The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(82)

Uri Mon Lil was hiding in the woods, cowering, when she returned.

“You’re safe,” she told him when she found him. “But you have to come with me.”

“Where are you taking me?” he asked.

She managed a smile. “Home.”

She led the terrified wizard and the dragons into the dark wood in the northwest corner, the wood that led to the Crossing. The tangle of trees made way for the huge dragons and in no time they found themselves on the silvery shore where Eliza had first crossed over. This was where Kyreth had summoned the Hound of the Crossing to test her power.

She was so changed from those days. She was not that girl anymore.

She spread her arms wide and the water trembled when she spoke. Ravens screamed in the wood behind them.

“My power spans the worlds and that between the worlds, my power spans the skies and seas of Tian Di, my power is undivided. Where I walk is the ground and what I speak is the truth. The tide will come to me when I beckon, the moon will sink when I point to the horizon. Here I demand a bridge, here where I stand, here I call upon the Boatman of the Crossing, passage to be mine.”

The Boatman came slowly into view.

“Welcome, Sorceress,” he said.

Eliza found herself, for the first time, looking into his eyes. She understood then that he was not a being like other beings in the worlds. He was not of the worlds. He was timeless, deathless, lifeless. He was a being like that little boy in the tree – a Guardian who maintained the limits of the worlds. But this was one boundary she was permitted to cross, one Guardian she could command, and he would obey her. He saw her recognition and smiled his ghastly smile. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

The dragons sat, bright and hulking, at the centre of the deck. Eliza and Uri Mon Lil sat aft, watching the hissing sea race by. Eliza was bone-weary, longing for sleep, but she was afraid that if she slept she would wake up without this new power that coursed through her, that she would wake up just Eliza again and not be up to the thing she had to do. She clutched the Vindensphere in her lap. She would not use it yet. She could not waste any of her strength.

“Quite an adventure,” Uri Mon Lil commented once he had read through his notes and added the fact that they were returning to Tian Xia. “It says here that you are a Sorceress.”

“True,” she said, for the first time in her life feeling it to be so.

“And that our relationship is...undetermined.” He looked at her inquiringly.

“That’s an old entry,” she said, and laughed for the first time in days. “You’d better change that to friend.”

Uri Mon Lil beamed at her. “I thought so,” he said.

~~~

Nia and Malferio stood on a red-black lava field that crumbled into a grey sea. Behind them, dark peaks spat flame. He stumbled back on the uneven stones, but for every step back he took, she took one forward, maintaining their proximity. His wrists were still bound with silver.

“You can’t kill me,” he snarled. “Your life depends on mine. Whatever you do to me, you must leave me alive, and one day I will have my revenge. Bear that in mind, Nia. Whatever you do to me one day will be showered back upon you tenfold, I swear by the Ancients!”

“Yes, the Ancients,” said Nia. “Swear by them if you want to. They don’t care for you, Malferio, nor for any of us. They did not stop me from beheading their Oracle and they will lend no power to your pleas for mercy. That is what you’re begging for, really, isn’t it? That I will show some mercy?”

After a long silence, Malferio tried to scream a Curse. But it perished in his mouth, leaving him with aching teeth and a burnt tongue. Nia stepped towards him.

“Go on, beg. It would please me, I think.”

“I can give you anything,” Malferio said hollowly, his eyes bright with hate. “Name it.”

“You can give me nothing,” hissed Nia, pushing him down on his knees before her. “You are not a king any longer, Malferio. I wear your blood, your immortality, and there is nothing I want from you except to bring about your absolute defeat and degradation. To grovel before me will be your final gift to me. Crawl.”

Malferio fell flat on his belly, possessed by something he could not resist, and writhed on the ground.

“I will be your end, Nia,” he gasped out. “Remember that. You will suffer for this. All who took part will suffer for this. I will be your end!”

“Hush now,” said Nia. “I wonder how many beings you have Cursed in your day? What do you think? It would be impossible to count, I imagine. I learned Curses from the Faeries, among other things. Would you like to hear the one I’ve prepared for you? You can measure it according to the Curses you have cast and see how it holds up.” She knelt next to him and her voice softened. “You will live forever, Malferio, as the Faeries do, but you will never cross over to that other unknown land. You will wander Tian Xia, forever banished from the Realm of the Faeries. You will be spurned by all other beings, who will sense the Curse upon you and flee. Whatever you touch will burn you, from now and forever. Whatever you taste will be dust, from now and forever. All you look upon will be colourless shadow, full of dire threat, from now and forever. Every sound that reaches your ears will do so in a terrible clamour, grating, whining, from now and forever. Every smell that reaches your nose will be the most appalling, sickening stench it will reduce you to nausea, from now and forever. Whatever visions or dreams you see will be loaded with terror, from now and forever. You will have no friends, none will take pity on you, from now and forever. Malferio, I rob you of the power of Illusion. I rob you of the power of the Curse. I rob you of all your lesser powers, too, that you may live weakened and helpless, from now and forever. Such is your Curse.”