Air

by Rosie Scott

  The thief chuckled despite himself. “You're right, they don't.”

  “Are you a worshiper of mine?” Ciro questioned.

  “No. I worship no gods any longer. My parents followed you. They helped to commission a temple to you in T'ahal.”

  Ciro tilted his head. “Truly? I would thank them if I could reveal my identity to the populace.”

  “They are dead,” Jakan replied. “But that would mean a lot to them if they weren't.”

  “Ciro...why conceal your identity?” I inquired. “You clearly don't follow the rules most gods abide by because you don't want to kill me. Why remain secretive?”

  “I do what I want, Kai. My brother is a stickler for rules. It's why I can't stand them. I won't allow the gods—or Queen Tilda, for that matter—to control me. I will only use them for as long as I need them before I move on.” He looked to Cerin. “You may think the queen is controlling me, but I feel the opposite. Her reasons for wanting my powers are greater than just Vertun, but she won't tell me what it is. That doesn't matter to me. If she can put me in front of my brother with the means to kill him, I don't really care what menial tasks she has me do along the way.” He turned back to me. “That said, I do not conceal my identity because it is a rule of the gods. I conceal it because I have to. Hades has hunted me down for nearly three thousand years because he blames my brother and me for the sins of our father. I'm convinced he tracks me using the same methods Vertun uses. I have moved around consistently all this time to avoid him because I don't wish to use powers on him that I am saving to kill my brother.”

  “You said Hades was alive and with your mother at the beginning of the Golden Era,” I protested. “That makes him ancient.”

  “Hades is the oldest god alive, Kai,” Ciro replied. “He was one of the original gods dropped onto this planet by the Ancients. He is over six thousand years old, and he is indestructible.”

  “All gods can be killed,” I retorted.

  “Hades is a necromancer,” Ciro told me. “He cannot die.”

  It was the second time in a short while where I'd heard that said. “Necromancers can die, Ciro. I've studied them all my life. Many have been killed.”

  “Because they were young,” the god rebutted. “You are a necromancer, Kai. Your power grows with each life you leech. Continue on like you have been in this war, and you will be on the path to immortality.” He paused. “Hades has been doing this for as long as there has been history on Arrayis. He has killed many gods and men of the lesser races alike. With each life he takes, he grows stronger. There was a time four thousand years ago when the other gods banded together and tried to murder him, for his power grew too immense. They finally gave up, Kai. Do you know why?”

  “No,” I murmured.

  “Because they could not kill him. One of the gods who went to decapitate him found that the blade would not sink farther than an inch into his neck. The goddess of the bow pierced his brain with an arrow, and he did not fall. The god of fire tried burning him alive, and the fire would not touch him.” Ciro hesitated. “Can Hades die? Probably, if we're arguing semantics. If you could somehow tie him down to avoid his magic and chop through his head enough times to break the spine, then maybe he would die.”

  Cerin and I exchanged glances. Finally, I said, “I could kill him. Death magic counters death magic.”

  “Yes, you probably could,” Ciro admitted, “because you are the first god to have access to death magic other than him, and I have heard that you wield it magnificently. But if Hades is aware of your existence, Kai, he will know this as well. I doubt he would want to battle with you. He wishes to keep his immortality.” He hesitated. “This is why I must insist you all stop calling me by my given name and call me Bhaskar. I cannot risk Hades finding a trail of me because I cannot risk having to use my powers against him. Between the two of us, we could cause mass devastation.”

  “Ciro? What Ciro?” Jakan questioned in jest.

  The god chuckled at his antics. “Right. I am Bhaskar, and it is nice to meet you all.” He lifted an eyebrow up at us. “Now, Altan, just to make sure I'm up-to-date, we are leaving tomorrow, yes?”

  “No,” the Sentinel replied, pushing his plate away on the table as he finished his meal. The movement reminded me of my own untouched food, so I started to unpack the dish to eat it.

  “I cannot stay here,” Bhaskar insisted. “Our little test today would have been visible from far in each direction. If anyone is hunting me down right now, I have just told them where to find me.”

