Ascension of Death
Page 44
Aisha snorted. “Horse-shite!” She rounded on him and seized his face in her hand. “The truth, Kodyn.”
His eyes darted around, searching for any passersby. Aisha gripped his face and turned it toward her. “Speak,” she growled. She and Kodyn stood alone in the hall, with no servants in sight, the Indomitables far enough away that they wouldn’t overhear.
After a long moment, he sighed. “I guess, just seeing Evren and Briana made me wonder…” His eyes dropped away from hers.
“Wonder what?” Aisha squeezed his face harder.
Kodyn struggled to speak. “I can’t talk…with you gripping…so tight!”
Aisha released him and he rubbed his face ruefully.
“Wonder what?” Aisha repeated.
Long seconds passed before Kodyn spoke. “What’s next for you?” His voice was quiet, and he seemed to struggle to meet her gaze.
Aisha’s gut clenched. She’d been dreading the inevitable question. Hallar’s memories still rang in her mind, weighed on her shoulders.
Shalandra’s founder had sworn to serve the Serenii, to guard the city and protect the magical mechanisms buried deep beneath Alshuruq. In activating the power in that towertop chamber, Aisha had fulfilled Hallar’s mission—yet only a small part of it.
She drew in a deep breath, and it suddenly felt as if a great burden pressed against her chest.
“I told you of my visions, right?” she asked. “Hallar’s memories, the images that I saw?”
Kodyn nodded.
“That one of him swearing an oath to the Serenii,” Aisha said, her words coming slow, hesitant, “that was about more than just protecting one city.”
Kodyn’s brow furrowed. “I thought he was all about Shalandra?”
“He was.” Aisha inclined her head. “But when I saw him kneeling before the Serenii, I got a sense that he was vowing to do something more. Something…bigger.”
“Bigger?” Kodyn’s face scrunched up. “How?”
Another long breath, another hesitant pause. It felt strange putting into words what was really just a vague notion buried within her mind, the echoes of Hallar’s spirit within her. Yet she couldn’t ignore the conviction that burned like a fire in the core of her being.
She lifted her eyes to meet his. “That power we unleashed, it wasn’t just let loose onto the world. I also felt it sucked deep into the core of Einan.”
“Into the huge Dy’nashia you told me about?” Kodyn asked.
“That, and more. I think…” Aisha swallowed. “No, I know that it was being channeled through the earth off to Enarium, to feed Kharna.”
Kodyn’s eyes widened. “What?”
Aisha nodded. Now comes the crazy part. Then again, he accepted that I can talk to spirits and summon lightning from my fingers. His tolerance for crazy might be a bit higher than it used to be.
“When I had the vision of Hallar learning how to operate the Serenii machine,” she said, “I felt like they were showing him how to turn on one machine.” She hesitated. “One of many.”
Kodyn’s eyes widened even farther, until it appeared his eyeballs would pop out. “More machines like that?”
“Yes,” Aisha replied. She tugged at her lip, arms folding across her chest. “Machines that were designed to collect power—the power of the sun, the power of the spirits, other types of power I have no idea how to understand—and channel it all to Enarium against the Great Devourer.”
“Whoa!” Kodyn breathed. His brow furrowed. “Wait, but if there are all these machines, wouldn’t we have noticed them before?” He jerked a thumb upward, toward the towertop chamber. “I mean, you heard how loud that thing was. That sort of noise and light and power is a bit hard to miss.”
Aisha inclined her head. “True.”
“And you heard my mother’s story of her jaunt into the Black Spire,” Kodyn continued. “If there was a bloody big machine like that, she’d have noticed it.”
“Yes, which is sort of my point.” Aisha fixed him with a firm gaze. “The machines aren’t running. Somehow…they’ve turned off.”
Kodyn looked taken aback.
“And because they’re off,” Aisha drove on, “Kharna isn’t getting enough power to fight the Great Destroyer.” They had both heard the Hunter’s story from Ilanna, as well as Evren and Hailen’s version. “Kharna is losing the battle because the machines designed to harness the magic of Einan aren’t running, aren’t sustaining him.”
