Chapter Thirteen #2
Phaenon was the only place that people, human and fae alike, inhabited in Nythanor.
The flat, seemingly desolate plains at the mountains’ base was the territory of great ice bears and innumerable other canine-sharp creatures, roaming free and always in search of their next meal.
Walking the wild plains of Nythanor was just about as dangerous as scaling the dragon’s Apex in Zarynth, if the stories he had been told as a child were true.
There was an unfamiliar taste of freedom in the very air here. A people who feared nothing but surviving the frozen nights, a people who laughed with little worry, a people who depended on one another without the dread of debt.
Singing warmed the frosty night. It moved with a steady drumbeat, carrying across the alien landscape right into Gedeon’s ears, jovial and passionate, and yet he had a strange feeling the sound would haunt him in the days to come.
‘One more leap,’ he said out loud, more to himself than his brother, staring at the smoke rising from the contained fires burning within the city walls. Soon it would blacken the clear, star spattered sky.
‘Are you ready for this, Gedeon?’ Sekun said. His laboured breathing had returned to normal, puffing in clouds against the icy air. ‘Can your soft heart handle the… what did you call it? Ah yes… ‘the decimation of harmless civilians’?’
Gedeon ripped his eyes away from the city. ‘I will do what needs to be done.’
‘Will you?’ Sekun goaded him. He stood upright and put a hand on Gedeon’s shoulder, tightly squeezing, his face far too close for Gedeon’s liking. ‘Are you ready to hear them beg for mercy? To watch a city of innocents burn at your hand? To let the smoke from their burning flesh sear your eyes?’
Gedeon shoved his brother’s chest. ‘You are unhinged. This is duty, nothing more. Let it be done.’
Sekun laughed. ‘My part is over, brother. Yours has only just begun.’
He linked his arm through Gedeon’s once more and spun them away, leaping into the folds of the world, and landing right outside the entrance to Phaenon City. Gedeon immediately covered himself and Sekun under a blanket of darkness, and they became nothing more than a shadow.
He peered into the city. There was no gate. But in the air was a scent, fresh as morning dew. He recognised the magic immediately, though he’d never encountered it before. The fire within him responded to it as if it were an old friend.
Naal Westerra’s ward, crafted from the air itself.
He knew his flames would cut through it like a blade. No elemental magic could withstand an attack from another. It was against the nature of things.
Normal fire would not stand a chance against the Air Warden’s protection. But Gedeon’s fire was divine, just as hers was. It was the purest of magic.
And yet here he was, moments away from committing an act of utter impurity.
‘Are you sure you’re ready to-’
‘Shut up, Sekun,’ Gedeon snapped. ‘Stay here and be ready to salir us out. The Eternals won’t be far behind once the screaming starts.’
‘Enjoy it,’ Sekun whispered in his ear. ‘I would.’
And with that, Gedeon stepped into Phaenon.
As a shadowy wraith of darkness, no one looked his way.
The singing and drumming became louder as he moved through the Nythanorians, their voices filling the air as a collective chorus in a harsh language he did not understand.
Children giggled and danced around the fire as the men and women drank from horns and chanted their merry song.
In the next circle of homes in the distance, another community did the same.
And the one after that. And the one after that.
Villages for miles, as far as he could see.
All carefree. All unaware of the danger that skulked among them painted in shadows.
He looked to the fire, to the embers that rose with the hot air.
Closing his eyes, he called to the flames within him, focusing on those embers.
He felt for the protective bubble that domed high over Phaenon, and willed his embers to burn through it.
They singed through Naal’s wards. Then, casting his magic wide, to each colony along the city, he directed those burning embers to fall and land on the unsuspecting people, on the wooden pathways, on the leather coverings of their homes.
A squeal of delight suddenly cut through Gedeon’s concentration. His heart lurched at the sound, and he instinctively opened his eyes.
A young girl, no older than four, ran past him. She was so close that the movement billowed his cloak. Her father chased her, then scooped her into his arms, swinging her around in a circle as she giggled hard, only stopping to breathe for air.
She barked a command in Nythanorian that Gedeon was sure translated to ‘again’, not because he understood her, but from the sparkle of mischief glittering in her eyes.
Her father set her back on her feet and she instantly ran again, her little feet hammering the compacted snow.
The embers sitting on the entire city were still and glowing, awaiting his command.
Wrong.
This was wrong.
As the little girl squealed again with a joy Gedeon had never experienced, he let those embers fade into nothing more than ash. They blew into the wind as if they had never been there at all.
His mother would likely kill him for his disobedience. But he could not act on this order. Would not act on it. He would not be the cause of so much pain and death.
With his shadows still tight around him, Gedeon walked out of the city, knowing, for the first time in his miserable existence, that he had done the right thing.
There can never be freedom in duty. Amala had said that.
‘What are you doing?’ Sekun snarled as Gedeon stumbled past him, letting his shadows drop. He completely ignored his brother and stalked on. ‘COWARD!’ Sekun roared, spooking a flock of birds into flight from a nearby tree. ‘Turn back and do what our Empress commanded! Burn them all!’
