The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(91)

“Yes,” said Kyreth. His mind was creeping among the parts of the story he knew like a rat in a half-finished house. Something was changed about Eliza. She carried a great weight. She had found her Guide, too. “Good,” he said. “Good girl.”

Eliza looked outraged at this. “Come on,” she said. “We need to go back to the Citadel.”

Kyreth followed her down the winding steps. “And Rea?” he asked. “No harm has come to Rea?”

Eliza told him and he listened. Her words were like little darts. She was so angry, so angry. It didn’t matter. She didn’t understand. Rea was safe. The mist kept opening before the girl. Kyreth’s eyes met the Boatman’s as he stepped aboard. Yes, home, they would go home. Away from this awful place. He barely took in the other passengers, the dragons. He shuffled to the bow and sat down. Eliza said something but he wasn’t listening now. If he let go of himself for an instant he would tumble backwards into that void. Eliza’s spell of clarity was weak, but what could he expect of one so young? She’d had some help; he felt two other wills at work, soldering this feeble spell. It was just enough that he could get a grip on the world and cling to it, hold tightly and see out of the prison Nia had made for him, the mad fear that pulled him back and pulled him back. Now they were going home, back to the Citadel, and he would be stronger there. The Mancers would refine the spell. He just had to hang on long enough to get there.

~~~

“I’ll join you as soon as I can,” Eliza promised Charlie and Nell once they were all safely in the grounds of the Citadel. She hugged them both tightly.

“I just noticed,” said Nell, smiling tearfully at Eliza. “You’re wearing it.”

“What?” said Eliza, and then her eyes widened as she remembered the flowery bra. “Oh. Yes. I spec I’ve gotten used to it.” She looked tenderly at her best friend, her pale tear-streaked face and the hollows under her eyes. “You need rest, Nell.”

“You too,” said Nell.

Charlie became a gryphon. He bore Nell on his back and held Ander’s body, wrapped in the Faery cloak, in his great talons. They soared up into the welcoming Di Shang sky.

The few intruders that still lingered in the Citadel fled as soon as they saw the Supreme Mancer had returned. Kyreth barely glanced at the dead dragon in the grounds. He went straight to the Inner Sanctum. He seemed to stand straighter there, his eyes brightening. Eliza watched him for a while, struggling to work Magic in spite of the powerful Curse that still clung to him. He was strong enough and she could not help him, so she went to the Library and waited.

It was late in the day, on the Day of Songs, when the stone cracked and fell away. Foss looked around at the ruin of the Library and saw Eliza catapulting into him.

“I can only presume,” he said, catching her in his long arms, “that everything has come out right.”

“Yes,” said Eliza, beaming up at him. “It has!”

He cupped his huge hand around her cheek tenderly. “Poor Eliza, I see that you have borne the worst of it. I called you back here – a terrible mistake, but I had no time to undo it!”

“It came out right,” said Eliza. “Except for the books, lah. She drained the books, Foss.” She picked one of the empty books up to show him and he flipped through it sadly.

“Recovering the stolen words of these texts is a project that will go beyond my lifetime,” he said. “Destruction is a quick matter, whereas rebuilding – ah! But at least I have a clever assistant to help me begin!”

“Foss,” she said, and then her eyes filled with tears and she could not continue.

“What is it?” he asked her gently, resting a hand on her shoulder.

She swallowed the lump that had come to her throat and said in a voice that shook only a very little, “I’m leaving and I’m nay coming back this time. I just wanted to say goodbye to you.”

Foss looked stunned. He said simply, “Why?”

“There are...many reasons,” she said. “But mostly...I’ve learned some terrible things about Kyreth. I cannay stay here. Nay with him.”

Foss took this in and then said, “Tell me.”

When she had told him everything, he said, “If you wish to go, you must go quickly. You will not be allowed to leave if the other Mancers learn of your intent.”

Eliza took the crystal Kyreth had given her from around her neck and pressed it into his hand.

~~~

“It was an evil act,” said Anargul to the assembled Mancers on the following day. The Emmisariae sat at a long stone table in the Inner Sanctum. The rest of the Mancers were seated around the walls. Kyreth sat in a chair before the table, his eyes terrible. “It was a very great evil and one he kept secret from all of us. It has been costly, too. The worlds have suffered terribly from the wrath of the Xia Sorceress.”

“You misinterpret his actions,” said Obrad, glancing at Kyreth. “Though it cannot be denied the result was catastrophic, he acted with noble intentions. Had Nia been malleable we would have had a powerful Sorceress on either side of the Crossing, protecting it.”

“But he told us nothing of this,” said Anargul. “He acted in secrecy, risking the balance of the worlds. When he became Supreme Mancer he did not own up to any responsibility. And what of Nia’s mother? Was not a terrible crime committed against her?”