Chapter Forty-Four
The cleanup begins immediately, both Queen Sadira and Anton issuing orders to tend to the wounded and search the battlefield for survivors from both sides. Those in league with Maksim will be treated and handed to Sofya; they will answer for their allegiance in Brisendale.
“Give me an hour,” Anton told me.
All the while, I wait outside Anton’s hastily erected tent, where the queen’s physician supplies me with tonics and herbs to help speed my recovery. Using the mirror has left me shaking and fatigued, and I’d nearly fainted a few minutes after my father’s execution.
True to his word, Anton returns to me less than an hour later, kneeling before my bench and cupping my cheeks. When he asks me how I’m feeling, I pull him into an embrace, because we survived when I thought we might not.
Together we walk back to the tower in the forest—away from the camps. But not before he doles out final orders: for Basile to oversee the cleanup efforts and report back to Ansa after.
Anton seemed to think it made sense to redirect the portal I had used to Ansa with the mirror’s power.
“Very unlikely someone is going to take a chance and jump through broken glass in the foreseeable future.”
When we emerge from the portal into Mercy’s old chapel, Anton says, “I have everything I need, though we will have to make haste. The resin itself will need time to dry.”
“You could have done it all this time,” I say. Before I had stolen the pendant, that is.
He folds my arm into his, escorting me through the palace’s passages. “I could have, yes, but I wouldn’t have. It was too risky.”
“And now?” I ask. “Have you really changed your mind?”
“I suppose that Moranya succeeded in her quest to prove that love and devotion can change someone. Through you, that is,” he says, pausing in a dark corridor, a single beam of light cascading from a skylight above. “If we weren’t in a rush, I’d—”
I kiss him on the nose. “I know.”
Then he scoops me up and carries me the rest of the way.
I try not to think about how I am no longer a political match, not now that my father has been killed. Not once the Syndicate rules his reign illegitimate.
The moment we reach his workshop, Anton commands the guards outside to fetch Gustav but otherwise keep our presence here a secret.
When I inquire as to his reason, he tells me we can’t risk being disturbed—or something going wrong.
Then I watch him as he gathers his tools, and there’s something about the tense line of his lips, the furrow of his brows, that feels more dire than mere concentration.
It’s almost like there’s something he isn’t telling me. Another risk he hasn’t yet shared.
A few minutes later, Gustav parades in, his expression disbelieving. “Sire? How—”
“Later,” Anton says. “We must get to work.”
And the reparations begin.
I marvel as the two of them fall in sync, collecting ingredients for the resin as Anton gives Gustav the briefest of explanations, which Gustav trusts without hesitation as only a friend might. Anton then snags the bag of shards I saw, laying them out on a cloth.
“Even with the resin, there can be no gaps,” he says, both of them sliding on pairs of spectacles unlike anything I’ve ever seen, each with several glass ovals they can slide down to magnify their work at different proximities.
“But how can that even be achieved? Many of the shards are broken into dust,” Gustav asks, reaching for a metal tool resembling tweezers.
“We’ll grind a few of those minuscule fragments—whatever is left over—and add them into the resin to seal the gaps.
Theoretically, it should allow the power to move freely through its surface as if it were whole.
We’ll use silver to bond it to the reflective backing.
The final piece, however—I won’t fit it into the resin until I deliver it to Moranya, or else Kastiel would be released here instead. ”
I watch for a time, mesmerized, taking a break only when I convince them they’ll need sustenance. Gustav tells me how to find the kitchens, which aren’t far, a peculiar grin on his face. “There’s someone there who will help. They can be trusted with discretion in regard to our presence.”
A guard leads me to the kitchens.
The moment I step inside, there’s a loud shriek, the clattering of a tray. Then I’m enveloped in a hug before I can make sense of what’s happening.
“Vasalie, you’re here,” comes a voice next to my ear. Then my assailant pulls away, her eyes bright and lined in threatening tears.
“Marian,” I breathe, my throat tight.
“Laurent told us you were in Razam, but the last we heard was that you vanished. We were all so worried—”
“Laurent,” I say. “Is he here?”
With a bounce, Marian nods. “We must go get him! Come, this way—”
“There’s no time,” I tell her. “I’ll explain everything soon, but I need meals for His Majesty and Lord Bayard.”
I return with a tray packed with scones, cheeses, and sliced fruit in hand, thanks to Marian grabbing every bit of food in sight.
But as I near the doors, I pause, Anton and Gustav’s conversation reaching my ears.
“…all seems so unreal. All this time, and you’re certain this is wise?”
