“I should go too. No, I should stay. I can fight. I can stay until they are safe. But…” But what would happen to the soldiers who stayed while the others got away? There would be no escape. Cam gulped down the thought, allowing it to sink into her stomach and churn there.
Separation was inevitable. And this was why Cam went to her father next and stayed with him until she received a cloth for her head and enough food for both herself and someone else. She went to Peter and set the wooden plates on the floor between them. “The calm before the storm,” she said. “When we eat and try to remember.”
Peter’s dark blue gaze lifted to meet her own. Cam slipped onto the floor next to him, balancing her own plate on her upraised knees. “Remember what?”
“The hard times that seem so easy now that we’re facing something even worse. And how this will one day be a story that won’t seem so bad.”
Peter’s smile was rather grim. He leaned on Cam’s shoulder, his hand reaching to her leg. “What are you remembering?”
Cam closed her eyes. She could smell the salty sea and feel the breeze drifting over the wall. “I am remembering when Fiera, Terra, Caleb, and I were in Imber Fel when the Shadow Bearers made their first attack. And how we had to take anyone who couldn't fight into the passage below the castle. I remember that we came out and that most of us survived. I remember the loyalty and the bravery each one of us displayed.”
Peter was smiling. “I heard Caleb knocked Leviathan out with the most basic of the poisons.”
Cam laughed, choosing not to remember the dagger that had been at her throat. Silence passed between them. A silence of warmth and comfort. Cam’s hand found its way into Peter’s hair to stroke his head. She knew his eyes were drifting shut. “How the hell can you sleep so easily at a time like this?” she thought. But aloud, she said, “What are you remembering?”
She heard his small sigh and felt his thumb beginning to absentmindedly stroke the back of her leg. “I’m remembering how living with Cole after my father died and everything was so easy compared to this. I’m remembering how easy it was to talk to Elyon every single day. How easy it was to trust and to hold fast to my faith, but now…”
Cam felt the ache building in her chest. The same ache she knew was in his. She reached for him, her arm going around his shoulders. She pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “And then you thought Elyon had taken Leviathan away. He had ended everything. But He didn’t. Maybe...it’s notsupposed to be over.” Cam chilled at her own thoughts.
“Peter, talk to my father, please. He doesn’t really know all that you’ve been through, but he cares about you very much. He is in so many ways your father too.”
Peter lifted his head, a small smile lifting his lips. “That doesn’t sound right seeing how I’m about to kiss you.”
Cam was laughing when his lips skimmed hers. “I’m being serious, Peter,” she said onto his lips.
He pulled away just slightly, his sigh brushing her mouth. “I know. And I will.” His fingers slipped between hers. “I know he cares, and I care for him too. I’ve just done a pathetic job at showing it.”
Cam’s brows rose. “Youdon’tdoapatheticjobatshowing me you care.”
Peter’s brows furrowed. “I’m not going to kiss your father, Cam.” His hand went to the side of her face to bring her closer, but Cam felt that they were being watched. She turned, and Fiera was standing across the room, her expression hard. She jerked her head towards the windows.
“Oh no.” Cam rose and among the others who gathered at the set of glass windows, she peered from the castle to the snowy ground far below. They stood, wavering like wisps of smoke. The wraiths come to set the siege. But the Nazerians were inside the confines of the castle. They were safe. For now.
A voice sounded behind them, one resonating from a tall man wearing the queen’s colors. Each person turned from the window, ashudder ofcoldpassingthroughtheroom. “Thequeen requests the audience of her court and of those from Mirabelle.”
Cam glanced around her, catching the eyes of her father, then Amelia, then Peter, then Fiera. “A nation rests on her shoulders, and there is nothing she can do.” Elizabeth Rashki wasn’t wearing her crown or even her colors. She was draped in simple black, her auburn hair twisted behind her head. No weaponry was to be found on her though Cam wouldn't have been surprised if something was concealed somewhere.
