“Eithan,” she whispered, thrusting her wrist against his mouth.
He bit into her immediately.
She picked up his arm, trying to put it back where it belonged, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Could she heal this? She’d never given her blood to him when he’d been wounded so badly.
He sucked hard at the wound he’d made at her wrist, and she felt it tugging at her heart, almost painful. He was taking a lot.
Well, that was good. He needed a lot.
She pressed his arm together, black blood smearing over his arm, over his wrist, over his bicep. Heal, she thought at it, and she was terrified.
He cried out.
“Sorry,” she said. She must be hurting him.
“It’s fine.” His voice was gruff. He put his mouth on her wrist and he had to bite her again, because her skin had healed over it already.
She let out a breath as he starting sucking at her again.
Her light wavered.
But it was happening. His forearm—skin was growing, it was healing.
“More,” she urged him. “More, you need more.”
He sucked harder, and it was like a painful set of strings going through her, yanking at her heart beat.
Her pulse stumbled.
The light flickered again.
He was still sucking.
She examined his arm. It was back together, but there was a line of pink scar tissue running all around it. She saw his fingers twitch.
And then her light went out.
She gasped.
He detached from her, laying back, turning his hand over in front of his face, touching the scar. “Gods.”
She panted, sagging. She was exhausted.
“You shouldn’t have…” He sat up, looking at her. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, but she was still out of breath.
He touched her. “What did that take from you?”
“You need your arm,” she said. “You need two hands.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “Thank you, but…”
She leaned into him. “How long until the dawn?”
“Hours,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“We’ll just… we’ll rest here,” he murmured, stroking her short hair, feathering his fingers over her neck. “Just for a bit, before we try again.”
“No,” she said, closing her eyes. “No, we need to find the portal.”
“Shh.” His fingers stroked her rhythmically. “Shh.”
She was so very tired…
* * *
Nicce’s eyes jerked open and the sky was growing light. She and Eithan were in front of the temple, and he was snoring. She pushed at him, shoving him.
His eyes opened and he scrambled to his feet immediately, eyes on the horizon, at the coming dawn. “Gods take it to the pit,” he said.
She got up too. “We fell asleep!” It was an accusation, a curse, a lament.
He rubbed his jaw with his thumb, his expression horrified. “Gods take everything.”
She ran a hand through her hair, turning to look at the temple. She didn’t have her weapons anymore. They must have taken them from her before throwing her out of the door.
It didn’t matter.
They didn’t have time.
They could get weapons inside the temple.
She ran for the door.
“Nicce!” Eithan called.
“Come on,” she roared, not even looking back at him.
And he was by her side in moments.
The door was locked.
Of course it was locked. There were no guards on it, but the bodies of the ones they killed lay still and cold in the gray light that was overtaking the sky.
Nicce wanted to scream. What to do?
Eithan pushed her out of the way.
“What are you—”
“Which of us has super strength?” he said to her.
Oh. Well, that was true. She backed up, giving him a wide berth.
He ran at the door, hitting it with his shoulder.
It splintered.
He rushed it again.
It broke.
Eithan reached inside and found the door knob. He opened the door and they stepped inside.
The room was full of the bodies of the dead acolytes, wrapped in bloody sheets. The other, living acolytes had been on their knees, praying over them, but know they were on their feet, groping for spears.
Eithan held up his newly healed arm. “You have been wrong all along. It is not a god of the sun, but a goddess.” He looked at her. “Can you light up?” he breathed.
She tried. Her light wasn’t strong, but it was something.
It was enough that the acolytes saw it.
“Kill me if you wish, but she will raise me again,” said Eithan. “The goddess of the sun finds you wanting for your worship of the false god Sullo. But you take her to the portal, she will spare your lives.”
The acolytes looked at each other. Some were trembling.
Some dropped to their knees, begging for mercy.
“Take me to the portal,” cried Nicce. “Take me there now.”
An acolyte scurried over to her, beckoning. “This way, Your Radiance. This way, up these stairs.”
They climbed a set of stairs that wound up along the wall, and they came to another level.
And there, floating in the middle of the next circular room, was the portal.
It looked like the portal in the dark forest, except the fronds around it weren’t purple but red, a bright deep red.
Nicce drew out one of the crystals. She began to whisper the spell that Feteran had told her. She felt the power in the crystals wash through her. It was hot and bright, like trying to contain liquid fire. She threw back her head, crying out, and the spell wasn’t a whisper anymore but a scream.
It was all she had to keep it up, but she did.
And she was rewarded to see that the portal was beginning to close. The fronds behaved exactly as the fronds had behaved in the dark forest, reaching for each other.
The circle grew smaller and smaller, and it trembled and shook, and Nicce’s voice shook too, and she felt as if she was being burned from the inside, but she knew she couldn’t stop.
Then, abruptly, the power cut off.
The fronds floated out again.
“Sun and bones,” she shrieked. The crystal in her hand was dark and black, completely used up. She tossed it aside and reached for another one.
