by Rosie Scott
Schew! One of Jakan's bolts flew through the chaos as the thief tried to distract Achlys from reaching Nyx. The bolt landed in the back of the queen's thigh, making her trip forward a bit as she cursed. Another bolt landed in her back, next, taking advantage of her lack of armor and piercing her shoulder blade.
Achlys barely noticed. Bleeding from multiple wounds, she hurried behind her throne, before collapsing to the floor. I heard dagger sink into flesh. Nyx yelped in pain.
I finally reached the throne, skidding to a halt behind the queen as she stabbed the invisible. I couldn't hurt her with magic, and I had no melee. In my desperation to protect my friend, I did all I could, kicking Achlys in the side with a boot, and causing her to lose her balance, falling off of Nyx.
The queen glared up at me as she struggled to stand. She thrust green energy at me, but I had my ward. Her spell was useless. She decided once again on her daggers, and lurched forward, unleashing a flurry of attacks into the life magic surrounding me, depleting the shield and getting a hit in on my side before I regenerated the protection, gritting my teeth against the grating pain the dagger had left against my rib.
Schew! Another one of Jakan's bolts pierced the side of Achlys's skull. The queen grimaced, her eyelashes fluttering as she realized where she'd been hit. The bolt had cracked her skull, but it hadn't reached her brain. She was injured, but still very much alive.
A flash of black rushed forward from my left. Achlys turned, shooting another paralyze spell at Cerin, even as his scythe arced toward her body. At first, I was full of fear, but Cerin had given himself a ward. He was protected against the queen's magics, and Achlys had no shields against melee.
The scythe collided with the side of Achlys's right thigh, cutting through flesh and muscle until it skidded off of the thick femur. The bone did not break, but it didn't have to. With her body shaking with intense trauma, Queen Achlys began to fall. She fell heavily to her knees, her eyes wide and panicked. She knew death was near. Cerin could have killed her then, but he waited, calling Nyx's name, hoping she was safe and willing to give the final blow.
Queen Achlys began to fall backwards to her throne room floor, but she was caught, seemingly in mid-air. Nyx dispelled her invisibility, appearing behind her kneeling mother as the queen lost her strength. Nyx's left hand held onto a fistful of the queen's black hair, and her right held onto her dagger. Blood trickled down Nyx's armor from multiple stab wounds to her left hip and thigh, where her mother had injured her.
The queen shuddered with pained breaths. Nyx pulled the woman's head back, forcing her mother to meet her eyes.
Breathing hard with pain and battle fatigue, Nyx's nostrils flared before she breathed, “You claimed I was doing this for a man.” My friend put her right arm below her mother's jaw, the tip of the dagger piercing the soft flesh of the throat beneath the bone. A trickle of blood trailed down the queen's neck. “You were wrong,” Nyx informed her. “I'm doing this for me.”
The muscles of Nyx's right arm bulged with intense effort as she ripped the dagger through her mother's throat, destroying veins and tendons alike, leaving the queen's head to drain its blood over her kneeling body. Queen Achlys went slack with death, her two arms hanging loosely beside her body before Nyx let it fall.
Nyx backed up from her mother's corpse, before collapsing backwards into Achlys's throne. Her left hand held a wound at her thigh, attempting to keep it from leaking.
In my careful watch of the fight, I hadn't even realized that all other sounds of battle had ceased. With a glance to my left and right, I realized we'd done it.
The queen and her heirs were dead. Quellden was ours.
I rushed to the throne, immediately moving Nyx's protective hand from her wounds so I could heal them. My best friend breathed heavily in the seat, her eyes closed and tired, though she peered down to me after a moment, a small smile brightening her pained face. “I feel...so...” she trailed off, as if searching for the right word.
“Relieved?” I suggested, because that was how I felt.
“Badass,” she decided, instead. I chuckled as I moved my hands to a different wound.
“You are badass,” I told her.
She nodded, though then a mischievous smile lifted her lips. “I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.”
