Baleful Betrayal (16 page)

Blood bubbled from Axo's mouth. "The Destroyer has failed—" his body jerked and foam spilled from his lips. With one final spasm, he went still.

I got up and backed away, my head feeling light, stomach sick. Lanaeia's slight form darted in my path and embraced me.

"You are no destroyer, Justin," she said in a faint voice. She looked up at me. "You are a fighter and a savior. Never forget this."

We were down from twenty-eight people to six. Our success relied on the good graces of the Mzodi and Daelissa's insane mother. If ever I needed a hug, it was right then. I wrapped my arms around Lanaeia and closed my eyes, allowing the real magic to soothe my grief and shine a light into the dark future.

"Thank you, Lanaeia." I managed a smile. "How did you know I needed a hug?"

A smile brightened her face. "It is the most powerful magic Nightliss taught me."

"Yeah." Salt stung my eyes. "She was a good hugger."

Lanaeia released me. "I will be sure to practice in case you need another."

We continued the grim task of digging through the rubble and found Philas trapped in a small pocket beneath a destroyed house.

"It's a miracle you survived," Elyssa said.

"I ordered my people to run," the seraph said sadly. "I did not make it out in time, but I survived and they are all dead."

The sheltering villagers began to poke their heads out of the buildings at the far end of town. The sera from the boot house ran down the road, eyes wide with horror. "Where will I keep the children?"

"You will manage," Kaelissa said in a hard voice, "while we rebuild."

The other sera looked down. "Of course, mistress."

That drew a raised eyebrow from Elyssa and several others in our group.

The children began to file out of the building at the end of the road. Without the pressure of battle looming, I took a better look at the brood and began to see a disturbing pattern. Many of them bore a resemblance to someone, but it wasn't the sera I'd mistaken for their mother.

I looked back and forth and noticed others in my group coming to the same realization. "Those are your children, Kaelissa."

She seemed unruffled by my observation. "Our bloodlines were tarnished by the Schism, our immortality lost." Kaelissa regarded a round-eyed girl with no particular tenderness. "I will recreate a pure breed, but I need the proper mate. So far none have produced suitable offspring."

"Woman, you just turned the crazy dial up to eleven." I saw my disgust reflected on the faces of my other companions.

Djola sprang to her mother's defense. "She will make Seraphim great again! Our people will rise from the ashes and once again build cities in the sky."

I threw up my hands. "Whatever. It's not as if breeding like rabbits is a crime." Wrinkled foreheads and raised eyebrows met my analogy. "Just get us onboard with the sky fishers tomorrow and everything will be hunky dory."

"I will gain you passage," Kaelissa said. Her eyes wandered to Lanaeia. "Were you turned into a husk during the Schism—the Desecration?"

"Yes." Lanaeia's face tightened. Daelissa had treated her like a red-headed stepchild, and looking at Kaelissa had to be as unsettling for her as it was for the rest of us. She pointed to Joss and Otaleon. "They were also husked."

"Has it affected your children?"

"I have not tried for children," Lanaeia said.

Kaelissa looked at Joss and Otaleon. "Does your seed remain viable?"

The seraphs' faces paled and they backed away a step.

"What's the deal with the personal questions?" I asked.

Kaelissa stepped closer to Joss and ran a hand through his blond hair. "I would have you plant your seed in me. Perhaps our ancient blood will overcome the curse."

Joss gulped. "I'm not certain—"

"It is my price for the destruction of my village," Kaelissa said, looking at me. "The Mzodi will refuse aid unless I endorse you."

"I will do it," Otaleon said, clearly unnerved by the prospect. He wiped away a trickle of sweat.

Kaelissa's nose wrinkled. "I think not. I would like this child to have golden hair, not a dull brown."

"Talk about rude," Elyssa said.

I stepped between Kaelissa and Joss. "Are you really going to stake the fate of Seraphina on your need to breed?"

"If our people do not regain immortality, they no longer deserve to exist," she said in a quiet voice. Kaelissa smiled faintly. "I will be taking my tea on the balcony once you reach a decision."

Djola stiffened. "I will prepare your tea at once, Mother." She hurried away.

