Chapter 25 Perl #2
Vane stands up. His wings erupt from his back, arcing black around him, gold tips glittering.
His eyes are dark as jet. “You filthy mortal bitch,” he snaps, sounding like the fae king Jareleezi has taken him for.
“We are the fae of Ulla and we care not for your mortal dealings with the Bellator. You betrayed us and made your pact with them. And you will endure its consequences. How dare you bring this here? We have long let it be known that we care not for the strife the Bellator bring to mortals.”
Jareleezi looks at Vane. For a moment she looks a little surprised at the way Vane has dismissed her, but then she raises Iceheart, glowing in her hands. “You will regret that, faerie,” she says and turns the blade towards him.
Magic crackles through the air from the point of Iceheart’s blade. Vane stands where he is, looking like he has no intention of diving away from its power. Perhaps he does not realise how strong Jareleezi is.
But before the power hits him, Seridil turns and grabs hold of Vane, pulling him down and holding him. Vane makes a spluttering noise of horror and the magical blow hits the wall behind him, bounces off and smashes into Diamanda as she rushes across the dais, also trying to protect Vane.
Diamanda screams. The magic from this blast is full of Jareleezi’s anger. It is so powerful, so vicious the top half of Diamanda’s body turns to dust. The rest of her — legs and half her torso, wrapped in her skirts of frothy lace — falls to the floor with a sickening thump.
Vane shoves Seridil off him and screams, “You’ll pay for that, witch.
” He jumps down from the dais. He is rushing towards Jareleezi, but Seridil is behind him.
He grabs hold of him and forces him down, just as Jareleezi sends another bolt of magic towards them both.
This one hits Seridil as he shields Vane with his own body.
And Seridil falls. Dead. His body tipping back onto Vane, knocking him to the floor, right beside where Perl stands.
There is a moment of absolute, stunned silence. And then Vane emerges, crawling out from under Seridil’s body and getting to his feet again, face bloodied. “That was my fucking thrall,” he snarls.
Perl grabs hold of Vane's thigh, trying to pull him back. “Vane, no. She’s too strong.”
“She’s a mortal,” Vane spits back at Perl. As if he isn’t truly aware that Jareleezi has just slain Diamanda and Seridil with her power.
Vane shakes Perl off, but before he can rush forward again, Exeinil reaches up from the floor at Jareleezi’s feet. She rises to her knees and puts her hand right on Jareleezi’s chest, sending a glowing golden ball of magic into her.
Perl can tell this is enough magic to blow a hole through a normal mortal. But Jareleezi simply staggers backwards. Exeinil uses the moment to get to her feet, pushing her dishevelled hair out of her eyes as she shouts at Perl and Vane, “Both of you, stay there.”
Vane, enraged, tries to move forward again. Perl forces him back. “She’s too strong. Vane. Don’t.”
Perl can see Exeinil drawing her magic. She’s going to kill Jareleezi. Surely she must. She is strong enough.
Jareleezi is getting to her feet. She’s some distance from Kerik now, who is sitting up on the floor, dazed and weakened, but he’s too far away for Perl to get to him. Not without magic.
“Vane, I…” Perl begins but his voice is drowned out by Jareleezi.
She is standing right under the flaming cage. “Oh,” she says, “the power here.” She is wobbly from Exeinil’s attack, but she lifts Iceheart. She aims it right at the cage above her.
Perl holds his breath. “No,” he whispers to no one but himself.
Jareleezi sends a bolt of magic directly up into the cage, breaking it apart with a terrible shattering sound.
The cage and the flames vanish and a mortal man falls.
Perl stares. His father. The charred body falls down and down.
It breaks apart in the air, turning into a strange glittering dust, raining down on Jareleezi.
Pure magic.
She seems to twist under it. She seems to glow. Her power stronger than ever. More of it rains down onto Kerik. He takes a gasping breath as he too absorbs the magical power.
Jareleezi laughs in triumph, but as she does Exeinil hits her with another blast of magic, this one so powerful it shakes the hall.
Jareleezi staggers forward and bends to take hold of Kerik, still slowly regaining consciousness on the floor. She lifts him like he is nothing more than a feather pillow.
“Please,” Perl shouts. “No, please, don’t kill him. He is the Magician.”
“Kill him?” Jareleezi says. “I’m not going to kill your false Magician. I’m going to drain him. You have created a marvellous new vessel for me, Perlash-zeren-ai.”
And Perl realises what she is going to do with all the power she has just wrought from his father’s body.
She is going to take Kerik. A mortal vessel forged in Vylenor.
A power source. She’s going to use him to make herself the Magician.
And when she leaves Vylenor now, Perl will never get Kerik back.
Not least because he has no doubt the Ice Court will seal him in his own flaming cage as soon as she has gone.
“No,” he shouts, standing up. He wrenches at the cuff on his wrist, as if there is any chance of removing it without magic.
But it's too late. He can see a bridge that should take a hundred years, forming in moments with Jareleezi’s power amplified through Iceheart. She smiles at him as she steps back through it. And she and Kerik are gone.
Perl screams.
But otherwise the hall is shocked and silent.
Diamanda and Seridil are dead. Half the guards in the hall, who fell under Jareleezi’s magic, are getting to their feet, but the rest are not moving.
Vane’s face is grey. Exeinil is walking shakily towards him.
“I charge you, Perlash-zeren-ai, with causing the deaths of my daughter, Princess Diamanda and Prince Vane’s thrall, with bringing a fae-blooded mortal into Vylenor to teach him magic and with the unforgivable heresy of using that mortal to create a vessel from the magical power of Vylenor that opened a blood door for a witch to breach our wards. ” Her voice is solemn, edged with ice.
Perl says nothing. He doesn’t know what he can say.