Chapter Thirteen

"That didn't go so well, did it?" Rune asks, his snide tone dialed back a bit. The tattoo on my wrist and hand light up when he speaks, waves of gold and white washing over the black mark. "Frederick lied to get you to do what he wants. Never saw that coming. Didn't think he had it in him to do something like that."

I sit on the edge of a stone cliff, half a mile or so outside the city's wall. The creek is a few feet to my right, though it falls off the side of the cliff to join what is eventually a river further down. I'm on the side of Laconia where there aren't any abandoned homes or farmlands, the cliffs too sharp to be of use to anyone, even before the woes.

All I can do in response to what Rune said is heave a sigh.

"It seems," Rune goes on, "you might be here for a while."

As my eyes gaze over the horizon, over the path I took not so long ago while following Fred's trail out into Acadia, I sigh again.

And then Rune says something that makes me want to strangle him: "Perhaps we should rethink the Emperor's offer." I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off, but he goes on, "It's clear Frederick doesn't know a thing about what it would take to get you home. He was hoping to get you onto his side, rally you to save Laconia. I simply mean, Rey, that the Emperor might make a better ally. He might actually be able to help you."

"You think?" I huff with a frown. "Or do you think he was blowing smoke up my ass to get me to do what he wants, just like Frederick? How can I trust anyone here?" I hunch over and bury my face in my hands.

"I believe the Emperor is a man out of options, a man who is perhaps not used to asking for help."

"He was an asshole. A jerk."

"Be that as it may, he might be your only way out of here. Perhaps, if we fulfill his request, we will inadvertently save the rest of Laconia, too."

I pull my hands away from my face, staring out at the horizon. The sun hangs low in the sky, late afternoon, but its warmth is just as unyielding as ever. Not an uncomfortable heat, but one that reminds me of an early summer day, right when you get out of school. No responsibilities, nothing to drag you down.

"I don't want to be a hero," I whisper.

"Then don't be. Do whatever you need to do to go home."

My gaze falls to my wrist. "What about you?"

"Don't concern yourself with me. Perhaps if the Emperor can find a way for you to go home, he can also find a way for us to be unbound." Rune sounds hopeful at that, his accented voice eager to find a way to solve all of our problems.

I think back to the Emperor. How he acted, what he said; he was a good-looking guy, sure, but not the kind of guy I'd ever stick my neck out to help. Then again, I wouldn't really stick my neck out for anybody.

"Do you really think I can do it, Rune?" I ask quietly. A gentle breeze blows around me, caressing my face in a way no other person ever has. Soft, tender, like it's trying to remind me I'm not alone. "Do you think I can kill the other two empresses? Even if they are mad, they've had a lifetime to master their magic. I'm a newbie."

Rune takes his time in answering. "I think, together, we'll be able to. What other choice do we have?"

As true as that statement is, I just can't get over the nagging feeling inside. "I'm not a killer."

"Look at what they've done. Or at what they haven't done. The empresses were supposed to be kind leaders who use their powers to protect their kingdom. Look at Laconia now. The woes still ravage the land, unfettered. Their own people are afflicted in the streets, the walking dead. As far as I'm concerned, the empresses deserve retribution for the chaos and misery they let go on."

"Uh-huh. And your little speech has nothing to do with the fact that they shoved you into a crystal?"

"Soul gem," Rune mutters, annoyed with me. "But you are right. Perhaps I wish to see them get their comeuppance more so than I would if I was not trapped inside a soul gem for so long."

"Do you remember the woes?" Rune's memory is hit or miss; the empresses really did strip away everything that made him a person, keeping him a shell of what he used to be. A punishment for going against the norm of Laconia.

Rune says in a whisper, "No, but perhaps they were already tainted with madness when they dealt with me. It is hard to say now. Everything is… blurry when I attempt to look back."

I sigh for about the millionth time this afternoon. I don't know how long I've been sitting here, but the sun is even lower in the sky now. It's about time for me to get up, I suppose, and make my decision.

Do I want to go to Pylos and back to Magnysia—where the freaking dragon is—with the vain hope that I can take down the remaining two empresses? No, of course not. Fighting women who've basically spent their entire lives being living weapons sounds like a suicide mission to me.

But, on the flip side, do I have any choice? It seems as though I'm shit out of luck here. Doing what that asshole wants might be my only hope to get home, seeing as how Frederick lied to me.

