Chapter 40
Bressen
Cyra slept late into the morning the next day, although I doubted she’d gotten much actual rest.
I’d tried to put her right to bed after Aramis left, but she’d stopped me, and through her tears I was able to make out she wanted a bath first. It was a good idea, since I’d realized as we talked to Phaedrus just how ripe we must smell.
Thank the gods the priest was too polite to so much as wrinkle his nose in our presence, and it made me feel all the worse for seizing his mind and threatening to kill him.
Cyra was right. Of all the people we could trust, Phaedrus was at the top of that list.
I undressed Cyra and got her into a bath, but she’d been nearly catatonic the whole time.
I dressed her and put her to bed before taking my own bath, but I came out of the bathing chamber to find her tossing fitfully in the bed.
When she hadn’t settled down after thirty minutes, I used my power to quiet her mind and put her into a deep sleep.
I took the sleep compulsion off her in the morning, but she slept another two hours after that. When she finally woke, her eyes still bore the evidence of the crying she’d done last night, but at least she was more responsive than she’d been when I put her to bed.
When she emerged from the closet after dressing, though, I was shocked by the ‘accessory’ she wore at her neck.
The little demoni she now called Blink sat on her shoulder, its clawed hand resting across her collarbone, and my blood went cold at the sight of the thing.
One swipe, and it could open her neck. Indeed, I couldn’t help seeing the way it rested its hand there as a threat, and I glared at it, letting my eyes burn with the fire of my anger.
The creature only cocked its head and blinked at me in that alternating way that made me want to shake it.
“Bressen?” Cyra asked when she saw my eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“What is that thing doing here again?” I asked.
“It…It just wanted to comfort me, I think,” she said.
I blinked at her. Synchronously, unlike the demoni.
“Comfort you?” I asked incredulously. “Demoni don’t do comfort.”
She shrugged the shoulder not carrying the demoni. “Apparently this one does.”
“Go back to Revenmyer,” I ordered the thing, but it only wrapped its hand around a lock of Cyra’s hair in silent defiance.
“Let it stay,” Cyra said. “It’s not doing any harm.”
That was true enough, but I’d given the creature a direct order, and it hadn’t obeyed, which was extremely concerning. Either I was losing control of the demoni, or Cyra’s will was starting to supersede my own where they were concerned. Or at least where this one was.
Cyra ate very little at breakfast. She often lost her appetite when she was upset, but I wouldn’t worry about it unless it persisted for a few days.
We all returned to Tide’s End after breakfast, including Talyn, who’d moved into Samhail’s quarters.
The assassin had agreed to become my spymaster, although the requirements of the job hadn’t sat well with Samhail.
He’d laid into me so hard about taking his new wife away from him that I was worried I might have to break into his mind to keep him from beating the shit out of me.
Thankfully it hadn’t gone that far, but I expected that I might need some extra healing after he and I sparred next.
The first thing Cyra and I did when we got back to the manor was go down to the beach with Morland’s body. We hadn’t had a chance to deal with it yet, and it was time.
Much to my chagrin, the demoni, which had vanished while we were at breakfast, reappeared on Cyra’s shoulder as we headed for the sand.
Praya and Ariel had asked to come with us as well, and they now followed us down to the water under an obfuscation glamour.
I laid Morland’s body at the water’s edge, and Cyra stepped forward.
She held a hand over him, and the body turned to a pile of sand.
We stepped back as the surf swelled, and it only took a few waves before the pile that had once been Morland was leveled like a child’s sandcastle under the rising tide.
When it was gone, we turned to trudge back up the beach.
“Thank you for your help,” Cyra said to Praya as we approached the couple standing up by the dunes.
“I helped fix a flaw in the natural order,” Praya said.
I slipped an arm around Cyra’s waist and pulled her close to kiss her temple. I often needed to touch her when I was around her, but the urge was particularly strong lately. Likewise, Cyra seemed to crave my touch more now as well. Our separation – though brief – hadn’t been good for either of us.
I tried to ignore the demoni on her other shoulder. As long as it didn’t hurt her or try to keep me from her, I’d tolerate it for now.
“Now that Morland is dealt with,” I said, “we need to figure out what to do about Magdalene. If what Talyn told us is true, Sandrian is just a pawn in this game she’s playing.”
