“I hear nothing.” She watched as he staggered back, shocked and shattered.
His magic wavered. Let him break into a hundred pieces. “You…You lie.”
“There is nothing to learn from this rock and Ulvarth is guilty.”
“Evil witch,” he seethed. He shifted toward her, movements jerky and forced, as though the magic he was maintaining had every muscle rigid and tense. “Liar of the Dark Isle. Spawn of Adela! I will show you all the righteousness of the Pillars. Now give me the dagger, you unworthy child of evil.”
Eira took a small step back, getting just enough distance to have momentum, sinking her weight lower and tensing her muscles.
“Take it from her!” Ferro commanded of the other Pillars. He must be using too much magic on his glyph to attack her himself.
“You want it? Fine. Have it.” Eira gripped the dagger with all her might. Maybe she was finally living up to their assumptions, because Adela’s spawn wouldn’t have hesitated and, finally, neither did she. Eira lunged and thrust, and the blade met its mark, burying straight between his ribs. Plunged to the hilt, her shoulder bumped against his as Ferro went heavy. He coughed and she felt blood splatter down her back.
None of this was according to plan. Everything had been broken along the way. Marcus was gone. The Court of Shadows had been decimated. The trust Eira had placed in them had evaporated.
But she had her vengeance and the Voice’s blood in the blade was now lost, mingling with Ferro’s and spilling onto the floor.
She twisted the dagger and he grunted. The room stared at the scene unfolding in their trapped stasis. Dozens of knights. Over a hundred sorcerers. And they were thwarted by one man and his robed minions. Eira twisted the blade in the opposite direction. He let out a satisfying scream of pain.
None of you could do it, Eira wanted to say to the people and their unblinking eyes. What judgment would they pass on her for this when they could move once more? Did she finally prove to them she was the killer they had been saying she was all along?It had to be done. And it fell to me.
“I vowed I would kill you,” Eira whispered for him and for Marcus, watching from the Father’s realms. “Let it end.”
“No, Eira,” he rasped. His arm snaked around her, clutching her to him with a force a dying man shouldn’t possess. He rasped a horrible, final laugh. “This is only the beginning.” Ferro tilted his head back, using her for support as his body was going limp. “Ashes of Yargen!”
The men behind him rushed forward, tossing a fine, shimmering black powder around them. He said he’d collected the ashes on Solaris, from the “tomb.”The Crystal Caverns. Eira’s eyes widened. It was crystal dust. Suddenly every conversation they’d had about the war of the Crystal Caverns returned to her. Had she told him anything that he hadn’t used against her?
“Blood of the Champion in my veins. Blood of the Voice, imparted to me from the dagger. Yargen, I am your servant, the vessel to channel your power. My life is yours to use as kindling.”
He gripped her hand, Eira was too numbed with confusion to put up a fight as he ripped the blade from his chest. Blood streamed from his mouth and torso as Ferro lifted the dagger high above him. Eira wrenched herself away.
“This blade carried the blood of the last Voice, the lasttrueVoice.”
Four relics—blood of the Voice, blood of the Champion, Ashes of Yargen, and kindling. She’d been wrong.Kindling. Not someone to kindle the fire. Ferro had meant he was a willing sacrifice. Horror tilted the world in a nauseating way.
“With these four sacred relics combined, I beseech you, Yargen. Reignite the flame. Guide your lost children back into your embrace. Restore your light to this forsaken land for the glory of your Champion and faithful!”
Ferro held his arms up as if reaching for an embrace. He was met with fire.
37
Acolumn of flame blazed where Ferro once stood. Eira staggered back, shielding herself from the immense heat, drawing on her power to keep herself from getting burned. The flames flickered white, tinged with blue. Ferro’s screams filled the room, cries of ecstasy more than pain—a horrible sound to match the wretched scent of his skin bubbling and meat burning from bone.
The other Pillars raced around him. They swayed and waved their hands to the heavens. They rasped, chanting in tongues. As Ferro immolated himself, the room came alive once more and his glyph disappeared for good. People who were once frozen by magic now were held prisoner by shock and awe.
Eira looked toward the dais, wondering if the flame was from the crown princess. But if she had summoned the blaze, she’d managed to do so under Ferro’s magic.No, it couldn’t have been her. If Vi could’ve summoned her powers, she would’ve well before now. Did this mean Ferro really was channeling the power of the goddess?
The flames subsided, leaving nothing but a charred circle with the golden dagger at its center, miraculously unharmed. Tongues of white fire danced on the blade’s edge.
“This is the Flame…this is the Flame…” the Pillars chanted, swaying. “By her might. By her blessing. May Yargen guide us once more. May the Champion wield her holiness.” Every Pillar knelt before the burning blade, and murmurs rose throughout the room. Even though people had autonomy again, they clearly didn’t know what to do with it.
“That is no Flame of Yargen,” Taavin’s voice rang out, clear and true.
The Pillars ignored him, continuing their chants. “Yargen, guide us with your light.”
“It looks like the flame,” someone said from the crowd behind Vi.
“Could it be?” another said.
