow, but they are mindless, without reason and unable to rule. Humans still rule there, as do other races.”

Abagail thought of the purple fairy she’d seen come out of the mirror.

“The shadow is still trying to take over, but the humans have it on a leash of sorts. They are using the power of the shadow plague within them to hold their ground. They have learned to control it, and Matty can teach you how to control it as well.”

“When does she leave?” Leona asked.

“This is insane!” Abagail said, standing and walking to the kitchen, away from her father and sister. The knife was still on the floor, so she picked it up before anyone questioned why it was there. She placed it in the sink and turned back to them, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms. “I can’t go anywhere, there’s too much to do here. You need help, and Leona isn’t able to provide all of the labor. There’s no one else to help you, even if there
was
someone to help, I don’t know anyone who
would
help.”

“Rorick would help,” Leona pointed out. At the mention of his name Abagail’s stomach tightened. For a moment it was hard for her to breathe through the vise that constricted her chest at the thought of him. She was leaving him behind. She couldn’t leave him behind. She didn’t
want
to leave him behind.

But if I stay I die!
And that’s when she knew she had to leave. She was already arguing with herself why she needed to go, all of the reasons to stay were just excuses.

Dolan seemed to notice the look in her eyes and he nodded.

“I know what this means to you, Abbie, I know it’s hard. But this is your
life
we’re talking about. If you stay you are going to die. You can’t
not
use the power. It will come out of you in times of need, like you saw today with the darkling. Until you can learn to control it, the shadow plague will work on instinct.” Dolan came to her, but this time he didn’t touch her to try to reassure her. She didn’t think he could have made her feel better even if he’d tried. The father she’d known before, the one who had all the answer and could make everything right in their home wasn’t there any longer. This was almost a stranger, someone who
knew
things and had kept silent.

Abagail turned away from him so he didn’t see the tears stinging her eyes. She didn’t want him seeing how much it bothered her.

“This is your
life,
” he said again. “I can’t hold you here all of your life. You would have had to move on at some point. I just hadn’t planned on it being so soon.”

Abagail didn’t say anything. She didn’t trust her voice.

“You should pack,” Dolan told her. “You will have to leave as soon as—”

A frantic pounding on their door made Abagail jump.

“Abbie, please, open up!” Rorick yelled from the other side of the door.

Abagail didn’t have to open the door to know that something was wrong. Her heart hammered in her chest as her feet pounded across the wooden floor. She was lifting the latch and pulling the door open before her senses caught up with her and screamed
it might be a darkling
. But it wasn’t. Deep inside, she knew that it wasn’t a darkling, she could sense it . . . somehow.

People didn’t walk around at night. It was just something that didn’t happen. For that reason alone, she knew something was wrong.

Rorick’s blue eyes were stormy and rimmed with red. His nose was red and swollen. He’d been crying, and that alarmed Abagail. Rorick didn’t cry.

He stood there in the rain for what seemed like ages. Abagail stood breathlessly, waiting for him to say something, waiting for him to do something other than drip all over the place. Dolan eased past his daughter, onto the porch, and ushered the young man inside.

“Leona, go get a towel,” Dolan ordered his youngest daughter. “Rorick, what’s happened?” Dolan asked him, pressing him into a chair heedless of the puddle that formed under Rorick. He handed the towel from Leona to Rorick, and sat patiently for the neighbor to gain some sense.

Abagail closed and latched the door against the banes of the night. It was bad luck to have the door wide open while the Sleeping Eye ruled the sky. Even worse luck to have Hafaress’ Hearth nearly extinguished from the rain at night.

She went to the kitchen, poured Rorick a large tumbler of ale, and brought it back to him. Dolan nodded as Abagail pressed the cup into Rorick’s hand, mindful not to touch him with her shadow-laden hand.

“It’s spreading,” Rorick muttered, and then sniffed back his running nose. Abagail pulled the hand back to her chest.

“What happened, Rorick?” Abagail asked him.

He shook his head, his face scrunching up again, but whatever tears might have slipped out of him this time were swallowed back with a gulp of ale.

“The shadow we saw in the woods?” Rorick started.

“Yes, I killed it earlier tonight,” Abagail said.

Rorick shook his head. “It killed my parents.”

“What?!?” Dolan asked, shooting to his feet.

“How’s that possible, I thought you killed it?” Leona asked Abagail.

Abagail opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing would come out.

“There must have been more than one,” Rorick said. “I was cleaning up for dinner, heard a huge commotion downstairs, and when I came down they were dead, smeared with shadows, carriers of the plague.”

“Are they at peace?” Dolan asked, a polite way to see if Rorick burned the bodies.

He nodded. “The entire house is gone.”

Dolan’s mouth thinned to a line. Rorick had burned down the entire house.

“What happened to the darkling?” Abagail asked.

“I didn’t see it anywhere. I went looking for it, but I couldn’t find it.”

“The night is their domain, it could have been hiding anywhere,” Dolan consoled.

“If only we’d found it earlier,” Rorick said, looking at Abagail.

“It likely wouldn’t have helped,” Abagail said. “There was one in here right after we went searching in the woods.”

If Dolan wanted to say anything about the danger they’d put themselves in, he didn’t comment.

“And the plague has spread in you,” Rorick said, taking hold of Abagail’s arm, careful not to touch the darkness marring her palm, and pulled it closer to him. Abagail knew from earlier that there was no use in trying to pull away from him, it would be fighting a losing battle anyway.

“Something strange happened when I got home,” Abagail started.

Dolan frowned. “There’s no time for this now,” he told them, cutting their chatter short. “Abagail, you need to go pack, Rorick, you’re going with her. Leona, I’m sorry, but you will need to go as well, it’s the only chance that you will be safe. Your aunt can keep you safer from the shadow plague than I can.”

Leona stood, her face tense, her eyes wild. “No, I can’t. I won’t leave you!”

“You
have
to,” Dolan said. “As soon as I know everything is safe here I will follow.”

“Where are we going?” Rorick asked, confused.

“To Agaranth,” Dolan said. “Through the mirror upstairs, across the rainbow bridge, and to my sister and brother, Mattelyn and Fortarian.”

“The fifth world,” Rorick said with a nod.

“How does everyone know about these things except me? Does
everyone
believe in them?” Abagail wondered.

“Why wouldn’t we? It’s gospel,” Rorick said.

“Right, like you guys trust everything that’s gospel.”

“Abbie, there isn’t time for this, go pack, the both of you, and I will catch Rorick up,” Dolan commanded, and his daughters obeyed.

In her room, and by herself, Abagail was alone with her thoughts. Her head was nearly
dizzy
with her thoughts.

Mr. and Mrs. Keuper,
she thought. It was all she could think about, that and the shadow. If it had happened any earlier in the day, she would almost think that the shadow she’d seen in her father’s study was the same shadow that had killed Rorick’s parents, but it hadn’t, and it wasn’t.

Had it been outside with them earlier? Had it been in the woods? Was it looking to kill her and Rorick, and when she turned back home, it sated itself with the murdering of his parents?

She sat on the edge of her bed, her eyes trained on the wooden framed window and the darkness of the night beyond. Occasional flashes of lightning created clipped images of tree branches across her bedroom floor. The light illuminated her bare feet and the well-worn carpet where her feet landed every morning.