Talon’s leg was agony to move. He’d felt the heavy wet crack as he’d hit the bottom of the pit. Something, maybe a rib, was stabbing him every time he took more than the shallowest of breaths.

  He closed Kala’s eyes but kept a hold of her hand as he managed to coax Sosa from his shoulder. When her tears finally stopped, she overflowed with apologies and it broke his heart.

  ‘Sosa, please,’ his words where breathless. ‘It isn’t your fault. You saved her from them in the end. Her ki will be with you, with both of us. Remember that, you hear?’ Sosa looked at him and nodded.

  ‘So looks like there’s a tale to tell.’ He tapped the sword that lay beside her. ‘What happened to you?’

  He sat and listened to all Sosa’s words, but it was just too much to think about. The old man a guardian? That was too big. Too much. It meant too much. It meant he’d done everything wrong and dragged his daughter into it. Dragged Kala into it. And now look at them.

  And Kala had known about Gris, had tried to tell them, but they hadn’t really listened. Eleris had banished him in anger. They should have known. He should have known. Talon shook his head bitterly, and listened to Sosa’s tale. Had Eleris known? And did she know what she was doing when she banished him, when she sent him away?

  It was too much. Everything was too much. It hurt to breath. It hurt to think and all these thoughts were heavier than he could lift.

  The village was being destroyed and it was all his fault. Kala was dead. Sosa had narrowly escaped a trap where he had not, and it was only a matter of time before they found another way to lure her to her death. His leg hurt but there was no way he was leaving Sosa alone in this hell he had created.

  He had to get up.

  Something was gathering in the back of his throat and it tickled. He badly wanted to cough, but knew how much it would hurt. He swallowed and tried to gather his breath. Jamming the spear butt into the ground, he pulled hard and lifted himself up, Sosa held him, but as soon as his leg moved, he felt something inside move and grind like two pieces of rough stone. He collapsed back to the floor with an involuntary yell. The pain was indescribable.

  He sat and breathed for a moment while the excruciating agony was replaced by a nauseating throb.

  ‘Help me, move your mother,’ he gasped to Sosa, although he was of no use. Sosa lifted Kala back and sat her up against the trunk. Talon crawled closer, trying to hide the pain it took from Sosa.

  Kala looked peaceful, leaning against the trunk of the darktree. It reminded him of when they’d met, leaning against a banefruit tree as youngsters, taking refuge in the stripes it cast. She’d looked beautiful in that scattered sunlight. She’d looked beautiful every day since. She looked beautiful now. He drew himself to the trunk and leaned beside her.

  ‘Please, Talon,’ Sosa said. I can help you up, if you use the spear and me we can get you back to the village. I have to get you to Raela.’

  He heard the words, but he didn’t see the point of their meaning. She tried to pull him up, but he wasn’t ready.

  ‘Go on ahead,’ he gasped, almost whispering to her. ‘I’ll make my own way back.’

  ‘No,’ there was anger in his daughter’s eyes and he understood it, but he could not take fuel from it. ‘No! You have to come, now. Get up!’

  He felt the tickle of foam in his throat and this time he struggled to resist the urge. Sosa knelt before him her armour shining with ethereal glow. He thought she looked like a goddess from some forgotten fable. Then, he coughed and she was covered with blood. The red drops, black in the night, splattered across the glowing bronze. He heard the agitation of the circling bodaki rise in tempo. He coughed again this time convulsing and bringing up far more blood which poured from his mouth and down his front.

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  ‘Oh, no, no, Talon, please hold on.’

  He could only shake his head every breath felt like a new knife driven into his side. He swallowed, ignoring the horrible sensation of thick blood sliding down his throat and tried again. ‘Leave me here. Take the spear. Go and save… everyone.’

  ‘No, I won’t leave you too.’

  ‘Take the spear. Leave me the sword,’ he grinned at her, his teeth no doubt black with his own blood. ‘I’ll hold them off.’

  Sosa didn’t smile. He would have liked to have seen her smile again. She did succumb to a strange look and begin to feel around the vine belt at her waist.

  ‘I knew it, I knew there was a reason I didn’t put it on. This is it. This must be it.’

  Talon frowned, but nothing much was making sense to him any more. Then he saw what she held up. He felt it as much as he saw it, felt its power as it glowed in the dark.

