Now that it was finished, he didn’t know what else to do but disappear. Into the bottom of a barrel of ale, into some decrepit town across the world where no one knew him, or into some hole in the ground.
It didn’t matter now.
He had completed his purpose.
Von turned away from fire and went against the current of the crowd. Bodies and voices surged around him. He wandered to the end of the beach, where it was empty. He wasn’t looking for anyone anymore. If he had, he would have seen the blade before it sank into his stomach.
He jerked to a halt, gasping for breath. His trembling hands clutched the hilt. It was made of ivory, carved elaborately with some design he couldn’t make out through his blurred vision. Distant cries filled his skull as he looked up at Sai-chuen.
“There is a proverb in my clan,” the Xián Jing man told him idly in a thick accent. He herded Von backwards towards the shore until the sea splashed around their boots. “To kill a beast, you must first cut off its tail. When it loses balance, cut off its legs. When it can no longer move, cut out its eyes. When it’s blind, only then can you cut off its head.” Sai-chuen twisted the blade and tore it out. Von jerked back a step with a ragged gasp of pain. “You were your Master’s legs, Von. But I had to cut off your tail first.”
The world lost balance, and Von dropped. His knees splashed into a wave rolling over the shore. The metallic taste of his blood gushed into his mouth and spilled down his chin.
Cut off your tail…
Yavi.
That wasn’t right. She had been everything. All of him. He now may as well be blind.
Why? Why did he hurt her?
Von didn’t understand. This was part of Sai-chuen’s plan. Tarn was the beast in his proverb. Yavi had been merely a casualty.
Who was he? Why did he do this?
But Sai-chuen gave him no answers. He strode away to where a she-elf waited for him. She looked back at Von with an expression mixed with concern and confusion. Sai took her arm, and they vanished into the crowd. Thunder shook the skies as rain began to fall.
Von reached out with a trembling hand, “Why?” he rasped, his faint voice lost beneath the crash of waves. “Why?”
The last of his strength faded, and he fell face first into the wet sand. Waves washed over him, running red as it rolled away and returned. They smothered his mouth and nose.
Why!The question screamed in his head. He had to know before he passed through the Gates. Why did his wife have to suffer?
Rain beat down on him as his vision began to darken. His injured body wouldn’t move off the cold ground, not that he cared to go on anymore. Von couldn’t hope for more than the quiet sadness of this ending.
He would die here without ever knowing why.
Running steps faintly thudded on the beach toward him. Another wave crashed on the shore and rolled over him. It rushed up his nose and burned his eyes. He blearily blinked up at the blurred image of a young woman with hair the color of flames.
Hands grabbed his arms and hauled him onto dry sand.
Dyna crouched down and smiled at him sadly. “There’s a familiar face.”
CHAPTER 37
Dynalya
Athick veil of black smoke hovered over Argent Cove. Dyna didn’t know who survived the blast and whether anyone was looking for her, but she had to get them out of view first. Dyna reached into her satchel and called on the last of her Celestial feathers. Two appeared in her hand, one black and the other…red.
Still wet.
Dyna ignored that one.
She tossed it back in and kept the black one. It glowed bright gold as it dissolved, and her barrier dropped. It wouldn’t stay down for long.
Casting it out over Von, she lifted his unconscious body. She moved quickly off the beach and took the crude steps on the rocky hill. They needed shelter out of this cold and rain. Von hovered beside her in a mist of Essence until she found an abandoned cargo bay on the far end of the pier and went in. It was dark inside. Not much there but broken crates, wheelless carriages, and rope hanging from old, rusted pulleys. Rain beat on the leaky roof as she laid Von down on a dirty pile of canvases. He was unconscious, pale, his breathing shallow.
Dyna removed his bandoliers and pulled up his tunic to assess the damage. A hiss passed through her teeth at the deep wound. He’d been stabbed. She placed her hands over it and his blood seeped through her fingers as she called on her Essence to heal. It surged forward with eager intent, and she had missed that warm feeling of her power. She took her time repairing the damage to Von’s organs. Piece by piece, the tissue and muscle sewed back together until all that was left was a fresh scar.
