Healer Tien had watched the proceedings in Tribunal Hall, and things hadn’t gone exactly as planned. She wasn’t sure what her love’s plan was now, but he would have one. He always did.
After she was done with the assignment he had given her, she went back to Gideon’s quarters to wait for her new life to begin. She and Dai would be together. And together, they would rule the two worlds.
She paced back and forth nervously but finally heard the heavy footsteps of two men running toward the door. One of them was panting hard.
Dai strode in, carrying the human over his shoulder. Gideon was hunched over, wheezing. Tien knew that sound immediately. Punctured lung.
Dai threw the human down on the floor. She slowly pulled herself up to standing and drifted toward Gideon, a vacant smile on her face.
“Healer Tien!” Gideon exclaimed. “Help, I can’t breathe.” He pushed the human away from him. He reached around, held the knife handle tightly, and tugged. The knife came loose, and he threw it to the floor.
“I think you are right,” Tien said, crossing over to him. Her training was already taking over. She listened hard to the sound of his breath, guessing the size of the wound, the tools she would need to fix it …
“Don’t touch him, Tien. Come back to me,” Dai said coldly. She stopped in her tracks and obeyed. “Where is Lais?”
“She’s unconscious in the transport. She was on Haven tribal land, hiding exactly where you said she would be,” Tien reported. Dai nodded in approval. “We don’t need her, Dai. I’m just as good a healer as she is.”
“No, you’re not,” Dai said dismissively, ignoring Tien’s injured stare.
“Dai, what’s going on?” Gideon asked.
“The time has come to part ways, Gideon. But before that, I wanted to thank you.”
“What are you talking about?” he demanded, swatting the human away from him again like a fly. This time Savannah stood still, a few feet away from her master.
“I want to thank you for the work that you’ve done. The way you can move a crowd, the way they follow you blindly. It has brought me so much closer to my destiny. So, again, thank you. You’ve started a revolution, and I’m sorry you won’t be able to see it end.”
“Dai, are you … turning on me?” Gideon asked with a condescending chuckle followed by a wet rasping cough. “You would be nothing without me. Without me, you would still be back on Haven tribal land, eking out an existence tending to your family’s farm. You owe me everything.”
“I said thank you. Would you like me to say it again?”
“And what exactly is your plan? We are surrounded. My Tribunal will lose their marks. They’ll be banished and become Unnamed. And you’re a fool to think that your fate will be any different unless we can come up with a plan together!”
“I have a plan. And please don’t worry about my Tribunal. They will never be able to lose the only mark that matters,” Dai said, gesturing Tien to his side. She obeyed quickly. He slipped his fingers underneath the cowl neck of her robe and pulled it down to bare her shoulder. The mark of two worlds stood out on her damaged skin. He kissed the mark softly. “My mark.”
“That is my mark. Just because you made the branding device—”
“This isn’t a brand! Burns heal. My mark never will.”
“What did you do to me?” Gideon demanded, tearing at the skin on the back of his neck. “What is it?”
“I call it ‘Reveal.’ Millions of tiny needles, each injecting a traceable chemical into the skin. You can’t hide from me once you are marked. I’ll find the Tribunal, wherever they go. We’ll come together again, and I’ll finish the revolution you have started,” Dai said proudly.
“We can do this together, Dai! You’ll be my partner,” Gideon promised, trying to rip the flesh off of his neck.
“You are not an asset anymore, Gideon. Look at yourself! Your addictions have almost killed you. It’s been months, maybe years, since you’ve been anything more than a figurehead. I’ve been covering up your sloppy tracks for too long.”
“I don’t want to kill you, Dai,” Gideon said, reaching into his robes and pulling out his last vial of white powder. “But I will.” He emptied it under his tongue and felt the power flood back into his body.
“In the name of the Tribunal, open this door!” a muffled voice called out on the other side of the heavy doors. Gideon and Dai stood, staring at each other, waiting for the other to move. They heard the squeal of tools being used to melt the hinges and the locks off the door. Gideon reached into his robes just as Dai did. Both pulled out their fire blades.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Dai,” Gideon said, turning on his blade. As he stalked toward Dai, the human followed behind him, like a shadow. Dai shielded his eyes from the blade’s light and then clicked his on, as well.
Gideon made the first move, jutting his blade straight toward Dai’s chest. Dai spiraled out of the way and leapt on top of Gideon’s overturned desk. He dove off, driving the short blade toward Gideon’s abdomen. Gideon let out a howl of pain as it grazed near enough to melt his robes onto his skin. He sunk to the floor just in time to miss the full impact of it.
Gideon regained himself and arched his blade toward Dai’s wrist. Dai tried to retract his hand, but he was too late. Four of his fingers, wrapped around the hilt of the blade, fell in a neat pile on the ground. Dai’s blade fell toward the floor, but he caught it deftly in his left hand. Gideon stared down at the fingers and then at Dai, who seemed to have barely noticed.
“Fingers are easy to fix,” he said with a wild, twisting smile. Gideon shook off his astonishment and lunged at Dai again. The battle between the two men raged on, but Dai was much slower without the use of his good hand. Gideon quickly gained the advantage.
“You’re no good with your left hand,” Gideon said, with a cough that brought blood up his throat.
“I’m not, but I have two working lungs,” he said with another swing of his blade, which Gideon spun easily away from.
“Lungs are easy to fix,” Gideon answered, backing Dai further into a corner where Tien was cowering. “Now, I’m going to give you a second chance to be reasonable. Come back to my fold. Your only other choice is death,” Gideon said.
Dai lowered his weapon slightly.
“Have you come to your senses?” Gideon asked patronizingly. “Are you giving up?”
“Savannah,” Dai called over Gideon’s shoulder. Gideon kept his blade trained straight at Dai’s heart, not daring to divide his attention.
“Savannah,” Dai said again, though Savannah made no show of recognition. “Human!” he finally called out.
She picked up her head, waiting for instruction.
“Do you remember what we talked about right before I led you to the big white hall? Do you remember what you said you were going to do tonight?” Dai asked in his kindest voice.
“Yes,” Savannah said, quietly.
He threw his fire blade over Gideon’s head. Savannah caught it too close to the tip, burning her hands badly. “There’s Gideon,” Dai said, pointing at him.
She strode forward and buried the fire blade deep into Gideon’s back. Gideon let out an ear-piercing screech as his hands flailed uselessly trying to dislodge it, dropping his own blade on the floor.
“I will kill that man,” Savannah said, repeating the words she had told Dai just a few hours ago. Dai shoved Gideon backward and he fell to the floor, driving the blade deeper. Light and blood issued from his mouth, ears, and eyes. Gideon, burning to ash from the inside out, screamed in horrendous agony. His body melted away from the blade leaving only ash behind. His wild screams finally subsided and then cut off in a gurgle just as the door was lifted off its hinges and thrown down. Ryen of the Haven, followed by ten men, ran through the doorway just in time to witness the grisly end of Gideon the Master.