Page 143 of Of Serpents and Ruins
Oh.
A shudder tore through me as my grip on the railing tightened.
Cold memories clawed at my mind. That wall was sheer, made of a seamless purple-grey stone. Large black marks, similar to the ones I’d seen throughout Sepeazia, clawed over the wall’s surface. These were far deeper and more jagged, but there were no spiderwebbed cracks or fissures to suggest it was near breaking.
"Taivren?" I whispered, my heart hammering.
He nodded. His fingers curled against my shoulder as he pulled me in tighter. "If not for you and the other seers, it would have been a bloodbath. The whole city was lost. The sages and arcanists barely erected the walls in time to prevent the toxins from entering the rest of the sea."
Maybe it was good that I couldn’t remember. But his arms—oh…
"You saved my life there," I whispered. "There was a…sword. Everything was cold. It was…it was so cold." I brought my hands up against my torso, shivering. My body tightened as I remembered the slick, sucking sensation of dark energy andtoxic tendrils wrapping around me. A current rushed up around me, too strong for me, but how had I been there? Fragments surfaced in my mind.
He stroked my cheek with the back of his thumb, leaning against me so that I was pinned between him and the railing. His weight comforted me. His heat reminded me those were only memories.
"Cahji," I whispered.
Images of a silver-eyed boy flashed into my mind. Panicked cries. I saw myself struggling in ever-surging waters. And there was Hord. Yes. I recognized him in the memory though his expression was near wild with grief, his eyes blazing and his arms outstretched. Tears pricked my eyes at once. There was a weight on my chest. I choked.
"Hmm?" Brandt tilted his head, then nodded. His chin scraped against my temple, bringing me back from the cold of the memory. "Yes, Cahji was there in the capital." His brow furrowed though his gaze remained soft. "Do you remember?"
"Not fully."
He grunted, hugging me close. "We were trying to get everyone out." His throat bobbed. "The Babadon and the Gola Resh had already stolen a fair bit of our magic. We’d been trying to stop them. They sent the hourglass as a warning, counting down our doom. The inner bulb held a representation of the city of Taivren. They both appeared to us and told us that because of our resistance, Taivren would be taken first. And if we did not sacrifice Taivren with all its bounty, they would take fifty of our children at random to drown in Taivren as it fell into the depths."
They truly were monstrous. I nestled tighter against him, my cheek firmly against his chest.
"You seers predicted nothing could be done to save the city. None of our allies could do anything to stop the corrosion thatthe Gola Resh and the Babadon had set upon the heartstones of Taivren. After all, the very foundation of Taivren was created through magic. Our people formed it when the peace accord was reached between Kropelki and Ognisko, and we became Sepeazia. It was directly between both continents, intended to join us and symbolize our united strength. The deep gouges in the earth and stone had spread throughout the entirety of the city. And it was clear they were going to take it." He pressed his forehead to the back of my head.
His breath stirred my hair. "Some on the council wanted a quiet evacuation of the important members of the city. Enough that it wouldn’t draw the attention of the Gola Resh and the Babadon. All a select few of us had to do was not be there. But I refused to leave some of our people to die while I slipped away. Tensions were high that day. And you sprang to my side. You raged like blue fire. You said that even if foresight and visions did not confirm that we would be successful, it did not change what was right. And what was right was to evacuate the city and protect the children." He managed a low laugh. "Dromar asked you if you would stand by your words and stand guard in the city—if you would be willing to die to keep the children from being dragged down with Taivren. You told him you would, and you invited him to stand next to you."
I smiled slightly. The old Stella really had been ferocious. I could imagine the scene. Fragments of it stirred, like the remnants of taste from a day-old meal.