But even without the crown and colors or the fact that she would not sit on her throne, Elizabeth looked more like a queen now than she had before. Her features were ordered in determination, in resolution. Even while her words seemed to contradict the face she wore. “As a child,” she began in a calm, gentle yet firm voice, “I heard the stories of kings and queens. Of chiefs and of rulers of far off places. Of keepers and of thieves. And in each of them, it was said that they could keep their own people safe. They would always find a way to win wars as long as they remained unified and strong. Unless...unless the creatures of doom emerged on their land.”
The queen paused, her slender hand resting on a pillar she stood beside. Cam was holding her breath as she watched the queen pace and then still. There had to be a hundred others in the room, all held by the queen’s words. “And those creatures of doom which were named were three: the winged sea monsters of the north, the wraiths of the south, and the Shedim of the unknown lands.” Elizabeth’s eyes landed pinned to Cam’s gaze. Cam looked back, daring in her own expression.
“But I have faced the winged monsters of the north…in Imber Fel.” Elizabeth seemed to have read her thoughts, or had, at least, heard the story. “Elyon has been with you before. And He is with you now. Whatever should happen here and now is for His glory.”
“That’s it?” Cam thought. “Now we don’t do anything?” And she wasn’t the only one thinking it. A voice arose. Fiera’s. The same questions. Elizabeth turned slowly to eye the one who had spoken.
She spoke calmly, a bit cooly. “Of course not. You see, some of you may not realize, but there is no Elyon here. And us there or the other way around. It is not either He acts or we act. It is a joint effort. He acts through us. We are His instruments.”
“So, we might as well be like...paper dolls,” Fiera countered. She was calm despite the ice Cam knew would otherwise be laced in her words.
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. If we were mere dolls, mechanisms, there wouldn't be such a thing as freedom or love. No, we make a choice. Elyon is in control, but that does not mean that He makes every choice for us. That is a burden that lies on our own shoulders.”
Fiera remained silent. Or maybe she continued to speak. Cam did not know, for shewas still allowing Elizabeth’s words to sink in. It made sense. A god which would create everything with love and purpose could not love if He did not then allow His creation the choice to love Him in return.
“And I am now standing before you all now, offering you a choice.” Cam withdrew from her deep absorption and once again directed her attention to the queen. “You can lead those, who do not comprise the army, deeper into the mountain where there is a more secure and secret place in two days time, or you can leave altogether. Waiting here will mean watching. We will not move against the wraiths. It is a risk, yes, but I do not think that it is our time to abandon this place altogether.”
“Itwouldbegiving uptooeasily,” Cam thought. “Andfor a queen who has only known this place as her home, the place her parents built with their own two hands...she can’t.”
“But…” the queen continued, “If you should desire to dwell elsewhere, find a place more peaceable, you are under my blessing to leave. And under the protection of my army until you have gone from this land.”
Cam’s eyes widened. What the queen was promising meant risking her own people’s lives. It meant soldiers slaughtering themselves to set them free. “No...no…” She gazed at the queen, willing the eyes of the woman to meet her own. Elizabeth wasn’t her queen. She wasn't Nazerian, but… “I am with you. Until the end. I will stay
.”
AndCamwasn’tsurewhyshechosethequeen ofNazeria, but she did know that once there had been a queen in a dark valley far away with no one at her side. And it had turned her poisonous and imprisoned.
Fifty-Two
“Wherethe hell did they come from?” Riah shouted at Glista
over the howling of the sea-blown wind. This wind was ripping at his cape, sending it fluttering behind him. In the north, where he had been for what now seemed a very long time, it had been calm. Always, the air had been pleasant and still. But once the sea had come into sight, Riah could feel its fury swirling from its depths.
Glista’s icy eyes were surveying the terrain. Dawn had broken frozen andstill,andRiah wouldn’t havenoticedanything if it weren’t for the fact that there was a small mass of dark figures at the base of the mountains between Mirabelle and Nazeria.
