His Final Secret Read online

  Worm paused beside her, for no reason she could understand. He dropped to his knees, leaning down and tucking his head against the mud.

  "Worm?" Eryn said, her pulse quickening with worry as she knelt beside him. "Worm, are you well?"

  He ignored her, his body shivering.

  "Worm?"

  Tense heartbeats passed. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to pull him up, but he resisted without paying her any mind.

  "What's happening?" she asked.

  He straightened up as suddenly as he had fallen.

  "Are you well?" she asked.

  He pointed behind then, back to the juggernauts. One of them was moving, coming towards them, pulling the wagon at its back. It stopped next to them and waited.

  He reached out and took her hand, guiding her to the wagon. Then he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up as though she were as light as a bird.

  Once aboard, Eryn held out her hand to him. He took it, and she helped him up.

  "Well," she said. "At least we don't have to walk."

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

  Eryn

  The rain began to fall harder as they ascended a narrow, winding path at the base of the reactor. The main tower was in full view now, the ircidium plating as corroded, rusted, and worn as everything else in this land seemed to be.

  Eryn sat in Worm's arms, shivering from the cold, her body chilled despite the protection of the garum. It was more than that. The power of the reactor made her shake worse than her soaked body or the cool air. It coursed through every inch of her, making her body tingle in a way she found both uncomfortable and exhilarating.

  So much power. She could barely imagine it. She also couldn't imagine what would happen if it came down to confronting him, and if they wound up locked in a battle of magic that would put all others to shame.

  She put her hand on top of Worm's.

  Not as long as he is on the wrong side. Maybe I should try to convince him one more time?

  She turned her head to speak to him but didn't. She had tried to many times already. He said he loved her, and yet he wouldn't help her. He said to trust him. She looked back towards the reactor. She could trust him for just a while longer.

  The wagon stopped at the base of the tower, the juggernaut releasing a puff of steam as it came to a halt. It had whined and groaned the entire way, its mechanical innards clearly showing signs of age and wear. Now it seemed almost relieved to have reached its destination. Worm jumped down and then helped her out, holding her up so she wouldn't land in the inches of heavy gray mud at their feet. He carried her delicately towards the door to the reactor, which was being held open by another juggernaut.

  She made him pause for a moment when she saw rusted plaque resting over the entryway.

  Reactor #4: Area North. Greater Celdonia.

  She felt her chill intensify to see it written there.

  "Turn around," she said.

  Worm looked at her, confused.

  "I want to see it. Turn around."

  He did.

  She looked out over the shattered land below. Ares'Nor. The place where they had confronted the Shifter army. Where Talon had driven his ircidium blade into the Shifter Master General's heart and ended the war. The battle had been a thousand years ago, but looking down on the dead expanse she could almost feel the misery of it pulsing through the heart of the land.

  "All that's happened here," she said, more to herself than to Worm. "All that's happened out there across the sea. For what?"

  Worm turned around again, carrying her the rest of the way inside. He put her down once they crossed the threshold. She had never been so happy to be out of the cold, and the protection of the ircidium had helped reduce the thundering of the magic through her veins to little more than a trickle.

  She reached up and grabbed her hair, squeezing it so that the water rained out onto the stone floor. The rest of her body was dripping as well, and she gave a brief thought to using her magic to remove it. She decided against it. She needed every bit of power she had held in reserve.

  Worm tapped her shoulder and then pointed. Unlike Genesia, the tower wasn't open from bottom to top. It had been built up from within, and there were stairs to their left that headed up. In her mind, she could picture him at the top of the tower, sitting in some dark throne, peering out at the world through his palaces and smiling in joy at the misery he provided.

  She wondered if any part of that vision was true. She wasn't so sure when she looked at the cold emptiness of the stone around her. There was no opulence here. No beauty.

  Worm headed for the stairs, and she followed behind him. She had expected she might have been afraid, or angry. That she might have been overwhelmed with emotion. Instead, she felt an odd calm surround her. Was it real, or was he using his magic on her, so subtly that she didn't know it?

  They climbed, the stairs circling the tower as they rose. Every twenty steps or so there was a doorway leading to an inner chamber, but they were all closed, and Worm paid no mind to them as they walked past.

  "What's behind the doors?" she asked, pausing at one and reaching for it.

  Worm's hand snapped out, grabbing her wrist gently and holding it to keep her from knocking. Of course, the reaction only made her more curious.

  "You want me to trust you, and you're keeping secrets," she said.

  Worm's expression was impatient. He sighed and reached for the door handle, turning it and pushing the door open. Eryn looked inside. It was a room, very similar to the rooms in Genesia. It was empty, as it had been for a thousand years. Dust covered everything, and something scurried away at the sudden light.

  "Right," Eryn said, feeling embarrassed. She should have known, but Genesia had no rooms in the tower. All of the residents had lived underground there, closer to the core.

