Worse yet, he seemed to revel in that knowledge, shooting an evil glare and a wicked grin toward his latest victim.
Marin swayed and fell to her knee, using her free hand to clutch at her wound. She didn’t have to pull her fingers away from her body to see how dire that injury was. Blood poured over the gaps in her digits and dripped onto the ground.
From the edge of the lookout, Kelvin saw how badly his mentor fared. She was fading fast, and there was nothing he could do. Even a well-aimed arrow could have spelled doom for Marin. Was that all part of the watery villain’s plan?
Riptide didn’t know his comrade had failed, that Jerrod had succumbed to his own injury. The young prince couldn’t determine how that would help those who were still fighting.
When he cast his glance back down to the defeated Magician, though, he realized how Riptide could be stopped once and for all.
“Mistress!” he called out. “Mistress, the aurora! It’s being drawn back into the book!”
Those words sounded so hollow and distant to her. But they also held great power. Despite her pain and fatigue, despite all the hardship she endured throughout that great battle, she climbed back to her feet, fighting the urge to use her foil to stand.
“What do you think you’ll do?” the man comprised of water gurgled. “I cannot be stopped. And in a matter of moments, you’ll be naught but another of my playthings.”
Marin swallowed away the tension and the fear. She looked at her protégé and offered a nod. “Fetch my sword for me, child.”
Riptide let a laugh creep from his lips, and it only grew louder when that sword dropped from her weary fingers. He cocked his head back, almost howling at the moon as he considered his victory.
He didn’t see that weakened, bloody hand land on the leather pouch on her hip. He still looked skyward when she plucked it from her belt and squeezed it between her fingers.
But Riptide saw when she tossed it to the ground between them.
A bright flash blinded everyone on the bluff. The disguised prince, the first to have his sight return to him, couldn’t believe his eyes, even after the white glare subsided. Marin thrust her shoulder into Riptide’s stomach, every last shred of energy in her driven forth. Disoriented as he was, that fiend—no longer in his aqueous form—couldn’t hold his ground against her.
“Fetch my sword!” she growled, reiterating her order to her pupil.
The command was sounded with such assertion that Kelvin couldn’t dare to disobey. He sprinted toward the center of the bluff, beside the chest Ciara once hid within, and gathered up Marin’s rapier.
When he turned and rose to his feet once more, he realized she hadn’t meant for it to be retrieved for her sake. From that distance, there was nothing he could do to stop that last heroic endeavor.
Marin wrapped her arms around her foe’s chest and leapt off the ledge.
The prince was left there to consider what he witnessed, as that fleeting aurora grew brighter. Somehow, though, the world seemed darker than ever.
*****
The pair landed with a thud, and two splashes of liquid were ejected from those two fallen combatants.
Blood still coated Marin’s lips after she rolled from Riptide’s body, and water gathered beneath him. He blinked away his stupor, roaring in pain and defiance.
But as he struggled to rise, he found he did not have the strength. Just as Jerrod’s fire was pulled away from him, toward the tome where it mixed with the aurora, so too did Riptide’s water. It was drawn from him like a mist, and even struggling as he did, he could not fight the power of the Arcanax Compendium.
The aurora grew brighter as it flooded back into the book, so much so that everyone in attendance fighting in the streets averted their eyes.
One young man fought against that discomfort, wrapping his arms beneath the wounded hero’s arms. While everyone else there blinked away their blindness, Thoro tugged Marin to safety, away from those who would let their curiosity get the better of them.
The Silver Serpent assisted as best she could, kicking against the cobblestones, but she already grew weak. By the time Thoro pulled her to the tower, she could no longer lift her legs.
“Listen to me,” she gasped as she was propped against the wall.
“Don’t speak,” the former thief insisted. “Save your strength.”
“I have none left,” Marin said. “There is no coming back from this. I need you to do something for me.”
*****
From his perch, the lad in green could endure the light better than anyone on the ground below. But when he tried to focus his eyes where Gerard and Marin landed, he only saw the wounded constable. Flashes of light still marred his vision, but he saw shadows moving away from the chaos.
Though Jerrod had fallen, the mob he brought to the bluff fought on. There was no hope for them to reach victory over Edmund and his men, however. They fought a losing battle, though it seemed they were oblivious to it.
Beyond that disorder, Kelvin saw two of his allies fleeing the mayhem. Before the prince realized it, he was already in motion, descending the ramp.
One by one, Edmund and the guards of Argos put down the citizenry who had gone mad by Jerrod’s hand. Most of the rabble had been restrained, but fighting proceeded throughout the area. The lad in green ran through it all, only stopping to collect the ancient book that had caused the calamity.
His escape wasn’t lost to one of the King’s most trusted advisors.
In the darkness of the tower, the pupil found his mentor. His pleas to the shadows that the woman who taught him and shaped him into the man he was would survive went unheard.
Marin Cortes, the legendary Silver Serpent, was dead.
The white-hilted rapier dropped from the prince’s hand, and tears wet the rims of his eyes. For the first time in his life, he wished his power could take away his vision, rather than enhance it.
