Sovereign Sacrifice

by Kova, Elise

  The woman’s flames began to harden, condensing into crystal. Fiera worked faster—every motion more decisive, every line wrought with fierce determination.

  She slumped, nearly falling back. Vi caught her only because she’d already been holding the woman’s hand.

  “I’m fine,” Fiera said before Vi could ask. “I must finish this… I must.”

  Fiera continued with her determined fervor. Blue fire illuminated the room as much as crystals did. But every wild motion of Fiera’s hand seemed to throw her off-balance. Her cheeks were gaunt, her eyes dull.

  “Fiera, stop this,” Vi whispered.

  “What you said… it told me, I have to finish this. I heard it. I heard what must be done.”

  Thrumsana… Taavin had told her never to use a word of power unless she fully understood what it did. This was the second time she’d used it on instinct. Just like the first, someone was suffering for her carelessness, trapped by the magic thrumsana unleashed.

  “Fiera—”

  “It’s nearly finished.”

  “Vi,” Deneya gasped. Her shock was so apparent that she didn’t even think to use the name Yullia in front of Fiera. “It’s a glyph. It’s a word of Yargen.”

  Fiera pressed her palm into the center of the flames. Everything erupted at once. Fiera was thrown back, Vi with her. They tumbled and Deneya rushed forward, catching them both on an arm and easing their fall.

  Vi looked from Fiera, slumped in Deneya’s arm, body limp and eyes closed, to the symbol on the door.

  Just like with Sehra’s book, sounds filled her ears. The fire crystalized, cementing itself as fragile crystals on the door. In it, Vi saw a glyph of Yargen. A word that Vi had never heard or seen before.

  “Rohko,” Vi breathed.

  The chorus in her mind snapped into harmony. Everything came together at once as the thin crystal lines Fiera had made spiderwebbed out, growing as though time was progressing at twice its normal speed.

  In less than a minute, the doors were covered by faintly glowing stone. And the innermost chamber of the Crystal Caverns—Raspian’s tomb—was sealed.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Fiera, Fiera,” Vi said, shaking the woman. Deneya had laid her down carefully on the walkway, murmuring halleth over her again and again.

  “There’s something strange about her.” Deneya’s head jerked up, her eyes worried. “I can’t describe it. Her magic—Yargen’s magic… There’s something in her now, something that wasn’t there before.”

  “Crystal taint,” Vi whispered in knowing horror. “Because their powers are fractured, the affinities on this continent can be tainted by Yargen’s magic. She’d avoided it with the sword now and I dared to think…” Vi cursed under her breath. She’d been the one to pump Fiera’s body with power from the crystals. “I don’t have time to explain it properly—we just have to get her out of here. She’ll be fine if we can get her away from the crystals.”

  “Then let’s go.” Deneya shifted and slid her arms underneath Fiera, lifting the woman with ease.

  “Are all elfin so unnaturally strong?” Vi asked. She’d seen Deneya carry Fiera like that to leave the castle. The woman didn’t even grunt with the exertion. And Fiera was no small woman.

  “I make it a point to train regularly.” Deneya gave her a smug grin, then turned her head further, looking back at the door that was now sealed. “What happened? And that word you used, it made her create the glyph in flame…”

  “It’s one Yargen gave me,” Vi affirmed.

  “What does it do?”

  “Excellent question…” Vi reflected once more on the past two times she’d used it as they walked through the archway and back into the main chamber of the Crystal Caverns. “I think it awakens some kind of knowledge or awareness in someone?”

  “Like samasha to a Lightspinner just beginning?”

  “Perhaps something like that.” It felt like a lifetime ago that Vi had samasha used on her and she had to work to remember what Taavin had said the word meant. “But for more than just the words of Yargen. I think to some greater truth or purpose.”

  “I’m surprised Taavin hasn’t told you not to use words until you’re certain of what they mean. In this time, that’s a standard warning from the Voice.”

  “Oh, he did… But perhaps Yargen gave me that one because of my recklessness.” Vi wondered what Taavin would think when she told him of how the word had been used again. After all she’d done, Vi doubted he’d be surprised.

