Do we have time? He decided not to ask. “I’ll return as soon as I can. With another blade or bearer at my side.”
Ilith nodded, staring forward. There was something sad in his eyes all of a sudden, as though a memory was resurfacing, something painful, a recollection of regret. “I was going to link all the north,” he said, in a voice that was half a whisper.
Jonik barely heard him. “My lord?”
“This portal, Jaycob. It was to be the first of many, a network to connect us, bring us closer together. Can you imagine? A web of these pathways, opening to all the major cities in the north? How easy would it have been, then, to do what must be done?”
Jonik did not know what to say. He chose flattery, and truth. “You built the world, my lord. Isn’t that enough? There is no one in all history so respected as you.”
His smile twinkled, though a little less brightly, as a dying star in the high night sky. It seemed to Jonik that he had aged, a little. A sinking of the posture, a wrinkling about the eyes. It concerned him.
“My lord…”
“You are kind, Jaycob, to say so. Another man of great kindness said the same thing to me once. Right here, it was. Not long before I died.”
Jonik waited, wondering.
“Hamlyn,” Ilith whispered. A tear welled in his eye, dropping, wending down the side of his cheek to hold in the corner of his mouth. “Never was there anyone closer to me, Jaycob. That he died, so I could live…” He looked over. “Do you imagine a demigod’s heart could be broken?”
Jonik’s voice was choked. “I…suppose so, my lord.”
A sad smile tugged at Ilith’s lips. “Ignore me, young one. Here I am lamenting the loss of my friend and you…you stand before your dead mother. I am sorry. That was insensitive of me.”
“Not at all.” I never really knew her. He shuffled his feet, awkward. “And she is a great loss to you as well. To Tyrith, I mean…he knew her well.” Better than me. “He was as a son to her too.”
He sensed that’s what it was. Demigods did not weep, as far as Jonik knew. This was Tyrith’s influence, Tyrith’s emotion, Tyrith’s mortality and weakness.
“My lord, I should go. The others…”
“Of course. Yes, of course. They need you. The world needs you, Jaycob.”
Jonik bent down to lift his mother, carefully picking her up off the floor, cradling her. He caught a whiff of putrefaction, though the worst of the decay was kept behind the layers of linen. My own mother, rotting in my arms. He stepped toward the door, the black void filling his vision. Behind, the light of Ilith was glowing softly, radiating from his skin, his hair. Jonik had once been told that the hottest flames burned out the fastest. He glanced back, wondering. The spirit of a demigod, in the body of a mortal. How long can that flesh sustain him? How much time do we really have?
In Jonik’s head, a clock was ticking.
He stepped forward into the void.
3
“You’re welcome to rest here as long as you like,” Lord Botley Harrow said. “A minute, an hour, a day. Stay forever if you want. The gods know we could use you.”
Everywhere can use me, Elyon thought. “I stopped only to speak with you, my lord. I don’t mean to stay long.”
“Of course. Of course.” Lord Harrow lifted a hand to his mouth, suppressing an audible yawn. Such was the hour, and such the haste of Elyon’s arrival, that he had not been given proper time to dress. From beneath his nightrobes, thick, tree trunk legs sprouted, muscular at the calf, with slippers on his feet. His hair was dishevelled, heavy jaw thick with two-day stubble. “You’ll have to forgive the garb, Sir Elyon. If I’d known you were coming…”
“It’s late, Lord Harrow. You needn’t explain the nightclothes. I landed only to hear if you’d had any further word from Varinar?”
The man gave a despairing shake of the head. “None. Not since that crow came the day the city was attacked.” He rubbed at his forehead. “You spoke to my man, then? Sir Hutchin. I sent him as soon as I received Sir Bomfrey’s note.”
“He arrived at King’s Point only hours ago,” Elyon confirmed. “That’s why I’m here, my lord.” He turned his eyes across the lord’s chambers, where he’d been taken upon landing upon the high sturdy walls of Crosswater. On a table he saw a tray of sweetbreads, cheese and cured meats, with a large jug of wine on the side. He would not partake in any drinking, but the food was a welcome sight. “Do you mind if I…?”
“By all means, go ahead.”
Elyon stepped over to eat. Lord Harrow went with him, poured a large cup of wine, and drank deep. “So…King’s Point. How…how is it?”
Elyon took a bite of bread. “Destroyed,” he said, chewing. “Almost entirely in ruin. We lost over half our men.”
The stocky lord gave a sharp intake of air. “Half? Goodness me. And the enemy?”
“Similarly depleted. Some thousands fled into the woods across the river, when the Dread came. The rest ran for their ships and sailed south.”
“They fled? Will they return, do you imagine?”
“We don’t know for sure as yet.” Elyon had another bite of bread, munching hungrily. “So, nothing from Varinar? What about the west? The Twinfort? Anything from there?”
“Nothing. No word, Sir Elyon.”
“And the east?”
The Lord Protector of the Vanguard shook his head. “Except for that crow, everything’s gone dark. No riders have come, no ships. We’re living in fear that Drulgar will pass over our heads, and reduce us to ruin as well. Some of the men even reported seeing him when he flew north. From afar, yes, but even then…” He looked Elyon in the eye. “Is he as big as they say? A flying mountain…”
“More a volcano,” Elyon said to that. “His blood…it’s like lava. The very air around him seems to boil. It is enough to blister skin, my lord.” He did not have time to discuss it in any more depth, nor did he want to think about it. He took another bite of bread, chewing quickly, to replenish his stores of energy, eating like a starved man. Of those there would be many hundreds of thousands soon. Millions, even. These nice full plates will grow scarce, he thought, even for a lord like Harrow. “Are you all on rations here?” he asked.
“We are. In preparation.”
“Preparation is over. It’s happening as we speak.” He didn’t need to define what ‘it’ was. “Well, I should be away then. I’d like to reach Varinar by first light if I can.” Or what’s left of it.
