The Drowned Gods, #2
Stranger Skies
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 22: Emory
Overview
Keiran returns as a possessed weapon, murders Aspen for a rib key, and forces Emory to open the spiral door with her Tidecaller blood. Emory revives Aspen and, aided by Nisha, Virgil, and Vera, escapes through the sleepscape. The group unlocks a golden door to a new world, where Keiran follows, weakened, and winged leviathans dominate the sky.
Summary
In the grotto, Keiran appears alive yet altered—his eyes ringed in silver and gold, shadows pooling at his feet. He summons umbrae, seizes Aspen, and blames her before driving his hand through her chest to tear out a rib. Keiran fits the bloodied rib into the spiral door’s carving, awakening a fungal-moss lock that still refuses to open.
Seizing the chance, Emory forges a radiant warding dome and draws deeply on the ley line, merging Lightkeeper, Healer, and Wardcrafter magic to regrow Aspen’s rib and revive her. When Romie falters, umbrae swarm her. Keiran restrains Emory, identifies her as a Tidecaller, gashes her palm, and forces her to press her blood to the lock. The spiral door unlocks to the sleepscape.
Emory tries to unmake the umbrae and the thing wearing Keiran’s skin with stellar light, but he resists and nearly kills her—until Nisha bursts in, binding him with vines as Virgil and Vera help Romie and Aspen. Emory reinforces the bindings with light and shadow, then everyone flees through the portal as the cavern collapses.
In the sleepscape, Emory blasts Keiran to draw him away and shoves a plucked star against his chest, dropping him to his knees. She then follows the guiding song with the others to a resplendent gold door engraved with wings and a sunburst. Water spills as Emory opens it, revealing the third world.
They fall through into a red-earth land beside a small spring under blinding light. Emory tries to close the portal, but Keiran slips through before it seals. Without umbrae to bolster him and scorched where the star burned him, he wavers, then vanishes into the landscape as vast winged beasts blot out the sun overhead.
Who Appears
- EmoryTidecaller and narrator; heals Aspen using ley-line power, unlocks the spiral with blood, battles Keiran, leads escape to the third world.
- KeiranReturned, possessed figure; commands umbrae, murders Aspen for a rib key, forces door open, follows into new world, weakened by a star-burn.
- AspenSculptress-blessed witch; killed when Keiran rips out a rib, then miraculously revived and carried through the portal.
- RomieDreamling; witnesses Keiran, is attacked by umbrae, collapses and recovers, escapes via sleepscape with Vera’s help.
- NishaSower; arrives unexpectedly, binds Keiran with vines, helps carry Aspen, enables the group’s escape.
- VirgilAlly; arrives with Nisha and Vera, urges flight through the portal, helps transport Aspen.
- VeraAlly; assists Romie, identifies the golden door in the sleepscape, flees into the third world.