  Movement at the entrance of the cave caught Vi’s eye. In the time it took for her to look, the archer had already loosed his arrow. She opened her mouth, but no sound came. The projectile moved faster than thought, faster than she could react.

  For those brief moments, they’d felt victorious. The world had been hopeful. And Vi had almost dared to feel safe.

  The arrow lodged itself through Fiera’s neck and into Deneya’s shoulder. Deneya dropped to her knees with a shout. Vi stared at the crimson tide pouring from them both.

  So much blood. How did Fiera still have blood left to bleed? The macabre thought was the only one Vi could wrap her head around.

  “Vi!” Deneya snarled, snapping off the fletching of the arrow and sliding Fiera off of it. The woman was limp on the ground, as dead as Zira had been.

  Halleth. Her mind placed the word on her tongue. But Vi was silent. There was no word to bring back the dead.

  Vi slowly lifted her gaze. The world was fuzzy. The haze of the crystals had never been so bright or thick. She felt drunk, and everything seemed to have a nauseating tilt. Her motions and thoughts had a sluggish delay.

  She saw the men running toward them. The archer knocking another arrow.

  “Juth calt,” the words slipped through someone else’s lips. They couldn’t be hers. Everything had gone numb. The archer seized and fell. Vi wrought her wrath next on the man running through the opening of the cave. Again, she repeated, “juth calt.”

  Kill them all.

  Clearly that was the simplest solution. She should’ve done it from the start. Holding back was a fool’s decision.

  She was the agent of the goddess, a traveler between worlds. What good was humanity to her now?

  The Knights of Jadar had been an enemy of her family. In every world, they rallied against Solaris. In every world, they resulted in the death of Vi’s grandmother and left her father motherless. It had been her vision to break that cycle.

  A vision that was now tunneled.

  “Juth calt.” Another body fell, and fire exploded in front of her face.

  Vi was tackled off to the side, a heavy body on top of her. “Wein,” she heard Deneya say in her ear. Magic engulfed them and another burst of flame charred the woman’s barrier but left her unharmed.

  “Get off of me,” Vi demanded. “Get off of me!” she roared. “I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all!”

  Vi pushed on the stump of the arrow, still in Deneya’s shoulder. The woman howled and reared back. Vi launched to her feet.

  “Keep her at bay!” Twintle shouted and more flames erupted around Vi.

  “Do you think you can hurt me with your fractured magic?” Vi asked as she stepped through the fire, emerging on the other side. “I am part goddess. What do you think your flames will do?”

  A Waterrunner was the response to her question as ice formed around her feet. Vi tugged against it, allowing her spark to roar, echoing the chaos in her mind. The ice turned to vapor as Vi glared at Twintle.

  “I should’ve done this months ago,” she snarled. “Juth calt.”

  His body limply meeting the floor was the sweetest sound she’d heard in ages.

  “Watch out! Wein!” Deneya shouted, stepping in front of Vi, her body acting as a shield. An arrow bounced harmlessly off of the protective barrier her word of power formed over Deneya’s skin. “There’s too many of them, we have to get out of here.”

  “We can take them.” Vi motioned to the bodies on the ground.
With two words, she’d killed four men. “They’re nothing compared to us.”

  “I will not twist Yargen’s words in that way.” Deneya grabbed her wrist. “How you are using juth is the work of elfin’ra.”

  “It’s the work of the Champion,” Vi countered.

  “What sorcery is this?” a voice echoed from within the antechamber, distracting them both. He very clearly wasn’t talking about their magic. “It won’t open.” Vi rushed toward the center aisle once more, looking back at the Knights who fought against the barrier of crystal that covered the doors.

  They slammed the sword of Jadar against it again and again. But the barrier held. Vi reached out for one of the pointed crystals protruding from the floor at her side. She forced her power into the stone, exerting her will and feeling it rush from crystal to crystal, maintaining the barrier at the door. The sword wasn’t even chipping it. The fools had no idea how to wield the power of Yargen.

