“Helping Kestra defeat Endrick is most important,” Trina said.
Gabe’s eyes flashed. “Harlyn is here somewhere. We have to find her.”
I turned to Trina. “Go and find Harlyn. Get her safely out of this palace if you can.”
“I’ll go with Trina,” Gabe offered.
“No, I need you with me,” I said.
“I won’t help you save Kestra at the expense of Harlyn’s life.”
“I know that.”
“So let me find Harlyn.” Gabe marched toward me, his face reddening with anger. “Maybe you don’t care what happens to her, but I do! She was taken while on watch with me, and I’m going to find her now.”
“Trina can find her as well as you.” I nodded at Trina. “Go and find her.”
Furious, Gabe advanced on me. “We said we would do what we could to help Kestra succeed, but she’s already here, more powerful than the two of us put together. Do you remember our agreement? If Kestra tries to take the throne, we will stop her. How dare you break that promise now?”
“I’m not!”
“Then what is this?” he asked. “One last attempt to save her from herself, the same as what failed last time, and the time before that, and the time before that?”
“No!” I lowered my voice before we alerted half of Antora to where we were. “Gabe, if she tries to take the throne, I won’t be able to do what has to be done. You can.”
He paused and lowered his head, then he spoke. “I will act with honor, Simon. This has never been personal.”
“I know that.”
Gabe put an arm around my shoulder and gave it a pat before we began walking forward. But we didn’t get more than ten steps before Trina emerged again.
“You’re supposed to find Harlyn,” Gabe said.
Trina tilted her head in obvious annoyance and then took three more steps forward until we could see that she was not alone.
Directly behind her, with a knife at her back, was Darrow, Kestra’s father. Fully alive. And he clearly recognized me and Gabe.
“This is as far as you three can go,” he said. “I overheard your plans for my daughter, and I will stop you here. But don’t worry—it’s not personal.”
Harlyn didn’t stand at first—maybe she couldn’t, I thought. But eventually, with a fierce grimace, she put one foot square on the marble floor, then another, and finally straightened up and faced me.
I looked her over for any possible injuries—she must have had them to be reacting the way she was. Then I saw the anger in her eyes and realized something else entirely was happening.
“There is no purpose in making us fight!” she shouted to Endrick. “Kestra has magic. We all know how this will end.”
Her defiance must’ve earned her a pinch inside her chest, because she contracted before standing upright again.
“I did not come here to fight her,” I said, advancing on Endrick. “I came here for you.”
“And I have no objection to that.” Endrick raised his hand, fingers apart. “Shall I kill this one, and then you and I can begin?” All he had to do was draw his fingers together, and it would crush Harlyn’s heart. Her eyes widened. She knew what was coming as well as I did.
“Stop!” I raised the Olden Blade toward Harlyn. “If we fight, it must be fair. I won’t use magic.”
She shook her head, doubting my words, but if she refused to fight me, the consequences would be immediate and absolute. So I charged at her, forcing her to raise her sword, and when she did, we clashed hard.
Suddenly finding her will to fight, Harlyn struck back at me. She was better than I had anticipated, particularly with a sword longer than the dagger I carried. The Olden Blade could defend me, but I would never get the better of her this way.
I attempted twice to steal her sword, but Harlyn anticipated me both times and moved away. Behind me, Endrick laughed. “If this is all you can do, Infidante, then I have nothing to fear from you.”
“This isn’t all you can do,” Harlyn said, quietly enough that Endrick couldn’t hear her.
It was all I could do under the terms I had agreed to.
“I’ve seen enough,” Endrick said. “I now understand you, Infidante. Or shall I call you the Insignificant?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Harlyn. On her next swing, I touched her hand just long enough to pull strength out of her body. As she began to collapse, I struck the side of her head, not as hard as it appeared, but enough to make it look like the reason she had fallen unconscious was the consequence of our fair fight. It never was. I had lied to her and cheated.
But I had also saved her life.
With Harlyn now in a heap upon the floor, my attention turned to Endrick. My heart raced with anticipation, but Endrick didn’t seem the least concerned. Maybe that was why I felt so nervous. Did he know something I didn’t?
Endrick stood and began the descent down the stairs leading away from his throne. With each step, he clapped for my victory, but it was a flat, mocking applause, intended to embarrass me.
I dismissed that, unwilling to entertain him with any reaction whatsoever, and tried instead to remain focused on my plan.
Endrick’s strategy would be to keep me as far from him as possible, but I needed to get close. So I charged toward him with the Olden Blade ready to strike.
Casually, he swiped his hand sideways, and I was thrown in that direction, landing hard on my left shoulder. I stood again, summoning Joth’s half-lives to surround me. I didn’t want to repeat that.
Immediately, I felt their presence, but they had an effect on Endrick too. His eyes began darting in all directions.
“I can see them, you know.” His expression remained even, but his voice was notably shaking. “And if they think I cannot do any worse to their present curse, they are mistaken.”
I smiled, advancing on him. “If you think I cannot do any worse to you, then you are also mistaken.”
But he raised his hands again, forcing me back. He drew his hands into fists, and I perceived some degree of pain surrounding me. The half-lives.
With a curl of his lip, Endrick extended his hands wide open, and in that same instant, all that I had perceived vanished, like a hundred masses of energy had at once ceased to exist.
The half-lives in this room had all just been erased. They were dead, truly dead.
I felt their loss like a crushing weight on my shoulders, heavier than I ever could have imagined, but I had to keep moving. He was distracted, giving me an opportunity to push closer to him. I was within ten steps of him, Olden Blade ready in my hands, when he finally turned to me.
“You truly expect to kill me here?” he asked. “And then what?”
“Then the throne will be mine.”
“Until a new Infidante comes for you,” he said. “And the cycle continues.”
I stepped forward. “I will not be so foolish as you were, to lose this blade. I will use any magic that is mine to help Antora, not destroy it, as you have done.”
That made him laugh, an awful sound, and one I’d only heard issue from him when something terrible was about to happen. “If it is true, my dear, that you and I are the last two remaining Endreans, then I expect the kind of ruler you will become shall make me proud. You will be cruel, you will be sharp, you will control the people as I never could.”