The Ever Cruel Kingdom

by Rin Chupeco

  I knew I couldn’t outrun it. I didn’t have much choice. I could give or take life at a touch if I wanted to, but I had no defenses against something that wasn’t even alive. Inanna’s corpse had no life for me to manipulate.

  “No!” Odessa cried out, but the shadow took no notice. All I could hope to do was put as much distance as I could between myself and the others.

  Its arms shot out, faster than I could run, and every part of me tensed up, expecting white-hot pain through my body any second—

  A volley of blue fire consumed part of its arm again. The limb broke away from its body, crumbled into ashes. Arjun was breathing hard, readying his gun for yet another shot, but he would soon reach his limit.

  And then another stream of fire, the flames every bit as blue as Arjun’s, soared through the air from Asteria’s camp, taking out the creature’s other arm.

  “I’m glad to see you unharmed, Lady Lan,” Janella said, as the flames around her fingers died down.

  That was a lie: She had encouraged Odessa to give me up to the Abyss, to fulfill the last of the rites. The smile she bestowed on me was bereft of sincerity.

  But her flames were as azure as Arjun’s. She had not manifested that ability during our journey.

  “Stop,” Asteria ordered. She channeled her own flames at the creature, and Latona joined her. As their attacks intertwined, the fires turned just as blue as Arjun’s and Janella’s.

  A sudden burst of light glanced against the side of the behemoth’s head, crushing part of its temple. I growled as another of Asteria’s Devoted came into view, a woman with long hair and a self-important expression on her face.

  “Gracea,” Odessa said stiffly. The Starmaker nodded briskly at her in acknowledgment, then hurled more lightning at the creature.

  “A friend?” Haidee asked.

  “Not the word that comes to mind, no.” Emboldened by the fire’s effectiveness, some of Latona’s soldiers began channeling the same; soon there were streams of patterns hurtling from both Latona’s and Asteria’s camps, briefly united in their attempt to take down a more immediate threat.

  It was still the blue flames that dealt the most damage, and as another cobalt flare enveloped the demoness, a low, stunned cry from Arjun alerted me to the mirages, four in total. They had drifted closer, and whatever their intention, I realized it was not to attack us. Their focus, too, was on the Inanna-demoness. One of them—a figure in a dark blue cloak so painfully similar to the ones we wore in Aranth, similar to those of the dead rangers we’d found during our journey to the Great Abyss—lowered its hand, smoke rising from its fingers.

  There was a shimmer in the air, and more specters drifted forward; first Salleemae and Graham, and then Nebly and Cathei. I heard Odessa gasp.

  And for the first time, the shadow paused. It inclined its massive head toward the eight wraiths that blocked its path. But it made no move to pass whatever unseen blockade the specters had set up.

  The ghosts of Salleemae, Nebly, Cathei, and Graham pulled away from the rest. Patterns warped around them, churning into white-hot heat.

  “No!” Odessa cried.

  They turned their heads in my goddess’s direction. I thought I even saw Cathei smile.

  And then the sandstorm they had generated tore through the desert and punched a hole through the demoness. When the winds cleared, they were gone.

  I could practically taste the strength of all the spells in the air, glittering and thick on my tongue. The magic came from everywhere—from the lingering energies of Odessa’s undead Devoted, from the desert mirages, from the bristling patterns that Latona and Asteria hurled, from the added firepower of Arjun and the other Devoted and soldiers as they continued to pummel it with shotbursts. It came from Haidee and Odessa, each looking up at the giant with a determined expression on her face, both steeped in magic and strange patterns that were unfamiliar to me.

  Odessa took Haidee’s hand. “You’re not taking her,” she said. And then both their eyes changed, the gates within them flaring into a myriad of colors.

  With their sacrifice, the Devoted specters had weakened the creature. And now thicker, heavier blue flames enveloped the monster until it was a giant ball of writhing fire that scorched the skies and blackened the sands around it. Even in its dying throes it did not stop moving. As the rest of it succumbed, darkness turning into embers into ash, it continued to reach out for me. It fell to its knees and strained in my direction, the tips of its fingers mere inches away, each easily larger than my head, before the last of the fires turned it into powder, the wind carrying the rest of its remains away.

