Nightblood

by Elly Blake

  After making my way past our last line of defense—the generals too occupied to notice my presence—I reached the slippery, blood-soaked ground where we faced the enemy. I moved toward the front, weaving, dodging, twisting, leaping, somehow knowing exactly where to be, and where not to be, at any given moment.

  Images flashed into my mind, the world from a hundred eyes at once. The escaped Minax had possessed people all over the battleground, unconcerned with allegiance, indifferent to sides. They jumped from host to host, filled minds, pulled the emotion from hearts, enhanced bloodlust, soaked up pain and death.

  This was how the Minax would control the outcome of battles, I realized. If they chose a favorite, that side would be invincible.

  I didn’t know if I could make the Minax turn against their creator if he commanded otherwise. But I could use them to suit my own ends: revenge dealt by my hand.

  Anyone who followed Eurus was my enemy.

  I half laughed, half screamed as I rushed forward, wild with the joy of it. Spinning from adversary to adversary—step, strike, block, bind, thrust, stab, slice—I cut them down. In minutes, I was drenched in blood, none of it my own. I absorbed the knowledge of the soldiers possessed by the Minax, and I knew just where to position my body, my sword, my shield. My opponents all moved so slowly, as if waiting for me to strike. Inviting me. Begging.

  Through the Minax, I knew Eurus’s location at any given time. He leaped from host to host, just like the shadows, his aim to kill us and aid his followers. To destroy our side.

  As if he’d read my mind, he sent out a command, ordering his shadows to destroy us, to make us turn on one another.

  I pushed out an immediate counterorder. Fight the Servants!

  Confused, the Minax hesitated.

  I growled, slamming my sword into an opponent’s so hard it broke. Hurling it away, I dodged and wove until I came to the lava moat. The Servants had thrown rocks and stones into the channel, forming a bridge they were using to cross.

  Incensed, I focused on the lava, bringing a wave of it up with two lifted hands.

  I may not be able to kill you, I told Eurus, speaking through the Minax, knowing he could hear me. But I can kill every last one of your followers.

  I invite you to try, Eurus thought back, sounding amused.

  Suddenly, a burst of agonizing pain tore through me. I fell to the ground, stunned, the lava wave splashing down into formlessness, the spatter wounding our soldiers and Servants alike. I scrambled up, searching for whoever or whatever had delivered that excruciating blow.

  A ball of light came at my side—

  Slam!

  I fell to my hands and knees, my chest filled with white-hot fire, blistering-cold ice. The Minax writhed and screamed, trying to escape my heart. I held on to it with effort.

  What hit me? I scanned the battlefield, near and far. Low and high.

  There! On the rampart where I’d stood before. Lucina facing me. She lifted her arms, gathered sunlight into her hands, forming a weapon of light.

  SLAM!

  “Argh!” It hit me dead-on.

  “I’m fighting on your side!” I shouted, though she was too far to hear.

  She gathered up another ball. I panted in sudden fear, dodging and weaving, diving into the thickest part of the fight, rushing through the melee, desperate to avoid another hit.

  SLAAAM!

  I hit the ground. Soldiers screamed from the bright flash. My vision went stark white and took a few seconds to return.

  What was she doing? I stumbled to my feet, weaving drunkenly, my head ringing. My chest felt like an open wound, burning, throbbing.

  “I’ll kill you for this!” I dodged my way back toward the pass. Betrayed by Sage! I had been right not to trust her. She’d been working against me all along!

  When I reached the pass, I climbed the steep path to the rampart, readying fire in my palms.

  Before I emerged at the top, Lucina spoke. “Do not defy me right now, Ruby!” She was closer than I expected, anticipating my arrival.

  I threw my fire.

  Her light took me down, knocking the air from my lungs. I fought for breath, wild with pain and the need to hurt her back.

  “Why?” I gasped.

  “You have let that creature overtake you,” she said, coming closer as I writhed helplessly, my hands pressed to my chest. “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Kill you!” I breathed, glaring hate.

