4. Last Immortal Standing
Last Immortal Standing
Fiona was getting frustrated. The sigh and glare she sent Eyros–who was standing like some kind of impressive statue to the side of the Nightvallen gate, arms crossed, eyes fixed on some point on the horizon, wind blowing his robes artfully–ten minutes ago told Charlie that she was likely beyond frustrated now.
“It’s not working,” Fiona said as she straightened up before the gate.
“What you’ve tried hasn’t worked, but that doesn’t mean something won’t,” Eyros contradicted.
Her arms flew up into the air. “Any ideas, Eyros? Have you ever seen me do this?”
His eyes shifted to her. “You kept that power tightly under wraps.”
Fiona muttered, “Of course, I did. It would be too easy otherwise.”
“You never looked into her mind, Eyros? To find out how she did it?” Charlie asked.
He was sitting on a stump just outside of the stone base the gate was built upon. Out of the way, but able to see everything. He wanted to witness this. It was history being written. He had never been so sure of that as he was now.
Seeyr foresaw this. She foresaw this moment. What happens next will be crucial to our future.
Fiona shook herself and went back to the gate.
It was a stone slab over twenty feet tall and nearly as wide.
It sat on top of an equally big stone base.
Both were of the pale stone that seemed to be ubiquitous in the Ever Dark.
She took out the dagger that Eyros had provided her with and sliced left palm again.
Even as she was dipping her finger into the pool of her own blood, the wound was closing.
She painted the symbol in crimson on the stone.
Immediately, the stone was replaced with what looked like a field of stars.
If she stepped forward, she would have been sucked through the gate and into Nightvallen.
But the king’s city would not have been quite so lively as it was in the future.
Now it wasn’t really a city. It was a tomb.
Slowly, Fiona walked around the entirety of the gate.
Not all of the stone had disappeared. The gateway of stars extended within six inches of its edge.
“Do you see any markings?” she asked them.
“No. It is as smooth as perfect as it was the last dozen times you asked us that,” Eyros said with a dismissive wave.
“Just checking,” Fiona asked tightly.
“Perhaps if you do the thing with your hand, Fifi?” Charlie suggested.
He mimicked what she did when she turned back time to help Grayson.
She brightened and nodded, but the brightness did not reach his eyes.
She positioned herself in front of the wall of stars and reached forward, but not close enough that her fingertips brushed the surface.
If they did, she would be pulled into Nightvallen.
She braced herself, drew in a large breath, and turned her hand clockwise. Nothing happened.
“I don’t think the movement alone is going to do anything. Are you trying to move time at all?” Eyros asked.
“Not helping,” Fiona gritted out.
She wiped her hands on the fronts of her thighs before she attempted the turning again.
Charlie could see the strain on her face.
He swore he almost felt her power in the very air, but the field of stars did not change.
No glow appeared on the gate. They certainly didn’t see the future staring back at them through the gate.
“It’s not working!” Fiona threw up her hands again and paced. “I don’t understand! When I helped Grayson it was so natural. I knew what to do. But now? Nothing is working with this gate.”
“But didn’t you say you thought this being the Nightvallen gate would help you?” Eyros offered.
“I thought it might! I didn’t actually know. I don’t actually know anything,” she said with a grimace.
Eyros said, “Well, perhaps if you think on it–”
“I have thought of something else!” Fiona had walked nearly around the entirety of the gate when Eyros spoke. She glared at him. “The gate to Solace glows–”
“We aren’t going to touch that gate–”
“Eyros, just because we open that gate doesn’t mean you’re going to… to…” Fiona flapped her arms.
“Die a horrible death? Oh, but, Wyvern, we do know that happens to me one time I go there,” Eyros corrected her. “And I can think of no reason why I would ever go there, but for you asking me to open that gate. So it's not going to happen.”
Fiona rolled her lips as he clearly tried to formulate an argument that would get around Eyros’ objections to a Second Death. “But you’re not with Elgar. And we all know that you have to be with him for that to occur–”
“On the contrary, what could very well happen is that we open the gate to Solace, some nasties come tumbling through, grab me, and yank me over to the other side,” Eyros described.
“Elgar would immediately hear my cry of help and insist on coming to my aid. As would the rest of my people here, which would ensure a vast number of them died with me on Solace’s plains. ”
Fiona brushed one booted foot over the smooth stone slab. “That is a risk. I will give you that though it’s quite a fabled one–”
“Hardly, I know from your little minds that Seeyr is–or will be–held there as an eyeless wonder in her own Spire! Do you suppose she’s there now?” Eyros let out a bitter bark of laughter.
