I'm sorry, Erian. I'm sorry, Llor. I love you. She wished they could hear her, that she could see them one more time. Darkness rose like a shadow over her eyes. This wasn't how she wanted to end. She thought of Ven and how he'd believed in her . . . I'm sorry.
And then darkness.
Black nothingness.
Emptiness.
She floated through silence, her thoughts fragmenting, her self unraveling. She was a cloud dispersing in the sky. Water evaporating in the sun. Snow melting in the spring. Death was here to embrace her.
Naelin heard-no, she felt a voice. Distant. Soft. Sweet. Like the first touch of sunrise. "There is another queen," the voice whispered. She suddenly felt as if she were split, and she was looking out at a tower, at the face of a healer, at . . . Erian and Llor! They were there, peering down at her. No, not her. At . . . Queen Daleina? Was she . . .
The root around her neck loosened.
Only a little, but it was enough.
Air rushed down her throat. Pain blossomed in her head, and she was back in her body, awake, alive. She pushed again toward her spirits. Free me!
The air spirits dove for her, and earth spirits gnawed at the root around her. She fell into the feathery arms of a spirit and was lifted up out of the chasm.
The grove was on fire. Flames roared through the trees, and smoke choked the air. Merecot had ringed herself with Semoian spirits and was calling more to her. Naelin saw the air around the other queen was clear, and she called her own air spirits to her, blowing fresh air through the smoke. She breathed, air rushing painfully down her throat.
Queen Merecot was facing away from Naelin, toward the capital, toward the palace, toward Naelin's children. "Leave them alone!" Naelin cried. "You fight me!" She wasn't as well trained as Merecot, but she was strong, and this time she was ready-she could buy Daleina time, enough time to protect Erian and Llor, perhaps enough to save Aratay.
That would be worth dying for.
Merecot's air spirits were holding back Naelin's water spirits, keeping them from the flames, so Naelin called to her earth kraken again. She called the earth to rise up and swallow the flames in dirt and rock.
As the fire died, Merecot's attention shifted back to Naelin. Raising her arms, Queen Merecot directed her spirits directly at Naelin-
And then Merecot collapsed.
Chapter 37
Naelin stared at Merecot's unconscious body, sprawled across the roots, and then she looked up at Ven, who stood behind Queen Merecot with his sword raised. He'd hit her with the hilt of his sword.
She felt a smile, unbidden, bend her lips. The queen of Semo had been so focused on her own power, on the power of queens, that she hadn't watched for a straightforward attack-well, as straightforward as it could be, coming from behind. "Thank you, Ven," Naelin said. She put every bit of emotion into those three words: everything she felt for Aratay, for her children, for herself, for him.
"You're welcome. Thank you for distracting her." He smiled back at her, and it felt like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. She felt as though she should hear singing. She suddenly and inexplicably wanted to laugh.
She sent her spirits to disperse the smoke and squelch the remnants of the fire. The spirits of Semo rustled at the edges of the grove-hemmed in by the spirits of Aratay. She felt the spirits of Aratay holding the spirits of Semo throughout the city.
Closing her eyes, she reached out-she felt/saw Daleina rise and summon air spirits. All of them climbed on: Daleina, Hamon, Erian, Llor, and the wolf Bayn, and they flew. Come, Naelin sent the thought to them. To the Queen's Grove.
We come, Daleina answered back. The words reverberated through the spirits. Naelin couldn't see into Daleina's mind, but she could hear her through the spirits. She could hear her because the spirits could.
"The queen . . . she's not dead," Naelin said. Her throat hurt as she spoke, but she said the words anyway. "Erian and Llor . . . they're alive. We're alive." In two steps, she reached Ven. He wrapped his arms around her, tight, and she wound hers around him.
They were kissing when the air spirits arrived.
Queen Daleina had tree spirits wrap Merecot in vines. She was still unconscious, but Hamon said she would wake soon. Bind her tight, Daleina thought.
Bayn sat next to Merecot, his heavy paws on the queen's stomach, holding her down. When the spirits finished, she nodded her thanks to them and the wolf, and then looked up at the others. Ven stood beside Naelin-he'd been displaced by her children but still hovered close to her. "You're alive and using your power," Ven said to Daleina. "Does this mean . . . Are you . . ."