We were on the rubble of Lord’s Knuckle once more, and I felt glad to touch the earth with my feet again. Lovebright communicated our success to the local magister-captain; Ciraya and Fe were gone, but I could see other magisters and watchmen being debriefed. It was still dark, and the city still reeked of fear and destruction, but it felt different now. The fires were out, I could hear no screaming, and –
Ah, yes. The Mourning Bells have stopped.
“It’s finished!” Zel said.
Woah. My inner ear was ringing. You don’t have to shout!
She continued, only slightly less-loudly: “I’m proud of you, you know? You didn’t put one foot wrong.”
Better than you expected?
“Pah! I’m a diviner. I knew exactly how good you were going to be when I – first met you.”
Then I caught Timesnatcher confirming her words: “So it’s all over?” he was asking. “I can’t foresee any more events.”
“No more reports have come in,” Leafcloak replied. “How long until Starsight’s here with me?”
“Not long – Neverwish has the best flight Shadowcloud could give him.”
“I’ll get prepared, then. By the sounds of things, you guys need to take a rest. Sleep, if you can.”
Timesnatcher looked around the group. “I won’t say well done. This wasn’t a good day to be a champion. But it wasn’t an unmitigated loss.” He looked down at the ground. “She would’ve come up. She would’ve slaughtered half of Sticktown. Dustbringer gave his life to prevent that from taking place and I’m sure that, even if he’d known in advance what was going to happen to him, he would’ve still gone ahead.”
“How well did you know him?” Winterprince asked suddenly.
“I know what you’re talking about,” the diviner replied, “and I stand by what I said. I’ll deal with the situation, trust me.”
“Whatever. I’m going home.” Winterprince raised himself up on the air, angled himself south-east as though to cross the Blackrush to Oldtown, and departed.
One by one, most of the others left, the same exhaustion and dejection in their voices as they bade us farewell. Lovebright promised me she’d see that the people in Oldtown got their minds back, where we’d fought our first thinfinaran. Then she, Nighteye, Shadowcloud and Redgate followed Winterprince; Glimmermere headed north-east, towards Hightown. At last it was just Em, Timesnatcher, Killstop and myself.
“You did well tonight, Stormchilde,” Timesnatcher said in a jesting tone. “I’ll be giving Keliko a glowing report, don’t worry.”
It only now occurred to me how strange it must’ve been for her, being the only one unmasked in the group of champions. When she met Timesnatcher’s gaze I could see the fatigue in her face for the first time. “Could you please leave out ze whole ‘Stormchilde’ business? She’s been on my case about ensuring I stay viz ze Magisterium for…” she looked at me, almost guiltily, “… vell, ze last veek at least.”
So she’s been considering it, I thought. An arch-enchantress is going to know it, and she’d be breaking a ton of laws by messing with her head – so Henthae’s been reduced to begging?
Good.
“If only we’d met you first,” Timesnatcher said in a musing tone. “Of course, Emrelet. My lips are sealed.” He looked at me. “And as for you… Feychilde.” He stared at me for a moment. “Incursions are rough on new arch-sorcerers, but we’re lucky you inherited your powers when you did. You realise that this is going to be twice as hard on us all next time, with Dustbringer gone?”
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I nodded. I felt myself swelling with pride even at the vaguest morsel of praise from the lips of someone like Timesnatcher. “I’ll get Redgate to give me some pointers.” I didn’t even want to think about next time for a good couple of months.
“I don’t think you need any of the pointers that champion could supply,” the diviner said darkly. “Not that he’ll be a problem much longer.”
“That’s rather… enigmatic,” Killstop remarked.
He still addressed me: “We’ll have a chat about things soon enough. Let’s just hope we get some more new arch-sorcerers who choose to become champions soon. You’ll have something to teach them by then, eh?” Then he sighed, and turned away to face his fellow arch-diviner. “Come, Killstop. I’m going to have to have a chat with you now. If I say the right things, I might even get you to survive till the next Incursion.”
“Private chat…” she replied archly, “my dear Timesnatcher, whatever will the rumours say?”
“Put a sock in it,” he growled, taking her hand and lifting off slightly.
