It was the life that Elena would have lived if she hadn’t been tortured and warped by her fathers; that she might have salvaged with the help of her family and friends.
Until Vaun Mordechai’s sick little game had killed her.
A final image came into Teg’s mind from Elena’s. She was in her mid-teens, sitting at her father’s workbench in his special room. They were cleaning his guns.
Her and Teg.
Elena lifted her tear-streaked face, and Teg finally recognized her eyes as his own.
“If I could have chosen my father,” she said in a halting voice, “it would have been you.”
The spark in Teg’s heart burst into all-consuming flame. And what it yearned to consume most was Vaun.
“That’s the right dream,” said Teg. He wiped away Elena’s tears and kissed her on the forehead. The faint lightning scent that usually hung around her had been replaced with the aroma of violets.
He gave her one last squeeze, let go, and let Thera’s nexus pull him in.
As he passed through the impossibly vast diamond’s black surface, Teg heard Elena call out to him.
“Tell my son what I never could.”
Teg looked back into the ether.
Elena was gone.
With resolve hardened by joy, sorrow, and hate, Teg blazed through a labyrinth of shimmering planes toward inescapable darkness and the promise of light on the other side.
I’ll come back for you, Vaun, he swore. And I’ll take every minute you stole from Elena out of your pale frozen hide.
42
Astlin wished that Nakvin would cry. Or scream. Or even break into mad laughter. Instead she sat beside the crater that had been a ring of stones, cradling her daughter’s body amid the distant clash of battle.
If I looked into her mind, I might be able to help, Astlin thought. But she couldn’t bring herself to spy on a grieving mother. She stood and watched as Nakvin held Elena and caressed her dust-coated face.
Astlin had no words to express her thanks when Xander drew close and wrapped his arm around her.
Is it wrong to feel more relieved than sad? She asked him mind-to-mind.
Xander pulled her closer. She rested her head on his chest. His robe smelled not unpleasantly of the dust, blood, and sweat of battle.
We were tested against a god and prevailed, Xander replied. That is no cause for shame.
Astlin shivered to think how close they’d come to failing. They’d fought with everything they had, and Thera had taken it. Then she’d pronounced a death sentence that had somehow claimed her first.
She just collapsed like a rag doll.
Looking at Nakvin tending Thera’s body on the hard ground where she’d fallen, Astlin heard Elena’s voice echoing from her memory.
“What little room my heart has for others comes from you two. It’s only right that you both have a place in it.”
Astlin turned her eyes away, and Xander held her as her tears mixed with the dust on his robe.
With great effort, Astlin reined in the grief, anger, and gratitude warring in her heart. She turned to face Elena’s body again.
Nakvin’s eyes met hers. Astlin saw sorrow on the queen’s face, but also a weary half-smile.
“I’m sorry,” Astlin said softly.
“Don’t be,” said Nakvin.
“But I used to hate her,” said Astlin. “I tried to kill her.”
Nakvin sighed heavily. “You didn’t kill her, Astlin. Zebel did. And I was too blind to see it coming.”
“That’s half right.” Teg’s voice preceded him as he strode into the ruined square. He looked just as he had when he’d left, but something about him had changed.
Astlin stared. Xander whispered a prayer. Nakvin released Elena and stood.
Teg joined the small vigil. A scowl twisted his face as he said, “Vaun killed Elena.”
Nakvin’s face hardened. Her silver eyes burned.
The ringing of armor drew Astlin’s eyes northeast to the mouth of a broad street. Tefler stormed into the square, his red cloak flowing like flame. A crowd from the wreck of the Serapis trailed behind him.
Tefler marched up to Teg. “Shaiel killed my mother?”
“Yeah,” said Teg. “Right after he killed me.”
Tefler blinked his multicolored eyes. “Wait. What?”
“Your mom had trouble showing how she felt,” said Teg, placing both hands on Tefler’s shoulders. “But she always loved you. She wanted to say sorry for not telling you while she could.”
Tefler usually wore a look of lively mischief. Now his expression was as blank as Vaun’s mask. He looked at the ground.
Nakvin’s voice revealed the rage building inside her. “What happened, Teg?”
