Chapter Forty Eight
Damning Of The Mothers
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Gallena’s Temple, Nythanor.
Gedeon.
‘Let her OUT!’ The waterling man, Kawai, squared up to Naal Westerra the moment she closed the Council Room door. Locking Kyra within.
Gedeon did not move from his position at the bottom of the short stairwell. Carefully watching the interaction.
‘Step away from the pramah, boy, if you know what’s good for you,’ Maida scolded Kawai from Gedeon’s side.
‘She’s not my pramah,’ Kawai said scathingly, though he did take a step back. ‘Do you actually think this is going to help her?’
Gedeon was inclined to agree, though he did not dare voice his opinion. The boy received no answer from Naal.
Instead, she looked past everyone to stare straight at Gedeon. ‘I need to speak with you. Alone.’
Surprise flitted over the faces of the small congregation, each of them staring at him but none questioned it. Gedeon gently pushed himself from the wall, the hanging dusty tapestry billowing behind him. Without a word, he inclined his head.
Naal swept down the stairwell, and Gedeon made to follow her, but she turned back to her Eternals just as she reached him. ‘No one is to unlock that door. That’s an order. Kawai, you are not bound to me, but if you disobey you will be expelled from this temple.’
No one replied with their consent. But then, Gedeon supposed, Naal did not need them to. She’d given a direct order. Gedeon himself had felt it fuse into his very bones.
As Gedeon followed her down to the corridor below, Kawai’s contempt-thick voice chased after them, ‘You keep talking about ridding the world of tyrants, Naal, yet you’re acting like the very people you’re trying to overthrow.’
If his scathing words bothered the Air Warden, she did not show it. Just continued on as though Kawai had not spoken at all.
In a tiny library that smelt as ancient as the temple itself, Naal finally turned to him. She looked more tired than Gedeon had ever seen her. ‘Gedeon, you know your mother better than anyone.’ She took a great breath. ‘Am I right in thinking it’s a lure, to get Kyra to go to her?’
Gedeon replied stiffly, ‘Undoubtedly.’
‘But why? Why does Azar want her so? What does Kyra have that no Earth Warden before her had?’ Naal said a little desperately.
‘All she ever revealed to me was that one line from the prophecy.’ He recited: ‘“For when the Earth cracks and the Sun hides behind the moon, then shall she-’”
‘Yes, I know that one damned line.’ Impatience lined every inch of Naal’s face. ‘And she never divulged the rest to you? You never once heard the prophecy in its entirety?’
Wishing he could answer differently, Gedeon said, ‘No. She wanted nothing but blind trust from me. Her greater plan, whatever it is, was never shared with me. She was adamant that she would only reveal everything when the time was right.’
‘But what does that mean?’ Naal persisted.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know.’
‘Kyra will not see the totality here,’ Naal said, shaking her head. ‘She will see only her love for Rosary, and do whatever it takes to make her safe again, even if it means forfeiting her own life.’
‘She is loyal to a fault,’ Gedeon murmured.
‘That loyalty makes her brash and reckless,’ Naal said darkly. ‘It will get her killed.’
‘My mother will not kill Kyra. She plans to use her, though for what I cannot say.’
‘That is besides the point. I cannot let her go to Zarynth, Gedeon. The risk… it’s too great.’ She ran a hand through her short grey hair. ‘Perhaps if you talked to her, if you made her understand…’
‘And why would she listen to me?’
A strange look befell the Air Warden’s features then as she looked at him, but it was gone as soon as it came. ‘You’re the son of the Empress. Perhaps you might convince her that Rosary’s life is in no immediate danger.’
‘She may not kill her but my mother will continue to send parts of Rosary to Kyra until she gives herself over,’ Gedeon said bluntly.
‘Kyra cannot know that.’
‘So you want me to lie to her?’
‘Yes,’ Naal hissed fiercely. ‘If it means discouraging her from rushing to Zarynth the second I let her out of that room, then yes.’ She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, dropping her chin.
When she opened them again, there were tears sparkling amidst the icy grey.
‘I do not want Kyra to lose Rosary. Truly, I do not. But I have to think about the longevity of this war. I have to think about the longevity of Kyra’s life, and the lives of every soul in this world.
I have to think like the warrior right now.
I have to be a strategist and dull the pain in my heart, dull the mother, dull the friend.
