The Song of Eloh Saga (60 page)

“I brought Ivy back here minutes before the invasion.” Alia chuckled. “Lucky me and lucky Ivy.”

Ivy raced over to Alia’s side and cradled her head in her hands. “Are you okay? Did Reychel hurt you?”

I stood in stunned silence. Ivy played both sides better than anyone I’d ever known. I thought for sure she had changed, or at least awakened part of that young girl who had been my best friend. But here she was, holding Alia’s head in her lap. Bile rose in my throat. I wanted to scream at her, scratch at her with my fingernails, anything to set the rage free.

I’d been fooled again. I swore I wouldn’t let it happen, but I did. I was so, so stupid.

“I’ll be okay. Just a little woozy. The Prophet kneed me in the gut and I hit the back of my head on the floor when I fell.”

Ivy glanced up at me, her eyebrows arched. She hadn’t thought I had it in me either. They were both in for a surprise if they thought I was going to sit back and take this.

“It’s two against one now, Reychel.” Alia sat up and rubbed the back of her head.

I held my breath and hoped another portal would open quickly. I needed Mark and his sword, anything to help me stop those two because, at the moment, I didn’t have an idea. They couldn’t take me away from here because Nemison’s force field still held, but the two of them together probably had a stronger gift than mine alone. I wasn’t eager to find out.

Alia stood up, her hand balancing on Ivy’s arm. A smile snaked across Alia’s face as she raised her hand in the air. “Feed me your gift, Ivy.”

Ivy closed her eyes. The pace of my breath hastened. My heart pounded in my chest, threatening to break through. I held my hand up in the air too. I didn’t know what to expect from Alia or how to counter it. Everything I’d been fighting for had come to a head and I was about to lose the war, and maybe my life.

The sun broke through the clouds, illuminating the entire tower in an orange glow. Snowflakes swirled and danced in the sunbeams, falling delicately on the floor before melting into the stone. I wished, for a moment, that I could melt away with them. I didn’t have enough time to escape through a portal. Alia would just follow me with a blast from her fingers and I’d be dead before I hit the other side.

I looked in her sparkless eyes, refusing to back down. The longer she stood still, the more unnerved I became. She was waiting for something, or someone.

Alia gasped, snatching her hand away from Ivy’s arm. She clutched her stomach and fell to her knees with a loud grunt. Ivy’s eyes popped open. She reached down for Alia’s shoulders, grabbed them, and pulled Alia back to standing.

“Do you really think I’d help you after everything you did to me?” Ivy snarled in Alia’s face, her fingernails digging into Alia’s shoulders. “You deserve to die, you know that? But Reychel won’t kill you. She doesn’t have it in her.”

I took a step forward, my hand still in the air. I had no intention of killing Alia. I didn’t want anyone to die if they didn’t have to. Suddenly I didn’t know who to stop.

“Ivy —” I started, but she held up a hand at me, her eyes never leaving Alia’s.

“Don’t get involved, Reychel. Do the right thing and leave. I’ll take care of Alia for you.”

“It doesn’t have to end this way,” I said. “Just let her go. We can subdue her together.”

Alia shook in Ivy’s grasp. I held back a scream. What was wrong with everyone? Why did everything have to end in death?

“This is why people fight for you, Reychel. You’re kind and generous, even to the people who would have you killed in a second. In the real world, that won’t solve your problems. Sometimes you need to take things into your own hands. Because you won’t do it for yourself, I’ll do it for you. I can prove to you that I’ve changed.”

“Ivy, you don’t have to prove anything to me! Please, just let her go!”

This wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want Alia dead. I didn’t want anyone to die. I’d resigned myself to losing people because I couldn’t make decisions for them when it came to joining the war, but I couldn’t stand by and watch Ivy kill Alia.

I directed my fingers toward Ivy. “Let Alia go.”

Ivy shook her head and wrapped her hands around Alia’s neck. Alia’s eyes flicked toward mine, pleading with me as she gasped for air. Her hands hung uselessly at her sides, proving that Ivy’s gift held Alia in thrall. She couldn’t save herself or fight back. It was cruel, even for Ivy.

