Rakalem let Ysira go. He was engulfed in a cyclone of alien light, so bright, she saw the outline of his skeleton. Organs ruptured, metal liquefied. The many-legged thing inside him flailed and burned, burned, burned until nothing but ash and bone remained.
Neri collapsed. Ysira caught him before he hit the floor, though she could barely stand herself. He vomited over her arm. When he met her eyes, the look therein was bloodcurdling. Horror ate at her.
She had called him worthless, and worse—it had worked.
Jacen had regained enough control to make Seth kneel once more, and kept him in his peripheral vision as he raced toward Ysira and Neri.
“Are you all right?” Jacen didn’t wait for an answer. “You actually did it.” He started to take Neri by the shoulders but hesitated, as one might before touching a holy relic. Jacen looked like he might embrace Neri or fall to his knees. Anincredulous laugh escaped him. He turned to Ysira, and his expression was one of sheer wonder.
She felt sick to her stomach.
Heavy footfalls sounded on the mezzanine once more, and Sethhissed.That noise, from his mouth, made Ysira flinch.
A man jumped from the heights. Five more followed, with a shower of sand and a force that shook the ground.
The man in the lead was helmeted and well over six feet tall. He brandished a severed head—grey-skinned, pointed-eared, Firstborn—in one hand, and a bloody sword in the other. He tossed the head before Seth and pronounced, “Demon.I’m going to kill you.”
Ysira’s blood ran cold. She had not heard that voice in over a decade. She stepped instinctively in front of Neri and drew her long steel knife from under what was left of her skirt.
Ged Semira wiped his sword, sheathed it, and removed his helmet. He passed it to one of the knights beside him. Among them, Ysira recognized Saraida. The fifth newcomer, a white-eyed woman with yellow hair, wore the black robes of a Church inquisitor.
Someone had let them through.
In a practical sense, Ysira understood. Ged was not the enemy, not truly. But of all the people who could have come to their aid . . . Ysira clenched her jaw, forcing herself to be silent. Not for one second loosening her grip on her knife. Ged’s gaze passed over, then locked with hers. She stared at him until her eyes burned, refusing to blink.
He looked so much older than she remembered. At forty, he was as imposing as ever, but his hairline had begun to recede, and grey flecked his dark stubble. His forehead bore red symbols—the High Lord’s crown, traditionally painted in their predecessor’s blood. And Ged’s markings had to be blood, crudely drawn, dried bits flaking off.
“Father,” Neri stammered weakly.
Ged turned away from Ysira to look upon his last surviving child. To behold his eyes, now redder than blood, and beside him, the charred skeleton of Rakalem, Lord of Fear.
“So, it’s true,” Ged murmured. He addressed Turil through Seth. “Your lackeys put up a pathetic fight.”
Seth smiled another unnatural smile. “A small setback. More are coming.”
“I’ll deal with them in kind,” said Ged. “But first, I will avenge my brother.” He raised his sword.
“No,” said Jacen and Neri at the same time.
“There are more than enough of us to subdue him.” Ysira spoke quickly. “We can take him back to the Shrouded City, get whatever information we can out of the demon and attempt exorcism there.”
“Shut up,” Ged snapped at her. “I’ll deal with you in a moment.”
Turil laughed again. “Were I in one of my typical vessels, you wouldn’t have stood a chance. Rakalem and I would have destroyed you. I don’t thinkthisone has much left, though, so—” Turil angled Seth’s head at Neri, now on his feet beside Ysira. Seth’s eyes glinted. “The little god-killer. I didn’t think you had it in you. Let us speak, as equals.”
Ysira clenched her knife tighter, her knuckles bone-white. “Don’t?—”
“This woman abandoned you to your father’s mercy,” said Turil. “And you hate him. We saw it in you when you were aboard our station. He has made your life a nightmare, and you dream of his death. You’ve prayed to us for it.”
Neri remained still, petrified.
“And what of these people?” Turil went on. “Knights you don’t know. A drunk barely clinging to sanity. The only living person who cares about you, not your power, isthisman.”Seth pointed at himself. “If you do as I ask and come with me through the Gate, I will give him back to you. So long as you both cooperate, you could live quite comfortably with us. If not, I will inflict on him a fate worse than death.” A pause. “Think carefully, boy. This is in your hands. Should you choose to act, not one of them could stop you.”
As the balance of power shifted, they all felt it. Ged, Saraida, the knights, the inquisitor, Jacen . . . They all looked to Neri. A chill ran down Ysira’s spine.
“Kill him,” Ged ordered. “Neri—son—kill that thing now. Seth is gone. Use your power.”
Neri was shaking. Saraida barked an order. The rest of Ged’s team fanned out, forming a circle around Seth. None of them knew what to expect, weapons tight in their grips.
