The Swarm Trilogy (63 page)
Authors: Megg Jensen
“She made her own choices. You cannot protect her from herself, Chase.”
Chase. I knew that name. I commanded my eyelids to open, but they remained heavy as boulders.
Something took hold of my hand, rubbed my palm. Heat meandered up my arm, into my heart. I tried opening my eyes again, but did not succeed.
Then something touched my other hand, something small, but powerful. My eyelids snapped open and I bolted upright. I saw her. The young girl. The girl whose mind was empty no longer. All the memories flew back, like a thousand enemies and friends rushing me at once. But it was the girl in front of me who was different from the memories I had of her.
“Eloh?” I asked.
She nodded, a look of sadness spreading across her face.
The other people in the room lurched toward me, but I held up a hand toward the group of women and two men. I needed to talk to the little girl first.
“Wren’s mind was empty, never her own. They cast me into her body as punishment. They want me to live again, to experience the pain of humanity. My magic is nearly gone. I used most of it to bring you back to life. The rest is yours. I will do as you command, Lianne.”
I shook my head and was stunned to see my hair cascade around my shoulders in a fiery mess. The silver had faded, replaced by my former red hair.
“I heard them say magic was gone.”
Eloh nodded within the little girl’s head. “It is. You’ve done the impossible and killed the gods. The war has stopped and the enemy fled. Without the magic to back them up, the soldiers deserted the battle. But now everyone is left knowing what they’ve lost. Their connection to the gods’ gift of magic is gone, but not their memories.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“You were the Vessel. There is one every thousand years. The gods send the magic through that person, who unknowingly radiates it to the world. When you died, their magic was cut off. Unfortunately everyone knows what they’ve lost.”
The little girl’s hand reached up and touched my cheek. “They know you did something. They will blame you. All of them. Not just the enemy, but also those who were on your side. By taking away their magic, you have torn the world asunder. Many of them will waste their lives searching for a way to bring the magic back. They will sacrifice anything, and anyone, to find a way to bring it back. Lives will be lost. Your world may be an uglier place in the future. It will not be so different than the time I grew up in, when everyone sacrificed everything they loved in the hope it might bring magic back.”
“So I failed.” My memories rushed back at me. Friends, enemies, lovers found and lost. Every hurt, every joy, tumbled into my soul, filling me with anguish over my failure. I’d done the only thing I could. Sacrificed myself instead of the young girls who’d been compelled to come to me. None of them came willingly. Sacrifice shouldn’t count unless it was done with a pure heart. I thought I’d made the right choice.
The memory of stabbing myself fell into place last. I looked down at my chest. My dress was covered in a splotch of dried blood. My shaking fingers sought out a wound, but I only felt smooth skin underneath.
“You healed me?”
Eloh nodded. “I did. You didn’t fully fail, Lianne. The war is over, maybe not the way you hoped, but it is done for now. Yet there is something else you must know.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Your death caused the magic to be cut off from the realm of humans. But since I brought you back to life, the gateway could be opened again. Until the day you die, you will have the potential to funnel magic back into this world.”
“But the gods are gone.”
“The gods did not create magic,” Eloh explained. “It existed before they did and will exist long after your kind are dead and gone.”
I opened my palm and a small fire sprung to life. “I don’t want this.” My insides shook with fear. I didn’t want to be the only one with access to magic.
“Perhaps not all is lost.” Eloh looked at her hands, the tiny hands of a small girl now controlled by the essence of a former goddess. “There may be enough left.”
“Could you take away my access to magic?” Hope surged in my chest. I glanced at Chase and Johna. She held Chase’s arm in a tight grasp. He’d respected my wishes and stayed back, but I could tell he was ready to jump for me at any moment.
Eloh staggered, clutching the sheets from my bed in her hand. Her voice wavered. “This shell cannot hold my soul for long. You must make your choice.”
“Then I want it gone. If you have the power to take it away, please do it.”
“I cannot cut you off from the magic, but I can keep you from remembering it.”
I glanced over at Chase and saw the pain in his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you,” he said. “We can keep your gift a secret. Everyone will assume you lost yours too. Don’t do this.”
“Wait!” I stroked Wren’s hair. Eloh’s essence shone from her eyes, but the body was still the little girl’s. “Can you make everyone forget magic existed? If they don’t know, they won’t search for it. Is there a way to erase only a part of their memories?”
Her hands wavered, the coloring slowly draining from her face. “It takes greater magic to erase one aspect of life and replace it with memories of the mundane than to cut off all people from it at once. It’s more complicated, less stable.”
“This is what I want. If your remaining magic is mine, as you said, then this is what I choose.” I held out my hands to her. “We can create a circle. Draw on my connection to magic, take what you need from me.”
“It could damage you beyond repair,” Eloh said.
Johna let go of Chase’s arm. She walked over and laid her hands on ours. Her knobby knuckles shook with the age.