  “What have you done?” the nameless Knight shouted at her.

  Vi merely smiled. She smiled like a madman, baring her teeth, even as an arrow punctured her arm that was grabbing the crystal.

  “Flee,” Deneya yelled at them, her voice echoing off the high rooftop of the Caverns. “Run, as quickly as you can. Hide back under the rock you crawled from and never show your face again. Fiera’s blood lives on and will guard these Caverns until the end of time.”

  The men began to run back toward them and Vi watched them sprint past. They regarded her with wary eyes, as though she was the blood of which Deneya spoke. The three were almost at the entrance to the Caverns when she rapid-fired, “Juth calt. Juth calt. Juth calt.”

  One by one, they fell. The crystal sword clattered to the ground at the entrance, skittering away from the last man’s lifeless hands. The rest of the Knights had already fled down the mountainside and Vi doubted they would dare return for the sword. Especially not if she killed them first.

  Vi took a step forward, ready to give chase.

  “Enough.” Two strong arms wrapped around her like the thick ropes of a ship. Vi writhed against them and Deneya hoisted her upward. The pain in Vi’s arm seared in a way that almost felt delightful. “Enough!”

  “I should’ve killed them ages ago when I had the chance.” Vi kicked her feet, trying to break free of Deneya’s hold. The woman was a rock behind her.

  “But you didn’t because it’s not you,” Deneya shouted in her ear over Vi’s grunts and snarls. “You didn’t because you aren’t a cold-blooded murderer.”

  “Clearly I am!” The darkness had finally overwhelmed her. Vi felt completely charred. Just when hope had begun to take root again, she burnt it away. Giving in was easier. “I am worse than them; I can be worse than all of them.”

  “But you’re not. And you should never try to be.”

  “This is what the world needs me to be.”

  “The world needs compassion from its Champion, not killing. You can kill a thousand men, Vi, but their blood won’t quench that fire burning within you.”

  Vi went still and pressed her eyes closed. Her head dipped and her chin nearly touched her chest as she hung limply. Deneya set her back down gingerly. When it was clear Vi wouldn’t fight any longer, she unraveled her arms.

  “I don’t know what pain fuels your flames, but I can see you’re burning alive.”

  Her head jerked upward and Vi stared, slack-jawed at the woman. She felt seen. For the first time in a long time, someone other than Taavin could see her. Really see her. It was terrifying and vulnerable, but in an oddly welcome way. Vi gave in to the sensation, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against Deneya’s uninjured shoulder.

  “I wanted to save her,” Vi choked out. “I wanted to save her, and Zira, and I wanted to stop the Knights.”

  “I know.” Deneya stroked her hair like a child. Like they weren’t awash in blood and surrounded by bodies. “But you protected the Caverns.”

  “No…” Vi pulled away and looked to Fiera. “She did. Even though I was the Champion, she was the one who sealed the Caverns.” Vi staggered over and knelt down next to Fiera’s body. She tucked a stray strand of hair away from the woman’s face, thinking back to Zira. She hadn’t even given the woman a proper Rite of Sunset. “Help me?”

  Deneya nodded and walked over. She first healed her shoulder and Vi’s arm, murmuring, “halleth ruta sot,” twice. Then she scooped up Fiera and brought the body out onto the cliff. The snow was churned up, rocks jutting out where footsteps had crunched through to the ground below.

  “Set her there.” Vi pointed to a mostly clear area. “We’ll send her off at sunset.”

  “What about the rest of them?” Deneya and Vi both turned back, looking at the carnage still littering the Caverns. “You can’t leave them be.”

  “I could. They’re traitors and murderers.” Vi thought back to how Fiera had handled the traitors in the streets. What had been mere months ago now felt like years.

  “All men deserve a proper sendoff. Even the worst among them,” Deneya insisted. Out of everything Vi had expected the woman to be for her, a moral compass wasn’t one of them.

  Vi barely stopped herself from disagreeing. She wanted to. But the sentiment struck a chord with her—it sounded like something her mother would’ve said.

