Lindon looked at the place where the hole in the floor had led straight to the center of the labyrinth. “So is he really going to kill the Dreadgods?”
“There is only one truth I trust about Reigan Shen: he desires weapons. We can’t know if he means to kill them and weaponize their bindings, or leash them as forces of destruction under his control.”
Eithan’s smile faded. “He wants Cradle. All of our world. And he clearly sees the Dreadgods as the way to take it.”
Lindon’s eyes moved from one opening in the wall to another. He could bring out the hand again, if they were willing to endure the assault of hunger madra that would ensue.
While he felt the weight of every second, he still spent the time to organize his thoughts before he spoke.
“I’m going deeper,” Lindon said. “I don’t want to go alone.”
“Neither do I, Lindon. Neither do I.”
Yerin stood up and sheathed her sword. Red lines of blood madra covered her flesh in a crimson web, knitting her together. “Blind me now if I see any reason to stay here, but we’ve got to move. Cuts me to say it, but we may need to travel…light.”
Red eyes flicked from Ziel to Mercy.
Lindon knew she was right, but his heart was heavy. “We need to move fast if we’re going to catch up. But I don’t want to leave them behind.”
“They can’t keep up,” Eithan said flatly.
Lindon felt the hunger aura all around him. It filled him with greed, with a desire to move forward, with an ambition that couldn’t be satisfied. The inert fingers of his right hand twitched. Even now, the aura gnawed slowly away at his madra.
But this time, the hunger sparked something in him.
Anger.
“I don’t want to leave them behind. Do you want to leave them behind?”
Yerin shrugged, but there was sadness in her eyes. “Done a lot of things I didn’t want to.”
“I say the time for that is over.”
With great effort, Lindon poured madra into his broken right arm. The hunger madra creaked, and bits of it snapped off, and spiritual pain ran through his channels.
But he clenched his fist.
“If we can’t use our power for this, why have it?” He looked from Eithan to Yerin, and he could feel a fire in his eyes even with no Blackflame. “I don’t want to win by giving something up. I want it all. I want all of it.”
The fury of the Void Icon faded, and he coughed a little in embarrassment. “…if you’re willing, of course.”
Yerin leaned into him, and her hand snaked up his chest and over one shoulder. “Ought to be grateful you don’t talk like that more often,” she murmured.
Eithan was blinking back tears, which caught Lindon off-guard.
“What…” Eithan cleared his throat. “What should we do, Lindon?”
“I’ve been sensing something in the labyrinth,” Lindon said. “It feels like echoes of other sacred artists, and I suspect it’s a phenomenon of hunger aura.”
A look passed over Eithan’s eyes that Lindon couldn’t identify, but the Archlord nodded. “I know what you mean.”
“Can you lead us there?”
“If our captor cooperates.” Eithan powerlessly kicked the wall.
“If I’m not mistaken, that would be a great place to train. If the three of us can’t help Mercy, at least, advance, then we have no right to all our titles. I suspect we could learn something as well.”
“And if it ends up to be nothing?”
“Then we drag as much power out of ourselves as we can before we run out of time,” Lindon said. “Then we move.”
Eithan nodded, and a delighted twinkle returned to his eye. “I’m just happy to be part of the team.”
Lindon had also once dreamed about fighting side-by-side with other sacred artists as an equal, but he wasn’t about to mention that now.
“Then let’s go,” Lindon said. He moved to pick up Ziel, but Yerin was still holding onto him.
“Two and a half seconds,” she said into his outer robe. Then she reached up, red eyes blazing, and dragged his head down for a kiss.
She released him and he took a breath.
“Two and a half more,” she said, and kissed him again.
When she finally released him and picked up Mercy, he had to catch his breath. He very carefully did not look at Eithan.
17
Mercy woke up coughing, with the taste of pine sap in her mouth.
“Sorry,” Yerin muttered. “Not aiming to drown you.”