Aisha nodded. “Ridan, Field, Fly, and Sky; you should help Horatio and me pick as many as we can.” She turned to the three of us humans. “You avoid them and start making your way to the other edge of the meadow. Horatio and I will meet you there when we’re done. The Hawks can deliver them.”
“Yeah,” Benedict said, “good idea, Aisha.”
We made our way across the meadow, and I smiled to myself for the first time in a while. I hoped that the flowers we’d found here might make a difference to the outcome of the battle, or at least help the sentries when they returned. Not only that, it would help GASP too. Derek had been astounded when Tejus and Ash had told him he just needed to wait after syphoning for his energy to return…these flowers could change all that. The sentries could syphon off the GASP members as much as they liked, and it wouldn’t make a difference.
I glanced over at Benedict. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“We’re going to be heroes, right?” I said, nudging him.
“Heck, yeah.”
“Even more so if we find the jinn,” I added.
“They’ll probably make us honorable dignitaries of Nevertide or something,” Benedict replied.
“Or we’d get statues.”
“Maybe we’d get our own vultures?” he mused, his eyes gleaming.
“Kingdoms even—it’s not like they have many rulers left!”
Yelena tutted and rolled her eyes in disgust.
Ruby
Ash climbed out of the pool first. When I approached the side to do the same, I was surprised when he gripped my waist, lifting me out easily. Clearly it wasn’t just Ash’s wound that was healed—his whole body appeared to have been infused with energy, just like the weapons had been.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Amazing, actually,” Ash replied, looking confused. “Better than I ever have. A bit like I’ve never expended an ounce of energy in my life. Do you feel any different?”
I ran a mental check down my body, but in all honesty, I felt far from okay. My muscle ache had eased off a bit since being in the water, but mentally I was exhausted.
I shook my head, smiling. “I think all the water magic went to you—I feel like I could sleep for a month.”
Suddenly, Ash’s expression changed. He was looking over at the other side of the chamber, and I turned to follow his gaze. I couldn’t see anything.
“True Sight?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “We have company.”
It took a while, but eventually three of the Impartial Ministers came into view. I suspected, though couldn’t be sure, that these were the same three we’d left in the immortal waters when we’d taken the others back to the palace.
“What do you think they want?” I hissed at Ash.
“No idea…though I suspect we’re in some kind of trouble.”
I scoffed. If one of them even mentioned the fact that only Impartial Ministers were privy to the waters, I would drown them in there myself.
“Easy.” Ash smirked at me. My fury must have been obvious. I smiled at him sheepishly, waiting for them to approach.
“Emperor of Nevertide,” one of them called out, his voice sounding like the crumbling of dry leaves. These guys were so old—perhaps even more ancient than the two back at Memenion’s palace.
“Welcome to the brotherhood of the Impartial Ministers.” Another one greeted him with a small nod of his head.
I looked up at Ash, confused.
What the heck does that mean?
They came closer, their cataract-ridden eyes taking us both in. I stared back, trying once again to guess how old they might actually be. Centuries old? Or was it millennia?
“Who would have thought, the kitchen king made emperor, joining our kind,” said the third. His tone was far crueler than the others, his lip curled up in a sneer. Instantly, I was on the defensive—kitchen king? Ash was the one saving their kind from complete destruction!
“What are you talking about?” I snapped.
“Emperor Ashbik has been healed by the waters of Immortalitatem. Those blessed by its powers are capable of living many lifetimes,” the first minister replied, “thus joining our brotherhood and becoming an Impartial Minister—those, like us, who have lived so long we have no vested interest in the outcome of Nevertide’s politics, and so remain impartial, able to teach lesser men.”
I burst out in laughter at the old man’s statement.
“No vested interest?” I scoffed. “What about your support of Queen Trina? How you denied that she’d killed Hadalix, and supported her rise to power?”
All three of the men glowered at me.