The Ever Cruel Kingdom

by Rin Chupeco

  THE FIRST THING I DID upon returning to camp was to climb out of the rig and stumble a few feet away so I could empty the contents of my stomach onto the ground.

  “Odessa!” I heard, and then felt a warm touch along the nape of my neck as Lan lifted my hair, keeping it free from vomit as I continued to puke.

  Learning Aranth’s fate had made me ill. I no longer had a home to return to. The rogue waves that plagued the city had finally succeeded in sweeping away everything I loved, and all that was left of my people were here, stranded in the desert. What good was being able to see into the future if I could do nothing to prevent it?

  And the man I had killed at the Citadel. The stench of him still filled my nostrils, and I could do nothing but breathe in the decay, even many miles away. I could still taste the soot, the smell of burnt flesh rising from the body, and my guts twisted.

  He was going to hurt Lan, something inside of me whispered. It was his fault. Not yours. Never yours. You were only protecting the one you love. Only a warning, to all who dare hurt you. They will never harm Lan, because they will fear you. This is good, Odessa. This is good.

  Was that a smile on my lips? No. No. I shook my head, rejecting the idea, forcing myself to be repulsed by the thought.

  But surely I was a terrible person. Since emerging from the portal I had given little thought to the undead Devoted I had left behind at the Great Abyss. I had assumed, with my rejection of the galla’s final gift, that they too would be gone, their souls released back into wherever souls were supposed to return to.

  I was wrong.

  Salleemae, Cathei, Graham, and Nebly—men and women who died for me. I had thought giving them back some semblance of life would save them and ease my guilt. I was wrong there, too.

  And they died for me again.

  And Mother. Despite my anger and my hurt, I’d had to stop myself from weeping, from running into her arms. I missed her, even after everything. A part of me wanted to believe I could still return with her to Aranth, pretend like nothing had ever happened. I didn’t mind the shadows in my chest. I didn’t mind performing the Banishing along Aranth’s shores for the rest of my life. That part of me wanted a return to the way things were: listening to the rise and crash of waves from my room in the Spire; sneaking out to hunt down bargains in bookstores; kissing Lan.

  But all these were no longer possible. And it was my fault. It had always been my fault.

  “I failed, Lan,” I whispered once my bout of nausea was over, wiping my mouth. “Our city’s gone. We have no choice now. I . . .” I could not stop the tears from falling.

  “Shh,” Lan murmured, and I found myself against her chest, weeping into her shirt. She stroked my hair. “We’re going to get through this.”

  “How?” I sobbed. How many of them had died because of what I had done? Mr. Wallof and his bookstore had been my sanctuary away from my responsibilities. I might have hated the restrictions of the Spire, but it had been the only home I’d ever known. Why couldn’t I have done more?

  “Odessa,” Lan said, and her touch was a warm jolt to my system; I felt the patterns summoned from her aether-gate gathering in my mind, slowing down my racing heart, making it easier to breathe so I could whittle my guilt down into smaller portions to deal with one at a time. “We’re allowed to grieve.”

  Haidee had a much different approach. A concentrated ball of Air gathered in her palm, and she released it with explosive fury. A tornado hurtled through the sandscape, tearing toward the horizon, where it eventually disappeared from sight, leaving grooves in the ground at least three feet deep.

  “Nothing’s changed!” she roared out into the desert, her anger even more powerful than the hurricane she’d unleashed. “She hasn’t changed! The world’s falling apart all around us, and she’s still selfish enough to do nothing about it! I hate her!” She flung a second tornado, then a third. “I hate her so much!”

  Lisette started toward her, but Arjun held up a hand. “Let her get it all out,” he said calmly.

  Haidee and I gave ourselves several more minutes to unburden our anger, our anguish—me through fresh storms of weeping, Lan holding me close, and Haidee carving through more dunes until her rage had passed.

  We both knew what our mothers’ reactions would be.

  It’s just that we loved them too much not to hope that they could change for us. Even if they never did.

