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She shook her head. “I remember sitting in the dirt out there and holding him. I put my hand over his stomach. Some of his right lung was exposed and bubbling. I remember that my healing gifts weren’t strong enough to do much good but I did what I could until Horace got there.”
Thorne shook his head. “You kept repeating that stupid Spanish phrase you’d had him teach you about the goat f**king the pig until midnight. You kept repeating it every time you felt his spirit fade, and I’d say that was a good hour. Every time you said it, something in Santiago’s spirit lit up. You kept saying, ‘Don’t leave us, Warrior.’ You kissed him on the side of his head several times.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. You kissed him. You kept him going while Horace healed him. And the whole time, though he couldn’t see you, tears streamed down your face. And the whole time, you kept sending to me, I hate this f**king war. But you never said it to him, just that stupid phrase in Spanish. He would have died without you there, keeping his spark alive until Horace could get the job done.
“Endelle, I have a thousand stories just like that one. The latest? When Fiona was doing her recitation in front of Rith’s cage and you knelt beside her for two hours while she spoke the name of every blood slave who had died in Burma. You are that person. And I would die for that person.”
“You would die for me?” Shit, her voice sounded small.
“Of course I would.”
“Aw, holy hell.”
She wasn’t certain where the impulse came from, but she didn’t care. She stepped into him and slung her arms around his neck. He was a big man and though she was tall, when his arms folded around her, it was like she almost disappeared.
She heard earthmoving equipment in her chest and felt big dump trucks backing up, with those stupid alarm-beeps sounding as they unloaded all that earth back into the pit of her heart.
I couldn’t bear it, Thorne, if you hated me.
He rubbed her back. I could never hate you. I’ve wanted to kill you on occasion, but I could never hate you. You shouldn’t have been abandoned to fight this bloody war alone. I’ve never understood what the Upper Dimensions were thinking. This was never fair to you.
She drew back and nodded. Like hell she was going to shed a tear, not in front of the Supreme High Commander of the Allied Ascender Fucking Forces. “All right, fine. So we’re agreed, we don’t hate each other. What now? How the hell is this supposed to work?”
“What exactly did you think was going to change?”
“Well, you’re taking over, aren’t you?”
His brows lifted. “No. I’m putting together an army, which we’ve needed for a goddamn long time, to face Greaves when the time comes.”
“It sounded … no, it felt like more to me. A helluva lot more.” She frowned and a light seemed to surround Thorne, the one she’d seen before. She knew this was much more than just the directive to create an army.
“Well,” Thorne said, “maybe it is, but right now it doesn’t matter, does it? We all know where this whole thing is headed and we have to prepare. Jean-Pierre’s in deep with the Militia Warriors now. Shit, he’s almost got both Gideon and Duncan up to Warrior of the Blood speed, plus half a dozen more.”
“We have a long way to go.”
“Yes, we do, but I’m hopeful, Endelle. I know what needs to be done and I’m going to do it.”
She met his gaze and nodded.
So be it.
But there was one thing she wanted to say to him. “I like your woman, by the way. She has great spirit. I’m thinking of giving her the rank of Supreme High Seer of Second Earth. That she decided to take on COPASS tells me she has some balls.”
He chuckled. “That she does.”
“Much good it will do, I mean taking her complaints to COPASS.”
Thorne sighed. “She understands the point of bringing the issues before the committee. She knows it’s just the beginning of a very long road, since Seers have never had rights before.”
“Is there any chance she, or the other Seers out of the Superstition Fortress, will be willing to offer their services to me?”
“She needs light hands, Endelle. They all do after what they’ve been through. But yeah, I think it’s a real possibility, especially if you let Marguerite design a proper working model for the environment Seers really need in order to do what they do best.”
She nodded. “Well, as Supreme High Seer I think she could write the handbook. It might be a good place to begin.”
“Marguerite would eat that up.”
“Well, good. We’ll do that then.”
She saw movement in the garden. Two kids, about ten, had stripped off their shirts and were mounting their wings. They’d just launched into some low-level flying, starting a chase, when a voice came over the loudspeaker, “No mounting of wings in the garden. Cease at once, or you’ll be taken to the security office.”
But the boys were apparently really game. They turned and headed in the direction of Endelle and Thorne.
“Let’s get ’em,” Endelle said.
Thorne laughed. And it was a good sound.
The boys were smiling, their eyes wild with excitement.
Just as they breached the first row of protective railings, one of a series of three and just twenty feet away, Endelle dropped her mist.
By that time the boys were at full speed and rocketed right into them. Thorne caught his prey easily by the hand and, with a whirling motion to keep from damaging the wings, swung him in a circle going slower and slower until he could set the boy on his feet.
Endelle did the same.
“Warrior Thorne,” the shorter of the two cried. He didn’t seem in the least afraid but stared up at Thorne wide-eyed, mouth agape.
“Yep, that’s me. What the hell were the two of you thinking?”
The other kid pushed away from Endelle but not to escape. He was clearly determined to join his buddy and engage in a some much-deserved hero-worship. Both boys looked at each other and with incredible speed retracted their wings.
“We want to be Warriors of the Blood,” the taller boy all but shouted.
“Really?” Thorne shifted his gaze to Endelle and winked. “Well, then the first thing you’ll need to learn is to be very respectful of authority.”
They both almost fell over themselves apologizing to him. “I wasn’t referring to myself,” he said. He jerked his head in Endelle’s direction. “I believe you owe an apology to the Supreme High Administrator, Madame Endelle.”