  “You can go back to Mistral as soon as tonight,” Altan told him. “But I need to stay here. Kai will not leave without Azazel, and he is in recovery.”

  Bhaskar grinned at me in amusement. “I can tell you're a half-breed. You have a loyalty to your friends that is unbecoming of a god. Many gods would find that distasteful.”

  “Most of the gods find me distasteful regardless,” I replied. “It doesn't keep them from dying by my hand.”

  Bhaskar chuckled. “Count me as one of the gods who like you, Kai.” He scooted his chair back from the table and stood, his tall shadow falling over the stone and plates between us. “The gods and their damned rules have made the past four hundred years so absolutely boring. Then you come along, and everyone's losing their fucking minds!” He shook his hands in the air for effect. “It makes things interesting, to say the least.” Bhaskar pulled his attention to Altan. “I will meet you back in Mistral, my friend.”

  Altan lifted two fingers up to his forehead in a salute, and the god left. We were all quiet for a few moments as we ate our food and pondered the conversation. Finally, between bites, I decided to level with the Sentinel sitting across from me.

  “Altan, I have a request.”

  Two red eyes met mine, hesitantly. “Okay.”

  “Take your own advice,” I told him. “Back in Mistral, you told Kirek that you followed the queen, but you were not her child. Believe in that and live by it, because as long as you carry out her dishonest actions, the consequences will fall on you.”

  “Kai, I am incredibly sorry for the happenings today,” Altan replied. “If I'd have known how powerful—”

  “I know you're sorry. I see it in your eyes.” I paused. “My anger got the best of me. Much of what was meant for the queen was thrown at you. And I'm telling you that will continue to happen if you keep things from us.”

  “I have been completely honest with you since our talk,” Altan said, softly. “There are things even I don't know about the queen and her plans. If I did and they were relevant to you, I'd tell you.”

  “Listen, I know she's your queen, and I know your top priority is Eteri. But you've seen the way I treat my allies. I was willing to put my own goals on hold to go back across the Servis and help Nahara. I am willing to do the same for Eteri, but I can only promise that to people I can trust. I'm asking you to be one of those people.”

  “I will be as open to you as I can be,” Altan promised. “And I swear on my life I will level with you if I think harm will come your way. Once we are across the seas in Hammerton, the Queen's meddling will be low. I look forward to that.” He hesitated. “You say you can only help those you trust, but it is clear you no longer trust the Queen. How can I trust you?”

  “There was a reason I requested an agreement with the Sentinels separately from our alliance with the queen,” I replied. “It helps both you and I. I honor my agreements. If the queen no longer honors hers, we will still have our own, and you will be free to do with it as you wish. As you said, if we are in Hammerton, she can no longer meddle with you.”

  Altan nodded slowly, admiration deep within his eyes. “I'm glad you thought of that.”

  *

  The white and cream light of the double moon cast the inn room in a soft glow from open windows, making the stone of the floor and walls look metallic silver. Overhead came the pitter-pattering of light rainfall, the water making its song along the rock of the roof. Usually, the so
und of rain would help me sleep. Tonight, however, my head was cluttered.

  The bed shifted, and I felt a wave of warmth as Cerin snuggled close to me, his bare skin against my own. The moisture of our love-making from before we'd gone to bed had dissipated from his shimmering skin, making me realize just how long I'd been lying awake. He rested his forehead against my right shoulder. Because he breathed heavily, I believed him to be asleep.

  “What's wrong, Kai?” Cerin's voice was rough with fatigue. Even when this tired, he still put his concern for me first.

  “Nothing that can't wait to be talked about,” I murmured, unwilling to bother him.

  “Kai...” Two plush lips kissed my shoulder. “Talk to me.”

  “You were a non-believer, all those years ago,” I whispered, thinking back to our conversation before we'd even made it to Whispermere. “How did you feel when we found out I was a god?”

  “Mm...relieved.” One of his arms glided across my stomach before it draped over me. “Maybe it's selfish of me, but I had a thing for you. Always did. But I was afraid to get too close to you because I thought you'd die young. Finding out what we did, then, made me feel like we had a shot at happiness. Not just because I loved you, but because you were the first good thing in my life that had a chance to last. And you'd never been completely happy, either, with the way Sirius treated you. Learning you weren't on your deathbed took a weight off your shoulders that you'd carried long enough.”