“Things were running smooth,” said Teg. “I had Smith and the gem. My contact was about to get us out when the corpsicle himself showed up. He did for me and hit Elena through the vas. Now he’s got it and Smith.”
Xander struck his palm with his fist. “Then we go to Cadrys and take them back.”
“Vaun lost Cadrys to the Night Gen,” said Teg. “He’s back in the Void, getting ready to pour it out on us. That’s where we’ll find Smith and the vas.
“Elena sent you to warn us,” Nakvin said, her voice filling with pride. “That’s twice now she’s brought you back.”
“She sent me,” said Teg, “but she didn’t bring me back. Not like before when she jumpstarted my corpse with prana and pulled my soul out of the Snare before the Void took it.”
Astlin’s heart lifted as she realized what was different about Teg. “You escaped the Nexus!” she said. “You made it to the light and came back.”
Teg shrugged. “I remember seeing a big light. But Elena’s last words stuck with me, so I came right back.”
“You didn’t live in the world beyond?”
“It was tempting,” said Teg, “but murdering Vaun seemed more important.”
“Yes,” Nakvin said. “It is. But even the four of us might not be a match for Vaun.”
“Shaiel dies today.” Tefler was shaking as he looked over the faces of Nakvin and the Zadokim. “Even if I have to storm the Void alone.”
“Luckily,” said Teg, “you won’t have to. Elena sent reinforcements.”
Astlin felt the light shining down on her before she saw a winged form descending from the sky. Anris landed beside Nakvin, three stars shining at his brow like amethysts. Even kneeling, he loomed over her.
“Your Majesty,” he greeted Nakvin, bowing his purple-skinned, white-haired head. “It is my honor to serve you again.”
Both of Nakvin’s hands couldn’t contain Anris’. “Please,” she said, “get up. I don’t outrank you anymore.”
Anris rose to his full, towering height and smiled. “Very well. Perhaps you will agree to ally yourself with a fellow monarch.”
The malakh’s smile was reflected on Nakvin’s face like moonlight on a dark pool. “It’s just good to have you back,” she said.
“Thank Lady Astlin.” Anris bowed his head to the female Zadokim. “She showed me the way.”
“Now we may have a chance!” said Xander.
“All shall be as the great light wills,” said Jarsaal. Everyone turned to see him walking into the square from the west. Three points of emerald light hung above his painted forehead. Behind him, the battle still raged at the hill’s foot.
Astlin didn’t realize how heavily Anris and Jarsaal’s deaths had burdened her until the sight of them lifted the weight from her shoulders.
Thank you, Elena.
Xander welcomed the Dawn Gen shaman into their company. “We are glad to have you back, but you spoke of the great light. Didn’t you mean Faerda?”
“I have seen the pure light of which Faerda is only a sign,” said Jarsaal. “I am grateful to her for guiding my steps, and will honor her request to slay the lord of the Void.”
Astlin’s soul burned with zeal, yet her eagerness was soon tempered. “Vaun needs to be stopped, but we�
��ve still got his army to deal with.”
“Then let us deal with them,” said Anris. In ten strides he crossed to the square’s west edge, where the lack of trees gave a clear view of the battle below.
Astlin and Xander joined Anris. Teg moved to stand at Astlin’s right and Jarsaal stationed himself at Anris’ left. Lined up on the hill overlooking the battle, the Zadokim all unveiled their crowns.
Except for one.
Teg looked at the constellation of sapphire, silver, amethyst, and emerald stars.
“How are you guys doing that?”
Astlin turned to him and pointed at her glowing crown. “This?”
“Yeah,” said Teg, “that.”
The question puzzled Astlin. “It’s easier than not doing it. The light already wants to shine through you. Just let it.”
Teg paused for a moment, rocking on his heels as he looked upward. “I don’t think it wants to shine through me.”
“Never mind,” said Xander. “Just focus on the task at hand.” Suddenly he was holding his diamond-tipped ebony spear.
Astlin followed Xander’s lead. Gouts of flame shot from both ends of her closed fist and formed into a spear of solid red fire.
