Crystal Crowned [ARC] (32 page)

“Then I will tell my people that they will expect to move in about two weeks’ time,” Sehra reasoned. “Have you plans to get through his walls?”

“Was there a crystal one to the north?” Vhalla frowned. Sehra nodded. “How did you get through it?”

“I used the power of Yargen,” Sehra replied, as though that fact would be obvious.

Vhalla accepted it at face value. When the war was over, she was going to ensure she sat down and learned exactly what the power of Yargen was and how it worked.

“But that will not work in the Waste. It is too far from the old trees.”

“I see.” Vhalla adjusted her crown, the jostling of the carriage threatening to throw it off her brow. “Aldrik, has anyone scouted south?”

“We can send someone. It should take—” he was cut short as the carriage came to a sudden stop with a loud whinny.

“Tainted!” Vhalla heard someone scream. “She’s tainted!”

A commotion rose outside the carriage. The four inside shared a brief look before bursting out the doors. Vhalla clenched her fists, prepared for whatever she was about to face.

A group of people blocked the path to the drawbridge of the castle. They surrounded a single horse and rider. Guards lined the drawbridge, swords drawn.

The rider looked as though she had come a long way. Her body was frail and her clothes threadbare. Her shoulders heaved, and her hands shook. Vhalla’s eyes lingered on the woman’s hands. Black veins bulged under the skin, as though trying to break through. Old cuts lingered open, having turned raw and leathery rather than healing. The woman raised her face. What was once Southern eyes had been turned nearly entirely red.

“Take,” she rasped. “Take me—to Vhalla Yarl.”

There was something about the voice that cut deep into Vhalla’s consciousness. Something that was familiar in the most terrible of ways. To everyone else, the woman looked like a tainted monster. Blackened gums receding away from lengthening teeth, blood red eyes and gnarled hands—it all made for a terrifying picture.

But Vhalla mentally smeared away the blood and decay. She imagined the woman’s eyes to be blue and her frame thicker. She imagined her hair was not matted and, after a wash, would be blonde. But not the fair shades of blonde. A darker shade, one that could almost pass for Eastern.

“By the might of the Mother, we will smite you down,” a guard boldly proclaimed.

“Wait!” Vhalla stepped forward, and the crowd melted away from her.

Heat registered next to her as fire crackled around Aldrik’s closed fists.

“What do you want with Vhalla Yarl?” she asked the familiar creature.

There was a delay, and the tainted woman swayed. She looked as though she was about to make an effort to dismount, but gave up halfway through. Her body fell to the road below with a sickening thud.

“Vhalla, stop.” Aldrik caught her wrist, stopping her from running to the prone creature. “Don’t go near it.”

“It’s Tim.”
At least, she hoped it was.

Shock relaxed his jaw, and Aldrik looked between the woman he held and the one unmoving on the ground. He squinted, trying to see what she had seen. Vhalla didn’t have time for it.

Wrenching her arm from Aldrik’s, she sprinted over to the prone woman, stopping a step out of her reach. The taint was even worse close-up. It looked as though the very thing that was holding Tim together had somehow turned sour, and now her body was falling apart from the inside.

“Timanthia?” Vhalla breathed.

No one made a sound.

The woman struggled, gasping for air through bleeding gums and black saliva. She half snarled, half cried, as she tried to will her body to move. Vhalla knelt down, hearing Aldrik’s footsteps behind her.

“T-take it. Take it. From him. I came. For you,” Tim’s voice crackled and rasped. She raised an arm weakly.

Vhalla’s hands closed around silver. She felt the etchings along the outside of the bangle, familiar and almost warm to the touch. It was scratched and scuffed. But it was undeniably the token Larel had given to Vhalla years ago.

“Listen to. Listen, and help them,” Tim pleaded. She gripped Vhalla’s skirts, blinking away bloody tears that poured over her cheeks. “Take it and kill me.”

“Can nothing be done for her?” Vhalla whispered to no one. She was unable to tear her eyes away from the other woman’s face. At the grotesque shade that had been cast upon what was once beauty.

“She’s too far gone,” Sehra responded.

Vhalla wanted to scream. She had a thousand questions. How had Tim made it to Norin? Why had she come? How had she survived, and what had she endured? Vhalla needed hours to dissect all the information locked within Tim’s story. And all she was giving Vhalla was a bracelet. Vhalla carefully twisted the bangle and slipped it off while holding Tim’s wrist steady.

