by Sage, May
Shea leaped into action, and all her soldiers followed without her having to say a word.
The first wave was easy. The second, less so, as two more ships had landed. By the time ten arrived, she ordered her soldiers to fall back to Elderdale. They'd delayed the inevitable for long enough.
Her entire life, she'd lived for this encounter. She'd suffered and fought for her people, her country, her race. Over a thousand years of unceasing struggle.
There had been some comfort, even some happiness. Every time she saw Orin. Every time Valerius allowed her to embrace him. Every time Kallan joked and smiled. Every time Devi showed how much strength and grace she had.
But her true reward was today. The day when she'd stop fighting.
The day she joined her mate in death.
Twenty-Eight
Hall of Kings
Styx sat on the dais on which the throne stood and by her side, there was another god who felt just as terrifyingly powerful.
"I am the first one to get here?" Devi asked her.
The large bald man wiggled a brow. "Why, was there a party we haven't been told about?"
She hesitated. "We were going to…Valerius was trying to get Aurelius—and I, Rook. We wanted to start the throne, if we could."
Why did it sound like she was asking permission? Probably because if they were against that idea, she knew there was nothing she could do.
The male shrugged, and Styx perked up. "This certainly is good news. It is past time this world returns to order."
Just then, Valerius came in, walking in front of Aurelius, his wife and child following moments later.
Vale rushed to her, cupping her face in his palms.
"What happened? I felt you suffer and then, it just stopped. I feared the worst, before I felt you again."
"Turns out, letting that phoenix out was a pretty good idea. The tower blew up. One moment, I was feeling the impact of the blast before I could put my shields up, and the next, the bird got to me. The moment it touched me, everything stopped hurting."
He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.
"Rook?" he asked.
Devi's throat tightened. She would not have made it, given the strength of the blast, if it hadn't been for the bird. And Rook had been a lot closer.
"I think he's gone."
Vale had no reason to regret his death. Instead, he felt her sadness, and hugged her closer. "I'm sorry you lost a friend."
"Well. Not quite."
Devi gasped, turning as she recognized his voice. Rook was standing at the door, cocky as usual, his wings out, singed but in one piece.
"How the hell…"
Then, she knew.
A few steps sounded on the ground, though she recognized the presence before the female appeared. Kira came to stand right behind Rook.
Devi rushed to her sister. It had been over a decade since their last meeting, but it might as well have been yesterday. She held her close, caressing her back.
"You saved him?" Devi questioned.
Kira shrugged. "He saved me first. Anyway, shall we get this thing over with?"
Vale stared at his brother, his hatred apparent. "Why are you suddenly fine with going through the selection?"
Smug as always, Rook shrugged. "I accomplished what I set out to do. I don't care who sits on the throne now. Let's get this over with, unless you object?"
"We need Telenar. I have no idea how to operate the throne."
"No matter." Rook was casual and stolid as always. "They do." He tilted his chin toward the gods.
The man laughed. "We are bound to not interfere in your affairs for now."
"‘For now,’" Rook echoed. "Do you truly want us to remember you as the ones who would not press the damn button when you were asked to?"
"This threat again, Marcus?" The titan laughed.
Devi stepped between the two males reeking of testosterone and rolled her eyes. She glared at Rook, before turning back to the stranger. "Please? Telenar will arrive eventually." Unless he was dead. "And let's face it, the likelihood of these three staying in the same room without starting a fight is pretty low."
The Enlightened assessed her in one intense stare. "I'm no throne tech, but there should be a lever on either side."
She thanked him and headed up the dusty stairs on the left side of the throne. It was clear that no one had walked them since Orin passed away a couple of months back.
The shimmery, transparent surface of the throne was smooth and devoid of anything that could pass for a lever at all. She knelt and traced her fingers against it, trying to feel for nooks.
Nothing.
"I don't see anything."
"Here, I'll do it. It'll only work for one of us."
Devi rolled her eyes as she stepped away to let Styx operate the device. Of course. No one in Corantius seemed to be fond of inclusion.
Telenar finally made it, rushing in hastily, his eyes wide open. "There's an army at the doors."
"Yes, we're aware." Rook replied dryly. "Our brother is invading with your elven liege."
"No, not Elden. They're coming from the north."
There was nothing north of the immortal city. Just the sea.
Devi blinked. "You mean, from outside of the Isle? How many are we talking about?"
"Hundreds of ships in the distance. Some already landed."
She glared at Rook, who smiled, smug and self-satisfied.
"Well, that's a matter for the next overking to deal with," Valerius stated. "Let us start."
Taking the steps on the other side, Telenar joined Styx and started to type on the smooth surface.
"It has been some time since I operated one of these, Styx. Old friend."
"Yeah, same. See, my brother stabbed me in the back, and my husband didn't see fit to go looking for me for a few thousand years, so I haven't been here for a while either. Still. If I recall, we just need to reset the protocol?"
