Powerlessness

Pixal breathed in the brisk Northern air, feeling, for the first time in months, safe. She was almost home.

She looked down from Nya's mech and saw her eagle soaring over the Birchwood Forest, chirping happily.

She had never seen her country from the clouds before. Sure, she'd used her eagle's camera to watch it fly, but she'd never actually been up in the sky, smelling the dampness of the clouds and touching them with her fingers. Goodness, but this was an incredible machine.

Not as incredible as me, she thought, but incredible nonetheless.

"I always forget how cold it is here," Liana said. She sat on the floor, crammed next to Merv and Jay, who were asleep.

"You grew up here," Pixal said. "How could you forget?"

"Well, six months of burning heat has the capacity to melt a lot of memories. Hey, how much longer 'till we get to Prengda?"

"A few more minutes, and you'll be in your daddy's arms," Pixal said tiredly. "How's our legless thief doing?"

"He's so hot that you could put him in the sky and melt all this snow. And he's just missing a part of one leg, he's not legless."

"Whatever." Pixal sighed. She spared a moment to glance back at the trio. Jay was situated between the two women, head resting against the loud machinery. Merv snuggled into his shoulder, shivering. Even wrapped in a cloak and dozing in Jay's fevered warmth, she could not get the chill from her bones.

Pixal turned her attention back to the controls, holding Jay's image in her mind. It was a little annoying that he always seemed so perfect and gentle, but she admired him for it. Always so kind and patient, even around her and her attitude.

"I can see the village in the distance," she said, distracting herself from these thoughts.

"Right." Liana shook Jay's shoulder. "Hey, we're here. Wake up."

Jay moaned.

"Jay." Liana rubbed his forehead with her thumb. "Ready to go? We'll see my dad and get you all fixed up."

"Oh!" Jay forced his eyes open and repositioned himself. This woke up Merv and Chedva, who had been sleeping against his chest. She whined.

"Okay," he said. "I'm up."

"It's about time, lazybones," Pixal said. She pulled a lever and flipped a switch, and the mech began its descent into the village. "As I promised, here you are. Cyrus' camp. And, as I also promised, not a soul will know that you or these other fugitives traveled back with me."

"And..." Liana said.

Pixal rolled her eyes. "And I won't tell anyone about Cyrus' location. Not even Father."

"Thank you," Jay said weakly. "It means a lot to us."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Pixal landed the mech, and several men left their houses, armed with swords. "Can you tell these peasants to stand down? They look like they want the Northern Lady dead."

"Of course," Jay said. "Help me up, Lia. Merv, take Chedva."

With one hand on the wall, the other around Liana, Jay stood and shifted to the front of the mech. The villagers saw his face and rushed to help them.

"Gentle," Pixal said as they lowered Jay to the ground. "He can hardly even stand, he's so weak. You'll have to carry him."

"Gee, thanks, Pixal," Jay said. "That didn't sound condescending at all." A stretcher was brought out from a house, and he was placed in it. He spoke a few words in the Dark Tongue, and more men went to help Liana and Merv.

"See you later," Jay said, waving to Pixal with a shaky hand. He smiled. "Remember your promises."

"Yeah, sure." Pixal looked away and prepared to fly again. But then she thought better of it.

"Take care of yourself, Walker," she said, and turned her lips up into a half-smile.

"Absolutely." Jay winked, and then closed his eyes and allowed the villagers to carry him away. Liana and Merv followed, walking uncomfortably in the snow because they wore no shoes. They entered a house and shut the door.

Pixal stared at the door for a few heartbeats, then shook herself and flew away. "On to see my family," she said, smiling a little wider. She could not wait to throw her arms around her brother and maybe- maybe- apologize for making him think she was dead for nearly a month. Take her frail father's hands and maybe- again, maybe- promise him that she would never disappear for that long again.

For a moment, she considered turning her eagle's signal back on so her father could track her, but then she thought better of it. After all, it would be loads of fun to surprise him and Zane.

Kai kept silent during the trip up the deserted Northern highway. Kyle, too, held his peace as he jogged beside the horses.

"You want to take a rest now?" Cole asked. "It's been a few hours."

