by N. M. Howell
“One minute everything was quiet. Then suddenly there was a horrible flash of heat and the floor began to rise. A moment later, the ship was ripped apart.” Raesh’s eyes were haunted, the memory clearly burned in his mind.
“How many dead?” Andie asked, already afraid and tensing to receive the blow.
“Eighty-seven.”
Eighty-seven people dead, because of her. She hung her head, but Raesh pulled her in again. He held her, tried to comfort her. She could hear him in her ear trying to reassure her, trying to convince her that this wasn’t all her fault, that he didn’t blame her, that no one blamed her. But that didn’t matter to her. She wanted blood. She pushed away from him.
“Who did this?”
“Come with me,” he said.
He took her hand and led her through the crowd. The fighters still tried to get her attention, to get her. Andie was beginning to wonder if they wanted her help or her blood. Raesh led her to a clearing that she hadn’t noticed from the sky, where a group of people lay together, side by side. But Andie’s eyes went behind them, to her father. He was alive. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. Her heart was finally able to slow as she held him, knowing he was real and was okay. She leaned back to look at him, and, aside from a fairly serious wound above his eye, he seemed to be fine.
“Andie, I know you’re going to want to make a fuss over me, but I’m fine. I swear to you. Raesh moved me last night before any of this happened. He knew I didn’t belong down there. And you have more pressing issues to attend to. All these people are looking to you right now and you need to give them something. Deal with this. I’ll be here. Go.”
Andie wanted to protest, but she could see in her father’s eyes that he was serious. She nodded, kissed his cheek, and rose. She turned to look at the bodies on the ground. Carmen. Kent. Murakami. Sarinda. Her heart froze in her chest. She knelt down, prepared to mourn, but realized that they were still alive—breathing raggedly, but still alive. She could have died right then and there from the relief.
These few seemed so much worse off than the other survivors. As Andie pushed Carmen’s hair back from her face, she saw that the face was covered in blood, a series of slashes cut across her beautiful face. Her breaths came slow and ragged, and she remained unconscious as Andie stoked her hair. It crushed her to see Carmen like that, but she felt a wave of relief to know that Carmen wasn’t the traitor. That also meant that Kent, Murakami, and Sarinda were innocent. Andie looked around for Marvo, anxious to exonerate him as well, but she couldn’t find him. There was a moment of fear as she realized that if he wasn’t hurt there was a good chance he might be... She looked to Raesh.
“Where’s your father?” she asked. “Please tell me... don’t let... is... is it him? Is your father the traitor? Did he betray us?” She hardly recognized her own voice as she asked the questions, willing beyond anything for the answer to prove her wrong.
Raesh looked at her in a way he never had before. She knew it was true when she saw his eyes. Raesh was broken, defeated, only holding himself together because he had the weight of the rebellion on his shoulders. Andie wanted to reach out for him, but she couldn’t. She was broken, too.
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “I can’t believe this.”
“Andie,” Raesh said, his expression indefinite, his lips fumbling, his hands shaking. He paused. “My father is dead.”
Andie lost her breath. A kind of stasis took over her.
“We couldn’t tell what happened at first,” Raesh continued. “We thought he might have... escaped... but... we found what was left of him. He’s gone.”
Andie tried to will herself over to Raesh. She sent all kinds of commands to her body to get it to move, or think, or communicate, or do anything at all. But she remained suspended above herself, numb, and instead it was Saeryn who went to place a comforting hand on Raesh’s quivering shoulder. He stood there, his shaking hand placed over Saeryn’s, barely even strong enough to hold himself together. He then fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands as Andie and the rest stood there, watching their friend mourn his father.
And then Andie broke, again, but this time it was rage that bubbled up from the wound. She looked around and around and around until she found her. The traitor. The only one left. Lilja.
