The Ever Cruel Kingdom

by Rin Chupeco

  I did. That was the lie we’d been told all our lives.

  “That’s almost verbatim what we were taught back in Aranth,” Lan growled, annoyed by the young man’s certainty, “save that it was Latona who destroyed the world and Asteria who was forced to stop her.”

  “And what about the Cruel Kingdom?” I persevered.

  Vanya was eyeing Lan nervously. “It said the goddess Inanna had descended into its depths to bring back her lost love?”

  “Is that all the book talks about? Nothing else about Inanna? This is important.”

  “One epic does wax on about an entrance to the underworld.” I bit back a gasp at that. “But I don’t see why this is so important that it cannot wait a few hours. It’s a book of poetry, not of history, and I’m sure the author took creative liberties.”

  “And you’re an expert historian?” Lisette asked sarcastically.

  The lordling stared at her. “I don’t have to prove myself to you, whoever you are. I’ve studied Aeona and a few other old languages. I’ve translated two books. I know more of history than almost anyone else in the city. The Ages of Aeon is a rare prize only because works of fiction are hard to find. A copy of The Book of Small Myths, for example, was the only one of its kind and fetched a commanding price last month, and also A Natural World before that. But they’re stories for children. What is so important about a volume of—”

  “Can’t you see the darkness outside? Didn’t your father think you important enough to tell you what’s happening? The world is turning. The rains are only the start of it. The book is more than just of poetry. Tell us where your father keeps it.”

  Vanya paused. “I . . . I don’t . . . know.”

  “You had it with you at Mother’s throne room, where I first met you.”

  “I’d borrowed it without Father’s permission. He took it from me that day when he found out, and I haven’t seen it since.”

  “What?” I was stunned. “You were reading it right out in the open. Your father and the counselors were right there!”

  “I was reading a different book then. I switched when they moved to your mother’s inner sanctum. Father had no idea.” He looked mortified now. “I wanted to impress you. I heard that you were an avid reader, and Father guarded the book zealously. He’s had it for as long as I can remember—I doubt even Her Holiness was aware he had a copy. He refused to let anyone so much as touch it. I only knew it was a rare find. I . . . thought it would help you take more notice of me.”

  “You blithering ass,” Arjun muttered.

  “Vanya,” I said. “I would be very much impressed with you now, if you would tell us how to get our hands on the book. You have no idea of its importance to us.”

  “I . . . I can try, but I can’t guarantee a—”

  “I think not, my boy,” a cool voice interrupted. “The goddess Haidee has been stripped of her authority, by her own mother’s decree. You are not going anywhere, and neither is she.”

  I could feel currents of Air tighten around my arms and midsection, pulling taut and rendering me immobile. I heard startled yelps and curses as the others were subjected to the same treatment.

  The door opened. Lord Arrenley stood in the entrance, soldiers on either side of him. Several of his men had bright, pale eyes, revealing their Windshifter abilities. The lord’s own unringed brown gaze surveyed us calmly, and a smile quirked at his lips. “I didn’t expect Your Holiness to find allies among the desert tribes. You are quite the resourceful young lady.”

  “I’m still your liege and your goddess,” I told him angrily. “You will stand down this instant and let us go.”

  “That’s not quite accurate, my dear,” he said. Lan grunted as someone took her sword away. “It is Latona who I serve and obey. It would be best if you keep still”—he nodded at both Arjun and Lisette, who were also being divested of their knives—“and come quietly with us. I can at least promise that you will be treated well, though Lady Latona must pass the final judgment for your companions.”

  “No,” I snarled. “I am done with having to obey her, Lord Arrenley. Get out of our way, or I will make you move.”

  “Brave words, Your Holiness, but hollow. Not even you can shake free of these restraints.”

  He snapped his fingers, and some of his soldiers stepped forward. “Do not harm them. Take particular care with Her Holiness, and the other young lady with similar features. If any of your friends so much as twitches, or if you choose to channel even the weakest of patterns, I will have no compunction slitting one of their throats in retaliation.”

