Page 21 of Of Serpents and Ruins
"I'm only a little sore, but that wasn't really from the chasm." My voice thickened. Stroking the top of Buttercup's crest, I drew in a deep breath. "I felt like I had fallen into darkness. Then this slimy thing told me a man was going to kill me. I'm guessing she meant Brandt."
Elias stiffened. "What slimy thing?"
"I don't know. It was a woman's voice, and she mentioned a curse and how Brandt was going to come kill me when it was time, though she didn't say his name or hers. It was rather terrifying."
"You're sure about that?" Kine swung around on his parasaur, blocking my path. His brow furrowed. "What was the voice like?"
"Cold. Kind of metallic. Feminine. It was familiar, but I couldn't place it. She had orange-green eyes."
Kine's jaw clenched. "I knew she wasn't dead!"
Elias drew his hand over his mouth. The worry lines returned to his brow. "No, she's dead. We saw her die."
"Who's dead?" I looked between them.
"It's the Gola Resh," Kine said tightly. "I'm certain of it. She escaped somehow."
Elias gave a heavy sigh, his shoulders dropping. "How did she escape then? If she survived that, that changes everything. It means… No. No! She's dead. She has to be. If she isn't dead, that means we don't actually know how to kill her."
Kine shook his head, no longer listening. His loose blue curls bounced with the movement, contrasting sharply with the hardness of his eyes. "That may even be why you were trapped, Bug, and that may mean…"
My eyes widened. They'd mentioned the name before. "May mean what? Who’s the Gola Resh? What is she?"
"The Gola Resh is one of the primary beings responsible for the curse binding Brandt to kill you as well as the curse draining our continent to death." Kine's words had taken on a sharper edge. "She was supposed to be dead. But if she isn't… Tell me what happened. Every detail."
I told them both everything I could remember. It didn't seem like much.
"That sounds like the Gola Resh," Kine said at last. "Somehow she survived."
Elias prodded me once more with the flask. "You still need more," he said, his manner almost apologetic. "Especially after she trapped you. It probably made you feel even drunker than you were. You poor thing! No wonder you were so off."
I had certainly felt…off. Even now, my head swam a bit, and my pulse beat steady as a migraine. Taking the flask, I manageda couple more sips. It burned all the way down, but it cleared my thoughts even more and left me aware of an uncomfortable tension.
"We're fortunate the Gola Resh did not decide to destroy you. Or perhaps it's part of the curse," Kine murmured. He scratched his head. "She never does anything good, but she usually has some sort of reasoning for what she does. So if she didn't kill you, that means she has something else up her sleeve. But we've got time. We can figure it out. We'll find a way to destroy her."
"I still can't believe the Gola Resh is back, but it does make sense. Magic has been messed up for a while, and lately it's gotten worse. It's distorted. Not just here, but everywhere." Concern bit Elias’s features.
I frowned, mulling this over as I took another burning sip of the salty liquid.
Even as my thoughts cleared, some of the knowledge made no sense. One I couldn’t precisely explain. The yellow had been wrong, the yellow light of the charm. It was not timing out the way that it should have, and everything was off balance now, even my mood. I wanted to laugh, cry, sleep, run, and hide all at once. What I needed was information and clarity.
"And what happened after I disappeared? From your perspective?" I asked.
"We got in a great deal of royal trouble." Elias gave a tight smile, his gaze lifting to mine.
Kine cut him off. "It was understandable. As far as anyone knew, we had lost you. We didn’t bring you through, but we knew you weren’t dead. I’m sure you can imagine how that would cause a great deal of distress for everyone who loves you. There were consequences for that, but it will all be resolved. In the end, we all want the same thing."
"And what’s that?" I asked, wanting to make sure that I did in fact want the same thing. Even though I trusted Kine almost implicitly, I wasn’t just going to assume we agreed.
Kine’s smile went crooked. "To end the curses, restore our land, and all live quite happily ever after."
"Is that… Is that the queen?"
A small group of robed people stood on the lip of a low hill, looking down. How had I missed them? Had they been there this whole time? Their surprised murmurs rippled out.
The queen? I looked around with surprise, startled at the calls. Who were they talking to?
Wait. Me. Yes, that’s right. I was the queen. I was once a queen. Was I still a queen? Did I just pick that up again after being gone for years? How did that even work? There was so much to absorb. And I had been dead too. Apparently. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