"Yes, both sides at once. No one can touch the throne once it's started, understood? It'll kill you on contact. The device is set up to defend itself."
Devi grimaced at Styx's warning and shuffled away from the throne.
"Press in three, two, one…"
Suddenly the room was dark, every large widow covered by an opaque black screen. The one source of light was the throne, now bright blood red.
“Kneel.”
The voice came out of nowhere. Devi couldn't tell whether it had been intoned out loud or if she was just hearing it in her head. All she knew was that she had to obey.
She was already sitting next to Styx, but she got to her knees, head down. From the corner of her eye, she saw everyone in the room do the same, even Rook.
There was something in that voice. It wasn't metallic, or impersonal, like she would have imagined the voice of a thing, an object, to be.
“You're here to claim the throne from which you can rule this Enlightened outpost. What will you do when you take it?”
Devi attempted no reply, knowing the question wasn't meant for her. She fervently hoped Valerius could tone down the sarcasm and have enough confidence in himself to articulate everything he'd done in his own land. To explain the deeds of both of his brothers and his quest to foster peace in the Isle.
He could be a great leader, given half a chance. He would be. She believed that, to the bottom of her heart.
“Rise.”
All got to their feet.
“Forward, children. Let us see which of you may be worthy.”
Vale and Rook each took one step. Aurelius surreptitiously glanced at the woman behind him, before facing the throne again. "My child is a few months old. I would forfeit any right to the throne, on my behalf as well as his."
“It is not for you to decide. Forward.”
Aurelius cradled his boy, taking him from the dark-haired female's arms, and did as he was bid, joining his brothers.
They were all so very handsome, despite having few features in commo
n. Perhaps the shape of their mouth and their eyes. Otherwise, they'd taken after their respective mothers. Rook, dark of hair, Aurelius, blond, and Vale with his dirty ash hair. One pale, one tanned, the other almost white.
The presence of the child bothered Devi, somehow. That something so innocent had to come in the middle of this bid for power pissed her off.
Now there was silence, and stillness. The red light dimmed.
"Are we out of power? Did something go wrong?" Devi asked.
When the tower has been blown out, the energy remained functioning in the castle, but maybe there wasn't enough electricity left for the throne to do what it was supposed to.
"Everything's fine." Telenar frowned, eyes on the side of the throne. "It's just…paused. Waiting for something."
"Maybe Father had another bastard running around somewhere. He's obviously been rather busy."
"The throne would not have started if all candidates weren't in this room, boy," the giant god said.
"Is there anything on the screen?" Devi asked, peeking over Styx's shoulders.
She didn't expect to see anything; moments ago, she couldn't even discern whatever the gods were typing on. Now that she was scrutinizing the device, she noted it had changed.
There were letters along the smooth surface. Glyphs that seemed to move like waves.
She leaned forward and reached out.
"Careful." Styx stopped her hand before it had reached it. "No one may touch the throne. Not now. No one but the overking."
Ah, yes, she'd said something about that just moments ago. Even as the ominous warning came back to her mind, Devi felt a pull she couldn't resist, as though the device was calling her, whispering her name.
Devira. Devira. Devira…
The letters were foreign to her eyes, though she would have sworn that they, too, formed her name. There were only six, repeated over and over again.
"Don't you see it? Will you read what it says?"
Styx glanced at the throne. "It says nothing, child. There's no writing."
There was.
Devi opened her mouth to explain herself, when, in the next moment, the throne physically pulled her to it, and her palm fell flat on its cold surface.
She gasped.
And then she stopped moving, thinking, breathing. She remained frozen in time, frozen in place, as far as anyone in the throne room could see.
Twenty-Nine
Child of Carvenstone
The sky darkened on the horizon, but Kal's vision was clear in the night, and he could see the number of approaching ships increasing in the distance.
"Give the order," he stated. "Everyone back on land. We can't keep this coast clear anymore."
They'd done their best to keep them at sea, but now they'd be a hundred against one. He wasn't sacrificing more Carvenstone blood here.
Kal's ship was the last to reach dry soil again. As soon as he alit on the beach, a short, annoying little girl ran up to him, asking, "What are we doing now?"
He'd told Krea to stay away, hide in her woods, again and again. He didn't bother to waste his breath a third time.
"We’re letting them reach the shores. We've already lost ten ships and there's no stopping them without condemning ourselves. Here, on the ground, we can take them. Your kind can take them," Kal amended. "Mages. You're at your strongest on firm ground."
The little girl beamed.
"What can I do?"
"Hide. Stay away. Don't die. I won't have a little girl's blood on my hands."
"Okay. I'll get your swords sharpened."
She was going to drive him mad. Or, she would if they weren't all dead by morning.
"Fine. Try not to die. And if you do, please don't haunt me." He left his two swords with her and headed to his captains for a strategy meeting. Such as it was.
