Rise of the Dead Prince (46 page)

“
DO IT
!” she bawled at them. “
KILL ME
!” Suvira began writhing around on the ground, frantically crying and lashing a
bout.

“Don’t know as we could, seeing you like this,” said Dor, shaking his head. Trent nodded down at
her.

“Puts a man off murder to see such a fit,” he a
dded.

“Anyhow,” said Dor, “we promised your mama that we wouldn’t. Nice lady, your mama.” Trent scratched his beard and looked at the ceiling. Being remade felt pretty
nice.

“She’s a mite peculiar
…
but cordial just the same,” he said, looking at his undamaged hand ruminati
vely.

“I reckon so,” concluded Dor. The two men stood as sentries, denying her any path to Meier. They were still anathemas and unnaturally fast, making the duty effortless. She began to curse at them with intense feeling, using the worst profanity she could summon. Dor and Trent just shook their heads and clicked their tongues at the obscene display. Eventually, she gave up and returned to her corner, renewing her baleful screams and wee
ping.

It wasn’t more than a minute later that Kuvali appeared at the roof, sinking down slowly. Seeing Suvira in her present state wounded her deeply. She felt her madness rising again but pushed it down again, as she had done before. The effort was immense. Kuvali had been consumed by a single thing, and this allowed her the willpower needed to carry on as herself and not the wretched beast she had lived as for so many years. Seeing Meier laid out on the floor caused her a moment of brief p
anic.

She rushed to his side, flashing past Dor and Trent in a single stride. Even as they were, they could not follow the gesture. The white light in her eyes was something she could barely restrain. She lifted Meier’s head gently and put her cheek to his. He immediately came out of his swoon, thoroughly conf
used.

“You aim to sleep all day, Meier?” came the voice of Dor. Meier blinked t
wice.

“Am I dead for good?” he asked blea
rily.

“I reckon not,” said Trent affectionately. Reality se
t in.

“
DOR
!
TRENT
!” he said, immediately on his feet. He lunged at the men in a sort of awkward embrace. They laughed and returned his hugs, one at a time.
“How?”
he asked emphatically. Trent and Dor exchanged gla
nces.

“Dor’s better at explainin’ things,” said Trent, nodding to his companion. Dor took a br
eath.

“Well, it’s like this,” he started. “The nice lady, Kuvali here, said we was somewhere between here and there. That was because the spell what got us didn’t have time to finish its business. It was supposed to destroy our bodies and spirits, but it only got halfway on account of you stoppin’ it. So thank
you
for that. Then she asked us if we wanted to come on back, and we both said that we most certainly did. You know the rest, I reckon. We come down here and stopped this wild gal from clawing you up while you was nappin’. That’s all of it.” Meier couldn’t stop his tears from flowing, so he didn’t bother to try. He laughed happily at the sight of his friends. Then greater matters se
t in.

He looked to Kuvali. Her face was suddenly sad. She shook her
head.

“I looked in her pool, my daughter’s no fool
…
Each one is her tool, and under her rule,” Kuvali said solemnly. Meier’s heart sank so low it caused him to fall to his knees a
gain.

“What can be done?” he asked desperately. Meier had a thought, but then a flurried thing happened. Suvira bolted past her guards, who had momentarily been distracted by the horrible news. Kuvali moved to intercept, but she was opposite her daughter in the chamber, blocked by the source. She flashed twice, but even she was too late. Suvira jumped directly into the wellspring. Kuvali screamed and went to pull her daughter out, but the damage was done. The brief second had taken its toll. Suvira had no magic. The effect was horrendous. She began to shriek and writhe as though her body was falling apart, which in fact seemed to be true. Meier jumped into the source as well, trying to save the necromancer even as her mother pulled her out in another flash. He fell down on the surface of the wellspring. He felt the solid nature of it give way slightly, as though his hands were in dry
sand.

“Get out right away! You’ll die if you stay!” Kuvali cried out to him. Meier felt himself unable to move. Something was calling him. The pain in his head was unbearable, but he saw through the agony and into a glimpse of what it was trying to tell
him.

