Page 150 of Of Serpents and Ruins
Dark forms appeared behind him, magic unveiling them. Ten…twenty…thirty…forty…sixty… Who knew how many. All in heavy black hoods, silent and waiting. Some held towering spears or spike-toothed clubs. Some wore blades at their sides while holding bows and crossbows.
Damn. That weaponry alone… Elias had to be from one of the weapon-making factions. Those blades and shafts looked like some of our finest.
Brandt’s gaze narrowed on Elias. He hadn’t even flinched. "I won’t pretend to understand why you betrayed us. If you had wanted to be king, you could have challenged me. You didn’t need to pretend to care about Stella."
Elias scoffed. He sliced across the air with his right hand. "Sepeazia would have plunged into civil war had you been killed while Stella remained absent. We did not need that. You belittled enough of our institutions. You mocked our traditions and methods of peace. You let the very emblem of our union be destroyed and thought that the talismans could replace them?"
Brandt tilted his head, eyes hooded with confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Elias cut a glare at Brandt. "My family—my kin—my blood!" He struck his fist to his chest, his teeth bared. "We are the ones who fashioned the Sword of Kairos. We are the ones who tended its fire and smithed it with runes. We are the ones who sought where the blessings might be obtained. We are the ones who conceived of the idea. In the great wars, my people died to protect it. My grandfather died for it as did others. Do you even know how many?"
Brandt scowled at him. "The sword was a symbol. And it did not protect us from the Gola Resh or the Babadon then. Why would that have changed? Symbols are not more important than people."
"They can be. Especially in times of need. You sacrificed one of our most sacred and powerful items for a woman." His gaze fell to me, his manner stiffening. His head cocked slightly as his voice cracked at the end. "An exceptional woman, I grant you, but a woman nonetheless."
My upper lip curled. Disgust rose within me. "So this was all just a long path to getting even because of a lost sword? It wouldn’t have been destroyed in the first place if it wasn’t for the Gola Resh and the Babadon?"
Elias’s expression hardened. Something flickered in those dark-blue eyes. "It was a way to reclaim the power that he cast aside. In his decision, he proclaimed you more worthy than a sword which was—"
"Pointless," Brandt said flatly. "Weapons can be reforged. Things can be recreated. People cannot." He kept his hands braced against his broad belt. "I’m not fully certain I understand your plan. You brought Stella back. Members of your faction tried to kill me multiple times and failed. Surely that wasn’t part of your plan. I’m sure it wasn’t. After all, my actual inner court isexceptional. Between Hord and Candy, half never even made it to the throne room for kuvaste. You chose the coward’s path and targeted our family’s grief, manipulating her brother."
Kine lifted his chin, his muscles so tight they were almost ready to snap. Rage burns in his golden eyes, dancing like flames. "You lied about everything."
Elias snarled. "I never lied about the importance or the sincerity of my desire to bring Stella back. You, Kine, were at least honest in your pursuit and your priorities. You, Brandt, are the true menace. You and all those who stand by you without question or thought."
Candy kissed the air at him. "Love you as well, traitor." She then spat on the stone. It hissed in response.
Hord scoffed. The darkness in his expression remained as he shifted his weight, his hands tensed at his sides.
Kine’s gaze hardened. "You lied about enough. And for what?"
Elias glanced at the Gola Resh.
She wasn’t even looking in his direction. She remained fixated on Brandt and me. Alarmingly so. Hatred simmered in those eyes. The coils of smoke and wisps that pulled about her intensified. What was she waiting for? It was as if she were weighing us.
"My bargain with the Gola Resh for my faction required providing the right kind of vengeance to the Gola Resh. Other factions have been moving, you know. Mine wasn’t the only one trying to find a solution. Even if you were to find a way out of this, how will you mend Sepeazia, Brandt?" He spoke my beloved’s name like a curse. "Do you even understand how broken we are? How much division there exists within the cities and towns? You thought you could protect the people by hiding the fact that the curse had resumed and the queen had truly returned, but—"
"This is boring me," the Gola Resh announced, lifting her hand. "Your petty squabbles mean nothing. Let’s just make this simple, shall we? Not everything was a lie." She chuckled darkly. "And sometimes lies become truths, don’t they, Elias?"
Elias’s mouth twisted. His muscles tensed.
"And that makes all this so much more delicious," the Gola Resh continued. Her burning eyes narrowed as she held up one long-clawed finger. "I’ll give you what you want. Brandt or Stella, I don’t care which, one of you will push or cast the other into the lava below. Do it in the next five minutes, and I will consider freeing half the people of Sepeazia from the curse."
STELLA
Silence spread across the cavern, broken only by the hissing splats of bursting bubbles in the lava below.
Brandt’s jaw clenched so tight it looked like it might snap.
Elias’s brow furrowed as his attention returned to the Gola Resh. "That was not part of the arrangement."
The Gola Resh scoffed as she at last dropped her gaze back to him. "The arrangement is what I say it is." With a roll of her eyes, she returned her focus to us. She drifted back toward the table with the weapons on it as if daring us to attempt to seize them. "All Brandt has to do is throw Stella into this pit and watch her die." She gestured toward the river of lava twenty feet below. "Or she can do the honors."
My heart clenched. Emotion clogged my throat. Memories of the dagger and my death at the sacred pool flashed back into my mind. If I had to die again, I would. But—it wasn’t just going to be me, was it? Was Brandt going to cast himself in as well?
"There is no reason we should believe you," Brandt said slowly. The muscles in his sweat-sheened arms jumped. "And you only say you are willing to consider. Not guarantee."
Kine swore under his breath as Candy muttered something about not trusting the Gola Resh as far as she could float.
