It all stops, and for so many now will never start again.
You’ve ripped out the side of your people, left a gaping wound – a wound like the one before us. And we flow through it like blood. We spill out and scab up on the other side.
The Soletaken were all sembled now. They knew what needed to be done. And as the ranks drew up, Aparal saw his Eleint-fouled kin take position, each at the head of his or her own elite soldiers.
But a Hust Legion awaits us. Slayers of Hounds and Dragons, in all the mad laughter of war.
This next battle. It will be our last.
He looked up to the battlements, but Kadagar was not there. And from his soldiers resting on all sides, his commoners so bloodied, so utterly ruined, Aparal heard the same words. ‘He comes. Our lord shall lead us.’
Our lord. Our very own rag doll.
‘Water, Highness. Drink.’
She barely had strength to guide the mouthpiece to her lips. Like rain in a desert, the water flowed through the ravaged insides of her mouth. Lacerated tissues stung awake, her throat opened in relief. She pulled it away, gasping.
‘What’s happening? Where am I?’
‘The witches and your brother, Queen, they killed the Hounds.’
Hounds.
What day is this? In a world without days, what day is this?
‘They’re little girls now,’ her companion said.
Yan Tovis blinked up at her. A familiar face. ‘Your brother?’
The woman looked away.
‘I’m sorry.’
She shook her head. ‘I will see them soon, my queen. That’s what I look forward to now.’
‘Don’t think that way—’
‘Forgive me, Highness. I took care of them all my life, but against this, I wasn’t enough. I failed. It’s too much. From the very start, it was too much.’
Yan Tovis stared up at the woman’s face, the dry eyes, the absence of expression. She’s already gone. ‘“They await you on the Shore.”’
A brittle half-smile. ‘So we say over our dead, yes. I remember.’
Over our dead.
‘Tell the witches – if they do that to me again – if they use me like that – ever again – I will kill them both.’
The woman flinched. ‘They look ten years old, Highness.’
‘But they aren’t. They’re two old women, sour and bitter and hateful of the world. Go, give them my warning, soldier.’
With a silent nod, the young woman rose.
Yan Tovis settled her head, felt the sand grinding against the back of her skull. Empty sky. Dreams of darkness. If I had knelt to the Shore, they couldn’t touch me. Instead, they punished me.
‘But if they hadn’t,’ she whispered, ‘those Hounds would have killed hundreds more. Which of us, then, is sour and bitter? Hateful of the world?’
I will go to her. To Kharkanas. I will beg her forgiveness. Neither of us can withstand the weight of this crown. We should cast it off. We can find the strength for that. We must.
Oh, I am a fool. Yedan will not yield. The lives lost must mean something, even when they don’t. So, it seems we must all die. It seems we have no choice. Not the Shake, not the Letherii, not Sandalath Drukorlat, Queen of High House Dark.
She reached down and came up with a handful of white sand – crumbled bones. ‘It’s all here,’ she whispered. ‘Our entire history, right here. From then … to now. To what’s coming. All … here.’ And she watched, as she closed that hand into a fist, as if to crush it all.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Stone whispers
Patience
But we take chisel in hand
Child begs
Not yet
But the sands have run out
Sky cries
Fly
But we hold our ground
Wind sings
Free
But roots bind us down
Lover sighs
Stay
But we must be gone
Life pleads
Live
But death is the dream
We beg
Not yet
But the sands have run out
Stone whispers
‘THERE WILL COME A TIME,’ VENTURED SECHUL LATH, ‘WHEN WE shall be all but forgotten.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ growled Errastas. ‘And they shall drink blood. Remember that? Book of Elders. And that is the last memory of us that will remain. As drinkers of blood. A tyranny of thirst. If it is not for us to save our worshippers, then who will – who will save all these wretched mortals?’
Behind them, feet thumping the ground like a drum of war, Kilmandaros said, ‘They cannot be saved. They never could.’
‘Then what use are we? To any of them?’
Errastas spat on the ground, and replied with contempt, ‘Someone to blame, Setch. For all the ruin they themselves commit. On each other. On themselves. Anyway, enough. We’ve chewed on this too many times.’
Sechul Lath glanced back. ‘Are we far enough, do you think?’
Kilmandaros’s eyes were hooded with exhaustion, and she did not bother following his gaze. ‘No.’
‘A warren—’ Errastas began.
She cut him off with a snort. ‘The wounding to come shall strike through every warren. Young and Elder. Our only hope is to get as much distance between us and her as we can.’
Errastas shrugged. ‘I never much liked K’rul anyway.’
‘To begin,’ Kilmandaros said, ‘this but wounds. If she is not slain in time, then K’rul will indeed die, and the world shall be unmade. The death of sorcery, and more.’
Sechul Lath smiled across at Errastas. ‘And so the coin is cast, and it spins, and spins still.’
‘She is no longer our problem,’ he replied, one finger probing the empty socket of his stolen eye. ‘Her sister will have to deal with her. Or someone else.’
‘And on this our fate rests – that someone else cleans up the mess we make. I dare say our children will not appreciate the burden.’
‘They’ll not live long enough to appreciate much of anything,’ Errastas said.
I truly see our problem, friends. We don’t want the future, we want the past. With a new name. But it’s still the past, that invented realm of nostalgia, all the jagged edges smoothed away. Paradise … for the drinkers of blood.
‘Draconus seeks to do me harm,’ said Kilmandaros. ‘He waits for me.’
‘Don’t be a fool,’ snapped Errastas. ‘He will join with T’iam in slaying the Otataral Dragon. He may have vowed eternal war against chaos, but even he would not welcome its end. Besides, a battle with you risks too much – you might kill him. He’s been imprisoned in a sword for how long? You think he’d risk his freedom so soon? Perhaps indeed he has old scores to settle with you, Kilmandaros, but he is about to discover far more immediate threats.’
‘Unless he gleans our purpose.’
Sechul Lath glanced back at her. ‘Mother, I assure you, he has done that. But I think Errastas judges rightly. Draconus will see the threat posed by the release of the Otataral Dragon, and her presence will be his lodestone. Hopefully a fatal one.’