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But the king held his nerve and raised up his sword, and the wolves showed their courage ’fore the drake and the horde. Their ears rang aloud with the Kingfisher’s cry that those who stood with him might fall, but not die.
and so was the cost. But those that they saved would e’er remember the lost. So they scaled the great drake, the last of his name. They did it for Ajun, Not glory, nor fame.
And the drake knew his power. He started to gloat, but the King saw his chance and drove steel down his throat. The drake he did tremble and started to choke, his evil, rank maw filling up with black smoke.
He thrashed and he bellowed did old Omnamshacry, but the reaper had claimed him, and bidden, he died. The Ajun were safe.
The horde abandoned the gate. And thus ends the ballad of the king and his eight.
“It’s fucking outrageous that he can sing, too.” Carrion had woken up and was stood to my right, arms folded across his chest, balefully regarding Lorreth. “That was nice, though. Messed up, but nice.”
Why can I still remember it? I asked. We remember, so the Alchemist remembers.
“I name you Avisiéth. The Unsung Song. Redemption’s Dawn.” The moment he finished speaking, a blue flame rippled down the sword’s blade, searing runes into the metal in its wake alongside the script I had etched there. And then a brilliant white light
We know who she is, the quicksilver hissed. She is the dawn. She is the moon. She is the sky. She is oxygen in our lungs. “I—” I didn’t know how to respond. Why would it say that? I was the dawn? The sky? Oxygen? I shook my head—there was no time to waste on puzzles. “I want you to leave Fisher,” I rushed out.
“Be unrelenting and unmerciful in the face of the wicked dead,” Fisher said. Ren laid a steadying hand on my shoulder. “And if you should find soul sundered from flesh, order a drink for us at the first tavern you come across in the afterlife. We’ll settle the tab when we get there.”
legs? Irrín was an ouroboros—a snake eating its own tail. Its purpose would never be fulfilled. There would always be another night, and the ice would always freeze, and there would always need to be a battalion of warriors here to keep the horde at bay and be ready should they one day succeed in making the crossing.
“Don’t you dare die on my watch, Saeris Fane! Fisher will never forgive me if his sole reason for living is torn to pieces on her first fucking battlefield.”
“Holy fucking gods,” Ren uttered. “It took her fucking hand.” “Maybe she’ll stop punching people in the face now.” There wasn’t a scrap of sympathy in Fisher’s voice.
But fuck Danya. Danya was the worst.
“That seat is reserved for the lady of the house, you stupid girl. Etiquette dictates that only Fisher’s wife is permitted to sit there.
“He was still asleep.” “Hey, don’t say it like that!” Swift shot him a wounded look. “We had a very long night, y’know.” “You slept through a battle,” Lorreth said. “And I’m a very heavy sleeper!” “What’s with the plant?” Ren asked. Carrion shrugged. “I don’t know, I liked the look of it. It was the only green thing for a mile amongst all that white. I figured it deserved an easy life if it had made it this far growing out of a snowbank. Plus, my tent was so bare. It needed a little cheering up.”
“Gods alive, Carrion. Do not tell me you have a thing for Danya. She’s fucking awful.” “Eh.” He shot me a rakish grin. “I love a girl with a sharp tongue and a bad attitude. Kinda makes my dick hard.”
“Once upon a time, that was the case. Back when true mating bonds existed. Unions between true mates were blessed with marks from the Fates.
“The lovers in those stories always suffered terribly. One of them always died. They were beautiful tales, but they ended with heartbreak.”
That’s what Oshellith means in Old Fae, Saeris. Most Sacred.”
And I couldn’t say it because I was scared. Of what it would do to me when I did. It would be like acknowledging you were here after all this time. So I called you Osha instead. But it meant more, Saeris. To me, it meant more.”
Fisher’s face was unreadable. “And you?” he said to Carrion. “You’re ready for that?” “Sure. Why not. I’m too pretty to die old, anyway.”
sank to my knees and sobbed. The last time I’d cried like this, my mother had been blowing away on the reckoning wind. I’d vowed I’d never care about anyone enough to experience this kind of pain again. But here I was, shattering.
Ren got to his feet, letting out a long exhale. “I could kiss you, Carrion Swift.” Carrion seemed taken aback by this. And then somewhat interested. After thinking for a second, he said, “I wouldn’t be opposed.
And now that our Triumvirate is reunited, all three of us are more powerful than we’ve been in an age.”
What was it, Fisher? A hundred years?” “A hundred and two.”
“You bored him to fucking tears and he couldn’t take it anymore,” Carrion sniped. Up until now, he’d held his tongue, but it was a miracle that he’d lasted this long. Carrion wasn’t the type to let an opportunity to offend someone pass him by, regardless of how dire the situation was.