Though the moisture blurred his sight, he saw other figure in the darkness there. Thoro sat on the steps leading into the tower, unable to bring his gaze toward the lad in green.
Kelvin’s breaths were deep and ragged. He swung his bow over his shoulder and had an arrow nocked there in an instant. He drew it back and took aim at the former member of the Brotherhood.
“You should do it,” Thoro said when he heard the stress put on that bow. “After all this time, I finally did it, and this is the lowest I’ve ever felt.” He looked up at his past foe. “Do it. Put the arrow right through my heart. I’m cursed, after all. You’d be doing us both a service.”
Kelvin’s teeth clacked together as his emotions overwhelmed him. He collapsed against the archway into the tower and sank to his rear, draping his hand over Marin’s shoulder.
After some time, Thoro let a sigh escape his lips. “She didn’t want you to blame yourself. And she told me she didn’t blame me either. I don’t even think she blamed that thing out there—Riptide.”
“She spoke to you after she fell?” the lad asked. “I thought she…”
The bandit nodded. “She held on for a little longer. There were some things she had yet to say, My Prince.”
So stricken by his grief, Kelvin nearly missed that salutation. His eyes flashed, and he looked up at his unexpected companion.
“Your secret is safe with me,” Thoro said. “She started talking nonsense when she was letting go, likely didn’t even realize she had spoiled such a mystery. But who would I tell? I’m done with Argos now Jerrod is gone…now Brielle is gone. And Argos is done with me.
“Listen to me,” he went on. “There was something she wanted you to know. I don’t know what it means, but she told me to tell you to look up.”
“Look up?” Kelvin wondered.
“I pushed her to explain herself, but it’s like I told you…she was letting go. She just kept saying ‘look up’ and ‘tell him to look up’ over and over. I wish I could help you more. It would be the least I could do after starting all this mayhem in the first pla
ce. If I had known you were my future king…”
“I don’t imagine things would have changed all that much. Jerrod would have found a way to start this mess. Argos would have unraveled anyway.”
“Perhaps,” Thoro wearily agreed. “Grief makes people do strange and terrible things. All this was done because Jerrod lost his brother.”
Kelvin nodded. “So much of what this city endured these past few fortnights was because of grief.”
“I know you don’t owe me anything,” Thoro said. “But I’d like you to promise me something. And if you can’t promise it to me, swear it to her. Don’t let your anguish in losing her send you down a dark path. I’ll do my best to adhere to the same.” He crossed the distance to reach the crestfallen prince and extended his hand.
Kelvin accepted that aid and rose to his feet, returning the gesture once he stood. “Where will you go now the fighting is over?”
Bowing his head, Thoro blew out another sigh. “We were looking to start over elsewhere,” he said. “It won’t be the same without her, but perhaps I can continue to Peritas in her memory.”
The prince nodded. “If you are ever back in Argos, try not to stay hidden in the shadows. You and I may not have seen eye to eye from the beginning, but I know what you did today and what you suffered through to get here.”
Thoro remained silent as he passed the lad in green, only stopping briefly to clap his companion on the shoulder. As that one-time member of the crumbling Brotherhood drew into the distance, Kelvin looked at his fallen mentor once more.
“Don’t worry,” the lad croaked. “I’ll get you home.”
*****
The door creaked open, and the morning sunlight poured into the house. It didn’t reach beyond the foyer, though. It didn’t land on the body of Marin Cortes.
Though he had been warned, Edmund couldn’t prepare himself for that sight. Kelvin had taken the time to change his teacher out of the silver costume he had grown used to seeing her don. No, they weren’t looking at the Silver Serpent. Instead, they saw Marin as she was beneath the mask. Loyal and caring, a spark had been lost in Argos.
“I didn’t want anyone to know who she was,” Kelvin said. “Not yet anyway.”
Edmund shook his head. “Marin was never one to search for praise or accolades. Though she played the part of the hero well, she preferred to do it from the shadows as best she could.”
The old advisor sat down beside her on the settee, letting his hand fall upon her foot. “I knew her since she was a young girl. I was much younger, of course, but even then I knew there was something special about her. I knew she was bound to do great things.”
“And now those great things are over,” Kelvin lamented.
Even in that moment of darkness, Edmund offered up a smile. “I wouldn’t say that, young Master Drakos. After all, she did manage to leave some manner of legacy behind. She helped to turn you into the man you are today. And I see great things in your future as well. A truly great leader knows what happens above and below. Now that you’ve seen what the streets of your city are like, you’re halfway there.”
Despite the pain he endured, Kelvin laughed at that sentiment. That mirth was gone again a moment later, when he considered the next steps.
“I don’t know what to do anymore. Marin was a big part of my life these last few years. With her gone, I’m not sure what’s next for me.”
“You’re the prince of Argos,” Edmund said. “Something makes me think you’ll have plenty to preoccupy yourself with. Nothing—no one—can replace Mistress Cortes. But you’ll always have her lessons with you. Though she’s not with us anymore, her legacy, like her husband’s, will live on,” he said, struggling against his emotions.