Fiona’s brow furrowed. “Seeyr… That’s right. She’s in her own city even if she isn’t Mistress of it exactly.”
“What’s going on in that head of yours, Fifi?” Charlie asked.
“It might be why her gate is glowing in my vision.” Fiona made a circling motion over her eyes.
“Ah, but the Kaly gate isn’t, is it?” Eyros asked.
“No, but Kaly isn’t there, are they? The slices are there, but Kaly isn’t,” Fiona pointed out.
“I don’t see why that matters. Kaly is Kaly!” Eyros growled.
“No, they aren’t. They really, really aren’t.” Fiona shook her head. Biting her lower lip, she stared at the Nightvallen gate. “But, then again, Daemon is in Nightvallen so shouldn’t his gate be glowing too, shouldn’t it? Unless…”
“I think you are hallucinating this glow! It’s a trick of the light. Nothing more,” Eyros insisted.
“But what if it’s not?” Fiona’s silver eyes were on Eyros. “What if there’s a reason only Seeyr’s gate will work to do this thing?”
“You have no proof that there’s anything special with the gate other than the glowing, which could be psychosomatic or something!” Eyros insisted.
“I didn’t realize it was the gate to Solace until you told me,” Fiona reminded him.
“So how could the glowing be psychosomatic, Eyros? The glow must mean something.”
“I do not see how Seeyr could be helping you as a prisoner of her own city. She can’t even get out of the Spire!
While Daemon is just sleeping, his gate is not glowing.
If there was some significance to an Immortal being on the other side, the Nightvallen gate would be the one illuminating this place as bright as the sun,” Eyros said with a disgusted shake of his head.
“Daemon is asleep so he isn’t controlling the gate. Neither locking or unlocking it. But Seeyr might be controlling hers in some small way or she’s done something to it to alert me to it,” Fiona said. “Maybe it takes both Immortals on either side of the gate to make it work.”
“Seeyr would know what you need,” Charlie said slowly as a thought clicked into place, one that he didn’t think Fiona had gotten to yet.
But Fiona was then shaking her head. “But that doesn’t make sense. I assume that the Kaly-slices are over in Solace. It wouldn’t be safe for us to open that gate–”
“No, it would not,” Eyros reminded them with a grimace. “Not safe! Not happening!”
“But we could use my gate. With you on this side, Eyros, and me on mine, surely that would work!” Fiona snapped her fingers. “What about that?”
“Skye was taken over by Weryn’s people, but I don’t know if they’ve stayed,” Eyros said carefully.
He was clearly liking this idea more than the Solace one, but his hesitation told Charlie that he knew it was dangerous.
“You could pop over there. Check things out. Then if they aren’t camped at the gate, you could perform your little tests or whatever you’re doing. ”
“I could pop over there?” She lifted an eyebrow. “On my own?”
“Well, you’re the one who can teleport between Ever Dark cities so–”
“I could do that. But I can’t now, remember? My powers aren’t working properly ring a bell? It’s why we needed you to unlock Destiny in the first place,” she said with an exasperated shake of her head. “I’d be as likely to teleport into one of their prisons as escape them.”
“Yes, well, there are risks.” Eyros shrugged as if those risks were no nevermind.
“There are risks.” Charlie got up from his stump. “Risks that are too great for Fifi to take when there is a better way. A more certain way.”
“Charlie, what do you mean?” Fiona asked as she swung around to face him.
Eyros scowled at him. “Oh, come now, Mirryr, don’t make me wish for the diffident personality you had before when you weren’t certain who you were–”
“What? Charlie isn’t being rude! Why are you speaking like that to him?” Fiona began.
“He knows what’s in my head, I’m afraid, Fifi, and he doesn’t like it,” Charlie said calmly. “But it is the most logical thing we could do. The thing we should do. I rather think the glowing is a sign for you, Fifi.”
“No, no, it is not! I swear it is like you are courting my Second Death!” Eyros snarled, his robes rose and fell like an angry pair of bird’s wings.
“Eyros, it is coming,” Charlie said softly. “No matter what we all might wish. Your Second Death is coming.”
Eyros jerked as if he had physically struck him. “Not now!”
“Why not now?” Charlie pressed.
“Why… why not now?” Eyros let out a laugh that sounded more like a cry. “Because I don’t want it to be now!”
“I know. None of us do,” Charlie agreed with him. “But just like Fifi, Grayson and Ryder have had to come to terms with what happened and will happen to them, that’s true of you, too. As hard as that is. As unfair as it might be.”