“I am,” comes Anton’s voice. “But there’s something you should know. There is another reason I didn’t agree to help Moranya repair the mirror—beyond unleashing Kastiel. It’s the reason I left Basile behind in Razam.”
“Sire,” Gustav says. “What is it?”
“The veil between the living and the dead is thin—torn in places, even,” Anton says.
“Through my studies, I know that once magic is set in motion, its course cannot be changed. It’s rather like a blueprint, a design that must be followed.
It means that not even Kastiel can alter the magic Mercy set into place for the creation of her realm.
He can only act upon what was already set in place.
Either he will choose to destroy it—which Moranya is certain he would never do—or he can bring it to perfect completion, sealing any soul from ever returning.
That was her intent, after all—that it would protect souls from the living, and the living from souls who might want vengeance.
And thus, with the veil repaired, that means no more portals.
Moranya was only able to open them through the existing tears. ”
“But certainly that isn’t a bad thing,” Gustav notes.
“Certainly not. But there will be no more resurrecting, I imagine.”
I had suspected that. Even so, my heart flutters.
Gustav takes several beats to respond. Then, like only a brother might, he says, “That’s a shame. I rather liked the element of surprise—not knowing when and where you might show up after a good walloping. This means I can just, I don’t know. Shove you off a balcony and take your crown for real.”
“My friend, you can’t even bring yourself to kill a spider. I’d like to see you try.”
“Wait until I tell Basile,” Gustav says. “He’s not going to leave you alone for a second.”
“Let’s not tell him. He’ll sleep much easier at night.”
My fingers tighten on the tray, and I take another step forward, only to stop once more when Anton says, “I suppose it won’t matter in the end, though. Because I suspect that whoever takes the mirror to Moranya might not be able to come back.”
I nearly drop the tray.
“You mean…at all?” Gustav says. I hear some shuffling, and then, “No, Sire. You absolutely cannot be the one to return it. We will send someone else.”
“Nonsense. I would not condemn someone else.”
“I will go.”
“You will not.”
“I absolutely will.”
“I’ll have you arrested and imprisoned until I leave if I must.”
“But, Sire,” Gustav argues, “we cannot lose you again. Not to mention, the Syndicate—”
“I will meet with the whole of my court this evening and pronounce you king—officially. This time, there will be no shortage of witnesses, and we have Sofya to vouch for me as well. My work here is done.”
My hands are trembling even as I try to steady the tray.
No. I can’t let him do this.
“But I don’t understand,” Gustav implores. “Couldn’t they simply allow you to come back before they finish the realm?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” says Anton. “I will have to put the final shard into the resin while I am in Moranya’s Lair; otherwise, Kastiel will be released too soon.”
“Yes, but—”
“The moment he is free, Moranya will no longer have power, and the realm will start to decay. He must immediately release the magic that will bring it to completion to prevent that. There will be no time to escape.”
I lean against a column and take several minutes to calm the racing of my heart, my stomach in knots. I hear them discuss the drying of the resin, which would take several hours. During that time, he would address his court.
“And Vasalie?” I hear Gustav ask, and my heart seems to freeze.
But I don’t hear Anton’s answer, not with the scraping of tools. After, he tells Gustav to pour some of the excess resin into a small bottle, which he will take with him into Moranya’s Lair to fit the final shard into place.
All the while, my heart breaks yet again. Hasn’t he sacrificed enough?
How could he not tell me?
But of course he wouldn’t want me to know, because he knows I would never let him take that mirror back.
He would be right. I won’t.
I bring them the tray of food, which they barely pick at, concentrating as they are. Hours pass, and I can’t help but marvel as Anton works. He’s careful, steady with his fingers.
Meanwhile, my thoughts swerve and spiral through my options, until Basile enters the workshop.
At that, Anton glances up. “Basile? How in the blazes did you get here so fast?”
“You think I didn’t keep track of you, Majesty? I saw where you went and used the same portal.”
“Didn’t I give you orders to stay?”
“The queen dismissed me. Our troops are on the way home,” he says, proceeding to deliver the rest of his report.
“Update the council,” Anton orders afterward. “Please send word to them all. We will meet in the throne room in an hour.”
Basile nods dutifully, then leaves the workshop.
And an idea clicks into place. Basile is the only one who might defy his king—if it means protecting him.
I follow Basile outside.
Anton fetched my soul right from the Lair of Death—at his own peril. I was given more time, and now I understand why.
I helped to restore him. I’ve witnessed him as the king he was always meant to be. I even had time with him—to fall in love with him, to be with him, however temporary it was.
And now I get to save him one last time.