For a long while, there was silence in that room. Though Marin was gone, she looked at peace, and in a way, the lad, out of his green outfit and in his civilian clothes, was happy for her to have a much-deserved rest. Lying on the settee, she looked more innocent and gentle than he could ever remember.
“I tried to dress her wound as best I could, but it’s clear what happened to her. I don’t know who to go to or what to tell them. They’ll know she was killed.”
“People die all the time, my boy. Some people are less fortuitous than others and meet their dooms on the field of battle, and others have the misfortune of being run-in by some thug in the streets. How unfortunate it was for our commonplace educator Mistress Cortes to be in the wrong place at the wrong time like that.” He saw those words did little to settle the lad and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure the right people know what happened to her and that the cause of her death remains a mystery to those to whom it should. Run along now, Kelvin. You’ve done enough this day, and you’ve earned a respite of your own.”
The prince swallowed away the tension that built in his throat, and he made his way to the foyer. He looked back at his mentor, reflecting on how things had gone so wrong.
*****
“You’re certain?” she squeaked.
That voice was not what the advisor was used to, nor what he expected. Queen Selene exuded confidence and regal charisma, and the news of Marin’s passing incited more emotion than Edmund was prepared for.
The two guards in the throne room noticed it as well.
“Leave us,” she bade, catching her advisor’s telling nod. He had warned he wished to speak to her in private, but she didn’t expect news that terrible to reach her ears. When the guards were gone, she almost leapt from the throne. “Was anyone else—?”
“The prince is fine,” he assured. “I won’t attempt to convince you he wasn’t there. Kelvin was right in the thick of it when all the carnage filled the streets—my youngest nephew may never walk again—but your son was trained by the very best, and he descends from great stock as well.”
Though a flash of relief was on the queen’s face, the tragedy of Marin’s death still held sway over her.
“What happened to her, Edmund? She was the best of us, wasn’t she? In my mind, even Lasho paled to her.”
Alone with the woman, the advisor made his way up those velvet-draped steps and stood beside her while the weight of his words seemed to crush her. “I can’t remember anyone in my lifetime who better upheld the duty and message of the Silver Serpent. She was as strong as she was gentle, and she’ll leave a greater void behind her than even her husband did, of that I’m sure.
“As to what stole her away from us, well…” he paused, looking out of the throne room as if he could see clear across the city. “Argos has changed much in these past few months, as I’m sure you know. While we struck a firm blow today, I have a suspicion we’ve not encountered the last of our troubles. In fact, I think we’re just beginning to weed them out.
“Ah, before I forget, this may be of some use to you.” Edmund reached into the folds of his robe and produced a small, leather-bound tome. “Your son was the one who returned this to me. With it under the protection of the crown once more, perhaps we can alleviate some of the troubles that have affected Argos recently.”
“We can’t keep it here in the palace any longer,” Selene declared. “If it was discovered once, it will be found again.”
“I’ll find a place for it, Your Highness.”
“When you are content with its location, tell no one but me,” she said as she rose from the ornate seat.
“Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you while I’m here?”
“No, Edmund. But thank you. You’ve never ceased being a friend, and I appreciate that more than ever, when we seem to have so few left.” She squeezed the old advisor’s arm and passed by him, striding down those plush blue steps. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I should share this news with Kelvin.”
Though the subject was indeed dark, Edmund chortled nonetheless. “I’m sure he’ll be surprised to hear it. Good luck, Selene,” he said. “I am here if you need me.”
The queen knew she could depend on him for his counsel and s
upport. In that dire time, though, it was she who needed to provide for someone else.
It did not take long for her to ascend the steps to the second floor, and she found Kelvin sitting on the edge of his bed, staring out the opened window into the city. Bright and sunny as it was, no one would have suspected that their clandestine savior had left the world behind.
The prince didn’t notice as his mother drew into the doorway. For some time, she simply stood there and stared, wondering how he could come to terms with such a loss.
“You’ve heard, haven’t you?” she finally asked. He looked away and lifted his hand. When he turned back to regard her, however, she could still see the moisture in his eyes. “Word travels fast,” she said, fighting the emotional crack in her voice. “My sweet child, I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now.”
“One moment she was here, and the next she was gone,” he said, returning his gaze to the sunny morning that shone through the window.
Selene made her way across the room and took a seat on the bed beside her son. She pulled him close, until his head landed on her shoulder. “This is your first true loss, Kelvin. You’ve had to say goodbye to people close to you, but never like this.”
“What will I do now?” he muttered. “Everything I learned these past few years, I learned from her. How am I supposed to go from that to something else?”
The queen mirrored her son, laying her head against his. “Whatever we do, it won’t be decided now. We’ll let you take some time to mend your heart. Rash decisions are often made when passion comes before reason.”
*****
Her boots tapped against the cold stone floor, announcing her arrival in that dingy place. The guards lifted their torches, and she placed the one she kept in a sconce on the wall.
Though she offered a nod to the men who patrolled the dungeon for her, her eyes were pointed deeper into that dark area. One of those cells was brighter than the others, the only one that was occupied.
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