The Silver Siren (38 page)

I shrugged my shoulders and pointed
back to camp. She hadn’t seemed that powerful or important, since
it looked like as if Cirrus was the one truly controlling
everything.

“
Is it over?” Kambel urged
his donkey toward us. He had tied his long beard into little
braids, which were wrapped around his head and tied. I supposed it
was to keep them from impeding his hands, but it certainly was
strange. I couldn’t help but stare at the beard.

“
I told him to just cut
the thing off but he insisted I braid it.” Breah huffed and put her
fists on her hips.

“
I told you, Breah, that a
man’s beard is his dignity. It signifies age, experience wisdom.”
Kambel slid off his donkey.

“
You speak of dignity and
wisdom when you look like a furry rabbit?” Breah called over her
shoulder as she moved on to another injured soldier.

Lorna called out to stop the argument.
“Hush you two. We have plenty of work to do. There are more
injured. Get to it. Argue later.”

As the adepts went to work on the
injured, I scoured the field, studying the faces of the dead,
looking for any signs of Joss.

On and on. I searched the deformed
hill where Joss had fought Syrani. A few times, I saw the hem of a
shirt that looked like Joss’s and started to dig through the dirt.
Each time to find nothing but a nameless face.

More SwordBrothers raced past me into
the castle and I scanned each of their faces, looking for Kael’s.
Not once did I see his stormy blue eyes.

Hours I spent, searching the battle
grounds for them. For any signs of Kael, Joss, and my father, but I
only found death and more death. It was becoming too much, too
overwhelming.

Especially when I began to recognize
more and more of the dead. Soon they were no longer nameless. I
stumbled across Gideon’s and Tieren’s remains. My stomach tightened
in a spasm, about to retch at the look of their glazed sightless
eyes.

But it was Eviir’s lifeless body
sprawled protectively across that of a young Sinnendorian child
that really ripped the blindfold off.

I felt it. All the pain. And I began
to mourn silently.

Bit by bit, with the help of the
adepts and others, order began to restore itself around me. I knew
peace would eventually ensue, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to
the castle. I wasn’t ready to confront anymore familiar
faces.

I needed solitude. I had something
that needed to be done.

Wandering back toward the camp,
passing the burned tent of the Raven, I headed toward the river.
When I got to a secluded spot, I pulled out the journal and flipped
through it. I couldn’t read a single word. It was in a language I
had never seen or heard of. The script looped and swirled and then
ended in sharp angles. It wasn’t going to do anyone any good, but
then I remembered Xiven. He’d been able to translate it for Talbot.
Cirrus had his own notes, and even Xiven had started making his own
additions and performing his own experiments.

Even if I destroyed this copy of the
Horden journal, there were other copies out there.

Still, it felt good to destroy the
item that had ruined my life. I laid the journal on the ground,
placed my hand over it, and sent it up in smoke, burning so hot and
fast there were hardly any ashes left. After all of the death and
battle, this was the one moment I felt a bit of
vindication.

“
Get up slowly,” his deep
voice whispered into my ear. Instantly, my pulse raced and I felt
my knees go weak. I turned to gaze up at him and he was dripping
wet. Had he jumped into the aqueduct after me?

I wanted to throw my arms around him,
hug him, kiss him, and tell him I would never ever leave him or
send him on a mission again.

But I couldn’t, because he had a very
large knife pressed against my throat.

My mind reeled. How could it be? I
killed Cirrus—Kael should be free. I carefully used my hands and
pushed myself off of the ground, standing up to face
him.

That’s when I saw her, and my body
recoiled in hate and fury. She was once again standing feet away
from me, wearing a red dress instead of the robe, her hair spilling
out of her regal bun. Of course, she wore the silver hook-nosed
mask upon her face. It seemed that she needed the mask to help her
become the Raven, that she couldn’t quite separate herself from
Lilyana without it.

But what made my heart rise to my
throat was the prisoner tied up and on his knees in front of her.
Joss’s eyes were clear as day, and his face was red with anger. The
Raven pressed the knife to his throat.

We were at an impasse.

When Joss saw me he called out my
name.

“
Joss, don’t move,” I
answered back.

Physically, I was drained, and I
couldn’t reach into the castle for power without endangering my
friends and father. But I needed strength. I was furious at myself
for foolishing turning my back on the queen, and that anger made me
reach farther than I’d ever reached before. Instead of inward, or
stealing from others, I reached down. Into the earth, into its very
core, searching for magic. Gideon had said it was abundant in
Calandry, but magic didn’t dwell where Sirens where. But he had to
be wrong. There was power in everything. I just had to find
it.

Pushing myself farther and faster than
I ever did, I kept at it. Searching deeper into the earth. It was
dark and cold against my consciousness.

There! I could feel it. Power. Miles
below the earth. Slowly, like a dragon waking from a deep sleep,
the power reared its head and moved toward me, almost eagerly. It
filled my very being, and I started to shake with the intensity of
the power I had touched. It was old—very old. And it was
mine.

I pulled away from the knife and sent
a bolt of lightning straight into the queen’s heart. She fell
backwards onto the ground and twitched.

Once.

Twice.

And then she stopped.

I sighed in relief thinking I had done
it. I killed her. But Kael still held the knife. I looked at him
quizzically. He should be free. Kael’s eyes filled with
pain.

Something was wrong. He gasped and
then pressed the knife closer, deeper into my skin. I felt a slight
sting but was afraid to move. Afraid for what was happening to Kael
and what this meant.

I heard her hysterical laughter before
I saw her walk back into my line of sight and cringed. The queen
was not dead.