  Gris had given her his sword and he had given her his pendant, like Eleris would one day do to one of her young protégés.

  Sosa was to be a guardian. He smiled as he realised, his heart swollen with pride. She would be wonderful. She would be magnificent, moreso than Eleris. If there was anyone who should be given a longer life, anyone who could better protect their village, their future, than Sosa, he could not think who.

  She leaned forwards, opening the chain out. ‘Put this on.’

  ‘No, no, what are you…?’ but he couldn’t finish before descending into bloody coughing.

  ‘This will save you,’ she said. ‘It will heal you, make you a guardian. It’s already started to heal my cuts and I’m not even wearing it. It wasn’t meant for me. You are far better, you can control the light like a weapon way better than I can. It was meant for you. He gave it to me for you.’

  ‘No. Don’t do that, no.’

  Sosa burst into tears. ‘But you’re dying.’ She tried to force it onto his head, but he held up a hand to stop her. ‘Talon! Pawe. Please.’

  He didn’t want to do this to her, he really didn’t.

  He laughed. He managed an actual laugh and kept his cough at bay long enough to speak without gasping. He ignored the stabbing in his chest every time he took a breath and talked as normally as he could manage. It was important, so important, that Sosa didn’t think he was dying. ‘This is not as bad as it looks, trust me. Blood in spit always makes it look bad. I promise you, I will be fine. I’ve just hurt my ribs, so I have to catch my breath a bit first. It will pass. Like a stitch, that’s all, I promise.’

  ‘Talon. Please take this. I don’t want it. I won’t wear it. I don’t know how to be a guardian. Look at everything you’ve done, you would be incredible.’

  He clasped her hands together and pulled them down, the pendant dangling.

  ‘Listen to me,’ he looked her in the eye and she stared back at him terrified. ‘I will wait here, I’m no use to you. You go. Save the village. Come back for me when daylight comes. It will be fine, I just can’t walk fast because it hurts to breath for a little while. Go. I will be fine, I promise.’ He didn’t like making promises he planned to break.

  ‘No, no Pawe.’

  It wasn’t working. She was never going to leave him.

  ‘Okay, okay fine. Give me the pendant.’ He took it from her and felt it start to heal him just by touching it. It was not enough, not for how quickly he could feel himself slipping away. If he wore, it, maybe, maybe it would heal him faster than the blood he could feel slowly filling up his chest would kill him, but not for certain. But Eleris’ pendent had been meant for her replacement. This would be no different. If he put it on, he would not be able to give it back. Who knew how long it would take before he could be of use again. Sosa would be out there alone, fighting the bodaki and the village needed her help right now. And she needed the pendant.

  ‘You told me the village was in trouble. Take the spear and go. Leave me the sword and I’ll come as soon as I can, as soon as the pendant works enough for me to stand. Okay? I can’t move yet, but as soon as I can…’

  She hesitated, still unwilling to leave him.

  ‘Sosa, listen to me. We thought we could beat them and we can’t, not without this. One of use needs to wear it, one of us needs to become a guardian if that’s what you think this does. If that has to be me, it is going to take time for me to heal. Too much time. There will be nothing of the village left. You must protect it until I am ready. You understand?’

  Sosa nodded and looked at him. They had learned to trust each other. He pushed the spear towards her and she handed him the sword.

  ‘Okay.’ Then she knelt to kiss him. The look in her eyes was one of absolute love and trust. He enjoyed the feel of her lips against his cheek one last time.

  ‘Now go. They need you, Sosa.’

  She swallowed hard, and sniffed, fighting back her tears. She looked over at Kala, then rubbed on hand over her eyes. ‘Okay. If you promise, then, okay.’

  Sosa stood and gripping the spear tightly, she began to move away, leaving the pendant in his hands.

  To betray Sosa was the hardest thing he would ever do. And the last.

  He waited until she was a few paces away. ‘I’m sorry Sosa.’ He tossed the pendant so that it landed at her feet. Sosa screamed in horror, she rushed back, her hands scrabbling for his own as he turned the sword and with the very last of his strength plunged it into his own stomach.

  ‘I’m so… so…’ he could not manage the rest.

  He died in her arms and it was all he would have wished for. He would have loved to see her smile one last time, but this would have to be enough.