I took a deep breath and let my gift go. A wave of air blasted toward Ivy, taking crystals from the falling snow with it. My gifted wind turned into daggers of ice, racing through the air toward Ivy. Tiny points ravaged Ivy’s body, attacking her shoulders and face. Blood dripped from her chin and her grasp on Alia relaxed. Ivy’s hands ran over her face, smearing the red droplets. Her eyes narrowed and turned a darker shade of blue.

“I never wanted anything more than to make up for the evil things I did. I guess you’ve proven one thing to me today. No matter what I do, it will never be good enough for you.”

Ivy ran over to me and whispered in my ear. I looked at her, stunned at her words. Then she ran toward the stone windows, and threw herself over the edge.

“No!” I screamed, charging after her. But it was too late. My fingers gripped the cold stone and my tears followed Ivy over the edge. I reached out to her, feeling nothing but the biting air. Ivy’s dress flapped in the wind. She flung her arms out to the side and smiled. I turned away just as a thud on the ground echoed in the air.

“This is what happens when you take away someone’s choices, Reychel.” Alia sneered. “You’re just as bad as I am. Have you ever thought it about it? Who makes the rules? Who makes the decisions about how other people should behave? What makes you so sure you’re right and everyone else is wrong?”

I sank to the stone floor, still and silent. I didn’t want to answer her because I knew she was right. I’d been fighting so hard for what I believed was right that I’d forced everyone to follow my path instead of their own. Ivy was broken inside, I knew that. But if I hadn’t made her do things my way, maybe I would have had a chance to help her. Instead I took away her chance at redemption. I’d taken away her choice to live on her own terms.

A light shimmered in the air and a portal opened. Mark led with his sword and Ace followed quickly behind. Krissin stepped through and shivered.

“For Eloh’s sake, Reychel, couldn’t you have chosen someplace a little warmer than this?” she asked.

Mark and Ace took Alia by the arms, holding her hands behind her back.

“Are you okay?” Mark asked, glancing in my direction. “Did she hurt you?”

Alia laughed. “Did I hurt her? What a joke. Ask her what she did to her friend Ivy.”

Mark’s eyes bored into mine, but I couldn’t speak yet. All I could do was point over the side of the castle wall. Krissin raced over, while rubbing her hands up and down her arms to keep warm, and peeked over the edge.

She turned back, her eyes wide. “Is that Ivy down there?”

I nodded.

“And you did that?” Krissin stared at me, incredulous. “I can’t believe it.”

I didn’t answer her question. I’d tell them soon enough and nothing I could say at the moment would bring Ivy back.

“We’re not severing anyone unless they ask us to,” I said. “Plans changed.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

With Alia and her people safely locked away in the dungeon and ten of our people shielding them, not to mention the twenty men Ace pulled from the Sons to guard them, I was finally able to take a breather.

We sat around a huge table in my father’s old war room. Nemison, Krissin, Johna, Ace, Mark, and me. We’d become the leaders of the resistance, and probably the leaders of whatever new order would rule the land of Serenia.

Unfortunately, at the moment, we were just as divided as the rest of the country.

“We will go ahead with the plan we set out before coming here. All of the gifted army will be severed,” Krissin yelled. She smacked the heavy oak table with the palm of her hand. The water in my glass shook, but it didn’t tip over. That’s exactly how I felt now. I wouldn’t budge.

“No,” I said calmly. “We can’t take that choice away from them. It’s cruel.”

“Then what are we supposed to do? Leave them to rot in the dungeon until they all die, wasting the time of hundreds of gifted people and the Sons? I don’t think so!”

I glared at Krissin. She didn’t understand. No matter how many times I told her about Ivy, she shut me out, refusing to even acknowledge that I might be right. Unlike all the other times, I refused to give up. For once I would make sure the right thing would happen. Some of those people had been told since birth that they needed to behave this way. To blame them just because they were lied to as children wasn’t right. Nor was it right to force someone like Alia to become a different person.

“I have an alternative,” I said. “If you’d just shut up for a moment and listen to me then maybe we could have a rational discussion about this.”

Krissin screamed, sounding as if she was being strangled. I wished I did have my hands around her throat. Maybe then she’d be quiet. Ace reached over and took her hand in his.

“Don’t,” she hissed at him, pulling her hand away. He grabbed her hand again, slamming it against the table and holding tight. Krissin struggled, but she couldn’t break free from his solid grasp. “Let. Me. Go.”