Kyle shook his head. His heavy breaths rose in frosty puffs, and his face was flushed from exertion. It was day two of their journey since they'd left Sheshin. He had followed them without complaint, even when Cole had insisted that they didn't really need his help. While Kyle said that he was merely 'fascinated' by them, Cole suspected that something else was going on.

"No," Kyle said. "We're almost there. See? There's the smoke from the village." He pointed toward the northeast. "That's a lot of smoke, actually."

Cole squinted at the tops of the trees. Thick plumes of black smoke mixed with the clouds. The air smelt of something scorching. Like a roasted pig had been dropped in coals.

"Think they're having a party or something?" Kyle asked. "Rude of them not to invite us."

"Doubtful," Cole said. "You see these roads? A fresh, undisturbed blanket of snow rests on it. No one's walked here for nearly twenty-four hours. Isn't this the main road from Genesan to the Capital?"

"Yep."

"Then why is it so empty?"

"How would I know?" Kyle shrugged. "Genesan is a tiny, insignificant fishing town. In the late fall, there isn't a lot of fishing, so trade is slow too. People just haven't had a reason to travel between villages."

"Hmm... It's plausible, but I don't know. It's suspicious."

"You need to lighten up," Kyle said. Without breaking stride, he picked a handful of needles from a pine tree and stuck them between his teeth. "Kai has a reason to be upset. He just lost his sis. But you? You're just a big, brooding dragon. Cranky 'cause you have the power to be so."

Cole snorted. "I-"

"Aha! You see that? When you snorted, the condensation made it look like smoke billowing from your nostrils. And your eyes...they're inhumanly green. You could be a dragon in human form."

"I am not," Cole said, sighing. "And even if I was, since when did dragons have the power to change form?"

"Since just now," Kyle said. He plucked a needle from his mouth and spun it in his fingers. "Amazing. How do you change? And when you change into human form, are you naked? If you do somehow have clothing when you transfer, is black your default clothing color? Suits you, since you're so dark and-"

"And brooding. I know." Cole shifted in his saddle. Who would have known that just sitting and letting a horse do all the work could be so tiring and painful?

"You catch on fast," Kyle said, pleased. "I..." He stared off at the woods.

"What is it?" Cole asked.

"Do you hear that?" Kyle asked. "Kai, Cole. Listen."

They stopped the horses and listened.

"I don't hear anything," Kai said. His voice was hollow and weak.

"Exactly." Kyle drew a knife from his pocket. "What did we hear before entering every other town on our journey?"

"People," Cole said. "Kids laughing. Horses snorting." A chill ran up his spine.

"What's going on?" Kai asked.

Suddenly, Cole felt very small and finite. Like someone was going to leap out of the snow-covered trees and hurt him with the fire which burned in that village-

"Oh, no."

Cole's horse sensed his fear and put its ears back, ready to flee at the first sign of danger.

"Run!" he whisper-shouted. "We need to get to Genesan!" He kicked his horse into a gallop. Kai did the same.

"What's going on?" Kyle asked as he fell into stride beside Cole.

"Let's just hope that I'm wrong," Cole said as they went across an expansive bridge over the river. Never in my life have I ever wanted to be this wrong.

"Should we prepare for an attack?"

Cole did not answer. His horse ran with the speed of a startled hare, and Kyle soon fell behind anyway.

Be there, please be there!

When he saw the first house, he stopped so fast that the horse whinnied. It pranced, nostrils flared and ears flat against its skull.

Cole slid from the beast's back and looked at the ruins. "No," he said. He ran forward. The horse, to his surprise, followed. "No, no, no!"

The house- what was left of it- was smoking, and some portions still glowed red from the flames.

And in the snow, facing the road, were the bodies of the family that had once lived there. Black, rancid, and unrecognizable. There were five of them.

"What is this?" Kai asked.

Feeling sick, Cole grabbed his horse's reins and ran further down the road.

Every house was the same. Not all bodies were burned; some looked like they had been beaten by clubs or gauntlets, snow pink around their crumpled bodies. Others still had been stabbed by swords, axes, spears.