  They kept climbing, circling around and around until finally they reached the top. There was one last door here. Eryn's breath caught as they approached it, her fear and anger suddenly returning as a part of the flood. She could feel her muscles tense, her jaw clench, her magic threatening to spring forth uncontrolled.

  Worm shook his head and motioned with his hand. Calm down. Then he opened the door.

  Eryn's body felt limp at the sight. All of her anger threatened to drain from her. It was a room. A suite of rooms. A place for her to stay. A round bed in the center, the view of it partially blocked by a stone column that split the space. It was decorated with brightly colored linens of fabrics similar to the garum. To the left was a closed window, to the right a large armoire, and next to that a vanity and mirror. Behind the bed was an archway into another room, a bathroom. She could see ircidium pipes running along the walls, carrying water to and from it.

  Her eyes continued to circle the space, landing on a second archway. She gazed through it, finding the farspeak stone resting in the center, raised only slightly above its pedestal.

  It was spinning.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

  Eryn

  She didn't wait for Worm to motion towards it. She approached it on her own, driven by a sudden fury. She had come all this way, and he was going to speak to her through a stone? She could have stayed anywhere in the Empire to be treated to an absent audience.

  "Eryn Albion."

  His voice was soft and low, delicate and peaceful as she entered the room and stood before the stone. The tone of it disarmed her almost immediately, as she was certain it was intended to do. She found herself at a sudden loss of words, and she struggled to regain herself.

  "Welcome to Area North," he said. "Please, sit."

  She noticed then that there was a chair to her right, plush leather that appeared to be recent to the room. Dusted off from somewhere else in the reactor, or delivered along with the ircidium.

  "I don't want to sit," Eryn said, regaining herself. "I don't want to speak to you this way. Your man brought me here from the Empire to meet you, and-"

  "Please, Eryn," he said. "Sit."
>
  She stopped speaking. Surely she could sit. It made sense that he would seek to protect himself from her, at least for now. She walked over to the chair and sat.

  "I haven't seen a garum in many, many years," he said sadly. "You make a fine wizard."

  Earn was confused. "You brought me here to flirt?"

  He laughed. A simple laugh that held no hint of malice in it.

  "I wish that were even possible. No, Eryn. I brought you here because I wanted to talk to you. More than that, I wanted to show you this place, to let you see Ares'Nor with your own eyes."

  "Why?"

  "Talon. Or Silas. Whichever name he prefers. You are the only one he trusts. You are the only one he'll listen to."

  "You're talking about the promise?"

  "Yes. As I have been since he began to seek his revenge. Since you joined him in his quest."

  "You killed my family."

  He didn't respond to her right away, and she shuddered from a sudden feeling of coldness.

  "I'm sorry about your family," he said at last. She believed he meant it to a degree, but not completely.

  "You've killed many families."

  "I know. We will speak on it, Eryn. I didn't bring you here to deceive you. I brought you here so that you will understand, the way that Talon used to understand."

  "No. I won't ever understand what you've done. There's no reason that can make up for the thousands of lives you've ruined."

  "You might be right about that. You might, indeed. Allow me to speak, and then I will allow you to decide for yourself."

  "Why didn't you come to greet me in person?"

  "I wish it were that simple." He paused again, for long enough that Eryn wasn't sure he was still there. "I want to welcome you. It has been a long time since anyone has come to Area North from the mainland. Almost two hundred years, to be precise. I can feel your magic, Eryn. I can feel the prozoa feeding off it, the change coursing through your body. We will speak more soon, but right now you need a vial of the cure, and then you need to get warm and rest. Food will be sent up to you. If you need anything, my man, as you call him, will be standing outside your door."

  "Imprisoning me?"

  "I don't want to call it that, though it may seem as if that is what it is. He will be there if you need anything at all."

  "What if I need to kill you?"

  She knew it sounded stupid. She regretted saying it even as the words rolled out of her mouth.

  "You're more than welcome to try, but I'll assume we'll speak again soon. Goodnight, Eryn Albion."

  The stone began slowing, his presence vanishing away from it. She stared at it until it stopped, and once it had she shivered from the frantic tension gathered in her being. She turned to say something to Worm and found that he was gone. Already waiting outside the door, she guessed.

  She left the stone, examining the bedroom carefully before moving over to the window. She unlatched it and swung it open, fighting against the gust of cold air that burst in on her. She stared out at the world from the top of the reactor. Dark and lifeless, gray and damp and empty. She could see the pier from here and the fog just beyond it.

  Talon. He had brought her here to convince her of the promise so that she could convince him. Why? It was a lot of effort to go through for him if she could believe in his motives.

  "Oh Talon, where are you?" she said staring out into the night. "I wish you were here, and that we were facing this together."

  She closed the window and took a few steps towards the door. She would tell Worm she needed him, and he would come in. She would find comfort in his arms. Solace from a world she was growing less and less certain that she understood.

  In the distance, she heard a crack of thunder.

  Or was it the roar of a dragon?

