Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,108

“If Crow hadn’t have joined me, I would be.” Then Tancho went to Asagi, surprising him with a hug. “My good man. I was saved by you, also.”

The old man smiled. “We will tell you everything.”

Crow went to Soko and helped him stand. He was badly beaten, limping, bloodied and bruised, and they whispered quietly to each other as they walked. Soko went straight to Kohaku and clapped him on the shoulder, but then threw his arms around Karasu, and much to Tancho’s surprise, she held Soko just as tight.

Tancho was so grateful they had all survived this. Though many had not, and he would recount those losses a thousand times, but right now, he would celebrate with those who lived.

Kohaku looked at Tancho but nodded to Crow. “How can you be apart? And you can embrace other people without wanting to kill everyone. Is the bond broken?”

“We have much to tell,” Crow said, pulling Tancho back in close. He held up his now blank wrist. “No birthmark.”

“How is that possible?” Erelis asked.

Tancho thought it would just be easier to show them, so he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled at the fabric to reveal the koi and crow on his skin over his heart. “And I have two.”

Everyone gasped, wide-eyed, with disbelief. But Asagi’s surprise was more alarmed. He shot Erelis a wild look, then turned back to Tancho. “Do you know what this means?”

Tancho felt his cheeks heat. “I know how we made it happen, but I don’t think we need to discuss that for all ears to hear.”

Soko snorted out a laugh behind them. But Asagi didn’t smile. Again, he looked to Erelis as if for explanation. Crow’s teacher stepped forward, his expression as grave as Asagi’s. “The one who bears the mark wears the crown.”

Tancho shook his head. That mantra had followed him since the day he was born. “What about it?”

Tancho felt Crow stiffen beside him and he turned to Tancho, realisation drained the colour from his face. “Oh.”

“What am I missing?” Tancho asked, putting his palm to Crow’s cheek. “What’s wrong?”

“The one who bears the mark wears the crown,” Crow whispered. “I am no longer the King of Northlands.” He swallowed hard. “You are.”

Tancho stared at him, his heart banging in his chest. “No, I am not. I am Westlands, through and through. They are my people, my home.”

“You bear the mark of both,” Asagi murmured.

Then, disrupting their conversation, Maghdlm let out a loud shrieking sound, maniacal and menacing. She fought against her hand restraints and struggled with the guards but they held her still.

“What do we do with her,” Samiel asked.

“Kill her,” Elmwood said with a sneer. “A cut for every one of our men who died.”

Tancho nodded. He liked that idea.

Crow scowled at her. “Gut her like a pig and hang her carcass from the bell tower.”

Tancho liked that idea too.

“She could prove useful,” Sirocco said. “She knows more about the doorways than us. If she could be trusted to teach—”

Maghdlm tossed her head to the side, chanting in her foreign tongue, and then beside her a flurry of sparks ignited in mid-air. Screeching sounded from the other side and almost everyone in the room shied away from the sound. But as the new doorway began to open, Tancho took the bone blade from his sleeve and Crow took his bone blade from his belt, flinging their arms out, throwing the blades straight at Maghdlm.

She fell to the ground with one blade in her chest and one in her eye.

Tancho and Crow stood tall together, facing their target, breathing hard and knowing that it was now, finally, over.

Erelis closed the doorway with that new chant, rendering it to nothing but fading sparks scattered on the floor, and all that remained was utter silence.

“Now it’s over,” Samiel said.

Tancho nodded. “There was nothing we could have learned from her.” He turned to Asagi. “There has been so much death today, but for hers, I’m not sorry.”

“She took much,” Elmwood said.

Crow turned to Erelis. “There is a doorway in the water beneath us,” he said. “It needs to be dismantled somehow. Those Ascii came out of it. We need to close it.”

“We discovered many things,” Oaken said. “How to close a doorway permanently being one of them.”

“How?” Tancho asked. “How did you know to come? How did you get to this doorway?”

“The books,” Sirocco replied. “But not from one book. We needed all four. One book by itself was just a quarter of what we needed.