41 | ACT II, SCENE XIII

P R E V I O U S L Y

The dead men's screams tore the air apart.

VEZORT ISLAND, OCEMOND SEA.

EDWINA

"NOT THERE, VALMONT!" I SHOUTED, as Tristan dodged the huge spitball of fire I hurled at one man.

"I heard you the first time, woman!" he yelled back, whizzing a dagger and pulling out another as the blade hit its mark.

It went on and on.

There were more than two hundred Dessari.

We were just two.

"When we win, we will take you first," a Dessari soldier hissed into my ear and I gritted my teeth and swung around, throwing a knife at him. He smoothly deflected it and appeared behind me.

"Perhaps I'll have a go at you," another laughed.

"Not just you. Me and all the other men, even our beasts," the first one replied, cutting a scratch on my neck. I lashed him with my sword and he quickly fell down, but two more took his place soon enough. They lunged at me and I struck one with my sword, decapitating him. The other jumped on me and I exhaled loudly, letting fire flow through me and burn him alive.

I had no idea where my bow was, or my halberd. I only had Seraphine and my spear left, and my power was fast depleting, low enough as it had been when we entered Vezort Island. In Endollon I would never have faced this problem, for my power would almost be inexhaustible since I drew it directly from the volcano under Dracnesse.

"Behind you!" Tristan shouted from the other side. Alarmed, I swung my head around. The spikes in it caught about three Dessari, slicing their guts out in a clean stroke.

Beside me, a muffled groan rent the air as the thunder god ripped out a man's heart with his bare hands, and skewered another with just a touch. Another bunch of men moved to attack Tristan and I threw four knives at them, my perfect aim hitting the eye and making them drop dead to the ground.

He'd hold off the attackers, I'd make short work of those on hand.

We worked seamlessly, moving through the enemy with gritted determination. It seemed that the Dessari just kept on coming, for my eyes swept the carnage and there were still more than half remaining.

I'd never been in such an extreme, ruthless fight. The strength was seeping out of me, and I almost gave up.

We both turned, backs to each other, fighting as one, fighting for our life.

Man and woman, the way we were truly meant to be.

Finally one.

• • • • •

TRISTAN

We hacked our way, chipped and ripped our way through more of them. They kept on coming, but finally, only a handful remained. We were panting, gasping for breath with stitches in our sides, all our knives and daggers nearly used up.

"And... there," Edwina panted, sending a last slash of her sword to a Dessari. He landed at my feet and I dispatched him with a swift throw of my dagger.

We had won.

"Was he the last of them?" I questioned, dropping to a knee to pick up my fallen knives from the ground.

"I think so," I heard her voice from somewhere nearby. My head turned to the right and I saw her pushing back her long braid. Red strands fell over her face as she looked at me with fierce, beautiful sea green eyes. Her lips were red with the blood of her enemies.

"Oh god!" she screamed suddenly, pointing a finger at me. Alarmed, I ran up to her when I realized she was still looking at something behind me.

I turned around.

"Nyx?!" I gasped.

Edwina and I both braced ourselves as the ebony skinned goddess of night flew hysterically to both of us, eyes wild with terror. Leaves flew from her hair like sparrows, her clothes were stained with wet mud.

"Tristan!" she shrieked maniacally, pulling out her raven hair in tufts as I caught hold of her.

"Where are Helios and Eric?!" Edwina hissed at her, roughly shaking her shoulders.

"They ran into the Orchard - got stung by some sort of insect," Nyx said hysterically, gushing, her words hardly forming a coherent sentence. "Huge, venomous swarms of bees. Last thing I knew, Eric was shouting at me to escape, to find you both. Then I heard the metal ringing-"

"But they-"

"They sent up flares, I think. As I warning. Don't go into the damn Orchard!" she shrieked at Edwina as we gathered our bearings.

"But we need to find Eric and Helios!" I argued hotly. "If they get lost and can't find a way out, they'll be trapped in the Island for two more weeks-"

"You're not getting the damn point, Tristan!" Nyx wailed into my ear as I unflinchingly stared at her. "They seem to have gotten away! If we don't get out, we'll be trapped-"

"-fine, I got it, come on!" Edwina shouted from beside me, scrambling over as she gathered her knives from the fallen Dessari on the ground. Nyx stated at the bodies in astonishment with awe and wonder, peering at me with hardly concealed reverence, eyes shining.