  Finally exhausted, Haidee knelt beside us. “Odessa. I’m so sorry. When Aeon started moving, I thought—I had no idea that your home would be—” She choked on the words, sounding stricken. “I’m so sorry.”

  It was easier to alleviate someone else’s pain than face my own. I forced all my feelings away, tucked them into a little corner of my mind. I had to take action. I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in more misery. “Help me save everyone else,” I said.

  Haidee gripped my fingers tighter. “I swear.”

  The tension was palpable by the time we had all disembarked from the jeeps. One of Arjun’s clan brothers, Kadmos, waved to us as we arrived. “We caught more intruders,” he announced excitedly.

  “Intruders?” Arjun echoed. “Cannibals again?”

  “No, they said they came a long way from the east. Beyond even the Sand Sea.” Kadmos sounded awed. “Their leader said they know you, and that you could vouch for them.”

  Arjun stared at him, puzzled at first. And then his face fell, into an expression that lay at a juncture between angry and resigned. “Oh, hell,” he said. “Of all the hundred blasted sands of hell.”

  “So you do know them?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “Wait,” Haidee said. “Surely he doesn’t mean—”

  “Yeah, he does. The damned sand pirates are here again.”

  The Liangzhu tribe were seated on the ground, divested of their weapons. Mother Salla, clan leaders Tamera and Lars, and a dozen guards from several other clans stood watch over the group. The tallest of the captives, a bald man with an eye patch, waved cheerfully at us. Arjun groaned.

  “It is very good to be seeing you again!” the bald man called out happily. “We are, alas, having trouble explaining to your fellows that we are friends and do not wish to bring trouble.”

  “What are you doing here, Sonfei?” Arjun asked wearily.

  “Do you know these people?” Mother Salla demanded.

  “Yeah. They aided us on our way to the Abyss. Let them go. Give them back their gear.” Arjun looked like it physically pained him to have to say the words.

  “You have all our thanks,” Sonfei continued merrily, as the guards proceeded to do just that. “Your Holiness, you are looking as beautiful as ever. It is a pleasure . . .” His voice trailed off as he took me in. “Wait. Why are there two of you?”

  “This is Odessa, Sonfei,” Haidee said. “And these are Lan and Noelle, her companions. They came all the way from the other side of the world.”

  The smile slid off Sonfei’s face. The other Liangzhu had quieted, staring at Lan.

  “Is there something wrong?” I asked tentatively.

  “Your hair. Your face is like Haidee’s. You’re—you’re of her family. Asteria’s family. She was—we were—” Tears ran down the man’s face, to my shock. “You are alive? Is she alive?”

  I wasn’t sure how to break it to him. Mother had never spoken of a Sonfei, but that wasn’t a surprise. She’d spoken very little of her past. “Yes. She’s well, and she’s here in the desert, but she’s not at camp with us.”

  Sonfei rose to his feet without another word, and stalked some distance away. A few of his clanmates murmured among themselves, a couple standing to follow him.

  “Did I say something wrong?” I asked. “Did he dislike Mother?”

  “I think it was very much the opposite,” Haidee said carefully. “And from what I could glean from previous conversations with him, your mother didn’t reciprocate.”

  “Oh.” Mother had a suitor? “I’m sorry to hear that.”

>   “He will return when he has taken a better hold of his emotions,” one of the other Liangzhu told us. She was a woman only a few years older than us, with a shaved head and a scar on her right cheek. “My name is Bairen. We left after the first nightfall, and traveled across the Sand Sea to find you.” She shuddered. “Have you ever seen such darkness, listened to the silence that descends with it? Sonfei came striding out of his tent, hollering that the goddess had succeeded and that we must aid her. And so here we are, offering our help. And we come with gifts.”

  “There’s no time to be trading any—” Further words stuttered on Lan’s lips as she took in the monstrous carcass the other Liangzhu were dragging in behind them. It reminded me of some of the sea creatures that hunted in Aranth’s waters. This one appeared to be made from rock, though from the chopped portions I could see what looked like red meat inside of it. It was easily twenty feet long, built like a giant, sentient piece of hemp rope. It was also headless; the Liangzhu had no doubt deemed that part inedible and lopped it off before seeking us out. I was grateful for that; some details I would rather not know.

