“Stop!”
A salvoof bone shot from above, exploding into the ground at his feet.
“Whatdo you think you’re doing?”Berith yelled, his bones quickening along hisrobes.“Your arm is useless!You can’t cast!What is your plan, Isaac?Tellme!”
Isaacstopped.With his uninjured arm, he pulled Zaria’s dagger from a pocket at hiship.He put the sheath in his mouth, drew the blade, and spat the leatherscabbard onto the floor.Steel glinted in the sun.
Berithgave a humorless snort.“Did yourpirategive that to you?”
He washalfway to the stairs.The path before him was cracked and brittle, rippedapart by the quakes of the colossus.Around him, crucified skeletons staredeyeless to the sky.
“Do notforce my hand,” Berith said.“Put down the knife.”
Isaacbegan to walk.
“Putthe knife down!That’s an order!”
Hisknuckles were bone-white on the hilt.Around him, the sigils carved into thestudents began to glow bright, like rings of molten steel.
“Isaac!”
Isaacglared at his uncle.
One ofthe students shot a lick of flame, like the bolt of a crossbow.It hit Isaacsquare in the thigh, and he collapsed to the floor, slapping desperately at theleg of his robes.The flesh crackled and split, hissing like meat.
Heloosed a scream.
“Youalways were disobedient,” Berith said.
WhenIsaac tried to stand, the pain became blinding.He crumbled back down to hisbelly, breathing desperately.
“Thiswas all your father’s doing.You understand that, don’t you?”Berith pacedalong the edge of the altar, his black robes like a shadow upon the columns.“If he hadn’t come to this tomb, if he hadn’t blundered his way into a trap, ifhe hadn’t....”Berith snarled around his breath.“If he had justdied,when he should have.If he hadn’t been so desperate to save himself.If he andthe Diet hadn’t extorted me into raising you.”
Withthe dagger still in hand, Isaac pressed his knuckles to the stone, pushinghimself up.
“If I hadn’tbeen forced to kill your mother.”
Isaacgot back to his feet, slouching heavily.His walk was limping and slow.
“Thiswas all his fault!”Berith yelled.“Do you think you’re defending him?Do youfeel some need to save the man who tried to sacrifice you without a moment’shesitation?”
He hadreached the stairs.There were sixty-two, rising one after the other.Each oneof them felt as tall as a mountain.
Isaacsnarled through the pain.
“Answerme, boy!”
He tookto the stairs, and every step sent agony up his leg, and soon he was crawling,using his hands more than his legs, digging through rifts of fallen sand.Hispalms left bloody prints upon the stone.
“Stop!”
It wasno different than the yard.There was shouting, and there was exhaustion, andthere was pain beyond what he thought he could endure, and all he had left tohim was the power of his mind, the will within his soul.
Howmany times had he done this before?
“Thereis no need for this!”Berith yelled.“We can go home together!”
Elementalspells churned around him.Bones boiled in the air.