“Lady Empress, I don’t think it wise—” the highest ranking guard began cautioning.

“I did not ask what you thought.” She put the jewlery on her own wrist and slowly returned Tim’s arm to the woman’s side. Vhalla stared down at the face of suffering.
This was what their time had cost.

They were partying, while their people were dying.

Vhalla caressed Tim’s cheek gently, unafraid of crystal taint. Sorrow was being smothered by anger, by pain. She didn’t want to cry. She wanted to end it all, once and for all. She wanted to see that there never was another day, ever, where crystal taint would be feared.

“K-k-kill . . .” Tim’s lower lip quivered overtop her unnaturally shaped teeth.

“Tim, thank you.” Vhalla’s hand shifted to cover the woman’s mouth. “Thank you.”

Just enough magic
, just enough to turn her insides to liquid. To shred her lungs and tear through her heart. Wind roared under Vhalla’s skin and poured into Tim. The woman shuddered and the second her neck burst Vhalla withdrew her palm.

Everyone looked on as the Empress slowly stood. Vhalla balled her hand into a fist, blood dripping between her clenched fingers. Vhalla raised her voice for all to hear.

“We march at dawn!”

“My lady, the army can’t possibly march at dawn.” One of the majors tried to catch up with her as she strode through the castle. “That’s not enough time.”

“Find time,” Vhalla demanded unapologetically.

“We need more supplies, carts are still being packed, and—”

“Essentials first, everything else second. The climate will be temperate in the West; we can forego some of the bedding now and pick it up at the Crossroads for the South. We’ll send word ahead on what we need.” Vhalla glanced at the party that developed around her. “Tina, please write to every Western lord and lady between here and the East demanding that supplies be sent to the Crossroads.”

“Major . . .” Vhalla didn’t know what the man’s name was and didn’t care enough to wait for him to say it. “Go with Lady Tina and help give instructions on everything we may need.”

They crossed through a series of inner gardens and back through another slew of halls before Vhalla broke out to the training grounds. She held up her hand, imagining she was winding a ball of wind in its center. The sky screeched briefly with the noise of the unseen twister she created, summoning every soldier’s focus.

“Men and women of the Solaris Army.” The woman in the golden dress, silver crown, and blood-stained hand captured their attention. “For too long we have sat quietly. For too long we have talked about preparing. For too long we have practiced. And I am no exception.”

Vhalla held out her dress, uncaring for the blood she smeared on the gold fabric. She hadn’t expected to be so right when she’d told Aldrik that she’d wear the blood of their subjects. “I have fulfilled my duties as a noblewoman at the cost of my duties as a soldier.”

She never thought she’d identify as a soldier.

“No more.” Vhalla had no idea who was behind her, listening to her words. She only remained focused ahead. “Tomorrow, I ride with the dawn. I make for the Crossroads and for the South. I march to put an end to the false king.

“The lords tell me that there is not enough time, that you are not ready.” Vhalla held out her arms, beseeching. “Is this true? Are you not ready to reclaim your Empire?”

They objected with a swift and powerful, “Nay!”

“Good. Go now, and do what you must to ready yourselves. I only want the best at my side!”

It was like she’d kicked an ants’ nest. The soldiers began running, quickly organizing themselves under their own ranks. Majors stepped forward to bark quick orders.

Vhalla turned. Aldrik stood at her side, his mouth made a firm line.

“Let us get into more fitting clothes for war,” he suggested.

Their momentary escape from the growing madness was unquestioned, and they quickly ascended away from the chaos to what was now
their
chambers. The morning of preparations and nerves was gone. In its wake came renewed purpose.

“Aldrik,” she started as soon as the door closed. “I know you likely do not approve.”

“Vhalla—”

“But we have lingered long enough.” She held out her hands. Vhalla wanted him to understand. “We are ready for this. Sehra is ready. Every moment we wait is another death.”

“Vhalla—”

“I know you can’t speak against me publically, but give me counsel here. I will not back down on this, but I want to know how you think we should go about it.”

“Vhalla.” He took both her hands firmly and silenced her. “I support you.”

She blinked. “You do?”