  “Food,” Bairen said proudly. “Even with the size of your camp, its meat can be feeding all of us for many weeks to come. It is this we offer, to soften the blow for the bad tidings we must bring.”

  “And what bad tidings are those?” I asked warily.

  “The creatures of the chasm have begun to move, Your Holiness.” The woman shivered. “A demonic exodus be rising from the east, like a foul wave. In time, they will overrun the world and be consuming all in their path.”

  “But we’ve already defeated the swarm,” I gasped. “We just stopped it only hours ago.”

  “I do not think that the demons are the same ones you faced. They would need to have overtaken us to attack your camp, and so we would not be alive right now to tell you so.”

  “So what you’re saying is that there’s another swarm heading our way?” The dreams I’d had of the galla attacking us. Were they more visions?

  Bairen glowered. “The one we saw looked to span almost the length of the Abyss. I predict that they shall reach us by the next day’s cycle. We must band together. Stay strong together.” She looked at Lan. “You are Liangzhu as well.” She sounded stunned.

  Lan blinked. “I am, yes.”

  “I had never expected to see another outside of our clan. You do not know our happiness now.” Bairen took Lan’s face in her hands. Her voice trembled. “Your parents have gone, yes?”

  “Years ago,” Lan said quietly. “I’ve no other relations.”

  “You are part of ours now. I am glad to see you finding family with the goddesses, but I hope you will have room for another.”

  “Thank you.” There was a hitch to Lan’s voice, and my heart went soft.

  Mother Salla looked aghast. “If what you say is true, then we have even less time, as I feared. Once your leader has his emotions under control, you are invited to join us inside, to discuss what our next steps shall be.”

  “When we saw the winds pick up and the storms darken, we thought we were witnessing a second Breaking in the process,” Tamera sad tersely. “Every time Latona and Asteria meet, it is always at the rest of the world’s peril, it seems.”

  “Four goddesses all in one place,” Mother Salla said grimly, “and two at war with each other. Did you find what you were looking for?”

  I shook my head, dejected. “I’m sorry. It seems the book we were after had been destroyed by one of the lords of the city.”

  “At least Latona and Asteria will be more invested in taking each other out before they concern themselves with us,” Lan said. “Let them fight each other, while we concentrate on healing Aeon.”

  “But what if Latona injures Mother?” I didn’t want either of them hurt. There’d been far too much bloodshed already.

  Lan managed a quick smile. “They had several opportunities to kill each other, but they didn’t. I know fighting, and I know what Asteria’s capable of. She could have gone for the jugular many times and taken Latona out, but she didn’t. Latona was the same. They’re angry at each other, but I don’t think either one actually wants to see the other dead, no matter how loud they’ve been screaming. Let them work their frustrations out. They hadn’t seen each other in close to eighteen years, and that’s a lot of pent-up anger to fester.”

  “Are you a general yourself, Lady Lan?” Lars asked politely. “It seems you’re very familiar with the arts of war.”

  “I . . .” Lan hesitated, a sudden anguished look on her face. “No. I don’t have the qualifications to be a general.”

  “Mother asked you to protect me,” I reminded her gently. “She trusted you and knew how good you were. You’re more than qualified for anything.”

  Lan smiled at me. “And you’re far too biased to make that call.”

  “You know I’m right.” I took a deep breath. “I’m still mad at her. I don’t know how to make her care about Aeon more than she hates her sister. It’s like Father and I are the only ones who matter to her now, and he’s been gone for years.”

  A frown marred Haidee’s face, disappearing just as quickly.

  I caught it all the same. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Asteria might have been fond of our father,” Haidee said somewhat evasively, “but to name a city after him . . . that doesn’t seem appropriate.”

  “She didn’t know your—our—mother was still alive. And it’s just a city. She can name it however she wants.”

  “If I named my city Lan, I know you’d have a problem with it just as much as I would if you’d named yours Arjun.”

  “You’re making my mother sound worse than she is!”

  “And you’re dismissing the feelings of mine!”

