I don’t have time for this, she thought to herself, desperate.
Outwardly, she heard the gods say, “We know you, Ciardis Weathervane.”
“What do you know?” she asked.
“That you needed to be saved,” they responded.
Ciardis shook her head and explained, “You don’t understand; it’s not me, it’s my people.”
“We know,” said the gods in a sorrowful tone.
“You know?” she said into the empty darkness.
“We know,” they said, responding firmly. “We know about our sister’s vengeance against your land now. Though it’s been a long time since a mortal has been able to pierce our veil and tell us so.”
Ciardis was frazzled as she tried to keep up with the myriad of things they were revealing. “Your veil?” she asked.
“Our home,” they responded. “Away from our sister.”
She was silent. Now it was she who didn’t understand, but neither did she have time to get their entire story.
“I need you to send me home! Send me back!” she shouted at them.
“No,” said the gods in one sorrowful tone. She heard four, no five different voices in that single word. Maybe more. But she couldn’t focus on that right at that moment.
“Why you are doing this?” she finally asked in a defeated voice. “Why?”
The gods were silent for a moment.
Then their collective voices responded, “To make you understand.”
“Understand what?” she cried out while feeling as if she was ready to tear her hair out.
“What is it that I should understand?” Ciardis said, trying for a calmer tone.
“That your actions have consequences,” they responded.
“I know that!” Ciardis said.
“If you go back, your people will die,” they countered.
“Some will,” she responded softly. “But others will survive. If I don’t go back, none will. So yes, I understand that.”
“Do you?” they countered. “Do you truly?”
She shook her head in confusion. “If I don’t get back there. If I don’t return to my realm, we won’t have a future.”
“Not true. It may not be the future you dreamed of, but there will be a future,” they exclaimed.
Ciardis shook her head. It was they who didn’t understand.
“I dream of a future where the peoples of the empire can be free and so do many others,” she explained as if to a child. “Where the peoples can live under a pure and just rule.”
They were silent.
“All the peoples?” asked the shy god from before.
“Yes,” Ciardis stressed. “All the peoples. But if your sister goddess gets her way, all those people…thousands upon thousands…will die. Their hopes. Their dreams. Their futures will die with them.”
“Does that not matter to you?” she asked.
They didn’t answer her, instead they asked another question.
“What about us?” the brash, warlike god asked in a bristling tone.
“Us?” Ciardis asked uncertainly. “You?”
“Us,” the gods said again insistently. “We can only protect you here. We can only gather what we need here.”
“What do you need?” Ciardis asked thinking it must be crazy to even consider that she might have something a god could desire.
They were silent, then they said, “We can help. But we ask for a boon. You must answer the call when we speak.”
“Done!” Ciardis said, eager to get home. “Now help me! Send us back to where we belong. Send our minds and bodies to the battlefield before it’s too late. You say you are here to protect us. Well, protecting sometimes means letting us make our own mistakes.”
They were silent again.
Frustrated, Ciardis pleaded, “This time, this time is ours. Not the time of the gods. Let us go.”
Just before they released her, Ciardis heard the shy one whisper, “Many will die and so will the closest to you. Your bond is strong, but it can break. Remember that, because it is the only thing that might save you.”
When they did she wasn’t ready for the rush. She had to think…neither were they.
26
When she woke this time she was staring up into two anxious faces that were upside down. Even with the outlandish way they were in her face, she could tell that this world, this instance was different. Different enough that she wouldn’t have to go diving back into the darkness? Only time could tell.
It could have been real. It could have been another reality. She just didn’t know. Not yet anyway.
This time not making any mistakes, she scrambled back from the faces as quickly as she could. Ciardis was wary as she waited and wondered, Is this too a dream?
Distress crossed Sebastian’s face. Muted anger Thanar’s.
Then the daemoni prince spoke. “Ciardis, snap out of it—we’re here.”
She was shaking in shock as she tried to stand, but barely managed to wobble about unsteadily before she conceded defeat and failed.
Which was fair…because it felt like she’d been falling for an eternity. Again and again and again.
Seeing that she couldn’t get up just yet, but still feeling vulnerable, she waved their helping hands away and whispered, “Please move back.”
She felt a bit ashamed at her reticence, but she couldn’t help it. At this moment, after so many encounters, so many people, so many visions, all she needed was space.
Exchanging worried glances, they did as she asked. Carefully backing away until she could see them both clearly with no issues.
“How do I know that this is real?” she said with chattering teeth.
Gods, wherever here is, it’s freezing, she thought.
“Are you cold?” Thanar asked — his gaze moving over her in a worried manner.
Ciardis responded mentally without thinking, Yeah¸ you’re not?
The tone was sarcasm, biting even. She didn’t really appreciate him mocking her. But she noticed as she studied his worried persona that he wasn’t trying to make fun of her and if anything…he was sweating.
Ciardis swallowed as she licked her suddenly dry lips.