But one thing remained consistent: at least one body rested before every smoking, broken house.

"Cole, talk to me," Kai said, voice now wavering. "What happened?"

The smell, which Cole had first thought was something like pork burnt in a spit, was actually bodies. Hundreds of human bodies dispersed throughout the village.

Or rather, what used to be a village.

Kyle caught up to them. He stared at the mess, hand resting on the sword at his hip. "Whoever did this," he said, "is going to pay."

"It wasn't just one person," Cole said as he approached the town square, which was littered with random bodies. He and the horse treaded reverently, avoiding blackened hands and legs and heads.

"The number doesn't matter," Kyle said, teeth clenched. "Someone did a bad thing, and I will kill them!"

At the center of the square was the large weeping willow. Its leafless, drooping branches rattled in the wind, an echoing call. As if the spirits of the dead were screaming at Cole, begging him to avenge their massacre.

The tree was unscathed. Uncannily so. And stuck in its trunk by a black knife, shuddering with the moans of the 'spirits', was a shred of white cloth.

With shaky fingers, Cole pulled the cloth free.

"What is it?" Kai asked.

Cole took a deep breath, then read aloud the cloth's message, written in scarlet blood:

YOU HAD A BLIND SPOT.

He shuddered and dropped the bloodstained cloth and knife.

"A blind spot?" Kyle said. "It makes no sense."

Overlord. Cole was unable to verbalize the thought. He sent soldiers in a ship and...and...

Kai growled and kicked the snow. "He'll regret this. Overlord is going to pay for this mess!" He paused and gripped the weeping willow, looking queasy. The disease was eating him alive.

Kyle frowned and looked behind him at the street. "Let's hurry and get those Blades. I don't want to stick around here. We can find some authorities in the Capital."

Kai closed his eyes and nodded once. His brow wrinkled in pain. "You okay, Cole?" he asked.

"What do you think?" Cole said. "No. I'm not okay. We've played into his hands again. Like mindless puppets."

"Very poetic," Kai replied. "Umm...where should we dig?"

"How about where these directions say?" Kyle pointed to the rag on the ground.

Cole looked at it and shuddered. On the opposite side of the cloth were written the words:

DIG WHERE THE KNIFE FALLS.

Kyle picked up a shovel- one of two which were leaning against the tree- and pushed the snow away from the area where the knife had fallen. "I don't know about you," he said. "But I smell a trap."

"This is the trap," Kai said, gesturing to the bodies around them. "And we've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker."

"True." Kyle kicked the dagger to the side and started to dig.

"Shouldn't the ground be frozen?" Kai asked as he grabbed another shovel and helped Kyle.

"No," Kyle said. "Didn't you see it? The ground's been thawed by a fire. Hence the ashes. Then the area was blanketed in snow to keep the heat in."

"So are you saying that Overlord had a little bonfire in the town square just to make things easier for us?"

"Not Overlord," Cole said. "Kozu. And yes. This is something he would do."

"What makes you say that?" Kai asked, then coughed.

Cole hugged himself. "Again, let's just hope that I'm wrong. Hurry and dig up those Blades."

"Yeah," Kai said, pushing his spade into the warm ground. "A little help would be nice, though."

"There're only two shovels," Kyle said. "It's all right. We've got this."

Kai leaned against his shovel and coughed again. And then again.

"Hey, whoa." Cole said. "Let me. You're hurting yourself."

"S-So are you," Kai said. He was unable to stop coughing. "You-u have a w-weak heart. Just let-t me-"

His face flushed, and he vomited, turning his head away just in time to save Cole from a soiled shirt.

Cole supported Kai for close to a minute before the convulsions ceased. "Sit down," he said. "You need rest."

Kai did not protest. Panting and choking, he sat at the tree's base and closed his eyes. "Sorry," he said. "Just gimme a minute."

"Sure." Cole wiped some red bile from Kai's chin with his sleeve. "Your skin is cold."

"Funny. I feel warm."

Not good.

"Hurry," Cole said. "Kyle. We need a healing Blade."

"Your wish is my command, master," Kyle said. He dug faster, putting little grunts into each shovelful. "The...the ground is a bit harder a couple feet down."

