“Let go of me!” Athel yelled.
They struggled for a moment, but Talliun’s missing arm put her off balance, and she was thrown to the deck. She looked up at Athel, horrified. “My Queen, don’t do this.”
Athel ignored her, her eye darkening further. “Are there any locked gates? What are the opening words?”
“I don’t know! They just gave me the armor and mace and I left.”
“You are basically a man at this point. As a woman, I command you to disclose every detail.”
“How dare you!”
“How dare you?”
Athel shot her in the other leg. Dahlia screamed in pain.
“You broke Rachael’s leg…”
“Athel, NO!”
”Are there any booby traps?”
“I said I don’t know! I was only there a few hours.”
Athel fired again, hitting Dahlia in the wrist.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“You took Mina’s wrist…”
Dahlia’s entire body was trembling with pain, her blood pooling beneath her.
“My Queen, please stop this! This isn’t right!”
Athel crouched down and gripped Dahlia by the throat, choking the life out of her. “Tell me! Tell me or I will kill you, right here, right now! You have to know something. You must know!”
A tear fell down Athel’s cheek.
“…You must tell me something that will help me save Alder’s life. You have to, you just have to! Alder must live! He must!”
Talliun reached out, struggling to get to her knees. “My Queen, stop, this isn’t like you. You would never…”
“Like me?”
Athel released Dahlia, the young woman gasping for breath.
Athel turned around, her countenance as dark as night. “My name is Athel Forsythia. I’ve killed tens of thousands of people. I’ve put one husband on his death bed, and crippled another. I’ve betrayed my faith, my traditions, and my people. Do you think for one second that adding her corpse to the pile of my sins will make a difference to me? If it will save Alder, there’s nothing I won’t do! So don’t become an obstacle to me or I’ll have you removed, too!”
Athel reached up and pulled away her bandages, revealing her ruined eye, white and cloudy and scarred. Her face around it was burnt and gashed. When she turned back to Dahlia, the young woman gasped at the sight of her.
“You took my eye, Dahlia.”
Athel shoved the barrel against Dahlia’s eye.
“Tell me what I need to know, or I will take your eye, and your life with it!”
Dahlia began to cry from the pain, her eyes trembling. “The…the gargoyles of Arianis Kultur. They’ve filled them with dark magic. Anyone but a Kabal member who looks upon them…will have their soul sucked from their body.”
“My Queen, please stop this! You’re torturing her!”
Dahlia was shivering, her skin grown pale from loss of blood. “There’s only about thirty of them left. They spend all their time around the temple. That’s all I know, I swear.”
Athel shoved the barrel harder against her eye, making her squeal in pain. “No, you have to know more! Tell me more or I will kill you right here and right now!”
“That’s all, that’s all I know. Please…please don’t kill me,” she pleaded.
“My Queen, you can’t do this! She’s no threat to us now.”
“No, I’m doing this for Alder! I must save his life! What else do you know, Dahlia? What are you hiding?”
“I don’t know anything else!”
Athel pulled back the hammer. “THEN YOU WILL DIE!”
Dahlia screamed in terror.
Talliun pulled herself to her knees. “Athel, what would Alder say if he saw you like this?”
Athel froze in place. Slowly, she turned her gaze, catching her twisted reflection in the spilled water. One eye dark, the other scarred and white. The lacerated half of her face catching the light spilling in, the other hidden in shadow.
Athel looked back. Dahlia was simpering, her blood pooling on the ground beneath her.
“Alder…”
The pistol began shaking in her grip.
“…he would…he would say…”
The pistol fell from her fingers, clattering to the floor.
Athel sat back, slowly coming to a realization of what she had done. “Y-you’re right. That was too far. I’m…I’m sorry.”
Athel stood up and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry.”
She turned and left, terrified at herself. She bumped into a barrel, nearly, tripping over it, and stumbled away.
Talliun leaned out into the corridor, and found Pops quietly mopping. “Call Dr. Griffin. Hurry. She hurt her…badly.”
Pops looked up. “Who did?”
Talliun looked back sadly at the injured and sobbing young woman in the cell.
“Athel did.”
* * *
The motionless bodies of the Madaringan royal family lay strewn across the floor of the court. The guards all lay dead around the portcullis and entry gate. Only King Dolan clung to life as he lay on the floor, Queen Sotol pacing before him.
“Thank you for bringing your complaints to my attention, King Dolan,” she said with a chilly sweetness. “It was very brave of you to speak on behalf of all the remaining league islands. I promise to take your demands and theirs under advisement.”
“You betrayed us…”
She paused and turned around. “Oh, Richardi. Did I not promise you that you would beg for death before the Stone Council was done with you?”
He coughed painfully. “But why? We did everything for Valpurgeiss. We betrayed the Alliance, took the invasion force prisoner for him, brought them here to build his tower…”
She squatted down close to him. “And you thought he would reward you for that? Oh, you so misjudge him. You see, Valpurgeiss cares nothing for you. He wants to eradicate your kind to get revenge for the death of his children. You will never be dear to him. You could serve him faithfully for a thousand years, and he would crush you like a bug without a moment’s hesitation the second it suited him. I know, because I’m just like him.”
