Lærke’s little better, stony, as she sits on the bed, despite how Insinio helped us with her brother when he went Wraith at Chambord.
“For Archangels, Ren and I are pretty young; at only a little over a thousand years old, and half-human to boot, neither of us is party to a lot of what the elder Archangels know, especially in the Intercessoria. They think we’re rowdy, rebellious teenagers,” Insinio says, snorting a chuckle of derision, “but together, we pack a lot of firepower. So they have to give us some leeway, rather than discipline us like they truly want to.”
“I didn’t know you were half-human.” My eyebrows rise as I hear some of the duo’s story, which I’ve gotten next to nothing of in the past. I also didn’t know they’re both relatively young for quasi-immortals, at only a thousand years old.
“We don’t divulge our story to many.” Heathren is curt now, as if chit-chatting about their past is a waste of time. And it is, when we’re up against so much. “In any case, what we’re dealing with is most likely an ancient cosmic force; as such, it cannot be destroyed, only halted in its progression on this earth. Such things are not even forces Archangelstamper with; your ancient Ancestors made a vast mistake to tap into such a destructive energy in the cosmos.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I snort, grateful that the Jud duo are on our side, but furious about what my Ancestors brought into this world, and which Hedda and Lithava perpetuate.
“So if this ancient force cannot be destroyed, how are we supposed to fight it?” Lærke asks now as she lifts an eyebrow at the Juds.
“You don’t.” Heathren’s pale gaze pins her, then me.
And I feel a death knell echo right into my very soul.
17
PLAN
As Heathren Merkami tells me we can’t fight this cosmic division energy out in the stars, I feel my entire world unravel. But in the next moment, his words make sense. Something clicks into place for me as I watch him, understanding his short answer. There’s a lot more to the longer answer, however, which I know to my blood and bones is true, as I pin him with my gaze and feel Maryse’s words echo all through me now.
“We don’t fight it. We have to heal it, don’t we?” I say, as my Bloodwalker power rings all through me, knowing the truth.
“Healingis a good word for it, as good as any.” Heathren nods at me now, as his pale silver eyes glitter with something like approval.
“Cosmic energies can’t be killed.” Insinio joins in now, giving me a more direct answer than his mysterious companion. “As such, what you must do to get it out of your hair is to halt this thing’s spread here on earth. Closing the Rift where it’s manifesting, and stopping it from giving that energy to the Black Dragon, is a great place to start.”
“So how do we do that?” I push now, needing answers if we’re about to go up against this thing soon.
The Intercessoria duo glance at each other. “If we knew that,” Heathren says, “we would already be doing it. You have to understand, Rikyava, the stakes are exceedingly high here. If this force can destroy the Void, devouring and scattering formed souls back to empty, cosmic potential… then it’s one of the primal forces of the universe. There are many primal forces that form and destroy the universe, and it seems the one your Ancestors tapped into is one manifestation ofdivisionenergy. Just as you believe, it will continue to sunder anything that’s whole, until it takes down the entire place it manifested in—our earth. Then spread to other worlds, eating them next.”
“Bad news, any way you look at it.” Insinio growls now as he grips the pommel of his sword with his big hands.
“Aesa and her drakes fought the Black Dragon five thousand years ago, and King Örn Magnussen trapped it at that Outer Island where Rikyava’s sister and her drakes resurrected it,” Mikkel says now as we all recall the Black Dragon’s history. “Could we do something like that—how it was fought in the past?”
“The crater on that Outer Island was an ancient holding cell for the Black Dragon.” Heathren and Insinio share a dark look. “King Örn’s incarceration field for the creature was a massive piece of work, brilliant, and extremely dangerous. He trapped it far away from its source, the Black Rift, so it could no longer rampage and feed the Rift, making the Rift go dormant. Clever.”
“Lithava broke that containment field with her power, as she wielded Hedda’s magic through the black ring.” A sinking sensation fills me. “The diseased runes at the blast site were a combination of the Black Dragon’s and hers, as her other mates helped it get out.”
“King Örn built an entire temple and a fucking insane warren of sub-passages on that island just to create that rune-field,” Insinio agrees, as he watches me. “Your sister and her drakes broke all that when they busted out the Black Dragon.”
“But the basic structure for the containment field is still there.”Heathren is thoughtful as he looks at me, before his pale gaze snaps to Baldur and he narrows his eyes. As Heathren’s vast Archangelic power sweeps Baldur, he shivers, but weathers it. Heathren lifts an eyebrow as I see his mind working a thousand miles a minute as he considers my Fourth Drake.
Then looks at me as I feel him formulate a plan.
“The Intercessoria have been working on a new containment structure for the Black Dragon, and it is nominally complete,” Heathren says now as he and Insinio share a glance. “They have not tested it yet, but believe it may hold the beast. If we could tether that containment system to King Örn’s original runic field, still within the crater, using the dormant volcano to power the field, which is what I believe he did in the first place… then it might be done.”
“A new trap.” My gaze meets Heathren’s, as I know what he’s talking about, to my blood and bones. “You want to make a new trap for the Black Dragon, far from the Rift, just like King Örn did. To make the Rift go dormant once more.”
“It worked in the past.” Heathren’s pale eyes pin me. “It could work again.”
“But Aesa and her drakes didn’t destroy the beast, or close the Rift.” Lærke counters now as she lifts a caustic eyebrow. “We’re out to kill the Usurper forever, and shut the mouth it feeds. Not trap it and make that power go dormant again.”
“Noble; I applaud that,” Heathren says with fierce approval in his gaze now as he looks Lærke over, thoughtful. “But the problem with killing a force such as this is that it cannot be done. As you have already realized, division, strife, war, and battle only feed it.”
“Could we trap it, then blow up that ancient volcano on the island to kill it?” Mikkel asks now as a vicious look takes him. “Then it wouldn’t be us fighting to destroy it, but a force of nature taking it down.”
“Perhaps.” Heathren exchanges a thoughtful glance with Insinio. “First, we would need to cleanse Lithava’s curses from the site, and theBlack Dragon’s own from when it escaped. Then we would need to restore as much of King Örn’s original runic containment field within the crater as possible, especially in any of the temple’s under-passageways that are still intact. We’d need to complete everything quickly before the Black Dragon can power up any further. Before Lithava and her drakes complete Hedda’s second ritual and return Hedda’s mates to it.”
