34. SACRIFICE
SACRIFICE
YSIRA
While Jacen stood in a useless state of shock, Ysira did not give herself space to think. She ran at Seth as he twisted and wrenched his sword from Eneva’s guts, eviscerating her.
Urien ran past Seth. Not fast enough. Urien would have been beheaded had Ogden not shoved him forward and stepped into the path of Seth’s blade.
Metal screeched against metal as the blade stuck in Ogden’s arm.
It bought Urien enough time to stagger upright, clumsy in his suit, and disappear out the door.
The two Disciples reached Seth next. He pivoted, throwing Ogden in front of him as he pulled his blade free.
Ogden crashed into the table and crumpled to the floor.
With expert precision, Seth slipped beneath the first Disciple’s guard and stabbed him in the back.
He locked the other’s blade overhead, drew a dagger from his belt with his free hand, and slashed her throat.
Ysira backed away, reconsidering, holding her knife in an under-hand grip across her chest.
“Get behind me,” she ordered Neri. He scrambled under the table.
Seth faced them. His expression was utterly blank. “Allow me to leave with the boy, and I will consider letting you live.”
That tone, that change in demeanor. Ysira had witnessed its like now in three different bodies. Iyelekirin squirmed, finally recognizing what must have been lying in wait for days.
“Tharanoth.” Her voice trembled. This had to be his doing. He had found them, just as he threatened he would.
“Tharanoth?” Seth exclaimed. “You wound me. He’s still far above.
He doesn’t know you roaches like I do.” He licked his lips. “I know how to follow you down inside all your darkest little hiding places.”
From where he slumped against a chair, clutching his ribs, Ogden whispered, “Turil.”
Seth turned his gaze on Ogden. A slow smile split his face. “Generous of you to keep that man in your clinic for so long. Did you know I used his body every night to watch you sleep? I wondered if you knew, deep down, that it was me. Did you miss me?”
Ogden’s eyes bulged. He couldn’t speak. Ysira had not thought him capable of such fear.
She addressed the goddess—the demon. “I’m going to kill you.”
Turil, Lady of Pain, considered her through Seth’s eyes. There was no warmth there, that red-brown color gone flat and cold as the depths of outer space.
“So you’ve said.” Seth leveled his sword at Ysira. “You won’t defeat me. Even if you could, you don’t have the will to kill this vessel.”
Ysira stood her ground and lifted her blade. She told Neri, “Run,” and barely got the word out before Seth attacked. He struck at her with all his legendary skill and none of his restraint. He fought like he meant to kill her.
With her short knives, she couldn’t match his reach.
She overextended. He kicked her legs out from under her.
She caught herself on one hand, impact rattling up her arm, and slashed his calf.
When he screamed, he sounded like himself.
She faltered. He kicked her in the chest, hard enough to splinter ribs.
She collided with a shelf and toppled backward with it in a hail of trinkets and parchment.
Her head struck stone. Spinning halos of light obscured her vision as the room flipped around her.
When Iyelekirin had done its job and her senses returned to her, Ysira smelled smoke. She tried to lever herself up and hissed as broken glass sliced her palm. A shattered sconce. Seth had vanished, Neri with him. Fire bloomed in their wake. All around, priceless manuscripts sparked and burned.
Ysira swore. To her left, Jacen was on his knees, in some sort of trance. She shook him. “Wake up!”
He blinked foggily at her. She didn’t wait for a response. She found Ogden leaning against the table and taking short, shallow breaths.
“Only broken ribs,” he said through clenched teeth. “Find Neri.”
Ysira readied herself to sprint through the wall of fire, but Eneva weakly called, “There’s a passage in the back.”
The Gatekeeper remained conscious, holding in her intestines. “Leads outside,” she mumbled. “Faster way to the Gate.”
The Gate. Of course, that was where Seth—Turil—would take Neri. Ysira told Jacen, “Get Ogden out. I’m right behind you.”
Jacen finally summoned the presence of mind to help Ogden hob-ble to the back of the library, to an ancient stone door half-obscured by shelves. He rammed it with his shoulder to force it open.
Eneva grasped for Ysira, tears in her eyes. “Leave me. Go after him. Please.”
Ysira trusted Eneva Nal Karak about as much as she trusted any given person, which was not at all.
She liked her even less. But the library was burning.
In light of what Neri had done to that spider .
. . If they lost Eneva, how much remained of the traditions that had safeguarded Naxal’s power for fifteen thousand years?
With Neri’s father on their doorstep, Ysira didn’t know what to expect. She only knew she feared it. She needed as many strong voices as possible to counter Ged’s.
