Before he ruled Ravka, before he was the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy with an extraordinary gift. In this prequel story to the New York Times-bestselling Grisha Trilogy, Leigh Bardugo takes us into Ravka's mysterious past, when Grisha lived as fugitives and the Darkling took his first steps on the path to power.[1]
The short story opens with the Darkling as a thirteen-year-old boy, currently going by the alias Eryk. He regains consciousness after an attack and is questioned about his attackers. He struggles to answer, as his head is pounding from an injury and his throat is raw from nearly drowning. He is relieved when Baghra (then going by the alias Lena) intercedes to stop the questioning and let him rest. She comforts him as he is taken away on a stretcher.
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The story then flashes back to earlier the previous day, when Eryk and Lena arrived at a Grisha encampment along the Ravkan-Fjerdan border. Lena had gone ahead to ensure they would be safe and welcome at the new camp, leaving Eryk in a hidden location to wait with rations. She cannot leave their only lantern and he is embarrassed to admit to still being afraid of the dark at 13 years old. On the way to the camp, Lena has Eryk rehearse his new identity, including his alias. They are constantly on the move and changing identities, in part because of the persecution that Grisha face throughout the world, but especially because they are Shadow Summoners and human amplifiers. Because of this, they face danger not only from otkazat'sya, but from other Grisha as well. Eryk reflects on the many different countries he and his mother have visited, the many Grisha they have met, and the many different identities they have had to assume. Lena says that they might be able to stay at this new Grisha camp until the thaw. Eryk is shocked and delighted at the thought of staying in one place for several months, remarking that he would sleep next to a garbage dump if it meant waking up in the same place every day.
Eryk goes exploring in the woods around the camp. There he meets Annika, a Tidemaker who looks around his age or a little older, and her younger sister Sylvi, who is assumed to be otkazat'sya. Eryk is cautious and does not approach them, as it is challenging to make friends when they move so often. But Sylvi is curious and asks to see his shadow powers. He hesitates, because people are typically afraid, but Sylvi insists. He summons shadows and Sylvi hops inside them, disappearing. Annika becomes distressed, then embarrassed when she sees Sylvi is fine.
He offers his hand to Annika to help her up from the ground, before realizing his mistake. When she grabs his hand, she discovers he is an amplifier. Eryk panics and thinks that he and his mother will have to leave immediately. But Annika promises to keep his secret. He finds out that Annika and Sylvi's mother was killed by drskelle. Eryk is hopeful that they can be friends.
That night at dinner, Eryk sits with Annika and Sylvi. Sylvi asks him questions about his favorite food and favorite color. Annika asks if he would sneak out with her that night to go swimming in a hot spring. Eryk is unsure, but overcomes his hesitation when he decides this is what friends do together.
After dinner, he waits until Lena falls asleep and then sneaks into the woods. He finds Annika alone in the hot spring, already floating in the water. She says that Sylvi fell asleep and will not be joining them. Eryk goes swimming with Annika, before Annika gets out of the water and climbs up on a rock to dive. She stands atop the rock with her arms spread. Eryk notices the water feels colder. It is only when the water begins to freeze around him that he realizes Annika is not intending to dive; she is freezing the lake. Annika picks up a rock and walks across the ice towards him. Eryk is unable to move, his entire body frozen beneath the ice. Annika apologizes and says that she needs an amplifier to be stronger and a better Grisha. She strikes Eryk in the head with the rock in an attempt to kill him.
She raises the rock again when Lev appears, alone and looking for revenge. Eryk notices that the ice is beginning to crack under Annika's weight, as she is not a very strong Tidemaker. Thinking quickly, he loudly calls out that Annika should kill him and take his bones before Lev does. Lev, then realizing that Eryk is an amplifier, rushes onto the ice. Lev and Annika fight, and their struggle and combined weight are enough to break the ice. Eryk dives under and swims desperately for shore. When he reaches the shallows, Lev grabs him and forces him underwater, trying to drown him. Eryk struggles as Lev and Annika continue to fight over killing him.
