Chapter 42 Ember
EMBER
It might take the rest of my eternal life to understand what had happened on the shore of the Erydanos.
Or perhaps I would never understand, would never be able to put all the pieces of what had happened together in the right order.
All I knew was that I had my sword back, and the people I loved most in the world were all right.
As we sped away from shore, a tear slipped from Lara’s eyes. First, I pressed a kiss to Ares’ hand and then went to Lara, pulling Rhiannon in as I went. The three of us clung to one another.
“We have her,” Rhiannon murmured into her earpiece. “She’s alive…”
I brought my lips to Rhi’s ear, so that Briony could hear me. “I killed Cromvale, and destroyed the thrysos, I think… I mean, I sent it into what looked kind of like a mini black hole. You might want to run a search of some kind to find out if that’s gonna turn out okay.”
Faintly, I heard the teenager talking excitedly in the earpiece. Rhiannon shook her head. There was no relief on her face, though she and Lara looked significantly more relaxed than I’d seen them in hundreds of years. Both stood taller, their swords resting deep within them, as did mine.
Rhi and I kept an eye on our pursuers. They followed at almost the same pace as our boat.
Gaining on us, but little by little. Their boats were certainly powerful enough to overtake ours.
They were military grade. Stuff only the Authority had access to, though if the Authority followed us, they’d have overtaken us by now.
Something else was going on. I remembered, faintly, Ares telling me that Eli had said there were other players on the board. I had a feeling we were about to find out just how complex things actually were. On top of the night I’d already had, that seemed like a lot to take in.
Bird by bird. That was how we were going to get through this. I glanced back at Ares, who talked quietly with his brother and Avaline. He was making sure they were all right, just as I was with my people.
“How do you feel?” I asked Rhiannon, pulling her close to steal some of her heat.
“Good,” Rhiannon breathed. “Not one hundred percent yet, but once Sera has her sword that should resolve itself.”
Lara nodded as she glanced over at us. “Hopefully, anyway.”
None of us knew if we could regain our full powers, given the situation with Max. Nothing like this had ever happened before, but at the very least, we were better off than we had been this morning.
I hugged them both again, careful not to distract Lara from driving the boat, but not wanting to let go. “Head for the Inland Sea,” I said. “We’ll face them at the delta.”
Lara nodded. “Get seated so I can go full speed.”
I took a seat in the bow between Ares and across from Rhiannon, who sat pressed against Eryx Necroline in a way that was just slightly more than friendly.
For Rhi, that was practically the equivalent of public sex.
I fought to keep the smirk off my face. Ares pulled on my braid, turning my face to his.
“Eyes on me, gorgeous,” he whispered as his mouth met mine. I would take the reward, and the respite of his kiss, however brief.
When we reached the delta, Lara spun the boat so that we faced our pursuers. As the two fiberglass speedboats pulled up alongside us, my heart raced. I recognized the Maere inside.
Not only did they have Max and Sera with them, but about a dozen familiar faces. None of them had been reincarnated. Each was exactly as they had been on the island. Exactly as they had been when we were children. None of them even appeared to have aged much. What were they doing here?
A hopeful part of me thought they were here to help, that the island had taken my warnings seriously. But no one on the boat smiled. None raised a hand in greeting as a tall figure stepped forward, moving to the closest edge of their boat.
“Myrine,” I breathed at the same time as Lara asked, “You’re Mother?”
I glanced at Lara, who nodded toward the pin on Myrine’s coat. “The only time I met with Mother, she wore a mask, and that pin.”
The broach was a distinctive design, a cluster of silver dahlias, set with onyx centers. Ares stared at them as well. “Betrayal or commitment?” he whispered, obviously referencing his interest in floriography.
Myrine smiled. “Both, I suppose, depending on how you look at things.”
A snarl caught in my throat as I saw that Max and Sera were bound. If Myrine was Mother, why were her people behaving as though they were our enemies? My heart sank. This was not what I’d hoped at all.
This was something I did not yet have words for.
I moved slowly to the edge of the boat, crossing my arms over my chest, feeling my sword’s presence, snug against my spine. That at least was a reassurance of a kind. The storm clouds cleared above us, giving us a sliver of the moon. “Why have you restrained my people?”