  Vhalla Yarl, the woman Vi knew, was gone now. But every act she took was still a testament to her memory. That world was gone, save for what lived on in her. Was she becoming a woman her mother would be proud of?

  “Pile them up off to the side. I’ll burn them all at once.” It was better than they deserved, a nagging voice told her in the back of her mind. But treating them like men, rather than meat, quieted the darkness that had consumed her and reminded Vi of her humanity. If only slightly.

  Deneya carried the bodies from the deepest part of the Caverns. Vi couldn’t quite lift the men at the opening, but she could push them along with the careful use of kot sorre. By the afternoon, the bodies were all lined up in the snow, waiting to be burned.

  Vi finally went over to where the sword had fallen. She stared at it for a long moment, as though all the blood that had fallen had been wrought by this singular blade. Finally, she hoisted it for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

  The weapon shone brightly with power. The whole of the Crystal Caverns seemed to glow brighter for a moment as the hilt met her fingers.

  This was the magic she had been expecting all along. The sword no longer felt thin and weak, but recharged with the essence of Yargen. The more pieces of Yargen’s power Vi drew together, the stronger they all became.

  “Well, you have it and the Caverns are sealed… what now?” Deneya asked, sitting heavily with her back propped against the gaping archway.

  “That’s an excellent question.” Vi twisted the sword in the light before setting it down carefully on a bed of crystals. “Narro hath hoolo.”

  The magic spun out from her watch as it always had. But instead of being the usual orange-yellow glyph, this time it was a pale blue. Vi watched as Taavin was cut out from the empty air, color seeping into his outline before the magic vanished entirely. She watched as he blinked, focus coming to his eyes before he turned to her.

  “Vi—” Taavin stopped himself mid-turn, frozen.

  “Taavin?” Vi asked cautiously, taking a small step forward. The wind tousled his hair and Taavin shivered, as though he could feel the cold. As though he were—her hand closed around his. “Are you?”

  “It’s the magic of the Caverns,” he murmured, pulling his eyes from the crystals surrounding them and looking to her. “It heightens everything.”

  It makes you real, Vi wanted to say. She could feel the puffs of cool air that curled by her cheek. Vi searched his eyes, wanting to touch him all over. Wanting to savor this moment. But knowing it was not the time or place.

  “You made it,” he continued, as if he wasn’t feeling the same ache she was. “And the sword?”

  “Here.” Vi took a ha
sty step away and grabbed the sword. “And Raspian’s tomb has been sealed once more.”

  “Sealed?”

  “We can show you,” Vi offered.

  As they walked back through the Caverns, Vi and Deneya gave him the quick run-down of everything that had transpired. Vi filled Taavin in on the conversation she’d had with Fiera. Deneya told him of her healing Fiera, and the woman’s determination to come and defend the Caverns—to right the wrongs of her forefathers.

  The short walk to the sealed door wasn’t nearly enough time to cover everything. But they got through the broad strokes before Taavin’s focus was drawn elsewhere. He let out a gasp the moment he laid eyes on the door.

  “What… what is this?” His confusion had never delighted her more.

  “Rohko,” Vi said aloud. The word was as strong as a cornerstone, able to support the immense weight of a building without cracking. “Is this barrier… this word from the goddess, is it new?”

  She hoped against hope, and Vi nearly let out an involuntary noise of relief when Taavin gave a small nod. He was still trying to consume the doorway with his eyes. It wasn’t enough; he slowly approached the doors, resting his fingertips lightly on the crystal barrier that seemed to have already grown thicker.

  “You have the sword. The Knights didn’t get in. There’s a barrier,” he murmured, as if trying to keep it straight in his own head.

  “I’m no expert at all this. But we did well, I think.” Deneya folded her arms over her chest.

  “Only one thing will tell—” Taavin turned, looking down at Vi. “Have you peered forward yet?”

  “Not yet.” She didn’t know if she was ready to. She didn’t know if her heart could take what she might see. If she saw a future of light, what did that mean for the rest of her time as a traveler in this world without a home of her own? If she saw a future of darkness… Did that mean the sacrifices made to get here had been for nothing?