They didn't have much of a choice. The mages would form a line ahead of the archers, and behind them, those who couldn't wield elements or a bow would wait for their turn on death row.
Kal knew he'd only bought his people time. But the folks of Carvenstone were earth-dwellers, and making them die at sea had seemed cruel beyond belief.
They were all in position, Kal at the forefront, when Krea returned with his swords. She was carrying a dozen others in her little arms, practically falling beneath their weight.
She handed them to their rightful owners as they passed.
When she reached him, Kal got to his knees to be on her level and looked directly into her brown eyes as he said, "Krea. Daughter of earth, child of Carvenstone. If there's any future for us, for our people, it resides in you. In your goodness, your strength, and your powers. Please, I beg of you, listen to me this time. I need you to leave. I need you to live."
She threw the three swords left in her arms on the ground and yelled back, "Why? Why would I go and hide while everyone else is fighting?"
Dammit. "Because you're nine. You're a child."
"No one cared about my being a child when I was abandoned. I had to fend for myself. I had to learn how to take care of myself. And I have magic, so I'm more useful than you here."
Kal blinked. He'd heard that insult before from magic users; coming from her, it just made him laugh.
"All right. Let's try again. I want you to go away and hide because you remind me of me. Because no one truly cared if I lived or died either. I always came second to the real heirs, the true children of the gentry." To Valerius. "I see it in your eyes. For that reason, I care, Krea. I care about you being alive come morning more than anyone else here. If I'm worried about you, I can't command everyone else or protect myself as I should. Understood?"
She blinked in confusion, then blushed and bent to the ground to gather the swords.
He watched her walk away, handing them to their owners, before walking up the hill, and finally disappearing in the woods she'd claimed.
He breathed and concentrated on the matter at hand as the first enemy ship, made of steel and painted gray, blue, and white, landed on the beach.
The sound of screams, the roars of triumph and despair burned his ears almost as much as that of the crashing blades. The air was heady with the stench of death and blood.
Elden tightened his infernal device in his grasp. This might be how he fell. This might be where his legacy, his people ended. The orcs were no match for his skills, or that of his brethren, but they outnumbered them at least a hundred to one now. Soon, it would be a thousand. And another thousand.
This wasn't just a reversion to the old days; it was worse.
"Should we fall back?" Loxy asked him.
Once, he might have acquiesced. During the first war, there had been a limited number of orcs on the Isle, and they'd stuck to their cities, leaving the olden woods alone. This time, their numbers were greater and there would be no stopping them without the help of everyone else. The Corantians, the Carvenstone folks.
"If we do not stand here today, we'll have to face them on our own tomorrow."
She nodded. "Then let's do this. So long, Elden."
It sounded like a goodbye.
"It's not the end. It can't be."
He infused his words with as much faith as he could, when even to his ears, they sounded empty.
"The walls are open. As long as they are, they'll keep pouring in."
He closed his eyes, willing this reality away. A high-pitched cry broke his moment of peace. Elden looked up in its direction, expecting a greater danger, as from the southeast, hundreds of great beasts approached, carrying fae on their backs.
"Well, I'll be damned." Loxy laughed. "When the seelie court comes to help, we know it's the end of the world."
That wasn't quite right though.
The seelie court only acted when there was a profit in it for them, for their people. Their presence meant that there was hope.
Thirty
Hail to the Heir
She'd never seen a world like this.
Smooth, tall, towering buildings higher
than any mountains. Floating vehicles in the skies. Lights. So much light, although it might have been midnight.
Devi moved away from the window and turned around, confused and frightened. Where was she?
Dammit. She'd touched the throne. Was she dead? Was this the afterlife?
No, that couldn’t be. She could still feel the pain in her legs and arms.
Although her body felt…wrong. Far away. As though this was nothing except a dream.
"You aren't dreaming. Not precisely."
She'd been alone moments ago, but now there was an incredibly tall male at her side, and a beautiful female with scars along her arm and neck. She had markings that seemed to emphasize rather than hide them.
"Your consciousness has traveled to us. The throne can serve as a communication device when needed." The female spoke to her like they were acquaintances catching up, whereas Devi remained speechless, not understanding a thing.
"Oh, we are. Acquaintances. This isn't the first time I've reached out to you."
She felt like she was embroiled in some sort of a test; the male scrutinized her, his gaze demanding and cold.
"Don't let Kai intimidate you. His bark is often worse than his bite. I’ve reached out to you in dreams, in the past."
"The warnings," Devi realized. "You were warning me about Rook, and everything else."
The female ruefully shook her head. "Yes. That darling boy. I never give up on my descendants, as a rule, but I must admit, that one is a little bit of a work in progress. Never mind that. You're here, and in time to fix this."
"This isn't how it works, Nalini," the male, Kai, said. "She's a child of clay, built as a weapon by mortals. She needs to be tested."
The female rolled her eyes. "Fine. Do your worst. I remind you, husband, that only one of us happens to be a seer."