Chapter 6 Cero #3
“Our people are still struggling in Kegar,” Ghaz said with exaggerated patience. “If we bring them here and settle the land—”
“If we settle here, we will never leave,” Aiz said, and she was spitting now, her face going from white to red.
“We will grow fat and comfortable. We will forget Div’s teachings, and we did not sacrifice so much—” She fell silent.
Cero wondered if she was thinking of all the torment she’d inflicted on others.
“We will not give up at the slightest inconvenience,” she said to Ghaz. “If you do not understand this, Ghaz, perhaps you should not be leading the armies.”
Something shifted in Ghaz’s face. A flash of wrath that sent a prickle of warning along Cero’s spine. The general took a step toward Aiz. “A word in private, Your Holiness.”
He said it with such fawning respect that Aiz had no choice but to walk with him, lest she look like she feared him.
“Join us, Snipe,” Ghaz said to Cero, voice dripping with loathing. “As her loyal dog, you should hear this too.”
Ah, Cero thought. There’s the highborn bastard I knew was hiding in there.
“I tried to reason with you.” Ghaz’s knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on Aiz’s arm. “I tried to give you time and space to accept your new role.”
“What in the Spires are you talking about?” Aiz tried and failed to pull away.
Ghaz’s smile was like a knife. “I know you have no magic,” he said. “Your demon friend—Mother Div—is gone. I’d have done away with you, if not for the loyalty of your fellow Snipes, and a fair number of Hawks and Sparrows, too. There are more religious zealots among our people than I assumed.”
Aiz’s skin paled and her jaw clenched in rage. But in this moment, Ghaz had all the power. For he had magic, and Aiz did not.
“Empress Helene is causing a great deal of trouble in the south,” Ghaz said. “She will never give us peace, not unless we force it on her.”
“If we find the Loha,” Aiz said, “she can have her Empire back—”
“I will not risk our best pilots to hunt down Masks,” Ghaz hissed.
“You will listen to me, both of you. The Empress believes she has the upper hand. She will realize soon enough that she does not. I travel now to Serra to negotiate terms with her. You, dear Tel Ilessi, will speak of a new message from Mother Div, one in which this land is where we belong. Cero, you will ensure she does it, or I’ll have the heads of those two clerics you love so much—Noa and Olnas. ”
“Do not threaten the clerics of Dafra cloister, dog!” Aiz ripped her arm away, but Ghaz grabbed it again, his smile eerily beatific. Beside the Sail where she waited with Ghaz’s cronies, High Cleric Dovan took a step forward. But Voss Oona held her back.
“When I return, you will anoint me High Cleric to replace Dovan,” he said. “After an appropriate period, you will marry me, and our sons will rule our people and the Empire as god-kings.”
As the blood drained from Aiz’s face, Ghaz laughed.
“Don’t look so shocked. You are not uncomely, and I’ve never had the same prejudices as my highborn compatriots.
Just ask Cero.” Ghaz gave Cero a knowing glance.
It was only the thought of Noa and Olnas that kept him from punching the highborn man in the teeth.
“I will not do this,” Aiz said, stunned. For once, Cero agreed with her. “This—this is blasphemy.”
A sudden feeling of lightheadedness struck Cero and he wobbled on his feet. Followed by weakness, as if he hadn’t eaten in days.
“I’ll tell you what’s blasphemy.” The serene smile remained ghoulishly fixed to Ghaz’s face. “A no-name girl harnessing a child-eating monster so that she could use her power to avenge a petty grievance.”
Cero’s head spun. He dropped to his knees as a great wind whipped through the air. Aiz lifted her arms, screaming, and Ghaz flew back, slamming into his Battle Sail. People all along the airfield began to shout. Cero tried to look up, tried to understand what was happening.
Aiz glowed. Magic emanated from her as powerfully as when Div had first joined with her.
Cero thought of the hunger in Aiz’s eyes, of his fear that Mother Div had left something of herself behind. His suspicions had grown fangs and come roaring to life. And yet he did not see or sense Div. Who was giving Aiz power?
His energy drained as swiftly as if he were bleeding out. And then he understood. No one was giving Aiz power. She was taking it. From Cero.
“Stop—” Ghaz gasped. “Please—”
“You will tell me everything about this ordnance explosion, Ghaz,” Aiz said. “I will be the one to see your plan through. And if you defy me again, I will peel the skin from your body.”
Cero grabbed Aiz’s ankle with his last bit of strength and she glanced down. As soon as their eyes met, she dropped Ghaz. The wind stopped. Everything fell silent, other than Ghaz’s groans of pain. Slowly, life came back into Cero, but a part of him wished it had not.
For somehow, through sheer will or some twisted magic Div had left behind, Aiz had conjured her power back. And the Spires only knew what hells she would unleash now.