Andie walked over to her and Lilja saw her coming. Lilja stood up and curled her fists, ready for whatever Andie would do. Andie cast right at Lilja’s face, but it was blocked and countered and a ball of red light collided with Andie’s chest. That made her even angrier. As she and Lilja began their duel, the other fighters all backed away and cleared the area, ducking the stray spells that went streaking through the air. Lilja was more practiced than Andie had thought and provided a challenge. Lilja seemed to understand how furious Andie was and she refused to go without a fight.
Andie quickly grew tired of the annoyance. She raised her hand and slammed it into the earth, and it was hard to tell which was louder, the thunder or the sound of the earth breaking out from Andie’s hand. Lilja was blasted up and off her feet, and, when she came back down, she landed directly on her spine against a stone. She cried out in pain, but before she could even roll over, Andie was already standing over her. Andie raised her hand, and, with her magic, took Lilja by the throat and lifted her into the air. She began to close her fist, which began to close Lilja’s throat from every direction.
“Andie, stop!” her father called. “Andie, you can’t do this!”
“Leave her be,” Saeryn spoke kindly but raised her hand to Andie’s father. “Too much has been lost this day. Justice is only right, though if you can, Andie, try not to kill her. She must pay, but there is a way she must do it. A duel is one thing, murder is another. You are not a murderer.”
“Murder?” said Andie. “You’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t kill her? Look around you. Eighty-seven of our own are dead because of her. My friends are lying there near-dead. And Marvo... Marvo... She needs to die! This is the University doing everything it can to break us, to make us afraid, to crush us before we can even get on our feet. For weeks, we’ve been living in fear, afraid to trust each other, unsure of whether or not we would even make it. She cursed me into the future! She created chaos and split us all up! She needs to die and I’m going to kill her!”
“I’m sorry.”
Andie turned her attention back to Lilja. The girl’s face was beginning to change colors and she was kicking at the air, trying to free herself.
“Let me explain. Please,” Lilja said in barely above a whisper.
“Andie,” Saeryn said, her hand on Andie’s shoulder. “Let her speak. She may have information we need.”
Andie wasn’t interested in hearing what Lilja had to say, but Saeryn put her hand over Andie’s and brought down the arm and the magic. Lilja came back to earth and as Saeryn put Andie’s hand down, Lilja was able to breathe again and began to take her air in gulps. Andie stood tense and furious, ready to exact her vengeance at the first chance.
“I didn’t do this,” Lilja said. “I swear it wasn’t me.”
“Liar!” Andie screamed and used her magic to push Lilja over.
“Andie, enough,” Saeryn said in a new voice. “Calm yourself. Look at the girl. Can’t you see she’s terrified?”
“I didn’t do this!” Lilja shouted. “I’m sorry for the thing I did, I know it was wrong, but I had no choice. Please, you have to believe me.”
Andie watched the begging girl. She was thin, blonde-haired, pale, and beautiful in a classical kind of way. Ever since Andie had known her, Lilja had been frowning or scowling, completely loyal to the cause, yet still arrogant and conceited. But as she looked down on her there by the river, Andie realized what she was seeing. Lilja was afraid. No, not even afraid. She was petrified.
“Tell us the thing you did,” Saeryn said. “And fear not. I will see that you are punished for no more than you deserve. If mercy is merited, it will be given. You have my wo
rd.”
Lilja looked up at Saeryn with tearful eyes and swallowed hard as she rubbed her throat with both hands. She finally nodded. “I only helped them the one time,” she pleaded. “Just the once. When we were hiding in the tunnels. I went up to scavenge with Sarinda and a group of Searchers caught us. They called the professors and one of them recognized me. They threatened my family. My friends. I might have signed up to fight this fight and to risk my life, but my family didn’t. I couldn’t just let them be slaughtered.”
Andie took a step back as she looked down at the girl. She was trembling all over, her eyes glazed over with the horrors of what she had done. Andie took in a deep breath and let it out slowly then knelt on the ground next to Lilja. “Go on.”
