Of Killers and Kings

by Will Wight

  Shera’s thoughts were cold, but she still registered surprise, pulling the gun away from herself. “I didn’t think he was really there. I thought this was just my brain—”

  She was cut off by Meia seizing her by the collar and shaking her so hard that her toes left the deck. “Your brain! Your brain!”

  With one hand, Meia hurled her to the deck.

  With the amount of energy blazing through her, it didn’t really hurt. In fact, before Shera came to a stop, she spent some of her power to flip and land evenly on her feet. She could have probably avoided the blow in the first place, but she was curious about where this was coming from.

  Meia had taken the gun from Shera, and she squeezed it one-handed into a ball of splinters and twisted metal. “If you had a brain, you wouldn’t be listening to Kelarac!”

  The entire deck of Consultants stared at Shera.

  Some of the Gardeners drew glowing shears.

  Shera raised her hands. “He’s in my head, Meia. If I live, I’ll give into him eventually.”

  “And you don’t think that’s exactly what he wants?”

  Meia’s chest still heaved with her fury, but Shera sighed. She was letting her personal feelings get in the way, and they didn’t have time for this.

  “You have to trust me. I can see some things more clearly than you can.”

  “Clearly?”

  “If you set your personal feelings aside, you have to see it makes sense. While I live, you’re all in danger.”

  Meia looked mad enough to bite. “You’ve never set personal feelings aside in your life! Why did you kill Maxwell, Shera?”

  Shera didn’t have a problem telling the story. “I had no use for him.”

  Meia barked out a laugh. An Elderspawn of flesh and bone crawled up over the railing, but Meia threw a spade behind her with such force that the monster’s head exploded and it slowly slid back down into the ocean. “There really is something wrong with you!”

  “That’s what I—”

  “You killed him because he killed your best friend, you absolute idiot.”

  Meia dashed up to Shera. Ordinarily, Shera wouldn’t even be able to keep up, but the Great Elder’s power bubbled up inside her.

  She dodged, intercepting Meia’s hand as it lunged for her throat.

  Out of habit, Shera reached down for one of her shears.

  But she stopped.

  Meia noticed, and she bared feral teeth. “Do you even pay attention to the decisions you make? Did you risk your life on a secret solo mission because it was going to succeed, or because you wanted Lucan free? Do you sleep all the time because it’s the optimal use of your time or because you like it? Did you fall in love with Lucan because you’re a rational decision-making machine?”

  Meia swept a slap at Shera’s head, but a slap from Meia could fell trees. And she had adjusted her strength based on what Shera had shown before, so Shera had to duck, sweeping a leg at Meia’s ankle.

  Shera might as well have kicked a steel post, but she hooked her foot behind Meia’s and pulled, knocking her off-balance. Her hand came up with a spade in it…and stopped at the base of Meia’s neck.

  Meia made no move to pull back, glaring at Shera. “I want you to tell me how many other people have done more for the Empire than you have. For the Consultants. For their friends.”

  Shera’s hand trembled, though she wasn’t exactly certain why.

  The ship quaked beneath them, Awakened weapons flashing and Children of the Dead Mother swarming. The Consultants shouted to one another, fully locked in battle.

  Neither Meia nor Shera flinched.

  Blood trickled down Meia’s neck where the spade had broken the skin. “If you’re really going to sacrifice yourself, kill me. Because while I’m alive, I won’t let you die.”

  Shera lowered the spade. “I still have a use for you. This proves nothing.”

  “Shera, caring more about your friends than other people is not heartless. That is normal.” Meia grabbed a flying Elderspawn from the air and hurled it against the mast, where it broke into pieces of bone. “Now that you’re listening, I’ve got another question: what makes you think Kelarac really wants what he says? Don’t you think he might want you dead?”

  Another image of Kelarac appeared, just as self-assured as before. “You see? She sees things from a human perspective. Her vision isn’t as clear as—”

  “So I should…stay and fight?” Shera asked. Her jaw was growing tight, and the energy was threatening to split her in half again.

  Meia tore a freshly risen corpse in half. “What do you think?”

  Shera stared Kelarac right in the blindfold. She reached for him…but not with her hand. With her Intent.

  “Now, Shera, think of all the opportunity…”

  His voice faded. So did his appearance.

  As Shera grabbed the last remaining piece of Kelarac and brought it forth into reality.

  All around her, the air tore open. Tiny slits appeared, opening not into the void, but into a sunken palace piled with treasures.

  Out above the ocean, four giant holes appeared, and bronze statues of the Regents dropped out.

  Awakened items poured from Kelarac’s treasure vaults. Swords, axes, spears, arrows, iron bars, tanks of liquid, coils of rope, shining lamps, spinning blades, chalices, jars, bones, cannons, devices for which she had no name, they all emerged into the air.

  A gleaming, shining constellation of power awaiting her order.

  In the distance, the battle between the Regents and Nakothi slowed. The drowned corpse that had once been the dead island turned her face toward Shera; it was half bone and half melted flesh, a hideous mask of death.

  Nakothi’s song began crooning in her mind.

  Come, children, come to me…come and be remade…

  Shera focused on the Dead Mother.