Jarsaal raised his arm. His fingers were curled, as if around an invisible spear shaft. A dazzling white ray slanted down from the sky, streaked through the space between his thumb and fingers, and lanced into the enemy ranks below like a thunderbolt.
Teg lightly slapped Astlin’s shoulder with the back of his hand, nodded to Xander, and pointed at Jarsaal.
“You guys should be packing that,” said Teg.
“Do not waste time attacking them piecemeal,” Anris said. “Shaiel’s Will led them here. Let us combine ours to cast them out!”
Nakvin interposed herself between Anris and Jarsaal. “You’re not exiling anyone from my kingdom without me.”
Astlin doused her spear and connected her fellow sovereigns’ minds, sharing Anris’ plan between them. As one, they put forth their authority.
Greycloaks, Cadrisians, and Isnashi; living and dead, were lifted up from the battlefield. The enemy’s confused cries merged into a frightened babble as they hung in the air like a low dark cloud of men and beasts.
A second movement of the monarchs’ will tore open the sky, revealing a monstrous black cube suspended in rosy mist. The Zadokim’s final decree sent Shaiel’s army flying back to him through the gate.
Astlin covered her light and looked to the sky. There was only a widening circle of blue fringed with silver clouds. The gate to Shaiel’s nexus was gone, along with his servants.
“That was fun,” said Teg. “Think we’ll see them again?”
Astlin’s glowing sense of triumph darkened. “Shaiel doesn’t let souls escape from his nexus.”
The buzz of mingled voices behind her interrupted Astlin’s brooding. She turned to see uniformed Gen and Mithgarders filling the square. Rosemy beamed at her from among the Nesshin who stood at the front of the crowd.
The people and the Zadokim faced each other for a long moment. Then, in an act that stunned Astlin, every Gen and man in the square dropped to one knee, sounding like a company of drummers striking a single note.
Only Tefler, standing beside Elena’s body, remained unbowed.
Such a profound show of respect should have embarrassed Astlin, but somehow it felt right. All five Zadokim quietly accepted the people’s homage.
“What now?” asked Xander.
“Now,” said Teg, “we take the war to the Void and rain hell down on Vaun’s head.”
“Can we really kill a god?” asked Astlin.
“We don’t have to,” said Teg. “Thera’s vas still holds a piece of Vaun’s soul. We get the ruby, we sever Vaun from Shaiel’s nexus, and he’s stuck as a big black cube floating in the ether.”
Nakvin frowned. “Won’t Shaiel just take a new form?”
“It took Thera and Zadok eons to pull the same trick,” said Teg. “I doubt Shaiel has that long.”
43
Teg and his allies traversed a cracked, coal-black plain under a starless vault. Only the horizon’s sickly golden line divided land and sky. Each footstep on the frozen ground hissed like dry ice. Teg thought of the cold as a living thing. Perhaps it was.
Nakvin and Tefler walked with them, and not just because they had the biggest score to settle with Vaun. It had taken all five Zadokim plus Nakvin to overpower Vaun and open a gate from Avalon to the Void. And now that they were in this frigid sub-hell, only the prana channeled by Tefler and Jarsaal kept them alive.
“Does anyone know where we’re going?” asked Teg, looking out across the endless black waste. “I’m just following Astlin.”
Astlin put her hand to her heart, closed her eyes, and frowned. “I’m following the pain. Shaiel’s trying to block me, but even he can’t keep the Strata from screaming.”
“Is he creating a new souldancer?” Xander asked. It was hard to say whether he sounded more concerned for the universe or his bride.
“I think so,” Astlin said with a shiver that probably had nothing to do with the cold. “The victim has some nexic talent. Besides that, all I can tell is where he’s being tortured.”
“Shaiel will flood a whole Stratum with Void if the souldancer is completed,” said Anris. “For that poor soul’s sake, and all the souls of an entire world, we must stop this travesty.”
“We should’ve brought a ship,” said Teg. But he was just complaining for complaining’s sake. They’d been lucky to force open a gate big enough for two of them to pass through at once.
After a few more minutes of walking, Jarsaal pointed toward the horizon. “There.”
