The Unseen Tempest (Lords of Arcadia) (26 page)

She gave him a smile that made it pretty clear what she thought of his intelligence. “Fates are given and avoided every day. They are dependent on several different factors than can be changed in a second. But destinies are not so easily shaken. When one has a destiny in the world, I can assure you, no matter how far you run or how much you resist it, you will find it waiting for you in the end.”

I was torn between fascination and being just plain pissed. “So my mom was some kind of super fortune-teller who, what? Left heaven so she could meet my dad and then die? She sounds like a pretty lousy gypsy.”

Olim got up out of her chair and slapped me right across my mouth. Hard.

“Do not ever speak ill of your mother. Ever,” she raged at me. “She gave up everything she had to save the Nine Realms! You are part of a greater plan that she laid her life down to make happen, and I will not let you sit there and sully her sacrifice.”

I was crying now, but I didn’t care. “You think I care about your fucking plan? Do you think for a second I wouldn’t rather have wanted a mother there to raise me instead of some idiotic plan? I just wanted to be normal, to just… I just wanted….”

After that it got ugly because I broke down blubbering.

Hawk put his arms around me. “Strike him again, and you will pull back a stump,” he warned her.

I don’t know what she did next because my head was buried against Hawk’s chest as I cried for my mommy like I was six and lost at the mall. All I knew was that seconds passed, and Olim’s voice was much kinder when she spoke again. “Kane, I know this is a lot to take in and that you miss your mother. But you have to understand, what is about to happen will change the Nine Realms for the rest of time. You need to be ready.”

“I just want to go home!” I said, sounding like the biggest crybaby in the world. I felt Hawk’s mind hovering over mine, wanting to make things better, knowing at the same time he couldn’t. This was about me and manning up and there was nothing he could do about it. It was about me.

No matter how much I thought it sucked.

I pulled away from Hawk and dried my eyes. “Okay, fine. What is going on, and what do I have to do?”

Olim smiled at me. “You have your mother’s courage. That will come in handy with what’s about to happen.”

“And that is?” Ruber asked her. The complete lack of fucks he was giving about her encouragement was all over his voice.

“He is going to have to decide where the next world tree is to be created. And no matter where he chooses, it will start a war among the realms like no one has ever seen.”

Yep, she cheered me right up there.

I
T
TOOK
Kor the better part of an hour to feel ready.

He had traced the runes carved into his bow silently, picking and choosing what spells he was going to need for the next few hours. His mind ached. He was pushing the limit of his abilities, and he knew it. Normally it took days to rest up after using as much arcane energy as he had, but there was no choice. He had no time to rest because he was the only one who could save Ater.

Standing up, he felt his knees twinge with age. He was pushing the better part of a thousand, which meant he was no longer a young elf. If he stayed comfortable and safe, his kind would live to be twice that and more easily. But he knew “comfortable” and “safe” were not words that described his world anymore.

“Are you ready?” Adamas asked.

“Almost,” he answered, turning to the pillar of amber in the middle of his living room. “She and I need to have a conversation.”

“You want the guards to remove the spell?” the diamond asked, a little shocked.

Kor pulled back his bow and a pale blue arrow appeared. “No need.” Pointing the arrow at her head, he said, “
Relier
” and released it.

There was a burst of colors and then nothing.

“You have some nerve!” Nystel’s voice raged at him.

He looked up and found them both standing in the middle of a vast white space.

“You come in here and invade my thoughts like some common—”

“Shut up,” he snapped, and a cloth rag appeared and bound itself over her mouth. Her eyes went wide in outrage and she tried to claw it off. “You can try all you want, but the spell is mine, which means it stays until I say it doesn’t.” Her arms dropped to her side. “You ready to play nice?”

If looks could kill, he would have been dead three times over.

Waving his hand, he undid his spell. The gag vanished, and she gasped as if it had been cutting off her breath.

“We are on the mental plane, dear priestess. Do you really think you’re breathing air?”