  Every weapon in Kelarac’s arsenal turned on her at once.

  Light of every color split the sky as the Awakened weapons struck. Chains erupted from the deep, wrapping themselves around Nakothi’s limbs and stretching them, trying to pull them off. Bronze statues of the Regents slammed their weapons down, hacking at undead flesh.

  Axes struck in explosions of light. Spears pierced hearts. Saws carved through Elder bone. Needles drank blood. Drills burrowed through Nakothi’s skin. Mirrors caught her retaliation and turned it against her. Liquid spilled from jars, setting the ocean waves aflame around Nakothi’s ankles.

  Awakened weapons from every age of humanity assaulted the Dead Mother like an army of Soulbound.

  The air trembled and the broken sky quaked as though the heavenly battle above had returned. The sea burned, waves leapt, and water flashed red, then white, then green as lights bright enough to blind the eye erupted.

  Kelarac’s power drained quickly from Shera. After the first moment, the Regents recovered from their astonishment and joined in, supporting the barrage.

  Jorin’s power drowned the Great Elder in acidic darkness.

  Loreli raised her sword with a cry and a lightning-bright bolt of pure white pierced the top of Nakothi’s head.

  Estyr flew over the shambling mass of undead flesh, arms crossed in her black armor as she drove the seven spikes of the Blackwatch into an Elder. Giant armored nails shot past her, piercing the Dead Mother’s right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, stomach, chest, and head.

  Finally, when Shera felt as though she’d stayed awake for the last year, the last of Kelarac left her. The host of treasures lost their support, falling from the air as though their strings had been cut. One by one, they splashed down into the sea.

  And Nakothi crumbled to bloody pieces.

  Chunks of her body made waves as they plopped into the water, droplets of blood flying as far away as the Navigator ships.

  Shera swayed with exhaustion, and it might have been her tired mind, but she thought she saw a piece arcing through the air toward her.

  A moment later, something plopped onto t
he deck.

  A small lump of gray-green flesh slightly bigger than a fist.

  Do not suffer, it sang in Shera’s mind. Do not weep. I will take you in my arms…

  Shera kicked the Heart of Nakothi over the railing and into the Aion Sea, where there was no more Kelarac to claim it.

  That spent the last of her stamina.

  She started to collapse, but Meia caught her. “Nice work, Shera.”

  “I know,” Shera said. Her consciousness was already drifting off. “You…handle…the rest…”

  The world blacked out.

  Epilogue

  five years later

  “And that is it!” Shera pulled off her grays as quickly as she could, tossing them into a corner. “I’m done!”

  Someone rapped on the door. “Are you decent?” Meia called from the other side.

  “I have never been better in my entire life.”

  “Put your clothes on.”

  Shera grumbled, but she pulled on the loose white robe she was supposed to wear for her upcoming procedure. Ordinary clothes would be ruined, so this robe was specially invested.

  It was more comfortable than she’d expected.

  A moment later, Meia marched through the door. “Did you have to wait until the last possible second?”

  “A thousand apologies, High Gardener.” Shera walked out and Meia fell into step beside her.

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “You called me Guild Head.”

  “When other people were around.”

  Shera glanced around at the wood-and-plaster walls of the House of Masons. “There could be other people watching us here.”

  “You finished your work?”

  “Complete and filed.” Shera’s final act as the Mistress of the Mists had been to approve a system whereupon their Soulbound Gardeners could be borrowed by other Guilds for the purpose of securing any Elder tombs.

  What had happened once couldn’t be allowed to happen again.

  After the departure of Urg’naut, the death of Kelarac, and the defeat of Nakothi, the sky had gone back to normal within the day. Holding open the sky had taken the power of the Great Elders, and with so few of them left, the world had largely repaired itself.

  There were other rumors, whispers of something the Optasia had done, but Shera didn’t concern herself with them for now. That was Regent business. As long as the rifts were closed and the Great Elders stayed gone, she was satisfied.

  “The governors have been sending gifts,” Meia said. “It hasn’t been made public when exactly you’re all…departing…but they know it’s soon.”

  “Not soon enough for them.”

  The Aurelian Alliance was still in its early days, but the governors were already jockeying to be free of the Guilds. One and all, they had started to build their own imitation versions of the various Guilds. Vandenyas had a Navigator-style ship that could supposedly traverse the Deep Aion, and the Governess of Izyria had started to rebuild the Champion’s Guild in her own name.

  None of the Alliance leaders could wait for Shera and the Regents to step down.

  “Are you…looking forward to it?”

  Shera glanced at Meia, but Meia was facing rigidly forward.

  “Being done with work? Yes, I’ve dreamed of this day since I was a girl.”

  “I mean the rest of it.”

  As they walked, Shera thought. Was she looking forward to it? She often had to examine her own thoughts for a while before she understood them.

  “…no, I don’t think I am,” Shera said at last. She was surprised by her own answer.

  But they had already come to the final door.

  Meia glanced to both sides, touched her shear, and then lowered her voice. “You know, you don’t have to do anything. They can’t make you. Last chance.”

  They had talked about this before. For years, actually.

  “It’s only two years, then we’ll pop back in and see how you’re doing.”

