Chapter 237: The Shadow Spirit

The path that they were walking was lined with tall and weathered trees that made canopies overhead. Sun-dappled leaves created flickering shadows over the group that was walking below them. Dead leaves crunched under their feet. The cool gusts of wind sent shudders of movement through the branches. From the corner of her eyes Darla saw a faint movement over the raised edges of a tree bark. At first she didn't pay attention, giving it a benefit of doubt that it was just the shadows of the leaves. However, when the shadow slithered out and entwined around the branch, hair rose on her nape. 

Dashing across the space between them, Darla put herself between Anastasia and the threat that was lurking. The gray shadow darted to the right and Darla swung her sword in an arc to catch it and slice it, but the shadow was simply too fast and it moved back to the trees on the side. Anastasia was stunned and so was everyone else. She thought that Darla was going to attack her with her sword but she was in fact chasing the shadow.

The shadow slithered inside the branch as if it was absorbed by it. Darla stood there dumbfounded watching it disappear.

"What is it?" asked Kaizan. It reeked of necromancer magic. A soul must have escaped or summoned. But he didn't want to mention it to Anastasia. Dread pulsed through his body. 

The shadow oozed out of the branch toward another tree. Darla lunged at it and thrust her sword but the shadow glided, circled the tree and when it came out, it let out bone-chilling laughter and its thin echo drifted with the wind. Every person in the group felt as if being pricked by thorns of a bush. The laughter was so eerie that it was something Anastasia had heard for the first time and prayed that she never heard it again. "Th— that sounds like a gh— ghost." She remembered the spirits she had seen when she had turned into a shadow. 

Darla gritted her teeth. "Yes, that's a spirit from the dark world. It has escaped and is now under someone's control!" Her expression manifested her fury. Fury and fear. The thin, sick and eerie laughter resonated again. 

"Run!" Kaizan snapped. "Run to the manor." 

The group darted to the manor, which was another ten-minute walk. 

"What will happen if we run? We might as well face the spirit!" Anastasia said. She missed her Evindal sword. Ileus had asked her to keep it back in the palace just so she wouldn't get detected because of it. As they ran the crazed laughter sounded nearer as if on heels. Furious she turned toward the laughter and she caught a roiling motion behind her. A featureless face emerged from the shadow behind them. It attacked her, but she dodged it by ducking. 

"Are you mad?" Kaizan shouted. "That thing would eat you alive!" He grasped her wrist and dragged her away. "This is a very dark spirit. If you touch it as much, it is going to slice you, or worse, it will possess you!" 

The gibbering abomination slithered at a serpentine speed towards them, hissing and laughing. A guard behind them stumbled a little and the spirit attacked him. It sliced his calves and he shouted, "Fuck!" 

"Fuckity, fuckity, fuck!" The spirit shrieked in a shrill voice. Its voice was like a scrap of claws against iron. 

Suddenly Anastasia swung to her left and started running away from the group. 

"Anastasia!" Kaizan shouted. "Come back!" 

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The spirit screamed and so did Darla. Darla screamed out of fear but the spirit's crazed laugh pealed as it darted toward the intended target. 

"Yes, you bastard!" Anastasia snarled. "Come to me!" She sprinted toward the copse of trees, desperately. She directed it away from the group. "No one comes after me!'' She instructed them, but none listened. They lunged at her, except the injured guard who was now rolling on the ground. Anastasia pushed herself to go at a higher speed in order to attract the spirit away from them. When she had covered a good distance between them, suddenly she swirled and threw the dagger at it. The spirit's triumphant laughter turned into frightening wails as the dagger passed through it. It twisted in the air as the path the dagger trailed zapped with white electricity. It writhed in the air and let out a shrill shriek that sounded so bad that the group had to press their ears. 

Throwing the dagger at the spirit arrested its movement. She got the time to attract the dagger back in her hand. She was surprised when the dagger resisted snagging out of the shadow. When finally the dagger yanked out, the spirit collapsed on itself in a murky stream of clouds before it burst into a giant face with two mouths and large fangs. It recovered from the zap of electricity, coiled into oily smoke and then one more head grew out of it. Together the two heads screamed so loudly that branches of the trees shuddered and leaves fell on the ground. 

Anastasia flung the dagger back at the spirit as Darla and Kaizan swung their swords in the oily miasma that the shadow was. The metal clanged inside the smoke creating sparks of white light that seemed like thorns. "Step away!" Anastasia shouted. As soon as they jumped away, the sparks burned their way into the shadow. It shrieked, collapsing over and over, trying to form some shape, but eventually it fell on the ground—a thick oily smoke that got absorbed in the ground. 

Kaizan lunged at Anastasia and lifted her from her waist, and he ran toward the manor. He stopped only when they reached the guest house. He set her on her feet and then walked to the table to pour a mug of beer for himself. 

Anastasia was heaving and so was Darla. 

"I told you not to go!" Kaizan said irritated as hell. 

"It is pretty late," Darla said, evidently shaking from the whole episode. "We need to go to dinner in another hour." 

Everyone was shaken. Kaizan chugged his beer. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and placed the mug on the table with a loud thud. "That was some bloody necromancer magic. Who in Silver Vales is into dark magic?" 

"We should ask Murtagh," Darla suggested. "He is the General under Pierre and Dmitri. He must be knowing." 

Kaizan stared at Darla. "But who the hell knows that Anastasia is here? And why would anyone release a dark spirit on our group? No one in Silver Vales knows that Anastasia is here. Did they release the spirit on us or on Anastasia?" 

"I am sure Murtagh has the answers," said Darla. 

Anastasia sat on the bed. "Let us not think about it. We have to stay calm and behave as if nothing happened. That is going to rattle the enemy and they would definitely make a mistake." 

An hour later, Anastasia was dressed in a beige silk gown that was gathered around her waist and then fell till her ankles. It was embroidered with golden roses around the neck. Her beige silk sandals were soft and comfortable. She let her hair open to cover her pointy ears, but they still poked out. So Darla made her wear a headdress with heavy gold chains on the side. 

When they walked in the main hall, Anastasia's eyes met with—"

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