Page 71 of Daughter of No Worlds

But it hit me too quickly for it to make any difference.

My knees struck the marble floor with the force of dead weight. The white stone was cold beneath my skin. White like Esmaris’s floor.

Crack!

Twenty-six.

I plunged into cold terror.

“It’s not real.” I hardly heard Max’s voice. “It’s not real, Tisaanah.”

I could feel Esmaris’s whip striking me, again and again, flesh opening across my back. I could feel his life cracking. Could feel Serel’s hands sliding away from mine.

“I don’t care if your father was innocent. You certainly aren’t.” Nura, a silhouette of white in darkness, raised her hands. The Savoi man was on his knees in front of her, clutching his head. “Your people are dead because of your actions. Did you know that? Every last one. I hope you like how that blood looks on your hands.”

I flipped my palms up to see crimson.

Perhaps I screamed. Terror suffocated my senses.

Max’s hand slipped into mine. At his touch, I caught a brief, powerful flash of snake eyes and sheets of long black hair, echoes of a familiar face peering between them. And grief so sharp it split me in two.

Snap!

Deafening silence as the bodies hit the floor.

All at once, the darkness was gone. And so was that unnatural fear, leaving only sore exhaustion in its place. Blinding midday light slapped me across the face.

I lifted my head from the ground, watching the Syrizens’ spears bury themselves into Pathyr’s fragile flesh. They made quick work. The dozen people huddled in this room were executed within seconds.

The sound, I realized, was always the same.

Nura watched in silence, her arms crossed over her chest. When she finally turned, she only said, “Good work,” before striding past us. Beside me, Max let out a rough groan and a shaky breath.

I slumped against the wall, so exhausted I could hardly lift my body. Ghosts echoed in my vision as darkness slowly overtook me.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Clean up was almost worse than the battle itself. In the frenzy of the fight, adrenaline had shielded me and numbed me. But afterwards, the brutality of what had been left behind was stark beneath the still midday sun. Every sight and smell, every remaining fractured moan, every shocked survivor’s sob raked across my skin.

Still, I drew myself together as if with little pieces of twine and worked diligently, even though when I first pushed myself up from the ground, I thought that I might topple. Max and I had stared at each other for a moment, still standing in that room of dead bodies. I wondered if I looked as terrible as he did.

I was certain that he’d whisk us back home immediately, since he looked like he was dying to get out of there. But then he peered out the window, let out a heaving sigh, and said, “If we’re going to be responsible for this, even indirectly, it’s only decent to help deal with the aftermath.”

I agreed. And, more selfishly, I didn’t want to give the Orders any reason at all to go back on their commitments.

So, we threw our exhausted bodies into the cleanup effort, even when I thought I had nothing left to give.

“All this for what?” Max spat, heaving as he yanked aside a beam, nudging a pile of discarded clothes with pained, visceral anger. “For a big ‘fuck you’ to Sesri? All this for his personal revenge?”

I didn’t understand either, and every time I looked at the shattered fragments of some family’s life, fury careened into my stomach. But then I thought of Nura’s lie — of the agony on Pathyr Savoi’s face when she made sure he died believing that he had killed all of his people. Was he a man who truly didn’t care about his city? Or had his rage and grief twisted his judgement so thoroughly that he believed he was doing the right thing?

It was amazing, the mental somersaults minds and hearts could do to justify their actions in the name of love.

By the time we were finally dismissed, it felt like the last several days hadn’t even happened. The city was still in ruins, bodies were still left unburned — or worse, still unrecovered within the wreckage — and the Tairnian people were still wraiths, wandering lost.

But I couldn’t take anymore, and I knew Max couldn’t, either. Even Sammerin, who always exuded unwavering stability, looked like he was ready to collapse.

I had never been so grateful to smell the fresh, clean scent of those flowers, or to be greeted by the crowded warmth of the cottage. I waited until Max disappeared into his room before I went to the basin and let myself retch.

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