“The Searchers said they would let them live if I told them where we were and how they could find us,” her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper. “I told them we were hiding in the tunnels under the University, but I never thought any of us would die. I thought that because we had you and Raesh and all the fighters that we could take them and make it out safely. I figured they didn’t even have a chance against us. I swear, when we came out, I fought them with everything that I had. But that was it. That was the one and only thing I ever did for them, I swear. I’ve been trying to atone for it ever since. I’ve been doing my best to make this mission work.”
By then, Lilja was in tears and Andie was relenting. She could see that no one could have been harder on Lilja than she was being on herself.
“So, it was you and Sarinda who told them?” Andie asked.
“No, Sarinda never said a word. She didn’t have any family so they couldn’t make her cooperate. They wiped her mind. She doesn’t even know she was with me. Andie, I know you and I have never gotten along, but I only did what I thought I had to do to keep the people I love alive. And when we were on the ship I did my best to stop the other one.”
“The other what?”
Lilja held her head in her trembling hands as she held back a sob. When Andie placed her hand on her shoulder, she took in a silent gasp. Finally, her trembling stopped and she steadied her voice as she looked Andie in the eye. “The other spy.”
Andie was dumbfounded, as was everybody else.
“There’s another spy for the University here?” Andie asked. “How? Who?”
“I don’t know. When they had me they just told me that they already had someone else working in our group and that it was only a matter of time before we imploded. They laughed about it. They said they chose this person because of you. That once you’d been brought down, you’d be easy to wipe out. I swear I thought I could figure out who it was and stop them. I never thought they’d be powerful enough to send you to the future or blow up the ship. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Andie turned from Lilja. She raised her eyes and scanned the crowd. That left one other who could possibly be the traitor. One other who happened to be in that room when Andie was blasted away. She didn’t want to believe it, but she had no choice. She scanned the river side with keen eyes until she saw her lying still some distance away. Andie began walking over and a path cleared in front of her, fighters moving aside as they watched her expression. She made a straight line over to the girl and when she reached her, Andie just looked down on her.
Yara was covered in blood. And even though she surely knew that Andie was standing beside her, she wouldn’t look up. Andie spread her fingers and pushed toward Yara. The blood that covered her began to disintegrate, turning into dust and then drifting up into the lightning-filled sky. Soon Yara’s face was clean, as was the rest of her. Andie searched briefly with her eyes, but could see nothing.
“I don’t even see a scratch,” she managed to whisper. “You’re not hurt at all, are you?”
Yara turned her face up toward Andie, slowly, methodically. She spoke in a measured whisper.
“No.”
Andie dropped to her knees. She vaguely heard people talking behind her, someone giving commands, yelling, moving feet. She went numb, deaf, mute, immobile. Her eyes were frozen on Yara’s face, as Yara’s were frozen on hers. Eighty-seven dead. Hundreds injured. Lilja a traitor. Carmen gravely injured. Marvo dead. The ship in ruins. And Yara. Yara. Andie just kept watching her, unable to do anything else. Her skin felt like ice as she stared into the eyes of the girl who was once her best friend. Once a trusted ally. A traitor.
Then out of the corner of the sky a green dragon came diving right toward them. It was Ronen. Yara was totally oblivious of it. The dragon leveled out several yards away and flew straight for them, its great mouth open. Suddenly it had Yara between its teeth and it was flying away with her, straight up into the dark sky, weaving its way between the unremittent lightning.
Andie was aware only of her body falling over. Then darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
“Everything will be ready in three days, Chancellor Mharú. The Sentinels, the army, the propaganda. All of it.”
“Excellent, Ashur. I am completely in awe of your transformation. You’ve taken a fledgling program and made a master work of it. Your dedication will not be forgotten. When I come into my kingdom, I will remember you.”
“Your praise is reward enough, chancellor. The only other satisfaction I need is to see the dragonborn eradicated. This entire plan is yours, from start to finish, has been executed masterfully. I’m just happy I was allowed to be a part of it. I’ll go and bring them in now.”
Ashur turned to go, and the chancellor prepared himself to receive his guests. The seven families had not been together in a very long time. Chancellor Mharú was the last of his line and had been under tremendous pressure to marry and continue his family. And he certainly planned to, but before that could happen, he needed to touch it. True power.