Teg strained his eyes, but a moment passed before he saw grey metal glinting in the gold-tinged distance.
“It’s a big ball,” he thought aloud.
“Big enough to hold a city,” Astlin said.
“If we can see where we’re going,” said Teg, “why not will ourselves there?”
“We cannot bring Nakvin and Tefler with us,” said Xander.
“Let’s make the distance shorter,” Nakvin suggested. “The Void is artificial. It should respond to us like Avalon does.”
“Can we get past Vaun?” asked Astlin.
Nakvin jabbed her finger across the wasteland. “If we could punch through from another realm, we should be able to bend space a little.”
The other four Zadokim joined their light to Nakvin’s will. Teg even helped a little, although he and the light weren’t on the friendliest terms. The metal orb grew to dominate the black landscape until Teg realized he was standing before it.
The perfect sphere floated as high as Seele’s summit. The other Zadokim’s bright crowns, and the prana envelope surrounding them, reflected dimly from the dark metal. The only sound was the cracking of frozen stone.
“Should we knock?” asked Teg.
Tefler drew the bulky rodcaster from his red cloak. “I’ll ring the bell.” He took aim and pulled the trigger. A humming cone of distortion blasted from the barrel and struck the orb like a gong. The single deep note shook Teg’s bones.
The vast sphere’s metal skin peeled back from a point directly overhead, forming a black square aperture. Warmth issued out like the breath of a star-eating beast.
“You’ll have more use for this than me,” said Tefler, passing the rodcaster to Teg along with two large golden shells.
He was right. Though Teg had taken a quick jaunt to Cadrys to retrieve one of his ether metal guns—Celwen still had its mate—even the superbly Worked pistol paled before the other Zadokim’s weapons.
“Thanks,” Teg said as he accepted the heavy single-shot gun. He popped it open, removed the spent shell, and loaded one of the two remaining rounds.
“Remember,” Tefler warned him. “Those rounds only disrupt Malefactions.”
“I got it.” Teg kept the rodcaster in his right hand while drawing his Worked pistol with his left. He felt ready for anyt
hing.
Especially killing Vaun Mordechai.
“The door’s open,” Astlin said, “but I can’t see in.”
Anris moved to the head of the group. “Wait here. I will fly into the orb and back. You can share what I see with the others that we may weave the Void to carry us in.”
“I don’t think we’ll need a lift,” said Teg.
The inverted pit seemed to grow larger as he stared. He’d thought of the dark square as a monster’s maw; now it was descending to swallow them.
Astlin pressed close to Xander. Jarsaal droned a Gen chant. A hooked blade like a storm of sand and embers formed in Anris’ hand. Nakvin and Tefler faced the approaching portal with stern determination.
To his surprise, Teg’s thoughts turned to the light beyond. You’re probably miffed that I walked out on you, but I’ll be up front. Whatever reasons you had for letting me come back, I’m here for revenge. If you don’t think Vaun has it coming, we’re done. Otherwise, I could really use some help.
There was no reply to Teg’s inner dialogue. More than likely it was a monologue, but he’d find out soon either way.
The orb’s jaws closed around them. Teg saw only darkness beyond the small bubble of prana, but the unendurable cold was gone. The air held a dry musk like an empty insect shell.
Something like a winter moon suddenly shimmered at the center of the orb, casting harsh light over the interior. Teg saw that the surface rose in jagged crests as if the inner layers had melted, fallen toward the center point, and cooled. Dark openings dotted the serrated towers’ faces like casting errors caused by air bubbles.
“Astlin’s more right than she knew,” said Teg. “This thing isn’t just big enough to hold a city, it is a city.”
“Most astute, Master Cross,” Vaun’s voice boomed from every direction. “I am impressed that you required only one other Kethan to make that conclusion. The old jokes exaggerate your people’s doltishness at least twofold.”
Teg exchanged a sour look with Astlin.
Tefler charged to the front of the group. “We won your sick game, Vaun.” Prana engulfed his hand as he drew the white sword. “Time to learn what happens when you take your best shot and miss. Will you come out and fight, or do we level this empty city around whatever rat hole you’re hiding in?”
The Secret Kings Page 38
