Time to get to work.
CHAPTER SEVEN
'You did what was necessary,' Kael said. His voice echoed within the eerie silence of the storm dragon's temple, along with the faint but steady dripping of water in the distance. 'It's the right choice in your heart. That is most important.' The holy warrior knelt next to Tauran, who sat cross-legged with his chin resting on his hands, staring at the floor.
'Perhaps,' the angel replied, his voice glum. 'But I broke Tyr's law. I disregarded the High Council's direct orders. I am a criminal.'
Kaanyr, reclining next to Aliisza a short distance from the two, snorted. 'Yes, he's the scourge of the cosmos,' the cambion said with a chuckle.
'Be quiet,' Aliisza scolded. 'He turned on his own kind to rescue you from a very unpleasant fate. Whatever else you may think of Tauran, you at least owe him a little gratitude for that.'
'I wouldn't be in such a situation in the first place if it weren't for him,' Kaanyr replied. 'It was his idea to parade us before all the angels in the heavens. What did he think would happen?'
'I don't think he expected them to turn on him,' Aliisza said. 'He feels betrayed right now.' And I know that feeling all too well, the alu silently added.
'Well, he'd better get over this and stop his moping,' Kaanyr said. 'It won't take Micus and the rest of them long to hunt us down. This isn't a safe place for us to remain.'
Aliisza nodded, but she didn't answer. She was thinking about what Tauran had revealed in his plaintive conversation with Micus. He had used the words 'tragedy' and 'catastrophe.' She glanced out at the churning sky beyond the edges of the temple. The clouds around the sacred dwelling of the storm dragon still billowed and tumbled, obscuring her sight, but at least they didn't roil with sickly color and jagged lightning quite as much as before.
Aliisza recalled the fractured sky heaving overhead as they had fled the great marbled city. The whole mountain upon which the Court rested had heaved beneath their feet. Everywhere they ran, the inhabitants were in a panic. She saw many of them crumpled, sobbing, while others merely wore ashen, grim expressions.
Something terrible has happened, she realized. Something that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of the House of the Triad's existence. And Tauran is convinced that Zasian is responsible for it.
Eventually, the horrid chaos that had engulfed the plane and shook the Court to its foundations had abated. A level of calm returned that permitted the quartet of fugitives to escape. Aliisza had no doubt that they would not have survived in the open sky otherwise.
The alu rose to her feet and walked to where Tauran and Kael sat, each in silent contemplation. She squatted before the angel and gazed at him. His expression was sorrowful to behold. He seemed to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders and knew he was on the verge of dropping it.
'What happened?' she asked quietly.
The angel looked back at her with eyes filled with the deepest sadness. 'Helm fell before Tyr,' he said. His voice, usually so rich and confident, sounded weak, like a frightened child's. He could not hold her gaze and returned his own to the floor in front of him.
'What? I don't understand. Tyr defeated him? Isn't that what you wanted? An end to the bickering between them?'
'Not like this,' Kael said when Tauran would not answer. 'Tyr slew him.'
The words crashed against Aliisza like a storm-tossed wave. One god had slain another. 'How is that possible?' she breathed. 'Your gods don't do that.'
'Not often,' Kael conceded. 'Certainly not by choice. Whatever drove him to do it… the ravaging of the House was both his fury and his sorrow.'
Tauran looked at Aliisza again, and she saw something new in his face, something she had never thought to see in an angel's visage. Shame. 'Tyr, and many of us who serve him, will not see it this way,' he said quietly. 'But he has fallen from grace today. No matter how much power and wisdom he wields, the Maimed God took a misstep in his decision to debate Helm, and the results have weakened the entire House.'
'Cyric drove him to it,' Kael added. 'There can be no other explanation.'
Tauran nodded. 'Perhaps that is true, but even so, Tyr made the choices he made. I love him like no other'- at that point, the angel's voice cracked-'but today, I look upon his glory and find it tarnished. He has betrayed my trust.'
Aliisza found the deva's words stunning. 'You can't just turn your back on him,' she said, surprised by her own conviction. 'He is your life, your whole reason for being. You can't just cast all that away.'
'What would you know of such things?' Kael said coldly. 'You, who have never served any higher ideal in your long, corrupt life.'
Aliisza stared at her son but said nothing. The alu was surprised how much his words stung. He is wounded, she realized, perhaps embarrassed. He blames us for some of this.
'Leave her be, Kael,' Tauran said. 'She may not have devoted much of herself to greater causes before, but that doesn't mean she isn't learning. Remember, she is still here of her own accord, by choice.'
Kael frowned for a moment, then grimaced and nodded in acquiescence. 'You are right. Forgive me. Mother.'
That was the first time Aliisza could recall her son addressing her as such. She blinked in surprise but still said nothing. Was that deferential or demeaning? she wondered. Then she dismissed it. A question for another time, she decided.
'Tyr is not my whole reason for existing,' Tauran said, drawing Aliisza back into the conversation. 'The ideals he represents are what I have devoted my life to. I have believed with all my heart what he believes in. I still do, which is why I am so disappointed. He did not live up to those ideals, at least not in my mind. Micus and the others must see things differently, but I cannot abide leaving this tragedy uninvestigated. We must find out what caused this, if Cyric is indeed at the root of it.'
'Through Zasian,' Aliisza added. 'If Zasian acts on Cyric's behalf, as you claim-'
'He does,' Kael interjected.
'— then we must find him to find out his-and thus, Cyric's-plans.'
Tauran looked pointedly at Aliisza. 'Yes. And that's why I still need your help. You and Vhok know more about him than we do. Help me figure out where he's gone, what he's up to.'
Aliisza glanced over at Kaanyr. The cambion had risen to his feet and was standing near the edge of the temple, gazing out at the storm-tossed clouds beyond. He had his hands clasped behind his back, looking calm and confident for the first time in a long while.
At least he's not sulking, Aliisza thought. 'Kaanyr knows Zasian far better than I,' she said. 'He conspired with the man to get here. He traveled with him. I only interacted with Zasian peripherally. And mostly I tried to avoid him.' She had to fight to keep the bitterness at her lover's trickery from infecting her tone. Then she leaned close and lowered her voice. 'Kaanyr will do the minimum necessary to adhere to the rules of your bonds,' she warned. 'I will try to convince him that it will be more useful, even to him, if he does more-if he really helps. But you should know that he will find a way to repay you for your trickery.' She gave Tauran a steady stare. 'He does not take well to being manipulated.'
'I did nothing of the sort,' the angel replied, his tone bristling. 'He freely relinquished control without fully investigating the situation.'
Aliisza clicked her tongue in disapproval. 'You were almost gleeful when you revealed his mistake to him,' she said. 'Don't deny that you were looking forward to seeing his reaction.'
Tauran grimaced and nodded. 'Indeed,' he said. 'There is a certain righteous satisfaction in out-clevering such a cunning adversary. I did let my pride cloud my emotions.' He sighed. 'But you cannot deny that if I had revealed the lost time to either of you before securing your agreement to aid me, you would have departed at once.'
Aliisza smiled. 'You don't understand,' she said. 'It's not that Kaanyr feels the maneuver was unjust. He is
