throne from Jorsin. A gleaming black dome huddled where once Trayethell had stood.
~Acaelus. Mourn later. There is work to be done.~
The voice came from inside his own head. The black ka’kari. It had saved him. It had been a secret gift from Jorsin Alkestes, who had told bull-headed Acaelus Thorne to flee, to live.
But Jorsin hadn’t said he meant Acaelus to live forever.
I’ll come back and take it off your hands, Jorsin had promised with his roguish grin when he’d given Acaelus the treasure. The liar. He was wan, washed out, but his eyes burned with a fevered intensity. He’d been spending every day fighting and every night with archmage Ezra, making…something. Never sleeping. Working on some last-minute salvation that Acaelus only slowly came to understand wasn’t coming.
Jorsin Alkestes: emperor, genius, archmage, tyrant. Jorsin Alkestes was a light so bright he left shadows standing centuries hence. The semblances of men, burned onto granite walls. And one shadow was perfect above all others. A walking, breathing shadow. A shadow as flickering as the ghosts thrown by a candle, as mutable as a king’s promises. A shadow who devoured light and life.
Light is, but a shadow undefined becomes simply darkness. And light had been too long denied the man who had been Acaelus Thorne. He was thin, fraying, a bowlful of smoke. He was becoming undifferentiated darkness.
What if the light itself had been a lie?
* * *
Mount Tenji is the tallest mountain in Ceura. When I was a kid, people used to make pilgrimages up the mountain. It’s been too cold for that for centuries. It’s a volcano, but it hasn’t erupted in more than a hundred years. Some smoke from time to time is all.
I reach the crater on the sixth day of climbing. I’m buried deep in many layers of coats. The wind is blowing snow everywhere.
You’re good for a lot of things, I think at the black ka’kari, but keeping me warm isn’t one of them.
~You left off part of Oath of Sa’kagé the other day.~
Noticed, did you?
~“Until the king returns, I shall not lay my burden down.”~
I pause. Jorsin Alkestes is dead. He’s not coming back.
~Gather the ka’kari. Bring them all together. It’s time.~
Impossible.
~Impossible? For you?~
And if I’m successful? I have a fraction of Jorsin Alkestes’ power, and I’m unstoppable. He was my king, but I’m not sure he wasn’t mad at the end.
The ka’kari doesn’t answer. It knows me well enough to know when I have to muddle through things on my own.
There is only one question: Does what you do, every day, have meaning? Acaelus had thought his actions did, once. For centuries, he’d put his faith in Jorsin Alkestes. A long dead king. A madman who’d sworn he would return. Even from death. A madman who’d left madness everywhere in his wake.
Acaelus had given his all. He was tired of giving. He was tired of believing. It was too much. It was finished.
~He loved you, you know. More than anyone. Do you trust your old friend?~
I stand on that windblown peak for some time.
“Not to be a god.”
I toss the red ka’kari into the crater.
I strap the schlusses to my feet, and head down the mountain at great speed. Ordinarily, the speed and danger give me a fierce joy. But now I’m a husk. I’m like the great sequoys of Torra’s Bend, leaves still green but the heart rotted out, hollow, waiting, just waiting for the storm to come along that will end it all. A mummery of life. More alone than I’ve ever been.
The volcano won’t destroy the red, I don’t think. But it does put it beyond reach. Either the red will get caught partway down, but not all the way in the magma, and it will be impossible for anyone to live long muddle grab it, or it will make it all the way down, soak up as much power as it can hold—a huge amount—and then release it. Over and over.
I’m halfway down the mountain when the volcano explodes.
Guess it made it to the magma.
I turn my back on the volcano
~Acaelus. Mourn later. There is work to be done.~
The voice came from inside his own head. The black ka’kari. It had saved him. It had been a secret gift from Jorsin Alkestes, who had told bull-headed Acaelus Thorne to flee, to live.
But Jorsin hadn’t said he meant Acaelus to live forever.
I’ll come back and take it off your hands, Jorsin had promised with his roguish grin when he’d given Acaelus the treasure. The liar. He was wan, washed out, but his eyes burned with a fevered intensity. He’d been spending every day fighting and every night with archmage Ezra, making…something. Never sleeping. Working on some last-minute salvation that Acaelus only slowly came to understand wasn’t coming.
Jorsin Alkestes: emperor, genius, archmage, tyrant. Jorsin Alkestes was a light so bright he left shadows standing centuries hence. The semblances of men, burned onto granite walls. And one shadow was perfect above all others. A walking, breathing shadow. A shadow as flickering as the ghosts thrown by a candle, as mutable as a king’s promises. A shadow who devoured light and life.
Light is, but a shadow undefined becomes simply darkness. And light had been too long denied the man who had been Acaelus Thorne. He was thin, fraying, a bowlful of smoke. He was becoming undifferentiated darkness.
What if the light itself had been a lie?
* * *
Mount Tenji is the tallest mountain in Ceura. When I was a kid, people used to make pilgrimages up the mountain. It’s been too cold for that for centuries. It’s a volcano, but it hasn’t erupted in more than a hundred years. Some smoke from time to time is all.
I reach the crater on the sixth day of climbing. I’m buried deep in many layers of coats. The wind is blowing snow everywhere.
You’re good for a lot of things, I think at the black ka’kari, but keeping me warm isn’t one of them.
~You left off part of Oath of Sa’kagé the other day.~
Noticed, did you?
~“Until the king returns, I shall not lay my burden down.”~
I pause. Jorsin Alkestes is dead. He’s not coming back.
~Gather the ka’kari. Bring them all together. It’s time.~
Impossible.
~Impossible? For you?~
And if I’m successful? I have a fraction of Jorsin Alkestes’ power, and I’m unstoppable. He was my king, but I’m not sure he wasn’t mad at the end.
The ka’kari doesn’t answer. It knows me well enough to know when I have to muddle through things on my own.
There is only one question: Does what you do, every day, have meaning? Acaelus had thought his actions did, once. For centuries, he’d put his faith in Jorsin Alkestes. A long dead king. A madman who’d sworn he would return. Even from death. A madman who’d left madness everywhere in his wake.
Acaelus had given his all. He was tired of giving. He was tired of believing. It was too much. It was finished.
~He loved you, you know. More than anyone. Do you trust your old friend?~
I stand on that windblown peak for some time.
“Not to be a god.”
I toss the red ka’kari into the crater.
I strap the schlusses to my feet, and head down the mountain at great speed. Ordinarily, the speed and danger give me a fierce joy. But now I’m a husk. I’m like the great sequoys of Torra’s Bend, leaves still green but the heart rotted out, hollow, waiting, just waiting for the storm to come along that will end it all. A mummery of life. More alone than I’ve ever been.
The volcano won’t destroy the red, I don’t think. But it does put it beyond reach. Either the red will get caught partway down, but not all the way in the magma, and it will be impossible for anyone to live long muddle grab it, or it will make it all the way down, soak up as much power as it can hold—a huge amount—and then release it. Over and over.
I’m halfway down the mountain when the volcano explodes.
Guess it made it to the magma.
I turn my back on the volcano
Similar Books
