Page 98 of The Half King
Nero gripped his forehead and yelled, “Have you lost your mind?”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I haven’t lost my soul.”
To escape the rising water, she climbed onto the stone dais beside Nero. She reached up and returned the Petros Blade to its rightful spot. It glowed and floated peacefully in the air. She supposed she wouldn’t need it now.
She threaded an arm through Nero’s. She felt like she should say something meaningful, but her fear rose with the water, and all she could do was shiver. Nero didn’t say anything, either, until right before the water reached his mouth. He gulped one last breath and used it to call her a fool. Cerise used her last breath to laugh.
26
After that, the flood swallowed them, and there was only blackness and pressure and the all-consuming need to breathe. She soon lost her connection to Nero. The current twisted her body until she didn’t know which way was up. Her mouth opened and filled with water. She felt the sensation of falling, and the next thing she knew, sunlight pierced her eyelids, and she hit the ground hard, knocking the last dregs of wind from her lungs.
She sucked in a breath and rolled onto all fours to cough up water. She didn’t realize where she was until she smelled sulfur and opened her eyes to the sight of cracked dirt turning to mud beneath her wet hands. Nero lay to her right, hacking up the contents of his own lungs. On her left, Blue licked her face while Kian dropped to his knees and smoothed back her dripping hair. He peppered her with questions that flew to the edges of her senses. Once the shock wore off and the oxygen returned to her brain, she felt something hard against her knee, and she shifted aside to find a length of gleaming steel.
The Petros Blade.
She lifted it by the hilt and shared a glance with Nero, who seemed just as confused as she was. How had they both survived and emerged with the blade if she had failed the final test? She hadn’t proved herself deserving at all.
Unless…
Unless the sacrifice had been a different kind of test—the type of challenge that a person had to fail in order to pass. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. What better way to measure a person’s integrity than to require a blood sacrifice in exchange for the blade? Those who sought the weapon for the wrong reasons, for power or for greed, wouldn’t hesitate to kill an innocent man to get it. Those with purer motives would resist.
Her lips spread in a smile. “My foolishness won the day!”
Nero flopped onto his back, slinging one arm over his eyes. “I never thought I would thank you for that.”
“You still haven’t,” she pointed out.
“Thank you.”
Kian glanced back and forth between them. “Want to share this thrilling story with the rest of us?”
“Yes,” Daerick agreed. “I want to hear about your foolishness.”
“Me, too,” General Petros added.
“I suggest we return to the lower trail first,” Father Padron said in an absent voice, his eyes wide with disbelief and fixed on the blade. “I can’t protect us here.”
“Very well,” Kian told him. He cupped Cerise’s cheek and asked her, “Are you able to walk?”
She nodded and let him help her to standing. Her knees trembled a bit, but more from the thrill of escaping death than from physical exhaustion. She examined the blade in the sunlight, turning its polished steel to and fro and admiring its gleaming surface. The weapon didn’t look so evil in the light of day, but she knew better than to underestimate the damage it could do. She would need to fashion a sheath for the blade and keep it secured to her at all times, just like she had promised Nero at the beginning of their journey.
As if sharing her thoughts, Nero said, “Remember the vow you made.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” she told him.
Nero turned his attention to the king. “My job was to guide you to the blade. Now that you have it, you can’t say I haven’t earned my pay.”
“You’ve done well,” Kian agreed.
“Then this is where we part ways.” Nero gestured toward the thicket where the horses were tethered. “The path down the mountain is the same that we took to get here. Our tracks are easy to follow.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Cerise asked.
“You can find the way,” Nero said. “You don’t need me to guide you anymore. But if you ever need me in the future, you know where to mention my name.”
She nodded.
“Goodbye…fornow,” he told her, as though they were destined to meet again.
