CHAPTER

32

Liam flew through one of the grand windows of Heavenstone and landed. The knight didn’t give a damn that he was abandoning the battle outside, not that there even was a proper battle. The knights and soldiers were frantic children battling against a tide of shadow beyond all their comprehension. The ancient evil walked upon the holy ground of Center. They didn’t need soldiers and knights. They needed the divine intervention of the angels themselves.

Liam went to Marius’s private quarters, found them empty. A lone guard stood before the open door of the room.

“Where is the Speaker?” Liam shouted at him.

“He’s not to be disturbed,” the guard said, taken aback.

“Our island is at stake,” Liam said, grabbing him by the front of his armor and yanking him close. “Now where the hell is Marius?”

The guard hesitated. Liam could tell he was terrified. Not of Liam, but of all that was happening beyond Heavenstone’s walls.

“He’s gone to speak with the angels,” he said.

Liam shoved him away and used his wings to zip down the halls. There was no time. Servants fled this way and that, interspersed with panicked guards and knights. Never before had Liam seen Heavenstone in such chaos. Did it speak to the level of danger they faced, or the lack of control Marius exercised over the people?

His flight took him straight to the unassuming door they’d passed through on his previous visit with the angels. Liam flung open the door, expecting the room to be empty. Instead Marius sat at his desk, head in his hands. Tears trickled down his wrists as he silently prayed.

“My Lord?” Liam said, feeling guilty. “Please, I must speak with you.”

Marius looked up with red eyes.

“Liam,” he said. “I’m so glad to see you. I prayed to God for the strength to do what must be done, but I fear I am not strong enough. I’m weak, Liam, frightened and weak, but you are here. You’ll be my strength.”

“I don’t understand,” Liam said. He had come to urge Marius to save them all. The war against L’adim would not be won by knights and Seraphim. It would be won by the power of the angels deep within Heavenstone, and harnessed by the holy Speaker’s hand. “What task do you lack the strength for that I myself possess?”

Marius rose from his seat and wiped at his eyes.

“L’adim has reached our lands,” he said. “The shadow that swallowed the world will soon swallow us, too. I have failed the only task that ever mattered. Only one recourse remains, Liam. One last, desperate course.”

The Speaker’s words were dire, and they carried a prophetic air that frightened Liam greatly.

“What is that?” he asked.

Marius reached out and lovingly placed a hand on Liam’s face.

“Come with me to the angels,” he said. “Slay them, and let Center be swallowed by the ocean.”

Liam’s entire body locked tight. It felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart.

“Slay them?” he asked, his mind reeling. “But … but they are God’s messengers. And what of the people here? Hundreds of thousands will die.”

“Hundreds of thousands have already died,” Marius said. His lips quivered, and his hands shook at his sides. “The rest are doomed. Don’t you see, Liam? The shadowborn is here. There is no defeating him. Even the Spear of God only chased away his shadow for a moment. Great armies of the old world all failed against his might and cunning. Who are we compared to those ancient empires? Little children hiding on a small speck of rock, that is what we are.”

“But why slay the angels?” Liam asked. “Why not fight?”

Marius lowered his head, and he stared into his desk as if it were the most important thing in all the world.

“Did you witness Galen’s fall?” he asked quietly.

“I did not,” Liam said.

“I did,” Marius said. “The moment I heard the Beam was faltering I had my knights fly me close enough to watch the rescue attempts. I didn’t believe it would happen, Liam. I thought the Beam might weaken but the lightborn within would recover. The people would survive. The island would endure.”

He slammed a fist atop the desk, startling the quiet with its thud. “But our world is not one of fairy tales, Liam. We wrap ourselves in the divine as if it means we are invincible, assured of survival no matter the terrors. Even I swallowed that lie, and it was only when I watched Galen crash to the ground that I realized how precarious our lives are. No golden hands of God reached out to stop the island’s destruction. The Beam failed, and the island fell. It was that simple. That cruel.”

Liam wished he knew what to say, but his faith was profoundly shaken. This was the Speaker for God and his angels, broken down and overwhelmed with doubt and fear. Everything Liam had ever trusted, that he’d ever believed, he’d given over to the man who was meant to save humanity.

“Why do we speak of Galen?” he asked softly.

“When Galen hit the water I felt the impact in the clouds,” Marius said. “It was as if the entire world quaked with sorrow and fury. That power … that power is the only thing I believe might have a chance to slay the shadowborn. No matter the cost, we must take it. We must send Center crashing down in an eruption so grand not even the betrayer may survive.”

“All to slay the shadowborn?” Liam asked. “What does it matter if there are none left to live in his absence?”

“You forget our place,” Marius said, rising up. “We are the protectors of humanity, not just those on Center. The other four islands will endure. Humanity will limp on, bloodied and small but alive. It is the only hope I have left to cling to, Liam. Now will you help me? Will you, with your blade, bring salvation and freedom to the outer islands? To your homeland, Weshern?”

Liam’s insides coiled with uncontrolled fury. Confusion and terror lashed his soul with icy whips. What could he say? What was even right? Was this sacrifice truly worth so much?

“Why must you ask this of me?”

“Because I have not the strength,” Marius said. “But you do. You always have. That’s why I chose you, Liam. That’s what made you special. Now let go of your fear and follow me.”

Liam stepped as if in a waking nightmare, his limbs moving of their own accord. They walked to the lift and rode down into the deep, deep heart of Heavenstone. The twelve keepers of the doors waited at attention, alerted by the creaking approach of the lift.

“Open it,” Marius said, lacking the sense of fanfare of their last visit.