  We scowled at each other, arms folded across our chests; a near-mirror image, I was sure.

  “Odessa. Haidee,” Noelle said gently, always the peacemaker. “Your biases are showing. There’s enough blame between them both for the Breaking. Who started it is a moot point. We need to know how to restore Aeon. Anything else is inconsequential in comparison.”

  She was right. I took a deep breath, and saw Haidee doing the same. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t mean to demean your mo—our mother—Latona.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” Haidee said, in the exact same embarrassed tone. “I know they haven’t always been good parents—but they’re the only ones we’ve ever known.”

  “Well, I am sorry that you were not successful in finding what you needed in the dome,” Giorme said. “Though I had always thought it a long shot. There is, however, a new concern about you two.”

  “What is it?” Lisette asked.

  “The other leaders have voiced concerns that your loyalties may be compromised.” The man still somehow managed to make that sound apologetic.

  He gestured at one of the tents. “Let us discuss it inside. The wind is picking up, and I’ve never relished the scraping of sand against my skin.”

  Haidee and I exchanged glances, not liking the sound of that one bit.

  “Do I need to be in on this meeting?” Arjun demanded. “I’m pretty good at yelling.”

  “More likely you’ll be bored five minutes in,” Haidee told him. “I’m sure we can handle it. I’d feel safer with you out here.”

  “I’ll go see to the patrols,” Arjun relented. “And if we finish early, it should only take about five seconds to march in and tell them to quit bullshitting around and listen to you.”

  “Feeling confident, aren’t we?”

  He grinned. “Well, I did somehow manage to find myself a goddess. That takes a lot of humility.” He leaned close and kissed her. Haidee responded with enthusiasm, all but jumping into his arms. I blushed, and turned my back so they could have some privacy, though it was clear this was the furthest thing from their minds. “I’ll come wait for you outside the tent,” Arjun managed to say, a little short of breath, once they’d broken apart.

>   “You know,” Lisette chuckled, after he’d left and we started heading for the leaders’ tent. “I wish I’d met you before Arjun did. I’m a bit envious.”

  Haidee blushed. “I’m sorry. I think you’re very beautiful. But . . . well . . .”

  “You don’t explore the same paths I do. I understand. Too bad for me,” she sighed, then eyed me speculatively.

  “Tear those thoughts away from her,” Lan said calmly from behind us, “because I will fight you, and you will lose.”

  Lisette laughed. “All right, Catseye. I know when I’m beaten.”

  The tent we entered was the largest within the neutral territory, with Stonebreaker patterns coating the outer canvas to ward off the sun’s heat. In lieu of chairs we sat in a circle on small mats that had been brought out for that purpose. We now hosted members of clans Gila, Rockhopper, Fennec, Addax, Sidewinder, Ibex, and Pronghorn—and the Saiga, if you counted the cannibals. The Ibex clan master, Alonzo, bowed his head sadly. “We were over twenty tribes when the desert first came to be,” he said. “And now we are less than half that number. A hard life. An even harder death.”

  They all listened intently while we relayed what had happened back in the Golden City, and gasps rose all around when Haidee described the Inanna-demoness, and the fight between Latona and Asteria.

  “They will kill us,” Rockhopper clan master Minh proclaimed fervently. “But what can we do? We could barely fight off Latona’s fury before, and now there are other monsters to deal with.”

  “Lady Lan believes fighting each other will keep Latona and Asteria’s attentions away from us, and I agree,” Mother Salla said. “But the galla are an even greater problem.”

  “Where did they come from? Why only now?”

  “Aeon turns,” Lan said softly. “I have reason to believe that is what triggered their attacks.”

  “Is that why Latona and Asteria chose not to put Aeon back in order?” Noelle asked. “Is it possible that they knew this was going to happen?”

  Tamera looked at us. “Your Holinesses. It may be that we will still have to wage our own war against Latona. She has made no secret that she despises us, and would eradicate all the clans if she could. And Asteria’s arrival only adds to our worries. This is why many prefer that the two of you be removed from our plans, if not from the neutral grounds altogether.”