She mashed her lips together, but she had to believe him and notjust because she could continue to focus on Sylph if he was all right. “Okay,”she said. “Are the rest of the pyradistés…” She didn’t want to say dead, didn’teven want to think about the corpses around her, the deaths that should neverhave happened.
“Yes,” Dina said. “What should we do next, Thana?”
Thana nodded to her, grateful for the permission to continue.“Next, right.” Everyone looked at her, but she began talking to herself as muchas them. “The pyradistés had a Fiend pyramid. They tried to use it, and Sylphstopped them. Then it broke.”
Illis scratched the back of his head. “My fault. Sorry.”
“You didn’t know,” Ivar started, but Thana held up a hand.
“What’s done is done.” She took a deep breath. “Breaking thepyramid released this…burst of energy that tried to bring Gunnar’s Aspect out,but his necklace and my pyramid stopped it.”
“Youstopped it, Than,” Dina said softly.
Thana gave her a grateful smile. “But the burst also affectedYanchasa.” She looked to where Sylph had disappeared. Tears threatened, but sheshoved them down. “Yanchasa couldn’t have pulled her underground from hisprison. That was her power.” She looked to Dina again. “Full contact with thestone seemed to help her control her power before.”
“When she made it flow like water,” Dina said, nodding. “So shewent down there to focus?”
“Probably to keep the cavern intact,” Thana said, glancingaround. “No, she wouldn’t need all her will for that.” Dread grew in her stomachas she looked at the green-flecked stone of the pyramid that held Yanchasa.“The burst of power…maybe it awakened Yanchasa enough for him to struggle.”
Dina put a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. The brotherscursed.
“If so, she’s keeping him inside there,” Thana whispered,pointing, and the horror of how close they stood to annihilation gripped herthroat. He might be listening to them even now. “Oh spirits, she’s pitting herstrength against his.”
As if to punctuate her words, the ground rumbled again.
“What can we do to help?” Illis asked quietly.
Thana rested her hand on the ground, willing Sylph to hold on.“We put him back to sleep. We perform the Waltz.”
* * *
The world was stillness. In other places, it raged in fire orfurious shudders, but surrounding Sylph, it wouldbe quiet.
The monstrous Fiend twitched. The earth trembled.
“No,” she whispered. She strengthened his prison, pitting herpower against his force, then shifted tiny holes to feed her air, and broughtthe world to stillness again.
It took all her focus, and it was getting worse, the twitchingseemed like the movements a person might make just before waking, and onceawake, she didn’t know if she could hold him, only that she had to try.
Panic tried to gain a foothold in her mind, but she used all hercourt training to breathe through it, let it wash over her and leave, a peskyannoyance she didn’t have time for. It wouldn’t be denied forever. She thoughtof Thana, who depended on her and waited for her.
No, she couldn’t let her mind wander too far. She had to wait forthe tiniest shift so she could correct it before it became a quake. Thana wouldhave to remain a specter in her mind until then.
Until when? There was no prison she could make that could matchthe Fiend’s strength. There was no way to put it back to sleep. Her mind wasone with the stone, but her body was mortal. How long—
The earth rumbled again, stronger this time, and she sensed massivelimbs sliding gently against the prison’s walls. Their movement wouldn’t begentle for long.
“No.” She focused again and breathed, and the earth settled. Shecould not begin thinking about the future now. Not because she didn’t wish toor because of any pact with Thana. She couldn’t afford the loss of focus. Shehad to remain vigilant, ever present, a statue, waiting.
* * *
Thana led the others up Sylph’s staircase while they carriedGunnar between them. “This is the second time we’ve carried his unconsciousHighness today,” Ivar said.
“And he can stand to lose a few pounds if it keeps happening,”Illis said, limping and panting under the strain.
Dina chuckled, and Thana wanted to join in, but she wished they’dsave their breath for the task at hand. And any attempt at humor felt wrong atthe moment. She was already planning five steps ahead. First, she needed tocollect the queen, then they needed two others who—
She pulled up short, crying out as she almost collided with QueenEarnhilt and Calla on the stairs. Everyone sucked in a deep breath beforetalking at once. The cavern rumbled harder than before, shutting everyone up asthey reached for the walls to steady themselves.
Thana took advantage of the moment of silence and summarized whathad happened.
When Thana finished, Earnhilt’s jaw stood out like iron, andThana could nearly hear her teeth grinding. She sheathed her blade, steppednear the brothers, and hoisted her son over her shoulders. “Come on,” she said,leading the way up.
Everyone glanced at everyone else before following. Thana wasjust happy it had been Gunnar’s Fiend who’d almost escaped and not Earnhilt’s.
In the capstone cavern, she laid her son on the floor. “We needtwo more besides Gunnar and I for the Waltz.”
Thana looked to Calla, but she stood placidly. She was probablytoo far removed from the throne to be born with an Aspect. Umbriel childrenwere born with Fiends because before conception, their Umbriel parent passed itto their other parent during a sexual ritual overseen by a pyradisté usingFiend magic.
Another task Thana had never done and didn’t look forward to.Spirits, it looked like she’d have to do it now, though. Fantastic, anothertask to accomplish before she could go after Sylph.
“The crown prince and his wife are in the Western March,” Dinasaid.
Ivar shook his head. “That’s a four-day ride there and back.” Thecavern rumbled again as if laughing at them.
“And the crown prince’s father?” Thana asked.
Earnhilt bit
