Trial of Fire (69 page)

His thoughts distracted, the Malachi succeeded in pushing him back, and his horse stumbled. Andrew struggled to regain control of it, but now another Malachi had joined the first, deliberately targeting him, determined to kill him. His men were pressed hard and he had no choice but to fight. He swung both left and right, but he knew he couldn’t keep it up for long—

Then another, deeper sound pierced the battle roar. For a moment, he thought it was the promised thunder, but instead, he saw two dozen horsemen galloping towards them. He heard Finnlay’s shout to retreat, but he couldn’t go until there was absolutely no chance at all. Robert was right about him having no choice about being here, but he did have one choice left: he could surrender.

All he needed to do to bring this carnage to a halt was to condemn these men to living under Kenrick’s rule for ever.

And that he could never do.

Andrew swung again, using his other hand to push at the second Malachi, making him fall back into the tight crowd around him. But then they were surrounded by the new soldiers and Andrew shouted in triumph: he recognised Gilbert Dusan – and they weren’t fighting the Salti, but their own Malachi brothers.

Suddenly the odds were a lot more even, but as Gilbert pushed himself between Andrew and his Malachi attackers, Andrew’s horse bucked and reared. With his hands covered in blood, he lost the reins and, with a yell, he tumbled to the ground, losing his sword in the process.

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe, or make anything move at all. But
then he drew a noisy breath in, and though his whole body ached with the impact, he knew he was still whole and intact. As the noise of battle rose around him once more, he lifted his head—

And found Kenrick standing over him with a blade to his throat.

*

Nash almost trembled as he walked behind the Ally. He ordered his men to stand watch, to allow nobody through the entrance. He kept his hands at his sides, fists clenched to hide the shaking, the physical need to find this ending, to reach this promised goal after so very long.

Jenn walked in front of him, saying nothing, taking each turn with her face immobile, as though, at the last, she had given up all sense of who she was. Nash paid no attention to where she was taking him, but instead, reached out, desperately Seeking, even though he already knew he would find nothing.

Her footsteps slowed and once she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes not meeting his, as though making sure he was still there, as though hoping he wasn’t. Of course, she would be reluctant to do this. She, of all people, understood the nature of the Key, being joined to it herself. But understanding the nature of the Key also showed her that this was the only way forward for all of them. He smiled at the thought.

With what might have been a sigh, she made a final turn, leading him into a low passage where the floor was steeply uneven, requiring both hands to keep balance. At the end was another opening, and here she ducked inside and then started climbing down onto the cave floor.

This was it. He knew it without looking: this was his destiny right here.

He barely noticed the approach, or the uneven slope to the floor. He could see only the box at the end of the long cave, and at his end, another orb, sitting alone on a piece of cloth.

This was how they’d masked the Key, how they’d hidden it from him since their flight from the Goleth. This was the orb he’d given Kenrick, that the Enemy had stolen: somehow, they’d been clever enough to make a shield out of it, using abilities he had not guessed they possessed. But it made no difference now, because at the other end of the cave was—

Jenn had moved. She now stood between him and the box, her hands clasped together before her, her eyes almost black in the shadowy cave which was lit by a lamp suspended from one wall, the light Nash produced himself, and a glow coming from the box behind her, which made her hair shimmer.

‘Promise me,’ she said firmly, ‘my son and Lusara will be free. You will not have the Key unless you promise.’

‘Promise? Why would you believe me? Or is it that you just don’t want to feel that you have betrayed your lover for nothing?’

‘I am only what I am. You said I am the Ally.’

‘Ah.’ Nash moved forward a few steps. ‘But whose Ally are you? Mine? The Enemy’s?’

‘Your promise, or you will not have the Key.’

‘My dear Jenn, do you honestly think you can stop me now, promise or no? All I ever needed was to be in the same room with it – and the Key knows that. Why do you think it’s done nothing to stop me? We both know it has the power to.’

‘I am joined to the Key, Carlan. I control it.’

‘No, you don’t.’ Nash smiled ironically at her use of his real name. ‘I thought you understood: it controls you. It always has. That’s why it was created.’

‘So the Prophecy would come true, yes, I know that. But that doesn’t mean I can’t control it.’

