focus my eyes on it.
“It is sacrilege for an earthly body to cross into our lands,” said the shade. Its voice sounded muffled, as though it was shouting from a great distance.
I began to write in my book, to explain that I was on my way to the Shore of the Dead, but the shade glided closer. Close up, I could see its pale white eyes gleaming at me.
I tried to lift my book but couldn’t. My arm was frozen. A growl rose in my chest. It cut short as the air in my lungs filled with ice.
“Do not challenge me,” it whispered. “The dead rule this realm. You’re in our domain.”
Chapter 42
Ali
When I woke, I felt a pang in my chest. That happened sometimes, like I’d lost Mom all over again every time I woke up.
Rubbing sleep from my eyes, I saw that the slow procession of dead continued to inch forward. Shit. I hadn’t slept through the banging, had I? I had no idea how much time had passed. There was no sun here, just an unwavering gray light sifting through the mist.
I stood slowly, my limbs stiff and cold. I shook my hands and rolled my shoulders. Turning to the wall, I traced my fingers along its cold, pitted surface.
What had happened to Marroc?
I started pacing, the worry now making me alert. Should I go to him now? If I opened my mouth to say Fara and jumped to the crystal, I had no way of knowing where it was. I could end up reappearing in the stomach of a giant beast, in the midst of a battle, or trapped in a prison.
Luckily, I had another option. I could climb this wall. I peeked under the makeshift bandage, checking the wound on my hand. Already, it had scabbed over.
I started to pull myself up and stopped. A new idea occurred to me: what if I could talk to Marroc? Raising my knuckles, I rapped on the wall as hard as I could.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.
I didn’t know if the sound traveled through the metal. It was so thick, so ancient. I had the sense it was reverberating, but I still waited to hear if there was an answering series of taps. Only silence greeted me.
Okay, then. Climbing was my only option, unless I wanted to starve to death and enter Helheim that way.
I latched my fingers into the gap and leaned back so that my weight held my grip in place. Then, slowly, I began to climb, one hand over another. Just like I’d done in the Shadow Caverns. Locking my fingers, moving my feet. Unlocking the fingers of one hand, reaching higher up, locking my fingers again. Slow going, but I was moving steadily up.
After about twenty feet, the crack widened, and I could wedge my feet inside, climbing more easily. It felt good to move again, to be in control.
I just had no fucking idea what I’d find on the other side.
Chapter 43
Marroc
I didn’t know how long I’d been walking. The fog hung close, and the landscape had no features except mud. All around me, the dark forms of the shades glided through the fog, silently watching me.
Right now, the shades controlled my body, forcing my feet to move one in front of the other in a perpetual march. I couldn’t raise my arms, turn my head, or even lift a finger. Ice filled my veins. It was so frustrating to be around creatures I couldn’t kill. What did I have to threaten them with?
The only thing I could control was my mind, but that was its own torture, because it was screaming with questions: what had happened to Ali? Was she still waiting for me to knock on the wall? Would she still jump to the vergr crystal?
If she tried to climb it, it would be a disaster. But I had to count on the fact that she’d figure it out and wait till she heard my signal. I’d find a way to get out of this.
I could feel the stone’s weight in my pocket. If Ali appeared next to me, the shades would surround her in an instant. She wasn’t dead, so maybe they wouldn’t be able to control her as well. But still, the presence of a living person here would enrage them.
Beneath my feet, the mud grew drier until it turned into soft soil. The fog thinned. Around me, the shades floated, their dark forms tracking me like a murder of crows.
Slowly,