A hand settled on my shoulder. I turned to see Kumi kneeling beside me. She chanted and swayed. Water streamed out across my body and restored a trickle of strength. It was enough to stand, maybe, but I doubted I could even call up enough magic to light a match.
The light caught Kumi’s face, and she smiled; it was the brightest, most beautiful thing I’d seen in a long time.
“You won, Swordslinger,” she said as she helped me to my feet.
“We won, your Highness,” I replied. “Horix has fallen, and his guild will fall leaderless to your father’s men.”
“All thanks to you.”
“Does that mean I’ve proved my worthiness for a royal bride?”
She grinned. “Perhaps. We’ll see.”
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me. A life-affirming pleasure surged into my veins as I felt her warmth and sweetness greet my mouth.
The sun rose over a broken guild and signaled a new age for the Diamond Coast.
Chapter Twenty-Four
We sailed back to the mainland in the same boats that had carried us to war. They were less crowded than they had been on that first crossing. Some of the previous occupants lay amid the piles of dead outside the guild house and awaited a burial at sea. Others had stayed behind to guard the prisoners, extinguish fires, and organize the spoils of the battle. Some of the guild members and many of the servants had surrendered peacefully. But there were others who resisted their new circumstances. They would have to be watched carefully while King Beqai determined what to do with them.
Our magic craft sped us swiftly back to the docks. We were some of the first back to Qihin City and certainly the first to step into the royal palace.
I stood with Kumi on the steps of the great hall as she dispatched servants to fetch food, water, and medical supplies. The princess directed people as effortlessly as she did her water magic as she organized the initial clean-up from the battle against the guild.
Beqai joined us an hour later. He sank proudly into his throne as his daughter sent away the last of the court nobles.
A set of new servants appeared. They supported a comfortable-looking litter above them. Labu stirred weakly on it as they bore him across the courtyard on the impressive stretcher. His face was pale, and blood-encrusted bandages wrapped his chest, legs, and left arm.
“Father,” he croaked when the bearers brought him close. “Kumi. Forgive me for standing against you.”
“It is already forgiven,” Kumi said. “I’m just glad to have my brother back.”
She hummed and swayed, and water rose from a bowl beside her. It flowed across Labu’s wounds and soothed him as he struggled against the pain.
His eyes met mine, and he looked uncertain.
I reached out and clasped his hand.
“You fought well, Prince,” I said. “In the end, you acquitted yourself as a warrior of honor and a proud bearer of your bloodline. You’ll always carry that with you.”
“I may have dismissed you, Swordslinger, but we could not have won the battle without you,” Labu managed. “I owe you. And I’ll always owe you. Should you need, call for me—”
“Go sleep,” I told him with a laugh. “Recover. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
Labu turned to look at his father. Beqai leaned over the stretcher and whispered something in his ear. Labu smiled, then lay back and fell asleep. The servants turned and carried him away at a signal from Kumi.
“A feast will be given in celebration of the living and fallen,” Beqai told me. “Will you join us?”
I smiled tiredly. “I’d be honored.”
Kumi ushered me up to my room and left me on my bed with a deep kiss and a smile. Moonlight touched the comfortable furnishings when I finally awoke again. I changed into a fresh set of plain robes and made my way down the palace stairs to find my friends.
I followed celebratory sounds to the main courtyard where a hundred braziers illuminated and warmed the open space. Food was heaped up on tables, and casks of wine and ale sat open next to them. Servants with ladles at the ready offered me a cup as I passed them. I accepted it with a grateful bow and sipped at it. Dancers, jugglers, and acrobats dotted the battlements and performed for a raucous crowd of warriors and Wild Augmenters. The air hummed with a cheerful buzz of conversation, song, and enthusiastic drinking.
King Beqai had wasted no time in organizing the banquet for the victory. I’d thought that it would be poorly attended, with everyone still recovering from the fight, but I was badly mistaken. Hundreds of the Qihin and their allies had flowed up to the palace in celebratory spirits. Many were still bruised and bandaged, and others leaned on their friends, but it didn’t dampen the atmosphere at all. It simply enhanced it. We’d fought and survived Horix and his Straight Path devotees.
I walked wearily through the throng. My Vigor had taken its time to reemerge after that last effort on the tower against Horix. I’d fought fire with fire before, but it was clear to me that I still had much to learn. For all of his posturing about his power and focus, Horix had made points that hit a little close to home. It simply wasn’t enough to rely on sheer speed, strength, and force of will.
I’d need to innovate and find new ways to implement my existing techniques. Vesma had displayed ingenuity by using Untamed Torch to make a flaming weapon. I already had a bunch of techniques, and they were the fundamental building blocks of others I could invent.
From time to time, someone would draw me into a group, and we would drink a toast together. My shoulder was slapped so many times, it started to feel sore, but I wasn’t going