  “Two years the first time,” Meia emphasized. “And then…who knows?”

  Shera scratched the back of her neck. “I think I have to do this, Meia. It makes sense that it’s me. And…I mean, I am tired.”

  Meia looked into her eyes. After a moment she straightened and offered her hand. “Well then. Good-bye, Shera.”

  Shera was relieved. She had been worried that Meia would force her into some drawn-out, overly emotional farewell.

  She took Meia’s hand and shook it firmly. “Good-bye, M—”

  Meia swept her up into an embrace.

  She trembled against Shera’s shoulder, and her sobs echoed in the hallway. Shera patted her awkwardly on the back.

  She never did know how to handle situations like this.

  Strangely enough, her own vision was getting blurry. She raised fingertips to her cheeks and they came away wet.

  Shera backed away, pulling back from Meia. She hurriedly swiped at her eyes. “Sorry, I—I don’t know where that came from.”

  Meia watched her through her own teary eyes and then began to laugh. She was a mess, laughing and crying at the same time.

  A moment later, so was Shera.

  Shera was already late, but she took a few more minutes to clean herself up before stepping into the next room. She didn’t want to present herself as a mess in front of the Regents.

  The other Regents.

  Estyr lounged on the edge of her stone coffin, grinning. No skulls floated around her head; they must have already been packed away. “You should have seen me when they stuffed me away for the first time. I was a nightmare.”

  Loreli rose from the ground and brushed off her knees. “It can be hard, but it’s better to make it quick.”

  “I cried like a Merinthian waterfall,” Jorin piped up. Like the others, he wore only a loose white robe. “Woke up ten skips later still crying. I like to picture myself sobbing up a rainstorm in my sleep.”

  Shera approached the eastern coffin. It had been re-carved; now it showed a stylized image of Shera surrounded by mist and carrying a shear in both hands.

  Alagaeus’ name had been erased and replaced with a new one: Shera Gardener, Regent of the East.

  Meia helped her into the coffin, smiling down through her tears.

  “See you in two years,” she said.

  Shera tried to respond, but yawned instead. The Intent of the coffin was already beginning to work. She managed a small wave before Estyr’s power rolled the lid over her.

  It was utterly dark inside. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears. She was surrounded by cold, but the robe kept her surprisingly warm and the alchemical gas pumping into the air was almost scentless.

  Shera relaxed into the padding at the bottom and, with alchemy and Intent flowing through her veins, she slowly fell into the deepest sleep of her life.

  Until it was time to get back to work.

  THE END

  of the Elder Empire, Last Shadow

  Of Killers and Kings

  Bloopers

  Yala bristled, stepping closer to Estyr Six. “On what authority do you interfere with the Consultants? You’re not the Empress. If you—”

  In mid-sentence, the High Mason was hurled into the sky as though launched from a catapult.

  Her shriek grew more and more distant until she vanished from sight.

  Today, Shera thought, is my favorite day.

  The Emperor held out the pulsing gray-green heart. “Join me, Estyr. Bind your soul to this, and we can rule for eternity together.”

  “Sure, that sounds great,” Estyr said. “Can I see that for a second first?”

  The Emperor handed over the Heart of Nakothi.

  Instantly, Estyr crushed it into pulp.

  The Emperor stared after it in horror. “Why, Estyr? That was eternal life!”

  “For a moment, I thought, ‘yeah, why don’t we bind ourselves to the heart of a Great Elder so we can live forever?’ Then I had an even better idea: let’s not do that.”

 
; Benji hovered in midair, his shears now purple and hooked like sickles. Purple light fluttered around him in the form of a cloud of butterflies.

  “Can I try again?” Benji asked.

  “Sure,” Shera said.

  Miraculously, the next Soulbinding attempt succeeded.

  Benji returned for the second time, his shears fused together and stuck to his forehead to form a rainbow horn. “…one more time?”

  “Why not?”

  He emerged the third time, his blades having transformed into a shimmering pair of pink pixie wings stuck to his back.

  Benji started to cry.

  Jyrine wore an iron mask of anger. “Kelarac keeps his bargains. Ask Calder.”

  “I will,” Meia said lightly.

  Then she left.

  …a moment later, she walked back into the room. “I changed my mind. Calder is dead and we killed him.”

  The look of shock and horror on Jyrine’s face was more than gratifying. Meia savored it for a moment, then added, “And now I’m going to kill you before you can escape from us like you did last time.”

  Before Jyrine could respond, Meia snapped her neck.

  The announcement went out all over the Empire: to prevent the spread of disease, citizens were required to implement quarantine procedures.

  They should stay home as much as possible.

  Keep at least six feet away from other people.

  And cover their mouths and noses with masks whenever they went out in public.

  For the Consultant’s Guild, nothing changed.

  Glossary of Terms

  Am’haranai – The ancient order of spies and assassins that would eventually become the Consultant’s Guild. Some formal documents still refer to the Consultant’s Guild in this way.

  Architect – One type of Consultant. The Architects mostly stay in one place, ruling over Guild business and deciding general strategy. They include alchemists, surgeons, Readers, strategists, and specialists of all types.