She let those words sink home in Kodyn’s mind. In his eyes, she could see the wheels in his mind turning, clicking into place, putting together everything she’d said.
“Bloody hell!” he finally gasped.
“That about sums it up.” Aisha nodded. “But when I was communing with Hallar, I swore to continue his mission. A mission that I believe is going to take me away from Shalandra, and from Praamis.”
That got Kodyn’s attention. “Away...from Praamis.” A shadow passed over his eyes. “From the Night Guild.”
“Yes.”
Aisha swallowed the lump that rose to her throat. She had dreaded this moment, but now there was no turning back. She knew what she had to do, the mission that had passed on to her from the dead Hallar. She would do it, even if she fought on alone.
“I think…” She drew in a slow breath. “I think it’s time for me to go home.”
“Home?” Kodyn sucked in a sharp gasp. “You mean…to Ghandia?”
Aisha nodded. “To my people. My mother and sister.”
“Oh.” Kodyn’s expression froze. “Why?” The word came out flat, emotionless, as dead as the inscrutable look in his eyes.
Aisha’s throat thickened, but she soldiered on. “I need to return to Ghandia to help my people. Umoyahlebe like me, Spirit Whisperers who are suffering and dying.” From within her robes, she drew a glass vial containing viscous, mud-brown liquid, with a small folded paper tied around it. “With this, I can make a difference.” She didn’t quite understand how—the alchemy was beyond her understanding—but since she had taken the potion three days earlier, she hadn’t felt the slightest hint of the pain that she’d experienced while wrestling with Hallar. Even without her Dy’nashia, she knew it would work. “It will stop the Inkuleko and save the lives of every Spirit Whisperer in Ghandia.”
“Of course.” Still that same, deadpan tone. “Briana cracked the formula to make your potion.”
“Yes.”
Aisha searched his eyes, found nothing but an impassible barrier, as hard as the stone beneath her feet. An iron fist clutched at her heart; she’d known it would be difficult, but this…this was torture.
Yet she was a warrior, daughter of a chieftainess. She had survived every battle, no matter how impossible. Saying goodbye to Kodyn would be just one more. It would shatter her heart, but she would survive it. Somehow.
The thought rang hollow. She’d grown to care deeply for the apprentice Hawk, the handsome, mischievous, headstrong, clever young man with the smile that sent a shiver down her spine. This wouldn’t be just one more fight—it would be the hardest war she had ever fought. And she wasn’t certain she would escape this one alive.
“I’ll return to Praamis with you,” she said, struggling to keep the sorrow from her voice, to hold back the flow of tears. “I’ll bear witness to your Undertaking, make sure everyone in the Night Guild knows what you’ve done here. But after that, I need to return to Ghandia.”
Words poured from her mouth in a torrent. She couldn’t let up, couldn’t fall silent—even the slightest crack in her determination, and she might not go through with leaving. It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do in a life replete with hardships.
“I know Ria will let me. She’ll understand that it’s time I went back, time to face my mother and my sister. Even after everything that happened to me, I have to look them in the eyes, let them know I’m alive. And if there’s even a chance that Nkanyezi, my sister, also inherited the gift of the Umoyahlebe, I need to make sure I’m there to help her throu
gh it. To teach her the ways of the Spirit Whisperer, to show her what little I know about channeling the spirits safely.”
Her hand went to the pendant at her throat—the Dy’nashia, recovered from the now-sealed Vault of Ancients.
“Maybe there are more of these out there, somewhere in Einan.” She couldn’t meet Kodyn’s eyes; it hurt too much. “We can find them, bring them to Ghandia. Help Spirit Whisperers for generations to come. That’s what Imbuka wanted. It’s why he did what he did. And now that I know, I’ve got to do what I can to help them.”
“I see.” Kodyn’s emotionless tone drove an icy dagger into her gut.
“But that’s not all.” For some unexplained reason, Aisha couldn’t stop talking. The moment her words cut off, that was the moment she and Kodyn began down the path that took them apart. “A few nights ago, I had…a dream. A memory, really. Something I’d forgotten until now.”