Frederick said he'd help, but he wants to fix everything wrong with Laconia first. If I wait for that, I might be waiting an eternity. It might not ever happen. Could I be that patient, sit around while I wait in the hopes that, miraculously, Frederick figures out what countless men before him couldn't?

Shit. As much as I don't want to admit it, Rune is right. I need to do what the Emperor wants and see if he can help me.

I get up, my mind decided, and I turn to head back to Laconia. As much as I don't want to do it, I don't have any other choices here. Before I set off in another region of Laconia, I'll need to stock up on more food.

It's a bit of a hike to get back. I have to use some magic to climb up some sharp cliffs, but I manage. The sky above is full of clouds of pink and purple by the time I reach the grate in the stone wall. I crawl inside and hike around the pond the locals use to clean their clothes. It doesn't even hit me until I'm around the pond that everyone is gone.

Once I realize it, I pause and glance over my shoulder. What hits me as strange is the fact that the people left their clothes in piles, like they had to abandon them quickly.

Hmm. Weird.

I go to Frederick's hut. It's not that I want to ask him for food and such, but I figure I can guilt him into it since he lied to me. Besides, maybe I can get him on-board with the whole killing the last two empresses thing. Tell him it'll help him with the woes or some shit.

I knock on his door. I don't hear anything inside the hut, so I push inside to find Frederick isn't here. That's odd, but maybe he went to the markets or something? That possibility rings hollow when I step outside of the hut and realize I don't see a single soul.Not everyone could've gone to the markets.

What the hell is happening now?

I'm seconds from asking Rune what he thinks is going on when I hear shouting in the distance. I react instinctively, pushing into a run. Darting through the empty streets, I come upon a set of stone stairs that lead to the market district of the city. The shouting definitely came from there.

Once I'm up, I can see the large crowd gathered around the circle where the stalls are. Body to body to body; I'm on the outskirts and can't see a thing. The people are so huddled together, watching whatever has their attention, I have no clue what's going on. It's like everyone from the lower district is here, making the market more crowded than it's ever been.

I hurry around the crowd, trying to find Frederick. I bounce on my feet to get a little higher, to peer over some of the people's heads. I make it around the crowd, to where the people become sparser, and I immediately see why.

They're not alone. Two huge armored people stand near the old pillars of the marketplace. Black metal armor with hints of blue, their skin is covered by their helmets, gauntlets, and greaves. They almost look like nine-feet-tall shadows in the shapes of men. One wields a sword that's as long as I am tall, and the other has Frederick kneeling before him, a huge ax raised in the air.

"Bring out the demon," a woman's voice comes from the soldier with the ax. "Or my vengeance will be swift and severe. Harboring a traitor will be your undoing." The metal gauntlets holding onto the ax's shaft tighten, and he lifts it in the air.

Is it a woman or a man in there? I don't know, but I do know that these two are looking for me, and they're about to kill Frederick to bring me out.

Frederick, on his knees before the large soldier, stares down the face of his would-be executioner. "Kill me," he says, much calmer than I would be in his place. "Kill all of us. What does it matter? We are all already dead."

I'm in the process of pushing past the people on the edge to get to the two soldiers—to save Frederick's life even though he's a goddamned liar—but someone else darts out of the crowd and places herself between Frederick and the lifted ax.

Prim.

And she's defiant as ever, puffing herself up to make her frail body appear larger than it is. "She's not a demon!" Prim declares loudly, for everyone to hear. "Her name is Rey, and she's an empress, too. She'll save us!"

Her words hit me in the heart. That girl… stupid, but brave. Much braver than I am, standing up to a soldier that's more than double her size, in front of everyone, so steadfast in her belief. In her belief in me.

"If you protect the demon, you will die as well," the same female's voice comes out of the soldier. The soldier brings down the ax to cut down both Prim and Frederick.

I react instantly. My tattoo flares to life, golden magic flowing out of me like a whip. I fling the magic toward the handle of the ax, and it curls around it, a living snake of golden sparkles, and I jerk it to the side by pulling my arm back. In doing so, I save both Prim and Frederick from the ax's path and cause the ax to come down into the stone beside them.

Everyone around me gasps and steps back, giving me and the soldiers a wider berth. No one here is from the upper district. It's just the poor. The destitute. The refugees who came to Laconia with nothing. Of fucking course these soldiers would attack them and not those in the upper district.

"I think you're looking for me," I say, straightening out as the magic curled around the ax's hilt fades.

