Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

the sickness that weakens his mind and body all these long years, if only that he might see you return again. Now that you have, I think our Hypnos understands he no longer needs to struggle against the feverish sick burning through him.

You think he’s really dying, then . . . said Kellen.

Nyx frowned. I think your brother has been dead to this world since you left it, my son. The pair of you were never far from one another. She touched her belly as if she could feel the pair of them stirring within her still. Finding her movements watched by Kellen, Nyx offered him another sad smile. Your departure from this world harmed us all, my son, but none more so than your brother. I hold no doubt Hypnos would have followed you on to the next life too were it not for the likewise love that he bore for his own children and your father too.

Children? Kellen asked. Hypnos has kids?

Nyx laughed. You do not recall them either? she asked. Pity. They will be most disheartened to receive such news. Aye, though, Hypnos has his children, she continued, her gaze sharpening as she did. Though in truth they are children no longer. Your niece and nephews have long since grown, my son. You will meet them again, soon. Father means for us to journey onward to them and all our kin long hidden away in shadow. He claims our victory here will soon spread for all in the Salt to hear and tremble at, our ascent serving to call the banners of all our people. I have little doubt that even now the Thousand Sons of Somnus await us, aye, and with all their Shadowed Sisters too. She touched Kellen upon the cheek once more. No doubt the ones we left to watch over and wake them will be anxious to see their favored uncle returned as well. Her smile widened. Aye, the Oneiroi Three will be most pleased to see you again, my son.

Aw-nee-what? Kellen asked.

The Oneiroi Three, Nyx clarified. Your nephews and niece. I feel them watching us in the darkness even now with the powers your brother gifted them. She closed her eyes in revelatory vision. Watching . . . listening. She reopened her eyes. They wait for us at the root of Lethe with the Mother of Masks.

Kellen glanced around the darkness, his skin prickling again, though he saw no sign of other Sancul around them. I don’t understand, he said to Nyx. We’re going to them?

Aye, said Nyx, reopening her eyes. A dark journey lies before us ere we reach the Dream-Weavers’ cave and gather all our strength for the final ascendancy.

But what about Hypnos? Kellen asked. You said he was sick . . .

He is, my son, said Nyx. And Father believes it may well be the Oneiroi Three and their masked mother are the only hope for Hypnos. His only chance to survive and witness all that we have labored over in your absence to come to fruition.

Doubt nagged at Kellen as Nyx pulled at him to follow her out of the Orphan Knoll dungeons.

Nyx turned back. What troubles you my son?

If these Oneiroi can help Hypnos, why haven’t you taken him there before?

Nyx smiled in such a way that set Kellen to shivering anew. Because you were not here then, my favored son, said she. Nor was the power that you took with you when you left this world to explore that other mystic realm, Beyond, for still more answers to the deepest mysteries of all.

Kellen nodded then, if only to sate the questioned look in her eyes at his continued queries. He followed Nyx out of the water-filled dungeons, then left the drowned fighting pits and the Selkie dead behind to seek out the other Sancul.

***

The pair ascended in their swim to reach the others, finding Kanaloa alongside Erebus atop a cliffside stairs. Reaching them, Kellen remembered once having looked down upon the Selkie fighting pits from the same vantage point he swam over now.

The largest and strongest of the Sancul, Erebus seemed to hover off the stony floor, his tentacles spread wide, over and across the cliffside like far-reaching moss that had never known a trimming blade. He used a pair of his monstrous tentacles to gingerly hold and maneuver the most withered of the Sancul.

Hypnos rested in his father’s tentacle grip, his head lolled back, his eyes dimmed. In them, Kellen saw nothing of the former light that he recalled blazing in the sickly Sancul’s gaze when Hypnos had used his powers to bring down the Ancient whale and help to heal Kellen’s shattered form.

Kanaloa, the elderly priest of darkness and deep, tread water over them both whilst using a pair of his own tentacles to touch on either side of Hypnos’s head. Seeing them bonded, Kellen imagined the sickly Sancul like an outlet that Kanaloa used his tentacles to reap power from.

Despite his father’s grasp to hold him, the whole of Hypnos’s body trembled like one with a cold they could not shake, nor hope to be warmed of.

Nyx settled in beside them. How does he fare, husband?

Not well, said Erebus. I fear the journey here has sapped him of what little strength he had remaining to him after using his powers on the Ancient beast in Mnemosyne. I do not think it wise to move him for this journey the pair of you have planned. He gave a threatening look to the elderly priest beside him.

Kanaloa’s eyes fluttered open. And yet we will bear our Hypnos away all the same. His tentacles pulled away from Hypnos. For your wounded son wishes it of us.

Erebus sneered. How do you claim to know what my son would wish?

He has shown me the way, said Kanaloa. Just now when I touched him and asked him speak to me.

Strange he should do so for you now, but has never answered my begging of the same, said Erebus.

Or perhaps