Ariel took a step closer to Praya, and I had the distinct feeling it was a gesture of protection. I didn’t blame her, given that Magdalene had once sent three of the most deadly fighters on the continent after her wife.
“I feel the gods stirring,” Praya, said. “Something is changing with the Trinity, and it’s because of Magdalene.”
“She wants to restore the continental Triumvirate,” Cyra said.
Praya shook her head. “Not exactly. She wants to return to a time when syphons ruled the continent, but I don’t think she intends to share that power with us, no matter what she told you.”
“She wants to take your power for herself,” I observed.
“We’ve been taught to view the Trinity almost as one entity in three beings, but they’re more fractured than one might think,” Praya said. “The gods don’t get along perfectly, and there are times when one will grow more powerful until the others do something to restore the balance.”
“The Protector must be working through Magdalene to gather power,” I said. Cyra nodded, but Praya seemed to purse her lips.
“I think there’s something you should see,” Cyra told Praya.
“I know you don’t want anyone to know you’re here, but you should meet one of our priests.
He’s been integral in helping us learn about syphons and their role as Hands of the Gods.
” She paused. “Although clearly you knew most of this already. In any case, he recently translated a section of a very ancient text that contains an old prophesy in verse form. My seeker magic told me it’s important. ”
Praya looked wary. “Can we see the text without meeting the priest?”
“I suppose,” I said. “But I can vouch for Phaedrus. He won’t tell a soul he’s seen you.” I decided to leave out that Phaedrus already knew Praya was alive.
“Let me consider it,” Praya said.
The four of us began to walk back toward the manor, but we hadn’t gotten far when a message leaf appeared in front of Cyra, and she plucked it out of the air.
The note was short and looked hastily scribbled.
Cyra’s face lost all color when she read it, and I felt her spike of terror.
“What is it?” I asked urgently.
“It’s from Jaylan,” she said, her panic rising. “They’re being attacked.”
Cyra
My first portal was to the vineyard. I was certain the townspeople must be there trying to finish what they started, but there wasn’t a soul to be found when we arrived.
I called my brothers’ names until I was hoarse while Samhail and the twins took to the sky to look for them among the vines, but no one answered. Talyn went to check the ruins of the barns, but Bressen said he couldn’t sense anyone around.
That only meant that there was no one alive on the grounds.
A thorough search of the house yielded nothing, but that was more of a relief given Bressen’s news. I’d just stepped outside again when Surgeon landed in front of me.
“The village looks deserted as well,” he reported, “except for one person. I saw someone from the air, but I didn’t go down close enough to see who it was.”
One person. The news was a double-edged sword. My heart lurched with premature relief that it might be one of my brothers, even as the stab in my stomach reminded me it could only be one of my brothers.
I drew a new portal into the center of town and dashed through it, Jaylan and Brix’s names already past my lips before I fully emerged. I looked around frantically, but Surgeon was right. The entire place was empty of men, women, and children alike.
Jaylan had said they were being attacked, and I’d assumed the townspeople had been the aggressors, but it looked as though the whole town had been targeted…
Rage replaced fear as I strained my powers to find anyone still alive. As if summoned by that rage, Blink settled on my shoulder.
The Nemesis knew there were certain people in Fernweh I wouldn’t shed a tear over, but there had also been people here I’d been friendly with, if not friends.
Rodrick and Maeve at the very least. Pella the baker had always been kind to me as well, and her little boy was only three.
If Magdalene had killed them, I’d make her pay.
I spotted the figure Surgeon had mentioned sitting on the stairs of the general store at the same time Bressen did. Was it…?
I broke into a run just as Bressen grabbed for my arm.
“Cyra! Wait!” he called after me, but every step I took closer to the figure made me all the more certain I knew who it was.
“Brix!” I called. Thank the gods! Brix was alive.
I was nearly to my brother when a steely arm wrapped around my waist and yanked me backward.
“Cyra, no!” Bressen hissed in my ear as he dragged me back.
“Let go! It’s Brix!” I said as I tugged at his arm.
In the back of my mind, I felt like I was forgetting something, but I was too anxious to get to Brix to think of what it was.
On my shoulder, Blink hissed at Bressen, but Bressen swiped at the creature, and it dissolved into smoke.
It reappeared on my other shoulder, but he swiped it away again, and it stayed gone this time.
“Bressen, it’s Brix!” I said again as I tried to free myself. “Let me go!”