"You!" The other soldier points its great sword at me, the same voice that came out of the other one emanating from under its helm. "Demon! You dare go against me? You will pay the price for your treachery!" The soldier slashes its great sword through the air, and an immediate gust of wind nearly knocks me off my feet.

Okay, that was magic, and that tells me an empress is behind this. Question is, which one?

While I can stand against the wind, the people watching can't. Some are knocked off their feet, while others tumble over each other in an attempt to get to shelter, someplace to hide. Frederick stands and looks at me, a worried look on his face.

"Get her out of here," I tell him. Her meaning Prim, the little girl that means well but shouldn't be here, in the middle of a fight, where the enemy is all too willing to put a blade through her just to make their point.

Frederick takes her by the hand and drags her away. Prim doesn't want to go; that fierce look still glimmers in her eyes, but she's too small to put up a fight.

And just like that, the marketplace is cleared of helpless civilians, and it's just me and the two impossibly large soldiers.

They walk in opposite directions, and I watch them with a bored expression. "Who's behind this?" I ask. "Is this Empress Gladus or Empress Krotas?"

The one with the ax lunges for me as the woman's voice shouts, "You have no right to say her name!" It swings the ax and only misses me because I jump back. The other soldier comes at me from behind, and I duck and roll, using reflexes I never had before thanks to Rune.

"Whose name?" I ask, though I don't really care. Anyone who would kill a little girl for standing up for what she believes in is a villain in my book, and most of the time the shit villains say is twisted.

"You come here, believing you are different, that you are the savior of the realm," the woman's voice hisses from underneath both helmets this time, "but you are a liar. A deceiver! You are the bane of humanity, the viper in the grass. You are everything we stand against!"

They attack me again, and this time I push them back with a strong wave of golden magic. "That's funny," I say, "because to me, it sure looked like you were going to kill a little girl just to make a point. To me, you're the damn viper in the grass."

My right hand curls into a fist, and I punch the air, aiming at the soldier with the great sword. A large, golden fist sparks into existence in the air, growing larger and larger until it collides with the soldier's chest with a force so hard it dents the chest plate and knocks the impossibly tall soldier off its feet.

Man, woman, monster; whatever they are, they can be beat—and I will beat them.

The woman speaking from their helmets doesn't appreciate what I said. They both attack me with their chosen weapons, using wind to try to catch me off-guard. I dodge what I can, and Rune throws up a shield when I don't quite get out of their reach in time. They're big, sure, but they can't lay a finger on me, and they know it.

The market stalls around us get trashed with the strong gusts of wind from their blows. The sky above us turns dark, but not dark like the scourge is coming. No shadowstorm forming here. No, this darkness is natural, a true storm building over our heads, with thick black clouds that look as though they can unleash inches of rain in mere minutes.

I send a ball of light into the helmet of the soldier with the sunken-in chest plate, and the magic knocks the helmet straight off… and also reveals the soldier has no head. The armor falls to the floor, dissipating into ash that soon turns into nothing.

Wait a damn minute. Does that mean there's nothing under this armor, for either of them? No body, nothing? I'm fighting fucking air?

Thunder rumbles in the sky above, and the remaining soldier with the ax lifts it toward the clouds. Lighting shoots down, momentarily blinding me, and when I open my eyes, I see the soldier now has wings made of lightning. An electrical current coats its large ax, sizzling.

"Well," Rune says, "that complicates things!"

I take a step back, not liking the look of that lightning-coated, double-sided ax. All around us, the wind picks up, whipping along with the storm over our heads. Random bolts of lightning shoot down every few seconds, blasting the stone ground so hard the stone turns black. One of the bolts hits a stand in the markets, catching it aflame.

"You have to stop it before it destroys the whole city," Rune tells me what I already know.

"You," the same woman's voice comes from the helmet, "think you are the righteous. You think you know all. Omnipotent, omnipresent." The soldier swings its ax at me, and I narrowly avoid its reach. "You will fall. You will all fall!"

Two hands on the ax, the soldier lifts it high in the air as it leaps, its legs pushing it to an unnatural height. It soars ten feet in the air, aiming right at me, wanting to bring down that lightning-coated ax into my skull.

It moves fast. Rolling to either side won't bring me out of its path, so I roll forward, using magic to propel me along. I roll beneath its trajectory, and behind me, I hear the soldier's metal boots land on the stone with a hard thump.

