Chapter XLI: (Cont. VII)
West and Thyrus glanced up as the scream echoed up from over the walls. “What the….”
There was a small blast of magic that knocked the two to the ground, both rolling over to see Laura and Eza laying far from Blackheart’s body. All were laying on the ground, West noted, including Samden and Kiki. They all stared at Blackheart, waiting to see some movement. Finally, there came a small groan.
“Anybody got a drink……?”
West’s face was the first to light up, “Haha! Damn me! They did it!” West leapt to his feet and raced over to Blackheart, slowly pulling him up to his feet.
“That…..that bastard……..he lied,” Blackheart said groggily, trying to regain his feet.
“That he did,” Thyrus said, marching over as the others gathered around Blackheart. “But Laura and Eza here, they saved your life.”
Blackheart rose slowly and set his hand on Laura’s shoulder, smiling at Eza for the same gesture would swat her out of the sky. “Thank you.”
Eza grinned proudly, “Don’t thank me…..it was her love….” Laura blushed as everyone turned to look at her.
Blackheart smiled softly, and then looked around the group. “Listen, thank you all for this second chance. It has been an honor to work with you, but there is something I have to tell you….for Adelia. It was the secret that she kept, for fear that if she let it out, she would die. But she sacrificed her guaranteed survival to possibly spare us from our death.”
“What do you mean?”
Blackheart shook his head, “I’m not sure. All I know is that when I was dying, I felt her tell me that she had been told that nine would stand against Baen, and now that Gobudo was dead, we’d fail….that there would be no happy ending and that we were to flee as soon as possible and find somewhere safe. She said everything would be all right…….I didn’t understand it myself. And then, to add to my confusion, while I was unconscious, I was met by Forte….I think…..and he told me that I had to keep fighting……despite what Adelia said. He gave me the impression that…..that there is more going on than we know even now…..and that I can’t just give up.”
“It could be a trick,” West said with a puff on his cigarette.
“That’s why you can’t come with me. I have to go and settle this myself. I have to go on fighting, not you. So go on and don’t look back. Find somewhere safe, all of you….I can’t ask you to go in there and sacrifice yourself.”
West puffed on a cigarette for a moment, “Are you kidding? This is the end of the world. I’m not just going to go home after all this and hope that things turn out for the best. This is my fight as well as yours.”
“I can’t let….” Blackheart began.
“No arguing,” Samden said, swallowing hard. “Because I’m coming, too.”
“And you won’t go anywhere without me by your side,” Laura said.
“How do you think you are going to solve this problem without someone to do the thinking,” Thyrus said stepping over to Blackheart.
“And I have yet to make up for all the times you all have saved me,” Eza said with a little chime, flittering over to West’s shoulder.
Blackheart observed the resolute looks of his allies, all whose eyes were focused directly at him, weapons drawn and at the ready. “You know I can’t ask you to do this…..”
“You don’t have to, we just are,” West said with a soft smile, the very first one that Blackheart had seen.