“I’ve got you!”
Killian sucked in a breath.
But he still couldn’t see.
Cloth dragged over his face, scrubbing away the awful biting slime even as Baird shouted, “Stay away! You must not touch the blight, you fools!”
More cloth wiped over his face and, blinking away the stinging burn, Killian fixed his eyes on Baird’s face.
“I’ve got you, friend,” the giant said. “You look awful, but you’ll be all right.”
Killian slowly turned his head to look out over the lake of blight. Then beyond to the vast firestorm burning through league upon league of Mudamora, through thousands of blighters who had once been Mudamorians, the flicker and flash of burning figures visible through the trees.
A blow against the enemy that would take Rufina a long time to recover from.
Does this feel like victory, Killian Calorian? Does this feel like a battle won?
Leaning his forehead against Baird’s shoulder, Killian wept.
78TERIANA
Magnius delivered the news of Aspasiana’s death just as they exited the greater ocean path that had brought theQuincenseback across the world.
Her whole crew had been near silent since, the grief they all felt at the death of her mother compounded by the death of theKairense’s guardian. For not in living memory had one of the demigods been lost. They were as constant as Madoria herself, bound to the Maarin people, and Aspasiana’s death felt like part of their world had been destroyed.
What will happen now?Teriana asked Magnius, who had been equally silent as he grieved his sibling. Questions she’d never had cause to ask kept rising in her mind, not the least of which was how the guardian’s death impacted Vane’s authority as triumvir. The guardians swam with the triumvirs—that was how it had always been, and Magnius had taken up his post behind theQuincensewhen her great great grandfather was captain.Will… will another guardian come into being?
No,Magnius answered.What were three are now two.
Do you need to leave? she asked, desperately afraid of losing him when grief over her mother’s death weighed down her heart.
You are triumvir now, Teriana. I go where you go.
I miss her.Tears rolled down her cheeks.
As do I, young one. But Tesya is with Madoria now, where the seas are ever tranquil. Grieve not for her, who is at peace, but for the living who must still fight the evils of this world.
Evils that were winning.
Fog clung heavily to the sea as theQuincenseslowly moved between the towers flanking the harbor entrance. Teriana’s stomach clenched at the sight of the crimson and gold banners flying on their ramparts, all that Magnius had told her proving true.
Revat had fallen to the Celendor Empire.
Had fallen to Marcus.
This is where Aspasiana fell,Magnius said into her thoughts.She rests beneath us.
Teriana wondered if Vane and the crew of theKairensewere safe. Wondered why they’d been in Revat. Wondered how the Cel had killed a demigod.
But if Magnius knew any of the answers, he did not voice them.
“We can still turn around,” her aunt said from the helm. “There’s no good to be done here, Teriana. We should sail to Serlania to join Lydia and Killian.”
“I gave my word,” Teriana replied. “Run up a white flag. In their eyes, we’re no threat, so they’ll either talk or send us on our way.”
Marcuswould either talk to her or send her away.
“Oh gods,” Polin whispered, as a breath of wind stirred the heavy mists. “The towers of the Six aregone.”