A burly arm snatched him and pulled him out of the light. Once out, Dor took him and set him down again. Looking over at Trent, Meier saw that the big man was fighting the urge to cry out in pain. His arm was smoking. Sweat poured off him, and he managed to sit down on the steps. For the first time since either man had met him, they heard Trent curse vehemently, albeit under his breath. Clearly, the pain was near to unbear
able.

“Thank you, Trent,” Meier said softly. The big man did not respond, but he did wave his hand dismissively to indicate that thanks were not required, all the while rocking forward and back, fighting through the pain. Meier managed to get up a
gain.

“What good am I if I cannot save them?” he asked them all frantically. “Well? Why am I here if I can’t do this one thing?” None had an easy answer. Meier could feel them. He could feel the hordes attacking Targov. He looked desperately at Kuvali who was rocking her singed daughter quietly. Dor went and knelt beside
her.

“What’ll happen to her, Kuvali?” he asked softly, showing genuine sympathy for the weeping mother. It had always been a soft spot for him, as indeed it was with any decent pe
rson.

“My lost little girl
…
not long for the world,” she said sorrowfully. Mother and daughter wept warm tears as Kuvali rocked back and forth. So that was the price of entering the wellspring. There were several visible burns on her body despite the ample coverage of her clothing. Her robes themselves were intact. The power had burned her from the inside
out.

“Kuvali,” said Meier, “can you think of anything to save them? Please
…
” Kuvali was lost in her sorrow but managed to look up from the face of her dying c
hild.

“I don’t have the answer, aber Sie sind das ganze,” she said cryptically. Meier couldn’t take it. He repeated the foreign words for all to
hear.

“I am the whole? What does that mean? People are
dying,
Kuvali! Please help!” he cried out. Kuvali felt a jolt of his urgency. It was as though an answer had come to
her.

“I mean to say,
you know the way,
It’s you that was sent
…
follow the glint,” she said, just as abstrusely. Meier felt ready to explode. Kuvali quieted him and continued. “The one deep inside,
ein Ort, frei von leid.”
Meier thought on what she m
eant.

“
A place free from suffering?
I don’t understand, Kuvali,” he admitted. Looking at her, he could see that the pain of her child was taking her into madness again. It explained the seemingly nonsensical answer. She looked at him, suddenly very ser
ious.

“The source will take your life, the toll to end this strife,” she said evenly, forsaking her normally musical tones. The three men stood stunned. Without a moment’s hesitation, Meier stepped forward into the so
urce.

“No!” called Trent, even as Meier fought the pain in his head. Dor just closed his eyes. Meier suddenly remember something that Trent had
said.

“It doesn’t take guts to do what has to be done,” he repeated it back to him. Meier went to work. He gave his life gladly, telling the source what it needed to do to save the tens of thousands left alive in Valahia and Karavunia. This time, the source responded. It showed him the
way.

Meier raised his arms and closed his eyes. The wellspring began to glow, and the golden sand rose to engulf him. Suddenly Kuvali’s words made sense. He looked deep inside to the place without suffering. It was the other side. He threw his mind there, even as the source began to collect its toll. Kuvali grabbed her daughter and flashed to the southeast side of the chamber, waving the men to follow her. This they did readily. The source seemed to take a deep breath, pulling itself into a single point of light. Then it happ
ened.

The light exploded out in a broad fan, sending a resplendent wave to the north and west. The light filled the room, blowing everyone back. Dor and Trent looked on through tears of sorrow and joy at the same time. The wave was erasing the dead and laying them to
rest!