  Where it had stood, only one peculiar shadow remained: one that was no bigger than a child, with something that glittered in its hand. I saw Odessa look at it, fear and hate at war in her gaze.

  “I refuse!” she shouted.

  A breeze rippled through the shadow, and it was gone before I could blink.

  I sank to my knees; breathless, grateful, guilty that I was still alive. My legs felt like water. I couldn’t stop shaking. “All good,” I whispered to myself, trying to believe my own words.

  The quiet didn’t last long. There were the telltale clicks of several dozen Howlers locking into focus, a sound that echoed on all sides as Mother’s soldiers and the desert clans leveled their guns. Asteria’s followers responded with the gates in their eyes glowing, ready to channel the elements.

  This was bad. Any unexpected twitch could set off the first shot, and I knew there would be no going back after that. The Devoted were at a disadvantage, being the fewest in number; I despised nearly half of them, but I didn’t want to see them gunned down, either.

  “Stand down,” I ordered, because somebody had to say it. Nobody listened. Everyone was waiting for somebody else to acquiesce first, and none of them intended to be that person.

  “Stand down,” Haidee said, louder.

  “Stand down,” Odessa echoed.

  Her voice was softer, but with her words came a shift in the air.

  And at her call came more shadows. Some crawled out of the fresh cracks on the ground, or detached themselves from the silhouettes across the sand, or slipped in with the rain. Now the power had shifted to our side, the soldiers and Asteria’s Devoted and the desert clansmen less certain about pulling their triggers.

  “Stand down,” Odessa said again, and this time they did. Asteria’s people no longer surrounded themselves with shifting patterns. The army lowered their rifles.

  Odessa let out a small, shuddering sound. The galla wavered and vanished. Their disappearance didn’t stop the two groups of people from looking at Odessa like she was about to sprout two more heads. The desert mirages simply stood there and said nothing, content to observe.

  Asteria rounded on Latona, her eyes still aglow from barely contained magic. “What trickery was that?” she hissed.

  Latona shook her head. “That was not my doing.”

  “You saw it! We are four goddesses, standing in one place. Why would it choose to attack one of my people?”

  “Mother,” Haidee pleaded. “We need to put aside our differences. We have to—”

  But Latona deliberately turned her back on her daughter, as if she couldn’t bother herself with a reply, and I saw the entreating look on Haidee’s face fade away, cold anger taking its place.

  “Odessa!” I heard, and turned to see my goddess staggering, her skin ashen and her hand clasped over her chest. I was by her side in moments, my hand against her face, willing strength back into her. Color bloomed on her cheeks and she took a deeper gasp of air. “Lan,” she said, and smiled up at me.

  Asteria rushed forward, but drew up short when Odessa put out a hand to stop her. “Stay away. I don’t want to see you again.”

  “Odessa—”

  “You schemed to send me thousands of miles from home, to face horrors beyond my imagining at the Abyss. You didn’t care that I would lose my mind and my love in the process.”

  “Odessa,” J
anella began smoothly, moving to rest her hand on my love’s shoulder. “You’re not well. You must get yourself assessed by Sumiko, ensure that—”

  “Don’t you dare touch her.” Janella had orchestrated so many deaths during the journey. She’d sabotaged the Brevity, killed Cathei and Salleemae when they’d found out. She sacrificed Lorila and Tamerlin without thought to open the portals back into Aranth and the Golden City. How much of it did Asteria know? How much of it had she approved?

  Janella straightened, the smile on her face sickeningly false. “I was merely worried, Lady Tianlan.”

  “You caused more pain to us than my sickness,” Odessa snarled. “Does Mother know even half of what you’ve done?”

  “I made my case before her. Gracea can attest to that. Her Holiness agreed that I only did all I could to ensure you were safe, and that her instructions were carried out as closely as I could manage it.”

