She will again unite humanity,the female voice said.
She is the one to do so,the male agreed.
A silver glow started up near Syla—noonSyla. Jhiton paused.
The glow intensified, outlining her body and then growing so bright that Vorik could no longer see her through it.
Jhiton stepped back, but some of the silver light flowed toward him. He turned and tried to run for the exit, but Wreylith appeared with Agrevlari behind her. She roared, and Jhiton paused. He lifted his black sword, but the silver glow caught him, enrobing him fully, and soon he also disappeared within it.
Would he be killed? Sorrow filled Vorik, but he reminded himself that his brother should have died in the mine. Maybe he evenhaddied there and only his body and a few memories, that which had been needed to serve the whims of the storm god, had survived.
Are you alive?Agrevlari asked, turning his head as the silver light brightened.
Barely,Vorik replied,and I don’t know if these wounds will kill me. They?—
Some of the silver light spread toward him, and Vorik gasped as a rush of pure divine power filled him. He almost blacked out as the magic seemed to tear through his body. It wasn’t healing magic, and he wondered if he was to be killed because he was a stormer, because he’d acted against Syla’s people. But as he continued to breathe, he realized the silver magic was driving out the black magic, the infection that Jhiton’s swords had delivered. Was it eradicating the storm god’s magic within Jhiton too? Vorik couldn’t tell. If it did that, Jhiton might soon be dead. It could be all that was ambulating him.
The magic left Vorik, the silver light all around growing less intense, and he could see the laboratory again. The fog was being swept out, and he sensed the vestiges of the storm god’s magic disappearing with it. Above the islands, above all the Kingdom, the clouds were dissipating, and the sky was returning to normal. And did he sense that the hole in the shield had been repaired?
Movement brought Vorik’s focus back to the laboratory, and he groped around for the sword he hadn’t realized he’d dropped. If Jhiton was coming after him…
No, Jhiton lay on the ground in the spot where the silver light had enveloped him. Though it had also faded there, he wasn’t moving.
It was Syla who was crawling toward Vorik, exhausted weariness emanating from her, but her eyes were bright with awareness and lingering power. She reached his side and rested a hand on his chest.
“You’re alive,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” Vorik’s throat hurt—everythinghurt—but that didn’t keep him from adding, “I wanted to see you again.”
“I’m glad. May I use my magic to heal you?”
She didn’t look like she had the energy left for that, but worry filled her eyes, and he suspected he was in bad shape.
“Yes, of course,” he said.
One of her eyebrows twitched. “It wasn’t alwaysof course.”
He remembered their night in the temple, how he’d told her not to use her magic on him because he hadn’t wanted to risk feeling beholden to her and sharing his people’s secrets.
“It is now,” he said firmly.
Syla smiled. “Good.” The pleased relief in her eyes suggested she’d also been thinking of that time. “Good,” she said again and patted his chest.
Much gentler magic than the gods had used flowed from her fingers and into him, and he closed his eyes, feeling safe with her. Always.
24
“Syla?”came Teyla’s voice, seemingly from a distance.
At a touch to her shoulder, Syla blinked herself out of the trance she’d fallen into to heal Vorik. Maybe it had even been a doze. His eyes were closed, and she slumped at his side, almost lying down with her spectacles drooping down her nose. Worried she’d left the job half-done, she used her power to examine him. Ah, good. She’d succeeded in knitting together the many sword cuts and punctures he’d received, and there was no sign of the malevolent energy that had killed poor Vonla. It would have killed Vorik too if the gods hadn’t intervened.
Syla rubbed her eyes and adjusted her spectacles. Yes, the godshadarrived, hadn’t they? She’d managed to use the weapons platform to stop Jhiton, but, in the end, they had been the ones to drive out her divine enemy. Thankfully. Her gratitude would be in her prayers for the rest of her life.
“Syla?” Teyla asked again. “Are you all right?”
“No.” Syla looked around, her gaze falling on Vonla’s body, and she regretted that she hadn’t been able to help the captain. But at least the moon-marked prisoners had escaped. Fel and a few soldiers had entered the laboratory, and Wreylith andAgrevlari also stood on the far end, the cavernous space large enough for them to fit comfortably. Between their efforts and the projectiles from the weapons platform, the cliff entrance must have been opened enough to allow them inside. “But I will be. I think.”
“That’s good. Since Fograth is dead, you’re going to have to take charge of the Kingdom again.”