“What do you want?” she snarled, ignoring his question.

“To show you this,” he replied quietly. Suddenly, they were in Stygian. The filth and decay were evident everywhere as children barely clothed in rags ran by. “These were your enemies. There are the people you hunted down and killed in Koran’s name. I thought you might want to look at them, since I know you would never dare step foot onto a battlefield.”

It was impossible for her to mask her horror and sorrow at what she saw. The spell allowed them both to see each other’s thoughts, so there was no hiding. He could feel her revulsion, but at the same time the realization that these people were not the monsters she had imagined; they were just people.

He could also feel that she had no idea what he was talking about.

“I never attacked these people,” she said truthfully. “Do you honestly think I would slaughter children?”

“Yes,” he replied somberly. His memories of a thousand years of dogma about how dark elves were the bane of Koran’s existence, and each one of them should be put down like the abomination they were, flowed into Nystel’s mind. A millennium full of vitriol and loathing that light elves were taught by priestesses. A lifetime of hatred and loathing that was excused as being simply the way the world worked. Koran was about life, and those who took life in murder or wasted life in carnal pleasures outside of procreation were sinners. Sinners of the highest order who deserved nothing but death.

He felt her wilt away from her own words when faced with what those sinners looked like and what they truly were.

“But if it wasn’t you, then who attacked the city?” Kor mused, moving the memory around to right up until Ater and he had reached the front gate. “I was so sure it was our troops… I just assumed….”

Even though she didn’t say a word, he knew it hadn’t been her.

“There is another player on your board,” she said, skimming his thoughts as he tried to reason out what had happened. “Someone else was after your dark elf friend, and whoever they were took him.”

She was right, which meant Ater was in more trouble than Kor had suspected.

“If I free you from the amber, I need you to swear to me that you will not attack me or the gems. I assure you, that is a fight you cannot win.”

“And if I refuse?” she challenged him.

“Then I would assume that since gemlings are so long-lived, their spells have different durations than ours. Which means this spell could be short-term to them but last years to us. I am more than willing to let you stand here and rot if you are going to impede me.”

She couldn’t lie, not here. If she meant to attack or to try to follow him, he would know instantly. Instead she asked a question. “What is so important to you about this dark elf? Why risk so much for him?”

The questions could have come directly from his own mind, and most likely did, given the nature of the spell.

“Because he is all that is left of my brother,” he said, putting them in a version of his house so he could sit down. “Pullus met him and just… just left his life like it meant nothing to him. You know how devoted he was to Koran, and then one day, he was just gone.”

The sadness he felt about losing his brother was thick around them as he finally allowed himself a chance to grieve. “I had no idea who my brother was, and now I never will. And that dark elf is the only person in the realms who knows.”

She knelt down next to him. “You know it can’t bring Pullus back.”

A tear fell down his face. “I know, but it is the closest thing I have.”

He could feel her mind change.

“Fine, I will not stop you nor follow you. Free me from the amber, and you may go freely and of your own free will,” she added dryly. “Personally I think it is a mistake and you will end up dying horribly, but that is between you and Koran.”

He jumped up, and they were back in the white space. “That is all I wanted to hear.” He canceled the spell, and his eyes opened.

“You can remove the amber,” he told Adamas and his men.

“If she is going to attempt to attack me again…,” the diamond warned.

“She won’t,” Kor assured him. “Trust me.”

“Huummph,” he replied, making it obvious just how much he trusted the elf. “Lower the amber.”

A light shot out from the gems, absorbing the amber back into them again. Nystel stumbled forward for a moment before Kor held out a hand and steadied her. She met his gaze and said, “You’re playing a very dangerous game, Kor. You know you can’t win.”

He gave her a grin. “Not trying to win, just trying to stay alive.”

She stepped back from him and looked over at the floating diamond. “My name is Nystel, high priestess of—”

“I don’t care,” Adamas said, cutting her off. “You, elf, said you had a spell to take us to Ater. Do so now, or I am just going to destroy you.”

