Chapter 38

Rhu

I woke in the dark. I felt like I was floating, but air seemed to be rushing by. Were those stars overhead?

"Am I dead?" I asked.

"Not yet, but if you ever pull that shit again, you might be," I felt my Bonded speak, his face appearing above me.

I tried to sit up but a tearing pain in my shoulder halted my progress. I looked at the offending limb and realized I had a bandage wrapped around the hilt of a knife that was still stuck in my shoulder.

"Wha-" I started to reach toward the knife. It seemed like the most reasonable thing to do in this situation was to pull the knife out. I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be there.

"No," Luke said, as if it were for the hundredth time. Maybe it was? I seemed to remember him saying it a lot. "You need to leave the knife alone until we get the ship out of range of the Towers and Hel can take a look at you. He's barely conscious after all the power he's been using trying to keep everyone alive."

Towers? I could smell salt water and the slow vibration below us of the engines of the Chrysalis. Suddenly it all came rushing back.

Towers. Alexandria. We were escaping from Alexandria.

I blinked sharply and tried to sit up. After a few minutes Luke gave up trying to keep me prone and helped me sit up.

"What—What happened?" I asked.

"Before or after you jumped in front of Elex and I, like an idiot?" Luke demanded.

"Awww…." I could see the worry in his eyes, but I could also see the pride that suffused his face as he looked at me.

"You did it," I whispered.

"We did it," he responded. "How did you know he was up to something?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe sense of smell isn't as useless for truth telling as I thought," I managed. "I smelled the—the rage, the lust, in him." I said. "So I was keeping an eye on him. He just smelled—wrong, somehow. I didn't see him slip the dagger out, but I-I think I smelled his intent."

"It's my fault. I didn't even think," my Bonded said, brushing a lock of hair behind my ear. "Vestals use weapons made of obsidian. I separated the guards from their metal weapons, but I didn't think to check him for obsidian."

"Why did he do it?" I asked. "Elex was about to let him join us."

Luke looked at me quizzically and I shrugged.

"Scent. Your brother's a softer touch than he lets on. He was willing to take a chance because he trusted Hel's judgment over his own."

"Then why—" Luke began, then he stopped, looking thoughtful. I could almost see the pieces of the puzzle falling into place in his mind. "The Vestal was afraid that Elex would tell everyone he had violated his vows."

"Why would he think that?" I asked.

"Because it's what he would have done in the same situation," Luke said. "I've found that people always expect other people to act the same way they would. Since he would have done it himself, he couldn't even imagine Elex passing up the opportunity for revenge."

"Revenge?"

"He was the one who had given me the assignment to the House of Eros. Elex just told me that he had…convinced…the Vestal to let him take it instead. I don't think the Vestal thought either of us would survive the Calling at the time. When we did, we knew no one would believe us if we told them, so we didn't even try to expose him. He wasn't worth it."

"He must have thought Elex was going to take his vengeance on him," I said. "So he decided to kill Elex and be the Alexandrian hero."

Luke nodded.

"Until some silly Soma came along…" he said, smiling at me.

He held a canteen of water to my lips and I swallowed a sip.

It was still early morning, the sun just beginning to appear above the horizon.

"I don't remember getting back to the ship," I said.

"I wish I didn't," Luke said with a laugh. "Alexandrian sewers stink, quite literally."

I heard the loud boom and splash of a projectile landing in the water. I tried to scramble to my feet, but Luke held me down.

"Stay down. We aren't out of projectile range yet."

Betts was on deck, the wind blowing her long dark hair around her face, her long braids flying. It was odd, but the early morning sun shining on her face made her hair look almost crimson instead of its normal dark brown.

"Did we get them all?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer. "The Mageia, Stergiou and Hel's Dad?"

We got them all,Luke signed, smiling at me fondly.

There were Mageia all over the deck. Some were injured, some just exhausted. Others had their eyes closed and I could sense them using their magic.

In the prow of the ship I saw the Alexandrians we had rescued allowing their hands to be bound by a Mageian.

"We did. All four hundred and fifty-four Mageia, forty-five human slaves and eunuchs, fifteen Elusians and five Humans guards," he answered.

"That's—fuck, that's over five hundred people we rescued. How the hell is this boat even still afloat?" I exclaimed. The Chrysalis wasn't made to hold that many people.

"Magic," my Bonded said with a smile. "The Water Mageians are keeping our boat afloat. The Air Mageia are using their powers to fill the sails to augment the engines, and the Fire Mageia are discouraging any pursuit while the Earth Mageians try not to throw up on anything."

"The Chrysalis may be small, but she is mighty!" Betts called out, a smile on her face as she paused for a breath, the sun glowing on her face. "Maybe we should start calling her The Butterfl—"

Betts' body jerked, and she looked down in shock at the metal bolt speared through her chest, splashing blood and bone across the decks. Her body fell to the deck as if in slow motion, and she sank to her knees. Oddly, I saw her smile almost beatifically and her lips moved without air as she said, "Yes, of course I'll help," before collapsing to the ground.

I couldn't hear Hel's anguished scream, but I felt it to the marrow of my bones as he rushed to his adopted sister, desperately trying to push healing power into her body.

Elex tried to pull him away as Betts' corpse cooled, but he refused to leave her until he passed out himself.