by Riley Tune
I walked to him as he continued to sob. I had to blink a few times to clear my vision, and I could feel the air in the room cooling the tears on my cheek. I placed a hand on his shoulder as I stood in front of him. It was stained with dried blood. To my surprise, he grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
“Thank you,” he said between sobs and sniffs.
In a firm thrust, I allowed my dagger to find his heart. His grip on my hand went limp as his body relaxed. It was fast, and painless. I allowed his body to lay on the bed. He looked as if he were simply sleeping. The Emperor was dead, and after tonight there wouldn’t be another to take his place.
I ran from the room at full speed, and returned to the Empress' room. Looking from her window I could see, with surprise, that many of the flames continued to burn around the palace. This meant I still had some time. I looked down, and from here could see the entrance to the palace. The same entrance that we had used to enter for the ball in the main hall.
I locked my eyes on the ground down there. It seemed so far, and was barely visible through the rain, but the fires I had created gave the lower parts of the palace an eerie glow. Enough glow for me to see where I was going. I warped, traveling from the room of the Empress to the palace grounds in an instant.
I heard it again. A voice, before I reappeared. This time I was a little more positive than I had been the last time, but I still couldn’t make out what it said, and it was over too fast.
As the rain fell, I could smell the smoke from the fires in the air, and in the distance I could hear people screaming and guards marching. As I spun around I could see why the fires were still going. They weren’t the fires I had caused, but they were different. The fires had spread.
In Rema’s plan, she had believed that the fires would last long enough for me to complete the job, but the rain would eventually put them out. She was wrong. The rain did nothing, and even with the guards trying, the fires raged on. Spreading to surrounding homes and shops. Spreading to people. Thera was burning.
“What have you done?” I heard a woman scream behind me. Turning, I saw her.
Red hair stuck to her head from rain, and her white sleeping gown was covered in dirt and clung to her. She was barefoot and breathed as if she had been running nonstop.
Empress Selen Nal had finally made it out of the palace.
She had a look of surprise and anger on her face as she snarled at me, but took a step away from me. “Guards!” she screamed, but nothing happened. The fires had made sure they were busy. She continued to move away from me.
I warped and appeared behind her. She looked around wildly as she saw me vanish. She kept backing up, making her way back to the palace, and then she bumped into me. She let out a scream as she turned to me.
“I know everything,” I said as I dropped my hood. I didn’t care if rain and blood got in my eyes. I wanted her to see me.
It was odd. I once had dreaded killing, but now, it seemed natural. I held this dagger in my hand and I knew she was going to die. These final moments would be the Empress' last breaths.
“The Emperor, or whoever he really was, is already dead, Thera burns, and your rule has come to an end. I even know about the boats, and the people beyond the waters.”
Her eyes grew wide and she stammered as she tried to speak. “She—”
Her words were cut off as I stabbed her twice. Once in the stomach, and once in the neck. Ember had always said to never let your victim speak. They would do anything to save their lives.
He had taught me so much, and now he wasn't here to see this.
The Empress fell to the ground, clasping at her neck.
“Rema,” she said as she gasped.
My neck twitched as my head jerked to her. “What?” I said as I dropped down and held her head up. “Rema what?” I yelled at her.
“She controls, she controls.” Her eyes stared up at me, blank. Lifeless. The hand she held to her own bleeding throat fell limp and touched the ground as rain continued to fall on her face.
I left her on the ground. What was she trying to say? Rema controlled what?
I pulled my hood up. It looked like Rema Thorne, and perhaps even her brother, had some things to answer for. Something was going on, and I needed to find out.
“Arrest him,” a voice called out.
I knew that voice before I even raised my head to face it. It was Rema.
I pulled my hood down as I slowly looked up. Standing before me, in full battle armor that seemed to shine from the rain and the glow from the fire, was Rema Throne. She rode a caprong, and had several guards with her. For the first time, she looked like royalty.
She had a grin on her face, and so did the guard to her side. It was Quarts, her servant from the safe house. He had on armor as well. Clearly, he had never been a servant at all.
Behind them, tied and gagged, were Vida and Jolin, both thrown over the back of caprongs and riding with guards. Jolin seemed to be unconscious, while Vida moved as much as she could and tried to get away. It was useless, though. She, like Jolin, wasn’t going anywhere.
“This Warper and his friends have plotted against The Prime Sovereignty, killed the Empress, and set Thera ablaze,” Rema said as she pointed.
I glanced at Vida again, who had eyes wide open towards me. I could hear her voice in my head, screaming for me to get away.
“We have gotten word from inside the palace that The Emperor is dead too,” Rema shouted as more guards on caprongs appeared from the darkness. “As the only high noble in Thera, I have assumed command until the Emperor is reborn.” She knew he wouldn’t be reborn, though. She knew the Empress was a changeling, just like I did. Just like we all did.
I looked around as everything began to fall into place. This—this had been her plan all along. As the rain fell, my shoulder began to hurt again. All the excitement and adrenaline from fighting had worn off, and pain was flooding my body.