Nystel looked offended but had gathered how powerful the diamond was from Kor’s mind. “Koran go with you,” she said to the elf.

“He hasn’t so far, but the day is young,” he quipped back, drawing his bow. “Get close, Your Majesty. This spell has a limited range.”

The diamond and the ambers floated closer to the elf.

“Here we go.
Trouver
Ater
,” he ordered and let the arrow go.

A nimbus of light settled around Kor and the gems for a moment. Then they seemed to turn into light themselves. A bolt of energy shot out of the room and through the ceiling, arcing across the horizon like a shooting star.

F
ERRA
WOKE
up suddenly.

A perfectly formed arched ceiling made of ice soared over her; she could see sculptures of angels in the corners, all of them incredibly intricate.

It was exactly how Ferra had pictured hell.

“I won’t freeze!” she said, sitting up in a panic.

Molly was next to her. “I told you she would react badly to this environment.”

Caerus was floating next to her. “It wasn’t like we could remove her from it,” the sapphire retorted. “We are in the elemental plane of ice.”

“We’re where?” Ferra said, looking around.

“Niflgard,” Caerus answered. “Specifically, in the nation of Narian, I believe.”

Ferra had heard of Niflgard, of course. Her people guarded the portal that connected this plane to Faerth. It was where they believed Logos had traveled and from which he would one day return. “I’m… I’m here?”

Neither the clockwork girl nor the gemling understood what she was asking, so they nodded.

She got up from the bed, which she could see was made of different forms of ice, the mattress made of some kind of snow that held its form. The barbarian had thought she’d seen every kind of ice in existence. She realized she had barely scratched the surface. “Where are… wait, how did we get here?”

Molly began to explain what had happened in the workshop, with occasional elaborations from Caerus.

“Then Hawk and Kane, they are here?”

“I believe they are with the ice queen,” Molly said.

“Then come, let’s find them,” Ferra said, sounding as gleeful as either woman had heard before.

“Well, she got over that quickly,” Molly exclaimed, following after her.

“A
WAR
?”
I asked, blown away. “What kind of war?”

“There is only one kind of war,” Hawk said next to me. The feeling of foreboding coming from him was overpowering.

“But why would the realms go to war over where the tree is?” I asked, sounding like I was the dumbest kid in class. “I mean, it’s supposed to be on Earth, right?”

“Because Titania proved it could be moved,” Ruber said, catching on a lot faster than I was. “And if it could be moved once, it can be done again.”

Olim nodded. “It could, but it would most likely sever the connection the Nine Realms share beyond repair. Each world would be adrift, slowly dying like my sister’s realm.”

“So, so then why would anyone do that?”

Olim looked at me like she wasn’t going to be the one to tell me I was stupid.

“Because whatever realm possesses it will stay alive,” Hawk said, sounding sadder than I had ever heard him. “And because it has power, unlimited power.”

“Well, yeah, but the other worlds will die,” I tried to reason.

No one said a word.

“Are you serious?” I asked, outraged. “They would kill nine other worlds just so they could have a little power?” Hawk glanced at me, and I amended. “Okay, a lot of power, but really? Nine worlds?”

“Some people would look at that as a small price,” Ruber added.

“So then, what do I do?” I asked the queen.

She shrugged. “The choice rests with you and only you. You’re destined to choose the realm, but there is no telling which one you would pick.”

Hawk answered before I could. “There’s no question about which world he will pick. Trust me.”

I could feel the restatement in his mind as he said it.

“Say what?” I asked, turning to him.

“Oh please! Of course you’d pick your world,” Hawk said, trying to block his mind off but failing pretty badly.

“You mean the world your mom stole the tree from?” I lashed out automatically. I could feel the pain my words caused him the second they hit him because they hurt me as well.

Before the fight could continue, the door opened, and Milo stood there. “She’s awake, Your Majesty, and demanding to return to Aponiviso. She says she doesn’t want to be near him.” Milo nodded toward me.