Page 102 of Knight's End
“Interfere?” Declan pointed. “Did you see that? He took down abeast!”
“Yes, I did see.” Posey didn’t sound impressed. “Now we have to spend time converting him to an undead, which will slow us down. We prefer permanent injury over death. Or complete disintegration,” Posey said dryly as she stepped all the way into our column. “Now, I’ve been assigned to prevent you all from ‘helping’ again. Move this way, please. “She pointed off to the left away from the battle and sighed.
My knights protested but when the back of Posey’s head grew teeth like Dini’s, they closed their mouths and started moving. None of us had forgotten the number of soldiers that Dini had swallowed whole.
Posey leaned over to me and smiled. “No man wants to go down in history as being killed by a flower. The men I’ve taken out who’ve become undead, they get a bit of a rash from the others. Apparently, it’s better to be taken out by a bear in the woods. Much more manly ending.”
I laughed, slightly giddy. “Yes. Well, you know, I do have a disembowelment preference list.”
She rolled her eyes and her teeth clenched like she was smiling. With her lips rotted off, it was hard to tell.
As she ushered us backward, another group of sharks circled around the flank of the undead and tried to come after us.
Pony, attack!I mentally yelled. Our little group of gargoyles leapt up—or tried to at least. But they couldn’t float in the water. Instead, they extended their wings to knock the sharks back.
They ended up surrounding our column of air and doing just that. In between wing shots, I tried to shoot jets of peace at the sharks. I didn’t have much luck. Connor ended up having to heal me, since I seemed to do more damage to my wrists than the sea creatures.
The undead army filled in the spaces around us, leaving a wide circle for us in the middle, in case Ryan needed to move our column of air to avoid anything. They set up slowly and calmly, as if they knew exactly what to do, though I suspected slowly was the only speed for the undead.
General Enderson had them build human pyramids, stacking soldiers on top of one another until they’d made a barricade of bodies around us. They launched spears from behind the barricade. Several undead hedgewitches created bright red, boiling jets of water and shot them at the sharks, who turned tail. I watched several of the mermen collapse in pain as burns blossomed on their skin.
Another group of part fae undead used their wings like fins to propel themselves through the water. The fae absorbed the magical blasts that the mermen tried to send through their tridents. The undead fae repurposed the magic in the way only fae can—creating nature. They made jellyfish appear right on top of the mermen, stinging them until they howled.
Posey sat down on the ground and began to draw in the dirt. “Ugh. This is beyond boring.”
I knelt next to her. I had rather the opposite opinion. “We’re well protected here and very unable to help, since we’re surrounded by undead. Don’t you want to join the fight?”
“Can’t. I’m not allowed to join in magical fights,” she made a horrific gargling sound in her throat. It took me a moment to realize it might be the undead, lipless version of blowing a raspberry.
"Why can’t you fight with magic?"
Posey shook her head as her hand smoothed over the scribbles she’d made on the ocean floor. “It would be too dangerous for me to use magic."
"I don't understand,” I sat next to her.
Declan joined us.
"My mother isn't human. Her race isn't even close to human. In order to access her powers, I have to give up my humanity."
I let the meaning of her words sink into me. "You have to lose your humanity." Something about that phrase reminded me of Donaloo. Something, but I wasn't quite sure what. That memory hovered just out of reach. "What's that mean, exactly?"
Posey gave me her standard flat look. "It means that I stopped caring about anyone or anything around me. I didn’t even care who I killed after I ripped out the piece of myself that makes me compassionate."
The memory smacked me across the face. Compassion. Love. Donaloo had said, "A buzzing brain is but dung and flies, the heart is where humanity lies."
My own heart pounded in my chest and my fist rose automatically to cover it. "Your heart," I said just as Posey said —
"I have to rip my heart from my chest. Then I can access my powers.”
Part of my mind was a wise old woman, sitting calmly in her chair by the fire as she processed this knowledge. The other half of me was a child who'd seen her first execution. That half of me was sick and disgusted; that part was traumatized shaking and unable to contain it. Posey would have to rip out her own heart? If that was what a half-flower sprite had to do, what would a part sea sprite have to do?
"How similar are sea sprites and flower sprites?"
Posey shook her head, her purple petals waving back and forth. "I'm not sure."
I turned to Declan. My scholar knew exactly what I was thinking.
Declan spoke slowly, thinking aloud. "If you have to take your heart outside your body to access your magic, does that mean you can live without your heart? For how long? If someone took your heart would it destroy you? Does it still function? Or is it merely an extraneous body part? Like an extra limb?"
