Thunder clapped, a profound rumbling Ione felt in her bones, in each quivering heartbeat.A shaft of light rent the sooty clouds, striking Kai and connecting him to the bloated sky.It suspended him in place, his horrendous cries drawing River back to him, hovering beside Hilo and Etan, none of them sure what to do.
The light shot skyward, dropping Kai back to his knees and limning each dark cloud with silver.And then the sky itself cracked open, releasing waterfalls of rain, hundreds of them, thousands, stretching all the way into the horizon.
Ione sank back to her knees on the sodden ground.A brave few sun soldiers charged through the cloudburst, each of them meeting their fate with dignity as Kai slaughtered them with spiralling frozen blades.
Saros was protected, unreachable.
Lina was dead.
There was nothing she could do but bear witness.She laid her fingertips on Mikau’s arm and shook her head, bidding them to stop.She took Lina’s hand and held it on her lap, her monocular in her other hand, watching the needless bloodshed, the rain pouring in thick streams down into the lowlands; Etan, drawing a knife and looking between Hilo and Malia for direction.River, diving between them, taking Kai’s face in his hands, kissing him.
Kai, staring straight ahead at the carnage, unresponsive.
“Ione.”Mikau nudged her, her voice rising.“Ione.”
Cynthia stifled a scream, and Ione tore her attention away from the bloodied ice spikes littering the mountain.To Lina, whose cheeks flushed red despite the wet chill in the air.To Lina, whose lips parted as she sucked in a breath.
Mikau dived at her, peeling away the edges of her torn bodice, still sticky with blood.Beneath it, the wound was knitting together, its jagged edges glimmering with golden light.
“Sowelan is healing it.Sowelan is – ” With a gasp they dropped back and bowed their forehead to the muddy earth.
“But how?”Cynthia demanded.“Her heart – ”
“Was unscathed, it looks like.”Mikau shot back up and grabbed Ione’s shoulder.“You pushed her, didn’t you?You pushed her aside?”
Ione nodded, tears stinging her eyes.She hadn’t thought she’d helped at all.She thought she’d failed.
The others parted for her, letting her kneel over Lina’s healing body.She clasped her hand over the closed wound and whispered her name like it was a prayer, a hymn –
But when Lina’s eyes opened, it was Sowelan who stared right back.
Sowelan blinked, His irises a bright, scalding gold.“Menon,” He said, His voice still feminine, mingled with Lina’s.He reached, brushing Ione’s hand aside, and felt the smooth skin over Lina’s ribcage, His brow furrowing like He still expected there to be a hole.He said something else, something in the gods’ tongue.
Ione’s gaze flew to Cynthia, who edged closer.“‘I won’t forgive that,’ He said,” she whispered in Ione’s ear.
Sowelan held out one hand.At a loss, Ione clambered to her feet and pulled Him up.A tranquil, saintly expression settled over His features as he regarded her.
Heliade, He said, a word Ione recognised.And another simple phrase:Thank you.
Without another look, He pivoted towards Kai, His posture taut, giving the impression of an archer taking aim.
“Wait,” Ione cried, barely registering how Cynthia and Mikau caught her arms and wrenched her back.“Please,” she mustered, her voice small, when Sowelan half-turned.“Don’t hurt him.”
A vindictive smile.“‘You have my gratitude,’” Cynthia translated.She hesitated over the last words, her grip on Ione’s arm tightening.“‘But you do not command a god.’”
Ione’s knees buckled.She really would lose one of them, after all.
Malia shouted her sons’ names, seeing what was coming, seeing that there was nothing they could do to stop it.Etan and Hilo cursed, the latter grabbing River by his collar and yanking him with them, all of them slipping on the soaked grass as they climbed back up to the others.
Still safe within the ward Kai cast for him, Saros seethed.“Kill Him,” he shouted: “Kill Sowelan!Hurry!”
Another bolt of ice, but Sowelan was faster, raising a wall of fire spanning the entire length of the field.The spear melted, but the fire burned higher, a show of power, of dwindling patience.
“Oh, gods – ” River, freed from Hilo’s grasp, backed towards Ione and the others.His hand found hers, although his eyes were still trained on Kai, a faint silhouette beyond the roaring inferno.“What are we supposed to do?”
As the two gods stared at one another through the flames, water coursed down the mountain.Soon Lodestone, the rest of the earth, would be little more than a mire of drowned bodies.
Unless Lina – Sowelan – killed Kai.