  “Rein. Your. Self. In!” she commanded, bending over me. Her lips were drawn back, teeth gritted, her eyes spitting gold flames, promising violence. It was a look I couldn’t have imagined her capable of wearing.

  “Will not yield to you,” I said, hiding my palms, building fire.

  Slam! More light. My throat vibrated with screams. It hurt so much! I swore at her, calling her names in two languages.

  She held up another glowing orb, threatening, waiting. “I am not playing a game, Ruby. Listen to me!”

  I glared up at her, panting, weak, helpless to do anything else.

  “I know you’ve just suffered a devastating loss,” she said, her eyes softening a touch, “but you are still needed. The Gate is open, the breach growing, the Minax escaping. Night is taking over the world, and once it does, there will be nothing I can do to stop it! Do you understand? I need you, Ruby! I need you to do what you came to do!”

  “Too late,” I said, shuddering, rubbing my chest. “Gave myself to the Minax. Can’t go back.”

  “Of course you can! Find the light inside yourself and dig your way out! Don’t be a fool. You’re smarter than this.”

  “Stop insulting me!” I shouted hoarsely.

  Kill her, the Minax advised.

  If only I could! She was unstoppable!

  Lucina shook her head in frustration. “If you don’t find your light now, Ruby, you won’t ever find it! And we are all lost.”

  “I can’t go back to that pain,” I told her, unbending. “I can’t let the Minax go.”

  “Then your Arcus died for nothing,” she said, her words slipping past the numbness and twisting like a knife in my chest. “And you have spit on his memory.”

  “Don’t even say his name!”

  “You know it’s true. Just as I know that you’ll do the right thing.”

  Regaining a bit of strength, I struggled to my knees, staring up at her defiantly. “All I have to do is wait for nightfall. I’ve seen you after dark. You’re powerless!”

  “That’s right.” She nodded. “I am. And if you change your mind then, it will be too late. For you. For me. For all of us.”

  I hid my face in my hands, more confused and torn up than I’d ever been. “Not strong enough,” I admitted, dropping my hands. “You think I’m stronger than I really am.” I shook my head. “I’m… I’m not what you think. And I can’t do what you’re asking.”

  “Yes. You can. You’re going to go into the Obscurum and release those mortal spirits. And then you’re going to call back all these Minax and force them inside while I fix the Gate. It has to be done now while we still have light.” She looked up at the sun, already descending toward the tops of the volcanoes. “We have maybe an hour left, Ruby. There is no time for doubt!”

  “Need to avenge him,” I said, pleading with her to understand.

  “You will. By putting a stop to Eurus once and for all. That’s how you get your revenge.”

  I swallowed, took a breath. “I might never come out.”

  “I believe you can, Ruby. I believe you can do anything.” She took a shuddering breath. “And if you have to make that ultimate sacrifice, then the entire world will owe its freedom to you. Is that not enough to make you want to try?”

  I closed my eyes. What would Mother want me to do? What would Arcus want me to do?

  “All right,” I said, pushing to my feet.

  “I’m so proud of you,” she said.

  When I swayed, she caught my shoulder. I winced at the light under her skin, but grit
ted my teeth and found my balance. I nodded and she let go.

  Her eyes grew somber. “I hate to tell you this when you’re already sacrificing so much, Ruby, but there’s one more thing you need to do before you go through the Gate.”

  Energy sizzled in the air around us. A beam of light broke through the ever-present bank of clouds and flowed into Lucina’s hands, coating her body. Like a crystal that redirects and concentrates the sun’s rays, her hands filled, then forced a bolt of explosive heat into my chest. I fell to my knees, put my hands up in an automatic defensive gesture, but the sunlight entered anyway.

  Now I knew what my mother had gone through to give up her gift. Our fiery emotions gave the Minax an advantage, so we had both chosen to relinquish our fire willingly. But it felt as if my heart were being cut out with a scythe. The pain was so intense, I couldn’t scream. I knelt, twitching in misery, while pitiless light carved a path to the center of my chest.

