He disappeared down the steps.
She gazed at the portal. Green mist was floating out of it, rising towards the ceiling of the room.
Moments passed.
She went over to the steps to call down after Eithan.
But he was there, hurrying back up towards her, taking the steps two at a time, his arms full of crystals. She snatched one from him and turned back to the portal, holding it out as she began the spell again.
The fronds all began to reach for each other again, and they tugged the circle smaller and smaller. They touched each other and intermingled, and the portal was covered over, even as the circle shrank and shrank.
The power burned through her. She was tired. She was in pain.
She kept going.
The circle was very small now, only about the size of a melon.
She paused to take a breath, and then gave voice to the spell again.
Suddenly, an arm burst through the portal. Sullo!
Her voice faltered for a moment, but then she poured everything into the spell, gritting her teeth and channeling all of the power left in the crystal.
The portal closed, severing Sullo’s arm.
It fell to the floor, bleeding bright yellow liquid into the floor.
Nicce collapsed, boneless and drained.
* * *
They burned Sullo’s arm.
Nicce had been frightened that it wouldn’t burn, that a god’s arm would stay intact, but it burned. It smelled like putrescence and it smoked and sparked, but it burned.
Nicce’s voice was scoured so badly that she could only whisper. The force of pulling that much power through her had left its mark. She knew her voice would heal, but it would take time. This was not the kind of thing she could heal with her sunlight blood. It was too intense for that.
So, when Eithan spoke to her about the other portal, she didn’t say much. She needed to rest her voice.
He was concerned that there might have been problems there too.
She said she didn’t think so, that she thought it had gone well. She didn’t tell him it was because the gods didn’t care if they were cut off from the Four Kingdoms anymore. She didn’t tell him that she’d done all this for no reason, lost them fifteen years of their lives in that wretched dungeon, taken needless lives at this temple, installed Feteran as the king of Rabia no matter that he wouldn’t be a good king, pursued it all with no thought to anything else.
I’m not destined for greatness, she thought. I’m obsessed with it.
Instead of being led by some force outside herself, she’d simply wanted this. She’d wanted to matter, to mean something, and so she’d turned herself inside out to accomplish something memorable.
But in the end…
She was ashamed of herself.
But the worst of it was this: she still wanted to do something great.
This was finished, but the desire in her had not been quelled.
However, she had spoken to Xenia, and she knew that there was something great she could do. She could find some way to lower the lifespans of the immortals. It would be better for everyone, but especially it would be important because of Feteran, who she’d helped to become an ageless, insane, power-hungry monarch. She had to fix that.
Despite her reassurances about the portal, Eithan wasn’t convinced, and he wanted to get back to Rabia as quickly as possible. He offered to go ahead of her, since she was wounded and still healing, but she told him that she could keep up, and she did. Even when it was painful, even when she wanted to stop and sleep, she forced herself to keep the pace with Eithan, because she deserved this. It was a penance for her selfish obsession, for the evil she’d visited on the world in search of being great.
When they arrived in Rabia, they could see the smoke coming from the mountain where Castle Brinne was located.
Worried, they forced their horses even faster, galloping up the mountain to arrive outside the gates of the Guild.
A battle was going on. Forces outside the castle were attempting to breach the walls of Castle Brinne, which was being protected by archers on the walls. They were picking off the attacking forces, most of whom seemed to be common people, armed with pitchforks and shovels and rusty swords.
Eithan turned to her. “I have to find Feteran. I have to fix this.”
“It’s my fault,” she said. “I did this. These people are dying because of me.”
“It’s both of our faults,” he said. “But I’m going to fix it.”
“I want to help,” she said.
He nodded. “All right. Find Xenia. See if Graydon will talk to her, on account of how close she was with his father. We might need to negotiate.”
Nicce almost hesitated. This wasn’t the help she had in mind. But she knew that it couldn’t always be swinging swords and glory. She agreed and rushed into the keep to try to find Xenia.
Inside, it was empty, and she couldn’t find anyone.
Finally, a stray Guild member was running through the halls with his sword, and she stopped him, asking about Xenia.
He told her that the women and children were in the bottom level, holed up and hidden, and he raced past her to get back to the fighting.
Nicce descended the steps to the bottom level, someplace she’d never been. It was a bit musty since the lower level was carved into the earth, but it was nothing as bad as the dungeons in the palace of the Nightmare Court, for instance.
Everyone was locked behind a door, but when she knocked, Xenia opened the door.
“Can you come with me?” said Nicce.
Xenia turned to look at the others inside, the wives and children of the knights and the Guild members. Her gaze sought Revel’s.
Revel pursed her lips. “If you’re leaving, I’m coming with you.”
Nicce considered this. “Fine,” she said. “Both of you, then.”
“Well, if you’re leaving,” said Diann, hand on her swelling belly, “then go, why don’t you? We’d like the door closed, if you don’t mind.”
They shut the door and the three women started up the steps together.
“Did you close the portal in Kemulia?” said Xenia.
