Fireborn Champion (16 page)

She was innocent. Blameless. They all were.
 

Iron didn’t know what the circle was or why it was broken. He didn’t know the gods’ secret shame. For the first time in his life, he didn’t really care anything about the Six or the mysterious Serpent who hated them. Real people lived in his life now, not a bunch of distant gods now fallen. Those people didn’t deserve a war that would destroy them, and if anyone could find a way to stop it, he could.

Iron grabbed the weapon, and a brilliant aura ignited around the priest. “And so it is done. From one Sun to the next, let the champion rise. Forgive them, Fireborn, or perish creation. He who wields the Fang of Asgeron alone can stop the Serpent’s rise.”

A burning, blinding flash engulfed Iron. As black overtook him, he finally realized why the spirit’s looks bothered him. The alp skin, fangs, and eyes threw him, but now he realized the ghost’s face and his were the same. Black swallowed him, and the world vanished.

Strong hands wrapped beneath Iron’s arms and pulled him from a pit of black. Voices carried through the abyss as if on wind. Something hard pressed against his back.
 

Iron heaved and vomited. Light blinded him as he twisted onto his hands and spilled the contents of his stomach on a hard surface. He blinked, and his eyes focused on his surroundings.

No gems dotted these walls. No statue of the Burning Mother towered over him, and neither did the spirit of the second Fireborn champion hover over the rippling water. No, he stood in the mural-slathered hall of empty alcoves, that place where he’d first seen the pale fish that led him to a secret knowledge and hinted at a forgotten shame. His clothes lay in a pile beside him, the sword he left now replaced by the one called the Fang of Asgeron, sheathed as it was in a nondescript scabbard.

“Bless the Six, he’s alive!” Sander’s voice penetrated Iron’s stupor. Blurred figures gained clarity as he blinked seawater from his eyes.

“Alive?” Iron rubbed his aching temple. “Of course—”

Sander darted into view. He slid onto his knees and embraced his apprentice. One of Sander’s arms coiled around Iron’s torso while the other cradled his head. Iron recognized the man’s smell. He’d grown up with it, and it brought back memories of happier, ignorant days.
 

“You gave me a scare, boy,” Sander whispered. “Don’t do that to me. I couldn’t bear you to leave me like that. Not sure if my heart’s strong enough to take it.”

Master, they lied to us. They never fought the evil, they sent us to fight it, and each time, the war destroyed the world. Our faith is a lie. Everything is a lie.
The words wrestled behind his lips, but he forced them down instead of out. He coughed briny water and wrapped his arms around his master. Feeling Sander’s heartbeat calmed his own.

Iron pulled away and slapped on a silly grin. “Like I’d let the great Sander Hale fall to a broken heart. Didn’t you always tell me the only true way for a Sinner’s man to go is in a final blaze of glory? I mean, that’s why you’re so scared of fights, isn’t it? You’re just saving all your bravery for that last big, hopeless brawl. With girls watching…Fun ones, not ones like Ayska.”

Sander laughed and squeezed him again. “You’re a stupid boy and you get on my last nerve. But yes, that’s probably how it all goes down, when the sky’s on fire and the world’s watching.”
 

He smiled wider and wiped the last few drops of sea from his brow. If Sander only knew how much like prophecy those words sounded.
 

The man released Iron and narrowed his eyes. “What in all the hells were you thinking?”

“I, ah, well…I just got mad, and…” He looked into his master’s dark eyes. The wrinkles around them deepened with the man’s worry. All Sander’s life, he worshiped the Six. Telling him the truth now bordered on profane for someone as dedicated to the Six as Sander. The time had come for Iron to keep his visions to himself.

“I saw the ruins in the hole and thought I’d go exploring. It was deeper than I thought.”

“Oh, you wanted treasure? You could’ve at least waited for me to come with. It’s been a day or two since I went on a good hunt and you should know better than to go diving into a fucking underwater maze without me around to help you.” His eyes cast about. “Find anything?”

Iron’s eyes shifted to the enchanted sword piled on his clothes. He pointed his shoulder toward the weapon. Even covered, it shone like moonlight, its guard and grip pulsing gently. He latched onto the grip and lifted it before his master. “What do you think?”

