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“I’m king, it was my responsibility.” I hesitated—if I could not tell the truth here, when could I?“She was killing your sister. I love her.”
Lumi pursed her twisted lip and stared at me as if she, like Tempest, could read my feelings. Silence stretched between us.
The dead drifted away with Ealhswip’s mangled body, until we stood alone in the Gate’s soft green sheen.
Lumi turned toward it and nodded as if to herself.
“A little life still remains in you—enough to send you back without breaking the Gate again if the Goddess approves. Once, this was how the divine rulers of Tal earned her blessing. Ealhswip knew what she was doing when she broke it. Though not being a deathkeeper, you’ll need a little help.” She smiled and true amusement danced in her eyes. “I only wanted to change my city for the better. It seems through you, I’ll succeed after all.”
“Don’t destroy it again for me. I knew what I was doing.”
She scoffed at my accepting tone. “A curse from the dead can be a blessing for the living, and I never used mine in life. A curse also holds part of our magic, perhaps enough for the Gate to let you pass. When you are ready, visit Popova in Lowtown and say I sent you. You might discover you’re not the only one returned from the brink of death.”
She placed both hands on my chest and pushed.
Though she should not have been able to move me, I dropped into the emerald mist, her voice ringing in my ears as I fell and fell between worlds.
“May he find no more happiness than the woman he loves.”
“May sleep not find him unless he brings the poorest up each day.”
“May he, for my sister, LIVE.”
Her words wrapped around me, squeezing and shaping. Three death curses turned blessings by forgiveness.
Somewhere, the Wishmaker and Death Goddess nodded their approvals, and a too-cold body welcomed my Spirit back.
Chapter thirty-three
Vanya
The first thing I felt was the itching—like ants running over my organs—of magical healing.
The previously roaring pain in my collapsed chest was manageable. My fingers twitched at the end of mended bones and a hand pressed mine in return.
My vision focused and the bright surroundings turned into a bare, white room. Sunlight streamed in through the open window as a breeze swayed the curtains. They seemed alive, telling tales of their own in a dance I could not understand. The world wanted to tell me everything. Stone by immensely heavy stone, I rebuilt my mental wall. Magic overuse still painted a kaleidoscope across my vision when I turned.
Mariska sat next to me, holding my hands in hers. One of the men Koshka had led into the crypt lay dozing in a chair, hair tousled and clothes wrinkled like he had not changed in days.
“Where am I?” I asked, though it mostly came out as a groan.
Mariska brought a cup to my mouth. One sip of the bitter brew, and I choked.
“Drink up. We think we’ve found a cure and there is no knowing what you were exposed to.”
Swallowing with a grimace, I tried speaking again. “What happened?”
“Dimi went missing before the wedding, and I couldn’t get to him to tell him our plans. Then the warning bells rang, and I was locked in the hall. The fighting had mostly blown over when the doors opened, and they called for healers to come to the Tower.” She bit her lip as if waiting for me to reprimand her. I squeezed her hand, knowing she was a much better friend than I deserved, and she continued. “Everyone was asleep, drugged, despite the Tower shaking until I thought it would collapse. Then Spirits—more than I thought existed—passed and sank through the earth. When they disappeared, the fighting stopped.”
“They’re gone,” I managed, remembering the dead standing at my sister’s side. My vision focused more. “What happened then?”
“The guards said Dimi, had gone to the crypt to marry, but the earthquake blocked the stairs. We sent for builders to clear them. In the chaos none could be found until the next morning—that was yesterday.” Mariska brightened. “By midday Dimi exited carrying you, barely breathing, followed by Helia von Heskin, who had removed the stones further down—she really is awfully powerful—and three more—a teenager who quickly left, a female bone soldier and Kaz”—she nodded to the sleeping blond man who I finally recognized from my trial as Kazimir Bersigov—“were injured but alive. They carried three who have still to wake up. I don’t know how many couldn’t escape.”
My sluggish mind struggled to understand her too-fast words as the Day of the Dead swam in my mind. Memories disconnected and reordered. I led people to their death, let Lumi go, and somehow survived. And Dimitri had lived. A presence larger than myself,perhaps larger than this world, had touched me through a gate leading to a land of death.
“What did they say happened down there?” I asked, wondering if I could trust my mind after expending so much magic.
“No one tells me anything—I was hoping you would.”