She then spoke, hesitantly again, “This cold. It’s internal isn’t it?”
Sebastian said, “It passes. We felt it too. I think it’s just the reorientation. Getting used to being out of the void and back into the physical realm.”
Ciardis frowned as she looked around in a wary manner. “And how do I…we…know this is real? How do we know this isn’t another of those illusions that came from a reality not of our making?”
“Because—” Thanar said interrupting with a raised eyebrow. “We can feel it.”
Ciardis looked at them uncomprehending. “Feel what?”
“Our magic,” Sebastian answered with a satisfied grin.
Oh, Ciardis thought—still a bit detached from the certainty of it all. If she were anyone else, she would have diagnosed herself with stress from going through what was essentially her death more a dozen times. Now her mind was trying to comprehend not being in that state anymore. And it was difficult. It wasn’t like she could snap her fingers and be whole.
But she could darn well try.
Ciardis tentatively reached inside herself for her magic, and to her overwhelming relief, she found it. She found hers and her links to Thanar and Sebastian humming alongside happily.
She was so relieved that she could throw back her head and cry.
Instead she let out a strangled gasp of relief and looked back up at them with wetness in her eyes but determination that no tears would fall. Not now. Ciardis raised her arm and he reached out a helping hand. This time she didn’t pull back. She allowed him to help her up and she felt ready. Ready to do what they needed to be done.
“Who were they?” Ciardis said. “They couldn’t have been…couldn’t be…”
She didn’t even finish her sentence but they understood, as only someone who had
gone through what they had could.
“Gods?” Thanar said dryly. “Yes, indeed they were. It seems they were curious about whom their sister was going to battle and found us.”
“Found us,” Sebastian said bitterly. “More like stole us.”
Ciardis rolled her eyes. “It would have been nice if they could have found another way. Some of the stuff I saw, some of the stuff I did…I’ll never forget.”
She shook her head, practically shaking as she said that.
“At the beginning when I thought it was the only way, I did some things I don’t regret…because it worked,” Ciardis said quietly, “but I’ll never wipe them from my mind’s eye either.”
Thanar stepped forward with a dangerous look in his eyes as he said, “What was it you saw? What was it they said? What was it that you were forced to do?”
The questions came with rapid-fire intensity. She could barely process one before another came at her. However she didn’t want to process them too heavily either, not if it meant re-living what it was that she had done. Another time, another place, another lifetime she’d already like to forget.
Ciardis looked up at him with bleak eyes. “You know…it doesn’t matter. We’re here now. And we really don’t have time to do a blow-by-blow of every scenario. I suspect, after all, that you two went through dozens of reiterations and realities…just like I did. None of them pleasant and as of right now — now of them relevant. All that matters is that it was a test of some kind, and thank the gods…we passed it.”
“But what about what they said to us?” Sebastian said in a practical voice.
“You heard that too?” Ciardis asked with raised eyebrows.
“Only our versions,” Sebastian replied darkly.
Honestly Ciardis replied, “On my end the gods said some pretty terrible stuff.”
“I’ll ask again,” Thanar snarled. “Like what?”
Ciardis shook her head in disbelief. “Just that...that if I came back and saved them all, you would die.”
“But not you?” Thanar said flatly.
“No,” Ciardis conceded.
“Well then…” Thanar replied while ruffling his wings. “We’ll deal with that bridge when we get to it.”
She thought his choice of words was odd but she didn’t say anything; she wanted to move on.
Sebastian frowned. “What else did they say?”
“I don’t know,” Ciardis said with a harsh laugh. “I stopped listening to them after that.”
Both of them gave her fond smiles.
“That’s my girl,” Thanar said in an approving voice.
Ciardis nodded, accepting his words as the praise they were.
“And what about you two?” Ciardis asked with a leading lilt in her voice.
“Gave us a heck of a headache while questioning us too,” Sebastian said in irritation. “After they dragged us out of transportation without so much as a by-your-leave.”
Ciardis blinked. “Well, did they agree to free you because of me or because of what you negotiated?”
Thanar watched her closely, but all he said was, “Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
“We all had parts to play in the realities,” Sebastian said calmly as he took his cloak off his shoulders and put it over her shaking form.
“And we have further parts to play still,” Thanar finished.
She wanted to ask what they were leaving out, because there was clearly something, but looking around she realized that their destination mattered much more. Black mountains belching fire rose in the distance, and as she raised her hand to brush hair out of her face—curly once more, thank the gods—she noticed soot like from a fire on her fingertips.
Noticing her gaze, Sebastian grimaced. “It’s ash and it’s everywhere.”
Then Ciardis said, “No wonder you thought the cold I was experiencing was a mental thing. It’s kind of hard to be freezing in a tropical atmosphere.”
“Yeah,” Thanar grunted while stretching his shoulders. “Like I said, the cold passes. Then you’ll be as a hot as a sherpa in a lamb’s wool coat.”