But before she could begin to speak the spell again, the portal glowed bright. It was much smaller now, maybe only three feet wide.
A head appeared, thrusting out of the portal.
It was Sullo.
“Daughter!” he said. “You’re supposed to be in Aitho’s dungeon.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Nicce debated. Should she start the spell again? Did she have time to get the portal closed?
No.
Sullo was already wriggling free.
Nicce yanked the other remaining crystal out and she caught Eithan’s gaze.
He was there immediately, taking the crystals from her.
Sullo fell face first out of the portal and snatched hold of the front of her tunic. “You’re nothing but trouble, do you know that?”
“Thanks,” said Nicce. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Eithan was descending the staircase, getting the crystals away and safe. If Sullo got his hands on those crystals, they would lose any advantage they had. Go, Eithan, faster, she thought at him.
Sullo pulled her towards the portal. “You need to learn to watch that smart mouth of yours.” He hurled her at the portal.
Nicce braced for impact, but instead, she slid through the hole.
On the other side, everything was green.
Sullo’s head and shoulders thrust through the portal. “Did I see that hunter of yours, that Eithan Draig?”
“No,�
�� she said. “You didn’t.” She looked around. The sky was green, and the air was green. Was this the Eliaath Fields? It wasn’t the green lush sort of place she’d imagined. This green was sickly and dark and smothering. She choked on the thick air.
Sullo retreated, back through the portal. Nicce could hear him yelling Eithan’s name.
Nicce went towards the portal, determined to throw herself out of it.
But Sullo was there again, head and shoulders through as he wriggled inside. “Never mind him, I suppose.” He grunted as he pushed and prodded himself through the portal.
Nicce backed away from him. But she wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if she wanted to run from him, after all. She didn’t. She didn’t want to be lost in this strange, green world. She couldn’t see anything around her. Everything was covered in a thick, green mist, not unlike the purple mists in the Nightmare Court, but thicker.
Sullo was next to her, taking her by the arm, dragging her along with him.
She resisted, but he was stronger than she was. She looked back at the portal, but she wasn’t sure what she should do. She needed to get away from Sullo somehow, and to get back through the portal, but it wouldn’t do for him to follow her.
Out of the green fog, a stone walkway appeared under their feet. She could only see it a few feet in front of her and a few feet behind. They walked on it until a formidable palace came into view. It resembled the one in the Nightmare Court, tall and imposing, though she couldn’t see how tall because it was swathed in mists.
Sullo yanked her to the front doors, two massive wooden doors with metal bracing them together. Inside, they stepped into a brightly lit cheery space which smelled faintly of baked bread. Nicce was so startled she stopped moving. Rooted to the spot, she looked all over. The room was small, but it was like a cottage in summer, down to windows that were open to let in a gentle breeze, and a flower-dotted meadow and blue sky outside. She pointed. “That…”
Sullo gave a mighty tug and she fell into step with him.
They went through a doorway and now they were in a sitting room, with fancy couches and art on the walls, and more open windows looking out onto an identical flower-dotted meadow.
Aitho was sitting on one of the couches and next to him was a tall woman with sharp features and long, graceful fingers.
Yanna, Nicce thought. Goddess of war. Must be.
“Sullo,” said Yanna, blinking. She turned to Aitho. “Did we invite Sullo to come and visit us?”
“We did not,” said Aitho. “Say, Sullo, isn’t that one of your daughters, the one we locked up in my dungeons?”
“She escaped,” said Sullo. “She’s managed to shrink the portal in Kemulia.”
“Oh,” said Aitho, sounding impressed. “Well, you are determined and capable, aren’t you?” He smiled at Nicce. “I imagine under different circumstances you’d be proud, Sullo.”
Sullo cleared his throat, squaring his shoulders. “I suppose she is, um, well, she’s…” He abandoned the sentence. “I think she’s trying to close the portals.”
“Why would she want to do that?” said Aitho.
“Possibly to cut us off from her realm,” said Yanna softly. “Is that it, girl?”
“Ah,” said Aitho, not letting Nicce answer. “Well, I suppose that makes sense. She was trying to kill you before, Sullo. I had thought it was a personal gripe between the two of you, but she did kill Ciaska, didn’t she? Is it the gods you have it out for?”
“What a strange idea,” said Yanna. “Imagine, thinking that you had the power to kill gods.”
“She obviously did have the power,” said Sullo.
“Yes, but Aitho, we’ve noticed that the less that we interfere in their world, the more powerful they seem to think us. They weave more elaborate tales about us and they ask us for all manner of boons we could never grant, thinking we have the power over the future or the will of their enemies, that sort of thing. So, why would this one think that she could rise up against us?”
Now, they all turned to look at her.