Its light raced to Karavunia, cleansing the desecrated capital and every town in between and beyond. It washed across the eastern and western marches of Valahia, scattering the many thousands of dead soldiers to dust in its wake. Meier suddenly saw Targov. The first skeletons were climbing over the walls. The golden wave hit them. They fell, leaving a cloud of grit and bone dust behind. The clamor of one hundred thousand collapsing suits of armor rang out for miles in every direction. Meier saw the wave spread north to the mountains. The sprinting forces fell, even as they closed the distance to the convoy of escaping families. As the light passed into the mountains, it finally faded. The undead in Valahia and Karavunia were gone, utterly unmade. The wellspring went black. Meier fell backward into the waiting arms of
Dor.

The dead prince died the true death with a smile on his face. He knew no other
way.

The pain in Trent’s arm was a forgotten memory. He rushed to his prince’s side. The light in the well began to glow again, slowly growing in brightness over the course of the next minute. It had given everything to Meier in one bright flash. On Meier floated through the darkness to the place he had once dream
t of.

He stepped into the pasture beyond, where the sun not only sets but also rises. A white raven landed on his shoulder. “Welcome home,” she said warmly. He looked and saw familiar f
aces.

“Hello, son,” said Mira, appearing from nowhere. He felt her kiss on his forehead followed by the warm hand of his father squeezing his shoulder with a firm grip. The next thing he felt was a hug that lifted him from the soft g
rass.

“Hello, little brother! You make me so proud I can’t even start!” said Assur, tears in his
eyes.

“You’ve set us free, boy,” said Wold. Meier admitted his confu
sion.

“We were trapped in the castle, unable to move on until you brought us home, my precious boy,” said Mira. Meier sighed, finding his pleasure to be tinged with sad
ness.

“I
…
,” he said, choking up, unable to fi
nish.

“Nothing is ever lost, Meier,” reminded Raven’s mo
ther.

“I suppose that’s true,” he said softly. “Still, I
…
” Assur grabbed Meier’s shoul
ders.

“You have regrets?” he said firmly. “Well, look at it this way, baby brother. Anyone you ever missed, every one you love or ever loved, will be here before you know it. You just have to wait a while. I personally can’t wait to wrestle ‘King’ Ian.
HA, HA, HA
!” Meier laughed with his brother, all the while feeling the tinge in his heart. Meier felt a strange sensation. Things faded but then got clearer. He felt the need to sit on a nearby hill, his elated family still following closely be
hind.

“Can you hear me, sweet Meier? Who came for me through water and fire?” came the distant voice of Kuvali. His family was still talking to him, sharing stories and praising him, but their voices were not as clear as hers. Only Raven’s mother seemed to
hear.

“Kuvali?” he mutt
ered.

“You paid the final price, with your noble sacrifice. And now you’ve come home, at last free to roam,” she sang beautifully. Meier smiled, but it soon faded. “One thing I held back
…
as the light went black,” she said then continued. “Would you
return,
eternity spurn? And would you take this, the love in my kiss?” she asked. Meier felt his heart leap. Was he merely hearing what he wanted to hear? Kuvali’s airy laugh filled the air, even as she remembered something Meier had once told her. She adjusted it slightly to fit the situa
tion.

“Don’t doubt what you hear. I’m with you, my dear.” Meier felt a smile creep onto his face. Looking up, he saw that his family seemed to have frozen in place. The conversation with Kuvali was taking place instantaneously. It made sense. Those in the other life would not have to wait overlong to see their loved ones. Time passed slowly here. Raven’s mother, who seemed unaffected, took her ch
ance.

“It’s not impossible, Meier. Nothing ever is,” she said softly. Meier no
dded.

“I would like to return. There’s something I need to do. Rather, there’s something I dearly
want
to do,” he told Kuvali. Her laughter came through a
gain.

“You are wise to know the difference between what you know and inference.” Meier thought this was a nice compliment, but he had a pressing ques
tion.

“How can you bring me back when the source demanded my life?” he asked earnestly. Kuvali sang a few soft notes, seeming to be momentarily out of touch. As it turned out, it was only a sign she was thin
king.

“It was important that
you,
to see the thing through, would give all you had, take good with the bad. So then the source knew, that your heart was true. To grant what you need, it required this deed,” she recited rhythmically. Meier unders
tood.