"You both stood against how many?" she curiously inquired.

"North of two hundred," I muttered unenthusiastically.

"Two - two hundred?" she stammered, looking at the both of us with admiration. "You both are truly gifted fighters. Dealing with odds of hundred to one are unheard of, even for a god." She drew in a sharp breath, looking to Edwina with a worshiping look on her face, then at me with pure awe.

Edwina rolled her eyes. I kept my lips pressed shut, successfully not smiling at her, but internally, how I wished she would come back to Stormholt.

Did she want me to fall on my knees and beg her?

What was happening to me? I hated her, for the lord's sake!

"There, that tower, there's that wretched thing again!" Edwina cried angrily, and I followed her hand to the tip of the now even more distant, tall black tower, shining dully in the wicked illumination, seemingly oblivious to the magic it must be cursed with.

"We get there, then. Before it vanishes again," Nyx gritted her teeth.

"Preferably," I said with a tinge of dryness. Both the ladies rolled their eyes with a sigh of exasperation. I picked up the last of the weapons and began to walk forward with long strides, both the women at my side.

We started taking the trail through the forest again, faster this time, and trying to put even more distance between the fallen Dessari and us.

"Admit it, Valmont," Edwina told me with a smug smile. "You wouldn't have been able to make it past the Ghail without me."

"Shut up," I muttered in a teasing tone. "You're flattering yourself."

"Ah. Sarcasm. How original."

"If you both are quite done with your flirting," Nyx interrupted with a glare, "we have better things to do."

"We weren't flirting," I complained with a hiss and stared at Edwina as her cheeks slightly colored.

"You were trying to impress her, honey, and my girl is clearly having none of that shit. Try harder, lover boy," Nyx smirked at me as I rounded around and clenched my fists.

"Did you - did you just - call my husband a... lover boy?" Edwina interrupted with a jaw dropped gasp, her eyes shining like round plates as her hand snaked up her spear.

"Why?" I grinned, wiggling my fingers at her, enjoying myself. "Jealous, are we?"

"Jealous - my foot!" she snapped a bit too loudly, turning around all of a sudden so that we couldn't see her. Then she looked back, and her cheeks had turned redder than a pomegranate, the loveliest shade of blush of a sunset. "I am not jealous, not in the slightest fucking sense! Why in the name of Uranus's huge goddamn ass would I ever be jealous?!" she screeched, slashing past a creeper vine with her sword to reveal a clear pathway to the black stone temple. "Fuck you both!" she cried.

"Honey, I'm already married," Nyx graciously offered with a wide smile. "But if you're in the mood can I suggest someone else for you to fu-"

"Shut up!" she shouted, making the colour in her cheeks flame a deeper shade of pink.

"Ladies, ladies," I muttered genially, stepping in between them and pulling them apart even as snorts of laughter burst through my lips.

"Get lost, Valmont," Edwina snapped stubbornly, giving me a death glare. "We're here," she nearly shouted again, now standing at the foot of the large black temple we had reached distracted by our banter.

• • • • •

EDWINA

"Finally here," Nyx announced, as we climbed the black marble steps. I furtively shot her a murderous glare, almost itching to burn a hole in that thin, curious back of hers.

Then I stopped, cheeks flaming, when I realized Tristan was looking right at me with wide eyes. I averted my gaze hastily, my sight flicking over the temple we had stepped into.

The columns rose ominously to the skies, walls carved in strange geometric triangles. The flagstones were crimson, ribbed and crossed, but the place appeared empty. Devoid of any sort of life. There was a strange ringing in my ears, I realized, and a sudden feeling of danger came to me.

"This place is... unnerving," Nyx whispered in a hushed voice.

"I have a feeling it's here. The piece," Tristan spoke under his breath.

"Maybe we'll find it," I said, shrugging my shoulders and shaking off the nagging feeling of danger. He tossed his shoulders casually, reaching past me and cutting the shrubbery around the doors, kicking them open.