  “Those were your only thoughts?” I questioned.

  “...mostly, yeah. Why?”

  I swallowed hard. “I spent my life as a non-believer, like you. Then I learned of the gods and hated them. I have spent the past few years disparaging them and killing the ones who crossed me. Because I believed I was different. Theron once told me I had the arrogance of the gods and the humility of humans. Bhaskar said much of the same tonight. But he also told me more about my family than Nanya ever did, Cerin, and I have become just like them.”

  Cerin was quiet for a moment. I felt his fingertips start to graze by my side from the arm he hung over me.

  “Am I really becoming what I hate, Cerin?”

  “You are you, Kai, and no one else,” he insisted. “Sure, you have pieces of your family within you. We all do. But some parts of us only come out when they are called.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Vengeance, war, lust. All three of these things run through your family tree, and you have experience with all three. But why? If Sirius had been good to you, there would have been no reason for vengeance. You didn't go around looking for war or a reason to desire vengeance. If it were up to you, as you've said many times, Bjorn would be alive and I would have never become a criminal for practicing necromancy. There would have been no reason for vengeance if that were the case.”

  “I could have run away with you and the others and never started the war at all,” I murmured. “Many people would have done that. They would have done what they felt was right, and kept running.”

  “Yeah, but you're not a runner, Kai. You're a fighter.”

  “Why, though? Because of the gods?”

  “It doesn't matter why, because it's who you are. And unless you are thinking about screeching everything to a halt here, there's no reason to be worrying about it.”

  I exhaled, and along with my breath came the release of a burden. “I love you.”

  “I love you more.” Cerin kissed my shoulder again. “What else is there?”

  “I didn't say there was anything else.”

  “No, you didn't, but I can tell.”

  Cerin knew how to read me too well. “Twice now in Eteri we have heard others talking of necromancy and immortality,” I said in a rush.

  “Yes.”

  “Does it worry you?”

  “Why would it worry me?” Cerin's tone indicated he was legitimately confused. “You knew already that leeching expands your lifespan. It's one of the reasons I first taught you the spell. I wanted you to live longer.”

  “Yes, but some of the things Bhaskar told us tonight about Hades...” I trailed off. “It is unnatural for a man to survive otherwise fatal wounds. Hades has already lived six thousand years, Cerin. Like Bhaskar admitted to, he would still be able to be killed, but what if he was given another six thousand years? Twelve?”

  “Then he'd still be the oldest god alive,” Cerin mused, before a tired chuckle.

  “You're not...understanding me.”

  “I hear you clearly, Kai, but I don't know what your concern is.”

  “One of the main reasons necromancy was so feared in Chairel was because of how power hungry the people who wielded it became,” I told him. “I thought there would be a way to control that, Cerin. Tame it. Like Arturian Kilgor once wrote about in his petition to the Seran University.”

  “And there is a way to control it, Kai. We are controlling it.”

  “We are both going on twenty-six years old, Cerin. We control it now. We are both relatively new to this game. But with each life we leech, we may be slowly morphing our minds into desiring more. After all, I used to think immortality was a terrible thought because life would get boring if there were too much of it. But now that I have lost people I love, I am starting to warm up to the idea.”

  “It took you longer than most, then,” Cerin murmured, squeezing me closer. “I, for one, would love to work toward that immortality. I told you I'm happy with you, Kai. If we could both live forever...” he trailed off, his voice carrying an edge of whimsy. “...wouldn't you want to?”

  I didn't answer Cerin because I was too conflicted. He eventually fell asleep with his face on my shoulder, and his arm still draped over my torso. Immortality was a nice idea, in theory. As Cerin had suggested, it would mean we could try to live forever, happy and together. But achieving that immortality took the lives of others, whether through constant warfare or otherwise. It was little wonder why necromancers often became murderers. They sought power they could only ever get from others.