Cole reluctantly left Kai and picked up the other shovel. Within a minute, they had a decent hole. Still no Blades.

"Is it possible that we've been tricked?" Kyle said. He gestured to the burning buildings. "It wouldn't be the evilest thing that's happened this afternoon."

A gruff voice spoke behind them. "Is no trick," it said. "Says our master, 'Knife faces south in tree.' I believe him."

Cole whirled to face Kozu. His breath caught in his throat, and he retreated a few steps, putting himself between the four-armed man and Kai.

Kozu smiled. "Like our surprise? Dead everywhere. But no screams." He sounded disappointed. "Happened too fast. Too many my soldiers for screams."

Cole's heartbeat sounded like thunder in his ears as he lifted his hands, palms out. "What do you want?" he asked.

"I want Blade," Kozu said. "Master says he wants one. Sanguine's or Dark Knight's, he cares not."

"What makes you think we'll give 'em up?" Kyle asked, leaning on his shovel in a carefree manner.

Kozu lifted a hand, and a stone soldier appeared from behind a pile of rubble, bearing a young toddler.

"Overlord picked this child," Kozu said. "From our Dark Island."

Now Cole wanted to vomit, too.

"You want us to trade," he said. "You take a Blade; mine or Kai's. And in exchange, we get this child?"

"Yes." Kozu nodded.

Cole looked at the child squeezed between the warrior's ruthless arms: a girl with fearful green eyes and unruly red hair. She looked too scared to move.

"Dig," Kozu said.

"But-" Cole began.

"Dig, Dark Knight!" Kozu drew a chipped knife from a fold in his armor and pressed it to the child's bruised neck. "Master wants you weak. Powerless. Do I a good job?"

Kai stood and put an arm on Cole's shoulder to steady himself. He looked pale and queasy. "You are doing a marvelous job," he said. "Where would we be without you to put us in our place?"

"You not mock!" Kozu screamed. "Dig!"

He pressed the knife into the child's neck. Blood oozed from the wound. She suppressed a whimper.

Cole and Kyle dug while Kai leaned against the tree, eyes locked on the little girl's. Probably to keep her calm. It must have worked because she stared back as though he were a lifeline.

Clunk.

Cole's shovel hit something wooden, and he stooped to look at it. "A box," he said. "Keep digging."

"Way ahead of you," Kyle said through ground teeth. He kept staring daggers at Kozu as he widened the hole.

Cole retrieved the box, then used his sword to pry it open.

Inside were two small objects, wrapped in fine- but very old- linens.

Cole could not explain what happened next. It was as if a supernatural energy urged his hand to reach for the wrapped Blade on the bottom, and he pulled it from the box.

"Awaken it," Kozu said. "It needs awakening before our master can use it."

So that's why Overlord had given Cole the location of the Blades. Not because he wanted to show them his power and destroy a village, although that had certainly been a deciding factor, but because the Blades needed a predestined entity to awaken them. Like Cole and Kai; chosen by a descendant of the First Spinjitsu Master.

Cole unwrapped the Blade and unsheathed it. Amazing. No rust, no tarnishing. As if it had been forged only yesterday.

He stroked the vine-like patterns on the flat side of the Blade as Kai grabbed his own. The gem in its hilt was black. But not black like a dark room. It reminded him of a twinkling, starry night full of light.

He touched the gem.

Instantly, it thrummed in this hand. But not in a physical way. It was a gentle noise that seemed to emulate from Cole's own mind.

Then the gem glowed white. It shined so brilliantly that even Kozu shielded his eyes from it.

But not Cole. To his surprise and delight, he was able to stare straight into the light without feeling the burn like those around him.

Can you hear me? Cole asked with his mind, the way he supposed Jay and Zane had done it.

A moment of silence.

Yes, came a gentle reply. The light ceased.

Cole's uncharacteristic excitement grew wilder. What's your name?

...Raindancer, it answered. The thrumming intensified. What is the measure of a warrior's heart? it asked. What will he do, come final hour?

Wait...are you doing poetry? Cole asked.

