Meina crouched beside him. ‘I don’t think you’ll be staying here much longer,’ she said. ‘You look awful, coincidentally. Like someone has stripped you of all your skin.’
Zaifyr could barely move. The pain in his chest had spread throughout him to such an extent that he no longer felt as if his lungs were struggling to breathe through water, but as if the contents of his veins were splintering their solid form and beginning to circulate again. He could feel the dirt beneath him turn to wood and he could hear voices that were not Meina’s, but the words were thin. They broke apart before he could understand them, but he knew that he was in the cathedral. Above him, the moving sky was being turned into a ceiling divided by wooden beams. It would not be long until he knew if Aela Ren would lift him to his feet or not.
‘What happened to Se’Saera?’ His voice was no more than a whisper, but he knew that it could be heard in both Heüala and in the cathedral. ‘Meina?’
‘The sky broke open.’ The mercenary glanced upwards. ‘I didn’t see how it began. She was beating me, Zaifyr. She was devouring my soldiers. Each one she took reappeared on her side to fight for her. It hurt to see, but I did not order a retreat. I was buying you time. But when there were about three dozen of us left and you hadn’t done anything, I had to give the order to scatter into Heüala. It was after I gave the order that the sky began to split open. I was running down a street when it happened, and I turned back to where Se’Saera was, and I found that the same cracks were appearing in her. It was almost as if she and the sky were made from the same material. She let out this tremendous roar. I thought she was going to begin destroying the city, but then a light burst from her. It was the brightest light I have ever seen.’ She turned back to Zaifyr. ‘I don’t remember much after that. I was pulled into something. I don’t remember what. I saw you there, though. You were falling.’
Above him, the sky broke through the cathedral. It was Heüala’s sky, one of movement. He thought he could see colour in it now, streaks, but he was not sure.
‘After that, I awoke here,’ Meina continued. ‘Heüala looked like a town to me, the kind I used to ride through all the time. All of my soldiers were here with me. I found you and Jix shortly after. I haven’t found Anguish yet.’
‘You won’t,’ he said quietly in two worlds. He saw again the light falling over him, saw Soren push him away, saw him deny the gods that put him there, before his body disappeared. ‘He is gone.’
‘Is he . . .’ She paused. ‘Is he safe?’
Could a soul die? ‘I don’t know,’ he whispered. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know.’ Could a god die? The divinity of a god certainly did not, he knew, but the consciousness could. Was it the divinity or the consciousness that he saw above him? ‘Se’Saera could come back, Meina. Or one of the other gods. When the sky is still they will have returned.’
‘It is why I plan to stay in Heüala,’ she said. ‘I will be its guardian. I will ensure that the door is open for all of us to be reborn.’ Meina tapped her fingers on her legs, on the leather armour she wore. ‘My soldiers are going to stay with me. We would all like to go through that door. We would all like to be reborn. But we’ve seen souls in the fields. We have to make sure Heüala is safe from them, or whoever else might try to take it.’
Above him, the roof of the cathedral returned. It left only the faintest echo of the moving sky, one that revealed itself only when he felt his body convulse with pain. ‘No one will know that you do this,’ he said and reached for her hand. ‘You will never be thanked.’
‘Eventually, another will replace me.’ Meina took his hand. Two of Zaifyr’s charms pressed against her fingers, but a third passed through her. ‘But when you return, can you do something for me?’
‘I don’t know what the world will be like,’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘I don’t know what I will be able to do.’
‘But you’ll try?’
‘I’ll try.’
‘Find my daughter,’ Meina said, holding his hand tightly, as if she was afraid he would slip away before she finished. ‘She will be in the care of my uncles in Kislolc. It is a town in Zoatia. I want you to find her and tell her what her mother did here. What she is doing here. She’s young. She won’t understand it all, but I want you to tell her I did this, that I held this city, and that I will see her again.’
Zaifyr’s fingers were beginning to slip through hers. ‘What is her name?’ His voice sounded stronger in the cathedral. ‘What is her name?’ he repeated in Heüala.
‘Aino.’ Her voice was distant. ‘Aino Meina.’
‘I’ll find her,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell her.’
‘Thank you.’
Then she was gone.