“No,” Ace said, gritting his teeth through a feral smile. I wondered if he was actually enjoying it. Usually he let Krissin have the upper hand, even though he’d never admit it.

“Daddy,” she whined, turning her doe eyes on Nemison. “You know she’s wrong, don’t you? Do you really want to spend time every day guarding those wicked people?”

Nemison shook his head. “No, I don’t. But I think Reychel has the right to speak her mind. So, my darling Krissin, shut up.” He turned to me and said, “What’s your idea? Though I must admit I’m hesitant to believe there is another solution.”

“Do you remember when I found Zelor’s cave? There were multiple portals. I say we toss them through the portals.”

“Do you know where they go?” Johna asked. Her eyebrows wrinkled in concern.

I glanced at Mark. He knew as well as I did that they could lead anywhere, or nowhere. I couldn’t even guarantee they’d end up somewhere safer than they were now.

“I don’t, but that isn’t my concern. We can offer them a choice. They can either be severed or choose an unknown destination,” I said. “I can’t keep telling people what to do with their lives. It’s not in me.”

“It’s perfectly fine with me,” Krissin grumbled. Ace still held her hand tight against the table. She’d stopped struggling, but Ace wasn’t stupid. He knew as well as I did that if he let go, she’d probably launch herself across the table and scratch my eyes out. I’d have to remember to thank him later.

“What’s to stop them from coming back?” Mark asked. He patted my hand. The contrast between the way he treated me and the way Ace treated Krissin didn’t go unnoticed. Krissin rolled her eyes and tugged her hand, but Ace didn’t loosen his grip.

“Can you do something about that?” I asked Nemison. The old man had so many tricks up his sleeve, I had to believe he knew of a way to cut them off from ever returning to Serenia once they’d left.

“Probably. We’d have to test it, but I’m sure I could find a way,” he said.

“Zelor’s book said that the wrong portal lead to certain death, right?” I looked to Mark for confirmation. He knew as much as I did about the portals. Mark nodded.

“We don’t know if that’s true, but I say we give them the option,” I said. “Remember, Zelor was always dramatic. He was trying to scare me. It’s quite possible the portals just lead far, far away.”

“Why don’t we just open a portal to the Malborn homeland?” Johna asked. “Give them back to their own people.”

“Can anyone here do that?” I glanced around the table, focusing on Nemison.

He shook his head. “I’ve been many places, but never there. I don’t know anyone who has. Short of putting them on a boat, I don’t know any way to get them back there.”

“And if we put them on a boat, who’s to say they won’t just turn it around and attack?” Ace asked. “That’s a bad idea too.”

“This is why I say we give them the choice. They can be severed, effectively ending life as they know it, or they can choose to step through a portal that might, or might not, lead to certain death.”

“It would be easier to just KILL THEM!” Krissin yelled. “What is wrong with you people? We fought so hard to capture them and we could be done with severing them within a day. Instead you’re considering banishing them from Serenia. As if that’s a solution. Who’s to say they won’t treat the people in whatever land lies on the other side of that portal as badly as they did us? Are you just foisting our problem on someone else?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” I hesitated. That hadn’t crossed my mind. Somehow putting them through the portals had seemed final, as if they’d no longer be a problem. Not my problem, at least. “If we sent them through different portals, then they’d be dispersed.”

“You don’t know that.” Krissin took her free hand, placed a finger on the top of Ace’s hand, and zapped him. He pulled his hand back and blew on the top of it where she’d burned him with her gift. Krissin crossed her arms, a smug look settling on her face.

“You’re right, I don’t. But severing them will take away their personalities and memories, effectively ending their lives anyway,” I said.

“Let’s sever them and then send them through the portals.” Krissin smiled, sure she’d gotten the best of me.

“That takes away their choice.” Images of Ivy flashed in my mind again and I shuddered. I’d told her what to do over and over again, forcing her to do things my way. She chose death over following me. How many others would rather death, given the choice?

“They gave away their choice when they decided to try to kill all of us. That’s how war works,” Krissin insisted. She glanced around the table. “Support me! You all know this is true. This is the way of war. For Eloh’s sake, everyone thinks she’s dead anyway. No one recognized her with all of that fighting, and the people who did are in this room or the dungeon.”