  I gritted my teeth, testing my bonds. They were wrapped too tightly for me to struggle free, and the soldiers wore gloves that prevented their bare skin from touching Lan’s. “Don’t struggle,” I told the others. Arrenley was not the type to bluff.

  “What did they want, Vanya?” the lord asked.

  Vanya hesitated, looking beseechingly at me. “They wanted a book,” he said, miserable. “The Ages of Aeon.”

  “And what is so important about this book that you would brave infiltrating the Golden City for it?” Lord Arrenley’s smile had too many teeth in it. “Surely, Your Holiness, anything of note that you find there should be relayed immediately back to your mother.”

  “There’s no reason for me to tell Mother anything.” I was reaching for the patterns without thinking, and realized Odessa was doing the same. Something brushed against my mind and I realized it was hers. Our incanta flowed together with ease, in much the same way they had when we bored through the dome to sneak into the city, but we stopped short of channeling for fear Arrenley might follow through with his threat. Could she sense me, too? “She lied to me. She’s lying to you all now. There is more to the Breaking than what she told you. Did she talk of Aeon turning again? Of night finally falling on this side of the world? Did she tell you that was why there is rain in the desert for the first time in over seventeen years?”

  Arrenley didn’t even blink, though I saw some of the soldiers behind him stir uneasily. “Were you anyone else, your words would serve as evidence of treason. We are here to serve at Her Holiness’s pleasure. She has kept us alive and well all these years, and we see no reason to doubt her. You, on the other hand, have been quite the thorn in your mother’s side these last few weeks. Disappearing without warning, only to arrive in the company of desert traitors.” His eyes gleamed. “If anything, Your Holiness, I would say that the rebels are trying to cause a schism between you and your mother, to divide you and weaken you long enough to take the city.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Arjun said heavily. “Nothing you say will change his mind. He’ll only invent some new inanities, and blame us for all of it.”

  Lord Arrenley bowed to me. “I’m disappointed in you, Your Holiness, but you have my gratitude. It’s been a while since our gaols were occupied. Perhaps some of your friends can even be persuaded to talk.”

  “Father,” Vanya said nervously. “Haidee has nothing to do with—”

  The older man cut him off abruptly. “I’m even more disappointed in you. The goddess appears in your quarters and you don’t think to alert us? I’m surprised they’ve kept you alive this long. I would have struck you down in their place.”

  Vanya paled. “Father—”

  “I burned the book on the very day you stole it. I’d planned to send what’s left of it as an engagement gift when Haidee returned and made your betrothal official, as a reminder not to disobey me again. For your sake, I have decided not to inform Her Holiness of your foolishness here, though I very well should. You once said that you wished nothing more than to follow in my footsteps, to immerse yourself in learning about the city’s infrastructure to prove yourself ready for governance. You expressed interest in Haidee, and I believed you would make her a good match. But if you are going to bend over to cater to the whims of a woman, even if she is the goddess of this city, then that makes you too spineless for politics. A
eon favored me with two better sons, at least.”

  “Father . . . I tried my best to live up to your—”

  There was a loud slap. Vanya stared up at his sire from his position on the floor, his cheek already bruised.

  “You’ll live,” Lord Arrenley said coldly. “I cannot say the same for these desert scavengers. Take them away.”

  One of the soldiers grabbed Lan’s arm. She pulled back, and he slapped her hard across the face. “Don’t fight, and this will be easier on you,” he barked.

  Oh no.

  I turned to Odessa, opening my mouth to tell her to do nothing, only to realize that it was already a lost cause. Her eyes glowed a bright pale before bleeding into strange hues of reds and yellows. I reached out again, desperate, wanting to reforge our mental link, knowing I could help to calm the rage she’d inherited from those terrible gifts—but I reached her too late.

  Lightning filled the room. One bolt blazed in and struck the soldier who’d hit Lan, squarely in the chest.

  There was a brief, stunned silence. And then the man toppled over, dead, with his clothes on fire.

