“I wish she never saw that fucking seed.”
“She couldn’t help it. No innkeeper would be able to resist a sprouting seed. It is who we are. We tend to the inns. That she saved Gertrude Hunt is a miracle.”
Maud growled like a vampire. “I hate this. Fucking Draziri. Fucking Assembly. She asked you for help and you did nothing. Nothing!”
“I’m so sorry,” Tony said.
The corruption slithered out of its prison, and dripped out, one molecule at a time.
Sean picked me up off the floor and carried me away.
*
“It’s a simple plan,” Sean said. “Simple plans are best. Tomorrow is New Year’s eve. Lots of noise, lots of fireworks. The perfect cover for us. We bring all the remaining parts of the Archivarius together at the same time. Arland and Lord Soren will get one, Tony, Wing and Wilmos will take the second, my parents volunteered to bring in the third, and I will get the fourth.”
“Alone?” Arland frowned.
“I’m taking Marais with me. We bring them all here at the same time and complete the Archivarius. The Hiru are on board. They know where all of the parts of the Archivarius are now.”
“The Draziri will pull out all the stops,” Tony said. “We’ll have a full-out assault.”
The corruption slithered closer.
“Let them,” my sister said. “Let them all come. I can’t wait.”
“It will be too much,” Gabriele said.
“Yes,” Corwin agreed.
“I’ll talk to our people,” Wilmos said.
“Will we still have Christmas?” Helen asked. She was sitting on the floor by my chair, hugging my leg.
It was suddenly quiet.
“Yes,” Sean said. “We will still have Christmas. It’s important to her. We will kill every Draziri, until there is nothing left but blood and bodies. And then we’ll have Christmas.”
The darkness around me grew a little thinner.
*
He never left me. He talked to me when I lay in bed with an IV and he lay beside me and held me. He talked to me when he carried me to the bathtub. He sat with me when the inn moved me downstairs during the day. He held me when Maud cried because it hurt her to look at me.
He told me he loved me. He joked. He read books to me. He held my hand.
The world hurt. There was no pain in the darkness. I wanted to stay wrapped in it, but he refused to let me go, always there, connecting me to the outside like a lifeline.
I was lying on the blanket under the Christmas tree. Above me the lights twinkled in the branches. So many lights. Olasard, the Ripper of Souls, lay next to me, making muffins on my blanket.
“How long will you keep this up?” Sean’s father asked.
“As long as it takes,” Sean said next to me.
“It’s been four days. Maybe…”
Sean looked at him.
“Okay,” Corwin said. “Forget I said anything.”
He left. The Hiru came and Sean took me to their room to float in their pool and look at the sky I made for them.
“We are so sorry we’ve brought this on you,” Sunset said.
“You should’ve given us up,” Moonlight whispered.
“That’s not who she is,” Sean said.
“We will always remember,” Sunset said. “Always. Every one of us. If we survive, our children and our children’s children will always remember.”
“The Archivarius arrives tomorrow. Will your people be ready?” Sean asked.
“Yes,” the Hiru said at the same time.
“Are you ready to go upstairs, love?” Sean asked me.
“Does she ever answer?”
“She will answer when the time comes.”
“What if she won’t?” Moonlight whispered.
“She will,” Sean said. “She’s a fighter. I have faith in her.”
He picked me up out of the water. The darkness grew a little thinner.
His hands were warm.
*
“This is getting old, my dear,” Caldenia said. “You and I have an agreement. I expect you to honor it. Get up, now. You don’t want to spend your life like a lump of wood. The scaled creature made a totem of you and he keeps putting different medicines on it and dancing around it. It is getting annoying. Get up, dear. We do not let our enemies win. We claw their hearts out and devour them. You have work to do.”
*
“Mango ice cream. It is the best thing I’ve ever made. Will you please eat, small human? Please. Please eat, small human. Please.”
The mango ice cream melted on my tongue and a distant echo of its taste slipped through the darkness to me.
*
Flowers bloomed around me. I sat submerged to my neck in the tub inside the vigil room. A chorus of four voices prayed over me, urgently, forcefully, trying to pour their vitality into their words. My sister’s voice blended with Arland’s and Soren’s, Helen’s high notes underscoring the important parts.
Magic moved among them. A trace of it slipped through to me. I curled around it. It felt so warm.
The prayer ended. Maud wiped the tears from her face.
Arland stepped close to her and put his arms around her.
“Will she ever wake up?” Helen asked.