Everyone sucked in a breath of shock, even Agrathor.
"You came back just to kill me?" Kash said, real fear in his eyes.
"If I wanted revenge," said Axebourne, "it would not be upon you, though you did choose to attack us all at Chasmverge." He turned to Ess.
"Would you like to tell them, dear friend?" he asked her. "Or should I?"
All eyes went to Ess. Pierce made the connection, and prepared to charge. Axebourne must have seen him tensing.
"Hold, boy," he said, and Pierce obeyed, with difficulty.
Ess didn't look terribly shocked, or afraid that Axebourne was accusing her. Pierce actually thought she seemed a little annoyed.
"I did not intend to kill you, friend," she said. Scythia immediately moved to attack, and all at once she was frozen again, halted mid-stride. "But you should not have tried to defend the First."
Axebourne laughed. "I will defend anyone from harm who I do not deem deserving of it."
"Yet you do not understand my work, any more than you understand Kash's goals. He is right - there is something rising from the depths of the world that only the three of us knew about. Kash, the First, and I. My former master was resigned to it, awaiting his death. I knew I must take his power from him." Ess's seven orbs circled the air around her hand, joined suddenly by an eighth she must have kept hidden before. This one was a deeper orange than the rest. "Kash sought to resist but keep control of the world for himself. That I could also not abide."
"And you, old friend?" Axebourne asked. Pierce thought he might already know. "What did you want?"
"I want it to come," Ess admitted. "Them, really. There is no stopping the upward shift of the layers of the world. It isn't the first time our world has been fundamentally altered, nor will it be the last. We would be fools to try and stop it."
"But why kill your mentor and teacher?" Scythia asked. She sounded distraught. Pierce couldn't blame her. How long had they trusted this woman, with their secrets, their very lives? He himself felt betrayed, and he had only known her for a short span. They had kissed. Did it mean nothing to her?
"The First no longer deserved his title," Ess said, "but he refused to relinquish it to me, despite my surpassing him in power. It was for the best, I must admit. His sacrifice earned me this Skill of Control with which I bind your bodies." The enchantment of stasis cinched around Pierce once more. Ess didn't even have to gesture. "With Kash in my hands, I complete this test of my will, and claim my place as the First."
She glanced at the Underlord as if she'd forgotten about him.
"I suppose this will do," she said, raising her hands toward him, "though I would have preferred the blood of unjust revenge, a more proper sacrifice."
Kash's mouth moved but did not make a sound. Ess brought her hands together, cupped as if catching a flying insect to study it later. Kash's body collapsed instantly into a small orb of blood, bone and flesh, with a surface that shifted about like liquid. It shone with an eerie green light. He didn't even have time to cry out in pain. The orb floated over to join Ess's others, and she looked up to her former comrades.
"You will think to come for me. Do not try. Continue to delve into the Theory," she said, "and you may someday understand." She looked Pierce straight in the eye.
"For what it's worth, I thought you were beautiful too," she said. "If I thought you would come, I would fold you away with me, but your stout heart is much too warm for this, is it not?"
Pierce nodded in shock, the movement stiff. Even now, a portion of him twitched with attraction.
"Very well," she said.
With that, Ess dissolved into the air, and Gorgonbane regained their movement.
"Why didn't you stop her?" Agrathor roared at Axebourne. "You halted Kash with a word, you could have halted her too!"
"I'm glad to see you as well, Aggie," said Axebourne. "The betrayal of an old friend is a sad thing, but my business is not revenge. That is not why I was sent back. "
"Sent?" said Scythia.
"I'll explain everything. Everything I have words for, anyway."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Lords of Testadel
Scythia would not let Axebourne begin his story. She took him into her arms and held him as if she would never again let go.
Sev was the one to go to Ugrata's body and kneel. He laid her on her back and straightened out her robes and limbs. He closed the lids of her sightless eyes and bowed his head in what Pierce supposed was a prayer.
Ess's parting words had led him to a new realization. The people of Overland really didn't know that much about the thoughts and feelings of those who had lived beneath them. Ess's actions were evidence that many people, even legendary heroes, didn't truly know even their own friends. Pierce had never considered the secret thoughts of others. He was realizing in this moment that he tended to take everyone at face value.
Ess had been young to him, a fresh, beautiful girl who he might be able to get close to. She had been fairly aloof, sometimes seeming almost stoic, but this had only added to her mystery. Pierce had never liked people who blurted out their every thought and emotion anyway. He did, of course, have to admit that he often was one of those people.
That kiss... Why had she done that, if all she meant to do was betray them?
All this time, Ess had been mixing truth with lies. She had known that the world consisted of at least three layers, and not just two. She had known that the First's enchantment of the sky would stave off or at least stall the Underlands' uprising and had prevented his success
