"I mean...he's an imbecile, but he's notthismorally corrupt, right? He wouldn't be planning to take a stone? He'd kill all hisownpeople. Maybe he came in here to take one and then came to his senses?"
"Maybe." At my age, you don't rule anything out. I've seen too much. "Stay still, Rennalya," I order, stepping off the carpet.
I crouch down on the gold tiles at the edge of the pool, looking at my Fire Stone closely. It is glowing orange-red and perfectly spherical. Slowly, with steady hands, I slide two fingers into the water, hovering them beneath the stone. I give it the most gentle of taps. It doesn’t move.
The Sea Stone behaves the same. "I'm testing the weight of them. They're heavy," I reply, when Renna asks me what I am doing. Each stone, though no bigger than an apple, weighs several pounds. I slide two steady fingers beneath the grey River Stone, giving it a tiny tap. It bobs in the water. "Fuck!" I bellow, yanking it out of the water.
Siddie. It's my first thought, and it's a sickening one.
Renna shrieks, lurching forward and trying to snatch it off me. "Rexxan, what the fuck are you doing? Put it back, you idiot!”
"It's a fake fucking stone!" I’m already running out the door. My boots pummel the hallway as I sprint through door after door with Renna in tow. The door to the outdoors looms nearer, and fuck am I tempted to just stop. The second I step out there, it all becomes real, the lives of the world teetering precariously on my tired shoulders. But I don’t stop. I can’t stop, and the cold air of the misty, moonlit plains outside the Vault greets me.
"Find Kelen!" I shout at Ellatar and Frian who are just arriving. They jump into action with the other guards.
Fuck, Siddie. He has to be okay. He has to be safe.
Onyx appears, arriving behind the guards. The bastard iseverywhere,I tell you. "I saw Renna out here. I was worried. Can I help?"
"The River King and Queen left here twenty to thirty minutes ago. Find them. Frian, Onyx, you two lead the effort. You can stay here,” I tell the Vault guards. The entrance is elevated enough that it will not flood. I’m already on my horse as I lean down and take Renna's delicate face in my hands, running my thumb over her cheek. I feel her calm down a little at my touch. "Rennalya, I need you to do some things for me."
"Anything," she whispers, calm and composed. Pride swells in my chest.
"The war…the army. It was all a distraction, and we fucking fell for it. The library where we ate strawberries and apple pie the first time. You remember it?"
She nods. "Always."
"Go back up there, break open the wooden door to the turret. The one with the handle shaped like a dragon. Climb up the ladder. There are five giant bells. One of them has a grey rope. Ring it as hard as you can to tell the people the rivers are flooding. Yes?"
She nods, pulling away and getting on her horse.
"What colour rope, Rennalya?"
"Grey," she whispers, her eyes on mine. I nod.
"It's important that you ring that one. My people have different evacuation plans for each stone. If you ring the red one they'll stay in their homes. That's not what we need."
"Grey rope. Grey rope. I've got this."
"And I need you to tell the guards to open all the schools and the Healing Halls up to people whose homes are in the areas that will flood. Tell the guards to initiate Plan Five. Then I need you to enact a manhunt for Kelen and Lana. Use your hunters too. Send your whole army out. Keep out of the Elenion Ravine. It'll flood first."
She nods again, and for a split second the chaos around us slows down as my eyes remain fixed on hers, and I know in this awful moment that there is no one else I'd rather have by my side during this. I’ll walk through fire to see this stone returned if I must, for Renna if not for anyone else.
She has given me her heart and there is no pain I wouldn’t bear to see that it remains intact, to see that she remains safe. She gives me a little salute, unfazed, and turns on her horse to leave. "Wait, Renna."
I love you.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, but they don't materialise. "Your people aren't safe where they're camped now. Move them inwards, at least as far as the training ground." She nods in response and thunders off into the woods.
Siddie.
I scrub my face in my hands, trying to think of anything but Siddie. I have to lead my people through this. I have to think about something else. Suddenly, my mind is filled with a to-do list about a hundred things long. I've planned for this, prepared for this. I'm ready.
I shift into action, riding through the forest to the Northern Kingdom Gate where I send fifty soldiers and five guards into the forest to start searching. I ride to the Western Gate and do the same thing, warning anyone I see on my route to head towards the centre of the Kingdom. An hour after I'd seen Renna, deafening and eerily chilling bells ring out across the kingdom. She's quick. She never lets me down. Each ring is a series of five. Five means rivers flooding. People begin to panic, coming out of their houses in their nightwear.
Siddie. Fuck!
I order the stockpiling of food to begin, opening the cellars of my palace to be filled with grains and fruit. Then I send fifty scouts and one hundred of my own hunters out to join the search for Kelen. I then have people start bringing boats to the centre of the kingdom, methodically working through my to-do list.