“You promised us that we would be spared.”
“And I always keep my promises. You and your people will be spared death by the seas, because you’ll all be dead long before the seas come to claim you.”
She scooted aside, giving him a view of the enormous Ascension Tower just across the plaza. “You see, this place is holy; it will be where I ascend to become the one and true god of this world. And your people, King Dolan, will provide me with sustenance. Doesn’t that comfort you?”
His strength gave way and his head fell lifelessly to the floor. His final breath came out a long sigh.
“See? I told you death would be a sweet gift to you, didn’t I?”
The animal tooth necklace around her neck began to hiss, and she clutched her chest painfully.
“No! Not again…it’s too soon!”
Her hands shaking, she stumbled her way over to the throne and removed the flask from her belt.
“How can she be returning already? It’s only been a few hours.”
Queen Sotol removed the stopper and began guzzling down a huge dose of black shakes. Her body heaved, and she bent over, vomiting the black tar out onto the floor.
“You can’t come back, I won’t let you! This is my body now!”
She pulled free a second, larger flask and forced the contents down her throat. The outline of her body shifted, inflating in some places and deflating in others, as if she were made of tar. As she guzzled down the poison, her hair turned ghostly white, and a second voice escaped her throat, different than the first.
It was the sound of Spirea screaming.
Queen
Sotol forced herself not to vomit again. Her body withered and grew dark, as if she were a candle or a wax figure just beginning to melt.
She dropped the empty flask and clutched the throne for support. Already, the black shakes she had spit out were eating though the stone.
She coughed and hacked, wheezed and crouped. “That was too much. That nearly overwhelmed me…”
She held up her hand, the tips of her fingers drooping into droplets.
“How can this be? Why is she still coming back? That was the largest dose I could possibly take. One drop more and it would have killed me!”
Hairline cracks grew and spread across the bones of the necklace she wore.
She clenched her fist. “Tigera! Tigera where are you?”
She waited for his response, but it never came. “Tigera! I need you, come at once!”
She looked around the empty hall. Her voice echoed down empty corridors, but no response came.
“Where is everybody? Where did he go? Tigera!!!”
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over the throne room. Every window and light-vein went dark.
“Wha…what is that?” Queen Sotol scrambled to the balcony, and found the sun blocked out by the last thing she expected to see.
A floating island.
Pulled by hundreds of ramshackle sails, it passed over the capital, dominating the entire horizon.
Atop the island, Setsuna stood triumphantly, wearing her shortest skirt and largest pirate hat.
“Ah, it’s a fine day for a bit of piracy,” she called out over the wind. “You can just smell it in the air!”
Amid the abandoned shacks and tents atop the islet, Hanner added a barrel of explosives to the pile stacked around the large array of dark crystals.
“You gonna help me with these?” he grunted.
“In these heels? Are you crazy?”
Setsuna peeked down over the edge, watching as the remaining population in the capital scattered like frightened rodents. The tall spire of the Ascension Tower was coming up, surrounded by the time dome.
“Yeah, you better run, little mice.”
Around them, patrol ships drew near, firing warning shots, and signaling for their surrender. Setsuna picked up a flag and signaled back.
“What are you telling them?” Hanner grunted, setting down the final barrel.
“I’m telling them that this thing doesn’t have a steering wheel.”
Setsuna licked her finger and held it up into the air. Off in the distance, she could make out a dozen pirate ships, proudly flying the Egress flag one last time.
“Okay, let’s see here…wind is fifteen knots from the east, elevation is fifteen hundred, um…”
She thought for a second, counting with her fingers. “You know what? I have no idea how to calculate this. Just go ahead and torch em, Hanner!”
Hanner picked up Strenner and placed him on his massive shoulder. “You wanna light this, my little flamer?”
Strenner clapped his hands happily.
“Dat’s right, dat’s right, we’s gonna make a big boom!”
Strenner inhaled and breathed out a gout of flame, lighting all the fuses to the explosives.
“Good boy, who’s a good boy?”
As Hanner ran over to Setsuna, she looked down at the royal palace beneath them, and saw a familiar figure staring up and them from the balcony.
“Hey, look who it is!”
Setsuna took off her hat and waved energetically. “Hey, hey up, here! You see us, you big, dumb evil idiot?”
Hanner leaned over the side and shook his fist. “Hey Sotol, you stole my kid. I’ve come back to settle the score!”
“Kill them!” came a distant scream from the balcony.
The patrol ships drew in close, firing warning shots and launching boarding harpoons.
Setsuna placed her hat back on, giving it a roguish tilt. “Whaddya say? You ready to blow two hundred million thaain?”
“No, but let’s do it anyway.”
Soldiers and sailors ran towards them from the patrol ships, weapons drawn.
“Halt! Stay where you are!” one shouted.
“Bring the irons!” shouted another.
