Chapter 12 Quil #2
“I wish you had told her the truth,” Quil said, but he found that with Elias’s apology, his own anger had deflated. “She deserved that.”
“She did,” Elias said. “And at the first opportunity, I will try to make it right. Quil—” Elias’s pale eyes were fixed above, where a thick plume of smoke blurred the sky. “Truth is important, yes? Between strangers, like Sirsha was to me when I met her. But also between friends. Family.”
“Of course.” Quil grimaced as the earth shook again. This bomb was closer.
“The night of Ruh’s death,” Elias said quietly, “you didn’t tell me the truth.”
Quil went still as memories rose in his mind, a choking tide.
Nearly two years ago, Aiz—then called Ilar—and Ruh had disappeared from the Saif encampment in the middle of a windstorm.
Remembering that day, Quil could taste the sand in his teeth, feel the terror as dust and darkness closed in.
Somehow, he’d managed to track the two to a cave north of the Tribal city of Nur.
He’d found blood. Viscera. Ruh’s broken body. Then the Bani al-Mauth, one of the holiest women living, appeared suddenly. She should have been in the Waiting Place passing ghosts. Instead, she took Ruh’s body away, ordering Quil to lie and say that it fell into a crevasse at the edge of the cave.
Don’t say a word about me. Understood? The fate of our world depends on how well you tell that lie, boy.
“The truth is…” Quil hated himself for what he was going to say next.
“The truth is that I failed Ruh that night because I didn’t see through Aiz.
You failed him because you didn’t warn him away from her.
And Laia failed him because she brought that creature from the hells into the world in the first place. ”
Quil knew Elias blamed himself. And after hearing Laia’s tale, he knew guilt consumed her, too. Preying on that emotion was ignoble. But Quil did not dare disobey the orders of the Bani al-Mauth.
So, Quil took the low road. He looked Elias in the face, this man who had known and protected him since birth, who had been a friend and teacher to him. Quil willed Elias to see that there was a reason for what he said.
Elias frowned in anger, and looked as if he were about to speak.
But a tremor rolled through the air, the telltale whoosh of a Sail flying low.
Then the shriek of a falling missile and an explosion so close that Quil and Elias were thrown to the ground.
For one heart-stopping moment, Quil was certain the explosion had hit just south of them, where Spiro Teluman sat vigil over the precious Ikfa.
“East,” Elias coughed. “She’s seen the Masks. I must warn Spiro.”
Another shriek and they were flung to the ground again. This time, the explosion was to the west. And then, before they could get to their feet, there was another, mere yards away, to the north.
Oh yes. She’d seen the Masks, all right. As planned.
Quil’s ears rang, though he’d clasped his hands over them, and he and Elias were coated in dust. A Sail passed overhead and thudded to a landing outside their hideout.
“Watch your back, Quil,” Elias said. “Loyal to the end.”
“To the end,” Quil echoed before staggering out of the building, coughing and wiping his face. He wondered for a moment if he was laying it on too thick. But his instinct had served him so far. The more pathetic he was, the more powerful Aiz would feel.
“Tel Ilessi.” Quil lifted his hands. “I mean you no harm.”
Aiz bet-Dafra removed her goggles and walked toward him. His heart sank when he saw that the Sail was under her own command.
She’d gotten her magic back.
His own magic rose in response. Almost immediately, he yanked it away. He didn’t want to see into her. He still felt tainted from the last time he’d glimpsed her mind, even if it had shown him the truth of her journey, and the horrific choices she’d made.
“Quil.” Aiz lifted her chin. “You knew we were coming,” she said. “You lured me here.”
“I hoped we could speak of peace.”
“I gave you that option.” Aiz pulled off her gloves.
She wasn’t armed as far as Quil could see.
But she had the wind. She needed no other weapon.
“More than a year ago, I offered your empress a dozen different trade deals in exchange for Loha, and she accepted none of them. I sent a messenger this time—”
“In bad faith,” Quil couldn’t help retorting. “You’d already planned your attack.”
“Perhaps.” Aiz shrugged. “Perhaps not. In any case, I was most disappointed to find my cleric at the bottom of a ravine.” She tutted, but wrath burned in her gaze. “Barbaric, really. I thought your people claimed to be civilized.”
Quil called on years of court training to remain calm at the insult. “My aunt and I—we don’t agree on a way forward. I want this war to end. She will fight to the death. I believe I can see your terms reached, though they are…not ideal.”
“You are not in a position to demand ideal.”
Quil tried to check his temper. He couldn’t fathom that he’d once loved this woman. That he’d held her, cared for her, shared a bed with her. The thought made him want to crawl out of his own skin.
“You want the war to end, you want Loha, and you want peace between our nations. I can get the support of the Paters for your proposals. But my people are scattered, including my government. I’ll need a few days.”
“You should be grateful it’s me here.” Aiz paced back and forth, and it was as if she hadn’t heard him. “General Ghaz had planned to come alone. To demand land from your empress. But I am merciful, Quil. All I want is an escape for my people. Give me the Loha, and this can all be over.”
“I will. But I need time.”
“Time to prepare your Ikfa? Make some abominable weapon out of it?” Aiz glanced over Quil’s shoulder in the direction of the smithy. Quil’s blood iced over. Aiz was a step ahead and Quil was a fool.
“Your face betrays you, Quil,” Aiz said, her gaze flat as a cobra’s. “Indeed, I know of the Ikfa. I will see it destroyed.” She tilted her head, smiling at the dismay he couldn’t hide. Her white teeth glittered in the pale morning light.
“I should kill you,” she said. “Drop your precious head in Empress Helene’s lap. See how she values her Masks then.” She flicked her hand, and the wind rose, first tickling Quil’s throat, then wrapping tight around it.
Quil remained calm, fisting his hands. But he could practically feel Sufiyan, somewhere behind him.
His friend would have his bow trained on Aiz’s heart, and he would be deciding whether to risk shooting it.
On one hand, it might distract Aiz enough that Quil could escape.
On the other, it would all but guarantee Serra’s destruction.
“But I loved you, once.” Aiz dropped the wind, appearing tired, suddenly. “And I want Loha, not death. For now, you live. I will leave Serra intact. But the Ikfa—”
She made a motion with her hand. Behind her, a dozen Battle Sails rose up from Serra’s ruins. Two of them broke off and winged low over Quil’s head before moving south.
Directly toward the forge.
The bombs seemed to fall slowly. Slowly enough that Quil could imagine running. Saving Spiro and Elias. Saving the Ikfa.
But seconds later, dual detonations ripped through the air, and a plume of hellish fire exploded into the dawn, blocking out the sun.
Despair rose so quickly he thought he’d choke on it.
Nothing would survive that blast. Not the man who’d helped to raise him.
Not the greatest blacksmith in the Empire.
And not the Ikfa that had been their only defense.
“The offer I sent via the cleric stands, with one difference.” Aiz pulled on her cap and goggles.
“It is not just your capital at risk. It is every shred of every city that still stands. Antium will burn first. Then Estium. Tiborum. Delphinium. And whatever is left of Serra. After that, I will take my fleet to Marinn. I will lay siege to Adisa.”
At his horror, she smiled. “But I am not unmerciful,” she said. “You have six weeks. Get me all of your Loha, all of your Masks. Or one by one, I will destroy every last city on this continent.”