“It seems to me killing an enemy is extremely practical,” I observed.
“Tempting as that may be,” Serah said, shaking her head, “our situation would not be improved by her death. The Oghma would become our enemy just as they were the King Below’s and believe me, you do not wish for that to be the case.”
“And you think they might become our friend?”
“Perhaps,” Serah said, using her staff to walk over. “The prophecy serves neither of us and you don’t want to see the world destroyed any more than they do. In that respect, you are different from the Lawgiver. The only reason she chose to strike here is because Ethinu thinks he’s going to win any confrontation between us. Isn’t that right?”
“Oh, am I allowed to speak now?” Ethinu said, faking shock. It was amazing how quickly her insolence had returned.
“Within reason,” Serah snapped.
“I am ten thousand years old and have known the Lawgiver the entire time. He created this world and many others. The Lawgiver is not a god, at least not in any supernatural sense, but he might as well be. Everything you know, every race and species, is because he and his kind wished to create the world of their fantasies. The Old Humans, what most races across the universe call gods, are immortal and all-powerful.”
Serah looked down at her. “And yet the King Below, the Lawgiver’s brother died.”
“Did he?” Ethinu asked, looking at me intently. “I’m honestly not sure you exist.”
“What?” I stared at her. “I’m fairly sure I do.”
“The Trickster taking the form of Jacob Riverson and living inside him with false memories is not the strangest diversion he’d have taken. You wouldn’t even be aware of your condition until he decided to snap his fingers and ceased to exist.”
How stupid. The Trickster chuckled in the back of my brain.
“Other gods died too,” I said, remembering details of the King Below’s past. “The Lawgiver killed the Gods Between with his brother and lover’s help. As you say, they are gods only in power rather than spirit.” I then realized I had very potentially damning information. The question was could I share it with her safely. In the end, I chose to be ambiguous about it. “I have also seen the Lawgiver’s death. I know the circumstances of it and how to bring it about—perhaps even avoiding the fate you foresaw.”
I did not mention I had seen the Lawgiver’s death on the ruins of a snowy, ashen world. However, that didn’t mean I was lying. Perhaps was a very broad term and Ethinu was desperate. If the prophecy of Morrigan could manipulate generations of leaders then I saw no reason not to do the same with the prophecy of Jacob Riverson.
Oh, how deliciously evil, the Trickster said. I’m impressed. You’d risk the entirety of the world on a hunch.
Those who are obsessed with this prophecy are the only ones driving it forward.
So you say. Yet, here you are, using it to your advantage. The irony? I wrote the prophecy and placed it in her mind.
Did you?
You’ll never know.
Ethinu looked up with a mixture of suspicion and hope. “You lie.”
“I swear to you it is true and offer to let you geas it from me.” I would be very exact about what I said, of course.
“As if you couldn’t break it!” Ethinu snapped.
“It would be sealed with my own power.”
Ethinu suddenly looked thoughtful.
“Perhaps this conflict can be won then,” Ethinu said. “Details, though, I need details.”
“You forfeited the right to those when you tried to seize Jacob’s power. However, allow me a counterproposal: the Oghma remains neutral.”
“Neutral? In a war for the fate of the world?”
“Open conflict is the enemy of the World Between,” Serah said, her voice almost seductive. “The Oghma have the power to destroy the northern and southern continents, which will only make whichever side so struck more willing to destroy the other. If they choose not to involve themselves that greatly restricts the amount of magic being thrown about and increases our chances of victory.”
Ethinu was not convinced. “The Lawgiver will not forgive neutrality. Neutrality is the same as supporting you.”
I took a deep breath. “I will assume Serah is telling the truth when she says that you were Jassamine’s mentor. As such, you have undoubtedly a deep insight into her character. Do you really think the Jassamine we both know would ever let a woman like you live in her paradise?”
Ethinu was silent.
“I thought not.”
“Allow me to my feet,” Ethinu said, turning her head to one side. “You have nothing to fear from me for the remainder of your stay here.”
“How terribly reassuring.” Still, I stepped back and allowed her to rise.
“I cannot guarantee the Oghma will agree. We have fought against the King Below for centuries and your adoption of his name will be…problematic. However, I still wield exceptional influence and persuading someone to do nothing is easy enough with wizards. Hellsword, of course, will refuse, as he believes he can avert the prophecy by killing you. Valance the Red hasn’t been seen in centuries. Jassamine, as you might guess, is less than inclined to favor any plan that doesn’t result in your death.”
“We’re going to kill her anyway,” Serah said.
“A wise choice,” Ethinu said. “You might be able to break the Lawgiver’s resolve if his Chosen is gone. The others: Margaret, Morgause, Nymaena, Brigit, Lugh, and the Nameless One—yes, they’ll agree to stay out of your way.”
“The Nameless One?” I asked.
“Men.” Ethinu wrinkled her nose. “You always seem to want to make things more theatrical. He probably was named Myron or Thomas and felt neither was suitable for a proper wizard.”
“I see.”
Serah and Ethinu spent the next hour negotiating terms. I merely stayed back, keeping an eye out for any treason or hint of betrayal from the Blue Sorceress but saw none. Just watching the two interact left me feeling vaguely sick as they discussed the fate of kings and nations.
