by Frey, James
“You’re going to die, Ariadne,” she says. “The poison has advanced too far.” She glances at the body of the dead Cahokian, Hicks. “That will be you soon enough.”
She’s right. I can feel the poison, thick and deadly, creeping through my veins. It has become more difficult to breathe. My arm is almost useless. How much longer do I have left? Not long, I think.
“What do you want?” I ask my sister. She knows that she could kill me. Or she could simply wait for the poison to finish its job, then take the pieces of the key from me and from Boone.
Cassandra comes over to me. I don’t flinch as she raises her hand and places it against my cheek. “You know you’ve lost,” she says. “I will open the door, take the weapon, and return with it to Crete. I will be the hero of our line. Your name will be forgotten. Already our parents no longer speak it. It’s as if you were never born, that there were never two of us. Only one.”
She looks down at Boone. “I will kill him, too, of course. Then everything you’ve done will be for nothing.” She looks back at me. “Tell me, was it worth it? Losing everything? For him?”
I stare into her deep brown eyes. Eyes exactly like mine, in a face I share. How is it, I wonder, that two bodies so similar can have hearts that are so different? Or are we really that dissimilar? Before meeting Boone, I might have felt as she does now. Loving him, even for such a short time, has changed me. “Yes,” I tell her.
Her face hardens. This is not the answer she wanted. She wants me to say that I regret it all. At that moment, I realize that what Cassandra wants more than anything in the world—perhaps has always wanted—is to be capable of love. Maybe at one time she was. Before training turned her heart to stone. Before her jealousy of me poisoned her just as the beast’s poison has doomed me. We are both dying, only Cassandra doesn’t know it.
She kneels down and begins going through Boone’s clothes. She quickly finds the piece of the key that he has been carrying, and stands up. She takes me by the wrist and drags me along behind her as she walks the length of the hall to the stone doors. Too weak to struggle, I don’t resist. When we reach the steps, I stumble up them.
“Give me the other pieces,” Cassandra says.
“You’ll have to kill me,” I say.
She laughs. “A final display of bravery? Admirable. But you want to see what’s behind those doors as much as I do. I’m allowing you the chance.”
As much as I want to defy her, she’s right. I do want to see what’s inside the next room. My entire life has been devoted to this. Everything I’ve done has led up to it. To die now, without knowing, without seeing, is unimaginable. She’s already won. I won’t defeat her with a final display of resistance.
I take the two pieces of the key out and give them to her. She plucks them from my hand, then presses two of the pieces together to form a half. There’s a clicking sound as they join. Cassandra puts the other two pieces together, then adds them to the first pair. Now she has a completed ball in her hand. She walks over to the doors, where there is a round indentation in the wall beside them. The key fits into it perfectly.
The doors slowly swing inward. Cassandra steps through them, and I stagger forward. Inside is a small chamber less than three meters across. There is nothing grand or unusual about it. The walls are bare, without carving or adornment. There are no statues standing sentry, no torches, no anything except for a stone pedestal with a metal box resting on top.
Cassandra walks up to the box and places her hands on it. I manage to follow, and stand behind her as she lifts the lid. When she turns to me, the look on her face is one of victory. “Would you like to see what you’ve lost?” she asks.
I bring my hand up. In it is the arrowhead I’ve been holding in my palm. I plunge it into Cassandra’s belly and draw it up in a sharp, tearing motion. Her skin parts, and warm blood pours out over my hand. Her mouth opens, and her hands scrabble at me as she tries to push me away. I look into my sister’s eyes. “I will see you soon, sister,” I say as I push the arrow into her heart.
Cassandra falls. I catch her in my arms and lower my sister to the floor. My heart aches under the weight of her. I have killed the other half of my soul. But there is no time to mourn. I close my eyes, willing myself not to pass out yet. When I open them again, I look into the box. There, laid out before me, is what appears to be a gun of some kind. I stare at it for a moment, then turn away. My life force is swiftly fading, and before it leaves me completely, I want to see Boone again.
The walk out of the chamber seems to take forever, even though it is only a handful of steps. When I get outside, I find that I am not alone. There are others in the hall. Some I recognize: Bilal, Kelebek, Yildiz. Most I do not. At first, I think they must be apparitions, hallucinations caused by the poison as it consumes my mind. Then Kelebek and Bilal run to me and take me by the hands. They support me as I stumble down the stairs, then lead me through the group of onlookers and over to where Boone lies on the ground.
I fall down beside him, reaching out to stroke his face. I think maybe he has succumbed to Cassandra’s blow after all, but then his eyes flutter and open. His eyes are unfocused for a moment. Then he looks at me and smiles.
“Hey there,” he says. One hand comes up to hold mine. Then he sees the blood, and a shadow of worry passes over his face.
“It’s not mine,” I tell him.
