Page 95 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“And this is us doing just that, my love. We are the last castaways.” Aglaope’s brow furrows and I see a depth of sorrow in her that I’ve only seen once before, in that instant when she pushed me from the cliff. “Do you not wonder why we are the last two left, Leucosia? Even at the end, it was only us. Our other sisters had already sailed away on stolen ships or died by unworthy hands. And yet we endure. Have you not wondered why?”
“You think we’re the last because we were meant to seize this place? Because you saw it in adream?” I shake my head and take a careful step toward the space between Aglaope and the gate. Aside from my touch and my fangs, I have no weapons, she’s made sure of that.
A deep breath leaves my sister’s lungs as her gaze sweeps over my face. “Not just that, sister.”
“Thentell me, Aglaope. Tell me what I’m missing. Tell me what’s driven you to this. I love you, and I want to help you. Whatever is going on with you, this can’t be the way to fix it. Just share with me.”
A soft smile tugs at Aglaope’s lips. “Idowant to share with you. That is exactly what I intend. I will not justtellyou the past,” she says as she turns toward the gate and raises the stones clutched in her hands. “I will show it to you. And I will do what I could never do until now. I will make sure you are safe.”
Aglaope starts to chant. “Hursanu y aabba, ziana y anzu. Os naru nibiru insabatu.”
I recognize the first part of her chant from the wall that housed the Deathfate stone.Mountains and seas, valleys and skies. I call upon the convergence.
A wind rises around us. It twists in white tendrils around Aglaope like a shield, curling and coiling down her body as it streams toward the gate in a continuous swirl. A shimmering curtain of light forms from the boundary of the archway. Letters flare to life across the curve of stone.Alahalsu.
“Si kagal qabu petasa.”
I don’t know what the rest of Aglaope’s words mean. I just know it can’t be good. So I whisper a chant of my own as I rush to place myself between my sister and the gate, directly in the path of the wind.
Ninmen Eslal.
I don’t know if anyone can hear me in this ancient place.
“I can’t let you do this,” I say above the increasing roar of the wind with a slow shake of my head. My shoulder leans into the torrent as it funnels around me toward the gate. I will hold Aglaope off with my bare hands if I have to. The only thing I can hope for now is that she truly loves me and doesn’t want to hurt me. If I can just get her close enough through this wind to touch her forehead, that might be my only chance.
Thunder splits the air. Flashes of lightning creep from the edges of a growing black sphere that swirls with distant galaxies and starlit gases.
“Stop, Aglaope,” Ediye says as she steps through the sphere, her eyes consumed by the inky dark of the deepest space. Ashen walks out after her, his hair and clothes dripping, his arm braced around his abdomen, his silver sword clutched in his other hand. I can see how desperate he is to surge forward and attack, but when our eyes meet, he understands. This is something I need to do without his intervention.
Aglaope keeps chanting as she takes another step closer.
“Please, sister,” I beg. Tears blur my vision. Through them, I can see what my sister cannot, the stars of Ediye’s power stretching behind her into thin blades. “We can’t let you do this.”
Aglaope breaks her chant, the wind continuing its sheltering swirl around her, whipping her long black hair in its furor. My sister’s smile looks like heartbreak. And determination.
“I promised I would look after you, Leucosia. This is me keeping my promise.”
My eyes slide to Ediye’s as my first tear falls. I nod my head.
Ediye releases her starblades.
A dozen shards pierce my sister’s back. One juts through her shoulder, another through her abdomen. Thin channels of blood flow from the wounds.
But Aglaope doesn’t stop. She barely even seems to notice.
“Theushgada,” I whisper.
She will not die. She won’t even falter.
Ashen yells my name. When I meet his eyes, he draws his sword behind him and throws it, not to hit my sister, but for me to catch so I can defend myself. It spins end over end, and I catch it by the hilt. I hold it raised behind me, keeping my other hand lifted in Aglaope’s direction in a wordless plea for her to stop. But she doesn’t.
I call to Ediye for a second volley and she hits Aglaope with another round of blades, but my sister only resumes her chant with renewed commitment. Ediye and I exchange a fleeting, terrified glance before Ediye refocuses on Aglaope, hitting her back with black orbs of magic, some bursting across the shield of white wind, others smashing through to hit Aglaope’s back with no effect. But Ediye is undeterred. With every step closer that Aglaope takes toward me and the gate, Ediye calls upon more magic, her palms raised as her incantations thread into the wind in black filaments.
“Nigin nippur kia duranki ka mitta baansig,” Ediye yells into the wind. Two marks flare to life on Ediye’s outstretched palms, glowing with red light.
The Sun Disc of Shamash.
“Aglaope,” I plead, meeting my sister’s eyes as she takes another step toward me. I take one backward. “This is not meant for you. The fates never chose you for this. Just stop.”
