Dark Lord's Wedding Read Free Page B

proposed to her in this facet yet. “You tried to hide your involvement with the plague bearers. I found out.”
    “How could you think so little of me?” He tapped his chest with his needle-shard fingers. “That I’d spread plagues in your dream. And get caught.”
    Her vision rippled then flexed back into focus. “Don’t call it a dream. Both facets have equal probability of being real.”
    “Some dreams are more real—”
    “Tethiel, never try to prove one facet false. The power of my dream inversion depends on my uncertainty.”
    He inclined his head. Behind him, the water erupted from the Bright Palm surfacing. Again, she attacked. Hiresha speculated that fearlessness inhibited learning. The bronze blade belonging to the woman stabbed downward in a spray of glinting droplets.
    Hiresha flicked her fingers, and the paragon diamond thumped into the Bright Palm. It Burdened her into the pool’s depths.
    “My heart,” Tethiel said to Hiresha, “there’s no greater force in this world than ignorance. I promise to respect the strength of yours.”
    “I hope you’re being serious in that jest.” Smiling was a strain.
    His lips spiked up in the corners with inhuman barbs. “I am always most serious in my contradictions, but you have to understand it ruffles my coat to be called a figment of imagination. Even one as impressive as yours.”
    “I didn’t say that you were a dream, only that you might be.”
    “It feels much the same. Call me a nightmare if you wish, but never a dream.”
    “Very well. I shall treat you as real.”
    “And I’ll give you the same courtesy.” He offered his arm. “Though you are incredible.”
    They lunged together across the water. An itch in her chest meant she was nearing her lost diamond. The cavern narrowed to a slimy chokepoint. Bristling legs scuttled in and out.
    “My heart,” he said, “is there any way you’d forgive me, in your other dimension?”
    “No.” Her hand broke from his.
    She cast her blue paragon forward, and it propelled a skitterer out of the way. She squeezed through the sphincter of the crawlspace. The stone constricted her. It oozed over her back. The vileness coated her gems. She couldn’t breathe, and when she wriggled into the next cavern, she didn’t want to. There was no air, only poison.

Hiresha’s blue paragon reforged the gases into vital essence, enough for her to gasp and live. Sulfur dusted down from the pyramid diamond.
    “Tethiel,” she called behind her, “you may not wish to follow. This passage is a torment.”
    Infection units had covered the cavern with sludge. It did not drip so much as stretch. The slime had drained all the air and spewed out toxins that stung Hiresha’s nose and eyes. She Repulsed the foulness from her.
    She could die in this isolation. Even if she didn’t breathe in the poisons, they would seep through her skin. Her gemstone light faded. She would be alone and in the dark, a pile of nameless bones.
    Her faceting of reality had brought her here. Few people could follow. Even fewer could understand. Tethiel might be the only one, and in her other life she had sworn to never speak to him again.
    “Torment, you say?” Tethiel appeared to saunter through the cave wall. “Hardships aren’t half so lethal as comforts. And with you …”
    He coughed and gagged. Hiresha floated to him, kept him safe from the worst of the poisons.
    “With you,” he said, “every misery becomes a thing of beauty.”
    He waved his gloved hand, the one embroidered with dragons. The cavern transformed. The slime brightened into molten gold. The air rippled with heat. The place had lost none of its terror, but he had gilded it with joy. He swam with her through the air, moving around the dripping globs of gold. Tethiel caught one, and it turned into a nugget in his hand. He tossed it at Hiresha.
    She veered away. The gold followed her in impossible loops. She laughed. “Master illusionist indeed.”
    “They’re not