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“No!” Notch roared.
But Chelona was laughing, and it was the bitter laughter of one finally defeated, a sound empty of warmth, containing only venom. Notch glared down at her, but she did not elaborate upon her laughter, only resting her head back upon the Halidriandl.
Notch was breathing hard, a growl stuck in his throat.
He looked back to Emisa... and his rage eased. The Inquisitor was pushing herself up from the floor, shaking her head as she did.
“What happened?” Notch asked.
“Perhaps her final gambit,” Danillo explained. “The dark light was meant to draw the life from not only Emisa, but her Greatmask. Chelona would have used it to mount a new attack.”
Emisa started walking, a little slowly at first, but when she rejoined them, the Inquisitor reached under her robe and withdrew a large pendant upon a golden chain... a rainbow scale.
Its edges were charred and shrunken, and as Notch gaped down at it, the vibrancy of its colours drained to grey. Emisa tossed the medallion to Chelona’s feet. “You are finished.”
Chelona did not answer.
“Can’t we simply destroy the machine?” Notch asked.
“We could try, but the release of such a force might obliterate the entire city... perhaps more,” Danillo replied.
“But is it working even now?”
“Not quite,” he said. “Argeon is holding it at bay for now.”
“Argeon cannot hold on forever,” Chelona said. “It is too late. At the window you will see.”
Danillo nodded to Notch.
He strode across the room and stared out one of the giant windows, and instead of only darkness beyond – he found a glow; the entire city was alive with the amber.
Rivers of sap ran in toward the palace, like lines of beautiful fire.
Many of the homes and buildings glowed too, a nimbus rising from each quarter, as though the entire city responded to the great Ilesinyan machine. In some spots the warm light seemed to tint the underside of lingering smoke. Had Flir and the others survived, only to die at the hands of whatever Chelona had set in motion?
Great flower pods, like giant, arena-sized, slender tulips had closed and they glowed in response too, another answer to the palace and whatever tower he now stood within.
“Soon, the power will build enough to release and change will come,” Chelona explained. “I believe it will be localised to this area, in fact – the harbour, Anaskar and the Butterfly’s home, the Bloodwood.”
Notch strode back. “Danillo!”
“Argeon is searching for the Halidriandl’s secrets.”
“You don’t have time,” Chelona said.
“Then tell me,” he replied. “If the LightSpear is reversed, will the Mother’s Lifeblood return to the oceans or will it be trapped within the shaft and destroy the city after all?”
“I will not answer.”
“Tell us and we will save both you and Zasemu,” Notch said. “Isn’t that better than death? You have to know that if we try something and get it wrong, you will die too.” He lifted the Ilesinyan head. “As will your beloved.”
Once more, Chelona stiffened.
Her jaw was clenched but she did not answer, glancing from face to face. Her dark eyes softened when she locked gazes with the still-silent Zasemu. Finally, she spoke. “Fine. Reverse the flow of Lifeblood. Return it to the Oceans; it will drain the Halidriandl enough.” She paused and now her jaw was clenched. “After this, Lord Protector I will expect some manner of title or land at least, some guarantee of comfort. And we are to be left alone, free to rot away in our pathetic human bodies in peace, understand?”
“Very well,” Danillo said as he approached the machine and its unfathomable shape, keeping some distance between him and the white-robed woman.
Notch kept a watch on Chelona as Danillo worked, as did Nia. Emisa knelt nearby, Medina aglow as she chanted softly, and in response, stone began to grow around Chelona, soon locking her against the machine.
Sealed in place, Chelona flinched – then turned to face Argeon. Her voice bore a note of urgency. “Danillo, do not do as she says! It’s yet another trick.”
The Lord Protector paused.
Notch frowned down at Chelona, who continued to urge Danillo to stop. “Please! Trust me, old friend – it is a trap.”
Danillo turned slowly. “Seto?”
Chelona’s shoulders slumped then, and after a slight shiver, she fixed her gaze back upon the stone floor. “A touching moment for you all, I see.”
Notch brought his other hand up before Zasemu’s face, where he flicked a single claw out. “What are you talking about?”
The woman sneered up at him. “I would think you would understand, Notch. I absorbed King Oseto of Casa Swordfish. He could no longer hide his guilt for having Sacrificed the girl Mila, and so managed to break through as I weakened.”
Notch could not reply.
Seto had Sacrificed Lady Cera’s daughter? When? How – why? The questions tumbled forth to overwhelm him yet they were going to go unanswered... but Mila’s was the body that lay before them now, changed greatly, but basically the same? Where was Mila then – and Seto? Would both be lost if Chelona died?
He clenched his other paw. That was the fate he planned to consign Emisa to... it was wrong but he could not let Sofia slip away.
Danillo had not spoken.
“King Oseto saved us?” Nia asked.
“Not precisely,” Chelona said, a weak smile gracing her lips. “He may have chosen my ebb to break through but I have truly played my final card in this moment, with the last of my strength.”
“What?” Notch demanded. “What have you done?”
But she turned to Danillo. “You may survive Argeon, but I have made sure the things you seem to love will not.”
“Hey!” Notch shouted.
Chelona closed her eyes, voice dropping to a whisper. “Forgive me, Beloved.”
Something damp reached Notch’s hand – Zasemu wept as Chelona’s head fell to one side. Part of her hair greyed too, and her lips moved no more as her face thinned. Even the robe of the White Witch began to shrink, as though her body had collapsed beneath it. The skin of her face darkened too; first grey and then deepening to charcoal, the change mirrored in her hands where they were visible beneath the rocky bindings.
And then Notch could only sense two Greatmasks in the room.
Chelona was no more.
“Lord Danillo, do you know what she meant by that?” Emisa asked as she rose in the new silence. The uneven light played across her mask as she waited.
He nodded, still taken aback by Chelona’s claim, perhaps. “I do. Argeon has prevented the machine from enacting her wishes, but in their place she has set the Halidriandl upon a new path – the floating city of Ilesinya is now set upon a course that will see it crash into Anaskar, killing every living creature within.”
“How do we stop it?” Notch asked as he straightened.
The Lord Protector shook his head. “We cannot. She has sealed us within, ensuring the only ones with the power to stop this are trapped here.”
“But, what about the machine?”
He gestured. “It has already gone silent – and the Lifeblood is spent on her revenge.”
“Then we have to break free! Argeon can do it, right?”
“Perhaps, if we had more time,” he said. “I will try, but I am sorry, Captain. For while we have saved the lands, I fear the cost may be our city.”
“They don’t deserve this!”
“I agree.”
Notch hurled the severed head at the nearest wall with a roar.
It shattered into dozens of pieces with a sharp crack, but the sound it made barely came close to satisfying his rage.