“We did,” said Nicce. “And here?”
“Feteran did it for an audience,” said Revel. “Afterward, the people went rabid for Graydon’s blood. Feteran worked them up into a frenzy, and they attacked the castle.”
“I gathered that,” said Nicce, sighing. “Eithan sent me here to see if you think you could talk to Graydon, Xenia.”
“Me?” said Xenia. “Why?”
“He thought maybe Graydon would listen to you since you were close to his father.”
Xenia sighed. “I think the last time I spoke to Graydon was when he was ten years old.”
“So, no?” said Nicce.
“I’ll try, of course,” said Xenia.
“Oh, wonderful,” said Revel, rolling her eyes. “The minute one king dies, you start up with the next.”
“It won’t be like that,” said Xenia.
“Anyway, Graydon’s not going to be king for long,” said Nicce.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Eithan felt like punching Feteran. If Feteran hadn’t been half god, he probably would have. But it wouldn’t have mattered, because Feteran would have healed any damage that Eithan could have done, so there was no point in it.
Still, when he found the man outside the walls of Castle Brinne, sending squadrons of farmers at the wall armed with no real weapons, he made his displeasure clear.
“You idiot,” he said. “What are you doing?”
Feteran didn’t like being called an idiot. “We had a deal. You knew what I wanted. I’m within an inch of getting it. If you ruin everything—”
“Call them off,” said Eithan.
“I’m in the middle of a battle here,” said Feteran. “You’re distracting me.”
“This isn’t the way. Call them off,” said Eithan.
“I won’t,” said Feter
an.
Eithan shook his head at the man. “Gods take you,” he said. He wondered how hard it would be to kill a half-god. Too hard, undoubtedly.
Well, he wasn’t going to waste time here anymore. He headed for the gate to Castle Brinne and did the same thing he’d done years and years ago, when he’d come to look for Nicce. He punched through the gate. His knuckles bled and it hurt like the pit, but he was able to put his head through the hole within moments, and he growled out to the first man he saw to bring him the commander of the guards or whoever was in charge in there.
The man scurried away, casting frightened glances over his shoulder at Eithan.
As he waited, Eithan began to despair that the man was coming back, and he was about to call out to someone else—the courtyard seemed to be full of men running around in a disorganized array of ineffectual fighting. It was down to the wall that they hadn’t yet been overrun, nothing else.
But then a man did appear at the door, and he was a herzic from the look of it, his uniform regal and covered in medals. He folded his arms over his chest. “Sir Eithan Draig.”
“Your Grace,” said Eithan lightly. “I assume the men saw King Feteran closing the portal?”
“He is not the king,” growled the herzic.
“What if I told you that nothing would change for you and the other royal families when Feteran takes the throne? What if I can guarantee a nice estate for Graydon, a title, and a promise that he and his descendants and relatives will be untouched?” Eithan said. “Would that help ease any concerns you might have? Are your men not so eager to fight against the Godkiller King?”
The herzic sighed. “I have pledged myself to Graydon.”
“He’ll surrender,” said Eithan.
“I saw Feteran close that portal,” said the herzic, furrowing his brow. “I’ve never seen anything like that kind of power. Truly, he could keep us safe, couldn’t he? We need him. What is Graydon to that?”
“There’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying,” said Eithan.
The herzic sighed again. “I’ll have my men stand down.”
“Excellent,” said Eithan. “Stand by, I’ll be bringing in someone to speak with Graydon.”
* * *
But when it came down to it, Graydon wouldn’t speak to Xenia, sneering at the thought of negotiating with his father’s mistress. Instead, Eithan went to speak to him himself, and Nicce knew that Graydon didn’t stand much of a chance against Eithan’s convincing.
Sure enough, within an hour, it was all settled.
Graydon wasn’t pleased, but he was beaten. He had no one on his side. Even his personal guard wanted the Godkiller as their king.
Feteran didn’t want to give Graydon anything, but Eithan forced him to give Graydon an estate on the edge of the kingdom and to allow Graydon, his mother, and his brothers all to have a safe journey there. Feteran said that they would simply plot against him in the future, and Eithan told him that Feteran needed to keep the people on his side then.
“Be a good king,” said Eithan, “and no one will back Graydon’s rebellion.”
Nicce hoped this would be enough of an inducement for Feteran not to abuse his power, but she wasn’t hopeful. Besides, Feteran would outlive Graydon by generations. Perhaps he could be a good king for fifty years or even seventy-five. But someday, he would become bored and cruel. It seemed an inevitability.
“Well,” Eithan said to her, when she brought this up to him in their bed that night, “I’ll just have to keep my eye on him.”
“But what about us?” she said. “What if we end up the same way?”
“I’ve lived a long time already,” said Eithan. “I’ve not turned into a monster.”
“I know,” she said. “But things haven’t been easy for you, Eithan. You haven’t simply been powerful and… and bored.”
He drew in a breath, thinking this over. “Maybe you’re right. Well, we’ll have to keep from being bored, I suppose.”
