went on. “He was true to his word, in the end. He patched up the winner’s wounds, gave the boy food and water and a powerful sacred instrument, and released him. I was thinking I might do something similar. Poetic justice, I suppose.”
Malice drifted down to stand on the branch beside Yerin. “I could tell him I’ll release him if he defeats you in a duel, how about that? Or we could gather up some survivors, seal off their sacred arts, and make them scratch and claw each other until we spare the victor. What do you think?”
“Don’t want a turn of any game he’d play. If he deserves killing, kill him. Don’t play toys with him. But there’s a Dreadgod—”
“He does deserve it,” Malice said. The shadow-arms reached up and swallowed the golden speck whole; Yerin could sense nothing of him anymore, and she couldn’t be sure if Malice had erased the dragon or transported him somewhere else for capture.
“I respect your position,” the Monarch went on. “The rule of humanity is civilization, and civilizations are based on laws. We should not lower ourselves to our base instincts, or we are no better than they.”
Malice gave a cold smile. “And while I agree up to a point, there is something to be said for…proportional response.”
Yerin surveyed the ravaged valley. “Looks to me like you’ve got your response.”
“It is yet far from proportional.” But Malice warmed once again as she faced Yerin. “But they can wait. They are bare of defense before me…thanks to you.” She took Yerin’s hand in both of hers. “How can I bless your life, Yerin?”
You could start by opening your ears, Yerin thought.
But the sudden change in attitude threw her off. She had expected a positive reception—she had killed Malice’s biggest enemy, after all—but this was a little much.
Yerin met purple eyes that glistened in the picture of motherly affection. “What can you do about the Wandering Titan?”
“Oh my, you do think the world of me, don’t you?” Malice brushed a strand of hair away from Yerin’s eye. “You’re close enough to a Herald now; you should have a more realistic view of a Monarch’s limitations. I was able to keep the Bleeding Phoenix away from certain areas for a few days, but even so, I was not able to drive it off completely. And it had awakened early; it was not fighting at full strength. There’s an argument to be made that it would have destroyed less property in total had I not matched it in battle.”
Yerin appreciated the scale involved, but that didn’t change what she needed. “It’s about to trip over a boundary field that’ll make it weaker, if that helps you. The script’s supposed to work better and faster the stronger you are, and it’s got me weaker than a day-old kitten.”
“Is that so?” Malice murmured. “Poor thing. However, I’m afraid that there’s more. Last time, my focus on the Bleeding Phoenix and my subsequent recovery cost my people all over the world. We lost entire cities, alliances shifted, and territory changed hands while my eyes were turned.”
Yerin straightened her back. “Came armed for that. If all the Monarchs are riding in one boat, you can’t sink each other, true? Willing to make this my prize for the tournament.”
The final prize of the tournament had hovered in the back of her mind since she’d won. She and Lindon had spent a while talking about it, and while he was full of ideas, even he wasn’t sure what she should spend it on.
The obvious answer was “power,” but there wasn’t much more power the Monarchs could give her. And what else could they grant her that she couldn’t earn on her own?
Malice put a hand to her lips in a show of surprise. “Are you now? Well, then, how can we waste time?”
She swirled her hand, and darkness swallowed everything but Yerin and Malice. They still stood on a solid surface, but the whole world was blacker than a nightmare.
Yerin found that she could understand what Malice was doing even though her spiritual perception was blacked out. They hadn’t physically moved anywhere; this was just a way of communicating over great distances, like some kind of Monarch-level messenger construct.
She supposed she was sensing Malice’s will through the working, which was a strange feeling. She needed to get used to that.
A call had gone out in many different directions, and while Yerin couldn’t trace most of them, she knew one at least had