Chapter Thirty-One The Villainess and the Dread Ravine

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The Villainess and the Dread Ravine

The godchild's blood spilled and split the earth where it landed. The ravine was his death wound. Our land was cut off from the continent and drenched in divine blood, but centuries passed and even wonders and monsters became routine. People grew accustomed to living near a wound in the world. Fathoms of darkness down, sullen fires burned in the depths, and whatever moved in faraway shadows couldn't reach the outside world.

Until the Emperor. Until the flames rose, and the dead with them.

Time of Iron , ANONYMOUS

W ithin days, the dread ravine called to its master up above once more.

Rae leaned on Octavian's arm as they walked through the Ballroom of Sighs under the mirrored ceiling and across the night-dark floor. Through glass doors she saw the sky torn with silent lightning. Stark lines of violet and burning scarlet sliced through the night.

The blaze made her eyes water. Now she believed the world was real, the edges of every facet cut.

After her collapse, Octavian had admitted in a benevolent manner that he'd been ungentlemanly not to escort Rahela from the room before the throat cutting. He liked the idea of aristocratic ladies needing to be sheltered, even the Harlot of the Tower. Rae did nothing to disillusion him. Being considerate kept him from her bed.

People were still calling Lia his princess. Whenever they did, Octavian's eyes darted to Rae.

They didn't know what the Last Hope might have told Octavian about other worlds, or how much Octavian believed. Rae must play along until the Flower of Life and Death bloomed. Then she was blowing this evil popsicle stand. She didn't know what would happen to Rahela's body when she plucked the flower and stepped through the door to her own world. Rae imagined the body slumping dead, being thrown in the ravine. The story was always supposed to end that way.

Rae had only bought herself a temporary stay of execution.

The price was Key's life.

The king and his wicked prophet walked out onto the balcony to acknowledge the gods' will. Wind blasted from the ravine as though someone had opened a vast oven and was about to shove Rae and Octavian inside. The clouds were dyed black and blue as bruises. Crimson lightning turned the cracked moon into a pool of faintly glowing blood. The ground trembled as if the palace was a treehouse and a giant shook the branches. Columns of smoke rose from the ravine to the sky. The ravine opened wide as a hungry mouth.

Smoke stung Rae's eyes. Tremors made her knees unsteady. This world, turned real, was overpowering.

The palace guards had cast Key away like garbage. The Cobra had only been able to close Key's eyes and watch it happen. Nobody knew how far down the ravine actually went. Perhaps Key's body was still falling. Eyes closed, throat cut open, falling forever.

Key had believed in her so much. From the beginning, she'd planned to betray him.

She couldn't change her last words to him or his last thoughts. Once someone was dead, the world through their eyes ended. She would always be the villain in Key's story.

A red lightning bolt made the masked crown a mirror. For an instant the king wore a crown dipped in blood. A chorus of apprehensive thanksgiving broke from the crowded balconies overlooking the abyss.

Everyone waited for the god to come. Nobody really believed he would.

Octavian gave the devout throngs a regal wave. His voice sounded troubled. "Your prophecy flies from mouth to mouth faster than crows. The people are frightened. My ministers say to calm the populace I must descend to the depths of the ravine, and claim my imperial power."

He wasn't supposed to climb down for years, not until the whole country was in danger and he must risk his life to save it. But the ravine wasn't meant to yawn and smoke for years, either.

She shuddered to think what that meant for Emer and the Cobra, who had to stay in this world. She'd once felt like the only real thing, but now everyone felt true and precious except herself. Her friends thought it was shock. Rae believed she was getting ready to go home. She had to succeed, after what she'd paid for success.

She was so grateful the flower would bloom tonight. She couldn't bear to stay here a moment longer.

People say, I'll give anything. The universe listens. But the universe doesn't listen when you say, Wait, not that .

From the depths of the dread ravine, she heard the ghouls. Their cry was coming clearer and closer by the hour.

" Muh – muh– muh. Master!"

Rae smiled at Octavian. "They're calling for you. Go to them."

She wished she could ask the original Rahela: Were you doing what you felt you had to? Perhaps wickedness wasn't about how you fell, but where you stood and what you saw from there. Perhaps even the worst villains were doing their best.

Octavian believed what he wanted was the most important thing in the universe. Since he was the hero, he was right. Rae couldn't blame him. She'd spent her whole time in Eyam believing what she wanted mattered more than anybody's life.

Heated whispers rose from the ravine. Cold wrapped her like a shroud.

Rae watched the king's beautiful face outlined against a brilliantly broken sky, and knew one absolute truth.

You will never be the hero to me.

She was constantly tired these days. When Emer woke her from an evening nap, Emer's words made exhaustion vanish like a scared ghost.

"The Flower of Life and Death is blooming. His Majesty invites you to join him in the greenhouse."

