Page 248 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

With a weeping heart and raging fury, I bolted to Taren.

I’d make my father a sacrifice to my lands. I’d part his flesh layer by layer of muscle and spread him all over my land, for worms and crows to feed. I’d let him rot right in the lands he murdered. I’d let his soul tarnish and dust while he watches my lands thrive.

The meeting room was empty besides a few. Tristin and Mal stood above the terrified Isjordian soldier knelt on the ground.

“They will never confess,” Cai said, dabbing a cloth to the gush on his head. There was hopelessness in those emerald eyes that had never faltered with nothing but hope. And it made me rage more.

Mal extended an arm, stopping me before I got to the soldier. “I will get him to speak.”

I knew both Castemont brothers well, if there was one thing they hated, was tampering with life through their magic. It taxed them. It taxed their souls. It was the bargain that came with their power. “No, Mal. I can get pretty convincing myself.” Nothing really taxed my soul as much as it taxed my annoyance threshold.

The soldier writhed, pushing himself back till the wall stopped him. “Don’t hurt me, p-please, please.”

Bending down to his face, I said, “Fairly easy. Tell me where were you headed?”

He shook his head and sealed his lips tight.

“No?” Resting a palm on his chest, I let a trickle of electricity curse out and he spasmed, dropping to the floor. Fisting his hair, I dragged his bleeding body along the corridors of the castle, all the way down to my dungeons. I had no patience to be civil today.

Mal chased after me, looking around my dungeons astounded. “I like the decor. It has personality. What paint is that? It’s given the wall a nice texture.”

“Blood.”

“Cynth,” he murmured, closely taking my side.

Stopping before one of my favourite cages, I gripped the soldier's face and showed him a piece of my work. The thin form hung upright by two chains, the portrait of suffering. A man who’d been so terrified of pain he’d cut a little girl’s hands. The man I’d had the pleasure of showing that same pain he thought he bargained my friend’s hands for—I’d done that for almost ten long years, and it still didn’t feel enough.

“See that?” I taunted, shoving his face between two metallic bars. “I show him death once a week and then I bring him back to life the next. And then I do it again and again and again. He is getting old, would you like to be my next toy?”

The Isjordian shivered and when the half dead man made the chains rattle, he shot upright, startled. “Alright,” he cried. “Alright.”

That was easy. “Let me ask again. Where were you headed?”

He shook and his words were muddled. “The sacred gates, Valda…Valda Acme. The ancient gates to Caelum. The one that is said to be up in the Volants. The one from the sacred books.”

Mal gave me a thumbs up, but I was left blinking to myself for a couple of moments. That had never happened before. Were Isjordians losing their blessing? “In Valda? You’re telling me what you’re looking for is in Valda?”

He nodded. “We were told the guardian of the gates was tasked with its protection. The one living in between worlds.”

Well that was just silly. “That can’t—” Then it clicked. The Esmeray diaries to the heavens. It wasn’t the Seraphim gates—it was the Olympian ones. The sceptre had been right under our nose all this time. Damn it. “Not only did you think you could open the gates, but challenge a heavenly guardian for the sceptre, too?”

He blinked rapidly, avoiding my stare. “We have the artillery.”

I snorted. “You mean the beast?”

He nodded.

Leaning down to his face I said, “Has mirk root fried your brains that bad? I killed the thing.”

He gaped, eyes shooting wide open. “How…how do you know about that?”

“I’ve got the artillery. Actually, I own the artillery. Now answer me.”

“It is not dead—the beast is not dead. It is not capable of dying…so I’ve heard.”

Hells. I should have known. “And what is it capable of?”

“It killed an Aitan sphinx, broke through the Ryuu caves filled with serpents, and almost got through the veil in Isjord. Almost.”