Before Beauty (25 page)

Marko gave a cry of pain and flew
backward, smacking his head against the building behind them. Blue
liquid flame shot out of Isa’s fingertips, nearly blinding her as
it flared all around, and the force of it nearly made her lose her
own balance. Relief at being safe from Marko was followed
immediately by panic as Isa realized she couldn’t move. The blue
flame had engulfed her completely, and she stood frozen with her
arms stretched out at her sides while it continued to flow out of
her body and into the man on the ground.

“
Isabelle!” Garin’s voice sounded
from a distance.

Isa wanted so much to scream for
help, but she couldn’t move.

Just seconds later, though, cool,
rough hands had taken her own, and the flame was channeling into
them. They stood that way for what felt like an eternity. In
amazement, Isa watched as Garin took the brunt of the raw power
that streamed from her.
Don’t let it hurt
him
, she begged the Fortress.

But as he looked back into her
eyes, the man who had bowed to Ever’s every wish no longer looked
like a castle steward. Instead, he looked like something completely
other, something powerful. His eyes blazed a fierce blue, and his
skin became white like snow. The lines of age that edged his eyes
and mouth disappeared. His arms were powerful, and just for a
second, Isa thought she glimpsed a pair of large silver wings on
his back.

Whether vision or truth, however,
it only lasted for the blink of an eye. Slowly, the flame began to
ebb, and bit by bit, Isa could move again. As it slowed, Garin
began to look more like himself again.

“
What was that?” Isa
gasped.

“
That was the
strength.”

“
No, what you just did! How did
you do that?” Isa searched his face for answers.

Garin gave her a small smile. “You
don’t think the Maker would forge such a great source of power as
the Fortress without giving it a steward, do you?”

“That was amazing though,” Isa
could only bring herself to whisper. “Garin, what
are
you?”

“
Just a simple servant, my
dear.”

“
But–”

“
There is no one servant more
important than another. My purpose is simply a bit…different than
that of the others. But we don’t have time for this kind of talk.
We need to be off, and it is getting late.”

Before he was finished speaking,
however, Isa was already heading back towards the street, thankful
that Megane had escaped. He caught up with her easily, and in
silence, they walked as quickly as they could back to Isa’s
home.

Instead using the front door,
however, Isa went directly to the stables.

“
And where do you think you’re
going?” Garin asked as Isa led her father’s horse from his
stall.

“
I am going back. The princess is
attacking tonight.”

“
And how do you know
this?”

Isa gave an impatient huff as she
began to saddle the horse. They didn’t have time for this. “The
Caregivers have arrived in town, more than I’ve ever seen before. I
was told that they are planning to take the kingdom by force.
They’re clearing the streets first, however, by offering to save
those of us who want to escape.”

“
And you think that I will simply
allow you waltz off into the arms of the enemy?”

Isa stopped and looked straight at
him.

“
We can help Ever.”

“
Absolutely not!” Garin fired
back. “You are coming with me. We’re leaving this place, just as
Everard instructed! If something happened to you, your blood would
be on my head! Do you remember a word I said about what they will
do to you?”

“
It doesn’t matter.” Isa shook her
head and climbed up onto the horse. “He needs me.” As she spoke,
thin blue flames licked the reigns, making the horse whinny loudly.
“I am going back, Garin, and you are welcome to come with me if you
so desire.”

“
And what makes you so sure you
can help him after what happened last night?”

“
Last night, I didn’t understand.
I couldn’t see that because the Fortress has chosen me, it will
give me the strength that I need to bear the burden.” She hoped he
wouldn’t see how her hands were trembling as she waited for his
answer.

Garin stood with his arms folded,
watching her with an unreadable expression. Finally, a smile slowly
spread across his face. “Very well.” He bowed his head in
concession.

“
You mean you won’t stop
me?”

“
I mean you are ready.”

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

Willing

“
Please!” Ever’s shout echoed both up and down
the tower as he slammed his fist on the stone wall of the tower
passage. “Come back to me! I am doing all I know how!”

Instead of answering, however, the
Fortress stayed silent, and Ever felt his heart beat once, twice
out of rhythm, just enough to bring him to his knees. As he knelt
to try and catch his breath on the winding steps, he went over the
night before for the thousandth time. What had gone
wrong?

If Garin had been there, he would
have said that Ever needed to just trust the Fortress. But really,
Ever wondered, what could possess him to trust the very force that
had stolen the life from his body and leave him alone and
cursed?

He had hoped that Isa could be
made ready by a speedy marriage. It had been the perfect plan, the
answer to the riddle. The ring would focus her strength, he had
assured himself countless times before. It would make up for
whatever control she was still lacking. But when the time came, the
ring had done no such thing, and at the moment when he could have
tried to pick up the pieces, his straying senses had picked up the
sound of damnation. Nevina’s battle horn had sounded.

It had taken all of Ever’s
willpower to harden his face as he exiled the girl he loved. Not
that it would help in the end. His enemy was brutal and cruel, and
he knew it was only a matter of time before she turned her rage on
Isa when he was dead and gone. Nevina would hunt her down. Sending
Garin with her was the only way he could think of to give her with
any shred of hope.

As they had prepared her to leave,
the girl sobbing the entire time, a small voice in his head had
whispered that he could heal her as a parting gift. But no, he had
thought. That would have taken all of his remaining strength, and
without his strength, he would die.

You’ll die anyway,
his conscience had prodded.

