5.Death of Chaos
LXXXIV
EITHER KRYSTAL OR Kasee arranged for sweet rolls and hot cider to be sent to {Crystal's room, and we sat beside each other at the small table, with the hot light of morning pouring through the window.
Outside, the air was still, without even a hint of a breeze off the ocean or the bay, and the heat seemed to ooze into the room. Light bounced off the wall, glinting from the sand in the plaster.
Krystal reached out and held my hands, saying nothing.
Did I have to go? That wasn't the question, and we both knew it. We could wait until things got worse, until the armies of Hamor were actually in Kyphros and I could do nothing.
I shivered.
“What's the matter?”
“I wonder. I hope that I didn't wait too long. Maybe I should have gone straight to the wizards' roads.”
“You didn't know what was happening.”
“I still don't.”
“Don't worry about the timing, Lerris. Jellico hasn't fallen yet... not that we've heard, and armies don't move places overnight.”
“Neither do I.”
She raised her eyebrows, and I blushed.
After a while, Krystal spoke in a low voice. “Lerris. I know what has to be done, but I don't have to like it. First, there's this Antonin, and you come back from your fight with him with bruises all over your body. Then, you have to take on this Gerlis, and you come back on a stretcher, with burns, and broken limbs, and you don't even recognize anyone for days. You're finally well and strong, and now there's another chaos wizard who's even stronger than the first two and he's knocking down mountains to make way for an army to roll over Kyphros. I don't know and you don't know if you can stop him, but if you can't, we don't have the troops to.” Krystal looked at the faded and cracked inlay work on the table. “One of these days you won't come back.”
I looked at the table myself. What could I do?
Hamor might impose order on Candar, order that the place needed badly, but that order would be clasped on the people like steel fetters, and the chaos beneath the rocks would flare- and each new chaos wizard would be stronger and that would allow greater order-and restrictions-to be created by Hamor.
We couldn't go back to Recluce. The Brotherhood wouldn't take either one of us-not a lady blade like Krystal nor a gray earth wizard like me. We couldn't surrender, not without being put to death or imprisoned, although I thought imprisonment was highly unlikely. Rulers are rather skeptical about whether anyone called a wizard will stay put.
Yet, if we fought... how many more would die? How many more Shervans and Pendrils would there be? That was one reason why I really didn't want to take many troopers with me.
“I'll be back.”
“Lerris... please don't be a hero, and you know what I mean.”
I nodded and clasped Krystal's hands again before I said, “I'd better get ready.”
She nodded, and we stood and held each other.
Outside, the sunlight and the heat built, and heat waves shimmered across Ruzor, promising only more heat through the long days ahead.