As she floated away with him, I heard her muttering, “A sock’s not nearly as much fun, though…”
And then finally we were alone.
“So.” I didn’t really know what to say.
“So.” Neither did she.
“Was it like this last time? When you helped?”
She shook her head. “Better. Vorse. I don’t know.”
“It’s okay – come on.” I started to lead her into the night sky. “I want to get you home and get you in bed – safely tucked up in bed, I mean – before I go home.”
She smiled a wan smile and followed me up, seemingly too tired to refuse, even as she protested weakly, “But Jhaid, and Jharoan -“
“They’ve already seen me tonight.” I briefly related what’d happened on Mud Lane, what Ciraya and Killstop had done to save everyone. “Your parents have no idea how you are,” I concluded. “You died.”
“I’m not a child,” she continued, still letting me tug her up through the air. We were soon above the smoke-clogged streets of Sticktown.
“No, but you did die –”
“I did not – do not tell zem zat!” she hissed.
I looked at her, offended. “Like I’m going to tell my girlfriend’s dad, who I literally just promised I’d keep her safe, that I let her get herself killed…”
“You didn’t let me get killed –” I felt the shudder that passed through her body “– and zere vere a few times, down zere, I vould’ve died again if not for your protections. Ze thinfinaran… I couldn’t touch it –”
“I can’t even imagine what we’d have done without you, and Shadowcloud and Winterprince. There were so many. You must be feeling more drained than ever?”
She didn’t reply, but drew closer to me, so that we were almost shoulder-to-shoulder as we coursed the sky.
Holding her hand, flying was easier. We swiftly passed out of Lord’s Knuckle, away from the destruction. I’d found it easy to forget in the midst of battle just how small the affected sites were when compared with the vastness of the districts themselves – it might’ve seemed bad when we were in the thick of things, but I doubted more than one percent of the city had been levelled. The wizardry-firms would get around to fixing most of Sticktown, eventually, once Hightown, Treetown and Oldtown were done. It was more important, after all, to rebuild the houses of the rich elite who’d been kicked out to spend a few weeks in their second-homes, than the tenements of the impoverished masses who’d be dying of disease in the mud for months. Priorities, of course. Even Rivertown would probably get support ahead of us, given the proximity of the fighting to the Spring Door…
Then I took a breath of smoke, and found myself hacking. The nausea of my vertigo was lingering, but it was far off, like a nightmare that’d receded into the background of my mind – only making its presence known when I deliberately thought about it.
I stopped thinking about it, stopped looking down – looked at her face instead, frozen in a grave seriousness, marble perfection.
Zel – leave us alone, will you?
“Of course. Goodnight… my champion.”
Then the fairy was gone.
I spoke, the words coming haltingly: “How… do I want to know how it happened?”
She shook her head, but started telling me anyway. “I vozn’t vatching my back. My elemental of air voz torn apart, and I didn’t notice. Ze imps… I couldn’t get zem off… If you hadn’t persuaded me to take ze potion…”
I couldn’t imagine the agony she must’ve endured as they clawed through her legs, and she didn’t try to describe it in detail, but I got enough of an impression that I had to shut my eyes, a futile, instinctive attempt to block out the visions…
“I didn’t keep – keep ze sc-scars zis time,” she said in a thick voice.
All of a sudden she was weeping, and I halted her, pulled her into my arms.
She clung to me like I was keeping her from falling.
“It’s okay,” I said softly, kissing her hair, stroking her back. “It’s okay. It’s over now.”
She pulled away a few inches, eyes glimmering like molten steel. “It’s never over, Kas. Not for me! Not for you! Not till ze day ve die forezzer!”
She sobbed yet more fiercely, and beat a single time on my chest with the base of her fist.
I had no words I could trust. I didn’t know how I felt. Maybe I felt the same way, but maybe I didn’t, and how could I just say that, now? It would be cold, too cold to admit that I didn’t really feel like I cared. What else would I want to be doing until the day I died? Monitoring potatoes?
I could do nothing but pull her back into my embrace, let her claw with her own fingers at my back. Could do nothing but hold her.
So I held her.
And prayed to Yune it would be enough.