“Cassandra?”
“Dead.”
“The weapon?”
“It’s there,” I say. “In the chamber.”
“I want to see it.”
He sits up, holding his head, then stands. I can’t, and so he reaches down and pulls me to my feet. Then he picks me up, cradling me in his arms, and walks to the chamber. When we are inside, he sets me down. I am able to stand by leaning on him. I do not look at my sister’s body lying on the floor. Together, Boone and I look at the weapon in the box.
“We won,” he says, but his voice is flat.
“Yes,” a voice behind us says. “You have won.” Yildiz is standing in the doorway. “You may take it and go,” she says. “We will return you to the other city.”
“What about Ari?” Boone asks her. “Can you heal her?”
Yildiz shakes her head. “That is beyond our powers.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” Boone says to me.
My body is on fire. The poison is burning me up from the inside. I look at Yildiz’s eyes. “Do you have something to make death come quickly?”
She hesitates only a moment before nodding.
“Bring it to me,” I say. “Please.”
Boone starts to protest, but I stop him by placing my fingers on his lips. “I’m not afraid,” I tell him.
He looks at me for a long time. His eyes are wet. Then he nods. Yildiz turns away and says something to someone outside the chamber. Boone helps me sit on the ground. We lean against the pedestal that holds our prize, our hands interlocked. Yildiz continues to stand in the doorway.
There are so many things I want to say to Boone, so many conversations we have not had, so many things we will never get to talk about. Now there is no time. All I can do is hold his hand, feel his pulse against my palm. His heartbeat soothes me.
I do have one question. “What will you do with the weapon?” I ask him.
Before he can answer, I see Kelebek come running up the steps. She hands something to Yildiz, then glances at me before turning and leaving. Yildiz walks over to me. She holds out a vial. “Drink this,” she says, “and the end will come swiftly.”
I don’t have the strength left to reach for it, so Boone takes the vial. Then he says to Yildiz, “What will happen to the weapon if I don’t take it away from here?”
“It will stay here forever,” she says.
“Nobody else can claim it?” Boone says.
Yildiz shakes her head. “It is your prize. You may do with it as you wish, but no one else may take it. If you leave it here, the chamber will be sealed and the key destroyed.
The ways into the hall will also be sealed.”
“But someone could always find a way in,” Boone argues.
“Only if they destroy the mountain itself,” says Yildiz.
Boone has another question for her. He holds up the vial. “How much of this will it take?”
“Only a few drops,” Yildiz says.
The old woman leaves us. Boone and I sit in silence for a minute. Then he gets up and goes outside. I hear a grinding sound, and the doors begin to close. Boone reappears, resuming his seat beside me.
“What did you do?” I ask.
He holds out his hand. He is holding the key. “Making sure no one can get in,” he says. “I know she said they would seal the entrances, but I want to be sure.”
He has locked us inside the chamber. Us and Cassandra’s body.
“Nobody needs this weapon,” he says.
I believe he is right. Before meeting him, I did not. I thought the most important thing in the world was securing any advantage I could for my line. But I was wrong. Cassandra and Hicks are dead. Boone and I may die too. Our lines will anoint new Players to take our place. And the game will continue. Now I see that there is no way to win. Not unless the lines can be persuaded to work together. And I do not think they are ready to do that. Each one wants to be the victor, and as long as that is the case, nobody will win except the beings that have forced us to Play.
Boone takes my hand in his, the vial of whatever Yildiz has given him pressed between our palms. “Ready?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say.
He raises our joined hands and tips the vial into his mouth. Then he holds it to my lips. I drink. The contents are bitter, but not terribly so. I swallow.
I lean against him, feeling his heartbeat against my back. We do not say, “I love you.” We both know how we feel. Instead we sit together and wait. The game will go on. We have not stopped it forever. But for now—for us—it is over.
And we have won.
SEE HOW ENDGAME BEGAN IN:
DISCOVER THE PLAYERS BEFORE THE CALLING:
Endgame series
Novels:
The Calling
Sky Key
Rules of the Game
Digital Novellas:
Endgame: The Training Diaries Volume 1: Origins
Endgame: The Training Diaries Volume 2: Descendant
Endgame: The Training Diaries Volume 3: Existence
Endgame: The Zero Line Chronicles Volume 1: Incite
Endgame: The Zero Line Chronicles Volume 2: Feed
Endgame: The Zero Line Chronicles Volume 3: Reap
Endgame: The Fugitive Archives Volume 1: Project Berlin
Endgame: The Fugitive Archives Volume 2: The Moscow Meeting
Endgame: The Fugitive Archives Volume 3: The Buried Cities
Novella Collections:
Endgame: The Complete Training Diaries
Endgame: The Complete Zero Line Chronicles
Endgame: The Complete Fugitive Archives
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