  I glared at Gracea in disbelief. Was she so enamored of her position that she would agree to anything to keep her hold on it? She looked away again, and the guilty expression on her face answered my question.

  “You were sick,” Asteria said. “And I was desperate. I believed Brighthenge housed the spells needed to purify you. What else could I have done?”

  “There were no spells, Mother. No medicines. Only demons. And you knew it. I’m surprised you even decided to leave Aranth, given your preference for putting other people at risk in your place.”

  Latona stiffened at the name, but Odessa seemed not to notice. “Who did you place in charge of the city? It can’t be Gracea; I see her right behind you.”

  “Odessa.” There was an odd note in Asteria’s voice, a strange thread of pain I’d never heard from her before.

  Odessa’s expression changed, from angry to wary. “Mother. Why did you leave Aranth? What happened to it?”

  The older woman said nothing. Odessa wavered, and I held her more tightly. “No.” It was a tiny, hurt sound. “No. I’m going to save everyone. I can’t do that unless there’s a home to return to. You said you would save Aranth. I wanted to join the expedition because I knew I could save Aranth. Aranth isn’t gone. It’s not. It’s not!”

  I turned to where the people from Aranth were gathered. I saw Mistress Daliah, and several of the orphaned children she cared for. But I didn’t see Old Wallof, the bookstore owner. Frantic, I scanned for more familiar faces, and found very few. Was this everyone Asteria had brought from our city? Had she moved the others somewhere safer before arriving at the desert? Or were they all she was able to save?

  I heard a loud gasp from Haidee and saw her face turn pale, a hand over her mouth. “Did we do that?” she whispered as Arjun, carefully stone-faced, moved to stand beside her. “Did we . . . ?”

  “Do you see now?” Latona grated. “Do you finally understand?”

  “Surely you are the last person to lecture so freely on consequences,” Asteria said icily.

  I could do nothing but stand, helpless, as Odessa wept in my arms. Asteria hadn’t come to the desert to declare war on Latona. She was fleeing the waters and the ice she could no longer control, trying to save what was left of her people. I remembered that vision I had shared with her, of the city being swept under the waves. Was that the consequence of what Odessa and Haidee had done at the Abyss? How many had Asteria been able to save?

  I wanted to grieve, but couldn’t find the words. It felt like the last several months had been nothing but an endless flow of tears.

  “You knew the secrets of the portal,” I said, trying to change the subject, refusing to let my mind dwell on this new, horrifying reality. “I realized it the instant I saw that Janella knew how to use it. There were other shrines. Other portals.”

  “Yes. Sister temples to Brighthenge. During Inanna’s time, they were used by the goddess to travel quickly from one end of Aeon to the other. I was well aware of its purpose, but it had never been used in my lifetime, to my knowledge. Not until the Breaking.”

  “Why did you force my team into that months-long expedition when we could have arrived there sooner? Why did you make me go through that twice?” I balled my fists, unable to keep the rage out of my voice. I’d come to terms with Asteria’s willingness to sacrifice me to save Odessa, but it had never occurred to me until then that she had also decided to sacrifice my rangers.

  “It wouldn’t have worked.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “It wouldn’t have worked. And even if it had, you’ve seen for yourself what opening that portal entails. Your team died for you to glean that knowledge. I am sorry about them. But would you have made a different decision had you been in my stead?”

  “I would have,” Odessa said. “I would have told my daughter the truth. Not pretend everything is normal like a coward, just because you couldn’t stand to face the wreckage of what you two had done.”

  “Odessa!” Asteria gasped.

  “Odessa!” Latona cried out at the exact same time.

  My goddess was still grieving. Tears had tracked wet paths down her cheeks, and more shone in her eyes. But even in her despair, she was refusing to bend. Only her shaking hand was the telltale sign she was close to breaking.

  I took it without asking. I wanted to weep, too, but I knew it would change nothing. Instead, I gathered every calm thought I could muster, every wordless comfort, and willed it through my touch, warming us both. Catseyes can’t heal broken hearts. They can’t cure grief. The best I could do was show her I loved her, send her every Aether pattern within reach.