Kaelissa gave Joss one last look over and strolled through the devastated village back to her undamaged house.

Joss stared after her for a moment. "She is as lovely and every bit as insane as Daelissa."

"The question is, how dangerous is she?" Elyssa murmured. She bit her lip. "Did you see her power with Brilliance?"

I nodded slowly. "Unlike Daelissa, I don't think she used a prism for it."

"But she's a Darkling," Elyssa said. "How is she so powerful with Brilliance?"

"I have no idea," I admitted.

Elyssa turned to Flava. "Will the Mzodi help us if Kaelissa doesn't put in a good word?"

"They are notoriously reclusive," Flava said, "living deep in the Great Barrier Vortex and only visiting border towns to trade gems." She looked grimly toward Kaelissa's home. "I think we need all the help we can muster."

"Surely if we tell them the stakes, they'll give us a lift," I said.

"Perhaps," Flava said. "I don't think they like the land folk."

In other words, I was going to have to push poor Joss into making snu snu with Kaelissa or our mission was toast.

Chapter 15

Before I could come up with a way to broach the subject, Joss spoke. "I will do it. Kaelissa is a delight for the eyes, and I do not have to talk with her."

Elyssa groaned. "Men. I swear to god you would all jump in a pit of spiders if a beautiful woman was involved."

I wrapped an arm around her. "Like the time I traveled to another realm, destroyed their government, and raised an army so I could bring back a healer to save a beautiful woman?"

She stared at me for a moment. "Well, when you put it like that, I guess this is pretty tame."

"Hey, it's not like Joss is taking one for the team," I said. "Provided Kaelissa doesn't go black widow on him and kill him afterward."

Joss's eyes went wide as manhole covers. "Do you believe it a possibility?"

I got the attention of Kaelissa's brood keeper. "She doesn't kill her mates, does she?"

The sera sagged. "No. All the seraphs of Ooskai have mated with her and all still live. Their deepest regret is she gives them only one chance to prove their worth."

Elyssa grimaced. "That's just gross."

Otaleon patted Joss on the back. "Enjoy yourself."

Joss nodded nervously. "It has been over two thousand years."

Lanaeia's eyes softened sympathetically. "Yes, it has been a very long time."

Flava shared a horrified look with Nailan and the other legionnaires. "How have you survived so long without?"

"Well," Lanaeia said shyly, "I was a husk for most of that time."

Joss smiled and departed for Kaelissa's house. "I think he'll last thirty seconds."

"Two minutes," Elyssa said.

Otaleon snorted. "I'll be surprised if he's able to disrobe in time."

We all shared a good laugh in the middle of the half-destroyed village, where the dead outnumbered the living. God knows we needed a light-hearted moment. Then it was time to start the grim task of cleaning up and burying our comrades.

Joss didn't reappear for several hours, during which we time moved the bodies to the small graveyard on the plateau to the south. Lanaeia dug graves in the hard soil by plowing the earth with Murk. Though she was a Brightling, it appeared her dual channeling skills had progressed well.

A crew of villagers brought out long cylinders resembling telescopes but with gems for lenses. Some were as thick as a finger while the largest stood nearly as tall as me. By channeling Murk through tube with a large red stone, they dissolved the crystalline rubble into mist. Within two hours, they'd cleared away one house and started building a new one by channeling through a blue gem nearly six feet in diameter.

Ultraviolet rays swept back and forth along the ground, laying a cloudy foundation that solidified into the shiny black chrome material I'd grown familiar with in Tarissa.

Joss emerged from Kaelissa's house looking flushed and a bit rumpled. Otaleon and I met him in the street.

"Did you go through every step of Kama Sutra in there?" I asked.

Otaleon chuckled. "We expected you much sooner."

Joss grinned. "Apparently, there are some things I remember about my previous existence before the Desecration."

"How to make love for sixty seconds and then talk for several hours?" Otaleon said.

"Let's just say Kaelissa will be more than happy to endorse our voyage with the sky fishers." Joss ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Apparently, this is the first time in centuries she has actually enjoyed coitus."

Elyssa appeared at my side. "How was she?"

Joss cleared his throat uneasily. "Let us just say that in between sessions, she rambled about her ambitions." He looked into the distance. "She hopes to raise an immortal Empress."