The sky is near pitch-black above us, lighting bolts surging down around us. Bolt after bolt, and soon I'm trapped in a large cage made of lightning—trapped with the ax-wielding soldier. The circular space is no bigger than twenty feet wide. A second passes, and the lightning cage grows smaller by a foot.

Shit. It's forcing me to make a move.

As the soldier readies itself for another attack, I think fast. The other was defeated when I knocked its helmet off, like whatever magic is keeping it upright is dependent on the head area. All I have to do is get this one's helmet off, too, but how?

The cage grows smaller. Now ten feet wide, soon we're going to be on top of each other.

"Uh, Rey, I'd figure something out if I were you!" Rune shouts.

"Yeah, yeah," I say as I spread my feet apart, getting ready. I don't know if my plan will work, but if I have any chance, I need this fucker to be in mid-swing when I make my move. I'm smaller than it, and I need to use that to my advantage.

It hoists the ax onto its shoulder, and the woman's voice makes one final demand: "You will die here, demon!" Two hands on the shaft, it brings the sizzling ax down.

I use magic to push myself back, narrowly avoiding the sharp ax as it buries itself in the stone for a second time. I don't hesitate; while the ax is in the stone ground, I make a mad dash head-on. I jump over the implanted ax, using magic to boost the jump higher than nature normally allows.

I soar over its tall figure. The only reason I don't go flying head-first into the lightning cage wall is because I reach for the shoulder pad of the soldier and use it to swing myself around. One leg lifts over its head and soon enough I'm straddling the magical soldier, my thighs on either side of its helmet.

My fingers grip the bottom of the helmet. Lightning pierces the sky as I growl out, "Better luck next time, bitch."

The soldier releases its hold on the ax—which is still implanted in the stone—but it's too slow. Too much of a lumbering giant. I pull the helmet off, and even though there isn't a face underneath, it's still like I'm pulling it off a real person. I whip the helmet into the magical cage wall, and it sizzles into nothing.

The soldier under me falls forward, right next to its ax, and I jump off its shoulders before it hits the ground in a duck and roll. By the time I turn around and stand up, the soldier is ash in the wind, the storm above my head already dissipating. The lightning cage that surrounded me before is gone, nothing but black marks on the stone ground as signs of what just happened.

The storm clears, the air eerily still. That's when it hits me, when it all hits me.

The destruction. The crying. The people who hide behind whatever they ran to, watching me around the corners of the buildings like they don't trust me or the power I wield. What market stalls still stand are a mess, but the ones closest to where I am are in ruins. Broken wood, destroyed items; some are even on fire, the lightning from the storm having miraculously found what little wood there is in Laconia.

I look for Frederick and Prim, but I can't see them. I do, however, hear marching, and I turn around and face the stairs that lead to the higher district of the city. Dozens of soldiers have finally mobilized, spears and shields in hand. Behind them, Kretia walks with her head held high.

The soldiers surround me, and Kretia slowly surveys the marketplace before bringing her dark brown eyes to me. She wears the same getup she wore the day she and the others jailed me, regal in her gray couture. Her long hair is braided, split evenly so the braids rest on both shoulders.

"I knew you would be trouble the first moment I saw you," Kretia says, her guards focused on me when they should turn their attention to the chaos around us, to the people who need help. I'm sure there are some who got injured with the wind and lightning. "When I heard you had escaped, I hoped you would leave and never return to Laconia, for surely you would only bring darkness with you."

My feet are still spread shoulder-length apart. I'm ready to bolt. To run, to fight, to do something. If she thinks I'm going to let her lock me up again, she's wrong. I'll fight an old lady if I have to.

"And now look." Kretia gestures around us. "Empress Gladus's soldiers are seen for the first time in years, and they only come for you."

"Look at what they did," I say as I point to the fire, to the destruction around us. "Your empress doesn't deserve to be worshiped if this is what she does. She would've killed Frederick and Prim—a little girl—for what? Because they were trying to protect me?"

That finally gets the haughty look Kretia wears to crack. Her brows come together and her gaze falls to the ground as she must think on what I said. When she looks up at me again, there is something different about her expression, something I can't name. "I saw the golden glow you command. You control the threads of magic, just as Gladus, Morimento, and Krotas do. If you are not our ruin, what are you?"