Kodyn cocked his head, interested, the first sign of emotion he’d shown since she told him she was leaving.
“In Ghandia, deep in the forest near our village, there’s a thick marshland.” The images flashed through her mind. “Once, when I was very young, maybe four or five, I traveled there with my father. I don’t remember why we went or what we were doing, but I remember glowing rocks. Stones, the same blue-white light that I see whenever the Kish’aa are near. That’s all I can recall, but somehow, a feeling I don’t really understand, I’m almost certain that was something built by the Serenii. Maybe a machine like the one in the Tomb of Hallar. And with it, maybe more Dy’nashia to save my people.”
The flow of words suddenly ran dry, and Aisha found herself gasping for breath. Her eyes locked with Kodyn, and she searched his face for anything. Anger, happiness, even resentment. Anything was better than the unyielding wall that had suddenly appeared.
“Wow.” Kodyn scratched the stubble that had begun to sprout from his chin. “That’s….wow!”
Aisha’s gut clenched. His words revealed as little as his expression. Sorrow rose in her throat and burned in her stomach.
“As soon as we get the Pharus’ letter to your mother, we can head back to Praamis.” She turned away so Kodyn wouldn’t see her tears. “Get you home.”
Silence hung thick in the corridor. Aisha bit down hard on her lip, but still the tears came. She ached for Kodyn to say something, anything, yet she couldn’t force him to—
“Aisha, what if…” Hesitance echoed in his voice. “What if…I came with you?”
Hope blossomed in her chest. “What?” She whirled to face him.
Tears sparkled in Kodyn’s eyes. “I want to go with you,” he said. “If you’ll let me, of course. If you’d rather not, I completely under—”
Aisha’s lips met his, fierce, passionate, relief and elation flooding her body with warmth. Salty tears mingled with their kiss, but Aisha didn’t care. She held him tight, her lips locked for long, long seconds.
“I didn’t want to ask,” she whispered when she finally broke off. “I didn’t want to take you away from your family.”
“You’re my family, Aisha.” His breath was hot on her face, the moisture on his cheeks mingling with hers. “I’d never want to be anywhere without you. I just wasn’t sure you’d want me.”
“Of course I do!” Aisha laughed, a brilliant, ringing sound that echoed the joy bursting within her heart. “I want you wherever I am, you foolish, foolish man!”
“Good.” He beamed. “That’s what I want, too.”
Her laughter faded, though the smile seemed permanently etched into her face. “But your mother, House Hawk, the Night Guild. It’s all you’ve ever known. It’s who you are!”
“No.” Kodyn shook his head. “It’s who I was.”
Aisha pulled back, her eyes meeting his.
“Since I arrived in Shalandra, I’ve found myself thinking about this more and more.” Kodyn’s brow furrowed in contemplation. “The truth is that I don’t know who I am. I was born to a mother who wanted to keep me away from the Night Guild, raised by two women who loved me enough to sacrifice their lives to keep me safe. When Mother became Master Gold, she knew there was no way for me to escape this life. I understood that, even during my early years as a tyro and a Hawk apprentice. So I threw myself into becoming the best damned Hawk I could be.”
“So what changed?” Aisha asked.
“I did.” Kodyn’s jaw clenched. “Mother didn’t just set me to learn the Hawk’s trade. She made me train with Master Serpent and his assassins, study alchemy and herbology under Master Scorpion, learn the tricks of the Hound trackers and the Fox street thieves. I may wear Hawk brown, but the truth is that I’m not really a Hawk. I’m all of those things, yet none of them.”
Aisha tilted her head and gave him a look encouraging him to continue.
“As I worked with you to protect Briana, as we fought to take down the Keeper’s Council, the Gatherers, the Syndicate, and all the other bastards threatening Shalandra, I realized that I’m not cut out for life in the Night Guild.” He seemed surprised to hear the words, as if saying them for the first time. “I can’t be content just to steal for a living. It’s not who I am. Or, it’s not who I want to be.”
“And who do you want to be?” Aisha asked.