The men pulled on their ropes, cracking open the doors with a deep, satisfying rumble of stone. Marius waited until they were finished, then gestured to the lift.

“Leave us,” he said.

The men glanced to one another, confused.

“I said leave us!”

They hurried past, abandoning their posts to crowd onto the lift. Marius remained locked in place, not moving a single step until the lift was gone and the two of them were alone.

“The lightborn read emotions like you or I read words on a page,” Marius said, eyes locked on that glowing slant of light between the two doors. “You must keep yourself calm and controlled at all times. Do not think on your task, Liam. Simply enter, and when I raise my arms, perform the deed. Do not hesitate. Do not doubt. Let your heart be fully committed to the task.” He turned to face him. His eyes were wet with tears. “Can I trust you to do this?”

Liam swallowed down the shards of glass lodged in his throat. He steeled his face and locked his body stiff, attempting to do exactly as Marius described.

“I have always been, and always will be, a servant of the Lord and his angels.”

Marius beamed with pride.

“If only all the world were filled with faithful such as you,” the Speaker said. “Perhaps we’d have never found ourselves in a situation so dire.”

Marius walked through the entrance and into the grand chamber of the angels, Liam at his side.

The three lightborn were huddled low to the floor, their chains stretched taught. Waves of fear and sorrow washed over Liam, overwhelming in their power.

“The shadowborn cometh,” spoke the feminine one in the center. “We sense his corruption. We feel the dead mounting. Why do you come to us, Marius? Why do you not lead your people?”

Marius shook his head.

“Because matters of terrible importance compel me before you,” he said.

The muscles in Liam’s right arm tightened. His awareness of his metallic arm grew, and he felt the blade within eager to spring forth. Liam tensed, his mind reeling again and again.

What must be done, he thought, not daring anything more specific than that. What must be done. What must be done.

“Then speak them. The shadowborn must be defeated, and we will offer you any wisdom or counsel you desire.”

“I have but one desire,” Marius said, lifting his arms. “And it is not your wisdom or counsel.”

The signal given, Liam lifted his gauntlet. The four cannons split open and to the sides. The long blade ejected to its full length, its sharp point ripping through Marius’s back and piercing out the front of his chest.

“I am the blade of the angels,” Liam whispered into the Speaker’s ear. “Not their executioner.”

Fire burst from the four cannons, enveloping Marius’s body from head to toe. The flame swarmed over him, consuming him, purifying him. Ash and bone slipped free of the blade, collapsing at Liam’s feet. The lightborn looked on all the while, revealing no emotion beyond mild surprise.

Liam stared at the remains, trying to push himself through the shock of what he’d done.

“He would have me kill you,” he said, quiet at first, his voice growing louder with his increasing rage. “He would have me slay you to save us from the shadowborn. Is that what you want from me? Do you want to die and kill everyone living on Center’s soil just to hope the shadowborn dies with us in the fall?”

They cast glances to one another, and Liam could tell by the shifting emotions and shimmering differences in light across their skin that they were conversing in a way beyond his understanding.

“We have already given our lives for humanity’s,” the feminine lightborn said. “And we still have faith the shadowborn may be defeated. But no victory is worth the loss of humanity. Yes, let our hearts beat on, and let this jewel remain high in the sky. Now is not the time to give in to fear. We will offer what advice and aid we can.”

Liam stared at the flaking black bits of blood drifting off his sword. Deep in his mind he felt a breaking.

“Let others fight on,” he echoed. “You wish to offer aid? Then kill me, you lightborn bastards. End my misery now.”

They lifted back as if appalled by the very notion.

“Why would we do such a thing?”

Liam laughed. The very way they phrased the question, so focused on themselves, the tone more curiosity than worry, broke him all the further.

“Kill me!” he screamed. “I have slain he who speaks for God. What worth am I? To myself? To you?”

He sliced his own arm and lifted it so they might watch the blood splatter scarlet upon their pristine marble floor.

“The blood of demons flows through my veins,” he shouted. “I am an abomination, a botched experiment and nothing more. Kill me. End this. Show you still have the courage to do something besides sitting here hiding from the world!”

Still they recoiled. As if dirtying their hands would be beneath them. As if they hadn’t witnessed the deaths of thousands over the centuries of their long lives. Liam felt tears trickling down his face. When he next screamed, his voice was hoarse and tired.

“Is that it? You won’t do it? You cowards. You fucking cowards. Tear free of those chains and kill me. You say you have given your lives for humanity, but you will not lift a finger now in our time of need. Slay the shadowborn yourselves instead of relying on us to bleed and die for you. Haven’t we given enough?”

Silence was again their answer. Pity swam in their golden eyes.

“I tried to kill my son and daughter,” Liam said, lacking the strength to shout. “What worth am I?”

“You are worth the life of a human,” said the feminine lightborn. “And that worth always remains unchanged.”

“Liars,” Liam whispered. “Liars! So what we do doesn’t matter? All my sins, all my penance, neither changes a thing? Then what’s the point? What is the goddamn point?”

The feminine lightborn lowered closer to him, outstretching her hand. Her emotions washed over him, full of compassion and hope but also an undeniable sadness.

“To live for those who love you,” she said. “From the lowest of the low, to the very divine.”

“Those who love you,” Liam whispered. “I have none left. I tried to kill them all.”

He retracted the blade in his gauntlet and pressed the cannon against the underside of his chin. All his sorrow and rage drained away, leaving him a hollowed numbness.

“The life of a human,” Liam said, tears streaming down his face. “Let’s see just how much that’s worth.”

He ignited the fire prisms with the last dying bit of his passion. He felt the heat, felt the pain.

Felt nothing at all.