“I wouldn’t have proclaimed it in the street. I may have pushed in private.” Aldrik shook his head. “But we have done things as I wanted. You are Empress now, and your word holds just as much weight as mine, publically. I will let you lead this war.”

“We will,” Vhalla amended. “It is not
I
or
you
, it is now
we
. And even more than that, it is
us
, for our people.”

“Don your armor,” he suggested as they broke apart to dress. “At least the chainmail. It will set the right mindset.”

“Help me from this?” Vhalla asked as she was half sewn into her dress.

Aldrik obliged, chuckling softly. “This was not why I imagined I’d get you out of your dress on our wedding day.”

“My Emperor, there will be ample time for such things at a later date.” Vhalla rolled her eyes, hunting down clothes substantial enough to go under her chainmail. Vhalla paused, staring at the bangle Tim had given her.

Take it. From him. Listen.

Vhalla stilled, trying to logic through what Tim’s presence had really meant. Her emotions cooled, and her mind spun. She had clearly been trying to deliver the bracelet to Vhalla. Listen; that could mean that Tim wanted Vhalla to pay attention to her.
Unless, it didn’t.

She was a blur from the room, not even bothering to put on her shoes.

“Vhalla!” Aldrik called after her, confused.

Fritz had been at the wedding with Elecia, but the castle was now in utter chaos. Still, she had to start somewhere, and it seemed just as likely if she could find one of them she’d find the other.

“Where’s Elecia Ci’Dan?” Vhalla demanded of a guard between panting breaths. “Have you seen her?”

“My lady?”

“Elecia Ci’Dan?” she repeated.

“I’ve not seen her . . .”

Vhalla muttered a curse under her breath and started for the Westerner’s room. They weren’t there, and they weren’t in Fritz’s either. Vhalla finally found them on the training grounds helping organize and prepare.

“Fritz!” Vhalla practically tackled the man as she tried to pluck him out of a stream of people walking in the opposite direction.

“Vhal? Vhal, what?” Fritz teetered and regained his feet. “Are you all right? I heard what happened and—”

“We need to listen to it.” Vhalla held up the bracelet.

“Is that?” Fritz recognized it instantly, but he didn’t believe it.

“It is,” she insisted.

“How can you be sure?” He looked skeptical still.

“I know one way we can find out.” Vhalla pressed the bracelet into Fritz’s hands. “We need to listen to it again.”

“Nothing will have changed.”

“Fritz, please,” Vhalla pleaded.

He finally obliged, and they went to the nearest vacant guest room, stealing the washbasin from within. Aldrik caught up with them along the way, and Vhalla offered a short explanation as to the importance of the token.

“This may not be the best of ideas.” The Emperor was suddenly uneasy as Fritz placed the bangle into the water. “It may be from Victor. There could be magic within it that will activate when it is tampered with.”

“No,” Vhalla insisted. “If Victor was going to attack me with it, he would have done so when my hand first came into contact with it. I know what crystals feel like, and that does not feel like crystal magic.”

Though, if one of Vhalla’s two theories were correct, they might hear Victor’s voice.

“It will be fine.” Fritz’s words were braver and more certain than he sounded. “Larel would never hurt me.”

Before any further objection could be made, his fingers dipped into the bowl. The water rippled, and they all held their breath as Fritz drew the words out from the vessel.
Listen
—that had been Tim’s dying wish. Vhalla braced herself for what she was about to hear.

First, a familiar voice filled the room. It was the same as Vhalla and Fritz had heard an eternity ago. Larel’s words of encouragement and hope, echoed through the room, and Aldrik’s fingers slipped between hers. He had never heard the message, and Vhalla watched from the corners of her eyes as Aldrik listened to the farewells of his first true friend.

The last words faded and silence followed. Just as Fritz was about to pull his hands from the water, a new voice began to speak. Vhalla had braced herself for the mad voice of a man drunk on crystal magic. But what she heard instead was harder to handle.

“Vhalla, if you are listening to this, then Tim made it.” Grahm’s voice echoed across the water. It was weak and thin, whispered as though his lips were brushing right across the bracelet itself when he recorded his hasty message. “Tim, she—they-they did things to her. Anyone with a wing meets such a fate, or worse. We tried to get her out, but she was lost, she volunteered. She wanted to get our message to you before you left Norin.