The Gates of Memory, стр. 100
“I can’t protect you against that many,” Brandt pointed out.
“You can draw from me,” Hanns replied.
Brandt’s pulse quickened at the thought. He’d drawn power from a man with a gatestone before, but the full power of two gates? His imagination ran wild. “Then I will protect you.”
They watched the scene below together, and for a while Brandt didn’t feel as though they were emperor and subject.
They felt like friends.
“Brandt?”
“Yes?”
“Protect her, and cherish what time together you have.”
“I will.” It wasn’t lost on Brandt that Hanns had lost his wife early in his reign and never remarried, or that they were about to attack Hanns’ son.
“It’s time.” Hanns stepped away from the balcony and placed himself firmly on one of the stone platforms he’d created. He gestured for Brandt to do the same.
“What are these?”
“Just become light, and stay balanced.” A narrowing of the emperor’s eyes was the only warning Brandt had before the platform moved under his feet, picking him up.
Hanns appeared delighted, and perhaps even a little surprised. “I wasn’t sure these would work, but it’s an idea I had years and years ago, when I was a much younger man.” His own platform lifted and they hovered together.
Brandt’s platform hung in the air. Intellectually, Brandt knew Hanns was using the power of his stone affinity and the gate, but his body thought he was flying. “Hanns, what are these?”
“A quicker way down!”
The platforms flew out into open space. Brandt felt his bowels tighten. A moment ago, a fall would have been a minor inconvenience. Now he would fall hundreds of paces to a certain death. But they were over the Falari defenders, so he supposed he would take out at least one or two with his falling body.
“Let’s go meet my son.”
It felt as though the platform had dropped out from underneath him, but it was just that it had dropped quickly. His feet remained firmly planted. They passed level after level in less than a heartbeat, and it seemed little better than a freefall as far as Brandt was concerned. He fought the urge to scream. He thought he saw a flash of color that looked like his friends, but he fell too fast for his eyes to focus on any single object.
The square where the Falari gathered approached with frightening rapidity. For something that had seemed so far away moments ago, he could now make out individual faces. A few were looking up, curious about the shadows passing overhead.
Of course they needed speed. This fall was the only way to approach Regar without giving him time to react.
Just when Brandt thought they had gone too far to recover, the platform slowed quickly. The deceleration forced Brandt into a squat, even light as he was. When he was close enough, he jumped off the platform toward the empty circle around Regar.
He looked left and right, but the queen was nowhere to be found. The prince stood alone. His eyes met Brandt’s, but there was no understanding there.
Hanns landed beside him, and together they faced Regar. For a long moment, no one moved.
In the confusion of their landing, Brandt seized the advantage. He pulled heat from Hanns, worried for a moment that he endangered his emperor’s life. Against most warriors, it was a fatal technique.
His fear was misplaced.
When he pulled from Hanns, he pulled whole lakes of energy from a limitless ocean.
This, then, was the power of the gates. He’d approached this power before, but without the ability to control the energy it had nearly torn him in pieces. But pulled and controlled through Hanns’ connection, Brandt was invincible.
Brandt turned first to fire. Even after all his years of study it remained the element he felt most comfortable with. Flame erupted in the air, blooming like a wildflower, and Brandt drew a circle around him, the prince, and Hanns.
The Falari warriors, already shocked by the arrival of fighters who had literally fallen from the sky, panicked and broke against the wave of fire. Brandt pushed the fire further, encouraging their retreat. He wouldn’t be satisfied until the square didn’t hold a single breathing Falari.
Many unfortunate souls were caught in the fire, and their cries were enough to shatter the courage of the few warriors who still considered taking part in the fight, those who hovered near the edges of Brandt’s flame. Before long, Brandt was satisfied. The square was completely emptied, at least for the moment.
He split his attention between watching for any approaching threats and the situation developing between Hanns and his son.
“Must we fight?” asked the emperor.
“We need her, father. We need the change she brings. You know what’s coming! She showed you the same as she did me. I know she did.”
It took Brandt several heartbeats to realize Regar was speaking of the queen. Somehow, she had gotten to him. She had corrupted him. Perhaps even now he was compelled.
“She has shown me the same visions,” Hanns admitted, “but they are lies! She creates a threat in our minds so we can justify treachery against the oaths of Anders. But she has been a soulwalker for hundreds of years. There is no truth in anything she says. They are all illusions, designed only to grant her more power. That is all she has ever cared about.”
“You’re wrong.” Regar’s voice gained confidence with every sentence. “The evidence surrounds us even now. Faldun was built by people who disappeared, a people destroyed by the threat that approaches even now. It is you who lies to yourself.” Regar paused and Brandt saw the set of his shoulders change. Whatever uncertainty the prince had felt no longer existed. “And unless you recognize that, I have no choice. This is the only way to save the empire.”
A new sphere of flame appeared in front of Regar. Even fifteen paces away Brandt felt the heat burning off it. How