I have to be a Warden. All four of us do. ’
Gedeon was painfully reminded of the words he’d said to Kyra when they’d been side by side in the ice cell.
Collateral damage.
But would Kyra ever forgive this one?
‘Do you order it?’ Gedeon asked quietly.
‘No,’ Naal said. ‘It is not an order. But I implore you to see how important this is. I urge you to do the right thing; for the greater good.’
It was almost like staring at himself in a mirror. So many of his own philosophies were being reflected in the female before him. Despite it all, despite agreeing with every word the Air Warden had said, he hated himself for nodding his consent.
For he knew it would break Kyra when the lie inevitably crumbled.
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Kyra.
From this view, slouched against the rough cold wall, Kyra could see the blood-soaked ear under the table, scattered amongst the fractured wood of the box.
Just sitting there on the stone floor. She hadn’t moved a muscle from the moment Naal had left the Council Room, not even to block the ear from sight.
She’d attacked Naal.
The Empress of Zarynth had Rosary.
She didn’t know who she was anymore. That power had turned her into someone she did not recognise.
Someone she didn’t want to recognise. She’d thought Roheia’s power to be tamer than Xusyn’s, but had it not been the earth power, and not the sun that had almost killed Zuriel?
Had it not been that power that had rumbled through her just now, threatening to take down the entire mountain just to get past Naal?
How much of it was power, untamed and ruthless, and how much of it was just… her?
Kano certainly hadn’t lost control like she had at the sight of Akraia’s dead body. How was it she was more reckless, more wild and more untamed than a fifteen year old human boy?
The blood on Kyra’s hands was thick now. Blood she would never be able to wipe off, that stained darker than any kill she’d ever made.
Rosary.
Goddess. Her Rosary.
Taken just to get to her. Maimed and tortured all because Roheia had deemed her worthy of being the Earth Warden.
‘Help me,’ Kyra begged the thin air. ‘Please, Roheia. Great Mother… help me help her.’
No one answered.
‘Why me? Why choose me?’ she half sobbed. Lifting her hands skyward, she pleaded, ‘I don’t want it. I never wanted it. Take it back. Take it back!’
The raw scream ricocheted off the walls, and still, no one answered. No deity came forth to console her. No Goddess answered her prayer. Not a fucking peep from the puppeteer of her fate.
She really was alone now. So was Rosary.
No one was on her side. No one cared enough to save the woman who had saved her.
More than the death of one woman.
A growl rose in her throat.
Fuck Naal. Fuck the Eternals. Fuck Azar. And fuck the divine orchestrators of her life. She would damn all the Mothers and the Old Gods to the Void, if that’s what it took.
Emboldened by purpose, Kyra stood. Her legs no longer shook.
If her soul was to be marred by these powers of chaos for the rest of her life, she was going to fucking use them for good.
For Rosary.
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Gedeon.
The hallway outside the Council Room was deserted by the time Gedeon and Naal returned. The door remained firmly closed; none had dared defy Naal’s orders, and the wards she had created on the threshold were still intact.
She removed them with a swift hand motion, then cautioned Gedeon, ‘She’s not of a sound mind. She might try to attack. Be on your guard.’
Gedeon nodded, easily willing his flames to sizzle beneath his skin, ready to strike like an asp should he need to.
The door swung open, and Gedeon pursued Naal into the room.
Nothing stirred. Gedeon assessed the mingled scents present: salty tears, Kyra’s fresh blood, dried human blood.
His gaze caught the ear on the ground, surrounded by shards of fractured black wood.
He’d seen his mother use that particular tactic before, had even severed body parts himself as intended ‘gifts’.
Usually the victims were family or friends of those who had displeased the Empress in some way, a manipulative ploy to bend their will to her own.
He’d known before Kyra had even opened the box what manner of gift was awaiting her inside.
He’d known that this particular time would be no different to the rest.
Gedeon noticed another scent then, dusty and raw, and his gaze fell upon a raggedy hole in the Council Room floor.
At his side, Naal stared down at it too.
Kyra had wielded her earth magic to escape, her desperation to get out written in the serrated edges of the opening to the chamber below.
Naal’s eyes were wide with unmistakable fear when she looked at him and whispered, ‘Find her.’
Gedeon jumped through the hole after Kyra without a second thought.