Sebastian said in a joking manner, “Despite Thanar’s descriptive allure, it’s not really something to look forward to. I’m sweating through my necktie.”
Ciardis’s lips quirked into a smile. “You look quite fine in it too.”
She, Thanar, and Sebastian were all still dressed in the ballroom attire. Formal, stiff, and prepared for a bloody battle, they were not. She wondered why the gods chose to bless them with those outfits but in the end, she also decided it didn’t really matter.
Continuing quizzically Ciardis asked, “And exactly where is here? I don’t recognize it. It’s very…different and not exactly the destination I had in mind.”
Thanar nodded and looked around with a wary glance. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say we were in the Windswept Isles.”
Ciardis jumped. “Terris’s homeland?”
“The very same,” the daemoni prince said with a pissed-off look in his eye.
Ciardis opened and closed her mouth, astonished. “How did we get here?”
“The gods,” Thanar said in disgust.
But even that wasn’t a suitable answer for Ciardis, the Windswept Isles were hundreds of miles off the Algardis coast. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
“Are you sure?” she finally asked as she walked over to a rocky cliff edge.
“Pretty sure,” the daemoni prince said while snapping his wings in agitation. “But I haven’t been up in the air yet to check.”
Ciardis looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, a silent question as to why not.
He gave her a roll of his eyes, but he took off in the air the next moment.
Meanwhile she and Sebastian stood on the ledge and she tried not to get airsick at the heights they stood on.
“How long have I have been gone?” Ciardis asked quietly as Sebastian walked over to stand beside her.
“Two days,” Sebastian said slowly.
“Two days,” Ciardis said as she absorbed his words and dread filled her. “So…we have no more time.”
“No,” Sebastian said. “No, we do not.”
“Then let’s get work,” she said shortly as she brushed the fallen ash off the oddly tinted blue gown she was now wearing. She wasn’t going to question the gods’ odd sense of style — even though a formal dress in the midst of war was the last thing she wanted to be wearing right now, it was also the least of her worries.
Thanar came back down to them then and confirmed what they already knew.
Distressed, Sebastian asked, “Is there any chance there’s a thousand meandering horde members on the other side of that ridge?”
He pointed, indicating the mountain.
Thanar looked casually at the fire mountain but shook his head silently.
“Unfortunately, no,” the daemoni prince said. “Because that would make our lives a lot easier.”
“How?” said Sebastian, frustrated.
“Well, for one,” Thanar replied, “we could drive them into the sea and be done with it. But there’s no one evil here.”
Ciardis looked at him in a questioning manner.
Thanar amended his words. “I passed some villages and small hamlets in the air. Nothing more than ordinary citizens going about their lives.”
“So we’re stuck on an island,” Ciardis said slowly, “while the threat is on the mainland?”
“Sounds like it,” Sebastian said in a voice close to cursing.
“You think they brought us here to protect us?” Ciardis said, frazzled.
Sebastian shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past them. You did say the gods were heavily invested in our—your—well-being.”
Ciardis rocked back on her heels and spoke. “That may be so. But they don’t control what we do.”
“Agreed,” Thanar said. “So how do we get off this crappy island? Even with my abilities, I couldn’t fly straight from
here to the mainland—let alone carry the two of you with me.”
“A boat?” Ciardis volunteered.
“Where are we going to get a boat?” Thanar said with a derisive snort. “Besides, you gave away the only one that could get across the water in any reasonable amount of time to be helpful.”
She glared at him. She didn’t really like his tone there. It didn’t help that he was right, not that it mattered much right about now anyway.
“There’s something up there,” Sebastian said with a glint in his eye.
“Up where?” Ciardis asked while looking up at him hopefully.
Sebastian motioned forward. “Up that ridge. Straight ahead. There’s something there. I can feel it pulling at me.”
Saying nothing more, he took off at a run. Not knowing what else to do, they followed quickly behind.
When they reached the top of the ridge, Ciardis saw two curious things.
A tear in the sky that looked like a portal.
And a door leading into the mountains…but sealed shut.
She looked at both for a moment before deciding to investigate the tear in the sky alongside Sebastian. Thanar, of course, went to the door.
When they had done their separate investigations and then came back together, everyone spoke at once.
“The door is the key,” Thanar said with a gleam in his eye.
“We can jump through the tear—I can feel the mainland on the other side,” Sebastian said.
“I don’t like either,” Ciardis said in a huff, rounding out the voices in the air.
They all looked at each other. Then Sebastian said, “You want to—?”
He left the question hanging.
Thanar readily agreed. “Let’s.”
Looking back and forth between the two, Ciardis watched as they smoothly switched places and Sebastian went to the door in the mountains and Thanar walked to the ledge to investigate the tear in the sky. She, meanwhile, stood and waited for their analysis, since both seemed so sure of their personal findings.
When they came back, the daemoni prince smoothly bowed to the new emperor and said, “After you.”
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