Setsuna gave a polite curtsey. “If afraid I can’t do that. You see, my sister Sawyn would be ever so upset if I was locked up again. She’s a good girl, and I promised not to make her cry ever again.”
The three of them jumped over the side, to the shock of the soldiers.
Setsuna cheered and whooped as they fell through the air, tumbling happily as the tower and city sped up towards them at frightening speed.
“Oh, this is such a good day. Just drink it in, Hanner.”
Hanner and Strenner held each other close, eyes wide as they watched the ground approaching. “Uh, any time now…”
“I mean, how often does anyone get to do something like this?”
“Hurry up, you blinkin’ moss-head!”
Setsuna whipped her arm, and the air before them opened like a zipper. They fell through the gate, and came rolling to a halt along the wooden deck of a pirate ship.
“Nice to see you again,” Captain Elymbor said, stretching out his hand. “It took quite a bit of work to gather all the crews back up. I expect I’ll have to more than double my estimate.”
Setsuna took his hand. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Setsuna and Hanner ran to the gunwale to get a better look. The capital of Madaringa was now before them in the distance, patrol ship after patrol ship attaching itself to the island hanging above the tower, attempting to tow it away.
Hanner’s eyes went wide. “I just had a thought.”
“That’s a first.”
“Shut up, what if they extinguish the explosives?”
There was a flash of light and a rising column of smoke. A few heartbeats later, a crack like a whip ran through the air around them.
“I’d say we’re pretty safe,” Setsuna remarked.
Bolts of black lighting rose up from the center of the island as the void magics that held it aloft were released in ruin. The veins of crystal that ran though the island like a root system withered and died.
For an agonizingly long moment, it hung motionless in the air. Then, slowly at first, hundreds of millions of tons of rock and dirt began to fall, picking up speed with a startling pace. The patrol ships were yanked and dragged down with it like toys in a bathtub.
“I think you just voided the warranty,” Captain Elymbor chuckled.
“I should have kept the receipt,” Setsuna said, sticking her tongue out.
The island hit the top of the time dome with all the force of a continent. The dome buckled, cracked, then shattered completely. Shards of magic flew in all directions like a volcanic eruption. The island split in half like an egg above the capital, half falling to one side of the tower and rolling down the cliffs into the sea, the other falling atop the royal palace.
On the balcony, Queen Sotol held up her arms and screamed as half an island came down on top of her.
“Noooooooo!”
The shockwave rolled out from the capital in all directions like a sandstorm. The Egress pirate ships kicked back, their sails bellowing in inversion and their crews grabbing a hold of anything and everything they could to keep from being blown overboard.
The heavens rocked and shook from the sound of it, like a volley of thunder echoing over and over again, splitting the clouds and shoving back the very waters of the ocean below.
As the sound slowly faded, the pirate ships settled, Setsuna poked her head up, covered in dust and dirt.
“Oh, that was so satisfying.”
“Wasn’t it?” Elymbor remarked.
Strenner cooed happily as Hanner looked up. “Best two hundred million I ever spent.”
At the base of the tower, the men and woman slowly emerged from the shelters. In the days leading up to the crash, they had managed to dig out many large underground bunkers, reinforced and well-supplied. To the outside world, it had been only a few moments, but for them it was plenty of time.
Now, they came out, finding their homes destroyed from debris and boulders, buried in several feet of dirt and rock. Their courtyards, their staircases, their verandas, their fountains, their schools and stadiums all gone. Just like that.
With the time dome destroyed, they breathed air that for the first time in years didn’t feel stale. The sunlight felt different now, the clouds moved. Birds that before had hung in the air, motionless beyond their prison, fluttered about, seeking refuge.
Ellie came out of her shelter, holding Dwale by the hand. “This Setsuna…what in the world is she? Is she some kind of harbinger of destruction?”
“I asked her to free everyone. I never thought she’d…drop an island on us…” Dwale coughed.
Akar and some of the other men forced the door of their shelter open, shoving rock and dirt aside.
There was a snap like a whip and a cluster of portals opened in the plaza. Setsuna stepped out, taking off her hat and bowing.
“Tah-dahh!”
“Setsuna? Is that you?” Dwale asked.
“I’m here to bust you guys out.”
“By dropping an island on top of us?” Akar asked.
“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”
“We could have all been killed! What if the island hadn’t broken in half? We’d have been buried beneath a mountain of rock?!”
She put her hands on her hips. “You know, this isn’t exactly the welcome I expected.”
Dwale’s mounth went agape. “You nearly buried us alive.”
“Hey, I’m not exactly a subtle kind of gal. I don’t have time for elaborate schemes. This was simple, effective…”
“…and expensive,” Hanner added, stepping out of another portal with his son. “Okay, everyone, aboard the ships now. Everyone goes, leave no one behind.”
Akar snapped to attention. “You’re right. We need to get moving before more ships arrive. Yarrow, Hollis, grab some men and go to the infirmary. They’ll need help boarding.”
“Aye!”
Isle of Wysteria: Throne of Chains Page 31