"What if she has your child?" Elyssa said. "Will you want to see it?"

Joss flinched. "I hadn't thought that far ahead."

Elyssa groaned. "Sex apparently reduces males of every kind to short-sighted stupor."

"Of course I will want to see the child," Joss interjected before Elyssa could badmouth every male in the universe. "If Kaelissa does not want it, then I will gladly take it."

"How does she even know if the child will be immortal or not?" I asked.

"Flava told me a good healer can detect if the child will be short-lived," Otaleon said. "There is a darkness in the genes of those affected by the Desecration that cannot be purged."

That got me to thinking about all the husked Seraphim we'd revived. The Desecration had affected the Seraphim in Eden much differently than those here in Seraphina. "Can Flava test the reborn to make sure they didn't lose their long lifespans?"

"She tested me and found me free of the malady," Otaleon said. "It is possible the method for restoring us from husked form also purged whatever affects the lifespans of the Seraphim here."

"Are you otherwise healthy?" I said. "You're not shooting blanks or anything?"

The term obviously didn't compute because his forehead pinched into a confused V.

"You're not sterile," I clarified.

"I did not ask her to check that," Otaleon said.

"Though he'd like to test it with her," Joss said with chuckle.

"Ooh, Otaleon likes Flava?" I said.

Otaleon sighed. "She is a beautiful sera who has proven herself fierce in combat and a great leader. What more could a seraph ask for?"

I thought back to the earlier conversation about how important the matriarchal lineage was to the angels. "I take it women—seras—are the ones who make the moves here?"

"Perhaps during our time," Otaleon said. "It seems things are more uncertain now."

I expected Elyssa to make some smart remark about how it was better with women in charge, but she passed up the opportunity. Eyes pensive, she sighed. "Too bad Daelissa had to make females in charge look bad."

"You should speak with Flava," Joss told Otaleon. "We are at war and the odds are one of you will die before it ends. Do not let the opportunity pass you by, brother."

"I agree," Elyssa said, voice somber. "You never know what tomorrow brings."

As if on cue, Flava stepped from the southern tree line, face smudged with dirt from burying the dead. She joined our group and said, "It is time for final rites, if you would like to join us."

Otaleon touched her shoulder. "Of course."

She patted his hand. "Thank you."

As the sun dipped in the west, we walked up the incline to the plateau and regarded the rows of headstones. Lanaeia sat on a boulder, shoulders sagging, face pale with exhaustion. Even her silvery hair had lost some of its luster.

Flava called our small group to order and began. "We were once more than a mighty thousand strong, and in one fell swoop, reduced to a hundred. From a legion to a century in the space of a moment. Over the months, our numbers dwindled as Cephus's minions hunted and killed us. Once again we have been reduced, and now we are only a handful."

She let that sink in for a moment. "Though our numbers are small, our will to fight and win is great. Cephus has no loyalty but to himself. His evil will die, if not by our hands, by the hands of Eden's army. Today, we celebrate those who sacrificed all for the love of Pjurna and her people."

Flava knelt and splayed her fingers, palms facing the ground as was common when Seraphim greeted each other. The rest of us mimicked her.

"May the skies receive your souls and your lives find peace on the ethereal plane." Flava squeezed shut her eyes. "Amen."

"Amen," Nailan and Philas said, and the rest of us chimed in right after.

Flava rose and wiped away tears. "Thank you for coming."

I gave Elyssa a confused look as the small gathering dispersed. "Did she say amen?"

"Sure sounded like it," she said. "I didn't follow everything since it was in Cyrinthian, but that last word sounded pretty familiar."

"Weird." I took her hand and led her away from the others to the far end of the plateau where it ended in a cliff overlooking a seemingly endless plain of red grass. A tall boulder shielded us from the cool breeze, but still allowed us to see into the distance.

Elyssa leaned against me as we sat in silence and just enjoyed being with each other. It felt as if we'd been in Seraphina for weeks and not just a few days, and I'd been jonesing for some alone time with her.

I lifted her chin and brought her soft lips to mine. She tasted sweet, and sent fire rushing through my veins. "You missed a little blood on your forehead," I told her.