Chapter 79
Itake another step against the icy Baratrum wind, searching the dark glaciers and plains of ice for her white hair and honey skin. My tether to Nil is cut. I no longer feel the tug to where he is, so I can only wander aimlessly amongst the crags and shadows looking for her.
I don’t care if I’m the King of Kings. She cannot take my place in this realm. So, every night I come here.
Shadows slither around me, taunting me with her voice, beckoning me into the glacier’s deep crevasses.
My hands go from icy blue around my knuckles to black. That’s how I know it’s time to go. When I give the horizon another desperate sweep and find nothing, I return home, loathing the heat of my castle as soon as it hits me.
“You’re not going to find her unless Nil wants you to,” Lo says from the wingback chair in Nizzara’s room.
She moved her stuff into my old chambers, letting me stay here.
“I will find her,” I growl, the deathwalker still there, trying to slip through any restraint I place on it.
She crosses her legs and leans back into the chair. “Nil has his prize. He will not let you get near her. You have nothing he wants.”
Ice breaks across the floor like black webs.
“Then I will find something he wants.”
Her green eyes soften like they always have for me. “We will find something he wants.”
I close my eyes, fists clenching. “While we fight a war from all sides.”
Since she unloaded the massive bomb about the Skeeves on our borders, I can’t stop thinking about it. They’re no longer black beasts that eat your flesh. They’ve evolved into shape shifters, able to turn into whoever—or whatever—they find in your mind, then eat your flesh.
Luckily, Mazzar managed to power some sort of repellant near the borders, but it’s weakening. According to Lo, Skeeves are slipping through on the eastern border.
“We need money to supply another tour with our infantry,” Lo says, her thin eyebrows pinching down. “I’ve seen Mazzar’s ledgers. Money is something we don’t have much of.” She taps the armrest, her agitated tell. “As much as I hate to admit it, we need the Zo libraries. They have lore on Skeeves.”
“We can ask Rajim for money, but we cannot go to Tigous after what I did to his heir.”
The lines on her face tighten. “I don’t think we can go to either of them at this point.”
“Why? Kazem lost his life dueling. He can’t hold that against Zarr—”
She shakes her head. “Tigous has been pitting the Zems against us for decades.”
“What are you talking about?”
She leans forward. “Tigous sent a letter to Rajim accusing our father of stealing gems, so Rajim had father poisoned. But when the theft didn’t stop after Father’s death, Rajim blamed you for his losses and urged Kathreen to get pregnant with an heir as soon as possible so they could poison you too. Rajim has the other First-Made Vessel. They wanted their heir to wear it on the Zarr throne.”
My knees go slack, so I sit on Nizzara’s bed. “That’s why Kathreen wished so badly for children.”
She nods, her piercing green eyes going cold at the mention of Kathreen. “What drove Tigous to tell Rajim we were stealing his gems?”
Her lips press into a tight line. “Tigous wanted Jasper to wear the First-Mades and be the King of Kings. If the Zems killed you it would be convenient for Tigous.”
I rub my hand down my face. “So, Rajim tried to poison me?”
“No. Rajim was waiting until Kathreen birthed an heir. The Zo’s tried to poison you.” She shudders as if remembering some terrible detail from back then.
“So, what are we going to do, Lo?”
She smiles, that conniving smile of hers. “We will show them why you are the King of all Kings.”