Page 15 of Light Up the Night

Chapter Six

Fallen Gods and Fallen Kings

Messiah

One foot in front of the other wasn’t all that easy when you couldn’t feel your toes. I gripped the reigns and closed my eyes against the blistering winter wind. Finally, the fog began to break, and the Great Hall could be seen in the distance.

“Home!” Fish called through chattering teeth.

“Thank all that is fucking Fated,” Keif growled. His beard carried the evidence of our struggles. Little crystals clung to the ends, and snow sprinkled from his chin when he spoke.

Chalice snorted her agreement and wrapped Fish tighter into her fur shawl. It had been risky, it had been rugged, but it was finally… over. Or starting… depending on how one looked at it. Either way, we needed to take cover. The Savage Queen would be on our trail by now.

“Stop looking behind. I sent scouts … there is no one for at least ten miles,” Pariah reasoned, “Perhaps she tires of her pretty prince, hm?”

A muffled “Fuck you,” came from around the king’s gag.

Fish reached down and gave the king’s hair a good tug. “Mind yourself, there’s a Lady before us. A Queen!”

A considerable amount of garbled noises flew toward the child.

“Hush,” Fish simply said.

“I never thought this place would feel warm.” Chalice laughed as we led the way through the bowl-like entrance of the Inlet. She slid from her horse and insisted Fish do the same. “I hate that damn winding trail up. It isn’t safe...”

Her words trailed off, and we all slowed until we were staring slack jawed and frozen in place at the carnage before us. Spears littered the meadow by the thousands. Some still boasted the men they had felled.

“This is what I arrived to,” Ender called from atop the cliff side. “Locals say that Savage woman ‘brought great beasts of war.’”

His fingers came up to emphasize which words had been borrowed before he paused and nodded toward the cliff that framed the Great Hall.

“She put ladders… tower-like things on top of two, what I assume were elephants, and scaled past both walls,” he continued until Fish’s gasp interrupted.

“The Fallen Gods rush the gates when the war horn sounds. In drills they fall back as a group behind the walls one at a time as they are breached. If she hopped the cliff there…” Fish explained pointing toward the Great Hall. “…our men were probably trapped between the two walls on the other side.”

“She divided them…” I laughed, as if it were the cleverest of jokes.

“I told you,” Pariah spat. “You’re not on the mountain anymore, and you aren’t exactly dealing with one of your hoity genteel ladies. Azaria of the Savageland doesn’t know fairy tales. She was raised on strategy scrolls and coup tactics.”

Ender snorted, and his lips pulled into an honest smile. “Not many people are killed by the same things that raised them.”

He led the way toward the Great Hall up the winding narrow path and threw both gates. The bravado we had seen on our first arrival was no more. The warriors were gathered in groups about the yard, most of them didn’t even have their armor on.

“Their hope is lost?” I murmured to Ender while praying it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

He shot me a grave look and a mild shrug. I turned to peek over my shoulder, fully expecting to see Chalice behind us on the ramp. Instead, she was standing somewhere near the middle of the yard and surveying the lot of them with open disbelief.

“Fuck,” I quipped, tapping Ender on the shoulder and took off toward her. I didn’t wait on him, there wasn’t time, half the Iron Inlet was about to get a taste of her. I had no doubts.

“Get him to a cell,” Ender called to Fish while waving his hand toward our hostage.

“Fallen Gods,” Chalice loudly ridiculed, gaining the attention of the masses.

They quieted, zeroed in on her and erupted in another round of whispers. “The Queen. Lady Lazarus. Chalice of Rochambeau.”

“When I was little,” she began in a loud unwavering voice, “I used to sit by the stream with my mother and listen to all her tales. Spice Landers and Pirates. All the foreign and fascinating places. She painted them for me, if only in my mind. None of them ever captivated me the way her stories of the Inlet did. The Fallen Gods were her heroes. Warriors, direct descendants of Dray of the Ice.”

Now and again someone would give a bark of pride or would call for blessings on her mother.

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