  Heat was drawn from my fingertips, from my veins, into her hands. I opened my eyes, squinting in the rays of sunset, the sky streaked in shades of fire and blood.

  Lucina fell to her knees beside me and was quiet.

  I shuddered and gasped, my heart drumming a frenzied, uneven beat as it adjusted to this new reality. I was a Fireblood no longer. No burning emotions to make me more vulnerable to the Minax. No passion to cloud my mind.

  No gift.

  No me.

  I shook off any self-pity, any regret.

  My only purpose now was to defeat Eurus. It was all I lived for. Whatever I had to do.

  And I was ready to enter the Gate.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THE GATE SNAPPED AND GLOWED AS before, but the thin, dark fissure had widened.

  Several pairs of Frostblood and Fireblood masters were combining their version of frostfire to block the opening. Against all odds, they had slowed the release of shadows almost to a standstill. Lucina was using beams of sunlight to deflect the escaping shadows, so they couldn’t possess the masters as they worked.

  As I neared, I saw Brother Thistle on his knees next to Arcus’s body. My stomach flipped over, my heart ripped open again at the sight of him. For a second, I longed to give in to the Minax once again.

  Instead, I moved next to Arcus, shaking as a fresh wave of grief flooded my chest. My vision blurred as I struggled to stay upright.

  “He was like a son to me,” Brother Thistle said in a thin voice that sounded nothing like him at all. I wiped my eyes to see him bent over the still form, his shoulders hunched as if blows were raining down on him. As if his grief was too great even to be eased by tears. I waited until he sat back on his heels and had taken a few calming breaths before I spoke.

  “I’m going into the Obscurum now,” I said, my voice thick with unshed tears. “I just wanted to say…” I swallowed, searching for the right words, then gave up. There were no right words.

  “I believe in you, Miss Ruby Otrera.” As he turned his head to look at me, I saw that his blue eyes shone with a layer of mist, though he tried to force a trembling smile to his lips. “I have always believed in you. Go. Make me proud. Make your goddess proud. And save us all.”

  I put my arms around him, grateful when he pressed one hand to my back, returning the embrace. “Thank you for teaching me. For everything.”

  “I would do so again,” he said, his voice thick, “a hundred times over, and thank Fors for giving me the chance.”

  I tried to smile, and almost managed it.

  “Gods go with you, Ruby.”

  Kai spoke my name, soft but clear. The sounds of battle were muffled, this area clogged with solemn quiet. He nodded at me as he and the Frostblood warrior ceased making frostfire. His skin was sheened with sweat, his eyes glazed with exhaustion. But he straightened and bowed at me as if we were meeting at court. I swallowed and nodded, which was as much as I could manage.

  I knew it was time. He was giving me a few moments to enter the Gate.

  Our eyes held. He smiled for a second, then his face crumpled.

  “Be safe, little bird,” he said in a choked voice. “Come back to us. Remember, you are the exception to all rules.”

  I rubbed my eyes. No more tears from here on, I promised myself. Too much depended on me to give into feelings that could sway my focus.

  “I hope to see you again soon, Kai,” I said. He nodded, face twisting, and turned away.

  I bent and planted a kiss on Arcus’s cold cheek, smoothing his hair back from his forehead.

  “Good-bye, my love,” I whispered.

  I tried to move away, to push myself to my feet, but my muscles locked, everything in me fighting to stay. Now that it was time, I couldn’t leave him. I realized how foolish it was to think that I would leave him. I couldn’t go!

  “I will keep him safe, Ruby,” Lucina stated with firm sympathy. “You must save those who remain.”

  Closing my eyes tight, I pressed my forehead to Arcus’s one last time, then forced myself to stand. I walked stiffly to the Gate, feeling as if I were fighting my way against the tide.

  Lucina’s arms were raised, her palms open as she protected the masters from the escaping Minax.

  Just before I stepped through, she used one hand to pull a pendant on a chain from around her neck. Light spilled between her clenched fingers as she handed the necklace to me.