“I said you were a badass,” I repeated.
“Sorry, what?”
I laughed softly, finishing healing her wounds before I focused on my own. “I'm not saying it again.”
“Damn. And here I thought I was on a roll,” Nyx muttered dryly.
Anto's hoarse grunts of effort sounded out behind me, and I turned to find him chopping through the remains of Achlys's neck, decapitating her. Nearby, Calder was in the midst of transforming to his normal form. All around us, Cerin's dead were collapsed, no longer needed. The living soldiers which had survived the entire ordeal looked absolutely relieved. I wondered how many of them had been with us since Thanati, having beat the odds.
Calder dressed in the bloodied armor of one of the fallen male soldiers, before Anto handed him the queen's head. Calder held it by her long black hair, before he led the army back down the steps, beginning the long trek back to the ground.
Tired but relieved with our victory, our army slowly descended the castle of Quellden, prepared to go out into the city streets beyond. Sound traveled quite far in these caverns, but as we reached the base of the tower, there were little signs of fighting.
Calder stopped before he could leave the castle, turning to us. “Kai,” he said, reaching out a hand.
I took it. The two of us walked out into the open together. What was left of our army stood on the other side of the royal sector bridge, where we'd broken through the gate hours and hours ago, if not days. When they saw us emerge with the rest of the army, Calder lifted up the queen's head.
Cheers broke out from the freed slaves and soldiers, and beasts roared with relief. The necromancers nearby dispelled the dead. The defenders here had not been attacked in some time, proving that our methods of sparking rebellions during our initial assault had worked. We had taken the capital city of the underground, leaving as many as we could alive.
I glanced up to the guard towers, finding the archers Azazel had posted there when I'd asked him to. I hoped to find him there, but the archer was nowhere to be seen. He had truly left.
Our soldiers began to disperse into the buildings Calder's army had secured while they'd waited for our arrival. The city would need to be cleansed. New rules would need to be made. This culture and its people would need to rebuild. For now, however, the people simply needed to rest.
Jayce lurched out of the neon river beside us, as if to remind me that all victories held losses. As she transformed back into her normal form, my heart ached with the conversations we would need to have.
“Hell! We've truly done it!” Jayce exclaimed, once she was her usual Vhiri self. Her red eyes scanned through our group of friends. “Where's Vallen?”
Calder exhaled evenly through his nostrils, and his red eyes began to moisten as he formed his words. I opted not to help him. He would need to face things like this often if he were to become a strong leader.
“Cal.” Jayce stared at her friend, starting to walk toward us, her eyes frantically searching. Water still dripped from her skin from the river. “Where the fuck is my brother?”
A sharp pain tore through my heart at her choice of words. As she neared with greater ferocity, Calder finally replied, “He's dead, Jayce.”
The woman stopped, her eyes wide and crazed as she stared at Calder. “No, he's not,” she finally said, her voice trembling with anger. “No, he's fucking not.” She turned to the royal district, her eyes on the tower. “Vallen!” She screamed, her hoarse voice tortured as it echoed off of the castle's walls. “Vallen!”
Calder trembled as he listened to Jayce call for her older brother, his eyes on the rocky ground before him. Finally, Jayce rushed back, in the midst of a mourning frenzy.
>
“What happened to him?” She raged, ramming her hands into Calder's back. He tripped forward, catching his balance and spinning around.
“He died protecting me,” Calder replied, his voice thick with mourning and regrets, backing away from her defensively.
“Where is he?” Jayce moved her eyes around to the rest of us. “Where?” Her nostrils flared again, and her pupils were intensely dilated. “I—I need to see his body. I don't believe any of you until I see his body.”
Calder was a mess, forced to face his friend's death and its gruesome manner all over again. “It's gone, Jayce,” he managed through tears.
“What do you mean it's gone?”
“The...the crawlers.” Calder threw a hand toward the pit. “The crawlers got him.”