  Her fingers tightened around mine. One stroked lightly against the back of my hand.

  Haidee rounded on Latona, eyes flashing brightly. “You hid too, didn’t you? You constructed another city in the desert, put a bubble over it so you wouldn’t have to hear the sounds of people dying outside. It doesn’t matter which of you is our real mother. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been living a world apart all this time—you’re both the same. Neither of you could face what you’ve done, and you wound up doing more harm to Odessa, and to me—more than her illness ever could.”

  “You will cease this nonsense, Haidee,” Latona said. “Come back to the city with me—you and your sister. None of Aeon’s demons will reach either of you there. I have always protected you—”

  Haidee cut her off. “Your protection is the reason we are here, Mother. If you’d thought to put more effort into undoing the Breaking than you have into shielding me from it, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this position.”

  Latona’s nostrils flared. “I did what I thought was best for you!”

  “And look at us now! Is this what you think is best?”

  “Haidee. Let’s talk about this back home. Please.”

  “No, we won’t. Odessa’s right. You were afraid, too. We all would have died out eventually. We would have run out of water. And somehow, somehow, the two of you still thought hiding was the better option. And I can’t forgive either of you for it.”

  Latona stared back at her daughter, too furious to be coherent. But I could see the guilt there too, mixed in with the anger. I looked past her, to where Gracea stood. The Starmaker caught my gaze, flushed, and looked away.

  “I don’t want anything else to do with you. If you’re not going to help us fix the world, then Odessa and I will do it ourselves.” Haidee turned.

  “Go back to your camps and go back to pretending the world never stopped turning,” Odessa said. “Let’s go, Lan. I’m tired.”

  “Lan.” There was a fury in Asteria’s voice still, but it was tempered by something close to uncertainty. “Like it or not, Tianlan, I am still your liege. You and Odessa must come back with me. We can still heal her. I can still heal her. Lan—”

  But I too turned away, scooping Odessa up like she weighed no more than a bundle of leaves, my steps steady and sure as the distance between us and the older goddesses widened. My shoulders were braced, expecting her to demand more, use her incanta to compel me to return�
��and I was surprised when she did nothing, and let us leave.

  “Is she all right?” Haidee asked worriedly once they’d caught up to us. I placed Odessa carefully inside the rig; she looked exhausted, and my heart twisted. We’d said very little to Haidee and Arjun about the extent of Odessa’s sickness. A quick check told me that the darkness clustered by her heart had not grown in size, which was small comfort.

  “She will be.” I sounded tired as well. It seemed like the only way to heal Odessa was to have her go through the galla ritual. It was hard not to sound despairing.

  “I’m not giving up. And neither should you.”

  “Odessa’s first vision was of Aranth being overcome by waves,” I said hoarsely. “She predicted that one day the ice dams we built around Aranth would no longer be enough to shield us from the storms and the waves. That eventually all would be overwhelmed by the ice. Asteria foresaw that, too. But I always thought that future would be so much further away. I . . .” My voice deepened, broke. We no longer had a home to return to. I didn’t want to think about the number of casualties. Far too few people had arrived here with Asteria. “How many was she able to save?” And how many did she sacrifice?

  “I’m so sorry, Lady Lan.”

  “Let’s get out of here first,” Arjun said. “I don’t want to stick around long enough to see that Inanna-shadow resurface.”

  It was only after he’d started the car and we were moving that I gave up resisting, and looked back.

  The older goddesses were talking. From where I sat I could tell it wasn’t cordial, though they were no longer throwing fire and lightning at each other. It was Latona who backed away first. I saw her mouth form words as she hissed something at Asteria, though what she said I never knew. Then she turned to issue orders to her generals, who started their withdrawal from the battlefield, marching back into the dome.

  Asteria watched them leave. I could do nothing but watch her figure grow smaller and smaller, until she and the rest of her army were lost among the endless sand.

  Chapter Eleven

  Odessa in Preparation