Page 121 of While the Dark Remains
I swear to myself that when all this is over, I will find a true place for her, and for all these children, too.
I try not to think about the Yellow Lord, about Brandr unleashing him on the world. There must be justice, yes. But I will protect each one of these precious souls with everything that is in me.
I look back at the cage, revulsion and hatred and horror searing through me. Rute makes fifteen children saved, fifteen free, out of far too many others who lie forgotten in the Sea of Bones.
“Where have you put Kallias?” I ask my brother.
Brandr has been growing more and more annoyed with this whole process, impatient with me. He lifts his eyebrows at the mention of the king. “In a cell like the rest of the prisoners.”
My stomach twists at the thought of Saga and Vil locked away, of Ballast writhing in the dark with the collar burning his neck. Grief and guilt war within me. “I want him locked in here,” I say, nodding to the cage.
Brandr raises his eyebrows, a hint of laughter in his eyes. “So youhavedeveloped a Skaandan heart. Very well, it will be done.”
“Immediately,” I press.
He snaps his fingers for the Iljaria guards and relays my instructions. They bow and go to do my bidding.
I wait with Gulla and the huddle of freed children, my heart blazing in my chest. I think it will burn through my bones and my skin. I think it will fall to the marble floor and turn to stone. All I can feel is the children, clinging to me like I’m the only thing mooring them to the earth. I wonder if they know they’re the only things mooringme. I try not to sense Gulla’s frigid disapproval—but how can she think my request anything but just?
It’s a moment or an eternity.
Then footsteps ring on the floor.
Kallias comes into view, gripped on either side by two tall Iljaria. Somehow the king manages to look as smug as he did down in the mountain, striking the final blow against the rock. His bewilderment is gone. He holds his head high and sneers at me.
All the children stare at him, stare and stare, like they can’t believe their roles have been reversed. Gulla looks at the floor, as if she is ashamed.
“In there,” I say roughly, pointing to my cage. My skin is buzzing. Bronze sparks blur my vision.
The Iljaria guards shove the king inside. He perches there, an oversized spider too large for its web.
I lock the cage myself, shutting the door, turning the key. Kallias peers at me through the bars. “I knew it was you,” he says. “My wayward acrobat, come home to me. Did you think you had changed so much?”
I resist the urge to strike him. To spit, to swear.
But he sees it all in my eyes, and he laughs at me.
I turn my back to him and nod to Brandr.
His magic curls around the chain, and the cage is hoisted back up to the peak of the roof. Kallias dangles above me, as I once hung above him.
But I don’t feel satisfied. I am shaken to my very core.
“We’re done here,” I tell Brandr. I turn to the guards. I can’t look at Gulla, can’t meet her eyes. “Find these children and the Lady Gulla rooms in the guest wing. Treat them like kings and queens, or I’ll have your heads.” I am wildly, viciously angry, and I want to cry until all the rage pours out of me, but I won’t. Not here, in front of my brother, who has forgotten he was ever weak.
I leave the great hall. I don’t look back at Kallias in my cage, but I feel his eyes, burning into my shoulders.
Did you think you had changed so much?
He was playing with me this whole time. It surprises me, unsettles me. My childhood perception of him as the impulsive, reckless king who couldn’t keep hold of his temper isn’t quite right. If it were, he would have exposed and killed me the instant I set foot back in Tenebris. But no, he was a lion, toying with his prey, plotting the moment of his victory, and my demise, all the more satisfying for having spun out hismanipulative game to its conclusion. The Ghost God card, triumphing yet again.
But none of that matters now. I’m free. The Collection is ended. I can be with my people again, and all shall be well.
All shall be well.
If only I could wholly believe that.
Two Years Ago
