68. Tezya
SIXTY-EIGHT
TEZYA
A day had passed, and I was finally starting to accept that staying in Tennebris wasn’t a death sentence. I understood the logic. It was easier to bring the healers here than portal everyone back to the too-cramped camp. It was also strategic to stay with the Tennebrisians, to make sure no one had the opportunity to spew more lies, and if we were lucky, more would want to fight with us when the time came to go to Lux.
I met with Rumor’s old guard yesterday after the fighting ended. His men would be joining us, and so far that alone was worth coming here first. We wouldn’t have won in Tennebris if it weren’t for them. I was so thankful for my sister’s visions. I couldn’t stomach thinking about what would have happened if we spread ourselves thin and attacked both kingdoms at once. There would have been a lot more deaths and bodies to burn…
Besides not particularly liking the constant cold and darkness of the place, I was worried we were leaving everyone vulnerable, but Dovelyn was right, the Lux King wouldn’t leave his city unprotected. When it came down to it, he’d sacrifice Tennebris again and again. We were safe here, for now , while utilizing the kingdom’s resources and still able to hide Brighta’s location as a safe haven if needed.
Wells was able to disconnect the kingdom’s broadcast from Lux’s so we could make our own announcement. One that wasn’t filled with lies and deception, and I was surprised by how well it went. There were a few hiccups, a few groups that fought back—mostly people from Palm and Kitlarn—but everyone that did was brought into the dungeons—just until we could figure out what to do with them. We didn’t want any more blood spilled, but we couldn’t risk them turning against us and fighting with Lux.
The new laws Synder had implemented in the past couple of months helped us. The people were mad. Most were more than ready for things to change.
All in all, it was a success. The healers were tending to the wounded and everyone was taking a much deserved rest. Everyone but us.
We were leaving Palm today to check out the spacecraft. Sie told us Miles’ research was valid, and that we’d be able to go back to Allium, but everyone wanted to see it for themselves.
Backerly was a half day’s travel by the monorail, and Kallon was slowly setting up portals throughout the kingdom. We stopped seven times already, but it didn’t take more than fifteen minutes at each one. Sie would teleport Kallon to a new location, she’d create a portal, and then we’d be moving again.
Rumor and I were in a compartment by ourselves, and I tried to soak in the moment, holding her while we watched the snow drift by the darkened window.
“Are you ready?” I asked as I kissed the top of her head. She was nestled between my legs, both of us opting to sit on the floor with a bunch of blankets laid out before us.
She nodded but didn’t speak. I knew her mind was drifting toward her friends. Vallie was somewhere on the monorail, apparently sitting with Peter and Savannah .
I hated how much it was affecting her. I understood the redhead. I knew firsthand that trauma takes time to heal from and the girl went through a lot. I just hated how it was seeping into Scotlind. She tried desperately to hide it from everyone. But it was moments like this, when we were alone, that her mind wandered, and I knew it still hurt her.
“I’m scared that Sie will be right,” she finally admitted.
“You don’t want to return to Allium?” I asked, genuinely curious. We’d been having more and more meetings about what to do if— when —we won, and everyone was onboard with returning, pending Miles’ research. It was the right thing to do for both Advenians and mortals. We deserved a fresh start, one without the tainted world the current kingdoms created. We would no longer need to be confined to small territories. We could expand, live anywhere we wanted within Allium.
And the mortals deserved to live without us. They shouldn’t be dragged into a war and forced to accept changes because of our mistakes.
I just prayed it wasn’t too late. The newspapers Savannah had been collecting were unsettling as more and more disasters kept occurring. I was starting to believe that the Lux King really was collecting humans.
Arcane admitted to creating a compulsion serum, although he said it wasn’t finished yet. It was only ninety percent done and never tested, but I didn’t put it past the King to use it anyway.
“No, I do,” Rumor said softly. The blanket was pulled up to her chin, and she was mumbling into the fabric. “I think we should leave if we can, and I would love to see Allium. I used to read books about our old planet. It’s always fascinated me. I fell in love with the diverse climate and changes throughout the land. Not that we’ll know if any of it still exists today, but when I was stranded here growing up, I craved something warmer, something different. ”
“Then why are you scared it’s possible?”