Jayce stared at him, until her mind left from behind her eyes. She fell to the ground, and started to murmur a familiar spell through her thick voice. “Tranferra sel ti kin—”
Jakan thrust his hand out toward her, using the same calming energy of illusion he had used on Kyrin and Calder. Jayce stopped mumbling the spell, though she stayed on the ground, breathing heavily with mourning. In a few moments, she would come to again. For the second time in a long battle, I pulled a friend away from another, unwilling to see them hurt each other.
As I moved Calder to safety, away from Jayce's future wrath, he let emotion overcome him. We had accomplished our goal, and yet, we'd lost so much.
Jayce came to from the illusion spell minutes later. I could only tell by the screams of anguish which reverberated harshly off of the cavern walls behind us.
Thirty-nine
70th of Red Moon, 420
My knuckles rattled off of a steel door, my stomach thick with nausea. The day had finally come.
The door opened, and Calder immediately pulled me into his arms, holding me to him like it was the last time we'd ever see each other. Who knew? Maybe it would be. This war had proven unpredictable, and the people I loved were as easily killed as anyone else. I clung to him, because I loved him just as much as my other friends. We had been through so much together since we'd met the year before.
Calder had only called me into his room for his last goodbye. He'd already said his farewells to the others the night before. As he pulled away from our embrace, he motioned for me to close the door, so I did.
The room he'd chosen as his in the tower of Quellden was magnificent, but it hadn't been the queen's. He had said he wanted to be lower to the ground. He was used to being among the people he led, whether on one of his many ships during his sea travels, or during the civil war. I had only told him that I agreed with the idea, because his people were more likely to view him as an equal if he treated himself as one.
Calder walked past an extravagant bed. The bedspread was a vibrant red, and the blankets and sheets were soft and buoyant. All around the room were potted fungi and various tables and storage boxes. Eventually, he would go through everything, and make the room his own. For now, he had larger concerns.
Within the days following our takeover of Quellden, there had been some fights, but overall the city was accepting of its new leader. The people were suspicious, of course. Calder was a native of Hazarmaveth, so no one knew him here, and he was a man. Despite the insurrection which had transpired over the course of the battle, many of the women were still leery of being considered equal to men. Some of the Alderi found Calder's relationship with me as a reason to like him, either because they admired the power I'd acquired or the benefits I'd offered to the underground. After all, even after my other friends and I left here today, Calder's men knew magic, and they planned on teaching it to the rest of the Alderi. In addition, the beastmen could now offer their methods of blood mixing to those seeking the power of the shapeshifters.
Of course, as with any takeover, there were also those who didn't want their culture to change. Most of these people had become casualties in the war, but others simply stayed quiet and disapproving. The best assassins of the city surely wondered what this meant for their livelihoods. Chairel hired the assassins of Quellden more than any other country, and now they were enemies given Calder's new alliance with me.
I'd told Calder to trust Hasani and the Naharans. The underground tunnels had an exit in the Dhahab Canyons. It was a long trek, even for a small group of Alderi, but it would have to make do. In the days prior, I'd written another letter to Hasani, letting the prince know of our victory. Calder promised to send it with his messengers when he sent them to request trade with Nahara. I hoped that Calder could work out some sort of deal with them. Nahara had rarely dealt with the Alderi before, but Hasani trusted me, and I'd told him in my letter the year before to trust Calder. King Adar and his country were also desperate for allies and trade agreements, now that their relationship with Chairel had turned hostile. Hopefully, my work in the underground would end up benefiting more than just I.
Calder stood at a stone desk along the wall, where he grabbed a roll of parchment. He turned to me, waving the paper above his bald head. “Just so you know, love, if this gets burnt to a crisp, you are still my ally. I don't care what any paper says of us.”
I smiled softly, realizing it was our alliance. I held a copy of it in my satchel. “Always, Cal.”
His eyes fell as he sobered. He looked as if he wanted to say something, before he decided against it. He turned back to the desk, grabbing a large cloth bag. When he walked toward me next, he offered it to me.