  Living forever certainly held its disadvantages. All of the people I loved who were not necromancers would eventually grow old and die. I knew how horrible it had felt to lose the handful of friends I had so far. Wouldn't going through that again and again and again cause one to go insane?

  And even if Cerin and I somehow found that we could still control our powers after years upon years of wielding them, could the same be said for the hundreds of others I'd taught necromancy to thus far? Nahara and the underground spread teachings of necromancy throughout their kingdoms even as I laid there thinking of it. Was it possible I had unleashed a power unto the masses that was so strong in its consequence, we were living on the cusp of a new era?

  I had studied necromancy all my life, and somehow had still missed learning the information I knew now. Perhaps because the worst case of the magic's consequences was found in a god, and the gods had kept hidden for quite some time. Maybe such pivotal information was kept from the texts of history to further discourage people from seeking the power of death magic. In either case, necromancy had never been widespread on Arrayis. It had always been banned or regulated. I had no methods of checking trial and error of its use in history. My biological father had once studied magic to try to answer the questions I now had, but I was no magical scientist. I only wielded magic as a tool and weapon.

  A new ripple of uncertainty traveled through my gut, but there was nothing more I could do. War was already waged. The world of Arrayis was already changing. Two countries were spreading the use of the most potent and destructive element of them all. Like Kirek had once said to me, “There is no turning back.”

  Eleven

  16th of High Star, 421

  Kaaarrriiisss!

  I shot up in bed, the last of the otherworldly hiss reverberating through my skull. Beside me, Cerin was rushing out of bed, pulling pieces of his armor off the floor while staring out the window. It was mostly black outside, save for the twinkling light of thousands of star
s.

  I wasn't sure what had made such a ghostly howl, but I didn't need to know. I was pulling on my armor in the next moment, watching nervously through the window and into the town beyond. The noises of waking and confused people met my ears. I heard Jakan and Anto waking and asking questions in the next room over. On the other side of us, Nyx was doing her best to answer Azazel's questions. Though the archer had been resting after his surgery, he had to keep his eyes covered to keep them safe from the light. Nyx had offered to take care of him in her room since she was the only one who otherwise stayed alone. I'd had my doubts that Nyx could be a good caretaker, but she had been doing a good job.

  Outside in the town, some people were leaving their homes, confused and searching for the noise. Since Eteri was at war, they might have expected the worst. Cerin clearly did as well, since he was staring out of the window as if the view would offer him guidance.

  “Cerin...?” I hobbled over to the window, still pulling up my armored leggings. “What is it?”

  Kaaarrriiisss!

  The necromancer stiffened beside me. “Gods, I recognize that sound.”

  “Cerin...”

  FWOOSH. FWOOSH. FWOOSH. FWOOSH.

  My eyes searched through the window desperately, my attention on the skies. The Twelve? From my view on the second floor of the inn of Tal, I could only see down a few streets into the town. The windows of a house two roads down brightened as its occupants woke up and lit sconces. The front door opened a minute later, and a Vhiri man wandered out, holding up a torch to see into the darkness. A moment later, a Vhiri woman hurried out behind him, pleading with him to go back inside.

  FWOOSH. FWOOSH. FWOOSH. FWOOSH.

  The stars blackened out from the sky as something large and fast swept through the air. I was unable to ascertain its shape until it landed before the Vhiri man, its body illuminated by his torch. Fear rose in my chest much like it had the first time I'd seen the anubites because this creature did not appear living or dead.

  It stood ten feet tall, and was vaguely humanoid in shape, though its joints were little more than knobs stretching skin the color of a corpse. Two large, fleshy ripped wings were spread at its sides as it landed, though it soon folded them in at its back as it moved toward the man with unsteady steps. The creature looked sickly, with sunken in flesh that appeared dry and crusty. Its fingers were a few inches too long and were adorned with talons that were many inches longer than that. What little I could see of its face from this angle was a terrifying mix of creatures only found in nightmares. It had no nose, only a bump where one should have been, which led directly to a mouth that was too wide for its face, with dozens upon dozens of fangs. Its two eyes were black and sunken deep into its head, and if it had ears, I could not see them.