  She had never felt more alone.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

  Eryn

  Eryn woke some time later, her eyes dry and burning, her throat the same. She pulled herself up to a sitting position on the bed, the softest, most comfortable bed she had ever fallen asleep in, and tried to clear the haze from her mind.

  She remembered she had given herself a dose of the cure. She looked to her left, finding the empty vial and the injector still laying there. She remembered she was in Area North. She felt a sudden panic at that, until she also remembered that Worm was outside the door, for better or worse. She remembered that she had entered the bathroom to find a hot bath waiting for her. She had stripped off the garum, amazed to find it still clean of both mud and odor, and sunk into the hot water, enjoying the sensation despite herself.

  She remembered he had promised her food, and yet there had been none to be seen after she had finished washing herself and emerged into the bedroom once more. Only the injector and the vial of blood was waiting.

  She smelled it now. The food. She licked her lips subconsciously, pushing aside the silken blankets and rising naked from the bed. The air was warmer than she expected, and she noticed that a hot draft was leaking from the stone column in the center of the room. So was the smell.

  She circled around the column until she found a slitted latch on the far side. She unhooked it and opened it. A plate was waiting on a round stone inside, the entire thing a smaller version of the transport the wizards used inside the reactors. A bowl sat in the center of the plate. Oats or rice of some kind, with a spoon and a small dollop of syrup.

  She stared at it, feeling her stomach churning in hunger while she questioned whether or not to eat it.

  "Don't be stupid," she said to herself. "Worm could have killed you in your sleep. Or any other time before you got here." She removed the bowl and closed the latch again. Then she carried it to the bed and hopped back on, sitting cross-legged while she ate. The meal was simple and somewhat bland, but she was hungry enough she didn't care. She downed it quickly before heading to the bathroom to first relieve herself, and then to dress.

  Worm was in the bedroom when she came back out. He looked different. Clean. And he was wearing a shirt. A simple cloth shirt with a collar that made him look almost civilized.

  "You look handsome," she said.

  He smiled, tugging at a sleeve. Then he shrugged.

  "You don't like shirts?"

  He made a face.

  "We each have our own prisons, don't we?"

  He looked away.

  "Are we going down to meet him?" She had taken the cure. She felt strong again. She was ready to do what needed to be done the moment the opportunity revealed itself.

  Worm shook his head and pointed back towards the farspeak stone.

  "Again?" she said.

  He nodded.

  "Will I ever meet him in person?"

  A shrug.

  "Have you met him?"

  Another nod.

  She walked into the chamber and sat down. As soon as she did, the farspeak stone began to spin.

  "Did you rest well, Eryn?" he asked.

  She had adjusted to the situation and managed to keep her emotions under control. It was better to be polite. It was better to at least pretend to accept whatever lies he told. She needed to get near him to end him.

  "I've never slept in a bed like that before."

  "It is comfortable, isn't it? Even before the Shifters came, such a thing was reserved only for the rich and powerful."

  "Like you?"

  "No. I've never slept in it. Only the prospects have ever felt its comfort."

  "Prospects?"

  "There is another reason I've brought you here, Eryn, besides Talon. I didn't want to tell you yesterday because of your condition. I feared you would be unable to rest."

  "Worm told me you intended to test me. That you had brought others here before, and they had failed. That you killed them."

  The pause was lengthy. "Worm?"

  "Your man. The one who is immune to magic."

  The one I fell in love with.

  "Why do you call him Worm?"

  It was an odd question fo
r him to ask. "That is what General Spyne called him. Isn't that his name? He wouldn't tell me another."

  "He doesn't remember it."

  "You took it from him?"

  "He doesn't remember many things. It is safer for him that way. Easier. You saw with Talon what happens when we remember the past and the way things used to be. It overwhelms our senses of right and wrong and makes us irrational."

  "There's nothing irrational about knowing who you are, or where you came from, or why."

  "No. Yet memories are still dangerous when you have the responsibilities that we do. When you have the guilt that we do. Talon-"

  He paused then. Eryn waiting in silence for him to return. Minutes passed. She looked for Worm, or whatever his name was, but he had retreated again.

  "Talon is the most obvious example. His guilt is driving him mad. It is causing him to do things he would never do if he could remember the promise and why it was made."

  "Why don't you just tell him what it is?"

  "It isn't something you can tell, Eryn. Not when the damage is done. Who will believe their worst enemy when they put forth a story that any party might doubt?"

  "A story you expect me to believe."

  "You can believe because I can show you. That is why you are here."

  "Part of why I'm here, you said."

  "Yes. Part. These things are related, as you will learn."

  "And when you are done?"

  "You will decide what to believe. I am old, Eryn. Over a thousand years old. I have had prospects here before, but none have been strong enough. None have been able to do what they will need to do. You aren't like them. You are more powerful in magic and stronger in spirit. You might succeed where they have failed."

  "Will I want to?"

  "You ask the right questions. Let me tell you the secret you have been seeking. When you know the truth of the promise, you may find that nothing is as simple as any of us would like it to be."