Eliska slumped on the gravel next to the fire under the overhang. Yvan and Niyazi sat nearby. They were the only Watchmen here.

Yann and the others had left this morning to hike down the mountain to the woods in search of somewhere more comfortable for the group to stay—somewhere everyone didn’t have to sleep on bare gravel.

Yvan and Niyazi both recovered exactly the way Anríq said they would. Now he was the one lying insensible on the ground with Eliska’s cloak covering his big body.

Wesh bent over him touching different parts of his body and occasionally laying his hand on Anríq’s forehead.

“This is my fault,” Eliska husked and her voice failed her completely. “He’s going to die because of me.”

“He did it knowing the risks,” Wesh muttered. “He wanted to do it.”

“I should have stopped him.” Tears choked Eliska’s throat and stung her eyes. She tried to see Anríq through her tears, but the sight of him blurred in a sea of misery. “He tried to help us and now this happened.”

“He did help us,” Wesh murmured. “He helped us against the Darklings in the Layers. He helped Niyazi and the Watch Commander when they both would have died. Anríq did what he set out to do. He gave everything in service to humanity.”

Eliska couldn’t look up. She couldn’t even wipe away the tears streaking down her cheeks.

She didn’t have to ask what Wesh really meant. He didn’t correct her when she said Anríq was going to die.

“He can’t die like this.” Overwhelming anguish destroyed the last of her resolve and she broke down sobbing. “He can’t die like this—not because of me.”

“He isn’t dying because of you,” Wesh repeated. “He’s dying because it’s his mission in life to sacrifice himself for others.”

She shook her head. “I should have stopped him. I should have realized….”

“When should you have realized? You didn’t know until after he already made the connection.”

She looked up at him. Wesh’s face kept wavering when tears obscured her vision. Then he came back into focus when they ran down her cheeks.

“You have to save him, Wesh!” she blurted out. “You have to!”

He looked away. “I can’t save him, my dear. I don’t have the magic to cope with this. He took all the Darkness on himself to block it from passing from Marine to you so she could communicate with you. He stopped it. Now it’s all in him.”

“You can use my magic,” she insisted. “You can combine my magic with yours to heal him. You have to, Wesh!”

He shook his head and looked away again. “You would throw your own life away, my dear child.”

“Who cares?!” She heard herself shrieking in hysteria right in front of Niyazi and Yvan, but she didn’t try to soften her voice. “So he’ll be alive and I’ll be dead. Who cares? He’s so much better than I am. He can do so much good. I’m worthless. No one cares about me…..”

“Stop it, my child,” Wesh murmured. “You know that isn’t true.”

“You have to save him!” She grabbed Wesh’s arm. “You have to! We can’t let him die—not after this. I can’t live with it…..”

Crushing guilt broke her the rest of the way down. She couldn’t look at any of these men.

Thank the stars Yann and the others weren’t here to see her completely break down. She could only survive the shame because these three much older men were the ones watching her brought to her lowest point.

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She bowed her head and dissolved in silent tears. She couldn’t be the cause of Anríq’s death—not when he was so much finer and nobler than she was.

She could never be as good and noble and self-sacrificing as he was. She never would have gone willingly into the Coil to help other people—not in a million years.

She would have given anything—or killed anyone she had to kill—for the chance to live behind walls in a normal imp town like Middleborough.

She would have traded just about anything—including all her magic—for the chance at a normal life. She would gladly have died never to set foot in the Coil again as long as she lived.

She couldn’t comprehend how someone could be good enough to actually make that choice of his own free will.

Anríq made it in full knowledge of the dangers he would face in the Coil. He knew he would never be welcome in Barbarian society again.

His own people would ambush him on the roads. Every hand would turn against him as an enemy. His family turned him out—and for what? To help a bunch of strangers who could barely offer him a meal in return?

She could never do anything like that—not for anything.

Now he lay here dying right in front of her because he tried to help her. He gave his life so she could communicate with Marine.

Whatever he did left Marine calmer, but she still didn’t come back to full sanity.

She sat on a flat rock near the mouth of the overhang. Soft drizzle turned the sky grey outside.

She didn’t crouch and shriek and snarl at invisible enemies anymore. She just sat there staring off into space.

She didn’t even come around to get food anymore. Neils always left a portion of the Watchmen’s food sitting on a plate of leaves near her. She usually ate it hours later when she woke up enough to realize it was there.

Eliska couldn’t look at her. Eliska kept staring down at Anríq’s still form lying on the ground with his eyes closed.

“You have to save him, Wesh!” she husked. “I can’t live with this.”

Wesh didn’t answer for a long time. When he did, his own voice cracked with buried pain. “You would be taking your life in your hands, my dear. You might not recover at all. His mission in life is to sacrifice himself and that’s what he did. He would be utterly destroyed if he woke up and realized you threw away your life to save his.”

She shook her head again, but she didn’t look up. “At least he would be alive. He could go on and help other people.”

“So could you, my dear,” Wesh breathed. “You’ve been helping these men since the beginning. You can honor his sacrifice by continuing…..”

She looked up at him through miserable tears. “Please, Wesh….. please……”

He refused to look at her. “And how am I to live with it if anything happens to you? You could be left completely without magic if you survived at all—and then what? Then we would all be finished.”

“Please…..” She broke down sobbing again. “Please…..”

He didn’t answer. He went on with his work and left her there, wretched and distraught.

Now what should she do? What could she do?

She should walk away right now. She didn’t deserve any of these men. Even Rien outclassed her by a mile.

He joined the Black Watch. He swore an oath to give up love and family in service to humanity. Yann did it. Wesh did it. They all did it—all of them except her.

She’d been walking away all her life. She couldn’t do it now. If anything she did—even the smallest possible action—if any microscopic decision she made helped them in the tiniest way, she had to stay.

She couldn’t let Anríq die, though. He deserved to live if anyone did. Her life meant nothing compared to his.

She shifted closer to him, and the next time Wesh moved off, she extended her hand toward Anríq’s head.

Her magic was stronger than Wesh’s. She knew that the first minute she met him. She hid the fact from him and told everyone his magic was stronger, but they both knew the truth.

She had to at least try to heal Anríq. If Wesh couldn’t do it, maybe she could.

A split second before she touched Anríq’s head, Wesh shot out his hand and snatched her arm out of the way. “NO!” he barked. “Don’t you dare!”

“I have to! I can’t just sit by and watch him die. I have to do something! If he dies anyway, at least I tried.”

Wesh tore his eyes away. His whole face spasmed in misery. “Lie down, my dear,” he rasped. “I don’t know if it will work, but I will do as you ask. I don’t know what else to do.”

His words flooded her with relief. She swiveled around and stretched out on the gravel next to Anríq.

She stared up at the ceiling while Wesh positioned himself near hers and Anríq’s heads. She didn’t know what to expect.

She just hoped Wesh would finish before the rest of the Watchmen came back. She didn’t want any of them to try to stop her, especially not Yann.

She fixed her gaze on a spot on the ceiling and focused on it. Wesh’s weathered old hand came to rest on her forehead. “Concentrate on the Dark, my dear,” he murmured. “Concentrate on the Darkness in him……”

She shut her eyes and concentrated. As soon as she closed them, the same image obliterated her mind.

She saw again the massive tide of Darkness forking, streaming, and jagging across the landscape. It chewed up the Ancestral Empire and left nothing in its wake.

All the light went out of the world and Darkness consumed everything. It closed around her and eventually wiped her off the map, too.

End of Chapter 30.