Myrine was tall as ever, her translucent skin glowing in the moonlight, her eyes pools of mercurial light. She had always been a mystery to me, more goddess than earthly being.
The Admiral’s voice was calm as she pushed back the hood of her anorak to reveal a silver crown of hair. “Your people fought us when we released them from the Chiorics’ grip,” Myrine replied. “They caught them coming out of the Library of Amarante. We were forced to bind them for their own safety.”
Myrine’s words sounded like a lie. Still, I nodded. She and her people were too powerful for us to fight with an incomplete cohort. “All right. But we are here now. Release them into my custody.”
Myrine smiled again, this time at Lara and Rhiannon in turn. “Two of your cohort are already helping me, Ember. Why not join us?”
Rhiannon glared, lurching forward. “Does my mother know you’re doing this?”
Myrine laughed as though we were all a bunch of sassy babies. Ares glanced at me, sidelong. He, Eryx and Avaline all tensed. They knew they couldn’t survive a fight with this many Maere, but they were willing to stand with us. That meant more to me than they knew.
Myrine’s gaze drifted, seeming to notice what I had. “You have done something unusual here,” she said, her words careful. And smug. She was far too smug. Nausea crept over me as she continued speaking. “Without your swords, you changed.”
This wasn’t what someone who wanted to help me would say. This wasn’t what the Myrine I knew would say. I shook with fear for what this really was, but I answered the Admiral. “Yes, Orphium will come back into balance, if I have to spend the rest of my life devoted to it.”
“And what of the humans?” Myrine asked, obviously testing me. “What will you do with them?”
I wanted to throw the unholiest of fits.
To leap across the small strip of river between us and throttle her into telling the truth, into shooting straight.
Instead, I tried to word things the way that Rhiannon probably would.
“There’s a lot to be worked out, Myrine.
And if you’re working against the island, you are no longer my superior officer. ”
Myrine simply smiled. It was a knowing smile, one that I’d seen a thousand times.
Usually when I was being taught a lesson of some sort.
The kind that was hard won, after she’d pushed me just a measure too far.
All my hope that this was better than it seemed died, shriveling into a cold, dead thing.
Rhiannon stepped closer to me, obviously understanding the conclusion I’d already come to. “It was you. You took the swords. My mother would never approve of this.”
Myrine smiled again. “She didn’t like the idea…
at first. But she came around to my way of thinking.
” Rhi’s face fell, and I hated Myrine. Hated the queen.
Hated the whole damn island for fucking with us.
“But we needed a way to prove your worth, to prove that your cohort wasn’t the result of nepotism, and it worked. ”
Rhiannon’s shoulders instantly slumped. “You did all of this because of me?” Tears slid down her cheeks. I would never forgive the entirety of Otrera for this. “Why? I could have just stayed home… Sera…”
Sobs choked my princess’ words and in the other boat, Sera struggled against her bonds, her eyes wild with anger, and worry for Rhi. I pulled Rhiannon against me, beyond fury at this point.
Sera. No. They wouldn’t have... Ares glanced at me, cold rage in his eyes. Was he thinking what I was? I shook my head, just once, just slightly, hoping he understood that timing was everything here.
Myrine kept talking, as though what she and the island had done wasn’t an incredible betrayal. “You all did so well. And now all can be made right. You have passed our test of strength.”
Anger simmered in my veins. I was tired of being buffeted about by all these groups scrapping for power.
“No,” I said, after a long moment of what I was sure Myrine read as contemplation.
If that’s what she assumed, she didn’t know me as well as she obviously thought she did.
I stared deep into the water, watching as a dim pair of crimson lights raced towards us.
My heart leapt. If that was what I thought it was, we could still win this.
“Give my people back and I will let you go.”
I reached behind me, where Rhiannon still held Sera’s sword, and took it from her. To her credit, she didn’t so much as flinch. She simply released it into my hands.
They had stolen our swords for some arbitrary test of our resolve. And for what? To prove to the island that they had not sent Rhiannon here in some act of nepotism. It was ridiculous and cruel. Frankly, I didn’t give a flying fuck why they’d done it.
“Come now,” Myrine said, still infuriatingly calm. “Surely we can discuss all of this. I believe we want more of the same things than you imagine.”
I shot back, immediately, “Did you kill those girls yourself? The potential Maere in the spirit traps?”