The next morning, the journey resumed at first light. Within three days, they reached Aurellanza's border.
From afar, the volcanoes that formed Ferramonte looked coated in a white mantle of eternal snow. The land stretching ahead of Hermi's carriage was veiled in a gray layer of volcanic ash, a stark contrast to Aurellanza's green.
The moment the carriage entered Ferramonte's territory, Hermi's face turned a ghostly pale. Like all other mages, upon entering low-mana environments, she was immediately hit by "Atmospheric Sickness."
Her limbs felt as though they'd been dipped in lead, and her mind began to swim in a dizzying haze. To a normal human, the difference would likely go unnoticed; to Hermi, it was like the very air had suddenly gone stale.
Hermi blew a small gust at the curtain. The spell worked fine; the fabric snapped aside, then drifted back down. That meant there was still some mana in the outermost part of Ferramonte. But once they reached the Black Fortress, there probably wouldn't be any mana left at all.
The carriage rolled on for another ten minutes, then suddenly jerked to a halt. Through the curtain, Hermi didn't see Cassian's shadow approach as it usually did. Instead, she heard his voice bellow from somewhere outside.
"Attention! Silt Skulkers! Protect the carriage!"
Hermi's heart sank at the name. Had she been so unlucky that she'd run into monsters just ten minutes after arriving in her new kingdom?
Having lived in peaceful Venetia her whole life, she had never known what a monster looked like. She'd only read of them in her mother's books.
According to those books, Silt Skulkers were giant centipedes that hid beneath volcanic ash and silt-covered dunes. Their legs could vibrate with such high-frequency intensity that solid earth turned to liquid. That allowed them to swim through dirt like sharks through water, hence earning them the name, Silt Skulkers.
"Commander, protect the Queen!" Cassian's roar came again. "The rest of you, prepare to engage!"
Hermi swept aside the curtains. Two hundred yards out, she saw a cyclone of gray dust dancing across the horizon.
Beneath the dust storm, the ground moved in rhythmic ripples. A massive serpentine shape was submerged below, churning through the earth. Hermi could only see one form, meaning there was only one Skulker.
Suddenly, the shape breached. The monster erupted from the gray dust and revealed its full ugly form. This Skulker had to be thirty feet long, its hundreds of legs vibrating so fast the motion blurred.
"Eyes on the underbelly!" Cassian bellowed. He had already ridden ahead, leading half the men toward the creature.
The knights engaged, their steel clashing against the monster's armored segments. The Skulker was deceptively fast. It kept twisting its long body, knocking the men aside like they were mere ragdolls.
Sighing wearily, Hermi pushed the carriage door open. The fight didn't seem to be going well for her men. If she didn't offer some help, she was likely to end up as a well-dressed appetizer in a silt-covered grave.
Commander Marco's face went white when he spotted Hermi in the open air. "Your Majesty! Please, get back inside now! It is not safe out here! The Skulker could lunge at us at any moment!"
"That ugly thing moves by liquefying the earth beneath it," Hermi commented, her voice dry as the ash around them. She adjusted her ring, her eyes narrowing as she calculated the mana cost. "If I stabilize the air around its base, the ground will be forced to harden. It can't swim through a brick wall."
As the Commander stood stunned in shock, Hermi raised her hand, funneling what little mana remained in the air into her ring. A pressurized blast of wind was sent straight into the earth, slamming right beneath the monster's midsection.
The vibration along the Skulker's legs faltered. For a split second, the liquefied ash solidified back into a hard crust, trapping a dozen of the creature's legs in place. The Skulker screeched in agony, its metallic grinding sound making Hermi wince.
"There's not enough mana for me to cut it in half!" Hermi shouted. "Engage now! That trick can't hold it for long!"
Her words were proven true immediately afterward. The monster lunged, its massive weight snapping through Hermi's pressurized air pocket.
"Herminia! Run!" Cassian's roar tore through the dust.
The Skulker had ignored Cassian and the knights, its milky eyes locking onto Hermi where she stood.
"Oh dear, this is not good," Hermi mumbled at the thirty-foot creature now looming over her.
Its pincers were spread wide, dripping with an acidic bile that smelled like it could dissolve hope itself. Hermi hurled a desperate air blade, but the Skulker was already striking.
CLANG!
A streak of black steel intercepted the blow. Cassian had launched himself from his horse, his massive greatsword catching the Skulker's mandibles mid-air. With a grunt of effort, he twisted his blade and brought it down in a vertical arc so powerful it sheared clean through the monster's head and the first five segments of its body.
"Your Majesty, watch out!" Marco's voice exploded.
Before Hermi could react, a fountain of thick green ichor erupted from the Skulker's wound. It splattered across her face, soaked into her hair, and erased any chance of saving her gown.
"I definitely haven't read this part in Mama's books," Hermi muttered, staring down at the slime dripping from her sleeves.
Around her, neither the knights nor Commander Marco had a single drop of sludge on them. At the very least, the monster was dead, its hundreds of legs twitching in a dying spasm before finally falling silent.
"Are you all right?" Cassian's voice came from somewhere above her. He was standing atop the carcass, his chest heaving, his sword painted in a grotesque shade of green.
"C-Cassian…" Hermi stammered, wiping a glob of bile from her cheek. "Yes. I'm quite fine."
Earlier, when Hermi had shouted to the men that the mana was too thin for her to cut the Skulker, she had lied.
Even if she were standing on a ley line in the heart of Aurellanza, she could barely slice a fallen log in half, let alone an obsidian-hard creature like a Skulker. Now, Hermi could only pray Cassian had been too occupied with the monster to notice how mediocre she was at air magic.
Dust filled the air as Cassian jumped straight down from atop the carcass. Aware of her filthy state, Hermi stayed where she was instead of reaching for her husband.
"Cassian," she called out, her voice more earnest than she had ever sounded in front of him. "I... I wanted to thank you. For saving my life."
"No need to thank me. There are spare clothes in the trunks. Help yourself."
Hermi was struck dumb on the spot. For a moment, she wondered if the Skulker had managed to swap her husband for a cold-blooded double.
Not only were Cassian's words cold and curt; his face was stripped of all the warmth he'd once showered her with. Was this the same man who had caressed her to sleep just forty-eight hours ago?
As Hermi stood there, drenched in foul-smelling slime and genuine confusion, Cassian's attention shifted to his men.
"Gentlemen," he said, gesturing vaguely at the carnage. "Collect the core, if you would. I believe we have spent quite enough time in the sludge. We pick up the pace from now on."