In my head I could hear Remy arguing with his sister. They trust us. They have always trusted us, and you want to betray them. At the time I had thought he was upset at the betrayal of the Emperor and the Empress, because his sister had wanted them killed. Now, slamming into me, was the wave of realization: he had been talking about us. Jolin, me, Vida, and Ember. Ember, I thought to myself.
She had sent him away. Sent him to some place he hadn’t returned from. It was all the plan from the start. She had fooled us all, and now here she was ready to take control, and her first action would be to bring us to justice. No wonder Jolin was gagged and knocked out. She couldn’t allow him to speak.
I had to get out of here.
I looked at Rema once more. She smiled at me. That same smile that I had always felt was rehearsed. Why was she smiling? She knew I could warp away. She wouldn’t be able to stop me.
I took a deep breath as fear—uncontrolled, unmatched fear—rolled over my body. I tried to warp, and I couldn’t. I felt emptiness inside again. I looked up to Rema once more and saw it. Behind her, behind the guards that held my friends captive, was a silhouette, barely visible through the rain.
I couldn’t make it out, but what I could make out were two glowing purple eyes. Rema had brought a Battle Born with her.
I only saw one way out of this. It wasn’t the choice I wanted to make, but I had to be smart. I shot a glare at Rema, and then I ran.
PART III
25
Fear is an amazing source of energy. I was tired, bruised, bloody, and in pain, but fear, fear and anger like I had never felt before, kept me standing and moving. It was possible that Rema expected me to fight. To stand my ground and try to save my friends. This was the first time she had been wrong in her schemes.
I couldn’t defeat them all, even if I had my powers, but with a Battle Born in their midst, I stood no chance. I did the only thing I could do. I ran. Rema and her men were blocking my way to Thera, so I turned and ran into the palace. It wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t have many options at that point.
&nb
sp; I was lucky that none of the guards with her had spears, or my sprint to the palace would have been short-lived. I felt wind and water hitting my face as I ran, trying not to slip on wet stones beneath my feet. Rema had screamed something; I was moving too fast to hear what it was, but I could guess.
I glanced over my shoulder as I ran through the palace courtyard and saw several of the guards getting off their caprongs. The Battle Born was too far away to see. It was that thing I had to outrun. Once I got away from the radius of its powers, I could warp away and figure out what to do.
I made my way inside and headed to the main hall of the palace. Aside from a few workers, who screamed and got out of my way as I ran, the palace was empty. No guards yet, thankfully.
As I approached the end of the hall, I could hear the door at the other end burst open.
“Find him!” a voice screamed. I didn’t stick around to see if it were accompanied by the Battle Born, or if they were even following me. I just continued to run, this time down the corridor Vida and I had entered when we were here for the ball.
I found a window quickly. The palace corridors were full of them. I looked out and found fires still cutting through the darkness. I reached inside myself and found that power again, but it was faint.
The surrounding corridor around me was no more as I warped away, finding my destination on a building directly beside a few others that were burning brightly. I had only burned one building in this area, but it had traveled to five others. I hated to see Thera burn, but at least it was in this area, near the palace. Owners of these houses and shops would be able to rebuild. I just hoped nobody lost her lives because of the part I had played.
I could feel the heat rising up from the flames, and the air was almost impossible to breathe. I looked at my shoulder for a moment. It was throbbing now. I needed to get this looked at.
I turned and warped from the building before it fell victim to the flames around it. Again and again I warped, covering almost half of the city in what seemed like seconds. I knew where I was heading, and I was almost there.
Reappearing on a building across the street, I looked down at the little house. My home. There were no guards around, and this portion of Thera seemed untouched by the events at the Palace. Tomorrow, when the rest of Thera awoke, they would see how the world had changed.
I warped to the street below and peered inside of a window. It was mostly covered by a curtain, but through a small opening I could see that my mother was up. This surprised me. What was she doing up at this time of night? She was sitting alone at the table, drinking from a cup by a low-burning lantern. She and the twins were safe for now. Rema didn’t know about them or where they lived. She barely knew about me—because Ember was the Warper they had wanted, not me.
My mother squealed and jumped as I reappeared in the room beside her. Her mouth dropped open, and she covered it with her hands as I lowered my hood.
“Hey mom,” I said, wincing as I removed my cloak.
“Lox,” she said. She quickly got from her seat and helped me take off my cloak.
She threw it to the floor and sat me down at the table. She rubbed her hands on my face and looked at me.
“What happened? Where’s Ember?” she asked as she looked to the rest of the room. She was expecting him to appear.
“I don’t know,” I said as I removed my bloody shirt. “He may be dead.”
Her face turned up and her eyes grew red. Then she saw my shoulder.
“Oh, no,” she said as she looked at my arm. “How did—”
“It’s a long story, mom,” I said, cutting her off. “Where are Luka and Kula?” “They’re sleeping,” she said as she looked at my shoulder from front to back. “No exit wound.”
She moved to the kitchen for a second and returned with some water, rags, and medicine.