Gedeon ignored him again, continuing his descent, each footfall sinking in the thick snow. In the distance, a hawk cried.
Sekun furiously muttered something incoherent under his breath, and then something hit Gedeon hard in the small of his back.
He lurched forward into thick snow, hands breaking his fall, and reached for his back immediately, expecting to find blood, gasping with the sharp pain that was slowly fading into a dull ache.
There was no blood. No blade had pierced his skin.
‘I warned you, brother,’ Sekun said from behind.
‘I warned you that your softness would be your doom.’ With great effort, Gedeon pushed himself to stand.
‘That power should have never belonged to you. You are undeserving. You are weak. You will not be the one to bring this victory to our queen.’ His teal eyes sparkled with malicious intent. ‘But I will.’
Sekun reached into the folds of his furs, and pulled out a circular metal ball the size of his hand. He twisted the halves, and the mechanism inside locked and began to tick. He grinned.
Gedeon realised what it was, and what he planned to do before it was too late. ‘Sekun… NO!’
But Sekun had already launched it into the air, and they both watched it fly, one in horror, the other with sick fervour.
The entire city shook with impact as it exploded above in an unforgiving inferno of fire.
Not just any fire, but a magically enhanced blueish blaze set with one intention: to destroy everything and everyone in its path.
It expanded and roared, a colossal monster of death, ravaging the city and its people.
Gedeon’s fire had already blasted through Naal’s wards. There was nothing left to protect her people.
Piercing screams began, marrying an anguished chorus of pain.
Gedeon could do nothing but stare.
All of this death, all of this pain… for duty.
Sekun grabbed the front of his furs. ‘You’re a traitor, Gedeon. A spineless piece of filth. I’ve always known it, even if mother has always worshipped the hallowed ground you walk on.’ He was a male triumphant. ‘She won’t now.’
Multiple figures appeared in the smoking sky, each of their wings spread wide as they rode on the wind. One of them dove through the black smoke, bow nocked with a thin, deadly arrow aimed right for Sekun’s heart.
‘Move!’ Gedeon shouted, shoving him to the side.
The arrow flew true but instead of hitting Sekun, it lodged under Gedeon’s shoulder, ripping through skin, sinew and bone.
By some chance, it just missed his right lung.
He staggered back and growled against the pain, opening his streaming eyes to see a white-haired Eternal warrior high above them drawing ever closer, her wings beating furiously as she nocked another arrow, a promise raging over her features that the next one would not miss.
Sekun recovered himself and grabbed Gedeon, leaping them away from the city the same way they’d come up, though with significantly less time to rest in between each leap. By the time they reached the shore where the ship stood waiting, Sekun was as magically drained as Gedeon.
‘They’ll follow,’ gasped Gedeon as he ripped the arrow from his shoulder and threw it to the ground. Blood flowed easily from the puncture, soaking the clothes beneath the furs as he followed Sekun to the ship.
‘Go, you useless shits,’ Sekun spat at the crew awaiting them on the deck, who jumped to action, immediately readying the sails and setting them back out onto the Birlissus. By the time the Eternals made it down the mountain, even carried by powerful wings, they would be long gone.
Gedeon slid against the side of the ship, pressing a heavy hand to the wound in an attempt to slow the flow of blood.
It ought to have been healing faster than it was, but the skin was stitching back together surprisingly slowly.
The arrow tip had been dipped in some sort of poison; he could feel it searing his skin.
Sekun crouched in front of him. His face was drained of colour, and despite the cold, sweat trickled down the side of his face. Feverish from the excessive use of magic. Still, he leered at Gedeon as though he were the happiest male alive.
Gedeon said through shallow breaths, ‘This was wrong, Sekun. I would have followed her to the ends of the world. But this… this was wrong. She was wrong this time.’
‘Your righteousness will be the death of you.’
‘Do it, then!’ Gedeon demanded. ‘Kill me and be done with it.’
‘No,’ Sekun said slowly. ‘No, you don’t die today.
You will look our mother in the eye and tell her that you failed.
You will tell her that you betrayed her trust. And I will gladly watch her realise that her faith in you has always been misplaced.
I will watch and I will smile as she decides what to do with her traitor son. ’
Gedeon barked a humourless laugh. ‘What is it you seek, Sekun? Glory? Our mother’s love? Your desperation to be recognised is pathetic.’
Sekun’s iron fist collided with the side of Gedeon’s face. He was too weakened to block it, even if he had seen it coming. Blinking stars from his eyes, he prodded his tongue at his bottom lip, now split and seeping blood into his mouth and down his chin.
Sekun flexed his fist, watching the motion. ‘I have wanted to do that for a long time,’ he said quietly, his eyes alive with barely controlled thrill. ‘A very, very long time.’
‘I do hope it was satisfying,’ said Gedeon thickly. He spat out a mouthful of blood.
With a growing smile, Sekun turned to face him. ‘Oh, it was. See you at home, traitor.’
Sekun’s foot swung toward his head, and Gedeon knew no more.