  “Cirrus’s crystal,” she said, “to show you the way in the dark—but also to show you your light should you need it. If despair should overwhelm you in that place, I want you to have some means of overcoming it.”

  “Don’t you need it?”

  “It is mine to give.”

  I clutched it in my fist. “Thank you.”

  “Release the spirits of the dead first. It’s hanging on to darkness that keeps them trapped. If they give that up, they will be able to pass through the Gate as light and move into the afterworld. Only once they are all gone can we be sure the Gate will hold.”

  I nodded, suddenly unsure whether I could do this, whether it was even possible.

  “Then call the Minax to you, the ones that escaped,” she instructed. “They should be drawn to you. Once they enter the Obscurum through the rift, I’ll reseal the Gate.”

  Without another word, I stepped in.

  As soon as I passed the membrane of light, my ears rang with the screaming of souls.

  Shrieking, frenzied spirits swirled in the air like bats, swooping and brushing past as they bashed against the Gate. I felt them as the beat of vulture wings against my back, the stinging bite of wind in my face, and the gouging rend of talons on my neck.

  “Stop! I’ve come to help you!” My cries were swallowed by the din. I tried to connect with their minds, to reach out and touch their thoughts the way I did with the Minax, but disorder reigned. They were intent on hurling themselves against the Gate, on crashing through. The clamor shredded reason and turned all thoughts to chaos.

  With my head bent, I fought my way forward, stumbling, searching for space, for some tiny measure of quiet. Only there were so many, so many angry, agonized spirits. The screams were too loud. Finally, overwhelmed, I shoved my fists over my ears and curled up on the cold stone floor, wishing I could burrow under the earth to escape.

  As a talon slashed my ear, I gasped and put a hand up to stanch the blood. Something fell from my palm. Light exploded out. The shrieking increased in volume, but from farther away. When my vision cleared, I saw what I had dropped.

  Cirrus’s crystal. It glowed and pulsed with white fire that lit a circular area about twenty feet wide. The winged and taloned shadows pressed against the outer edges as if longing to rush forward, but fearful or blocked.

  I picked up the chain attached to the crystal and stood. Experimentally, I swung the chain back and forth. As the light moved, the spirits shrieked and moved with it, skittering away from the glow.

  Thank you, Sage.

  The Minax in my heart sent out a pulse of recognition at the spirits of mortals, catalogi
ng some of them with satisfaction. It had caused many of their deaths over the millennium it had spent in the throne of Sud. Some of these spirits must have been trapped in the Obscurum for centuries. I wondered if they would even understand me.

  “You are not trapped anymore,” I told them slowly. “I want to free you.”

  Their shrieking quieted a little. They hovered in the darkness as if listening.

  “Come forward,” I said, even as my hands and legs shook with fear. If I could talk to them, one by one, I might be able to help them understand.

  They seemed afraid of the light, unwilling or unable to enter its beam. I closed my fist over the crystal, leaving the end exposed and pointing down to make a smaller circle around my body. The spirits immediately surged toward me, stopping just shy of the glow.

  “I will help you,” I said. “But you have to give me something in return. I need some of your darkness.” They shrank back. I felt their fear, a furious, ingrained resistance to what I was asking.

  I whispered, “Just a little.” I held out my cupped palm. “Fill my hand with shadows. It’s hardly anything. Not enough to miss.”

  I held my breath.

  One spirit fluttered forward. As it came into the light, it began to change. The winged shadow transformed into a woman wearing a black gown sewn with pearls. A gold band adorned her head. Rearing back in shock, I recognized it as Queen Nalani’s crown.

  Understanding came a second later. This was how the spirit had looked in life. She was a Fire Queen from some time in the past. She might have been one of my ancestors, even my maternal grandmother for all I knew! I wished she could speak, that I could ask her questions, find out more about her.

  But it didn’t matter, not really, not anymore. All that mattered was releasing her spirit so Lucina could seal the Gate. Time was running out.

  “Fill my hand with darkness,” I said, watching fear and trepidation pass over her face. The longer she stayed in the crystal’s soft light, the more solid she appeared.