Gail Martin - The blood king

Do you wish to live?

Tris looked to his grandmother, and reluctantly toward the song of the Lady, then back to Lemuel. Yes, Tris replied. I want to live.

Lemuel nodded, and raised a hand in farewell. Then this is my gift to you, Lemuel said. I will sustain you, until the healer's work is through.

Tris felt himself return to his body, and darkness.

"How is HE?" It was Soterius's voice Tris heard, though he lacked the energy to open his eyes. Every muscle ached. His head throbbed as if it might explode. His side, where Jared stabbed him, felt like it had been filled with hot coals. Lemuel's presence was gone.

"He's resting," Tris heard Carina answer, the strain of the healing evident in her voice. "Alyzza helped me make two more healings. I don't know how long it will be until he comes around. We

almost lost him, Ban. I thought we had-and then, I can't explain it. It was like the time Tris helped me hang onto Jonmarc, when he almost died in the slaver's camp. There was something-someone- there with us, holding on to Tris while I healed."

Tris wanted to reply, wanted to open his eyes, but his strength was gone. He surrendered to the blackness that engulfed him in its nurturing folds, content to be alive.

IT TOOK Two days and several more healings for Tris to awaken. He found himself stretched out on a bed, Carina asleep in a chair beside him.

"Welcome back," Gabriel said, moving from the shadows near the wall. "We weren't sure you'd be joining us."

Tris managed a weak smile. Carina awoke and moved to bring him water. "I wasn't too sure myself," he managed. "Thank you."

Carina shook her head. "Someday, you'll have to explain what happened," she said, taking his hand. "But right now, I'm glad to have you back."

"Kiara-and Jonmarc?" Tris asked, closing his eyes.

Gabriel chuckled. "Neither one would let anyone touch them until they knew whether you would live. Ban's battle healers took care of them. Kiara is exhausted, but unhurt. Jonmarc is going to take a little longer-I fear you'll have a house guest for the rest of the summer. It will be a while before he can think of using a sword, longer until he can ride."

Tris smiled. "Tell him he can stay as long as he wants."

"Soterius and Mikhail are out rounding up Jared's troops and freeing the prisoners in the dungeons. They've had the help of the palace ghosts. Seems that when your power was out of control, you managed to summon every spirit within a league of the palace-not few of whom were Jared's victims. Between the victim's relatives and the angry ghosts, Jared's soldiers are turning up dead faster than Soterius can hunt them down." Tris looked at Gabriel. "Will the truce hold?" "Between my people and yours?" Gabriel asked. "It should. Nothing will be won by breaking the peace, now that those who hunted us have been punished."

Carina cleared her throat. "There's someone waiting to see you." She stepped aside, revealing Kiara in the doorway.

Gabriel made a courteous bow. "Until later," he said, addressing both Tris and Kiara. Gabriel and Carina left the room.

Kiara took a step toward where Tris lay. "Good to see you awake," she said, with a tired smile. Tris held out his hand to her, and she moved closer to sit on the edge of his bed. "You gave us a real scare. Carina and I took shifts. We didn't want to leave you alone."

Although his memory of the battle was blurred by the wormroot, the image of destroying the Obsidian King in Kiara's body was searingly clear.

Tris wondered whether the battle had changed things between them.

"I was afraid you might not forgive me, for what happened," Tris said quietly.

The pain of those memories flickered in Kiara's eyes. "When the Obsidian King pushed his way through my shielding, I wanted to die. I was afraid that you wouldn't-wouldn't be able to stop him, or wouldn't free me. I didn't want to exist like that." She paused. "Thank you."

Tris thought of Lemuel, and of his grandmother's story. "I knew I was dying," Tris said. "If the separation spell and the elixir didn't work, I knew we would be together in the arms of the Lady. But I couldn't let the Obsidian King take you."

Kiara blinked back tears. "I'm just so glad to see you-we were afraid we'd lost you. You took an awful chance."

"Lemuel saved me," Tris murmured, closing his eyes. "Grandmother was right."

Kiara brushed the hair back from his face and leaned down to kiss him. "Hush now. You can tell me all about it later. But Carina will chase me out of here with a broom if she needs to heal you again because of me."

Tris opened his eyes and met her gaze. "Don't go far-promise?"

"Promise." She kissed his hand and released it. "Now get some rest. As soon as you can walk, Ban and Mikhail want to get you crowned and make everything official."

Tris watched her leave the room. He shut his eyes and sank back against the pillow, grateful and amazed to be alive. Everything was going to change; all the duties of kingship that he'd never coveted would be his. His wedding would be a bright spot on a very dark horizon. While Carroway and others could see to some of the essentials, like restaffing the palace, there were many things that Tris knew only he could do as King and Summoner. Trials and tribunals to preside over, as the generals and lords loyal to Jared were captured and brought for sentencing. Working with Soterius to rebuild an army and bring order and safety to the land. Mediating for the scirranish, who would require his help to make peace with the ghosts of their murdered loved ones.

Tris could feel the energy of angry spirits bound by the pain they suffered at the hands of Jared and Arontala. He doubted Shekerishet would be livable until he exorcised those troubled souls. He would need to appoint an exchequer to find out how badly Jared had looted the treasury. Equally important, he would need to stave off riots and unrest as winter came; ruined fields meant hungry people. Now comes the hard part, he thought. Cleaning up the mess that Jared made.

Two DAYS LATER, over Carina's protests, Tris insisted on getting up. When he managed to make it through a hot bath and a shave without collapsing, the healer gave up her arguments. A fresh outfit replaced his blood-soaked clothing, which Carina sent to be burned.

Kiara was waiting for him in the parlor outside his rooms.

"Keeping a vigil?" he asked as she started. Kiara rose to greet him, then remembered herself and dropped to a curtsey.

Tris took her hand with a pained expression. "Please no," he said as he raised her to stand. "Not between us, Kiara. I don't want your fealty. I want your love."

"Always," she said, reaching out to touch his cheek. He pulled her close to him and kissed her. She rested her head against his shoulder.

"Now that you're up," Kiara said, "Ban will want to get you crowned until there can be a real coronation. Technically, you haven't taken the throne."

"There's something I need to do first," Tris said. "Something I have to settle. Will you come with me?"

Kiara smiled. "Anywhere," she murmured. "To the gates of the Lady herself."

Tris made his way to the family's chambers in the palace and opened the door to Kait's room. The sky beyond the window was beginning to lighten, softening the shadows of his torch, only bright enough to cast a dim light over the room. Tris placed the torch in a wall sconce and walked into the silent room.

He closed his eyes against the tears, held back these many months. He found that he could finally weep for Kait and Serae, the first of the innocents who had blocked Jared's path to power. Bricen was a man of war, accepting the dangers of the throne. But Tris's mother and Kait were inconvenient pawns in Jared's desperate bid. It was for them that Tris had returned, far more than the abstract need for justice in Margolan. In the half-light of the early-morning he let his grief find voice, allowing the loss and pain to wash over him and through him, permitting the tears to come until his throat was raw and he could weep no more.