I don't know what she's asking of me, and I don't know how to answer. "I—"

Before I can say more, I hear my name shouted from the other side of the marketplace. Frederick's voice, and he sounds desperate. I turn away from Kretia, push through the guards—and they're confused enough to let me through without a fight. I hurry along, following Frederick's voice.

Just beyond a broken wooden stall, Frederick kneels, and when I approach him he turns to me, his face pale and his hands bloodied. "Rey—" It takes me a moment to realize the blood on his hands doesn't belong to him.

It belongs to the girl lying on part of the broken stall, a girl whose gut is pierced with a broken stake. Prim. The wood, jagged and bloodied, is nothing but a reminder of how bad things are.

I fall to my knees beside Frederick. My breath comes out short and heavy as my gaze travels along her tiny, frail body. Her dress is all bloody, her tan skin too pale. I'm no doctor, but even I know it doesn't look good.

Prim watches me with her hazel eyes, and one of her hands reaches out to me. "I'm sorry," she whispers, her small voice trembling with a mixture of what must be pain and fear. "I wanted… I wanted to help."

"It's okay," I whisper as I smooth down some of the hair around her face. "Don't be sorry." The girl must've been blown back when the soldiers were whipping wind around; she was too small to stand her ground. She literally got blown away.

Frederick's voice is low when he tells me, "I don't have the resources to help her."

My heart twists inside my chest. Behind us, Kretia and a few of her guards approach. I'm ready to tell them off, to tell them all off, but Kretia stuns me by saying, "We can help her in the upper district. We'll get a stretcher and carry her up." She turns and nods to the guards behind her. "And—" She raises her voice louder so the others in the chaos can hear her. "—we will aid anyone else that was injured in this attack."

Even Frederick's confused, and it tells me that's the first time something like this has ever been offered. It's good, though; if Prim has a fighting chance, she needs to go where the medicine is best.

I take Prim's tiny hand into mine and squeeze. "Hear that? You're going to get better. Everything's going to be okay."

Prim smiles weakly, and it's as though I can feel my heart cracking, threatening to break. "You don't want to be, but it's okay. You're my empress."

The breath that leaves me then is one full of emotion, and I have to pull away from her when a pair of guards come with a makeshift stretcher. Frederick oversees them carefully move her and set her on the stretcher. He tells them he'll go with her, and before he leaves with Prim and the guards, he tosses me a glance over his shoulder.

I give him a nod, wordlessly telling him it's okay for him to go with her. That looked bad. I don't know what kind of medicine they have here, or if it's only a matter of time before she dies, but I know Prim's a strong girl and she'll give it all she's got.

Kretia does not take her eyes off me, and it's a long while before I turn to face her. I fold my arms over my chest and ask, "You going to throw me in jail again?"

"No." Her nostrils flare as she takes one look around us, at the chaos and destruction a mere two soldiers had made. "The empress I love and follow would never have done this. Perhaps we were wrong in all respects and the girl was right."

She doesn't say it, but even so, I know what she means, which is why I tell her, "I'm not an empress." How many times am I going to have to tell these people that? When will it get through? I'm just a normal girl, stuck in a magical land, who wants nothing more than to get home and forget this place exists.

Kretia holds her hands behind her back. "That remains to be seen. What I do know, however, is that Gladus's soldiers were here looking for you. If you do not go to her, more will come. You must go. You must understand I cannot let you remain here while you put what's left of Laconia in danger—"

As she talks, I think about Prim. I think about the destruction of the marketplace, how frightened everyone looked. They were just people, people who've been through so much. They shouldn't be terrorized or threatened because of me.

Prim's words echo in my mind. I want to stay, to sit at her bedside and hold her hand while she recovers. I want to remind her every hour that things are going to be all right—but that's the thing, isn't it? Nothing's going to be all right, not while I'm here and the empresses are still out there.

Empress Gladus sent two unearthly soldiers in her stead; what would happen if she herself came? How much destruction could she wreak? How many deaths would be on her hands while she's too mad to care?

So, I tell Kretia the only thing I can: "I'll go." It's honestly the only thing I want to do, besides sit at Prim's side. Inside I feel angry. Enraged on Prim's behalf. Gladus will get what's coming to her, and this will never happen again.

Kretia bows her head in approval.

"I'm going to need some food, first. And a map." The only map I have is one for Acadia, and what food I had packed in my bag is long gone. I need to restock before I head into Pylos to face the empress herself.

"That," she says, "we can do."

Guess it's settled, then.

I'm going to kill an empress.