AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hoofbeats sounded in the distance as Danya’s contact drew closer. Another glance showed how the waning light glinted off of the approaching soldiers’ hematite armor.
Somewhere in the back of Verve’s mind, hematite-covered boots thudded over a wooden platform.
She looked back at Celidon, saw the alarm that crossed his features, and before she understood what her hands were doing, she grabbed the key at her belt and reached for the lock dangling from his chains.
“What…?” He sucked in a breath. “This is a trick.”
No, it was suicide. But perhaps in her next life, Verve might have a chance to rectify the absolute disaster she’d made of this one. A strange sense of calm enveloped her. At least she’d go down fighting those Legion bastards. That was something.
I’m sorry, Alem. I’m sorry, Ivet, Usko.
Ahmma. Apaah. Mother. Father. They’d gone to the One god long ago; perhaps the One would let her join them again.
The iron lock clicked open; the chains slithered to the ground with a clatter. Verve swallowed her fear and met the meridian’s eyes. “Sohvi and Hasina can find you now. I’ll keep Legion occupied. Go.”
As he rose on shaking legs, starlight burned within his eyes. “You know Sohvi…?”
The hoofbeats were louder; the ground started to tremble. Was it already too late? Had she bungled this choice, too? Verve shoved the meridian toward the nearest fleet. “Go!”
The sky darkened as dusk relented to nightfall, and the ground thundered. Celidon heaved himself up on the deer’s bare back. Verve reached for her crossbow, then thought better of it. She would say he’d tricked her, somehow used his powers on her to free himself. They’d believe the tale long enough for the meridian to get a head start.
Celidon finally sat upright, leaned over the fleet’s neck to urge the creature forward, then a crossbow bolt punched into his back.
Someone wailed in Verve’s voice, “No!”
The meridian gasped as he slid from the fleet’s back and crumpled to the prairie grass. The fleet bellowed in fear and darted off, but Verve ignored the creature as she dove for Celidon. An iron-tipped bolt protruded from his chest, the wound already bright crimson.
“No,” Verve cried again, pressing her hands to his chest, trying to stop the relentless surge of blood, but she may as well have tried to stop the tides.
“Vervaine.” Star-bright eyes met hers. Celidon gasped again and clutched at her bloody fingers with his own. “Help me,” he whispered. “Please.”
“I can’t,” she said. “I wish I could. But I can’t. I’m sorry.”
For all the good it did.
“No,” the meridian said. “Help me save the… space between stars.”
The Legion soldiers drew closer; the ground quaked against their weight. Verve wept openly now. He was dying and spouting nonsense, but she couldn’t fight this battle any longer, either. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just tell me.”
“Good.” He gripped her fingers tighter; his star-bright eyes dimmed. “It shouldn’t…be this way.”
An invisible hand crept up her back, sending a thrill of warning through her whole self. The world around her exploded in sound, color, sensation: Celidon’s blood, sticky and cooling on her hand; warm spring air caressing her wet cheeks; roaring thunder of the Legion soldiers, bearing down upon them.
Bitterness, grief, eager desire, relief… They warred in her heart and all around, and she could not tell where she ended and the rest of the world began. Celidon’s head sank to the ground. Verve fell backward, dizzy, overwhelmed by her senses.
The Legion soldiers closed in around her.
* * *
“What have you done?”
Verve opened her mouth, but could not find her voice through the relentless fury lashing upon her mind. Two sentinels held her upright by her biceps. Their hematite gear pressed against her back and sides, hard, unyielding, more so even than the swords pointed at her heart. The sentinels had fallen upon her and Celidon’s body with blades already drawn. And if she moved now, if she sagged into the sentinels’ grips, the blade their leader held at her throat would sink home.
But right now, death would be a relief.
“Answer me, cur!” The Legion sentinels wore helmets that concealed their faces, casting their eyes in shadows. The one shouting at Verve must have been their leader, given the commander’s insignia on her armored shoulder.
Verve could not collect her wits enough to reply. Her eyes stung with fury, but it was a fury unlike any she’d ever experienced. Her blood boiled as the emotion pummeled her harder than Danya’s most vicious blows ever had, but she knew, somehow, the rage she felt wasn’t just hers. What had the meridian done to her?