“I don’t like you, human. Something about you smells… off.” “That’s probably the weird… moss… these water sprites rubbed… all over me…” Carrion croaked. “It had a strange… funk… to it.”
“I don’t need magic to mess you up, you fuck,”
We are the Triumvirate, Dog. Three crowns sharing one source. To kill one of us, you must kill us all, and that is no easy task.”
Amazingly, it was Carrion who stepped forward first, Simon held aloft. “We might think Fisher’s an arrogant ass, but we’re not just going to let you kill him.” His tone was confident and devil-may-care, but I saw the way his hand shook as he pointed the tip of his sword at Belikon’s head.
A small favor, then, the whisper said. We will do it for a favor. And for a restoration of balance. And for love. I burst into tears. “What kind of favor?” I choked out. As we said. A small one.
“Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Salt. Brimstone. Quicksilver. The full gamut. More power than any Alchemist I’ve ever encountered. You are capable of restoring me to my power and a lot more besides.”
drifting in and out of darkness as it spoke. He is the storm. You are the peace that must come after it. Tell me, do you believe in the fates, Alchemist?
The voice came again, clear and concise. You stand before a door. Your hand is poised to knock. Are you ready to walk through it? Will you leave this place and see what lies beyond in the next? The next? Leave? I blinked slowly. No. I don’t want to go. Not yet. The voice sounded gruff but also curious. A shadow falls across Yvelia. It will alter all it touches. You would rather remain here, knowing that suffering and hardship loom on the horizon? That sacrifices will need to be made?
As you wish. Then we call in our favor, Saeris Fane. Will you honor your word and grant us our favor? Of course it was the quicksilver. And of course it was calling in my debt now, when I was a hair’s breadth from death. What is it you want from me? The answer came immediately. We require an audience with you, Saeris Fane.
“I’m—” I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Tell you what what’s like?” “Sex,” the other girl said, tilting her chin. “With that male. Our father’s champion.” “With… Fisher?” In unison, the girls nodded eagerly.
Zareth grunted. “And you are Saeris. Sister to Hayden. Daughter to no one.” He nodded to the inkwork on my hands. “Also, mate to my champion.”
I’ve spent a great deal of time watching the threads of the universe, waiting for one such as you,” he said. “An Alchemist, at last, to reset the balance and clear the way for what is to come.”
“The silver leaves above mark all the realms of our domain. My family are the stewards of all you see here. We water the roots of fate. We train the boughs and prune the leaves to prevent rot and decay. You see the bough there? The blackened one?”
“There is a rot spreading throughout my domain, Saeris,” he said. “Realms that are infected with that rot have to be summarily destroyed to protect the rest of the tree and prevent that rot from spreading. Do you understand?” Those leaves had been realms. Whole worlds. Zareth had just… waved his hand and… wiped them out.
When I focused and saw the strength of the bond that connected the two of you together, I admit I attempted to sway the fates.”
“You were supposed to have been born Fae, in the same realm as your Kingfisher. So I separated you. Hundreds of years before you were born, I shifted the events around your birth. Moved the pieces on the board and placed you far away, in a realm that should never have come into contact with his.
foresaw then that no matter how the boughs and branches of this tree were manipulated, you and he would always collide. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“Not you personally. But the moment where you meet, along with the moment you become mates, is a spark. The flame in the dark that draws the moth. It was incumbent upon me to try and stop that spark from taking place, but as you’ve already learned, the fates themselves would not be guided down that path.”
“You and Kingfisher fought at each other’s side, and you were God-Bound.” He pointed to the script writing that wrapped around my wrists. “These oaths mark you as my ward. They protect both you and Fisher from the unwanted attentions of my brothers and my sister.”
“For them, I’m willing to take a chance. If you truly accept Fisher as your mate, then you must agree for the thread of your life to be severed from the tapestry of the universe. Once you do, none of us may affect your future. We won’t be able to see you at all, nor will my brothers and my sister be able to interfere with timelines or events that affect you, either. You’ll be on your own.”
“I’m not just the God of Chaos, Alchemist. I’m also the God of Change. I will it, and it is done.”
A bird. It flitted around me in the void, its beautiful wings flashing blue-green. It sang a song so sweet that I remembered what it was like to have a heart, if only so I could feel it ache. And oh, it ached. I remembered more. Jade, the color of new grass. Winter mint and the promise of snow on cold mountain air. A crooked smile and dark, thick waves of hair. I remembered pieces of him, and all at once, and I remembered how to drown. I needed him like I needed air. I reached for him like I was reaching for the surface of a still, flat lake. Kingfisher.
“As far as we can tell, you’re a half-vampire, half-Fae. Something none of us have ever seen before. As of now, we’re not sure which traits you’ve adopted from the Fae and which you’ve adopted from the vampires. All our healers are sure of is that you’re no longer human.”
