Page 22 of The Night Prince 3
The Night King tilted his head to the side. Just like Rhalyf had said there were no Blood Tattoos on his face, but they went up to his chin like a tight-fitting collar. There were so many lines that it was dizzying. There were patches of pale flesh here and there, but they were rare. Finley realized that there were layers of Blood Tattoos. Weapon upon weapon upon weapon upon armor upon armor and more must have been printed upon the Night King’s skin.
Wow. So much power. So much… pain, Finley amended for he knew that every Blood Weapon came from an incident that must have seared Vex’s soul.
Over such a long life, of course, there would be many great losses, but still. There were so many Blood Tattoos. Too many. Cruelly many. Finley felt a wave of empathy fill him for Vex. Everything bad that had ever happened to him–and clearly more than his fair share had–was inked onto his body for all to see.
Was leaving Declan on Earth the cause of one of those?
“I’ve read about you. Everything I could find. Most of it was nonsense and superstition, but some of it seemed reliable. I’ve questioned every person who might know anything about you and your people. Basically, I’ve sought out every single thing I could find out about you and… you’re here.” Finley gestured to the elegantly–if lightly–dressed Night King. “And you saved me.”
Vex lifted an elegant eyebrow. Still amused. “Did I?”
“The Leviathan.” Finley pointed towards the fang that lay on the dark stone ground. It seemed so ridiculous that these terrible beings could be reduced to a single half-moon of bone. “You opened the rift and killed it just in time. A second more and I would have been dead.”
“Oh, yes, that.” Vex pursed his lips as if he had forgotten. As if it had been nothing.
And it probably had been. Vex had killed the Leviathan as easy as breathing. It was hardly a foe worth remembering even though, for Finley, it would have meant the end of his very short life if Vex had delayed even a second.
“It couldn’t have been a coincidence that you saved me. I mean I suppose it could. Everything is possible in some mathematically slim equation, but I was going to die!” Finley’s voice rose and cracked at the end of that statement. “There was nothing I could do. I was helpless.”
Vex’s red eyes were fixed upon him, studying him. Finley could almost feel the incisive mind behind them. So old. So intelligent. The wisdom of millennia. The other elves he met seemed like children in comparison.
“How did that feel?” Vex asked.
But maybe not imaginative?
Finley let out an uncertain, angry laugh. “Being helpless? Almost dying? Not good.”
“Are you certain?” Vex asked.
Finley opened his mouth to say, “Of course, I’m certain!” But he stopped himself. He doubted–no, he was absolutely certain–that the Night King said nothing lightly. Everything he spoke had meaning, perhaps multiple meanings that would have to be parsed out later.
“Was it only not good? Or was it edifying? Perhaps even clarifying?” Vex’s elegant pale eyebrow rose. Finley could see Declan’s feature in that beautiful face. Delicate yet masculine. Finely drawn yet lush. Vex continued, “In my life, those moments of failure–of utter despair–led me to greater heights than I ever would have dreamed of before them. So what about you?”
To be compared to the Night King was heady stuff indeed! Finley knew he would hug that comment to his chest when doubt and despair filled him. Vex compared them! Even if it was a single spark to the Sun.
Finley blinked slowly as he let Vex’s question settle in his brain. He looked down at his hands, which were empty of weapons. He remembered wishing a fireball could form in the palm of his right one. But no. There was no crackling of fire. No glitter of plasma. No snap of electricity. And no matter what he put in that hand from sword to bow to gun it wouldn’t have mattered. He would be just as helpless as if he held nothing at all. In this brave new world to be without magic was to be as good as dead. So it had been edifying. Even more so than the original war had been.
Declan won’t always be there to save me. In fact, he wasn’t tonight. What if I’m the only one around and it was Gemma in danger? Or Michael or Shonda? Being killed myself is bad enough, but to stand there while they are hurt or killed? No.
NO.
“I don’t want this. I can’t… can’t bear this.” The words were ripped out of him. Finley swore he tasted blood on his tongue and felt the hot gush of it flowing down his throat. He clenched his hands into fists, digging his fingernails into the soft flesh. “Being so weak and helpless. Being kept from magic. Knowing it's there and forever out of reach? I can’t… no, I just can’t!”
“Good. Now you understand your goal,” Vex nodded. “The next thing is to figure out what you’re willing to do to achieve it.”
“Anything! I–”
But Vex was walking away. Finley opened his mouth then looked all around him. Should he follow? The others would worry about him. He was already certain that Rhalyf was losing his mind while Declan would be stoic and silent, but bleeding inside as he looked for Finley’s mangled corpse. But the rift was gone. So there was no going back to Earth until and unless Vex created another one. And even if Vex wasn’t the most fascinating person to him in existence, he didn’t want to stay alone in the Under Dark. If the Pedway and the L station had been dangerous, the Under Dark would put those to shame. So he hustled after Vex’s elegant form.
I know everyone will be worried about me when they realize I’m gone. But if they see my body isn’t there then they’ll realize I escaped through a rift. But then he frowned. There was an alternative scenario that they might consider as well. Or they’ll think that a Leviathan carried me back to a nest just like Declan’s father… adopted father. His real one may be walking beside me.
He and Vex were now walking side-by-side down a smooth black, stone road that wound in graceful curves towards the entrance of Illithor. The road was wide enough that a hundred people could have stood shoulder to shoulder from one side of it to the other and have room to do jumping jacks.
How many people came and went from Illithor on a daily basis? It’s huge! It must have been a hub of incredible industry and productivity. People from all over must have come here to work and go to school. To make their way to the top. In Illithor, there were legends to be made!
“The Under Dark is like the hollow Earth!” Finley remarked, but then realizing that Vex likely had no idea what that theory was, he stumbled on, “The idea is that the surface is just a thin coating for a whole world underground. That there are layer after layer of incredible civilizations living beneath our feet.”
“And the farther down you go, the more mysteries there are,” Vex agreed.