If I’m dead,
he’d snapped at the annoying voice in his head,
who will be here to guard the kingdom one last
time?
And so he had sent her away to her
doom.

The look on her face had been
heartbreaking, the same expression she’d worn as a small child when
he had broken her the first time. Only this time, breaking her had
felt like crushing a piece of himself. She hadn’t seen it, but
tears had run down his face as he’d watched her coach race off into
the evening light. And now, there was nothing left for him to do
but beg and plead with the Fortress that had long since abandoned
the prince it had once loved.

“
I don’t understand!” He shouted
up at the tower’s peak above him. “Isa had a new
strength!”

But she didn’t
stay
, the voice of reason whispered in his
head.

“
She brought healing!” he
argued.

But she didn’t heal
everything
.

“
What about me?” he pleaded
desperately. “I was strong, and I have been willing to die. My
whole life I have been willing to die! How many times have I gone
into battle and risked my life?”

You don’t seem ready to die
now.

No matter how much he begged, the
Fortress itself remained cold and silent. There was no comforting
presence, no gentle peace that he had once taken for granted.
Beaten, he stood painfully and slowly climbed back up thte steps
and into the tower. Leaning hard on the stone wall balcony, he
leaned over to see Nevina’s army’s progress below.

They would be at the gates within
minutes. The halls were silent beneath him, as he’d given the
servants instructions to hide as best as they could. Deep down, he
knew that the hope he had given them was vain. He hadn’t told his
loyal friends how their enemies would silence them forever, how the
Tumenians would break their bodies and their spirits. Instead, it
was easier to force a smile and tell Gigi that she and the others
might make it if they stayed quiet for long enough. But at his
core, he knew that even if he had retained his strength, he could
not fight an entire army on his own. His men were still statues on
the field.

Anger boiled within him as he
thought about how the Fortress was no longer even protecting those
within its walls. He could feel the emptiness in the air. The
presence that had once guided and guarded him seemed content now to
watch from afar as they all burned.

Ever drew his sword from his
sheath, as he’d done so many times, but this time, he did so
knowing it was pointless. He could see it now, how he had strayed,
how he’d forgotten the straight path that he had run so confidently
as a boy. It was too late to fix that, but perhaps, his broken
heart hoped, at least he could leave this world with some honor.
The Fortress wouldn’t strip him of that as well, would
it?

He stood with the sword at his
side as the Chiens did the Tumenian’s dirty work for them. Smoke
made the air putrid and thick as they began to set his beloved
world ablaze. Ever imagined the intricate tapestries and exotic,
crafted rugs going up in flames, the very ones he’d played upon as
a child.

Behind the Chiens followed the men
Nevina had managed to lure into her rogue forces. Their footsteps
echoed up the stone stairs as he turned to face the door. A minute
later, soldiers burst through.

They were far from Tumen’s finest,
just common hired swords who happened to stumble into the wrong
part of the Fortress. And yet, there were at least a dozen that had
come up together. Upon seeing him, they froze.

Ever knew that despite their
princess’s assurances of his weakness, they must still be afraid of
the Fortiers’ legendary blue fire. Some of them had probably seen
it in battle with their own eyes. When he produced none, however,
they began to hesitantly advance towards him.

His sword was much heavier than it
had ever been before, even when he had first received it as a boy
Still, somehow, he was able to throw his weight into the first
swing. Small traces of blue flashed as he met his attackers. They
came at him cautiously at first, one at a time. As he fought more
and more like a man, however, instead a the legendary warrior, the
soldiers became more confident in their strikes.

Sweat poured down Ever’s temples,
and his fingers trembled as he willed them to keep their grip on
the sword’s hilt. His bones jarred with each clash, and along with
smoke, the stench of blood filled the air. Ever fought
instinctively, without really knowing what he was doing, and as he
moved, he wondered at the fact that none of them had managed to
kill him yet. Even one of his newest soldiers would have gutted him
by now.

The world had begun to blur when a
sultry voice interrupted his desperate attempt to focus. “Well,
you’ve certainly held your own. I didn’t think you would last this
long.”

Nevina stood at the door of the
tower, stepping daintily over her soldier’s bodies as she made her
way towards Ever. It was only as he turned to face her that he
realized the dozen men lay at his feet, the stench of death
suddenly making the air noxious. A burning wave of dizziness set
in, and Ever fell to his knees with a sickening crack on the hard
stone floor. Gasping, he tried to raise himself off of all fours.
He hadn’t succeeded though, by the time cool fingers moved gently
through his hair before grabbing a fistful and yanking back so that
he had to look up.

Nevina’s captain walked through
the door. As always, he said less than his mistress, but excitement
burned brightly in his eyes. His dark cloak trailed over his men,
but he didn’t even attempt to avoid their corpses as the princess
had.

Ever tried to ready himself for
his death. They wouldn’t make it easy. The princess was too
ambitious, and her father had trained her well in the ways of
torture. Her victory wouldn’t be as rewarding if she didn’t make
him suffer first. The keen enthusiasm in her eyes made that
clear.

Despite Ever’s weariness, the
small smile on the captain’s stone face sent a chill through him.
Would they use fire? His own hearth was still lit, the poker
resting temptingly beside it. The hawks were also an option, as the
balcony outside would provide ample space to watch the princess’s
beloved pets tear him to pieces. He also knew from the battlefield
that she was particularly fond of eyes. Then, of course, there was
Nevina’s wicked knife, the crooked one that never left her side.
But nothing he imagined prepared him for the words that came from
the captain’s mouth.