Raindancer continued. Will with dear treasures he depart? Will his heart rise above his power?

Kozu looked at the Blade with an expression that teetered between terror and greed. "Give it to me," he said. "It belongs to my master."

For if a man with no soul gives his life for another, true strength will be found- and will vanquish the beast.

That lasts bit didn't even rhyme, Cole thought as a gust of wind drifted past his nose, carrying with it the scent of melted flesh. He almost gagged in his revulsion.

Were these two Blades worth it? Were the lives of this village, or of this innocent girl, worth it?

No. Absolutely not.

Kai kept his eyes on the little girl's. His jaw was set in a grim line as he held up his sheathed Blade- which glowed red- and took a deep breath.

Okay...I can't believe I'm doing this...

Cole started at the voice in his head. It was different from Raindancer's. It almost sounded like...

Hey, Cole. Can you hear this? It's Kai.

Excuse me?

Okay. Yeah. It's working. Uh...what's the plan?

The plan? Cole weighed the Blade in his hand. He tossed it into the air, straight for Kozu's feet. "Give us the girl."

But before the Blade hit the ground, Kyle shot forward with inhuman speed and caught it.

"Kyle!" Kai said. "What are you doing? They're going to kill her!"

Kyle drew the Blade from its sheath and smiled. "You have no idea," he said, "how long I've waited to do this."

And before anyone could blink, Kyle had snatched the child from the stone warrior's arms, replacing it with a knife in the throat.

Kyle turned the child so her head was hidden in his shoulder, then he twisted the Blade. Blood sprayed everywhere- on his clothes, Kozu's face, even the road nearly ten feet away.

"This is for my master's suffering," he said. And this-" he twisted the Blade again- "is for what you've done here in this village."

He pulled it free and turned to Kozu, eyes burning. "Where is your army?" he asked, teeth bared. "Hiding? Or perhaps they're on your ship, waiting for you to return and-" His words fell away with a gasp as Kozu's sword shoved through his stomach.

But before Kozu had a chance to turn his sword on the child, Kai rushed forward and snatched her from Kyle's arms. He held his Blade in a defensive position, prepared to block attacks that never came.

Instead, Kozu held out a hand. "The Blade."

Cole saw a plethora of thoughts and emotions cross Kai's face at once. The hesitation as he remembered that they were supposed to keep these Blades away from Overlord at all costs. The remorse as he thought that if he did not obey, the child in his arms would die.

The realization that, in the face of Overlord's great four-armed weapon, he was powerless.

Kai shrunk the Blade and put it back in its sheath. Then he handed it to Kozu.

Kozu gingerly accepted the Blade and dropped it into a pocket. "Brave man," he said. "Dark Knight, look at him and learn. This is braveness. He approached, but you stood at distance and threw the Blade."

He pointed a black finger at Cole. "Coward. Always a coward, since our first day together. Hiding, groveling. Begging for mercy." He sneered. "Weak. Powerless. Yes?"

Unable to stop himself- as if someone was pushing him- Cole sank to his knees and bowed his head.

"See? Even now. You say freedom. You escape our master, make a name for yourself. 'Black' Knight. But in the end, who are you?"

Kozu forced his head up by a fistful of hair. "You are Dark Knight, the coward." He straightened and shoved Cole to the ground. "We leave now. Master bids you greetings, Sanguine. He hopes you are pleased with his gift."

"Gift?" Kai said.

Kozu pointed to the toddler, curled in Kai's arms. "Ahlie. Your whore's young pup."

Kai's mouth fell open, and he held the girl Ahlie a little tighter. "Why?"

Kozu turned away, stepping over Kyle's still body. "You have done his will, and the Chosen One is dead. Ahlie is a gift of gratitude. Because of you, the prophecy is-"

"Let me guess." Kyle's eyes opened, and he grabbed Raindancer from the snow. "Dead? That's what you were about to say, eh? The prophesy is dead?" In one fell swoop, the Blade cut through both of Kozu's legs, and he fell forward.

Kyle sat upright with difficulty, one hand over his wound, which shed no blood.

"Let me tell you a secret," he said. "The prophecy is a lie. It never existed."

