Dreadgod (Cradle Book 11) (38)

“That’s what I thought,” Ozriel said. “Good-bye, Gerravon. I have business with your friends.”



Iteration 075: Verge





Suriel engaged in a cosmic tug-of-war with a group of Vroshir.

The transports in Verge had already mostly made it away from the Iteration by the time she arrived, and she continued pulling them back through space while trying to shut their exit.

But they had powerful reinforcements.

The portal led only a short hop through the Void. On the other side, she could see—and feel—their destination.

Amorenthus, one of the Vroshir homeworlds. A concentration of their power. It looked like a myth, like a fairy legend common to many worlds, an idyllic paradise of rainbow skies, floating islands, and shining water.

The powers built into the world supplanted the efforts of her enemies, armoring them against her authority. She held some of the transports back, but several slipped through her grasp even as she concentrated.

Until Ozriel arrived.

For someone who loved to pop up unexpectedly where he wasn’t wanted, he could make as much of an entrance as anyone. All over the Iteration, supernatural senses screamed that the end had arrived.

He didn’t have his Scythe with him, but he reached his hand across the gulf of space and spoke a command.

Suriel sensed many hostile powers die in an instant. Several of the transports slowed, the energy propelling them having been wiped away. She seized them and pulled them back into Verge.

With fewer Silverlords to oppose Suriel, their portals began to slide closed. She pushed back the influence of Amorenthus and seized the portals, healing the tear in the world that led into the Void.

Until Ozriel zipped through the closing portal after the Vroshir.

She gawked at him while she hurriedly held the portal in place. Her Presence spun out possible motivations for his actions: he was defecting, he was committing suicide, he was offering a deal to the Vroshir in exchange for his freedom.

There were multiple points against each possibility, but Suriel suspected she knew what he was really doing.

He wasn’t leaving or giving up. He was doing his job.

Recklessly.

She followed him only as far as the Void portal, unwilling to move further into the Void. “What are you doing?” she shouted after him.

He waved a hand behind him. “I’ll be right back!”

Even Ozriel couldn’t invade a stronghold like this.

“I can’t bring you out of there!”

For a moment, she considered ordering him to stop. Because of the manacles, he would have to obey her.

But she didn’t.

“I have faith in you,” Ozriel said. He overtook some of the original transports and emerged into the golden sunlight of the Vroshir homeworld.

Instantly, a network of satellites and guardians all over the world sighted on him. A barrage like that could penetrate even his armor.

One black gauntlet drew back. “I have something for them.”

Ozriel’s hand came down.

Explosions lit the sky of Amorenthus like orange jewels as millions of guardian installations detonated. Ozriel put his back to them and winked at her, the sky behind him a backdrop of flame. “It’s been too long since they’ve seen my signature.”

He slipped out of the universe just as their portal closed. If he had been caught, he wouldn’t have been able to escape, not with his power restricted as it was.

Of course, he wasn’t away yet.

Twisted force exploded out of the Void where the portal had once been, like transparent grasping tails. He resisted, throwing up barriers, but he was still too close to Amorenthus. His shields broke, his movements slowed, and the pattern of attacks from the tendrils had no gaps. One by one, the potential futures including his escape were closed off.

Until Suriel joined her power to his. She covered him until he escaped the Void, and only then could she sew Verge up once again.

Ozriel put a hand to his chest and exhaled. “Whew. That was close, wasn’t it?”

“What did that accomplish?” Suriel asked. It sounded sarcastic, but she meant it. She could feel the broader flows of Fate bending according to his actions.

“You’re the one who still has unrestricted Hound access. You tell me.”

“I’ll need time to unravel it.”

“I intended it to strain the relationship between the Mad King and the Silverlords and get them to withdraw their support, though I doubt it will accomplish that much. Realistically, it will narrow down Daruman’s choices.”

Future possibilities spun before Suriel’s eyes as she looked into Fate. The Mad King was difficult to observe in the best of times, warping Fate by his very presence, but she could see him being pushed into a smaller cluster of possibilities.

Even blind, Ozriel still had a master’s touch.

Which made her even angrier.

“You can do that, but you couldn’t come up with a better way of saving us than to risk everything?”

Ozriel blew out a breath and ran a hand over his head. “When I left, I was confident it was the right thing to do. Now…I don’t know.”

That hardly addressed Suriel’s anger, but pieces of a broken moon blasted past her and reminded her of the wounded Iteration in which they rested.

“I’ll get the full story out of you,” she said. “Until then, we have people to save.”