by Cassia Meare
"I was working," she pointed out; without looking displeased, he noticed.
"I'm going to give you something to write about."
She laughed and lightly swung her feet as he moved to the bedroom with her. "I would not write this type of deed."
"This type of deed is only ever to be done," he said.
45
In the temple of Deep Realm, so big it almost occupied the whole island, they were greeted by those who had gone mad long ago.
Tuii and Tuaa with shaved heads and the black hand painted over their lips, writhing in their white or black robes, eyes swelling out of their orbits. Some walked backwards, their bodies twisted up and their limbs like an insect’s, scuttling about with nowhere to go. Some stared into their faces and screamed a raw welcome. Some whispered. Some laughed, some wept.
Lamia walked among them as she would cross a field of noxious beasts. She dragged her feet and stumbled after Ahn, who reached right and left and let the zealots touch her and take her fingers to their ink-stained lips. They closed their eyes in ecstasy at her brief caresses.
She had sacrificed Sefira. What she loved. And she was smiling.
Hesir was smiling.
Lamia wanted so badly to cry and shriek. Ty gone, and now Sefira. And Ahn clutching the case with Ydin’s heart in it. She had kept the heart of the brother who had tried to slay them all so as to defeat the brother who had saved them.
They were beyond Nemours’ punishment. But Lamia was beyond his help.
No one had enough sanity to speak to them or explain what the place had become — but it was clear that magic was not forbidden there. It was celebrated.
The lack of interference seemed to please Ahn. Now Mother was right below their feet somewhere.
"Lady, lady," the freaks had called to Ahn as she passed. As if she were their hope, the second coming of Aya.
This will get so bad …
They reached the chambers which had once been Aya's to find them empty, and Ahn was happy at that too. Such a gloomy, stony place.
"You tried to betray me," Ahn said quietly as Lamia looked around.
Lamia stood still. "What do you mean?"
"You tried to use Crossing in the ship."
"Was it you who stopped me?"
"What does it matter?" Ahn walked to her sister and lifted her face by the chin. Her own face was also like stone. "I will forgive you once. You’ve had the once."
If she could have felt anything at that moment, Lamia supposed it would have been terror.
Hesir began to dance — or something — in the middle of the room. Ahn clasped her hands and observed her, until the Tuaa, having turned and turned on the same spot, suddenly stopped. Her eyes went white, and they stayed like that for a while.
"What do you see?" Ahn asked.
The Tuaa smiled, still blind.
"Weakness," she said.
THE END
Thank you for reading The Rage of Princes.
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Next and last in the trilogy, The Skin of Dragons.
The world was made of dust and fire, and the skin of dragons…
The princes and Elinor are victorious, but that has sent Ahn to Deep Realm, the very source of magic.
Elinor needs to bring her intelligence and determination to bear in their search for the last hekas while Nemours consolidates his power at home.
As they gear up for a final confrontation, a question looms: Who will get to the Key first?
And what price will it demand?
Find out in May, with the conclusion to the trilogy!
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Cassia