She licked her lips. “Well… I suppose I knew the stories weren’t true.” She paused, waiting for them to interrupt, but they just gazed at her, curious. “I grew up thinking the gods were a fiction and it was obvious that the stories were. So, when I discovered the gods were real, I knew that… well, that the gods hadn’t done the things in the stories, couldn’t have, because the stories all contradicted each other and didn’t make sense, so I thought that the prowess of the gods had likely been distorted too. And Eithan thought that Ciaska could be killed with weapons, but that turned out not to be true. But by that time, we’d already committed to the course of action, and we couldn’t very well stop, so we had to keep trying.”
“She needs to be punished,” said Sullo. “A quick and painful punishment this time, something devastating, and then we need to determine how to open the portal back up, because it’s a very tight squeeze right now.”
“Oea opened the portals,” said Aitho, shrugging. “I don’t see how we’d do that.” He turned to Nicce. “How are you closing the portals?”
Nicce only raised her chin. She wasn’t going to say anything to them.
“This is fascinating,” said Yanna. “You didn’t tell me that there were those in the realm who doubted our existence.”
“Well, there probably aren’t anymore,” said Nicce.
“Because of Sullo’s interference with the King of Rabia,” sighed Aitho. “Really, Sullo, I’m still angry with you about that.”
“Why are we sitting here, calmly talking about humans?” said Sullo. “We need to fix this problem. She is a problem.”
“Well, she’s your daughter,” said Aitho. “Do what you like with her.”
“What about the others out there?” said Sullo. “We need to make an example, frighten them so much that they cease to attempt to close the portals. Think what will happen if they close them. We’ll be trapped here.” He gestured all around. “We won’t be able to go back, not ever.”
“Now, now,” said Yanna. “The reclaiming project is well underway, and Aitho’s workers are making great progress. Have you been to look lately?”
Sullo sighed. “Trying to fix this realm is never going to be a substitute for the other world.”
“But we don’t belong there,” said Yanna.
“We do,” said Sullo. “If we weren’t mostly human, we wouldn’t be able to mate with them.”
“We are more than them,” said Aitho. “Besides, Yanna thinks she is only months away from making contact with yet another realm.”
“Oh, indeed,” said Yanna. “Would you like to see what I’ve accomplished?”
Aitho clucked at her affectionately. “She’s so eager to show it off. You really should go and look, Sullo.”
Sullo sighed. He let go of Nicce’s arm. “Another realm? Truly? Somewhere else we could explore?”
“Yes,” said Yanna. “Somewhere we can colonize, somewhere we can remake the world in our own image. Do you wish to see?”
“I do,” said Sullo.
Yanna got up from the couch, and Aitho did too.
“This way,” said Aitho.
Nicce stood stock still as they all left the room, no one even glancing at her. Why didn’t they—?
Well, she supposed that Sullo was the only one who was even remotely convinced that she was a threat. And Aitho and Yanna didn’t seem too concerned about the portals closing.
It was like she and Rhodes had posited all those years ago.
The gods had grown bored with them.
She went to the door and turned the knob, expecting it to be locked.
It wasn’t.
They thought nothing of her.
She stepped into the next room, the cheery cabin room. She was seized with a desire to examine it more fully, to understand what the scene she saw through the windows was, but she scolded herself. She didn’t have a moment to lose.
They could be back any second, and she did
n’t know what Sullo would do with her.
She flung herself outside in the pea soup of a world beyond the palace and she began to run down the stone walkway.
As she did, she felt foolish.
Had this ever mattered?
Certainly, Ciaska had been a menace to the Four Kingdoms, and certainly, Sullo had hurt her mother, but… was this idea of hers really for the greater good?
The gods were done with the Four Kingdoms. They had washed their hands of them, turning to other projects and other realms. Cutting them off from the Four Kingdoms, maybe it was pointless. Maybe she’d done all of this for no reason at all.
The stone pathway stopped. She wasn’t sure which way to go, and she blindly groped forward, hoping to see the portal ahead of her soon.
Her heart beat wildly in her chest.
Why had she been so certain that she was destined for greatness if this thing she’d meant to do never mattered at all?
It couldn’t be destiny, could it?
That voice she heard, it must just be her own voice.
Did that make her crazy?
Why was she thinking about this? She needed to find the portal.
And then, it materialized out of the gloom, and she was relieved. She was about to climb back through it, when she saw a leg step through, and then an arm, and then a face.
“Eithan?” she said.
“Nicce,” he said. “I came as quickly as I could. What is this place?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Let’s go.” She pushed on him.
“Is Sullo here?”
“I got away from him. Let’s go.”
They tumbled backwards through the portal, landing on the wooden floor inside the temple.
“You’re okay?” Eithan was looking her over, fingers running over her to check her for wounds.
“Fine,” she said.
“Did you have to fight them?” said Eithan.
“We need the crystals. Where are they?”
“Right.” Eithan leaped to his feet and rushed toward the steps. “I hid them. I didn’t want Sullo to find them. That’s what took me so long. I would have come after you right away.”
“You would have been lost,” she said. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
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