The Spirit War(119)

Adela stood beside the table where the Council wizard lay slumped in his chair. Her helmet was off, and the dark braid of her hair hung free down her back, which was turned to Josef. For a moment, Josef thought maybe they’d snuck up on her, but before the thought could even finish, Adela turned to face him with a warm smile.

“I told you one day we’d be done pretending.���

Josef cursed. No point in hiding now. “Adela,” he said, stepping fully into the doorway. “Stand down.”

“Little late for that, husband,” Adela said. Her hand moved, and Josef raised his sword, but she wasn’t drawing a weapon. Instead, she held up something small, round, and blue between her fingers.

“What’s that?” Josef said with a sinking feeling.

Adela’s smile widened, and she clenched her hand in a fist. There was a sharp crunch, like an eggshell breaking, and then she opened her hand again, letting broken glass and a tiny amount of water fall to the floor.

“It was a Relay point,” she said, shaking the last drops of water from her fingers. “The last Relay point in Osera.”

Josef stared at her, trying to put words to everything that was going through his mind. But he wasn’t Eli. Words didn’t come easily. In the end, he managed only one.

“Why?”

“Because it is my duty,” Adela said calmly. “And because I have waited my entire life for the day when I could leave this miserable dirt scratch of a kingdom.”

“Duty?” Josef roared. “The queen raised you up from nothing! Defended you and your mother when everyone else wanted you cast out. She made you an Eisenlowe, captain of her guard, and this is how you repay her?” He swung his sword over the dead soldiers. “You have a twisted sense of duty, princess.”

“And what of that matters to me?” Adela sneered. “I serve a higher power than you could ever imagine.” Her voice grew deep and resonant as she spoke, and her eyes lit with a fire Josef had never seen there before. “There is no loyalty except loyalty to the true queen of the world,” she said. “No duty except in her service.”

Josef was beginning to wonder if she might be truly mad. “What are you talking about?”

Adela reached down and drew her short sword with a metallic hiss. Josef braced himself, but she didn’t point the blade at him. Instead, she held the sword in front of her with the flat side facing him. Josef was so busy trying to guess her ploy, he didn’t see the words etched into the metal for several seconds.

Sleepers wake. I am coming.

Josef’s eyes darted from sword to swordswoman. “Who is coming?”

“Who do you think?” Adela laughed, swinging her sword until the point was leveled at the eastern window.

Josef kept his eyes on her, but she made no other moves. Finally, he risked a glance. He had to glance twice before he realized what he was looking at. There, miles out on the line where the Unseen Sea met the sky, the horizon was peppered with tiny dots running north and south as far as he could see.

“Oh yes,” Adela said as the realization broke over his face. “The Immortal Empress is here at last to finish what she started two and a half decades ago.” She brought her sword back around, aiming the point at Josef’s heart. “We are the sleepers,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “For years we’ve worked to weaken this island in her name. Now, your country, divided and hollowed by our hands, shall break like rotten fruit when her boats strike the shore.”

“That’s impossible,” Josef said, forcing himself to ignore the rapturous smile on her face and keep his eyes on her sword. “You weren’t even born when the Empress invaded.”

Adela lifted her chin with a haughty sneer. “Loyalty to the Immortal Empress is not constrained by time. Our duty is passed down from mother to child, for generations if need be. We who sleep are called the ever faithful, all of us waiting generation to generation for the day she calls our blade.”

“Loyalty?” Josef shouted. “Faithfulness? You betrayed your country and your queen! You killed your own men, and for what? Loyalty to an Empress you’ve never met?”

“Yes,” Adela said, holding her short sword steady. “And I will be rewarded in ways you cannot comprehend.”

“Not if I can help it,” Josef growled. “Nico, go tell the admiral I have our traitor.”

Nico didn’t even get a chance to respond before Adela started to laugh.

“Go ahead, little girl, it doesn’t matter now. Your kingdom is broken, your queen dying and alone. Her duke, the only man who could have rallied Osera, is dead. Your army is terrified and without leadership, your clingfire, the only weapon against the palace ships, destroyed. And since both Relay points are gone, you can’t even use what little time remains to warn your allies. Now do you understand, prince? Send your girl, it will do no good. Osera has already fallen.”