The Ever Cruel Kingdom
Page 37
I knew. Didn’t stop me from making the same complaints every time she had to leave. This was becoming something of our own ritual now, in a way. Damn lot better than the ones we had to go through before.
Haidee was contented with the arrangement, and I knew it was selfish of me to ask for more than what she’d already given up. But I was going to miss her. It was going to be another long six months.
“One more hour,” I insisted, rolling over so I could kiss her hair. She laughed.
“One more hour,” she breathed, conceding, before tugging me down.
Haidee and Arjun were running late, but I didn’t mind. I drew in a quick breath of air, taking in the wind, brisk and chilly despite the sun overhead. I had never known the combination could be possible, but the years had taught me how little I’d known about everything, and how grateful I was for the chance to learn more.
But for now, my body hummed with expectation. Good Mother, I missed her so.
Odessa had admitted that she didn’t quite know how to describe her time in the underworld. She’d likened it to a dreamless sleep, where she was conscious of Aeon around her, like she was one with it, tied irrevocably to it in ways that went beyond words. Noelle had surmised that the goddesses would continue to flourish for as long as the world did, and that any more harm to it could result in them suffering, in returning to the very situation that facilitated Ereshkigal’s corruption. Arjun and I had been very particular about reinforcing this notion, to great effect. Noelle now led Aeon’s highest council, with both Haidee’s and Odessa’s approval. “From a tower steward to the most powerful position in the land,” I had teased her, and she had sighed. “Not much difference,” she’d said, “given the responsibilities required for both.”
We were planning to travel back to the Golden City to meet with her, to discuss other locations earmarked for repopulation, as well as opening more schools for botany and agriculture. Charley, Jes, and Rodge were also attempting to start a school for mechanika, and Odessa had promised to visit on Haidee’s behalf. Three years of hard work hadn’t been enough to completely reverse the ravages of the Breaking, but it was a start, and everything I’d seen so far had given me hope.
Lisette had elected to stay at the Golden City, Arjun wryly noting that he would give her two months before her wanderlust got the better of her. He’d underestimated by ten. But Vanya had still been despondent when she’d informed him of her intentions to leave.
“Maybe I wasn’t enough for her,” he mourned, scarcely minutes after her departure, just as we’d arrived for our official visit.
Arjun had snorted his irritation. “Go with her, you fool.”
“What?”
“Lisette would have up and left without telling anyone if she wanted to go alone. She told you for a reason. Yeong-ho can spare a rig. I bet you’ll find her idling down the road, waiting and hoping you’ll take the hint.”
Vanya had gaped at him, then rushed away without another word. A couple of hours later, we found Lisette’s jeep abandoned a few miles outside city boundaries. Apparently, the car the lordling had filched was better for off-road traveling. “Oblivious lovesick saps,” Arjun had muttered, which was a bold thing to say, considering that Haidee had been trying to get him to propose for months and he’d been just as much of a blockhead.
We’d left the Golden City and traveled down the Sand Sea, to ascertain how Aeon’s turning would affect it. Haidee had estimated the returning Salt Sea would claim most of its territory; the gradual decline of volatile patterns indicated the Sand Sea would eventually die out, its inhabitants either following suit or readapting to water. Sumiko had also reported that the waters near where Aranth had been were finally receding, that the acidfall was tapering off, and that the riverwinds were in decline. She, Slyp, and many others were currently conducting a detailed study of the Lunar Lakes.
Arjun later admitted to me that the main reason Haidee had insisted on traveling here was because she wanted to reconnect with some old friends, which turned out to be a pod of dolugong that accompanied us everywhere for several days.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Arjun muttered to me, apologetic, while Haidee giggled and romped around with some of the younger colts. “They’re not exactly housebroken, and Madeline has been spoiling Shepard rotten since the last time we saw them. She’s the head of their pack now.”
“I don’t mind at all. Clearly they’re important enough for you to actually give them names,” I said, and was surprised when he reddened.
But no matter where we visited, we always found ourselves returning to the small village near what had once been the Great Abyss. In many ways Farthengrove was our home away from home. It was where Odessa needn’t be one of Aeon’s twin goddesses, where she could be what she’d yearned to be when she had pretended, in Aranth so long ago, to be Ame. With Noelle in charge, we knew the Golden City was in good hands.
None of that meant I didn’t miss her when she was gone.
Arjun and Haidee had finally arrived. The latter was smiling, the former looking a little surly. I couldn’t blame him. It would be another six months before he would see her again.
Just like it had been six months since I’d seen Odessa.
“We’re ready,” Haidee said softly. Arjun grunted, nodded.
As much as I missed Odessa, I knew that this was even harder for the twins. I had six months out of every year to be with Odessa, to love her. But the sisters only had minutes to talk and share and express their devotion to each other, before one would have to take the other’s place. They wrote each other often, leaving letters, drawings, and confidences behind for the other to peruse during her months above. It wasn’t the same, but they were both determined that it would be enough.
Sacrifice came in different forms.
We stood before the Brighthenge monument. Over the years it had been transformed from a dreadful place of blood and carnage to one of pilgrimage and solitude. Gracea had been put in charge of maintaining the temple, and while I was never going to be friends with the Starmaker, I was astounded at how well she’d managed it so far. She agreed when I told her there was to be no audience present when the exchange between the twins happened. I didn’t want to sully the moment for them, didn’t want anything to intrude on the short, precious time they had with each other.
We didn’t have to wait long. A glowing hole appeared in the air before the statue, growing in size until it was a doorway. From within a girl with long, flowing hair in a riot of colors emerged. Her pale eyes turned in my direction, and my yezhiyao, my wife, smiled, love clear in every feature. My heart swelled.
Haidee turned to kiss Arjun, murmuring her goodbyes. Then she stepped forward to meet her twin, Arjun letting out a small sigh of acceptance as he let her go.
Together, we watched as Odessa and Haidee made their way toward each other, grief and love and hope undeniable in every touch and word as the sun broke free of the horizon, promising better days to come.
About the Author
Photography by Eugene Siytiu
RIN CHUPECO has written obscure manuals for complicated computer programs, talked people out of their money at event shows, and done many other terrible things. She now writes about ghosts and fantastic worlds but is still sometimes mistaken for a revenant. She is the author of The Girl from the Well; its sequel, The Suffering; the Bone Witch trilogy; and Wicked as You Wish. Find her online at www.rinchupeco.com.
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Books by Rin Chupeco
THE NEVER TILTING WORLD
The Never Tilting World
The Ever Cruel Kingdom
ALSO BY RIN CHUPECO
The Bone Witch
The Heart Forger
The Shadowglass
The Girl from the Well
The Suffering
Wicked As You Wish
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE EVER CRUEL KINGDOM. Copyright © 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art © 2020 by FLORIAN COHEN
Cover design by MOLLY FEHR
Map illustration by Virginia Allyn
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020942279
Digital Edition NOVEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-282192-8
Print ISBN: 9978-0-06-282190-4
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2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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