Ysira yanked the red cloth off the table, preparing to wrap it around Eneva’s middle. But then she got a better look at the wound and saw the extent of the blood loss, the major arteries that must have been severed.
Eneva’s skin had gone clammy. Her fingers scrabbled at Ysira’s skirt. She was trying to say something but fading fast. Ysira dropped the cloth and leaned in to hear the Gatekeeper’s last words.
“Promise me,” Eneva choked. “Promise he doesn’t integrate. It’s too dangerous. Naxal isn’t—” She coughed up blood but pulled Ysira closer. “It’s changed. It’s not what we remember.”
In the stone passage beyond the library, Ysira caught up with Jacen and Ogden. At the question in Ogden’s eyes, she shook her head.
“I was trying to get into Seth’s mind,” Jacen was saying. “It felt . . . deep underwater, as if—”
“Can you locate him?” Ysira interrupted. “And Neri?”
She barely breathed as Jacen concentrated, until he answered. “They’re headed toward the Gate.”
He did not need to add that, should Seth travel through the Gate, the goddess inhabiting his body would learn the path through the Source. The gods could send an army directly from their fortress below Zal Fel.
“How did this happen?” Ysira looked to Jacen, then Ogden. “I thought you said you buried the possessed man’s body.”
“We did,” Ogden croaked.
“I checked Seth that day. He was clean. I—” Jacen faltered. “Oh, gods. It was me. I didn’t let anyone check me. I was too drunk to think of it.”
He fell silent, too horrified at himself to speak.
The passage opened along the river, through an inconspicuous arch of volcanic rock. From up the hill, where the library now stood engulfed in flames, Urien and an armored man—Mondral—hurried their way.
Ogden shook Jacen off as he helped him down to the sand.
“I’ll live.” He fished in his robes, though it made him grimace with pain, and handed Ysira a white box.
“This is the fastest-acting sedative I have. It may let you capture Seth alive. Capture her. Turil owes me answers before we destroy her.”
Ysira took the box. He must have been keeping it on his person for some time. “Who was this meant for?”
Ogden would not answer, but she knew by the look on his face. Neri.
In case he presented a danger they could no longer control.
Ysira asked, “What did Eneva tell you?”
“Stop wasting time” was all Ogden said. “Nothing’s changed, Ysira.” She managed a nod. She slipped the box into her belt pouch as Urien and Mondral arrived. Mondral carried a glaive in addition to his own weapon and tossed it at Ysira without a word, without even slowing his pace.
Urien waved them onward as he knelt beside Ogden. “Get to the Gate!”
Ysira and Jacen ran to catch Mondral. For the moment, the demon priest seemed capable of stowing his questions. They cut through the fields to a towering stone wall. A channel in the facade held a dilapidated elevator, which looked as though it had sat unused for decades.
Mondral ushered them on and turned a dial. A cluster of crystals overhead flared brighter. The cage shot up. Jacen, still fighting to catch his breath, gripped the rail with his mouth clamped tightly shut.
“The archdemon can keep the host moving faster than his own mental stamina would allow,” said Mondral. “But he’s still injured and encumbered. We’ll catch them.” He hesitated. “Be prepared for reinforcements.”
He left unsaid, It might already be over.
“Turil must have been inside his head for days.” Ysira could still scarcely believe it. “Just waiting for the right opportunity.”
“He had a nosebleed,” said Jacen. “The morning I saw him at the clinic, he said he’d fallen. I never suspected.” He slammed a hand against the side of the cage. “I didn’t see what was right under my fucking nose.”
“I’m sorry,” said Mondral, “but we’ll have to put him down.” The words hit Ysira harder than she’d been prepared for. “We will do no such thing,” Jacen ground out.
You don’t have the will to kill this vessel. Even if Ysira could summon it, Jacen could not. Could Neri? She didn’t think so. The Lady of Pain could not have chosen a more perfect host than Seth Semira.
“Var Naxal is the priority,” Mondral snapped. “You have no idea what we’ve endured, you’re not one of us, and your place is to listen and obey. I have dedicated my life to this fight. I will not jeopardize our chances for anything, and you have no right.”
Jacen started to respond, but whatever he’d meant to say was lost in a shriek of metal as the elevator dragged to a stop.
They emerged on the long path that led to the black door. A lone figure limped toward it, someone smaller slumped motionless over his shoulder.
Before Ysira could follow Mondral, Jacen grabbed her by the arm. “We can’t kill Seth.”
“I don’t want to,” Ysira said. “But if it comes down to him or—” She stumbled over the words. “If it comes down to him or Neri, I have to save my son.”