The hall inside was triangular. Not very tall from the inside, but the most striking feature were the three stone statues situated at each corner of the triangle. One was a woman, kindly looking but with cruel eyes. The other two were men. One with curled hair that fell in his eyes, other with perfect waves and a steely glint in his gaze. All three carved in some sort of red granite, from the simple circlet around their heads to the elaborate robes and rich shoes on their feet. Except for the whites of their eyes, carved from snow white marble.

Holy lord.

The more I looked, the more those statues began to look like Eric, Tristan and I.

No, no, no.

My head felt sort of heavy, like a fuzzy mess, as something began to blur in my brain. It had to be a sort of spell. Something wrong, something enchanted. Because with every step I took, it felt like those three pairs of snow white eyes were following me with their marble trail.

"They... look like you?" Nyx whispered in a bare voice.

"They... yes," I managed to blurt. Why would our statues be built into a temple in Vezort? Was it because we were the Triarchy of Endollon?

But how did the people who make this know?

"I don't like this place," Tristan's voice cut through the buzz in my head. "There's something going on here."

I looked even more closely. The statues resembled us to an extent, but no - they weren't us.

The woman's face was more rounded, mine was angular and sharp. The one which looked like Eric had dull eyes, the Eric I knew had bright, laughing eyes. And the one which looked like Tristan looked purely cruel, its face twisted into a sneer and eyes hard.

"Come on," Nyx whispered. "We need to keep moving. This place has some sort of enchantment."

I tore my eyes off the sculptures, glancing around the hall. It was small despite appearances, and there was nothing around except for the expanse of crimson marbled floors. The whole place looked like it was drenched in blood, and that the three were drowned in it and rising out of the sea of blood.

Drowning in rivers of blood.

The rest of the hall was shrouded in darkness, and we explored the three corners in the shadows.

"Nothing," she whispered. "Just walls," she said dejectedly. "I thought there was something here. Something."

"Wait," Tristan said, "I think the floor sounds hollow."

I took a few steps to the center, walking over the triangular tiles. They definitely sounded hollow.

"But how do we get in?" I asked.

"Wait," Nyx thought for a moment. She nicked her finger with the head of an arrow, pressing it to the tile.

Nothing.

"Let me," I offered, scraping my bruised palm on the tile where it left a bloody smear.

"I don't believe that will make a difference," she frowned.

Suddenly, a loud rumble sounded, and the ground began to shake violently. Then as sudden as it began, it stopped.

Four of the tiles in the middle had vanished, leaving a triangular gaping hole in the middle.

A passage.

"How?" Nyx whispered.

"A Monarch's blood," Tristan said uncertainly. "Maybe it makes a difference."

"Hmm. Maybe it does," she agreed, glancing down at the six pointed star engraved on both our wrists, the mark we had received after coronation.

"Come on," he muttered, and we all braced ourselves as we jumped into the hole.

• • • • •

It had six long steps, and was in complete darkness. I felt my feet touch solid ground and a little flame of light sprang up in my hands, illuminating our faces.

It was a sort of a corridor, with dozens and dozens of doors opening up on either side of the narrow passage.

"What is this place?" Tristan wondered out loud, glancing at the still red marbled corridor, and the white walls, set with black carved doors with long handles.

"Only one way to find out," Nyx said, opening the first door to her left. It swung open easily, as if it had been just recently oiled. No creak.

We peeked inside.

Simple whitewashed walls and a black floor. Nothing else.

Why did it still feel so sinister?

We opened the next door. Nothing. And the next, and the next, and the next. All of them were empty but I could smell blood in the air. It wasn't ours. No, this was fresh blood.

I opened something like the tenth door on the left, trying to make out sense of the darkness. Nyx looked in from behind my shoulder.

There was this... scent in the air. The smell tingling my nostrils and painfully nudging my memories. My brain tried to recall that peculiar smell which I'd apparently smelled so many times.

I had just begun to make sense of what I saw after I heard Nyx scream.

The whiff of blood in the air was that of dead gods.

• • • • •

Ahh! So we finally got to this point and although it could be painfully obvious, who do you think is in that room? Eric is going to be devastated :( See ya, and stay tuned for the horrors of next week xD do drop a vote, please!