The Iron Maid clothed Rae in ivory and blood, and slid the enchanted gauntlet onto her hand. As Rae rose from her dressing table for the last time she gave Emer's shoulder a grateful squeeze.

"If I don't come back," Rae began.

Emer's fists closed as though on invisible axes. "Why would you not come back!"

"If I don't, go to the Cobra."

He said he had a getaway bag ready for when trouble came, and if Emer reached him in time he would take her along.

Emer's face set and she stalked from the room. When Lia came running, Rae realized where Emer had gone.

Lia was flushed and tousled from her rush, hair clean moonlight streaming down her shoulders. "I can go in your place. Octavian won't ask anything of me."

She might be an ice-hearted little schemer, but she was loyal. Cold hearts could still be gold.

Rae shook her head. "Do something else for me. Will you go to the throne room and delay Octavian?"

If Rae could reach the greenhouse before the king, she would never have to see him again.

Lia nodded, worried but trusting. Rae did the winding snake gesture to make her smile.

Her stepsister brightened. "Vipers together."

"Vipers together," Rae promised.

Together wouldn't last. Rae was leaving. She wouldn't be there to help when Octavian unlocked his full power. Marius wouldn't help Lia either. Rae had ruined that too.

It would be Lia and the Emperor, alone. Rae shivered as she raced across the battlements under the broken blood moon.

The ravine yawned ever wider, rising fires glowing like lava. The silvery evening sky shimmered with heat haze, and thunder was an avalanche in the clouds. The pounding of Rae's heart and head seemed one terrible drumbeat. The world trembled, waiting for its Emperor.

Lia still shone like the last star in the dark. With Rae's interference ended, surely the Emperor would come to love her the way he had once upon a tale. In Rae's opinion, Lia was easy to love.

A shadow moved towards her on the battlements. Rae's heart tripped and fell with a crash.

Out of the dark walked Prime Minister Pio, hands clasped behind his back. Rae abruptly recalled the man might be plotting her death. At the critical moment in books, the victim always saw their death in the murderer's eyes. Rae couldn't be sure if she saw her death in his eyes. What did death look like, exactly?

Instead of pushing Rae off the battlements, the prime minister inclined his head.

"Return to your bedchamber. The king cannot attend your evening of botany admiration."

"Pity. Just in case, I'll wait for him in the greenhouse."

When Rae tried to get past, Pio barred her way.

"Can't you hear the drums!"

Abruptly, Rae realized she'd been a fool again. The pounding in her ears wasn't her heart or her head. The shaking of the earth came from all sides.

"It's the raiders," Rae whispered.

Everything was happening faster than it should. Why not this too? The balconies were crowded with worshippers praying and singing. The guards weren't at their posts, and let a party of raiders slip through. Just like in the book.

Except that couldn't be right.

From the battlements, Rae could see the city streets seethe with panic.

"Tagar's army is within our walls. Why do you seem so surprised, Lady Rahela?" Pio asked thinly. "Surely you knew they were coming."

"I told Octavian how to stop both battles!" Rae snarled. "I said to keep the guards at their posts when the ravine opened. I said to set a watch on the Tears of the Dead River, that one day years from now the raider army would get behind our walls. Octavian didn't listen!"

This time, she hadn't lied or cheated. She had predicted the future, clearly and precisely, in a genuine effort to save lives and avoid disaster. Only the powerful man she'd told hadn't believed her, and now the city might fall.

Pio's eyebrows climbed high as intrepid hikers while she spoke. "It's unfortunate His Majesty didn't post the guards, but let us not pretend you had no hand in this."

"I didn't!" Rae protested. "When I read the future… in the stars… the princess met a band of raiders on her way home. The raiders attacked the city when the populace was on their balconies witnessing the ravine, but it was only a small group. The army comes after we're prepared. Why would the army come now? This isn't meant to happen yet!"

" Somebody sent Princess Vasilisa home with a story about her brother dying," said Pio. "The princess sent a message on beforehand. An investigation proved their king was being poisoned. Do you think anyone in Tagar believes in prophecy? They think we poisoned him. They are retaliating against what they believe was our attack. As the princess came home, she didn't meet a band of raiders. She met her brother's army. Our guards were at the balconies watching the ravine, not their posts. The raiders slipped in through the rivers. The Ice King's troops are storming our capital."

On the wind Rae heard the crash of a thousand feet and the clash of a thousand weapons. Outside the palace walls, she heard a scream.

In the book, the Ice King died young. Here, the princess had gone home to save her brother. Because of Rae, Ivor lived. Ivor the Heartless, whose metal horrors could fight even the dead.

Rae had called doom down upon them all.

Prime Minister Pio advanced. She didn't know if he meant to drag her back to her chamber, or strangle her with his bare hands. Either way, he barred the way to the flower and her only chance to live.

"This is war, Lady Rahela. It's your fault."