*LORD OF DESTINY Chapter 21 : What the Menders Know
The fortress was too quiet.
Kael set Jorin down. The boy clung to Toven’s hand immediately. Mira stood in front of both of them like a shield.
The three Menders were on their knees. White eyes gone. Just gray, tired, human eyes now.
“Who else is out there?” Kael asked. No anger. Just tired.
The woman leader — she gave her name as Selin — looked up. “There are five of us. Were five.” She gestured to the other two. “We found each other after the Weaver fell. We thought... if we could stop the bad choices before they happened, we could save the world.”
She laughed, broken. “We were wrong.”
“Where are the other two?” Lyra’s voice came through the rope. She was pulling on Kael’s end, checking in.
Kael repeated the question out loud.
Selin hesitated. Then: “One went south. To the Salt Temples. She thinks she can cut fate out of people. Make them ‘free.’”
She looked at Kael. “That’s where your friend is. Isn’t it?”
Kael’s scar went cold.
“And the last one?”
Selin’s face changed. “Him? He didn’t want to mend. He wanted to rule. He went east. To the capital. He’s collecting Children. Says if he has enough of them, he can tie the whole world to himself.”
Mira made a small sound.
Jorin whispered, “That’s why they took me. He said I was ‘useful.’”
Through the rope, Lyra cursed. “We’ve got company at the temple. At least six. They’re not Menders. They’re his.”
Kael closed his eyes. Two problems. One braid, split.
He looked at Selin. “Can you help us?”
She stared at her empty hands. No spindle. “I don’t know how to do anything else.”
“Then learn,” Kael said. “Lesson one. Small pulls.”
He held out his hand. Not to hurt her. To pull her up.
She took it.
The other two Menders stood too.
“Eight,” Kael said to his group. “We’re going south. To Lyra.”
He looked at Selin. “You three know how they think. You walk point.”
“What about him?” Toven pointed east. “The one collecting kids?”
Kael touched the rope. Through it he could feel Lyra. And Ella. And Nira. All of them.
“We save who we can reach first,” Kael said. “Then we go get the rest.”
He raised his hand. Eight threads lifted.
“Pull.”
The ground under them moved. Not the road. The distance itself. Small pulls. Together.
Far south, Lyra felt it. She smiled grimly. “They’re coming.”
In the temple, the men at the door stopped. One of them frowned. “Do you feel that?”
Inside the circle of salt, Ella stood up. She took Nira’s hand. Then Lyra’s.
“I’m not empty anymore,” she whispered. “I can feel them.”