“We won’t be able to,” she said. “There’s a limit to how much entertainment one can squeeze from an endless lifetime. It’s… Eithan, I think we need to figure out a way to make everyone mortal.”
“What?” He propped himself up to look down on her. “What do you mean? How would we do that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But maybe the answer is across the sea. We can search for it, and when we do find it, then we’ll change everyone, and then… then our life can start. We’ll only have one lifetime left, and we’ll settle down and have our children and be together and grow old and…”
“Die,” said Eithan, blinking at her.
“We’re supposed to die,” she said. “Everything is. If you don’t die, life is meaningless.”
He flopped back down next to her. “I’m not sure I agree with that.”
“Eithan—”
“No, I’m not arguing with you,” he muttered. “You’re determined. I can tell. I’ve learned there’s nothing I’m going to say that will change your mind.”
She was quiet. She’d win him over. He’d see, eventually, that this was the right path, that this was the way she could make up for what she’d done. She could make the world a better place this way.
“I…” He sighed. “I can see maybe wanting it someday. I’d like the option to grow old and die rather than just, I don’t know, committing suicide like Phir or something. But that doesn’t mean I agree it’s something we should force on everyone, Nicce. We just gave Pati a chance at a long, long life, and I wouldn’t feel right taking that away from her. It should be a choice.”
“But no one’s going to choose to die,” said Nicce. “Even though it’s the right thing.”
He was quiet.
“Eithan, listen to me—”
“No,” he said. “We can argue this another time. The truth is, what you’re saying, traveling the seas, having adventures together, it sounds…” He picked up her hand and kissed the inside of her palm. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”
“You would?”
“Yes, but I would like to point out that nothing is ever enough for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You made some vague comments about how you’d be ready to settle down after we dealt with the gods, and here we are, that done, and you’re not the least bit interested in slowing down.”
She cringed. How could she explain it to him?
But he was laughing. “I don’t mind it. I like it, as I said. Here’s how this will work, my love. You keep running, and I’ll keep chasing after you, all right? I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of that.”
She pressed her body against his firm, cold one, and they kissed. She wasn’t sure she’d get bored of it either, if it came to that.
If Eithan had any regrets, it was only that he wouldn’t be there to keep Feteran in check, he said, but she promised they could come back to check with Rabia as needed, to rein Feteran in, if necessary.
They waited until after the coronation, and then they began their preparations. First, of course, the crystals that surrounded the continent needed to be removed.
They gathered together a large group of strong men, all of whom could swim, and they oversaw a great diving expedition, wide enough to clear about a mile of crystals, wide enough to let ships through. The project would continue in their absence, but they had created enough space for them to leave.
Nicce wondered why she’d bothered with cutting the gods off. If she had simply removed the crystals, would the gods have reacted? She didn’t think they would have. But this was another thing that she didn’t share with Eithan. She was focused on her next mission. This would be the thing that brought her greatness. This was what she would accomplish.
They spent time learning how to sail the small boat that they acquired, and then, one day, everyone came to the docks to see them off. Absalom and Jonas and all his five children waved at them as they sailed away. Xenia and Revel wrapped their arms around each other and smiled
as they drifted off. Pati and Lian were there. Septimus and Diann. Even Philo, who hugged Eithan tight and told him not to drown, saw them off.
They sailed.
At first, it was bliss.
They came to new lands and discovered strange new things. There were boats that ran on steam and lamps that burned gas and never went out. The people wore clothes like nothing they’d ever seen. The food was varied and delicious and every new port was a new adventure.
But there was no magic in any land they went to.
At first it might seem so, because things were unbelievable to the both of them, but with study, they could understand that whatever inventions the new lands boasted, they were not powered by the otherworldly.
There was nothing of the gods here.
The gods had limited their influence to the Four Kingdoms for whatever reason. And though, in many ways, the Four Kingdoms were backwards compared the advances of the lands across the sea, the Four Kingdoms had magic, had immortals, had crystals that burst with power.
There was no answer here to how to limit the lives of the immortals.
Of course, they had not reached the ends of the seas. There was more to see, more to explore.
So, they went on.
And years passed.
Every six months or so, they would travel back to a spot where they would collect any messages sent to them by the others back in Rabia. But there was never any real news. Mostly just the various sundries of the lives they lived. Septimus and Diann had twins, their second and third children respectively. It had been over eight months since anyone had seen a nightmare. The last of the crystals around the continent had been removed. Aitho’s dungeon was empty, because his headless dirt creatures had fallen down dead when the portals had closed, so the remaining human guards had thrown keys at prisoners and run away.
“I’d like to see Septimus with twins,” said Nicce. “I’m sorry we missed the first baby.”
“Septimus as a father does sound rather intriguing,” said Eithan.
“Let’s go back for a bit,” said Nicce. “The ocean isn’t going anywhere. We’re not getting any older.”
Eithan laughed.
And so it was decided, just like that.
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