Page 113 of Sanctifier

What if they could all be saved?

The chanting ended, one awful note hanging in the air until it was silent.

Lady Bellenet turned to Ru and Taryel, her eyes shining brightly, predatory. “It is time,” she said, kneeling at the foot ofthe dais. “Festra looks upon us with great pride. He has spoken to me. It is time. The gates will open for the Keeper when at last the dark flames of the Heart engulf her. You are ready, Ruellian Delara. Bring us home.”

Ru held up the artifact, letting its shroud fall away. Its black surface reflected in every pair of eyes that gazed up at her, vacant and waiting.

“I don’t think I will,” she said.

Slowly, Lady Bellenet turned. Her eyes slid from the artifact to meet Ru’s gaze, obscured by the veil. “The sun is at its zenith,” she said, a warning flickering in her words. “Festra demands that we not delay.”

“Fuck Festra,” Ru said, her crass words ringing through the holy sanctum. “The Children’s souls can be returned, can’t they? Their life force. They’re notgone. You wanted me to believe they were lost. Thathopewas lost.”

“Taryel,” Lady Bellenet spat. “Control her.”

The tightness of the woman’s mouth, the hint of fear in her eyes, was all the confirmation Ru needed. Clutching the artifact, she drew it to her chest, as if Lady Bellenet might try to take it by force. It was Ru’s only leverage now, the only power she held.

Taryel, chuckling slightly, as if all of this were some amusing misunderstanding, turned to Lady Bellenet. His hair fell in black waves over his forehead, his grey eyes shining. He didn’t belong there in that chapel, in that place of filtered light. He belonged in the forests, in a dusty library, in Ru’s bed. But here, he was all wrong.

Ru’s heart ached.

“Give her a moment,” Taryel said, stepping off the dais to extend an arm to Lady Bellenet. He spoke as if he had the power to reassure her, the voice of Festra, an immortal creature of death.

And Ru saw in his movements that he believed the woman defeated. That she would fall supplicant and give up, just like Ru had done.

But Ru guessed that Lady Bellenet was at her most dangerous now, when her plans hung in the balance, a knife’s edge from ruin. Her body grew taut as Taryel reached for Lady Bellenet, and Ru opened her mouth to warn him.

Because Taryel was the trump card, and Lady Bellenet was about to call Ru’s bluff.

Before Ru could speak, before Taryel could react, Lady Bellenet pulled him to her. It was a swift, easy movement, a practiced disarming. She had done it before, after all. She kicked him expertly behind the knee.

He hadn’t been expecting it. His leg buckled, and as he stumbled to his knees, the woman withdrew a blade from within her robes. In half a breath, the knife was at his throat, glinting in the stained glass light.

It had all happened so quickly. One minute, Taryel was there, at Ru’s side, his fingers twined with hers. And the next, a line of red was on his neck, one thick droplet forming at the tip of a blade.

Ru held the artifact as if it were an anchor in a storm.

“Refuse again,” said Lady Bellenet serenely, “and he dies. If you do not obey the will of Festra, he’ll be condemned to eternity in the underworld. You will never reunite in paradise.”

“Taryel,” Ru said, her voice wary. Had he somehow guessed this would happen? He wasn’t so naive as to put himself in danger like that. He must have known Lady Bellenet would turn on him, use him like this. Was this his plan all along, to force Ru to kill him and Lady Bellenet in some twisted moment of… what, self-discovery?

Taryel smiled sadly. “It’s all right, you know. All you have to do is let me die.”

CHAPTER 43

“I’m obviously not going to do that,” said Ru, still shaking so hard that her teeth almost chattered as she spoke. “Are you insane?”

“Probably,” said Taryel, grimacing as Lady Bellenet’s knife pressed against his throat. “But I think it needs to happen. I’m ready to go. It’s all right.”

“Silence,” Lady Bellenet hissed.

No, Ru thought, pressing the artifact against her chest. She wasn’t going to let him die. But she wouldn’t destroy the world. There had to be something.Anything. There was always a choice.

The chapel glowed brightly in the noonday sun, glimmering in colors and shapes cast down through stained glass windows. It would have been a beautiful place to die, Ru thought. And while that minuscule spark within herself, that speck of hope continued on, she knew it would only take Taryel’s death to snuff it out.

Ru held the artifact aloft, turning it this way and that in the light. She schooled her features, trying not to show her fear. “I don’t think you understand,” she said, only just masking the tremble in her voice, “that I’m the one who holds the power.”

She pulled the veil from her face, watching it flutter to the floor, landing in a little heap on the dais.

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