Wanted (book 2 of Wielder series)

Chapter 19 - Orders

Commander Roger Sole couldn't remember a time when he had been so tired.

   When the reality of Helene's death had finally overcome him, he had spent a whole week unable to rise from the bed. But that had been because the weight of devastation had crushed him into the mattress, not because he had been tired. He hadn't slept more than a few hours, even though he also hadn't been able to rise.

   This was completely different. It was as if the toll of the years had finally caught up to him. As if every effort he had made in the past fifty years, every wrong he had committed, every life he had taken, suddenly stole away his energy.

   Was this what failure felt like? Was this what it was like to put one's heart and soul into something, only to get nothing in return?

   It took him hours – and an astronomical amount of power – to reverse the paralysis the Wielder had cast upon his soldiers. Only one had been slain by her own magic; four others had been turned to ash by the empress's reckless display of power. Still, five casualties was far fewer than he had anticipated.

   Truthfully, he had expected to lose them all.

   He'd thought to stretch her magic thin by distracting her with the others. Perhaps she had been able to slay the emperor because her attention hadn't been divided. Obviously, it hadn't mattered. She'd immobilized everyone in the span of half a second.

   After the display she'd made standing up to him, Empress Sienna, and Princess Zia, he knew she had the power to immobilize him too. He wondered why she'd chosen not to use it.

   Perhaps she wanted what he did: a satisfying fight; an honorable victory.

   He shuddered to think they were that much alike.

   When he finally cleared the storehouse and had soldiers well enough to obey his commands, he dispelled his power from around the Wielder and her friends. The two boys looked up at him in alarm, startled by his unannounced arrival. The magic coating all three of them remained just as thick and strong as it had when he'd left them.

   He fought back his rage at that discovery. It meant he'd have to follow through with the empress's orders and dump them into the Labyrinth.

   He ordered all five of his Phantom fighters to keep watch over the three "heroes" with him. Under no circumstances would he allow them an opportunity to escape.

   At least he wouldn't have to travel far to get them there. He led the way out of the storehouse and back out under the open sky in Remembrance Isle. Then he used what little power he had left to open the Labyrinth portal.

   The Labyrinth wasn't a world. It was hardly even a place. Only highly skilled Bonds, such as himself and the royals, could open its door. It was where the royal family's most hated enemies were condemned to spend the rest of their lives.

   Roger dumped the Wielder in without ceremony. Her friends willingly followed.

   Heaving a sigh, he sealed the Labyrinth entrance back up, causing it to vanish completely.

   The empress was right about one thing: no one escaped the Labyrinth. At least he could take comfort in the fact that Alison Vanderville would suffer from now until the moment she finally perished. He hoped, given her survival instincts and magical talent, that wouldn't be for a long, long time.

   He could still technically count this as a victory. The Wielder was gone. She couldn't continue her quest. She wouldn't stand in his way anymore.

   It just didn't sit right with him that he couldn't deliver her killing blow.