Sander traced the length of the sheath. The man cocked his head and scrunched his nose into a wrinkled wedge like he’d just walked behind a greyhorn with bad gas. “How much seawater did you drink?”

“Very funny.”

“Your sword? It’s not what I would call humorous, more like sad. I mean, it’s not a bad quality, but I wasn’t exactly rich enough to give you the best of the best.”

Iron dropped the sword in his lap. He ran his thumb across the grip, and it left a shimmering line in its wake. Sander couldn’t see what Iron saw. This weapon, whatever it was, wouldn’t let Iron flash it around so easily. “I guess I did drink a little too much of the sea. I thought I picked up a weapon. I guess my own had fallen.”

“You’ll need to clean it tonight. I should slap you upside the head for diving in with a steel weight strapped around your ass, but I’ll let it slide.”

“I’ll clean it. I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry for even storming off in the first place.”
 

That last bit was true at least. Sander helped him to his feet. “C’mon, the others are worried. Let’s just forget our little talk before you ran off and have a good dinner. Ayska wants to throw a party, show off the little kingdom she’s claimed.”

“Master?”

Sander paused at the exit. “Yes?”

“If the Six ever wronged you, would you forgive them?”

The man laughed and crossed his arms. “The Six can’t go wrong. What a silly question.”

“Yeah, but just say theoretically they could do something wrong, something that would even shame them. If they asked you to forgive them for it after you’ve spent your life serving them, could you do it?”

“
Hmm
.” He pinched his chin and furrowed his brow. “If the highest of the gods could wrong me so greatly it required their forgiveness, I suppose I’d wonder if they were the right gods in the first place. Then the question begs, do we worship gods for their power, or because they are an example of how we should be? A god worshiped for power is no more a god than a wildfire or an avalanche. A god who makes us aspire to be someone greater than who we are, now that is true divinity. Let’s get you onto the surface before all this philosophical talk puts me asleep.”

“You never answered my question.”

“I don’t really accept the premise of it, and neither should you. We’re Sinner’s men, boy, and we’ve got real problems facing us. Better to not waste time creating new ones for our heads to ponder.”

Sander waited at the tunnel for his apprentice. Iron nodded as if he accepted the answer and followed the man on the gentle upward slope. While they walked in quiet darkness lit by the glowing weapon only Iron saw, he thought on Sander’s words. They were wiser than his master knew, and more apt than the man would ever admit if he knew the truth.
 

A god worshipped for power is no more a god than a wildfire or an avalanche. For the first time in his life, Iron began to see the Six more as avalanches than as examples.

Iron watched with only half a mind present as the crew threw their celebration. Everyone had gathered beneath a swath of glittering stars with its thin crescent of a lopsided moon a catlike grin just above the horizon. It looked as if the moon knew Iron’s secret and mocked him for the burden he carried. It probably knew where Asgeron’s shrine waited as well. Hells, it had probably watched the titan make it.

Ayska held the celebration on one of the lower, largest balconies ringing the tower’s base. Blossoming plants grew in bountiful bushels over the blue stone. How they sprouted from hewn rock, Iron had no idea, but he appreciated the sweet aroma the lavender and lily blossoms added to the fresh breeze.

Whether through pure charisma or saltwater gin or a mix of both, Vigal somehow coaxed a dance from Fiolle. Apparently, they’d been more than dance partners and friends for awhile, a not-so-secret secret Sander had been thrilled to discover.

The two sailors stepped and twirled in a rhythmic dance Iron had never seen this dance before that night. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen any dances in his lifetime, save catching his master twirling on the snow once or twice when he thought Iron had fallen asleep. Dancing reminded Iron of dueling, but with two winners in the end. He liked that idea.

While Vigal and Fiolle danced, Round Gil and Thip played some sort of drinking game with a cup and dice. Depending on the roll, either the player took a shot or ordered the partner to take one. Considering the weight difference between the men, he expected Thip to crumple into a snoring pile several rounds ago. But the way Gil swayed as he threw his dice told him Thip might have had a little more skill with the game than he let Gil know.

Sander danced with a few of the others. They had their arms linked together and spun around like a windmill with Sander at its center. Iron couldn’t help but smile. How long had it been since he’d seen his master so happy? Of course, the man’s sloppy grin and bleary eyes might all have been a ploy. He probably watched Iron like a glory hawk even as he slurped his gin and guzzled his ale.
 