Nazeria stretched before them, smaller than Riah had imagined compared to the endless stretch of mountains on one side and the sea on the other. This was the place where fires found their fuel in other nations? This was where the Crown was. Riah would have thought something like, “I can feel it.” But all he could feel was the cold air and mounting anticipation. He glanced over his shoulder where Arria stood amidst a dozen Shadow Bearers. She was searching his eyes, looking for what was holding his attention. The clustered villages were too quiet and too still as if no life stirred there.
Everything appeared empty. A mass of gray was rippling against the mountain. And it wasn’t fog.
Glista did not answer. She stood gazing grimly over the snowy landscape. “We have another army to combat it appears,” she said airily. She turned sharply to Arria who, by now, had approached them and was peering over Riah’s shoulder. “Mount your bird and go find Leviathan. They should be reaching the harbor. Tell him of the”
“Desert wraiths. I understand,” Arria replied. She turned on her heel and stalked towards Gamgee who took off soon afterward.
Riah hadn’t expected this to say the least. He glanced at Glista. “We could break in and take the Crown. We need not to do much else. No doubt, the Nazerians are distracted.” He paused. “Or gone entirely.” He gulped down sickness, allowing it to swirl in his gut rather than in his chest.
Glista’s gaze was knifelike. “Lucius’ orders extend beyond locating the Crown. You will do well to obey.”
Riah huffed a sharp laugh. “And will Lucius ever actually show his face? To give orders directly? Or is he a faceless godlike monster prowling in the north alone?” But even as Riah said these words, they brought a vile taste to his mouth. If Glista’s attention was not already fastened on the mass of wraiths assembled miles off, she would probably have pounced. Or would have one of the dozens of wolves surrounding her do the deed. Riah was trying to ignore the creatures and their bared fangs and bristling fur. His hand clenched around his sword as one brushed by, a growl reverberating against the slick ice beneath his feet.
Amid the silence, Riah was left to recall the army he had glimpsed from above when he had flown on Aminon’s back over the border of the sea which Leviathan, the Shedim, and the Shadow Bearers had since then sailed across to reach Nazeria. Their numbers had been vast. Endless perhaps. The Shadow Bearers were few in comparison to the Shedim. The Shedim had been a mass of black, tasseled cloaks which concealed their true forms.
“What do they look like?” hehad whispered as he had sat on the ship beside Arria.
Shehadshrugged. “LikeLucius, I suppose.” Riah hadnot told her that he had seen Lucius. The blue eyes and enormous shifting wings. He still thought it unsettling that his master crawled in the passages beneath where he lived.
Riah ceased such thoughts when Glista let out a low hiss. “They have assembled an army then,” Riah murmured. He turned to Glista. “If they get caught up in battling...them…” he waved a hand behind him. “Then I can sneak in…”
“You know that Arria will be the one to enter the castle. Not you,” Glista cut in. “There are too many people here that detest you. They wouldn't hesitate to separate your head from your shoulders.” The same was true of Glista. But Arria could blend in. Riah returned to brooding. He wished he didn’t have to fight. Arria had more experience anyway, but her stealth was greater than his, and who would direct the dragons while he was gone? His eyes scanned the skies. When would they come? He hadn’t seen them in weeks since they had begun sailing across the Sea of Voria. Something inside of him was empty just thinking of them. But they would come. With Owen. The name still tasted poisonous in Riah’s mouth.
“Then, she will go in. Tonight,” Riah said at last. “And what the hell will we do? Sit here on our asses and do nothing?”
Glista’s brow rose. “Precisely.” A sneering smile split her lips, and Riah could only shudder at whatever was barreling through her mind.
Now came the hard part.
After waiting for Arria to come back here, would be the part where Riah would brace his hands on his friend's shoulders and tell her what she was to do. He would watch her stomp down the fear and agree with a curt nod. He would try to pull her close, one final embrace. And she would simply clamp him on the shoulder as if he was nothing but a simple comrade in arms.
The firelight was too bright. The sea too dark. The sky too much
of a mystery beyond the clouds covering it. Riah was too warm. Too restless. And hungry even though he wouldn’t eat the food placed beside the small bonfire for him.
