Microsoft Word - The Drowning Faith_final2.docx
Page 2
Nezha glances up. “Yes?”
The aide steps in. From the look on his face, Nezha can tell he’s been standing there for a while. This isn’t the first time he’s spoken.
He’s finding it harder to concentrate these days. His thoughts are slow, his body
exhausted. He thought he could do it all–lead an army, unite his base, please his father, please the Hesperians. But he’s whittled down to the bone. If this has been a test of his mettle, then he’s failed.
He finds his attention slipping in the council room. He tires easily in training. Every time he leaves the laboratory, it takes his body longer and longer to recover.
He needs this war to end quickly, because he’s not sure how long he can last.
“There’s news.” The aide looks uncertain. It’s important then. Bad news–or very good
news?
Nezha rallies his focus. “Did they–”
“She’s in Rooster Province, sir,” the aide blurts out. They can’t say her name in his
presence. He’s never made this a rule. But for some reason, none of them dare.
“Then tell them,” Nezha says softly, “to mobilize.”
At last. The moment he’s been waiting for, the confrontation that will finally put an end to this long, bloody war.
He shudders at the thought. Her face across the battlefield. Her flames, scorching the air.
Her fist against his face. That lovely, familiar pain.
They’ve been going back and forth, he and Rin, for what feels like a lifetime. But it’s got to come to an end. All the rest–all the scheming, the minor skirmishes, all the political infighting–means nothing. The future of the Republic hinges on one outcome only: her death.
Nezha knows what he’s meant to do, what Vaisra expects. It’s the role he was born for.
There’s no time to waste. They must move now, before Rin again disappears off the map.
It takes the dirigible sixteen hours to traverse the country, but just six to get from Arlong to Tikany. In six hours he’ll be face to face from Rin. In six hours they’ll see, at last, which of them has the will to finish things off.
She’s the only divine thing he’s ever believed in. The only creature in this vast, cruel land who could kill him. And sometimes, in his loveliest dreams, he imagines she does.