Please, God. I know I have asked you too much already. But I ask you one more thing: return Thor to me.
"God has a mysterious way of answering."
Gwendolyn did not need to turn to recognize the voice.
She turned and saw, standing there, Argon. He stood a few feet beside her, looking out at the horizon, watching Kendrick ride off, his eyes aglow.
Her heart lifted to see him.
“I never thought I would see you again,” she said.
"Why? Because you are in a new place? Physical barriers don't mean anything to me.”
"So then will you be here with us? During the siege?” she asked hopefully.
"I am always here with you. Sometimes not always physically.”
Gwen was burning for answers.
"Tell me,” she said, “I beg you. Is Thor safe?”
"He is now.”
"Will he be?” she pressed.
"That is always the question, isn’t it?” he asked, turning to her and smiling mysteriously. “His destiny is murky. It is set—yet it can be changed. As with all of us.”
"Will he live?” she asked. "Will I ever see him again?”
She braced herself for the answer, hoping and praying it was a yes.
“If not in this world,” Argon said slowly, “then in the next.”
Gwendolyn felt her heart sinking.
"But is not fair!” she protested. “I must see him again!”
"He chose his destiny,” Argon said. “You chose yours. Sometimes destinies cannot intertwine.”
"And what of the Empire?” Gwen asked. “Will they attack this place?”
"Yes," he said flatly.
"Will we be victorious?”
"Victory is relative," he answered. “There are all types of victory. The red walls of Silesia have stood for one thousand years. But even these walls are meant to fall.”
She felt an increasing sense of foreboding.
"Does that mean this city will fall?”
She had to know. But he would not answer, looking away.
“But surely there must be some way to stop them!” she said.
“You focus too much on the here and now," Argon said. “But there are other centuries. Centuries before yours—and centuries to come. We are but a speck in the wheel of time. People will die—and people will be born. Places will fall, and others will be built. Nothing lasts forever. Not even destruction.”
Gwendolyn stood there, thinking about all he said. She wondered if that meant there was hope.
"I feel inadequate," Gwendolyn said. “As if somehow this is all my fault. As if all of these people would benefit from a ruler greater than me.”
He turned and looked at her, his eyes searing.
"The Ring has never had a ruler greater than you,” he said. “And it may never again.”
Her heart soared and she felt a great sense of encouragement at his words. For the first time, she felt legitimate.
"Tell me,” she said, desperate to know. “How will it all end?”
Slowly, Argon shook his head.
"Sometimes before the greatest light, there comes the greatest darkness.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Krohn whined and licked Thor’s face until finally, slowly, Thor opened his eyes. He discovered himself lying face-first on the sand; sand was in his lips, on his tongue, in his eyes.
Thor blinked several times, then slowly sat up, wiping away the sand and reaching over and kissing Krohn and stroking his head. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, to remember where he was.
Beneath the muted light of the first sun, Thor saw all of his friends spread out on the beach, supine in the sand around him. Thankfully, they all looked alive—and after doing a quick head count, he saw they were all there. All of them, plus one: a girl, with long, tousled hair spread out on the sand.
Thor tried to remember. Suddenly, it came rushing back: the slave girl, the one Elden had saved. He sat up, squinting, stretching his aching muscles, trying to remember exactly what had happened.
The last thing he remembered, he was on fire, jumping into the icy-cold water of the rapids. Luckily he had been but a few feet from the water when he caught fire, and it all happened so quickly, he had landed in the water before the flames could burn him. He checked his skin, and while he was sore, his muscles aching, and all bruised up, he was not burnt. He sighed in relief.
Thor remembered the wild ride downriver, all of them tumbling end-over-end in the rapids, thrown downstream. He remembered glancing back, once, right before his head impacted with a log, and seeing the group of Empire soldiers, already far upriver, all consumed by an enormous burst of flame.
Thor reached up and felt a big lump on his head, sore to the touch, and realized he must have passed out along the way. They all somehow made it to this shore, and must've slept the night here. It was a narrow, smooth white beach, beside a raging river. The sound of the raging water was relentless, and Thor rose and turned and looked in all directions, wanting to see what else was out there.
On the other side of the beach stood a grove of trees, and behind it the river forked, splitting off in a calm, peaceful current. The grove led into a deep and broad forest, a winding trail leading into it. They seemed to have washed up at an intersection of sorts.
"And we thought you were going to sleep all day," came a voice which Thor dimly recognized.
Thor spun, as did Krohn beside him, and could not believe who he saw standing there, behind him. Three boys, legion members, dressed in shiny new armor, bearing new weaponry, and staring down at him with a look he’d encountered his entire life.
It was the three people he had been raised to believe were his three brothers: Drake, Dross and Durs.
Thor was speechless.
Thor couldn’t imagine what they were doing here, and he rubbed his eyes, wondering if he were dreaming. But they were still there, and he realized it was real.
Thor rose to his feet, eyes wide with wonder, trying to comprehend it all.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. "How did you get here?”
All around Thor, his Legion brothers began to arise, the slave girl, too, slowly gaining their feet, brushing off the sand, and gathering around Thor. They all looked back at Drake, Dross and Durs with equal looks of wonder.
"We came here to help," Drake said. "We were sent by Kolk, shortly after you left. We followed your trail. After you left they felt bad, the six of you going it alone. They wanted to send you reinforcements.”