Page 100 of Angel in Absentia
Ryson grimaced. She knew that look.
“Let me guess,” she said. “That alliance wasn’t a trick at all and was a rather well-intentioned effort on your part, which ultimately ushered in the fall of Salanes.”
“It was perhaps the culmination of my vice, perhaps at its worst. I did defeat the Virads,” he said, “but I wanted to use them to negotiate. It was never my intention that the Ashanas consume them and become what they are today. After that disaster and the ensuing battle with Oliver, I descended into slumber. But then there was you, this fragile thread of life, and no matter how I pulled, it would not break. I was able to drag myself out of the darkness on that thread, and each time, I both feared and craved that you would collapse into me, become like me. Part of mewanted that very much, and still does, but there was a part of me, the heart, that still yearned to accomplish what we had set out to do all those years ago. But I knew that if your desires were too strong, in facing this darkness, you too would succumb to it. In such a way, I protected you from it, and always would have.”
“But I chose to resist instead.”
“In the wake of it all, yes,” Ryson replied, “and because of that, I must surrender you up to this final battle, should you choose to accept it. But I cannot guarantee it is not an illusion too. I want it badly, and always have, which very well means it’s not possible.”
“Yes,” she said without pause.
He chuckled, looking away, and then his smile faded. “I thought as much. And I have so desperately dreaded and longed for this moment. You will be in harm’s way in a form in which I cannot protect you, and yet, your willingness inspires my own, and I perhaps can redeem myself from the defeat that has haunted my conscience since it happened.”
He looked at her calmly. “You will want to rest, as we are limited in time.” He approached her, hands grazing her face, tracing along the eye marked even more with silver. “If we do this, we must do it soon. Dress for a battle, but not with armor.”
“No armor?” she asked, searching his eyes.
“I’m afraid the monster we face is beyond physical weakness. You will strike at the soul. Sharpen that,” he whispered. He leaned forward, and she closed her eyes as he kissed her forehead. Her heart began to drum in anticipation.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
Holding her close, he murmured into her ear, “The city of Salanes.” He inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it. “Where we’ve kept it all this time.”
Chapter 31
City of the Soul
HE OTHERS GATHERED to watch them go. Ryson had explained the plan in detail, but still, there was little more certainty in it than there had been before.
Dae had reluctantly shown himself. Stubborn in every way, though he consented to bid Clea farewell on the chance that Ryson’s tale was true. Iris, in her understanding of the histories, confirmed both the truth of the venture and the risks of it that lay ahead.
The rift was opened on the top floor of the castle, and Clea and Ryson looked back at their audience after providing final farewells. She then looked out at her city, seeing the flags of Virday, Ruedom, and Loda risen on the city walls, seeing the Kalex settlements beyond, knowing that even then the Insednians rested in the woods with the beasts, and the fabric of her world, though imperfectly stitched, was stitched together.
They had discussed the plan and discussed contingencies in case it failed. Dae had consented to take the throne in her stead and be her steward in her absence. Clea looked at everyone a final time, looked at Ryson, and slid her hand into his before they stepped through the rift.
The world on the other side was not so different, though ancient in all ways. The buildings vast, and Clea held her breath as they settled atop one. Ryson stood silently beside her as she beheld the world so rich in the tapestry of the woods. This place, thiscity, had once been grand, full of magnificent towers, villas and statues, all now broken down and covered with forestry.
“It’s larger than Ruedom,” she breathed as she took in the layers of partial walls, not fully closed in, never fully built. This city had been a city without walls, spreading long and vast across the world, in areas of the Wraithlands forgotten perhaps even by the beasts, and yet something seemed to lurk here.
Clea glanced over as Prince’s mask materialized. He was silent with a kind of reverence. Ryson, too, was completely without words as they looked across this vast world. She remembered that Salanes had once been his home.
She watched his face and wanted to ask questions, but this didn’t seem like the time for curiosities, and so as they made their way through the city ruins, she filled her eyes with every sight, every empty house overgrown with greenery, every overturned wagon, vast cobblestone street, and spiraling tower. There were walls of creeping vines, ancient plazas sunken into pits of darkness, statues half-eaten by moss and clawed by unseen hands.
And yet the city breathed. The shadows moved. Eyes gleamed from windows long abandoned. Beasts stirred in the ruins—twisted things of horn, feather, bone, and darkness—but none attacked, stayed by Ryson’s presence.
They made their way to the city center, and Clea recognized this as a ceremony of sorts, realizing that if Ryson had wanted to bring them closer at the start, he could have. In all reality, he likely knew these trees and had wanted to walk among them again.
They arrived at what seemed to have once been the city center, now all wreckage. The beasts watched in eerie silence as Clea and Ryson passed by.
It was as if the entire city, the beasts, the stones themselves, knew why they had come. And who they were.
Clea shivered under the weight of those unseen gazes.
At the heart of Salanes, they found a door. Massive. Carved from black stone veined with gold. Half-swallowed by vines, half-buried by time.
“Death waits behind golden doors,” she chuckled breathily at the sight.
“We can turn back,” he said, looking down at her before his eyes glanced at Prince’s mask hovering at a distance beyond them both.