It had been too long, the time that had passed since Arria had returned after going to look for Leviathan. She hadn’t even seen ships on the horizon. The Shadow Bearers that had come with them were drifting in and out of the flickers of the firelight over their snowy surroundings. Glista was the only other person Riah knew. And she was eating. She was eating in a position that looked too comfortable for what was coming.
“How?” Riah thought with no small amount of resentment. But the resentment was boiling inside ofhim wasn’t at her but at himself. Because he had told Arria to go into the belly of the dragon. He shook off the comparison. “Dragons are on my side.”
So Riah stared at the Lady of the Wolves to distract him, noting the intricate braiding of her silver hair around her too perfect face. Shewasn’t wearingarmor now, but her clothingwas form fitting enough to not only keep her warm but to keep her from becoming injured should they be sprung upon. And a set of daggers was at her waist. “And magic. She has magic under her command.”
Riah’s hand went absently to the mark on his neck. His did not move, had no life in it as it sometimes did. And he didn’t have any magic yet either. Leviathan had said that kind of awakening could take years. Even Arria didn’t have abilities yet. But Glista, it seemed, had been gifted quite quickly.
With these thoughts, Glista herself snapped her gaze up, the ice in her eyes burning through Riah. “It took me years...years to even feel an ounce of magic within me,” she hissed. Riah was taken aback, to say the least, but he would not show it. He gritted his teeth and barred his arms across his chest tighter. “I was young…” she continued, ice lacing her tone. “Just barely into my bleeding years when I became an apprentice. I was promised magic as soon as I was marked. But no...I had to earn it further. I had to break and bleed myself before I could even feel a fiber of it flowing in my veins.”
Riah narrowed his eyes, refusing to show interest. “And you earned it by betraying your father and your realm and joining Leviathan in an attempt to massacre an entire nation.” Glista’s face grew cold. Not the sort of steely cold she wore as a mask, but a cold that had her coiling inward, had her face falling to pieces. Heiron, her father. She had left him behind.
The ice returned to her eyes as she spoke in a too calm voice, “You joined Leviathan in an attempt to massacre an entire nation too.”
“I did not know Leviathan's plans,” Riah replied. “I only knew my own plans andthat hewas thekey. At least I didn’t stab my own father in theback andturn on my own people.” Heknew his words were too bold, that he
was stepping on a slippery precipice by voicing them aloud. Ice crawled up his back. Not just the feeling of ice as in a shudder but pressing cold that slithered into his very bones. He cried out, the sound clawing from his throat without warning. Ice fingers wrapped around his neck in coils.
Riah’s eyes fell to Glistawhosesneeringgazewas holding his. Her fingers were outstretched before her and curling to touch her palm. Her magic. The ice burning his spine and closing around his throat in its tight grip. His hands clawed at his throat, but all he could feel was his own flesh. He opened his mouth, his throat burning with a scream, but he could make no sound.
Glista’s lips twisted in an icy, wicked smile. “I may have turned on my people, but you turned on the one woman you loved. And killed to do it.”
“How...how does she know that?” Riah couldn’t breathe, his lungs were heavy and aching. Just as he felt he would explode, the ice faded, and he gulped in the chilling air into his stinging lungs. Glista leaned back, relaxing after her use of magic. Riah stumbled forward and would have fallen to the snow had he not braced his hands against the stump of wood he had been using as a seat. He could still feel the ice in his bones, coiling around every part of him to cease his breathing and movement. And somehow, that hadn’t been the coldest, most painful part. It was that Glista spoke the truth. That she knew about Saffira.
“I can also turn blood inside someone’s body into ice. And then penetrate them. From the inside out.” Glista grew still as she spoke these words and examined her fingernails as if the statement was nothing.
Riah’s eyes widened, but he did not doubt it. He sat, his hands braced on his knees as he continued to gather breath into his lungs. “H-how long did it take you? To decide you didn't want what your father wanted for you?”
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