‘Really?’ Nash moved forward a little more. ‘Is that why you had to make another orb mask the Key’s aura? Because you couldn’t get the Key to shield itself from me?’

She had no answer to that and he moved again; now he was only a dozen feet from her. ‘Please,’ she whispered, ‘please promise.’

And though he had intended only to take, Jenn’s beauty once again spoke to him. The Key would reverse Valena’s curse and the Ally would be his completely – once he’d killed the Enemy. She would be far more pliant if he had saved her useless son.

‘Very well, I promise,’ he said, savouring his power over her.

She shuddered then, closing her eyes a moment. Then she stepped aside, revealing the simple wooden box with the faint glow coming from it. Still he could not Sense anything, but that would no longer matter in a moment. With his whole body tingling with excitement, he circled the box, always keeping Jenn in his line of sight, until he stood behind it and saw what it was she had been hiding from him.

They had found the Calyx.

He began to laugh. ‘That’s how I found you, wasn’t it? You joined the Key and the Calyx together. If you had asked me, my love, I would have told you it would not work. The Key has too much power for the Calyx, it would do everything to protect it from you. Ah, my dear Jenn. Promises or no, you have lost, despite all your efforts otherwise. And your lover is nowhere in sight to save you.’

Nash reached out then, spreading his hands towards the curve of the Key. In truth, he had no idea how long it would take to absorb this power,
but that didn’t matter, for the moment he touched it, he would control its power and nothing anyone could do would stop it.

‘My lover,’ Jenn said, her voice abruptly different, harder, as though she had a secret, ‘is taking care of his son.’

The orb’s shell glistened at him, the dappled surface shining as though covered in dew. His palms began to burn as he lowered them towards it, but her words penetrated his concentration. He looked up to find her smiling at him in a way wholly unlike her.

Son?

The Enemy’s son?

‘You couldn’t be Bonded!’ The words flew out: part desperation, part impatience. ‘You could not be here doing this if you had Bonded with the Enemy!’

‘We did Bond, long enough to conceive Andrew. Why? Didn’t you know?’

He took in her malice and forced a laugh. ‘There is nothing you can do to stop me now – and my promise means nothing. The Enemy is not here to stop me.’ With that, he pressed forward, his hands reaching out and grasping the Key, taking what had been promised to him centuries before.

He barely heard her shouted ‘No!’ as shock suffused his entire body. The Key’s glow covered him, taking his breath away, making him blind. The power blazed across his skin; his face felt like it was melting. Oh, but it was so magnificent! He could feel his body remade, his power increased a thousandfold. The glow burned brighter, lighting the whole cave: after all these centuries, the Prophecy had come true and he was heading for immortality.

No matter what trick she thought she’d played, it was too late for her to stop him now. In a few hours, he would have absorbed the entire power of the Key and his thoughts alone would tear down this mountain.

He had won; his triumph made him roar with unholy laughter.

*

‘Please, don’t,’ Andrew whispered, his gaze deliberately moving up the bloody steel until it reached Kenrick’s eyes. He put all his fear, all his desperation into those two words, letting his whole body speak his terror.

It was enough.

Kenrick hesitated, and in that moment, Andrew
pushed
, forcing the blade away. He rolled to his side and sprang to his feet, grabbing the first sword he could find. Betrayed, Kenrick roared and swung to cut him down, but Andrew brought his blade up and the two met with a dull clang, before power rattled through them both and brought their swords to life. Around
them, Malachi and Salti still fought, giving them room, leaving them to each other.

‘Why?’ Kenrick hissed, incomprehension in his face. ‘We were friends. I never harmed you.’

‘You harmed my country,’ Andrew replied, maintaining the power, holding his emotions where he could control them. ‘I am my country, as is any man here. You cannot be King any longer.’

‘Fool, traitor!’ Kenrick pushed and swung again, but once more, Andrew’s blade caught his, holding it off, keeping the stalemate. Kenrick was older and bigger, but he had not had Robert Douglas to teach him. ‘You think Nash will let you live?’

‘My father will kill Nash,’ Andrew replied, forcing his eyes to meet Kenrick’s. ‘You fear him, don’t you?’