“I don’t know!” Kodyn shook his head. “I’m never going to find out if I stay in the Night Guild.” His pensive expression brightened into a smile. “But, if I go with you, there’s a chance that whatever I am, whatever I’m going to be, I’ll stumble across it somewhere out in the great unknown between us and destiny.” He took her hand in his. “And I’ll do it with the person that matters more to me than anyone else in the world.”
A lump rose to Aisha’s throat, but it was joyful, tinged with delight and hope.
“I need you, Aisha.” Kodyn’s expression grew earnest, a fiery intensity in his eyes. “I’m a better man because of you. All those years we spent as friends in the Night Guild, training, learning, growing together, it’s made me who I am. And I want to find out who I can become because of you.”
Aisha’s smile stretched from ear to ear. She pressed another kiss to his lips, held him close for long seconds.
He broke off the embrace, yet didn’t pull away. Instead, his fingers slipped down her arm and sought her hand.
“Let’s go,” he said, tugging her down the hall. “Our fate is out there somewhere, waiting for us, calling to us. All we’ve got to do is find it. Whatever happens, no matter what life throws at us, we face it side by side. You and me, together.”
Aisha smiled and let him pull her along. “Together.” That felt…right.
The End. For Now.
----
Afterword from the Author
What a journey!
When I sat down to write Heirs of Destiny, I knew where I wanted the story to go: saving Shalandra, taking down the Keeper’s Council, stopping the Ybrazhe and Hallar’s Warriors, curing the Azure Rot, and discovering Issa’s heritage.
But I had no idea how much bigger than this series the story was going to grow!
If you’ve read the Hero of Darkness series (and I hope you have because it makes this story much more enjoyable), you know how the Serenii magic plays an integral role in the world of Einan. The discovery that these Serenii strongholds are “shut off” was a happy accident I stumbled onto while writing—now, it gives me an idea how I want to solve the problem the Hunter faced in Darkblade Savior (Hero of Darkness Book 6) when deciding whether to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people to save the world from the Great Destroyer.
Aisha, specifically, is the key to solving the Hunter’s quandary. I won’t spoil it, but I’m pretty sure your mind is already working on how her Spirit Whisperer abilities and the Serenii strongholds will come into play in the future stories. That means we’ll see her pop up in the Hero of Darkness series, with Kodyn by her side. And, seeing as she’s headed back home, it means I get to explore a bit of Ghandia, its culture, and peoples in that story!
As for Issa…I’m not certain what the future holds for her. As the daughter of the Lady of Blades and the Pharus, you just know she’s going to end up holding both titles at some point in her life. We may find out more about the Pharus and Proxenos she becomes…only time and inspiration will tell.
But for now, please enjoy the stories that give you an idea who the other characters are:
Queen of Thieves and Traitors’ Fate for Kodyn and Aisha
Hero of Darkness for Hailen (and a bit of Evren)
For a special treat, check out Evren’s prequel novella to find out where this strong-willed, stubborn, defiant young man came from and who he was before meeting the Hunter on the streets of Vothmot. His story is told in The Renegade Apprentice…
The Renegade Apprentice
A desperate breakout. A perilous life on the streets. A fight to the death.
Evren’s life as an apprentice priest is an endless torment, until he seizes the chance to escape his slavery. But his freedom, and his life, may be cut very short because the dark alleys of Vothmot hold their own dangers...some deadlier than others!
Gritty, grim, and dark, this story will have you on the edge of your seat! Read now for a journey of courage and determination like no other…
Enjoy More Series by Andy Peloquin
Plus, get backstory and insight into the epic Heirs of Destiny characters!
For more of Kodyn’s origin story,
read Queen of Thieves
"They killed my parents. They took my name. They imprisoned me in darkness. I would not be broken."
Viola, a child sold to pay her father's debts, has lost everything: her mother, her home, and her identity. Thrown into a life among criminals, she has no time for grief as she endures the brutal training of an apprentice thief. The Night Guild molds an innocent waif into a cunning, agile outlaw skilled in the thieves' trade. She has only one choice: steal enough to pay her debts.