“Though you no longer have magic, I can use your life force to connect to my own,” Eloh said, looking at Johna.
I glanced into Johna’s eyes. Swollen and rheumy, they still sparkled with the strength of her conviction. Love surged through my chest. I was the only one with the connection to the source of magic. “No! You can’t sacrifice yourself for this, Johna. I’ll do it.” I sat up, but realized that even though I’d been healed, I was still weak.
“Nonsense. You’ve already made your sacrifice.” She glanced down at my bloody chest. “I’m an old woman. Probably too old to be living. Let me help with this task. I may not have my gift, but I know how to be open. Maybe she can find a piece of it hiding inside me and use it to her advantage.”
Eloh’s lashes fluttered. She looked up at Johna, wide eyed. “You will die. You are too old and sick to survive this.”
“It’s about time. I’m getting tired of trying to make everyone do everything my way. Let them fall or fly on their own.” She waved a hand in the air.
I chuckled nervously at her approach. Always irascible, but loving. I wasn’t sure how she pulled it off. “I’m the last person to tell anyone what to do. I’ve done nothing but act on my own whims for the last year. I know you won’t listen to me any better than I ever did to you.”
“I adore you, child. I would say I love you, but those words need to come from someone else.”
“No more talk,” Eloh sputtered. A small drop of blood slid from the corner of her mouth. “Time is almost gone. Get them out of here. No one should witness this when they can be spared.”
Chase nodded to Xaxier. He opened the door and sent the girls scuffling through.
Sebrina ran to my side, burying her head in my shoulder. “I love you so much, Lianne. I don’t understand what’s happened, but I trust you to do the right thing. We’ll see each other soon?”
I kissed her on the cheek, and then nodded. I would see her, but how much of me would she remember? So many of our interactions revolved around magic. With her memory of it gone, would I only be an afterthought? Sebrina ran through the doorway, followed by Xaxier with my mother’s dead body cradled in his arms.
Johna squeezed her hands tighter, and then closed her eyes. “I am ready.”
Chase rushed to my side, sat on the bed, and pulled me into his arms. The old woman and the young girl took on an unearthly glow. The air around them vibrated, a keening song of sorrow flowed from them. Carried on the breeze, it left through the window, spreading its song of sadness and forgetfulness.
They both collapsed to the floor. I slid out of Chase’s arms and off the bed. Cradling them, one in each arm, I kissed their closed eyelids. “Thank you.”
I looked back at Chase. He stood next to me, with his arm outstretched, palm up. I slid my hand in his, slowly rising to my feet. My eyes locked with his. There was a strong love between us.
Memories flashed in my mind. The day we met in the forest. He’d shown me his tree house community and kept me prisoner there. For my own good? I couldn’t quite remember why. There had been sketches of me. Tokens of love or just a quiet diversion for him? I’d been with another man I’d loved, but he had died in a cave. It was long ago, nearly a year now.
“Chase.” It came out as a breathy whisper. A question. A promise. It was everything all at once.
“Lianne, my love.”
My skin tingled with anticipation. Perhaps my past was a bit of a jumble, a leaf that flew away on the breeze. For some reason, I didn’t care. I only wanted to look forward to my future with Chase.
He sat down on the bed, wrapping his arms around me, clasping my shoulder blades with his strong hands. His lips rested on mine, awakening me to the joy and comfort of the world.
I pulled back and glanced down at my immaculate dress. Something nudged at my memory, telling me that just moments ago, things had been different.
“Why are they dead?” I asked Chase, pointing to Johna and the young girl, Wren, on the floor.
“It must have been the plague,” Chase answered. “People have been so sick, but I have a weird feeling that the tides are about to change. I think the plague is waning.”
The plague? There had been many deaths. I vaguely remembered that people must have been sick. “Yes, of course.”
I knelt down on the floor next to them. They didn’t look ill. They both laid silently, their mouths curved in an identical soft smile. It seemed to me they were satisfied, happy even. This was unlike any plague I’d ever heard of.
“We should find Xaxier,” Chase said. “He’ll know what to do with them.”
“Xaxier?” I hesitated, before slipping my hand in Chase’s. “The undertaker. Yes, of course. We’ll find Xaxier.”
Chase opened the door to my chambers. I hesitated at the threshold, still a bit confused. My hands tingled and I pulled them away from his, gazing at my palms. It felt like a fire danced across my skin, but they were just as creamy as they’d always been.
I shrugged, smiled, and then took his hand again.
I stepped out of my chambers, feeling deep inside that somehow I was experiencing the birth of a new world.
The End
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Acknowledgments
My undying thanks to the people who helped The Sundering take shape: Angela Carlie, Karly Kirkpatrick, and Susan Kaye Quinn. A special thank you to my kids. I love you more than words can say. None of this would be possible without my husband’s support and his eagle eye.
To Shelby, who helped me name Wren. It’s perfection. Thank you so much!
Thanks to all of my readers. I wouldn’t have come this far without you.
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