“I’m scared it’s going to hurt more,” she admitted. “It was our dream growing up. Vallie and Miles,” she paused on his name. “It’s our childhood dream coming true, and the fact that he isn’t here to witness it… it just sucks.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I kissed the top of her head again and pulled her tighter into my chest. “I never knew him, and I know this doesn’t make losing someone any easier, but he’d want you and Vallie to be happy.”
“I know,” she sighed.
The monorail came to a halt, but this time it wasn’t one of Kallon’s stops to set up a portal. We were here. I’d never been to Backerly, but I was aware the land was mountainous, even more than LakeWood. We’d been traveling at an incline for the past hour, and the town was built into the peaks themselves.
Rumor stood first, shrugging off the blankets. She went to open the compartment, but I grabbed her arm before she could slide the door open and pulled her into a hug. She exhaled as she pressed her forehead into the crook of my neck.
I love you, I said into her mind.
I love you too, Tezya.
Backerly was the most tech-heavy town out of the six villages in Tennebris, and I found I liked it the most. It was colder, being at a naturally higher elevation than the rest of the kingdom, making it closer to the top of the shield. But the mixture of electric heat and warmth from the fireplaces made it more cozy than dreary.
Each building was built into a different mountain with interconnected bridges linking them, and the rooms themselves were designed on a vertical incline with the top floor circling the peak. It made the need for stairs everywhere. I couldn’t stop smiling at Rumor’s complete dread. I knew her legs were killing her. Despite the obvious shake she had to them, she had told me multiple times now how she never planned to come back here after today and kept condemning the stairs with each new flight she saw.
The AASP was located on one of the peaks. Floor-to-ceiling windows, similar to the monorail, took up the length of the room, and the view was breathtaking. It overlooked everything.
Several Tennebrisians greeted us when we arrived, all eager to show off their work. Everyone was silent during their tour. By the time we finished, the day had passed, even though the darkness remained the same.
“So you guys are really going to go then?” Savannah asked later that night. We made it back to the castle in Palm well past midnight, but everyone was too anxious to sleep.
“Yeah,” Peter replied. “I can’t believe it.”
“We still have to win the war first,” Dovelyn deadpanned. “And we just barely survived this battle.”
I loved my sister, but she was a realist to a fault. No one wanted to think about the next fight in Lux. I especially didn’t. Not that I was personally dreading it. I was ready and knew the Lux King needed to die. But whenever it was brought up, Rumor went further into her desolation. She didn’t believe I was going to survive it.
“Right,” Wells said as he pushed his glasses back up his nose after wiping the lenses on his shirt. “You guys should make another broadcast with the information about the spacecraft and going to Allium. It might help sway some of the Tennebrisians to want to fight, and you need all the numbers you can get. We lost—”
“Let’s not focus on that,” I cut him off. The first day after the battle we went through all the names lost. They deserved the acknowledgement. It was something I did after every fight when I was forced to attack the rebels. To the Luxian soldiers, I would list all the names of our own military, and then later at night, when it was just Rainer, Brock, and Kallon, I would list all the rebels who died. I sent the list to Dravenburg, knowing he’d share it with the new recruits at the camp when the time was right.
But tonight, right now, I didn’t want to focus on death. “We’ll make another broadcast tomorrow morning. We can see if anyone else wants to join, but I want to make sure it’s clear it’s not mandatory. No one is required to fight.” It was something I hated about our society. If you were strong within Lux, you were forced into the army. I’d watch countless men, who had no stomach for bloodshed, change.
Everyone was silent after that. Savannah made us coffee—which she claimed was decaf, but I didn’t believe her—and we all sat around a fire, holding the warm beverage, and letting our final night sink in.
We were attacking Lux in two days, and similar to when we came here, Kallon and Rumor were going to start portaling everyone in waves tomorrow night. Which meant this was our last night of peace. Our last night of waking up without having to go into war. It might be our last night all together. We might not all survive past the next battle, and I didn’t want to think about my chances of making it were even less.
But I knew what I had to do, what I would do.
“Let’s go to bed,” I whispered to Rumor as I helped her up. Our coffees were now cold. I’d been reheating them over the past hour we’d been sitting here, but I wanted to leave now.
If tonight might be my last night alive, I wanted to enjoy her alone and planned to make the most of it.