Path to Destiny

Chapter 61

Chapter 61

I knelt on the ground, my forehead to the dirt in front of Eden. The only piece left of her was the ruby Norian gem that had always decorated her head. I gripped it, and the memories associated with it nearly made me cry as they burned through my mind like a forest fire. This gem wasn't Norian. It was Ashadian, crafted by a young village sorceress who'd eventually become the first queen of Ashad. It was the only mortal object Eden ever carried, from her time as Ashad's protector.

I cried like I never had before. My entire body burned. She was supposed to be immortal, supposed to stay with me until I freed her from my body.

I had come too late to save her.

The sounds of cheering soldiers echoed beyond the castle gates. Confused and purified citizens stumbled forward. Illtyd touched his forehead to mine, his grizzled face holding the remnants of sorrow he refused to show earlier. "I am sorry, little one."

I felt as though I had just lost part of myself.

Mikkel stood abruptly and turned. I watched him as his eyes widened. In front of the moving citizens, both dead and alive, lay a woman prostrate on the ground. Her thick golden hair was matted with blood and dirt.

I stood with him and walked over to Queen Jada Harari without thinking twice.

She was a rag doll -- her arms and legs splayed out, covered with cuts and bruises. Black veins streaked black down her pale skin. The scar on the left side of her face was covered in blood.

When I neared her, her blue eyes opened suddenly. She grabbed the jagged dagger I hadn't noticed beside her and lunged for me. I ducked, bracing for an impact that never came.

Clarice appeared behind me, twisted Jada's arm, and shoved her to the ground.

But the queen jerked upright once more, her body unrelenting. "I will not fall to you... you foolish mortals. I am an immortal queen!" she screamed, blood spurting from her mouth.

"Not anymore," Mikkel replied, his voice dangerously low. He stepped forward, fingers clenching one at a time. Behind Jada the gates of the Arian castle opened, making way for the confused, hesitant citizens who avoided our circle of Elementals. I spotted the Drushite cardinals -- Sybil and Coral looked shaken though unharmed.

Jada whirled to face them, dagger in hand. Baruch stepped forward from the crowd and took a spear from his back. She hissed: "You."

"Thought I was dead when you sold me to slavery, did you?" he whispered, his tall form moving toward Jada with unsuppressed rage.

"Wait," Clarice said, and Baruch stopped. Jada faced both of them, Baruch on her left and Clarice on her right. Her bloodshot eyes were wild with madness.

Clarice smiled and drew her sword. "Queen Jada Harari," she said in a loud voice that must've carried to the citizens at the gate, because they looked in our direction, "I challenge you to a Blod Glōria to fight..." Clarice hesitated, glancing at me. "...for the throne of Drush."

I backed up in horror. "Clarice, you can't --"

"I accept, you wench!" Jada cried. "If not to kill you and these wretched peasants. And then I will kill you for this burn," she hissed to Baruch, clawing her fingers down the left side of her face. I remembered Mikkel's memories of how she'd learned her lesson after she pursued Baruch. That must have been before she punished Baruch and his master for following the god Omir...before she'd burned his village to the ground.

Blod Glōria. Blood glory. I closed my eyes. It was a fight to the death, a proper Drushite challenge, one recognized by the cardinals. I opened my eyes to see Clarice straighten her shoulders, her freckled, battered face fearsome with anger and determination I'd never seen. In the time she'd been away -- in the time I'd been fighting without her -- Clarice Faretra had grown into a woman.