‘Father?’ For a moment, Andrew almost felt sorry for his cousin – cousin no longer, though – but Kenrick’s voice was filled with contempt and hatred. ‘Douglas,’ he spat. ‘Then your mother is a whore!’

The words tore through Andrew as power surged into his blade, enough to drive Kenrick back, to make him stumble – but then the King recovered, driving Andrew back with his greater weight.

‘You should have stopped him years ago,’ Andrew continued, using the fear that he saw in Kenrick’s face. He saw into Kenrick the way he always had, even as a child; all he had to do was reach in and pull out what he had Seen and hated, even when he had not understood it. ‘You could have stopped him, but you were too scared,’ Andrew continued. ‘You were always scared, weren’t you, Kenrick? Scared of your mother, then your father, of your sister and her marriage to my father, and now of Nash. Your whole life is fear and it’s driven you to the most disgusting acts, all in an effort to hide your fear even from yourself.’ Andrew parried another thrust that would have cut him in half. ‘But
I
know. I can see it in you – but you were never afraid of me.’

The force of his words and a sudden lunge made Kenrick stumble again; this time the King stepped back, staring, wide-eyed with shock. Andrew took a breath, lowering his own sword, keeping the glow, knowing even then that he would win,
had
already won, no matter what happened next.

The thought brought him no joy at all, only sorrow.

He did not want to kill Kenrick – but he didn’t know what he
did
want to do.

‘I did love you,’ he whispered, knowing Kenrick would hear him even over the deafening noise of battle. ‘I did love you, but you would have murdered me in the end, destroying even that love because it scared you.
But love is no weakness, Kenrick, it’s a strength – and it could have saved you.’

‘You – it’s
you
, in the Prophecy: you’re the one—’ Kenrick stared at Andrew, his face draining of colour. In his eyes was a horror Andrew had never seen before, and it broke something inside him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered, shocked to find tears falling down his face.

Kenrick saw the tears and nodded, his sword slipping from his fingers. Without pausing, Andrew’s own sword rose, as though he had no control over it. With a cry wrenched from his heart, he brought his glowing blade down across Kenrick’s body, slicing him diagonally from shoulder to hip. Before he could even fall, Andrew swung again, and pierced his chest through and through. For a moment, Kenrick stood there, blood bubbling up over the steel, and from the corner of his mouth—

Then Andrew pulled the blade away and Kenrick fell to his knees, landing face-down in the bloodied mud.

With a wrenching cry, Andrew landed beside him, his sword forgotten. Kenrick’s eyes were still open. Andrew reached out and placed his hand on the blond head, holding his cousin as his heartbeat slowed and then faded completely.

And from behind him, the call was taken up, spreading far and fast.

‘The King is dead! Long live the King!’

For the first time in his life, Andrew cried.

*

With the horse almost dead beneath him, Robert galloped up the rise to the top of the ravine. Gasping for breath, fear almost ready to shake him to pieces, he jumped from the poor animal and landed before the entrance.

Patric and Joshi waited for him, the bodies of four dead men lying to the right.

‘What happened?’

Patric said, ‘There are another fifty or so still inside. They got here an hour ago. You have to hurry.’

Drawing his sword, Robert told them, ‘You stay here.’

‘No.’ Joshi moved to stand at his side.

‘It’s too dangerous.’

‘No. We go.’ The determination was unmistakable.

Robert acquiesced and ran inside, to be met almost immediately by Nash’s Bonded Malachi who rushed forward, their swords glowing, ready to defend their master to the last. But Robert was not about to be stopped by anybody, least of all Bonded men with no minds of their own. With his own sword blazing, he pushed forward, his whole body pulsing with a
desperate need to get to the Key before Nash could, though he knew he was probably too late.

Swinging, hacking, thrusting, barely knowing what he was doing: every step made the demon inside him stronger, bubbling up in him until it burst forth, spewing fire from the end of his sword, blinding him, and killing the Malachi before him.

Robert staggered to contain it, broke through the line of defenders and, leaving Patric and Joshi to it, he ran towards the end of the entrance cave and then into the tunnels, leaping over rocks in his way, skidding on the sandy floor, ducking and rolling through low doorways, descending further into the morass of caves. He knew he was being pursued, but nothing mattered now except getting to the Key, and stopping Jenn.