Kelly Mendig - Three Days to Dead

“Yes,” Wyatt said. He slipped his hand into mine. “Isn’t there a saying? You can’t win at chess without risking your pieces first.”

I squeezed his hand. “I always thought it was that you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.”

“You risk more than eggs,” Amalie said. “You risk all of our lives and the safety of this city.”

“I thought you said you were here to protect the Break. Even if, by some miracle, Tovin gets us again, he still has to get by you. Right?”

Amalie’s skin lightened to a pale, ice blue. She looked down the length of the table to Horzt, who seemed interested in his wine goblet. They neither refuted nor acknowledged my statement. The small sprite leader seemed almost … embarrassed.

“Don’t tell me,” Wyatt said. “Your kind are pacifists?”

“I said only that we guard First Break,” Amalie admitted. “I did not say we could defend it with physical violence. We will do everything in our power to prevent it from escalating to that, and the Earth Guardians keep us well protected, but they are fallible. Their access to the outside world is being slowly cut off, and our contact with the other races is limited.”

“Maybe you should get out more,” I said. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from, I do, but I can’t do what you want. I appreciate the soft bed and good food and opportunity to live out my last day in peace, but this is just a layover, and now it’s time to get back to work. We need to figure out how to get to and kill Tovin.”

“Elves are difficult to kill, even if you get close enough,” Horzt said. “They’re wily buggers and fast healers.”

“I remarked earlier that I may require another favor of you, Evangeline,” Amalie said.

I held up my free hand. “Sorry, but I’m not going to hide underground just to keep Tovin off my scent.”

“That is not the favor I was going to request.” Her nostrils flared, and her skin returned to its normal dusky blue shade. The gems in her skin seemed to have lost their glitter. “You can end this, Evangeline, before it has a chance to begin. There is no need to risk any other lives, save your own.”

“We are so not back to this conversation.” Anger flared in my cheeks and surged in my belly. “I am not going to slit my wrists in a preemptive strike against Tovin’s plan. If we’re captured again, sure, maybe then, but not right now. Not when we’ve got time and a chance to end this a different way.”

I glanced at Wyatt, whose silent fury was focused on the floor. Whether his rage was directed at my wrist-slitting comment or at Amalie’s continued suggestion of suicide, I didn’t know. Probably both.

“You humans do foolish things for love,” Amalie said, somewhat sadly. “I once envied your pure emotions and your ability to love, but no more. It makes you lose sight of that which is most important.”

“From my perspective,” Wyatt growled, “there isn’t anything more important.”

“Not even duty? Your duty to your people, Wyatt Truman, to ensuring their continued survival? Above other humans, you have been blessed with a Gift. Use it to do what is required.”

“And what is that, exactly?”

Cobalt eyes burned, first at him, then at me. The air snapped and crackled. Amalie had power of her own, and it simmered around us like an impending lightning strike. “Protect the Break,” she said. “Do not let Tovin succeed, no matter the cost. A life without love will be paradise compared to a world ravaged by a loosed Tainted One.”

“We have to kill Tovin,” I said.

“Evy—” Wyatt tried.

“Stop it,” I said, ripping my hand away from his. I stepped sideways, several feet from him. “Look at this objectively, for Christ’s sake, Wyatt. Killing you might stop his plan for now, but what’s to stop him from trying again? Once a power mad dictator, always a power mad dictator, right? You don’t stop a weed by chopping it off at ground level. It just comes back. You have to attack the root.”

“Attacking the root sometimes kills the flowers around it,” he said quietly.

“But doing nothing allows it to spread and choke out everything.”

He held my stare for several long moments. A train wreck of emotions raced across his face. Neither one of us liked to give up; it wasn’t in our nature. We fought until the very last breath. And sometimes you had to give that final breath (again) in order to achieve something worthwhile.

“Wyatt, it doesn’t matter if you brought me back for selfish reasons or noble ones. What matters is that I’m here and I’m part of this fight, and I know I was always meant to be here. We are playing the parts chosen for us. In the end, all will be as it should be.”

He closed his eyes and pursed his lips. Seconds ticked by, and then he opened them. “One step at a time,” he said. “First we contact Rufus, see what he knows, and go from there. No second-guessing, no noble gestures of suicide.”

I smiled; he didn’t. “Agreed.” Another thought struck me. “Amalie, did you have any luck with ways to capture an unhosted Tainted? In case it comes to that?” I doubted the use of such information, because using it hinged not only on Wyatt’s possession, but also on his death while hosting the Tainted. Twin scenarios I’d do anything to prevent.

“None still live who witnessed the first defeat of the Tainted, so long ago,” she replied, “nor do those who witnessed their reign.”

“Not my question.”

Her skin momentarily darkened with annoyance. “Human mages of that age had a spell they believed protected them from possession.”

“Please tell me….”

She plucked a small, drawstring pouch off the table. It was hidden behind a pitcher of wine, and I hadn’t noticed it until now.

I caught it easily—the brown leather soft as silk and smelling vaguely of mustard—suddenly angry. “If you had magic that could protect us—?”

“You misunderstand,” she said. “Their magic was flawed. A strong enough Tainted can possess anything it desires, under the correct conditions.”

“So what the hell’s this do?”

“How do I explain the intricacies of magic to such a young mind? The spell inside will act as a temporary binding agent, holding that which is the Tainted in a solid pattern for roughly six hours.”

I eyed the pouch, said, “Cool,” and meant it.

“If we even get the chance to use it,” Wyatt said.

He was right. It required a sequence of events that would probably never take place, but I’d done this long enough to know the value of a Plan B. I tucked the pouch into my back pocket for safekeeping, doubtful I’d ever need to use it. “Thank you,” I said.

Amalie smiled. “Of course.”

“We’ll need passage back to the surface.”

“Very well. However, once you leave our cavern, you are no longer protected by our magic. You are wanted by many, with few friends left to assist you. My blessings to you both.”

“Thank you.”

Wyatt grunted something. I wasn’t entirely convinced he would abide by our agreement and not do anything rash. Conversely, I wasn’t convinced that I wouldn’t do something rash to save him. He hated the idea of giving me up as much as I hated the idea of losing him, but save a miracle, nothing could change the fact that one of us would be dead in twenty hours.

19:40

Leaving First Break would take longer than our arrival, but the mode of transportation proved far less messy. Horzt led us to a doorway at the very top level of the stone settlement. He hobbled along quickly for someone of his apparently advanced age, his cane clicking on the stone.

“Follow the left juncture until you come to a split,” he said. “Then bear right and keep going until you see daylight.”