  Chapter Nine

  Arjun in Flight

  THE BONDS AROUND LAN DISSIPATED, and she sprang forward, taking out the next closest soldier with a swift punch to the face. With the other hand she latched on to Lord Torven Arrenley’s neck, and the stunned expression on his face disappeared, his eyes closing as he dropped to the floor.

  I was moving almost as soon as she did, swinging my Howler and striking two more guards down. The rest of the soldiers turned their own guns in my direction, but a sweep of Haidee’s arm sent a small hurricane through the group, throwing the rest of them outside the room.

  Lisette slammed the door shut. “We better get out of here, and fast,” she said nervously. “At this rate, we’ll be better off dead than prisoners.”

  Noelle moved to the fallen lord, checking his pulse. “He’s fine,” she said, while the boy named Vanya made choking, frantic sounds. “Lan merely put him to sleep.”

  “Who are you people?” Vanya whispered, staring at Odessa and seeing her clearly for the first time. “Who are you? You’re not Haidee.”

  “Any ideas on how to proceed next?” I asked. “I don’t think jumping out the window and falling hundreds of feet down is an option any of us want to explore.”

  I could no longer ignore the smell of burnt flesh, and I looked down at the smoking pile of what remained of the man Odessa had killed. The soldier was beyond recognition now; his skin warped and burnt off, smoke still rising from the corpse.

  “I called down lightning from the sky and killed him,” Odessa said, in a daze. “Not even Mother would dare.”

  “Odessa?”

  “You killed him!” Lord Vanya was still suffocating on nothing, staring down at the body in horror.

  “Let him be the last person killed today,” I said crisply, deliberately forcing away the part of me that was still horrified. Lisette was right: we’d be better off dead if they captured us at this point.

  No. They’d keep Haidee and Odessa alive. The rest of us—

  But the thought of them hurting Haidee sent fury rising to the surface, and I had to fight for calm. The soldiers in the room were out cold, and the ones behind the door not an immediate threat. No one else ought to be killed. As long as nobody else pissed Odessa off.

  “Odessa?” Lan’s voice sounded tentative.

  “I’m sorry,” the girl said, though I’m not quite sure she meant it. Lan had reached her side, looking worried. Odessa smiled at her, but it was the smile of someone who’d had too much codrum and gotten themselves drunk.

  There were no sounds behind the door, which was suspicious enough on its own. I didn’t doubt that they were still there, keeping the wooden frame between them and the goddesses’ lightning, but also waiting for another opportunity to attack.

  “Odessa?” This time it was Haidee. “Odessa, look at me.”

  She did, and whatever they wordlessly shared with each other finally snapped her out of the fog she was drifting in. Her gaze shifted down to the corpse, anguish finally dawning.

  “I think we can get us out of here,” Haidee said, and gestured at the window.

  “The fall would kill us,” I objected.

  “It won’t, but I need Odessa’s help. Odessa?”

  The girl said nothing, her eyes still round with guilt.

  “No, Odessa.” Lan forced her chin up, forced the girl to look at her instead. “No,” the Catseye echoed, her eyes sparking with silver and gold hues again. “Odessa. Untamed Wildness. Tell me about it.”

  I had no idea what she meant, but Odessa blinked, finally snapping out of it. “Lady Carmela and Santiago, the first mate,” she said faintly. “They were stranded on an island together.”

  “Good. I want you to think about their story until we’re out of the Citadel. Just as soon as you’re done with Haidee. Do you know what she’s asking you to do?”

  A nod.

  “Are you sure she’s all right, Lady Lan?” Haidee asked anxiously.

  “She will be. After you help your sister, Odessa, I want you to focus on Carmela and Santiago again, and let me handle everything else and get you out of the Citadel. Will you trust me to take care of you till then?”

  “Always,” the goddess whispered meekly. She allowed herself a quick shudder, then turned to Haidee. “I’m ready.”

  I saw ice creeping up the window from outside the glass, solidifying against the sill. The twins concentrated again, and the ice extended outward, until it had formed a thick, glassy sheet sliding down to the ground on a giant incline.