Terror- true terror- filled Kozu's yellow eyes as he looked up at the shimmering Blade. "Nanesh! Er'rentgd i to!"

"That's right," Kyle said. His laugh was without humor. "My master has outwitted yours. For years now. Nothing is as it seems, micha chlymttu."

Raindancer went through Kozu's heart, then back out again. Kyle spat in his face.

And, just like that, Kozu was dead.

Kyle washed the Blade in snow, then approached Cole. "Here," he said. "This belongs to you."

Cole lifted his face from the snow and took Raindancer. It thrummed in his hands. "Who are you?" he asked.

Kyle buttoned his cloak, concealing the bloodless wound. "I am Nindroid 066," he said. "Cyrus' right-hand man, his most trusted ally. And...heh...I wasn't kidding about you two being my next targets. Cyrus sent me to protect you. That guy I shot the other
/day? He was an assassin from the King, sent to track down Cole and Jay."

"Why?" Cole asked.

Kyle dug the second Blade from Kozu's pocket and gave it to Kai. "It is not my place to say," he said.

Kai took the Blade with his free hand. "So that's why my power didn't work on you," he said. "I uh...tried to talk to you with my mind. It worked with Cole and Ahlie, but not you. Now I know why: you're not human."

"Correctamundo," Kyle said. "Basically immortal, too. Which makes playing dead, like you saw a minute ago, a real fun party trick. Now..." He felt Kai's forehead. "It seems that neither Blade has a healing power. Which means that we need to return to Cyrus as soon as possible. I fear that you may be unable to travel within another twenty-four hours."

Kai pointedly ignored Kyle's proclamation, turning his attention instead to Ahlie. He asked her in the Dark Tongue if she was all right.

She nodded quickly and returned her head to his shoulder, shivering. Or maybe crying. Probably both.

Kai pulled his cloak around her and stood. "What should we do about the stone warrior bodies?" he asked.

"Nothing," Cole said. "That is to say, I'm not touching them with a ten foot pole. So if we meet an official on the road, we'll just give him instructions to toss them in the ocean."

"Sounds like a plan." Kyle helped Kai mount his horse, then hopped into the saddle behind him. "I may be near-immortal," he said, "but swords hurt. I'm riding."

Jay, Liana, and Merv waited for no longer than a minute before Cyrus bolted into the main room, eyeglasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. He shoved them up, then stared at Liana as though he could not believe that she was there.

"Dad," Liana said, and leaped from her chair.

"Lia!" They met in the middle of the room and embraced, laughing and crying simultaneously.

"Dad." She held his face in her hands. "I-I love you."

Cyrus cupped her red cheeks and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I love you too. I missed you so much. Did he hurt you?"

"No," Liana said. "He stayed true to his word. And look, he didn't even tattoo me. As long as I wasn't marked, none of his men had the authority to hurt me."

Cyrus' face relaxed, and he pulled her close again. "Oh, you have no idea how relieved I am."

His eyes met Jay's, and he wiped away his tears. "Go get cleaned up, Lia. Then come to the uh...examination room. That's probably where I'll be."

Liana nodded and hurried through a door, wanting to get back to Cyrus' side as soon as she could.

"Jay," Cyrus said. He dried his eyes again, but they continued to leak. "Are you all right?"

Jay shrugged his shoulders. "Nya's mech wasn't built to hold four people, so I'm a little stiff, but yeah. Aside from my leg, I'm all right."

Cyrus approached Jay's stretcher and pressed a wrinkled hand to his ribs. "That's not what I meant, you know," he said.

"Oh." Jay's expression darkened. "Well, yeah. Don't worry about me, Uncle."

"I have every right to be worried," Cyrus said. He squeezed Jay's upper arm. "You're skinny again. More so than before."

"So?"

"Don't make me go through this conversation again," Cyrus said.

"I'm not making you do anything, Uncle."

"You can't skip meals," Cyrus said, speaking has though he hadn't even heard Jay. "I thought you had gotten over this years ago!"