“What's this?”
“Gold, love,” Calder replied, watching as I took it. I opened it up, my eyes taking in hundreds of gold coins within.
“That's a lot of gold,” I murmured.
“Payment for your services, not your friendship,” he promised with a smile.
“I'm not friends with you because I have to be,” I murmured.
“Kai...” Calder trailed off, before looking to his bed. “Would you indulge me a moment?”
I chuckled softly. “How so?”
He grinned at me when I looked back to him. “Only with words and your ear, love.”
“Kinky,” I quipped, though I sat down at the edge of his bed nonetheless.
Calder sat beside me. I could tell there was a lot on his mind, and I wasn't surprised. Even still, he'd had over a fortnight to relay his words to me, but he chose to only now, when we were alone.
“I hope Cerin didn't give you too much trouble when I asked you here alone,” Calder murmured.
“He trusts me,” I said. “It's you he's leery of.”
Calder chuckled. “As it should be.” His two hands were together, where he twisted a copper ring around his finger with his other hand. “He is immensely lucky to have you, Kai.” After a pause, he added, “They all are. I envy them all. I'm going to be a wreck after you leave.”
I watched the copper ring spin around his finger, over and over again. My eyes heated with unwanted emotion. “And I will miss you. I wish more than anything else that you could come with us.”
Calder nodded, the motion jerky with upset. “I wish the same, love. But there is so much I must do here. I am grateful for your assistance in building up a court of my own here. They will help me get this city up on its feet again. I think that in time, the underground will be changed for the better. My brothers are free. We will teach magic to whoever wants to learn. But these things take time. Maybe one day...” he trailed off, before the copper ring stopped its spinning. “Maybe one day I will find you and join you. Maybe after the war, when you rule over Chairel with an iron fist.” He smiled over at me.
“I would love nothing more,” I admitted.
“Sera is close to the Servis coast, is it not?” He questioned.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Perhaps I will move there after you take it, then, when you have no need for my aid in your war. I could build me a nice ship out of the wood of the forests there.”
“And then sink it,” I mused.
Calder laughed. “Yes, perhaps.”
His smile slowly faded. “But I don't want to rule the underground forever. I want to right its wrongs. Make it stable. And then I would like to pass the torch.”
“You have hundreds more years to live, if you're careful,” I told him. “Passing the torch to someone else is the best way to keep people from learning to hate you, after all. Queen Achlys ruled here for centuries, and it made this city bitter and easily overtaken. Learn from your people's history, Calder, and you can shape the future.”
He nodded. “I've been so grateful for your help, Kai. You've been more than a friend to me. You've been the reason this was all possible. I have a long way to go to overcome my shame, but I think I have made progress over this past year.”
“You have,” I murmured.
He sighed. “I failed when it came to Azazel. I have to say, I'm surprised he left. Not me, mind you.” He paused. “I overheard him speaking fondly of you to Nyx in the tunnels, when our army was separated. He claimed you saved his life.”
I thought of Azazel's heart wound back in Hazarmaveth. “I did.”
“He is unused to kindness and loyalty. Gods know Koby and I had something to do with that.” Calder exhaled in a rush. “I might take his advice, you know.”
“Azazel's?” I questioned, curious.
“Yes. He refused to call me Calder most of the time,” he said. “I changed my name after my escape, not just to leave the old one behind, but because I felt I didn't deserve it.” Calder glanced up, to the open window of the side of his room, where the city stretched out through the cavern. “I think Azazel knew how undeserving I felt of it. He was obsessed with names, after all. He knows what Alastor means.” Glancing over to me, Calder smiled softly. “If you ever hear of an Alastor running the underground, think of me. I might reclaim the name, yet. I feel I may have grown into it.”
I smiled back. I didn't know what the name meant, but I was happy Calder was coming to terms with his past.
“Kai, there is something I wish to say, but I'm afraid of what you might think.” Calder huffed in humor, but it was embarrassed.