  Haidee wasn’t as versed in manipulating ice or water, just as Odessa wasn’t as strong in fire. But when the twins came together like this, it didn’t matter.

  “Wait,” Haidee said. I saw a strange spark ignite between them, watched as the patterns changed and glittered, adapting to more unspoken commands. The sheets of ice tilted further, no longer a slide plummeting down sharply, but a gently sloping curve that would allow us to travel down it with minimal injuries. “It’s all about the angles. If we left it that way, the speed we’d travel as we descended might kill us.”

  Expending that much energy had still taken its toll on Odessa, and she was breathing hard. Lan scooped her up in her arms, ignoring her protests. “However strong you are, creating that much ice is still going to take a lot out of you,” she said bluntly. “Especially out here.”

  “I can walk on my own,” Odessa countered feebly.

  “So you say,” the Catseye replied, looking like she would carry Odessa into old age if she could get away with it.

  The air shifted again. It didn’t come from either Haidee or Odessa. At the same time, a peculiar screeching sound echoed across the whole city, and it was most definitely not the thunder.

  Noelle pointed out the window, where another portal had shimmered into being out in the desert, so large that it was visible from where we stood. I swore, expecting a swarming mass of galla to climb out of the gateway. How had they learned to open the gate?

  The answer to that came quickly enough. People streamed through the opening instead, adding to my shock. Even from this distance, I could see the banners they carried fluttering in the wind, blue and white.

  “Aranth’s colors,” Odessa gasped. “Mother’s here?”

  Lan opened the window and stuck a foot out, placing the toe of her boot against the edge of the ice incline and staring grimly down at the drop. “Your Holiness, how certain are you of your calculations?”

  “I’m pretty sure.” Haidee’s eyes glittered, and winds swirled around the icy incline. “I’m creating buffers to slow us down, just in case.” She turned to Vanya. “Please come with us,” she said.

  I hated it. I knew this was important. Didn’t stop my selfish ass from not wanting him anywhere near Haidee.

  “The book might have been destroyed, but maybe you can still remember information that could help us,” she
continued. “Please, Vanya.”

  The boy hesitated, then shook his head reluctantly. “Your Holiness, I cannot leave my father.”

  “You don’t owe him your loyalty. He treats you terribly.”

  Vanya’s hands trembled. “I cannot leave, Your Holiness. I am sorry. I can’t.”

  And just like that, I was pissed for a completely different reason. The hell kind of husband was he going to be if he couldn’t get out from under his father’s thumb long enough to help the girl he was betrothed to?

  “We really need to go.” Lisette glanced back at the door, where the sound of an ax and the sight of splintering wood told us we didn’t have long to wait. “Want me to clobber him over the head? He looks light enough to carry.”

  “What?” Vanya sputtered.

  “No, Lisette. He’s told us everything he can. I’ve already asked too much of you, Vanya. Thank you.” Haidee turned and, before any of us could protest, jumped out the window.

  “Haidee!” I swore, dashing toward it and watching her slide down with little incident. I could hear her loud whoops of mingled exhilaration and fear as she skidded to a halt at the foot of the tower.

  This girl!

  “Lan,” Odessa whispered, but the Catseye was already lifting her up, poised to follow Arjun. “Carmela and Santiago,” the Catseye reminded her.

  “I’m sorry,” Vanya said again.

  “So are we,” Lan said, and leaped. Lisette, Charley, and Noelle scrambled in after them.

  “You’re a fool,” I said. I had half a mind to grab the fool and drag him kicking and screaming out the window with me anyway, but I was pretty sure Haidee, who was honorable even at her own expense, wouldn’t like that at all.

  “I can’t go against my father,” the boy said, agonized. “He has his faults, but . . .”

  “And that’s what’s wrong with you lot. You don’t realize that you owe him fucking nothing. They’re the reason we’re in this hellhole, and you’re too blind to see that he only cares about himself.” I placed a foot against the sill. “You don’t deserve her.”