Serah demanded proof of Ethinu’s neutrality, which amounted to sabotaging harvests, spreading slander, assassinating the Nine Usurpers’ supporters, and other acts that seemed to contradict the concept. Ethinu, by contrast, took the opportunity to demand help against various foes as well as access to the King Below’s libraries. Despite how impressive Serah’s negotiated terms were, all I could think was the Oghma’s support was going to drastically increase the amount of chaos in the Southern Kingdoms. Ethinu would take advantage of that chaos and increase her own position. No matter who won the war between the Lawgiver and I, it was likely Ethinu would emerge better off than before.
Such is the way of the ruthless and cunning, the Trickster said. Just look at you.
Ignoring the Trickster, I watched as the two of them exchanged geases on one another that were backed up by Sera’s power. I was sworn to a similar agreement by my own power, which I was very careful about wording. Even so, I felt ill for the fact I was manipulating the situation so. I also was worried about Serah since, unwittingly or not, I’d once again involved her in the politics of the Oghma. She’d escaped them by joining me and I’d brought her right back to involving herself in the power games of this weird cult. Worse, I’d potentially put her in the sights of a wizardess fully capable of killing us both. I had no doubt Ethinu was willing to murder anyone or anything that stood in the way of her ambitions.
“We’re done,” Serah said, watching Ethinu leave. She turned back to me. “Are you all right?”
“My father was a drunkard who did terrible things when he was indulging in spirits. He always felt terrible about them afterward, however, and often swore to give it up. A few times, he made game efforts at it and went weeks, even months, without it. When he did, though, he inevitably said he’d drink just a little only to return home three sheets to the wind.”
“I’m not sure I get your meaning.”
“I’
m just wondering if we are, in our ways, more similar than I ever realized.”
Serah looked at me, turning her head to one side as if trying to see something new inside me. “You are a very strange man, Jacob.”
“That I am.” I was unable to meet her gaze “We should depart this place.”
“I agree,” Serah said, conjuring yet another rift in the fabric of reality before departing.
I paused before turning around the open air behind me. I needed to leave Ethinu a message. “I know you can hear me so I’ll just make this brief. I don’t believe for a second you were persuaded. So, instead, I’ll content myself with the fact that you will probably make another attempt on my life in the future. That’s fine. However, it occurs to me you might be inclined to come after my wives or my people. That is not acceptable. I could rant and rave or threaten, but I know you’re not going to be easily intimidated. So I’ll put my the situation into perspective for you. Here, in the heart of your power, you took your best shot at me and you missed. If you harm Regina or Serah or my subjects, I will come after you. I swear I will hunt you across the multiverse. I will spend a million years finding you. If you die before I catch you, I will raise you from the dead so I can torture you until you swear your soul to me in order to make the pain stop. Then, once you are mine, I will damn you in a hell made especially for your wretched soul.” I clenched my bloody fist. “May I cease to exist right now if every syllable of this is not true.”
Nothing happened to me.
I lifted Chill’s Fury and sliced it over the edge of my palm. A small sliver of blackish-brown blood fell from it onto the ground. And it began spreading a terrible blackness throughout the crystal palace. The light dimmed everywhere and it slowly began to crumble. I began to absorb the power within and redirected it. Within the next hour, the crystal palace would disintegrate into nothingness.
One of the walls beside me collapsed and I suspected Ethinu was in the hasty process of evacuating whatever valuables she had stored in her home to a new location. My curse was spreading throughout the palace now, the black magic undermining and unweaving the extensive spells Ethinu had woven into the place. Destroying her home was a small punishment to inflict upon her for trying to kill both me and my bride, but it was all I could manage now. I hope Ethinu realized I’d do a lot worse the next time.
Either way, there was no answer.
“I think we have an understanding,” I said, turning around and walking through the portal away from the astral plane.
Much to my surprise, I arrived on the deck of a ship with black sails and it was the middle of the night. There was a crew of Northerners manning it and I could see Regina at the vessel’s stern. Serah was to my side.
“Why the delay?” Serah asked.
“Politics.”
Serah snorted. “I heard your entire rant, Jacob. All it did was expose something I’d known about you all along.”
“Which is?”
“The three of us were made for one another.”
Chapter Fourteen
The ship was one I recognized as the Ghostly Runner, a smuggling vessel crewed by a mixture of Winterfolk and Northern wild men. There had always been a reasonable amount of trade going on between the northern and southern continents, it just had to be done by the most open minded, corrupt, or both.
The amount now fluctuated madly given the Grand Temple considered it heresy to trade with the northern continent, yet it had never been more profitable do so. The Ghostly Runner, led by Captain Vass, was one of the few vessels I knew that had no fear of the Grand Priestess or her witch hunters.
“How did we get here?” I asked. “The Night Bridge required months to charge.”
“Another benefit of Ethinu’s palace is easy teleportation throughout reality,” Serah said, looking up at the starlit sky. The Peaceweavers were high above and formed a pair of crescent moons. “Time flows differently in the astral plane than in our world, though. I was protecting us from the worst of it for most of our trip, but that failed when fighting the Seraphs.”