“
Aha! It worked. I didn’t
believe him, but it worked. I have my own SwordBrother. I’m
invincible.” She crowed and grabbed Joss by the top of his head and
wrenched it so far back he cried out in pain.

The knife at my throat pulled away
slightly. I looked up into Kael’s eyes and behind the
expressionless mask that he always wore. I saw him. I had stared
into his eyes enough times to ponder what he was thinking. And I
knew, in this moment, he could see me and he was fighting against
that which controlled him.

He didn’t want to hurt me. His eyes
were dark storms of fury and pain. I could feel the shadowing anger
roll off of him in waves.

“
Are you bonded to her?” I
whispered, feeling panic consume me. I didn’t know that a
SwordBrother could be bonded to more than one person. The bond was
backwards if he was. Her life was now connected to his, and since
he was near invincible, it was sheer genius on Cirrus’s
part.

He didn’t answer, or he
couldn’t.

“
Okay. Blink once for yes,
twice for no.” I was grasping at straws.

Kael’s eyes blinked once slowly. The
hand holding the knife shook as he held it toward my
throat.

“
Does she know about us?”
I whispered again. He blinked twice slowly.

“
Don’t look at him!” Raven
screeched, her voice rising in frustration. “Look at me! What are
you willing to give me in exchange for the boy’s freedom? I know
you care about him.” Even though she had the knife pointed at Joss,
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Kael.

Freedom! What a glorious thought. I
would give anything to be free, and that’s what I answered.
“Anything.”

“
I want Cirrus back! And
you can’t give me that. So instead, you’re going to watch Joss die,
the way I watched Cirrus. Then I’m going to kill your father, your
cousin, and all of your friends. Then my SwordBrother is going to
kill you.” She beckoned to someone behind her and they were all
there.

One by one, other Septori came before
me and shoved my father, Hemi, Siobhan, and Fenri onto the ground
in front of me—all of them tied up and badly beaten.

“
No!” I felt Kael try and
pull back as the knife brushed my throat drawing blood.

“
Yes! I win. I always win.
In chess, you know you don’t win until you take out the queen, you
stupid girl. You brought this on yourself.”

She paced back and forth among her
victims, toying with them. She made a long slice here and there
across a forearm, or a little cut across a cheek. Siobhan screamed
when the knife came near her arms.

“
Stop it!” I yelled. “It’s
me you want. Not them. Hurt me. I’m the one who killed
Cirrus.”

“
But where is the fun in
that? I want you to suffer. Maybe what I should do is let them all
live and take them with me.” She ran her hands along Joss’s face,
then my cousin’s. Look I’ve got Denai, Sirens…I can build myself a
whole new army.”

“
No!” I shouted. The
thought of my father, of Joss, or of any more innocent people being
subjected to the torture I had been through was almost my
undoing.

“
Then choose. I’ll give
you the choice of who dies first. Will it be the pretty Denai? I’ve
heard you’re in love with him.” She placed her face close to his
and he recoiled from the mask. “Will it be your father? Or the
girl? I’ll give you to the count to ten, and then I’ll just pick,
shall I?” She began to walk up and down the line of victims
counting off and pointing the knife at each one of them starting
with…Joss.

TEN.

Thalia,
Faraway called out to me.
Where are you?

I’m by the river.
I answered tears pouring out of my eyes as I
watched the Raven move from Joss to Hemi.

NINE.

I’m on my way. Hold
on.

You’ll never make it in
time. You’ll be too late
, I
answered.

Another brush of thought touch my
mind. Wolf.

Wolf? Can you
help?

SEVEN.

Nay, I cannot give you
what you are unwilling to give up yourself.
It was the second time he’d said that to me tonight. Then it
hit me.

SIX.

“
Kael,” I
whispered.

His eyes opened and met mine. He was
crying with frustration, his tears running freely down his cheeks.
His hand shook as he tried to pull the knife farther away from
me.

“
I love you. I’ve always
loved you, and I always will.”

FIVE.

He seemed to understand by my tone of
voice what I was asking of him. He devoured me with his gaze,
memorizing me. His eyes locked onto my lips before he let out a
small moan.

FOUR.

Kael shifted ever so slightly and
succeeded in lowering the knife from my throat. It slid it to a
spot over my heart. His hands trembled, and I wrapped my hands
around his fists, feeling the warmth of him under my touch. I’d
missed his touch so much. I needed him. I missed him, and I knew I
could no longer live without him.

THREE.

Thalia…No wait. I’m almost
there!
Faraway called out.

TWO.

Faraway! I love you. You
are the best friend I could ever have. I’m sorry I couldn’t wait
for you!

I watched out of the corner of my eye
as the Raven stopped in front of my father and lifted the knife
high into the air.

“
One.” I breathed the word
mere milliseconds before the Raven did.

I grabbed Kael’s hands and flung
myself onto the knife, plunging it deep into my heart. Instantly,
Kael was released from the spell that held him. He reached out for
me just as I fell into his arms. Kael crumpled to the ground,
cradling me.

I briefly heard my father’s cry of
grief and Joss screaming my name over the thundering sound of horse
hooves. But none of it mattered, except for the beating of Kael’s
heart as I lay pressed against his chest. The sound of my own heart
was slowly fading away.

“
I love you too,” Kael
whispered.

Our heartbeats—matched in a beautiful,
slowing rhythm—stopped.

Chapter 36

There was nothing.

Just a void.

No sound.

But then I heard it, very softly. The
last sound I remembered before dying.

Kael’s heartbeat.