“Lox, what happened to you?” she asked, placing a knife over the fire of the uncovered lantern.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but I already knew. I suddenly longed for Jolin and his medical kit. My mom knew what she was doing; raising me and the two twins had given her practice with wounds, but it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Sterilizing,” she said as she removed the knife from the flame. “We have to get that arrowhead out.” She handed me one of the many cloths she had returned with. “Bite down on this, and you'd better not wake the twins.”
I did as I was told and placed the cloth in my mouth and bit down as hard as I could. The knife felt hotter than the sun as it entered my wound. My mouth watered as I bit down. I clenched my fist so tightly that, when it was finally over, my hand was sore.
After a few moments of digging, the arrow, reflecting light from the fire, lay on the table. The pain from the hole it had left behind was still there, but at least it was out.
My mother took a bowl and mixed water and something else inside to clean the wound. “There’s so much blood,” she said as she looked me over.
“If it makes you feel better, mom, it’s not all mine,” I said as I tried to smile.
“It doesn’t,” she replied as she continued to clean the wound. Whatever was mixed with the water burned, but was slowly taking the pain away from the hole in my shoulder.
“Now tell me what happened.”
“I don’t think—”
She stopped cleaning and looked at me sternly. I was starting to think this was an ability all mothers had. The look that made you afraid and, at the same time, comforted you, to let you know that everything, for the moment, would be okay.
For now, I wasn’t a Warper, or an assassin. I was simply her son. Her hurt son, and she wanted answers. So I told her everything. In the hour that followed she continued to dress my wound. Cleaning it, covering it with some sticky stuff to help speed up the healing. In return I told her everything.
I told her about Jolin, Vida, and the Thornes. I told her about the murders, about the Emperor, and finally I told her how I had killed them. This last part was what made her stop. She knew what I was. Ember had told her years ago. She knew what I was destined to do, and she had never liked it. Now, she was finally seeing what my world was like when I left her and the twins behind.
She gave me an old shirt she had found for me to wear.
“Do you still have the yolars I left you?”
She nodded as she began to clean up the table.
“Good. Take it and the twins and get out of Thera. Walden should be safe for you.”
“Okay,” she replied as she finished cleaning up. I had expected some level of resistance from her, considering that Thera has been the only home she has ever known.
“How long will it take you to get ready?” she asked me.
“Get ready?” I repeated.
“We’re going to Walden, right?” she said as she looked at me. I could see it in her eyes. They darted around the room, and then focused on me. They were wide and glossy. “Lox,” she said as her voice cracked.
I stood from the table and walked to her. “Mom, I can’t leave.”
“You can,” she said. “You’re my son, and—and you have to do what I say.”
“I can’t. I have to put an end to this.”
“But why you? You could leave this life. We can be a family again and start over.”
I shook my head. If only it was that easy. I was sure Rema would continue to look for me, and if my family was with me, I would be putting them in danger, too. I had started this and I was going to have to try to finish it.
“I was born to do this. Literally. I can’t just stop now. It’s who I am, mom. I can’t turn back now. Not when Jolin and Vida still need me.”
We were silent for a few moments. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
I looked at her. “You guys need to get out of Thera. I’ll find you when this is all over. If you don’t hear from me within in six days—”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but she knew. She just shook her head some and kissed me on the cheek.
“I love you too, son. Whatever happens, know that I’m proud of you, and even with this curse, I know you will do great things.”
The next morning, I sat down once more at the table and looked around the now-empty house. It seemed so big now that I was alone. I had found some more of the old clothes my mom had stashed away. The trousers I wore were smaller than usual, but for the most part they still fit me well. Before she left, she made sure I had food to eat.
I had only begun to eat some of the soup she'd left for me when I heard a knock at the door.
I took in two more spoons-full and then grabbed my dagger and warped to the door. I crouched low and peeked out the window. No guards were there. The knock came again. Seeing as I couldn’t see them from the window, it must have been just one person. I hid my dagger and opened the door slowly.
Instantly I could feel my face getting hot as anger pushed rational thought away from me. Standing there, on the doorstep, was Remy Thorne. He was also holding Sprits in his arms.
“Thank the Keeper. I was starting to think I had the wrong house,” he said. “Can I come in?”
I grabbed Sprits from him and placed him inside. Remy kept looking around on the outside. I stuck my head out and peered around the street. Everything seemed normal. People were walking by, a few carriage were moving off in the distance, and, lightly, the snow was falling. I grabbed Remy by his throat and pulled him in the house, shutting the door so hard behind him that the house felt like it was shaking.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him as I placed the tip of my dagger to his throat.
He looked down at the dagger and then back to me as he put his hands up. “Let me explain,” he said slowly.
“Explain? You think you can explain why your sister betrayed us?” I screamed the words at him.
“I never wanted any of this to happen. I was against it from the start,” he stammered.
“You let it happen. You could have warned us. Warned Ember. I should cut your head off and deliver it to her,” I said, removing the tip of the dagger and replacing it with its edge. “I could do it. Remy Thorne, high noble, killed in the slums of Thera. Fitting end.” These last words were hissed more than spoken.