The other families had quietly ruled their respective domains for many years and never once had any issues; this fact had teased them into thinking they were competent and while they were certainly more effective than the chancellor, the truth was that none of the families had faced the challenges that Myamar had. They had never given a formal reason for their leaving, but he knew it was because of the portal. They knew their ancestors had barely managed to capture the dragonborn before and even then, it had cost the world greatly. They were afraid of the thing, afraid it would open up again and the dragonborn would wreak terrible havoc on their lives.
But the chancellor had never wanted to live anywhere else. His family had moved generations previous, but as soon as he was a man he moved back to Arvall. He had made it his responsibility to manage the city from which they all came. For many years, his staying was the only positive mark in his long list of embarrassing mistakes. But all of that was about to change. Just as he had settled into a pose he thought was welcoming, but also formidable, Ashur reappeared.
“Where are the families?” the chancellor asked.
“They’re refusing to see you, sir.”
“What?”
“They say you haven’t yet proven yourself worthy of their presence.”
“How dare they! Do they have any idea what I’ve been through? What I’ve done to get here?”
“I’m sorry, chancellor. I insisted, but they said it was impossible. They won’t see you until you’ve done what you promised to do and eradicated the dragonborn. They say they don’t believe you have the power or... forgive me, chancellor... the courage to carry through on your claims. They only came to see the University out of nostalgia. They’re going to be staying up in the professors’ quarters in the mountain. They’ve asked that neither you nor any of your administration bother them until the task is done.”
Chancellor Mharú was so furious he began to get hot. He swiped his hand across his desk and knocked everything off onto the floor. He threw his hands up and magic cracked the ceiling and blew the windows out. He collapsed into his chair and buried his face in his hands. He wanted to issue orders to Ashur to bring the families forcibly down, but he was too full of rage to speak.
Ashur waited respectfully. He wanted to ask if there was anything he could do to serve the chancellor, anything he could do to make the situation more manageable, but he had seen the chancellor like this before and knew it was best to wait.
Suddenly a sound began to come up from the chancellor. It was a moment before Ashur realized what it was. The chancellor was laughing. He was actually laughing. The chancellor began to laugh so hard that for a moment Ashur wondered if the man was beginning to lose his mind, but then Chancellor Mharú looked up.
“Kill them,” he said. “Kill them all.”
“Right away, chancellor,” said Ashur unhesitating and pleased. “How would you like it done?”
“Use the new armor. Hopefully, the irony won’t be lost on them. And Ashur?”
“Yes, chancellor?”
“Make sure they suffer.”
Ashur bowed, turned, and left the room. The chancellor twirled in his chair to face the window. With a casual wave of his hand he fixed the glass in the window, though he left the crack in the ceiling. Somehow it brought him joy. He spent a few moments fantasizing about the cruel, slow deaths of the other families. He was certain that from that day forward there would be nothing and no one to stand in his way. The old days were done and Myamar Mharú would never again be thought of as a coward.
Just that morning he had worked one of the most powerful spells he had ever performed. It was truly a masterpiece and only he and Ashur knew of its occurrence. The only thing that bothered the chancellor now was thinking about how the spell had affected its target. He had a specific goal in mind, but one never knew how these things would turn out. He thought about his spies living among the rebel fighters and he trusted that they understood their place in the plan. Of course, he was planning to kill them along with everyone else. There was no room for loose ends in the empire he was planning.
The chancellor stood and left his office. He greeted the aides sitting at their desk on his way out and walked down the long, shimmering hallway that lead toward the front of the University. The new banners and schedules had already been hung up for the fast approaching opening of the military training grounds. The chancellor smiled at the banners as he strode arrogantly past. The damage from the night of the battle of the archives and from the escape of the rebels had been cleaned up. The chancellor had his administration working around the clock to put away even the memory of the University’s failure. He had even issued a gag order covering both the events.