Lev pulls out a knife. In a moment of panic, afraid to die without having left a mark on the world, Eryk lashes out in a final desperate attempt to save his life. He accidentally uses the Cut for the first time, something he had not previously been able to do, and kills Lev and Annika. Eryk sits on the shore and realizes he and his mother are still in danger, because they will be discovered as amplifiers and will both be killed anyway. He waits until sunrise and then uses the Cut on his leg, nearly severing it in the process. He passes out from the pain.
Eryk awakens in a hut, as a continuation of the first scene in the short story. His mother is with him. She tells him that the Ulle launched an attack on the neighboring otkazat'sya village, razing it to the ground and killing everyone, because he believes they were responsible for the death of Lev and Annika. Eryk cries and apologizes, but Lena comforts him and commends him for his quick thinking in using the Cut on himself and making it look like an attack. She tells him that she would burn a thousand villages and sacrifice a thousand lives to keep him safe. But she says she understands what Annika and Lev did, because the world makes Grisha desperate. Lena says that they will leave the Grisha camp as soon as Eryk's leg has healed. She sits with him while he rests.
Eryk reflects that Grisha must live like shadows, forced into hiding and living in fear, because there are no safe places for them in the world. Eryk promises to himself that there will be; he will make one.
Jacob cursed as he pushed through the thick underbrush trying to make his way to the tree stand he had built earlier in the summer. He was certain that this location would give him an optimal line of sight to the neighboring field in which he frequently saw large herds of deer. This was going to be his year, and he was sure of it. This is the year that I bring home my trophy buck, he thought, as he recalled the events of the day so far.
He had awakened at 4:30 A.M. He began to prepare for a long day in the woods, on the back side of his farm. His first order of business had been to locate and rescue his gloves and camouflaged hunting gear from whatever undisclosed area of his home that his wife had hidden them. He would most assuredly need them this morning to protect him from the bitter cold November morning.
He loaded his gear into his truck and pulled out of the drive way and turned right onto the one lane black top road that led to the backside of his property. After about two and a quarter miles he turned right again off the black top onto a dirt road that was gouged with deep mud filled ruts. He had travel about half a mile down that pitiful rut filled excuse for a road when he came to his desired location. He got out of his truck and loaded his gun and sauntered off into the woods.
He had grown up on the farm all his life, and had been an experienced hunter since childhood, he was familiar with every animal in this part of the state, not even a cougar, bob cat, or bear could have produced the scream that had torn through the early morning forest and filled him with such a bone chilling apprehension.
Primal fear now gave way to stark terror as he chambered a round into his 30.06, and turned around only to find there was nothing behind him. His mind raced with confusion, and he was confronted with a million thoughts at once. What should I do? What could it be? Should I run? Am I going to die? His survival sense kicking into overdrive, Jacob decided to continue on his previously contrived plan which was go to the truck, and get out of there while the getting was good.
Slowly, and cautiously he made his way toward the perceived salvation of his vehicle, silently praying every step of the way. With three hundred yards separating him from his only avenue of escape, Jacob began to hear heavy foot falls off to his left. He could hear the crunching of withered leaves, sticks and debris that littered the forest floor. Summoning every ounce of courage that remained within him, he forced himself to look in that direction, and that is when he saw the dark silhouette that followed him through the densely tangled forest.
75 yards became 50, and 50 became 30, and 30 became 10. Like a miracle he was back and opening his door. Throwing his rifle inside he pulled himself up into the cab, and started the engine and hit the gas, but the truck went nowhere. He had parked in a large mud puddle, and now the tires simply spun, slinging mud 30 feet behind him.
In that split second, his world changed, it was no longer a place where the world was light, and safe, where he was just a husband, and a father, and a guy that liked to hunt, and watch football on the weekends. That reality had evaporated away like early morning fog, and all that was left was a world where monsters existed, and things really went bump in the night. And now an ambassador from that nightmare realm was standing just outside his passenger door, a visible reminder that his world had been turned upside down.
The menacing juggernaut threw its enormous head back and let out a bloodcurdling scream that resonated throughout the surrounding area and seemed to vibrate him to his very core. Shocked back into action Jacob threw his truck into gear and took off as though he were being chased by the very hounds of hell. 152ee80cbc
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