Prince of Time

Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Beast

“Let’s move him,” Nicanor said, urgently. “Zeno, help me.”

Together, the two boys lifted the unconscious prince and carried him out of the entrance and through the courtyard to a small stable block. Pepper followed behind, sword out, wary.

“Finem,” Nicanor muttered, as he lay Tobiah down. “Finem. I recognise that name.”

“I know it too,” Zeno agreed. “In old language, the ancient tongue that magicians used to talk, it means finish, end.”

“Finem,” Pepper shivered. “It sounds…”

“Sounds like more than a name,” Nicanor finished for her.

They sat for a silent while beside the sleeping prince, no one prepared to say how much this terrified them. Tobiah was not the weak one. Tobiah was indestructible. But it seemed as if the sight of those words alone had struck him down.

 Eventually, Tobiah’s eyes opened with a shock, as if he had been stung. They latched first on Zeno, then on Pepper and on Nicanor. He looked from one to the other, as if searching for something that he did not find.

“I am darkness; I am power,” he murmured. “I am Finem.”

“That’s what it said,” Nicanor agreed. “Tobiah…are you alright?”

The prince sat up, pushing a hand through his hair distractedly.

“The necessity of the question negates the answer,” Tobiah rubbed his eyes.

“Huh?” Pepper looked confused.

“Alright,” Tobiah repeated. “All right. Nothing is wrong. If you feel it important to ask the question, there must be a possibility that something is wrong, thus not everything is right.”

“He’s lost it,” Pepper announced. “He’s mad.”

Tobiah stood up, looking around. “You moved me?”

“Just in case anything came charging up the road to attack,” Zeno sounded apologetic. “And in case there was a field of influence around the words.”

Tobiah nodded. “Good. Good.”

He sat down again. The others watched him, lost. They had no idea what was meant to happen now. Pepper’s suggestion that Tobiah had finally cracked didn’t seem too far wrong. Nicanor found himself remembering Mithien’s words: gift bearers were prone to madness.

“Finem is the darkness,” Tobiah said, suddenly. “He is a man. A powerful man. I don’t know where he comes from but I don’t suppose it matters.”

“Is it his real name?” Pepper shot Nicanor a nervous look, one that questioned how Tobiah could know.

“He chose it,” Tobiah explained. “He chose it for its meaning.”

“End,” Zeno interjected.

“Yes. End. He is the end, our end, the end of the world. He chose the name Finem to be his title.” Tobiah’s eyes flashed from one thing to another, glancing over the scenery as if trying to memorize it. “He will end humanity.”

Nicanor felt a cold hand grip his heart.

“He will what?” he choked.

“He will end humanity,” Tobiah repeated. “He loathes us. He hates us. He knows us for what we are. Corrupt and greedy and violent and cruel. The world is better of rid of us. His hatred is…it’s turned into a mania. Destruction. Death. Our end.”

“Well, that’s cheerful,” Pepper swallowed hard. “I suppose it is all humans, isn’t it? Not just a few disposable ones?”

“All.”