“So how long have we been gone?”
“About thirty-six hours,” Serah said. “Not thirty-six years or thirty-six centuries or however long you may have been thinking.”
“Another reason to never visit again.”
“You don’t want a crystal palace?”
“The only illusions I need are that everything will turn out all right.”
Serah gave a half-smile. “I suppose we could all use some of those.”
“Let’s go speak with Regina,” I said, starting to walk toward her, only to have my wrist grabbed by Serah.
“I’ll hold off on that for a bit, if you don’t mind.”
“Are you sure?”
Serah’s eyes met mine and I stared into her brown orbs, absorbing the depths of sadness behind them. “What I did wasn’t a small betrayal, Jacob. I wanted to cover up my sins and bury them deep in the ground. I want to end that part of my life, believe me, but I am not sure I can. I carry it around like a turtle does its shell.”
“We all do that. The thing is, being a spouse is about helping you carry your burdens.”
“Jacob, where did you get your view of marriage? It is quite unlike anything a sane and sensible person would have.”
“Nowhere. Just about every married couple I’ve ever met has been miserable in one form or another. However, it’s taught me that the best thing anyone can be for someone else is miserable with them.”
“If that’s meant to cheer me up, you failed.”
“Yes, well, we’ll keep that out of the holy canon.”
Serah turned away before shaking her head in amusement. “I knew there was a reason I loved you.” Her expression turned serious in an instant. “Actions speak louder than words. If I am going to prove to Regina that I can be trusted, then I must prepare to deliver Hellsword’s head on a plate. Redhand’s, too.”
“If you have lingering feelings for him, then you—”
“No, Jacob, please.”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t try and soften this.” Serah’s gaze narrowed as shadows seemed to creep up and down her body, a sign her magic was escaping her control. “There are some things you can’ be reasonable about. There are times in one life one must make a choice and cast aside one’s neutrality. Hellsword taught me to embrace every horrible thing other people said about me. He made me dirty, filthy, and vile while making me think I was powerful as well as wondrous. He has to die…and painfully.”
I understood that sort of hatred, and it frightened me that I did. “I understand… more than you could possibly imagine.”
Serah reached over and clutched my hand. “You need to know some basic things about them before we reach Kerifas. Important things. I’ll share everything I know about both men, the Oghma, and myself. It’s important I disclose all my secrets. I want Regina to know too because what you don’t know might kill you. You have to convince her to listen.”
I saw no reason why she would refuse.
Clearly you know nothing about your spouses, the Trickster said.
“I will,” I said, ignoring him.
“Know only this: that Hellsword is one of Natrariss’s degenerate magocracy’s nobility and was presiding over blood orgies and human sacrifices before most men hit puberty. He recovered Plaguebringer from the Final Battle of the Fifth War, having defeated the Wraith Knight who wielded it. He is a poet and lecher who fancies himself a genius rather than a despoiler of men and women. He is also one of the most powerful wizards alive, having bargained or stolen knowledge from individuals far greater than himself. He hurts people to make himself feel strong and prove the weak deserve being abused because they cannot defend themselves.”
I absorbed these facts as she spoke them, nodding. “He is a man without honor.”
“I have never met a man with honor, Jacob. Not even you.”
I tried not to be offended. “And Redhand?”
“He is the
son of the Lawgiver and an immortal.”
That required a second for me to absorb. “Could you repeat that?”
“In the Terralan Dominion, there was a powerful High Human Queen named Kastalas who ruled over her fellow mortals as an immortal demigod. She offered up human sacrifices by the thousands and was prone to torturing any individual who did not follow her insane whims. Somehow, the Lawgiver came to her and their encounter resulted in her becoming pregnant. At age thirteen, Redhand strangled his mother and ruled over the High Humans as God Emperor for a thousand years.”
“Until Valance destroyed it.”
It was a classic story. A wizard appointed by the gods used his powers to bring down terrible vengeance on a decadent and evil society. The Codex was full of such events.
“Yes.”
“Which Redhand survived.”
“He has been a hero under many names you may recognize. Dodos, Harmab, Thul Firehand, Beorn Grimwulf—”
My eyes widened at that last one. I had grown up with legends of that relentless berserker slaying an entire army with an enchanted sickle made from a dragon’s jawbone. The other names were familiar to me too.
“Wherever there is violence, Redhand is drawn. He is hideously deformed by ever-burning wounds that never heal but cannot kill him. He was imprisoned under a mountain, forced to hold up a mountain when the Usurpers found him, and the price for his freedom was to serve them. This, above everything else, has guaranteed their victories but destroyed their reputation. He is an indiscriminate killer and the worst of them.”
I could not hide how disappointed I was in her. “You should have told this to me months, if not years, ago.”
“I would have had to have revealed the origin of the information. I was not ready for that.”
I shook with frustration then pushed down those feelings. “You will be honest with us from now on?”
“As much as I can be.”
My next words were as much those of a military commander as those of a husband. We needed every bit of information we could to stop my vision from coming true. That would require honesty, absolute honesty. “Work on that.”
Wraith Lord Page 12