Next Iron’s gaze wandered to Kalila. She moved like a gentle giant through the blossoms. Not a word slipped from her lips, but then again, words never did. She bent low and caressed the soft flowers, her wide nose swelling as she took in their scent with a smile. Some part of her respected that garden, she never picked a single petal, much less a bloom, no matter how alluring.

“They can be free here,” Ayska said, drawing alongside him. “It’s the one place on Urum untouched by the High King and his cult.”

Iron bit his lip. “Everything always circles back to him.”

“It does and it will until he’s stopped, Six willing.”

“I’m sure they are.” Iron took his sword from the scabbard, holding the grip in one hand and flat of the blade in the other. It glowed brighter than the mischievous moon. Its radiance betrayed the power within it.

“What do you see?” he asked her.

She shrugged, leaning to the weapon. “Your sword.”

“My sword…” He laughed and sheathed Fang. The gods wanted him to be a hero, they just didn’t want anyone to know it. Sander bound his magic with the Sinner’s Oath while the Mother hid his sword beneath an illusion of paltry steel.

“What’s so funny? You’ve been acting strange since your accident at the pool.” She nudged his shoulder playfully. “That seawater get in your brain?”

“More than I’d like, I think.”

Ayska gripped a braid, idly inspecting it. She released it after a quiet moment and took his wrist. “Come with me.” She swiveled to the door leading inside the tower.
 

“You want to practice Loyal Stance? Now? I’m not really in the mood.”

“No, there’ll be plenty of time to practice. I want to show you something else.”

She led him inside and up the gently sloping walkway. Evenly spaced windows illuminated the interior with moonlight, washing over her bare arms and accentuating the scars running up them.

By the time they reached their destination, Iron’s legs burned from the climb. Ayska strolled onto another balcony much smaller than the first but much, much higher. The tower peaked behind him. The Sapphire Sea glittered below. The stars, they shone in their own flashy glory around the grinning crescent.

She walked to the balcony’s lip and leaned on its solid rail. He’d nearly hated this woman once, but it struck him as a silly thought now. Then, he saw her scars and the fear they wrought. Now, he saw the woman she’d become despite them.

“I used to curse them,” Ayska said.

Iron stood beside her as a breeze whipped around them, warm and inviting. “The Six?”

She nodded as she searched the sky. “They had my hatred. After the Godfall, magic vanished, the priests who protected us disappeared, murdered or too afraid to fight. Only the High King and the Serpent Sun remained. His priests slaughtered as they went. They purged Eloia first. Then, they came for those who lived around them. Kalila and I…we lost everything. Everyone. She spoke once.” Ayska’s lip trembled. “Had I been a more loyal sister, she might not be suffering as I know she is now, but my father was a hard man, and when they fell, he broke. I fled. Kalila stayed. She paid the price for his insanity while my childish anger at the gods nearly lost me the only one I had left.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. You’d never run—”

“No, I would Iron because I did. All I can do now is be the sister I should have been, the loyal one who stays by her side instead of fleeing when the serpents come.” Ayska grabbed his hand and pointed. “Look, there she is.”

Iron followed the line his finger drew. “I only see a bunch of stars.”

“That’s the Mother’s constellation. They say it’s her, watching us, mourning our loss of innocence and hoping we find our love again. There’s a constellation for each of the Six up there. They say soon those constellations will align, but I don’t know exactly when.”
 

Ayska shifted Iron’s hand across the sky. “That’s the Loyal Father, ever watching, waiting for the day when we’re worthy to hear his song again. They say his song is what ignites the Suns when they first rise. It’s him I cursed. It’s him I wished death upon those many dark nights.”

The words actually took Iron back. This was a woman who loved the Loyal Father, who fought using his stances, and if the crew was correct, kept a shrine to him in her room.

“It’s easy to curse them, Iron.” She sighed and dropped his hand, turning to him. “But I was the one who needed cursing. I was the disloyal one. I was the sinner, not the saint. When I realized that, I returned to him and devoted my life to being his daughter. He fights for those without a voice, and so do I. And because I have faith in him, he brought me a ship and gave me a crew. I have a real, true family, and because I love the father, he keeps them safe. I know it. In my heart, I just know it.”