Some of the bone witch’s daeva lay injured too. The aeshma’s spikes had retracted from its body to reveal graying fur. The taurvi still sang, though its legs were broken, half its face covered in blood. The nanghait was silent on the ground, its many eyes closed. Even the azi, the most powerful of the lot, was bleeding, one of its wings bent and bitten. The zarich, indar, and akvan were conscious and standing, though limping as they plodded back and forth between their brethren, their mournful cries loud in the stillness.
The Dark asha sat on the ground, her face bathed in tears. Lady Mykaela lay in her arms, pale and silent. Blood covered her hua, spilling on the floor around them. I could feel magic sizzling nearby and saw the bone witch’s heartsglass beat in tandem with the injured woman’s. Khalad and Kalen flanked Lady Tea, their hands pressed against Mykaela’s side, trying in vain to stop the blood flow before it grew worse. Beside me, a low cry of pain rose from Fox. I have seen my share of dying people, and I knew with one look that there was no hope.
“Why did you save me?” the Dark asha cried.
The golden-haired asha’s eyes opened. They focused on her, and she smiled. “I have always tried to save you. It is…not so bad, child.”
“You cannot die on me, Mykkie.” The Dark asha had vanished, and in her place was a seventeen-year-old girl, frantic to save the life of the woman who had so profoundly shaped hers. “Everything I do, everything I have done, means nothing if you leave me!”
“I have been living on borrowed time for so long, Tea.” A bloodied hand stroked the weeping girl’s cheek. “When my hours are spent, I will feel no fear, no sorrow. I have lived on borrowed time, time that you have risked your life and heart for. I am at peace, Tea. Thank you.”
“No!” The girl’s heartsglass shone bright, black and light swirling together.
Lady Mykaela’s smile was beautiful, though blood trickled from the corners of her mouth.
“No, Mykkie!” The bone witch clutched at her arms, and for a moment, I thought I saw a strange symbol burning between them. “Don’t let go!”
“I am going to Vanor now and to Polaire. They have been waiting for me.” The woman touched the girl’s face one final time. “Be well, Tea,” she whispered, and the light in her heartsglass went out.
The Dark asha’s scream tore through the air. Her heartsglass glowed, for the first time more silver than dark, as she wove the air with desperate movements. The woman in her arms did not move.
The Dark asha tried again, forming the same gestures over and over. I could feel the heat of the spells, the desperation and smolder of the magic, but Lady Mykaela’s eyes remained closed.
“Tea.” Kalen took her hand, stilling her.
She turned to him, her eyes blazing. “Why? Why can’t I raise her? I raised you! I raised you, and I can raise her!”
“Tea,” the Deathseeker said again, and she fell silent. She collapsed onto his chest, her arms still clutching the fallen asha. She howled at the sky, a savage sound.
The Heartforger, tears streaming down his cheeks, knelt by the Dark asha’s side.
Lord Fox sat beside Lady Tea, his hand finding hers. His other closed around Lady Mykaela’s. They held her in their arms for the longest time—without moving, without speaking. The moon rose and the stars ascended, but the Dark asha and her two familiars remained.
“Tea,” Kalen finally said again with great sorrow in his voice.
“A few minutes longer,” the bone witch whispered. “Let me stay with her for a few minutes longer.”
32
“I could order you to rot in prison for the rest of your natural days. That’s what I should do as king. That’s what the people would clamor for.”
I agreed but kept my head bowed. In the hours after sanity returned and the darkrot faded, I had tried to undo the chaos I had wrought. But the damage to Telemaine was already done. The king was confined to his personal chambers, where no one but his sons and his physicians could enter. I had exorcised the demons in his mind that I had put there in my pride, but I could not take away the nightmares I had ingrained in his head. The rest of Odalia had been kept in the dark, but his healers could do little: the king had gone mad.
“This is treason. By law, I could order your death.”
I said nothing in my defense. Prince Kance had every right to proclaim such a sentence. I could feel Fox and Kalen on either side of me, their presences always a comfort.
“Look at me, Tea.”
I did. A part of me still rejoiced to see him awake and well, bearing no lingering effects of the sleeping illness. But Prince Kance no longer looked at me with kindness or affection. There was no more “Lady Tea” in a pleased voice. The green eyes staring back at me were those of a stranger’s—His Majesty’s, I corrected myself—not my friend. Kance ruled Odalia now, and I was to blame for that too.
“What do you say on your behalf, Tea?”
“I will accept any punishment you choose, Your Majesty.” How could I sound so cold and informal? “My life is in your hands to do as you see fit.”
“Kance.” Kalen moved to stand beside me. “You know as well as I that Tea had no choice but to act as she did.”
“It does not matter. She lifted her hand against the king.”
“Your father killed his own brother to take the throne, Kance. Both his brothers. Even worse, he conspired with a Faceless to risk the kingdom in his quest for power. By your own logic, he too is guilty of treason.”
“He was my father, Kalen!” Kance’s shout echoed in the room. “He took you in when you lost your parents! He treated you like you were his own son! I looked to you as my own brother, and this is how you repay him?”
“Your father’s mistress was responsible for summoning the very daeva that killed our mothers, Kance! Telemaine threw my father in prison when my father discovered the plot, and the king had the Faceless compel him to carry out their orders! The king allowed Aenah to poison you. He clawed his way to the throne on the bones of his own family, including yours. You owe him nothing!”
“Don’t you think I know that? Whatever my father has done, I cannot allow people to besmirch his name. But how can I determine if he was in his right mind throughout all this, that the Faceless didn’t compel him as well? Now we will never know! Whatever accusations have been made against him, he was a good father, Kalen!”
“He was a good father to one of us, yes,” Khalad said from behind us.
“Even my own brother turns against me?” Prince Kance snapped.
The Heartforger shook his head. “I was never against you, though he tried to make it seem that way. He capitalized on your guilt for taking the throne. Father was good to you, Kance. He would have had you rule in my place, with or without my silver heartsglass.”
“But why? There was no reason to prevent you from being king.”
“Our father was enlightened in many ways, Kance, but he shared one thing in common with the intolerants of Drycht. You suspected as much the day you took sick.”
Kance rubbed his temple. “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Khalad? Surely you did not think that I shared in his prejudices?”
“Because it should never have been a problem to begin with. I had no obligation to tell anyone about my personal life if I chose not to. I confessed to Father in the hopes he would understand. It is one thing to be treated well because he thinks you can do no wrong, Kance. It’s another thing entirely when he decides you’ve outlived your usefulness.”
“You can have the throne, Khalad. I never intended to take it from you.”
“And that is exactly why I never told you, Your Majesty.” Khalad grinned. “I would have made a horrible king. Father and I agreed on that much. To be the next Heartforger is all I want. I’ll help people my way, and you’ll help them yours. But please—forgive Tea. She has served you faithfully. Do not punish her for your father’s crimes.”
The young king’s hands were trembling; for all his anger, he was finding my sentencing difficult, and my heart twisted, knowing what I had done to bring him such pain.
When he finally spoke, even his words shook. “Return to Odalia at your own peril, Dark asha. I do not wish to see your face in my kingdom for as long as I live, for any reason. Return here, and I’ll wield the executioner’s sword myself if I have to.”
I nodded, struggling to hide my tears and failing miserably.