"So, we masked our efforts. None of the magical items were removed from the city until the end. And in those final hours, once we were certain the children were safe and far away, we moved in. Whether we actually surprised the Gola Resh and the Babadon or whether they let us think we had gotten away with it…I don’t know." He shuddered. "Our friends from the other nations came to assist including the elves on their wingedjaguars and the fae with their gift of flight. Arjax and Lorna along with a few others too. They brought hot air balloons and gliders so that if the city started to collapse, they could help snatch us out of the waters. Most of the city had been emptied. All but a few. And—" He set his jaw. "We were just preparing to leave when suddenly we heard children screaming and crying in the city."
I stiffened. Those cries echoed in my mind. My skin prickled.
"The Gola Resh and the Babadon used blood portals to throw the children back into the city. Fifty of them. Which means they also murdered fifty people to create the portals and transport them." His fist knotted on the railing. He fell silent, his jaw working. "What followed was madness. Almost everyone scrambled to reach the children. Some of us were in places where we didn’t know what was happening. So for this, I had to rely on what others told me. Including you." He stroked the column of my throat. "Most of the children were snatched up within seconds even as the city fell and the sea surged, which was good. Because it wasn’t just sea water. The Gola Resh and the Babadon had cursed the waters as well, creating these toxic tendrils and vortexes that devoured like acid. Cahji though—he got stuck. He was looking for his mama. She barely heard him in time, and she tried to save him. But then she got pinned. And she passed him off to you."
I covered my mouth. Tears wet my eyes as a knot formed in my throat. Those memories I pushed back.
Or tried to.
They pushed up harder. That desperate look in her honey-brown eyes. The sternness in her voice as she screamed for me to get Cahji out. Knowing I couldn’t help her. I bowed my head. I could practically feel Cahji’s weight in my arms. Felt the gripping tear of the water around me as the filthy waves churned up and the toxic tendrils started to form in a vortex. Phantompain coiled around my ankle, up my thigh, up my stomach, and around my lungs. I glanced down at it. There was nothing wrong. It just…felt real. Like the dream of the grotto.
Brandt kept speaking, his voice soft and even but heavy with sadness. "Truly, I don’t know how you did it. You were on the top level of the library, but you still had to get out through the window with everything sinking and falling apart and turning toxic. All with a child who was terrified and struggling. Neither Hord nor I knew what was happening. We were with a few others retrieving some of the sacred and enchanted items, including the Sword of Kairos. We had to fight our way through the chaos and wreckage and sinking mass as well, and when we emerged—first thing I heard distinctly was Cahji screaming. You were trying to get him up onto one of the walkways to our allies, but everything kept slipping.
"Soon as he heard it though, Hord was gone. He was up on that crumbling stone and shooting out toward you. He tore himself up bad, but I’ve never seen him move that fast in his life. As he was getting there, you got yourself and Cahji onto a beam. Then it started to crack too. You had a choice to make. Stay there with Cahji and hope Hord got there in time. Or push Cahji forward even though it was going to crack off part of the beam and knock you right into that vortex. And you—you barely hesitated at all. You shoved that kid right at his dad hard enough Hord could catch him, and then you fell back into those waters." He dipped his head, pressing his forehead against the back of my neck.
I’d been afraid. That was why I’d hesitated. The cold sensation plucked at me, tight in my chest. "I didn’t think anyone was coming for me," I whispered.
"That was when I knew I loved you," he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. "I had that sword—the Sword of Kairos. And I dropped it to go after you."
I twisted my head enough to peer up at him. "You chose me…" Those fragments of memory said the Sword of Kairos was precious. "That sword…it wasn’t just a token with a minor enchantment. It was important to our people."
He nodded, his expression almost stern as if he dared me to tell him he had chosen wrong. Those ruby-red eyes glittered fiercely. "One of our most sacred items. One of our greatest treasures." And later when deciding what to do with the heart of the Babadon and its magical properties, we had decided to use it to form other items, including the Goblet. A symbol of our unification. That had not gone over well with most of the factions.
"You paid for it, didn’t you?" I searched his expression, trying to piece together the memories.