"I did," Jay said. "But going back to Keitorin with Lloyd and Nya... It hurt, thinking of my family. I had no appetite. Plus, I hadn't packed enough food on the second trip for all four of us. I didn't want to stuff myself when the women were hungry."

"And you believed him?" Cyrus looked at Merv. "You watched him lose every ounce of fat and muscle in his body, listened to every lie about how he wasn't hungry-"

"Liana made me eat a few bites every morning, Uncle. You're overreacting-"

"I'm not overreacting," Cyrus said. He unbuttoned Jay's shirt and sighed. "Look at your body. Emaciated. I can count all your ribs. Suck in your gut. There. You see that? I can feel your spine when I poke your abdomen. It's not natural. I have enough work to do without having to worry about force-feeding you again, Jay."

Jay, exhausted and delirious from his fever, started to tear up. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'll try to eat later today. I promise."

Cyrus paused. His heart went out to Jay, the child whom he'd rescued nearly fifteen years ago. The child who, after all this time, still needed emotional support from his uncle so his depression wouldn't consume him. The child who pretended to be fine; who helped others to distract himself from his own problems.

"Shh." Cyrus pulled Jay into his arms and held him tight. "You're all right, Jay. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"Don't be sorry," Jay said, trying to suppress his pent-up emotions. "All I ever do is cause trouble."

"No," Cyrus said. "You did good, Jay. Thank you. I owe you for bringing Liana back."

"You don't owe me anything," Jay said. "You owe Cole. You owe Chedva."

"Chedva?" Cyrus helped Jay lie back down and wiped the tears from his hollow cheeks. "Who's she?"

Semi-composed, Jay pointed at the bundle in Merv's arms. Cyrus held out his hands.

Merv looked at Cyrus apprehensively. She shook her head, clinging to the baby.

"It's all right," Jay said, and sniffed. "You can trust him."

Cyrus took the baby and cooed. She blinked up at him with sleepy eyes.

"Is this your baby, Merv?" he asked.

"No," Jay said. "It's Cole's."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"I had no choice," Cyrus said. "You know that, Jay."

"There's always another way," Jay said. "You could have tried to negotiate, and freed both Hagar and Lia. That's what I would have done."

"Well, I'm not you," Cyrus said. "You're a wise young man. Me? I'm an old fool who was consumed by the emotions of the moment." He gave the baby to Merv. "You uh...said something about your leg hurting?"

Pixal passed the guards at the gate to the Julien Mansion without a word. They let her pass, but not without blinking a few times to make sure she was real.

The eagle flew into the rafters of the main room and perched in its nest. It was asleep within seconds.

"Where is my father?" Pixal asked a passing servant.

"Ah!" The girl dropped her load of wood, then wince as a log fell on her foot. "He...you...Milady!"

Pixal helped the servant load the wood into her arms. "Now, don't be too loud. I want to surprise him. Where is he?"

"In...in the study, Milady. With our Lord Zane."

"Thank you." Pixal left the servant and went down a hall. The study was in a large room adjacent to the gardens on the other side of the mansion.

Heart beating like mad drums in her chest, she stopped at the ornate door and tried to collect herself. Easy, Pixal, she thought. Just open the door and say hello. It's not that hard.

But it was that hard. She thumbed the ornate door handle, counting down in her mind the seconds until she would open it.

Ten...nine...eight...

What if they were angry with her?

Seven...six...five...

What if Father had given up on ever seeing her again and was living as though she had never existed?

Four...three...two...

If that were the case, her coming back would be an inconvenience. She would-

Oh, this is silly. Just open that door. Everything is fine. Your fears are irrelevant. Everything is just fine, so... She threw the door open with all her might.

"What-!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Pixal gasped. She had shoved the door right into someone's face.

Zane, wearing a crisp white coat embroidered with gold thread, picked himself up from the floor, cupping his injured nose. His eyes went wide with shock, then confusion, then joy. "Pixal?" he said.

Pixal remembered all those times on the Dark Island when she'd watched Zane mourn from a distance, wearing those rags that had been destroyed by the storm. How she'd wished with all that she was that she could run into his arms, comfort him, and tell him...

She opened her arms to him and whispered in his ear:

"I'm back."