What? What did he have within? Beside fat crusted arteries and a stomach stretched to a ridiculous size by too many binge meals?
He had…
Light.
Distilled joy.
He wasn’t a wizard. But he was a conduit.
Lady Alexandrite’s words came back to him…Do what you do best.
What did he do best?
He played the fool to give joy. Joyous energy that he collected. And gave back to create even more joy.
He had a power the dark lords craved. But they couldn’t understand that such power would never be theirs. There wasn’t room in their black hearts. Their thick, ichorous blood would boil away the moment it touched them.
But the power was never his to keep. He only held it until it was needed. Needed to help someone else.
He drew his face close to hers. Closer than he would have ever dared.
Lady Sapphire, he said, Open your eyes.
I cannot, she said, The spell will get in. Corrupt the last of my soul.
He held her face gently, cupped in his hands. Her skin made his hands tingle with electricity. Somewhere, his physical heart beat wildly. Almost as wildly as the mad drumming that filled the space around them.
I won’t let it, he said, Open your eyes, dear lady and we will set you free.
Could he? Was his little reserve of light enough?
He forced the thoughts back. This wasn’t the place for doubt. He couldn’t allow the rats of despair or self pity to gnaw at him here. He had to believe.
More than a few lives depended on him to believe.
An entire world.
Perhaps an entire universe.
There was no room to think of failure.
Open your eyes, Lady Sapphire. Look into me. Take what you need.”
And the terrible eyes opened. He fell into their blazing depths. They seared away every layer of protection he had built upon the tattered shards of his soul.
Down and down he went.
Down and down the Sapphire Witch’s haunted gaze he bored.
The drums beat madly behind him. Ragged animal screams mixed with the beats.
A whiff of corruption followed his descent.
Down he fell.
Down she drove.
Until at last there was nothing left.
Nothing but the pearl of light he still held.
With his last act of consciousness, he gave it to her.
And as the light faded and darkness closed around him, he heard the crack and ring of metal breaking.
64
The last thing he expected was to be alive.
It was actually a pleasant surprise.
For a long moment he lay still. Stared at the green light that flickered on the slightly curved roof above him. The light was quite lovely. He took a breath and wrinkled his nose. So many smells. Leather and spice. Rotten cabbage. Musk and iron. Oh, and something quite rancid. Yuck.
Where the heckity heck was he anyway?
He lay on something hard. He squinted at the roof.
The van.
Okay, in the van, then.
Where was the van? And what was with the flickering green light?
“Lady Sapphire! She wakes!”
A deep, booming, heroic voice.
And BAM! it all came rushing back.
Odom the Paladin, the Sapphire Witch. Rachel the returned Queen of the Green Realm. Her brother the police detective. Roger the Ogre. Queezleyan in the bloodwood box. Rodney the unconscious delivery driver. And…
Oh, poop nuggets.
Larry and the recently deceased dark lord Igidbon. Who were currently occupying the same space.
Oh, such a bad thing he did. So very, very, very bad.
“Hilario!”
Rachel.
Her face appeared in his line of view. Lines of worry on her face. Lips pressed to a thin line. But still very beautiful.
He flashed back to an image of the Sapphire Witch in…wherever they had been. And her glorious state of undress.
Oh dear.
Hopefully she wouldn’t remember that part.
Maybe it wasn’t so pleasant to still be alive.
“Hilario, are you okay?” Rachel asked.
Though it was nice someone was concerned.
“You need to get up. Dawn is coming,” she said.
Okay, well, it was nice to be needed. Or something.
He struggled to sit up. Detective Marco and Roger the ogre were suddenly on either side, helping.
“That was fucking wicked,” Marco said.
“Nearlies mades boom booms ins mys pantses,” Roger said.
Yeah, that sounded about right.
Odom the Paladin bulked up in the back of the van. He cradled the Sapphire Witch in his arms. Her head was turned away. She pulled her brass rimmed goggles back over her eyes.
Rachel had her back to them. She put herself down at eye level.
“Hilario,” she said, “You know what to do, don’t you?”
He contemplated the various aches and protests in his body. His stomach whined about not being fed for so many, many, many hours. Really, it was such a drama queen any more.
He pushed the bodily complaints aside. Looked deeper. Was he still whole? Was he still himself?
He flinched to think of the searing touch of the Sapphire Witch’s mind and spirit. How much of him was left?
And as he looked, quickly sifted through his layers of carefully applied mental armor, he found it all intact. But different.
Cleaner, somehow.
He felt a lightness where before he felt nothing but crushing oppression.
His armor was still there. But maybe he didn’t need it as much.
There was something else. Something that surprised the heckity heck out of him.
His reserve of light energy was still there.
But he had given it to her. All of it.
He looked to the Sapphire Witch.
“Why didn’t you take it?” he said.
She turned. Pulled away from Odom. Her face was serene. No lines marred her brow. The corner of her mouth quirked up.
“I didn’t need it,” she said, “I simply guided you.”
She moved over to him. Put her palm to his cheek. He flinched, expecting a shock. But there was simply the softness of her warm skin on his.
“You are beautiful, Hilario the
